Author's Note
Ooooh yes, I'm really getting into the grove now ladies and gents! God I'm glad I didn't give up on writing this!
Uploaded
02/09/2025
LEGEND BELOW
"So you want to be a hero?" = Normal speech.
''He's not serious...'' = Normal thoughts.
Chapter 7
Rated-M
M rating for violence, mature themes, romance, and language.
Music of the day
KILL La KILL Ost - Blumenkranz
The bus ride to the battleground was tense, to say the least. Forced to sit shoulder to shoulder with pretty much everyone who had mocked her during Present Mic's explanation in the auditorium was extremely uncomfortable, but now that they were in such close proximity to her they were unable to ignore the putrid aura that radiated off of her in waves, the black air almost…
Villainous…
Still, however, their previous assessment of her seemed to stick as the mutterings and giggles sent her way only served to add to her otherwise vile mood even more, their mocking gazes practically drilling into her.
Her encounter with the blue haired teen from before was still fresh in her mind, but now all she felt was the unquenchable desire to go out there and prove him and everyone who mocked her wrong. Who the hell were they to judge her? Who the fuck were they?
Extras…
Just like Bakugo had said. Don't pay them any mind, because they weren't going to mean anything here in a couple minutes once they crashed and failed while she rose to first place.
"H-Hey, don't worry about it! I-I'm sure you'll do your best too, okay? So cheer up, I'll be rooting for you too!" She nearly exploded at the cheery voice sent her way, snapping to the side to eye the source of it with a blistering snarl that never left her throat. She felt her previously bubbling ire simmer down at the cheery smile a new brown haired girl sent her way, her hands clasped together happily in front of her.
She must have picked up on her mood or had seen her being picked on by everyone else in attendance and had decided that she wanted to be the only person to be nice to her all day.
Shadow blew out a sigh, trying to let all that irritation and anger go with it as she spoke to the bubbly brunette in question. "Thanks…?" She murmured, trailing off as if asking for her name.
"Ochaco Uraraka!" The brunette beamed, holding out a hand to her. Shadow's eyes snapped down to the offered limb wearily, eyeing the almost doglike paw pad looking tips of her fingers. For a moment Uraraka was sure she was going to be left hanging, yet a moment later saw the tan skinned hero in training grabbing it.
"Shadow Robotnik." She introduced lowly, shoulders still unconsciously tense. Perhaps Ochaco could sense her unease, because the disarming smile she offered seemed to make her nerves lessen just a bit.
"Alright Shadow! Let's do our best out there and show these guys what us girls are made of!" The sudden seriousness on her face was almost-
Actually it was adorable, the way she puffed out her cheeks wildly cute.
Almost dangerously so.
Shadow grinned. "Yeah…" She muttered, suddenly feeling excited. "Let's do this." Her eyes were set on the gates as they rolled to a stop just outside the exam cityscape. If these punks wanted to talk shit about her then she was going to show them what it was all about, and maybe shed let Ochaco steal some of her kills too while she was at it.
Ochaco quickly vanished in the crowd of people, the girl probably doing her best to psych herself up before it began.
The doors that stood between her and the battleground were large metal frames, things few people could claim to easily cross on their own.
She sniffed, arms crossed under her breasts, a totally indifferent look crossing her face. Everyone around her was muttering to themselves, some of their eyes still on her as if she was unaware of their presence.
"Alrighty! Let's go!" The shout was so sudden that it seemed to catch everyone there off guard, attention drawn to the top of a building where upon they found Present Mic standing, a grin on his face. "What? You all waiting for the go signal?! This ain't no game, this is real life! There ain't no go signal!!!" He laughed maniacally, the doors to the city slamming open. Chaos erupted throughout the crowd as they all scrambled into the battlefield, the city exploding to life as heavy metal robots of all shapes and sizes began to burst out of hiding on full attack mode.
The exam had begun.
Shadow stood back as she watched them run, arms still firmly crossed under her chest as she watched them grow closer and closer to the batch of one pointers.
Red lightning began to dance across the surface of her bare skin, her wild head of hair beginning to rise as an energy swelled within her. Her hair began to rise, the tips suddenly beginning to point skyward as her aura danced across the surface of her body, waiting to be released. A breath of hot air slipped past her lips, the air around her growing warm.
Her eyes ignited with an awesome power, as she burst forward with terrifying speed. A cloud of dust was kicked up as she sped forward at hundreds of miles an hour, almost appearing as a blur as she zigzagged through the other examines, narrowing dodging them all as she launched herself headfirst into the first heavy duty battle bot.
She curled up as she flew, body practically forming a spinning razor of destruction as she sliced the heavy metal machine clean in two. She carried her momentum forward as she flew through the second one and the third, bouncing off the wall of a building as she bashed her way through a fourth, fifth, and sixth in the span of two seconds flat.
The others all slid to a stop as they felt an instantaneous burst of speed wash past them, a red and black blur crashing through the hefty military robots like they were made of paper. Explosions echoed out as the battle bots blew up, smoke and fire filling the streets in mere seconds. Standing atop the pile of bots was the girl they'd all mocked mere moments before, her arms crossed under her breasts as she leveled a totally unbothered look down at the crowd of extras beneath her, red eyes glowing almost maliciously.
Mouths agape in awe, she knew she shouldn't have felt this excited as she flaunted her superiority over the rest of them, yet she couldn't resist it now that she had a taste of it. It was exhilarating! It got her blood pumping, her heart racing, and she couldn't help the grin that ripped across her face as she took in Ochaco's sparkling eyes, the girl looking at her like some kind of idol.
Shadow grinned, turning around towards the sound of more robots approaching from somewhere deeper into the city. "Try and keep up. I'll see if I can leave some leftovers for the rest of you." She muttered lowly, eyes narrowing at a certain blue haired teenager that had pissed her off earlier. The surprise plastered over his face felt like music to her ears.
She slowly made her way down the tower of destruction, like a princess carefully descending from the throne. Yet the moment her foot touched the asphalt below she vanished in a blistering display of speed that had the windows of the nearby buildings rattling, threatening to burst.
She sped down the streets with seemingly reckless abandon, leaping into the air as her body shifted into a spinning ball of death as she tore through the bodies of more one pointers, leaving the rest of the examines behind in her dust. A trail of red lightning followed in her wake, zigging and zagging as she darted back and forth between her foes, a wild grin on her face as she finally began to let loose just a bit.
It was exhilarating!
Everything else was forgotten as she tore a warpath throughout the city, a slow chuckle escaping her lips that quickly evolved into something far less dignified, a maddening laughter breaking free as she turned the city into her playground. A fit of wild giggles was all that was heard by the robots before their heads were separated from their bodies in a burst of terrifying power, explosions soon following.
She was barely breaking a sweat as she ran, leaping from building to building as she tracked down even more enemies to kill, the look in her eyes almost…
Unnerving…
She giggled, staring unblinkingly down at the body of a three pointer that was making fools out of a couple of the examines. Her grin widened, a scorching breath of air escaping her lips as she locked her sights on her next target. "Forty seven." She giggled, bursting into a run as she rapidly descended the fake skyscraper, running down the length of the tower before launching herself straight at the machine.
The giant green robot groaned underneath the strength of her attack, its body pushed back against the pavement as she cracked her fist across its face. She landed on the ground before launching up into its torso at hundreds of miles an hour, literally lifting it clean off the ground for a brief moment despite its otherwise intense weight.
She kicked off of its body, launching herself towards a nearby building to land only to immediately shoot herself akin to a bullet straight through its now weakened body armor.
It didn't stand a chance.
The other potential students fell back to their asses in awe as she annihilated a three point battle bot in less than ten seconds flat, looking up at her in an entirely different light.
They made fun of her because she seemed weak, because she looked easy to push around, someone they could point and laugh at to make their own frayed nerves feel better about their own odds in this exam.
They mocked her…
Belittled her.
Told her to leave.
Told her that they were the real heroes that would make it into Yuuei in her place.
Their confidence was gone now, vaporized in the wake of her explosive feats, and in its place was a new emotion as they stared up at the dangerous look in her eyes.
And that emotion…?
Was fear.
Shadow huffed atop her kill, taking a brief moment to catch her breath from her back to back attacks. The rings on her wrists hissed at the presence of her power, beginning to glow as they absorbed the excess that leaked off her body. The rings were doing their best, but rapid fire use of her quirk abilities was quickly catching up with them.
But she wasn't paying attention to that anymore.
Her head was far too down the rabbit hole of battle to pay attention to something like that.
She tuned out the indignant cries that surrounded her, the shouts of jealousy and anger coming her way bouncing off her skin. Of course they were upset now that they were loosing to the girl they'd been mocking this whole time. But she was far too up her own power trip to pay them any mind as she sped off through the city once more, stealing kill after kill from the less then excited examines one after the other.
Soon enough she'd already racked up one hundred and one points, far more than double even the second place examinee. Nearly eight minutes straight of nonstop running and fighting at her blistering speed had left her body overheating, the limiters on her joints struggling to keep up with her power output and now her own body was beginning to buckle from extensive overuse.
She blew out a sigh, cheeks hot red as her internal temperature skyrocketed. She thought that she should probably call it there for the duration of the exam and let the extras catch up.
She'd already embarrassed them enough as it was.
"What an exemplary cast of potential students this year! Even thrown to the wolves with this year's exam trial they are making the best of their surroundings to gather as many points as possible in a short amount of time. Yes, truly remarkable indeed." A dark room was illuminated only by the light displayed from a large gathering of computer screens, video feeds from all over each and every testing ground.
In the room were a handful of top heroes, names and faces just about everyone in Japan could recognize instantly without question. Among them were All Might himself, the lusty skintight suit wearing hero Midnight, the ghost hero Ectoplasm, and the principal of Yuuei himself, Nezu.
They'd all been rather eager to witness the newest batch of potential heroes in training after what they'd heard from All Might, but this level of destruction was unprecedented. The video's changed to view a certain explosive blonde, the lack of sound from the video feed only making the level of destruction the teenager wrought that much more striking.
"This examinee here… Bakugo, yes? He's already accrued a score of seventy two points, and with a little over three minutes to spare. Quite the high number." The little white furred mouse man pointed out with a pleased little smile.
"This white haired boy is doing rather well too it would seem, Young Midoriya, yes?" Nezu switched to a different screen which brought up video of Izuku lifting multiple robots into the air before slamming them together in a fiery explosion. "He's also accrued quite the number of hero points as well, saving multiple of his fellow examinees already! He's got the blood of a true hero."
However, Midnight chose that moment to speak up as she drew the attention to a different examinee in particular. "Yes, but this girl is on an entirely different level. Seven minutes in and she's already reached your own score, All Might. I've never seen someone move like she does…" The beautiful if promiscuously dressed woman muttered with a smirk, turning to glance at the hero in question.
All Might had an odd look on his face as he watched Shadow utterly annihilate one robot after the other. He knew that the girl had a chip on her shoulder far larger than even young Bakugo, but this level of unmitigated aggression was almost too much.
In fact, simply put, it was too much. And one camera managed to catch the look on her face properly, permanently etched into the records of Yuuei's systems. To call the expression that washed over her face a mere intense lust for destruction would be an understatement, the look in her eyes almost crazy…
And for some dark reason he felt that they looked strikingly familiar, and not in a good way. Those faded red eyes, the way she grinned as the robots struggled underneath her as she crushed the life out of them, as if she was taking immense pleasure from their suffering…
The image of someone else passed through his mind for a brief moment, their face overlapping with that of young Shadow's if only for the smallest of moments.
But…
It almost made his heart stop.
''No…'' He thought, throat suddenly dry. ''That's impossible…''
Apparently his strange silence had caught the attention of the others in the room, Midnight tossing him a worried look. "Toshi?" She asked quietly under her breath, pulling the man from his thoughts. All Might had been quick to replace the stricken look that had taken up residence on his face with his familiar heroic smirk to reassure her.
"Yes yes, I apologize everyone! Just deep in thought, hahaha!" He laughed in that same familiar baritone that seemed to raise the mood of the room. "I agree, Principal Nezu, these kids sure are something special this year. I'd say that the battle for first place is going to be close indeed." He hummed seriously, nodding to himself. He'd convinced everyone with his words, but Midnight still cast a curious glance his way.
Either way…
"I hate to do this, but now comes the final challenge. I wonder, how these heroes in training will handle the area boss…" Nezu hummed casually, reaching his paw forward to press a large red button. "After all, a person's true character is revealed when faced with real danger."
With a press of a button saw a new foe on the battlefield, and only time would tell how each and every one in attendance that day would handle it…
Shadow paused as the ground below her began to shake violently, her breathing growing heavy from extensive use of her quirk. Her limiters were already at max and were in desperate need of changing for the safety of those around her and herself. Pushing herself any further now would be both foolish and irresponsible, which was exactly why she'd decided to stand back until the end of the exam after the eight minute mark.
Sitting comfortably at one hundred and seven points, no one else even had a semblance of a chance to catch up to her, first place secured tightly in the pants of her snatched waistline.
But, with less than two minutes till the end of the exam came the final challenge. She stood her ground as the earth below her quaked, towers beginning to crumble behind her as something unbelievably massive began to rise out of the city streets. Her eyes slowly widened as a robot at tall as a skyscraper rose from the world below, towering over her and every other examinee there that day.
And she knew right away, the Zero Pointer…
Everyone around her, those that had been brave enough to even stand next to her as she fought, scrambled away in sheer terror at the sight of the unprecedented size of the machine that came their way. Clouds of dust were kicked up as it shoved its way through two buildings in an attempt to 'crush' the puny humans below. Obviously if there was truly any real chance that these machines were built to kill then the state wouldn't even allow this exam to exist in the first place, so the danger posed by it, even as massive as it was, was superficial at best.
There was no need to get involved…
No reason for her to go out there and make even more of a statement than she'd already made with her display of skills that day.
Absolutely no point in her going out there to risk her safety for what was tantamount to bragging rights at best, especially when she was at her tipping point of burnout.
It was why she found herself surprised when her feet had stayed her escape, standing her ground just as she'd begun to run. She wasn't afraid of this machine, that's not why she'd paused.
She'd hesitated…
Because she swore that over the sound of terrified screams and scrambling, hidden underneath the explosions and the cacophony of crumbling cement and shattering concrete, was the sound of someone begging for their lives…
"P-Please…"
Shadow slid to a stop, a cloud of dirt kicked up as her head snapped back towards the feet of the gargantuan war machine. Even as Choppy blitzed past her with zero hesitation, only tossing her a passing glance before he made a hasty retreat to the safety of the entrance gate, her ruby red eyes darted back and forth at lightning speeds, scanning the dust clouds rapidly being consumed by the heavy weight of the robot's tank tracks as it approached.
The world around her began to go quiet as the blood in her body grew hot, almost too hot for her to keep pushing forward, eyes staring forward unblinking.
She wasn't crazy, right?
She'd heard a voice just now, calling out for help…
Didn't she?
The robot would stop if it detected someone in front of it, wouldn't it?
…
…
…
Wouldn't it?
Then the dust clouds cleared, even if only for a moment, giving her a brief glimpse at the brunette from before, half crushed underneath a slab of cement, merely a couple meters away from being flattened into a bloody paste.
And the robot hadn't even slowed in its approach.
Her eyes quivered in her skull, staring unblinkingly at Ochaco as she reached her hand out for help, but no one noticed. Not the heroes on standby, not the proctors of the exams, and certainly not the machine mere moments from brutally and unapologetically snuffing out her life.
Tears welled up in the brunette's eyes as she watched a shadow of destruction begin to loom over her, rapidly growing closer, and closer, and closer…
…
…
..
Red lightening danced across Shadow's skin, even as her blood began to overheat. Her eyes turned entirely red, blurs of a vile red in color as she launched forward at blistering speed. She vanished into the dust cloud even as the Zero Pointer prepared to crush the both of them in mere moments. She couldn't breathe, vision blurred as she tore a warpath forward, crossing a thousand feet in a single breath as she reached the battle bot in an instant. The sound barrier was shattered as she launched up into the skies above, spinning around with a vicious leg kick that broke the face plate of the robot instantly, the shockwave of red energy that followed her toppling the gargantuan machine in a single unmitigated burst of power and speed.
It felt as if the world had stopped to watch her move, even the other examinee's gaping in awe as they watched her singlehandedly decimate the machine that no one was supposed to be able to topple.
Shadow didn't even blink as she kicked off of its body, bouncing back and forth from crumbling building to crumbling building as she approached the ground as fast as she could, tearing the multiple tons of concrete off of the poor girl's leg before either of them were crushed by the collapsing towers above them.
Ochaco clung desperately to the dark skinned girl with a terrified cry, screaming as she watched the tower collapse atop them. Then in a blink Shadow burst forward, leaving the site of the destruction behind as she rapidly approached the safety of the gates, sliding to a stop surrounded by the plethora of other awed examinee's just as the ten minute bell rang overhead.
Just like that, the exam was over.
Everyone cleared the way as Shadow slowed to a stop, holding the hurt girl in her arms as someone called for a medic, seeing the brunette's clearly broken ankle. Thankfully no one had been seriously injured save for Ochaco's ankle.
Well…
Save for her.
As Mr. blue hair took the girl from the dark skinned girl's arms, his eyes widened in horror as Shadow took a shuddering step backwards, looking as if she couldn't breathe.
Shadow stumbled backwards, eyes impossibly wide as she tried to force oxygen into her lungs at no avail, steam wafting off of her bare skin in literal waves. Blood leaked from her right leg, clearly broken from the attack she'd delivered against the Zero Pointer, but they didn't seem to be the issue she was suffering from.
She was overheating, skin literally burning the very air around her, no sweat to be seen on her body as she collapsed to her knees, clutching at her throat in desperation for air. She knew what would have happened if she pushed her body beyond its limit while already having pushed it too far during the exam, but she wasn't about to stand there and make excuses for herself as she watched her new friend squashed like a bug right before her very eyes.
Every muscle in her body was screaming, pushed far, far beyond its limits in her final act of desperation to save a girl she barely even knew.
Like...
Some kind of hero...
And now she was pretty sure she was going to die for it, her very clothes beginning to burn away from the sheer heat radiating off of her. The limiters on her limbs shattered to dust, her bare fingers clawing at the ground as her vision began to blur. Her lungs refused to take in oxygen, nerves not working, body malfunctioning.
She collapsed to the ground, barely conscious at this point as most of her clothes had burned away, steam billowing up off of her bare back as she struggled to not black out entirely, pretty sure if she did that she wouldn't ever wake up again.
Everything was so hot, so fucking hot.
She felt like she was burning alive, and in the absence of her limiters…
''D-Damnit…'' Shadow thought weakly, everything beginning to go black as she felt her body shutting down. ''Why'd that nerd have to go and rub off on me…?''
Yet as she collapsed into what she'd thought was supposed to be the boiling asphalt below her, she instead found a pair of strong beefy arms wrapping around her bare thighs and her back, lifting her back up into the air. Even as her overclocked body began burning the arms of the man who lifted her up, she felt wind crawl across her bare body as she was swiftly carried off away from the exam site in long strides, a hint of blue hair filling her gaze before she passed out, blackness taking her…
"Hold on! I'm getting you help! Just hold on!"
Chapter
7
End