Chapter Eight: The Demon's Hunt

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Shota Aizawa sat cross legged in front of the forest, not even flinching when his friend Hizashi Yamada, or Present Mic came up behind him and yelled, "Eraaaserhead! How are you doing my old friend?"

He wasn't teaching English to 1-A, as the class was running through the forest, but Shota still sipped his tea quietly looking into it, his sharp eyes attempting to find some shred of his class run in the tree line.

The remaining sixteen students all sprinted as fast as they could towards the center of the forest, wearing matching blue hero training suits. Kozo blurred up to a tree branch, his metallic black tentacles retreating back into his body as he thought calmly, his vision focusing on seeing Momo carrying a squirming Izuku.

Hm, looks like Yaoyorozu stopped his brave yet stupid sacrifice. Pointless, I'll just disqualify all of them.

A neatly gelled black haired blur zipped through the forest, his blue hero training suit with white lines across it barely visible as he willed himself towards the center of the forest. Kozo moved like a demon, speeding ahead of the class as his vines wrapped and unwrapped themselves around trees quickly, allowing for speedy mobility.

Hearing Bakugo scream in rage behind him, Izuku squirmed more intensely in Momo's grasp, as Todoroki and Tokoyami yelled the same thing at the same time, "I'm going after him!"

Kozo stopped, frozen in the air as his vines held him in place, before looking back and witnessing something.

That's totally illogical. No, wait a minute it isn't, they all think I'm waiting for them at the center of the forest. They're all heading for the extra credit submission. Should I pick them off or go for the larger prize?

He kept flying towards the center of the forest, thinking the whole time.

Larger prize it is, I'd rather have fourteen names to write down rather than two.

Kozo checked his watch while flying.

It's only 9:13. I have plenty of time to take them all on. This should be easy.

Kozo reached the center of the forest, which was a large clearing. The clearing was what remained of a large body of water, the dried river bank long, wide, and mostly rockless. There, he was sitting calmly on a rock cross legged, with a huge boulder behind him to cover his back from attacks. Class 1-A got into their stances, fists and Quirks at the ready as Yokiji sat calmly, blinking as if they weren't even there.

Near the edge of the forest, Tokoyami activated Dark Shadow to prepare for a possible yet unlikely ambush from Kozo, while Todoroki ran to Bakugo yelling, "Hey! What happened to you?"

Bakugo growled while wrapped around the tree by multiple metallic vines, "That bastard new kid attacked me! He somehow had the speed to subdue me in a split second! When I get out of these tentacles..."

"Wait, you said he subdued you in seconds?" Shoto asked.

"Todoroki. Might wanna see this." Tokoyami murmured, standing over the group of passed out girls.

Tsuyu, Ochako and Mina were all lying face first on the ground.

"Are they..."

"No." Tokoyami muttered, the bird headed boy kneeling to press two fingers to Ochako's wrist, "They're just passed out."

They turned them over to see matching holes in their right shoulders, before Tokoyami made a quick assertion, "It's possible that Yokiji is fast enough to knock out multiple opponents at once."

"But if that's the case..."

Tokoyami and Todoroki looked at each other, before turning around and sprinting towards the center of the forest. Bakugo growled, baring his fangs and yelling over his tree trunk while they ran, "Hey! Let me out of here you bastards!" He just balled his fists being pinned to the tree by black tentacles and cursed under his breath, "Idiots."

The entire class readied themselves for an all out attack, before Rikido Sato ate some salt and let his muscles swell, getting ready to rush Kozo in a blind rage. Four students all attacked him from multiple angles, Mineta Minoru, Rikido Sato, Eijiro Kirishima, and Mezo Shoji all ran towards him yelling, getting ready to tackle him and subdue him.

Kozo just leaned against the rock behind his back, clicking his pen and getting ready to write names down. His ocean blue eyes flickered between his four yelling attackers and multiple black metallic tentacles extended from orbs on his neck.

Rikido Sato was tripped by an outstretched vine at his ankle, wrapping around it suddenly and tossing him aside to the edge of the shallow dried river bank. Mineta leaped into the air while trying to hurl grapes at the boy sitting in front of the rock, only for the vines razor sharp tips to pierce them like shish kebabs, neutralizing them mid air.

Eijiro was lucky, a tentacle flew out from Kozo and barely missed his shoulder. Mezo almost reached Kozo, but the boy just turned his head to him and sent three vines his way.

Mezo Shoji was lifted into the air, the vines tossing him away like a rag doll. He slid across the clearing in front of Momo and Izuku, both who gasped, "Shoji-kun!"

The blue turtlenecked boy grunted on the ground, his arms speaking, "He's too...fast."

Izuku's jaw almost hit the ground seeing Kozo sit there calmly after checking his watch. The stronger curly green haired hero tightened his fist, grunting and thinking.

With every one of his attacks, he just neutralizes more of us. He keeps eliminating the class one by one, making us weaker before going for the final strike. Yokiji's bleeding us to death slowly... Those tentacles are faster than I though, incredibly strong too to just throw Shoji aside like a puppy. This is going to be harder than I thought.

Tokoyami and Shoto showed up seconds later, "Is he here?"

Momo summoned a bow and arrow from mid air with her Quirk, "One shot to his shoulder, and he'll be out of action." She murmured in cold calculation, "He'll be fine, he has that orange healing serum of his."

"Yao are you insane?" Izuku looked to her.

"I won't kill him." Momo raised her bow with an arrow already readied at her fingertips aimed directly at Kozo's shoulder, "This arrow is just as deadly as those vines. But I can't miss, I've done archery since I was a child."

Shoto nearly passed out in shock at what happened. Momo had released the arrow right at Kozo's shoulder, but his light blue eyes saw this happening with razor sharp reaction. A black tentacle snapped through the air in the blink of an eye and had slapped the arrow aside like a stick.

"Those vines..." Shoto was clenching his fists, "They're the fastest thing's I've ever seen." He turned to his friends, "Guys, run. I'll take him myself."

Izuku protested, "No way -ack!" Momo carried him off and he protested on her shoulder, "Yao! Put me down I'm not letting Todoroki sacrifice himself!"

"Sorry! But this is for the best! The rest of you come on!" She yelled as her fellow UA students followed them into the forest.

Shoto was panting, breathing in heavily as fire flew off the left side of his body, "Yokiji! Promise me you won't hold back!"

Kozo just gripped his pen and prepared to write another name down on his notepad, checking the time to mark down when he knocked out his partner. Shoto sprinted towards him before pounding the ground in front of his assignment partner with an frost coated fist, sending a huge wave of ice towards him, attempting to freeze the tentacles.

Allowed by his metallic tentacles to avoid it, Kozo flew upwards like a daddy long legs and sent some sleeping serum like a jet black missile into Shoto's calf. After he'd collapsed onto the ground, Kozo wrote Shoto's name down with a time.

9:21.

Then he flew off into the forest searching for the rest of his fellow 1-A classmates, trying to knock them out of action one by one. Out of the shadows of the forest's treeline, tentacles wrapped around Mineta and dragged him into the darkness. The small teen then found a purple tipped black needle in his arm, knocked out not a second later.

"Why are we running!?" Izuku shouted while sprinting alongside Momo.

"We're not strong enough to face him at all! We have no choice but to flee!" She answered.

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Kozo checked his list of names and ran down the number of students who hadn't yet been eliminated.

Hmm. There's still fifteen left. The strongest in the class are already out of action, Todoroki and Bakugo are both out. But what about Midoriya?...Might as well save the best for last I guess.

He flew through the trees lifted off his feet by his tentacles that kept rewrapping around new bases so quickly his body blurred.

A few paces off, Izuku shouted, "Okay everyone! If we all just take him together we can get him! Did you see how he picked off Mineta? We don't stand a chance running like this!"

Momo nodded, "Agreed! Everyone get into a circle!" She tossed aside her bow and arrow, and summoned a long metal pole hoping it would be enough to stop a demon the entire class already feared.

Izuku and the rest of Class 1-A formed a defensive ring so that Kozo couldn't come in an unexpected direction. Tokyoami got into his stance and activated Dark Shadow, as Yuga prepared his Navel Cannon. The rest of the class sat with awaiting Quirks, ready to defend themselves against Kozo when he came from any angle.

"Up here." Kozo murmured after he blurred up to a tree with his black tentacles. He dodged a strand of tape from Hanta Sero and blurred up to another tree, standing on top of a branch now he crossed his arms. His metallic black vines then let him zip down to the middle of the circle so quickly none of them could react in time.

Purple sleep serum filled tips knocked out Yuga, Hanta, and Mashirao Ojiro. Kozo zipped away into the darkness of the forest after whittling down the remainder of Class 1-A into eleven participating students. Just like he did every time he disqualified a student from the exam, he wrote down their name and the time it happened.

A single time sat next to three different names.

9:37.

Tokoyami shook his head at his knocked out friends as the other students shivered in fear, "He's far too fast for us to catch him in time. Our only hope is to split up in different directions, otherwise he'll come here and knock us all out one by one."

"Wait!" Izuku tried to stop this idea before everyone else sprinted away in different directions, "Yao wait a moment!" He ran up to her after the class dispersed.

"You can call me Momo, remember what I said at Kirishima's party?"

"Uh...okay," He kept running with her, "Do we even have a chance of winning?"

"Honestly? No." Momo smacked away a low tree branch in front of her face with her metal pole, "But at least we'll get taken down later not sooner with his strategy."

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Rikido Sato and Denki Kaminari were both panting while hiding in the bushes from Kozo, "You think we lost him?" Denki whispered.

As Rikido nodded, a black haired shadow stood behind the bushes before sending regular black vines into them and picking up the two boys. Pinned to the trees, they struggled and grunted uncomfortably for a minute before Kozo wrote their names down and eliminated them from the practical exam. They were both left there like Bakugo, with remote black pods attached to their trees tightening tentacles around them.

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The remainder of Class 1-A fell like flies, Koji Koda and Eijiro Kirishima raised their fists when they heard Kozo coming, their backs to a tree as Tenya Iida ran away with his speed boosting quirk. Kozo revealed a new side to his Quirk, that allowed him to become somehow even more fearsome. His vines wrapped around his tall body and already strong limbs and gave him increased speed, reflexes and strength, turning him into a melee machine.

Kozo zipped up to Koji and knocked him out with a chopping blow to his stomach, sending him flying away with his strength. Eijiro was far too slow to block the high kick sent to his forehead and he was knocked out.

Kozo sat on the main forest path in meditation, letting the students attack him one by one. Tenya Iida extended his fist outwards and tried to knock him out by running towards him with the engines he had in his calves. Kozo opened his ocean blue eyes and became a daddy long legs in the sky again with his vines, before sending multiple down to pin Iida to the ground.

While on the ground, Iida felt a vine enter his shoulder and inject sleeping fluid into him. The gel wearing proctor of the practical checked his notepad once more while in the air.

Only a couple more students left. And it's only eleven in the morning! I'm hoping Midoriya will put up a fight unlike everyone else, even Todoroki was a bore...

He sat back down in a meditative pose, cross legged and calm with closed eyes.

I'll let them come to me. Makes it more fun, and my Quirk gives me instant reaction time so I should be fine.

Kozo heard a twig snap behind him and whipped his head around with opened eyes. Mezo Shoji's arm grunted as a sudden vine pierced his shoulder and injected him with sleeping fluid. Minutes later and Toru Hagakure was holding a tiny log up in the air and was about to clock him over the head with it, like everyone else, she was trying to gain extra credit for subduing him.

Only for Kozo to see a floating log and tie his vines around what looked like nothing, but was really a teenage girl. Toru struggled in the air while lifted by Kozo's metallic black tentacles, her struggling ending when a purple tipped sleeping vine pierced her calf and sent her off to invisible dreams.

He kept sitting there on the ground and finally noticed that the remaining four students were probably wise enough not to attack him and most likely get disqualified instead of the extra credit bonus for attacking him. He flew off into the trees again, looking for the next person to disqualify.

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Tokoyami's purple shade monster tried to bat Kozo over the head with a fist, but he just swatted it away with a large set of vines. The bird headed student was pinned to the ground under tentacles, and purple serum knocked him unconscious. Kyoka Jirou was found shivering behind a tree in fright of the black haired monster that she knew came for her, but when it finally arrived, a single vine ended her train of thought and made her fall asleep.

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Momo and Izuku were hiding behind a tree of their own observing this, and Momo whispered, "I'm going to go for the extra credit." Izuku wanted to grab her by the arm and stop her, but she tip toed over to Kozo as quietly as he could with his back turned to her. Momo used her long metal pole to hit him over the head with it after sneaking up on him, swinging it with everything she had.

It worked...

Almost.

He was indeed knocked out, resulting in happy cheers from the two remaining students Momo and Izuku, but then Kozo rose up off the ground rubbing the new lump on his head wincing, and the smiles were summarily wiped off. He lifted a struggling Momo into the air with his vine, and Izuku yelled while reaching for her from the tree, "Yao-Momo!"

She gasped when the vine entered the sole of her foot, and she fell limp to the floor.

"Momo!" Izuku ran to her and she laid knocked out across his legs with the back of her head in his palm. He looked up to Kozo, "Why haven't you attacked me already?"

"First I must congratulate you." Kozo crossed his arms and nodded, "You are the only remaining student who has not been disqualified from the practical exam. The reason why I haven't attacked you is because I've always wanted to fight someone who could match my speed and strength. As you know, I've defeated every single one of your friends in the class, and now only you remain. I saw how you took down Bakugo in your fight, you have the strongest Quirk I've seen. I'm offering you a choice, I'll meet you at the dried river bank where I took on the whole class. There we fight."

Izuku nodded instantly, "I'm not afraid of you Yokiji."

He blinked, "I'll see you there." Kozo said in his deep voice.

Izuku looked down to Momo's beautiful face as he slipped into deep thought.

Yao-Momo. I'll avenge your disqualification.

He looked up to the sun at its zenith in the sky.

It's not even midday, your grade must be terrible. And if yours must be awful for being taken out this early, so must everyone else's. I'll knock him out...and gain the extra credit for the entire class. The extra credit submission should be enough to save everyone's grades, and give me the best grade possible for this exam.

To see everyone taken out like they were nothing, to be eliminated effortlessly...and for Yao-Momo, the best student I know to be defeated like this, makes me so very angry...

Izuku laid Momo gingerly on the forest floor and walked to the river bank where Kozo was waiting for him. The two boys were in their blue hero training suits and had looks on their faces with an equal level of calm. They got into their lowered and trained fighting stances in front of the boulder Kozo had sat in front of earlier.

His green eyes met Kozo's light blue ones in steady eye contact.

The midday sun gleamed brighter, casting long shadows across the dried riverbank. The staring contest between Izuku and Kozo continued, their fists extended outwards in preparation for the melee duel to come. Wind rustled through the trees, the forests leaves spinning through the air brimming with silence...before loud crackling noises echoed off Izuku's body.

Loud whirring whistling sounds filled the air as long green lines glowed on Izuku's skin beneath his blue hero training suit that matched everyone else's in Class 1-A's. It traveled all the way starting from his fists to his entire body. His fist tightened as he grunted and let some air escape his mouth, "Khh!" Tennis ball colored lightning glinted off his eyes that were now glowing the same color. All the anger inside him, the bullying from Bakugo, the lack of victories for becoming the hero he always wanted to be, and now the complete failure of his friends in this exam...

All led to the Izuku becoming the person who was never more motivated in his whole life to beat this new adversary.

"Kozoooo!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs while his fist extended off his chest, "I'm not going to hold back! So promise me that you'll fight back just as hard!"

Yokiji nodded to Midoriya, "I will."

The rings of obsidian around Kozo's light blue eyes glowed the same color and new black pods bubbled up from the new students skin on his neck and back. The blue material of his training uniform burst apart when vines left his back and began to twirl about behind him. Single large metallic black tentacles split apart into multiple, preparing for the fight. Kozo tightened his fists, as his jet black vines that matched the color of his gelled hair wrapped around his arms and legs and entire body, raising the speed and strength of his body tremendously.

If he's going to fight as hard as he can...Then dammit so will I...When the fight begins for real I'll send a few more vines his way, to see if he can neutralize them. Todoroki was too slow to freeze them, Bakugo's explosions couldn't stop them, all of Class 1-A couldn't stop them. Can Midoriya stop them?

He saw how Izuku was twitching in anger with tightening muscles that cracked under his new found strength, seeming to now grow under his training uniform.

This power...I've never seen so much in one place...

"Izuku!" Kozo shouted suddenly as they were both prepared to fight, "Let's do this!"

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At the edge of the forest, Present Mic asked Sensei Aizawa a question, "Shota?"

"Yes?" He asked tiredly.

"If Yokiji is strong enough to take on an entire class by himself...Then how was this fair at all?"

"Hm." Shota Aizawa set his tea down in his plate, "Midoriya has unlocked a new part of Full Cowl. UA has reached a consensus that he is the strongest student here, and he should be able to take on any opponent no matter how strong. The question is, how strong exactly is Yokiji when at his full potential? And how strong is Midoriya when driven to a new height?"

This comparison glowed in Shota's mind.

Two brightly shining stars, one bright emerald green and the other shimmering sky blue twirled together in a night's sky as Sensei Aizawa kept murmuring calmly in his usual tone of voice, "When two Quirks clash it is nothing compared to the clash of two Super Quirks. When they collide it is like the impact of two meteors...but right here from where I'm sitting, I have no way of knowing this..."

Izuku and Kozo blurred up to each other across the dried river bank with readied fists, as Shota Aizawa finished his sentence, "Which meteor is stronger?"

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A/N: Okay, I'm so sorry for not uploading in a while. Thank you all so much for supporting this story, and a huge thanks to all those who followed and faved this story, I thank you all so much for helping me out! I'm dedicating the entirety of the next chapter to Kozo and Izuku's melee battle just to let you all know that.

Again, thank you so much for all the followers and faves it's very appreciated. Thank you for your help and patience, from The Jib Maestro.