UPDATE TIME. Are you all ready for some fun? Because this chapter is going to be fun! And by fun, I mean horrible!
It's round 2: demonic boogaloo.
Enjoy!
They had given the winning students time to gather themselves together and have whatever minor wounds treated while the losers had filtered slowly through the archways. Most of them were either disappointed students from either hero classes or utterly unamused support and general class students. Only a handful of the business students seemed to have shown up at all.
Most of them hadn't even bothered participating. Instead, they had allowed themselves to be immediately disqualified while they stood around discussing the winning participants or trying to sell merchandise.
Izuku had suffered the indignity of listening to a few of them discuss his performance as they stood a few yards behind him, chatting while a medical-drone had cleaned up the cuts and scratches on his hands and knees after handing him a fresh shirt to wear.
"The boy who came in last, he certainly looks more villainous than heroic."
"Yes, but perhaps that can be an advantage, there is a market for the dark hero trope."
"His control of his quirk is quite terrible though, and we've all heard the rumors."
"Sometimes you need a sledgehammer to break down a wall or two, he would do well in that role."
"Only if someone attaches a shock collar to him so he doesn't rampage afterwards."
Izuku had glared towards the poor robot during the exchange as his tail had swished and twitched in irritation. Good to know the entire school knew about his freak out and looked at him like a ticking time-bomb.
It was a real confidence booster.
By the time he returned the winning students had all regathered on the field and seemed ready for the next round. He masked his irritation with a wry smile towards the others and a sharp biting of his lip.
Nemesis had wanted to tear their tongues out for speaking so ill of them, but he couldn't deny the truth when it was presented to him.
His control was terrible, and it had cost him a higher place in the race. Not to mention he had no idea how he was ever going to present himself as a real hero to the world at large. It had been one of those distant, nebulous concepts that he assumed would be solved when he got into the school itself.
But like all his other problems, he was beginning to realize the only way they would be solved is if he actually put forth the effort to solve them.
Hell, he only had a hero costume because his mother had made him one based on an old, old design of his.
It seemed, as he stood with his friends in the loose groupings that now made up the winning students, all notion of neat rows and class order apparently vanishing, that Hitoshi noticed his mood. A sudden slap on his arm jumped Izuku out of his self-defeating thoughts and he looked up. The taller boy didn't bother looking to him, but the smile on his face said it all.
Quit being such an idiot.
Izuku took a low, deep breath through his nose and clenched his jaw, refocusing on what was in front of him. Okay, so he had all but lost the first round, but that was fine, he could crawl his way back up.
He just… needed the right opportunity.
"Alright, kids!" His eyes turned up as he again spotted Midnight, standing proud and holding out her whip to the large holo-screen hovering behind her. "Congratulations on those that passed! And to those that didn't, don't worry! We still have plenty lined up in store for you, so hopefully, you'll all get a chance to strut your stuff!"
Izuku curled his fist tightly and Nemesis whispered through him with candle-fire. It was eager to make up for loss it had suffered before, which made it both an advantage and a disadvantage. On one hand, he could rely on it wanting victory, but on the other, it made it energetic and vicious, and therefore harder to control when he did use its power.
He had to be careful when he used it, he couldn't afford another repeat of the race. He had slacked the leash just once, and it had almost cost him everything.
He looked back to Midnight and she smiled with bedroom eyes to the students as cam-drones hovered around her, getting what Izuku was sure would be flattering shots of her figure.
"Now, for the next round, what shall it be I wonder?" She licked her lips as the gambling-slot-like wheel began spinning on the huge screen, and again, Izuku felt his stomach tighten in anxiety.
Don't be combat, don't be combat, don't be-
"KING OF THE HILL!"
Izuku blinked at the sudden announcement, a mixture of anxiety, joy and confusion, mostly just confusion, crashing through his mind.
"King of the Hill?"
"King of the Hill?"
"King of the Hill," Fumikage nodded beside him, "I see."
"King of the Hill, huh, didn't see that coming," Hitoshi mumbled from his other side, adding a slight shrug as he did so, "But I guess they want to keep us on our toes."
Izuku's eyes were drawn back up to the main screen as it quickly changed to show an image that almost caused him to snort in laughter. All Might, grinning in his banana yellow suit, was standing with his hand touching a flagpole, the flag, of course, was lit up in his usual uniform colors of red, white and blue. Around him Present Mic lay on the floor, looking dramatically exhausted, Aizawa-sensei was literally walking out of shot and Snipe was clearly trying to sneak up behind him, gun in hand.
"The object is simple!" Midnight gave her whip a quick flourish as the screen flashed with instructions, "You will all form into teams, maximum four, minimum two, and attempt to conquer the hill! By touching the flag, you're laying claim to the hill, and the longer you hold it the more points you gain, though remember, if one of your team isn't touching the flag, then you don't gain points! The top sixteen highest scoring students will pass to the next round, so even if one team of four holds the flag for fourteen minutes, and one other team of four holds it for only a minute, then both teams will pass to the next round!"
Tenya's hand suddenly shot up from the crowd, and Midnight blinked in sudden surprise before she quickly recovered and pointed her whip over to the boy, "Yes?"
"Excuse me, but won't so many teams fighting over one spot be rather chaotic?"
"Indeed!" Midnight grinned suddenly and stroked the whip across her chest, causing several of the teenage boys in the audience to gape and Izuku to roll his eyes. "Which is why we will have two rounds containing twenty-one randomly selected students each!" She gave a quick smile to an evidently satisfied Tenya and looked back to the greater crowd, "Now remember, as before, if you seriously hurt your opponents, then you and your team will be disqualified! Other than that, well, anything goes!"
She again gave a seductive lick of her lips before pointing back to the screen, "And the first students to compete will be…"
The screen flickered into life and, as if rolling out from a giant lottery ball, names quickly began appearing in long rows. Soon the list was filled with students and Izuku felt his heart jump with a mixture of emotions.
He had been placed in the second round and he was eternally glad that both Ibara and Katsuki had been placed in the first round.
Yet at the same time, Tenya and Ochaco had been placed there too.
"Ahh well, it wasn't like all five of us could be a team," Ochaco shrugged, giving a quick smile to Tenya, "But least you and I can team up together,"
The boy smiled and nodded, before glancing to Izuku, "True, but in a way I'm glad. I've been waiting for a chance to show off my own skills since the competition started."
"Well now you've got that chance," Hitoshi smirked back, "Good luck, motor-legs and regular-legs, we'll be rooting for you."
Hitoshi's simple statement of good luck turned out to be just the thing Tenya and Ochaco needed. Especially as, once the first round started, Izuku, flanked by Hitoshi and Fumikage on the side benches, quickly realized they'd need every bit of it.
Because Ibara Shiozaki absolutely dominated.
From almost the very beginning of the match until the very end of it, the young woman simply stood atop the hill, which was a literal curved hill several meters high with the electronic flag planted on top, while her vines spread out around her. They threw back anyone stupid enough to engage them head-on and, at one point, one of her own teammates simply sat down with his head in his hands literally bored from inaction.
It also didn't help that she and Katsuki had teamed together, which was a surprise to Izuku who had been sure that his old, egotistical friend would have gone on his own. Ibara must have held quite the sway over him to allow her the chance to outshine him.
Not that he made it easy.
Katsuki did all he could to make sure the few that threatened Ibara's maze of vines were fended off using a mixture of swift hand-to-hand combat and explosive fire, which Izuku cautiously noted Ibara's vines drew away from.
Still, one of the great highlights of the match was when Tenya, Ochaco, Tsuyu and Eijiro floated high above the battlefield before crashing down onto the hill with a burst of Tenya's engines.
Using Tsuya's tongue, Eijio's fire-proof quirk, Ochaco's quick thinking and Tenya's speed they managed to hold the flag for a grand total of five minutes before Ibara seemed to lose patience with Katsuki's inability to get past Eijiro and Tenya's dogged defense and simply used her vines to instantly attack everyone on the hill all at once.
The crowd had gone into a strange mixture of awed silence and quiet concern as the stone-eyed girl had held everyone aloft in thick, binding vines, and stormed back over to the flag to reclaim it, utterly ignoring Katsuki's angry screaming on the matter.
When the match had ended and she had dumped everyone back onto the ground, the blonde had barked irritated insults at her the entire time they had walked off the pitch.
Izuku and his friends, however, while quietly terrified of what they had all collectively witnessed, had not sat idle during the match.
They had, after all, needed a fourth member to their team. It had taken a little convincing, but they had their fourth and as they approached the pitch to take one of the starting corners assigned to them Izuku felt his heart pick up an extra beat.
They could do this. They had spent several minutes to one side, whispering and conspiring amongst one another as to the perfect plan of attack. It was obvious who they needed to beat of course. Todoroki had his gigantic walls of ice, and that would be the major component to conquer if they were going to win the day.
And they would indeed win the day.
Ibara had put on quite the display, and Izuku would not lie to himself and deny that he hadn't been intimidated.
But dammit, he wasn't going to let himself down, or his teammates, or anyone else for that matter.
He could do this.
They just had to stick to the plan.
"It's been nine whole minutes folks, and Team Todoroki continue to fight off the competition! Can anyone break through this perfect barricade of ice?"
Shoto winced as Present Mic's booming voice bounced through the roaring stadium. He winced not just because it was irritating, but because he felt as though his time was running out.
Another part of his ice blockade fell as a boy using some kind of ground-manipulation quirk, weakened the hill under it, collapsing it within a handful of seconds. The gap was filled with a huge, bestial teenager who moved and looked like a wild animal, right before he was stopped in his tracks by Denki unleashing a wave of lightning at him.
Another wall went up, but almost instantly another shout sounded from the other end of the hill, which itself was quite a wide area to protect.
"ANOTHER TEAM THIS WAY!" Kyoka shouted, her ear-plug quirk allowing her to spot exactly where people were coming from, hence why Shoto had picked her for his team.
He turned and pelted across the hill towards her as she turned and ran, trying to cover another area of the wall.
He hadn't expected it to be this difficult. That girl, the one with the green hair, she had made it seems so easy, especially with Katsuki on her team. If this kept up, he knew his father would have something to say about it. Insulting him for being shamed by a girl, though already he knew his father would admonish him for not using his precious 'gift' in the first place.
The fire which he hated so much. The fire which felt so alien to him whenever he had used it despite his father's constant insistence that he should use it. The fire which his father had screamed at him for refusing to use, that by discarding his left side he was insulting his family and insulting their sacrifices.
Shoto's scowl became hard and fixed as he again rose up another piece of the wall, feeling the ice course through his right side.
He would never use his father's damned quirk, no matter what he claimed to have done made to make Shoto 'perfect'. To make him into this vessel of his own failed ambitions.
He would not become as obsessive and cruel as his father. Not ever.
"Kyoka!" He shouted as again he rushed to stop part of his wall falling, "Where's the next attack?"
He was met with silence. Or rather, he was met with the overall din of frantic battle, but from the person he needed to hear from most, he heard nothing.
He turned his head, desperately looking around for his teammates. Denki was off to one side, using his lightning to fend off some shrimpy looking kid with weird purple hair who was trying to scale the wall. Momo was on her place at the top of the hill, keeping hold of the flag and quietly doing what she could to support the others.
Kyoka was… standing still. Something cold ran through his stomach, which was a sensation he really wasn't used to feeling but couldn't stop it either way.
As he rushed towards her, he quickly began shouting out, "Kyoka! What's-"
Time slowed to a crawl as his eyes trailed up.
Sitting atop his wall was Hitoshi. The second the purple haired teen noticed Shoto, he raised a hand and, in a move that almost caused Shoto to trip in confusion, gave him a slightly awkward wave and a weird kind of smile.
Almost simultaneously, Kyoka turned to look at him, her eyes a blank daze, her ear-phones already hitting Shoto's sides.
And his entire world turned upside down.
"NOW!"
The three of them flew over the ice block. Fumikage with Dark Shadow's giant claws gripping and flinging him upwards, Izuku clinging to his shoulders like his life depended on it, and, following behind them, the fourth member of their motley crew.
"AHAHAHA! FEAR THE WRATH OF MY BABIES!"
A girl with a bright, almost neon-pink blob of hair leapt up after them, supported by a dazzling array of various gadgets, trinkets, machines, and devices all strapped to her body. The most notable was the large, square looking backpack patterned with four pink ovals, and with a thick, almost steam-punk-esk pair of goggles pulled over her eyes, it made her look like some kind of bizarre, mechanical insect.
"MEI!"
"RIGHT! SMOKE SCREEN GO!" The girl shouted gleefully as if this was all some insane game, which really it was, and from her backpack, a sudden rifle-like weapon popped into existence, aimed over her shoulder, and fired three capsules at the ground around the flag.
Poor Momo barely had time to react as pink smoke, much like the kind from the mines in the obstacle course, exploded around her. Indeed, before she could form some kind of counter-plan, Fumikage was there. Or rather, Dark Shadow was there.
A huge, shadow-clad paw rushed at her and smashed her off her feet, throwing her directly towards a clearly panicking Denki who, almost comically, turned just in time for Momo hit him at full force. The two of them smashed up against the huge ice wall and, at least for the time that Izuku needed, they were out of the game.
Izuku landed, having let go of Fumikage the moment Dark Shadow had dropped them to the floor and immediately broke into a run towards the flag. He didn't need to see what anyone else was doing, or how his team was acting.
He trusted them to act as he needed them to act because as long as they followed the plan they would win. Maybe they wouldn't come in first place, but they would make it to the third round, and they would make their names known as the students who knocked Endeavor's son down a notch.
Now all he needed was to put just one hand on the flag and-
"TEAM MIDORIYA TAKES SECOND PLACE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"
At Present Mic's voice, Izuku felt his heart swell to almost bursting and fire, hot but proud and confident, roared through his blood. Nemesis, perhaps just for that moment, did not rage or thrash within him, but grinned and rushed across his scars like a proud wolf, howling its dominance to the sky.
Izuku had to hold back his own howl victory as he had done in the obstacle course. Instead, he settled for letting his grip of the flag become tight as if at any moment it could fly from his grasp, and a sharp and vicious grin to form across his lips.
As cam-drones hovered above him, he took a moment to look across the hill, still surrounded by the huge ice wall, and assess the situation.
Hitoshi had brainwashed Kyoka. Fumikage and Dark Shadow had attacked fast, as he had needed them to, and had helped carry him right to the top of the hill. It had been pure luck that both Momo and Denki had fallen together, as Dark Shadow's next target was supposed to be Denki anyway.
And Shoto. Poor Shoto. Poor, pitiable, ice prince Shoto had been shocked into dizziness by Kyoka's vibrations, a move which Izuku had been on the sucker end of once before and had carefully logged for later.
He could see him, a dash of red and white split hair, stumbling as he tried to regain his balance. His hand was already encased in ice, though without any sense of direction he was simply waving it in front of him as if that would somehow stop them.
But none of this would have been possible if not for Mei Hatsumi.
It had been Hitoshi's suggestion to approach her, and while she had immediately identified Izuku as 'that devil-boy', it seemed she had no trepidation whatsoever about working with him.
When he had bravely asked why she had given him a rather shocking answer.
"People think you're some kinda spooky demon," She had grinned back the three boys, "But if you ask me, they're far too superstitious. There's only one true power in this universe, and her name is science!"
The young woman in question dropped beside him somewhat gracefully, a pair of hover-boots on her feet soothing her landing. She grinned to Izuku and seemed utterly uncaring that Izuku's own smile seemed far sharper than it had been before, and lifted her goggles from her eyes.
She was a pretty girl, he would give her that. She was a little heavy set with a rather mature frame, though if it bothered her at all she made no sign of it. Her skin was an unhealthy pale, though in the way of someone spending too much time in front of a screen than any actual illness. Her face was constantly smiling and cheerful which only helped light up her wild eyes, the color of spring daffodils, marked by strange pupils that were crossed like the scopes of sniper rifles.
When she looked at Izuku he felt as though every ounce of manic her focus was on him and he could help but feel a tiny bit unnerved by it.
"Brilliant plan, devil-boy!" She nudged him suddenly, moving just a little too close for his liking, "We probably only have a minute or so before the others show up, but for now we're in second place!" She suddenly grinned more viciously and some cruel sense of delight crossed her gaze, "The moment those walls come down, I'm going to unleash the full force of my babies, and then they'll pay," Her voice darkened, and she pulled her goggles back down, "They'll all pay."
"… she is really, really weird," Nemesis hissed through his brain, marking possibly the first time ever that Izuku had heard his inner monster say anything of the sort about anyone, ever.
Which said a lot about Mei Hatsumi.
Still, the minutes passed one, then two, then with a sudden, tremendous crunch of falling ice part of the vast barricade collapsed and almost instantly it was filled with a number of battling teams all of which were rushing towards them.
This, however, had also been accounted for.
"AHAHAH! EAT GLUE YOU RETROBATES!" Mei roared her laughter to the sky as her backpack seemed to explode with a number of spider-like legs, all of which suddenly turned and began spewing a thick, white, goopy looking substance around opening in the wall.
It immediately caught at least three different students and, well, like glue, it stuck them to the ground. For the others still trying to get through, they suddenly found their opening completely blocked.
She suddenly turned up to one of the camera drones and winked, "A device created by me, Mei Hatsumi, find my instagram at- hey!" She snapped as the drone seemed to lose interest in her and turn to go find someone else to film.
"Dark Shadow!" Fumikage's voice rang out suddenly from a lower part of the hill, "Defend the opening!"
"Glady, my master!" Dark Shadow cawed out and, within a second, they were rushing and swiping at the students who had managed to avoid the glue trap, knocking some back, and keeping others occupied.
Izuku could feel his stomach twisting into knots, both with a panicked sense of anxiety that his estimations had all been off and at a sudden rush of what he could only describe as battle-lust. He felt jealous that Dark Shadow was having all the fun. He watched the vast demon smashing people aside, all while Fumikage looked on with eyes far colder than he usually sported.
And he wanted to join them.
He wanted to run down the hill, abandoning the flag and begin tearing into their helpless opponents. He wanted to show the world his battle prowess, his unstoppable fury, and his unholy wrath. He wanted to unleash his fire and sport talons on his fingers and laugh at their fear and-
"You okay, devil-boy?"
Mei's voice snapped him out of his focus and he suddenly felt his inner hell-fire wash back along his scars like boiling water. He winced and breathed deeper, finding his grip on the flag weakening for just a moment.
"I-I'm fine," He half-panted out, even as Nemesis rippled through his blood with power, oil thick and heavy. God, it was so tempting, and it would be so easy to just hand the flag to Mei and let her babysit their points while he- No, he had placed himself at the flag for a reason. The others could all handle their own corners of the hill, he was the only one with a power that couldn't be controlled, and as such, he was better acting as their final line of defense, rather than their first.
Besides, his past experiences had shown that using his own hell-born power too much tended to cause electronics to spark and fail. He needed to hold back to keep Mei in the game.
"Go and support Hitoshi," Izuku found he was almost growling the words out, his tail swishing in irritation, "We have to keep Kyoka under his control so we can suppress Shoto, he's still the biggest danger to us."
She gave him a sharp nod and, with a burst of her little jet-engine boots, rocketed off down the hill.
Another minute passed as the other students battled to take down other parts of the wall. More than once Izuku had to duck as lucky shots came his way, one, some sort of horn, smashed into the side of the flag and stuck like an arrow. At some point Shoto had begun firing off random sheets of ice, most of them missing completely, some even helping them, but more than a few getting far too close to Izuku for his own comfort.
Still, with a mixture of Hitoshi's continued control over Kyoka, Mei's constant array of bizarre and dazzling gadgets, and Fumikage and Dark Shadow's iron-clad defense of the one opening in the wall, they continued to gain point by precious point.
And then, his luck turned.
Another part of the wall fell, one right beside Fumikage, causing the boy to jump in shock. Before he could even move aside, he was hit by a hailstorm of scales that battered him so hard he had to shield his eyes and face.
"MASTER!" Dark Shadow screeched and turned from the opening they had been told to defend and rushed to their host. However, before they could even approach him, they were suddenly struck by the huge hand of a girl with red hair, causing the shadow-demon to let out a loud and furious scream of rage.
Izuku turned, his eyes wide and his own power spiking like burning oil through his body. He had never expected to hold the flag forever, but he had hoped that Shoto's wall would have held just a minute or two longer.
Dammit, he had underestimated Class One-B's quirks, and now he was going to pay for it.
No, he could keep his lead, all he needed to do was fend off anyone who got too close. He could lay down some flame in front of him and… buy barely a handful of seconds.
"MEI!" He called as more figures came at him through the opening in the ice, and, within a heartbeat, he saw the boy with blonde hair, the one who had mocked him two weeks ago, rushing towards him.
He had the same dazzling blue eyes and vulpine smile… and both spoke of a vicious, arrogant cunning that caused Izuku's stomach to twist and Nemesis to growl within his blood.
As he approached, he suddenly turned to a boy next to him, a plain looking teenager with brown hair, and bizarrely tapped him on the shoulder.
Izuku panicked. And when he panicked, he tended to do very rash and very stupid things.
He summoned Nemesis into his hand, held it down, and jumped backwards.
Before the two boys could close the distance, there was a sudden boom and the world under Izuku's feet erupted into a flash of corrupt blue flame and hot, stinking smoke. He flew back from the flag and almost ended up rolling down the sloping hill before he lanced his still talon-like fingers into the concrete and came to a ground-rending halt.
"TEAM MONOMA HAS- NO WAIT! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! A BRILLIANT DELAYING MOVE BY YOUNG IZUKU MIDORIYA!"
The flag was on fire. Well, not quite on fire, but the ground around the flag was certainly on fire. Blue flame sprang up from the burning floor and quite effectively stopped anyone from reaching forward and taking it.
Izuku grit his teeth tightly as he tried to focus his overstimulated eyes back on the task at hand. Nausea washed through his stomach, but it wasn't enough to disable him, nor was it enough to allow his curse to rush through his heart and seize control of his mind.
The blonde, however, didn't seem to mind, he turned, nodded to the boy beside him, and then they both looked down and blew.
And the flames were instantly flattened. Not doused, but flattened, as if a blanket of air had suddenly dropped heavily on top of them.
Nemesis almost skidded to a halt within his blood as Izuku blinked at the scene. The plain haired boy stepped forward, and it seemed as though his foot passed through something as if breaking it before he reached forward and grabbed the flag.
"AND THEY'VE DONE IT!" Present Mic screamed through the stadium to the roar of the crowd, "TEAM MONOMA HAVE CONQUERED FIRE AND SHADOW AND TAKEN THE FLAG!"
"DAMMIT!" Nemesis snapped with vicious, sharp teeth through the meat of Izuku's brain, "DAMN THE SEVENTH SON'S WEAKNESS! This loss rests on his shoulders!"
The blonde turned suddenly to spot Izuku and grinned. Then, slowly, he began stepping purposely towards him. Izuku managed to climb to shaking feet all the while his eyes wide and his mind racing. Did they have the same quirk? How could that be possible, they didn't look related- no, wait, he had done something to him just before they got to the top of the hill-
"Oh wow, it looks like Class One-A isn't all it's cracked up to be, you couldn't even hold the flag, and we barely did anything!" The boy spoke in a mocking tone, his hands held to each side as if he was shrugging casually, "But that's to be expected from a class who can't even control their own students."
"Neito! Quit taunting him and help me defend the flag!" The brown-haired teenager shouted at the blonde, but it seemed his teammate wasn't listening.
"You- You copied that quirk, didn't you?" Izuku barked up at him as he heard more chaos erupting behind him. It seemed Denki and Momo were back on their feet and already coming to Shoto's rescue, as well as other parts of the wall collapsing around them.
Damnit, it was all falling apart, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Wow, you've got a sharp mind. Yeah, I did," Neito's mocking grin grew wider. He didn't slow in his pace, and Izuku hated him for it. He was so sickeningly confident, so stark in contrast to his own permanent anxiety, "You see, since this festival started, I've been watching you, Izuku Midoriya. You've given the hero course, and UA, a bad name because of all the chaos you caused at the USJ. You're using a quirk you can't control and still thinking you can be a hero," He chuckled and his eyes suddenly became hard, "You're nothing more than a villain trying to ruin this school and everything we real heroes stand for, so, I'm going to enjoy the look on your face when I use your quirk to pass this round."
The floor dropped from under Izuku's feet. Fear like no other suddenly hit him full in the chest as he realized what this boy was about to do.
He could copy quirks.
He could copy Nemesis.
He could copy Nemesis.
"NO!" Izuku unashamedly screamed in fear and began backing up. Fuck the Sports Festival, fuck winning, fuck proving people wrong. This boy could not copy his quirk, no matter what. He could live with another loss to add to his tally if it meant saving the lives of everyone in this stadium. "YOU CAN'T COPY NEMESIS!"
"I can and will," Neito mocked, as confident as if the world itself was behind him, "And I'll show them all what a real hero can do!"
"HE DARES TOUCH US AND WE SHALL-"
Neito dived forwards, and everything drifted away.
Fear was like a rope around his neck, choking the life from his lungs and seizing his limbs. It was like a set of cruel chains cold and heavy around his wrists, ankles and even his tail, weighing him to the floor. It was like a flurry of spears that lanced through his chest and heart, bloody and vicious and painful.
And not even the might of Nemesis, of hellfire and power unholy, could stop the fear he felt as the blonde reached towards him, fingers only inches from his face.
He felt his fingers shifting and turning, growing long and sharp as unlight raced up his arms and the fire of Hell itself gathering at his fingertips. But he couldn't move fast enough, not with his fear taking him so completely, shoving his head under the black water of terror and holding him down as he screamed air from his drowning lungs.
And then, something huge and black dove before him, smashing into Neito like a truck and throwing him back up the hill.
And the world hammered back into place.
A thousand noises, voices, screaming and yelling and cheering and roaring. A thousand textures of smoke and dust and ice on his tongue. A thousand sensations to his touch of grit and sweat and fire and cold, always cold, unlight.
But not one of them was the human touch of Neito's fingers on his cheek.
Instead, before him, stood Fumikage and the vast demonic form of Dark Shadow hanging over their master protectively, looking as though they would snap at any second and tear someone's head off.
Crimson eyes turned to look at Izuku and, through a panting beak, his friend asked, "Are you alright?"
It took Izuku a second to realize that Fumikage was bleeding. There were a hundred tiny cuts across his sleeves, and it looked as though he had hit the ground hard. How he had escaped from the girl with the giant hands Izuku didn't know, but he knew, in that moment, that he absolutely loved him.
He had saved his life. He had saved everyone's lives.
And he probably had no idea he had even done it.
"Izuku?"
"We're never thanking the Seventh Son for this!"
"Thank you! Holy fuck, thank you, Fumikage you have no idea-" Izuku almost stuttered as he tried to speak every word at once, "Neito- the blonde- he can copy quirks- he can-"
The air tore apart with a scream. A scream of utter horror, pain and terror that pushed at the boundaries of what was humanly capable.
Fire, furnace hot and defensive rushed along Izuku's scars like a riptide. As one, the two boys and the quirk-familiar looked up to the top of the hill where Fumikage had thrown Neito.
And like a mallet blow to the skull, crushing bone and brain and all other thought, it dawned on both cursed teenagers at the same time.
Neito had not touched Izuku, he had not stolen Nemesis. But he had touched Fumikage, and therefore, he had stolen Dark Shadow.
From the top of the hill, Neito, hunched over and on his knees, screamed as though his soul was being torn apart.
And from his body, a demon was born.
Unlight black and great shot out of him, multi-limbed and roaring their birth-cry in a voice that was somehow corvid and hellish all at once. It was one voice, but one great and drowning tone that brought forth images of vultures eating human flesh on abandoned battlefields, or butcher birds mocking their dying victims as they punctured them on gore-strewn thorns.
The unlight limbs instantly cleared the hill of any other human, smashing aside all who dared get close.
And then, amazingly, through the screaming of the human teenager whose soul was being invaded by a creature of Hell, the demon's voice called out, "TRAITOR!"
And even more incredibly, for just a half-second Izuku heard Dark Shadow reply. It was barely a whisper, and a whisper in a tone that Izuku thought was utterly impossible for the soulless demon, but one that touched something deep within his own heart.
"Accipita?"
A vast shadow-like claw swung for them, faster than anything that size should have the right to move. It was only thanks to Nemesis screaming through Izuku's limbs that he even had the energy to suddenly grab his friend and dive back down the hill before it tore their guts from their stomachs.
They landed heavily, with a sharp and painful thud into the hard-packed dirt of the arena floor.
"WHAT THE-"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Fumikage answered in a panicked shout before Izuku could even finish, Dark Shadow having already been pulled back inside him.
Izuku felt his stomach knot painfully as he heard the horror and terror and pain in Fumikage's tone. He was blaming himself for this. Already he was feeling the punishing shame of losing control of his demonic curse and already he was piling it on his own shoulders.
And it wasn't even his fault.
"TRAITOR!" The copy cried out with a voice that was a mixture of wailing pain and furious, unquenchable rage, "TRAITOR! FILTHY TRAITOR!"
"STUDENTS!" Somehow, over the din of the demon writhing in agony and fury, Present Mic's voice managed to thunder across the stadium. Gone was joyous laughter and energy he had gleefully punctuated every sentence with before. Now it was the commanding, perhaps even harsh, tone of a trained hero, "MOVE AWAY FROM THE HILL, THE EVENT HAS BEEN SUSPENDED UNTIL WE CAN SECURE NEITO MONOMA'S SAFETY! I REPEAT, DO NOT APPROACH NEITO MONOMA."
Izuku did not obey.
Someone was in pain, and more accurately, they were in the kind of pain that only he or Fumikage could ever truly understand. That was not just an out of control quirk, but a demonic entity that knew only cruelty and hate.
As other students rushed past them, he and Fumikage both held their ground, a silent air of understanding passing between them.
And they weren't the only ones.
A hand suddenly landed square on his shoulder and he turned suddenly, "Hitoshi?" He blinked and turned again to see a second person appear beside his taller friend, "Shoto?"
Hitoshi had his own share of bruises and scratches, as well as being covered in dirt, but his eyes shone with a bright, determined inner light.
Shoto looked equally as determined but was clearly still a little woozy on his feet. Still, his gaze was focused up at the thrashing, awakening monster that Neito had unwittingly let into his soul. Evidently, he had abandoned any thoughts of competition in the face of this sudden, insane development.
"We need to stop it," Hitoshi wasted no time with niceties, and his gaze never left the top of the hill, "Fumikage, you said Dark Shadow was weak to light, right?"
Fumikage paused for a moment before nodding, "Y-Yes, anything bright should do it."
"Shoto," Hitoshi snapped suddenly at the teenager, "We need fire. Pronto."
"No."
For a moment, it almost seemed as if the cold of Shoto's quirk had rushed into all of them.
Then Hitoshi snapped, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN 'NO'?"
"I don't use my fire," Shoto's voice had become… cruel. Painful. It ached with something dark and awful that caused Izuku's heart to tear, even in the midst of all the madness. "I held Nemesis back without it, and Dark Shadow can't be as strong as that."
"We were focused on the Fading King," Nemesis hotly defended itself, though there was a growling, vicious bite to its tone, "Next time, we'll make sure to kill the Ice Prince first."
"Well- Goddamnit," Hitoshi looked around, his hands almost tearing his own hair out before something dawned over him and his eyes grew wide, "All of you, get back, I'm going to help. I put Nemesis to sleep, I can do the same to a damn bird."
"Hitoshi, wait-" Izuku went to reach out and grab his friend, to stop him from running to his certain death, but the boy was already gone before he even had a chance, vanishing into the huge dust cloud that the awakening demon had kicked up in their thrashing.
Instantly Izuku's legs moved to chase after him.
And to his great shame, it wasn't just because he wanted to help, even though his heart burned with the thought that someone was in pain and he was just letting it happen. It was that Nemesis was in his blood, like fire and oil across thin water. It was that his own inner monster wanted battle, thirsted for it, needed it like the arrow needed the bow and the sword needed blood.
And he didn't even get to take a single step forward.
A hand clamped down onto his shoulder and suddenly cement, cold and unforgiving, raced up his legs to form around his knees. He was trapped in place before he could even try to help.
For a brief second Nemesis roared through his blood, furious that their chance to set itself against a creature of Hell, one of its own kind and one that it hated so deeply, had been denied. Izuku's scars flashed a fire-hot blue as he turned, his mouth set in a sudden snarl that he didn't remember putting there, his tail lashed out in fury, and his eyes blazed with a battle rush that he desperately tried to push back down.
It was Cementoss. He was a giant, flat-headed block of a man. Literally, he was a block of cement. His eyes were beady and small, though he was equally heavyset and large. The grey-skinned man stood at his side, one hand clamped firmly on his shoulder, the other hand already stretching out to raise a shield before them. The hill vanished from view, and a deep-set panic gripped Izuku, matched equally by a wave of demonic anger.
"SIR! YOU CAN'T- HITOSHI- I HAVE TO-"
"You are doing nothing, and going nowhere, Midoriya." Cementoss's voice was a low, gravely base that practically vibrated through the earth.
"Let the teachers do their jobs," Shoto announced, his cold, joyless eyes fixing on Izuku, "There's nothing you can do, anyway."
"Sir, you don't understand," Izuku actually pulled against the teacher's grip and against the cement around his legs, and ignored the taller boy at his side, "You're all in danger, you don't-"
"Midoriya," The teacher's voice again rumbled out like distant thunder, "You will stand down. We can handle this, you don't need to put yourself in danger."
It hit Izuku suddenly. Cementoss was not here to stop Neito, Cementoss was here to stop him. To let Izuku go would be to risk Nemesis being loose, and so, of course, they had used a teacher who could literally entomb him in cement if worst came to worst.
Shame hit Izuku like a bullet to the gut. Shame and anger and self-hate and frustration, all mixing together like fat, churning meat in his stomach. Awful and disgusting and rotten. Tears formed along his eyes as his nails, still sharp, pressed into the palms of his tightly curled fists.
"How dare he stop us, how dare this filthy sinner tell us not to join battle, he is weak and-"
From the top of the hill there was a sudden bellowing cry and all eyes looked up. However, what followed was a strange, unsettling silence that stretched painfully thin before snapping back into place.
"He's alright!"
It was Midnight, shouting over the raised walls to both the teachers and the crowd. "Everything's fine! He's sleeping like a baby!"
A cheer rose from the crowd, and to hear it make Izuku feel sick. Were they all so ignorant? Were they all so stupid that they could see- see what? A demon emerging from the teenager as he had copied a monster from another student?
Izuku's gaze fell down as frustrated tears fell from his cheeks.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
His scars washed hot and angry as his jaw set tight in his mouth. He- he had been so useless, he had been so, so utterly, stupidly useless.
As Cementoss let him go and the wall before them came rushing down like it was made of thick water, Izuku found himself still glued to the spot. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to do anything. He just cursed himself for being so pathetic.
All because of his stupid, Hell-born curse that stopped him from being a hero when people were in real pain. When Hitoshi, who had admitted so many times that he'd be screwed in real combat, still managed to rush ahead of all of them and risk his own skin.
And Izuku. Izuku who could knock down a brick wall with his flame, who could leap several meters high and, in times of pressure, could even glide on black shadowed wings, had done nothing.
"Fumikage," He asked softly and turned his head, Shoto having already left his side to get a better look at the situation, "Are you-"
He blinked.
Fumikage was gone.
And, like another blow to his already ruined heart, he realized that during the entire event he had never once bothered to check on his friend. His friend, who was at the very center of this whole thing, whose cursed had been taken and copied and had almost, and still quite possibly, infected another human being.
Fumikage, who had blamed himself the second the cry had gone up.
Izuku turned, and without bothering to listen to what was being shouted over the loudspeaker, he began running off the field, thinking of nothing but finding the raven headed teen.
Poor, poor Fumikage! Poor Neito! Poor everyone, basically.
So, the reason I went with a king of the hill rather than the cavalry battle is two-fold. Firstly, I needed to keep Katsuki and Ibara and Izuku apart for a little while longer. Secondly, writing the cavalry battle never worked. It's a nightmare to write out, and thus, I ended up going with something different.
I also considered modifying the team more to not include Mei, but at the end of the day she was really just so essential to the fight, and so fun to write for, I bowed to canon and kept her in. Also, I am also aware I'm not 100% sure that Kyoka's quirk works the way I wrote it, but... I guess in this it does? I figured sound waves can knock people for a loop, not to mention her ability to listen made her essential as both the key to Shoto's victory, and Izuku's disabling of Shoto.
I could go on but really I'd be rambling. I hope it worked out well enough, though I understand that there are several more holes in the whole thing. As I said, it was a nightmare to really work out properly, and hopefully the next chapter after this will make up for it. It has Fumikage backstory! And Hitoshi being awesome! And will I explain why the Dark Shadow copy cried out traitor, or why Dark Shadow said "Accipita"? Well, who knows. Maybe, maybe not.
Thank you all for reading, TILL NEXT TIME PEEPS!
