Author's note:
I wasn't expecting to get so many reviews from the first chapter of this story if I'm being honest. However, I am happy to answer any questions you had.
To the first guest reviewer: The whole purpose of the Forgemaster ability in MHA is because it doesn't fit in it normally. It is a primarily dark power that is more suited to a villain. However, its non-heroic nature is what matches well with a darker Izuku in a world of female heroes. Not only is the ability seen as something a hero should not have, Izuku is seen as someone who should not be a hero. This is why I felt it was a good choice for his ability.
To LeonMooky: It brings me a lot of pride as a writer to hear that you could feel the emotions I was aiming for in Izuku's downward spiral. I was worried it might not have come out as well as I had hoped, but it feels good to know that it worked. As for whether Izumi and Inko will be revealed in part in this chapter and in the hopefully soon following chapters.
To Trey: I will be showing off his tool of choice in this chapter, so get ready for the reveal below.
To Soul: It is an honor to have given another writer the motivation to create their own stories. It was my pleasure.
To the last guest reviewer before this update: I do agree that Izuku shares characteristics with Hector and Issac. While he doesn't hate people in general, he definitely despises people who he doesn't feel have earned his respect. This will keep him jaded in relation to the average person, but he will be relatively more open with those close to him. I defiantly agree that it wouldn't be as bad if either Itsuka or Izumi hadn't left his life. I will go into more detail later, but they served to help keep him balanced for lack of a better word. Finally, while the plot line you mentioned would be interesting to explore, Izuku was dead as a doornail before the Sludge Villain ever made a reappearance.
To Annartlan Reach, TwinstarDragon, and thesadrat: Thank you for the support with your reviews. It means a lot to me that you enjoyed the story.
With that, on to the new chapter!
--
Chapter 2: The First Test
Hitoshi sends blow after blow into the heavy punching bag he was practicing with. The sweat trickling down his face and matting his hair was evidence of how long he had been going and he was showing no signs of stopping any time soon.
He idly noticed the squeaking sound of the basement door opening between the thuds produced by his fists against the bag, but he focused his attention on the swaying mass of cushioned leather.
"Hitoshi, dinner's ready," Hina, his sister, calls down to him. "Mom said to come up to eat."
"I'll be up in a bit," he replied as he kept working at the bag, his fists stinging from the accumulated damage from training. "Just set out a plate. I just need a few more minutes."
"Hey, Hitoshi," she says.
Annoyed at her refusal to leave him alone, he shouts back up the stairs, "What?!"
He is promptly rooted in place as his mind loses the ability to manipulate his body. He just remains in the same position of looking over his shoulder to shout to the stairs. He watches as he sees his sister climbing down the stairs before she gives him an unamused look. "Slap yourself," she says.
His hand automatically flies up and sends his head rocking to the side as he strikes his cheek at full power. This immediately breaks the quirk's effect on him and gives him control of his body back.
"Now are you ready to come and eat dinner?" she asks with a sweet smile while her eyes promise a sequel if he doesn't agree.
"Fine," he grunts before he grabs a nearby towel to wipe the sweat off of his face. He tosses it back onto another piece of equipment before he begins to unwrap the bandages covering his fists. "I think I miss the days when you were too afraid to use your quirk. You could have just forced me to come instead of make me slap myself."
"Yeah, but it was more fun to see you do it," she says. "You know why I chose to make you do it yourself too. If I just made you do it, then it would be too easy to get my way all the time. Instead, I just use it to punish you for not listening to me. Very different."
"Not to me," he grumbles as he finishes unwrapping his hands. "I prefer the one where I don't hit myself."
"Then just listen to me," his sister says. "So, are you coming to eat or what?"
"Yeah, yeah," he says, waving her away. "I am on my way. I am just going to put this stuff away before I wash my hands."
He thought she walked away until he hears her voice again. "You don't have to keep doing this, you know."
As he turns to look, he sees her facing away from him at the bottom of the basement stairs with her hand on the railing. "What are you talking about, Hina?" he asks, tired from the workout and wanting to avoid a roundabout conversation. "Don't have to do what?"
"All of this," she said, turning around and gesturing at the exercise machines littering the room. "Trying to be a hero again. Working yourself to the bone on a daily basis even when the entrance exam for UA is tomorrow. You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do," he says. He tries not to look at her directly because he finds it harder to justify himself when he sees the concern behind her gaze. "You know why."
"It won't bring him back," she says. "I know he was your best friend. I miss him too. But you can't just spend your life chasing someone else's dream. That's no way to live. He wouldn't want that."
"You don't think I know that?" he ask, his fists clenching so tightly his fingernails begin to dig into his palms. "You don't think I remember how happy he was that I chose to do something else besides becoming a hero? That I could find something to dream of besides the fucking mountain of suffering it would take to become a male hero? I know what he would want but I can't just stop."
"Hitoshi," Hina says, seeing the anguish her brother is clearly in. "You can let go. Izuku would want you to."
"If I do, then there is nothing left of him," Hitoshi says. "All those plans, those dreams, that work. All of it will have just disappeared without anything to show for it. He will just disappear. I can't just give up because this is the only way that I know to keep a piece of him alive."
"He wouldn't want you burning yourself out to keep his flame alive," Hina says, walking toward her brother before wrapping him in a hug. "He wouldn't want his ghost haunting you."
"I know," he whispers. "I just want to see if I can make it through tomorrow. Then, I will be able to let him rest in peace knowing I took it as far as I could."
"That's all I wanted to hear," Hina says before pulling out of the hug and looking at him. "Last one out of the basement gets to serve last."
She follows this declaration with a textbook perfect two-knuckle ball tap. Hitoshi wheezes in shock at the unexpected attack after such a touching moment. However, knowing his sister, he should have been expecting it. Hina just runs to the stairs and sticks out her tongue at him before racing up after Hitoshi finally begins to chase after her. She smiles in victory after finally breaking Hitoshi out of his brooding, if only for a little while.
--
Izumi lay down on the bed as she looked at the walls of the small room. The little light that slipped through the gaps in the blinds illuminates her surroundings with an eerie quality akin to a tomb. Then again, that's all that this room could be called these days.
Her eyes trace over the posters depicting heroes in iconic poses and figurines standing tall among the shelves. The shadows played off of their features to give them a sinister and taunting look. It was like they were judging her for being here. Like it was sacred in a way that her presence tainted.
She didn't know why she keeps finding herself back in this room. She didn't deserve to be here. After all, why should she be in her brother's room? Shouldn't she be happy that he is gone? She was the one who cut him out of her life. It should have been everything she hoped for.
So, why does she keep seeing his face in her dreams? It had been almost a nightly occurrence to see him in the moment she turned her back on him. His eyes full of pain and disbelief while he reached out to the sister he thought he could always depend on. However, like she turned away like she turned away so long ago, her dream self would walk away knowing she broke his heart.
The reason she comes back is probably because it is the only place where the dreams don't happen. When she is laying on his bed, it almost feels like he is about to wrap his arms around her and comfort her. Like she only had to turn around to see him again.
The belief is always shattered by the sight of the urn that rested on the desk. Neither her mom nor her knew what to do with it once they got it. They just left it in here so that he could be at peace in his own room instead of being on display in the living room or somewhere else. Close by, but still out of sight.
She was thankful that her mom didn't wash his sheets whenever she routinely cleaned the room. That meant they still carried a little bit of his scent even after years. Her mom always made sure to clean everything else and prevent the slightest hint of dust from appearing. It was as though she thought that Izuku would come back any day now and would need his room to be fresh and ready. But Izumi knew better. Her mom would always slow down when she dusted the urn since it would force her to face the reality if only for a moment.
It could be said that the only silver lining of Izuku's death is that it finally seemed to wake her mom out of the daze she seemed to be trapped in. If only her brother had been around to see it. Instead of shuffling through life like she was already half-dead, her mom seemed to focus on her remaining child with all of her attention. It helped to keep her more engaged in the world, but it was almost suffocating for Izumi on occasion.
One reason in particular is that it made her mom much more resistant to the idea of her becoming a hero. It was only after months of training in secret that she felt confident enough in herself to discuss the topic with her. Even then, she had to bring in Toshi to help convince her. The fact that Izumi had "awakened her quirk" as a late bloomer and could now become a hero relatively safely was just about the only reason that Inko ever relented in her protectiveness in concerns to her daughter. With Izumi as her only family left, she was afraid of losing her too and being left alone.
Izumi just shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts about the upcoming entrance exam tomorrow. She had trained enough that she knew she could pass, but it still felt wrong to be going alone. Part of her still didn't know how to feel at the idea that Izuku wouldn't be there trying his hardest to get into UA too.
She just closed her eyes and pulled the hoodie she was wearing around her tighter. It was one of Izuku's old limited-edition All Might hoodies he would wear around outside of school. Whenever she felt like everything was going to overwhelm her, she would always slip it on to feel better. She hated herself for feeling that way. She shouldn't be able to comforted by Izuku after everything. Not when she was the reason he was gone.
Eventually, Izumi's breathing evened out as she fell asleep on Izuku's bed. The only sign that it was not a peaceful sleep was the tears soaking the pillow.
--
"I bet I'm going to get higher in the entrance cam when we finally take it, Itsuka," Izuku said with a grin as he gestured to himself. "We all know you can't compete with all of this."
"Oh, really?" she asked with a roll of her eyes. "We will just have to see in a couple years, won't we? No matter what, I will still beat you to the Top 10."
"Bold word coming from Ms. Man Hands," Izuku said, nodding his head sagely right until Itsuka tackled him.
"I told you not to call me that!" she shouted as she tried to put him in a headlock.
Izuku just laughed before pulling out his secret weapon and began tickling her sensitive sides. Itsuka immediately gave up trying to choke him out as she did her best to try and stop the barrage of tickling that Izuku was unleashing. However, she could not match his assault and was left cackling and writhing on the ground.
"Stop it!" Itsuka cried out with her lungs wheezing for breath after laughing so long. "If you don't stop, I'm going to pee!"
Izuku finally has mercy on his prey and chooses to wrap her in a hug from behind as she regains her breath. She weakly elbows him in the side before shooting him a dirty look.
"You can't just cheat to get out of my payback," she mutters with a pout.
"I will when you stop being so adorable to mess with," he says before kissing her on the cheek. "I'll still do it all through UA and long into our futures as heroes. That's a promise."
Itsuka looked to the side so Izuku couldn't see the blush and smile that had crossed her face. That didn't seem too bad to her.
She opens her eyes slowly and reaches out for Izuku since she couldn't feel him anymore. When all she felt was the cool bed, reality came surging from back into her mind. She always forgot he wasn't here anymore for the few moments when she just opened her eyes in the morning. It was the best part of her day. For those fleeting seconds, she lived in a world where Izuku was still alive.
It happened a few times a day as well. She would think of something funny or see something that caught her interest and she would forget for a instant. She would turn to tell him or pull out her phone to call him and it would hit her just as hard every time. There was no one standing there and there was no one to answer the phone. Why would there be when she killed him?
Itsuka reached out to her nightstand and grabbed her phone. Pressing the power button, she just stared at the lock screen. It was a photo from when she won a regional martial arts tournament right before she ruined everything.
She remembered the rush from winning the final fight and being the champion. However, that was nothing compared to the feeling of Izuku rushing up to her and pulling her into a spinning hug as she congratulated her. When he finally let her down on two feet, she pulled him into a kiss. It was as though the world seemed to fade away as the only thing that mattered was the person in her arms. The photo captured that moment which felt like an eternity to her.
So, why did she leave?
No matter how hard she tried to lie to herself, she knew from the moment that she called that she was making a mistake. She knew what she was giving up for what was just a shortcut. There is no doubt in her mind that she could have gotten strong enough for UA without her grandfather. She just wanted the easiest way, even if it meant sacrificing what should have been the most important thing to her.
Part of her understood why she did it. She was just selfish. She thought that she could toss Izuku away and leave for years without paying a price. That she could just come back after all of that time and he would be waiting for her and overjoyed to pick up where they left off. Deep down, she really believed that everything would go back to normal the moment she came back. How stupid could she be?
She turned her back on her boyfriend and look what happened. She didn't even hear he died for months after it happened. From what they said, it must have happened right after she called. Right after she broke his heart.
Itsuka just pushes down her guilt before it can begin to overwhelm her and puts her phone back. She curls up under the covers and remembers the promise that he made to her.
"Liar," she muttered in the darkness of her room. As she drifted into sleep, she didn't know if she was talking about Izuku or herself.
--
Momo has collapsed face first on the textbook she had been reading in an attempt to get some last minute studying in before the UA entrance exam. She had been worried since she decided to go to the public exam instead of the recommendation exam like her parents had arranged. As such, she wanted to make sure that she was as prepared as possible. This resulted in her ignoring any advice to get a good night's sleep and passing out while midway through a chapter on calculating derivatives through graphed equations.
The man just shook his head while rubbing his face through the mask covering it. He glanced past his fingers to see the heiress drooling a little in her sleep as she finally reached the ends of her stamina. With a chuckle, he nudged her shoulder before whispering to her.
"Princess, you need to get in bed," he told her. "You don't want to be too tired for your test tomorrow."
"Need, study," she mumbles out before snuggling into her paper pillow.
He just sighed and scooped up the girl into his grasp, her arms reflexively winding around his neck as she rested against his chest. He held her in a princess carry as he transported her from her desk to her bed. He slipped her under the covers before tucking her in.
Once she was wrapped up in her ridiculously high thread count sheets, she released a moan of contentment as she relaxed into her dream. The man just smiled beneath the mask as the only visible sign of the expression was the slight crinkling of the skin around his eyes.
He flicks the light on her nightstand off before putting up the things that his charge had left out. Her books were closed and sorted onto her organized bookshelves based on her system of subjects and complexity. The dirty clothes hamper was filled with the remnants of her daytime attire and taken to the laundry room. He glanced back at the girl once more before easing the door shut behind him with the slightest hint of a whisper.
The man passed the numerous servants who still occupied the home even at the late time of day. They bowed in respect to his position and he nodded back in turn. As the man wound his way through the at-times labyrinthine halls, he eventually found his way to the kitchens.
Upon seeing his entrance, the chefs bowed and cleared out for the night. While they made the meals for Momo during her time at the manor, it was tradition for the man to make the meal himself for when she was taking a bento for lunch.
He prepared the meal with practiced ease. It was constructed to contain the optimal nutrition for a growing woman of her age, height, weight, and body type while also factoring in the intense quirk use that would occur in the entrance test tomorrow. As such, it had an abundance of carbohydrates to help maintain her energy levels and prevent excessive drain of her lipid stores. Once it was all cooked, he packed it into her massive four-layer bento box. Any amateur who had never seen how much Momo could eat would have assumed it was for a small family.
Upon finishing the lunch preparations, he placed it into a refrigerator for the night and left the kitchen behind. His path inevitably took him outside of the home and into the garden surrounding the property. He stopped at a wooden bench close to a water fountain in a more relaxed part of the garden. He watched the moonlight play off of the water racing through the air and admired its shimmering silver glow.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small package from an inner pocket. Slipping one of the cigarettes out, he returns the pack to his pocket before grabbing his lighter. He gazed at the golden lighter that Momo had gotten him as an anniversary gift for spending a full year as her chaperone. It had surprised him to see the young girl's thoughtfulness even though he knew she detested his smoking habits.
He pulled down his mask and placed the cigarette between his lips. Flipping open the lighter and igniting it with a hit of the striker, he held the bright orange flame against the tip of the cigarette until the flame caught. He smothered the flame with a flick of his wrist that shut the lighter before taking a deep drag of the cancer stick. It burned in a way that always served to calm him after a long day. He could agree with Momo that the taste and smell of the smoke was disgusting, but it wasn't a habit he planned on kicking anytime soon.
He sat there taking puffs of the cigarette and watching the red cherry of the end slowly make its way up the length as it turned everything to ash in its wake. He tapped the cigarette to the side to clear the ash off before continuing to enjoy the guilty pleasure. It was always the last step in his routine before he turned in for the night.
He let his thoughts drift to the entrance exam that was happening in the morning. It had been a while since he had thought of UA. This led to an idea crossing his mind that brought a smile across his scarred face. It was the same grin that always brought Momo no end of annoyance since it was always preceded some mildly insane idea that only he could appreciate.
He stamped out his cigarette amidst the gravel in front of the bench knowing the landscaping crew would pick it up like usual in the morning. As he pulled up the mask and began his stroll back to the manor, he could only think one thing.
"There's no point letting Momo have all the fun, now is there?" he said with a chuckle.
--
The day of the Entrance Exam went by uneventfully for the first half. The academic test was straightforward, albeit more challenging than most colleges would expect from freshly graduated high schoolers. This ultimately culminated in the briefing before the combat portion of the exam after a break for lunch.
The auditorium room was filled with hopeful girls and only two boys. While one blended in with the crowd by dressing in bulky clothes to hide his shape, the other decided not to care. As such, he was reclined in his seat with his feet on the table while he rested a head covered in spiky purple hair in his interlocked hands without a worry in the world.
Present Mic, the heroine famous for her radio show and using her powerful voice quirk to stop villains comes out onto the stage in the center of the auditorium. "Can I get a hey?!" she called out to a silence only broken by the purple-haired boy cheering.
"Alright, one more than usual," she commented to herself. "Anyway, let's get on with explaining the next test. You all will be divided and each group will be guided to one of UA's mock cities. You will face three kinds of robot adversaries which you will be tasked with neutralizing in a 10-minute mock city exam. There are 1-pointers, 2- pointers, and 3-pointers. You will get the corresponding number of points added to your score whenever you incapacitate one of them. Be careful though. They are progressively stronger, so make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew. Any questions?"
"I have two questions," a blue haired girl with glasses says standing up. "Firstly, there appears to be four robots in the information packets we were given. If this is an error, it is a grievous insult to the standards of UA. Also, there is a man in here who is disrupting other participant's attention. I believe he should be escorted out as he does not belong here."
"Are you talking about me?" the purple-haired guy asks, despite being elbowed in the side by a green-haired girl whispering for him to knock it off. "I am surprised you noticed me. I thought you would be too distracted with that massive stick shoved up your ass."
The green-haired girl gives a long suffering sigh and shrinks into her seat as the girl with short blonde hair beside her broke out in laughter.
"Cool your jets, little listener," Present Mic says. "The additional robot is the 0-pointer. It mainly a gimmick opponent which is supposed to represent an opponent too strong to fight. It is designed to serve as an obstacle you must evade in the later portion of the exam. This is also the reason it awards no points for destruction.
"As to the boy, it is UA policy to allow men to try out for the hero program since we also allow quirkless women to try out as well," she explained. "We seek out the exceptional in each year's participants, no matter their gender. However, I will not hesitate to throw him out if he continues to make inappropriate comments."
"I'll be good," he calls out with a smile.
"Anyway, it is time for you all to head out to your test sites," Present Mic says. "As always be sure to go Plus Ultra!"
--
The man stood in the group on examinees as they waited for the test to begin. The trip there been uneventful, but the tension of the air was palpable as everyone realized this was their only shot at attaining their dreams. Unlike the women surrounding him, however, the man just yawned because he didn't get as much sleep as he wanted last night because he had to make a last minute grocery run before bed. He had forgotten it until the last minute, but he knew it was the right call to take care of.
He looked at the nervous girls and chuckled to himself. Most of them would probably not pass the exam and would either have to try for a different school or give up on their heroic aspirations. He didn't really care all that much either way if he was being honest. It was mainly just idle curiosity about how strong their convictions truly were and how far they were willing to go for their dreams. He sincerely doubted that the vast majority would do anything more than admit defeat and move on with their lives. After all, very few of the applicants were doing anything more than playing hero.
He just spent the last couple minutes doing some idle stretching before the prep time ran out. "And, begin!" Present Mic shouts from her position on the tower monitoring the test areas.
The man immediately bolted forward to the confusion of the other participants. It was only after he cleared the gate that Present Mic spoke again. "What are you waiting for?" she asked. "Time's a-wasting! Get a move on!"
The rest finally get in gear and try to catch up to the man who got a head start on the pack.
While the others were distracted, he had been making good use of his time. He had drawn a black dagger from his clothes and had begun to stab and slash into the weak points of any robot that stumbled across him. A 3-pointer tried to fire a couple rockets at him, but he had already bolted out of the way before closing the distance. A quick slash through a weak spot in the neck left it collapsing along with a quick spray of sparks.
A 2-pointer rushes at him from behind only to receive a new hole in its head as the man threw his dagger like a throwing knife directly through the lens in its eye. He ripped the dagger out before continuing on his way. This was surprisingly fun to him. This might be why Momo liked her video games so much whenever she wasn't studying. He absently wondered what the high score was as he tore his way through another series of robotic opponents.
He slowed down every now and then whenever he found examinees struggling against a robot. He destroyed a 3-pointer which almost ambushed a pair of levitating clothes until he sent it to the scrap heap. Another 1-pointer tried to take advantage of a metal girl carrying an injured participant out of immediate danger before its head found itself separated from its body by a precise attack. The most he ever bothered to give to the examinees he helped out was a brief nod of acknowledgment before he continued on his way. These girls could very well end up Momo's classmates, so there was no reason to be too rude to them just yet. He would have years to find flaws.
--
"What kind of prospects are we looking at so far?" one of the teachers asks. "Some of these kids seem promising."
"I am interested in greenie with the lighting," another teacher said. "She is doing a good job of keeping mobile, identifying the opponents, and taking them out swiftly. Even better is the fact that she watches out for the other examinees."
"You can't ignore the explosion girl either," someone else pointed out. "She is edging out the lightning girl a touch in villain points, but that's also because she is pretty much ignoring the other people. Still, that can be polished up a bit during school."
"I'm surprised to have had a guy in this stage of the exam," Present Mic says. "I can't remember any men trying for the hero course in years, even if it isn't against the rules."
"Two, actually," another voice says. The teachers all glance at the animalistic woman that was watching the screens with a cup of tea in her hands. Her dark black eyes tracked the action across multiple areas with ease as she enjoyed another sip of her favorite brew. "There are two men taking the exam."
"Where's the second?" a teacher asks, their eyes passing across the wall of screens as they attempt to locate the only other man.
"You can admire his skilled knife work in City F," the woman answered, her lips pulling into a small grin that almost seemed to flash the briefest glimpse of her sharp teeth. The man was blessed in a bulky black coat with a dark hood, a black cloth mask covering his face from his nose down, and a heavily tinted pair of sunglasses. He proceeded to blitz through a group of 2-pointers and 1-pointers without breaking his stride. His knife would quickly flash out and bury itself into each machine before ripping it out and plunging it into another. "He is easily the most skilled in terms of mundane combat amongst the prospects, though followed closely by his fellow male examinee. His strength is quite impressive as well. Most others would need to rely on a quirk to be as effective as he is. As it stands, he is actually leading the pack in terms of points so far."
"Are you serious?!" one of the women asks. "He might be better than the average guy trying the test, but he doesn't seem like he could compete against some of the powerful quirks of the girls."
"Perhaps he might lose in a direct fight," she admitted. "However, his skills appear to be much more refined than many of the other applicants. His ability to locate targets and efficiently navigate the intentionally alleyways is heads above what the others have demonstrated. He appears to be capable of isolating the robots weaknesses within an instant of seeing them while simultaneously using the bare minimum to eliminate them and maintain his momentum. Multiple enemies are unable to faze him as he has exceptional situational awareness and can turn their superior numbers against them. He is also able to remove dangers from his fellow examinees while staying out of their way and concealing his presence. But that doesn't even consider the best part."
"What's the best part?" a tired voice asks, clearly annoyed by the topic of conversation.
"He's hardly even trying," she said with a smile. "He sees this as a fun game to play as he tears his way through any obstacle. It's like seeing a cat play with a mouse or a champion marathon runner competing in a local fun run. They could easily dominate the scenario and end it quickly, but they choose to enjoy the ease of hardly trying and winning nonetheless. I can relate. It is always enjoyable to play with those Rubik's cube toys from the pre-quirk era. I could solve it in a moment easily. However, it is more fun to just fiddle with it during a break instead."
"So you are saying a man is showing up the best applicants of this year and he is playing a game with handicaps?" the woman asked with a groan. "I don't want him. Stick him in 1-A with Kin for all I care. I just want a simple year where I can teach a class in peace since you took away my expulsion privileges. I don't sleep enough to deal with whatever he is for three years."
"Oh, Aizawa," the animalistic woman says with a fond chuckle in her voice. "I wouldn't dream of it."
The sly grin went unnoticed by the rest of the viewing booth, but the woman wouldn't let the teacher get off so easily. She was still dealing with the angry sponsors after an entire class was expelled on their first day last year. It seemed high time someone else was inconvenienced.
The tired woman felt a shiver go down her spine as her mind raced about what it could mean. She couldn't be sure, but it felt like she had something bad coming in her future.
"Oh, look at the time," the amused woman said. "Let's see how they all deal with the 0-pointer."
--
The ground rumbled as a massive robot rose above the streets of the artificial city. Many of the examinees froze in fear at the 0-pointer as its shadow hung over them. This paralysis was soon over come by adrenaline-induced flight that sent them running away as the air filled with the sounds of screaming and people shoving each other out of the way.
The man just laughed to himself as he watched the hero applicants promptly forget about ideals and return to the impulsive nature so common in the species. They immediately began to look out for themselves even to the detriment of those around them. Good riddance. UA doesn't need a bunch of spineless idiots clogging its halls.
As the automaton moved forward after the crowd, its bulky design caused it to carve into the nearby buildings on either side of the street. Chunks of rubble came crashing down towards the examinees with some gaining new injuries in the process. He caught sight of one brunette girl falling to the ground after a large chunk of concrete landed on here leg with an audible snap. She cried out in pain but her voice was drowned out in the panic-filled din produced by everyone else and her pleas for help went unheard.
The mass of applicants finally begins to thin out as the man moves into action with a grin of excitement. He pulls the sleeve of his jacket up to reveal a silver watch before lifting his wrist up to his mouth. "Knockout," he whispers.
An invisible wave of energy erupts from the watch and scrambles all of the cameras in the area. Once the surveillance was eliminated, the watch shook before its began to move. The silver coating its surface is revealed to be small metallic plates covering an insectoid creature. It looked up at him with its small black eyes and gave a chittering chirp to signal its success.
"Good job," he says, rubbing the insect's head with a finger before it reverted back to its camouflaged watch form. He flips his dagger into the air before catching it in a reverse grip. A green and black flame ignites along the blade's length before he slices into the pavement beside him. A long line of fire cuts though the asphalt of the street until it stops and seems to stretch apart. It tears open to reveal a hole of green fire before the man calls out, "Ouroboros, Gama! Time to play!"
A large white snake with crimson eyes bursts from the rift and slithers to stand at attention to his left side. It is soon followed by a dark green frog that leaps to its position behind him. Both of the creatures are much larger than any of their conventional counterparts in the animal kingdom, excluding the occasional quirk emergence in non-human animals. However, there was a touch of the demonic to their forms that set them apart.
The snake had a secondary pair of eyes set behind its primary set along with a pair of back-facing horns and red plating on its underbelly. It resembled a fusion between draconic and serpentine that seemed to have the worst of both worlds.
The frog had neon green eyes which matched with the bright green glow from the flesh of its throat. The glowing green flesh illuminated its body in a toxic hue that made it appear unnatural and sinister.
"Send it!" the man ordered as the rift sealed close behind the two creatures.
The frog grunted before it spit out a body wrapped in a white cloth sheet. This was the grocery he had to pick up the previous night. It was always best to work with something fresh instead of using any supplies that he had on hand at the time. That made the trip to the morgue worth it in his opinion.
As the bound cadaver soared over him, his knife flashed out to stab quickly into the corpse before it finished passing. The green flame of the knife seemed to flow into its body and began a swift transformation. Even in the time it took to crash into the ground, it was able to grow beyond the size of its binding and reach a height of 12 feet. Its flesh had shifted and changed to make it a red-skinned humanoid with armor plating covering its mouth and pitch black eyes. It tumbled into a roll and surged forward onto its feet, its height continuing to grow with each step as it rushed towards the mechanical titan.
Upon actually reaching the 0-pointer, the former cadaver had already matched its height and slammed into it with a comparable mass. The metal groaned and screeched in protest as the machine tried to resist its new opponent with its own strength. It became a fight between a massive demonic warrior and a metal marvel that were out of many people's capacity to ever defeat.
The two quickly found themselves in a deadlock before the undead behemoth began to give way. Its bones began to strain and crack under the continued force of its opposition. Its skin slowly tore open form the stress and the muscle fibers started to snap as they could not overcome the rival giant.
"Hmmph," the man said as he watched. "I need to practice more with forging larger monsters. I could manage one good enough if I had time, but a rush job really does not cut it. I should force Momo to study the biology of massive organisms with me to get a better idea on improving."
"Gama, clear the rubble on the girl and evacuate her," he orders the frog. "Ouroboros, you get to finish it off."
The frog and snake give a ribbit and hiss in response before they rush forward. Gama shoots its tongue out to stick to the rubble before whipping it off the girl's leg. It sends the debris crashing into another building before grabbing her with another shot of its tongue and containing her in its mouth for safe keeping.
The snake slithers to where the demonic creature is barely holding the robot in a losing stalemate. Using its outstretched leg as a ramp, then it climbs up and onto its back. This allows it to traverse over the red giants shoulder and wrap itself around the automaton's neck. The giant builds up for one last push and sends the robot away right before its legs collapse from the accumulated damage.
Once the metal titan retreats from the shove, the man just lifts his hand as he sees the snake finished coiling around the neck and biting onto its own tail. With a grin hidden behind his mask, he snaps his fingers and triggers Ouroboros to detonate in a bright blast that decapitates the machine in an instant. The massive head crashes to the ground with a boom that echoes throughout the street before the body collapses with a thunderous followup.
A hiss sounds from behind the body before Ouroboros slithers over the metal form and returns to the man. The only change to the snake after the explosion is that the red plates on its underbelly have been replaced with thinner black sections.
"Nice job," he says as Gama releases the girl out of its mouth and sets her back on the ground with his tongue. He looks back at the red giant only to see it softening and turning into a puddle of organic mush. "I guess that's what I get for such a quick creation."
He ignites his dagger once more before slashing into the ground. The rift forms underneath the degrading giant and expands to the point where it the body falls inside. Gama and Ouroboros hop and slither inside before the man calls out, "Spore! Memory wipe for the last minute!"
A hand comprised of thick brown and green vines grabs onto the edge of the rift before pulling its upper half out of the portal and above the road. Its body was comprised of the same dense vines while its head was a closed flower bulb. Once it had raised itself up, the bulb spread open to reveal a ethereal white flower with six pollen stalks extending into the air. As it unfurled, a wave of yellow was unleashed and flowed throughout the environment.
The man could see the injured girl's eyes dilating as her focus on reality got cloudy and her memory became hazy. It wouldn't do anything more than cause them to rewrite what happened into the most logical version of events that did not include him. The process wasn't true mental manipulation since it just caused them to mistake a dream for reality and vice versa.
Once the wave of pollen was dispersed, Spore closed its bud before sinking back into the rift before it sealed shut. The man looked around at the destruction and chaos around him with a chuckle as he stashed his dagger in his clothes. "Worth it," he commented simply.
--
Momo had decided to study even more the night after the exam to figure out exactly which questions she might have missed. As he expected due to her foray into sleep deprivation the previous night and the exhaustion from earlier in the day, she was found drooling in a textbook once more by her caretaker. The only change was that it was a literature book instead of calculus.
As he was walking out of her bedroom after tucking the heiress in, he heard faint classical music playing from the study. None of the workers should be in that area of the manor right now and they never turn on any music when they are. His footsteps became silent as he stalked closer to the source of the noise. He drew a .45 caliber pistol from the holster inside of his jacket with one hand while using his other to pull his dagger out of its sheath at the small of his back.
He soon gets close enough to the room to hear the sound of humming in time with the music which causes him to visibly relax. He returns the dagger and his sidearm to their respective places as he resumes his normal stride into the study.
Upon turning into the room, he could see the occupant sitting in front of a roaring fire as he stared into the flames with a glass of brandy in his hand. He idly swirled it as his eyes traced the twisting blaze and his ears took in the sweet serenade of an ancient orchestra. His golden blond hair seemed to glint in the firelight as the shadows played on his ageless face. The intruder was dressed in a pair of dark pants, hand-crafted leather shoes, a loose white dress shirt, and had a black suit jacket draped over the antique armchair he was resting in. A sheathed sword was leaning against the chair as well. One of his bright blue eyes flashed over to the man in black as his lips pull into a grin that gleamed in the fire's light.
"What are you doing here, Alucard?" the man in black questioned.
"Can't I visit the home of my account managers for old time's sake?" Alucard asks before taking a sip of his drink. "You must thank the young Miss Yaoyorozu for me. She might not drink herself, but she keeps an exquisitely curated liquor cabinet all the same."
"If you wanted to visit her parents, you are not even in the correct city," the man replied. "This property was not actively occupied until a few months ago. Even then, it was only by Momo. So, tell me the real reason you are here."
"You are right as usual," Alucard admitted. "The reason I am here is not to discuss business with the family maintaining my Japanese assets. I am here to talk with you."
"Why?" he asks. "You have not reached out in over a year. What changed?"
"You did," Alucard answered. "At least, you changed the situation. It's not every day that a man breaks records at the UA entrance exam by breaking records for their highest cumulative score. That draws a lot of eyes. I thought you wanted to stay hidden."
"It was a moment of impulse," he says, brushing off the statement. "I wanted to see how difficult the legendary exam truly was."
"I hope it was worth it," Alucard says. "It is going to attract the Belmont after all this time you managed to stay under the radar. They didn't expect to find you hiding under the employ of my associates. If you wanted to fulfill a flight of fancy, you should have chosen a different name to participate under. They would never ignore someone making waves with their family name and the name of one of the men who helped my father almost exterminate humanity. I was amused when you chose it, but it is not the title to flaunt so casually, Isaac Belmont."
"I chose that name when I wanted to start anew, Alucard," he replies. "I thought that you would understand why. I want to move on and let the past die."
"It's funny that you chose those names in particular," Alucard says. "Isaac, the sinner who hoped to redeem his soul by redeeming those he plucked from the depths of Hell with his magic. A man who grew up seeing the worst in people and decided to believe in second chances. Belmont, a family who has made their mark on you for better or worse. However, they continue to stand as a barrier against the darkness. It is almost like you are not as ready to move on as you claim."
"Stop with your riddles," the man says. "If you want to say something, quit hinting at it and speak your mind."
"You can't let go of your old life, can you?" Alucard asks. The man stills for a moment and gives the immortal the only answer he needs. "Why else go to the test? You wanted to see the people you left behind. Isn't that right, Izuku Midoriya?"
--
I look into the flames for a moment while I think about my answer. "I don't think I could go back to being Izuku after everything that has happened," I say. "Izuku died by his own hand and those of the Belmonts. Best to let him stay dead."
"The real question is whether he wants to stay dead, isn't it?" Alucard asks. "Could you walk past the ghosts of your old life without reaching out once more?"
"I don't know," I admit. "I can't say for certain what I would do. Instead, I choose to live my life how I want until that moment. I don't want any regrets, no matter what I decide."
"I can see why my father was always so interested in you Forgemasters," Alucard says with a chuckle. "You never cease to amaze."
"Say hi for me," I tell him. "To your mother as well."
"Of course," he says with a grin before he gets up and sets his glass on a nearby shelf. He slips into his jacket and slips his sword into a loop on his belt. "I best be off then. Don't get too crazy at that hero school. I don't want you to get killed when they see you as a kaiju factory."
"I can handle whatever comes my way," I say, brushing off the concern. "If I need to, I'll just build some backup."
"Confidence even when faced with fighting the whole world," Alucard comments with a small smile. "Maybe you really do deserve the Belmont name after all."
With a whisper, the half-vampire disappears from view as he races off to wherever he is going. I just stare into the fire until all that remains are embers.
--
"What is with the readings we received during the exam?" Aizawa asks the women in the room as they sift through the recordings from the area where the 0-pointer appeared. "We detected kaiju in the mock city for a moment before they seemed to vanish. The only thing that supports this is that the 0-pointers is missing a head when there were no applicants who should have been able to do that."
"All of the cameras in the area shorted out right before they appeared," Power Loader says, the woman typing into the computer but failing to find anything more. "The frustrating thing is that it applied to the recording devices in the robots as well. The 0-pointer's hard drive was useless since it couldn't retain any data about what got it."
"These readings are worrying too," Ectoplasm says. "Fortitude ratings for three of them were 5.2, 4.1, and 4.8. Those would be pretty worrying if it weren't for the 6.5 that was recorded for a minute. Why would that rating seem to drop to nothing after a minute while the others just disappeared?"
"Who knows!" Nezumi says with a laugh. "All we can do is wait and see what happens after we reach out for some help. "We should be able to get some assistance since we are getting a couple students who trained in the Defense Force. They would want to help us figure it out."
While the rest of the women talked amongst themselves about the predicament they found themselves in, Nezumi looked at the photo on her phone. She had to hack into an orbital surveillance satellite and wipe its data to ensure no one else found out, but she saved the one image that she saved before erasing everything. A man with a dagger which blazed with green fire.
'It's been so long,' she thought. 'Finally, a Forgemaster is born once more.'
--
Author's note:
Sorry for taking so long to update even after all the reviews you guys posted. I was just swamped with writing new chapters for my stories and I had to work my way back to this one.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed what I wrote for my second chapter. I tried to channel the emotions from the first one while also showing that there has been three years of time that has passed in the story.
In case no one caught it in the story or noticed it in the updated description, I made this a crossover with Kaiju #8 as well. I felt like it would work with what I already had and I would be making my own changes as I continued to develop the story. After all, a lot of the creations I planned for Izuku to make seem reminiscent of Kaiju and it does take place in Japan.
Many questions have been revealed so far in the story.
Where was Izuku for three years?
Why did he pick up the name Isaac Belmont?
How did he come to work for the Yaoyorozu family?
How did he learn to be a Forgemaster?
Will he ever return to his old life?
Why are the Belmonts hunting him?
How did he come back to life?
So many questions and more that I will answer as the story continues. I just hope that you all enjoyed it enough to keep reading as I continue to release updates as time goes on.
I shamelessly run on reviews. Let me know what you thought of the chapter and story. The more reviews I get, the faster I pump out content. You guys always help keep my motivation up.
If you want to keep up to date on the story, be sure to favorite and follow.
A pleasure as always,
Titan900
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