The Hero & The Demon

Chapter Ten

Sora Kinzoku wore a manic grin on her face. From her position gliding across the air, it was all too easy to laugh at the chaotic mess of people scrambling for points down below. Sure, Sora wasn't doing too great on points herself, but she didn't find herself able to care.

All she wanted to do was fly through the air. The entrance exam let her do that, for a little while at least. She honestly didn't think she had the motivation to go into heroics full time. She might consider it if she ended up passing another exam, like Shiketsu or Ketsubutsu, but here at UA, she wasn't kidding herself.

She did still snag a few points, though. She had to at least look like she was trying. Her Quirk, accurately and simplistically named 'Sharp Wing', allowed her to form metallic wings from her body. They were hard and sharp, capable of slicing through just about anything. She had to dive bomb robots to really get anywhere though – the entrance exam seemed to lack any flying bots and there simply wasn't much use in trying to check the higher floors of buildings.

No, the machines seemed to cluster all around the ground. Well suited for anyone who could fire lasers from their hands or summon swords, but Sora's power wasn't serving to her strength here. Not that she had much strength to begin with. Her Quirk came with a rather significant drawback – whenever she activated it, it used up most of the iron in her blood. The result was that, unlike most people, practicing with her Quirk made her weaker overall, not stronger. She could try to form the wings for longer or make them sharper, but she lacked the physical ability to keep up.

Frankly, she lacked the constitution for sustained heroics. That didn't make her want to stop using her Quirk, though. There was simply nothing like being able to fly through the sky at high speeds. She had to wear goggles over her face most of the time, but the views she could get were too cool to miss.

She joyously did a loop in the air, relishing the simply opportunity to be in the sky. She would probably have issues walking back by the time the ten minutes were up, but it was so worth it. Every second in the sky made her feel incredibly alive.

How much time did she have left, anyway? She glanced at the watch she was wearing. It seemed like she had around four minutes, maybe a few seconds over? She sighed.

"Looks like the fun's almost over." She said. She allowed herself to hover high in the air, taking a chance to look around the exam field once more. Since she was going to be done soon, she figured she might as well push for as many points as she could manage. Better to at least lie and say she tried her hardest. Her mother would have appreciated that.

She shook her head. She was here to fly, not to impress people. Still, she figured it would be worth a shot. She began soaring down to the ground, wrapping her wings around herself and spinning until she became what she liked to call her Silver Bullet technique.

Just because she wasn't going to end up a hero here didn't mean she couldn't have fun attack names. Everyone needed fun attack names! Everyone else was just being too serious about this whole thing to bother.

She slammed cleanly through a three-pointer. That brought her up to…huh. She wasn't really keeping track. Maybe seventeen, she thought? Above ten, maybe around twenty at most. As she cocked her head to the side and placed a finger on her chin to think on it, she almost missed someone behind her, some other examinee who had fallen onto their butt.

"T-thanks." He said. It was a boy with yellow hair and a spark of black through it. He was pretty cute, but also kinda dumb-looking. As Sora watched him, she noticed sparks in his hands that died off quickly. An electric type, then.

"Oh, sure." She half-heartedly replied. She wasn't really looking to save him. Besides, didn't he need points himself? Why would he be happy that she had taken them away from him? Perhaps she'd ask him. She turned to face him, but he had already run off.

"Hey!" She called out. He had begun dashing away from her. Now that she was looking, there were other examinees around him that were also running off at high speeds. Was her entrance really that intimidating? She was a pale woman with wings, maybe they thought she was some kind of deadly angel of doom.

"Rude." She said to no one in particular. She didn't hear a response from any person, but she felt the ground around her shake. Once, twice, thrice. It kept going. Tiny earthquakes rattled the streets around her. She looked around, but the buildings kept any apparent source just out of her sight. She thought she saw a hint of metal. A new wave of robots perhaps?

Well, that suited her just fine.

She took a deep breath. The metal of the three-pointer she just took down was attracted to her wings, flying into and being absorbed by them. Her Quirk needed some supply of metal to sustain itself, and using the iron in her blood only kept them going for a few minutes at a time. Fighting robots certainly made things easier there. She spent less time fighting robots as she did pulling metal from other wreckages.

Her legs were shaky. Her breathing felt small and shallow, and her head had a low yet constant thrumming sensation through it. All bad signs. She smiled anyways. What pain wasn't worth a few more minutes of freedom?

She pushed off into the sky soaring high into the air at speeds that caused her ears to pop. She couldn't help but let out an exuberant laugh and cheer as she went higher and higher. The sound didn't quite reach her until a few seconds after she cheered, which was how she knew she was really having a great time.

She stopped before she got too high up and went past the clouds again. That usually didn't end well, and she was feeling weak enough as it was. She was lucky her body seemed fine with sudden rapid changes in speed for the most part thanks to her Quirk. One of the only things it had properly adapted to, but it was probably the most important one.

She couldn't complain. She looked around and soon found the source of the quakes. Predictably, it was coming from the same direction everyone was running from.

And it was huge!

A colossal titan of a machine had its hands on two buildings, using them to help it climb fully out of the ground. Its lower half was all giant tank treads, easily enough to block off an entire roadway just by its presence. Its upper half was gigantic. Its head even extended a fair bit above Sora – she was looking at its neck, but its head was peering down at her. She could feel its gaze. Then again, with how many eyes it had, she doubted there was anything it wasn't looking at.

She didn't see any indication of how many points it was worth. Did that mean this was the obstacle Present Mic had told them about?

What kind of person called this just an obstacle?! UA was insane!

Sora was starting to regret not having tried harder to get in if this was the sort of thing she could expect from the school. Where else would she get a thrill like this? It didn't really matter to her if she didn't get any points from taking the hulking titan on. The mere act of getting to go up against something so big was enough.

"Hey, big boy!" She flew right up to its eyes and yelled. She tapped against one of them, forcing it to focus on her. "Eyes on me! Come on, take your best shot!" Its arms raised towards her in response, and Sora couldn't have been happier. She hadn't been sure if that would have worked. Keeping it focused on her was essential to getting a real fight out of it, though. She couldn't have it chasing everyone on the ground and just passing by her.

It reached to grab her, but she flew through the narrowing gaps in its fingers before it could reach. Its hand closed into a fist, and it cocked an arm back. She was hoping it would be faster, but its movements were so slow that she had time to fly around its arm like a spiral. She let one wing hang out and scratch right through its armour. She hadn't made her wings all that wide today, so she doubted it did more than surface level injuries, but it felt good.

The titan stopped moving for a moment. Then another. Something was wrong. Had she actually managed to damage something important? She sighed. She was hoping to dance around it some more in something approximating an epic battle, but this would have to do.

She flew towards its head, preparing for another Silver Bullet attack.

"Turn back."

"Huh?" Sora found herself unfurling her wings and forcing herself far back on instinct. No, not quite instinct. She had heard…something there. A voice. This high up, though? Who could possibly have made it without a Quirk like hers? It didn't sound right. It didn't sound at all, she realised. It seemed as though it had spoken through her head rather than her ears. No, that still wasn't right.

It was speaking to something deeper; she felt sure of that.

She didn't have a chance to ponder anything further before the explosion.

There was a horrendous sound of metal scraping and tearing into itself, and in an instant the clear blue skies were infected with a pitch black and gigantic imitation of the sun itself. It was a fiery, burning ball of wrath that emerged from the titan's torso and shredded it almost perfectly in half. Two blazing pillars that reminded Sora of lighting shot through the centre.

And there was the scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRGGGGGHHH!" It was a voice that seemed barely human, any trace of emotion smothered by this overwhelming pain flooding the air. Sora winced as she heard it. The ball of energy had stopped before reaching her, but the sound carried dreadfully far.

Was a person in there? That…that couldn't be, right?

And yet, almost as quickly as the energy appeared, it vanished. It didn't fizzle out or fade, it simply vanished. In its place, Sora saw a human shape.

One that was about to fall.

Mere minutes before Kage would experience the worst pain he had ever felt across more than one lifetime, he had found himself hastily attached to the head of a gigantic robot, clinging on for dear life. He felt sure that things couldn't have gotten any worse than they were at that moment, and if he knew what was to come next, he might have felt that any Gods listening had taken that as a challenge.

He was fortunate to not have been on the edge of the thing's head, so at least he wasn't dangling off of the thing, but its every motion reminded him of just how perilously close he would be to falling right off. If he was lucky, he could time a platform construct to stop himself from splattering across the exam stage, but-

"Whoa!" He practically bounced on the metal as the thing moved forwards. It didn't help that it was intent on looking down with its head, which again risked a rather big drop onto the ground. A part of him wanted to believe that this was somehow still perfectly safe. UA had to have safety measures for a situation like this, right?

He considered that the zero-pointer was in a largely secluded area, guarded by several other robots and placed underneath a panel that everyone else had been smart enough to avoid. There was a distinct possibility he had already bypassed their safety protocols.

He hoped that wouldn't become a problem later. He needed to get in. In a worst-case scenario, the general studies course was an okay backup plan, but being in the hero course put him in the best place to help people. It was where he was needed, where he was supposed to be.

He fought against the wind and sheer force of the titanic machine's movement, managing to pull his other arm up. With it, he constructed his second sword and slammed it into its hull. He breathed a brief sigh of relief before continuing. This gave him at least a little bit more security. That said, maintaining multiple constructs at once still wasn't ideal. The swords were probably the easiest to manage, but embedded into a structure like this, they wouldn't last for long.

Kage had managed to confirm that his constructs were easy to manage when they were only interacting with him, but they grew significantly tougher to manage when interacting with other objects. For weaponry, this wasn't a huge issue. The swords would briefly become heavier as he slashed through robots or struck an opponent, but as soon as he pulled away, they would feel next to non-existant in his hands once more. But if he let them stick around on something, that sensation would build until he couldn't hold them.

He channelled more energy through his arms to boost his strength. They were already burning with pain, though he hadn't seen any actual scars just yet. He could tell he was getting close to his usual limit, but he still had a little more left in him. Or so he hoped, at least. He forced the blades to cut a hole through the metal.

He didn't know if there was anything underneath the smooth exterior of the machine. There was every possibility this would leave him mangled on a mess of circuits and jagged points, but he was hoping that there might have been some kind of internal maintenance area, or at the very least, some smooth enough cables for him to land on. From there, he could hopefully try working his way down and out.

The zero-pointer had some weapons on it, didn't it? He vaguely recalled that some got deployed much later in the series, during the war arc perhaps. If he remembered right, the ones shown there were better equipped. He also remembered hearing that the machines were a loan from the military, but he wasn't completely sure where that was from. It might have been from that one comedy spinoff, SMASH, which seemed appropriate. Or perhaps he was just confusing truth with fanfiction.

"Whatever, my life's a fanfiction at this point." He muttered to himself. If he had learned anything so far, it was that he was somehow favoured by the narrative. If he had managed to pick up on anything else, it was that this was not a particularly good thing for him. Still, he was the one with all the secret knowledge. He was the one from another world. He was the only one who could truly save the day.

Being the protagonist seemed a lot cooler on the outside.

He managed to open up a rough circle of a hole in the machine's head. As it dipped a little lower to peer down at the examinees below, the chunk of metal fell off. Kage thought he heard it hit the ground, or maybe another piece of metal. Maybe if he was lucky, that would count as an extra point. If he wasn't lucky, he had just hit someone with a metal Quirk like Testsutetsu, and had fucked over everything.

There was a worrying amount of ways where everything he was doing could end in doom for him. He tried not to stress about it. Once he had firmly saved his own life and gotten out of this mess, then he could break down all he wanted.

He pulled himself up and quickly threw himself down into the hole. Immediately, he noticed a distinct lack of light as he fell. He fell a surprising depth, too. It seemed that the head had most of its components thrust up at the front, leaving the rest as seemingly much emptier. He thudded against…something. It felt softer than metal, so he had to assume it was a set of cables and wires.

He squinted his eyes and tried to summon his alternate vision power, something he really needed a better name for. In fact, all of his abilities could do with better names. Something to think about when he wasn't stuck inside a dark and dangerous robot with no ability to see any potential very sharp or shocking bits that could kill him.

No vision. It seemed that he had used up too much energy getting inside the robot to do much else. He took a deep breath. That was fine. He was fine. He could just try carefully feeling his way around, right? Really, how many pointed areas or exposed bits of electricity could there be? He would be safe, right?

He wouldn't die again, right?

No, no, he couldn't dare let himself even think that. To consider that possibility was to accept it as an outcome, and it simply was not allowed. He had killed someone else just to be able to live again! He couldn't do that a second time! And what if he only got lucky this one time? What if he died in here, in this cold and hollow metal husk, and that was the end of it? He didn't even know how he had come back as Kage Sekai, there was no guarantee that such a thing could happen again.

He was a grim miracle. Those weren't the sort of things to happen more than once.

He tried taking a breath. Then another. And another and another andanotherandanotherand-

He clamped a hand over his face and crouched down low. He was hyperventilating, and now to stop that, he was suffocating himself. Was there air in here? Of course there was, stupid. He had opened a hole into the thing, even if it was entirely airtight before, it wouldn't be now. Was he really so incompetent as to not even realise that? His actions had consequences, why was he struggling with such a basic concept?

Because the first action he had ever taken in this world, entirely unwittingly, was taking a life. Because accepting how he had changed things with what he had done also meant accepting that he was an indisputably evil and selfish person who had claimed someone else's life out of fear.

No, no, he couldn't be judged for that. He hadn't done it intentionally! He was just afraid, afraid of that cold and that overwhelmingly empty sense of distance that pulled away at every thought and feeling, every part of his being until there would be nothing left. He just didn't want to die! That couldn't have made him evil…could it?

"Did Kage Sekai want to die?" His thoughts tormented him. He sobbed, unable to stop them from spilling out. "Does anyone? How can you say you want to save people's lives when you're the reason a family is missing their son? When your whole life here is only present because someone is dead?" He continued to cry. He couldn't bring himself to move.

Some distant part of him tried to respond, tried to say he was being overdramatic, that there was time for this later, that he could still make it out okay. That even though the circumstances were cruel and unusual, he had the opportunity to make this stolen life mean something.

He couldn't hear it. It was cold and dark and quiet, and he could not hear it.

"I am sorry."

The voice was soft and gentle, almost melancholy in its tone. The darkness almost seemed to hold Kage, to gently caress him.

He still couldn't hear it.

"You are not ready. We are not ready. But we must act, or all will be lost. Please."

The voice's pleas fell on deaf ears, despite the desperation in its tone. It knew that this was no place to break apart, but Kage could not hear it. There was just too much, far too much of his own thoughts and words and taunts and threats and cries filling his head for him to hear anything else.

"Then I am truly sorry."

Kage's body came alive with power far beyond anything he had felt before. Every muscle felt on fire, his very blood boiled within. He sprung to his feet as blackness consumed him, covering every inch of his form. He looked at it, terrified. He tried to move, tried to pry it off and stop these foul shadows from claiming him, but he couldn't. Like with everything else, he had found himself utterly powerless to do anything.

"This will not be pleasant. But I refuse to lose you. Not again."

Kage tried helplessly to pry the blackness away from his face. It was somehow both freezingly cold and furiously hot. He could feel it searing away at his skin. He tried to scream, but the black had invaded his insides just as much and his voice disintegrated within his throat.

"One day, this shall all be yours. You are not ready, but we are out of time."

That was the last thing he heard as the void consumed his form.

Sora watched as the person from the ball of blackness began to fall. Whatever attack they had just done had shredded the zero-point robot in half and left enough space that they weren't going to impale themself on anything, but the drop was massive.

They were going to die.

Sora knew that was unlikely. UA had to have people watching for crises like this, so no matter how bad things seemed, they would turn out okay. That was the whole point of heroes, wasn't it? That even if things looked grim and death seemed like a certainty, someone would appear from nowhere and save the day, restoring hope and all that jazz.

Not always, though. Sora knew that much.

Before she had a second to think about it, she was already rushing to meet the person's descent. She didn't know why it mattered to her, but her body was insistent on stepping up to aid this stranger she had never met, and who had frankly almost blasted her to bits with the robot. She knew he was going to be fine, but no matter what reasoning was in her head, her heart refused to ignore the situation.

She gasped as she saw the person. They seemed to be a boy, but their torso was so burnt up that it was hard to tell. They had black hair, some of which was entirely gone. Their eyes were glassy and barely open. It was clear that they weren't conscious. Given the state of their injuries, that wasn't surprising. How the hell was Sora supposed to fix this?!

She sped up and appeared below the boy, holding her arms out. If she managed to catch him at the right angle whilst not slowing herself down too much, she would be able to catch him just fine. If she got the timing or the speed wrong, however, there was a distinct possibility of breaking the boy's bones, or worse. Again, her mind told her she had no business doing any of this. Again, her heart ignored it.

Heroes had to be the dumbest people on Earth if this was how they acted all the time. Even if that meant Sora was also being stupid right now.

The boy flopped into her arms, and Sora almost let go. She hissed in pain as she caught him. He was so hot as to be literally emitting smoke from his flesh, and Sora was fairly sure she had hurt herself just from the effort of catching him. Furthermore, he was also pretty heavy. She didn't have much strength at the best of times, and after nearly ten minutes, she was feeling weak and woozy enough as it was without some exploding idiot in her arms.

She made a careful and slow descent. Partially to not increase any injuries, but mostly because she was too exhausted and hurt to go any faster. She was amazed she had the strength to even keep her arms on the boy, but today seemed full of strange phenomena. It was deeply uncomfortable, but she managed to lower the both of them to the ground.

Somewhere in that descent, the exam finally concluded. Sora barely noticed until she was on the ground and found herself surrounded by robots who simply stood in place instead of attacking. One tilted its head at her. She stuck her tongue out at the thing.

It felt like it took minutes to reach the ground with shaky legs and an uncertain grip, but Sora persevered. There were people scattered around, watching the two of them with an awed curiosity. Sora looked around, but she saw no sign of any doctors or staff she could reach. The boy in her arms was definitely breathing, but his whole upper body was covered in burns. Any clothes he had been wearing on his torso had vanished, and all Sora could see was horrific scar after scar.

Sora found herself struggling to keep a hold on him, so she knelt down and, as gently as she could with her failing and hurting arms, placed him lying back onto the ground. She looked at her own arms, and noticed a few burn marks on them. They hissed when she tried to move. She didn't have much left in her to remain standing, so she fell into a seated position next to the boy.

Why had she done that? Sure, she didn't see any staff around her at this moment, but there was no way in hell UA was prepared to let someone die during their exams. She was sure she had not done anywhere close to the best job of getting him onto the ground, and every moment she heard him gasping in air made her acutely aware of how little she had achieved. She didn't have any sort of medical knowledge to properly help him, and she wasn't sure if she could muster the strength to keep moving and search for aid.

On top of that, she had managed to get herself injured in the process. A real hero would have been able to do something about the boy's dangerously high temperature, but she'd had to catch him as though she was trying to grab a meteorite mid-descent to the planet, and with not dissimilar results. She had gotten herself hurt and exhausted for a situation that she was sure UA would have been able to handle far better than she did, and for what? What was the point of any-

"Thank…" Sora turned, noticing the boy had turned his head towards her. His eyes were a shining yellow, maybe gold. They seemed almost untouched by the rest of the damage, though it was still clear he had been crying. Whether it was from the pain or something before then, Sora couldn't tell. Even with his body in its present state, he was trying to smile.

"Thank you…" He forced out before coughing, and Sora gasped as she saw a splatter of blood fly out. God, what the hell had this boy done to himself? It was just an exam, what had drove him to use that much power?

And why was he thanking her?

She didn't even know why she had acted. She didn't deserve any praise when she had barely done anything and hadn't even consciously chosen to act. Her body had flown in on its own. What part of that was worthy of praise? Her actions were pure chance.

"Y-yeah, sure." Sora muttered out, not willing to meet the boy's eyes. She looked around. People were crowding around the two of them, though they fortunately seemed to be keeping some distance. Sora could see all their horrified and concerned expressions, but not one of them was moving. She frowned.

"Can someone go find a doctor?!" Sora called out. "Or-or a school medic, or a nurse or whatever the terminology is. Whatever, just get help!" Her shouting seemed to finally spur some of them to action, as the crowd stirred and a few began rushing out. Hopefully to get help as she had asked, but she frankly couldn't bring herself to blame them if they just wanted to leave.

"I think any term will do, dearie."

Sora spun, scrambling to her feet as a voice spoke up from behind her. She soon felt silly for having done so, as the woman before her was a short and elderly one in what looked like a lab coat, and using a cane that was made to resemble a syringe. Definitely a hero and seemingly a medically equipped one, though Sora didn't recognise her by name.

"Can you help him?" She asked, forcing herself to relax. The adrenaline of the last minute or so clearly had her on edge. The old woman smiled, before tilting her head at Sora. Sora was pointing to the boy, and in doing so it seemed she had revealed her own injuries. She went to put her arm away, but the woman took it, gently yet firmly.

"Yes, I believe I can." The woman reassured. "But first, you've managed to get a bit hurt yourself. Wanting to help someone in danger is all well and good, but you should really try to be more careful in the future. Then again, needs must. I suppose there wasn't much time to think, hm?"

"Y-yeah?" Sora replied awkwardly. "I just kinda…flew in on impulse. Not my best move." The woman shook her head.

"No, perhaps it wasn't." She agreed. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth doing. You just saved a young man's life, miss. If you can take pride in anything, take pride in that." Sora wasn't sure it was worth taking pride in something she had barely meant to do, but she chose not to say anything to the old woman. It didn't seem like a point worth arguing.

The woman's lips seemed to stretch off of her face. They touched Sora's arms, and a faint green glow surrounded her. She found herself feeling even more tired, but she forced herself to remain upright this time. When the woman's lips were removed, the burns on her arms were gone. She glanced at herself and noticed a few other scratches she had managed to pick up during the test had similarly vanished.

A healing Quirk. The intensity of the exam made a lot more sense now. Sora breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know that there would be someone with a Quirk ideal to save the boy she had carried. Her being able to heal Sora herself didn't hurt either.

The old woman walked a few paces over to the boy. She wore a deep frown as she approached. Clearly, the sight of his injuries was enough to bother her as well. It felt oddly reassuring to know that even someone as old and experienced as her was still disturbed by the sight of injured children. Sora had always thought heroes had to maintain an air of composure at all times, never allowing themselves to feel in ways that might impede their work.

She was relieved to see she was wrong, though she felt guilty for that relief given the circumstances.

The old woman went to lean down closer, but as she did so, black energy began sparking off of the boy's body. She was forced to stumble back. Black patches began crossing over the boy's skin, travelling across what appeared to be the most injured areas. Sparks were coming off the boy in such a way that the woman couldn't get any closer without risking getting struck.

"Hey, what the hell?" Sora found herself annoyed enough at this sight to stagger over. The black sparks didn't seem to go near her. "She's trying to help you, dude! Quit with the flashy…whatever this is!"

No response. Sora noticed that the boy was unconscious. This power surge didn't seem to be intentional on his part.

"We'll need to move him." The old woman said, adopting a more serious tone. "I don't think I can treat all of his injuries here, and I'd struggle to get close enough in the first place. I'm afraid I might require your help, miss…?"

"Kinzoku." Sora replied automatically. "Wait, why my help?" The old woman gestured with her cane to the sparks around the body. Sora noticed that they all seemed to recede before getting close to her. If this power had any awareness to it whatsoever, it seemed unwilling to hurt her. Did it recognise her for saving the boy?

Cautiously, Sora allowed herself to move in closer. The sparks still didn't reach her. She leaned down and managed to get her arms underneath the boy's back. She could feel the cold, black energy thrumming at his skin, but it didn't seem to hurt her. On the contrary, it seemed to almost shift itself to provide her better holds.

She managed to pull the boy up. She was worried about having to carry him all the way back to the school, but fortunately, the old woman pulled out a whistle and blew on it. Two small robots appeared, carrying a stretcher between them. She hesitantly placed the body onto the stretcher. The sparks seemed to stop.

"TIME TO AID ANOTHER FOOLISH MEATBAG. THE NURSE'S OFFICE." One of the robots said.

"I KNOW, MY MEMORY IS NOT THAT OF MANKIND'S; INCOMPOTENT." The other replied. Sora looked between them nervously, then to the old woman, who just chuckled at her confusion.

"They always sound like that. No doubt Power Loader thought he was being very funny with the programming." She sighed. The robots began wheeling the boy away, the crowd of people dissipating to allow them to go through. Sora breathed out a sigh of relief.

"I'll have to check around the other exam centres to make sure no one else is badly hurt." The old woman explained. "Miss Kinzoku, could I ask you to head over to the nurse's office and wait there? His Quirk seems to respond well to your presence. Besides, it seems best that he has a chance to thank you properly in person, wouldn't you say?"

"I guess." Sora half-heartedly mumbled out in response. She nodded more directly to the old woman's request and walked over to follow the robots carrying the boy away. She still didn't think she warranted being thanked at all, but she found herself less inclined to argue the point. She did apparently save a life, and apparently, she was to take pride in that.

Not that it would matter. She doubted she had enough points to pass the exam, and such was never her goal in the first place. Still, she couldn't deny that the encounter had been exciting. She could see the appeal in that.

If heroes faced thrills like this all the time, then it was a shame Sora would be missing out.

All For One continued perusing the various bits of recorded footage he had access to. His dutiful agent had managed to apply a virus to the UA entrance exam machinery before the test itself had even started. His skill in stealth and deception were to be commended, though All For One knew the boy would not appreciate such words from him.

His loyalty would come in time, he mused. Breaking someone's heroic spirit was a task that took time and care. It wasn't high on his list of priorities, in any case. He had far more interesting things to consider.

For example, the two zero-pointer machines that had been so effortlessly destroyed. Izuku Midoriya possessed incredible strength, something that All For One found curious, but hardly noteworthy. One explosive punch was not enough to confirm anything; super strength was a ridiculously common Quirk to appear in tests like these.

Still, his utilisation of it was indeed familiar. He would allow himself some idle curiosity into the boy later.

The real fascination here was Kage Sekai.

Whatever power he had obtained had clearly allowed for his survival. All For One had been sure he had taken everything the boy had, but somehow, something else had persisted. No, not persisted. That implied it had been present when the boy had been discarded. This was something else, something entirely new.

It showed great versatility in its applications, the boy himself seemed incredibly proficient with it for something he couldn't have had for any more than a year at most by All For One's own estimations, and the sheer level of destructive force it was capable of inflicting…

It had been some time since All For One had found himself tempted by a new Quirk, but this had his attention.

He would make a note to mention it to Tomura.

The coming attack may warrant an additional goal.

AN – Sora Kinzoku was an improvised character who was originally going to just be for this chapter, but I love her so she's sticking around. Thanks to that one guest reviewer from a few chapters ago who recommended more OCs. Your wish is granted! I've always been fascinated by the idea of a hero whose core motivation is selfish, and I hope to use Sora to explore that. Her name literally translates to "Sky Metal". Let me know what you think about her and the story in general!

Edit - In my haste to post this chapter, I forgot a few line breaks. Should be fixed now!