T-T-T-TIME FOR AN UPDATE! And it's... like 20 minutes late. Sorry about that. ANYWAY UPDATE TIIIIME.
Also, you all made me very proud with your guesses on Son of David. So much so that some of your guesses have made me reconsider parts of the story to better fit the thematic ideas you guys suggested. You're all amazing readers and I'm thankful for all of you.
Enjoy a chapter where Izuku screws himself up once again.
The entire time he got changed into his gym clothes Izuku was gripped with the thought of having to use the thing openly in front of other people. Sure, he'd done that in the exam, but that had been an emergency. Now he was simply expected to just… use it. Like anyone else. In front of people he'd be spending the next three years with.
What would they even think of him when it became quickly apparent he had only the barest grasps on the reins of a monster that lived inside his blood? However, once he got onto the field, what he saw swept away the anxiety of using the thing, at least for a few moments.
Rope swings over sand pits, walls with footholds, crawling spaces, tires and hanging ladders leading both up and down huge ramps, each with their own swirling, spinning, chaotic looking devices all designed to test a person to their absolute limit. There were two rows of these courses, each a perfect mirror of the other.
"Welcome to the U.A. student obstacle course." Aizawa announced in a bored tone. "I'll be sending you out in sets of two to complete the course as fast as you can. Now I'm sure you've done something like this before." There were a few murmurs from the class, though Izuku kept his mouth shut. He'd always been left out of these kinds of things and usually by choice. If he had an episode while climbing a rope he could fall and break his neck.
Now, however… now he supposed he had no choice.
"However, before I'm sure you were told not to use your quirks to keep it fair. That is illogical. During the test I will be watching to see not just how physically fit you are, but also to see how well you handle your quirks to complete the course." Aizawa continued, bloodshot eyes scanning the class disdainfully. "Each of you got onto this course because you passed a written and physical exam. However, such things like speed or destructive power don't matter when looking for raw potential."
Izuku felt himself stiffen at the statement as a rod of cold iron ran down his spine. What was his raw potential? Did he even have any? The thing was powerful, he would easily admit that, but the way Aizawa talked indicated he was looking for something more than just power.
He was looking for ability, usefulness, practicality and perhaps the drive within each individual student. Izuku had to admit, for as scary as his new homeroom teacher was, it was… kind of a smart move to make.
"You'll race against your opponent as well as for your own personal best. Whoever comes in last overall will, of course, be expelled. If you have no potential, you have no place in my classroom."
And that was a horrible move to make.
Anxiety flared through him like a suddenly lit match, heat washing over his scars and biting softly across his limbs.
'Oh God I'm going to fail.'
"We will succeed."
'How?'
"We are shadow and fire. We will succeed."
Izuku bit his lip though, weirdly enough, he couldn't help but feel a sliver of confidence run through him. Could he win this? The thing was powerful, and he'd been working out all summer long, he was sure physically he was strong enough to at least land an okay time without his quirk usage.
But he knew he still had at best three shots within him, since simply letting go was absolutely out of the question. All he had to do was try his best and pick his moments carefully. Maybe then he could squeak through with a decent enough time not to get expelled.
"Alright." He mumbled to himself as his eyes scanned the course, examining each part in turn. "I can probably get past that point and that point fine, that might be an issue but I think I can jump-"
"You." The voice of his teacher snapped Izuku out of his thoughts and he almost literally jumped. Aizawa's eyes narrowed on him and a scowl appeared, barely hidden by the odd gray scarf he kept around his neck. "Stop mumbling."
There were a few snickers from the class and Izuku went bright red. "S-Sorry, sir!"
Aizawa seemed to study him for just a moment more looking away. Izuku, however, caught something in that gaze that wasn't just a teacher silencing a student. There was almost a hint of judgment to it, as if he was being filed and logged away for future reference.
It made Izuku all the more nervous. Now his teacher thought he was weird.
"First two up, Denki Kaminari and Hanta Sero."
This went on for some time while students, each called in pairs, were set onto the what almost immediately became obvious was not actually an obstacle course, but some kind of villainous torture machine designed to beat students up in the most humiliating fashion possible. Some students, of course, managed to fly through it. Katsuki being one of them, another boy named Shoto Todoroki being another.
Some however, such as the blonde French boy, who apparently wasn't French at all and was actually called Yuga Aoyama, ended up coming out of it looking like they'd gone a few rounds with All Might.
Even so Izuku watched everything with rapt attention, mentally noting down how certain people mastered certain obstacles or even avoided them altogether. The displays of amazing quirk usage made him nervous for his own usage of the thing, but even so he had begun to narrow down three points which he was sure would be the best moments to use it.
One point was a gigantic wall which he would need to possibly jump right over to save the time he needed to not be expelled.
The second was an odd part of the range where one had to throw a ball at a target, hitting it to open the next and ending part of the course. The harder one threw the better score one got. Using the thing there would surely gain him much-needed points.
The third was a huge, almost vertical ramp which one had to climb up to pass the finish line. Its placement was devious, obviously designed to draw out whatever lasting strength one had left at the end of a punishing set of challenges.
Yet, even with a basic plan of action in mind his stomach still turned to jelly when he heard his name called out. "Izuku Midoriya and Eijiro Kirishima."
The teenager stepped forwards, practically shaking in his shoes as he approached the suddenly all too imposing obstacle course. If he could pale he would have done, instead heat crept across his scars and his limbs felt the tug of shadowy power as the thing grinned wolfishly from within his heart. It hungered for this challenge. Izuku did not.
"Hey man," A voice, friendly and boisterous came from his left and Izuku turned his head. Just a few paces from him stood a boy, apparently named Eijiro Kirishima, with the brightest and spikiest red hair Izuku had ever seen. He warmed up slightly as light red eyes matched the sudden grin that flashed across shark-like teeth. Honestly, Izuku had never seen anyone who looked like him before, though the hair rang a bell. "Good luck, yeah? I know we could be expelled if we do bad but, still," He held up a fist which suddenly took on a solid, stone-like texture, "Let's rock this thing."
Izuku suddenly found himself smiling back, though his was made more of out paper than rock. "S-Sure, good luck."
"Hey!" Kirishima's grin grew wider and his eyes lit up. "You've got sharp teeth too! Hell yeah!" He took a few paces towards Izuku suddenly and held out his fist. "Tooth bros!"
"Tooth bros?"
"… Erm, o-okay, why not." Izuku held out a shaking fist and bumped it lightly against Kirishima's. "Tooth bros."
"Awesome!" The redhead grinned, though quickly hopped back into place when Aizawa scolded him for moving from the starting line.
Izuku breathed deep. The warmth of infernal fire was licking along his scars and the hints of terrible power teased the corners of his mind but he found his focus narrowing on what was just before him.
His legs felt like jelly and his heart was starting to pound but his head remained clear, clear enough at least to know it was now or never. He had passed the entrance exam, he had started to master his curse, he had proven his own doubts wrong over and over again for the past eleven months. His fingers pressed hard against the rubber flooring of the obstacle course and sharp teeth gritted in his mouth.
"We can do this." The thing whispered like cold ice on old gravel, "We are shadow and fire."
For some reason, in that small moment, Izuku believed it.
Their homeroom teacher came to stand at the edge of the course as his gaze moved from one boy to the other, each kneeling down in preparation. With all the passion of a DMV worker, he loudly announced, "Alright, get set… go."
Izuku burst into life.
The first ramp was scaled easily, as was the drop immediately afterward which Izuku turned into a roll. He leapt up, grabbing the swinging rope over the sand pit and made it across without worry. All the while his heart pounded, his limbs burned with heat and the wide, wolfish, nightmare-grin of the thing within him widened.
But he was doing it.
His entire focus was on the course, rushing and pushing as he could through each second. A swinging padded arm missed him by a hair as he dodged, then jumped, then ducked and rolled and ran as he navigated the course.
He was onto the rope cling next, swinging and jumping and grabbing as he did so. He glanced a look left and, to a mix of hot anger and shock he saw Eijiro almost neck and neck.
An emotion gripped Izuku suddenly across his chest. An emotion he was utterly unfamiliar with but one he embraced with wide arms.
The burning desire to win.
Sharp teeth flashed in a demon's grimace as he forced his body to go faster, to work harder. His lungs were starting to burn and his limbs aching with swift and strong usage but he knew he could do this, he knew he could make it.
Then first true obstacle approached. The huge, straight wall with only a few minor handholds. He had seen several of his classmates struggle here, though even as he approached the image of Katsuki simply blasting his way up the wall flashed through his mind.
Despite a lifetime of being beaten down, being shoved into the dirt and told he was useless he suddenly decided something like it was simple, irrefutable fact.
'I can beat Kaachan up this thing.'
The moment he got to it he stopped and closed his eyes, just as he had practiced before. One deep, shuddering breath as his focus turned from the course to his shaking legs, to the teasing darkness of black power, to the call of the thing within his blood.
It responded. He felt it flood through him suddenly, boosted by his pounding heart and acidic lungs and his burning wish for victory.
Izuku forced it into his legs where his scars lit up like hot coals. He could feel it, the muscles and bone shifting and tearing and moving within his skin. The ground burned and blackened under his feet, but he hardly noticed as he gritted his teeth through the knife-like pain of the flesh-change.
Then he bent his knees, leaning onto toes which seemed too sharp and too long for his own shoes, and jumped.
From somewhere he heard gasps, perhaps even a shout, but it was all drowned by the sudden rushing wind through his ears as he shot upwards like a blue and white rocket.
He cleared the wall.
For a moment his heart leapt within his chest as the absolute joy of actually doing something amazing gripped him. He had jumped the wall! The entire wall!
Then suddenly he realized why that was a bad thing.
He had jumped the wall. Walls had two sides. The other side to this wall was a direct drop back down.
Izuku began falling like a brick tossed from a skyscraper and he knew he had barely a second to think of a way to not break both his ankles the moment he landed.
"THE WALL!"
Izuku turned, threw out his hand and forced every remaining ember of the thing through his palm. For a micro-second time seemed to slow to a crawl and he saw it, the black shadow coating his fingers and palm at an impossible speed, his scars lighting up with the infernal blue flame like the window of a furnace and then-
Boom.
The force of the explosion threw him away from the wall like a bullet from a gun. There was no time to think, no time to prepare as he hit the top of the monkey bars with a painful sounding crack.
He bounced along them spinning and hitting them again, and again, and then rolling to a fall from the other end, hitting the padded floor with a painful cry.
He gripped his chest tightly in a tender hug as he curled up, the smell of smoke fire and burning cloth filling his senses. His chest felt numb and the raw, powerful pain of using the thing pounded through every inch of his being, especially his chest and legs. He wanted to cry out in agony, to curl into a ball and sob bitter, stinging tears.
"We must move!"
But there was an obstacle course to beat.
His teeth ground in his mouth. "Get up Izuku. Get up, get up, GET THE FUCK UP IZUKU."
"ON OUR FEET. WE MUST WIN"
Izuku forced his screaming limbs to work. He knew there was only the ball and target test then the huge ending ramp. His chest was radiating pain and he guessed he'd fractured, maybe even broke one of his ribs. Still, he could do this, he could use the thing one more time and force his body up the ramp to victory.
"WE ARE SHADOW-"
"-And flame, yeah I know." Though somehow the mantra brought him some measure of confidence. It at least forced his limbs back into motion and at least they were both on board to finish the course.
He began moving again, somewhere in the distance he could hear someone screaming but he didn't care. Schizophrenia or cheering classmates he had no idea but he couldn't focus on that right now. His body cried out in protest as he hobbled over to the throwing range, picked up the simple ball and looked to the target.
Just this last one and he could do it. Just this last obstacle, then the other last obstacle, and he'd win.
He couldn't aim straight, his arm was shaking from the pain throbbing from his ribs and the energy sapped from his body from using the thing was making him feel like lead. He forced his arm back up, all he needed to do was fire it at the target, which was basically a giant mattress with a bullseye on it.
"Focus, our aim is true."
Izuku frowned, held up his arm and breathed. Once again his eyes closed, once again he opened the floodgates and allowed his curse to consume his arm. At the last possible second he moved back and threw the ball, again for another micro-second his felt the thing reshaping his bone, muscle and skin, he felt the claws burst from his fingertips, the burning force of raw power rushing through his arm.
Boom.
The force of the blast threw him backward and his body screamed from the pain that tore through every limb. Blue fire and black smoke swarmed him like a hurricane before dissipating just a second later.
Izuku coughed the smoke from his burning lungs. He was struggling to get back onto his feet, the world around him was dizzy and sharp and moving and turning. He could see the mattress though. He could see the vast, black bruise that his throw and punched into it and the dancing blue fires that had caught along the net of the throwing range.
That had to be enough, right? Surely. He looked up to where a scoreboard blinked out a number. It was a pretty high number, eight hundred and thirty-two. What that meant he wasn't sure but he knew it was good, certainly within the high ranges of the others who had taken part so far.
He grinned a wobbling, weak grin to himself. He didn't know he had it in him.
"WE MUST MOVE."
The thing had a point.
Except he was finding it hard to move. He turned and the world swam in a mixture of flooding colors and sharpened edges before it mushed back together again. He had to keep going, he had to win. He wanted to throw up everything in his stomach but he had to win.
The previously closed area, blocked off by a simple plastic wall, had now opened to reveal the final, daunting challenge. A huge warped wall ramp. It was much like the beginning one, except a far sharper curve. And he had to get up it.
Briefly he thought about using the thing on his legs once more but he knew he wouldn't have the control, he would slip and either collapse on the burning scars of his legs or the thing would simply take control.
That wouldn't be good.
No, all he had for this last challenge was raw, unadulterated willpower. He could do this, he could do this, he could do this.
With an almighty scream of determined rage Izuku threw himself at the ramp and managed three steps before tripping forward and landing flat on his face. Another strangled yelp of pain but at this point he was being driven on pure adrenaline. The throbbing ache of his body being pushed to the edge was forcing him forward, demanding results.
He got up again, the earth still spinning from under him as he backed up, wobbling, then charged, pushing himself forwards before leaping upward and hoping against all hope he would grab the edge of the ramp.
Fingers connected, digging into the cold metal of the warped wall's edge. But there was no strength in his arms and already they burned and screamed and ached from the effort of simply reaching forwards. He would lose. He would lose because he had done too much and demanded too much.
For just a fleeting moment, tears welled in his eyes as the thought of another crushing loss entered his heart.
"WE. WILL. WIN."
He could feel it. The oil-thick flood of power moving through his body, threatening to down his limbs, his heart, his head in shadow and flame.
"NO!" Izuku knew that feeling. He had felt it only rarely, but every time someone had been hurt, someone had suffered because the thing had slipped through his shaking grasp. He had less than a second to do this in, less than a second to think of some way to stop the living nightmare of his blood from consuming his body and wreaking havoc on everything around him.
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT ANYONE!" Izuku screamed as he pushed everything of the thing into his arm, holding it down and forcing the venomous power through his fingertips.
The ground under him exploded with the force of a bomb, throwing him upwards like a tossed ball. His body screamed with pain, his chest feeling like someone was driving a rusty sword through his lungs, before he fell sharply and landed with an uncomfortable and wince-worthy crunch onto the top of the ramp, which was of course followed by more screaming from the boy.
His body was on fire, he was sure of it, and through his swimming skull, he could hear the nightmare-voice of the thing howling a thousand foul curses at him, blaming him for their imminent loss and his lack of strength.
Izuku ignored it, he was in too much pain to even hear half of what it was saying. He had used too much, he knew that, he was on the verge of blacking out from complete exhaustion but he had to win, all that was needed was one last, tiny burst of energy and he could do it.
He summoned everything that he had left, everything that he at least dared to gather into his screaming muscles, and in one heroic jolt of movement he threw himself up, smashing the buzzer with his hand before collapsing back down into a piled heap.
Above him, he heard a little jingle and green lights lit up.
He'd done it. He'd won.
And that's when Izuku finally blacked out.
He awoke with a spasm-like jolt a few minutes later and for a moment his vision was filled purely with a pair of large red eyes gazing down on him. "Dude? Dude are you okay?"
"WE ARE FOOLISH." The thing almost immediately scolded him like an angry housewife, causing Izuku to wince and grind his teeth. Though oddly he could hear the exhaustion within its nightmare voice, almost as if it too had been drained by his reckless actions. "A pyrrhic victory is no victory at all!"
Izuku immediately began to mumble a reply before being suddenly cut off by the excitable red-head. "Oh, good! You're awake!"
The world was a spinning circus of colors, lights, sounds and sensations that were all melding and fixing back into place. His chest ached so bad he thought he would faint again and he felt as though each of his limbs had been violently pulled off and stitched back on again.
"Give him some air!" Another voice joined in suddenly from his side, it was Uraraka. "He doesn't look too good."
"To be honest, he didn't look that good to start with." Kirishima replied with a shrug.
"I'm fine." Izuku mumbled out, though it was mostly lost on the people who seemed to be fussing over him.
"Are you alright? You hit those monkey bars pretty hard, and I think I heard something crack when you landed on the top." Uraraka was hovering over him.
"And now we have these filthy sinners fussing over us, this is pathetic. We are better than this."
"Shuttup." Izuku mumbled as he began to pick himself back up. "They're not sinners."
"Who's not a sinner?" Uraraka suddenly asked as her wide, kind eyes frowned in confusion.
Izuku immediately panicked as he realized he'd been talking out loud again. "Wha? Oh! Nothing! Just, erm, mumbling things, probably got a concussion or something, you know?" He attempted a very fake laugh but the moment he did so his chest blossomed with pain and he winced while instinctively raising a hand up to cradle it.
"You are hurt! I knew it." Uraraka frowned as she stood up and took a step back. Izuku looked around only to realize that Kirishima had dragged him back over to the bleachers, though he had been laid out on the nice warm grass. Oddly enough he could see Katsuki standing on the very far end of the seats glaring nothing short of pure, concentrated hate at him.
Izuku only blinked dumbly at this as he suddenly realized that this was, actually, the first time Katsuki had ever seen him use the thing in any context that wasn't causing himself intense pain. Though technically it still was within that realm since he had beat himself into utter exhaustion and possibly broke a rib.
Still, it had been better to knock himself out than let it take his body and slaughter half the class.
The thing grinned within his blood. "Let him throw his little tantrum. The Brat will soon learn what we are truly capable of."
"Izuku Midoriya." The boy's attention was immediately pulled forward. It was Aizawa. At some point he had come to stand in front of the small group surrounding Izuku, his arms folded sternly across his chest.
He didn't sound pleased. He didn't look pleased. In fact, pleased was pretty damn far from anything which Aizawa represented at that exact moment. "Pushing yourself into unconsciousness was not part of the test."
"I'm sorry," Izuku mumbled out as his senses continued to fix back into place. "I just… I really wanted to win."
"Hurting yourself isn't conducive to being a hero." Aizawa sliced in with ice cold authority. "Your use of your quirk is unwieldy and uncontrolled. Unless you learn to use it better, you won't make it in this course." Izuku sat in silent despair as the man reached into his pocket and drew out a small slip. "Take this pass and go see the old lady, get fixed up. I'll send word if you've passed or not."
"The Hebrew speaks lies," The thing practically spat into his ear, "We are power and blood and fire, we are not unwieldy!"
The teenager gritted his teeth together as he fought back a sharp, snappy reply. Now he suddenly understood what it meant by 'Son of David'. Where the thing had gotten such an idea Izuku didn't know, but it was insulting and rude and he hated it. He hated the thing for saying it. He hated himself for knowing that it had come from inside him, from the curse in his own blood. He hated the fact that his teacher, on his first day, had already pinned him as the problem kid who had no idea what he was doing.
With a shaking hand he reached out and took the note from Aizawa and with the help of Uraraka and Kirishima, he was lifted to his feet. He hadn't asked for their help of course and had already moved to do it himself, and yet, their arms had scooped up under him and helped him up anyway.
What was it with people being nice to him around here? Didn't they see what the thing was like? Didn't they see the horror that he saw? They certainly would think twice about him if they knew the things it said about them.
But that was his curse. A normal, plain-looking boy was the cover for something made of bile and horror and hate.
As he began to leave he turned to see Tenya take his place on the course next to a boy he didn't know, one who had the head of a crow, beak, feathers and all. For a second their eyes met and Izuku almost tripped as the thing suddenly seemed to jump within the walls of his mind. "A seventh son!?"
"Oh, will you please, shut the hell up." Izuku openly mumbled to himself as he rubbed his head and made his way towards the main campus building.
He had fractured his rib cage, which wasn't as bad as what he had thought, actually. Recovery Girl fussed at him for being hurt on his first day and the forehead smooch of healing had almost made him to go sleep but he was otherwise set to go, albeit with a warning to not exert himself too much over the next few days.
Just before he left Recovery Girl had informed him that Aizawa had sent a message along telling him he had passed and that the expulsion threat had been nothing more than a 'logical ruse'. Izuku's relief was almost palpable. He'd done it, he'd made it through his first day in one piece.
As Izuku made his way back to class he looked once more to his scarred hands. A vision flashed before his eyes. The void-black ink that consumed his skin like leather, the vicious, talon-like claws that had grown from the tips of his fingers.
His hands curled into fists and dropped to his sides. His teacher was right. He had almost no real control over the thing, and what little control he had was unwieldy. He blatantly couldn't use his power without exhausting himself and using it to excess ruined him to uselessness.
But how else could he possibly use it? It did what it wished, when it wished, and without gripping onto it tightly with two hands at all times he would utterly lose control and then…
Whumpf.
"I-I-I'm so, so sorry!" Izuku immediately stammered as he stumbled back away from whoever it was he had just walked into. He looked up, his eyes wide and his hands up in shock but the moment he locked eyes he froze.
"Well, well, well. You know I believe I told you once before to look where you're going." Black, pitiless eyes smiled back at him, the shining-dark, freezing-hot blue flashing with humor.
The businessman.
"I-I-I-"
"It's good to see you passed the exam, son, well done! You know I was rooting for you." He chuckled in a genial manner as he brushed his fog-grey suit down. Again, he was dressed immaculately, sharp and cool like a middle-aged CEO. "When I had time, of course, most of my day had been taken up with meetings. It's a new school year, after all, lots of things to iron out before the chaos starts."
"I-erm, thank you?" Izuku really had no idea what to say to the man and began trying to edge around him, "I should really get going though so-"
"What's your name, young man?" The man again looked to him, gazing at him through his spectacles. "If you're going to keep walking into me I might as well know your name."
For a moment Izuku found himself unable to form words. Why did this man make him feel so nervous? So on edge? And why did he seem so familiar? He knew he'd only ever met him once before and yet there was just something about him, something right on the tip of his tongue…
"So you're going to make me go first, huh? A wise move, son, names have power after all." He put a hand up to his heart suddenly and gave a slightly theatrical bow. "My name is Hisashi Hokori."
"I-Izuku Midoriya." Izuku slipped his own name out before he had even considered it. It was the polite thing to do after all, right?
It was so subtle, so fleeting that he almost missed it. A single microcosm of something that passed over Hizashi's face. Izuku was only half sure he saw it, but he was certain it had been there. Pride.
"Izuku Midoriya." Hisashi nodded to the boy as a sign of respect, the same warm smile still sitting on his lips. "A good name. Well then, Izuku, I shall let you get back to class. Which class are you in, by the way?"
"Oh, erm, class 1-A of the hero course." The young man replied swiftly though again he felt as though he should be holding his tongue. Why though? This man was doing nothing wrong, nothing out of the ordinary other than being polite. Perhaps it was simply because he was so unused to people being so nice to him.
And yet there was just… something off about him. Hiding just under the surface. Like a worm crawling through the center of an apple.
"Ah, Aizawa's class. Yes." Hisashi scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You better hurry then, he's not the nicest of people at the best of times, though he has a good soul, deep down. Pay attention and do your best and you'll have no problems."
"R-Right, thank you, sir." Izuku gave him another quick nod and turned to leave, finding his step was just a little more hurried than before.
And yet even as he was leaving he heard the man call out one last time. "And remember, Izuku Midoriya," The teenager turned his head just in time to see the man throw him a wink, "I'm still rooting for you."
Woo! Test episode done with! And I will immediately apologize for those looking for the moment when Aizawa used his quirk on Izuku. The original draft indeed included the scene, but it came out in a manner which just SCREAMED 'save for later'. But trust me, it's not so far off, especially since ya'll know what the next chapter is.
FILLER.
And then COMBAT LESSONS. I'm just writing it all up now and trust me, it's gonna be a doozy.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and TILL NEXT TIME!
