A.N. I decided to do a complete rewrite of the story because I thought that I could improve the writing. I am sorry for the wait and the lack of new chapters, but I hope you enjoy the updates that I have done.
Chapter 1: Beginning
Kasai Nokogiri, a tall, 16-year-old boy with crimson red hair and red eyes, walked past the gates of UA with his group of friends.
"After years of hard work, this is it." The girl had pink hair with similar colored eyes. This is Hoseki Nokogiri, Kasai's younger sister, looking up at the campus, a gleam in her eyes. "The final obstacle to achieving our goal."
Kasai rolled his eyes, "Stop being so dramatic Hoseki, this is your third speech today."
"I'm just excited!" Hoseki said.
A girl with golden hair and eyes the color of the sun gained a mischievous grin. This is Hoseki's twin sister, Hikaru Nokogiri. She dashed towards Hoseki and grabbed her by the shoulder, dragging her into the building. "We are racing, Now!"
"Not again," said a boy standing next to Kasai. the boy had onyx hair with eyes so black, they looked like a void. He sent a glare at the two youngest of the group. This is Kurai Taishi, the three siblings' mutual friend.
"If you lose, you have to buy me as many sweets as I want for the next week!" Hikaru exclaimed, disappearing in a brief but blinding flash of light.
"HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Hoseki continued running but slowly disintegrated into dust as she did. The remaining three were only able to sigh at the two's antics.
"And they wonder why we don't bring them places." Kata Ikunangaku hissed, another mutual friend, having gray hair and dark, crimson red eyes.
Kasai and Kurai nodded in agreement before making their way towards the auditorium, leaving a crowd of confused competitors.
After arriving at the auditorium, they saw the golden-haired girl pouting while her sister sat victoriously with a grin on her face.
"You better hope that you have enough money, because I'm not letting this opportunity go!" Hoseki exclaimed, looking at Hikaru while her grin widened.
Hikaru's pout deepened. "You don't have to rub it in," she muttered.
Kurai laughed at the pouting girl, "Should have brought the map, huh Hikaru?"
After Kurai finished laughing, everyone got seated and started conversing while Hikaru continued to pout. The lights in the auditorium dimmed, catching all the examinees' attention, and a man with black hair and bags under his eyes made his way onto the stage, a microphone in hand and a scarf hanging around his neck.
"Quiet down everyone," he said in a monotone voice.
The audience quickly followed the man's instructions and quieted down, his gaze flicking across the crowd before he muttered something and continued.
"Welcome to the UA entrance exam. You all are here to try and get into this prestigious school but you all should know that not everyone here will be able to get in. Only the people with the most dedication, the most skill, and the most training will make it. Don't attempt to half-ass this exam or you will find that you lose your spot to someone who took this event more seriously." The man then reached into his scarf and a clipboard appeared, which the man quickly skimmed through. He looked back up to the crowd and cleared his voice. "To start off this exam, you all will take the academic portion of the test." The man blinked and reopened to reveal that they were now glowing crimson, causing some in the crowd to tense up. "Cheating is forbidden. If we catch you, you will be kicked out and it will be put on your transcript. You will also be banned from taking this exam for four years." The man blinked again and his eyes went back to normal. He glanced over the auditorium again, muttered something, and then made his way out of the building, their exam sheets being given out by various staff.
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"Holy hell I feel like dying." Hikaru complained.
"Tests like this were never my strong suit." Kurai said exhaustedly as Hoseki muttered behind him, various curses being cast again the test.
The examinees were still located in the auditorium, waiting for their next proctor to enter and explain the next portion of the exam.
"It wasn't that hard." Hikaru said cheerfully.
"You probably failed." Hoseki stated, keeping a blank expression.
Before Hikaru could respond,, the lights again dimmed and the room quieted down.
A scantily dressed woman with purple hair then strutted into the room and caught everyone's attention, especially the males, who all stared down at the heroine, most of whom recognized the woman as the Pro Hero Midnight.
"Now that we are done testing your brains, it is time to test your bodies." The hero glanced around the crowd with a seductive look before continuing. "Before you all can go out and show off your stunning skills, we will have to go through how this test will work."
The screen behind the heroine then turned on and displayed 4 different robots, all of which were different in some way from the previous.
"In the physical exam, you will be competing to take down robots in a free for all battle. Each robot that you take down will give you a certain number of points, that being one, two, three, or four." The woman then grinned into the crowd, "However, once you make it to the testing locations, you may notice the very limited number of robots around. That is because you will also be able to take points from other examinees that you either incapacitate or force to specific stations around the grounds. The points you receive from them will depend on how quickly you take them down, and how much you harm them." Above all of their heads, headbands fell from above, held up by strings. "These headbands will be used to keep track of your points so you might not want to lose them~"
Afterwards, the heroine explained the specifics of the test before allowing the examinees to go free and start the exams.
Hikaru and Hoseki soon found out that their small group were all put into different testing grounds, which annoyed them, but they could only grumble. The group soon got to a point where they would have to split up. They all wished each other luck and each made their way towards their exam locations.
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Nae was following the crowd around her, making their way towards the exam location, stopping once they made it to a large gate.
They all stood around, some conversing with each other until the gate suddenly opened, causing all the examinee's jaws dropped as they saw the size of their exam sight which seemed to be the size of a small city. A voice from a speaker promptly broke them from their trance, "You have five minutes to get into the city and find the place you want to start at. Your timer has already started."
Following the voice's words, Nae ran into the city, taking random turns until she couldn't see any other examinee and quickly scoured the ground before finding what she needed. Located in cracks in the asphalt of the road, a few small weeds grew.
Nae clicked her tongue. They would do fine, but was expecting something at least a little bigger. She swiftly plucked them from the ground, putting all but one in her pocket, the last one growing around her arm like a bracelet.
She spent the rest of the time wandering around, hoping to find at least a bigger plant, but to her chagrin, the speakers flared to life and rang out.
"START!"
Almost instantly, the sounds of fighting and quirks being used could be heard throughout the city, but luckily, she hadn't been attacked yet.
Her instincts suddenly flared, and she stepped to the side, dodged a claw strike from behind. She turned around to see a girl with cat features standing a few feet behind her on all fours, readying for a pounce.
Nae activated her quirk and the weed that was wrapped around her wrist suddenly started to grow and formed a leafy glove around her hand. The cat girl rushed forward at considerable speeds and sent a strike at Nae, but the green haired girl managed to block the hit and send back one of her own. The cat girl dodged and Nae's fist impacted the ground, but Nae's attack wasn't over as hundreds of small roots broke through the ground under her opponent. The girl reacted quickly and jumped out of the way, but Nae noticed that the girl was bleeding from her hands.
Nae smiled as the ground under her fractured and a large stem grew under her feet, causing the other girl to take a few steps back from the massive form. The large stem cocked back and launched Nae towards the other girl, who crouched down and extended her claws.
A grin overtook Nae's face as she landed and rushed towards the other girl. "This is going to be fun!"
XXXXXXXX
Inside a dark room, many figures were gazing towards screens that lined the wall in front of them.
"It seems that we have good candidates this year as well. Wouldn't you agree, Vlad?" said a man with a gas mask and cowboy hat.
"Mhm, and this time, 1A won't be taking all of the good students, Aizawa."
"Maybe I didn't take all of the good students. Maybe you're just a bad teacher," the disheveled proctor retorted. "Why do you even care? Those two new teachers will be taking over."
Before the man named Vlad could reply, another voice took over.
"Why did that rat have to change the exam to something even more dangerous! Look at how many of them are already getting hurt, and the exam isn't even halfway finished!" exclaimed a short old woman who glared towards a small rodent-like animal.
"Look at that kid go, Shota!" chuckled the cowboy themed man.
The adults in the room looked towards the screen that the man was pointing at. On it, a red-haired boy was fighting another examinee, both with obvious skills in close ranged combat. Suddenly, a fiery explosion caused the red-haired boy's opponent to be launched towards him and was quickly knocked out with a punch to the face. The boy then took his unconscious opponent's headband, which he placed on his own head.
"Who is that?" asked Aizawa.
The small rodent peered through papers on the table in front of him before responding. "He is Kasai Nokogiri, he seems to have a background in some martial arts and- Oh! He was trained and homeschooled by a graduate of Shiketsu! He has an impressive 22 points for only a few minutes into the exam."
Aizawa looked back at the screen. "Hmm, interesting. Seems this year might have the potential of last years." He glanced over to two others in the room who had been quiet the entire time, "You two better train those classes to the bone, else I'll take over teaching."
A man and a woman looked back at him, the man with a stoic expression while the woman looked slightly annoyed.
"I will do what I want with my students," huffed the woman. "You don't really have a say in that since you requested me to teach this year despite my complaints."
Aizawa only rolled his eyes and went back to watching the screens as the woman kept her annoyed gaze on him.
XXXXXXXX
Kasai had just finished fighting a competitor and had made it to the top of a building, this time choosing to search for a target. His eyes then locked onto a battle happening between a girl with cat features and a green-haired girl he vaguely remembered from earlier. He stood up from his crouching position and activated his quirk, a ball of fire swirling to life in his hands. He put one hand in front of the other, the flames morphing into the form of a bow. A fire lit in his other hand then formed into an arrow which he cocked into the flaming bow. He took aim and pulled the arrow back, the flaming string being put into tension. After making sure that his aim was correct, he held the position, waiting for the right time. By instinct, he knew that it was the right time and released the arrow, the string shooting it forwards towards the cat girl, unaware of the incoming attack. The bow in his hand returned to its fiery form and separated into two fireballs, both of which condensed around each of his wrists.
The arrow that was aimed at the feline-esc girl was noticed by her opponent, causing her to stop attacking and allowing for her opponent to take a short. Without the cat girl knowing, Nae timed when she stop her onslaught, causing her opponent to be right in the trajectory of the outside attack.
To the shock of Nae, however, the feline ears of the girl then twitched and she suddenly tripped on a rock, causing her to fall back, and for the arrow to miss its proper target and instead hit her tail.
The girl hissed and shot up, glaring behind her towards the source of the arrow. Hundreds of meters away, on top of a building, she saw a boy, who was obviously watching them. A sudden flaring of pain caused the girl to attempt to rip the arrow from her tail but was forced to endure more pain as her hands went right through the flames, injuring them aswell. Immense agony then flowed from the girl's tail as the arrow began to heat up and expand.
As that happened, Nae noticed the boy throw a fire ball down before jumping off the building, being soon completely engulfed in the flames. To the girl's shock, after the fire hit the ground and dispersed, no sign of the boy could be seen. She quickly looked back to her previous opponent, who was currently trembling from the pain caused by the fire that had now completely engulfed her tail.
Suddenly, from the flames, a hand grasped the girl's burned tail, causing her to let out a howl from the pressure put onto her burnt flesh. The fire then started to wane, and from it the boy from the building could be seen, still holding onto the girl's tail.
The boy then quickly let go of the girl's tail, concern on his face as she quickly jumped back and softly massaged her burnt appendage.
"Oh crap, I'm so sorry! I thought that the arrow had missed!"
The girl only gave him a slight glare before sighing and standing back up into a fighting stance.
The boy's concern changed to relief before hardening into a blank stare, the flames around him molding into five arrows that circles behind him. Both were forced to jump off the ground as many roots attempted to grab on to their feet. Nae clicked her tongue and take her hand off the ground, wincing as the roots from her green glove were ripped out.
They all stood still without making even a sound, before suddenly, the cat girl put her guard down and spoke.
"Ok, let's be logical about this. If we fight, that will obviously take up a lot of time, so we could just leave each other alone and go hunt for other examinees, or we could team up."
Nae glanced at her, "Are you just saying that because you know you will lose?"
The boy shrugged, "That's fine with me, I'd rather get more points than spend my time in a pretty much useless fight."
Nae was engrossed in her thoughts on whether the fight would be worth it but was interrupted when the cat girl spoke. "Well then, if we are going to team up, then we should introduce ourselves! I'm Maneki Kin!"
The boy just stared in slight confusion at the girl's statement. "I… I don't think I agreed to a team up."
The cat girl's reply was quick, "Well we agreed to not fight, so we might as well team up to minimize time spent fighting opponents."
Nae finally put her own guard down as she spoke. "Alright fine. I'm Nae Shinrinyoku, but just know that you if we don't get accepted, I'm going to find both of you and beat your asses."
The two looked towards Kasai, both with expectant looks. "I didn't… you know what, fine. I'm Kasai Nokogiri. I have no clue when I agreed to this, but I might as well."
XXXXXXXX
A girl with foxlike features was running around Exam Site A and was currently fighting another girl for her headband. The fox girl lunged towards her opponent, who put up a defense with her scaley arms, but it was for not as the fox girl did a backflip and used her momentum to kick her arms apart. The girl tried to make distance between two but was slammed to the ground by the spikey, rock-like nine tails of her opponent.
The fox girl landed from her backflip and took the headband from her unconscious opponent, grinning at it. She went to dash off to fine more headbands but was stopped by a sudden voice.
"What's up Biko! Long time no see!"
She immediately spun around ready to fight, eyes slitted, but her body went into a state of shoc as she saw who it was. A large smile then overtook her face and she let out a short laugh.
"Hi Kurai, didn't think that I would see you here! Or ever for that matter!"
The onyx-haired boy jogged over to Biki, "I honestly didn't think we would meet again after you moved. Glad to see that you didn't give up on becoming a hero after our parting."
"Took me a while, but after a got over the sadness, I started working even harder to hopefully meet you all again, and it seems it paid off!"
Kurai laughed, "You know what, we should work together like in the games we played as-."
Suddenly, a projectile ripped through his arm, causing it to fall to the floor and making Biko jump back. Worry almost instantly blanketed over her expression but looking at Kurai's nonchalance at what happened and the lack of blood, her expression quickly changed to one of slight annoyance. Biko angled her head to the right to look past Kurai to see another examinee standing in shock, still in a post-throwing position. When he saw that Biko was looking at him, he took a few steps back, a confused and horrified look on his face.
Biko raised an eyebrow at this, "You good? You look like you saw a ghost."
Kurai looked down at the arm that was laying on the floor, then turned to the boy behind him with a casual expression. The perpetrator became even more stiff when he saw his target staring at him, missing an arm.
"I-I'm s-sorry."
"You could have picked a better time to do this," Kurai said, motioning to his arm laying on the floor. "If you can't see, I'm currently reuniting with an old friend. It's fine, I'll be taking that headband as an apology though."
The boy picked up his severed arm off the ground and held it up to the stump where it used to be. Strands of darkness then started to emerge from the injury and pulled the arm back into its place.
The perpetrator started to run away but was stopped as a black tendril emanated from Kurai's hand and grabbed onto his arm, yanking him back.
The boy fell to the floor and quickly attempted to get back up but was stopped by a fluffy white tail wrapping around his neck. The tail tightened and the boy choked out for breath, trying to pry the fluffy yet firm appendage. Consciousness slowly faded from the boy, his attempts to pry the tail off becoming more and more erratic until his movement finally stopped and the fluffy white mass let go, causing the boy to fall to the floor.
"He's not dead right?" Kurai asked.
"Nope. Would probably be arrested if he did die." Biko responded.
Kurai walked over to the unconscious boy's form and snatched the headband from him. "Is there any way to split points or something?"
"I don't think so. Just take it and I'll get the next one."
Kurai shrugged and placed the headband on his head, "Alright."
XXXXXXXX
Maneki was skipping through the city, Nae and Kasai following closely behind. The three would quickly take care of any robots or other examinees that came in their way, with Kasai being tasked with taking them to the safe zones where they could either wait for the end of the exam or run back out to try and get more points.
The three were conversing when Nae noticed a boy that had his back to them. She looked around and grinned, running over to a tree and grabbing hold of it. She felt the roots silently dig their way under the ground towards the boy, but he seemed to hear the conversation between Maneki and Kasai, as he had turned around. It was, however, too late as the roots broke through the ground at his feet and grabbed onto him, quickly growing, and encompassing his whole body in a cocoon of wood.
Nae grinned at this and turned to the other two who had only just now noticed the other boy, "That's sixteen for me!"
She suddenly felt a warm feeling take over her body. She looked towards the red-haired boy in their group but was confused as she saw no fire. The warm feeling in her body suddenly started to grow stronger, causing her to start sweating. Realizing where it was coming from, she looked towards the ball of roots that she had created from the boy but before she could do anything, a burning pain shot through her.
She fell to the floor clutching her chest, trying, and failing to calm the pain down. She let out a cry as the pain became unbearable, as if she was being cooked alive. This cry caught the attention of Maneki and Kasai, the former rushing to her side to see what was wrong.
Kasai kept a weary gaze at the now smoking cocoon of wood, noticing that a thick, orange-hot liquid was seeping out from cracks, flames erupted from its contact with the wood. Kasai realized the source of Nae's pain glanced over to where the tree she had touched earlier. Following it to the burning wood, he estimated the path that the roots had taken.
He activated his quirk and a thin, flaming red string emanated from his index finger. He focused, and the string of fire turned blue and stretched until it reached around twenty meters. In one quick motion, he swung his hand and the string followed, slicing through the ground as if it were butter. A sudden scream from Nae followed by her taking a deep breath signified to Kasai that he had managed to sever her connected to the burning trap.
Maneki sent a light glare his way, the hyperventilating Nae laying on the ground. Kasai just looked at her in exasperation, "It was the only thing that would stop her suffering. Now get up and help me."
Kasai glanced back to the ever-growing puddle of molten magma and cursed when he saw the boy stepping out.
A red mist suddenly surrounded him before condensing into multiple knife-like objects that he then sent hurtling towards the boy. Their opponent's eyes widened, and he swung his arm up, a wave of magma being created and blocking Kasai's attack. Another, horizontal wave of magma was sent hurtling towards them, causing Kasai to jump back next to Nae and Maneki.
"We have to get to safety now!"
The girl stopped checking over Nae and looked behind them, seeing the ever-approaching wave of molten rock. Her eyes slitted and picked up Nae, dashing in the opposite direction with Kasai close behind.
The boy behind them didn't chase, only giving a look of disappointment. He then muttered something under his breath before continuing to look for other examinees.
The group of three stopped running after the boy was out of sight, with Nae finally being able to stand up.
"TIME'S UP!"
Nae sighed and fell to the floor in exhaustion, still coping with the intense pain from earlier.
Kasai glance over to the girl, "Are you okay now?"
"I'm mostly fine, but that hurt like a bitch."
Kasai turned around and started walking, "Well if you are fine, then I'm going to see how the others did. I hope to see you both in U.A."
The three bid farewell after Nae waved off Maneki's assistance, and got up herself, though with a noticeable struggle.
After parting ways, Kasai met up with the rest of his friends and conversation was immediately started.
"That was so fun!" Hikaru Exclaimed.
Kurai looked down at the girl, "Hikaru please keep your voice down. I swear you need to act your age." A look of remembrance then washed over his face, "Oh yea! You won't believe who I saw in the exam."
Kata perked up at this and hummed, "Is it someone we know?"
"Definitely! They are an old friend of ours."
Kata put on a thoughtful look and grinned, "How is she doing?"
Kurai laughed, "She's doing fine."
Hikaru looked at the two in confusion, "Wait, who are you talking about?"
Kurai was the one to answer the shorter girl's question, "Biko!"
Hikaru's face brightened up at the revelation. The introduction of the ecstatic girl caused the conversation to keep going on, though no one seemed to mind.
XXXXXXXX
Multiple people sat around a table, shadows concealing their forms. All movement in the room stopped as a woman in a long coat stood, seemingly the leader of the group.
"I'd like to start this meeting off with everyone's reports."
A man that was sitting next to the woman then casually stood up. The man was quite a bit taller than the woman, his eyes glowing crimson in the darkness. "The materials you asked of us have been obtained, we are now on standby for our next orders."
After finishing, the man sat back down, a woman with gray eyes and snow-white hair that reached her back then stood up, a grin on her face. "An ideal location has been found. No one will know about the operation until it is too late, but..." The woman then glanced towards another woman with similar colored hair to her. "Who is she?"
The woman visibly tensed up obviously not wanting to be there, which caused the gray-eyed woman to let out a small giggle. The leader quickly motioned for her to sit and walked behind the brown-eyed woman. The woman tensed up even further at the presence behind her but didn't dare make a single movement.
The leader put her hand on the woman's shoulder, the woman flinching at the contact. "This is Gwendolen. She is a representative of the secret organization known as the 'Red Redemption'."
Gwendolen was visibly sweating, but she swallowed her apprehension and spoke up, "A-Are you sure this is a good idea, this would cause the deaths of so many i-innocent people. I-If you don't choose another path, then I believe Red Redemption will be backing out of this deal." As she spoke, her resolve hardened, but this was quickly crushed as the leader began to squeeze her should to a painful degree.
The leader's eyes narrowed at the woman as she gave her response, "Gwendolen, your organization thought that this operation could benefit them, so they agreed to work with our little group here. But now, you want to back out of the deal after agreeing. But we like to make sure we aren't known, so there might be some problems if we just let you go. If you do decide to leave, then we will have to take something of equal value to knowing of our existence." A grin grew on the leader's face as the she took her hand off Gwendolen's shoulder. Walking away, she spoke again, "Your organization is permitted to leave. But just know, your daughter will be the price.
The woman's eyes widened, and she shot out of her chair. "NO! Kuro, leave her out of this!" As she met the newly named Kuro's glare, her newfound resolve shattered, a shiver went down her spine.
"If you decide to back out now, just know that your daughter's life will be in our hands."
Kuro walked back to her chair and took her seat, Gwendolyn slowly doing the same, an expression of regret and terror evident. "Now, Alpha-" Before she could even begin, she was cut off.
"We are ready."
Kuro glared at the man, annoyance evident but she just sighed and glanced around the table. "Well, since we seem to have everything ready, let's get down to business. It is now time to commence Desolation."
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A week passed since the entrance exam, with Kasai, Hikaru, and Hoseki waiting patiently for the letter from U.A.
Kasai laid in his bed, quietly reading a book, when the door suddenly slammed open.
"Kasai! Look what finally came in the mail!"
As Kasai turned to see what Hikaru was talking about, a letter was smacked into his face, he quickly threw it off and glared at the now closed door.
The glare subsided and he sighed, glancing down at the piece of paper on the floor. He picked the letter up and turned it around in his hand, and realized that it was from U.A. He quickly went to his desk and sat down, placing the letter onto it. He ripped open the top and instead of the paper that he was expecting, what dropped out was a coin shaped object.
Confusion was visible on his face as he wondered if this meant he hadn't made it. He was caught off guard as the device glowed and a hologram was projected, a white mouse filling up the entire image.
"Hello Kasai Nokogiri! It is I, the principle of UA, Nezu! I have recorded this to inform you on whether you got into this prestigious academy, which you were probably expecting. I must say, you did a very impressive job, especially considering that your you willingly split your points with Nae Shinrinyoku and Maneki Kin. As for your score…"
The chimera took a long pause, likely to build expense.
"You got a score of 74 points from the headbands, which is more than enough to get you one of the top spots in the exam. But tell me, what type of hero school would we be if we didn't give rewards for helping others, so there was another scoring system, rescue points!" Kasai raised an eyebrow. He expected points to be awarded for helping but not an entire new scoring system.
"The judges gave you a score of 15 rescue points, mainly from helping Shinrinyoku and Kin out of that situation you found yourselves in. With this, your total score adds up to 89 points, giving you second place in this entrance exam" A list of names then appeared, showing the top ten students and their respective points.
1st place: Hoseki Nokogiri, 83 headband points, 23 rescue points.
2nd place: Kasai Nokogiri, 74 headband points, 15 rescue points.
3rd place: Hikaru Nokogiri, 81 headband points, 6 rescue points.
4th place: Kami Haruka, 64 headband points, 16 rescue points.
5th place: Kurai Taishi, 66 headband points, 10 rescue points.
6th place: Bikone Kitsu, 62 headband points, 12 rescue points.
7th place: Sora Terubozu, 56 headband points, 14 rescue points.
8th place: Minato Nosaka, 68 headband points, 0 rescue points.
9th place: Kenji Azuma, 52 headband points, 13 rescue points.
10th place: Maneki Kin, 46 headband points, 15 rescue points.
After a long pause from the principal to allow him to read the scores, he spoke again. "Congratulations on your spot in this school, and welcome to your hero academia."