Chapter 23: Zombies and the Start of the Finals
In Tsuyu Asui's humble opinion, it was somewhat saddening that their internships were cut short. She was actually doing some excellent work with Selkie, and then Hosu happened. All For One was starting to get on her nerves, which was impressive, as Tsu was pretty well known for being chill. So, congrats to the big bad Villain for making the frog girl upset.
Hope he was feeling proud of himself right now.
Regardless, what happened, happened. It was time to move on and return to the relative normalcy of Class 1-A… or so she thought. Because honestly, neither Tsu, or anyone else in her class was expecting a couple of guests from a whole different Hero school to show up.
"It's a little sudden," Aizawa-sensei admitted to the class, "But for our next Hero exercise, four Hero students from Isami High School will be joining us as special guests."
"We'll be running the exercise with you today," the white-haired girl in the blue uniform spoke up, her odd-looking eyes behind those glasses of hers scanning the room. "I'm Kashiko Senkigai."
"Dadan Tadan," the large, sweaty boy said. "Pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Fujimi," the other boy, the one with the bluish-gray hair, grunted.
The final student poked their head out from behind Senkigai, and Tsu's heart immediately stopped. She had the head of a snake, along with massive curls of red hair on top.
Suddenly, this day became a whole lot better for Tsuyu Asui.
Shouta Aizawa gave his class a quick look over before he began talking. Everyone was accounted for, including the four extra guests from Isamu Academy.
Even after All For One's little internet rampage during Hosu, one of the few groups least affected were Hero schools themselves. Unlike Pros and the Agencies, those Heroes-in-training were still minors, and few, if any, had any sort of problematic history.
So, while the majority of the Heroes in Japan ended up now being dragged through the mud either due incompetence or malice, the next generation was still relatively safe.
Small mercies.
So, before Nedzu decided to traumatize this year's Hero students with the souped-up version of the Final Exams, Class 1-A would first be doing a joint exercise with Isamu Academy.
Why them? Shouta wasn't actually sure. His first theory was that it was due to practicality. Isamu was located in Aichi, while UA was in Shizuoka. Pretty close to one another. Then again, the rat wasn't the sort of person to do something so surface-leveled. There had to be more.
Maybe it was the four students that were selected? Habuko Mongoose was indeed best friends with Tsuyu Asui (a surprise to both Shouta and everyone else), but that seemed more like a coincidence. A secret mission to adjust Romero Fujimi's attitude? Unlikely.
Which left only Kashiko Senkigai and Dadan Tadan.
There didn't seem to be anything off with Senkigai, she just seemed like a white-haired Yaoyorozu to Shouta. Courteous, smart, a good class representative overall.
And Tadan was just a big bag of nerves. Kind of like a more vocal Koda.
His costume was definitely an odd one. Seemed like quite the tall order. UA usually tried to go for the most straight methods when it came to costumes. Even Hagakure's new suit, DNA-infused and all, just had the purpose of "going invisible when the wearer does."
Why did that kid even need a giant walking shell of armor?
Shaking his head, Shouta decided to figure this puzzle out later.
"Good to see that everyone arrived on time," Shouta announced to the class and guests. "Today's exercise will be observed by me and one other person…"
"I HAVE ARRIVED!"
BOOM!
Shouta ignored the shock waves that All Might caused while landing on the ground. Honestly, the one perk of the USJ attack was that Yagi could now just show up in his regular form while hanging around his class. But given that there were guests today…
Might as well let him enjoy this while he still can…
"All Might!"
"In the flesh!"
"Such power!"
"I'm so jealous of UA!"
While the Isamu kids actibley fanboyed over the appearance of the Symbol of Peace, Shouta's kids merely smiled. Guess seeing a powered-up All Might was still a small treat to them. Sure, they still saw Yagi every other day, but this showboating was still cool to watch.
"So! About this little exercise…" All Might began. "We're going to be doing a little bit of Survival Training! Four students per team will start at predetermined positions! There is but one objective! To survive! Run or fight, anything goes! Victory goes to the last surviving team!"
"If you run into another team, manage to bind them with the capture tape," Shouta added.
"Now! Let us announce the teams!"
Katsuki, along with the rest of his teammates, stayed extremely still.
After the teams were announced, Shoji, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu (yes, he finally remembered their names, sue him) and himself all went to their little corner of the forest.
The original goal was pretty straightforward: Take down the other teams.
Unfortunately, the newcomers from Isamu had the same idea as Katsuki's team, except instead of going against one team at a time, they decided to blanket-wide attacks. Which definitely explained the sudden bombings of Flash Bang Sweat missiles all over the forest.
The good news was that Yaoyorozu was clever enough to cover everyone in a camo sheet to make sure that when the Isamu shits showed up, they didn't notice 'em. Which was now.
"This is odd," the white-haired girl said. "I'm not reading any life forms."
"They didn't escape, did they?" the nervous fat one asked.
"I'm sure you got them…" the snake girl said.
The white-haired chick sighed. "They should be unconscious around here…"
"Ha! Guess we should have used real missiles!" the creep said.
Aight, that does it.
"HEY! You're really annoying, you know?" Katsuki said, as Yaoyorozu dropped the camo. Seemed like that managed to piss off the jackass. "Hope you're ready…"
"Leave it to me!" the snake girl shouted, as her eyes flashed a bunch of yellow.
During his internship with Eraserhead, Katsuki did pick up on a few things. One was that Villains who suddenly couldn't use their Quirks would get sloppy, same for Villains who lost their cool. They'd make mistakes from mistiming attacks to overlooking minor details.
The same logic applied to Hero students. They were still green in the gills, still having trouble controlling their adrenaline during exercises, and very much prone to mistakes.
Case in point, the snake girl was just a bit too slow to activate her Quirk.
Whatever her Quirk was, it caused the rest of Katsuki's teammates to collapse onto the forest floor. So, some sort of paralysis. Unfortunately, while the rest of his comrades stood while getting stared at, Katsuki jumped, letting himself get paralyzed while in midair.
Why did that benefit him? Because, one, it bought his team an extra few seconds of not getting wrapped up in capture tape as the opposing team looked around for the flying Katsuki, and two, because once gravity began to take hold of him, the paralysis wore off.
"Just three seconds, huh? Might wanna work on extending your time."
BOOM!
Katsuki launched himself quickly towards the Isamu bastards. Hopefully, he'd be able to buy his team enough time to get back on their feet and take care of some of these clowns –
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US!"
Cute. The shifty-eyed bastard decided to shoot out his pink –
"FUJIMI, NO!"
Uh-oh. That changed things. If their class rep was telling the guy not to use his Quirk, that usually meant that the end result would be bad for everyone involved, allies included.
FWOOSH!
In an instant, everyone in the area was engulfed in pink smoke.
"FUJIMI, YOU IDIOT!"
The second Ochako saw the pink mist, she knew something was wrong.
After arriving at her predetermined position with the rest of her team, which consisted of Yui-chan, Tsu, and Ashido (who insisted on being called Mina), the exercise officially began.
All that was between them and the other teams was the forest.
The brown-haired girl decided that they'd play it strategically this time around, given that the Isamu students had unfamiliar Quirks, and that none of the four of them really didn't have any stealth or scouting capabilities. In other words, stay put right where they were.
As it turned out, that was the right call.
She wasn't sure if it was Katsuki or one of the Isamu kids, but the first thing the four of them heard after exercise began was explosions. Lots of them. Like, a deafening amount. Ochako seriously doubted Katsuki was capable of doing that, especially right now.
Which meant that it had to be one of Senkigai's classmates. Or her. Maybe.
Then the pink gas clouds appeared.
It looked kind of like Midnight's Quirk, but instead it had a lighter coloration, and the shape and texture made it slowly move in as a fog, rather than smoke coming from a burning source.
"What is it?" Mina asked.
"I don't know," Tsu replied. "But we should stay away from it."
Yui nodded along to that logic. "Let's head to a safer place."
The four of them ran up the mountainside of the forest, they spotted Todoroki's team, which had Ojiro, the now-visible Hagakure, and Koda doing the exact same thing.
Before anyone could do anything, Todoroki said, "Don't attack! I know this is an exercise, but now isn't the time to fight! That gas is a Quirk from one of the Isamu students! It –"
Slowly, everyone turned around, as they heard footsteps. Weak shuffles coming from the base of the mountain. More students that ran from the gas? Why did they look so… pale…?
""ZOMBIES!"" Mina and Hagakure screamed.
Down in front of them, Ochako watched as the rest of their classmates had been turned into shouting, possibly indestructible zombies (if Shoji bashing his head against a tree was any indication), that were shooting off their Quirks for no rhyme or reason.
"HAHAHAHA!" Everyone turned to see that Fujimi, the Isamu student with the bad attitude, was laughing. "What do you think of my Quirk? UA isn't all that much – OH MY GOD!"
CHOMP!
"Wow, Bakugou," Yui simply said. "Wow."
Ochako had to admit, it was kinda cathartic to see Fujimi get bit by a zombie of his own creation, but that kind of dissolved when she saw Fujimi rise as a zombie, as well.
Todoroki quickly made some ice to encapsulate the legs of all the zombies in the vicinity, only for them to bust out. Wonderful, that theory on enhanced durability was proven correct. Oh, and Koda, Ojiro, and Hagakure just got bitten while no one was looking. Fantastic.
"Hey! What do we do?" Mina asked.
"I say run!" Yui said, as she began sliding off the mountain slope.
The others followed suit, trying to keep their balance, but Tsu… not so much.
"Come on, get up!" Todoroki shouted at her. "We need to go!"
Ochako tried to reach her downed classmate, but heart plummeted as she saw one of the zombies quickly approach the fallen Tsu, only for it to… help the green-haired girl up?
"Habuko-chan…" Tsu smiled. "You remember me even as a zombie!"
Huh, that's actually kind of heartwarming, Ochako thought to herself. She kinda wished she had a friendship that would be able to transcend zombieism. Maybe with Yui?
"Thank you, Habuko-chan!" Tsu continued. "We'll always be – AHHH!"
CHOMP!
Goddammit, Aoyama.
"Still friends as zombies," Yui deadpanned. "Cute."
"We have more important things right now!" Mina shouted.
The pink-skinned girl was right. Ochako tried to think of a plan. Blackwhip? Still having trouble controlling that. One For All in general? That could work, but –
"HAHAHA! EVERYTHING'S ALL RIGHT! WHY, YOU ASK?!"
"Right on fucking time!" Todoroki shouted.
The ninth One For All user completely agreed with that. All Might showing up would at the very least buy them some time to think of something while he dealt with the zombies, right?
BOOM!
"Because I am here!"
The four remaining students did a double-take, as in the place of All Might they saw… Yagi-sensei. In fact, Yagi looked down to check on himself, and… yeah.
"Shiiiiiiiiiit."
"Time to run?" Todoroki asked.
Ochako nodded. "Time to run."
Grabbing All Might with Blackwhip, Ochako and the others made a run for it. Five minutes later, they managed to find themselves in a cave, with Todoroki freezing the entrance shut.
Mina collapsed in a sigh of relief. "I'm so tired…"
"How long do you think that zombie-making Quirk will last?" Todoroki asked.
"It should go away eventually," Yui said. "But how long…?"
"Don't worry!" All Might tried to assure them. "I promise to keep you all safe!"
Ochako, and the others, simply stared at the blond skeleton. With his time limit up, the only thing he could realistically do was pretend to be a zombie to blend in.
They needed an actual plan.
KRASH!
Looks like they had no time to make an actual plan.
"They're breaking through the ice!" Todoroki hissed. He quickly reapplied ice anywhere the zombies broke through, but he knew that was only a temporary solution.
"Todoroki, get ready to use your flames!" Ochako ordered. "Everyone else, stay behind me! If we can't move back, we'll have to go forward! I'll make us an escape route!"
"But how?!" Mina asked.
Ochako powered up One For All, as she said, "The zombies can't be hurt! So, if I blast them away with the ice, we can escape! Todoroki, start melting it, but slowly!"
The peppermint-haired boy nodded, as he activated his flames.
FWOOSH!
One For All… twenty percent…
"Get ready, Uraraka…" Todoroki said, as he kept melting the ice. "NOW!"
"GRAVITY AMPLIFIED… SMAAAAASH!"
BOOOOOM!
The ice exploded out of the cave, and into the open, just as Ochako had predicted. Making a run for it outside, she yelled out to the others, "EVERYONE! LET'S GET OUT OF –"
"WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
Turning around, Ochako saw that all the zombies… were gone? No, wait, everyone had turned back to normal, and… they were now falling off the mountainside. Uh-oh.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Aoyama shouted, plummeting.
"I'M SO SORRY!" Ochako shouted.
"Well, that was a huge mess," Eraserhead grumbled. At the very least, no one ended up in a full-body cast. "Anyways, that's all we have for class today. There's only one week left before your Final Exams begin. I'm sure you're all studying constantly… right?"
Everyone remained silent. Whether it was because of the various aches they had from today's disaster of an exercise or because they didn't study, Eraserhead truthfully didn't know.
"Anyways, don't forget to keep training. The written exam has only one element. There's also the practical portion to worry about," he said, before exerting the class. "Good luck."
And with the sound of the closing door, everyone relaxed.
Well, almost everyone.
""I'VE BARELY EVEN TAKEN NOTES THIS SEMESTER!""
"Well, we barely learned anything when we took our midterms, so they didn't seem all that hard," Sato reluctantly agreed. "But I'm worried. They probably won't pull any punches with the tests."
"I'm not that concerned," Shinso said. "After all, I am in the top ten."
"We've still got time to study," Kodai said.
"Yes!" Iida fully agreed. "I have high hopes that we'll make UA proud!"
"It's pretty hard to fail if you just pay attention in class, isn't it?" Todoroki asked.
"Wow, way to cut me down," Kaminari deadpanned.
"Hey, don't worry about it, I can catch you up to speed on the important topics, if you want."
""YOU'RE THE BEST, YAOMOMO!""
"I've been studying, but I've been having some trouble. Could you help me out, too?" Jiro asked Yaoyorozu. "I've been having some trouble understanding quadratic functions."
"Really?"
"Tutor me, please!" Sero begged. "Classical Japanese is killing me!"
"Is there room for one more?" Ojiro asked. "I'm afraid I'm falling behind a little…"
Yaoyorozu stood up. "Okay, then. We can hold a study session at my residence over the weekend. Oh, I must call Mother and have her prepare the great hall for us to set up, it'll be the perfect spot! What kind of tea does everyone like? I'll make sure we're stocked!"
Great hall? Tea? Uraraka overheard. Sounds fancy as hell.
"Guess I should be studying with her…" Kirishima said.
"Heh, everyone's panicking right now," Aoyama said, his classic smile still resting on his pretty face. "But it won't do them any good to be cramming this far into the game."
"Shouldn't you be more concerned? You didn't do very well in the midterms."
Shoji slightly flinched at how quickly the Frenchman turned around and faced him. Seriously, that was some uncanny valley shit. "Are you talking about moi? I did just fine, thank you."
"So, Aizawa, what did you think?"
"If you're referring to the exercise with Isamu Academy, I think it was a disaster," Shouta answered honestly. "But it was kind of nice to see Asui having friends outside of UA."
"I wasn't referring to that, I was referring to Dadan Tadan's costume."
His costume? Shouta took a quick look over Tadan's costume in one of the file photos. Robot-like, with multiple pieces of metal plating, in various colors. It somewhat resembled some old mechas from pre-Quirk era shows, but… it also somehow looked familiar.
"Why do I feel like I've seen this costume before?" Shouta asked.
Nedzu simply stayed silent as he pulled out another photo. It was a person wearing a similar costume. Slimmer armor, designed to close first the human form, but the pieces, colors, and joints were all the same. So that's where I've seen it before, but…
That second costume belonged to Hephaestus.
Of the League of Villains.
"How is this possible…?"
"Dadan Tadan's costume was manufactured on I-Island," Nedzu said. "We already knew from the USJ that Hephaestus was a master of support, given their inventions, but this…"
"This means that they're playing both sides," Shouta realized.
"This year's I-Expo is coming up soon," Nedzu said. "I think we should attend it."
The next day, everyone is finalizing their plans for the weekend.
Specifically, what sort of study method they were gonna be using for next week.
"I'm kinda scared about the practical," Shinso admitted, as he bit into his food.
Everyone else sitting at the table eyed him, and for good reason. "It would be somewhat hard to believe that the teachers would give us something too crazy," Iida said.
"Yeah, the written exam questions are all gonna be stuff from class," the purple-haired boy answered honestly, as he took another bite of his lunch. "So I should be able to do those."
"Do you really think it'll be that simple, Iida?" Yui-chan asked.
"Yeah, it's driving me nuts. I just wanna know what they'll have us doing."
"It's a comprehensive test of everything we learned this year," Ochako explained.
"Yep, and that's about all we can get Aizawa-sensei to tell us," Todoroki said.
"Okay, so it'll cover combat, rescue, and basic training..."
"Hey, guys!"
The group looked up to see a familiar orange-haired girl waving at them.
"Oh, Kendo!" Ochako smiled. "What brings you to our table?"
"I heard you're all worried about what's going to be on the big final practical, and I heard that it's gonna be combat against robots like in the Entrance Exam," Kendo said. "One of the upperclassmen, Togata, filled me in. I know it sounds like cheating, but whatever."
"All right!" Kaminari cheered. "This will be super easy if it's just robots!"
"Why do you sound so happy?" Shoji asked.
"Because we can just let loose with our Quirks!" Mina happily explained.
"Yeah, now all you need is Yaoyorozu to help you'll be all set!" Sero said.
Looks like they had everything they could to prepare.
The next week felt like a blur. Or a montage.
Everyone studied in their own way. For example, Yaoyorozu tutored the likes of Kaminari, Ashido, Jiro, Sero and Ojiro at her estate, tea and all kinds of snacks on hand.
Uraraka meanwhile, did her own studying while working out in her room. As it turned out, Iida had the same idea, except he used his entire neighborhood as his own track field.
Bakugou was even spotted helping out Kirishima in a nearby diner.
And absolutely no one knows what the hell Kodai was doing.
But when they all came back on Monday, the first day of written exams began. People like Tokoyami and Todoroki were hard to read while they were doing their exams.
Bakugou honestly looked kind of bored.
And Kaminari and Ashido looked like they were walking to the gallows.
Everyone kept wearing the same expressions on their faces for the next three days, until…
"Alright, put your pencils down," Aizawa called out the class, signaling the end of the testing period. "The last person in each row, bring the answer sheets to me."
"Thanks so much for all your help, Yaomomo!" Ashido cheered.
Kaminari was also celebrating. "I didn't leave anything blank!"
And with that, the easy part of the exams were over.
"Now, then," Eraserhead said. "Let's begin the last test. Remember, it's possible to fail this Final. If you wanna go to camp, don't make any stupid mistakes."
"Uhh, why are the teachers here?" Jiro asked.
Ochako had to agree, that was a bit… odd. Present Mic, Midnight, Thirteen, Cemetoss, Ectoplasm, Snipe, and Power Loader were all here. But… why?
"That will be relevant in a few seconds," the Underground Hero said. "Anyways, I expect many of you have gathered information and have some idea of what you'll be faced with today."
"We're fighting those big old metal robots!" Kaminari cheered.
"Actually, this year's test will be completely different!" Nedzu exclaimed, popping out of Aizawa-sensei's scarf. "The tests now have a new focus! There will be Hero work, of course, but also teamwork and actual combat between actual people! So, what does that mean for you?"
"I'm assuming something bad?" Shinso asked.
"Close! You students will be working in pairs, and your opponents will be one of our UA teachers!" Nedzu announced. "Isn't that fabulous?"
Everyone's gaped mouths spoke for themselves.
"Additionally, your partners and your opponents have already been chosen. They were determined at my discretion, based on various factors including fighting styles, grades, and interpersonal relationships," Aizawa-sensei said. "First, Todoroki and Ojiro, you're with me."
"Sato and Ashido, I shall be your opponent," Cemetnoss said next.
"Asui and Shoji, you're up against me," Ectoplasm spoke up.
Power Loader smiled, saying, "I've got Iida and Kodai!"
"Aoyama and Kirishima have me!" Thirteen said, cheerfully.
"Yaoyorozu and Kaminari are against me!" Nedzu smiled.
"Whoo!" Present Mic whooped. "I've got Shinso and Jiro! Oh, yeah!"
"Hagakure, Tokoyami, I'm callin' ya out," Snipe siad.
Midnight licked her lips. "Koda and Sero will be having me…"
Aizawa smiled. "And that leaves Uraraka paired with Bakugou…"
The two students looked at each other. Made sense. They were the only ones left. But who was their opponent? Ms. Joke? Hound Dog? Vlad King? Surely not Gran Torino, right?
BOOM!
"I AM HERE… TO FIGHT!"
Author's Note: Bet you weren't expecting the zombies, were you?
So, I did switch around the students with which teachers they're gonna go up against, a bit. I was originally planning to switch them all up completely, but I couldn't make them all mesh well, so I just decided to do one half of the teams. But that's for later.
Knightmare Lord: The two of them are definitely gonna have to work together, but when the final battle happens, our dear big bad is gonna be the one to face Overhaul.
Roundboi24: One of your favorites, huh? I expect you to leave some more kudos!
alejandrooo: I do love me some thumbs up emojis…
EmilMobile: These things will actually show up again later in the story, but your overall predictions for the moment are correct. Hope you enjoy these next few chapters!
VinHD15: I've seen the anime, but thank you for the explanations, regardless.
Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…
I'm pretty sure as you all know now, I have also made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules.
Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore