A total of forty-two defeats for the nineteen students of UA's Class C. All achieved before the placements even reached their final ten spots. It was cause for great celebration amidst the diverse group.
They all had high opinions of 1-A. Regardless of their personalities, they respected their skill for the most part and had no doubt that all had passed the first test. But that was exactly what made them so happy. They were finally keeping pace with the top first year students.
Of course, while many were celebrating, several were also recovering. Ashira and Wilhelm were busy trying to repair their tech from Emica's EMP blast. Nikiya was nursing her headache from her fight with the light student. Okami was desperately shoving food down his mouth to try and clear that awful slimy feeling.
Suddenly, Sera's tired voice came over the loudspeakers, "All one hundred spots have now been claimed. If you are not one of the one hundred, it's time for you to go home. All finalists will have twenty more minutes to rest and recover before the last test."
The giant doors opened for the last time as the man in the white cloak walked in. The exact man Nikiya had fought. He instantly spotted his rival sitting in a chair and ran over, "Hey!"
"Ugh, not so loud. I hit my head pretty hard after our fight."
He paused, "Oh, right… sorry about that."
But Nikiya just brushed him off, "It was bound to happen in a fight like that."
He swept aside his cloak and bowed to Nikiya, "Well then, allow me to introduce myself, I am Ren Itsuki, or if you prefer to call me my hero name, I am Luminous."
Nikiya smiled wryly and raised an eyebrow at the dramatic display.
When Ren rose however, he was greeted with what he deemed an unpleasant sight, Vincent standing right behind Nikiya, his arms crossed.
"Hey man. Surprised to see you here after you ran from the fight."
Ren's eye twitched, "Yes well, I was so amazed by our friend here that I decided she simply must move onto the next round. I didn't intend for you to accompany her, but I suppose that's just how it goes."
"How kind of you," Vincent deadpanned, "Well, if you'll excuse us, Nikiya is trying to recover before the next test."
"Ah, of course, forgive me," Ren bowed low once more, low enough that Vincent couldn't see him wink at Nikiya before he took his leave.
Vincent made sure the hero named Luminous walked and then looked down at Nikiya, surprised to see her smiling up at him, "You haven't been like that since before the island."
"Huh? Oh, I guess you're right."
Before the island incident, Vincent was a total smartass and didn't take shit from anyone, but afterwards he had become quiet and meek in order to appease his less approving classmates. So seeing him be so uptight with Luminous was somewhat surprising.
MHA: 1-C
The twenty minutes passed faster than some would've thought possible, but pass it did.
Just as Wilhelm and Ashira finished fixing their gear, the monitors in the room flicked on, displaying the battlefield everyone had just been on.
"Please pay attention to the screen everyone."
The hundred in the room stared intently at the screen for about twenty seconds before Sera spoke once more, "Please bear with us, we're having some technical difficult- AHH!"
All at once explosions went off around the field, toppling buildings and collapsing cliff sides. It was like three natural disasters going off at the same time.
"This will be your last test. All one hundred of you will act as if you got your Provisional Licenses and will be acting out rescue operations. To assist in this, the Help Us Company, will act out injuries and other various situations. They will be the ones mainly grading you during this exam, so please, act as if this is the real deal." He let the information sink in for a minute, "The test will begin in ten minutes, so please use the restrooms or take care of any other necessities."
"Rescue?" Hirose looked around nervously, "We barely got a chance to train for rescue ops."
Vincent looked around for a second and seeing that nobody spoke up, he took a deep breath. "First things first, you assess their injuries. Head injuries mean they might not be completely lucid and you-"
"Woah woah woah," Aika interrupted, "Who said we needed help from you?"
"I… my mother has basically trained me since birth, rescuing was part of it."
"Oh I'm sure. Your mother, the terrorist, taught you how to rescue people."
"From strong people who didn't give a damn about the rubble they left behind." Vincent scowled and crossed his arms, "She's a psycho, but she has her own twisted set of morals. If you don't want my help that's fine, but… I'm just trying to help."
Okami nodded, "I say we listen. Any help we can get right now is welcome."
Aika opened her mouth to say something, but Shizuku gave her a steely look and she shut her mouth, "Fine."
However, not everyone was so easily convinced. Will for that matter, walked away before he could even start and Kaito just walked off to the bathroom, but it seemed less like he was trying to avoid Vincent and more like he already knew his stuff.
Another ten minutes flew by as Vincent speed coached his classmates through rescue training. Just as he finished his last sentence, the room they were waiting in split open from the top, revealing the devastated environment.
All at once, the one hundred testers sprinted out of the gate, rushing to help as many people as possible.
Will, surprisingly, was the first to take charge. "We'll set up a triage here! It's the biggest open area!"
"Are you joking?!" Another student asked, "It's got a huge wildfire!"
Will didn't answer and merely spread his arms wide, "Cooling Tower." The fire suddenly rushed towards him, like a monster ready to eat. But instead of burning him, all of the fire was sucked into his body.
Will's Quirk wasn't just to generate and output radiation, he could also absorb it. Of course, his absorption also took a huge toll. He wiped sweat from his forehead and nodded to the boy behind him, "Set up triage here." This time, the hero in training complied.
MHA: 1-C
As it turned out, Vincent and Nikiya ended up leading the charge into the urban area. With Vincent's new training, he had learned how to expand his senses and with his hearing jacked up to eleven, he could hear the faintest of noises.
Nikiya, being the one student able to create structures from her shadows, was also indispensable in their rescue efforts. She single handedly stabilized structures that were at risk of collapse.
Kenichi, Daidoji, Okami, Hirose, and Kaito were also a huge help when it came to the rescue process. Kenichi, Daidoji, and Okami easily cleared rubble with their strength, while Hirose and Kaito broke it up into smaller pieces.
Whenever a victim was pulled from the rubble, Tannin would boost Hirose, allowing her to rush the civilian to the triage within seconds. Needless to say, those two stuck together for most of the rescue efforts.
Aika acted as a stretcher of sorts as she observed the rest of the class work, "Oh, it's like chess! You have to move certain pieces before the final blow can be dealt."
Ryouji shrugged, "No idea, I've never played."
She smiled, "Well maybe when we get back to the dorms I can teach you."
"Sounds like fun," He said as everyone focused back on their work.
Emica would use her EMP in small contained blasts to mitigate electrocution risks. Shinso would brainwash anyone uncooperative and make them easier to rescue. Ryouji used his Quirk to ensure no one got overly tired and also to treat small field wounds. In extreme cases, Nayuki would merge with someone in order to shield them and help them recover from any debris that had fallen on them. Ashira would possess victims to get a better sense of their position if they were trapped. Almost everyone in 1-C was using their Quirks to the fullest in order to help those around them. All but Shizuku.
Karkinos was too dangerous to use during a rescue mission. The only thing she could do was run back and forth between the triage and damage sites with people in her arms.
So when the wall near the triage exploded and masked goons began walking out, Shizuku practically smiled. "This… I can deal with."
"Terrorists are attacking the triage!" A student shouted, "Evacuate them to point B!"
Most of the students moved to grab those closest to them and immediately ran, but a few of the more experienced began moving to intercept the enemy. However, Shizuku and others from 1-C stopped them.
Daidoji smiled at the other schools behind her, "Why don't you leave this to us? Terrorists happen to be our speciality." It was true that most of 1-C had experience fighting terrorists. But it was also true that most of Class C was combat orientated. No matter what anyone thought of them, it was hard to say that they didn't have one of the highest combat levels out of the one hundred remaining.
Kaito, Vincent, Shizuku, Daidoji, Will, and Okami all strutted towards the army charging at them, their respective Quirks charging up for a fight. All they saw were regular people with weird cement guns. They had fought people with real guns, this would be no issue at all.
"I'll take the one hundred on the left, the rest of you can take the other hundred," Daidoji bantered as she transformed, the metal plates clanking to accommodate her new size.
"Forget designated amounts," Shizuku said as her helmet burst open, letting her dark shiny hair fly in the breeze, "This is a competition to see who can take down the most."
"Oho, don't make this a competition you can't win," Kaito boasted back.
Okami was the only one to truly get serious, "Just make sure you cover the evacuees."
Then, all hell broke loose as the two parties clashed. Being so outnumbered, the students retreating from the triage expected 1-C to be instantly overwhelmed, but they were shocked to see the wave easily held back.
"Man, she really wasn't kidding."
Everything was going well. That was until the terrorists started splitting up the students. Getting the students away from each other shouldn't have mattered all that much, they favored their own strength after all, but then a new foe entered the playing field.
She targeted Vincent first, aiming for the ground just next to him. But the dark skinned danger detector sidestepped just in time to avoid the shuddering impact from none other than the Rabbit Hero: Miruko.
Her face was plastered with an energetic smile. From the looks of it, she wanted a fight, plain and simple. "The number seven hero versus a student. Seems a bit unfair doesn't it?" Vincent asked. His voice sounded all too confident for such a question. But then again, this sort of thing was what he was used to. There was no need to hide emotions in a fight like this. He could just be himself and that's what he had been craving for quite some time now.
"Terrorists don't fight fair."
Vincent smirked, "You're right… they don't."
Miruko leapt at Vincent, her speed was unbelievable. But Vincent was still unfazed, "Total Concentration."
He saw the hero's kick coming from a mile away and moved before she had even pushed off the ground.
Her heavy breathing, her smell, her movements. All of them were signals to Vincent and just like that, one of the strongest heroes became predictable. Total concentration was the Super Move that allowed Vincent to focus all his senses on one extreme opponent.
He couldn't exactly fight back, but in this situation, that didn't matter. All he needed to do was to buy time for the retreat and he trusted his friends to handle the other goons.
Vincent was beginning to work up a sweat as Miruok picked up the pace. Thankfully, he was in near perfect shape, something like this wouldn't tire him out right away.
All in all, things were going well, until Will entered the fight.
"I've got this one, traitor! Why don't you just leave! Nuclear Scattershot!"
The little green spheres raced towards Miruko, who, at the last second, jumped straight up. She moved so fast, that the orbs lost their target and instead aimed for Vincent.
His eyes shot open wide as he realized the danger, but it was too late. All of his focus had been put on the Rabbit hero.
With a heavy impact, the nuclear attack slammed into Vincent and sent him flying backwards into a rock outcropping.
Miruko landed directly behind Will, "Thanks for taking care of that one for me!"
Will's eyes widened as he attempted to spin around, however, Miruko was faster and her foot drove itself into his back. He fell to the floor, completely unconscious.
"Two down, four to go."
"Perfect Swordsman: Black Burst."
Kaito came up behind Miruko, his sword already in motion.
For the first time in the fight, Miruko felt real killing intent and put all her effort into dodging to the side. And it was a good thing she did. Despite not having any sort of energy attack behind it, Kaito's sword cut far beyond what it should've been able to as it created a huge crevice.
Using the wind pressure from her kicks, Miruko performed a spinning kick right to Kaito's abdomen in midair.
The armor took the brunt of the hit, but Kaito still felt bile rising in his throat from such an intense attack. Like Vincent and Will before him, he crashed into the ground with intense force. The only difference was that he didn't pass out.
His vision was blurry, partially obscured by blood leaking from his forehead, but he stood nonetheless and raised his hand. Intent on using the last of his power for one last attack.
"Thousand-" But he was stopped as Shizuku rested a hand on his arm. Okami and Daidoji stood beside her.
"W-What about the-"
"Backup arrived," Daidoji answered.
Kaito turned around, surprised to see many more from Class C and a bunch from other schools. They all easily fought off the goons.
Okami snarled, "You just leave this to us."
Shizuku was the first to make a move. Her armor folded off and everyone expected to see the normal Karkinos form, but their expectations were instantly shattered.
Karkinos grew beyond what they thought possible, reaching ten feet tall as his skin hardened into ceramic like plates and extra appendages exploded from his body.
Whilst they were training, Aika had a serious talk with Shizuku. "Just because Endo doesn't want to be mad at Vincent doesn't mean that you have to supress your own anger," She said, "Forget holding the monster back, just let it all out."
This was Shizuku's Super Move. But it didn't have a name. Even if Shizuku could talk, she wouldn't. It needed no name, it was plain to see what she had become.
Using its wings, Karkinos shot over to Miruko, two of its tails stabbing at the hero while its claws swiped repeatedly at her.
At first, Miruko held off the attacks, while delivering a few of her own, but then Karkinos complicated things even further. The red membranes began appearing over its skin, limiting the places for Miruko to strike.
Of course, even this wasn't enough to overwhelm her and before long she had adapted to the fight. Then, Okami and Daidoji joined in.
All three attacked simultaneously, their bodies moving almost as if they were one. For the first time in a while, Miruko felt like she was actually fighting for real and she kicked it up into an even higher gear.
A full power kick sent Karkinos skidding backwards, huge cracks spreading through its forearm's armor. She then used the momentum from pushing off the monster to aim at Okami, but just before she made contact, Daidoji shoved the Wolfman out of the way, taking the hit directly to her chest. It was so powerful she felt multiple ribs break from the impact.
Okami didn't waste the chance he was given and activated his one and only super move. "Full Moon."
Okami's Quirk became harder to control when under the full moon, not unlike a fictional Werewolf, but that didn't mean he had no trouble controlling it in general. He could trigger a rampage whenever he wanted, it was just that he never really wanted to. At least, up until now. Defeating one of the top ten heroes in a head on fight, he doubted any first year students could claim that. He was willing to abandon his sanity for just a few minutes in order to fight on par with her.
His navy blue fur bristled as it became pure white. His fangs enlarged, his muscles expanded to an unfathomable degree and his pupils disappeared from his eyes.
Then, the fight became a blur. Karkinos reinforced its armor and rushed right back at Miruko, its own claws digging into the membranes, tearing them open and exposing the fluid to the air.
A huge explosion burst outwards and the pressure wave slapped Miruko's whole body, but her feet dug into the ground with incredible force, keeping her in place as she shielded her face with her arms.
That small moment of blindness allowed Okami to come in swinging, each pass of his arms marking another shallow cut on his opponent. And of course, Karkinos refused to let up. Its three trident tipped tails were like machine guns, each thrust was faster than the human eye could normally follow.
And still Miruko managed to keep pace with the two, her kicks like cannons and her movements like flowing water. However, she was still outnumbered three to one.
As a particularly strong kick flew towards Karkinos's right knee, Daidoji stepped in front of the attack once more. She caught the kick with both of her hands, which had several bones broken from the force. But Daidoji didn't let go. Instead, she pumped out all the electric power she had in her.
In the face of a pro, the amount was nearly nonexistent, but it was also just enough to make her leg spasm and throw her off enough to let Okami knock her to the ground.
Miruko was disoriented for a moment, but quickly recovered, only to see the red eyed monster bearing down on her, its fingers curling into an enormous fist. It was an all too obvious kill shot, but Shizuku didn't shut Karkinos down. She had become so incensed by the fighting that she assumed Miruko would block the punch or just take it head on and keep fighting.
Karkinos, being as malicious as it was created a membrane on the back of its elbow, breaking it open just as it began throwing the punch, adding an extra explosive force behind it. It was a move worthy of Bakugo's style of fighting.
But just before the devastating missile of a punch could reach its target, an air horn sounded and Shizuku stopped the attack inches from the hero's face.
"All of the H.U.C. members have been saved from the rescue zone. As such, the test has now concluded." Sera yawned loudly, "If anyone has been injured please report to the infirmary. In the meantime, we will begin tallying up the scores."
Out of all the Class C students, only two really needed the infirmary, Kaito and Daidoji. Vincent had been hit by a relatively weak blast from Will. In Will's case, Miruko had held back quite a bit on her attack and as such, he was only sore and bruised. Kaito had been hit by a much stronger kick and got a mild concussion, while Daidoji had broken multiple bones taking blows from the Rabbit hero.
All in all, it was nothing too serious considering they had been fighting one of the strongest heroes.
Miruko looked over three students in particular as she wiped blood from her scarce injuries. Kaito, Shizuku, and Okami. All had attacked with killing intent, Kaito and Shizuku right away, with Okami joining in later as he assumed his Full Moon form.
Daidoji had given her all, but she barely attacked and Miruko felt more like she was fighting a punching bag rather than an actual hero. It bugged her.
Sera finally took the podium, a big display behind him. "Before we reveal the results, please keep in mind you were scored on both your combat effectiveness and your lack of rescue mistakes." Without any further warning the board behind him blinked to life, "The names are organized by syllable."
Out of all one hundred, a total of ninety-five passed. Class C hurriedly scanned for their names, one by one locating them. Four students in the crowd practically burst into tears as they realized their name wasn't there. At the same time, the eighteenth person in 1-C found their name. The only one left was Will. His eyes tore over the names again and again, his face growing paler, "I… failed?"
MHA: 1-C
Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be a bit of a break, an omake or OVA if you will, so it won't really be in line with the timeline. We'd all appreciate any feedback as always and we hope you enjoyed!
