Please review or even pm me about the story, I can feel the writer's block creeping up on me like an old friend, and even a little boost helps!

Bakugo POV

WHAT IN THE FUCK WAS SHE THINKING! WHY WOULD YOU CUSHION SOME WANNABE BEFORE YOURSELF?

Aizawa POV

I can't say I'm pleased that she was willing to take excess damage, though I do think I saw some kind of ink cushion around herself, but putting others first is a key part of being a good hero. In a situation where the person she knocked out of the air was a real villain, no one would fault her if they sustained some injuries in a fall. However, in a situation where the person you're up against is simply playing a role, you're facing a slightly different decision- especially since time ran out mid-fall.

Akira POV

They sent Haruto and I both to see a nurse before the next exam, him for his arm because it'd started to swell, and me because I guess I got a scrape on my head and now it's bleeding pretty badly. Of course, head wounds always look worse than they actually are. Once we're patched up, we head back to the final test, an area with eight small sparring stages, each with its own proctor, is set up. Someone goes briefly over the benign details of the final portion of the exam. It's a tournament-style match, with one winner culminating at the very end. Matches can last no more than five minutes, and the proctor declares a winner in cases of a 'draw' at the end of the two minutes. We're quickly separated into different areas, and I'm both grateful and sad that we've all ended up in different areas. There are 12 people in each area.

So, there will be six matches for the first bracket at each area, then three. The last three winner will join a bracket with three winners from another area (bringing it down to four matches at a time) Then those three with three others (two matches at a time) and then the final six will compete for the top spot. Simple enough, I guess.

I wait anxiously for my first match, and I feel my nerves start to waver when I see the kid. Immediately, I try to think up ways to beat him. Some kind of power-up type quirk it looks like, or maybe not. He's a pretty built guy, but he could also have a different kind of quirk on top of that... When the proctor calls start to our match, he smiles and spreads his hands out in that way people do when they're trying to sell you something they know isn't worth the air it displaces.

"Now, little girl, you should forfeit now, before you get hurt! My quirk is Crush, and anything I can touch all five fingers of one hand to, I can crush as easily as most people can crush a can. Will you forfeit, or will you fight in vain?" I tip my head at him, realizing something vital.

"Well, I'm not unfamiliar to the feeling of a crushed bone or muscle. Also, my quirk utilizing ink, which is not really crushable- due to its malleable nature. It'd be like trying to crush water or jello. However, I think I've already technically won, as you're out of bounds." Everyone blinks in confusion until they look down and see that the lines for the boundaries have moved to leave me standing in a small circle, and my opponent out of bounds. The proctor sighs.

"I'll allow it, however, no further wins will be allowed due to alteration of boundary lines. Next." I practically skip to my place as winner. At least I got one win out of it.

It's a while before it's time for my next match, and fortunately, I think I'll still have one more round before I face any of my friends.

However, this girl is crazy fast. I'm actually not sure if it's a teleportation quirk or sheer speed. Unlike my last opponent, she didn't see fit to gloat before jumping right into action. A mindset I can appreciate much more actually. After several minutes of throwing up haphazard ink barriers, I get an opening. I lock a strong tendril of ink around the wrist she extended to punch me, she tries to flicker away- and can't. Teleportation quirk. Keeping a firm hold on her wrist, I link it to a solid wall and begin to push her out of bounds. She fights against it, but unable to teleport- she fails.

I look to see which of the girls made it through since some of them did end up together, I'm not surprised to see who's sitting out. I check the board to see who had to fight one another. Fairly predictable actually.

I was in area 1, and then Tikara and Holly in 3, Maiko in 6, Kimiko and Fumi in 7, and Aniya in 8. So in round two I competed against area 2. 3 was vs 4. 5 vs 6. and 7 vs 8.

Which, technically means I was in Group 1 of round 2, I think? I don't know, brackets confuse me. Anyway, Holly forfeited to Tikara in round 1. Which is super smart because that girl is absolutely terrifying. Maiko won her bracket in round one, and in round two. Kimiko beat Fumi, but Aniya beat Kimiko out in round 2. She probably just... Threw her out of the ring, Aniya is kind of crazy good at hand to hand. Better than Maiko actually.

So that means... We're down to two areas. The winners from brackets from 1-4 versus one another, and the winners of 5 through 8 versus each other (6 people in each bracket still). Sadly, I'm not matched up with Tikara. Some poor...unsuspecting soul gets the honors of that. However, Maiko and Aniya are squaring off this time. That ought to be pretty good.

I was very right about their fight being amazing. My fight was slated to go after theirs time-wise, and it was literally ground shaking. Maiko was completely unaffected, at least stance wise. I could see the blood coming out of her ears from here. I wouldn't be surprised if my own have some coming out of my own. Eventually, the sound waves were getting too much even for Aniya, and Maiko couldn't keep up her quirk use, so it resorted to good- old fashioned but crazy impressive martial arts- and ended in Aniya roundhouse kicking Maiko out of bounds 30 seconds to time up. Their group went wild for that fight. Tikara's wasn't nearly as exciting, she hasn't even fully activated her quirk yet, and it still sends people for the hills...

My round is a little less interesting than the previous two, this kid must have gotten lucky, or has taken too many hits to the head today. I win in less than a minute, and all I had to do was side-step a wide swung left hook.

The final round is the last six competitors in a much simpler to follow bracket. I fight some kid with a pretty heavy-duty fire quirk, Aniya fights Tikara, and these two other kids fight each other. The two people with the slowest win times face-off, and then the winner faces the person with the fastest win time to determine the overall winner.

I'm up against the fire user first, and it starts off badly. It's incredibly painful for my ink to be incinerated, something I can't figure out, but I think carefully about some of the prototypes that Mei gave me. It takes a lot of ducking, dodging, and all-around evasion before I'm finally in the right spot. There's enough smoke in the air by this point to pull it off too. I through up as strong of an ink barrier as I can, and then slowly saturate the air outside of it with an explosive laced ink. This is gonna hurt both of us.

The next time he activates his fire-arms, a huge explosion goes off, and through the near black-out headache- I can tell why Bakugo likes it so much. When my win is announced, I make my way over to the bench and sit down. I'm going to be so sore tomorrow.

Aniya puts up a valiant effort, but when Tikara's hair starts to get a grey tint to it mid-battle, she immediately forfeits. We all have a healthy respect for the fact that Tikara is probably our strongest team member, even if she is a little scared of her own quirk and doesn't understand it well enough to use it to its full potential yet. Not to mention the fact that using her quirk is unbelievably exhausting, she's probably running on fumes by now. Afterward the last kids fight, I find out that I have the fastest win, by half a second. Not much, but I will take it. Thank you very much. Tikara wins easily, the kid actually freaks out and bolts backward when she starts to glow black, even though he's already seen it and accidentally trips out of bounds. I'm honestly tempted to ask if he can have a redo...

Standing before Tikara isn't intimidating, I know her, it's no different right now than when we spar at home. In fact, I decide to give her a chance to show what she's really made of. Real villains won't be scared by things like glowing like a demon from hell after all.

"Tikara, feel free to go all out. The proctors should get to see what you're really made of." She smile softly.

"I haven't fully powered up in ages, besides, are you going to use Ink Poisoning then?" I wince, fully powering up takes a huge toll on her at the end of the day, and my special move, discovered by accident, takes one just as huge. But, for the purpose of this exam and respecting the skill level of my opponent? I can deal, I know my limits anyway. I think.

"Deal, ready when you are." When the proctor calls out start, neither of us move. I see Tikara slowly begin to glow grey, and then black and then her eyes turn fully black, and her hair, and her skin turns the darkest shade of grey you've ever seen. As though she herself has become the void that she conjures forth. More than that, the air crackles with an unfamiliar energy. Twisting and turning the natural order of things. However, my own transformation is underway.

Black ink digs deep rivets into my wrists, finding its way into my blood stream. Lighting my body on fire, and showing many of my veins as black against alabaster skin. Ink bleeds from the corners of my eyes, but my vision is unimpeded. The adrenaline in my body disregarding all sensation. My lips turn black, and the red of my cheeks turns ashen. The ink I control snaps hard into focus, and the dyes in the clothes around me are suddenly at my disposal should I wish to use them. I feel stronger, faster, more alive like this. If I didn't know the dangers... It'd be something I'd never stop doing. The battle is a blur, but I hear my name called as the victor, and I realize before I pass out- that it's because I have Tikara pinned underneath me, ink threatening to dig into her own skin if her quirk even dared to act.