A/N: Hey everyone, welcome back to The Crow's Atonement, because Chapter 6 is here.
Disclaimer: Like everybody else on fanfiction, I own nothing.
"Standard" - Normal Speaking
'Italics' - Thoughts
"Bold" - Super Moves
(Yaoyorozu Manor - February 20, 2268)
Itachi took slow, measured breaths as he struck at the wooden, wing chun dummy that was situated in one corner of his room.
A palm strike to where somebody's jaw should've been, then a chop to the neck. He followed it up with a knee to the middle of the dummy, winding his imaginary opponent, then unleashed a snap kick that should've broken a nose, before getting in close and delivering another palm strike to where a grown man's crotch would've been, then brought his fist to rest where a kidney would've been.
As the sound of flesh striking wood echoed, Itachi retracted his fist, ignoring the throbbing of his knuckles as somebody knocked on his door.
Taking a moment to wipe the sweat off of his face with a towel, then rehydrate himself with a bottle of water, he walked over to the door and opened it to find Momo stood on the other side, a rectangular, green card between her fingers and pressed to her chest.
"My apologies, Ita-kun, were you training?" She inquired, tilting her head slightly.
Itachi shook his head, "Don't apologise, I just finished. What's that in your hand, Mo-chan?"
"It's your recommendation pass for UA. It arrived today in the mail." Momo said, smiling as she held it out to him.
That made sense. The U.A. Entrance Exams, which would determine who did and didn't get accepted into the hero courses for U.A. High School, would be coming up in less than a week. He'd asked Mirio about what they entailed, for the sakes of Itsuka and Mashirao, but the blond just laughed as he danced around the question to keep him in the dark and said something about the practical part of the Entrance Exam wasn't always the same.
He took the card and inspected it.
On the card was his passport photo, his name: Itachi Yaoyorozu; age: 15; quirk: Sharingan, and who he'd been recommended by: Sir Nighteye, Centipeder, Medusa and Bubble Girl.
Itachi pocketed the card and then looked back up at his sister.
"Didn't Mother say she was getting you a recommendation card?"
Momo nodded, "I turned her offer down. Unlike you, I have no proper reason to be recommended."
Itachi furrowed his brows, backing up so Momo wouldn't have to stand in the doorway whilst they spoke. He sat by his desk, while she opted to situate herself upon his bed.
"You'd rather get into U.A. through your own terms, rather than hers. Plus, you think that Mother's ties within the Hero Commission, and to a certain extent, Father's connections and money, even though we know he's not shallow enough to use them to get you a place, shouldn't be why you are accepted." Itachi stated.
"That's correct," Momo replied, a small smile in her face, "Mother was quite upset when I turned her down, but I see no reason to allow her to continue dictating what I can and can't do, especially when it comes to heroics. If we're going to start learning how to become heroes, then we should also learn how to be independent, no?"
For Itachi, that was good to see and hear. When they were younger, Momo lacked the confidence to defy their mother, even after she'd stopped being so hard on her, but now she was willing to turn down a recommendation - something that was extremely rare and usually guaranteed acceptance - and get into U.A. through her own choice and power.
Clearly, the martial arts classes with Itsuka and Mashirao - and befriending them in the process - had paid off.
"We should, and I respect your decision to turn down Mother's offer."
Momo tilted her head, "You aren't going to convince me to change my mind?"
Itachi shook his head, "It's your choice. I won't make you do something that you clearly have reservations against, but when the time comes, I wish you the best of luck with the Entrance Exam."
"Thank you, Ita-kun. And when the time comes, good luck with the Recommendation Exam."
"Thank you, Mo-chan."
They both paused when Momo's phone started ringing, raising the question as to which one of Momo's many contacts was calling her, especially as two were in the manor and usually got the housemaids or the butler to call for her, and the third was sat opposite her.
As she extracted the phone from her pocket, Itachi watched as Itsuka's name and phone number was displayed across the screen. Momo accepted the call and set the phone to loudspeaker, prompting him to lean in slightly.
"Hello, Kendō-san?"
"Yaoyorozu-san! Hey, um, I was just calling to see if you guys got your Recommendation Cards? Ojiro-san and I got our invites to the U.A. Entrance Exam for February 26th." Itsuka's voice blared through.
Momo was clearly holding back a sigh, "I turned down Mother's offer to be get a Recommendation Card. I'm going to take the standard exam with you and Ojiro-kun."
A choke of surprise came through the phone, "Huh, Yaoyorozu-san, I... you did what?"
"I turned down a recommendation offer from Mother." Momo said, shifting so she could lay flat across Itachi's bed.
"Um... why?"
"It wouldn't be right if I entered on Mother's terms. You wouldn't understand, but her words tend to have a lot of sway, and I can't accept a recommendation because she talked to the right people. If I'm going to get into U.A., it's going to be on my terms."
"I like the sound of that, Yaoyorozu-san. You go, girl." Itsuka's voice replied, sounding supportive.
"Itsuka-san." Itachi interjected.
"Oh, Itachi-san. How long have you been there?"
"Since the call started. Mo-chan and I were talking before you called." He replied, nodding appreciatively as Momo sat up and held the phone closer to him.
"Whaaaat. Why'd you not introduce yourself earlier?" She asked.
"Hn."
Momo's giggle slipped out from behind her fingers, while Itachi's lips twitched upwards.
"Don't you 'Hn' me, Itachi-san. By the way, did you get your recommendation from Sir Nighteye?" Itsuka responded, sounding inquisitive.
Itachi nodded, "I did, his Recommendation Card arrived the the mail today. Plus, it wasn't just him who recommended me, but his three sidekicks also put a word in for me. The next time I see them, I must thank them all."
"You better. Anyways, I wish you guys all be best when the time comes, and should hopefully see you all in about six days time." Itsuka's voice replied, full of cheer.
"Likewise, Kendō-san. See you later." Momo said.
"See you soon, Itsuka-san." Itachi replied, prompting Momo to hang-up and pocket her phone.
As a comfortable silence settled throughout the room, the twins glanced at each other and nodded, exchanging a silent message as they both stood up.
Additional training was in order before the big day came.
(U.A. High School - Musutafu, Shizuoka Prefecture - February 26th, 2268)
"This is where our dreams begin, Ita-kun."
Momo gazed up at the massive building that stood before her and her twin. She had a feeling that the school wasn't what was just in-front of her: two massive, cream walls which were linked by an entrance which appeared to be a blue, upside-down 'U', and beyond that was a 'H' shaped building with lots and lots of windows.
It didn't look like much, but the saying of 'never judge a book by it's cover' was very applicable here.
She knew that U.A. High School was the most well-funded hero school in Japan, with a reputation second only to the George Washington Hero Academy of the United States and the Westminster High School of the United Kingdom, and their alumni was nothing to scoff at either.
All Might, Japan's No. 1 Hero, check.
Endeavor, the No. 2 Hero, check.
Best Jeanist, the No. 4 Hero, check.
"Agreed, Mo-chan, but for now, this is where we go our separate ways." Itachi replied, his onyx eyes scanning the building.
After they shared a quick hug, Itachi nodded as he took his leave and walked through the gate, heading towards the designated location for invitees with recommendations, while Momo checked her exam ticket - Examinee No.: 6686, Test Location: Battle Centre C.
The raven-haired Creation quirk user readied herself and followed the mass of people into the building, taking care to avoid being shoved or having her feet stepped on by the excitable crowd. Walking along the massive line of people, she eventually found herself in a massive auditorium where thousands of eager teenagers sat.
She saw Itsuka sat alongside Mashirao and gave them both a light wave, getting smiles and a wave back in response.
A man with wild, blond hair - if memory served her correct, his hero name was Present Mic - was stood in the middle of the room, dressed in all black, with orange-tinted shades hiding his eyes and a massive multi-directional speaker-like contraption sat around his neck.
To her, it looked more cumbersome and unwieldly than practical, but who was she to be the judge of anything?
Quickly finding an untaken seat - being left to wander around, unable to find a seat would be quite unbecoming - Momo approached it, finding herself stood next to bespectacled boy with short, dark blue hair.
"Excuse me, is this seat occupied?"
The boy's head snapped around to look at her, and as he answered, he began chopping his arms through the air as if he were doing a robot impression, "No, ma'am. Please, sit."
Momo nodded and took the seat.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He replied, his form as stiff as a board.
Before she could say anything further, Present Mic began screaming unnecessarily, causing his voice to reverberate throughout the room and forcing some kids to wince and cup their hands over their ears.
"Welcome, my good people, to my live show! EVERYBODY SAY HEEEEY!"
Nobody said hey.
The lack of response from the crowd didn't put him off, however.
"There's shivers running up and down my spine! Are you ready, everybody, repeat after me - YYEAAAAAH."
Nobody repeated after him.
What'd he think this was, a comedy show?
Even though his voice was beginning to give her a headache, Momo felt sorry for the man. It was obvious that he was trying to whip them up into a frenzy, but it was clear that nobody was interested in his wild antics.
It wasn't long until he Present Mic started detailing what part of their exam would entail. He started going on about how they would be given lettered cards which would allocate them to a certain location - from A to G - where they would fight mock-villains, and if the images in the presentation was to believed, they be fighting three different robotic-type villains, defeating them to collect points.
And who on Earth was that mumbling up at storm and a half?
The bespectacled boy shot out of his seat, one hand in the air as he held up a piece of paper.
"Excuse me, sir! On the handout, there are only four villain types listed! Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't such an error be embarrassing for a top-tier national academy of unrivalled calibre such as U.A?" He bellowed as the muttering continued, seemingly increasing in pace, "The reason we are seated here today is because we wish to become standout heroes with your guidance!"
Momo rose from her seat, turning to the source of the muttering.
She found that it was a plain-looking, green-haired boy who appeared to be hunched over in his seat.
"Excuse me, Muttering Boy," she called, prompting him to flinch and look up at her as the blond sat next to him sneered and punched him in the ribs, "I understand that you are excited and may be unable to contain yourself, but I must implore that you please dial down your muttering. You're incredibly loud, it's distracting and there are people here trying to concentrate. Thank you."
The bespectacled boy turned around to glare at the green-haired boy who looked horrified over being called out," Building on the young lady's point, if you think U.A. is a pleasure jaunt, then leave immediately. You have no place being here!"
As Momo made her point and sat down, she heard Present Mic explain - over the snickering of several other attendees - how the fourth villain was worth zero points and it was designed to make people think twice about attacking it.
"Anyways, that's enough from me, folks. Let's finish it up with a quick presentation and as a certain hero named Napoleon Bonaparte said 'A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life'," Present Mic boomed, "Now let's move to the main event... PLUS ULTRAA!
Once more, the poor man went ignored.
(U.A. High School - Battle Centre C)
With hundreds of examinees gathered around her, all dressed in clothing suitable for exercise, Momo - dressed in black jogging bottoms and a sport bra, the latter so she wouldn't rip apart the uniform she wore whilst listening to Present Mic - did some stretches to limber herself up.
When she was finished with her stretching, she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
"Yaoyorozu-san."
Looking over to her right, she saw Mashirao walk over and wave at her, blushing up a storm as he kept his eyes fixed firmly on her face. The poor boy was far too gentlemanly and respected her enough to not peek past her semi-revealing attire.
"Hello, Ojiro-san," Momo replied in greeting, smiling as she did so, "Let's do our best, yeah? Also, where's Kendō-san?"
"Yeah, and Kendō-san was relegated to-" Mashirao's face suddenly tightened as his face morphed into a glare, an expression that was incredibly out of character for him, and he stared at something or somebody behind her.
Momo was confused until he spoke.
"Touch her and I'll break your arm. Then, she'll break your other arm and her brother, when he finds out, will break your legs." Mashirao threatened, prompting her to turn around and see what the problem was.
She saw a incredibly short boy with purple balls sat atop of his head, eyes filled with lust and glee as he reached towards her, clearly intending to get a handful of her backside.
His beady eyes flitted to the cleavage that her sports bra couldn't contain and Momo's face wrinkled with disgust as she backed away from him, cursing her decision to wear a sports bra over something that would've hid her body from view.
"Damn it, I was so close to grabbing that juicy ass." He mumbled.
Momo stared down at him, irritation flooding through her body, "And that's the closest you'll ever get. Now then, back-off before I have to start a scene."
"What kind of scene, 'cause I'm down for a certain type." The grape-haired boy said, tugging at his shirt collar and licking his lips as he continued to stare at her, his eyes roaming all over her abdomen.
"Don't be daft." She replied, scowling as she procured a knuckleduster and gave him a look that said 'Are you really going to make me use these?'
The boy chuckled as he leered at her, but backed away into the crowd, "Playing hard to get, eh? That just makes you so much hotter, girls like you tend to be the super freaky ones. I bet you've got loads of naughty kinks that you'd never admit to anyone."
Momo fought down the urge to vomit as he vanished into the bustling crowd.
Pocketing the knuckleduster and turning back to Mashirao, she noticed he'd gone straight back to his shy, blushing self.
"Thank you for that."
Mashirao nodded, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, knowing Itachi would've ended him if he'd allowed Momo to be groped by some creep, "It's no problem, but I can't believe someone like that is here. By the way, were you really going to use those?"
"Only if I had to," Momo replied, sighing, "but on another note, when is this exam going to-"
"START!" Present Mic's voice blared from a nearby tower, "What're you all standing around for!? There's no timer in a real fight. Get your butts moving and consider the baton tossed! You've got twenty minutes to go wild!"
Mashirao gave her a nod as he ran ahead, but Momo, unwilling to be caught in the stampede of the rushing crowd, waited until everyone had already advanced; then procured a bow and quiver with a singular arrow; an uncapped USB stick located where the arrowhead should be, and a tablet.
'If we're fighting robots, then I should be able to hack one, right? Surely, U.A. wouldn't think that an examinee could take control of one?' Momo thought, clipping the tablet to her bottoms.
She broke into a sprint and in less than thirty second - where'd the thing even come from, especially given the crowd of examinees who'd had to have rushed past it - she was confronted by a two-pointer which looked like a massive, mechanical scorpion, it's red eyes flashing as it spotted her.
"Target Acquired - Objective: Destroy."
It scuttled towards her and lunged, intending to strike her with it's front legs.
Taking note that there was an USB port between it's glowing eyes, Momo leapt to one side, allowing it to crash into the ground, then jumped back as the mechanical stinger darted downwards and pulverized the ground where she'd been standing a second prior, before being forced to move again as the tail was thrusted at her for a second time.
The robot lifted it's stinger and thrust it towards her once more, prompting the Creation quirk user to leap aside, and then it turned around to face her, head twitching and eyes flashing as it required its target.
"Target Reacquired - Objective: Destroy."
Raising the bow and nocking the specialized arrow, she let the projectile fly and it flew through the air, nailing the two-pointer between the eyes.
The robot twitched and pulled the arrow out of it's face, tossed it to the ground and moved to attack her once more.
Momo jumped back as the two-pointer swiped one leg at her, ducked under an attempt to hit her with a stinger, then cartwheeled to one side as the two-pointer turned to strike her with its head.
It raised itself to it's full height, and then suddenly froze as it eyes dimmed.
Unclipping the tablet, she looked at the screen to see the words 'Programme Accepted. Access Granted. Rebooting in 3, 2, 1' flash across it. As the last second passed, the screen shifted to a live feed and Momo found herself staring at an overhead image of herself.
Looking up, she saw that the two-pointers eyes were glowing once more, but it didn't move to attack her.
Tracing her fingers over the tablet, Momo directed the two-pointer to move deeper into the city. Watching its progress on the tablet, she made sure to keep it away from massive groupings of examinees and made it tear apart and plough through one-pointers, other two-pointers and three-pointers, none of whom had been coded by the school to respond to attacks by other robots.
Any student she rescued from being ganged up on by two-pointers and three-pointers had surprised looks on their faces when her two-pointer charged past them and beat the other robots into scrap metal.
Watching the progress of the examinees from an observation room were the staff of U.A. High School. Sat in a dark room and scanning over the various display screens were a small, white mouse-like creature, a skinny blonde man, and the pro heroes: Ectoplasm, Midnight, Cementoss, Eraserhead - who was huddled in a sleeping bag, half asleep and looking completely homeless - Snipe and several others.
Midnight was watching one screen which showed Momo fiddling with a tablet and getting a two-pointer to move away from her.
"Midnight, what are you staring at so intently?" Eraserhead's tired voice inquired from behind her.
She looked back at him, noticing he was looking past her at the screen she'd also been looking at.
"Ah, Aizawa-kun, I didn't think you'd be watching. In answer to your question, this girl right here. She just took control of one of our two-pointers and is presumably going to use it to destroy other pointers. Power Loader-kun, why don't our pointers have firewalls and other cyber-defences?"
The half-dressed man with an excavator claw sat over his head shrugged and scratched the back of his head.
"To be fair, we've never had a student do that before. I'll make sure the batch for next year's Entrance Exam can't be hacked into." He replied as the mouse-like creature sipped from a tea cup.
"To be able to create code and a computer programme from nothing but her quirk within a few seconds. She's an incredibly talented young woman." He said, watching another screen which displayed name of the top 10 examinees and how many villain and rescue points they had.
At the moment, an examinee named Katsuki Bakugo was first with 62 villain points and no rescue points, Eijiro Kirishima was second with 30 villain points and 28 rescue points, whilst Momo Yaoyorozu had just matched Ochaco Uraraka's score of 22 villain points and 32 rescue points and was joint-third with 28 villain points and 26 rescue points.
"Please, go find another pointer to ruin."
Momo huffed as examinees, desperate to get points, started attacking the two-pointer she was controlling. The robot had taken hits from several quirks, but it was still moving with only three legs, one leg having been torn off by an examinee who looked like a hairy beast, but warnings were flashing on the screen of her tablet, informing her about structural damage and the missing stinger.
She'd have to abandon ship if the two-pointer took more damage.
She watched as the two-pointer jerked to a stop, immobilized by a mass of thorny, green vines which wrapped around the robot's legs and flung it onto its side.
The feed on the tablet became all fuzzy from the impact and Momo barely caught sight a green-haired girl stood within the mass of vines, all of which were coming from her head, hands clasped together as if she was praying, before the thorny vines wrapped around the two-pointers head.
Knowing the machine was done for, Momo switched off the tablet and got to work procuring something else as Present Mic screamed, "6 minutes left!"
The barrel of an artillery piece emerged from her stomach, rainbow lights sparkling all over the place, but she refused to relent - despite the rapid depletion of her fat stores and the growing ache in her stomach - until what she wanted had been created.
It took her a whole minute to create a 105mm Howitzer - which used up so much of her fat stores that Momo, who felt slightly light-headed, was absolutely positive that her stomach would be growling at her until she got something to eat - and an artillery shell that would fit inside it.
'This is reckless, and I'll probably get told off for it by Itachi for abusing my limits, but if it works, it'll be more than worth it.'
However, the shell wasn't your average high-explosive one.
Within the shell was a cylinder full of explosives, but that cylinder was surrounded by stator wiring linked up to a bank of capacitors. It also had a fuse which would be used to make a spark and detonate the explosive and a timer which would get the whole thing to activate and go off about forty seconds after launch.
Huffing as her stomach growled like an angry lion, Momo heaved the shell and loaded it into the howitzer's breech; then flicked the switch at the back of the former and tied a rope to the trigger, but not before ensuring the barrel was at its maximum traverse.
She pulled the rope and the artillery piece fired, launching the shell into the sky. At the same time, the shockwave caused by the muzzle blast lifted dirt from the floor, jolted her body and knocked her off her feet.
"I could really do with some food." She lamented, far too tired to get up as she lay on her right side.
Eraserhead stared at the screen, unimpressed, "That girl just created a howitzer, completely tiring herself out from the looks of it, and fired it into the sky. How irrational. If she were my student, I'd expel her for such foolishness"
"Somehow, I doubt that. I have a feeling she's going to surprise us." Nezu replied, chuckling.
"We'll see."
"Want to bet on it? ¥74,000." Snipe offered.
"No. Betting is irrational." Eraserhead drawled.
At twenty seconds of flight time, and having reached a height of several kilometres above the various battle centres, the modified artillery shell came to a stop after slowing and gravity took hold, pulling it back down to the earth.
After falling for a good fourteen seconds, the timer within the shell pinged and a carefully planned chain reaction started.
Another switch inside the shell linked the bank of capacitors to the stator wiring, sending an electrical current through them and generating a powerful magnetic field along the cylinder full of explosive. An explosion began as the the fuse mechanism provided a powerful enough spark - the blast wave travelling along the cylinder which ruptured and came into contact with the stator wiring, creating a short circuit and breaking the link between the capacitors and the wiring.
The resulting short circuit compressed the magnetic field, almost like a star collapsing in on itself to create a black hole, generating an intense electromagnetic burst which ripped through the sky in the form of a rapidly expanding light blue ring, and killed anything electrical, including lampposts and any one, two and three-pointers which hadn't yet been destroyed in battle centres B, C and D.
"Yes, it actually worked!" Momo exclaimed, joyous that her hopes - which'd been placed on a completely conceptual EMP bomb design dating back to the 1950s and could've completely failed - hadn't been crushed, but instead lifted to new heights.
"I don't know what the hell that was, but there's two minutes remaining and here comes the big one. Hold onto your butts, folks!" Present Mic's voice screamed, and before she could think about what the energetic blond meant by 'the big one', the ground begun to rumble and shake as if the whole area had been beset by an earthquake.
Then, the biggest robot she'd ever seen - barely managing to catch a glimpse of it through the tall buildings - appeared in one of the battle centres.
"That must be the zero-pointer. And they made it EMP-resistant." She mused, watching as it advanced forwards before suddenly lurching backwards as its face suddenly caved in, followed by multiple points of its body exploding as it fell backwards.
Most of the pro heroes in the observation room gawked as they watched dozens of villain bots spark and collapse as their internals were fried by the EMP. Even Eraserhead had wiggled out of his sleeping bag and whilst his facial expression remain unchanged, they could tell that he was curious, and they were so transfixed on the camera watching her that all but one, the skinny blond man who was smiling, missed a green-haired boy destroying the zero-pointer with a single punch to the face.
Midnight laughed, "Hot damn, I like that one. Still thinking negatively about the girl, Eraserhead?"
Eraserhead grunted, "I'll admit, I may have misjudged her, but what she did was still irrational."
"That was a flux compression generator bomb," Ectoplasm mused, having gotten out of his seat, "Nobody has ever built one before, but the concept was created by a defence analyst dating back to the 1950s. I'm not one to pick and choose when it comes to these exams, but that not allowing that girl into U.A. would be a colossal waste of talent."
Snipe chuckled, "Amen to that."
"Thank goodness the zero-pointer is EMP-resistant. This entrance exam would've been boring otherwise. Wait a minute, did that green-haired kid blow it away with one punch! What kind of crazies are we gonna get this year?" Power Loader exclaimed, the excavator claw on his head making it impossible to tell where he was looking.
Nezu, complete with an eerie and inquisitive grin on his scarred mouse-like face, was too busy watching the examinee scoreboard to respond.
A/N: And that's Chapter 6 for you guys. Where do you guys think Momo scored when it came to the practical test of the Entrance Exam?And for those curious, I wasn't going to do the Recommendation Exam for Itachi, since it barely got any attention besides a brief flashback between Shoto and Inasa, and I didn't want to just make something up in-case the concept I came up with turned out silly, so I hope you enjoy the Momo-centric chapter.