Iida, Todoroki, Ibara Shiozaki from Class 1-B, and Uraraka were up next. Their opponents were one of the Shadow Infantry - Elite Grade, Hyo - Captain Grade, one of the Angel Mages - Knight Grade, and one of the Obsidian Beetles - Elite Grade respectively.
The Shadow Infantry were a low enough Grade that it didn't completely outpace Iida, whose Rank had seemingly increased to a very low A-Rank after improving his Quirk, but they were still fast enough to keep up with him.
Todoroki would be completely outpaced when it came to Hyo however. Even against the lower Elite-Knight Grade, someone like Nejire had struggled to defeat one of them even when they were holding back, so a Captain Grade would be a near impossible task for Todoroki. Especially when that Captain Grade was Hyo. He could perfectly manipulate any ice that was thrown at him and his physical skills far outpaced Todoroki by now. So then why did Izuku choose him? Well, it was because Izuku wanted to test out Hyo's new power as a Captain Grade. He gave him the command that he was able to deflect and counter with ice in any way he wanted, so long as he didn't overuse his physical advantage, and gave him the command to allow himself to be thrown out of bounds if a fire attack from Todoroki hit him. Izuku did say that these matches would be fair, so even if his Shadows were overpowered, he'd give them some restrictions to make it an even match.
Ibara had the most intriguing reaction to her opponent. The Angel Mages looked very similar to the Angel Knights, black Shadows with white highlights over their body instead of the typical blue, and two sets of blinding white wings. But instead of the sword and thick armor of the knights, they wore robe-like garments and wielded a tome in one of their hands.
As the Angel spread its wings and opened its tome, preparing for battle, Ibara's eyes went wide with horror, "How have you corrupted this being of light?"
Izuku froze, "Did… did she just say that? There's no way she can actually sense that it used to be a real Angel… right?" But much to the contrary of Izuku's thoughts, Ibara had fully realized the Shadow's origins… somehow and her eyes filled with murderous intent.
"Do not fret child of god, I shall free you from this slavery."
"I'm just… gonna ignore that and hope it goes nowhere."
Izuku hadn't really been sure what to put up against Uraraka. After all, she could make basically anything completely weightless, so anything that didn't have wings would be helpless, but anything with wings would almost completely invalidate her Quirk's power. So in the end, he settled on one of the Obsidian Beetles. Like Beru, they were humanoid versions of their insectoid counterparts, with rhinoceros beetle horns emerging from their foreheads. They were bulkier than some of the more ant-like Nomu and Beru, but they still had a decent amount of power when it came to agility. The Beetle also had wings, but like with Hyo, Izuku imposed it with the restriction that if Uraraka managed to activate her Quirk on him, then he would not use said wings.
"Begin!"
Iida, to the surprise of no one, engaged his opponent the fastest, using his Special Skill right of the bat.
[Hero Iida is using Skill: Recipro-Burst. Movement speed increased by 500% for thirty seconds. Will reduce speed by 100% once thirty seconds have elapsed.]
"Five hundred percent?! For a low A-Rank a boost like that is insane! I'm pretty sure only someone like Igris or Beru could keep up with that!" The thirty second limit and following debuff made it seem like a bit of a glass cannon Skill, but it was hard to argue that it wasn't effective.
Of course, the Infantry wasn't helpless. As Iida blurred forwards, his first kick coming down in an arc towards the Infantry's head, the Knight raised his forearms into an 'X' shape. The two forces collided, creating a small shockwave of force. With such intense speed, Iida had obtained a similarly substantial boost in his power and the Knight's gauntlets dented inwards, collapsing him to one knee.
Izuku began reconsidering his belief that the Knight wasn't helpless as Iida kicked once more in midair, the engines on his calf propelling his leg like a rocket. It slammed into the side of his head, denting it drastically and knocking him back to just the edge of the platform. It started to get back up, but Izuku's hand cut through the air, "Tenya Iida wins his match!" That dent would've crushed the skull of any normal living being.
Todoroki meanwhile, was having a great deal of trouble with Hyo. Each burst of ice was practically dismantled at an atomic level, dissipating into thin air before it even reached him.
After a few minutes of Hyo nonchalantly dispersing the ice attacks, Todoroki finally gave in and started blasting off waves of heat from his left side. That's when Hyo got, at least somewhat, serious. The ice that Todoroki had just sent charging after him was morphed, jutting out to the side to block the fire. At the same time, he sent another wave of ice rushing right back at Todoroki and the teen had no choice but to completely ignite his left side to hold back the wave as any ice he constructed would just be used against him.
As those two exchanged ice and fire, Ibara was busy trying to wrap up the Mage in her green vines. Apparently, those "vines" were actually just her hair, extending outwards to capture their prey like thorny tentacles.
The Mage however, wasn't letting anything get even remotely close. It specialized in light magic, so every time a vine shot up from the ground, a bright white sword materialized and slashed it in two.
"Do not fret child of god, I will free you from your corruption and allow the fires of hell to relieve you of your sins."
By this point, Izuku wasn't the only one a little creeped out by Ibara's religious declarations. The Mage began throwing his spells more vehemently as the threat of being separated from his Liege was thrown out by the seemingly delusional girl. Both himself and Izuku doubted she could really do something like that, but when it came to Heroes and their powers, you could never be certain.
[Angel Mage is using Light Magic: Flashbang.]
Half a dozen orbs flew from his fingers, landing in a semi circle around Ibara, who held her hands clasped in concentration. She opened her eyes just in time to be blinded by the insane flash of light and to be slapped with their minor explosive force.
[Angel Mage is using Light Magic: Heaven's Prison.]
As Ibara stumbled backwards, falling onto her rear, a solid box of light surrounded her, trapping her inside.
Izuku counted to thirty, waiting to see if she could escape, but when no progress was made, he announced, "Ibara Shiozaki has been incapacitated, she has lost!"
The Mage released his hold on her and quickly slunk back into Izuku's Shadow, not wanting to deal with the crazy girl any longer.
Ibara stood, disappointment clear on her face as she looked up to Izuku, "I will return. And next time, I will succeed in freeing God's children."
She quickly exited the building, leaving those who were not currently engaged in battle utterly confused.
"Hey." A voice uttered from behind Izuku as two slender arms wrapped around his chest.
"Yaoyorozu?!" He spun around, a smile on his face, "What're you doing here?"
"Nejire insisted I should come over here while Esil and herself watched over Eri."
Izuku quickly used his Share Senses Skill, the Level 2 effect of his Shadow Save Skill. It allowed him to well, share the senses of any Shadow he chose. He picked out Esil, who appeared to be sitting on the couch of his apartment with Nejire and Eri as they watched a Disney movie. Eri was leaning on Nejire's arm tiredly. "They must've gone swimming or something." At the same time he thought that, he got a strange sense of jealousy from Esil.
"Why is she choosing her and not me?!" Esil thought to herself bitterly as sweet little Eri's head fell into Nejire's lap.
Izuku smiled strangely and shook his head, confusing Yaoyorozu for a moment. "Ah, well then I'm glad you could get here… wait… how did you get here?"
"I rode your motorcycle."
Realization, alongside a sudden desire blossomed inside Izuku's heart. "Yaoyorozu riding a motorcycle by herself… I need to see that." He imagined her wearing a leather jacket as she took the helmet off of her head, whipping out her luscious hair. It was quite the badass sight.
"Hey! Lover boy!" Miruko shouted, "You might wanna declare that fight a win!" She pointed out to Uraraka's platform, where the Obsidian Beetle floated in mid air, its arms crossed in frustration at not being able to use its wings.
"Oh… Uh… Ochako Uraraka has incapacitated her opponent! She wins her match!"
By that point, only Todoroki was left and it did not look like he was fairing well. Sweat poured off him in buckets as he dashed around the battlefield, throwing waves of fire and ice at a rapid pace. Hyo had now become completely bored with the affair and decided to simply stand there, manipulating the ice to defend and attack, but maybe he had gotten a little too bored.
Todoroki came to a halt and roared as he poured out as much ice as possible, completely obscuring Hyo's vision as he forced it to make its way around him, forming a bubble of air inside the mountain of ice. Unfortunately for him, that was Todoroki's plan. Light began shining through the clear ice and Hyo recognized his mistake as he desperately worked to form a tunnel outside of the mountain, but it was too little too late and the fire finished melting through the ice, slamming into Hyo. It barely damaged him in the slightest, but in line with the rules Izuku had given him, he allowed himself to be pushed out of bounds.
"Shoto Todoroki has won his match!" Izuku declared and the three winners, Iida, Todoroki, and Uraraka took their place over at the winner's corner, where Aizawa, Kiara, and Kirishima waited.
Hyo retreated back to Izuku, but instead of fading into his Shadow, he kneeled besides him, as if apologizing for his failure, but Izuku simply shook his head, "You performed exactly as I wanted you to. You have nothing to apologize for." Hyo swiftly nodded and disappeared.
"Alright! Who's next?"
By the end of the day, thirty of the forty applicants had been accepted. Among their number were some impressive Pros like Aizawa, Midnight, Snatch, who was someone who could basically turn parts of his body into an extremely powerful force of sand, and even Burnin, who was once Endeavor's right hand man, but left his Agency after hearing what he had done.
Among the younger candidates were most of UA's Hero courses. Kaminari, Jiro, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida, Uraraka, Mina, and Tokoyami from Class A. Kamakiri, Jurota, Kendo, Setsuna, Tetsutetsu, and a few others from Class B.
Nejire had assured Izuku that Tamaki would be applying soon, but since he was too shy it was taking a while to convince him.
The thirty remaining Heroes stood in front of the platforms once more, waiting as Izuku addressed them once more, "Congratulations! All of you who still stand here are now part of the Thanatos Agency!" He smiled wryly, "Unfortunately, you are currently only a part of it in name alone. Camie here will help you take care of the necessary paperwork to make sure you become a full fledged memb-"
An explosive force broke down the door to the gymnasium and Association Agents rushed in, their fists clenched tightly for a fight. "Ochako Uraraka!" One of the voices bellowed, "You are under arrest for the terrorism committed against UA and her students! Come with us quietly or we will use force!"
Aizawa was about to speak up, but Izuku beat him to it. Appearing in between the two groups in the blink of an eye he met the eyes of the man who had spoken, "Uraraka is one of ours now. I'm gonna need a bit more to go off of than just that."
"Well Mister Midoriya," Nezu said, walking through the destroyed doors, "We have the best proof anyone could ask for." His small frame walked up to Izuku, handing him a smart phone.
"My Liege, we should just kill them all for their insolence," Beru suggested ruthlessly, mildly terrifying the Agents, but not Nezu, who seemed entirely unfazed by the proposition.
Izuku brushed him off and looked down at Nezu while gesturing with the phone, "What is this?"
"Ever since UA was attacked, we've been attempting to deduce how the explosives were planted without our knowledge. Unfortunately, most of the cameras were destroyed, but two days ago, we found one that gave us just what we needed."
Izuku pursed his lips, but brought the screen up to his face regardless, playing the clip. In any other situation, the Association, their Agents, and Nezu would disregard Izuku and simply take away Uraraka, but as Japan's current strongest, they could not ignore him.
The video loaded for just a moment before playing out a figure, shrouded in darkness pressing a small clay package up against one of the building's pillars, hidden just out of sight. For just a moment, her face brushed past the camera, illuminated by the natural moonlight and further enhanced by switching to night vision.
Izuku scowled as the face became impossible to miss. It was Uraraka without a doubt.
Thanks for reading! I know I've said this before and gone back on it, but for the next two days or so, I wouldn't remain hopeful for any chapter updates as I have a decent chunk of school work to get through! Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next chapter!
