Chapter 231 - 230: Snatch

Location: UA High School - VIP Observation Deck

Power Loader tapped his digital tablet and walked directly over to Kaito's chair.

Power Loader said, showing him a dense schematic on the screen. "How did you fit the primary medical scanners right next to the culinary heating units? The motherboard should have melted."

Kaito leaned back. "I isolated the heat sinks. The medical side is hardwired directly to the sensors. The rest runs on a fluid system to keep the temperature stable."

Power Loader zoomed in on the tablet. "You swapped the traditional hydraulics for micro-magnetic actuators."

"It gives the hands a softer touch for lifting injured people," Kaito answered casually. "And it drops the overall weight by forty pounds."

Power Loader shook his head, typing notes quickly. "You're really amazing Arisaka-san."

"They're lining up," Vlad King called out from the reinforced glass window.

Snipe and Ectoplasm stood next to him, looking down at the testing grounds.

"The pressure on these kids is crazy," Snipe noted, adjusting his hat. "Hand-picked by the top agencies and elite families."

Makoto sat next to Kaito, holding a datapad. She looked down through the glass. "Let's see what they can do."

...

Location: UA Dedicated Track Facility - Starting Line

Shota Aizawa stood on the dirt track holding a stopwatch. Dark bags hung under his eyes.

Five students stood in a horizontal line a few feet in front of him.

"IT IS AN ABSOLUTE HONOR TO RUN WITH YOU ALL TODAY!"

Inasa Yoarashi yelled at the top of his lungs. He bowed aggressively, his forehead nearly touching the dirt.

He wore the standard blue UA track uniform.

Setsuna Tokage crossed her arms. She shifted her weight to one leg, completely unbothered by the shouting.

Juzo Honenuki stretched his calves silently. Momo Yaoyorozu adjusted the tight grips on her wrists, running caloric conversion formulas in her head.

Inasa stood back up. He turned his body directly toward Shoto Todoroki.

Inasa clenched his large fists. He vividly remembered the cold, arrogant eyes of Endeavor from his childhood.

He braced himself to face the exact same hateful glare from the son.

"I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR SPIRIT, TODOROKI!" Inasa challenged, locking eyes with him.

"..."

Shoto blinked.

He rubbed the back of his neck, caught off guard by the sheer volume.

"Yeah," Shoto answered in a calm, quiet tone. He gave a small, polite nod. "Good luck to you too. Let's do our best."

"..."

Inasa froze.

He stared at Shoto. He searched for the arrogance. He looked for the dismissive sneer. He found absolutely nothing.

Shoto just looked like a normal, quiet teenager focusing on a test.

Inasa dropped his aggressive posture. He blinked rapidly. The heavy resentment sitting in his chest vanished completely.

"Right," Aizawa said softly.

TAP. TAP.

Aizawa tapped his clipboard with a pen.

"This is a three-kilometer linear canyon track," Aizawa explained. "Start here. End at the red gate. You can use your quirks freely. Deal with the obstacles."

Aizawa raised his stopwatch. "Get ready."

The five students bent their knees.

BEEP.

"Go." Aizawa pressed the button.

FWOOSH.

Inasa summoned a swirling vortex of wind from his arms.

The gale force picked him up off the ground. He flew forward, riding the current of air.

"Hehe..." Setsuna laughed.

POP. POP. POP.

Her body split into fifty different floating pieces.

Her head, arms, torso, and legs detached and shot through the air.

Juzo dropped to one knee. He placed both hands flat on the dirt track.

SHLUCK.

The solid ground turned into a soft, liquid state. Juzo dove headfirst into the mud and swam through the earth.

Shoto crouched low.

He placed his right hand flat on the dirt. He targeted the moisture in the air and the dampness in the dirt.

CRACKLE.

A smooth, frictionless sheet of ice formed instantly across the track, stretching a hundred meters forward.

He changed the terrain directly to his advantage.

Shoto stood up on the ice.

FWOOSH.

He ignited his left foot. He released a highly compressed, continuous stream of flames from his heel.

The raw thrust propelled him forward. He glided across the frictionless ice like a jet-powered skater.

He caught up to Inasa in seconds.

"WHOA!" Inasa yelled, looking down from his wind vortex. "THAT IS AMAZING SPIRIT!"

Shoto kept his eyes focused on the track ahead.

"...They're fast!" Momo started running. She saw Shoto and Inasa pulling away instantly.

She visualized the Aero-Inhibitor gas that she practiced for countless times

She could shoot the those two out of the sky and cross the finish line first.

'No I can't use quirk inhibitors here...'

She rejected the idea. They were classmates.

She refused to use quirk suppressants on them.

RIP.

Momo ripped open the side of her track pants, exposing her skin.

She converted her lipid stores based on her physics curriculum.

SHING.

A heavy, metallic object pushed out of her skin.

CLACK.

A sleek, heavy-duty motorized dirt bike dropped onto the dirt. It had thick, all-terrain tires and a high-RPM engine block built into the frame.

Momo jumped onto the seat. She grabbed the handlebars and squeezed the throttle.

VROOOM.

The engine screamed. The tires tore into the dirt, launching her forward. She rocketed down the track to close the gap.

...

The students hit the middle section of the canyon.

RUMBLE.

Hidden pitfalls opened up across the dirt track.

Automated rubber-bullet turrets deployed from the canyon walls.

Juzo swam deep under the pitfalls. Setsuna's floating pieces dodged the crossfire.

Inasa blasted the rubber bullets away with a wall of wind.

Momo encountered a thirty-foot gap in the track.

She kept her left hand on the handlebars and exposed her right forearm.

THWIP.

She created a pneumatic grapple gun directly from her skin. And fired a steel hook into a rock pillar hanging above the track.

THWACK. THWACK.

She used the tension to slingshot her heavy dirt bike entirely over the pitfall.

Thud.

Momo landed smoothly on the other side and kept accelerating.

Cementoss sat in a hidden bunker beneath the facility. He placed his hands on the concrete controls.

Massive, thick concrete walls erupted from the ground, blocking the track completely.

CRUMBLE. CRUMBLE.

Several heavily armored, high-density robots deployed in front of the walls.

Inasa shifted his wind currents.

"SLICING GUST!"

FWOOOSH.

He tried to find a way to blast the heavy robots aside without losing his forward momentum.

Shoto pulled his left arm back.

His entire fist ignited into roaring orange flames. He compressed the heat tightly around his knuckles until the fire burned a blinding white-hot.

"Fire punch..."

He threw a straight punch forward.

BAAAM.

A dense, terrifying column of concentrated fire erupted from his fist. It slammed into the reinforced robots and the concrete wall simultaneously.

The kinetic heat melted the metal chassis into slag.

CRUMBLE.

The concrete wall shattered instantly under the thermal shock.

SWIIISH.

Shoto skated right through the molten opening without breaking his stride.

"SO STRONG!!"

Inasa, Setsuna, and Juzo stared at the sheer destructive output and precision.

"NO! I CAN'T GIVE UP!" Inasa was fired up.

...

The red gate of the finish line appeared at the end of the canyon.

SWOOOOSH.

"A BIT MORE!!" Inasa pushed his wind vortex to maximum power.

He surged forward through the air to close the gap.

Shoto channeled raw heat directly into the soles of his boots.

FWOOSH. FWOOSH.

BAANG. BAANG.

He released continuous, highly compressed jets of fire from his feet.

The thrust launched him straight up.

"Hmm..." He flew over the final stretch of the track, commanding the airspace, and crossed the red gate in first place.

THUD.

Momo rode her dirt bike right behind them. Inasa was closing in fast on her left side.

She kept her right hand clamped on the throttle.

"It's time."

She used her left hand to synthesize three small metal cylinders from her thigh.

She tossed them backward over her shoulder.

CLINK. CLINK.

BANG.

Brilliant white light and a deafening crack exploded across the dirt track.

The flashbangs detonated perfectly in the air.

"WHAAT?!"

Inasa lost his focus instantly.

The bright light blinded him. His wind vortex faltered, and he dropped heavily onto the dirt.

"Flashbang?"

Further back, Juzo and Setsuna flinched, covering their eyes and ears to block the disorientation.

VROOOM.

Momo drifted her dirt bike across the finish line to secure second place.

Inasa shook his head.

"A SURPRISE ATTACK!"

FWOOSH.

He yelled out, rubbing his watering eyes, and sprinted across the line for third.

Juzo swam through the mud to take fourth.

Setsuna reassembled her floating body parts near the gate to claim fifth.

...

Location: UA High School - VIP Observation Deck

Snipe chuckled. He leaned against the reinforced glass.

"That Yaoyorozu girl is pragmatic," Snipe said. "Dropping stun grenades in a foot race. It's a completely non-lethal way to shut down speedsters."

Aizawa watched Shoto cooling his boots on the monitor.

"Todoroki's fire control is highly specific," Aizawa noted. "Sustained aerial propulsion requires strict heat management and core balance. Both of them have highly optimized combat styles."

Makoto turned to Principal Nezu.

"There are five recommended students on the track," Makoto pointed out. "They all cleared the practical and written exams. Doesn't UA usually cap the recommendation spots at four?"

Nezu took a sip of his tea.

"The quota is just a standard guideline," Nezu explained easily. "If five students clear our elite thresholds, we accept all five."

Vlad King nodded, leaning against the console.

"We just adjust the roster," Vlad King added. "We'll put three in Class A and two in Class B. To keep the total student count at forty, we just cut one seat from the regular entrance exam pool. The lowest-scoring passing student from this morning gets a rejection letter instead."

"I see.."

Makoto nodded, understanding the logistics. She looked back at the screen showing Shoto and Momo.

"Their combat styles make sense," Makoto said casually to the room. "Endeavor and the Yaoyorozu family both contracted Arisaka Consulting. They bought multi-year quirk development plans for their kids."

Snipe pushed his hat up.

"Ah. That explains it," Snipe said.

"Must be nice having those kinds of resources," Ectoplasm commented. "Buying a custom-made combat doctrine from the Golden Manager before high school even starts. Smart parenting, though."

Aizawa kept his tired eyes on the screen. "It gives them a huge advantage over the regular students."

Vlad King turned to Kaito.

"What about the morning exam?" Vlad King asked. "The engine kid and the green-haired kid who cleared Ground B. Did their families hire you too?"

Kaito set his teacup down on the small table.

"I drafted an engine modification plan for the Iida family," Kaito answered directly. "But I have never spoken to the green-haired kid. He did all of that entirely on his own."

The teachers exchanged quiet looks.

"So we have students with elite corporate backing," Snipe muttered. "And one complete unknown who dismantled a zero-pointer with his bare hands."

"It's going to be a loud year," Aizawa sighed.

...

Location: Arisaka Consulting - Kashiya Ward

Time: A Week later

Makoto sat behind a wide, black marble desk. She wore a sharp, professional gray suit.

She was typing quickly on a dual-monitor setup.

A young hero wearing a bright green, frog-themed costume sat in the chair across from her. His hero name was Leap.

He looked incredibly nervous.

"Your current patrol route is bad, Leap," Makoto said, sliding a printed map across the desk. "You spend six hours a day patrolling the central commercial district."

"Yes, ma'am," Leap nodded quickly. "There is a lot of foot traffic there. Good visibility."

"Visibility doesn't matter if your quirk is useless in that environment," Makoto countered smoothly. "Your quirk grants you extreme vertical leaping ability. You are patrolling flat, crowded streets. If a villain runs into a subway station, you lose your advantage entirely."

She tapped a red circle drawn on the map.

"I am moving your patrol route to the high-rise residential sector," Makoto explained. "The buildings are tall and tightly packed. You can use the rooftops to monitor crime from above. Your vertical leaps allow you to bypass traffic entirely. You will cut your response time in half."

Leap stared at the map. He realized she was completely right.

"Wow," Leap said, taking the paper. "That makes total sense. I never thought about the vertical advantage."

"That is what you pay us for," Makoto smiled warmly. "I will update the hero network with your new route. Have a good patrol."

Leap bowed respectfully and hurried out the front glass doors.

Makoto leaned back in her chair and sighed happily.

She loved this job.

Running logistics at Arisaka Consulting felt like actual, impactful work.

In the back of the office, Kaito stood inside his glass-walled workshop.

"Eve, start purchasing the materials."

[Purchasing now, Boss] A chibi Eve standing in the table replied.

He was finalizing the futuristic flying car he designed last time.

Kaito looked through the glass and saw Makoto handling the clients flawlessly.

Letting her take over the minor hero consultations freed up massive amounts of his time. They worked perfectly together.

DING.

The front glass doors slid open again.

A tall, broad-shouldered man walked into the lobby.

He wore a heavy, tan trench coat and a dark suit underneath. The lower half of his face was covered by a thick scarf.

Makoto looked up from her monitors. She recognized him instantly.

Sajin Higawara. The Sand Hero: Snatch.

"Welcome to Arisaka Consulting," Makoto greeted professionally. "How can we help you today, Snatch?"

Snatch walked up to the desk. He looked around the pristine office.

"I need a consultation," Snatch said, his voice deep and slightly muffled by the scarf. "A physical contract. I need to speak with the Golden Manager."

Makoto checked the digital calendar.

"You actually have perfect timing," Makoto smiled. "We still didn't receive any calls or contracts with any other pro hero."

Makoto pressed a button on her desk phone.

"Kaito," she said. "Snatch is here to see you."

The glass door of the workshop clicked open.

"Snatch," Kaito nodded. "I know your file. You do high-level police escorts and VIP bodyguard work."

Snatch nodded firmly.

"Yes," Snatch confirmed. "But that's it... My quirk allows me to control sand. I can turn my upper body into sand to avoid attacks, and I can create massive sand walls to block projectiles. My defense is alright but not enough including my attacks and techniques."

"Your offense is lacking," Kaito said, leaning against Makoto's desk.

Sigh.

"Yes," Snatch sighed, crossing his arms. "Sand is heavy. Hitting someone with a wave of loose sand just pushes them back. It doesn't incapacitate them. Villains with armor or strength quirks just walk right through it. I can't take them down quickly."

Kaito looked at the tall hero.

"You're looking at your quirk wrong," Kaito said bluntly.

Snatch asked curiously. "Excuse me?"

"Sand isn't dirt," Kaito explained, pulling a digital tablet from Makoto's desk. "Sand is microscopic rock. You are trying to hit people with loose rocks."

"Have you ever heard of a waterjet cutter?" Kaito asked.

"Yes," Snatch nodded. "Factories use them to cut thick steel plates."

"Right," Kaito said. "They use high-pressure water. To cut the thickest steel, they add an abrasive material to the water. Usually sand."

"..."

Snatch blinked. He stared at Kaito. The realization slowly started to form in his head.

"You don't need to throw massive waves of sand to do damage," Kaito explained.

"We can train your quirk to work like those nozzles that exerts maximum pressure," Kaito added.

Snatch stared at Kaito. His eyes widened.

"A high-velocity abrasive cutting stream," Snatch whispered, doing the math.

"Not only that," Kaito nodded. "Your sidekicks as well be included and synergize properly with you."

Snatch looked from the tablet up to Kaito.

The Golden Manager completely re-contextualized the physics of his quirk. It was a terrifying, brilliant upgrade.

"I'm already a little excited Arisaka-san." Snatch asked, his voice completely happy. "So can I get a 3 month contract with you?"

"Welcome to Arisaka Consulting," Kaito answered happily while Makoto finalized the documents needed for the contract.

"We can start next week Higawara-san." Makoto continued while giving the documents. "Please sign these."

"Thank you, I'm glad I was chosen directly..."

...

Support the journey here:

patreon.com/Dr_Chad

(9 Advanced Chapters)

...

Check out my new book..

JJK: I'm a Normal Kamo Extra but I Refused to Die and Became Immortal