Achievement unlocked: TEN CHAPTERS LET'S GO!
A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back to another chapter of Deku and Katsu! I honestly didn't think I could've made it all the way to ten whole chapters. Huge thanks to everyone who favorited or followed. If you end up liking this fanfic, consider F&Fing, it's free, and you can always change your mind. Feel free to give your opinions on this fic or constructive critiscm in reviews if you want to. Enjoy!
P.S. I was listening to "Sparkly Abs" by CG5 on loop while writing this, and it oddly helped me focus.
P.P.S. It's my twelfth birthday :)
Izuku gulped slightly, standing in front of a huge gate and even more enormous walls that encompassed practice center B. The examinees around him were all in awe and shock at the ginormous fake city in the walls that they could just barely see.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's like a city!"
"How many of these are there?"
"U.A.'s amazing!"
How does the school afford building so many of these fake cities? Izuku wondered aloud as he gazed at the huge city he was soon going to be fighting robots in. Suddenly, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. Turning around to have a look, he realized it was the blue-haired boy with glasses earlier on. The boy glared at him with such an intensity that Izuku shrank back a little.
"You! You're doing that annoying muttering of yours again. Can't you see people are trying to concentrate? Are you here just to sabotage us?"
"N-no, of course not! I'm not doing this on purpose, I swear! Like I told you, it's a bad habit I've never been able to take care of!"
The other examinees looked on with glee as Izuku tried to explain.
"Isn't that the guy who tripped at the entrance?"
"Looks like we've got one less competitor."
"How lucky for us to have easier pickings in our group."
Meanwhile, the blue-haired boy continued berating Izuku for his mumbling.
"You should have been aware of how distracting your ramblings were and improved-"
"START!"
Present Mic's yell cut off the boy, and the moment the gate opened, Izuku shot off like a bullet while everyone else stood there trying to process what just happened.
"What's wrong? Life doesn't have countdowns!"
Everyone immediately shot ran into the practice center, and started to look for robots to destroy, only to discover absolutely trashed robots everywhere they looked. They all thought one thing in unison.
Who the heck is this guy?
Izuku's mind was sharp and focused on one thing and one thing only: Getting as many points as possible. He jumped from one roof top to another as he scouted for more robots, and soon a few of them entered his sight. He jumped down from the roof and landed a kick on one of the one-pointer, crushing its head and sending it crashing into another one-pointer, which was flattened. He punched another and made a hole in its main body, before quickly dodging an attack from a two-pointer and delivering a blow that obliterated it. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.
After destroying quite a bit of robots, he noticed multiple people running away from a wide street, suggesting some kind of danger over there. There was no hint of smoke in the air, so it was most likely none of the robots over there had been destroyed yet.
Two examinees, both of them covered with scrapes and cuts, waved towards him, gesturing in the other direction, waving their hand in an X signal.
"Don't go this way! Don't go this way! There's way too many of them, all high-levelled! We can't even get close to them, it's no use!"
Izuku ran towards them, ignoring their warnings. "How many of them are there?"
"It doesn't matter, idiot! You're not gonna be able to get them! Only people with strong quirks are gonna stand a chance there! Just go! Don't waste your time! It's hard enough to even just escape once you're in!"
He looked ahead, and a second was all he needed to make his decision.
That was a clear hazard. If people approached the robots like the two in front of him had, they might get seriously injured. He couldn't let that happen, not when he had the ability to clear it out. In addition, as a side benefit, he needed points, and if there were many of them like the two had said, going in would solve that problem. He stood with clear resolution in his gaze.
"Well, do what you want, no skin off my back. One less person to deal with," one of the boys muttered, and they took off, leaving Izuku behind to charge into the fray by himself.
Taking a deep breath, he picked up speed and turned the corner, taking a glimpse at the robots. Eyes narrowing, he took in the count. They weren't lying! That is a lot!
It could best be described as a scene taken straight out of a sci-fi movie. Skimming over the bunch, he estimated about 12, maybe 15 robots, all of them two-to-three-pointers. Their red eyes swiveled back and forth, searching for fresh prey to hunt, then locking onto Izuku, who was running towards them.
His legs tensed, eyes focused on the robots whose lasers and missiles he knew were coming. He didn't know exactly what they could do, but he wasn't keen on testing that out anytime soon.
Relying solely on his senses and peripheral vision to read and avoid attacks, he advanced as far as he could until he saw a laser beam come at him from the front. He tensed his muscles and readied himself.
Breathe in...
Breathe out.
"HYAHHHHHHH!"
He kicked off the ground, spinning to left to avoid the laser. He felt it brush by his head as he twirled, with the impact crashing into the road behind him, sending debris flying everywhere with a hefty explosion. Keeping his momentum going, he pushed forward, zoning in completely on the projectiles sent at him. Time seemed to slow around as he dodged them one after the other, but he couldn't help but wince slightly when a laser split open the skin on his cheek.
It wasn't a matter of them being fast, he could handle them. The issue was the sheer quantity that made them hard to keep track of. They were coming at him from all sides, and as he dodged one attack, he ran right into the path of another, and the cycle continued. The closer he got, the more he was hampered.
Yet, he was getting close enough to strike. He could feel another spike of pain as another laser scraped his leg, but he ignored it. He dodged a beam coming from above, then from the right, then the left. The robots had him nearly surrounded because of their numbers, but all he needed to do was take down one, and the formation would start to collapse.
His knees were bent, preparing to jump. He clenched his fists tightly as his heart pounded. With a deep inhale, he directed all of his energy to his legs, and jumped as a synchronous blast fired from all the robots.
The beams converged as the ground was blasted apart beneath him, right where he stood a moment before. Soaring above the robots, he finally had enough space to launch an attack. He landed a midair roundhouse kick that created so much air pressure 5 robots fell.
He was still flipping through the air as he passed another robot. It couldn't react fast enough to detect him after its latest shot, given that he took to the air and was above them all. Landing on the ground with the grace of a gymnast, he leapt right back up, and used the enemy's own metallic body as ledges to kick off.
He danced, in between, in front of, from behind. His fists were a never-ending blur, striking out to everything it could reach. Heads. Arms. Legs. Metal crashed down to the ground, one after the other. They weren't built to register movements as quick as his, so all they could do was stand around, trying to locate their assassin, while said assassin took them down, quick as lightning. By the time the remaining two or three managed to locate him, the instrument of destruction played its tune.
He fought. He fought until there was nothing left standing. His body moved on its own, his fists swinging in stances too familiar to even require thought.
The robots never even so much as stood a chance.
"Phew! Well, that's 54 points by now. It's probably not enough to pass, though. Better keep looking."
Those intense, predatorial emerald eyes softened into their usual warmth, that kind gaze so soft it seemed hard to believe that such an innocent-looking boy was capable of so much destruction.
After all, appearances can be deceiving.
He wiped a stray drop of blood off his cheek, and after a quick climb, he was back on the rooftops, looking around for more potential points. After a while of only seeing already-defeated robots, he found someone surrounded by three or four robots and about to be crushed by one. Without thinking, he jumped in immediately and with a couple kicks and punches, he'd gotten himself another 8 points, bringing the total up to 62. After making sure the robots were completely dealt with, he stuck a hand out to the girl he just saved, and asked, "Are you okay?"
Uraraka put her five fingers on a robot rushing towards her and sent it high into the sky, then released it, completely pulverizing it with its descent towards the ground. She let out a soft moan as she felt a wave of nausea attack her, but she forced the rising bile back down her throat. She needed to get more points than just this if she wanted to get into U.A. and become a hero for mom and dad! Her tired body screamed in protest as she took another wobbly step forwards. Her exhausted mind barely registered it when a horde of robots started closing in around her, and when she tried to run, her legs felt as heavy as lead and she barely made it more than a few steps before she fell over. Terror overcame her as she watched a robot lift its giant leg, about to trample her. Move! Move, goddamnit! She screamed at her body, but she couldn't so much as budge. SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP! The words seemed stuck in her throat as she desperately tried to shout for help.
Then suddenly out of nowhere, a boy jumped into the horde of robots, effortlessly beating up the robots with movement so fast he seemed like a blur. Within a matter of seconds, the robots had been vanquished.
The boy leapt down from the carcass of a robot, and stuck his hand out to her, asking, "Are you okay?" The boy had fluffy green hair and eyes a similar shade, and had bleeding cuts on both his cheek and leg. It's the boy who tripped at the entrance! Uraraka realized. Who would've thought that he would be this strong?
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Uraraka took the boy's extended hand and got up with his help. "Just a little nauseous from overusing my quirk, that's all."
"Okay!" the boy replied cheerfully. "Wish you good luck on the exam then!"
He then CLIMBED UP THE SIDE OF A BUILDING like it was nothing at all and started running across rooftops, leaving Uraraka standing there in shock with only one thought.
What just happened?
Meanwhile, Pro Heroes stood in a viewing room, watching as the examinees gained points using different methods.
"In this practical exam, the number and location of the faux villains are undisclosed. The short time limit and large field help to draw out the ability to quickly gather information..."
The screen showed a white-haired boy pointing his webbed six arms in different directions.
"the mobility to respond to different situations..."
A blue-haired boy with glasses ran at great speeds with flames spurting out of his engine- like legs.
"the discernment to stay calm under any circumstance..."
A yellow-haired boy with purple eyes blasted a robot with a laser from his stomach, then turned his head and winked at the camera (heaven knows how he keeps breaking the fourth wall).
"and pure combat ability."
An ash-blond boy with crimson eyes grinned maniacally with smoking piles of defeated robots around him.
"These basic qualities needed for the city's peace are measured by this point system."
"This year's group looks promising." Nezu commented as he sipped a cup of tea.
"You can say that again." Toshinori agreed as he looked at the screen showing a green-haired boy punching through robots with ease. "Nezu, can you pull up the files on that young man with green hair over there?"
"Of course," Nezu replied, rummaging through a thick stack of papers. "Let me see... Ah, here it is. Midoriya Izuku, quirkless."
A ripple of murmurs spread across the room. "Are you sure he's quirkless?" Ectoplasm asked, pointing at Izuku, who was literally punching through the steel armor of the robots with his bare hands. "Because if that right there isn't a quirk, I don't know what is."
There were quite a number of nods and mutters of agreement from the teachers and staff of U.A.. Toshinori was in shock too. He remembered clearly the nervous stuttering boy from ten months ago. Can someone without a quirk become a hero like you? Back then, he'd assumed the boy was just another hopeful dreamer and underestimated him for his quirk status. If he'd known the boy was this strong, he wouldn't have rejected him.
Maybe he could've been a good successor of One for All.
Toshinori firmly pushed away the small voice at the back of his mind. He made his decision. Young Togata was a good successor, and he would never regret choosing him.
"Well, it doesn't matter whether he's quirkless or not, as long as he makes a good hero. I personally think he'll make a good one," Toshinori piped up.
"It's too early to decide." Someone retorted, and the transparent cover of a red button labelled the "Yaruki Switch" slowly lifted up.
"Their real qualities..."
A finger pushed down the button.
"will be put to a test now."
Izuku looked for more robots to destroy. He'd managed to rack up a good 71 points, but he could still get more points just to be on the safe side.
But he was promptly thrown off the roof he was on as the ground shook violently. Not far away, a ginormous cloud of dust and smoke came out of nowhere.
A few blocks away, examinees stared in shock at the monstrosity slowly making its way towards them.
Izuku's worry grew even more as screams of shock and fear came from the general direction of where the dust cloud was. He could see hordes of students running, trampling over each other in their panic. The shaking of the ground became more and more violent as an ominous rumble sounded, making Izuku certain that something big was coming.
I have to go help.
Izuku rushed off, and it didn't take him long to figure out what the cause of all the commotion was.
A colossal robot, easily topping any other robot he'd seen before, towered over a bunch of terrified examinees, all trying to run away from it.
Izuku thought back to Present Mic's explanation of the practical exam. The fourth faux villain is worth zero points. It's just a gimmick that's causing a ruckus throughout each center. I advise you avoid these guys.
Well, I can see why you'd want to avoid this guy. Izuku thought as he stared at the gigantic robot in front of him. It's ridiculously huge!
The zero-pointer delivered a punch to the ground, sending debris everywhere and creating an air current so strong Izuku had to put in effort to stop himself from toppling over.
"Humans show their true colors when they face an overwhelming threat."
Izuku was about to turn away and look for easier pickings too when he heard a weak voice cry out.
"Ouch!"
Looking in the direction of the voice, Izuku froze. A girl with brown hair was stuck under the rubble caused by the zero-pointer's punch earlier. Isn't that the girl I saved earlier? The robot was slowly but surely going forwards. She'll get crushed!
Inside the viewing room, the U.A. staff was getting frantic. "Power Loader, don't you have an emergency stop button for these things?" Toshinori asked, looking at the girl who was ever-increasingly closer to getting flattened.
"I do, but it's malfunctioning!" The man was frantically taking apart the control panel and rewiring it, but he was never going to be able to sort through the tangled mess of wires in time to save the girl.
Izuku bit his lip. He knew he could get more points if he just went off, and the school would probably stop the robot in time.
But what if it doesn't stop?
Izuku looked at the girl trying to pull herself out of the rubble but failing to do so, and the robot that seemed to have no intention of stopping, and let out a sigh.
"Oh, goddamnit."
He bent his knees, his back coiled like a spring, and rushed forwards in a wild burst of speed. He lifted the chunks of concrete off the girl's legs, and put her down in an alley way where she was slightly safer, then rushed back onto the road. The zero-pointer's eight red eyes locked onto him, and it sent its fist flying towards him.
Izuku leapt onto its fist, and ran along it all the way up to its shoulder, where he pulled back his fist and swung as hard as he could into the zero-pointer's head.
The green hunk of metal dented, and as those red eyes flickered out to a lifeless gray, explosions started setting off on his head. Sensing the danger, Izuku jumped off, and landed on the ground unscathed, just in time to avoid the massive chain reaction of explosions that sent the titanic robot toppling backwards.
"ONE MORE MINUTE!"
Izuku started heading towards the alley where the girl was, but a wave of excruciating pain brought him to a dead stop. A quick look at his right hand told him the skin was scraped off of his currently raw and bleeding knuckles, and at least three of his fingers were broken. He groaned in pain when he tried to move his fingers. Correction, all of the fingers on his right hand were broken. Gotta remember just because I have strength that's slightly above average doesn't mean I'm invincible.
Holding his hand gingerly, he stumbled over to the alleyway, where the girl had managed to sit up by now and didn't seem to have too many physical injuries except for her ankle.
"Thank goodness you're alright," Izuku let out a sigh of relief. The girl was startled by Izuku, and turned around. "Oh, it's you! Thank you so much for saving me twice!" She exclaimed. "Don't mention it." Izuku replied, scratching his head with his un-broken hand. "Oh! Is your hand okay?" The girl asked, worried. "It's fine, don't worry. It'll heal in no time!" Izuku tried to reassure her. "Hopefully you're right. I'm sorry you got hurt while saving me," Uraraka said, the expression on her face slightly guilty. "N-no, it's fine! That's what being a hero is about, after all." Izuku frantically tried to comfort her.
"THE EXAM IS OVER!"
Meanwhile, a crowd of people gathered where the destroyed zero-pointer was, discussing among themselves.
"That guy is strong."
"How does he have a quirk like that and be so jumpy and nervous?"
"Maybe it was an act to trick us?"
"I don't see any benefits from doing that though."
As the examinees began debating over the mysterious kid that obliterated the zero-pointer, a boy with blue hair and glasses stood there silently.
That's not it. Didn't you see? That guy jumped forward to save that girl. He risked his time, his safety and points needed to win. Even so, he showed no hesitation!
The boy clenched his fists.
If this weren't a test, I would've done the same, of course!
He grit his teeth at the thought of not saving someone in real life.
Wait...
A test?
Of course...?
Hold on...
An old, sweet voice interrupted his train of thoughts.
"Good job, everyone. Good job, good job." An old lady about half the height of the boy walked towards the crowd of examinees. She wore her gray hair in a bun and had a white doctor's robe on, and the most peculiar thing she had was the syringe-shaped cane in her hand.
"Here, eat some gummies." The old lady put gummies into a confused examinee's hand, who said, "Thanks."
"Here's some for you."
"Thanks..."
It was evident the examinees were quite bewildered, but then a yellow-haired boy with purple eyes said, "That mademoiselle is the backbone of U.A.."
The old lady reached the alleyway where Izuku was slowly helping the girl walk.
"Oh, dear. Are you hurt?"
Izuku had the same befuddled reaction, but he quickly managed to piece together an answer.
"Y-yes! I've got some minor hand injuries, and this girl over here hurt her ankle. You're Recovery Girl-san, right? Thank you for healing us!"
Recovery Girl smiled. "It's not often I get recognized. No need to thank me, kiddo. I'm just doing my job."
There was a very huge gasp from the examinees when Recovery Girl planted a kiss on Izuku's cheek.
"What the...?"
The yellow-haired boy continued his introduction of Recovery Girl.
"She's U.A.'s school nurse, the Youthful Heroine, Recovery Girl."
Izuku's broken and mangled fingers glowed green and started healing.
"Her quirk is a healing factor. The main reason U.A. can conduct such dangerous tests is because of her."
The green glow faded and Izuku's hand was fully healed. His eyes were starry with admiration. That's so cool! But sudden fatigue overcame him, and his eyelids felt heavier than lead. That's right, Recovery Girl's quirk drains the patient's energy...
With a quick smooch, Uraraka's ankle was fixed too.
"Okay, is anyone else hurt?"
The blue-haired boy had a sudden realization hit him.
I see!
If this test is set up like that...
Then he...
A/N: Welp, that's it for now. I know I said I'd upload within a week, but there was some homework stuff and fight scenes are also ridiculously hard to write, so it ended up being three weeks, and I'm really sorry. I don't feel like this is my best work, but I honestly don't want to keep you guys waiting too long so have this for now. Hopefully it won't take as long to write next chapter, see you then.