Heya guys, gals and those of other dispositions, remember nothing is stronger than love. Except an M32 rotary grenade launcher, cause fuck you and everyone near you. Now without joking welcome back everyone to yet another chapter of Dragon slayer, Dragon core. First up I want to thank Patch6782 and for being the first two reviews and their answers to the questions of last chapter. Your thoughts will be taken into account. We left off with the months of training being almost all pushed into one training montage and practically at the entrance exam. Which is where we're going to pick it up again, now without further ado here we go.
The months had flown for both boys, with Izuku getting stronger every single day and learning more all the time. For Natsu it was getting used to being young again, along with actually going to school for a change in his life. Sure he had managed to get by thanks to Igneel when he had been raised in Fiore, but now he needed more. Not exactly because he needed more, he had to fit in. Otherwise the consequence would inevitably be that he would get arrested for one thing or another, which would in turn lead to a whole new set of problems to deal with. Inko and Izuku accepting that Natsu came from the afterlife and was asked to help was one thing. If the scientists ever got wind of him being from the world beyond this one dissection would be the least of his problems.
Inko in the meantime had gone back to looking like she had in her younger years and the men of Japan had noticed. The men of Musutafu more specifically, what they also had found out was that she had two very flammable protectors. It would not be the first time that a creepy guy would appear at the hospital with inexplicable burn wound, most of the time muttering things about small demons. Inko was proud of her two boys, even if Natsu was not of her blood she thought of his as her own by now. Almost a year of caring for someone, who in turn did everything he could for their little family would do such a thing. Izuku had also learned quite a bit more about the family from his late father's side. One of the things that he learned was that he had an aunt and an uncle, both with dragon like quirks. They had been very secret about what they were, the moment they learned of Izuku's tendency to ask a million questions a minute when it came to quirk related things.
What they had told Izuku was that they would tell him more if he made it into UA, especially if he managed to do well at the sports festival. Little did the boy know that they were going to tell him anyway, but they thought it would drive him to do his best even more than he would already do. Which was where we find ourselves looking into the last dinner before the big day of the entrance exam. Izuku's favourite food being katsudon was what was being served and a flaming portion of the same thing was kept aside for Natsu. Even though Izuku could very well eat the flames and keep his reserves up that way he hadn't developed the same taste, or dependency that Natsu had. Inko was sniffling at the table. ''I am going to miss you two so much, make sure you wear clean underwear and that you're nice to the other applicants and and and…'' Being unable to say much more she pushed back her seat and went to hug the two boys, one arm around each of them. ''Just know I am very proud of you two.''
With that she went to do the dishes and occupy herself for the rest of the evening, in the hope to tire herself out enough that she wouldn't be up through the night worrying about the two of them. The two boys looking at each other, Izuku with tears in his eyes for worrying his mom and nervousness for the day after. Natsu on the other hand with fire in his eyes and almost buzzing with excitement in his chair. ''Tomorrow is the big day isn't it? The day on which we'll see if I am not a useless Deku like Kacchan always says. Even now that my quirk has become so much stronger than it was before.'' Izuku asked Natsu with a quivering voice, sure he had stopped the crying at the drop of a hat, but years of thinking you were the textbook definition of useless is not something that gets rammed out of your system in a year, even if you use flaming fists to try. Speaking of the flaming fists, Natsu's fists ignited at that question, along with the follow up words. ''How many times do I have to tell you that the afternoon snack has no idea what he's talking about and that you are going to nail that exam and end up second after me.'' It can not be said that Natsu wasn't competitive, but when you're both basically fire dragon slayers/ fire dragons it seemed to come with the territory.
Holding out his hand to go for a fiery fist bump Natsu grinned at Izuku, who could feel himself getting more fired up by Natsu's words. Bumping his own now green hued fire coated fist against Natsu's almost orange fire coated fist he too grinned. ''Prepare to eat those words when I beat you pinky.'' To which the inevitable reply came ''IT'S SALMON, NOT PINK!'' Izuku shook his head with a simple ''You do realize I am just messing with you, right?'' Natsu just shrugged and yawned. They had been resting for a few days, to make sure they'd be rested and at the top of their game. Which also meant keeping a pretty tight sleep schedule. Natsu was still a training nut, but over the years he had learned the importance of not going through with training until the last second. What holding back meant was still a mystery to the pink haired boy.
The two hopefuls went to hit the hay so to speak along with a few more hundreds in Japan. Everyone had the same idea, go to sleep early and kick ass at the exam the next day. The next day came and with that chaos descended upon the Midoriya household. Sandwiches flew through the air, shoes followed the sandwiches, last minute notes were yelled and finally two boys stepped out of the apartment they lived in. One dressed more or less like a beach visitor and the other in track pants and sleeveless shirt, with his track suit jacket hanging loosely over it all. For the latter of the two, it had to be said his ever present red shoes were the thing he wore on his feet, while Natsu still went with sandals for some reason. Their mom still yelling for them to be careful and play nice with all the other kids from the door they ran towards the train.
As the two finally made it to the UA building Natsu had already kept on moving, his goal clear and a fire burning inside of him. Izuku on the other hand was thinking way too many things, muttering a mile a minute as he stood there. ''It's finally come to this, can I do it? Will I make a fool of myself, will I see anyone I know, I'll make mom proud, I'll beat Natsu, what am I doing, I can't do this, I can do this, I'll beat Kacchan, I can do this…'' With that he tripped over his own feet as he started moving again. ''Or I can just die…'' went through his head as he started to make a face plant into the pavement. Only to be stopped at the last moment, with a feeling of weightlessness he looked around to see what had happened. Normal people would likely be more freaked out to not feel their own weight, but after having been thrown around by Natsu in freefall towards the sea it wasn't that unfamiliar anymore.
''It would be terribly unlucky to fall today wouldn't you say?'' A cute brunette asked Izuku as he tried to get in an upright position. ''Release, good luck at the exam.'' The girl said as she moved past him toward the place where the theoretical test would be held. Izuku going beet red in the meantime thinking of how a cure girl had talked to him, even though he hadn't thanked her yet. Which was something the green haired kid swore to himself he needed to do before they were going home again. Hurrying along, trying to not think too much about what was going on he arrived in the theory hall. There he found out he was placed between Natsu and Bakugo, for which he wasn't too happy. ''WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE, FUCKING NERD?!'' Bakugo essentially whisper yelled, the only answer from Izuku was a determined stare and from Natsu the explosive teen received a middle finger.
The purpose this served was a fuming Bakugo and a few small pops coming from his palm just before they got the signal to begin with the theoretical part. Izuku indeed being the nerd that he was, was done rather quickly with his written test. Taking up his test sheet and moving out of the hall where Ectoplasm stood to collect all the written tests, which was rather convenient as he could collect them at all locations at the same time with his clones. By the time Izuku was being shown to the room where they would await the introduction of the practical examination Natsu was ready to pull his hair out. Not that that took a lot of written test time, but he needed to make sure he would pass.
Finally the written test was over and everyone had been shepherded into the hall where they would explain the practical before they would be loaded onto busses. At the center of it all was the hero Present Mic: ''CAN I HEAR A YEAAAH?!'' Was yelled into the hall, only to be met with an almost stunned silence while Izuku was once again muttering up a storm ''It's the voice hero Present Mic, I listen to his show every week, I wonder how loud he can go and if it damages his own hearing?'' Which in turn set of Bakugo ''SHUT UP DEKU!'' Was once more thrown Izuku's way in a whisper yell. In the meantime Present Mic had been explaining that all of them would be loaded onto busses and transported to so called battle centers, in which they would have to battle faux villains in the form of robots. The robots would have point values tied to them and they'd need a certain amount to make it into the hero course.
At that point a young man who seemed to move like the robots that they'd be attacking in a bit stood up complaining loudly. ''It's clearly states in the handout that there are four types of villains, even the screen shows four different types. I was under the impression that U.A. was a state of the art hero school. I would expect something better.'' As a response Present Mic lifted an eyebrow, with a face palming motion, slowly dragging his hand down. One might say he was a bit annoyed, interact when asked, oh no. Take time to get to a dramatic point and there they are. ''I was getting to that, the fourth villain, is more of a gimmick….THEY'RE BIG, THEY'RE BAD, THEY'RE WORTH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. WHAT THEY BRING IS CHAOS, AVOID THEM, OR GET SQUISHED.'' The young man with a lacrima so far up his ass that he could very well be spouting magic, according to Natsu just had to answer.
''Of course a institution as wise and glorious as U.A. would think that was and you, could you please stop muttering, if your plan is to distract everyone as you're obviously not taking this seriously, you might as well get out now.'' He spoke loudly towards Izuku who wanted nothing more than to be invisible at that moment. Only he got back up from two sides at once, only one was appreciated though. ''ONLY I GET TO TALK SHIT TO THAT USELESS DEKU FOUR EYES!'' ''If you take that stick out of your ass you might move normal and get a normal answer Mr Robot, everyone takes it seriously. Can't you cur everyone a little slack for nerves on exam days?...Sheesh.'' No prizes for who yelled what. Present Mic tried to get the ball rolling again by explaining the cards they had received with where their battle centers would be. The three from Aldere quickly found out that they were located in battle centers A for Bakugo, B for Izuku and C for Natsu. With Bakugo being vocal about not getting to crush Izuku along with the faux villains.
Getting on their busses Natsu and Izuku gave each other a fist bump and wished the other luck before stepping inside. The ride didn't take very long and Izuku spotted the brown haired girl from before and tried to make his way over to her, only to be waylaid by the same blue haired guy from the hall. ''If you're trying to make her nervous too, then I once more recommend you take your leave now and find education elsewhere.'' The speakers blaring to life cut both him and Izuku's reply off. ''THE EXAM BEGINS!'' With that Izuku and Natsu sprinted into their respective city blocks while all the other applicants were waiting for something else, like a countdown. ''A REAL BATTLE WAITS FOR NO ONE, IT SEEMS ONLY TWO CANDIDATES GET THAT! GOOO!''
-With Izuku, Izuku's POV-
'Okay I'm in the city before anyone else, at least one thing al that sparring with Natsu was good for. Now for points…' While those words flew through my head I could see the robots approaching me, ''Target found, order to destroy confirmed!'' With that the robots opened fire, causing me to do the same ''EMERAL TORRENT!'' The only attack I had fully named myself, for all others I had stuck to the –enter name here- of the fire dragon. However my breath attack had always seemed like a torrent of emerald flames to me and it also made it a lot quicker to yell, making it unexpectedly quick for Natsu to counter. With that I could feel the fire gathering from my entire body and be expelled from my mouth with great volume, speed and heat. The heat causing the rockets that had been shooting in my direction to detonate early in blossoms of orange explosions. The fire generated by the explosions quickly inhaled, keeping my reserves topped off and ready for use, or abuse if you asked Natsu at times. The torrent of flames now reaching the robots causing them to overheat, or to my great satisfaction to melt to the street. Points were coming in nicely, hearing movement behind me I kept moving. Robots to wreck and points to get, no time to waist.
-With Natsu, Natsu's POV-
Hearing over the speakers that only one other person was gone from the moment that Present Mic had given us the okay I knew it had to be Izuku. 'I swear I might have told him a few times too many that there were no countdowns, or do-overs in fights' I chuckled as I admitted that to myself. Charging ahead of the pack I found my first targets. Not caring what point value they had I coated my hands in fire and punched. Exploding bots, it never got old. Whether they be magical, or mechanical, getting to wreck thing without repercussion was too much fun.
-with the teachers-
All the teachers were watching the screens, looking for the things they wanted to see in prespective heroes. The raw combat ability was pointed out as Bakugo was on screen, recon and intel gathering was coupled to a kid with what looked like twenty arms and different limbs attached to them. Ingenuity was coupled to Izuku when they saw his use the explosions and other fire sources to keep himself topped off, along with his move set. The same screen flicked to Natsu, showing a similar way of moving, but not using the explosive flames, being unable to tell the difference. Slowly but surely rescue points were awarded to applicants left and right. Although one could see them more as hero points due to the actions that got them to that point, like Shoji's calling out of villain groups for example. All might too was in this company and his eyes were glued to the screen that showed Izuku. It had been that boy that had reminded him what it was to be a hero. Calling himself effectively quirkless, he had still charged into the battle with the sludge hero and look at him now.
All might was thinking long and hard, the kid had explained that he had a quirk called Dragon Core, but that it did nothing. He had been looking for him ever since that day to offer him One for All, but now he would wait and see. All might needed to be sure nothing sketchy was going on. Nezu in the meantime was having the time of his rodent life, analyzing what was going on, but mostly he wanted to press the big red button and see all the humans scurry for their fragile little lives. Having been experimented on, no one could really blame the mouse, bear, dog, hybrid animal. He ran the school with his quirk called High specs, using the same quirk to analyze what was going on. Call it sadistic, call it justice, call it PTSD, no matter what you called it, the animal got very excited when humans were uncomfortable, or acting like the rodent he was often made out for. ''All of those things are great points to look for in a potential hero, but let's see how they deal with an overwhelming threat.'' With that sentence Nezu slammed his paw on the bog red button that would release all the zero pointers onto the respective battle centers and set back to watch the scurrying carnage.
-Back with Izuku-
He could see the big robot moving down the city block betting to himself that that was the zero pointer, designed to be avoided. Which is of course the one thing Izuku would have been doing, if it was not for one thing and one thing only. The brown haired girl who had saved him from face planting at the very start of that day was lying with both legs under a piece of rubble that the zero pointer had send crashing down to the ground. He needed to save her, he just needed to. '' I'm sorry Natsu, I told you I wouldn't use it until I had full control of the fire mode. Holy sunfire mode activate.''
With which as mentioned the combination between sunlight and fire activated from his dragon core. Izuku had promised Natsu he wouldn't use it due to the fact that he hadn't mastered fire yet and that it drained his stamina pretty quickly, but he needed it and he needed it now. It had been an accident during training how he had unlocked that mode.
-flashback-
Izuku had been lying on his back after having been thrown into the sand by Natsu, trying to regain his breath he had inhaled and inhaled. The one difference was that he didn't really feel air fill his lungs, he felt power flowing back into him and building rapidly too. It wasn't fire, which at that point somehow still felt a bit ticklish, it was warm though. He thought back then that it had gotten darker around him and Natsu was freaking out a bit. Izuku's hair had gone to a lighter shade of green, his skin almost seemed to radiate light and it reminded Natsu of Sting, Sting the white dragon slayer, although he didn't know what that truly meant. When he had told Izuku about him, the green haired boy had translated it into light, which carried all other colours within itself. However Sting's attack names were almost all with holy in them.
To Natsu it had seemed back then that Izuku had gained similar properties, but kept that to himself. The sunlight had mingled with the fire that Izuku had been using and power flowed over. The junk that was still scattered about Dagobah beach started to radiate heat, like it had been out in the sun for a long time instead of being early in the morning. Izuku had gotten up and his attack had definitely been brighter than before, but he almost immediately dropped down after. The young boy was utterly exhausted and Natsu was rather worried at that moment. Not only because he didn't know how Izuku would respond to the new power, or how Inko would react to Izuku keeling over.
Having woken the green haired boy up Natsu had Izuku promise him not to use the sunlight until he had mastered fire.
-present day-
Izuku's hair got brighter, his skin gained what seemed like a glow and the heat in the area picked up in a more literal sense. Seemingly everyone was running away from the robot and the girl that was trapped under the rubble. Izuku himself ran forward with renewed purpose, racing past the girl he was determined to save in a flash of green. Leaping with his left leg onto a different part of the broken building, a jump from that broken part of the building and the words he would yell came to him. ''ROAR OF THE HOLY SUNFIRE DRAGON!'' With those words coming from his lips a storm of fire followed, white hot and concentrated on the robot in front of him. The bot in question tried to defend itself only to have his arms melted and his torso following soon after. Izuku fell back down to street level with an unplanned superhero landing, those were hell on the knees and he found that he had overdone it with the fire. The boy's throat felt like it was still on fire and his left knee felt like he had had a sledgehammer smashed onto it. Still he went over to the brown haired girl and helped lift the rubble after she had used her quirk on it.
''AND TIME IS UP, NO MORE FIGHTING. GET BACK TO HE BUSSES AND HEAD HOME, YOUR RESULTS WILL COME IN THE MAIL.'' In the meantime Recovery Girl made her round across battle center B where Izuku was and came across the two. ''So dearies, anyone injured?'' Izuku pointed to the girl's legs as he didn't really know what hurt. Recovery Girl took a look and put a kiss on the girl, who in turn put her full weight on her legs again. ''Now for you sonny, what's wrong with you?'' She poked him with her syringe shaped walking stick, only to see winces from Izuku. She could feel the heat coming from him still. ''Probably overheated, although you seem fine for that, but your legs have seen better days, rough landing?'' Izuku just nodded and also pointed at his throat, indicating that it too was not as it should be. Izuku too got smooched and nearly kissed the pavement as the wave of fatigue rolled over him. ''Thank you ma'am. You must be the youthful heroine Recovery Girl?'' The old lady nodded and looked at him with a far more stern face than before. ''That I am, but you should be more careful about using your quirk to such extremes. Now run along.'' Izuku quickly made his way to the busses to wait for Natsu.
-Battle center A with Natsu-
The points were coming in nice and hot, his magic almost back to what it used to feel like when he died. Still it wasn't as powerful as it was back then, but his control was way beyond what it had been at the first time being that age. He was seeing so many people use their quirks at the same time it was almost magical. Natsu finally understood Izuku's fascination with the quirks of this world. He himself had always been curious towards fire magic, dragons and strong fighters. Kicking down another robot with burning feet he looked around. He could hear Present Mic yell something through the speakers, probably something about a time limit. The pink haired boy didn't pay too much attention to it.
That was the moment that he heard a loud crash coming from his left and a lot of applicants were rushing through his field of vision. A huge robot filled the horizon, a dozen eyes and big destructive limbs. Almost all applicants ran from the thing that Natsu now connected to being a zero pointer. All but one in his battle center. There was a girl with huge hands chucking rubble at the robot, trying to lure it away from all the others. Natsu being Natsu couldn't help himself and wanted to fight the big thing. When the bot slammed his right arms through the building next to the girl and she only just got away he got pissy. ''Don't ignore me you big hunk of metal, I'll melt you just like all the others.''
Activating his lightning fire dragon slayer mode he ran towards the girl. ''Throw me at that thing please, pretty please I want to make it take me seriously.'' The girl looked at him and thought he was crazy, but seeing as the robot was about o swing at them again she grabbed him in her enlarged hands and threw Natsu at the robot. Closing in on the head of the robot he threw his head back, still flying and calculating his arc. AT the apex of the arc he was thrown in Natsu looked down and saw he was right above the robot and let loose ''ROAR OF THE LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON!'' The resulting blast tore through the robot from top to bottom, exploding it as it went. Natsu slid down the slope that was created by one of the robot's arms as it had come loose. ''Thanks you , name's Natsu and I hope to see you in class.'' The girl replied with a rather slack jawed ''Yeah hope to see you too, name's Kendo.''
After that the two heard that the test was done and they needed to get back to the busses and go home. Natsu waved goodbye to Kendo and greeted Izuku, who in his opinion looked rather guilty. Boarding the bus Izuku kept worrying if he had done enough to get into U.A. and Natsu was sure that they had at least beat Bakugo.
This is where I will leave it for now. Once again I am asking you all for your opinions on the story so far, if Izuku should accept OFA and who to pair with our main two boys. I hope you all have great day and til next time.
Snowfire out.