Izuku's ears were his best weapon. He didn't talk much, especially with strangers, but he loved listening to his friends. Mashirao had complimented him on his ability to pay attention to others.
But now, he had to pay attention to his enemy. A sneaky foe who could vanish and reappear at will, who could slip through anything like a ghost. He had to listen for the slightest clue of his presence, the faintest sound of his movement, the softest breath of his life.
He caught a hint, a subtle noise on the wall behind him. He spun around and pointed.
"There!" he yelled.
IAS reacted quickly and punched the wall with full force. The wall cracked, but nothing else.
"Tsk." Izuku grumbled, annoyed by another failure.
He was falling for the enemy's trap, letting him mess with his mind. But he was too quick for his reaction time and IAS punches, too cunning. He could only let IAS chase after the sounds he left behind, and by then they were gone.
Izuku scanned the area again, but the hallway was still deserted. The only light came from the windows that displayed the fake city outside. The sun was bright and cast a beam of light on the floor through the window he was standing in front of, his back turned, feeling the comfortable warmth coming from them.
Izuku thought about running. Maybe he could escape from this building. It wasn't like he needed the headband, if his enemy even had one to begin with.
He almost wanted to start running but before he could act, he heard another sound behind him. He snapped his head back, but saw nothing.
Not even one of his kanjis. So that either meant he was getting paranoid or his enemy didn't manifest fully.
Because at this point he was now very sure that he couldn't phase through the walls. Moreover, he was slowly guessing their quirk only allowed them to merge and or sink into shadows and then travel through said shadow to adjacent shadows.
Otherwise he didn't see a reason why they wouldn't have manifested behind them a long time ago and or in their shadows.
He still had some protection on his headbands, but the attacker shouldn't know about them yet.
Except for the first time they got hit with his CUT earlier he still got the rest of them on his headband, not to mention his-
He quickly checked his pockets. The pebbles were still there, along with their kanjis.
Izuku acted swiftly, took his chance, and sprinted towards the exit shrouded in shadows. The door stood in a windowless section of the corridor.
Just before his next step brought him into the dimness, he extended his hand and released a handful of small stones, scattering them across the floor ahead.
He'd honed a unique skill during his training: the ability to control when his quirk affected him and when not. To his adversaries, the corridor now resembled a minefield, with each step punctuated by a resounding "THUD."
But to him, it was just another walk.
His decoy was doing its job; he could practically hear the "WOOSH" sounds that his enemy would make when they emerged and or vanished. However, this time, he didn't glance back – there was no need.
He had covered nearly half the hallway when he couldn't help but let a small smile creep onto his lips.
CUT
Instinctively, Izuku froze, and his hand went to his head where he sensed his power waning. Something brushed against him, long and somewhat thick, like discovering a strand of someone else's hair entangled with his own, or tugging a hair free without detaching it.
He reached for it and pulled his hand back, now forming it into a fist to secure the foreign object. As he unfurled his hand, he revealed a neatly cut shoelace, cleanly sliced in two.
"Heh."
Without a second thought, Izuku whirled around, his fist poised for a strike, but it found only empty air. A split second later, he felt a punch landing on his back, delivered by another unseen assailant.
Momentarily staggered, he swiftly regained his balance and launched a powerful kick, yet once again, his target eluded him.
"Man, you really shouldn't have come into the darkness," a taunting voice from below him jeered.
Without a moment's hesitation, Izuku summoned his IAS arm, seamlessly mirroring his own limb, as if he were donning armor. In an instant, it manifested fully, and he directed a fierce punch at the source of the voice. Small cracks appeared on the concrete floor, though he had little expectation of actually hitting them.
Before he could react further, a sharp pain coursed through his body as something heavy collided with his back. It felt as though someone had leaped from above and landed on him with their feet first.
"You know, you could always surrender," the voice taunted once more from behind him. Desperate to retaliate, he spun on the floor, attempting to sweep his unseen opponent off their feet, only to be met with the disheartening realization that there was still no one behind him.
"You seem unhappy, should I show myself?" The voice once more mocked this time every word he said coming from another direction, making Izuku whirls his head around him trying to find the source.
He still didn't say anything, not dignifying the taunt with a response.
"Behind you." They whispered in his ear. Kicking himself away from his position and instead manifesting IAS to from his back to send a barrage of punches behind him he once more felt nothing.
"..."
Izuku relished the silence and with that the fact that his enemy wasn't doing anything. He needed to come up with a plan quickly.
"You aren't alone are you? Who else is there with you?" The voice asked once more, now sounding a lot more serious than before.
Izuku tried not to show his emotion. "Yeah, my teammate, two versus one, you're sure you want to continue?" He asked while constantly looking around.
"..."
More silence filled the hallway and Izuku almost thought they retreated. Until something white emerged from the wall itself and to his horror it was a single pair of teeths and a mouth.
Only the rest of the body was missing.
"Nah, I take my chances." The mouth said in a taunting tone before retreating into the shadows before Izuku could hit it once more, only cracking the wall once more.
"A feisty one, huh?" He was definitely taunting him now for no reason other than just spite, it seemed. "I can't give head or tails about your quirk; on one hand, you can punch from some weird direction and with a lot more force than a normal person should be able to."
Izuku felt something grasp his pants and quickly executed a spinning kick, hitting the air but giving his enemy a weak point. Something shadowy with white hair had ducked under his leg before giving it an uppercut, causing him to fall prone.
"Throw!" With not even a verbal response needed, IAS executed the command flawlessly, retrieving some stones out of his hands to throw at the participant, hitting him square in the head.
"Hng?" Just before a punch could have knocked him out for good, his entire body sank into the floor and shadow, disappearing once again.
"On the other hand, that weird effect thing you have going on..." the voice drawled on, huffing and taking deep breaths it seemed.
BOOM
Izuku froze in the middle of standing up again. That was awfully close for his liking, way too close. And to his knowledge, only one person can cause this sound.
'There are many people wanting to go to the hero course. It's one in eighty that he would be here.'
"Tsk, great, another one... Look, man, I think we've started on the wrong foot, how about it? I stop chasing you, and in turn, you distract that other guy coming here for me? Deal?" the voice offered half-heartedly because not a second later, he added, "I'll be seeing you on the other side!" before going completely still.
BOOM BOOM
The noise was now coming closer and closer to his point, and before Izuku could even think about it, his legs moved on their own to the opposite direction of the exit.
Worst-case scenario, he had to jump out of a window. That wasn't so bad, was it?
Right as he was about to turn a corner, the window to his left shattered into tiny little pieces, a body breaking into the building.
Having limited time and being on high alert, Izuku wasn't as startled as he could have been but still stopped in his tracks and turned.
Another boy, this one he knew was the boy with spiky black hair that he kept with a headband to keep them straight.
Said boy was using his arms as a shield to minimize the pain from jumping through a window and almost landing perfectly on his feet again.
He landed on some of the glass pieces, slipping a bit and almost falling. If it weren't for Izuku's reflexes catching him.
Now he could see that the headband he wore at the auditorium wasn't the only one on his body, having the same amount as him.
He looked a little worried before the said boy frantically shook his head and gave him a sign of peace.
The boy quickly righted himself before Izuku let him go, and the boy ran around the corner with Izuku.
"Awase, look, man, I'm not looking for a headband right now," he introduced himself mid-running. Some stairs were to their right, which the boy took, Izuku following him.
"But there is that crazy dude running after me, and I have nothing against him!" Awase screeched frustrated, the explosion sounds coming from the floor where they had just been.
"You don't have a solution to this?" He asked, referring to the still ongoing explosion.
Izuku thought for a moment. "One, but I've never used my quirk like that. Do you trust me?"
Awase looked unsure until another, closer, and louder explosion rang in their ears.
"I'll take my chances," he conceded, and the two ran up another flight of stairs.
Izuku, still a bit bruised, and Awase, apparently having run for more than just a few minutes, were both completely drained of their energy. A small break or nap would be all it took for them to recharge. Yet, the booming sound below them triggered enough concentration in their brains to release more adrenaline into their systems until the danger was escaped from. Both of them were now many meters above ground, around the 4th floor, as if it were a city where they might have seen some birds out the window.
"How-- how can they afford to build a fake city of this size?" escaped from Awase's mouth breathlessly as they finally came to the top, closing the door behind them.
Izuku didn't respond to the question; the same question did appear in his mind. This couldn't have been cheap nor could it have been—
The last booming noise was now right behind the door they had just closed. Awase froze in terror and sharply turned towards Izuku with a panicked look, unable to make a sound.
Izuku himself was just about to suggest a plan before the door blasted open, the smoke obscuring the figure but the voice making it clear who it was.
"Alright, you fucker, are you done playing cat and mouse with me and finally face me like a fucking man?" the voice boomed with restrained anger poorly concealed with contempt.
Stepping through the smoke was the same face he almost saw every day in school, the one he had dreams about, and not of the good kind, the one he thought could have been a good friend in another life.
"Kachan."
The figure stopped in his tracks and froze as well, turning towards the source of the familiar voice.
"Deku?" Their eyes widened in surprise, an instinctual response to disbelief as they watched the person they least expected to encounter in this battle royal.
They continued staring at each other, the pursuer with his mouth slightly open, showing off his sharp teeth, and his pupils shrinking to the size of pebbles, solely focused on Izuku.
Awase had literally no idea what was happening around him anymore but chose to keep quiet, slowly but surely moving inch by inch closer towards the person he trusted the most at the moment out of the two.
"What the fuck..." He said aloud before his voice rose in anger and a hideous frown appeared, "What the fuck are you doing here, Deku?"
Izuku also snapped out of his daze and grabbed Awase by his collar.
"Jump!" He screamed before literally head diving from the building.
'Oh my God, I'm surrounded by lunatics!' Awase wept silently before he couldn't anymore. The force of Izuku's grab was enough to make him fall forward right over the ledge, now in a free fall from the top of the tower.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He is going to die. That was how he was going to die. Not in some heroic stunt but because he fell off a building. Continuing to scream because what else could he have done, he got a quick look below him, the fast-approaching ground.
He couldn't cry because this was all just too overwhelming. He completely misjudged his speed; the ground was now closer than expected. Actually, it was already there. He was going to go splat—
Like a gut punch or a vacuum vacuuming all the air in his lungs, his oxygen left his respiratory systems and made its way outside through his mouth. A gurgling sound, similar to a cat dying in a car accident, was produced before the pain registered, and he fell face-first into the concrete street.
Alive.
And not hurt?
He stood abruptly up, sweating through his entire outfit, but he didn't care. His brain was still in vertigo, and he could barely keep his arms and legs from shaking. He continued to stare at the streets, breathing frantically with his mouth while his sweat cascaded down his face, waiting for the inevitable pain to register in his body.
But nothing happened for a good 10 seconds, and before he even knew it, he started to slowly stand up.
Nothing. No hurt, no pressure, or anything on his body.
A hand came to his shoulder, and he screamed insanely, jumping back and smacking the hand away in terror.
"It's me, it's me, it's me!" Izuku yelled frantically, trying to calm the boy down, which did the opposite, and Awase tripped backward, causing him to scream even louder.
After his voice got hoarse and Izuku made no attempts to approach him, did he finally calm down.
"What the fuck was that?!"
Instinctively, he summoned his quirk behind him, although that did nothing. Awase showed no reaction to anything happening. With a sigh, he explained, "My quirk allows me to store sound and release it as properties. With this stone," he picked up a few stones scattered around the asphalt road, "I stopped our acceleration to a halt."
Awase listened attentively to the explanation, still in disbelief that he is alive. Slowly but surely, his breathing returned to a manageable state before he lay down and stared at the sky, contemplating.
"Hey... Could we have died just now?"
Izuku remained silent, looking at him with concern, his eyes sweeping across the crossroad they landed in. Pure destruction surrounded them, craters and debris.
"I... I'm not sure this is allowed..." Izuku answered instead. The crestfallen boy seemed to be satisfied with the answer.
A sudden scream of anger above them made both of them freeze in terror, before a hand clamped down on Izuku's shoulder.
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but... We should run," the same teasing voice from inside the building said, and upon turning around, he could see why he said that. Two more headbands adorned his body, and from the scream earlier, he could guess from whom.
"Kuroiro, by the way," the black-colored boy said before sprinting away. Both Awase and Izuku looked at his retreating form before the said form turned around. "What do you want? A special invite? Run!"
That kick-started both of them to jolt out of their shock, Izuku quickly helping Awase stand up before both boys ran after him. The urgency in their steps matched the chaotic energy of their escape, racing through the aftermath of destruction as danger loomed behind them.
"DEEEEEEEKUUUUUU!"
The trio tried to drown out the voice that had just put the fear of God in them, unsuccessfully, and focused on running farther and farther away.
"Can I just ask what exactly you did to piss him off that much?" The only boy who wore a headband as an actual accessory asked the newcomer to their group.
"Well, he didn't really appreciate me sneaking up on him and stealing these points from him. And to piss him off even more, I did the same stunt as you two," he replied with a cocky smile, the twitching in his hands betraying the adrenaline coursing through his body.
"Maybe we should—"
KAAABOOOOMMM
All three abruptly stopped in their run and turned behind them.
"Holy shit..."
Izuku didn't really have any contact with Kachan after he met Mashirao and, in turn, didn't really keep track of his abilities, only assuming that he had gotten stronger and his explosions more potent over the years, but not actually seeing physical proof for that statement.
"..."
No. What he just saw couldn't be the UA exams. He couldn't believe that a prestigious school like that would allow something like this to happen.
"What the hell are you two doing?!" A voice further away behind Izuku shouted.
Kuroiri, self-preservation quite high on his priority list, already ran away the second he saw the thing tumble. "We have to get out of here now!"
Izuku didn't say anything. Quietly activating IAS, he turned sharply away, running at a moderate pace before his quirk activated and he got a sudden speed boost.
He didn't look behind the entire time, not even when another loud crash alerted him to the fact that this whole city is going to be trashed.
One tall building collided with another, recreating a domino effect of destruction.
"I'm regretting everything right now." Kuroiri wheezed out next to Awase, Izuku far ahead of them with his quirk.
Awase didn't dignify the regret with a comment and continued running for his life. The chaotic symphony of destruction echoed around them as they sprinted, each step a frantic beat to escape the impending calamity.