Monoma laughed, the harsh sound making Izuku flinch. Green, arcing discharges crackled around the blond boy, the telltale sign of Izuku's own Quirk. One for All glowed from underneath Monoma's skin, and everyone around was frozen. Nobody on the 1-A team was brave enough to make a move against Monoma when it was entirely possible that he could just blow them away with one hundred percent of Izuku's power, a power greater than All Might, and Kodai was frozen in shock and awe regarding Monoma, looking like a person that had just seen something they'd thought impossible. Izuku felt that scratch at him, but ignored it. The pressing matter was ensuring that Monoma didn't use One for All so that he didn't simply kill himself trying to replicate Izuku's use of the power.
"Monoma, stop! It's not safe to use my Quirk!" Izuku yelled.
"Oh? I know all about your little habit you had at the start of the year. Do you think I was going to use that kind of raw power on my first try? No, I think I'll take the more manageable aspects of your perfect Quirk for a test drive," Monoma said, throwing his hand out at Izuku.
Izuku flinched, his arms rising to protect his head, but Danger Sense was silent, and he felt nothing hit him, so he looked back at Monoma. The boy was standing there, hand outstretched as if he were trying to grasp Izuku from afar, and that was what guided Izuku to the realisation that he was trying to use Blackwhip. More manageable? Monoma had no clue what he was talking about. The first time he'd used Blackwhip, he'd torn up the arena they'd put him in for the entrance exams. Izuku ignored the urge to crack a smile, and watched as Monoma's expression of satisfaction quickly turned to dread, which was schooled into mere annoyance. He laughed it off, but there was a halt in his movements that told Izuku he was more troubled by being unable to use his powers than he wanted to appear.
"Looks like you're a dud. Oh, well," Monoma said, shrugging like he thought it hid the stiffness in his shoulders.
A dud? Izuku didn't know what that meant in this context. It could've been in reference to any number of things, but—
"Fire."
!
Izuku's thought process was pulled off course by what felt like a punch in the face, stronger than any he'd been hit by in mere training. His head was pushed to the side by the blow, and as he stumbled back from the impact, he wondered why Danger Sense had warned him but not shown him a way to avoid the hit. Come to think of it, he'd felt no skin hit his skin, no physical attack, so it could only have been one thing. Izuku looked back at Monoma and saw that he was chuckling to himself again. Twin Impact, Shoda's Quirk that Monoma had to have copied. There'd been no way to avoid that, so Danger Sense had only warned him that an attack was coming and remained dormant otherwise. How did Monoma know so much about the intricacies of how Danger Sense worked, exploiting loopholes that Izuku himself didn't even know existed? It was a question to be asked after the match was done.
One for All's green, crackling power flared around Izuku as he activated his Quirk, Full Cowling style. He wiped at his cheek, feeling a tenderness already setting in that told him it would bruise, and a little trickle of blood running down from his nose luckily caught on the red of his gauntlet. Izuku sighed, and looked over at Ochako and Ashido. The two girls nodded to him, and looked ready to continue fighting, so Izuku began running at Monoma. He saw the blond boy look to the side and sigh with a smile on his face.
"At least we wasted enough time for backup to arrive," Monoma said, his sad-looking smile turning to a grin as he turned back to glare at Izuku.
Izuku threw out Blackwhip, which Monoma dodged. Letting it catch on a pipe, Izuku pulled it down and made a large number of the platforms destabilise, rocking back and forth on their subpar foundations up in the maze of pipes above the ground. Monoma tripped over his own feet as his platform fell from its place completely. Izuku startled as he dropped down out of sight, and ran to the edge to see if Monoma was alright, so watched as he rose again, returning to his previous method of travel, the hoverboard technique, this time using what looked like a broken off wall panel from below to levitate in the air using Yanagi's Quirk.
As he did this, Shoda and Yanagi appeared from the direction Monoma had been looking, leaping out from the tangle of industrial infrastructure and throwing themselves at their opponents. Shoda immediately went for Izuku, catching a bolt Kodai threw to him and throwing it at his target.
!
The bolt soared through the air, and about halfway to Izuku, suddenly got a boost of speed so that it travelled nearly faster than he could track. Izuku went to step around it, but suddenly the bolt was the size of a car's wheel, and so he was forced to flip over it, which left him open.
!
Izuku tried to twist out of the way, but as he was in the air, there wasn't a whole lot he could do about dodging. In the moment after Monoma flew by and kicked him, he remembered that Air Force can change his trajectory midair, but he hadn't thought to rely on that immediately, and promised that before the next big training exercise like this, he was going to make sure he could use it at the drop of a hat, make it just another part of his toolkit. As it was, though, Monoma did kick him, and he did hit the ground with a clatter of metal. It didn't hurt, but it did mean that when Monoma yelled the activation word for Shoda's Quirk, a second, invisible kick was delivered to his gut without a way to stop it, pushing him down below the elevated battlefield, breaking through the already unstable platform and blinding him for a moment as he was winded by the blow. Izuku tumbled down, unconsciously using Float to keep himself suspended in the air as he blinked the spots out of his eyes. Monoma then tore right through the opening he'd made in the floor of that high area on his hoverboard and raced right for Izuku.
Dodging Monoma was easy. It was when he'd use projectiles that it got a little trickier. When he got impatient with trying physical attacks, Monoma picked up a thin pipe the length of his arm and threw it at Izuku, which he ducked under effortlessly with a warning from Danger Sense, but when Monoma Twin Impacted the pipe and made it bounce off the wall and come straight for Izuku again, his only way to tell where it was coming from was the clanging of metal when it ricocheted. Other than that, Danger Sense was still telling him the attack was coming from Monoma, so he was left to rely on his natural reflexes and intuition, which he sorely admitted to himself had gotten duller in the months he'd been using Danger Sense as a crutch. He barely dodged that first pipe, didn't dodge the next two, and by the time that his mind started to completely catch onto Monoma's tricks as the two boys fought on, Izuku knew he was going to be sore tomorrow.
Eventually, Izuku got sick and tired of dodging, so switched strategies. He planted his feet and brought out Blackwhip, catching the enlarged, Twin Impacted wrench that Monoma threw at him and throwing it around to hurl it back at Monoma, who dodged out of the way looking a few shades paler than he had a second before. That became Izuku's way to gain ground on Monoma, sending everything he threw at him back his way until he reconsidered his attack plan and started trying to run away. Izuku chased after him, using Float to maximise how long he could coast on his momentum and match Monoma's pace. When Monoma tried a turn too fast into a tunnel of clear space and tipped over the side of his hoverboard, Izuku pushed himself forward with as much speed as he could use, and tried to catch him on instinct, but as always, it was another of Monoma's tricks.
"Fire!"
!
The blond boy had kicked off his board and Twin Impacted it when Izuku had rushed forward too fast to correct his trajectory in an emergency. The board was rocketed toward Izuku using Shoda's copied Quirk, and then expanded to be about ten times the size it had been, when it had been barely big enough for Monoma to stand on it with his feet shoulder's width apart. This caused it to get caught on the edges of the small tunnel they'd been racing through and block the path. Izuku couldn't stop, so decided to summon Blackwhip and pull off a move he hadn't needed to in a long time, summoning a Blackwhip Shield the size of a car door to protect him. He then rammed into the board, blasting right through the metallic barrier and tearing it to pieces as he created a hole in it through pure concussive force. Izuku did lose control of his trajectory after that, letting go of Float and tumbling to a stop amid a collection of pipes and metal rods, but he had made it through.
!
Dazed, Izuku looked around and spotted Monoma running at him. He stumbled to his feet, but couldn't block the hit, earning a punch in the face for being too slow. The second hit came, and pushed his head so far back that it hit a pipe behind him, which sent a violent reaction through his whole body, and Izuku knew that he probably didn't have a concussion due to the durability given to him by One for All, but it still caused his arms to jerk in response to the pain. Izuku delivered a jab right to Monoma's stomach, dialled back to about ten percent as a test run to see how much the boy could handle. Monoma was thrown across the space and collided with the far wall of the tunnel, about five metres away. He wasn't unconscious, but the far off look in his eye and the stumble in his step as he got up told Izuku that he wasn't going to put up much of a fight. Izuku threw a wide glob of Blackwhip at Monoma and threw him back at the wall, which knocked him out and bound him in one move. Shaking off the pain blossoming on his back, in his stomach and at the back of his head, Izuku picked up Monoma's unconscious, tied up body, and returned to seventeen percent to make his way back toward the prison so that he could officially count Monoma as captured.
On his way to lock him up, the silence got Izuku thinking about the things Monoma had said. What was a dud when it came to copying Quirks? Powers he couldn't use? If so, why couldn't he use One for All? Izuku thought about the nature of One for All, that it could only be transferred to another if the current user willed it to be so, but that was a protection against All for One, a Quirk that could take Quirks and the only one of its kind that Izuku knew of. It was uniquely opposite and equal to All for One, as the Quirks and the men who first wielded them were brothers. Then why couldn't Monoma copy One for All? Copying wasn't taking, just emulating. Monoma had enlightened Izuku during their fight today, since he'd shown that One for All wasn't all powerful. It and the Quirks within it could be tricked. Maybe it was a loophole that was a little bit too airtight to be taken advantage of in the way he'd wanted. Izuku really didn't know. He could see now, though, that Monoma had a keen mind for Quirks, and couldn't wait to ask him about his thoughts on his powers after the fighting was over. He was a mean young man who hated his friends, but Izuku would give him credit where it was due. For now, though, Izuku left him in the prison and confirmed one capture for their team.
When he found his way back to the battlefield he'd left the others in, Izuku returned to a mess. Ochako and Shoda were fighting, with Ochako flying around with her Quirk and dodging the Twin Impacted projectiles he sent her way, catching some and throwing them back as she removed or increased their gravitational pull toward the earth, making them ultra-heavy or fast as a bullet. Ashido was stalemating Yanagi, who similarly used her Quirk to throw a lot of debris and small ammunition at Ashido, who melted most of it before it could reach her, and if not dodged out of the way. There was a blanket of half-melted wreckage around Ashido as she kept up the defence against Yanagi's barrage, constantly being pushed back. Togeike was up in the catwalks above, sniping at Kodai as she leapt from platform to platform, dodging the small items Kodai would throw up there and enlarge, slowly taking away the little amount of space she had to move around in already. The six of them battled it out ferociously, with each matchup being more or less evenly balanced in either of the fighters' favours, and Izuku froze as he realised that he was back at square one, having to decide who to help. Trusting his gut, Izuku leapt up to the catwalks above once again, landing right next to Togeike.
"Hey. You still need that break?" Izuku asked, startling her.
"Yeah, sure!" Togeike said. Izuku noticed that there was sweat running down her face and she was panting. "I've been trying to ration my water, but I'm gonna run out soon, so this needs to end."
"I'll take over with Kodai. Maybe give Ashido or Uraraka some cover fire," Izuku said with a smile when Togeike nodded. He was glad she was being more cooperative and friendly, even if she still looked at him with something guarded in her eyes and a hint of doubt whenever he put a hand on the steering wheel and took the leadership position. Izuku didn't think that was going away, so he was fine with that if it meant she'd actually work with him. He was also glad he hadn't accidentally called Ochako by her first name to someone who wasn't familiar with it and then had to explain why he used her given name. That would've been awkward.
Izuku shook that thought off and leapt forward. He was on Kodai in an instant, causing her to stumble back with wide eyes. Her hand went to her pouch, and Izuku's eyes widened as …
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Every one of the items in her pouch enlarged at once, a move that Izuku wasn't sure Kodai had been actively trying to pull off. Maybe it had been a reflexive defence mechanism, but all that Izuku knew was that Danger Sense had almost paralysed him with the jolt to the back of the head, telling him that something overwhelming was coming from Kodai. A dozen screws and nuts and bolts rammed into them both as they expanded in an instant, blunt and sharp edges alike digging into him as the objects pushed Izuku and Kodai away from each other. Izuku used Float to level himself out in the air, coming to a safe stop, but it looked as though Kodai had thrown herself against a pipe head first and knocked herself out from her over-corrective counterattack. That was two down, two to go. Izuku smiled as he stumbled away, sure that Kodai wouldn't be up anytime soon. He felt a line of something running down his cheek, and found that there was a cut on his cheek that wasn't bleeding too terribly. He left it as it was.
Leaping over to Togeike, Izuku joined her in taking stock of the battle below. Ochako was speeding around in the air, dodging Shoda's improvised bullets. Sweaty and stumbling from the extended battle, Shoda took a moment between attacks, and that's when Ochako saw her opening. She touched down on the ground to reorient, and then moved her hands in an intricate way so that a specific combination of them touched on the fingertips. Then, it was as if the world had tipped to the side for Ochako only, and she fell horizontally, her personal gravity having been reconfigured to recognise the distance between herself and Shoda as 'down'. When she reached Shoda, Ochako kicked, and landed the blow on the chest, sending him flying back and tumbling across the ground. She let herself be dragged after him by her Quirk, and negated its effects on herself with a meeting of all fingertips, a pink flash allowing her to sink to the ground once again. She crouched at Shoda's side, and pressed her fingers to him, another flash of pink crawling across his body and causing it to flatten slightly as it looked like something invisible pressed down on him. Izuku knew that it was the aspect of Ochako's Quirk that could increase gravity. He was likely experiencing anywhere from two to five Gs at that moment, which kept him pinned to the floor through his own mass. It was a fairly ingenious move that Ochako had incorporated into her fighting style, and Izuku grinned as he watched her pull it off flawlessly.
On the other side of the battlefield, Ashido and Yanagi's fight was winding down as well. Yanagi looked over at her teammates getting beaten and sucked in a deep breath. She then hopped up onto one of the pieces of debris that had been made by earlier fighting and tried to use it as a hoverboard, the same way Monoma had, with her Quirk. She began flying toward Shoda to rescue him from their opponents, but Ashido wasn't done with her yet. Ashido ran after her, leaping up and hanging onto the flat piece of wreckage with both hands. She yanked it down, and Yanagi's balance was thrown off by this, tipping off the board completely and falling down to the ground, where she tumbled to the floor of the arena down a small mountain of pipes and rods and destroyed metal. Ashido fell too, but her athleticism saved her, as she was able to keep her balance and run down the hill of debris instead of falling. She used that runup to show off and flip over Yanagi while she took hold of her hand and pulled it behind her back, putting her knee on the small of her back to pin her to the ground and retraining her with the capture tape that all of their costumes came with. Ashido hauled Yanagi up and made her stand, and the two girls below began escorting their captured enemies to the prison.
"Alright!" Izuku said excitedly, looking down at his friends with a grin on his face. Ochako looked up at him with an identical smile, and he nodded to her as his own smile grew at the sight. Izuku suddenly felt eyes on him, and he already knew who they belonged to. He looked down at Ashido and frowned. "We'll be down with Kodai in a second!" He stood up and walked over to Kodai, wrapping her up in Blackwhip.
"Hey," Togeike said, now standing when he turned back to her. She was looking at him with an expression he'd never seen on her face, unmasked nervousness.
"Yeah?" Izuku replied, stopped in his tracks by the unfamiliar tone of her voice.
"About how I was acting—"
"You were nervous," Izuku said, sighing with a small smile on his face as he realised what she was trying to do.
"Even before that, about your festival event. I know you remember me for that," she continued.
"You were nervous then, too. I know it had to have been hard for you to leave your family and come live on campus because of something that had nothing to do with you. While I'm trying to believe that I had no personal fault in that, that the actions of villains aren't my responsibility, and while I'm of the opinion that your anger was valid, if misplaced, I am sorry that it's come to what it has. Don't worry about it," Izuku said.
"Don't … worry about it? Man, you hero types are so soft," Togeike said with a laugh that sounded forced.
"That's not a bad thing to be, if it's who you are. And I think I saw enough of the real you when the fighting started to know I like that you much better," Izuku said as he stood Kodai up on her feet, as she was still unconscious.
"Okay," Togeike said. She looked down at the catwalk they were standing on with a tightness to her blank expression, like she didn't know what to think about that.
"Um," Izuku said, feeling the thumping of his heart in his chest quicken. This was always his least favourite part. "Do you have a way to get down?"
"No," Togeike said, looking down over the edge with a frown.
"You're going to need to hold on, then," Izuku said with a forced grin, holding his hand out to her. His voice broke when he spoke, which just made him more embarrassed.
"Okay. How?" Togeike said, calmly putting her hand in his.
Izuku wanted nothing but to get past the hand-holding phase of helping a girl get down from a high place so he immediately walked Kodai and Togeike to the edge of the platform and stepped off into the air. Togeike almost didn't get what was happening in time, but managed to step off with him so that he didn't have to drag her after him. She did hold onto his arm with her other hand wrapped around his bicep, a little too tightly to be comfortable, like a cat up a tree it can't climb back down from, but she was fine otherwise. It was Izuku who had the issue. He always hated when peoples' first instinct was to grab onto him like that. He had gotten better about accepting it from close friends, but he still wasn't very excited about physical contact with other people, especially from strangers, which Togeike was, more or less. Izuku let out a sigh of relief when they touched down on the ground, safe due to Float slowing their descent, and Togeike stepped a few paces away from him as soon as her feet touched the ground, a second or two before Izuku's own. He checked on Kodai and found her to have woken up during the drop, and released her from the majority of Blackwhip's hold on her. He changed it so that Blackwhip only bound her wrists, so that she couldn't get her hands on any tool and restart the fight. The three of them then walked to the prison, where they had Kodai join her teammates in the cell, which ended the match.
The walk back to the observation deck wasn't very long. When they got back, Both classes welcomed their missing members back with raucous applause, with Hitoshi patting Izuku on the shoulder and Tsu celebrating with Ochako and Ashido, and Kendo trying to keep Monoma from ruining his own welcome back with another speech about how 1-A are the worst. After the small celebration, the teachers had the fighters from the last round line up to get their evaluation. Monoma was first, getting some criticism from Vlad King.
"Your whole plan hinged on something you didn't even know would work. Drawing up a blank and then having no backup plan is a rookie mistake I thought you were beyond making. I expect you to do better in the future," Vlad King said.
"Yes, sir," Monoma said, his voice unusually hollow.
"Shoda!" Vlad King yelled. "You didn't push when Uraraka was focused on dodging. You had the chance and you didn't take it, and you let her overcome you."
"Sorry, sir."
"Yanagi. You were too comfortable in the support role for Shoda. When you had to fight by yourself, Ashido won. Be more independent."
"Understood."
"Kodai. Fighting at range is comfortable for you, and the second Midoriya got in your face you freaked out and defeated yourself. That kind of last-ditch effort you pulled off is something to use if you're ever overwhelmed, but not when you have other options."
"Mhmm."
"Ashido," Aizawa said in his low, drawling voice. "You showed us fine control over your acid's potency and your aim by shooting down varying projectiles. As well, signalling Midoriya when you were overwhelmed showcased an intimate knowledge of you and your team's limits. Knowing when to call for backup is just as important as being able to fight yourself."
"Thanks, sir!"
"Uraraka. You stayed away from Shoda when we both know you could've blitzed him immediately. Why?"
"I didn't see an opening, sir. He was constantly firing at me, so I thought I should wait for him to slow down," Ochako said, looking down at the ground.
"Right. An enemy won't always give you an opening. If you don't immediately see one, make an opening. Understand?"
"Got it, sir," she said, flushing at the criticism.
"Midoriya, I was especially disappointed with you," Aizawa said, making Izuku stare at him in shock. He hadn't thought his performance was terrible, but maybe he'd been awful and just hadn't been able to tell. "When Shoda and Yanagi ambushed you, you stood around gaping at them like a civilian. You let the obvious distraction distract you so long that your team was attacked. And then, when Monoma tried copying your Quirk, you left yourself open to attack for an inexcusable amount of time while you tried to talk him down. If you think a villain could be dangerous beyond the means of the heroes present, do something. Don't stand around and talk."
The information ran through his head, and he did think Aizawa was right, but … he'd unintentionally answered a question Izuku had been wanting to ask him. What would Aizawa think if Izuku explained his conflict about the Vanguard? About villains in general? He hadn't explained how he'd faced Gentle Criminal and La Brava, but if he did, would Aizawa understand why he'd handled them the way he had? Izuku didn't think he would. Eraserhead was an underground hero — Izuku knew that — he fought against organised crime more than the average daylight hero, who dealt with petty thefts and public disturbances. That meant he saw the darkness that the average civilian didn't. He saw the way crime made people ugly and desperate, willing to do anything to survive. Izuku didn't think he'd truly be able to comprehend Aizawa's view of heroes and villains, because Aizawa didn't really fight villains. He fought criminals, sure, but villains were different. It was kind of sad, once Izuku got to thinking about it. He filed it away for later, intent on puzzling out that advice in time.
"I'll do better," Izuku said with a flat voice.
"Togeike, you did well. You kept pace with Kodai, who has a head start some would call impossible to reconcile. I believe it's an advantage coming from general studies, because you know your limitations better than those who don't know what it's like to crawl to the top from the bottom," Aizawa said. Something in Izuku ached at that last part. "You were able to recognise you were hitting a limit and ask for help, which is the same virtue I saw in Ashido. Well done."
Izuku looked over to see Togeike grinning to herself. Her cheeks were half a shade pinker than usual, and he thought it was a strange thing to see after the cold attitude she'd shown earlier. He also noticed that she hadn't responded to Aizawa, which he didn't seem to be waiting for, but it was amusing to Izuku. For all her talk about how hero course kids were the worst, Togeike looked just as thrilled to have done a good job during a training exercise as he had every single time All Might praised even the smallest things about him. Izuku kept himself from frowning and staring at Aizawa like he was trying to solve a puzzle written on the man's face. Aizawa, Vlad King, All Might and Midnight — the latter two having been supervising the classes in the background — huddled together to talk in hurried whispers. Izuku only caught every fifth word from the distance he was at, but he heard Togeike's name, and turned to see that she had heard the same. Eventually, Togeike spoke up once again, talking at a volume that made the teachers look at her in surprise.
"So, this was kind of like an entrance exam, right? I know I've been pestering the staff enough for them to hear my requests for a do-over, even if I never expected to get it. I did well here, so you'll consider my transfer to the hero course next year?" she asked with a straight face, though there was something in her eyes that was wary of the answer she'd get.
"I suppose it was obvious. Yes," Aizawa said. "You proved you could keep up with a battle with just the training you could do with the resources of a civilian. Imagine what Water Thorn could be with two whole years of hero course training? You'd be an excellent hero, Togeike. The decision can't be made here and now, but we'll get back to you when we're certain. I'm leaning towards you transferring, though."
Togeike nodded stiffly. There was a tension in her passive expression, like she was trying to maintain that with as much effort as she could. The corners of her mouth eventually began to rise, but she kept it at a small grin that didn't make her look like a woman who'd won the lottery. Izuku smiled, feeling happy that he'd fulfilled the promise he'd made to himself, that he'd help her win and be at least some kind of help in making her dreams come true.
At least someone had won today, unlike Izuku, who'd apparently given a horrendous performance. His shoulders did sag at that, but he kept it together while they were all out on the deck together. He could complain and whine in the privacy of his own mind, and if that wasn't enough, he'd wait until he was at the very least away from Aizawa. He got the feeling that his respect for Izuku had diminished somewhat after Kamino. They'd had a grand total of one conversation since then, and it had happened earlier that day about the Nomu. It had to be about his reckless actions when dealing with the Vanguard. Izuku had made a lot of stupid decisions on the night the summer camp was attacked, most of all serving himself up on a platter to the villain who wanted him. He'd done it to save the lives of two of his best friends, but he'd still made that choice, an avoidable choice. Ochako had chewed him out for it, All Might had expressed his worry, and even Katsuki had chided him more than once about being a moron when it came to valuing himself over others. Aizawa's indifference hit hard, though, and he wondered if the respect the teacher had once had for Izuku could be salvaged. He'd just have to see, since he was about to do something even dumber. He was about to try talking his way onto a private investigation when he had no legal authority to do so.
He was screwed, wasn't he?
End of Arc 12: Ready to Rumble
Author's Note: Arcs 11, 12 and 13 are kinda short, just because the storylines they're focused around can't be stretched into doorstopper arcs that take up a dozen chapters each like the sports festival or Kamino. Those bigger arcs are coming, though, just you wait. I just felt like I had to earn them by doing these relatively relaxed stories while those plot points build up in the background. Be sure to tune in for Arc 13, which debuts a number of characters that are entirely of my own design!