Contrary to the chapter's name, it is NOT a slasher movie (but it's easy to mistake). Also it's a one day early release because I'm BOOOORED.
(***)
AngelFallenDemon - Hahahahaha :D
SmokyGhoul - :D
AlphaStryke - Absolutely. Badass mom, badass dad, badass children. Chads all the way.
The Archivist of Nyx - Tenko and Awoo are totally going to meet, although probably not like you expect it to happen.
MonsterKing - AYE SIR
Inuyasha-loves-Hanyou-Kagome - Indeed :(
Guest - Absolutely aware of it, just trying to make this one a tiny bit less messed-up.
TheGreatBubbaJ - I mean, there was a head in the sky, tbh
Detrametal - Technically correct is the best type of correct. And I agree that it's cruel :3
Gamer71796 - Not quite, it's not a projection quirk :P
Gowithebeat - Fun fact. I'm currently writing and publishing (second chapter today, and thus far only on AO3) Exiting the Stage. Which is an alternative outcome of Ties that Bind. Yes. Things go bad, and a lot of 1-A folks end up villains. It's exactly as terrifying as you can imagine it.
ShadowGame07 - Yeah XDD
Shin - Absolutely! I loved that fragment of canon, if only because of Midoriya's aesthetic going grimdark for a time. It was pretty cool, ngl.
(***)
An ongoing battle between several schools was promptly interrupted when Inasa Yoarashi appeared at the rooftop of the adjacent building. Together with a massive wind that has promptly torn almost all balls from the students hands, while granting him their undisputed attention.
"EVERYONE'S FIGHTING!" Yoarashi says while the whirlwind above him is full of the capture balls. "EVERYONE'S FIRED UP! I LOVE IT!" Some of the students begin to recognize him as that UA kid. It is too late to run. "LET ME PARTAKE IN YOUR HOTBLOODEDNESS! PLEASE AND THANK YOU!"
The rain of capture balls decimates his opponents in one fell-swoop, earning him 134 kills. And making Mera's jaw drop further.
Tsuyu returned to her favorite environment. She hid underwater, in a false river passing through the exam site. She has quickly outmatched the few students that had similar ideas to her own. Then she hid next to a bridge.
Mezo Shoji joined her once Yaoyorozu managed to get him that breathing apparatus. It was, naturally, a part of the plan. She pulled the smaller students who got too close into the water with her tongue. Once they were struggling underwater, she quickly scored a few points and threw them out of the water.
He did the same with the stronger ones, and if the student she pulled proved too strong, he promptly used numerous segmented tentacles of his to restrain him underwater so that they could both score some points.
It was a good cooperation. They earned a lot of kills.
Midoriya smiled when they cornered him. As they only thought that they cornered him. It was, really, the other way around.
People were really underestimating him. Was it the school festival? Sure, he did go a bit reckless and self-destructive, but Todoroki needed that! It's not like Midoriya is a mindless, self-destructive glass cannon! Quite the opposite, in fact.
He has three balls now. He took two from the students they defeated before spreading out. There are seven opponents in front of him, in the alleyway between high-rise buildings. Perfect environment to use that.
He fires up the balls in quick succession. Seemingly in random directions. The students in front of him didn't have enough time to laugh about him panicking before the first of the balls bounced off the building, and hit another mid flight at the right moment to bounce the other off into one of the students' hitpoints.
It wasn't Nedzu's capture weapon for usage in close quarters (as if someone ever got that close to him). It was light, and didn't have its own propulsion. And without High Spec he couldn't think fast enough to hit anything that way once the enemy began to actively evade.
But… the flying balls kept the enemy occupied. And your own balls couldn't take out your own hitpoints. He tested that right at the beginning. So his freedom of movement was limited to a much lesser degree.
The leader of the students suddenly noticed that his enemy was now on-top of him. Or, to be exact, is there upside down, somehow balancing himself on a single finger. That was on the top of the leader's head.
"That would be all." Izuku announces. He channels a minuscule percentage of One for All into the finger, propelling himself a few centimeters above the big guy's (had to be some strength-amplification quirk) head. Then he thunderclaps with 25% of One for All put into it.
The student is down for the count. The rest follows suit.
"Midoriya." He hears through the commpiece that Yaoyorozu made for them before they split. "I have eyes on the Shiketsu."
It's Denki. Making him stop and ask before leaping into the fray and trying to electrocute everyone in the vicinity was a large progress.
"What are they doing?" He asks back. The student that he just beat up (and now had one of his iron soles on top of his head, he was about to hit his hitpoints with the capture ball before Denki contacted him) mumbles something angrily.
"Uhm, one of them is doing something to approaching students, methinks?" Denki isn't the most descriptive of his classmates. "He turns them into little chunks of flesh. They then turn them back one by one, score the kill, and let them go. I think they have like fifteen of their students there."
Uh oh. Smart move. It must be Shishikross. The Shiketsu has no school festival, but those are all second years. They already had internships. And Izuku used a lot of time and resources to find out who they MIGHT run into during the exam. At least the major ones.
"Who is with you?" Midoriya asks.
"Sero." Denki replies.
"Do not engage." Midoriya replies. "We could beat them up easily if we gathered up, but it's not worth it. Tell the rest where the Shiketsu is holding up and tell them to keep their distance." At this point Midoriya knew that even Bakugou would follow up on his order. What a miracle that was.
"Alright!" Denki says. They are doing quite well, especially with the whole discovery that Sero's tape conducts electricity. The rest is just making sure that he doesn't electrocute his ally accidentally.
Saiko Intelli and the remaining Seiai Academy students attempted to corner Momo Yaoyorozu and her small group in some high-rise building. The group was composed of Momo herself, Kyoka Jirou, Rikidou Satou… and Tenko Shimura who for some reason tagged along.
Momo sighed. Intelli was good. She knew her from their parents' regular tea parties. And she was aware that she would be inducted into Nedzu's special classes if she decided to go to the UA. She was fully aware that Saiko Intelli would go after her if only to prove herself.
It was, overall, a bad choice. She managed to blind them and weaken Kyoka seriously by blasting loud music. They also boxed them in a part of the apartment. And considering the fact that the door appeared to be electrified, having Tenko destroy anything sounded potentially dangerous.
Seiai probably didn't manage to prepare electrotraps on the walls and the floor. But Yaoyorozu decided against testing that. So, instead, she contacted Himiko Toga (who was following the group in a distance, as Momo fully expected to be cornered like that) through her earpiece.
She then created a portable heater with its own power source to counter Seiai' attempts to freeze them out. And waited.
Well, once she prepared a few more things.
Then Momo's group rolled out of apartment.
Literally.
She used her quirk to construct a modified Kettenkrad. Half-track motorcycle from the Second World War. Satou was the driver. Momo was sitting in the backseat, modified to resemble a giant throne decorated with skulls and occult symbols matching those on the robes they all wore earlier.
And yes, she was wearing a crown. Together with an exquisite robe. And a rather grim scepter, which looked like it was made of bones.
Jirou and Shimura decided to play along. They were standing right next to her throne (the machine was slightly expanded sideways). Shimura was waving around a large hand fan, while Kyoka was standing there, with a platter full of grapes, pretending to be a serving girl.
Of course, ominous latin chants were playing from the speakers she installed onto the kettenkrad.
Seiai Academy students absolutely freaked out. Especially when one of them (secretly replaced by Himiko) began to suddenly act like they just went insane, screaming praises to Aiko before leaping at Saiko.
The rest was promptly swept up by the UA students after Momo gestured at the opponents in front of her - and her servants charged at them, shouting praises directed at "the Great Young One" and "her high priestess, Momo the Terrible".
Spending time with Midoriya taught her that the best victory is the one you achieve with style.
Tough luck Saiko.
Tenya maybe wasn't a part of the secret world domination master classes of Nedzu, but he was smart. And had a gift for tactics. So while not a genius, he was still very good. Perhaps, in a way, like All Might.
He even had traumatic memories starring Gran Torino. Oddly enough, this actually gave him some inspiration on how to make passing this exam a relatively painless occurrence. Well, painless to him and his classmates, that is.
He had Mineta deploy his balls around the area. That kid could bounce off them for high speed three-dimensional movement, resembling Gran Torino's relentless beating up of Bakugou quite well.
Tenya then promptly lured other students into the killing zone. If they managed to hold their ground against Mineta (he had speed, not strength), they were left vulnerable to Tenya suddenly running through them at top speed.
He had enough spatial awareness now to not accidentally step into Mineta's balls. He also had enough social awareness to realize how horrible this sentence sounded. Tenya Iida was growing up.
Nevertheless, this fight was a one-sided massacre. Like most of those involving 1-A that day.
Kirishima and Mina decided to work together. He figured out (more or less) how to slide along her acid trail. With some proper training on that field, the result could be described as a fast moving stone wall that trampled everything that it ran into.
They had some troubles when they ran into a group of students that seemed really good at evading… at least until Tokoyami popped up from nowhere, with Dark Shadow chanting about the Dreaded Aiko being with them that day and demanding the unbelievers in front of it as sacrifices.
That was some really good psychological warfare, especially with Tokoyami announcing his technique names aloud. And they were very, very grim.
Hagakure realized how to refract and reflect light. Aoyama's quirk got much stronger recently. They, naturally, fought together. Enemies expected straight light (that was laser, after all), only for invisible Hagakure to suddenly reflect it back at them. For example, from behind their back.
Ojirou was with them. He was tasked with holding enemies from getting too close to Aoyama. He did his job well enough.
It was a very good tactic. Only Aoyama's quirk having endurance limits was a problem. They actually lost two of three life points each (safe for Ojirou, who lost one) before the exam ended, getting the closest to getting knocked out of the competition.
Koji Koda was a gentle being at heart. Receiving 23 confirmed kills during the initial, joint struggle (most of them were given to him, not earned, although his quirk contributed to some of them) was enough for him.
He kept himself hidden until the exam ended. Using some of the birds as scouts and reporting his findings to Midoriya, of course. He didn't wish to partake in more violence, but he was perfectly alright with helping others commit violent acts. Especially as they were his friends!
He is aware that Hitoshi Shinsou decided to take a nap in a very good hiding spot thirty meters away from him. He decides to not wake him up.
(Eraserhead felt a tinge of paternal love when he heard how Shinsou spent most of the exam)
Shoto Todoroki was almost unstoppable when he was only using his ice. Now he was also using his fire, which threw the word 'almost' from the sentence. He was promptly freezing anyone who came close. And if someone proved resistant to low temperatures, he engaged with his flames.
And he had enough mobility to retreat after he almost ran into Shiketsu stronghold.
All things considered, it was a fun and relaxing day for Shoto Todoroki. For the students that run into him, not so much.
"FUCK YOU!" Katsuki yells. The students that he was just defeating handily look absolutely terrified. And not only because the living explosion was there. "STOP STEALING MY KILLS, NERD!"
Izuku, at this point, had enough.
"I'M NOT STEALING YOUR KILLS!" He shouts back, punching a student into the wall. "SO F… FRICK YOU!"
If Bakugou Katsuki is surprised by their class cinnamon roll telling HIM of all people words like that (even if it's the self-censored version), he isn't showing it. He is too busy being furious.
"YES, YOU ARE!" Bakugou shouts back while making an explosion go off into the face of one of the opposing students. Said students, at this point, begin to realize that they are starring in a slasher movie. As victims. "YOU DON'T WANT ME TO BECOME KACCHAN AGAIN!"
"I WANT IT!" Izuku yells while defeating yet another student. It's some lesser gigantification quirk. He actually falls back, almost squashing three other students. They are partially immobilized by its unconscious body, so Izuku quickly 'kills' them all.
"YOU DON'T!" Bakugou answers before firing his armor piercing explosion at some armored enemy. "ALSO THAT COUNTED AS ONE!"
Izuku has enough and promptly punts him through a nearby building. It's not enough to take him out. The two of them continue fighting each other while fighting whoever is mad enough to approach. When larger group does, they stop fighting each other, beat them up, and return to their attempts of mutual murder.
Izuku finds yelling out all his grievances at Bakugou surprisingly cathartic. Punching him in the face doubly so.
Uraraka Ochaco can feel the disturbance in a force. Something wrong is happening. But what could it be? It's probably something about her boyfriend, isn't it? Oh well, Izuku will probably tell her everything after the exam is over.
Two minutes later Eraserhead realizes that Uraraka Ochaco is joining the growing 1-A heavy-hitters club.
Some students made a horrifyingly bad call. They saw her be chummy with Midoriya before the exam, so they tried to taunt her about her boyfriend's supposedly bad performance in the sports festival (broken bones etc.). After Uraraka shouts something back, another one decided to be borderline suicidal. And taunts her back with some variants of 'if he is so great, he'll probably find someone better than you'.
Eraserhead could practically feel the murder intent from the audience. And that's before Ochako threw a building at them. Small one, yes. But she simply touched it, reversed its gravity, tore it from the ground and then redirected its gravity again towards the offending group.
Eraserhead didn't know that she could do that. Judging from the surprise on her face, she didn't either. Did she just… did she just reawaken her quirk due to being pissed off at people for badmouthing her boyfriend and suggesting that someone might take him from her?!
Aizawa Shouta realizes that women are scary. Especially young ones in love. He also begins to suspect that Aiko Midoriya isn't the only demon child in Midoriya's family.
Mera can scarcely believe the results. Sure, UA and Shiketsu typically dominated those exams, but… they were more or less equal while doing so. This time, not so much. This was made even harsher by the fact that Shiketsu sent its second year class, while UA sent first years.
Twenty-four UA students scored 721 kills in total. Almost half of the participants were knocked out by them. Eighteen Shiketsu students, in the meantime, eliminated 'only' 212 participants. The third school was Ketsubutsu, whose twelve students (third years, though) eliminated 159 students.
What the hell was that? What the hell did the rat do to his students? It was… it was impossible. It was all absolutely, patently impossible.
HPSC president is going to shit bricks when she hears about it, isn't she? Shiketsu was firmly on its side in her eternal struggle against Nedzu. But here, Shiketsu was thoroughly outmatched and crushed. Ketsubutsu was keeping its distance from both sides, that much was great, but…
Even if it moved over to the HPSC side, it wouldn't be even nearly enough to balance THAT out.
(he is yet to learn that 1-B, 1-C and 1-D achieved similar outcomes in their own exams, although to a lesser degree. Especially 1-C and 1-D, who were going in one exam together, were struggling and had several of their students knocked out. but they still were in first place on their exam site).
Alright, fuck this, Mera. There is still the second phase of the exam. Maybe they'll fuck something up.
Midoriya and Yaoyorozu were quick on their feet. They knew that there was going to be a second phase of the exam. And that it was almost certain not going to be a free-for-all but probably something testing other things. Perhaps… cooperation?
So they quickly sent more social of their classmates to get acquainted with the students that passed the first exam stage but weren't from any of the major schools. Midoriya, in the meantime, approached Ketsubutsu.
"So, uhm…" Midoriya was doing his best. Even if his nose might be a bit broken due to his little fight with Kacchan (that was just two kills, damnit! he should have focused on that instead of advising others while fighting him). "Would you like to work together during the second phase of the exam?"
"Please tell me more." Yo Shindo appears to be interested. His classmates as well. Besides, considering what the UA did during the first stage of the exam, they fully realize the wisdom of Ms. Joke's words.
Ketsubutsu's Academy first rule of engagement during the exam - do not make the 1-A angry.
Shiketsu, in the meantime, decided to be proactive. Whether they were impressed by what the UA' achievements or due to wanting to see the UA's at work from closer distance, they actually ran into Yaoyorozu (whom Midoriya chose as the UA representative for this).
They agreed.
Midoriya has made a decision to not fuck anything up during the second phase of the exam. Which, soon enough, turns out to be the rescue exercise.
"Tenya, Yaoyorozu!" Midoriya shouts at the class vice-presidents. "Organize the rescue efforts!" They nod. The other schools agreed to follow the instructions, in exchange for Yaoyorozu-made communication items (that they could use, as they were made on-site). That was going to be useful.
They run together with a group of other school students. Yaoyorozu is with Shiketsu (and a handful of independents) while Tenya is with Ketsubutsu. And a handful of independents as well.
Of course, the part where the other schools are listening to them (especially Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu) is conditional. They are going to act more like general coordinators of the rescue effort.
"Are we…" Kat… Kacchan is about to say something, but Midoriya interjects him (he should have focused on fighting rather than commanding, why did he let Bakugou win by two points aaaa)..
"We're going to deal with the villains." He replies.
"What villains?" It's Yo Shindo. They let the class representatives from the two allied main allied schools in on their internal comms. He seems surprised.
"HPSC ramped up the exams after Kamino." Midoriya replied calmly. They are all, of course, running deeper into the exam area while talking. "A lot of people had to be saved there while the villains were still rampaging through the area. This part of the exam is almost certainly based on this."
"Ahh…" This time it's Nagamasa Mora, the Shiketsu's representative. "I get it. You keep the villains at bay, we focus on the rescue. Smart. We'll do our part as soon as possible, then move in to assist you."
The field hospital was opened in a heartbeat. Soon after that, Gang Orca and a small army of his sidekicks entered the area following a giant explosion.
That was very useful in locating their entry point. They should have tried to do that while keeping their profile low. The remaining 1-A students move in to intercept the attackers before they get deeper into the exam area.
"Pointless." Eraserhead comments. This really was pointless, wasn't it? The idea was good, and it proved that the HPSC at least considered filling All Might's void with more than a single hero. But…
"What is pointless?" It's the Shiketsu teacher. He seems to have somewhat calmed down after the earlier shock. Probably because Aiko decided to take a nap and she really didn't look like an eldritch abomination when asleep. Especially as she was for some reason leaning on him.
Eraserhead had to remember to wake her up later on. She might have wanted Gang Orca's autograph. Or soul.
"Sending handicapped Gang Orca against them. On land." He replies. "Midoriya is Nedzu's personal student with a specialization in quirk warfare. He probably has ten different plans to counter the quirks and abilities of every top hero and supervillain in the country." He sighs. "And with all the students on the field following his orders… well, Gang Orca is going to get beaten up."
There is silence on the tribune. Long and a bit awkward one.
"You know, I would have called bullshit one hour ago." The Shiketsu teacher finally says, "But after the first exam stage I'm only going to sit down and watch the show." Looks like someone begins to understand what the 1-A is about.
"It's Gang Orca!" Midoriya yells into his communicator once the message reaches him. Then he starts issuing orders. All according to his anti-Gang Orca's plan B. They'll move to plan A if he'll keep standing after that.
Gang Orca finds himself faced by three hero trainees from 1-A. Kirishima, Satou and Shoji, he remembers. They looked pumped up and ready for the fight. In fact they are now advancing towards him, clearly mindful of their surroundings to avoid getting surprised by his sidekicks.
That's quite admirable, although…
"So, you're going to fight me?" Gang Orca asks. "Just the three of you? Instead of running away or trying to stall me, you're approaching me?"
This pauses them for a few heartbeats. The hardening kid suddenly has a smile beam on his face.
"WE CAN'T BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU WITHOUT GETTING CLOSER!" He yells and the other two laugh. Gang Orca has a feeling that he missed an inside joke. Oh, nevermind. He charges at them.
Kirishima - in his newest achievement, Red Riot Unbreakable mode - takes the charge head-on. Together with sugar-boosted Satou and Mezo Shoji. Kirishima takes in most of the impact, while the other two heroes are attempting to grapple the rampaging Killer Whale Hero in order to restrain him.
"Not bad." He replies as they manage to stop his charge. "But still too weak."
He is promptly forced to swallow his words. His sonar blast (point blank!) is instantly suppressed by Jirou, who hid in a distance, extending her earlobes to the maximum. Sure, it managed to paralyze them for a second or two, but… it's only enough to slightly push them back before she moves in and undoes the effects.
High-strength opponents together with something to negate his sonar blasts? Well, this is a pain in the ass. Then again, he is a hero. One of the top ones. He can do it.
He fails to notice Ashido Mina and Kaminari Denki, who are the main attack force. Everyone else was a distraction. Gang Orca went too far in his charge, leaving his sidekicks behind, allowing the 1-A heavy-hitters (mostly Todoroki and Yoarashi) to push his sidekicks back.
Mina and Denki thus sneaked behind him. And while he was pushing back and slowly beating up the three strongmen in front of him, she made a trail of acid between her and Gang Orca. It was electricity-conducting. So Kaminari promptly unleashed his full-power into him.
Kirishima, Satou and Shoji disengaged a second before the blast. Gang Orca was still standing, but he was clearly weakened and dazed.
They retreat. Midoriya moves over to plan A. Yoarashi and Todoroki unleash combined attacks. Shoto generates as much fire as he can, while Yoarashi uses his precise wind control to change that into a massive firestorm that he then envelops Gang Orca in.
He is weak to high temperatures. And the electric shock weakened him enough that he failed to dispel it with his sonar blasts. Besides, considering their distance to him, they would probably simply re-ignite their attack.
Gang Orca ends up surrendering. The remaining 1-A combatants managed to crush most of his sidekicks once most of the HUC people got rescued and the Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu students began to arrive at the battleground. By the time Mera announced that everyone got rescued and the exam has been concluded, it's practically speaking a rout.
It really stings, even if he was handicapped the whole time.
(***)
As stated, this is NOT a slasher movie. It's just 1-A going on a rampage. And showcasing both their growing strength AND chaos gremlin tendencies (Momoooo). Midoriya is a bad influence... I think. Or maybe it's good influence?