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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

A prompt for you (though honestly I'll read anything you write because it is always excellent): Wen Ning never dies, but somehow still ends up becoming Wei Wuxian's most feared subordinate...

ao3

Untamed

“Sect Leader Nie,” Jiang Cheng said, hurrying after the other man, who stopped and turned with a welcoming expression on his face even though Jiang Cheng knew he was in a hurry after everything they’d just planned. After Nie Mingjue had volunteered to go into the Nightless City himself, a reckless charge to try to kill Wen Ruohan, while the rest of them attacked directly - a final strike, if they could only manage it. “I just…”

He trailed off, unable to complete the sentence.

He didn’t even know what he was doing here.

Nie Mingjue didn’t call him out on it, though, only stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “I appreciate your support,” he said, voice a little gentler than usual. Like he was trying to comfort Jiang Cheng or something.

Like he wasn’t the one volunteering to go die.

(Just like Jiang Cheng’s mother, and father, and - )

Oh. That’s why he came here.

“I’ll be there,” Jiang Cheng said suddenly, and Nie Mingjue blinked. “At – at the Nightless City. After you kill him, after we take the city…I’ll come find you, to make sure you’re all right.”

That was stupid, he thought to himself as soon as he said it. Nie Mingjue had an entire sect, and friends, and all that – he didn’t need Jiang Cheng hounding him with his insecurities, his worries, his fear that Nie Mingjue would die, too, die and leave him behind just like all the others. Why should he be the exception?

But Nie Mingjue smiled. “I look forward to seeing you then.”

Jiang Cheng swallowed and nodded. “It’s a deal, then,” he said, and watched as Nie Mingjue strode away.

He promised himself that he’d do as he said he would.

Even if all he found was Nie Mingjue’s corpse.

It ended up not being Nie Mingjue who killed Wen Ruohan, but rather a combination of Wei Wuxian’s new cultivation style and Meng Yao, who’d apparently been working as a double agent or – something.

Jiang Cheng wasn’t really clear on the details.

He rushed over to Wei Wuxian’s side at once, checking him over as best as he could, yelling at him over…he wasn’t even sure what, it wasn’t really important. Recklessness, probably. Wei Wuxian seemed to understand what he meant, though, grinning at him with bloodless lips.

“You worry too much,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll be fine. I just need to sleep for – a week. Maybe more. Let’s go back to camp, and I’ll do just that.”

Jiang Cheng was about to agree when he remembered his promise.

(Nie Mingjue hadn’t been there at the final fight, although Wen Ruohan hadn’t been at his full power, either. Had he sacrificed himself to wear down their enemy?)

“What is it?” Wei Wuxian asked, noticing.

“Chifeng-zun,” Jiang Cheng said. “I didn’t – see him.”

Wei Wuxian frowned. “You think…? Oh, poor Nie Huaisang..!”

Jiang Cheng wondered for a moment why Wei Wuxian’s first thought was of Nie Huaisang, then remembered that Wei Wuxian hadn’t been there for all those months of working as Nie Mingjue’s lieutenants, him and Lan Wangji and even Jin Zixuan. He wouldn’t have that personal connection with the man, beyond the brief meeting they’d had with him before the indoctrination camp - he wouldn’t have experience with his reliable competence and his talented leadership, his compassion or the gruff praise that he gave sparingly but sincerely and which made Jiang Cheng feel for once in his life like he was every bit as good as Wei Wuxian.

“I want to…” He was going to sound dumb. No, he was a sect leader, as Nie Mingjue often (gently) reminded him; he had to decide for himself what he was going to do, and have faith that his decisions were the right ones - and act accordingly. “We’re not leaving yet. We’re going to go further in, see if we can find him. Do you think you can hold up a little longer?”

“Yes,” Wei Wuxian said, straightening up. “I’ll be fine for a while yet. Let’s go.”

“You’ll tell me if you –”

“Yes, Jiang Cheng. Stop nagging. Now are we going or not?”

Unexpectedly, Nie Mingjue was alive.

Alive, and also extremely pissed off.

“I’ll take him back,” Jiang Cheng said to Lan Xichen, who looked relieved: he was protecting Meng Yao from Nie Mingjue for some reason. “Better to go separately.”

“Thank you, Sect Leader Jiang,” Lan Xichen said.

Jiang Cheng saluted and went over to Nie Mingjue, who was leaning on Wei Wuxian – a case of the injured helping the injured, in Jiang Cheng’s opinion, and he glared at his disciples until they ran over to assist them both.

Wei Wuxian was frowning, he noted. “What is it?” he asked, and Wei Wuxian shook his head, refusing to talk and inclining his head meaningfully down towards Nie Mingjue, who looked more tired than anything else. Exhausted, injured, even half-dead…“We should go.”

“No,” Nie Mingjue croaked. “There are probably – prisoners.”

“It can wait until we’re back at camp, surely?” Jiang Cheng asked. “We lost a lot of people in that battle. We could get reinforcements, then come back and do a full sweep when we’re less exhausted.”

“They might be injured, though,” Wei Wuxian put in, though he looked tired, too. “It’d be a pity for any person to die in Wen Ruohan’s custody right after we finally defeated him.”

It was a good point, Jiang Cheng thought, and although he was pretty exhausted himself, he forced himself to nod. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll go sweep the place, look for prisoners. But you two are going straight back to camp, okay? No exceptions, no heroism, nothing! If I get back and I hear that you two took a left turn and fell face-first off a cliff into a pile of magma because you thought there was a baby bird that needed rescuing, I will personally resurrect and stab you both!”

Both Nie Mingjue and Wei Wuxian were grinning at him in a suspiciously indulgent (and almost identical) sort of way, Jiang Cheng noticed, but they also agreed solemnly to make no detours, not even if it was the most heartrending of baby birds, and Jiang Cheng supposed he had to be happy with that.

They staggered off together as he turned to go further in, and as he did, he thought he heard Wei Wuxian say, “Tell me more about what Meng Yao said to you –”

“Sect Leader Jiang!” one of Jiang Cheng’s subordinates said, rushing over and saluting. “I found another cell!”

Jiang Cheng ran his hand over his eyes, wanting nothing more but to sleep. “Show me where,” he ordered instead.

He’d already dispatched one of his disciples to act as a runner to Lan Xichen, asking for him to send more disciples from his Lan sect and the Nie sect (which he’d been helping coordinate in Nie Mingjue’s absence) to help get all the prisoners out – there were so many of them, and many of them were, as predicted, in poor health. He would’ve preferred to ask someone else, since the Lan and Nie sects had suffered as many injuries as his Jiang sect, but the small sects were focused on themselves right now and the Jin sect…well, they’d done so little in the war up till now that he’d almost forgotten that they were an option until one of his subordinates had suggested them, and then he’d dismissed the suggestion, too.

If the Jin sect were here, he thought ungraciously, they were probably busy trying to find the treasury.

At least the Lan and Nie sects had managed to confiscate the Yin metal first.

At some point, they’d have to find a way to destroy it…

Distracted by thoughts of politics, Jiang Cheng followed his subordinate down a twisting hallway to yet another set of cells, dark and dank but not quite as close to the place where the Yin metal had been used to refine ghost puppets, and there were men and women chained to the wall here. Unrecognizable, most of them, beaten and starved. They were probably the scions of small cultivation clans…

“Wen Ning?” he blurted out, surprised to recognize the kind-looking face of one of them. To barely recognize: Wen Ning had circles under his eyes, bruises on his face, and his usually round cheeks were thin. “What are you doing here?”

“He’s been here for weeks and weeks,” one of the other prisoners said at once. “He’s not – one of those Wens.”

Wen Ning could still blush, Jiang Cheng noticed, and as much as he would have said he hated all those surnamed Wen – well, that wasn’t quite true, was it? Wen Ning had been there with Wen Qing, when they’d helped them. Jiang Cheng had rescued and released her, giving her that comb as a keepsake…it would be manifestly unjust to make the exception for one and not the other.

His disciples were looking at him.

“What are you waiting for?” Jiang Cheng snapped at them. “He’s a prisoner, he’s hurt. Treat him as you would any of the other prisoners we’ve rescued.”

That would be his story, he thought, if anyone later came knocking at his door to ask what he was thinking, letting a Wen go free.

Maybe it was his fault, Jiang Cheng reflected. He shouldn’t have thought ‘go free’.

Go free implied that Wen Ning would go somewhere else, rather than following him and Wei Wuxian around like an imprinted puppy. It only got worse when Wei Wuxian spontaneously declared that he would help him find Wen Qing to make sure she was safe – without asking Jiang Cheng first, which was unhelpful.

“We can’t be seen as being partial to the Wen sect,” he groaned, head in hands. “Not even the distant branches, but much less someone adopted by Sect Leader Wen himself…no offense meant, Wen Ning.”

“None taken,” Wen Ning said.

“But they helped us,” Wei Wuxian argued, clearly choosing to take the offense on Wen Ning’s part. “It would be unjust for us to turn on them now, when we have the power and they don’t, when they took risks on our behalf in the past.”

Jiang Cheng squinted at him. “Is this related to your weird thing about Lianfeng-zun?” he asked. Wei Wuxian had taken a firm stance against the man recently, and had spoken of it incessantly.

“No! Or, I mean – I would’ve done it anyway, okay? Listen, I really don’t like that guy.”

“No,” Jiang Cheng gasped dramatically. “You, Wei Wuxian, don’t like Lianfeng-zun? Wen Ning, did you hear that? Can you believe it?”

Wen Ning was hiding his face behind his sleeve – a Jiang sect outfit, one of Jiang Cheng’s own spares, since that was what they had, but the dark purple suited him rather well. Better than the red ever had.

His shoulders were shaking with laughter.

“Traitor,” Wei Wuxian told him.

“Sorry, Wei-gongzi!” Wen Ning giggled.

(Jiang Cheng did not think that Wen Ning was cute when he laughed, nor did he wish to see it happen again, to be the cause of it again. He was the leader of a sect, with an obligation to have heirs to carry on his parents’ legacy – he could think Wen Qing was pretty, even if she wasn’t exactly an advantageous match, but he was not allowed to think the same about Wen Ning.)

Wei Wuxian sighed and flopped down. “His conduct is questionable,” he grumbled. “Lan Zhan agrees with me…Anyway, why are we talking about Lianfeng-zun again? I thought we were talking about finding Wen Qing, and the rest of Wen Ning’s family?”

Jiang Cheng groaned again. “I can try to raise it at the meeting in Lanling,” he said, even though they’d all agreed that it made the most sense for the Jin sect to be the ones to resettle any prisoners of war, mostly on account of them having the money, the manpower, and the time, being the only sect that didn’t have significant work to do rebuilding after Wen sect aggression. “Provided you behave. Okay?”

Wei Wuxian, predictably, did not behave.

“Sect Leader Jiang?” Nie Mingjue unexpectedly said from the doorway to the room Jiang Cheng was staying in, and Jiang Cheng spun to stare at him in horror that someone was seeing him in this state. The other sect leader stepped inside, ignoring the mess of things on the floor from Jiang Cheng’s temper tantrum, and closed the door behind him. “Are you all right?”

Jiang Cheng opened his mouth to say something – something confident and self-assured, something that would help brush away Wei Wuxian’s atrocious behavior and his own as nothing to worry about, something befitting the sect leader of the Jiang sect – but the words stuck in his throat and, instead, to his absolute disgust, he burst into tears.

He expected Nie Mingjue to make a hasty exit at that point, appalled by the rampant display of emotionality, and that he’d have to apologize later for disgracing himself in such a fashion. That had been the way it had always gone with his parents, his father who hated sadness and his mother who hated weakness, and so he wasn’t expecting it at all when Nie Mingjue stepped forward and pulled him into his arms. Into a hug.

It was terrible: there was absolutely no way Jiang Cheng would be able to get ahold of himself now that he was feeling warm and protected and like someone gave one single damn about him.

Nie Mingjue didn’t let go of him, not even when he tearfully apologized for making a display – “It’s not wrong to have feelings, Jiang Wanyin, and it’s not harming me to be here while you let them out.” – or even when, in broken unfinished unpolitical sentences, Jiang Cheng started stuttering his way through…he wasn’t even sure what he was saying.

Possibly a rendition of all the bitterness and resentment he’d ever had in his life.

When it was done, after he’d wept all the tears he’d hidden inside of him, Nie Mingjue said only: “Feeling better?”

Jiang Cheng swiped at his eyes with his sleeve. “…yes,” he said, realizing that he did. “I’m sorry –”

“Do not apologize for having emotions like any other human being. Or for being a burden on me, which you are not.”

Jiang Cheng wished it didn’t feel so good when Nie Mingjue – stiff, stern, harsh Nie Mingjue, who rarely said kind words and never said anything just for the sake of saying it – said things like that. It would make it far easier to keep his dignity intact.

“Why did you come here?” he asked, instead. “It wasn’t to hear me talk about Wei Wuxian.”

At least, not the lifelong story of how Jiang Cheng had always been second to him even before he’d shown up – how his birthday was only a few days later, his skill a little bit less, his temperament inferior, his life inferior; how Jiang Cheng could ignore all of that if only Wei Wuxian were his brother the way he was his, the way he’d promised to be, and yet more and more nowadays it felt as if it were slipping out of reach.

“It was,” Nie Mingjue said. “He’s been coming around rather a lot to discuss Lianfeng-zun. It was his vehemence on the issue that reassured me that I wasn’t overreacting to the unnecessary death of my sect cultivators at Lianfeng-zun’s hands –”

The what?

Maybe Jiang Cheng should have listed a bit more when Wei Wuxian started ranting about how untrustworthy he thought Lianfeng-zun was.

“– and you have always had the strongest confidence in his sense of righteousness, even after he switched over to using demonic cultivation. Based on that, I thought there might be some reason behind his actions.”

Wei Wuxian’s actions: kidnapping an entire cohort of Wen sect cultivators from a Jin sect resettlement camp, assaulting several guards, running away, bringing shame on the Jiang sect by association…

“If I knew anything, I would tell you,” Jiang Cheng said bitterly. “But that would require Wei Wuxian telling me. Anything. At all.”

Nie Mingjue nodded thoughtfully. “Do you think he acted maliciously?”

“What? No,” Jiang Cheng said at once. “Of course not.”

“Do you think his thinking was affected by his demonic cultivation?”

“I almost wish it was, but no. He’s always been – like this. Reckless and over-confident, never thinking of consequences.”

“So you still have faith in him?”

“Of course!”

“That’s good enough for me,” Nie Mingjue said, as if Jiang Cheng hadn’t spent half a shichen crying on his shoulder about how all of his problems and how he couldn’t do anything right. “Let’s go ask him.”

“What, now?”

“Are you doing anything else?”

Fair was fair, but politics were politics: “If you’d gone about it the right way, perhaps the Jin sect wouldn’t have a claim,” Nie Mingjue said, pacing around the Burial Mounds with a scowl. “But as it stands now, it’s your word against theirs – and yours will be considered impaired on account of your demonic cultivation.”

“What about the testimony of the victims?” Wei Wuxian demanded.

“Wen sect,” Jiang Cheng put in, and shrugged when Wei Wuxian glared at him. “It’s true! Like it or not, their surname is Wen, and for Wen Qing and Wen Ning in particular, they were Sect Leader Wen’s wards.”

“It was not our choice,” Wen Qing said. Her voice was cold, and she’d tried to return the comb to him, earlier, though he’d refused – why he refused he didn’t know, since her decision to approach Wei Wuxian to seek help in rescuing the rest of her family rather than him had cut off any hope of anything between them. Even if she eventually understood his perspective, or even apologized for judging him unfit or unwilling to help her, he didn’t think he could live the rest of his life with a woman who had picked Wei Wuxian first.

“That isn’t what’s important, though,” Wen Ning said unexpectedly, and they all looked at him. He ducked his head, picking at his sleeve. “It isn’t. Sect Leader Jiang’s right: our surname is Wen. It’s reasonable for people to assume that we’re loyal to the Wen sect, and to treat us accordingly.”

“We never fought against anyone! We’ve never –”

“It doesn’t matter what we did, jiejie,” Wen Ning said. “Whether or not we fought for our sect, we would’ve benefited if they won, right? You rise when your clan rises, and fall when it falls. Why should we be an exception?”

“Well said,” Nie Mingjue said, and Wen Ning abruptly turned bright red – Jiang Cheng shot him a sympathetic look; he entirely understood the issue there. “Your testimony will be deemed self-interested, and even asking for it will only undercut Wei Wuxian’s position. Not to mention the Jiang sect’s.”

Jiang Cheng nodded, but Wei Wuxian crossed his arms. “Then just kick me out of the Jiang sect,” he said.

“What?” Jiang Cheng exclaimed, and even Nie Mingjue looked startled. “Absolutely not!”

“Why not? Isn’t the whole point that the Jiang sect is being dragged down by me and my new cultivation? Kick me out, and the problem’s solved.”

“I could cut off your head, and that of everyone else here,” Nie Mingjue said. “That would also solve the problem, but for some reason I’m not suggesting it. Can anyone tell me why?”

“…because it’s a bad idea?” Wen Ning volunteered.

“Because it’s a stupid idea,” Nie Mingjue agreed.

“It is a stupid idea,” Jiang Cheng growled. “Even putting aside that I don’t want to cast you out, do you really think people will stop blaming the Jiang sect for your actions just because you’re formally not aligned with us?”

“There isn’t another option,” Wei Wuxian said. “I’m not giving up the Wen sect, I’m not changing my cultivation style, I’m not giving up the Tiger Seal – and I’m not dragging the Jiang sect down with me, not if I can help it.”

“Are they really calling me ‘Ghost General’?” Wen Ning asked on one of his visits to the Lotus Pier to pick up supplies for the Yiling Burial Mounds.

Since Wei Wuxian had been so set on splitting from the Jiang sect, they’d eventually reached a compromise, of sorts. Wei Wuxian’s actions in rescuing the Wen sect remnants was – not endorsed, per se, as it was clearly wrongful, but Nie Mingjue announced that he had examined the Wen in question and found evidence suggestive of malnutrition and abuse, which indicated at minimum some negligence on the part of the Jin sect in not supervising the guards better. Accordingly, the Wen sect would be removed from the Jin sect’s custody and permitted to set up camp in Yiling under Wei Wuxian, but as punishment for his reckless and unsanctioned behavior, Wei Wuxian was to be expelled from the Jiang sect.

Since the expulsion was mandated by external forces, rather than being a result of his own decision, Jiang Cheng was able to give Wei Wuxian a sizeable settlement as a gift for his separation – the cultivation world gossiped about it, but most people seemed to think he was just trying to get his own back at Nie Mingjue for supposedly forcing the decision to expel Wei Wuxian down his throat – and to set up something of a trade agreement to send them more, although exactly what the Jiang sect was getting out of their side of the ‘trade’ was still up in the air.

Despite these outward signs of remaining support, several small sects had made attempts on the Burial Mounds, growing more reckless once they realized that Jiang Cheng really hadn’t left any forces behind to protect it – stupid of them, of course, since the reason he hadn’t left anyone behind was because he didn’t need to.

Wei Wuxian could handle himself perfectly well.

As could Wen Ning, apparently – he was a truly excellent archer, it turned out, and capable of waiting in all sorts of strange places with perfect patience, even if sometimes he had strange ideas about painting his face with mud to better blend in. It’d been one of those incidents that had given rise to the rumor that he was actually dead, having been resurrected by Wei Wuxian…

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said. “Sorry about that. I tried to tell them to stop, but…”

“It made it worse?”

“It made it so much worse,” Jiang Cheng sighed. “Anyway, would you like to drink?”

“…do you mean tea?”

“No.”

“Yes please,” Wen Ning said. “I have been – so stressed. You wouldn’t…actually, you probably would believe it.”

“I grew up with Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said grimly. “I believe anything.”

“It would be good to bring a representative of Yiling Wei sect to the conference, even if it can’t be Wei Wuxian himself,” Nie Mingjue remarked, looking down at the plans Jiang Cheng had laid out for the first discussion conference to be held in the Lotus Pier since the war. “You’re on good terms with Wen Qionglin, aren’t you? Ask him –”

“No!” Jiang Cheng exclaimed, then realized he was being suspicious and cleared his throat. “Maybe someone else should invite them.”

Nie Mingjue looked at him over the table. “…has something happened?” he asked.

Jiang Cheng stared down at the plans and hoped he wasn’t blushing. “Nothing important,” he said, and his voice cracked on the last sound – embarrassing.

Still not as embarrassing as that time he cried into Nie Mingjue’s arms, no, but still…embarrassing.

“Oh,” Nie Mingjue said. “You slept with him.”

“How can you tell?” Jiang Cheng hissed, mortified beyond all belief. “Is it – written on my face –”

“According to Huaisang, it’s always a safe guess,” Nie Mingjue said, and shrugged when Jiang Cheng gaped at him. “Either they admit that that’s the case, as you just did, or they get all up in arms and explain what it really was while denying it.”

“That’s –” Really useful and Jiang Cheng will have to put it into effect immediately. “– terrible.”

“Works, though. Why the embarrassment? I didn’t think the Jiang sect cared about cut sleeves.”

“We don’t,” Jiang Cheng said, sitting down and putting his head in his hands. “But I’m sect leader –”

“You had sex, it’s not like you got married.”

“I used to have a thing for his sister.”

“Awkward, I suppose, but it never went anywhere, did it? One can hardly hold your past inclinations against you –”

“We were both thinking about you,” Jiang Cheng blurted out, and then promptly wanted to die. He could have just not said that. He could have said anything else but that. He could stab himself right now and maybe Nie Mingjue would be so distracted by the bleeding and screaming that he would just forget what Jiang Cheng had just said…

“You could always just ask,” Nie Mingjue said.

Jiang Cheng looked up through his fingers. “…are you serious?”

Nie Mingjue looked at him with arched eyebrows. “Are you asking me if I’d be flattered by being propositioned by two extremely beautiful and deadly cultivators?”

“I wouldn’t rank those two as equally desirable traits in a lover,” Jiang Cheng said, and it was almost not a lie, “but…yes?”

He thought for a moment.

“If I did invite Wen Ning to the Discussion Conference…”

“Well,” Wen Ning said. “This wasn’t how I was expecting to end up.”

“Me, either,” Jiang Cheng said. He was staring up at the ceiling and thinking about not moving again for – possibly ever.

“Same for me,” Nie Mingjue, on his other side, agreed. “But I have no objections to how it worked out. There aren’t two other cultivators I’d rather be with.”

“There’d better not be,” Jiang Cheng said on automatic, then considered bashing his head in – luckily both Wen Ning and Nie Mingjue reached over and put their hands under his head so he couldn’t, which made him feel warm and happy in a way subtly different from the way the sex had. “I mean, who else would it be? Zewu-jun and Lianfeng-zun?”

“Wei-gongzi still thinks Lianfeng-zun is trying to kill you, you know,” Wen Ning said to Nie Mingjue, who looked long-suffering. “He’s got this idea –”

“He can’t be trying to kill me,” Nie Mingjue argued. “He’s just offered to help Xichen play calming music for me –”

“Wei-gongzi said that maybe he’s trying to kill you through the music –”

“I’m going to sleep,” Jiang Cheng announced. “When I wake up, we can discuss the political implications of letting there be rumors about us sleeping together, which will make it both convenient for us to do this again and also maybe using the potential threat of a Yiling Wei-Yunmeng Jiang-Qinghe Nie alliance to force the Jin sect to take action so we can figure out once and for all if Lianfeng-zun is actually planning to do something. But for the moment, I am going to sleep.”

“…seems fair,” Nie Mingjue agreed. “Communication and straightforwardness is important in relationships like these.”

“Uh,” Wen Ning said, glancing at Jiang Cheng. “About that…if, theoretically, I were to know something about someone…”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #nie mingjue #wen ning #my fic #my fics #exception #lurkingcrow

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shutupandshipit · 3 years

Text

Sharpen Your Blades - Ch.15

Summary: “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

The thinning of Aizawa’s patience was evident in the twitching of his brow. “If you stop asking questions, maybe I could finish explaining.

”With a huff and roll of his eyes, Katsuki glanced away from their coach.

“City Hall and the SC want us to give them more variety. We are a team solely made up of single skaters. Every year, we dominate the rankings for single skate while Shinketsu dominates the pairs, so this year both cities are being required to split their skaters evenly between singles and pairs with at least one pair coming from out top five.” There was a collective intake of breath, but no one commented, choosing instead to remain silent. “Unfortunately, for us, it’s a lot easier to switch from pairs to singles. With our male to female ratio, alpha/beta/omega ratio, and those of you actually experienced with pair skating, we’re at a disadvantage. So, I’ve decided to choose your partners for you.”

…..

Or where Katsuki and Izuku are forced to be partners so they can continue to compete, but the blood in the water may be thicker than anyone realized.

Pairing: Bakudeku

Rating: T

Chapter: 15/20

Previously <- Chapter 14: Fighting

Chapter 16: Heats and Ruts -> Next

Chapter 15: Gross Holiday Activities

Izuku was lying in bed staring up at the ceiling. He was exhausted, had been exhausted for the entire week. No one had warned him just how much presenting would take out of him, let alone just how terrible going through heat would be. That’s not something they talk about in school. They talk about the biological mechanisms of why secondary genders exist. About how wonderful and beautiful heats and ruts were. ‘They help us create life,’ he remembered his teacher intoning.

After this first heat, he didn’t think they were all people had made them out to be.

The only good thing that came from presenting was that if Katsuki wanted to return to partner skate one day, they could still be partners. Izuku could only hope that one day Katsuki would want to.

A soft knock tapped at his door.

The person didn’t wait for him to reply before pushing open the door. Cinnamon and star anise and sugar wafted towards him, and Izuku knew without looking who had entered his room. His scent had never been so strong before, but it was so very familiar.

“Kacchan?” he mumbled, turning to look at the newly presented alpha where he stood in the doorway. “What are you doing here?”

“Get dressed,” he said as answer.

“I’m tired, Kacchan,” Izuku said even as he slowly pulled back the covers and slid his feet to the floor. He felt weak like even if he stood up his legs wouldn’t be able to hold his weight. Sighing heavily, he scrubbed at his eyes. “How did you get in? I didn’t think Mom would let you in since…” He trailed off, eyes on his toes as he curled and uncurled them.

“You really think Auntie would let me being an alpha change her opinion of me?” Katsuki crossed his arms, leaning against the very noticeably open door. Normally, when he came over, Katsuki would come in and immediately close the door. Either Inko had talked to him, or he was already conducting himself in a way that wouldn’t make Inko’s opinion change.

It made Izuku sad. Things would never be the same for them from here on out. Everything was going to change no matter how hard he fought against it.

Izuku shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just surprised.” He didn’t move.

“Are you going to get up or am I going to just go on my own?” Katsuki snapped, impatience in his voice, but also the same exhaustion Izuku was harboring.

“Where are we going?”

“The outdoor rink opened today. You hate missing the first day.”

Katsuki didn’t have to say anymore. Izuku heaved himself out of bed with a groan, and hurried to find something clean-ish to pull on. Something that didn’t smell overwhelmingly of his heat. On their way out, Izuku’s hand trapped in Katsuki’s, he called, “We’re going to the outdoor rink, Mom!”

Inko shuffled out of the kitchen with a small bag, handing it to Katsuki. Miso soup or green tea that she always gave them before they went out on cold winter days. “Be safe, you two. Mitsuki is coming with you?” she asked, chaffing her hands together worriedly.

Katsuki nodded, face looking more severe than ever with the deep black bags beneath his eyes. “She’s waiting in the car.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you two in a little bit. Call if you won’t make it back for dinner, baby.” With that, she hugged Izuku tightly and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

When they slid into the backseat of the car, Mitsuki and Masaru turned to smile at Izuku. “How are you feeling, Izuku?” Masaru asked conversationally as Mitsuki turned back around to watch the road, “You’ve had a long week just like Katsuki, haven’t you?”

Izuku nodded, tightening his fingers around Katsuki’s. “It was really tiring, but I’m happy to be out of the house.”

“We’re glad to help. Katsuki missed you.” Masaru smiled at his son, but Katsuki had propped his chin in his hand to stare out the window. He turned back around, leaving the boys to their solitude.

There weren’t as many people on the ice when they got there than Izuku had expected. Probably it had to do with how early in the holiday season it was and maybe even that it was the first day the rink was open. Silently, they shoved their feet in the shitty skates that the rink offered while Mitsuki and Masaru wandered off to check out the stalls close by.

When Izuku finally stepped out onto the ice, it felt as if he hadn’t in months. It was a relief. Being on the ice was easy. Being on the ice was uncomplicated. Being on the ice meant being with Katsuki, and Katsuki was one of the few constants in his life.

They skated together for hours. Round and round and round despite the eyes that found them, tracked them. Children who were newly presented had a stronger, more pungent scent. They received more attention, especially newly presented omegas. Over the week, Izuku had dreaded having to go back out in public remembering all of the omegas on the team who had presented before him and the unrelenting, mostly unwanted attentions they’d received. He worried about the eyes that would follow him and the noses that would catch his scent.

But being out with Katsuki made it easy. After a while, the feel of those eyes fell away, and it was just the two of them.

When they finally left the ice, sweaty and red faced and shaky from exertion, Mitsuki handed them food to share and Izuku said, “Thank you, Kacchan.”

“For what?” Katsuki grunted, cheek stuffed full with takoyaki as he looked out over the crowd. His eyes were flat, not as shiny as they usually were. Lacking his excitement for life.

“Asking me to come out. I was… I was scared about being in public again,” Izuku whispered, holding the food tray in both hands, but not taking any for himself. He couldn’t look at Katsuki, his blush moving from exertion to embarrassment.

“Yeah, well, I was just tired of being inside,” Katsuki muttered, but even as he spoke, his scent told another story. It would take some time before he learned to control his scent enough that his emotions didn’t scream out through his scent.

For now though, it was nice to know exactly what he was really feeling, what he would refuse to say. Izuku smiled. “Thank you anyway.”

…..

"Deku, you should just talk to him," Ochako told him sternly.

Izuku pointedly did not look at her, focussing on his breathing as they jogged along somewhere in the middle of the team. Ochako wasn't a slow runner, but she wasn't as fast as Katsuki. Since their argument three days ago though, Izuku hadn't even looked at Katsuki with the insurmountable guilt he was harboring. He shouldn’t have let Katsuki’s pre-rut get the better of him, but his body seemed bound and determined to no longer be his friend. The same went for his omega who had been sulking the entire time.

Neither of them had even showed up to practice the past two days and yesterday's practice had been the most strained it had ever been, much to Aizawa's irritation and Toshinori's disappointment. Both Izuku and Katsuki had separately refused to touch the ice with the other on it, and had been relegated to floor work in separate studios. Toshinori had apologized to Izuki for making things worse which had only served to inflate his guilt.

The anger had eventually evaporated, and now the rational part of Izuku's brain had come back online. That didn't keep every other part of him from moaning that he'd royally fucked everything up. There was no way Katsuki would ever forgive him for what he’d said.

"Ignoring me isn't going to stop me from talking about this," Ochako warned, still keeping stride beside him even as her breath started to falter and grow heavier, "You two are being absolutely ridiculous."

"You have to admit, this is par the course for them," Todoroki murmured on Izuku's other side.

Izuku sighed. "Not you too, Todoroki."

Todorki somehow managed to shrug while still swinging his arms. "I agree with her. You should just talk."

Again, Izuku sighed, but heavier this time. Heavy enough to interrupt his breathing and force him to adjust his breath again. "You didn't see or hear how he reacted. It'll be a miracle if he ever even looks at me again."

"Well then, you have a fairy godmother because it's going to happen sooner than you think," Uraraka huffed, "Especially if you just. Talk. To. Him."

Finally, Izuku snapped his eyes to her, frustrated and feeling like garbage and she was just making it worse. "You don't get it, Chako! You don't know our history! It's not that simple!"

"Because you don't talk to us about it!" she shouted back, glaring at him fiercely. Far ahead of them, Iida turned a glance over his shoulder and began to slow.

"Because it hurts to talk about!"

Uraraka grabbed his arm, jerking him to a stop and pulling him away towards the side of the trail. Ahead of them, Todoroki kept running and grabbed Iida’s bicep to keep him moving. For several long moments, both of them caught their breath and stared at their feet. Only when the last of their teammates had passed did they speak.

"I'm sorry," Izuku whispered, eyes downcast and tear filled, "I didn't mean to yell at you."

"Well, you did," Uraraka said, voice still sharp around the edges, but normal volume now, "We're friends, Deku, but no one gets a pass for yelling at me. Not even you."

The tears spilled over, dripping off the tip of his nose. He shielded his face from view with a hand and scrubbed at his tears with the other. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Please don't hate me. I can't have another friend hating me," he gasped.

Uraraka's sigh ruffled his hair. "I don't hate you and neither does Bakugou, but you were yelling at me when I'm trying to help you. Not only that, but you're holding stuff against me that I don't know about because you've never talked to us about it. I'm going to be blunt here, both you and Bakugou clearly have a lot of unresolved trauma from when you were younger that's still fucking up a lot of stuff for the two of you. You would be so much better without all this extra baggage. You two are terrible at communicating, and whether you talk to me or not, you need to talk it out with him. That time on the podcast doesn't count as talking it out. That was just Bakugou being vulnerable with you for once, but there's way more than just that going on. And you know it."

Izuku was crying harder, using the tail of his scarf to mop up his tears. "I know, it's just so hard. I caused so many problems for Kacchan when we were younger. I was just so thankful to be able to skate with him again, but now… now… Now he won't even look at me because I threw everything back in his face. I'm a terrible person, and Kacchan deserves a better omega. An omega who can cook and clean and doesn't have to rely on suppressants to get him through life. Who didn't ruin two years of his life when we were kids."

Uraraka gripped his shoulder tightly, waiting until he raised his eyes to her to begin. "Talk to him. I truly believe the two of you think more alike than you realize. I'm sure he wants to talk to you too."

"What if he tells me to go away."

"He won’t."

"But what if-"

"He won't, Deku, trust me."

With a shaky nod, Izuku accepted the hug Uraraka offered him before they started back towards the rink. They walked the trail instead of running, allowing Izuku to get his tears under control. When they exited the trail, the rest of the team had already disappeared into the rink to change for their day.

Only Katsuki and Kirishima remained standing near the rink entrance. Kirishima was whispering to Katsuki, but stopped when Katsuki's eyes snapped to Izuku.

They stared at each other, Katsuki's eyes trailing over him before scrutinizing his face. After several long moments, Katsuki turned and disappeared into the rink.

Kirishima waited for them to draw closer before speaking. "I think I managed to convince him, but I'm not sure what he's planning," he said, speaking directly to Uraraka instead of Izuku.

Sighing, she nodded. "Good. The same goes for me." Looking to Izuku, she smiled and said, "Talk to him. I'm going to get changed and head to work."

…..

"Bro, Katsuki, just talk to him. Watching you mope is making me sad. Like, come on now. You're better than this." Kirishima jogged beside Katsuki, the only one managing to keep up with him out of his group of friends. Mina and Kaminari loped along behind them, their panting desperate breath loud on the quiet trail. Only Sero was further ahead of them, his long legs carrying him easily. The only reason he was ahead was because Katsuki wasn't putting any effort into the run. He was just too tired.

"No." His reply was flat, almost monotonous. After the fight with Izuku, all of his pre-rut anger had ebbed into something aching. All day, every day, his chest hurt with the sheer level of pining he was allowing himself to engage in. He’d even allowed his alpha to start constructing the nest for the omega that he’d been fighting against. Not that any omega needed an alpha to create a shitty version of something they had the instinct to build well, but it put Katsuki at ease knowing it was there if Izuku so-ever needed it. So, he wallowed and pined and didn’t cave to the desire to go knock on the omega’s apartment door just down the hallway from him.

"Man-"

"No. You didn't hear what he said to me. He doesn't want anything to do with me. I'm not going to force him to talk to me."

Kirishima sighed, turning his eyes towards the sky. "You don't know if he does or doesn't if you don't talk to him. He was angry. People say stuff they don't mean all the time when they're angry."

Katsuki glared at him out of the corner of his eye. "Everything he said was true."

"That doesn't mean he meant it."

"It does for Deku."

"You're being ridiculous," Kirishima said sternly, eyebrows furrowing, "You don't know if he regrets what he said or not. Sometimes I think you don't know Midoriya at all." He turned his eyes forward again, and Katsuki got the distinct feeling that his best friend was disappointed in him.

"I've known him way longer than any of you extras!"

"Which makes you biased. From the little you told me, a lot happened when you were preteens, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that your perspectives on each other are seriously skewed," Kirishima told him honestly, and Katsuki knew his best friend was frustrated with him because he hadn't looked at him. Not only that, but his ever present smile was missing. “It’s like you two hold each other on some insurmountable pedastals, but don’t realize that you’re just people.”

Katsuki didn't reply, seething under the truth of his words. But the thought of rejection made him nauseous. If he talked to Deku and the omega told him to fuck off, he wasn't sure what he'd do. Probably find another team all together.

He didn't want to do that though. He wanted to stay with Izuku even if the omega never looked at him ever again.

"How do I even start a conversation like that?" Katsuki muttered.

"Apologizing would be a good start." At the look on Katsuki's face, Kirishima sighed again. "You need to verbally talk to him, hash out everything between the two of you, but I guess you could start by getting on the ice with him. Maybe take him to do something that he'll really enjoy that he hasn't gotten a chance to do yet."

Several things popped into his head at once, but still he asked, "Like what?"

"I don’t know. You two have been seriously busy. Maybe take him to Downtown and go Christmas shopping and to see the lights. The Christmas tree is up, and they've opened the outdoor rink. He always gets excited during the holiday season."

Several distinct memories of making a day out of going to the outdoor rink on the first day of opening flitted through Katsuki’s mind. He scowled. "I hate all that gross Christmas shit. People are always way too loud and happy."

Kirishima laughed. "I know that, but this isn't about you. It's about him."

‘Fair point.’ Letting out a noncommittal grunt, Katsuki lengthened his stride and Kirishima whined as he started to fall behind. When they finally made it to the end of the trail, Katsuki waited for Kirishima, but also kept an eye out for Izuku to make sure the omega made it back.

Slowly, their teammates exited the path and started towards the rink. Izuku didn’t appear.

Kirishima shifted his weight from foot to foot, glancing between Katsuki and the path. After ten more minutes, he started talking, chattering without stopping.

Crossing his arms, Katsuki clenched his fists against his sides to keep his growing panic known. Kirishima’s neverending chatter was doing nothing to help him. Mostly, it just pissed him off.

Long minutes pass, and it was only when Katsuki was seconds away from plunging back into the forest and Kirishima was saying, “I’m sure he’s alright, man, this trail is really safe. All the trails are. And it’s Midoriya. I think we would have heard something by now if he was in trouble,” that there was movement at the trail mouth.

Izuku and Uraraka stopped as they spotted Katsuki and Kirishima.

He dragged his eyes over Izuku, looking for any signs that he’d been hurt and allowing his panic to subside, before looking over the omega’s face. His nose, lips and eyes were red, and there were clear signs that he’d been crying.

‘Omega sad. Comfort omega. Omega should not have to cry,’ his alpha said, and while Katsuki agreed, he couldn’t just go up to Izuku and hold him.

Instead, he met Izuku’s eyes pointedly again before turning and heading into the rink. From there, he turned towards the ice instead of the locker rooms where the rest of the team was. It had been three days since he last set foot on the ice, and he hadn’t realized just how much a deviation from his usual schedule would affect him. Sleep had been scarce, and frustration had been high. Not frustration at Izuku, but at himself. Because after everything, he was still somehow managing to fuck things up. Not to say he hadn’t been upset with Izuku, but it hadn’t lasted. Everything he’d said had been the truth.

Katsuki pulled on his skates with purposeful, quick jerks. By the time the three stragglers made it in, he was already taking off his guards to step onto the ice. He paused, glancing over his shoulder to catch Izuku’s gaze before stepping out. He found his way to center ice before coming to a stop and turning to wait for Izuku to join him. If he was going to join him.

He hoped the invitation was obvious. He wasn’t good with words. Never had been and had the sneaking suspicion never would be.

Uraraka and Kirishima were smirking, and together, pushed Izuku towards the rink. He glanced back at them, but they just waved him forward again. Only when he stepped away did they scurry away themselves, heads bent close together.

Katsuki waited patiently as Izuku slowly pulled out his skates. Every few seconds as he pulled them on, he glanced up as if to make sure Katsuki hadn’t gone anywhere.

Finally, standing at the entrance to the rink, he simply stared at Katsuki with trepidation written all across his face.

Instead of opening his mouth, worried something nasty and venomous was just going to come tumbling out as it so often did, he held out his hand.

Izuku’s face opened with relief, and he scrubbed at his eyes before hurrying out to meet Katsuki. They didn’t stay on the ice long, silently gliding around the rink a few times without any purpose, just contenting each other with the others presence.

As if following an unspoken signal, they stepped off the ice together, gathered up their belongings and went outside.

Izuku waited beside Katsuki, bouncing from foot to foot and breathing into his cupped hands as he locked the doors to the rink. When Katsuki turned, Izuku handed over Katsuki’s bag, a small cautious smile evident over the top edge of his scarf. The scarf Katsuki had given him.

For the first time in days, Katsuki spoke to Izuku. “Put on your fucking gloves, dumbass, that’s what you’ve got ‘em for. Fuck.” He stepped in close to Izuku, rummaging around his coat pockets despite the omega’s sudden stiffness and stammering and red cheeks. Pulling out the gloves, he pulled them onto Izuku’s hands with quick efficiency. He clasped Izuku’s hands between his own. “Where’s your hat? I swear, you’d be dead without me.” He reached around Izuku, and this time easily found his beanie in the outside pocket of his bag.

All the gifts he’d given Izuku on his person all at the same time. Katsuki smirked, self-satisfied, after he jerked the hat down over Izuku’s ears, flipping the bunny ears out of the omega’s face and over the top of his head. “Better. Let’s go.” He turned, striding away before Izuku could answer.

“What? Where are we going? Our building is the other way.” Izuku scrambled to catch up, falling into step beside Katsuki and stepping close as the sidewalk began to fill with bodies. The closer they got to Downtown, the more crowded it became. The signs of life grew exponentially, and it wasn’t long before the streets were filled with lights and holiday music and the sound of people living and loving together.

Katsuki glanced over at him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders to pull him close so they took up less space on the sidewalk. Izuku didn’t react to the sudden proximity like Katsuki had expected him to, eyes darting from one store front to the next. His eyes were wide, colored lights reflecting brightly off his corneas.

Glancing away as heat built along his collar, he said, “We’re not going home just yet.”

“What are we doing then?” Izuku asked, and he caught the glance the omega sent him.

He also caught the bright red of Izuku’s cheeks. ‘It’s just the cold. It’s just the cold. It’s just the cold,’ he chanted to himself.

‘Omega still responds to us. Hope!’ his alpha retorted.

On a whim, Katsuki steered them into a store front so frilly and lit up that his eyeballs actually throbbed in his head. The store was familiar, one of his few haunting grounds that made coffee exactly to his standards. Warmth and the heavy scent of coffee greeted them, and he unwound himself from Izuku to usher him through the double doors. “We’re getting hot chocolate to start off.”

As soon as Izuku had a chance to scan the coffee shop, his arm shot into the air. Jovially, he called, “Hagakure! Ojirou! I didn’t know you worked here!”

Neither did Katsuki, and he silently cursed.

The woman with her pale skin, pale blue eyes and the palest blonde hair on the planet waved back from behind the counter. “Midoriya! And Bakugou! What are you doing here?” She rounded the counter with a quick whisper to Ojirou who was sporting a baby blue apron. “Wow! It’s so weird seeing your guys off the ice.”

Izuku laughed. “It is, isn’t it? It’s nice though.”

“Yeah,” she cooed before stacking her gloved hands on her hips and smiling widely. “What can I do for you guys? Looking for a late night pick-me-up?”

“Kacchan said something about hot chocolate?” Izuku turned to Katsuki who would have been happier being ignored.

He hadn’t been expecting -realistically- to see any of their teammates that night. Had banked on it. He should have planned for the eventuality. It was the holiday season. Everyone was doing their Christmas shopping and enjoying the lights and shit.

He should have planned for it. Instead, Hagakure had a knowing smile playing across her mouth. Heat bloomed along his collar to crawl up his neck. Gruffly, he said, “Yeah. The Aztec spice for me and whichever the nerd wants.”

“You have multiples?” Izuku whispered reverentially as he whipped back around to look at Hagakure.

“Sure do! There’s a whole list for the holidays over there by Ojirou if you want to take a look.”

Izuku all but bounced over to the counter, greeting their other teammate with a bright chipper smile.

Hagakure and Katsuki didn’t move. “So…” she stared.

“Stop.”

She laughed, throwing her head back. “What? I haven’t said anything!”

Katsuki could feel his pulse in his cheeks, and he glared at her. “I know what you’re about to say. So, stop.”

“I just wanted to say that I’m happy for you. Just don’t fuck it up again, you know? And maybe get him something nicer than clothes and blankets? Just a suggestion.”

Katsuki didn’t even want to know how she knew about all of that, especially the blanket. He wanted to slam his head into a wall. Who was this beta trying to give him advice? They barely ever spoke, and he’d only ever thought of her as a teammate, even all these years later. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he ground out. But he allowed his eyes to remain glued on Izuku and for the warmth in his cheeks to fill his chest.

Hagakure pursed her lips. “You know, the one thing about basically being invisible is that people forget to check when they’re doing sketchy shit.” When he didn’t react, she simply said, “You’re courting him. I’ve seen you put a couple of those gifts in his bags. And don’t get me started on the lunches and snacks that I’ve seen you share. Just because he’s a dummy, doesn’t mean the rest of us are.”

Except that Izuku wasn’t actually a dummy, not in this sense. He’d known Katsuki’s intentions for a bit, eventually figured them out at least. It was just that he kept fucking shit up before actually getting the balls to properly ask Izuku to formally court him. Well, publicly at least. Katsuki hated that tradition dictated they go public. While he didn’t mind the idea of people knowing, the way he actually felt for the nerd was his and Izuku’s alone. If Izuku didn’t care about being public, he felt like that should have been good enough. Still, he knew how both of their parents would feel if they didn’t.

Working his jaw, Katsuki tried to find the words to reply that weren’t ‘fuck off’. If he really wanted to court Izuku, he couldn’t go alienating the nerd’s friends even if he wanted the omega all to himself. In the end, he muttered, “He wouldn’t like expensive shit. He’s not that kind of omega. The only non-functional things he owns are his skating memorabilia.” Before he was forced to endure whatever else she had to say in response, Izuku hopped back over with two takeaway cups and a smile cutting from ear to ear.

“Here you go, Kacchan!”

Katsuki took the cup with a grunt before grabbing Izuku’s hand and tugging him towards the door. “Let’s fucking go before more meddling happens.”

“Okay, bye, Hagakure, Ojirou!” Izuku called back, unperturbed by the frozen air just outside the door.

“Bye, sweetie! Have a good time! Make good choices!” Hagakure waved back enthusiastically before rounding the counter again.

Izuku waved for a few moments longer before bringing the cup in his hand to his lip. He hadn’t pulled his other from Katsuki’s, and instead used it to drag Katsuki into his side as they started to walk again. “So, what are we doing?”

“You haven’t gotten a chance to come down here this season, right?” Katsuki asked, keeping his eyes forward as he steered Izuku around a group of merry carolers. He felt more than saw Izuku shake his head, his curls sending up a cloud of sweet smelling mint and rain. “So, whatever you want.”

Izuku jerked them to a stop just as Katsuki was lifting his cup to his mouth. Hot liquid sprayed across his mouth, and he suppressed a curse. He thought the omega was about to really give it to him. Instead, when he looked at Izuku, he was met with wide sparkling green eyes and astonishment. Maybe the tongue lashing would have hurt less, but he knew he deserved every little twinge that spiked through his chest.

“What’s that look for?” he grumbled, glancing away from Izuku.

“Are you being serious?”

Katsuki snapped his eyes back around, indignation rising. “Why would I have said it if I weren’t being serious?”

Still, the astonishment stayed. “It’s just… it’s not like you, and after what happened at the beginning of the week…” Izuku dropped his eyes and then his hand, curling into himself. “It’s unexpected. I know you let me back on the ice, but I haven’t apologized. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

Considering what course of action to take, Katsuki eventually chose to reach around Izuku and pull his ponytail forward. He kept his fingers tangled in the supernaturally soft curls as Izuku shyly lifted his eyes to look at him.

“I haven’t apologized either. You’re not the only one at fault here. We’re both idiots.” Izuku’s eyes grew impossibly wide, but he didn’t speak. “So, what do you want to do?”

A smile grew quickly on Izuku’s face, and he pushed in close, wrapping his arms around Katsuki’s waist tightly. His cup was warm against Katsuki’s spine even through all of the layers he was wearing. “You’re going to regret asking me that,” he said, voice muffled in Katsuki’s jacket.

He sighed heavily. “I already knew that.”

Izuku pulled away, but not completely. Instead, he resumed their earlier position pressed shoulder to shoulder. “We have so much to do tonight,” he chirruped.

Katsuki grimaced, but went along without complaint.

For several hours, they peaked into packed stores strung from end to end with brightly colored lights and lengths of tinsel. Ate samples that said stores were handing out. Izuku did some actual Christmas shopping, picking up gifts for his mother, Katsuki’s parents, Uraraka and the rest of his friends. The entire time, he kept up a constant stream of chatter and singing.

And he never pulled his hand from Katsuki’s.

“The outdoor rink is open!” Izuku cried as they found themselves right in the middle of Downtown, the rink acting as the epicenter of the festivities.

The Christmas tree towered on the opposite end of the square as music played over the mass of bodies. There were so many lights strung around that there was no need for the usual street lamps or floodlights, and all stood dark beneath the Christmas lights. There weren’t actually that many people on the ice at the moment as Katsuki thought there would be, just a couple of kids and couples sticking close to the walls. Only a few brave souls had ventured out towards center ice, feet braced awkwardly and hands held out for balance.

“Let’s skate!” Izuku said emphatically, turning to completely face Katsuki, “Please, Kacchan! It’ll be closed for the season before I get to!”

“We skate every day, dumbass, what makes this rink different from ours?” Katsuki grumbled, beginning to feel the weight of his bag and the dragging of the day. It was well passed his usual bedtime, and he felt like an old man. An old man who needed a nap. “If you want to skate, we can just go back. At least there’s no people at our rink.”

“But that’s why I want to skate here.” Izuku was pulling him gently towards the booth renting out lockers and skates as if he moved slow enough that Katsuki wouldn’t notice what he was doing or something. “I love being on ice with so many people, all the excitement and energy they give off. I love being around people enjoying something I love just for the pleasure of enjoying it.”

Izuku’s words sounded extremely close to the reason Katsuki coached his students, and that more than anything unstuck his feet. He followed along behind Izuku, and waited by the wooden benches set up for the skaters to change into the skates while he got them skates and a locker to shove their things in. When he came back, he grinned and held up two pairs of ratty, ugly, abused skates.

“Why don’t we just use our own skate?” Katsuki asked, lip curled up in disgust as he stared at the sorry excuse for skates the omega was offering him. He hadn’t worn a pair of those skates since he was ten-years-old, but he was 99.9% sure they had never once been replaced in those twelve years. He didn’t even want to think of whose disease ridden feet may have been in them prior. “I’m not putting those on.”

Izuku pushed them towards him more insistently. “Come on, Kacchan, it’s part of the experience. Also-” His eyes darted towards the ice, completely ruined by hundreds of other people and the poor condition of the blades they were skating on. “I don’t really want to have to sharpen my blades after being on this ice. My current blades are probably still the most expensive things I’ve ever owned.”

Following his gaze and grimacing, Katsuki muttered, “Fine,” before taking the skates and sitting down heavily. He laced them up just like he would his own, and his grimace deepened when he stood and realized just how wrong wearing someone else’s skates felt. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, for sure, but Izuku looked pleased as punch when he stood up beside Katsuki.

He toddered over to the lockers with their belongings and shoes, unceremoniously shoving everything into the locker’s depths before forcing it closed. When he turned, he was still grinning both a little smuggly and proudly. “Come on, Kacchan! Let’s skate!”

It took them several long minutes of trying to find a space between people to dart out to center ice, but once they were there, Izuku held out a hand. He smiled cheekily. “May I have this dance?”

“Gross,” Katsuki spat, but he was fighting back a smile as he grabbed the omega’s hand and dragged him in against his body.

Instead of following the routine for their programme, they just let their bodies move with the music. Still, they were in perfect sync. Laughter stayed on Izuku’s lips and a smile eventually broke out on Katsuki’s as they moved. It had been twelve years since they’d allowed themselves to be silly with each other, to just enjoy skating for the sake of skating, to forget about skill and technique and just skate.

They were planets orbiting a star where the other was the sun and they were the hapless, helpless planet caught in the sun’s gravity. Time became a distant construct as they spun and jumped and crashed together and flew apart.

At some point while holding Izuku’s hand above his head to spin him around and around and around, Katsuki realized that people were watching them more than skating. There were phones pointed in their direction and the holiday music had gotten louder, but nothing could really secure his attention like the sound of Izuku’s raucous laugh and teeth as he smiled helplessly.

Tackling Izuku around the waist and lifting him off his feet, he spun them around until the world was a blur of colors and Izuku’s face was the only thing in focus.

“Kacchan!” Izuku screeched, clutching onto his shoulder. His grip was for balance rather than out of fear, and after a moment, he flung his arms out to the sides and allowed Katsuki to hold him steady. Through his laughter, he called, “I’m getting dizzy!”

‘Me too. Dizzy on you,’ Katsuki thought nonsensically as he slowed to a stop. He let Izuku slide back to the ground, and together, they stumbled towards the wall while the assembled crowd clapped and crowed.

Katsuki leaned back against the wall, working to catch his breath even as it continued to escape in little puffs of laughter. Beside him, Izuku was still giggling, clutching onto the wall as if for dear life.

“Kacchan?”

Lifting his head from where it hung between his shoulders, Katsuki turned to look at Izuku. There were fingers there on the back of his neck, soft material warm against his skin, and before he could wonder what they were doing there, Izuku pressed his lips to Katsuki’s.

Katsuki went stalk still, brain struggling to connect the dots of what was happening to how he’d imagined kissing Izuku.

“Sorry, Kacchan,” Izuku was whispering as he pulled away, cheeks rose red and smile small, “I just couldn’t hold back anymore. I-”

Bracketing Izuku’s face between his palms, Katsuki pulled him back in, unable to handle even the short distance he’d put between them. He kissed him again, hungry and wanting and desperate, sliding his hands back into those perfect curls and holding on tight.

Izuku hummed against his lips, opening to him easily.

They melted into each other, and only virtue of being in public kept them from following their desires further.

When they parted, putting only enough space between each other to allow for panting breaths, Izuku whispered, “Why didn’t we do that sooner?”

Katsuki huffed out a breathless laugh. “Because I’m an idiot.”

#my hero academia #mha #bakudeku #dekubaku #decchan #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #a/b/o dynamics #omegaverse #omega!izuku #alpha!katsuki #figure skater au #no quirks au #my writing #sharpen your blades

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comicgeekscomicgeek · 4 years

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Their Hero Academia – Chapter 65: Hit the Beach!

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

Okay, maybe having rich friends wasn’t such a bad thing. And since everyone had come along, Isamu didn’t feel like too much of a moocher. Well, maybe a little. Even with the seventeen members of Class 1-A, Izumi’s parents, and the butleriest butler to ever butler, there’d been plenty of space on the private jet. He’d really underestimated Izumi’s family’s wealth. That wasn��t how the upper half lived. It was some kind of upper percentage that involved a lot of zeroes after the decimal point.

But laying on a tropical beach? Yeah, he could get used to this. Maybe if he got really successful as a Pro-Hero someday he could make enough money to do this kind of thing sometimes. Mom and Dad would probably appreciate a real vacation too.

After getting checked into the resort (Owning your own resort on your own island must be nice. They had an entire floor to themselves.), Class 1-A had done a bit of scattering to take advantage of the amenities. Aoyama had begged off going to the beach—understandable with how his Quirk absorbed light—and had instead decided to hit the spa, for which Izumi, Koda, and Tokoyami joined him (Izumi had practically insisted Tokoyami joint them, saying they had a specialist in spa treatments for people with feathers on staff).

Isamu’s gaze drifted out to the water, where several of his classmates were already horsing around. The water looked extremely inviting, as clear as anything he had ever seen, gentling lapping onto the white sand shote. Somehow, Sero (wearing the loudest swim trunks Isamu had ever seen in his life and which no-doubt were deliberately picked for how they clashed with his pink skin) had convinced Kocho to fly him out over the water. Her wings were flapping hard and she was hovering probably a good six feet above the water.

“Okay, okay,” Sero said. “Now let me go! Let me go!”

“I don’t know about this…” Kocho said.

“Look, you can either let me go, or I’ll squirm out on my own.”

Kocho just sighed. “Your funeral,” she said, and let him go. She flapped hard and shot straight up, even as he shot straight down.

Sero tucked himself into a ball as he fell. “CANNONBALL!”

SPLASH

Sero hit the water hard, sending water flying everywhere and utterly soaking Sato, who was filming the whole thing, as well as Ojiro and Tensei Iida, who’d been in the water too. Ojiro was wearing one of those long-sleeved uv protective swimsuits, in bright neon green, which she’d said was for “visibility.” Which he supposed made sense. If she was wearing less, it’d be hard to spot her if something went wrong. She also had a flower in her hair and was wearing large, bright yellow sunglasses, which gave some general definition to where her face was.

Sero popped up out of the water with a laugh and grin. He fired off a double thumbs’ up. “Did you catch that, viewers? You’re just been Sero-Bombed! Boom!”

“TAKUMA!” Ojiro screamed, arms flailing wildly. “Did you have to do it so close?! Look what you’ve done to my hair!”

“Aw, c’mon, Kimmie,” Sero said. “It’s not anybody’s going to be able to tell.”

There was a moment of silence, the air thick with tension. That had definitely been the wrong thing to say. As if guided by some kind of primal instinct, Sato and Iida were backing away slowly. And then Ojiro set herself upon Sero, fists flailing and hitting him upon the arms and shoulders again and again.

“WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT, TAKUMA! YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT NICE! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SCREW AROUND LIKE THAT?!”

“Ow! Ow! Kimmie, you know my weaknesses is being smacked! Ow, ow! Just not the face, okay? Please, not the face!”

“Don’t worry,” Sato called out. “I’m getting this all on film! Kick his butt, Kimmie!”

“I really must protest this assault on my boyfriend,” Iida piped in. “No matter how misguided his actions were, violence is not the proper response!”

“Guys, I am so sorry,” Kocho called out circling around above. “I had no idea it was going to be that big!”

Isamu looked over to his left, where Midoriya was occupying another one of the beach chairs. “Should… should we be stopping this?” Ojiro’s outbursts usually ran themselves out fairly quickly, but still…

Midoriya shrugged. “They’re not hurting anybody, except maybe Sero. And it’s my vacation. I’m off duty and I say let them blow off some steam.”

Well, that was a different answer than he’d been expecting. Maybe Midoriya was taking Aizawa’s admonishment to have the rest of the class to rely on him less to heart. Of course, Aizawa had also told him that he needed to step up his own leadership game and that thought was just terrifying.

So he was going to file all of that under things he wasn’t going to think about right now.

Kocho, meanwhile, had flown away from the chaos and landed next to them. She wore a backless black one piece swimsuit and had explained that while she liked the beach, she couldn’t really get her wings too wet or she’d be unable to fly.

“Definitely time for a strategic retreat,” she said. She gave her wings a flick, causing some stray drops of water to fly off, before folding them behind her. Her antenna flicked up for a moment before settling. “Sorry I set that off.”

Isamu laughed. “Trust me,” he said, “that would have happened sooner or later no matter what. That’s just who they are.”

“Definitely getting that,” Kocho said.

“Besides,” Midoriya added, “Sero is extremely persuasive. He even managed to talk me into standing on the ceiling once for some kind of “upside down room” video.”

Okay, Isamu made a mental note to see if that was somewhere on Sero’s Viewtube channel. Because that sounded hilarious.

“Ooooh, boys,” a sing-song voice called out from somewhere behind them. Isamu felt a chill go down his spine as he realized it was Mineta.

***

Despite his words to Haimawari, Toshi’s roles as “Team Dad” and class representative were hard to completely shake, so he did keep an eye on Ojiro and Sero, even as Sato and Tensei tried to pry them apart.

Mineta’s call, however, distracted him from anything else. He’d head that particular tone of voice often enough over the years, usually when she was feeling particularly attention-starved and was going to hit on someone.

“Should we look?” Haimawari asked, sounding a bit panicked.

“She’s just going to keep making noise until we do,” Toshi told him.

“I take it this happens a lot?” Kocho asked.

“You have no idea,” Haimawari said.

“You all better turn around!” Mineta called out, proving his point. “I mean, you’re going to want to feast your eyes on me anyway, but Midoriya’s really going to want to see this.”

Oh, that couldn’t possibly be good.

Reluctantly and with sinking dread, Toshi turned to look. He could hear both Haimawari and Kocho suck in a sharp breath and it wasn’t hard to understand why. There was Mineta. And there was a lot of Mineta on display. There was also a cow-print bikini, of which there was not a lot. Kaminari was standing next to her, wearing a considerably more modest one-piece in yellow and black, and looking vaguely embarrassed.

“She cannot possibly be real,” he heard Kocho say.

“…Pretty sure she is,” Haimawari squeaked. As both a frequent target for Mineta’s flirtations and having had some accidental if direct contact with her during the Sports Festival, he was qualified to weigh in on this. Mineta had a way of getting into people’s heads like that.

And, well, Toshi had eyes. And he was a guy. He’d be lying if he said that between her bikini and her b…ody proportions, that Mineta didn’t have an effect on him. He felt more than a little flustered just looking at her.

“Like my bikini?” Mineta asked, posing so that she thrust her chest out and also somehow emphasized her rear as well. “I bought it special for this vacation!”

“I still can’t believe you have that,” Kaminari said. “You’re almost naked. Hell, you’d probably show less if you were. Your parents can’t possibly know you have that.”

“Just because you’re lifetime president of the itty-bitty committee, Chi, is no reason to get snippy,” Mineta replied, turning so rapidly that it set parts of her swaying in ways that he felt he probably shouldn’t be watching.

“The hell did you just say?!” Kaminari’s Cords snapped up, crackling with electricity. “Say that again, Mika. Say that again and we’ll see how much fat conducts electricity!”

“Oooh, kinky!”

There was also, Toshi realized, a familiar head of blue-black hair behind the two of them. Sora was taller than Mineta, but between Mineta’s horns and the fact that there was a lot of Mineta competing for attention, he hadn’t noticed her at first. He heard a soft cough.

“Oh! Right!” Mineta said, switching gears with such suddenness that Toshi was sure he heard the clutch pop. “I almost forgot the real reason I wanted your attention.”

She made a dramatic gesture with her arms. “Presenting… the tall, the brainy, the hot, the runner up for best boobs in the class… Sora Iida!”

Mika took a few steps to the side and Toshi got his first look at his girlfriend since they’d split up to their rooms. He’d asked if she’d wanted him to wait, but had somehow been overruled by Mineta, who’d said she needed to talk to Sora first.

In retrospect, that really should have been a warning sign.

“Hello, Toshi,” Sora said. She was smiling, but he immediately noticed that it was nervous and uneasy. Her posture was more hesitant and awkward than usual and in stark contrast to Mineta’s confidence. “Do you like what you see?”

Sora was wearing a bikini. It wasn’t as small as Mineta’s, but it was definitely a bikini.

Toshi was not a blind man. He was aware that his very tall girlfriend was also very busty. In reasons why he liked her, this fact ranked very, very low. Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t thought about that, in late night moments, or when she hugged him tightly and pressed up against him.

“…Why are all the girls in this class so hot?” Kocho said. “Oh, no, I said that out loud…”

“Not looking at my friend’s girl, not looking at my friend’s girl, I’ve got a girlfriend” Haimawari said, quietly and quickly. He continued repeating the phrase.

He became very aware that he hadn’t said anything in a while.

“Toshi?” Sora asked, concerned, her own nervousness seemingly forgotten for a moment. “Are you all right?” She waved her hands to try and attract his vision.

“See?” Kaminari said, throwing her hands in the air. “You broke him! I could have told you he’s too innocent for this!”

“Well, excuse me for trying to help spice up their relationship!”

“No one asked you to!”

“I’m okay!” Toshi yelled, more loudly and quickly than he intended. He felt his face go red. Either that or he was on fire. It was hard to say at this point. “You… you look amazing, Sora,” he said.

“Mineta said you would like it,” she said, approaching him. He tried very hard to keep eye contact and only failed a couple of times. Mineta and Kaminari were still fighting, but he tuned them out. He was also pretty sure he heard Haimawari and Kocho high-tailing it out of there. “May I?” Sora gestured to the beach chair Haimawari had vacated.

Toshi gulped and nodded, trying hard not so stare as he she went by.

“She said that girlfriends “dress sexy” for their boyfriends and that I would be a good girlfriend if I did this for you,” Sora went on. “She said she wanted to help and had several bikinis prepared for me to try on.”

Toshi buried his face in his hands. Eventually, he brought his head up. “Sora, what’s rule one when dealing with anything Mineta claims?”

Sora thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “The same for scientific studies! Always corroborate with a second source! Preferably Tokoyami if available.”

He smiled. “Right,” he said. “She probably just wanted to see you in a bikini and to give me a heart attack.” He scooted his chair closer to hers and put an arm around her shoulders, mindful of her Jetpack pipes. He’d learned the hard way that the skin around them could be quite sensitive. That particular discovery had left him red in the face for quite a while.

“Besides,” he said, “you don’t have to do anything different or special for me. I mean, unless you want to.” He added that last part hastily, realizing the gap in what he’d said. Both Sora and her brother sometimes needed extra explanations about proper social conventions. It was why Mika had been able to fool her so easily. “I like you,” he said. “I like you in your uniform, in your costume, in your regular clothes. And I do like you in this. But do you like you in this?”

Sora frowned. “Undetermined,” she said. “I am not used to wearing so little. It seems very impractical.”

“Yeah, there is that,” he agreed.

“But I am happy that you like what you see,” she added thoughtfully. “I suspect more evidence is needed.”

Deciding to be bold, he leaned over and kissed her cheek softly.

“Whatever you want, that’s your decision. I’m not going to tell you how to dress.”

Sora nodded, seemingly satisfied with that. “I am still learning how to be a good girlfriend, Toshi. I do not want to get this wrong. I do not really know what boys want.”

“Hey,” he said. “I said it before, we’re learning together, okay?”

“Okay.”

And it was.

“Though I did notice you were definitely staring at Mineta…”

***

“Oh, this feels so good,” Mika said, as she slid low into the hot spring, purple hair floating around her head. She made a very distracting moan. “I swear, Todoroki, this place really does have everything.”

Chihiro shot her a look. “Do you and the spring need a few moments alone?” It was a sharper barb that she really should have made, but she was still annoyed at Mika for the “itty-bitty” comment earlier. It wasn’t her fault she took after Mom or that most of the rest of the girls in the class were more… shapely than her! And compared to Mika or Iida, everybody looked small.

The look Chihiro had shot her was nothing compared to the look Kirishima-Bakugo gave her. “If you’re going to be gross,” she said, lips curled back in a snarl, “you’ve got a room.”

“Relax,” Mika said, not looking at her. “I’m just really enjoying this.”

“When the Yaoyorozu family designed this resort, they wanted to make sure that every luxury was available to the guests and to themselves,” Izumi said, sinking a little lower in the water herself. Already, her pale skin was beginning to flush from the heat. “They worked with a geokinetic and a hydrokinetic to craft it according to very exact specifications.”

“Geeze,” Kocho said, “just how rich is your family?” She was sitting the farthest back, wings kept above the waterline. “Sorry, that was probably rude.”

It was, honestly, a common reaction when hanging out with Izumi.

“You know that old kid’s manga? About the kid who could turn stuff to gold and it made his family like, mega rich?” Chihiro said.

“That would not work,” Iida said. She’d slid low in the water too. Apparently her Jetpack pipes were self-sealing. “It would drive down the value of gold and ultimately make it worthless. Furthermore, any Quirk like that would be highly monitored by the government for misuse…”

“Just go with it,” Chihiro said, trying to avoid a lengthy discussion. Iida could get too caught up in the facts and miss the actual point fairly easily sometimes.

“Oh yeah, I remember that one,” Kocho said.

“Good,” Chihiro replied. “Triple that. At least.”

Kocho’s dark eyes went wide and her antenna snapped straight up. “Ah. Got it.”

“That is,” Izumi began, raising a hand as though to object. She paused, as if unsure. She did like magna, Chihiro recalled, but couldn’t remember if she’d read that one. Izumi looked over to Kirishima-Bakugo, who gave her a shrug. “Not entirely inaccurate.”

“So Kocho,” Ojiro began. She was wearing flowers in her hair again, the only other indication other than a slight ripple in the water around her body, of where she was. “As the newest member of the class, we have a lot of questions. Like, are you seeing anybody? The gossip mill demands to know!”

“Perhaps give her a little space before interrogating her, Ojiro?” Koda suggested. “Or at least on asking something so personal?”

“It’s fine,” Kocho said, waving a hand. “I’m single, Ojiro. Not really looking either.”

“Okay, so that’s means it’s just me, Iida, and Mineta who have boyfriends?” Ojiro asked. “How is this possible? Are none of you interested in guys?!”

Ugh, no, she really did not need to hear this. Chihiro wondered if she could hold her breath and go underwater long enough for Ojiro to stop talking. She already had spent way too much time thinking about the fact that Monoma had kissed her. Not that any of the rest of the girls knew, but she really didn’t need Ojiro finding out about it. She’d never hear the end of it. She absolutely did not need the invisible girl “shipping” her with Monoma. She didn’t like him, even if she’d ended up feeling sorry for him, and he didn’t like her, and yet…

She hadn’t exactly hated it either.

So of course running away to a tropical vacation had been the perfect way to avoid having to talk to him about it.

“You do get there’s more than just being interested in boys, don’t you, Ghosty?” Kirishima-Bakugo growled.

“She’s right,” Mika said, rising up out of the water enough to count on her fingers. “Wow. There’s something I never thought I’d say. There’s also being interested in girls. And non-binary people. And non-gender identifying people and…”

“Not the point I was making, Horse-Girl.”

“But she’s right!” Ojiro said. “I’m open to the gossip mill of all relationships! I do not discriminate gossip on the basis of sexuality!” There was a slight shift in the water, as though she was leaning forward. “So you all better tell me if you get into a relationship! Not like that relationship hiding hunk Shoji!”

Wait, what? Like just about anyone attracted to male and possessing a pulse, Chihiro admitted that Shoji was obscenely attractive. Muscles for days, surprisingly soft features, great hair… But he kept to himself and she hadn’t had any idea about this!

“What?!” Mika shouted, her eyes wide. “Nooooo! I was slowly wearing down his resistance! By graduation, I’d have been all over the Shoji train!”

“No, you weren’t” Chihiro snapped. Some days, Mika was just flat out exhausting. She was absolutely her best friend in the world, but sometimes… “And you already have a giant boyfriend! You don’t need two!”

Mika laughed as she leaned back in the water. “Oh, I’m definitely too much woman for just one partner.” Chihiro didn’t dignify that with a response.

“He does!” Ojiro said, clapping happily. “Her name’s Emiko and she’s really cute!”

“He does enjoy his privacy,” Tokoyami said. Frog Shadow was bobbing contentedly in the water next to her. “But I am happy for him.” She didn’t sound entirely convincing to Chihiro’s ears.

“You’re just sad it wasn’t you!” Frog-Shadow offered, eyes snapping open.

“I am not…” Tokoyami started, her voice warbling. The feathers on her head were starting to stand up and Chihiro could swear she saw a little blush under them. Her hands flew to her beak. “Qui… quiet you!”

“You can’t silence me when I’m right!” Frog-Shadow declared, before Tokoyami shoved her under the water. She kicked and fought and bubbles churned, but Tokoyami didn’t let her back up until she’d calmed down.

Koda tapped a rocky hand on her chin, a faraway look in her eyes. “Good for him,” she said softly. “Shoji is a kind soul and deserves the happiness.” Mika had said she was having some body image and confidence issues lately. Of course, Mika had also said she’s had a plan to rectify that. As someone who’d let herself be talked into more than one harebrained scheme, she had a pretty dim view of Mika’s plans.

It was only then that she noticed Kirishima-Bakugo had her eyes closed and her hands over her ears. Slowly, she pulled her hands back. “Are they done talking yet, Iz? I can’t tell.”

“I am uncertain,” Izumi said. She turned back to the group and asked, diplomatically. “Will this be going on much longer?” A smile tugged at her lips, obviously amused by, if not particularly invested in the discussion.

“Maybe?” Mika said. “All in favor of talking about Shoji more?”

Even Izumi started to raise a hand at that. Kirishima-Bakugo gave her a wide eyed stare of betrayal.

“What?” Izumi said. “Even if I am not interested in him romantically or sexually, he is very aesthetically pleasing.”

Kirishima-Bakugo crossed her arms and closed her eyes again. “…Yeah, okay, he is.”

“…did she just admit to an interesting in something other than violence?” Ojiro asked. “Isn’t that a sign of the apocalypse?”

“I’m on vacation, so pretend I growled at you and threated you with explosive death,” Kirishima-Bakugo said.

No, Chihiro was still pretty sure that the sign of the apocalypse had been Monoma kissing her, but weren’t signs supposed to come in threes…?

“Okay,” Ojiro said, “we’re all agreed. Everybody’s attracted to Shoji. But since he’s off the table, who else are we crushing on? What about you, Kaminari? Any guys got your eye?”

“Definitely not Monoma!” she said quickly. She needed to dispel any idea about that as quickly and loudly as possible.

“We… didn’t mention Monoma,” Ojiro said.

…crap.

***

“Chihiro, you open this door this minute!” Mika shouted, pounding heavily on the door of her friend’s hotel room with her first.

“Go away, Mika!” Chihiro snapped from within.

“I can wait all day, Chi.” Mika crossed her arms. “You bolted out of there like you were on fire.” After mentioning Shiro. Which was kind of her fault. And by kind of, she meant completely. She’d messed that one up by several degrees of magnitude. But Chi hadn’t said anything about it to her, so she’d hoped it would all die down and she could go back to trying to convince Shiro to date Akaya instead.

Not that she didn’t want the best for Chihiro of course. She was her best friend. And she knew Shiro better than just about anyone; he really was a good guy under some of that bluster. Probably her best friend after Chihiro, come to think of it, on top of being her ex.

“Look, you want to talk about it?” she asked. “Or I can get Akaya or Torodoki or, I dunno, Tokoyami?” …Probably not Akaya, actually. That conversation might lead down roads she did not want to travel.

No answer this time. Also not a good sign.

Mika pounded on the door one more time. “Chi… can we talk? Please. This is actually important. About Shiro.”

The door opened a crack, revealing a glaring Chihiro. Sparks danced on the ends of her Cords. Not a good sign. But she stepped back enough to let Mika in, then flopped down on the bed.

“I know, I know, I made a total idiot out of myself back there,” she wailed, staring up at the ceiling. “I just let everybody know I maybe kind of have some kind of crush thing going on for Monoma.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Mika said.

“Of course it is! He’s… he’s such a…” Chihiro made gestures in the air, which were copied by her Cords. “He’s Monoma! The guy who thinks he’s our hated rival! With that stupid smug face and perfect hair! And now that Ojiro knows it, the whole world probably already knows!”

“She said she wouldn’t,” Mika assured her, coming to stand near the bed. “I think she was too stunned to make much sense of it anyway. And it’s not like anybody knows he kissed you.”

Chihiro sat up so fast Mika was pretty sure she’d broken the sound barrier. “How do you know about that?”

Oops.

“Well, you see,” Mika began.

Before she could get any further, Chihiro interrupted her. “I swear, if the next words out of your mouth are “I can explain,” I will tase the shit out of you. Because I have been trying to make sense of this ever since it happened and if I find out you had something to do it with…”

Well, that would definitely explain the moodiness and irritability. She’d been ready to blame it on something else entirely. “Can I at least sit down?” she asked.

Chihiro shrugged and scooted over on the edge of the bed to make room. Mika took the seat, but gave her a bit of space. “Okay, so I can explain—don’ttaseme!” She flinched, but all Chihiro did was give her an eyeroll.

“So after the Internships, Shiro was feeling pretty depressed. He was going to quit, as soon as exams were over. Big blow to his confidence, but not really my story to spill.”

“Yeah, he told me that,” Chihiro said.

“And you remember Akaya was feeling pretty depressed too, after some of the stuff that happened during her Iinternship, with those mutant-prejudiced assholes.”

“Dumbasses.”

Mika nodded her agreement. People could be real asses sometimes. And somebody as sweet and innocent as Akaya definitely didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. “But anyway, she was feeling real down about herself and her appearance. So I had a couple of friends who were both feeling depressed and I ended up working on a plan with Anime that would help both of them…”

Chihiro buried her face in her hands. “Mika, Fukidashi is the one person the planet with worse plans than you! I’m not sure she can actually tell the difference between fiction and reality.”

It didn’t look like Chihiro had put all the pieces together yet. Crap. That meant she’d have to explain more.

“Sooo,” she went on, “I sent him a text after the exams saying a ‘mutual acquaintance’ was feeling down and maybe he’d like to come by and cheer her up.” She sucked in a breath. Chi may have doubted her own intelligence at times, but this wasn’t going to take much to figure out.

Chihiro frowned. “And there I was when he showed up, depressed as hell because I nearly caused us to flunk. I thought he was acting funny! Even for him! No wonder! He probably thought you meant me!”

Before Mika could blink, Chihiro’s Cords shot out, less than a couple centimeters from her face. No sparks, thankfully, but that could change in an instant. “Did. You. Tell. Him. To. Kiss. Her?!”

“Absolutely not,” Mika said. “He came up with that on his own. I think you really gave him a breakthrough, Chi.”

Chihiro sagged, her Cords drooping, letting go of some of that agitation. “What am I going to do, Mika?”

“Well, he did say he was maybe going to ask you out…”

“What?” Chihiro’s head snapped back up again.

“Give him a shot,” Mika said. “He’s really not nearly as bad a guy as most people think he is. He’s just… a lot.” She gestured at her chest. “But he liked me even before these came in, so he’s obviously not just in it for the physical stuff.”

She opted not to mention that there’d been an intermediate phase where Shiro had been hung up on Kirishima-Bakugo. Like Granny always said, sometimes, maybe don’t kick the rattler’s den.

“Ugh, but he’s so… him! With his stupid blue eyes and stupid fancy hair and stupid little smile…”

Yeah, okay, Chihiro had it bad.

“Look,” Mika said, “date him. Or don’t. That’s your decision. But you gotta stop worrying about what people will think about it. You think I worry about stuff like that?”

That, at last, got a laugh. “No, but you’re shameless.”

“One of my many talents.”

Chihiro shook her head. “Yeah, well… maybe I’ll wait and see what he does.”

“Bonus, if you do date him, I can tell you alllll kinds of secrets.”

“You two were tweens when you dated! How do you have secrets on him?”

“Because he’s still one of my friends and I still know how to get him flustered.”

She shook her head again. “Going to need you to be straight with me, Mika.”

“I think you and I both know how much I cannot do that, Chi.”

That got an actual smile out of her friend, which meant it had worked. “Not what I meant and you know it, Mika,” Chihiro said. “You’d really be okay with me dating your ex?”

It was a good question. They were two of her best friends. But she didn’t harbor any particular plans to get back together with Shiro. Being “just friends” with a guy was actually kind of nice. Not that she’d admit that to anyone. And not that she’d object if he wanted to get back together or even just get a little frisky, of course…

“Look,” Mika said, “I’ve got a buffet table out there. And one of the most gorgeous hunks of man on the planet. So if you wanna shack up with Shiro, be my guest.”

Chihiro went red. “Look, just because you’re that fast..!”

Mika laughed. “Relax, Chi. But be my guest. Sounds like you guys kind of connected. I’m happy for you, if it works out.”

Chi smiled at that, and Mika finally felt a little relief. “Thanks, Mika.”

Of course, now she needed a new plan to help Akaya. Maybe she could just bite the bullet and shove her and Aoyama in a closet until Frenchie expressed his super-obvious feelings…

Chihiro poked her with a Cord. “You’ve plotting again. Stop that.”

“No.”

“We were having a nice moment and now you’re back to being impossible. Why are you like this?”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

***

The sun was low in the sky when Class 1-A returned to the beach, this time gathering around a bonfire. Todoroki had volunteered to simply start it with her Quirk, but Kirishima-Bakugo had declared that “cheating” and had proceeded to start one by hand. For someone who was so angry with everyone else, she was surprisingly soft when it came to Todoroki. Koharu wondered if there was some kind of history or something there. At the hot spring, Todoroki had basically said she wasn’t interested in romance or sex, so it probably wasn’t anything like that, but…

Together, they made a big ring around the fire, the flames crackling red-orange in the darkening sky. She liked twilight, when the day gave way to the night, starting to bring things to a close. Koharu’s Moth Quirk actually have her excellent night vision, though she didn’t have the problems with bright lights that some of her family did. She had a cousin that was pretty much blind for anywhere up to a half hour after somebody turned on the lights.

The others were already starting to sit together in what she was learning were some of the usual pairs and groups, most of them talking animatedly. Midoriya was sitting with his girlfriend, Sora Iida. Next to them were Shinso, Tokoyami and Frog-Shadow, and Shoji. Then there was Todoroki and Kirishima-Bakugo, Shoji, Aoyama, and Koda, and Mineta and Kaminari. After that, there was Ojiro, Sero, and Sato. She took a seat next to them, with Haimawari on her left completing the circle.

“Having fun?” Haimawari asked.

She nodded. “I am. I was a little nervous about coming along. I mean, I’ve only known Ojiro and her friends for a few weeks, and you and Midoriya for a little less than that, so I don’t really know if I feel like I belong here yet… But everybody’s been really nice and welcoming.”

Haimawari smiled and nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. “They’re like that. I was the same way, you know, when we started. They all knew each other, and there I was, the new guy moving into the dorms and being in class with them. But Midoriya reached out to me and made sure I was included. Him, Tokoyami, Izumi, and Shinso. The first friends I had here.”

For a moment, Koharu’s thoughts drifted back to her General Education classmates, especially her best friends, Mogura and Tokuda. She wouldn’t be living with them anymore and would have different classes. It would make it harder to find time to get together, though not impossible. But she definitely didn’t want them to drift apart. They’d surely understand the differing demands of the Hero Course, but she knew they’d be hurt if they thought she was forgetting about them.

Maybe she ought to try and do something to bring her old class and new class together.

“Trust me,” Haimawari assured her. “Before you know it, it’ll be like you’ve been here since day one.”

“I sure hope so,” she said.

“You will,” he said. “Trust me. They’ve got history. But now that you’re here with us? You’ve got future. And that’ll turn into history.”

He made a good point, she had to admit.

“Hey, look, Kocho,” Sero said, leaning over to show her his phone. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a pattern that made her eyes hurt just to look at. His phone was open to a Viewtube page, showing Sato’s earlier recording of his cannonball and subsequent Ojiro-induced smacking. It had been titled “Cannon-Fail.”

“Eighty thousand hits and counting!” Sero told her, grinning.

“So you dropping out of the sky and Ojiro beating the stuffing out of you is hit worthy?” she asked.

“Oh yeah! Kimiko yelling and hitting things rates really high with our subscribers. Hope nobody’s getting off on it though…”

Koharu blinked slowly. “I do not get internet fame.”

Sero just laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m an expert at this. Stick with us, we’ll make you a star!”

Before she could make a counter argument to that, Shinso piped up. “Oh! Oh! Kaminari! Are you going to play? Are you?” The short boy was practically bouncing with excitement. “Pleeeeeaaasseee?”

Kaminari had indeed brought a case of some kind with her, what looked like some kind of small, guitar-ish instrument. She opened it up and Koharu realized it was a ukulele. She knew the electric girl’s mother was a musician on top of being a Hero, but hadn’t realized that she played too. She still had a lot to learn about her new classmates!

“Only because you asked so nice, Shinso,” Kaminari said. She strummed a few chords and made a few minor adjustments to the instrument before she started to play. “So this one goes out to all of us, for passing our exams, for surviving our Internships, for making it through the first term. To our Sports Festival winners. To old friends and new friends. And to our hero academia.”

“Hero too, I am a hero too

My heart is set and I won't back down

Hero too, strength doesn’t make a hero

True heroes stand up for what they believe

So wait and see

So wait and see…”

#their hero academia #my hero academia #fan fiction #fan fic #my writing #toshi midoriya #isamu haimawari #mika (tha)#chihiro kaminari #Koharu Kocho

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the-depressed-shiny-buneary · 4 years

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Pokemon Next-Gen (Movie Kids): Opal Rivers

Opal is the daughter of Lily and Dorian. Much like her mother and her father, she enjoys doing water shows and she did enjoy it for a time when she was with her cousins. However, she felt like she wanted more to do than just water shows so she went on a journey with the Froakie she was given when she was ten, at first she didn’t really know what she wanted to do so she just traveled to Johto and was just sightseeing, it wasn’t until she saw an advertisement for the Johto Grand Festival that she decided to sign up since she knew a bit about contests. After winning five ribbons, she competed in the Grand Festival but she only made it into the Top Eight much to her disappointment but she tried again, this time going to Hoenn to the contests there. She managed to win five ribbons and she did a lot better, making it to the finals but she came out as the runner up she wasn’t feeling as bad about it as before. She was soon approached by White and was offered a spot in a show PokeStar Studios was working on, Opal agreed since she was interested in what the show would be about. She was partnered with a boy named Mathis for a show about two trainers who were raising a Magikarp and a Feebas and wanted to be a trainer and a coordinator. Opal soon enjoyed her time playing the role with Mathis by her side, the two were then cast for a show about an Oshawott and a Popplio looking for trainers to call their own, Mathis and Opal played the role of Oshawott’s and Popplio’s trainers. After a while of acting alongside Mathis, the two of them started dating and are still together, them dating was also factored into their roles. Opal is quiet and enjoys taking things easy, but she still does enjoy the rush of performing either in a water show with her cousins, mother, and aunts or when she was a coordinator and performing in front of people. Opal is known for having a knack for coming up with different ideas on her own, as well as for her dancing and water ballet skills which is something she does great with her cousins. She’s also mature and easy-going, as well as kind and caring to those around her. She’s very close to her friends Corvin, Harmony, Alistair, and Cressida. She considers her best friend to be her cousin Sapphire, she worries about her cousin Pearl and always calls her to make sure she’s okay and she deeply loves her boyfriend Mathis.

Her main colors are purple and magenta. From purple, she’s creative and has an active imagination, she also dislikes copying anyone else’s ideas and would rather be original. She has a bit of an arrogant side but it doesn’t come up often, but she can act arrogant if one of her roles calls for her to act arrogant. Magenta is what keeps her emotions balanced and it also represents how she’s loving, compassionate, supportive and kind to others, it also gives her some inspiration and it can represent her cheerfulness and how she’s content with where she is now.

Her Pokemon:

Frogadier- Opal had received a Froakie for her tenth birthday as a gift from her parents. While he wasn’t interested in the water shows, like his trainer he didn’t know what he wanted to do either and just went with what she was doing, it wasn’t until she had caught Marill and saw a contest that he would participate in contests. He wasn’t interested in being part of the appeal round but he did participate in the battle round and was happy there. He evolved into Frogadier while training for the next contest. While his role as a contest Pokemon dwindled a little, he was actually a lot happier being a performing Pokemon on a show. As a Froakie, Frogadier was laid back and easygoing, mostly just enjoying the peace and quiet life of wandering around but he was still loyal to Opal and would battle if she asked him to battle. When he evolved he started to lose his laid back nature and just focused on battling more, despite not fully enjoying Pokemon contests he does find useful ways to counter-attacks. He’s also protective over Opal, he’s the first of her Pokemon to protect her from anything that may come her way. He’s mostly seen out of his Pokeball.

Caught in a Pokeball.

Ability is Torrent.

Moves are Quick Attack, Water Pulse, Smokescreen, Fling, Aerial Ace, Cut, Waterfall, Scald, Bubble, and Double Team.

Marill- Marill was the first Pokemon that Opal had caught. Marill is a Pokemon that loves to make people happy, she always wanted a trainer but everyone would just pass by her not giving her a second glance so Marill was very happy to be caught by someone who really wanted her and she was even happier to hear that Opal was going to be a coordinator as Marill always thought Pokemon contests were amazing and wanted to be a part of them. Marill still loves making others happy by using what she learned for contests to make Opal’s friends smile. She also loves performing for whatever tv or movie that Opal is cast for.

Caught in a Lure Ball.

Ability is Huge Power.

Moves are Defense Curl, Rollout, Aqua Tail, Play Rough, Aqua Ring, Water Gun, Ice Punch, Water Pulse, Aqua Jet, and Helping Hand.

Lapras- Opal had met Lapras while she was taking a break on the beach, she was surprised that Lapras had approached her but she was glad to be approached by one as she always wanted to be friends with a Lapras. Lapras is a gentle and motherly Pokemon, she also can talk with the power of telepathy and she can sense what’s in someone’s heart which is one reason why she approached Opal, she knew that Opal was a kind-hearted human when she was simple swimming by. Lapras enjoys just drifting around but she also respects her trainer's wishes and was happy to help her trainer with performing Pokemon contests and she was happy to support and encourage Opal with her decision to go into show business. Lapras often treats Opal as a loving mother would treat their child, Lapras always nuzzles Opal or tells Opal how she’s doing great with everything she does, it’s something Opal appreciates from Lapras.

Caught in a Dive Ball.

Ability is Water Absorb.

Moves are Life Dew, Water Pulse, Drill Run, Sparkling Aria, Blizzard, Psychic, Rain Dance, Weather Ball, Icy Wind, and Hail.

Swanna- Opal had found Swanna while she was traveling the Hoenn region, Swanna had been injured by a group of trainers trying to catch her and she managed to escape getting caught but she had fainted when she managed to fly far enough from the trainers. Luckily Opal found her and carried her to a Pokemon center to get her healed up, while Swanna was recovering Opal would talk to and bond with Swanna in hopes to get her comfortable around her. After Swanna had fully recovered, she let herself get caught by Opal as she was grateful for Opal helping her when she needed it. Swanna was highly interested in Pokemon contests, she greatly enjoyed participating in the appeal round and the battle round. Swanna is a caring and kind Pokemon, she also likes to practice elegant flying patterns as well as swimming elegantly. Swanna is also easy going, but should something or someone get her angry she will blow them away with her strong wings or soak them with her water attacks.

Caught in a Dive Ball.

Ability is Hydration.

Moves are Rain Dance, Aqua Ring, Hurricane, Water Pulse, Steel Wing, Mirror Move, Aerial Ace, Bubble Beam, Air Cutter, and Brine.

Milotic- Milotic was given to Opal as a Feebas by the producer of the show she was to co-star in with Mathis in an attempt to bond with her before the series premiere. Opal was nothing but kind to Feebas and would help her be comfortable, she also gave Feebas plenty of beauty-enhancing Pokeblock and Poffins to help her evolve. She managed to evolve at the same time as Mathis’ Magikarp while they were filming an episode where they had to evolve. As a Feebas, Milotic felt worthless and ugly especially when she compared herself to her teammates who were either strong, cute or beautiful. When she evolved she gained some confidence and gained a bit of a regal side, she’s always seen practicing her skills in contests with her teammates and training to battle alongside them. She does take time to hang out with Mathis’ Gyarados as the two of them are dating each other. She’s also kind and gentle, as well as affectionate as she’s often seen nuzzling Opal and Gyarados.

Caught in a Pokeball.

Ability is Competitive.

Held Item is the Blue Scarf.

Moves are Hydro Pump, Light Screen, Rain Dance, Blizzard, Dragon Dance, Water Pulse, Aqua Tail, Dragon Pulse, Surf, and Life Dew.

Brionne- Brionne was given to Opal as a Popplio by the produce of another show she was co-starring with Mathis in an attempt to bond with her before the series premiere. Brionne and Opal got along great with each other and they work very well together. As a Popplio, Brionne was a shy Pokemon, she was glad that she got someone as kind and comforting as Opal. She was also very sensitive and gets very upset when someone insults her or makes fun of her, it’s honestly because of that she’s able to cry on cue. When she saw Dewott evolve she gained a crush on him and wanted to evolve to match him, which she did and was happy to evolve for him. Brionne, while still shy did gain some confidence in herself after evolving and she wasn’t as shy majorly shy as when she was a Popplio. Brionne doesn’t ask for much, she just wanted a trainer to call her own and she wants to get praised by her trainer for doing whatever task her trainer wanted her to get done. Brionne does have an interest in Pokemon contests and would love to perform in one should Opal decide to go back to contests at some point. Brionne is dating Mathis’ Dewott.

Caught in a Pokeball.

Ability is Torrent.

Held Item is Mystic Water.

Moves are Aqua Jet, Icy Wind, Moonblast, Bubble Beam, Hyper Voice, Encore, Brine, Helping Hand, Life Dew, and Water Pledge.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Next Gen #Next Gen #My OCs #RoSeaShipping #Opal Rivers #Movie Kids

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real-life-pine-tree · 7 years

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Arc-V Aftermath: The Spell of Fairy Tails (18/26)

When all is said and done, things have quickly recovered in the four dimensions. But when weird things start happening, the Yu-Salad Boys and the Bracelet Girls quickly realize they have some loose ends to fix. Co-written with @violetganache42.

WARNING: Dub names will be featured in the story.

Today has finally arrived. The day every Duelist has been waiting for. One that will redefine the Duel Monsters card game for the years to come. The first day of the Team Duel Tournament was here.

Everyone was scrambling to get ready, especially the Yu-Salad and Energy Girls, who were doing their morning routines. Yuya and Sora ate Yoko's pancakes a tad faster than usual because they don't want to be late for the opening ceremony. Yuto, Lulu, and Shay each took turns taking showers and getting dressed before they can eat their breakfasts. Yugo, Rin, Crow, and Shinji all prepared their Duel Runners and decks while having already finished eating. Yuri was in his and Dennis' dorm bathroom, attempting to make his new appearance look neat; the Shaddoll user commented on how his roommate has combed his hair for…what, the umpteenth time now? Celina was wrapping up her morning workouts at the gym while Zuzu got changed into her usual attire she wore in and out of school.

A couple hours later, seven of the eight counterparts were inside LID with their teammates and were about to enter through the doors to the Center Duel Field. So many people from across the Original Dimension came to see an important event in dueling history. As the competitors and audience members walked in, they all grew shocked at what was surrounding the field. There was a surprising large amount of Fluffal monsters in the arena and plants hung all over the walls. There were even unknown hooded figures among the crowd. What was going on?

At that point, Yugo saw a flash of red from the corner of his eye. "You okay, Yugo?" Rin asked.

"I recognize that swirly red hair anywhere," Yugo said. "It's that Ancient Gear guy!"

Unfortunately for all the Duelists and Duel Monsters fans, some Cardfighters have also showed up just to see the twelve teams screw up the new tournament rules. Yugo hasn't seen the red-haired Cardfighter since the day Rin discovered her Skill, but he hasn't forgotten him.

"Who do you think you are showing up here?!" Yugo asked, running up to the Cardfighter. "This is a Duelists-only event!"

"Oh, you're one to talk!" the Cardfighter said. "You stole our tournament rules! You're just gonna end up screwing things up with your weird technology!"

"You're the weird one!" Yugo retorted as Rin had to rush over to restrain him. "Your Ancient Gear monsters aren't real, you weirdo!"

"They're called Gear Chronicle, you toy-loving freak!" the Cardfighter said, taking out his deck.

"Oh, you want a showdown?!" Yugo asked, taking out his deck as well.

"Bring it!" the Cardfighter answered. "Can't wait to punch that smug expression off your fa-"

"There you are, Chrono!"

Yugo, Rin, and the Cardfighter, now revealed to be Chrono, turned their heads to see a girl walking towards them. She had apple green hair and hazel eyes like Rin, but the only notable difference was the clothes they wore. The three looked back at each other, baffled by what they're seeing. The two girls have similar appearances and features, and from what they heard from Chrono's friend, they even have mirroring personalities. Heck, the two boys were both quick-tempered. They honestly don't know what to say about the recently discovered similarities.

"Not now, Tokoha," Chrono said. "This banana-haired Duelist keeps calling my cards ancient gear-"

"Will you just focus for once, you moron?!" Tokoha demanded. "And I'm serious this time! If you could control that temper of yours, we wouldn't have gone through that whole problem with Team Trick-Trick! And stop picking fights with random Duelists! You've gotta learn to stop losing your cool!" She tightly grabbed Chrono's arm. "Do you even know how worried I got when you vanished?!"

"Geez, alright!" Chrono exclaimed. "Stop being such a nag about it!"

Yugo and Rin became convinced that Chrono and Tokoha are definitely much like them; admittedly, learning about these parallels was almost scary. The Windwitch user was hesitant on interacting with her look-alike because of the…ordeal that was going on.

"Uh... Rin?" Yugo asked as Tokoha dragged Chrono over to the stadium seats. "You think Cardfighters aren't as different as we thought?"

"Yep," Rin answered.

The crowd got themselves adjusted in the seats that encircled the Center Duel Field; there were even some familiar faces from the Interdimensional War and some people that played larger roles in the alternate timelines within the audience. The eleven teams were given special seats near the arena's center to identify themselves as those that are competing. Only three seats were empty, leaving Yuya, Yugo, and Yuto a bit flummoxed. Pretty soon, Declan showed up to begin the opening ceremony and announce the tournament rules, unbeknownst of why the field was decorated.

"Welcome to the first ever Team Duel Tournament," Declan said. "For those of you who do not know yet, this tournament was put together with one idea in mind: to restore trust between fallen friends due to a recent war between dimensions. Needless to say, I am glad to see the best Duelists taking part in the tournament.

"But before I can begin, I wish to introduce you to someone. He is the one who helped organize this tournament. Presenting the CEO of the Vanguard Association: Mr. Aichi Sendou."

Aichi walked down the arena as some audience members applauded, but the Duelists were generally baffled that he looked a bit young to be the CEO of a rival card game. He had long, blue hair with a bang swept right and blueish-teal eyes. He wore a half-sleeved, light blue jacket with black—and a few white—markings, denim jeans, and gray shoes.

"Thank you, Declan Akaba," Aichi said. "The rules of this tournament might sound familiar to all the Cardfighters in the audience. The teams will be divided into four separate blocks. The three teams in each block will duel each other. Whoever wins the most duels in each block moves on to the next round. Once the four finalist teams are decided, they will be paired up in a standard elimination round. The best two teams will then battle it out, with the winning team being the last team standing."

The rules sounded decently easy enough, but many Duelists were demanding to know why Declan even agreed to use these rules in the first place. The eleven present teams looked at each other with worried looks. Some of the members noticed off in the distance that a few other people in the audience were also uneasy about the vast complaints.

"Calm down, everyone," Aichi said. "I was expecting this kind of backlash. Declan told me about the Interdimensional War, but two years ago, us Cardfighters were having our own problems: a virus called Link Joker." Various images appeared on the arena monitors as he spoke. "Link Joker corrupted the hearts of Cardfighters everywhere with no exceptions. Family and friends were turned against each other during this crisis as more Cardfighters fell to darkness. But with the help of my friends, I was able to defeat Link Joker and purify it so it would no longer corrupt anyone who uses their cards."

Everyone stared in stunned silence at the photos of Link Joker and the terror it brought upon to the Cardfighters. Rumor has it that this incident was briefly discussed in a Duel Monsters magazine. It was clear that none of the Duelists knew about this until just now. Does that mean they will have a change of heart and how they may not be so different after all? So far, a total of five Duelists during the past few weeks, including what happened earlier, had came across this realization, so who knows.

Yuto simply gave Lulu's hand a firm yet loving squeeze. To him, Link Joker was exactly like the Fusion Parasites, corrupting people and forcing them to use cards they would never use before. The very thought angered him. He would never let such a thing happen again.

"A virus..." Yuya said, touching his own face. "Corrupting innocent people...?"

Why would anyone do such a horrible thing to Card Fighters? They may be rivals with Duelists, but even they don't deserve to go through such a catastrophic tragedy. The Duelists soon began to see the similarities that they unknowingly shared with those that played Vanguard. At the same time, Aichi and Declan witnessed the dismay on everyone's faces after hearing the news of this other terrible and dangerous event.

"This is why I told Declan about Vanguard tournaments," Aichi explained. "These tournaments are used to establish trust between teammates, something that Duelists lost because of their war. By the end of this tournament, I can reassure you that family and friends will reunite due to newfound trust."

All around the stadium, Duelists and Cardfighters gradually applauded at the explanation Aichi gave. The more people that clapped, the louder it got and the more touching this moment was. Even those watching this broadcasted tournament were touched by the inspiring words as they've come to accept the fact that Cardfighters and Vanguard weren't so bad after all. Surely, this event will be the last day of their heated rivalry once and for all.

Aichi thanked everyone for listening to what he had to say as he handed the microphone to Declan and sat back down in his seat. It was now time to officially start the opening ceremony.

"Thank you Mr. Sendou," Declan said. "To begin the opening ceremony, one of the Duelists participating in the tournament will recite the Duelist's Oath. And the honor goes to Lulu Obsidian."

Everyone applauded as Lulu went up on stage on her motorized wheelchair. She, her friends, her family, and Yuto are glad that she was fully healed on the day before the tournament, so now she can take part in it; of course, Sarah is still Team Noble's stand-in. Although she might never walk again, little girls within the audience mistaken her for a real life princess; they saw how beautiful she looked despite being handicapped. Even Allie from Team You Show had the same reaction and comment about Lulu being a princess.

"No way!" Allie had cried out. "A real life princess!"

Lulu heard the enthusiastic remark while making her way towards Declan and blushed as she glimpsed at the red-haired girl. Yuto had turned around in his seat to see what the commotion was about, only to realize what she was talking about. He quickly looked back at the dark purple-haired girl, smiling contently because he knew she wasn't wrong; he did mention to his counterparts that his girlfriend was his Rapunzel.

When Lulu had wheeled over to the microphone, Declan lowered it so she could recite the Oath. She cleared her throat as she raised her right hand. "I, Lulu Obsidian, promise to-"

Suddenly, the Center Duel Field's dome steadily closed, leaving everyone in a small, confused frenzy in the now enclosed darkness. Lulu and Declan had trouble figuring what was going on; there's no way this was part of the opening ceremony. Within the dark stadium, three figures appeared and revealed the Fluffal monsters in the arena, the Shaddoll monsters that were hidden in the crowd, and the Predaplant monsters that dangled on the walls. The teams instantly learned there were only three people that use these archetypes.

"Sorry to interrupt," the shortest one said as the three revealed Polymerization cards. "But I think it's our turn to steal the show."

In perfect unison, the three fused a selected group of their monsters to Fusion Summon Frightfur Bear, El Shaddoll Shekhinaga, and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. The stage lights then turned on to reveal Sora, Dennis, and Yuri, the absent three Duelists. They were dressed up in peculiar costumes: Yuri in his plant-altered Obelisk Force uniform, Dennis in a Shekhinaga-based outfit, and Sora in a toy soldier attire. Music started playing from the machine room, but it was no ordinary musical piece. A lot of people recognized the instrumental number they were hearing. It was time for them to unleash their surprise opening act.

"We know that your powers as mere Duelists," Dennis sang.

"Are as weak as a lone Kuriboh!" Sora sang.

"But weak as you are, pay attention," Yuri sang, taking out his whip. "Our words are a matter of skill!" He used the whip to call Starving Venom to his side.

"It's clear from your vacant expressions," Sora sang, smiling creepily as he hopped onto Frightfur Bear's shoulder. "The lights are not all on upstairs."

"But we're talking Dueltaining legends," Dennis sang as his sat on a Shaddoll Hound's back as El Shaddoll Shekhinaga appeared by his side. "Even you can't be caught unaware." As he sang that line, he threw a dagger at a random picture of Yusho.

"So prepare for a change of the spotlight," Yuri sang, sitting on Starving Venom's hand as he flew across the arena. "Be prepared for a brand new duel style."

"A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer," Sora sang.

"And where do you feature?" Dennis sang.

"Just listen to teacher!" Sora sang as he pointed to his head.

"We know it sounds sordid, but this show's rewarding when at last we deliver our own fun!" Yuri sang.

"And injustice deliciously squared," Sora sang.

"Be prepared!" the three sang in unison.

"That's right, everyone!" Yuri said. "We are Team Obelisk, and we challenge the legacy of Yusho Sakaki!"

"Precisely," Dennis added. "His brand of delivering smiles has become quite tiresome."

"That's why we're introducing a new type of Dueltainment!" Sora gleefully said. "Wicked Dueltainment, a special type of Dueltainment used to oppose all smiles!"

"So get ready, Yusho Sakaki," Yuri said as he, Dennis, and Sora pulled out multiple fusion-type Spell cards. "It is time for a brand new duel king!"

Sora played another Spell card, Frightfur Fusion, which enabled him to use his Bear and two copies of Edge Imp Frightfuloid to Fusion Summon Frightfur Chimera. Dennis followed suit by playing El Shaddoll Fusion; two of the hooded figures saw the Spell card and leapt over to their owner—removing the cloaks to disclose themselves as Zefracore and Zefranaga—to be Fusion materials, resulting in El Shaddoll Winda to appear. Yuri was the third member in the chain as he activated Super Polymerization, using his Predaplants Cordyceps and Darlingtonia Cobra in order to bring out Predaplant Chimerafflesia. The three repeated the process until they Fusion Summoned nearly all of their Fusion monsters, resulting in a stadium full of Frightfur, El Shaddoll, and Predaplant fusions that proceeded to 'entertain' the crowd by demonstrating their powers.

"It's great that you'll soon be connected," Sora sang, now dangling on one of Frightfur Chimera's necks. "With duel kings who shall be admired."

"Of course, quid pro quo, you're expected," Yuri sang, still being carried by Starving Venom. "To take certain measures on board."

"The future is littered with terrors," Dennis sang. "And though we're the main addressees."

"The point that we must emphasize is..." Sora sang.

"You won't get a smile from our show!" Yuri sang as he used his whip once more.

"So prepare for the turn of the century," Sora sang. "Be prepared for the wickedest cast."

"Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning," Dennis sang. "Decades of denial is simply why we'll..."

"Be kings undisputed, respected, saluted," Yuri sang as Starving Venom brought him back on the ground as Shaddoll Hound carried Dennis over to him. "And seen for the wonders we are."

"Yes, our skills and ambitions are bared," Sora said. "Be prepared!" As he sang that last part, Yuri used his whip to bring Sora over to him and Dennis.

"Yes, our skills and ambitions are bared," Yuri sang as he revealed Violet Flash.

"Be prepared!" the trio sang in unison as Yuri activated Violet Flash and another Polymerization at the same time.

A flash of light appeared from Violet Flash to add effect to their concluding act, with the trio's monsters laughing sinisterly, evilly, and maniacally. At the same time, Starving Venom and Chimerafflesia fused together to bring out the Fusion dragon's alternate form: Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon, who proceeded to let out a fearsome roar.

As Team Obelisk stood in their finishing poses, everyone, including the teams, were left with an indecisive reaction. They weren't sure how to react to the surprise performance they all watched. After a few minutes of silence, Celina rolled her eyes and started clapping, wanting to let her boyfriend know the performance was somewhat entertaining. Sylvio and Aura also clapped with her, followed by the rest of the teams, the attending Card Fighters, and finally, the entire audience. It definitely was something they didn't expected to occur, but they were satisfied with how it went and anticipating Team Obelisk's new style of Dueltaining; besides, no one can resist rooting for the villains.

"We are glad you could enjoy our display of a Wicked Dueltainment," Yuri said once the applause died down. "If any of the other teams cross our paths, we will show no mercy."

Yuri, Dennis, and Sora headed towards their empty seats while deactivating their Duel Disks, leading to their monsters disappearing. Lulu gave the microphone to Declan, who thanked the boys for putting on their act and for introducing Wicked Dueltainment to the public. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses as he stated Lulu will recite the Duelist's Oath without any further interruptions, regardless of how fantastic they were. She and her brother had practiced and memorized the Oath multiple times when ObsidianCorp sponsored past events, so with the Team Duel Tournament being presented by her family's company, this should be a breeze for her.

With the microphone ready, Lulu raised her right hand once more. "I, Lulu Obsidian, promise to play fair, never cheat, and treat all opposing Duelists with utter respect. Furthermore, I will not use fake cards nor sneak in hidden cards during duels. I will also not resort to physical harm on my opponents. In conclusion, I shall respect the game and not resort to becoming a cheating snake."

The audience applauded yet again when she was finished with declaring out the Oath. She handed the microphone back to Declan and wheeled back to her team. Yuya remembered how his attempt at it during the Arc League Championship wasn't his best; it surely doesn't compete with Lulu since she knows it by heart.

"Thank you, Ms. Obsidian," Declan said. "The teams will now be divided into four separate blocks based on duel skills."

The monitor screen showed the four blocks, each with three teams. The pictures of the twelve teams were all shuffled to see who will be paired with who for the first round according to their skills. A few seconds later, the pairings have been made: Teams Smiles, Wishes, and Victor in Block A, Teams Noble, Ace, and You Show in Block B, Teams Turbo, Skillful, and Luck in Block C, and Teams Obelisk, Lancer, and Force in Block D.

Shay looked nervous regarding the other two teams in Block B. "Are you alright, Shay?" Yuto asked.

"Sarah, you're going to have to duel in my spot," Shay said. "I don't think I can handle dueling those teams."

Wait, Shay is suddenly sitting out this round? Yuto wondered why he would make this choice when he was informed that his friend felt guilty of what he did to Julia, Kit, and Dipper; he also doesn't want Frederick, Allie, and Tate to get hurt by his Raidraptors because they're little kids. He'll most likely compete once the winning teams from each block have been determined. Yuto didn't blame him in regards to Team Ace because the Resistance falsely accused Leo Corporation and LID for the Invasion whereas Lulu knew how her older brother has a soft spot for young children.

"It's okay," Lulu said. "I completely understand your reasons. We'll do our best to make sure we make it to the finals."

Shay thanked his teammates for understanding and turned his head to face Sarah, asking her if she was ready. She responded that she's more prepared and confident to duel than ever before, and it was all thanks to Yuya. He was glad to hear this from her, especially since this was going to be her first duel in a while.

"Would anyone like my Fairy Tails?" Sarah realized. "Not everyone uses them, so I'm a bit concerned by their reception."

"You'll do great, Sarah," Lulu reassured. "The Fairy Tails suit you perfectly. I'm sure that once you duel, everyone will love your dueling style."

Sarah stared at Lulu after hearing those words. Fairy Tails aren't a popular archetype among Duelists because only a few monsters were made, all female LIGHT anthropomorphic animals based on fairytales with 1850 ATK and 1000 DEF. Although no Spells and Traps were also created along with the archetype, the spectacled girl found what works well with her monsters to create her deck.

"Thanks Lulu," Sarah said.

"You're welcome," Lulu replied. "Just remember to have fun."

Sarah nodded her head, indicating that she will. Hopefully, as she duels, people will admire her usefulness, skills, and strategies with her Fairy Tails, including her secret weapon…

With the block matchups already decided, Declan instructed the teams to head to the four separate arenas to begin the preliminaries. They all did so, with Shay and Shinji the only ones not dueling as they are still sitting in their seats. Once everyone was situated in their blocks, the monitor then displayed the duels between each competitor. Block A will be Team Smiles vs. Team Victor, Block B pits Team Noble against Team Ace, Block C is a battle between Team Skillful and Team Luck, and Block D involves Team Lancer dueling Team Force.

"Team Ace, huh?" Yuto asked. "So our first opponents are those Leo Institute kids."

"Including Julia," Lulu added, recalling how the Gem-Knight user treated her to a spa day to help prep her for the Leo Corporation dance.

Just like the Vanguard team tournaments, there will be three simultaneous duels occurring in each block with one member from a team going against another member from the opposing team. In Block B's case, it'll be Sarah vs. Julia, Yuto vs. Kit, and Lulu vs. Dipper; the first team from each block to score the most wins moves on to the next round.

"So you're Lulu Obsidian," Dipper said. "I heard your cards are powerful, but can they defeat my Constellar monsters?"

Lulu let out a small laugh. "Oh, you'll see," she answered as she activated the Duel Disk that was now built into her wheelchair.

Kit smirked. "Well if it isn't Shay Obsidian's accomplice," he said. "I must say, from what I heard about you, you're pretty noble. But I have a code of honor of my own."

"I recall," Yuto replied. "You're a swordmaster."

"Correct," Kit said.

"But I have something you probably don't have," Yuto said. "A strong bond with my cards. They helped shape me into becoming who I am today."

"Then maybe it's time you showed me those cards of your songs," Kit said.

As the four Duelists were about to prepare to duel, Sarah and Julia stood across from each other as this was their first time meeting each other.

"Uh... Hi?" Sarah asked.

"You're clearly nervous," Julia stated.

"Huh?" Sarah asked.

"I said, you're nervous," Julia repeated. "You seem unsure of what to do, so this is probably your first time taking part in a big tournament. That probably means your deck doesn't have a clear archetype, so you're not sure if it would actually be effective in a proper dueling environment." She readied her Duel Disk. "But that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."

Sarah couldn't find the right words to describe how Julia figured her out instantly. She has never encountered someone like her before, but as she shook the thought off, she activated her Duel Disk as well, getting ready to test her newfound confidence she gained during the War.

"Good," Sarah replied. "Because I wasn't expecting an easy win."

With the competing teams fully ready to duel, all four blocks got divided into three sections each to have a total of twelve duels going on at the same time. Since these were Action Duels, all sections got different duel fields, with Sarah and Julia getting a grand ballroom. It was an interesting choice because it made the spectacled girl smile widely while the Gem-Knight user flashbacked a little to her first duel with Zuzu. If that wasn't enough, she quickly realized that she and Sarah were now wearing ball gowns.

"What's going on?!" Julia asked, confused.

"I recognize this Action Field," Sarah explained. "Fairy Tail Palace. This was my favorite Action Field back in Heartland. I even know where all the Action Cards are and which ones I should use at certain moments."

In other words, Fairy Tail Palace gave Sarah an advantage, surprising Julia because it meant her opponent will know the right moves to counter her attacks. Regardless, she may have to step up her game if she was going to win.

"So you use Fairy Tails," Julia realized. "I was right. You have a scattered deck. There are only a few Fairy Tail cards in the whole game, so you don't have a proper archetype."

Sarah knew about her deck being scattered, but it didn't matter nor did she care. It was her deck that she created by herself with her own original strategies, so despite being an underrated archetype, she will bring out its potential.

After everyone set up their Duel Disks, they all shouted "Let's duel!" in unison, marking the start of the preliminaries. Elsewhere, in the main arena, footage of the multiple Action Duels were being aired as Nico and Melissa commentated on what was happening during the first turns.

"Wait a minute!" Nico exclaimed. "Why is Team Turbo riding motorcycles?! This is strictly a no-vehicle duel format!"

"Oh Nico, clearly you never saw Turbo Duels before," Melissa informed. "Team Turbo's Duel Disks are built into their Duel Runners, so their way of duelin' can get rather confusin'."

Nico has never heard of Duel Runners or Turbo Duels before. Action Duels were what he was familiar with the most, so seeing a Turbo Duel for the first time was quite an experience for him. He learned something new today as well from Melissa: it was legal to play card games on motorcycles. She then gave a brief synopsis of how they work; as a Duel Monsters announcer from the Synchro Dimension, her explanations were as easy as pie. While that was going on, Julia went first.

"I'll start things off by using Gem-Knight Fusion to fuse Gem-Knights Lapis and Lazuli!" Julia said. "Two gems sparkle together, illuminating a new stone! I Fusion Summon Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli!"

As a Level 5 Earth monster with 2400 ATK and 1000 DEF, Lapis Lazuli can only be Fusion Summoned once per turn. She can also inflict 500 damage to her opponent for every special summoned monster on the field by having Julia send one Gem-Knight monster from the Main or Extra Decks to the Graveyard. The Fusion Duelist sent Gem-Knight Amber to the Graveyard to have Sarah's LP decrease to 3500, since Lapis Lazuli was the only special summoned monster on the field. She then placed a card face down, emptying her hand and ending her turn.

"Now let's see what you got, fairytale girl," Julia said.

"Alright," Sarah said. "My turn!" She drew a card, but before she could check her hand, a beautiful song echoed throughout the arena.

"Where is that song coming from?!" Julia asked, confused. "Is this part of the Action Field too?!"

"It's not," Sarah answered. "I recognize that voice anywhere."

Meanwhile, it was Yuto's turn as he was about to XYZ Summon The Phantom Knights Break Sword with his Level 3 Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves and Phantom Knights of Silent Boots. Just then, he and Kit quickly paused the duel to hear who was singing. Their reactions were similar to Julia and Sarah's because the X-Saber user didn't know where the singing was coming from and who it belonged to while Yuto realized whose voice it was.

"Who's that singing?" Kit asked Yuto. "Your girlfriend?"

"No," Yuto answered, his eyes sparkling with admiration behind his glasses. "An angel."

In the third section, Lulu had activated her Skill known as Natural Energy Burst to give her Lyrilusc - Assembled Nightingale, using Turquoise Warbler, Sapphire Swallow, and two Colbalt Sparrows to XYZ Summon it, a 500 ATK boost while it was sporting the En Birds marking on its forehead for one turn. Her usage was different because she sang a melody to help give its activation a visual effect, which was calling on songbirds.

"Eh... That's it?" Dipper asked once Lulu was finished with her song. "You do know you're not allowed to attack on the first turn, right?"

"I know," Lulu answered. "My Skill is automatically activated when I first XYZ Summon in a duel." She proceeded to play a face down card. "So even though I end my turn, I can activate it again."

As Assembled Nightingale's ATK returned to normal, it was now Dipper's turn. He drew a card from his deck and analyzed the six cards he had before proceeding with his first Main Phase.

As for Sarah, she had finished checking her hand and she had retrieved her first Action Card near a spinning wheel. "I'll start things off with a face down monster," she said. "Which I'll reveal now!"

"You can't flip summon a monster you just set," Julia pointed out.

"Actually, I can," Sarah explained. "I happen to have the Action Spell True Love's Kiss, so awaken from your slumber, Fairy Tail - Sleeper!"

Sleeper appeared on the field now in face-up attack position. She was a pink cat with long, fluffy, golden hair, a big, bushy tail, and wore a orange dress. A book can be seen on her tail along with a reddish-pink bow. She let out a yawn as if she just woke up.

"So that's a Fairy Tail monster," Julia remarked. "Not bad, but what's one little kitty going to do?"

"Call on a friend," Sarah answered. "Now that Sleeper woke up from her deep sleep, she can allow me to summon another Fairy Tail from my hand. And I'm summoning Fairy Tail - Rella!"

Sleeper's book glowed brightly, allowing Rella to make her debut as she was being summoned by popping out of the book. She was a light blue dog with her blue hair curled up, a bushy tail like Sleeper, and wore a light green dress with glass slippers. She too had a book and a bow on her tail, but the bow was aquamarine with light purple patches stitched on it.

"There's more," Sarah continued as she picked up an Action Card near a pumpkin. "I activate Rella's special ability! By discarding the Action Spell Pumpkin Charm, I can retrieve the Equip Spell United We Stand from my deck and equip it to Rella!"

After Rella's book glowed when Pumpkin Charm was sent to Sarah's Graveyard, United We Stand increased her ATK and DEF by 800 for each of Sarah's face up monsters on the field after she equipped it to the dog princess. She was ready to begin her Battle Phase.

"Fairy Tail - Rella, attack Lady Lapis Lazuli!" Sarah declared. "Stroke of Midnight!"

Rella ran towards Lapis Lazuli to kick the Gem-Knight Fusion with her glass slippered feet and deal 1050 damage to Julia until…

"I activate the Trap card Brilliant Spark!" Julia declared. "Since Rella attacked Lapis Lazuli, you lose 1850 life points!"

Brilliant Spark sent a blast to Sarah to decrease her LP to 2150; however, Julia noticed a small smirk on her opponent's face and soon caught on the one mistake she made: she now has no monsters on her side of the field, meaning she was vulnerable for a direct attack from Sleeper.

"Fairy Tail - Sleeper, attack Julia directly!" Sarah declared. "Spindle Prick!"

Sleeper extended her front arms and aimed it at the Gem-Knight user and proceeded to shoot out needles towards her, reducing her LP down to a mere 300. Some of the audience members in the stadium that were watching the duel between Julia and Sarah and were ecstatically crazy at how an incomplete archetype can result in such an amazing turn-around.

"Amazing!" someone had cried out. "Those Fairy Tails are so powerful!"

"I don't know," someone else said. "Don't you think it's unfair that she's able to pull that off with the Action Field?"

That made Julia realize Sarah had an unfair advantage. "You wouldn't have been able to use your combo without that Action Spell!" she pointed out.

Sarah let out a small laugh. "That's not true," she explained. "My whole deck is based off of this Action Field. Sure I have my Fairy Tails, but I also included various support cards that act exactly the same way as the Action Cards from Fairy Tail Palace. Dueling on this Action Field only speeds up my combos and strategies."

Julia was rapidly taken back by what she heard because it turns out that she was at a fair disadvantage, not Sarah having an unfair advantage. The explanation made the people watching the two girls' duel grew more enthusiastic; even the person who questioned about the tactic had second thoughts of what he said and admitted that it was actually a clever use of the Fairy Tails archetype. Naturally, Nico spotted the marvelous strategy used against the dark-haired girl on the monitor.

"Incredible!" Nico exclaimed. "It appears Sarah Glitters is a lot smarter than we initially thought! Having memorized a whole Action Field and working her deck around it is a clever strategy!"

"Well I don't know about y'all, but I'm more focused on Team Turbo," Melissa commented. "I think I r'member seein' those three fellas from the Friendship Cup, but Miss Rin is somethin' special. Her Windwitches are quite a powerful force."

"I'll just conclude my turn with a face-down," Sarah said. "But sadly, Rella has to return United We Stand back to my hand."

With her book glowing, Rella lowered her ATK and DEF to their original amounts as Sarah removed the Equip Spell and returned it to her hand. Julia drew a card to start her turn and looked at what was in her hand. It wasn't a Polymerization or an alternative Fusion Spell card, but it was better than nothing. She activated Monster Reborn to bring back Lapis Lazuli; now she needed to find an Action Spell that centers on Fusion Summoning, so she ran through the Palace, looking for one. She found one on a chair that was near a small bureau with an oval mirror and grabbed it, only to react in dismay at what it is.

"What?!" she exclaimed, looking at the Action Card she just picked up.

"That would be the Action Trap Severed Toe," Sarah explained. "It causes all of your monsters to lose half their attack points until the beginning of your next turn. Didn't you notice the blood-stained knife?"

She looked at the top of the bureau to see the bloody knife and slowly realized there were visual representations around the Action Field. True Love's Kiss near a spinning wheel, Pumpkin Charm next to a pumpkin, Severed Toe on top of a chair near a knife… Action Spells represented rewards while Action Traps were punishments. Julia stared in disbelief as Lapis Lazuli was having trouble standing up due to now having 1200 ATK. Looking at her hand, empty and cordless, she questioned herself if this Trap she played was her punishment for relying too much on her Gem-Knights and not knowing a lot about fairytales in this duel. With no other move to make, she chose to end her turn. She would have surrendered, but she didn't, which was perfect for Sarah. It was time to unleash her secret weapon.

"My turn!" Sarah declared as she drew a card. "And I'll start things off by summoning Fairy Tail - Luna!"

Luna spun herself into the field upon being summoned. She was an orange fox with long, blue hair that had a few teal streaks, a bushy tail like the other Fairy Tails, and wore a kimono with top being green and having red edges and the bottom being orange-pink and having floral patterns on it. She carried a dark brown fan with a light blue crescent moon and a pink flower with a red-to-greenish-blue gradient on the ribbons. Her tail had an opened scroll and a dual-colored tied-up string—one half was red while the other half was light purplish-pink.

"Then I activate Fairy Tail - Luna's special ability!" Sarah continued, causing Luna's scroll to glow. "I can retrieve another Fairy Tail from my deck, which I can special summon with the right card..."

Ultimately Sarah was able to find an Action Card next a statue of a deer. "And I'll use this Action Spell: Animal Call! Since I have at least one Fairy Tail on my field, I can summon another one to join them. So I'll summon the very one I retrieved thanks to Luna, and her name is Fairy Tail - Snow!"

Snow scurried onto the field to join her Fairy Tail friends. She was a light-skin-toned squirrel with a brown bob hairstyle that had some red streaks and had a light green with a small, white polka-dotted patterned bow. She wore a red dress with a white collared underdress and two light green bows: one with white polka dots in front of her neck and a plain one on the back. Like the other Fairy Tails, she also had a long, bushy tail, which had an opened book with a light green bow.

Four Fairy Tails, each being a Level 4 monster. That could only mean one thing: Sarah had everything she needed to bring out her secret weapon.

"I heard of Fairy Tail - Snow," Julia said. "You're going to use her special ability to flip my monster into face-down defense mode."

Sarah let out a laugh. "True, but not this duel."

Her demeanor suddenly changed into a more…ruthless personality. She was no longer the sweet, shy girl with higher self-esteem as she was getting ready to continue her Main Phase.

"Funny how a chance encounter with a handsome prince can change a maiden such as myself," Sarah said. "How he can suddenly appear out of nowhere with a smile and encourage you to break out of your shell. Meeting someone that beautiful, both inside and out, really is something special."

Julia was confused. "Who are you talking about?" she asked.

"But I don't mind that the prince was meant to be with another maiden," Sarah continued. "I dared not to tamper with their destined paths. Yet I'm not sure when, but I know I'll ultimately find a prince who will love me just as much."

Sarah closed her eyes. "This is for you, Yuya Sakaki." She opened her eyes, a newfound spark emerging. "Fairy Tails Luna, Rella, Snow, and Sleeper, join forces to create the Overlay Network!"

All four Fairy Tails formed a circle and joined paws with each other before constructing the Overlay Network. Just then, as a result of preparing to XYZ Summon, ice formed all throughout Fairy Tail Palace and spread to the other two sections, covering the entirety of Block B in an icy sheet.

"Hey, what gives?!" Kit asked. "What's with all the ice?!"

Yuto let out a deep chuckle. "Let's just say the Queen is coming," he answered.

Dipper had a hard time standing properly. "Where did all this ice come from?!" he asked.

"From the Queen," Lulu answered.

An icy wind swirled all over Fairy Tail Palace. "Mistress of the cold, emerge onto the field and punish the wicked of this world!" Sarah chanted. "I XYZ Summon Fairy Tail - Queen!"

Queen made her debut by having snow and wind encircle around the Overlay Network as she appeared onto the duel field. Her attribute was WATER instead of LIGHT, but her ATK and DEF remained the same as the other Fairy Tails. She was an arctic fox with long, luscious, icy blueish-white hair. She wore a blue, floor-length dress with light blue fur around the chest area and hips, as well as on her lower arms, and long, icy blue gloves that extend up to her back side of her hands. Her accessories consisted of a crown with beads around her head and multiple necklaces; they, along with the fur around the upper chest and hips, were all encrusted with blue gems.

"This is the true power of Fairy Tails," Sarah explained. "They're pretty powerful individually, but when they come together, they become unstoppable."

Julia couldn't believe what she was hearing; how can an incomplete archetype prove themselves to be more than just incomplete? Their abilities coincided fluidly with the Action Cards and Field, and now that they were Overlay Units to their mighty Queen, she was going to be shown the undying loyalty that all five monsters shared with each other and how they have potential for being used in Duel Monsters.

"I activate Fairy Tail - Queen's special ability!" Sarah declared. "By using one Overlay Unit, she places a Mirror Counter inside your monster's heart, preventing it from attacking during your next turn!"

A shard of glass that looked like it was from a broken mirror popped in front of Queen's paw and she threw it into Lapis Lazuli's heart, giving her a Mirror Counter and preventing her from attacking.

"But there's more," Sarah continued. "As long as there's at least one monster on the field with a Mirror Counter, Fairy Tail - Queen can attack you directly!"

An increasingly thunderstruck Julia yelled out the "What?!" card because what Sarah said basically means she is screwed. Even if she activates Lapis Lazuli's effect, it still wouldn't make a difference.

"Precisely," Sarah replied. "This duel is officially over. Fairy Tail - Queen, attack with Unforgiving Blizzard!"

Queen raised her paw and thrust it in Julia's direction, commanding a blast of heavy snow to attack her. She got pelted with fast, hard-hitting snowflakes and the strong winds blew her off her feet and tumbled her on the icy floors, wiping out her remaining 300 LP.

"And there it is, folks!" Nico announced. "The first winner of Block B is Sarah Glitters of Team Noble!"

The audience cheered as loudly as they could as a way to congratulate Sarah on her victory and her spectacular usage of Fairy Tails. The Action Field and Queen both disintegrated to signal the duel's conclusion, causing the girls' ballgowns to revert back to their normal clothes.

Julia was about to stand back up when Sarah walked over to her. "That was a fun duel," the XYZ user said, reaching out her hand.

This made Julia start blushing; everything about this scenario was exactly like the time she was defeated by Zuzu during the Arc League Championship. She looked at Sarah, who was back to her usual personality as seen by her smile, and then back at her hand for only a few silent seconds.

Julia grabbed onto Sarah's hand, letting her help her stand back up. "I'm impressed," she said. "Those Fairy Tails sure are amazing, kinda like you."

"Aww, thank you!" Sarah replied. "Your Gem-Knights look amazing as well."

Julia was flattered by Sarah's compliment and quickly realized that she might be developing a crush on her. She always was shown to be more attracted to females than males, which was most evident during her first tournament defeat. This was practically déjà vu for her; only this time, she was developing feelings for Sarah because she knows about Zuzu's feelings for Yuya.

"Mauling Mandible Charge!"

"Graceful Winds!"

Yuto and Lulu declared their ace monsters' signature attacks to deplete Kit and Dipper's down to 0. As a result, with a score of 3-0, Team Noble claimed the victory for the Block B's first three simultaneous duels, causing the audience to cheer and applaud for their first wins. The other two Action Fields and the monsters vanished as the two sections returned to their original appearances. Outside of the block, Team You Show were waiting for their turn to duel and watched Sarah, Yuto, and Lulu win against Team Ace, meaning the next three duels will revolve around the kids battling against the three XYZ users, followed by the three representatives of LID's special summoning courses.

But while Tate and Fredrick were expressing concern regarding being able to keep up in the next round, Allie was absolutely amazed. She kept her eyes on Lulu's duel, watching how the dark-haired beauty dueled. In Allie's young, innocent mind, Lulu was a lot like the princesses she read in books. And if that wasn't enough, there was a high possibility that she would duel the wheelchair-bound princess.

Julia, Kit, and Dipper all walked out of the mini arena to wait for their next duels, wishing the kids good luck and to do their best against Team Noble and the formers. Team You Show all replied that they will as they headed in to start the next matches in Block B. The rest of the blocks were also displaying the outcomes from the other duels via monitor screens. The audience went wild with the victories they watched while Nico and Melissa expressed the action unfolding in the arenas and predicted who would win the preliminaries…

#Arc V Aftermath #yugioh arc v #Yuya Sakaki #Zuzu Boyle #Yuzu Hiragi #FruitShipping #Yuto (arc v)#Lulu Obsidian #Ruri Kurosaki #FallenAngelShipping #Yugo (arc v)#Rin (arc v)#Yuri (arc v)#Celina (arc v)#Serena (arc v)#PredatorShipping

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shannonparis29 · 4 years

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Iowa USofA Diva 2016-2017

IOWA USOFA DIVA 2016 (TAKES PLACE IN JAN 2017)

Iowa. My next stop. What can I really say about Iowa? Oh. A lot. I’ve been to Iowa before, for court-related events. But I started preparing as soon as I got back from Missouri. I decided to do that. After ordering evening wear and stones, I had to make arrangements for the trip. One realization I made was, I could rent a car and Jackie and I could go up there. But we needed a driver to do so. My future and later ex-boyfriend, Levi, ended up being the person to offer a hand in this. He had a clean driver’s license and could drive us to Iowa. He planned to fly to Corpus and we’d make that long twenty-hour drive to Des Moines, Iowa.

We planned to leave on January 11th and giving us two days to get there and check in. The drive was long, and the only negative was the amount of driving that both Jackie and Levi had to do. We arrived in Iowa, at 6 am, in Des Moines, at our hotel. My hotel was already paid for, but we had an issue. The hotel gave us a hard time and they were treating us like criminals and practically following us to the hotel. It made me feel uncomfortable, even though I already paid for the room IN FULL online. I decided to ask for my money back, but they offered no refunds, which was total BS. It really irritates me. We went to the room, checked it out (it was fine) and I just didn’t feel comfortable. Jackie was like,

“You want to leave and find another hotel?”

While yes, I was tired from the trip and I needed a few hours of sleep, I just couldn’t stay here feeling like I was being watched. I said,

“You know what? Let’s find another hotel on Expedia…give me a few minutes and we will leave.”

I hadn’t unloaded anything yet but I found a hotel nearby-even closer. It was the host hotel that Iowa’s court used for Coronation. We were staying for one night so it wouldn’t be “too much.” I booked it, paid for it, and said,

“Let’s blow this place.”

I used the bathroom and then we left and made sure nothing was a mess. I told them,

“We’re checking out.”3

“Is it because of the other person?” they asked rudely.

“I don’t appreciate being made to feel like I’m being watched. So, we’re going elsewhere…I am taking my money elsewhere and I’d like a refund, please.” “We don’t do refunds…”

“We only were in the room for ten minutes…and we’re not staying. So why not?”

I was pissed about it and I really wanted the $130 back. For two nights…One of which I did not even stay because we were delayed on our trip. I honestly could not deal anymore…we just left and called it a loss. And this hotel was a local business and not a hotel that had any way to report.

We were able to get to the other hotel…Comfort Inn and Suites. And it did live up to its name. We unloaded everything and then fell asleep for a few hours. At 1030-1045 am, I had to wake up, eat and get dressed for interview.

For interview, I wore my suit again and tights. Hair in a tight ponytail. It was registration time. Three girls showed up for diva (including me). Sigourney Beaver, Siren Principle and I. They were Iowa girls and I was the only one from out of state. I was already used to be the only one from Texas. Because that happened numerous times when I competed for prelims besides Texas.

I drew contestant number 3 which means I was closing the show. During interview, yes, I had some nerves, but I wasn’t as nervous as I was in previous interviews. I looked professional and I had to show these out of state judges my heart-which I felt like I did all season, but it was just a matter of how I did against the others. Diva is super competitive at prelim level as well as Nationals. Usually, it draws many talented girls.

After interview, it was time to soundcheck for the pageant. I told the DJ I’d need time to “set up” for talent and that it would be a brief set up. As per previous judges feedback, I was told to get props, a table, books, etc. Be more in the scene. When I’m not talking in the beginning, act like I am doing something to help “tell the story.” Which we ended up doing but it not working out in our favor. Another feedback critique was the Jackie’s character, “the boss” needed better clothes-which we did as well.

Before Iowa, we only used a wireless microphone, a coffee cup prop, and just me and Jackie. And we scored high without all the “extra stuff.” So that says something. We added Levi as one of the male parts as well. Which I’ll get to that later how that turned out.

After soundcheck, we went to go eat at a local restaurant in Des Moines-called the Mad Meatball. We went to eat and then I had to head to the hotel and get ready for that night’s festivities. We ate well and it a cold night in Iowa. Supposedly it was supposed to snow. It did “supposedly” during the pageant but the roads were fine to drive on. Levi knew how to drive on ice/snow since he’d lived in New York and Missouri.

Arriving to the pageant, I was ready in face. Just needed to do hair/lashes and get dressed for presentation. Presentation was “fairy tales” and I didn’t have anything for that category. I wore my purple dress from Missouri and Jackie put jewelry on my head as a decorative thing to be a “princess.” Presentation is usually the last category that I worry about because it’s not judged. I’ve seen people slay presentation at every pageant-it just varied.

After presentation, I changed for evening wear. Evening wear, I had a new updo, and my evening wear was jumpsuit with stones on the shoulder and belt. I was comfortable as hell in a jumpsuit because that seemed more me, than just a “gown.” You’re not “required” to wear a gown. Same rules and all that jazz as far as scoring. It was different because the other two girls wore gowns. In fact, one of the girls, Sigourney was corseted, and duct taped in so tightly she was having trouble breathing and almost passed out. I felt bad for her, and I hoped she’d be okay once evening wear was completed. It validates that beauty is pain.

For evening wear, I chose the song, “Just Like Fire” to model to, because it was my energy and personality. I used it for evening wear in Texas but it was “too fast” but I felt like it was more me than the last song I chose. Because slow songs were typically for evening wear. But as I’ve learned trying to find the “balance” between something that goes with the evening wear and following the music to model to was something I would need to work on.

The first season I competed was trying season for me because there was a lot of things that “worked” and things that didn’t. And it was a test of my determination and persistence.

For evening wear, I waited my turn and then I went out. Even Victoria Rios, the current Miss USofA Diva, commended my efforts to do something different. She could tell that I was more confident in this than most gowns.

When it was my turn, the DJ played the wrong music. He was playing another contestants music-the one right before. I tried to point that out that it was the “wrong” music but no one heard me at first. So…I decided once again, just to go with it. It wasn’t my music but I was gonna model like it was. Then about halfway through my modeling, my “song” finally came on and I modeled the heck out of it. I had to show them I deserved to be at Nationals. It’s not worth winning if you don’t have to fight for it-something I learned a long time ago.

After we modeled individually, it was time for compared. I was feeling good and I modeled the jumpsuit and stood out against the other two girls. I could tell people were getting excited. I made sure I “sold” my evening wear. And I planned to. After evening wear, it was time for talent. Both Jackie and some people backstage were impressed by my confidence to model a simple jumpsuit as if it was a $2,000 gown with stones and beads.

For talent, we all were backstage, waiting. I had a long wait time because the MI’s did talent first. The eventually winner of Iowa MI, Mick Douche performed a “Star Wars Mix” with the song Starboy in it. It was brilliant. Finally it was my turn. I was the last one doing my talent.

“In talent competition, Shannon Paris.”

Jackie and Levi began to set up the table and I handed the microphone to Jackie to place aside. But we were given NO set up time. They literally started my talent and it threw me off majorly. I froze for a split second and then I had to keep going. I placed the “files” on the table and the table collapsed. I at first, thought it was because we didn’t set it up fully. Great. I thought, but I had to keep going I performed the talent and after the talent, we went backstage waiting for results.

I was a little disappointed that all that went wrong. I found out my table was damaged and that’s why it did not stay up. I don’t get why someone would “sabotage” my table. Because I never see people like that. You see, in Diva/MI, we take on a family, a brotherhood/sisterhood and I didn’t believe that any of my competitors would do that. However, I do feel that someone that knew the other two girls maybe didn’t like me because I wasn’t from Iowa. It had nothing to do with my diva sisters or mi brothers. Besides the table, the DJ did not follow instructions for my evening wear or talent. I’d told I’d need a minute to set up and then we’d signal for the start. And playing the wrong song. I honestly would have felt it had been one mistake, okay, but three? That just seems suspicious.

Then it was time for results.

“All three of these girls, did amazing and they all were amazing competitors. The promoter has decided to send all three of them to Nationals!”

Nationals. I am going. Now where did I place with these two other girls?

“Our first runner up and winner of presentation (some pageants give that award even if it’s not judged) and interview, Siren K. Principle.”

“And our winner of talent and evening wear, Sigourney Beaver.”

I took second alternate. Again. But I was going to Nationals. I received my scores. I felt some of the scores were a little low, but I knew why. I knew that I walked a little too fast and I know the mishaps with talent were beyond my control. It just happened. But I knew I had to do it. Nationals was a month and a half away and I had to go, now. Like I wanted.

And then the real work began…for Nationals 2017.

Coming up next: A long article about Nationals 2017.

#usofadiva #afabqueen #pageants #shannonparis

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rdgpcg · 5 years

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Saturday I competed at Kinetic Multisport’s Diamond In the Rough triathlon. It had been a couple years since I raced this event in Perryville. In fact, the last couple times I had done the olympic event when it was still run by Piranha Sports. Under my new race planning strategy, I watched the weather and signed up at the last minute on Wednesday . . the very last day you could register. Race day conditions didn’t disappoint. It was a cool 68 degrees when I arrived at Perryville Community Park and the temperature never got out of the low 80s. The humidity stayed low as well. It turned into a perfect race day.

Perryville Community Park really is a diamond in the rough.

I had decided on the sprint rather than the olympic distance this year because frankly it just sounded like more fun and I do this for fun. I don’t need to tack on mileage so someone is impressed with how far I can go. I’ve left that ridiculous worry behind. With only an 8 mile bike leg, the sprint this year was short even for a sprint. It was appealing to me because it removes any and all race strategy. Just go like the hammers of hell and breathe later! No need to watch power, no need to save something for the run. Just go!

Swim

Bike

Run

I arrived in ample time to grab my packet, setup transition and mill about prior to the start. I love pre-race especially at a triathlon. It is always fun to listen to chatter and talk to other athletes from all walks of life. It turns out many of those racing were deep in the heart of their Kinetic Multisport seasons with a deep commitment to doing as many races as they could. Kinetic has a good thing going. With more than two dozen races in 5 states, they offer many perks to those competing throughout the season. The vast majority of their races are olympic and sprint distances with a few long course events mixed in here and there. This is a nice contrast to the Ironman organization which seems to target the extreme end of the sport.

Pre-race at Diamond in the Rough.

Kinetic has greatly simplified Diamond in the Rough. The olympic swim is two laps of the sprint course and the olympic run is two laps of the run course. The bike remains different but this makes both race logistics and navigation much simpler.

I was in the black-capped swim wave, also known as the old farts swim wave, which started precisely at 8:04 a.m. Diamond in the Rough is in in-water start. Once in the water and warmed up, you can either tread water, hold on to the pier, or just move inshore a bit and stand in the muddy bottom that is the Chesapeake bay. I chose the latter. The starter gave a good countdown and I simply made my way toward the start buoy as we got close to the gun.

DIR Swim

The triathlon swim is a funny thing. It used to be something I dreaded because of the inevitable swim panic. I guess I am traumatized for life because I still get a sense of dread at the start worrying about panicking. Nobody likes to panic. Nothing good ever came after the phrase “I panicked!”.

Fortunately not me in the swim anymore.

But I didn’t panic. In fact, it’s been a long time since I’ve panicked on the swim. These days, I start out with a workman-like mentality and focus on the first buoy, navigating through people, and waiting for my heart rate to come up. Eventually, I focus on my stroke and get into some sort of fun rhythm. (A really inappropriate joke leaps to mind but this is a family blog.) Before I know it, I am disappointed the swim is over and I have to start doing something hard. Such was the case at Diamond in the Rough. Apparently last year the tide was strong (or as strong as it can be on the Chesapeake) and it really slowed the swim. This didn’t happen this year although I did manage to swim most of the second half next to someone else in my wave whom I collided with multiple times. I’m not sure which one of us wasn’t swimming straight but we managed to do so most of the way in.

The swim at DIR (I’m not typing “Diamond in the Rough” anymore. Okay, I did there but now I’m just doing DIR) . . . the swim requires the use of a pier and some added metal steps to get in and out of the water. The pier also has several flights of steps to get up and down from the park. Admittedly, this kind of sucks after the swim but mostly because if any number of athletes come out of the water together it gets a bit congested. Apparently, I whacked my right shin on the steps somewhere because when I got back to transition to get ready for the bike, my shin was bleeding profusely. “Hmm. That’ll look pretty badass in the race photos.*” Otherwise I didn’t notice much around transition like how many bikes were still in my area, or how slow I was.

Trying to avoid scalpels.

In case my dermatologist is reading this, I did take the time to spray down with sun screen again before heading out on the bike.

Swim: 16:03

T1: 1:13

The bike was just fun! The DIR olympic course is known for its hills especially the giant climb coming out of Port Deposit but this part of Maryland jams a few hills into the short sprint course too. The four mile out and back is basically a mile in and out of the park then 3 miles down and up hills. Apparently there were some treacherous spots as I saw at least one broken collarbone and at two cases of serious road rash. Fortunately, I just looked like I had serious injury as blood flowed freely down my shin into my cycling shoes. Otherwise I essentially just turned the pedals as hard as I could. By cycling standards, I’m really not all that fast but it was still a good time.

The short sprint course had no shortage of descending and climbing.

I’m always impressed by guys and gals that come off the bike via the flying dismount. When done properly, it is elegant, graceful, and speedy. When done improperly . . . well I mentioned there was a broken collarbone right? At age 53 I have no need to learn to master the flying mount or dismount. You break things other than the collarbone with a failed flying mount.

youtube

As it was I clomped my way up and down the hill between transition and mount/dismount in my bike shoes with Look cleats. For those that are not cyclists, picture running with a half a golf ball glued to the bottom of your shoes.

Bike: 26:26

T2 was a time-killing debacle. When I racked my bike I bumped the bike next to me and knocked it off the bar. This is amazing to me because in T1 my bike always seems to be magnetically attached to the bar. My bike neighbor had precariously hung their bike and faced it the wrong direction. I hadn’t really bumped it that hard. I managed to catch it before it fell but now found myself holding two bikes and not running.

Properly racked bikes.

I felt like yelling “TIME OUT” but that doesn’t work in triathlon. Time dragged as I re-hung both bikes. And then I had to put on socks. I learned the hard way in preparation for the French Creek triathlon not to try to run barefoot with my custom insoles. This leads to a massive blister so I sat on the ground, wiped my feet off and donned socks and running shoes. At least I had added lace locks to my Hoka’s so I could pull them on fast. All of this took so long I felt it was a shame I didn’t bring along a neck tie for a more formal look on the run.

T2: 1:45

On the run, I mostly passed people. It is hard to tell but there were probably some olympic athletes on the course by then as well since the olympic distance started first. Still, the vast majority of folks were sprinters and the run course wasn’t packed when I was on it. I did get passed by one younger gentleman early on. He was running really well.

My lace-locked equipped Hokas.

My friend Susanne would be proud of me for the finish. Throughout the run I had picked off one runner at a time. There was one gentleman I made up no ground on until the last few hundred yards. About 300 yards out from the finish he slowed stretching a leg. Weakness! The predator in me pounced and I accelerated. I was within a few yards of him as we neared the finish chute and I saw 50 something written on his calf. My age group! I blew past him and sprinted down the chute. He gave chase but I kept my advantage across the line. This would prove important.

I am disappointed overall with my run at DIR. I don’t know if I didn’t really have a tough enough mental game, had not done enough speedwork, or just don’t know what a good 5K pace is these days. I think all of the above. I haven’t done a transition run all year except for the French Creek triathlon, there has been a minimum amount of speedwork, and I haven’t out and out raced a standalone 5K in years. I think I need to add all these to my “to do” list. Granted, I was out to have fun at DIR but there is no reason not to try to be as competitive as I could. The run has always been my thing. I placed 6th overall in the run but I still feel like it wasn’t all that well executed and could have been faster.

Run: 23:33

Post-race I collapsed in the grass under a shady tree for a bit and sucked down a bottle of water. I then went to the scoring tent and printed my result. 1:09 and first in age group! Awesome! I went into transition, packed up my T area and grabbed my phone. I had a text from Kinetic Multisport with my result that showed 3rd place age group. Huh!? How could that be!? We all started at the same time. It isn’t like someone faster could have finished later. I went back to the scoring tent and re-printed my result. 3rd place age group. I retrieved my earlier printout and compared. Aha! My category changed. I was 1st place in 50-54 but 3rd place overall masters. This is better so I got advanced to a better category thanks to my sprint down the chute. The gentleman who passed me early in the run was 2nd overall masters. 1st place went to a gentleman I didn’t see anywhere on the course. He was a Kinetic staff member and at the podium had on civilian shorts, a Kinetic staff shirt, and hadn’t looked like he raced. It seemed odd, but hey . . it’s their party.

Well, there it is. A pretty boring race write-up if ever there was one. It gives me an idea for something a bit more thought provoking but for now let’s just say I am still enjoying short course racing far more than I ever enjoyed long course. I think I’ll stay here for a while.

* Imagine if you will a picture of me on the podium. I had handed my phone to someone to take a picture and in so doing managed to turn on some sort of thing on the camera that made all the pictures look like this:

I think I enabled the cataract filter on my iPhone camera.

Assuming the race photographer doesn’t require a kidney and an organ to be named later I may purchase a couple pics from them and post later.

Sprinting Again Saturday I competed at Kinetic Multisport's Diamond In the Rough triathlon. It had been a couple years since I…

#Cycling #Fitness #Friends #Healthy Living #Life #Lifestyle #Marathon #Running #Sports #Swimming #Triathlon

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lindafrancois · 5 years

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5 Lessons Learned From a Skinny Nerd Deadlifting 420 Pounds

I did it.

I proved somebody wrong on the internet!

I assume the internet will be mailing me a gold medal at any point this week, but until then, let me share the story.

I gave a TedX talk years ago, and I mentioned one of my long-term goals was being able to lift 400 pounds:

My first thought: “Ouch.”

My second thought: “Why am I reading YouTube comments!? No good can come of this.”

My third thought: “I’m gonna prove this person wrong.”

As a skinny nerd with chicken legs that couldn’t build muscle to save my life, this far-off goal suddenly seemed even further off.

Fast forward to last week: not only did I FINALLY reach my 10 year goal of deadlifting 400 pounds, I blew right past it. No straps, no belt. Just some chalk and “internet justice” rage to pick up 420 pounds at a bodyweight of 172 pounds.

Not bad for a skinny nerd with a crooked spine!

Below, I share the video and the 5 key lessons I’ve learned on this long, comical, painful journey.

#1: Screw Your Genetics.

I have the genes of an elf, without the immortality or cool ears.

I’m naturally very thin, have very thin wrists and ankles, and will forever have chicken legs.

This would be great, if I wanted to be a runner. Not great when you despise running, and you want to pick up heavy things.

Determined to overcome that fate, I began my journey to heavy lifting, only to get knocked back.

6 years ago, I discovered my genes also contain a super fun condition called “spondylolisthesis.”

Don’t bother trying to pronounce it, I still can’t.

It means my vertebrae don’t line up. Essentially, my L5 and S1 are less structurally aligned than a deep-game Jenga tower (Read how I used the “Iron Man Technique” when I got diagnosed).

Jenga: fun for game night, not for spinal metaphors.

When I first learned this, I initially assumed it meant my short lived career as a powerlifter was over, and threw myself one HELL of a pity party.

After that party ended, I got back on the horse.

(Not literally. I don’t have a horse.)

I started working on my deadlift form and core strength. I checked my ego, established a new “square one,” and essentially started over.

Thank god I refused to accept my fate.

Now, obviously I’m not a doctor – I don’t even have pants on right now – so you’re going to need to work with trained professionals if you have a serious medical condition you’re working to overcome.

In my instance, I decided that I didn’t want my genetics to decide my fate: that chicken legs and a crooked spine could be managed. While I might never reach my 10-year goal of a 400 pound deadlift, I’d get started and adjust along the way.

Yup, I know plenty of people can lift WAY more than I can. That’s cool! I’m competing against the ghost of my former self (like a Mario Kart time trial), and that’s all I can do.

I know I’m fighting an uphill battle when I focus on powerlifting when I’m much more likely to be good at running or another endurance activity. That sounds like my personal hell, so I’m gonna play THIS version of life on expert difficulty.

LESSON LEARNED: If you don’t like the game you’re playing, pick a different one! Who cares what your genetics are. You can’t do anything about them. All you can do is play the hand you’re dealt.

If you are a big-boned individual built for strength, and you want to be a marathon runner, GREAT! Start training for a 5k today. Who cares if you’re slow as molasses!

If you are built to run and want to strength train because that’s what brings you joy, go pick up heavy shit! Who cares if the person next to you can lift more? Are YOU lifting more than you did the day before?

We can only blame our parents for so much. Thanks for the crooked spine and acne, DAD.

(Kidding, my dad is cool as hell. He taught me to play poker when I was 5).

#2: Fail You Will. Learn, You Must.

After figuring out my spine sucked, I decided to hire my friend Anthony to coach me via email.

Because I couldn’t lift heavy to start, I had to reallllly focus on my form. It gave all of my muscles and tendons a chance to get caught up to speed.

So I spent two years making steady progress, which was awesome.

And then I went on vacation, where I severely strained my conjoint tendon.

Lesson learned: never go on vacation again.

My injury was so brutal that I was convinced I had a hernia. I ended up getting an ultrasound on my crotch from two female ultrasound technicians, which was in no way at all awkward.

Kidding. It was comically awkward.

Anyways.

After taking multiple weeks off from lifting anything heavy, I started rehab, checked my ego (again), and had to rebuild my form (again), going backwards by 250+ pounds and starting over again.

I felt like Sysphysis, rolling a rock up a hill only to have it roll all the way back down.

Or Charlie Brown trying to kick a football:

But I kept at it. I learned to improve my form. I changed my breathing technique for lifting. And I accepted that I had to go backward in order to eventually break through.

For reference, click through these images and videos below. The “Before” took place before my injury, while the “After” is just a month or two back:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Aug 15, 2018 at 1:32pm PDT

LESSON LEARNED: Always be learning, when you win or when you lose. Setbacks can be crippling, or they can be painful lessons learned that make you more powerful. I really didn’t have a choice.

You’re gonna get shin splints or plantar fasciitis when you start training for your 5k. Literally everybody does. Take it as a sign you need to fix your running form!

You’re gonna screw up on a lift. Take it as a chance to scale back and rework your form. Video tape your form and check with somebody

You’re gonna get sick and screw up and miss a lift or a hold or a thing. It happens. You can’t change the past (yet), so might as well learn from it and move forward. Rafiki gets me:

#3) Want to Reach a Far Off Goal? Use the Minecraft Strategy.

10 years ago, I had a goal I was racing towards: a 400 pound deadlift.

I’d get marginally closer and then have to back way off. This happened at least half a dozen times, a few of which were highlighted above.

I believe the reason I finally achieved that goal is because I stopped focusing on it! Instead, I just focused on the next workout, the next exercise, the next rep.

In other words: Don’t worry about the building you’re trying to construct. Instead, focus on putting the next brick in the right place, and then repeat. The building will take care of itself.

I call this the Minecraft Strategy.

As for my workouts, I train 4 days per week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. One hour per workout. Each day has a big boring lift attached to it that doesn’t change much at all from week to week.

For the past four years, here’s the deadlift portion of a training day (after many warm-up sets):

Week 1: Sets of 2, 2, 2 for 220 pounds.

Week 2: Sets of 3, 2, 2, for 220 pounds.

Week 3: Sets of 3, 3, 2, for 220 pounds.

Week 4: Sets of 3, 3, 3, for 220 pounds.

Week 5: Sets of 2, 2, 2 for 225 pounds.

And repeat. Every week. Every month. Year after year. Notice that each week I added just ONE rep. And once I hit 3 sets of 3, I’d go up by 5 pounds, and start back at 2, 2, 2.

That is boring as hell. And effective too. Every single week I’d be setting a personal best! I didn’t care about the far-off goal of a 400-lb deadlift, I instead put all of my focus into “Can I crush this next rep?”

This is also EXACTLY how one simply walks into Mordor: one step at a time.

Two weeks ago, my “slow cook” deadlifting workout had me doing 3 sets of 3 reps at 385 pounds.

My coach told me: “Let’s go heavy next week. And I won’t accept anything less than 415 pounds.”

This was a goal I’d have forever, and Anthony had already set my sights 15 pounds heavier to calm my nerves on the psychological challenge of seeing that much weight on the bar.

So after picking up 405 for a warmup, I went for 420 pounds:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Nov 21, 2018 at 10:43am PST

No belt, no straps.

Just some chalk and Walk the Moon’s “Portugal” on my headphones. Honestly, it was almost a letdown because it came up so quickly…but I was so damn proud to reach a powerful milestone, banish the monkey on my back, and actually feel strong.

Hence the quick fist pump to myself.

This week? It’s back to the boring stuff. Boring, consistent, progress where I just get epic results and feel really good about myself.

I’m okay with that. I jokingly talk about how I went from Steve Rogers to Captain America with this slow, small tactic.

LESSON LEARNED: Are you a shiny-object chasing “I need to be entertained and I change workouts every 3 weeks but I can never seem to get results” type of person?

Fall in love with the process and incremental progress, and you’re gonna go places kid.

Each week, just focus on being better than you did the week before. If you ONLY worry about this, you’ll look back at the end of the year and realize you’re a changed person.

Note: This means you need to show up each week, with few exceptions. Even when life is busy.

#4 – Track the Problem to Crack the Problem.

Fun fact: I currently have a folder in Evernote called “Kambsformation” (Anthony came up with it, and it just stuck).

In that folder, I have 1 note for every workout or progress photo from the past 5 years.

I now have 1159 notes in that folder:

As my friend Nick says, “You gotta track the problem to track the problem.”

I have tracked every single workout I’ve done since 2013 in this folder. I have them all in the same place, so I can quickly scan back to any date and time and see where I was, how I trained, and so on.

I know every week exactly what I need to do to be better than the week before. Using the Minecraft Strategy here, it just means I need to focus on ONE single rep heavier.

In addition to tracking my workouts, I’ve become diligent about tracking my calories too. I am not Paleo, or Keto, or Mediterranean.

Instead, I employ a “mental model” diet, with specific rules I follow:

Skip breakfast. I cover this in our guide on Intermittent Fasting.

Eat big after a workout. Adjust the rest of my calories based on goals.

Protein with every meal. Usually chicken.

Veggies with every meal. Brussel sprouts or broccoli.

Adjust carbs and fat to fit macro profile for that day.

A powerbomb shake to hit calorie goals. Water, oats, frozen berries, frozen spinach, and whey protein (I use Optimum Nutrition Vanilla).

Over the past 2 months, I’ve actually leaned out, from 185 pounds down to 172 pounds. I did that by adjusting my caloric intake very simply:

2600 calories on training days

2200 calories on non-training days.

For the first few weeks, I actually didn’t lose any weight despite “tracking my calories.” I still believed in thermodynamics, so I knew there was no nonsense like “metabolic damage” or a “slow metabolism.” Instead, I started weighing my portions (I like this food scale) and discovered a few key things.

Namely, that I was overeating without realizing it:

I was underestimating my oats portion by 50% when using a measuring cup instead of a scale. 1/2 cup of oats was more like 60g, not 40g.

My chipotle lunch contained 1.5 servings of rice by weight, not 1.

As soon as I made small adjustments to my portion sizes on these foods I ate consistently, my weight started to drop consistently.

So that takes care of my food, here’s how else I track my progress:

I take progress photos weekly and weigh myself each morning under the same circumstances.

I don’t freak out if the scale goes up or down. Instead, I take a 7-day rolling average and make sure the TREND is in the right direction.

Think of this like the bumper lanes in a bowling alley: As long as the ball is moving towards the pins, that’s good enough.

LESSON LEARNED: We pay attention to the things we track. So track the right stuff! This applies not only to health and fitness, but learning, personal finance, etc. Keep a journal, or an Evernote folder, or a Google Doc. Write down what you did, and what you’re going to do.

It’s valuable as hell. And I don’t care what kind of diet you pick: whichever one leads you to sustainable calorie management in a way that doesn’t make you want to punch a hole in the wall.

If the scale isn’t going down for you, it doesn’t mean that you have a slow metabolism, or that you’re broken. It means you are eating too many calories to induce weight loss. Track your calories more closely. Use a scale if you need to, until you learn what actual portion sizes are.

Are you taking progress photos? They can be crucial for making sure you’re losing the right kind of weight!

Are you writing down your workouts or tracking them in an app? How else are you gonna know what you need to do this week to level up!?

#5) It’s Dangerous to Go Alone. Bring a friend.

I gotta give a shout out to my friend and coach, Anthony.

He’s been my online coach for the past 5 years and I truly consider him a valuable part of my success. He also has epic hair.

I’d say this is the best money I invest in myself each month – and I’m somebody that tells people how to exercise for a living!

When I’m traveling, or when I have busy weeks, my coach adjusts my schedule to make it work. When I am feeling good, well rested, and amped up, we crank things up. When I’m feeling overwhelmed he slows it down.

And most importantly, he doesn’t put up with my bullshit. You know what I mean – we all have excuses that we feed ourselves daily: too busy, I couldn’t because blah blah blah,.

I know Anthony doesn’t want to hear this stuff, so I just shut up and DO the work! It’s pretty awesome to have somebody else that’s invested in my success, somebody that I can bounce ideas off of, somebody that I know is keeping me accountable, checking my form, etc.

And maybe most importantly, I have the peace of mind to know that I’m actually doing the right stuff, and doing it correctly.

I feel confident saying I never would have lifted 420 pounds without my coach.

LESSON LEARNED: If you have the money to invest in yourself, hiring a coach who learns your story can be game changing. If you don’t, having a workout buddy in the trenches with you can be AMAZING too.

An accountabilibuddy, if you will.

We’re proud that we have an amazing online coaching program at NF, and we have an online community attached to our online course, the NF Academy.

I also know lots of people who work with trainers in person and they can be worth every penny (sometimes!)

If you want to take your fitness more seriously, invest in a coach if you can.

If you want to take running more seriously, join a running club.

If you want to bring a friend so you guys can lift together at the gym, do it!

You don’t have to go it alone on this journey, and oftentimes a coach or trusted friend can be an absolute game changer. It was for me.

I hope Anthony keeps me as a client for the next 5 years too.

I proved a troll wrong, now what!?

So I mentioned that I proved somebody wrong on the internet.

I mostly say this in jest.

The dude probably didn’t think twice about his comment, and hasn’t thought about it since.

Am I gonna try to right every wrong on the internet? Nope.

People say really nasty things about me all the time, that just comes with the territory. It hurts like hell. And I’ve become much better at ignoring it.

So screw the haters, I say. I don’t have time for them. I’m too busy helping people and writing about Star Wars and sometimes wearing pants (today is not that day).

So, although I jokingly say that “I owned that troll,” the reality is that it just.

doesn’t.

matter.

I’m really proud of this accomplishment, and I hope my recap can help you crystallize the goals you have floating around your head.

These days, my goals are tighter, and more focused on the process:

Work out 4 days per week, no exception.

Hit my calorie goals 6 days out of 7 each week.

Be better than the last workout.

I’m working on my handstands, mobility, and gymnastic rings stuff…but I’m gonna keep grinding on my deadlifts and squats too.

Considering how quickly that 420 pound deadlift came up, I wonder if I get a 500 pound deadlift…

No way, won’t happen. EVER. Not with these genetics 😛

(I’ll let you know in 5 years).

I’d love to hear from you: do you have a big “dragon slaying” goal you’re working towards in the future?

What can you take from this article and apply to your journey?

For the Rebellion!

-Steve

PS: We are hiring 2-3 certified coaches to join our NF Coaching Program! This is a 100% remote work-from-anywhere position. If you think you’d be a good fit, or know somebody that would, please check out our “work with us” page!

###

All photo credits can be found in this very special footnote[1].

Footnotes ( returns to text)

Photo Source: Promenade, Mirkwood Elf Archer, Hate leads to suffering, Ready for Scotland, Ready for War

5 Lessons Learned From a Skinny Nerd Deadlifting 420 Pounds published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/

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joshuabradleyn · 5 years

Text

5 Lessons learned from a skinny nerd deadlifting 420 pounds

I did it.

I proved somebody wrong on the internet!

I assume the internet will be mailing me a gold medal at any point this week, but until then, let me share the story.

I gave a TedX talk years ago, and I mentioned one of my long-term goals was being able to lift 400 pounds:

My first thought: “Ouch.”

My second thought: “Why am I reading YouTube comments!? No good can come of this.”

My third thought: “I’m gonna prove this person wrong.”

As a skinny nerd with chicken legs that couldn’t build muscle to save my life, this far-off goal suddenly seemed even further off.

Fast forward to last week: not only did I FINALLY reach my 10 year goal of deadlifting 400 pounds, I blew right past it. No straps, no belt. Just some chalk and “internet justice” rage:

For my final rep, I picked up 420 pounds at a bodyweight of 172 pounds. And it came up pretty quickly!

Now, I’ve internalized 5 big lessons on this journey to a deadlift I’m really proud of, especially considering all of those setbacks.

I wanted to share my lessons learned, and show you how you can apply this to your own life.

#1: Screw Your Genetics.

I have the genes of an elf, without the immortality.

If you’re familiar with body types, I’m an endomorph.

I’m naturally very thin and bony, have very thin wrists and ankles, and will forever have chicken legs.

This would be great, if I wanted to be a runner. Not great when you despise running, and you want to pick up heavy things.

Determined to overcome that fate, I began my journey to heavy lifting, only to get knocked back.

6 years ago, I discovered my genes also contain a super fun condition called “spondylolisthesis.”

Don’t bother trying to pronounce it, I still can’t.

It means my vertebrae don’t line up. Essentially, my L5 and S1 are less structurally aligned than a deep-game Jenga tower (Read how I used the “Iron Man Technique” when I got diagnosed).

Jenga: fun for game night, not for spinal metaphors.

When I first learned this, I initially assumed it meant my short lived career as a powerlifter was over, and threw myself one HELL of a pity party.

After that party ended, I got back on the horse.

(Not literally. I don’t have a horse.)

I started working on my deadlift form and core strength. I checked my ego, established a new “square one,” and essentially started over.

Thank god I refused to accept my fate.

Yup, I know plenty of people can lift WAY more than I can. That’s cool! I’m competing against the ghost of my former self (like a Mario Kart time trial), and that’s all I can do.

If you are a big-boned endomorph (you gain fat easily), and you want to be a marathon runner, GREAT! Start training for a 5k today. Who cares if you’re slow as molasses!

We can only blame our parents for so much. Thanks for the crooked spine and acne, DAD.

(Kidding, my dad is cool as hell. He taught me to play poker when I was 5).

#2: Fail You Will. Learn, You Must.

After figuring out my spine sucked, I decided to hire my friend Anthony to coach me via email.

Because I couldn’t lift heavy to start, I had to reallllly focus on my form. It gave all of my muscles and tendons a chance to get caught up to speed.

So I spent two years making steady progress, which was awesome.

And then I went on vacation, where I severely strained my conjoint tendon.

Lesson learned: never go on vacation again.

My injury was so brutal that I was convinced I had a hernia. I ended up getting an ultrasound on my crotch from two female ultrasound technicians, which was in no way at all awkward.

Kidding. It was aggressively awkward.

Anyways.

After taking multiple weeks off from lifting anything heavy, I started rehab, checked my ego (again), and had to rebuild my form (again), going back 250+ pounds and starting over again.

I felt like Sysphysis, rolling a rock up a hill only to have it roll all the way back down.

Or Charlie Brown trying to kick a football:

But I kept at it. I learned to improve my form. I changed my breathing technique for lifting. And I accepted that I had to go backward in order to eventually break through.

For reference, click through these images and videos below. The “Before” took place before my injury, while the “After” is just a month or two back:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Aug 15, 2018 at 1:32pm PDT

LESSON LEARNED: Always be learning, when you win or when you lose. Setbacks can be crippling, or they can be painful lessons learned that make you more powerful. I really didn’t have a choice.

You’re gonna get shin splints or plantar fasciitis when you start training for your 5k. Literally everybody does. Take it as a sign you need to fix your running form!

You’re gonna screw up on a lift. Take it as a chance to scale back and rework your form. Video tape your form and check with somebody

You’re gonna get sick and screw up and miss a lift or a hold or a thing. It happens. You can’t change the past (yet), so might as well learn from it and move forward. Rafiki gets me:

#3) Want to Reach a Far Off Goal? Use the Minecraft Strategy.

10 years ago, I had a goal I was racing towards: a 400 pound deadlift.

I’d get marginally closer and then have to back way off. This happened at least half a dozen times.

I believe the reason I finally achieved that goal is because I stopped focusing on rushing to get there! Instead, I just focused on the next workout, the next exercise, the next rep.

In other words: Don’t worry about the building you’re trying to construct. Instead, focus on putting the next brick in the right place, and then repeat. The building will take care of itself.

I call this the Minecraft Strategy.

For the past four years, here’s the deadlift portion of a training day (after many warm-up sets):

Week 1: Sets of 2, 2, 2 for 220 pounds.

Week 2: Sets of 3, 2, 2, for 220 pounds.

Week 3: Sets of 3, 3, 2, for 220 pounds.

Week 4: Sets of 3, 3, 3, for 220 pounds.

Week 5: Sets of 2, 2, 2 for 225 pounds.

And repeat. Every week. Every month. For 5 years. Notice that each week I added just ONE rep. And once I hit 3 sets of 3, I’d go up by 5 pounds, and start back at 2, 2, 2.

This is also EXACTLY how one simply walks into Mordor: one step at a time.

Two weeks ago, my “slow cook” deadlifting workout had me doing 3 sets of 3 reps at 385 pounds.

Anthony told me: “Let’s go heavy next week. And I won’t accept anything less than 415 pounds.”

This was a goal I’d have forever, and Anthony had already set my sights 15 pounds heavier to calm my nerves on the psychological challenge of seeing that much weight on the bar.

So after picking up 405 for a warmup, I went for 420 pounds:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Nov 21, 2018 at 10:43am PST

No belt, no straps. Just some chalk and Walk the Moon’s “Portugal” on my headphones. Honestly, it was almost a letdown because it came up so quickly…but I was so damn proud to reach a powerful milestone, banish the monkey on my back, and actually feel strong.

Hence the quick fist pump to myself.

This week? It’s back to the boring stuff. Boring, consistent, progress where I just get epic results and feel really good about myself.

I’m okay with that. I jokingly talk about how I went from Steve Rogers to Captain America with this slow, small tactic.

LESSON LEARNED: Are you a shiny-object chasing “I need to be entertained and I change workouts every 3 weeks but I can never seem to get results” type of person?

Fall in love with the process and incremental progress, and you’re gonna go places kid.

Each week, just focus on being better than you did the week before. If you ONLY worry about this, you’ll look back at the end of the year and realize you’re a changed person.

Note: This means you need to show up each week, with few exceptions. Even when life is busy.

#4 – Track the Problem to Crack the Problem.

Fun fact: I currently have a folder in Evernote called “Kambsformation” (Anthony came up with it, and it just stuck).

In that folder I have 1 note for every workout or progress photo from the past 5 years.

I now have 1159 notes in that folder:

As my friend Nick says, “You gotta track the problem to track the problem.”

I know every week exactly what I need to do to be better than the week before. Using the Minecraft Strategy here, it just means I need to focus on ONE single rep heavier.

In addition to tracking my workouts, I’ve become diligent about tracking my calories too. I am not Paleo, or Keto, or Mediterranean.

Instead, I employ a “mental model” diet, with specific rules I follow:

Skip breakfast. I cover this in our guide on Intermittent Fasting.

Eat big after a workout. Adjust the rest of my calories based on goals.

Protein with every meal. Usually chicken.

Veggies with every meal. Brussel sprouts or broccoli.

Adjust carbs and fat to fit macro profile for that day.

A powerbomb shake to hit calorie goals. Water, oats, frozen berries, frozen spinach, and whey protein (I use Optimum Nutrition Vanilla).

Over the past 2 months, I’ve actually leaned out, from 185 pounds down to 172 pounds. I did that by adjusting my caloric intake very simply:

2600 calories on training days

2200 calories on non training days.

For the first few weeks, I actually didn’t lose any weight despite “tracking my calories.” I still believed in thermodynamics, so I started weighing my portions (I like this one) and discovered a few key things.

Namely, that I was overeating without realizing it:

I was underestimating my oats portion by 20% when using a measuring cup instead of a scale

My chipotle lunch contained 1.5 servings of rice by weight, not 1.

As soon as I made those small adjustments, my weight started to drop consistently.

In addition to tracking my food, I take progress photos weekly, and weigh myself each morning.

I don’t freak out if the scale goes up or down. Instead I take a 7-day rolling average and make sure the TREND is in the right direction.

Think of this like the bumper lanes in a bowling alley: As long as the ball is moving towards the pins, that’s good enough.

It’s valuable as hell. And I don’t care what kind of diet you pick: whichever one leads you to sustainable calorie management in a way that doesn’t make you want to punch a hole in the wall.

Are you taking progress photos? They can be a crucial for making sure you’re losing the right kind of weight!

Are you writing down your workouts or tracking them in an app? How else are you gonna know what you need to do this week to level up!?

#5) “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone. Bring a friend.”

I gotta give a shout out to my friend and coach, Anthony.

He’s been my online coach for the past 5 years and I truly consider him a valuable part of my success. He also has epic hair.

I’d say this is the best money I invest in myself each month – and I’m somebody that tells people how to exercise for a living!

And most importantly, he doesn’t put up with my bullshit. You know what I mean – we all have excuses that we feed ourselves daily: too busy, I couldn’t because blah blah blah.

I know Anthony doesn’t want to hear this stuff, so I instead just DO the work! It’s pretty awesome to have somebody else that’s invested in my success, somebody that I can bounce ideas off of, somebody that I know is keeping me accountable, checking my form, etc.

And maybe most importantly, I have the peace of mind to know that I’m actually doing the right stuff, and doing it correctly. I feel confident saying I never would have lifted 420 pounds without my coach.

We’re proud that we have an online coaching program at NF, and we have an online community attached to our course, the NF Academy.

I also know lots of people who work with trainers in person and they can be worth every penny (sometimes!)

If you want to take your fitness more seriously, invest if you can. If you want to take running more seriously, join a running club.

You don’t have to go it alone on this journey, and oftentimes a coach or trusted friend can be an absolute game changer. It was for me.

I hope Anthony lets me keep him as a coach for the next 5 years too.

I proved a troll wrong, now what!?

So I mentioned that I proved somebody wrong on the internet. I mostly say this in jest.

The dude probably didn’t think twice about his comment, and hasn’t thought about it since.

Am I gonna try to right every wrong on the internet? Nope. People say really nasty things about me all the time, that just comes with the territory. It hurts like hell.

And then I get back to helping people and writing about Star Wars and sometimes wearing pants (but today is not that day).

So, although I jokingly say that “I owned that troll,” the reality is that it just. doesn’t. Matter.

I’m really proud of this accomplishment, and I hope my recap can help you crystallize the goals you have floating around your head.

These days, my goals are tighter, and more focused on the process:

Work out 4 days per week, no exception.

Hit my calorie goals 6 days out of 7 each week.

Be better than the last workout.

I’m working on

https://ift.tt/2FMVSlh

#5 Lessons learned from a skinny nerd deadlifting 420 pounds

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neilmillerne · 5 years