Interlude

"Why... why did you wake up back then? You were so close...!" Hitoshi Shinso gripped Jilan's collar, his face contorted as he roared, "Do you know how difficult it is for someone like me to get an opportunity?!"

"You..."

After a moment's pause, Jilan Jiyu's eyes cleared again. They pondered for a moment and said, "I see. So your Quirk requires others to respond in order to control them."

Shinso's pupils contracted, and she released Jilan's collar, taking two steps back in disbelief. "So that's how it is? How were you able to wake up so quickly...?"

Hitoshi Shinso reluctantly guiding Jilan to reply, thinking he would be controlled by him, but Jilan broke free of control in an instant, his eyes becoming clear.

"You said you prepared a lot for this competition, but you're just comforting yourself, aren't you?" Jilan Jiyu patted the spot he had touched and said slowly, "If you really put your heart into it, you wouldn't be so physically weak, easily defeated by even a girl. Relying on your Quirk, you'll inevitably falter someday."

"You weren't manipulated at all during the match, were you? You just pretended to be brainwashed to fool me, right?" Shinso regained his composure and said coldly.

"Brainwashing..." Jilan Jiyu was surprised to hear him use that word, and carefully examined Hitoshi Shinso. "I originally thought your Quirk was something like hypnosis, but I didn't expect it to be an even more domineering form of brainwashing..."

Jilan Jiyu took a deep breath. "You guessed right. From the beginning, I was wary of your Quirk. Later, I noticed that Hagakure was acting strangely, and I realized that your Quirk was activated through conversation. I deliberately answered your questions to understand the abilities of your Quirk, and then pretended to be controlled by you while waiting for the right opportunity."

"So I was fooled from the very beginning..." Shinso gave a bitter smile. "I accept my defeat wholeheartedly. Can you tell me why you weren't under my control?"

Quirk profiles are kept on file at school, and even if they are not mentioned now, they will be introduced during commentary in future matches. Therefore, Jilan had no intention of hiding anything and placed her arms in front of her.

"My Quirk is Hamon, which has a special effect: it grants immunity to negative physical damage. In gaming terms, it means petrification, slowing, and dizziness are all ineffective against me, including your Quirk's brainwashing."

Jilan Jiyu blocked the crushing effect of Tomura Shigaraki Quirk relying on this characteristic of Hamon, so even when his hand was placed on his head, it had no effect.

"Is that so? That's quite a powerful Quirk..." Hitoshi Shinso silently watched the arcs of electricity flickering in his hand and left without saying a word.

Shinso clenched her fists tightly. She had failed again, and lost utterly...

Jiro observed all of this coldly. At this moment, she walked over and asked, "Class monitor, why did you say so much to him?"

Jilan turned around, shrugged, and said, "I don't know either. Maybe it's because he looks a bit like me?"

"From now on, we will have a lunch break of about one hour. You can enjoy the food prepared by the students on campus or choose to go to the student cafeteria for the lunch that the culinary heroes usually prepare for the students! Please take a short rest, and the final competition will resume this afternoon! See you this afternoon!"

Upon hearing Brescent Mic's voice coming from the loudspeakers, the audience rose from their seats and left the stadium in an orderly fashion.

"Squad leader, wait!"

As Jilan Jiyu walked toward the passage for athletes and faculty, Jiro's voice suddenly came from behind them.

Jiro should have been happy to have made it to the finals, but in reality, she felt that she had contributed too little in the competition. She felt like an incompetent person who had come to the team to rely on others, and the whole competition was basically supported by Jilan and that green-haired girl from Class B.

At the very end, she had absolutely no memory of it. The next instant, she saw Hagakure remove her headscarf, Hitoshi Shinso almost taking it from her. She had come to help him, but this time she had truly become a burden...

Is there something you need?

Seeing Jilan's warm smile, Jiro suddenly Iida, even her flesh-colored Earphone Jack turned red. Blushing, she bowed deeply to Jilan and stiffly shouted, "Thank you so much for carrying me, your burden, into the finals!"

Oh, so she wanted to say thank you. Jilan Jiyu were almost startled...

"Well, there's nothing to thank me for. We're companions, right?" Jilan Jiyu, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the probing gazes from the remaining classmates, scratched their heads and changed the subject with a troubled expression. "By the way, it's lunchtime now, and there are a lot of people today. If we go late, we might not be able to get a seat, right?"

Just as Jilan was feeling troubled, a hand suddenly tugged at Jilan's sleeve, Ibara Shiozaki said seriously, "I, Ibara Shiozaki, will give you the money."

This was something Jilan promised before the competition: he would give Shiozaki 10,000 yen if he teamed up with him.

Although Ibara Shiozaki originally came to help with the expectation that he wouldn't make it to the finals, his advancement was just a pleasant surprise and wouldn't interfere with the deal.

Now it's time for Ibara Shiozaki to come and collect his reward.

"I'm wearing my gym uniform right now, so I can't possibly have any money on me. I'll give it to you after the Sports Festival, okay...?"

To Jilan's words, Ibara Shiozaki resolutely shook his head. "I want it now."

It wasn't that Ibara Shiozaki was so obsessed with money that she insisted on asking him for money even though she knew he had none. Rather, she was worried that Jilan might run into her in the afternoon's match and use money to blackmail her into going easy on him. What would she do then?

Ibara Shiozaki is a principled person; she won't do multiple jobs for the same pay like a typical office worker. Of course, she's open to negotiation if it comes to higher pay...

Upon hearing the word "money," Kyoka Jiro looked as surprised as Class A had been back then, and her gaze towards Jilan became strange. What could possibly require money to resolve?

Jilan Jiyu also noticed that Jiro's gaze was becoming increasingly strange, while Ibara Shiozaki was still reaching out his hand and earnestly asking him for money, which gave him a headache.

Jilan Jiyu suddenly turned around, grabbed Ibara Shiozaki's outstretched hand, and ran towards the exit!

Fine, since she wants the money, I'll just go and give it to her!

"Where are you going?" Ibara Shiozaki was a little surprised, but he didn't let go of her hand. Instead, he let Jilan pull him along.

"Since you insist on having money now, I have no choice but to go back to the classroom to get it for you." Jilan Jiyu were somewhat helpless. They didn't have any money on them, but since they had promised to give her money, they could only run back to the classroom.

"That's... the class monitor?"

Uraraka watched with some surprise as Jilan ran across the grass with a girl, but quickly put that aside and turned to excitedly ask Iida about that super-fast acceleration technique, "Iida- kun, that move was so cool! You kept it a secret from us!"

"Actually, I came up with this idea when we went to rescue Midoriya and I was separated from you guys." Iida pushed up his glasses. "My Quirk allows me to freely control my direction and speed, but sometimes when the target is in a straight line, I feel a bit powerless, like when I'm calling for help when the enemy is attacking... That's why I developed this method of trading agility for speed."

Uraraka smiled and said, "Don't be discouraged! I think you have a lot of Quirk, Iida- kun. You'll definitely be able to speed things up!"

"But I don't have much time, do I?" Iida suddenly clutched his chest, his expression grave. "I feel a tightness in my chest today, like something ominous is about to happen."

"It's just my imagination, it must be... Just like the horoscopes I read every day, it's all in my head." Uraraka waved her hand with a smile, and after saying that, she finally asked the question she was really interested in, "Iida- kun, did you see where Midoriya went?"