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Gambler Chapter 17: Battle Trials
🕑 Added 2025-09-02 19:08:22 +0000 UTCMHA Gambler's Guide to Heroism
Chapter 17: Battle Trials
Kotaro Hakari
Thanks to my famous and patented vanishing technique, I was able to once again change into my hero costume without having to deal with anyone else.
As for my costume, I had designed it with the help of Toga. Of course, more like me designing it and her randomly shooting me nonsensical suggestions and generally having fun. She did have a pretty good fashion sense though.
My design philosophy for my costume was just: Comfortable and Simple.
You would have an easier time catching me working an office job than seeing me wear spandex willingly. Especially those outside spandex undies.
Unless you are Batman or Superman, there is no way of rocking that shit without making a fool of yourself.
And I still had my pride, while I talk shit about it constantly, I was still once a high-ranking Yakuza. I'd be laughed to the grave if I started wearing underwear outside of spandex.
I am doing a mercy on the people I have killed and not letting their killers start being a hero in public, wearing skin-tight spandex and underwear on the inside.
So I settled for something in between practical and cool, I still had to be a poster boy and all.
A skintight long-sleeve black shirt that served to highlight the currently middling muscles I've built and to avoid anything that would get easily grabbed or snagged. It would look great once I built myself back into brick territory. The pants were standard cargo black cargo pants with a modified belt specifically to hold my bag of holding for easy access. And then a yellow jacket over all of it, like David's jacket without the white stripes, to be able to be used in a colder environment and because I thought it looked really cool.
Having dressed into my outfit and put my change of clothes into my bag of holding, I walked out of the changing room and walked to the training grounds we were supposed to meet at.
It took several minutes for everyone else to change. I took that time to get into position and watch everyone enter from one of the top floors of the buildings in the training grounds using Door Crossing. Once about half the people were there, I exited from the front entrance of the building, surprising Tsuyu and Ochako, who saw me come in along with Toga.
"Wow! That looks pretty cool Hakari-kun! You give off that cool vibe, like you're all business or something. I should've specified my own better... it ended up being skintight."
Ochako exclaimed while tugging at her bodysuit that hugged her curves perfectly, reflecting her plush body excellently.
I shook my head.
"Don't worry, Ochako-chan, I'm sure the designers knew what they were doing. You look great."
"R-really? I guess they were."
Tsuyu nodded to Ochako in agreement with me, which was not something I expected.
"Skintight suits aren't that bad -ribbit. Well, I am biased since my suit needs to be tight to reduce drag while going underwater. I really like yours too Hakari-kun, although it lacks a bit of imagination."
I got a better look at Tsuyu's outfit and could only praise hero culture for making skintight costumes so mainstream. Her green bodysuit highlighted her athletic figure and developed thighs very well. Out of reflex, I managed to adjust my pants and belt without suspicion.
"Hey guys! How are you doing? What do you think of my outfit~?"
Toga skipped over with an infectious enthusiasm that brought a ghost of a smile to my lips. I had helped design her outfit, and it looked great. It looked like a parodied Vampire outfit with a large cowl over her(loose enough that she wouldn't lose it when transforming) alongside a white top and red skirt with black leggings. It even had a cute lil' jabot around her neck.
"That looks so cute Toga-chan!"
"It really does."
"Ehehehe~"
Toga preened under praise; she seemed to really, really like praise. It was my suggestion to lean into the parody vampire aesthetic to present her quirk as something tied more to the whole movie vampire aesthetic rather than a creepy doppleganger one. But as we were focused on our conversation, All Might clapped his hands and gathered everyone around him.
"Now that everyone is here! It is time to conduct the battle training!"
But Ida, dressed in his speed warrior costume, raised a hand in question.
"Sensei! Seeing as we are in the entrance exam battle grounds is it safe to assume we will be conducting urban combat training once more?"
All Might simply shook his head and did an exaggerated motion again.
"No, although a lot of villain combat occurs outside, the truly devious ones are the ones who hide indoors, black deals, hostages, trafficking et cetera! You have to be ready for all situations. This is why today all of you will be splitting into teams of two and having indoor battles against each other."
Tsuyu raised an innocent question.
"Fighting already without basic training -ribbit?"
"Indeed, this battle is to understand those basics! Experience is the greatest teacher. Basic Training will come when you realise what you need to learn!"
That I very much agreed with, I didn't get so great at fighting by watching videos or being thought but by being constantly thrown into the deep end of combat, like my supervisor just leaning me alone after going into enemy territory with me after realizing we were outnumbered.
After that, All Might was bombarded with questions that he read out the answers to from a pre-prepared piece of paper before explaining the rules of the exercise.
2 Teams of 2 people, coded villains and heroes, set to fight in a 5-story building. The villains had to protect their nuke for a certain amount of time, and won if the time was up or they defeated all of the heroes. And the heroes won if they managed to touch the nuke prop or restrain the villains with the provided capture tape and handcuffs.
As for how the teams were decided...
"Of course we will be drawing lots!!!"
Well, I believed in my luck, so I was more than fine with it. I eagerly watched them be pulled, and my eyes were drawn to a few rolls.
Team A: Izuku Midoriya & Santa Hero
Team B: Katsuki Bakugou & Momo Yaoyorozu
Team C: Himiko Toga & Kirishima Eijiro
...
Team H(Hero): Kotaro Hakari & Mina Ashido
"Yo! Hakari-kun! It seems like we'll be the slimy duo! I'm sour and you're sweet!"
Mina sauntered over to me and slung an over my shoulder, coming very close, and giving me a great peek at her uncovered cleavage showing a generous amount of pink breasts due to her outfit being both skintight yet leaving a boob window which just barely made up for the absolute criminal colouring of her neon pink and cyan leopard print design.
"Indeed, it seems like we'll have to pull the devious gloob on our enemies, Mina."
"Hehehe, with my slick sour slime and your sticky sweet stuff, we will be unstoppable!"
I can feel her poaching my singular brain cell.
On the side, I saw Toga give a meaningful look that was cut short by All Might announcing the matchups.
And it ended up...
Team B vs Team H
Not great.
Bakugou was rather strong, and Momo could cause some problems if she is properly motivated, but her kit is just not suited for this kind of engagement.
"Villain team, head to the building, set up your base, you have 5 minutes before the heroes come busting down the doors, so use it wisely! The rest of you follow me into the Monitoring room!"
All Might and the rest of the class went to the monitoring room, with Deku giving me a meaningful look and doing the same for Explosive Temper, but Bakugou was too preoccupied with giving me death glares to notice it.
"Alright, let's go, Hakari-kun! The Slimy Squad is in action!"
As she said that, I tilted my sight and read the Guidance.
'Time for Slime!'
'What a sticky situation.'
'Time for Slime!'
'Time for Slime!'
I sighed and shook my head fondly, raising my head from the Seek Guidance messages and following Mina to the building and dragging the mock nuclear bomb with us.
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
Kotaro Hakari
"So... what do we do, Hakari-kun? What is our battle plan? I'm not too good with this plan stuff and all."
I adjusted the earpiece and re-checked my abilities before answering Mina. We were currently set up at the very top of the building after I Door Crossed us there.
"Quite simple really. I'm basically perfect for this situation, unless they start demolishing the building, they won't be able to advance since I already Door Crossed every opening on the lower floor, they will keep looking and will be unable to advance. And due to being heroes, they cannot just bring the building down."
Mina rubbed her chin and nodded, trying to seem wise.
"I see, you're really smart huh Hakari-kun? I couldn't have come up with that on my own. So do we just wait them out?"
Mina said while pacing around listlessly.
"Wouldn't call it smart, I'd call it being resourceful. And no, just sitting around doing nothing is letting them come up with a way to outsmart us. Once they have let their guard down thinking this is it, we will unleash our attacks through the window, and Door Cross them to their location to immobilise them in one move."
"Nice! That means we'll get to slime them nice and good. Our quirks work really well indoors after all."
I nodded to Mina and waited for All Might to sound the start.
"Alright! Prep time is over everyone, let the training exercise... begin!"
The earpieces sounded, and around a half minute passed without anything happening. Except for the occasional impotent explosion happening in the distance.
I had no doubts that Bakugou was trying to get past my Door Crossing and getting pissed, since I felt new possible targets for Door Crossing were getting opened up by the second as he blew holes in the walls. But what do you know?
They also counted as valid targets, so he was just exhausting himself for no reason. I faced the door and created a liquid candy lance that I was ready to sling at the door the moment another pathway was created. But as I waited for a second and another, I got a sinking feeling.
...He wouldn't, right?
...He probably would.
Oh yeah, he definitely will.
"Mina!"
Taking the silence as an eerie warning, I leapt into action, grabbing Mina by the wrist and pumping candy from my legs to the floor, covering it and reinforcing it with as hard a candy as I could produce.
"W-what!?"
Mina was surprised to silence when I grabbed her and hugged her tight to my body, but her shock did not have the privilege of lasting long when-
-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!
The entire building shook, and a shockwave ripped through everything, the glasses shattered, and cracks appeared in the walls. I could feel the gaping hole that was created in the building, a hole too big to be called a door.
That mad fucking bastard.
Seems like this won't be so easy after all.
A/N: The slimy duo is real!!! Mina and Hakari are on the same wavelength. If you add Toga to their midst, it's too many people using the same brain cell at once. Also, I had to make Toga wear the Draculina-like outfit; it suited her too much.
Mina and Hakari vs Bakugou and Momo, a very scuffed matchup on all sides. But it does make for an entertaining one. Hakari will not have an easy time against Bakugou. Fandom shitting on him constantly may make you forget but Bakugou is an actual monster with his quirk second only to Shoto.
Comments
Maleficarum
Yeah that should be a instant disqualification. Because doing something like that without any means to be able to find or narrow down and avoid hitting the goddamn bomb is a recipe for disaster and a massacre.
Drim
Was the Team H(Hero) thing a joke? Thought it meant they were the heroes lol
