Chapter 152. Time!
We all left breakfast and made it to the event U.A. wanted us to participate in. We quickly met up with the rest of the class that wanted to go. Melissa was next to Uraraka and Deku. We all sat around as I looked for their chaperone. “Where is your guy’s chaperone?” This seemed to cause Melissa some pause, and she shook in her seat a bit. Deku frowned a bit, as Uraraka patted Melissa’s back a bit. “All Might is with Melissa’s father right now.” I nodded knowing that he was like an uncle to her. I just nodded silently, kicking myself for even asking that question.
It was then Deku’s turn to try out on the course. It was the same that they had in the movie. Just some robots at way different points, and timing you on how fast you could destroy them all. Deku was the fastest on the clock right now. He had done it in 10 seconds flat, and the way that he moved sparked something in Melissa, I could see her staring intently at Deku. When Deku got back I smiled and ruffled his hair. He smiled a bit while I was doing this. “What percentage are you up to now!? That was amazing!”
He blushed a bit while nodding. He began scratching the back of his head while talking. “Well, I’m up to 15% right now.” My smile grew at the sight of how much he was growing. Melissa was about to ask about our conversation until I was called up. “Oh… That’s me! Wish me luck!” I waved at the girls, and Deku with a smile as I ran off to get changed. After I got changed I was thinking of the best way to win.
‘2nd Gear is definitely, but should I do ‘Overdrive’ or ‘Bullet Time’?’ I thought more as I headed out. I came to an answer as I saw how far away some of these bots were. The bell rang as I yelled out my move. “2nd Gear ‘Overdrive’!!” My body started to steam as my hair stood up on end with static electricity. I then almost teleported to the closest bot, and tapped him with my right arm to destroy it with ease. I then pulled out my pistol and shot towards the closet bot, and then ran towards the next one. I kept going back and forth touching or shooting the bots dead.
I was eventually done in 8 seconds. I could have gone faster, but that would start putting me at health risk. I let out a sigh as I could feel steam escape through my lips. I put my gun back in her holster and slowly walked off stage. I went over to the locker rooms and saw that Bakugo was next. He scowled at me. “I’m gonna trounce your time! Damn lighting fucker!” I nodded and was about to leave, but had a feeling to stay and talk. “Does all of your sweat turn into nitroglycerin, or is it just your palms?”
Bakugo then looked back at me with a scowl, but never said anything. I shrugged my shoulders while walking towards a changing room. “Just wondering.” Bakugo scoffed as we both went our separate ways. I made it back up to the stands after Bakugo finished in 8.5 seconds. ‘He’s good, I’ll give him that.’ I looked over at Deku, who seemed to be just happy. I was surprised that he was happy for being beaten twice from first place. He noticed my gaze and chuckled a bit at the sight of me.
“I just need to train harder. I’ll make it to the top with all that I have.” I smiled at his new sense of confidence and nodded. Melissa then decided to take the liberty of checking on me. She grabbed my right arm and checked it for something. Everyone noticed and the girls weren’t exactly happy about it. Mina, the designated girl in public, sat in between Melissa and I. Melissa didn’t really seem to notice, as she was in full analysis mode. “How does your body emit steam like that?”
I shrugged while frowning at the answer. “I think it’s because my body heats up so much, the water boils out of me.” Melissa looked at me with disbelief. “Your body shouldn’t be able to do that! What is your body made out of!?” I chuckled a bit as I could feel the girls’ gaze, boring holes in the back of my head. I shrugged a bit while watching some other random contestant get 20 seconds on his time. “I don’t know. I just know that I can overheat after a while, I’m not immune.” That seemed to calm Melissa a bit while nodding.
We kept watching some of the other participants, but I was becoming anxious of what was happening in my body to emit steam, and if like Luffy, I was killing myself doing it. I began to get up and focus on my watch for answers. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mina looking at me with fear in her eyes. I noticed the other girls had similar expressions. Even Himiko, I guess she didn’t like the idea of something being wrong with my blood. I smiled and chuckled at them to let them know I was ok. I then checked my watch to see how my vitals were.
It seemed that whenever I used ‘Overdrive’, I would really boil off water in my body. I really didn’t know how I wasn’t dead from that to be honest. ‘I’m not complaining, but I really should be dead from boiling water inside my body, that can’t be good for you.’ I sighed at a mystery that I didn’t have time to solve. I shook my head to focus on what I needed to double check. ‘I know he can only control metal when touching it, so I can't get close to him. But I need to know if they are technically metal for him to control. I don’t know if touching my skin would be enough to control the nanites in my body, but I don’t wanna find out.’
I looked more to see that the nanites used some techno gargan to comprise the energy and nutrients of the foods that I eat into actual metal nanites to multiply. ‘Crap. Well, that means I gotta stay far away from him. I’m not testing his abilities. Plus I need to make sure he can’t get his hands on the device. He might be able to kill me outright with it. This is dangerous.’ I felt shivers just thinking how close I was to walking the line of death in this fight.
I sighed to calm my nerves, and noticed something new on the watch. I clicked it to notice that the nanites had already evolved in a very basic way. They would help expand blood vessels to allow more blood to flow through when I got hotter to increase blood flow to cool down my core to help prevent overheating. However this came at the cost of increasing blood loss for a bit if I took a hit. I could turn this evolution off if I wanted to, but this seemed like a good thing, that had a minimal downside. In fact I might be able to put in extra power if I wasn’t overheating.
I smiled at the idea of finally getting stronger. I thought for a bit while staring at my watch. ‘They already evolved to deal with heat better, now they are helping my body release heat better, even if it's a small amount. I still have to either wait for them to evolve on their own, or try and force the evolution to happen faster. The more I force the evolution, the more they will just evolve on their own at a faster pace, and I won't be able to stop it. That could be a good thing, but I don’t want them to deem something like my genitals as a weakness and try to castrate me.’ I shivered even more at that idea than the thought of dying a few seconds earlier.
“That idea is out, for that image. Slow and steady wins the race.” I nodded while getting ready to let the nanites progress at their own slow pace that I can monitor. I got back to my seat to watch a few other randoms try out. Mina held my arm and gave me a bit of a worried look. I smiled at the way that she showed she cared. She always became quiet and shy. It was adorable to see the outgoing girl transform into a shy girl. ‘Is that gap-moe?’ I shook away my thoughts and smiled at her. “I just had to check something. I’ll tell you more about it later.” She gained a small smile, and I watched it grow to her loveable happy go lucky smile.