Chapter 21 Finals

"Are you sure you don't want me to be a part of the finals?" Kuro asked teasingly to Nezu. He was in Nezu's office, leaning back on the couch he was sitting on, munching on a bag on Inko's cookies.

"Kuro, you killed someone the hero association has been trying to incapacitate, much less kill for years," Nezu started, pinching the bridge of his nose. "By punching him. Not even All Might could incapacitate him for long."

"Fair enough," Kuro sighed. "I'll get you for this."

"You really think you can outsmart me?" Nezu asked, smirking.

"Of course," Kuro said. Of course, he could ever outsmart the principal, but Kuro knew how to do something that Nezu did. He knew how to play dirty.

"What do you think we're going to do for the finals?" Ochaco asked.

"I don't know," Izuku answered honestly. "Every time I ask Kuro, he laughs and wishes me good luck."

"That can't be good," Ochaco admits as they enter the field.

"All I know is that we're fighting against robots," Kirishima said.

"That won't be too bad," Kacchan scoffed. "I'll kick their asses in an instant."

"Yeah, that can't be too hard, considering the entrance exam," Kaminari said. "Especially since we're stronger now."

"I'm sure you all have knowledge of the exercise exam," Shouta said, catching the attention of the students.

"Yeah, we're fighting robots!" Mina exclaimed. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

"Ha, well UA lied," Kuro said. "Have fun fighting the teachers."

The student's faces fell into shock as Nezu popped up from Shouta's scarf, shooting a look at Kuro. "I wanted to be the one to say it."

"That's what you get for not including me," Kuro said. "I told you I would get you back."

There was a collective sigh of relief from Kuro's interns. "As you know, there have been a huge influx of villains," Nezu said, turning around to face the students. "As such, we need to up our curriculum with training that simulates real life battles. As such, you two will pair up to fight a teacher."

"So that's what Kuro meant by teamwork," Izuku muttered to himself, luckily no adult was close enough to hear him.

"The pairings will be Kaminari and Mina against Nezu, Aoyama and Uraraka vs Thirteen, Present Mic vs Kyoka and Koji, Ectoplasm vs Tsuyu and Fumikage, Midnight vs Sero and Toga, Snipe vs Shoji and Hagakure, Cementoss vs Sato and Kirishima, Power Loader vs Tenya and Ojiro, and All Might vs Izuku and Katsuki," Kuro explained. "Wheels up in five, kiddies. I'll be here to help if you have any questions."

"How did you know about the pairings?" Mina asked Kuro. Luckily, none of the pros except Kuro were on the bus the students were on, since Nezu reasoned that Kuro was more than enough protection, even if All for One himself came.

"Call it Hero's intuition," Kuro said.

"That's bullshit," Izuku said, shocking some of the students with his language. "You said the exact thing about Stain."

"You predicted the Stain attack?!" Kaminari exclaimed. "Where were you during the fight then?"

"The league of villains tried to attack at the same time," Kuro replied. "You know that thing you saw at USJ? I had to fight two of them."

"Oh," Kaminari said.

"So what do we do?" Hagakure said, changing the subject. "We're up against teachers!"

"Don't worry," Kuro smiled at pat Hagakure's head, despite the fact that he was unable to see it. "Just remember your training. They won't expect all those badass combined attacks that you all came up with."

"Hell yeah they won't!" Kirishima exclaimed, his fist in the air. "We'll pass this exam! Watch us!"

"I'm sure you will," Kuro smiled softly as the bus stopped. "It's time to go. I'll be rooting for you."

Tsuyu and Tokayami stood surrounded by four of Ectoplasm's clones. "None of the teachers are going to hold back," Ectoplasm said. He was slightly taken aback when he noticed no fear or distress in the students' eyes.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Tokayami said, nodding. "Tsuyu-san!"

Tsuyu nods and jumps up and flings her tongue at one of the lightbulbs, shattering it. Tokayami and Dark Shadow stand back to back, holding off the four Ectoplasms, Dark Shadow growing stronger with each light shattered.

As soon as the last light was shattered, an ear piercing roar could be heard. "LET'S DO THIS, PARTNER!" Dark Shadow's distorted voice shouted. Tsuyu couldn't see anything, but she heard several crashes. After the crashing stopped, she took out a flashlight that she kept in her utility belt and shined it where she last saw Tokayami. As the light shined on the bird man, the shadow receded, revealing Tokayami with an unconscious and handicapped Ectoplasm.

"Good job, Tsuyu-san," Tokayami nodded in thanks and appreciation. "If you didn't take out the lights as quickly as you did, I would have been done for."

"You did most of the work kero," Tsuyu replied. "But you're welcome."

"Alright," Shoto said, hiding the wrist mounted flamethrower and ice beam that Momo created with her quirk in his sleeve. "You know the plan?"

"Yes, Todoroki-san," Momo said as she creates ice skates.

"Alright," Shoto says as he freezes the floor under them, and the dash off.

A few minutes in, they can see the exit. As Shoto starts to form the ice, his quirk vanishes. He and Momo jump, landing on the ground gracefully. Momo takes off her ice skates and runs while Shoto faces Shouta.

"You underestimate me," Shouta said, his eyes glowing red as he readies his capture weapon.

"I believe you have the wrong idea," Shoto says, assuming a fighting stance. "You underestimate me."

Shoto and Shouta dash at each other. Shoto throws a job activating the flamethrower. Shouta sidesteps and attempts to kick the student, but Shoto dodges and attempts to uppercut, shooting an ice beam at the same time. As Shouta jumps back, he notices the wrist mounted weapon that Shoto wielded. "That wasn't a registered hero gadget. That shouldn't be allowed on this test."

"Of course it isn't," Shoto assumed a fighting stance again. "Yaoyorozu-san made it."

Shouta's eyes widened in shock. Somehow, Momo managed to make original hero gadgets instead of basic objects. What's even more perplexing is that Shoto, a long ranged fighter, was able to keep up with him in hand to hand combat. Just what kind of training did Kuro put them through?

Before they could continue their fight, a notification was sent out, signifying that Momo had found the exit. "Guess we pass," Shoto smirked.

"Guess you do," Shouta grumbled. "Kuro and I will be having words."

Nezu is sipping a cup of tea as he uses a wrecking ball to destroy buildings to block the bath to the escape. He looks at the students, who are almost a kilometer away with a telescope. He sees Kaminari point a finger gun at Nezu as an orb of electricity charges up.

"1,000,000 Volt Railgun!" Kaminari shouts as he directs all of the electricity towards the machine. It pierces a hole through the wrecking ball machine, sending Nezu flying. Suddenly, as Nezu is flying, he is sent barreling to the ground.

Nezu tries to stand up, but is unable to. It's as if gravity multiplied on him ten times. He looks at the weights and there it was, in black print, plastered in the weights in all caps.

"Got you back"

Nezu groaned inwardly as he realized what Kuro had did. He had Mei tamped with only Nezu's weights. He considered writing Kuro up or failing the two students, but he chuckled. "Damn you Kuro," he said with a smile on his face, deciding to give it a pass, just this once. "I can't believe you managed to outsmart me."

Recovery Girl was looking in shock as one pair after another passed with relative ease. "How is this happening?" She asked herself.

"They're bright kids, you know?" Kuro said, smiling smugly. "Well, I mean, I also told Nezu I would get him back. He should have just listened to me."

"You're saying that you had a hand in this, Kuro?" Recovery Girl turned her head up to the tall man, shooting daggers at him.

"Hey, don't look at me," Kuro said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I just decided to teach the class the importance of teamwork."

"Koji-san, I'm going to need you to control the ants underground," Jiro said as she uncovered her ears. "Sound isn't effective there, so it would be the perfect chance to sneak up on him."

Koda pauses for a second, momentarily terrified. He then flashes back to Kuro's "training", aka shove Koda into a room full of non-lethal bugs until he got over it. Koda was terrified at first, but when he started talking to them, he realized that they're actually very nice and constructive, going as far as to try to comfort the boy when he showed signs of fear.

"Alright," Koda signed to her as he looked to the ground and started to mutter something.

Koda nodded to Jiro and the two covered their ears as a loud wail of terror was heard, causing Jiro's ears to bleed. The two looked at each other and smiled. They had passed.

Toga wasn't necessarily having a good time. Midnight had instantly managed to knock out Sero and instead of staying stationary to bait her out, she was actively looking for her. Toga took a deep breath before the mist caught up to her. She knew where the exit was, but she had to take the long way around, considering that Midnight could be anywhere.

Toga leaped through a couple rocks. She deduced that due to her high drug tolerance due to drinking the blood of drug addicts, she should be able to take a couple more breaths than the average person could, but she didn't want to push her luck.

"Ara ara~" Toga heard Lady Midnight's voice and the crack of a whip. She turned to see the lady walking towards her with a sly grin on her face, swaying her hips seductively. "What do we have here?~"

Toga dashed to the side, making a break for it. The two lead in a fast paced chase, Toga turning multiple times. After a while, Toga eventually got herself cornered. She looked around, looking for a way to escape. When she couldn't find one, she resist the urge to sigh and turned around to face the teacher.

"What?~" Midnight asked, cracking her whip again, lust shining in her eyes. "When I see people run like that, it just arouses me so much~ I couldn't help chasing someone so helpless~"

I'm sorry, Kuro-nii, but I'll have to use them, Toga thought to herself, letting her old self take over. Two knives slipped from her sleeves into her hands. Toga's serious expression turned into a maniacal grin, one that has seen much more sadism and pain than Lady Midnight could imagine.

"I want to play!~" Toga chirped, making sure not to inhale the mist. Midnight's smile faltered in intimidation as Toga pointed one of the knives at her. "Will you play wih me?~"

"Oh no," Kuro paled as he realized that those weren't the toy knives that Kuro had placed in hero costume, but real, metal knives. "This is bad."

"Why?" Recovery Girl asked, looking at Kuro. It was rare for him to have such an expression of horror. He must care for the kid if he let out such a rare expression at the realization Toga will be subject to Midnight's torture. "Is Himiko in trouble?"

"No," Kuro whispered, causing Recovery Girl to shudder. She looked at the TV and realized what was going on. Toga's smile was psychotic and sadistic, much more than that of Midnight. Recovery Girl wondered how such a young girl could make such an expression. "Lady Midnight is."