Warnings: We're back with the blood and gore. Very exciting.


Exsanguination 5: examination
the main event


"Kacchan! Kacchan!"

Katsuki braced himself just in time to keep from falling over as Izuku ran up and threw his arms around Katsuki's neck. Izuku's face was flushed and lit up with an enormous smile as he continued, "I got it! I got it, Kacchan! Today's the day and I got it!"

They weren't exactly alone on the street; it was early enough that plenty of other people were headed out to the station like they were, but Katsuki couldn't focus on that. The weight of Izuku's body against his short-circuited his brain. "Got what?" he asked dumbly, staring at Izuku's smile, at his glittering eyes.

Izuku leaned in even closer and whispered, "One for all!"

Katsuki's heart leaped for a different reason as those words sunk in and settled. "Deku, that's… that's…"

"I know! It's incredible!" Izuku pulled back, giving Katsuki breathing room at last, but he just changed his grip to Katsuki's hands. "I haven't been able to use it yet. He said it'll take a little while to digest but it should be ready for the exam! The exam! Aren't you excited, Kacchan?"

"Am I excited?" Katsuki grinned. He turned his hands around so he could grip Izuku's forearms and tug him close again. "We've been training for months for this, Deku. I'm fucking thrilled. We're going to do a clean fucking sweep of this fucking exam, you know it."

"We're going to get into Yuuei," Izuku said excitedly. "We're going to be heroes. Together."

"I can't wait to see this new quirk in action, Deku," Katsuki said. "You're going to be incredible during the test!"

"Me? What about you! Kacchan, you get to show off your quirk! I can't wait! It's going to be so great!" Izuku bounced up and down as he chattered. They wound each other up with their excitement, their words, like a feedback loop of energy. It built and built between them until Katsuki knew he had to pull back before he said or did something beyond the limits of their close friendship.

"C'mon Deku," Katsuki grinned, tugging on his arm. "Let's fucking go and wreck shop."

Izuku beamed at him. Even though Katsuki moved to let go of his arm, Izuku reached back out and took his hand. He smiled when Katsuki glanced down at the way Izuku intertwined their fingers and said, "We'll be together all the way. Forever."

"Forever," Katsuki repeated, squeezing Izuku's hand briefly.

Hand in hand, hearts hammering in their chests and the excitement for the exam thrumming through their veins like bees in a hive, Katsuki and Izuku went to Yuuei for the very first time.


Izuku gaped openly at the school, making Katsuki roll his eyes but smile fondly. He had to drag him along, tightening his grip. They were surrounded by future-students, future-classmates, and Izuku's gawking and fanboy behavior caught the attention of plenty of others.

Some noticed the way they still held hands, but Katsuki refused to let go. If Izuku wanted to hold his hand, it would be there to hold. Katsuki would take what he could get, in terms of Izuku. After all, Izuku had said he wasn't gay, but he still showed no interest in any girls.

When Izuku stumbled over his feet, Katsuki yanked his arm back to right him. "Idiot Deku," he chided, kicking Izuku's leg, "Watch where you're fucking going. You'll break your damn nose if you hit the concrete at this height."

"Sorry Kacchan," Izuku apologized. He turned his arm, shifting his grip on Katsuki's hand and pressed the inside of his wrist against Katsuki's own. Katsuki could feel the knife through the cloth. His heart fluttered a little bit as Izuku whispered, "I brought my Good Luck with me, though. So don't worry. A broken nose wouldn't stop me from taking this test with you."

"Good," Katsuki said. "Now c'mon. Assigned seating or not, this place is going to be fucking packed."


When Present Mic said they wouldn't be going to the same arena, Izuku's stomach dropped. He wasn't afraid to fight alone- he could handle that- but he didn't want to fight alone. He wanted to fight with Katsuki, at Katsuki's side. That had been the whole point.

"Kacchan," he whispered, "Kacchan-"

Katsuki grabbed Izuku's hand where it rested in his lap and he squeezed it tightly. Izuku instantly went silent, staring at his best friend. Katsuki looked at him, confidence in every angle of his face.

"They have to test us separately first," Katsuki said, his voice low, "And see how well we do on our own. We trained for this, Deku. We're going to fucking blow them away." His grip was so tight it hurt, but only a little. Izuku needed that grip now. His anxiety was rising. He wanted to be able to use All Might's quirk well enough to impress the judges.

He wanted to pass so he could continue to be at Katsuki's side.

Nodding, Izuku turned his attention back to the seminar. Katsuki relaxed his grip a little bit, but Izuku didn't let him go. Not yet.


Nervously, Izuku adjusted the top to his red jumpsuit. He stood in a crowd of a dozen or more other possible candidates and was hyper-aware of his isolation. He was smaller than most of them and with no visible quirk. He fingered the edge to his knife's sheath for comfort. Good Luck was within easy access on his wrist, tucked away under the sleeve of his clothing.

He wanted to bring it out, to slide his fingers over the smooth hilt and see the flash of sunlight on the blade, but people were looking at him. There was a girl who peeked at him once or twice before looking away. There was the guy who had called him out during the seminar. There were others, too, that had noticed him.

Izuku swallowed, his throat clicking. He stared up at the gate, waiting in silence. He hoped Katsuki was doing better than he was. He hoped that it was only him who had these butterflies in his gut.

Suddenly the gates swung open and Mic's voice declared the exam was starting. Everyone rushed in past Izuku, who ran one more nervous hand over the inside of his wrist before he followed suit.


Izuku wasn't fast enough.

Robots kept getting sniped out from in front of him with laser beams or shock waves or literal engine legs propelling people to the robot in front of him first. His first thought was to use All Might's quirk to enhance his speed.

That worked once.

Izuku cleared fifty feet within a few bounds, but each step shattered another bone in his legs and feet. He crushed the computer box of the robot with his fist, shattering some of his fingers and then collapsed next to the wreckage.

Lying among the robot's carcass, Izuku hissed, "All this for two fucking points? There has to be a better way." Good Luck slid easily into his hand. Checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was within eyesight, Izuku ducked his head to hide his throat and slashed it open.

The feeling of hot blood pouring out of his throat, of his body becoming cold, his vision dark, swam to the surface of his consciousness. Yet, after a few seconds, Izuku came gasping back to life. He wiped Good Luck off on his pant leg and got back to his feet. There was blood soaking the front of his jacket now, but he'd bled on these clothes before and knew that it didn't change the shade and only looked like he was sweating badly.

Rubbing his throat with the back of his hand, Izuku continued on for the test. There had to be something, something, that could get him a bunch of points in one fell swoop. Either a large cluster of robots or-

The ground rumbled.

Izuku walked around a corner and looked up. Down the street, an enormous robot made slow progress forwards. It crushed buildings as it walked. It shattered the ground with each step. Dust clouds rose from the falling debris.

All the test candidates were fleeing from the scene.

It was the rampaging robot, worth zero points. But it was enormous. And it was causing so much damage.

Izuku walked towards it slowly, his brain working at a fast clip. Katsuki had rolled his eyes at the robot worth zero points and Izuku hadn't thought much of it at the time. But they hadn't known one very important factor. They hadn't realized how big it was.

And when a villain was big, it was dangerous.

"That thing's not worth anything," someone shouted as they ran past Izuku. He didn't think they were talking to him, though, but to the person on their other side. "Let's get the hell out of here and find some more points quickly!"

Izuku passed the kid with the glasses as he walked towards the robot. Their eyes met briefly and Izuku gave him a smirk that he'd picked up from Katsuki. I know something you don't know, he showed in that expression, and I'm better than you because of that.

The other boy faltered in his escape, but only for a moment.

Looking up at the robot, Izuku saw it turning its head box slowly before taking another step. Slow and stupid, he could easily get it. He dropped his gaze down to the ground, knowing that would be the most difficult part to navigate up to the-

Izuku's eyes caught on movement. He saw a flash of brown hair and of brightly colored cloth. In an instant, he went from walking and evaluating casually to sprinting. This was what he had trained for- All Might's quirk was a good cover, but before that Izuku had already known what he was going to be. A Heroic Rescuer.

The hero who could not die would save everyone else from dying as much as he could. It was what made him Katsuki's perfect partner. Katsuki could destroy without inhibition because Izuku would be there to save anyone he missed.

It didn't matter who the girl was, or even that it was a girl. What mattered was that she was within the range of the giant robot's foot and Izuku was going to save her life.

The cracking of bone was lost in the sound of crunching concrete as Izuku used his newest quirk to throw himself forward. By the time he raced past the girl, he was moving so fast that the clouds of dust poofed out of existence when he hit them. He jumped, wincing when he did. All Might hadn't been kidding about the damage his quirk could do. Izuku felt muscle tear, bone fracture and blood run free from his legs as he sprang from his already broken feet into the air.

Drawing back his fist, Izuku poured that quirk into his arm. The muscle flexed, the sleeve tore and he was suddenly very grateful that he'd put Good Luck on his other side.

On the downward side of his arc, Izuku was headed straight for the robot's center mass. He had aimed himself like a cluster of bullets- right for the chest. With all the force of his new quirk, Izuku slammed his fist forwards. His knuckle grazed the metal and that was the last sensation he felt from his fist and arm that wasn't a burning horror of raw nerves.

The effect of his punch was more than enough to distract him from his immediate damage. His fist and the shockwave he'd created punched a hole clear through the robot. The top half was suddenly disconnected and fell down and back as it lost the fight with gravity. The front began to fall forward, or rather, sink down onto the joints of the robot's legs.

Izuku grinned, euphoric and overwhelmed with adrenaline. As he fell through the air, he laughed in excitement. If only Katsuki had been here to see this! He couldn't wait to tell him about it.

He was slapped, literally, out of his laughter by a hand to the side of his head. Confused, he tried to turn midair to see what it was and saw the girl from before was floating on some debris. Her face was red and tearful and she had a hand over her mouth as she looked at him.

Only a few feet from the ground, Izuku came to a gentle stop. Then, jarringly, he and all the rest of the floating debris around came to a drop. He landed with a thump and an unconscious groan.

Izuku was suddenly aware of all of his injuries. He couldn't move his legs and one look told him they were twisted all out of sorts. He couldn't feel anything on his right side and when he looked-

His right arm was a bloody stump from the middle of his forearm down. The white of his half fractured ulna and radius stuck out of the raw red flesh of his arm. Blood oozed constantly out of the wound, more of it with every heartbeat. Izuku blinked at it for a moment, slowly recognizing the signs of fatigue that came with blood loss.

Grunting, he wriggled around until he got his other hand free. Turning onto his side was a network of agony up his legs and hell on his arm, but he did it with gritted teeth and silence. He had to put his back to the girl, to hide the damaged arm as best as he could. Good Luck fit perfectly into his hand once more and the blade slid perfectly into his throat for the second time that morning.

When Izuku came to again, he was not alone. He coughed and blinked and knelt up.

Other candidates stood around, looking exhilarated and curious and exhausted. They focused on him as he got up, wiping absently at his throat and tucking Good Luck back into place out of sight.

The girl who had saved him knelt on the ground a few feet away, swishing water in her mouth and spitting it into a bucket someone had provided.

"He's up!" Someone said.

The girl turned, eyes wide. Izuku sheepishly waved at her with his now recovered hand. He had found the best way to convince people he wasn't dead or hadn't been so badly injured, that it was all a mistake on their part, was to act as normal as possible after a death recovery. People didn't want to believe others could die and come back, even if the world was full of other kinds of incredible quirks.

Izuku kept a smile on his face and tried to be as casual as possible as he knelt there with blood seeped into his jumper and his right sleeve missing from the shoulder.

The girl gave him a weak smile but looked away quickly, clearly not well. Izuku wondered if it was a drawback to her quirk that had her nauseated like that. He resolved to ask her if the opportunity arose.

An older woman entered the field, moving quickly despite her age. Izuku perked up upon seeing her, recognizing her instantly. "Recovery Girl!"

She was handing out gummies and tending their wounds. When she reached Izuku, she looked him over and held out a gummy, "Quite a show out there, young man."

"Um, thank you?" Izuku said as he took the gummy. He looked it over and then popped it into his mouth. It gave him a rush of energy but since he was already healed, it didn't do anything else for him.

She moved on after giving him another odd little look but Izuku was used to odd looks from adults. Katsuki's mom gave him one all the time.

"Kacchan," Izuku said suddenly, getting to his feet. He swayed for a moment as he got feeling back into his legs. That distracted him long enough that he paused and ran his hands down them, double checking his feeling in his legs. Straightening up, he looked around, "Can we go now?"

"If you're well, you may leave the exam grounds," Recovery Girl said while standing next to the girl who had been throwing up. "You'll find out your results in a week."

"Thank you!" Izuku called, already trotting away. He had to find Katsuki. He had to tell him about the robot, about the way his fist had exploded. He had to find out about Katsuki's test experience as well.

He was unbelievably excited as he trotted away with blood drying on his throat and the right sleeve of his jumper ripped completely off. The others stared, but Izuku was used to people staring. They did it all the time when he walked with Katsuki, so why would now be any different?


In a separate room filled with multiple monitors, a row of judges sat in silence.

There had been lots of smoke and debris dust in the air, blocking their view of parts of the exam field. Yet, they had all seen the same two things. The first was that the boy Midoriya had fallen out of the air, clearly missing his right hand. The second was that the very same boy had walked out of the exam with both arms and both legs intact.

They had seen Recovery Girl go in- they had sent her into this field first because of that boy. But to find and reattach his hand so quickly and leave him enough energy to walk out on his own? No one had thought that possible. There had to be something else going on there.

As they contemplated this, one of them spoke up, smothering an amused laugh. "We should put him in Aizawa's class."


[Part 5 of 6]