A/N: Hello everyone. Here was are, chapter 40. I can't believe this story is almost two years old and has come this far. The support through all this time has been absolutely astounding and I'm really happy I can make you all happy with this story; I love it very passionately.
I moved back to University recently, and with my other stories (Synner and The Liberator) also in the works, I'm disheartened it took so long to update one of my favourite works of all time.
This chapter has been one I've thought about for a while, and I've decided to stick with the same examination phases as in the anime, but to change up the events a little but, just to add my own flare.
I really hope you enjoy, and I thank you all for sticking with me through this incredible journey, that will only go on for more years to come! :D
"Here you go." A female voice perked up, pulling Izuku's attention away from the astounding scene around him and towards the dark-skinned woman standing in front of him. In her arms, she held a large plastic box, divided in half with one part full of the target pads, and the second part was filled with the pouches of balls. Izuku hesitated for a moment before retrieving his equipment for phase one of the exam.
"Alright?" She asked rhetorically with a smile, before stepping away from him and to Toru, who she had almost missed.
"So... Wait, we can put these anywhere?" Toru asked, sticking one of the pads to the centre of her stomach.
"Yes, as long as it's not somewhere like the inner thigh, underarm, hands and feet because that would be far too hard to hit because of their positions and how much those parts of your body will be moving.." The Lizard-man responded. Izuku looked around at the other members of his class, watching where they'd decided to put them, before deciding his own positions for the targets.
The best place to put them would be in places that were easy to keep out of the way, so he places one on his right shoulder, one on his stomach, and the last one on his hip. They were easy to hit places, but he could also move these parts of his body away from incoming projectiles, and increase his chance of 'survival'.
Mina had decided on similar places, her shoulder, on her chest and the final one just above her waist. They were all front-facing, but the good of doing that was that she could see each of the targets, and keep them protected. Noticing Izuku was looking at her, she gave him a large toothy grin.
"Don't look so nervous Midori, there's no way we don't pass this one, it'll be a breeze." She beamed.
"When did you give me your nerves and take my confidence?" He joked with a half-fake smile.
"Don't worry my little worry bunny, once the test starts we'll be knocking out these other dudes left and right." She smiled after she'd finished fastening her targets, making her way over to him and rest her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Worry bunny huh?" Izuku chuckled, smiling up at her.
"You like it? I was thinking it could be our pet name for each other. Y'know, Midori is cute, but Bunny is even cuter." She beamed.
"I-... Y-You had time to come up with a pet name during the Provisional License Exam?" He asked as the other members of their class finished attaching the pads to different parts of their bodies.
"Yeah?" She asked, before a cute grin spread across her face.
"Alright marshals, are all the students ready?" The chairman's voice spoke out, echoing through the enormous stadium. Ten of the fifteen marshals put their thumbs up in the air, and there was silence as they all waited for the last five to do the same. Finally, five other thumbs went into the air, and Izuku felt his stomach drop a little.
"Alright people. You've got five minutes to disperse; in your classes, find anywhere in the arena to start the exam. A klaxon will sound when that five minutes starts, and when it ends, and once it does, you can go all out." He explained. Izuku nervously swallowed saliva, taking a deep breath and looking over his shoulder at the many classes behind him. Their eyes were all on Class 1-A; piercing gazes that made Izuku feel so minuscule.
"They're... They're looking at us... Right..." Uraraka muttered over to him, her face looking pale and desolate.
"Yeah... I think so..." He responded, clearing his throat and looking ahead again, trying to ignore the thousands of eyes that he now knew were on them.
"Best of luck to you all." The Chairman said before a booming klaxon rung out over the facility, so loud it felt like it shook his insides.
"Stay close everyone!" Iida called, before taking off at a sprint, Izuku followed close, making his way to the front, running beside the Engine Quirk user. He couldn't let his nerves distract him at such a crucial time, even though it made his stomach twist. He knew his class looked up to him just as much as Momo and Iida. He'd taken on a real villain and his fear had fallen away, so why was it so strong now.
"Where do we go?" Kaminari asked. "From where we are right now, seems like pretty much everyone's got the same idea as us." He added, looking around at the other classes. They were all going their separate ways, but none of them were straying too far from 1-A.
"The Urban area is probably our best bet. For the majority of our quirks, they work best in urban areas, and this is a team exercise, so it's best to go with the majority. That's okay with everyone else right?" Izuku perked up as they continued running towards the city area. They were already heading in this direction, and after everyone's performance in the Final Exam, it would be the best choice for them to start at.
"I agree." Momo smiled down at him. "Anyone have any other ideas or are we settled on the Urban area?" She asked.
"Midoriya's got the most combat experience, I'm not gonna argue." Kirishima responded, firing her a sharp-toothed grin. No-one else said anything on the subject, probably because they didn't feel they needed too. He had a feeling they'd end up in the Urban area of the arena in the end anyway.
"Hey Aizawa." Ms Joke spoke up, pulling the Erasure Quirk user from his thoughts. "Where'd All Might go?" She asked, pulling the chair beside him out, and sitting down heavily.
"He went to grab another drink in the staff room." The dark-haired Homeroom teacher responded, not taking his eyes from his class as they bolted across the large space towards the city area. Thankfully the stands were set so high up that he'd still be able to see them between some of the buildings.
"I hope you got them ready for this, they're in for one hell of a shock if you didn't." She giggled, putting her hands together and resting on her knees, putting her head in her gloved hands.
"I hope they like surprises then..." Aizawa responded coldly. Joke sat up as soon as he'd said this, her smile disappearing from her face as she stared.
"You... Didn't tell them?" She asked rhetorically. She'd heard what he'd said and knew there was no way in hell he was joking, she just hoped he maybe was.
"No. In the real world, they're not going to go into a mission knowing every little detail. There will always be an unknown factor. In this case, they knew the exam would be harsh, and they knew that there would be a lot of schools top classes here. The unknown factor was that, in past exams, U.A is always the one targetted first due to the strength of its students." He explained although he was unsure as to whether Ms Joke was listening or not.
"That's..." She started, before her voice fell away. "Why would you do that? From what I've heard your class has really been through the wringer recently. I think you need to cut them some slack." She responded. This was the first time Aizawa had heard Ms Joke's voice sounding so serious, but it didn't bother him.
"Life is never going to give you the easiest path to your goals. You have to work hard to get what you want, and it's not always going to come on a silver platter." He responded, his voice just as stern, and cold. Ms Joke quickly backed down, letting out a quiet sigh and resting her elbows on her knees again, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"I have a lot of faith in my class, Fukukado." He added, still not looking at her.
"Maybe, but I don't think you're giving them the credit they deserve." She responded quickly. Aizawa now took his eyes away from his students and looked over to the Outburst Quirk user, frowning a little.
"Compared to almost all the other classes, yours has had one of the hardest first years in Hero School history. Some had a run-in with Stain, they were ambushed by villains, they've been training their asses off and now they've got this to focus on. From what I've seen you treat them the same way you treated your past classes. You look down on them." Joke explained, staring at him the entire time she spoke.
Aizawa felt a wave of defensive anger flaring up within him, but deep down he knew she was right. However, that was simply his method of teaching. Being hard to impress would make his students want to strive for that recognition. At least, that's how he'd always seen it.
"Determination will only get you so far Shota. Without praise from the one's above them, it can feel like you're fighting a losing battle sometimes. You and I both know what that's like." She added coldly. "You're lucky they're so strong and independent. I know that if you were the teacher of the students in my class, they would've given up on you and asked to be moved." She added.
"They may be trainee pros, but they're also just kids. You can't expect them to act like adults just... Because. They need a push every so often, and you've gotta stop being ignorant." She said. Aizawa sat there, staring down at his class. Was he being too hard on them? Maybe he was, but babying them would only make it harder for them to survive in the real world.
"I just want them to succeed. Babying them won't make their chances any better." He responded, calming himself and folding his arms across his chest.
"I know, but you have to find a balance. Talk to All Might, he's great with kids." She responded with a smile. "Sheesh, look at me, you got me all serious for a second there." She giggled, shaking herself and rubbing the back of her neck.
"Just root for them. They're strong kids, so even that will be enough for them." She smiled, leaning over and patting his shoulder gently. Aizawa sighed again and nodded.
"I always do." He muttered. She took her hand away from him, still smiling, before looking down to the arena floor and hunting around for her own class.
"GO CLASS TWO!" She hollered, jumping up from her seat after she'd spotted them. Aizawa let out a quiet chuckle and looked back down at his own class. He only taught this way, because that's how he and Present Mic were taught when they were in school. Of course, they were encouraged, and the teachers were there to teach them, but they were also expected to be able to handle things on their own.
Changing was a hard thing to do, and for him, his teaching methods were his own, and they worked well. He'd given them encouragement and advice from time to time. She hadn't been there all the times he had, however. There wasn't much about the way he taught and acted as a teacher that he was going to change, but he'd think on it, just to stop her from ranting again.
"Let's stop here..." Iida sighed, slowly bringing the class to a stop. He was met with a hubbub of heavy breathing and complaints from Mineta and a few other students.
"How long do you think we've got left?" Tsuyu asked, slowly turning on the spot, looking around the space closely.
"I'm not worried about that, I'm more worried about whether we were followed. Did you see how many other classes came this way?" Rikido asked openly, also looking over his shoulder.
"That doesn't matter either. If we work together and watch each other's backs, it won't matter how many challenge us, there's no way we lose." Izuku responded with a confident smile, although inside he was still quite nervous.
"I like the confidence." Sero smiled, although he didn't look all that confident himself. "Guess we just have to be ready for anything now." He muttered, cracking his neck and getting into a combat-ready stance.
One For All, Full Cowling, Five percent.
Izuku let out a breath as the power encased his body like an invisible carapace. They had to be really careful. If his theory was right, and their class was being targeted, then they were at a big disadvantage. With their quirks all being seen on live TV during the Sports Festival, and with the U.A Sports Festival being such a huge event, there was no way everyone here didn't already know about their quirks.
Of course, it was true that they'd all come a long way since then, but that didn't excuse the fact that the opposing classes had probably already come up with strategies to thwart U.A before things could even really get underway.
Mina was already bubbling up a small amount of acid in her hands, and Mineta had armed himself with two sticky balls. It seemed everyone had the same gut feeling as Izuku in this scenario. There was no knowing how fast people would emerge if they'd planned ambushes, and it was all fair game once that klaxon sounded. They couldn't afford to let their guards down even a little.
It was eerily silent for a moment before the same booming horn sounded; the queue for all hell to break loose. Izuku put his guard and looking to the roof of the nearest building. Instantly what looked to be a whole class burst from their hiding places.
"Get ready to be smashed, U.A!" One of them yelled out.
"I knew this would happen." He snarled to himself, before sidestepping one of the incoming balls.
"We have to split up, staying together will only make this harder!" Bakugo barked, firing off an explosion that blew around five of the balls flying towards him, in the opposite direction.
"Alright, just don't get pushed apart too far, if we get separated it'll be easier to get picked off." Momo responded. Izuku nodded in agreement, pushing off hard to dodge another wave of shots. He skidded to a halt around twenty feet away from his class, who were also starting to separate a little now. Spotting another ball flying towards him, Izuku reacted as quickly as he could, grabbing it before it could hit him.
"Rrraah!" He yelled out, spinning three-sixty degrees and letting the ball fly back to the cape-wearing student who'd thrown it at him. The ball slammed into the target on the student's chest, and it instantly lit up red.
"Nice shot Midoriya!" Kirishima called, hardening his arms and punching away one of the shots that almost hit him. They couldn't stay as one group, it would be too easy to track them all. He couldn't go off on his own to draw attention, because it would only get him eliminated.
"Iida, we have to split up into groups, we've got no chance if we stay here!" Izuku called before he had to roll along the floor to dodge another load of projectiles. Eventually, they'd run out of shots and would have to come and retrieve their ammo, so in that time, they could either split up or retaliate.
"I know! Class 1-A, we have to spit up, get into three groups and when we have a window of opportunity, scatter!" The glasses-wearing Class Rep ordered. Almost instantly the class displaced, rushing off into three groups.
"I thought we were waiting until we had a "window of opportunity"!" Izuku yelled.
"Who cares, just go or we'll be eliminated!" Uraraka hollered, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him behind her. He stumbled a little at the sudden movement, but quickly caught himself, running after her, Sero, Koda, Ojiro, Tsuyu and Rikido. Mina wasn't with him, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't really worried for her, but she was strong and perfectly capable of fighting her own fight. He had to stay confident.
"Midoriya, what do we do?" Tsuyu asked as they ran. Right now, he had no idea what the best cause of action would be. There was no doubting that a group of the class that'd ambushed them were giving chase, and if another class happened to find them, then they'd probably get involved too, since knocking out a U.A student seemed to be something everyone here was hoping to do.
"I-I don't know. Just keep going, we need to find somewhere secluded to take cover. Koda, try draw give us a window to hide." Izuku responded, turning his attention to the almost mute Anivoice Quirk user running to his right. Koda nodded without much hesitation, taking a deep breath before letting out a loud yell.
It took a moment, but a flock of small birds flooded into the open roof of the stadium. It wasn't a large flock, but it was much more than what he was capable of before.
"It's not much, but they should give us a little time." He responded under the sound of suddenly yelling and panicking as the birds flew around their opponents.
"It's perfect! Come on, into the alley." Izuku waved for them to follow, skidding to a halt and throwing himself into the narrow alleyway. His five teammates followed him as quickly as they could all taking cover behind the two dumpsters. It was a pathetic idea, but it was all he could think of in such a short amount of time.
"This... This is nuts!" Uraraka breathed, pushing herself against the wall beside Izuku.
"We should've known something like this would happen." Tsuyu croaked, not daring to look out of their hiding space. After shaking them, there was no way they would just blindly keep running in the same direction. They would search this area as well as they could, at least that's what Izuku would do.
"What do we do?" Uraraka muttered.
"You six keep looking, we'll head back to the others." A female voice ordered before the sound of running footsteps grew fainter.
"Wait for them to pass, once they have we'll jump them from behind. Sero and Tsu and Koda, try and keep out of harm's way until we've got them cornered, then come in and use your Quirks to tie them up and pin them, it doesn't matter how, as long as their movements are restricted. If this works, then each of us gets one elimination." He explained, trying to come up with the most effective plan possible in the short time he had to think of one.
"Sound like it could work." Sero muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully before giving Izuku a confident thumbs up. "Alright, I'll do my best." He smiled before both he and Tsuyu got up from the floor after the final few of the pursuers had passed.
"Wait, why don't you give Midoriya a large length of tape, Sero. He's much faster than the rest of us, so he could move around them whilst us five distract them. He should be able to create some sort of boundary or even constrain them in that time, and that'd get all of us fully involved." Ojiro suggested.
"T-That's actually a much better idea..." Izuku muttered with a chuckle.
"Thank you, that means a lot coming from you." The Tail Quirk user smiled, a small red tinge on his cheeks.
"Alright. Here we go." Izuku muttered, before pushing himself up. One For All, Full Cowling, Five percent. "Sero." Midoriya turned to his dark-haired friend, who began pushing tape from his elbows and into Midoriyas hands. The greenette quickly worked to wrap it around his hands to try and stop it from sticking to itself.
"That enough?" He asked, looking up to Izuku and stopping the tape flow. Izuku looked at it for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, this is great. I'll wait for you guys to move first before doing anything." He responded, standing back as Ojiro nodded and led their four teammates out into the street. All he had to do was wait, and once they were fighting, he could get out there and start working in the restraints for the six opponents they had to face.
Surprisingly, now the exam had started, Izuku's nerves had died off quite a lot, and now all he felt was excitement and adrenaline. This was exactly what he'd wanted to try ever since the Sports Festival; some real teamwork between himself and some of his classmates. This was something else he'd had on his mind for a while. He'd worried that he'd not work well in a team because of his quirk.
From what he'd seen of All Might, he usually worked alone, so how well would he be able to work with others? The Training Camp didn't involve any teamwork for him either, since when he fought Muscular, he fought alone. He'd also overheard Mina talking about trying to become a Hero Team with him, so he wanted to at least try and get a little experience.
"Okay..." Izuku sighed, cracking his neck. "Here we go." He muttered, before carefully shuffling his way to the mouth of the alley, looking out into the street. Uraraka was holding an entire dumpster over her head.
Of course, the effects of her Zero Gravity Quirk would remove almost all weight from an object, so she could essentially use any object as a weapon. Her movement would be slowed because the momentum required to get it to move would stay the same, but lifting it or holding it in place would be much easier. Ojiro, Sero, Tsuyu and Koda were also running beside her. As soon as they struck, Izuku would move out and get to work.
"Now! Uraraka hollered, straining as she pulled the dumpster forwards and let it fly in the direction of their six opposers. Izuku took off as quickly as he could, leaping towards the building on the opposite side of the road. He moved as fast as he could as to not lose his footing, jumping from wall to wall of the buildings, doing his best to keep the tape Sero had created for him from getting tangled up.
Once he was close enough, he could use a lamp post as an anchor and round the six of them up that way. He just wanted to try and be as fast as possible, because if they noticed it would really make things harder for all of them.
Rushing past a lamppost, he slapped the tail end of the tape onto the metal structure and began manoeuvring around the fight as quickly as he could, barely managing to avoid Uraraka, who made quite an impressive backwards spin move to dodge a stretched out fist, that narrowly missed the two. There were all kinds of quirks in this group, and if one of them was elastisity, then they had to really pay attention.
Firing past their opponents he strung the tape between them, doing his best to knock them only slightly off balance as he went.
"The hell is that?" The Elasticity Quirk user asked, before getting cut off as Izuku pushed an armoured girl into him. They were all together, so now he had to see the spare tape to tighten the bonds between them, and once he'd done that, he could focus on the Demon Quirk user.
"Nice Midoriya!" Koda beamed, clapping his hands as Izuku swung the group of five enemy students around and threw them to the floor.
"Thanks Koda. I've still got him to deal with-." Izuku started, turning to where the red-skinned demon had been. Laying there was the same white-haired, scrawny boy from before, laying completely unconscious.
"Oh... Wow... How hard did you hit him Ojiro?" Izuku asked, chuckling as grabbing one of the balls from the pouch on his waist, kneeling at the boy's side and tapping the three targets across his body, before putting the ball back.
"Not sure... I didn't think I hit him that hard..." The Tail Quirk user muttered.
"What should we do now, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked, looking up from the boy and at Izuku.
"We should meet back up with the others like we originally planned. If we're all done here then I imagine they're finished dealing with the rest of the class too." He explained.
"Don't forget, they're not the only class out to get us. There are a lot more students to worry about than that, so we should keep on our toes as we head back to the others." Uraraka added. Izuku nodded. In the excitement of sparring against students again, he'd forgotten about the exam.
"Alright, let's head back to where we were all ambushed. Don't get too closer it'll be too easy knocking us out with a horde of shots." Izuku ordered, before turning and running back in the direction they'd come from. Everyone followed about ten feet of space between themselves and the next person.
So far, they all had one elimination under their belt, but once they'd regrouped, Class 1-A would have no problem wiping out anyone who stepped up to them. However, although getting points was important, it was more important to be one of the remaining one-hundred after the other thousands of students were knocked out. All they needed to secure a technical pass, was one more elimination. After that, their main concern would be survival.
Mina leapt backwards with an elegant backflip, using her new Jet-Stream ability with a weak concentration of Acid to give herself a boost of speed backwards. A whip of pure electricity slapped the floor where she'd been, before dissipating. The girl who owned the weapon also pushed back as both Iida and Toru let two balls fly in her direction, Iida's bouncing off her final shoulder target, and thus, eliminating her.
"Nice Iida!" Mina exclaimed, landing heavily on the floor and skidding to a halt.
"Thank you... Is that everyone?" He asked, looking over his shoulder as Todoroki and Momo's group rounded the corner at the end of the road.
"Now it is." Bakugo grumbled, tapping one of his balls on the forehead of one of the suited trainee heroes from the school that ambushed them.
"Is Izuku's group not back yet?" Mina asked, out of breath, a worried frown coming across her face as the two groups congrigated in the middle of the road.
"Not yet, but he had the bigger groups chase him 'cause... You know... After the Sports Festival fiasco, he's the most popular." Kaminari responded with a shrug.
"I'm sure he'll be back any soon. In the meantime, we should move off in his direction and see if we can't get some peoples second eliminations. Pretty sure I got about three." Momo explained with a smile.
"Class 1-A's here!" A voice called over the rooves, bringing the classes attention to a dark figure standing atop one of the buildings. There was no way more than his own class heard him announce that.
"Uh... Do we scatter again...?" Kirishima asked, hardening his body and getting into a defensive stance.
"No, we stay together, hold steady and once Midoriya's group gets back, we can think about going all out. Stand your ground, 1-A!" Iida growled, his steaming engine exhausts firing up a little and he started his Quirk up again.
A/N: I'm so sorry this chapter took months to release! I've been doing some self-improvement and I've been starting up some art commission bits and pieces, so I've been busy. I really want to start writing as much as I used to however, so look forward to ever more updates! Thank you so much for you continued support, I really massively appreciate it!
Take care!
-ElliottChap