The room they were all standing in began shaking, as the explosives that had been set all across the landscape all went off in sequence, and Izuku found himself more than a little unsettled by everything that was going on. Sure, there had been an announcement that everyone who'd made it to this part of the test would be participating in a simulated rescue of simulated bystanders placed throughout the simulated city, but it was still kind of strange. As the walls and ceiling around them all split open, revealing the sky and the devastation all around them, Izuku took a deep breath to prepare himself for what they were all going to be doing next.
Once the walls and ceiling of what had once been a waiting room had all folded to the ground, Izuku joined up with the rest of Class 1-A – along with Todoroki-san's friend Yoarashi-san, and Shishikura-san, who was glaring at Kacchan in a way that suggested he still wasn't impressed by anything that Kacchan had been saying or doing – as they all made their way to the center of what remained of the urban area. That kind of place was the most complicated, and hence dangerous, for potential Heroes to work in. It was best for them, since they had the strongest Quirks and would therefore have the best chance of extracting the simulated civilians from all this trouble.
It was kind of funny, though; this was honestly Class 1-A's second encounter with the people who worked for H.U.C., since they'd first encountered them as a part of the crowd present on I-Island while they'd been visiting Uncle Dave and Cousin Melly where they lived and worked.
Calling up Bambaa-chan's Quirk, as they came within sight of the semi-destroyed buildings of the simulated city, Izuku made his way over to a building that had been blown on its side by the sheer force of the explosions. Ears already roving as he tried to determine if there was someone inside the building in the first place, Izuku yowled in surprise as a high-pitched voice nearly cut his concentration to ribbons, feeling his tail puffing up even as it stood straight up from his spine. Turning to see just who it was who'd been yelling, Izuku found that the high-pitched voice had been coming from a little kid.
Or an actor made up to look like a little kid, at least.
As Ochako-san leaned in to try to comfort the boy, who Izuku noticed was calling for his grandfather once his ears had finally stopped ringing and he'd managed to regain his composure, Izuku leaned in to nuzzle the little kid, purring to comfort him as best he could. For a moment, the actor's professional mask seemed to slip, and he gave Izuku a rather unimpressed look.
"I could have been afraid of cats, you know," he said. "Fuzz therapy isn't always the best idea."
/Right, sorry about that,/ he said, sitting back on his haunches for a moment, before he suppressed Bambaa-chan's Quirk and stood back up.
"I guess I won't take points off your score for that," the young actor said, folding his arms and looking like he thought he was doing Izuku some kind of big favor.
It was really kind of silly, but Izuku put his lingering amusement aside, checking the simulated wounds on the young actor's forehead. Dad had made sure to cover first aid during the course of his pre-U.A. training, once he'd made it clear that he wanted to be a Pro Hero, so Izuku knew that head wounds tended to bleed almost entirely out of proportion to their severity. Still, there might very well have been more wounds than those he'd seen when he and the rest of class 1-A had made their way to this area in this first place.
After he'd confirmed that the actor he was handling didn't have any other injuries – or at least that he wasn't supposed to, given the parameters of this particular exercise – Izuku called up Hayato-kun's Quirk, extending his wings so he could fly off. The first thing that anyone with Hero training – or really any kind of first responder training at all, for that matter – would have done was to establish an aid station on the back lines. That was where he was going to head.
And, for all that he was just that much faster using Bambaa-chan's Quirk than anything else he had, flying was a lot smoother.
~MHA~
"You're going off on your own again, Bakugo?" Round Face demanded.
Katsuki tried valiantly not to roll his eyes; really, he did. "Round Face, my Quirk is 'I blow shit up'. I'll be a hell of a lot better at the Search part of Search and Rescue."
When Round Face didn't seem to have anything else to say, Katsuki turned his attention to the three people tagging along behind him.
"If you two extras are planning to follow me, then try to keep up," he said, looking back over at Sparky and Hedgehog as they fell in with him.
"Right!" Hedgehog said, grinning widely with those sharp teeth of his.
Turning his attention to the last of the three who'd followed along when he'd peeled off from the rest of the extras who'd come here with him and the nerd. "The hell are you doing here, Purple Pieman?"
"I'm here to find out just what it is about you that Izuku Midoriya is so willing to overlook," Purple Pieman said, eyes narrowed behind his red domino mask. "To find out why he is so willing to tolerate such a crude, vulgar person as you, when there are so many others within his class that would be far more suited to be his companions."
Rolling his eyes, Katsuki leaped away, using his Quirk to boost his speed as he, Hedgehog, and Sparky all headed out to find the people who'd been set loose in this area. Flexing his fingers, Katsuki growled deep in his throat. Sure, he knew that it took all kinds to be Heroes, but this guy…
He doubted that Purple Pieman was going to be able to earn his license with that kind of attitude.
~MHA~
When he finally made it to the back lines of the simulated disaster area and the gathering of actors who were playing injured civilians, Izuku allowed himself to breathe more easily. Sure, Izuku knew full well that this was really only the first step to getting the job he was currently doing over with, but now that he was there, he'd at least be able to hand off the actor he'd been escorting to someone else. Landing and pulling Hayato-kun's Quirk back into his own All For One, causing the wings he'd copied from Hayato-kun to retract into his back once more, Izuku escorted the actor he'd picked up at the destroyed remnants of the simulated urban area into the triage area that'd seemingly just finished being set up.
Almost before he'd had the chance to look around, another boy came rushing over to him.
"Hey, you're that kid Sensei was talking about, during his press conference with All Might," the older boy said, reaching out to shake his hand as the pair of them made their way deeper into the triage section. "It's great to meet you! My name is Yo Shindo. Come on, we could use some extra hands here. Do you have a healing Quirk, like your Dad?"
"Only one that works for me," he said, rubbing the back of his head and feeling more than a little sheepish.
Sure, he knew that the "healing Quirk" that Dad was most well known for was actually a combination of bio-manipulation Quirks that he'd inherited from some of his old friends, back during the time they were all working to make a place for themselves in a world that seemed to have been changing all around them, but Dad had asked him to keep that kind a secret, so he wasn't going to say anything.
"All right, we could still use an extra set of hands," Shindo-san said, as the pair of them fell into step with each other, making their way in among the actors who'd been recovered from the devastated testing ground all around them.
"Right," he said, nodding. "Still, if you need any more supplies, I could make them for you."
"I'll make sure people know about that," Shindo-san said, smiling softly. "Thanks, Midoriya."
"You're welcome."
~MHA~
As the three of them continued scouting, looking for any of the extras who might have ended up stranded in among the exploded remains of all the buildings that'd been set up around the testing area they were all moving around in, Katsuki heard a pair of voices crying up to him.
"My arm hurts!" a woman with big, poofy hair shouted, looking up at him with a pretty convincing pleading expression on her face.
"Mine too! Please, help us!" the man standing next to her, this one looking a bit more normal; seriously, Poofy Hair looked like she was wearing pillow stuffing for a hat.
It was almost funny enough to be distracting; Katsuki tried as hard as he could not to focus on it.
Jumping down from the short, rocky cliff he'd been standing on when Poofy Hair and her tag-along had caught his attention, Katsuki looked over the pair of actors who'd called his attention while he'd been searching for wandering people just like them.
"Is that all? Are you guys feeling any other pain? Having trouble walking? How's your vision?" he asked, looking over the both of them, trying to see if there was anything else obviously wrong with them.
Well, at least anything else that the two actors were trying to play up in order to draw attention from any of the other Heroes in training that might have run across them.
"All right, these two need an escort," he said, once Poofy Hair and Tag-along had reassured him that there was nothing else wrong with the pair of them. "Purple Pieman, get them to the treatment center," he said over his right shoulder. "Sparky, Hedgehog, let's get going."
Sure, it was pretty clear that Purple Pieman didn't think much of him, but fuck him; if he was going to attach himself to Katsuki like some kind of mouthy, annoying barnacle, Katsuki was going to at least get some use out of him.
~MHA~
"Nyaaa," he said, tilting his head and posing like one of those lucky cats he'd seen in more than a few shop windows when he and various members of his family were out and about around town.
The kids – or the actors who were playing kids, but Izuku was trying not to think about that kind of thing; he didn't want to distract himself thinking about what was going on behind the scenes, since Kacchan always did say he tended to over think stuff to the point of getting lost in his own head – cheered, and one of the smaller ones came over to pet him. He'd taken off his helmet as soon as he'd called up Bambaa-chan's Quirk, and he'd been helping to settle people down and help them feel better ever since he'd made it to the back of the line.
As a pair of the kids came up to him, reaching out to scritch his cheeks, Izuku purred even as he felt his ears following the sounds of the people all around him. It was kind of strange, having his ears moving on their own, especially since he hadn't ever really used Bambaa-chan's Quirk for any kind of sensory-enhancements. He had other, more dedicated Quirks for that kind of thing.
A sudden, sharp yank on his tail forced Izuku's attention back to all of the kids who'd gathered around him, and Izuku turned to see one of the smaller ones standing next to him. The look on the little kid's face seemed to indicate that he didn't feel bad about what he'd just done. Still, Izuku knew that he was bound to lose points if he acted like an actual cat in response to what had just happened.
There were, however, other things he could do.
Making himself look as sad as he could – something that worked even better, considering the fact that his copy of Bambaa-chan's Quirk made him look like a cute, fluffy, green-furred kitten – Izuku turned to look at the kid who'd just pulled his tail, letting out a sad, dejected sounding "nya". Trying as hard as he could not to purr, as the other kids who'd all gathered around to pet him and ruffle up his fur all turned to berate him for "making the kitty sad", Izuku caught the sound of something else.
A subtle rumbling, it seemed to be, just before a massive explosion went off, leaving Izuku with his ears, his tail, and all of his fur standing straight up as he yowled in surprise and not a little pain.
Shutting Bambaa-chan's Quirk away within the depths of his own All For One, Izuku felt one of his other Quirks bubbling to the surface. A familiar Quirk, one he'd been trying to get a hold on ever since he'd made his copy of it, back at the training camp. Still, under the present circumstances, Izuku wasn't entirely against it. Feeling his face heat up as Chat Noir emerged, flexing and shadowboxing and making exaggerated challenges to whatever faux Villain or Villains were attacking at the moment, Izuku took a deep breath, slapped both of his cheeks, and put his helmet back on.
He'd taken it off before he'd called up Bambaa-chan's Quirk in the first place, even though he'd had the helmet designed to accommodate the growth of his ears when he was using his sister's Quirk.
Turning at the sound of approaching footsteps, Izuku let out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding at the sight of Shindo-san as he made his way over.
"Looks like we're dealing with a Villain attack," Shindo-san said, looking back towards the sound and sight of explosions; whoever was coming through, it looked like this test wasn't just going to be about rescuing people.
It looked like they were really going all-out with this.
~MHA~
"Snowcone! It looks like there's trouble at the first-aid station! If we team up, we can beat the Villains attacking them!"
"Right," Shoto said, nodding. "Tsuyu, take her," he continued, handing off the woman he'd been warming up with the small fire he'd set. "Keep her by the fire as long as she needs it, I have to go."
"Keep up the good work, Tsu-chan!" Yoarashi-san shouted, right fist raised into the air as he wrapped his left arm around Shoto's waist. "Let's get going, Snowcone!"
As the pair of them flew up into the air, Shoto kept his gaze on the ground, picking out the rushing, black-clothed forms of what seemed to be the Villains. Given the way they were moving, it seemed as though all of them were carrying weapons of some kind or other. He supposed that that was one way for the faux Villains present in this attack to conceal their particular Quirks, and hence their identities.
"Yoarashi, you should probably land," he said, catching sight of Midoriya, standing guard over the evacuating civilians, arms spread as wide as they would go; narrowing his eyes, Shoto managed to catch sight of a subtle shimmer in the air.
It seemed as though Midoriya possessed another Quirk within his stockpile, another one he hadn't been pressed to use while they had been working to gain greater control over their own Quirks.
"Yeah, you can raise an ice wall to keep those Villains away, and then we can attack!"
The pair of them descended quickly, and Shoto slammed his right foot into the ground nearly as soon as he and Yoarashi-san had set down. Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, Shoto rejoined Yoarashi-san, reaching out with his right hand to generate a hail of small ice crystals that Yoarashi-san sent flying through the air. Glancing backwards, Shoto winced as he saw Midoriya fainting. He was relieved, seeing that one of the other student Heroes had caught him and was protecting him while they carried Midoriya away.
Forcing his own attention back to their present battle against the attacking faux Villains, Shoto raised an eyebrow as he heard the sound of the comm. Midoriya had asked Yaoyorozu to provide them with going off, Shoto wondered for a moment just who was attempting to contact him.
"All points, be alert that Gang Orca is the one leading the attack on the treatment center," Iida-san reported.
"Snowcone, did something happen?" Yoarashi-san asked, turning to him with a curious, worried sort of expression on his face.
"Iida-san. He just reported that Gang Orca is the one leading the attack," he said, stomping with his right foot, in order to send a wave of ice out to immobilize the attackers that were supporting Gang Orca in his efforts.
"Right! Then that's who we should be focusing on!" Yoarashi-san exclaimed, pumping his right fist in the air as he leaped the distance between them with a sudden burst of wind.
As the pair of them flew through the air, Shoto narrowed his eyes as he searched for Gang Orca. There was really only one thing they would be able to do, in order to immobilize Gang Orca and keep him from advancing and pressing his attack on the civilians that were steadily being evacuated even as he and Yoarashi approached.
~MHA~
Looking up at the sound of approaching footsteps, All Might smiled more widely at the sight of Sensei, making his way over to the seats near where he'd settled down to watch the Provisional License Exam. Well, that and to catch the more than slightly amusing antics of Aizawa-san as he tried – mostly in vain, it had to be said – to evade Ms. Joke's determined flirting.
"Finally managed to get your registration in order?" he asked, beckoning Sensei over, as out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Aizawa-san glancing over.
Sensei chuckled softly, adjusting his blue-tinted visor, presumably so that it sat more comfortably on his nose, then settled himself down in the chair that All Might had been offering to him. "Yes, I just finished updating all of the relevant paperwork," he said, sounding both amused and rather unimpressed by the whole prospect. "Still, not one of those I spoke to managed to recognize what the ultimate inspiration for my costume is."
All Might found himself chuckling, at that. "I don't think you realize just how obscure your favorite show is, around here," he said, leaning in a bit closer so that he could speak to Sensei without disturbing the floor-show he was kind of enjoying; though he wouldn't mention that kind of thing to Aizawa-san, of course. "Especially the era you told me it was from."
"I suppose," Sensei muttered, relaxing into his seat, but still with an air of slight annoyance about him.
Rolling his eyes, All Might settled back in his own seat, chuckling softly as he turned his own attention back to the final round of the exams. Back to the giant fire tornado that had just been stirred up, presumably by the combined efforts of Todoroki-kun and Yoarashi-kun, considering their respective Quirks.
~MHA~
Waking up in the arms of someone else, jostled around by the heavy footfalls of whoever it was evacuating him, Izuku blinked as he heard the sound of a loud, sustained air-horn.
"Looks like we made it to the end," Shindo-san said, grinning as he gently set Izuku back on his feet and the pair of them began making their way back to one of the still standing rooms so that they would be able to clean up and change out of their Hero costumes.
"Looks like," he said, smiling back at Shindo-san as the pair of them all joined up with the other Hero students that had come to the Provisional License Exam with them. "Thanks for helping me with all of that," he said, feeling more than a little sheepish about fainting the way he had.
"You were sheltering all of us from those Villains," Shindo-san said, grinning back at him. "Besides, you'd have done the same for me."
Once all of them were back in their school uniforms, sans the jackets that he and the rest of his classmates from U.A. all wore, Izuku found himself looking up at the main board, searching for his name out of all the students that'd been tested in this arena.
"Looks like we both ended up making it, nerd," Kacchan said, grinning in a particularly pleased sort of way as the pair of them looked up at the board, each of them looking for his own name.
"Looks like we did," he said, feeling more than a little pleased, himself.
The sight of other people, people who looked like they worked for the Hero Public Safety Commission considering what they were wearing, drew Izuku's attention and he turned to watch as they all came out with what looked like entire reams of paper. The fact that they were handing out single sheets of the paper they were carrying gave the impression that they had some kind of extra information to provide to them. Sure enough, the paper that he'd just been handed to him had a breakdown of the score he'd been assigned.
As well as the reason that those scores had been given.
"Wow, Kacchan, it looks they really busted you for all that casual swearing," he said, laughing outright as Kacchan turned a deadpan, unimpressed look on him.
"Fuck you too, nerd," Kacchan grumbled, rolling up the paper and actually trying to swat him with it; Izuku ducked, laughing.
"They're even suggesting that you attend a training program, to improve your people skills," he laughed, grinning as he ducked another swat. "Though, I don't really know if you can actually improve something that doesn't exist."
"All right, nerd, you asked for it!"
Once all of the informational sheets had been given out, and he and Kacchan had finished wrestling, all of them were dismissed and headed out to meet up with their teachers again. Smiling as he caught sight of Dad and Uncle Toshi, Izuku found a laugh almost forced out of him as Dad raised his right hand; finding himself wrapped up in Dad's telekinesis, pulled off his feet and drawn over to where Dad had previously been sitting, Izuku chuckled as Dad wrapped his arms around him. The next thing Izuku knew, he was riding on Dad's back as the pair of them made their way out of the testing arena.
Nuzzling Dad's soft, curly white hair, Izuku found his gaze drawn down to his feet; more specifically, the fact that his feet were still so far off of the ground. I really hope I get at least some kind of a growth-spurt soon, he mused, sighing into Dad's hair as the both of them made their way out of the testing arena. Sure, Izuku knew that he wasn't the shortest one in class, but compared to Dad – and especially Uncle Toshi – he couldn't honestly call himself tall.
~MHA~
Looking down at the bed he'd been left in, once everyone had left him alone for the night, Niseko sighed. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be able to escape from this place on his own; not only was everyone here bigger and stronger than him, but they all had Quirks that he couldn't hope to do anything against. Chisaki-san was the scariest, since he could not only lock Niseko up in a wall whenever he wanted to – he'd already done it once before – but he could also explode anyone he wanted to into so many pieces that no one could put them back together.
Still, that other girl – the one with the horn and the long, white hair; the one he'd still only caught brief glimpses of, even though the both of them seemed to still be living in the same compound together – seemed to be really sad. Really, she reminded Niseko a lot of himself, and since he had always wanted someone to help him and comfort him back during the times when he'd been alone and wondering what was so wrong with him; what it was that had driven Mom to leave him in Hosu, and Dad to not even want to talk to him, he thought that she would probably want the same kind of thing, too.
That was why he'd had to wait until he could be sure that everyone else – everyone who would try to stop him, since none of them really seemed to want him to talk to her at all; he didn't know why that was, but there probably wasn't a good reason – would be asleep, so he might be able to at least have the chance to meet her. Niseko didn't really know if there would be anything he could really do, not when he was just as trapped here as she was, and not when he was Quirkless. But, maybe if he could show her that she wasn't alone, that would at least make her feel a little better.
Peeking out through the door, holding it as close to himself as he could so he could pull it shut quickly if he ended up needing to, Niseko made his way out of the room Chisaki-san had forced him to stay in for as long as he'd been in whatever place they'd gone to after the Heroes had almost found him that first time. He couldn't help but wonder why the Heroes hadn't managed to catch them all, but Niseko knew that no one here would really answer him if he asked. They'd all say something, of course, but Niseko wouldn't really know if it was true or not.
Taking a deep breath, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid of what he might find – or who might find him – Niseko made his way down the hall, looking for the white-haired girl that he'd only seen a few times before.
The sound of light, soft footsteps drew his attention, and Niseko turned to follow them, eventually finding the white-haired girl with the horn. There was someone else with her, though, someone who would probably tell Chisaki-san where he was and what he was doing, so Niseko tried to follow her as best he could without being seen by that other guy. Once the pair of them had gone into what seemed to be a bathroom, Niseko hid behind a nearby corner and watched as the both of them began making their way back down the hall.
Tensing as he heard soft but heavy footsteps, Niseko looked around for whoever it was that was making their way down the hall. He didn't hear anyone, but the feel of a heavy hand resting on his head made Niseko go almost rigid.
"Niseko-chan, you shouldn't be out here so late," the cold voice of Chisaki-san made him shudder, as Niseko felt the man covering his face with the mask he'd been forced to wear for nearly the entire time he'd been stuck here in this place with all of the scary people he'd seen – all of the people Chisaki-san had let him see – while he'd been stuck in this place, all alone with people who didn't really care about him. "Come on, I'll take you back to bed."
Finding himself picked up by Chisaki-san again, Niseko shifted as Chisaki pressed his forehead against his shoulder, holding him there as he carried Niseko back down through the halls he'd just walked down. Trying as hard as he could not to shudder as Chisaki-san petted his head, Niseko noticed that they didn't seem to be heading back to the room he'd been shut up in for as long as he'd been kept in the building.
"Nemoto told me that you were lonely," Chisaki-san said, continuing to pet his head as the pair of them made their way down the hall. "So, you're going to be staying with me tonight."
Closing his eyes, Niseko shuddered.