AN: Thanks for reading and leaving a review, everyone!
As a note, I'll be on vacation part of next week, and so this story won't be updating. I'll see you in two weeks!
Himiko jumped onto the back of a one-point robot, quickly thrust her knives into the exposed vents, cut the wires, and felt it collapse underneath her. Hopping off in a smooth motion, she watched in satisfaction as it crumbled into a pile of scrap.
Smiling triumphantly, Himiko darted down the streets as she continued her search.
"Let's see, that makes… sixteen points… not enough…"
Suddenly, the five minute timer rang out, and she stopped in her tracks. It was halfway over already? She thought she was doing so well!
Looking down at the knives in her hands, she felt her grip tighten on the blades.
"If I'm going to become a hero, I need to go all out. Just like Izu and Ocha!"
Looking around, the street she was on was devoid of targets, broken shells of robots serving as a grim reminder of how far behind she was. Shoving her doubt down, she dashed across the street and down an alleyway. She cleared it in seconds and whipped around the corner. There she saw another student had engaged a pair of robots and appeared more than capable of handling them.
The pair of 2-point robots that were heading toward him from behind, however…
Himiko quickly pivoted and charged toward the action. She let her feet carry her toward the robots until she reached the three-pointer the student was fighting. At the last moment she jumped, landing on the slope of its back. Racing forward, she ran between the pair of missile launchers and jumped a second time, using her added height to leap over the hero student. She didn't have time to turn around, but from the metallic screech and explosion she heard behind her, she assumed the student took advantage of the confusion to destroy the robot.
But that wasn't her concern.
As she got close to the first two-point robot, she casually flipped the knives in her hand so that the blades pointed downward before she thrust them toward the optical sensors. With a satisfying crack she heard the glass casing shatter as her knives pressed inward, cutting wires and destroying sensors. Using the knives for leverage, she pulled herself upward, landing on the robot's back as it began to fall over. Retrieving her knives, she jumped off the collapsing robot onto the back of its companion. Aiming for the exposed wires at the base of its tail, Himiko slashed away until the tail went limp and collapsed behind the robot, becoming an anchor. Smiling, she finished severing wires until the robot collapsed under her.
"Thanks for the help," the student on the ground called out as Himiko regained her footing.
"It's what a hero would do!" Himiko replied with a fanged grin.
The other student smiled back before she took off. Himiko ran in the opposite direction. She had to find more robots!
Aika felt good as she ducked into an alleyway to take a short breather.
"Man, I'm glad I got all that practice in. Singing nonstop for so long is hard." Aika looked down at her hands, coated in oil and dust but otherwise unharmed. "But it's paying off! Now how many points did I get…" Aika paused as she mentally added them up. "Thirty-five so far!"
She practically jumped out of her skin when she heard the five minute buzzer.
"Oh no! Halfway done already? That means I can only get seventy points total! Is that going to be enough?"
Taking a deep breath Aika closed her hands into fists. "It has to be! Mido and Raka are trying to change things for the better. I need to show the world that I'm good enough to stand beside them too!"
Steadying her breathing like she had practiced, Aika began to sing an old standby and took off running. She tried to listen to the sounds of robots, but it was hard to pick out noises over the sound of her own voice. She couldn't wait until she had a proper hero costume where she could get headphones to help with that, but that was future Aika's problem.
Fortunately as she sped down the streets, she heard a series of explosions loud enough to be heard clearly despite her song.
Jackpot!
Smiling, she turned and bolted toward the source of the noise.
It appeared that she wasn't alone. Multiple robots converged on the explosion as well. With a fierce smile, she balled up her fist as she began to overtake a one point robot, punching right through the metal as if it was little more than tissue paper before continuing onward toward the source of the noise.
As she got close, her eyes grew wide as she spotted a pile of robot corpses littering the street, while robots continued to converge on one location - the source of the explosions.
Oh no! That student's in trouble! I'd better save him.
Determination fueling her heart, Aika charged the crowd of robots, hoping that clearing out some of them could give the student a chance to escape, especially since she'd earn a nice chunk of points along the way too!
As Aika approached, she leaped into the air onto the back of the three-point venator robot. Winding her fist back, she unleashed a punch right into the missile rack of the robot, causing a massive explosion as she detonated the missiles.
Unfortunately for her, while she was relatively impervious, physics still applied to her, and she found herself thrown forward by the force of the blast, landing in the middle of the ring of robots. Her next words came out choked and strained, but by this point, she was used to singing through such things; in fact, her teacher emphasized the importance of that because it could mean the difference of life or death. Dangerous situations like this were when she needed her quirk the most, after all.
Rising to her feet, she suddenly heard explosions much closer to her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Katsuki yelled as he set off another explosive warning.
Aika rubbed the back of her head as she gave him a sheepish look. Apparently the explosive blonde from the start wanted to be in this situation?
Katsuki sent off another massive explosion, destroying a two-point Imperial robot that had gotten close. "Get the hell out of here, and don't you dare think about destroying any of these robots! These are mine!"
Aika's face twisted into a scowl.
Fine, if you don't want my help I'm leaving!
But she wasn't gonna go quietly. There's no way she was letting him hog all of these points to himself!
Turning around Aika planted her feet before she threw out a punch to destroy an Imperial robot that had gotten too close before she took off in a run. She already heard Katsuki's protests behind her, but she smashed her way through a pair of one-point Victory robots to escape the circle. She grinned at an approaching Venator robot and jumped in front of it, once again scrambling to the top to punch the missile launcher. This time she was better prepared and let the explosion launch herself skyward.
Kyoka held up the steel pipe to block the massive stinger of the two-point robot. She was so focused on taking out a three point robot guarded by a pair of one-point robots that a two-point robot managed to sneak up on her and she barely caught the attack in time.
"Sensei would be so disappointed in me," Kyoka spat out, mostly to herself as she strained to hold the stinger in place. Meanwhile, she threw her jacks forward, the pair of appendages buried themselves in the robot's thick hide before she used her quirk to destroy the robot.
"Alright, that's twenty-five points for me."
Kyoka didn't need her enhanced hearing to hear the loud buzzer going off, warning her that the test was halfway over.
Planning her next move, she examined the nearby buildings before selecting a particularly tall one across the street. Smiling, she ran over and inserted a jack into the exposed steel, closing her eyes and listening. By using the building as a conductor, she was able to hear noise from most of the surrounding area, and thanks to her training, she was improving at filtering out noises to pinpoint the important ones.
"My leg is caught. I'm stuck!"
Kyoka frowned. Someone was in trouble? She knew the test was meant to be a free-for-all, but something didn't feel right about leaving another person trapped like that. Especially not with those robots in the area. If they were caught by one of them…
Better to help.
After guessing an approximate location, Kyoka's eyes snapped open as she took off to find the trapped girl. She ran across the streets and alleyways, only slowing down enough to destroy a pair of one-point robots standing between her and her destination.
"Can somebody help me?" a girl's voice called out as Kyoka approached.
Kyoka was thankful for her enhanced hearing when she found the girl - or more specifically found a gym uniform seemingly moving on its own. "Your quirk makes you invisible?"
"Yep!" The girl let out a frustrated sigh. "Right now I wish it was anything else though. I'm glad somebody found me though!"
"What happened?" Kyoka said as she moved closer, trying to get a better look at the debris.
"I was trying to sneak around one of those big three-point robots to help someone, but it caught me! I managed to avoid all the missiles, so they took out the building instead and here I am."
"Don't worry, I'll get you out," Kyoka said confidently, finally approaching the debris. Using her pipe as leverage, she managed to push the largest rock up and she saw the school uniform crawl out.
"Thanks for the help," the girl replied, dusting herself off. "I didn't know how long I was gonna be trapped there!"
"It's no problem! We're all trying to be heroes, right?" Kyoka gave her a small smile. "Good luck on the rest of the exam!"
"You too!" The girl gave an exaggerated wave before taking off.
Kyoka waved with her earjacks before plunging them into one of the remaining walls of the building. She had to make up for lost time.
As Nejire climbed again, Tamaki initiated his own attack. A wave of tentacles flew toward Izuku and Ochako.
Grabbing Izuku's hands, Ochako swung herself around so that the soles of her shoes were pressed against Izuku's before she launched herself off of him. Glancing back, she confirmed Izuku was already moving in the other direction. She returned her focus to the wall in front of her. Stretching her hand out, it smoothly collided with the wall and let out a cloud of smoke. She launched herself toward the ceiling.
Looking across the room, she saw a green streak bounce off the floor and around the room. His training under Gran Torino emphasized speed and misdirection. He hoped to confuse his opponents before landing a decisive blow.
Unfortunately, from what Izuku had told her about Mirio's training, Ochako doubted he'd be able to land a successful hit against him. At least not without taking a blow in return, which would end the exam for her.
How could they handle this?
Taking a risk, Ochako carefully calculated her next jump as she raced toward a side wall, launching off of it and directly toward the three second years.
"What do you think you're doing?" Tamaki asked as he threw out a wave of tentacles toward Ochako.
Grinning, Ochako quickly pressed her hands together, letting gravity's pull reassert itself as she dropped beneath the tentacles. Flipping in the air, she landed on the ground with a heavy thud, only to realize that Mirio was once again missing.
Crap! Where'd he go?
Making a split second decision, Ochako hopped to the side, feeling the vibrations in the air as she narrowly avoided Mirio's fist as he came out of the ground. "You're good!"
"Thanks." Ochako flashed him a bright smile.
The words were barely out of her mouth when Izuku's emerald form slammed down on top of Mirio. Or rather, attempted to. Mirio's intangible form was already falling into the ground with a chuckle. "Oh my, you almost had me there!"
"Izu!" Ochako shouted, launching herself forward. Wrapping her hands tightly around her boyfriend, she removed both of their gravity, speeding up their forward motion as they narrowly evaded a combination of tentacles and spiral waves.
"Thanks for the save, Ocha."
"Don't thank me yet," Ochako replied as she launched them toward a far wall. "I thought for sure you had him!"
"Me too, I guess Nighteye's been taking his training seriously."
"So what do we do?"
Izuku had a thoughtful expression as he examined the three, trusting Ochako to dodge the projectiles and give him a chance to analyze the situation. "We still don't know what Suneater is fully capable of. So far he's only had to rely on squid tentacles, letting Nejire and Lemillion lead the attack. He's the one I'm most worried about."
"Not Lemillion?" Ochako asked in disbelief.
"Lemillion's the biggest threat," Izuku confirmed. "However, we can easily avoid him for as long as we need to if he's alone. But with Nejire and Suneater capable of attacking us at long range, we are forced to divert our attention-"
Izuku's hand suddenly shot out as he used Blackwhip, quickly diverting their course as Mirio flew past them. Wrapping his arms around Ochako, he used Float to speed them up.
"Thanks for the save, Izu."
"Now that Lemillion's on the roof, we have a chance to take out one of the others," Izuku said softly as he kicked off the wall, aiming for the ceiling right above where Nejire was floating. "Do you trust me?"
"Do you have to ask?" Ochako smirked.
Izuku shifted slightly, allowing Ochako to take the lead. "When we hit the roof, start using smoke and send us straight down."
Ochako didn't acknowledge his words, because none were needed. She started using Smokescreen the moment she saw Mirio's face phasing through the ceiling. It wasn't as helpful as she would have liked. One For All made them stand out like a beacon, but it bought her the fraction of a second she needed. Bending her legs when she landed, she coiled like a spring; her body tensed up until she did as she was told, sending them straight down toward Nejire.
Nejire was fast, already raising her arms to launch a flurry of Wave Motion energy toward them, but Izuku was faster. Without warning, a horde of Blackwhip tendrils sprang out of the smoke, battering Nejire aside… and exposing Tamaki.
Ochako flipped the pair of them so they were upright and touched her hands together, restoring their gravity. With a single nod from Izuku, she let him go, preparing to launch herself skyward again.
Izuku, meanwhile, used flight to shift his course slightly, aiming an axe kick directly at Tamaki. The older student was fast, turning his hands into shells to use as shields, but it wasn't enough. Assisted by gravity and momentum, Izuku's kick overpowered the older student's defenses, sending him to the ground. Not giving him a chance to recover, he called upon Blackwhip, grabbing Tamaki and sliding him across the arena toward the exit.
Ochako smiled at her boyfriend as she landed, looking skyward. Nejire was already recovering, but she didn't want to risk the older girl landing a hit on Izuku. Calculating her trajectory, she used her quirk on herself in one smooth motion and launched herself skyward, aiming slightly above the floating student.
"We're not done yet!" Nejire shouted as she fired a barrage of Wave Motion energy at Ochako, who simply smiled. Once again releasing herself from her quirk, she began arcing downward… directly toward Nejire.
"Got ya!"
"Oh, clever!" Nejire smiled as she cut her own flight, allowing herself to fall as well. Ochako sailed harmlessly over her head. "It's not enough to stop me, though!"
Ochako landed and twisted her body as she slid around the ground, her hand trying to break her momentum. "But we're still here!"
In the blink of an eye, Izuku was by her side. His arms wrapped around her and launched them both skyward as the spot Ochako stood on exploded.
AN: Inside the command center, Toshinori, alongside all of the other teachers at UA, was watching a bank of monitors as the cameras cycled through the battlefields, giving the teachers their first glimpse at the thousands of hero hopefuls taking the exam.
"How are they doing," Nemuri asked curiously, taking a moment to look away from the wall of video footage.
Toshinori subtly turned the small portable in his hand toward his fellow teacher, offering her a tiny glimpse into the final training area. There, she saw a green and pink comet flying around the room, dodging an endless barrage of spiral waves.
Nemuri chuckled at the sight. "Those two really are your successors."
"Indeed, they are," Toshinori agreed, unable to keep the proud smile off his face.