It's update time dear readers! UPDATE TIME I SAY. Y'all know what's comin' so I won't delay. GO FORTH AND READ.


"You've been working so hard lately, I'm so proud of you," Inko announced as she fiddled around with the collar of his uniform, "You're going to do great, I know it."

"Th-thanks Mom." Izuku mumbled as he let her fidget. He knew she was nervous and she was simply doing all of this to calm her own sense of anxiety but it wasn't helping him, and right now he needed to hang on to all the confidence he could muster. "Look, I've got to go I-"

"Okay, I know, but just let me make sure you're all set before you leave, okay?"

"Mom I-"

"Do you have your pens and pencils? What about your lunch? You took your medicine this morning, right?"

"Ye-"

"Let me just double-"

"Mom!" Izuku pulled away from her suddenly and with more force than he intended. A sudden coldness came between them as Inko stared wide-eyed at her son, but Izuku quickly closed the gap and put a hand on his mother's anxious shoulder.

A grin, small and shaking, but somehow still laced with a shadow of confidence appeared on his lips as he simply said, "I'm fine, don't worry about me, okay?"

For a second, for a split second, Inko could see him. Him. The smile of his father. Each day Izuku was growing up and turning into a man before her eyes, which meant each day he was becoming just a little more like him. And it was starting with that fanged smile.

With all her heart she hoped, though she didn't believe, that was where it would end.

Sighing softly she pushed her anxiety into the pit of her stomach and pulled her son into a swift embrace. "Good luck today, Izuku. You can do this. I love you, son."

Izuku returned her hug for just that moment. "Love you too, Mom." He pulled away again, though this time it was at least amicable, and opened the door. "But I've really got to go so I'll call you when it's done, okay?"

"Text me when you get on and off the train and when you get there."

"I will, cya later." Izuku was already out the door and into the frosty autumn air by the time he even agreed.

Inko watched him go, standing on her doorstep with her hands pulled up to her chest. Her son, her poor Izuku, she was so proud of how far he had come.

And she knew he still had great things ahead of him.

The train ride was… tedious to say the least. From the moment he sat down it started. Whispers filtering in from around him, vague insults that mostly meant nothing as his eyes flicked around the carriage. He did his best to ignore them, turning up the volume of his phone as loud as he felt he could get away with. At one point he was even sure he had seen something slither under the seat of a man sitting across from him. Izuku, however, shook it off and focused his gaze on his phone.

It had been getting more and more obvious over the past few months and it was starting to trouble him. The more he used the thing the less effective his medication was getting.

It was something he hadn't mentioned to his mother. He didn't see the need to. All she would do was worry further and send him back to the psychologists who would either double his dosage or switch it to something else.

He couldn't afford to go through that, not when he was about to step foot onto the hallowed grounds of U.A. in his one big shot at shaping his entire future.

Of course, all thoughts of whispers and demons halted when he actually got there. He was too in awe before the vast imposing building of glimmering reflected sunlight that was U.A. For a second he simply stood, mouth agape and hands on the straps of his backpack as he marveled at his dream come true. He was here, right here, right at U.A. itself!

He marveled as he passed the busts of famous heroes etched into marble, his mouth widening into a toothy, enthralled grin. He was walking amongst heroes, where All Might himself had trained, where-

Wumpf

Without paying a lick of attention he collided right into someone's side. The moment he did so he staggered back, panic rushing through his system and his scars warming up in response. He bowed several times in a rushed apology and stammered out, "I-I-I'm so, so sorry!"

His hands shot up in whatever passed as a pathetic defense as he looked up. He was tall, the person he'd walked into, and probably rather strong since they seemed to have barely nudged at all.

Familiar. That was the first thing that crossed Izuku's mind as he looked up at the man he'd stupidly walked into. The next was that he looked like a business manager, especially with his flowing charcoal-black coat, fog-grey suit and a plain black tie with a single emblazoned sign that was half-hidden by his waistcoat. His hair was also black, combed up and back away from his face with just enough loose hairs to hint at its untamable nature.

His face seemed almost plain, with a narrow-chin and nose, and with a very light morning stubble to it. But it was his eyes, windowed by a pair of no-rimmed spectacles, which immediately stopped Izuku's stammering.

Black. All black. Except for a pair of simmering dark-yet-light blue pupils. Izuku was struck with the thought of All Might's powerful, righteous gaze, but it wasn't quite the same. There was nothing righteous about that gaze, there was power yes, but nothing righteous.

The businessman had been holding his phone in a leather gloved palm when Izuku had walked into him and his finger hovered over it as he turned to the young man. For a second time seemed to freeze and Izuku was sure he was about to be chewed out by a busy CEO and internally he braced himself.

The man simply chuckled. "No harm caused, son, just watch where you're going in the future, yes?" His voice was smooth and charming, almost devilishly so. A kind of voice suited to boardrooms and corporate lawyers.

Izuku, oddly, felt his anxiety calm at the man's tone. "Y-Yes, sir, thank you." He darted past him, however, he had barely gone two steps before the man spoke again.

"Did I say we were finished?"

Izuku froze and turned slowly back to the man. His voice had suddenly been laced with such authority that he couldn't help but stop dead in his tracks. Again, Izuku felt his scars flare with heat, and yet, the thing whispered no curses into his head. In fact, it remained oddly silent.

The man walked to the shaking boy and stood before him. Again, Izuku felt as though it was only the thin layer of glass from the man's spectacled gaze that allowed him to look up to those eyes which seemed so pitiless and cold and yet full of pride and fire.

"Young man, are you here to take the entrance exam?"

"Y-Yes s-sir."

"Then stand taller. Have some confidence, why don't you." He raised a fist up suddenly and a smile grew on his lips. "Pride in yourself is the first step on the road to victory."

The teenager didn't know how to respond, he simply stood and blinked up at the strange man. "I-Erm-"

"Come on now, shoulders straight, chest out, chin up." He flicked a hand at the boy and the smile continued to dance on his lips. "Let's see it."

Izuku wondered if he should just outright run, strange people giving him instructions on the day of his exam wasn't exactly the best indication of how the day would go. But even so, all the man was doing was being friendly, and he supposed the advice wasn't exactly terrible.

The teenager did as he was told, taking a shuddering breath before straightening up and gripping his fists at his side. Weirdly, he actually did feel better. Maybe he could do this. Maybe he could get into U.A.

"Ha! See! Now you look ready for anything, young man." He strode past Izuku, slapping a strong hand on to his shoulder as he passed him. "Pass the exam, son, and perhaps we'll see one another again in the future."

Izuku turned and watched as the man walked away from him, wondering just what he meant by that. He looked like no hero he had ever seen, though it was possible he was simply out of uniform or that U.A. hired teachers who weren't heroes. Still, the more he thought about it he was so, so sure he'd seen the man somewhere before.

It was right on the edge of his tongue…

"The exam."

"Wha-oh. Right!" Izuku jumped suddenly back into action, rushing off towards the main entrance, all thoughts of anything but exams and his future banished from his mind.


Izuku felt sick. He had prepared for a physical exam. He had prepared enough that he was sure he could pass if he could focus hard enough when the time came. He had even prepared his clothes, making sure he wore loose jogging pants and an old t-shirt.

He hadn't prepared for a mass competition.

There had to be about twenty, maybe thirty people around him as they stood outside the huge, vast doors that seemed to open up to what looked to be a slice of a city. And he had to perform in front of all of them. He had to use the thing in front of thirty people, while cameras watched and recorded him. The thought had crossed his mind that this had the very slight potential of becoming an absolute massacre.

No, he wouldn't let that happen. He had to keep focused, that was the key here. Discipline and focus, if he couldn't keep his head he could blow all of this before it had even begun. He was half sure he had passed the written exam, at least he seriously hoped he had, but this was different. This was where it all truly mattered. His objectives were simple, fight the robots, gain the points, win a spot in U.A.

Something moved through the crowd, instantly shattering Izuku's focus and drawing his eye. Something the size of a dog made entirely of withered arms, rotten meat and teeth was scraping itself along the floor, snaking unnaturally between people who seemed blissfully ignorant of its presence.

Izuku's stomach went cold as he forced a gulp and tried to keep his feet from turning and running. It was just a small episode, nothing big, nothing to break his focus over, it wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't-

He hadn't realized he was moving backward slowly until he was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned and instantly his heart sank into his stomach. The teenager, who kind of resembled a grown man, was a giant to Izuku. Thin glasses framed his square face and the jumpsuit he wore made no secret of his toned physic. However, Izuku already knew of him because he'd been reprimanded by him during their original prep-talk in the main hall. It hadn't been his fault though, he'd spotted a fist-sized spider-like creature with the face of a screaming man moving up towards his desk and had yelped at the sight.

Everyone had laughed, the giant had told him off and he had almost died right there of embarrassment.

"Are you paying attention to where you're going?" His tone was so smart, so stern, Izuku felt like he was being lectured by a teacher, "You almost walked into me while I was stretching. You need to watch yourself, unless of course, you're not taking these exams seriously."

"Oh!" Izuku almost jumped at the accusation, "No that's not it at all I just-"

"Obsessive prideful fool."

"This is a very serious school with a very serious reputation!" The taller boy's arms moved in an almost robotic fashion as he lectured Izuku, who did his best to ignore the whisper that sounded like a guttural, primal growl crawling at the insides of his brain. "If you are not prepared to focus in these exams then you should simply quit now before-"

"ALRIGHT GO!" The tone was so loud that Izuku felt the ground rumble under him. He spun in shock and looked up where the tiny figure of Present Mic was standing, all hair and black leather and tinted sunglasses.

Izuku blinked up at him for a moment before looking around, wondering if he was addressing someone else. Except there was no one else, it was just him, while the rest of the entire group sped off into the now opened doors of the city.

"Run!"

"SHIT." Izuku immediately turned and sprinted after the others as fast as his legs would carry him. Already heat was ghosting across his scars, pushing the boy onwards with greater urgency. For all his training and attempts to conquer the thing he knew at best he had about two, maybe three shots within him before he would be too weak to continue. His plan, therefore, was to focus on high-level targets, or groups of robots together and hope that he could simply turn them into giant, smoking piles of scrap metal in time.

Of course, first he had to actually find a robot to fight and already he was behind everyone else.

"Alright, alright, think." Izuku muttered to himself as he approached a wide crossroads in the center of the city. "If I was a robot, where would I-"

There was a rumble head of him and as he skidded to a halt a huge, green, metal machine rolled out in front of him. Izuku felt the strength almost completely leave his limbs as he looked up in terror at the robotic monster. His scars however suddenly heated up in response and as the bite of fire hit him his brain kicked back into gear.

He threw out his arm. All he needed was to focus and-

The robot exploded… and it wasn't his doing. He blinked in shock, the sharp-bite of the dissipating heat not nearly enough to overwhelm his senses as he looked around to spot a young, thin, effeminate-looking man standing with his hands behind his head and a dissipating beam of sparkling light fading from his stomach. "Ah, thank you for the distraction, mon amie! We make a great team! Shame we'll never meet again!" And with that he was off, running down the opposite street.

Izuku blinked. "Was I… Was I just saved by a Frenchman?"

"Pompous, self-centered coward."

"Shush." Izuku hissed to himself as he took off running again. He had found himself talking back more lately, though it didn't do any good. The thing would hiss in his ear regardless if he responded or not. At least he wasn't seeing any more hallucinations, that really would be the worst thing right now, firing blasts off at things that weren't even there.

"Five minutes!" Present Mic's voice rang out over the arena and Izuku felt the sharp stab of panic once more. He was losing time and losing focus. Every corner he turned he saw more smoking slabs of metal, more ruined robots, and not a single one he could defeat himself. He had been so worried about not having the energy to gain enough points but at this rate he wouldn't even have any points no matter what he did.

"What the hell?!" The panic was gripping him now, crawling up his arms and digging its claws deep into his brain. Heat was moving like waves along his scars, responding to his growing fear. "Why can't I find any robots? Surely there's got to be something around here to-"

The explosion rocked the faux-city like an earthquake and Izuku, along with the two other people he currently shared the street with, were almost thrown off their feet. He turned his eyes to the source of the sound and all color, if there was any color to begin with, drained from Izuku's face.

A zero pointer. The screen back in the main hall had made it seem no bigger than two stories, max.

The robot was so large it almost blotted out the sun. Its upper shoulders grazed the tops of buildings at least twenty stories high, it's monstrous wheels, which ground the earth so loudly Izuku could hear it crushing concrete and asphalt even from a distance, swallowed up an entire, four-lane street including the pavements. It raised a clawed hand and instantly demolished a building that could have housed an entire shopping mall.

People were already running. Some were even screaming. Somewhere above the din of the machine Present Mic's voice rang out, "TWO MINUTES!"

"Flee!"

Izuku's legs moved, stiffly, to set him on course with everyone else. There was no beating something like that, surely, and even so it was zero points so-

"HELP!" The voice cut through everything else. Through the sound of steel crushing stone, through the crashing of rooftop onto pavement, through the haze of static that surrounded Izuku's mind like a light fog. The sound of a girl screaming in pain, in panic, in fear.

Izuku's eyes spotted her, a brown bob visible through the growing cloud of dust in the street before him. She had been trapped under a vast slab of stone, and all the while the vast, monstrous tracks of the four-pointer moved towards her.

His legs began to move.

'FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!' His voice bounced in his mind as he sped towards her, his legs feeling like they were being filled with battery acid and his heart almost exploding in his chest.

Boiling heat raced across his scars, fueling his actions, pain and fire biting at his every limb. His senses sharpened into overdrive, colors brightening and edges contrasting, the sound of the machine roaring in his ears and the feel of his own blood pounding in his brain.

But he didn't stop, he didn't slow down. Every instinct he had was telling him one thing over and over, save that girl.

He didn't notice the taller boy in blue pass him, nor did he notice the look of shock he was given before he carried on.

Before he knew it, he was by her side and instantly he tried to grab her, to pull her arm, to get her out. She screamed at him as he did so, he was too rough, too panicked and the slab too heavy.

Words reached his ears, "SAVE YOURSELF! GO!"

Wide green eyes stared at her, then they looked to the unstoppable force of metal grinding ever on towards them.

"We can stop the construct," Ten thousand hissing voices forged into one screamed into his ears and only his ears, "We are shadow and flame, unleash our fury!"

He knew what he had to do.

"Close your eyes." He called out to her as he let go of her and walked, walked, into the center of the street. "Don't look, whatever you do, don't look."

Izuku felt it. The flood of power, dark and terrible, rushing through his limbs, overflowing from his furnace-hot scars.

"What are you-" Izuku's eyes turned to her and the color drained from her face. "What's wrong with-"

"CLOSE. YOUR. EYES." His voice echoed with more than his own and the girl did as she was told, terror beyond being crushed now gripping her.

The familiar feeling of drowning was overtaking him and he could feel his hands, his feet, his body reshaping from the fire inside him. Every thought, every piece of focus he had however was not on control, not on sticking out his arms and hoping for the best. It was on a single objective, a thought he hoped against all hope that the thing would obey.

'Kill that machine.'

The thing grinned with Izuku's lips.


Uraraka's eyes were screwed tight but she could still feel, still hear. The fire-heat that washed over her face was something she hadn't expected, neither was the sudden sound of wings beating once and only once.

There was a second where she heard only the sound of the vast zero-pointer moving closer, ever closer, then…

There was a scream that sent claws of fear digging into her very soul. A scream that was so terrible to hear that every part of her mind suddenly felt like it was drenched in black mourning and fathomless dread.

Then the world shattered.

A bomb-like explosion went off above her and everything lifted into the air, throwing her, the slab that had trapped her and the window of every building in the street flying backward. It was a cacophony of noise, of shattering glass and screaming metal.

Fire washed over her skin and she could feel a thousand new bruises form as rubble pelted her body. Her back collided with something solid and she realized, with a sharp pain, that she had hit the side of a building.

Uraraka landed onto the pavement in a heap of dust and shattered glass, the cuts already biting through her clothes and skin.

But the boy. The boy!

She looked up and for a moment all she saw was a cloud of blue fire, ash, metal and absolute devastation. What had once been the monster-machine's face was now nothing but open air filled with flaming, falling debris, what had once been its entire body was a cavernous hole of wire and oil and fire and smoke.

Then she saw something new. At first she wasn't sure what she saw, it seemed to be nothing but a shadow against the sky, something sharp and dark, wrapped by what she swore were leathery wings, but then, as it fell, all of that was revealed to just be a blanket of crumbling black ash.

It was the boy. And he was falling. He was falling fast.

She moved. Her back felt broken, her limbs felt shattered and everything in her body was screaming sit down Uraraka you stupid bitch. But she moved. Her timing had to be perfect, her aim had to be perfect, or the falling boy bleeding ash and smoke would be dead the moment he hit the pavement.

She ran, one foot landing on a fallen piece of machinery and she leapt at the last possible moment, swinging her hand just in time to slap the boy across the face.

He stopped falling. Uraraka hit the ground in a crumpled scream and rolled, knowing now for certain something inside her was broken.

But he stopped falling.

She curled into a ball for just a moment, fighting the urge to scream, to cry, to throw up. Finally, however, her eyes opened and there he was.

The boy. The boy with the unkempt hair and pale skin and the bags under his eyes. The boy with the scars that she dared not ask about. He floated lightly in mid-air like a feather caught in a breeze. His t-shirt was ruined, torn and burned beyond repair, his shoes were missing too, having at some point simply been torn or perhaps disintegrated from his feet as his sweatpants seemed burned up to his shins.

His eyes opened slowly and, against everything that had just happened, he smiled. No, he grinned at her, and for the first time she noticed his teeth.


Izuku grinned at her. He didn't know quite why, maybe it was because he'd been knocked stupid by his own power, maybe it was because his body felt like it was about to crumble apart, or maybe it was because somewhere inside him he knew that's what a hero did when they looked utterly broken.

"Are, you okay?" It was the first thing he could think to ask. His mouth tasted like ash and his throat burned but he had to ask, he had to know. His body was howling at him, not just from the pain of his scars, though that was indeed part of it, but from the sheer force of energy he had spent to do all of that. He had trained to fire three shots, maximum. He had just demolished something that could have torn through downtown in a minute.

Even the thing seemed exhausted, the usual bubbling, churning growls of black hate nothing but a whimper inside him.

The girl nodded at him, then she said something unexpected. "Sorry."

He blinked slowly at her. "Sorry?"

"For this." Her fingertips came together and gravity gripped him with a jealous hand.

He dropped like a sack of old potatoes and landed with a concentrated scream of pain onto the floor. His fingers and toes felt numb but the scars across them pulsed with a residual burning heat that reminded him that, yes, he was still alive and, yes, he was an idiot.

But the girl was safe.

She was throwing up on the floor but that was fine, it was all fine. She was safe.

Ache and pain tore through him as he raised an arm and slammed it down on the ground and by sheer force of will he began dragging himself forward. His teeth gritting together as he refocused whatever strength was left within him on getting back to the task at hand. His voice was weak and breaking but even so he hissed out, "I just need one point, just one and-"

"AND TIME! THANKS FOR PLAYING, CALLERS!"

He thought he didn't have the energy to feel upset and yet somehow tears still formed at his eyes. It was there, in the back of his mind, selfishly nagging at him despite everything he had done. It was over, all of it. His one chance at becoming something, someone, was over.

Exhausted, ruined and devastated, Izuku wept.


So quick question my dudes, firstly did you all enjoy that chapter? More hints at Izuku's thing-form and of course that rather critical interaction with... his mother. Yes, his mother was important there. (Psst, I'm not kidding it actually was.)

Second, would you like the chapters to be longer, shorter, or is this length fine? I'm finding that in order to keep the plot moving quickly enough for my own liking I'm doing a ton of editing of scenes that I absolutely loved writing and it's... I dunno. Making me wonder if longer chapters might be called for.

Then again, I don't want to burn you all out or have you reading like, 8000 words an update because that would just be silly. Or maybe you would. I dunno, fan fiction has changed a lot since I first started out like, seventeen years ago.

Please do tell me what you all think and UNTIL NEXT TIME MY DEAR READERS!