"I knew he'd be strong..." Izuku held his broken arm in pain as he and Kota stood over the now unconscious body of Muscular. "Come on, we have to hurry back to camp."
"What?! But you're in horrible condition!" Kota yelled noticing how Izuku's arm was now ripped as well and covered in blood.
"I need to get you to safety. I can put that aside for now." Izuku said as he reached for Kota. "Come on, hop on my back." The boy hesitantly jumped onto Izuku's back before a white blur appeared in front of them.
"Are you two okay?" Hayato asked breathing heavily. He looked closely at Izuku and turned to see the fallen villain before letting out a sigh of relief. "You over did it, didn't you?"
"I...I had to protect Kota." Izuku said before noticing how his best friend was hiding his hand. "And you?"
"I broke my hand punching a Nomu." Hayato admitted before walking over and placing his broken hand on his broken arm. "We're both pretty crazy, aren't we?"
"The craziest." Izuku laughed weakly before nodding at him. "We gotta get back to camp."
"Can you?"
"Definitely. But what about Kirishima and Shinso?"
"We found Bakugo and Todoroki, and then I sent Bakugo off with Kirishima and Shinso with Todoroki."
"Lucky us..." Izuku let out a sigh of relief before a thought came back to him. "Hayato...we're their targets, the League is here after the students."
"What?"
"He had asked me where you and Kacchan were, and I could only assume that meant that their attack on our camp was to either kill or kidnap one of us." Izuku explained pointing at Muscular. Hayato growled in frustration before turning to the forest below them. "Hayato?"
"That Nomu I punched, it had attacked Momo and Awase. I hate to say it but Ochaco's out there too." Hayato explained making Izuku's eyes widen.
"Uraraka...then I should go look for her!"
"Let me worry about Ochaco." Hayato said as he looked up to see Kota looking at them confused. "Kota's safety comes first. I'll find Ochaco as fast as I can and I'll call you if she's fine."
"My safety?" Kota asked quietly making Hayato nod and place his good hand on his head.
"Yeah. Your safety, kid." Hayato smiled at him before making eye contact with Izuku. The two nodded and took off using their Quirks as fast as they could back into the forest. "Ochaco should be near the first half of the test's course, I'm going to head there now!"
"I'll take Kota to camp and meet up with you!"
"No, stay there! You're in no condition to do anything else tonight!"
"What?! I can keep going!" Izuku yelled as he mentally punched himself for lying. He knew he couldn't fight anymore, if the adrenaline wasn't bursting through his veins right now: he knew Hayato would've found him unconscious before. The two stopped running as they ran into Aizawa who looked at them confused.
"You two?!"
"Mr. Aizawa! Thank goodness!" Izuku yelled letting out a sigh of relief as their teacher stepped closer to them. "There are a lot of things I need to tell you. First there's something I need to tell Mandalay...please take care of Kota! He has a water Quirk, you have to protect him!" Izuku kept talking as he put Kota down and both his teacher and best friend looked at him with a mix of shock and surprise.
'He's on an adrenaline high...' Aizawa gulped as he tried to think of a solution to his current problem. Izuku then tried to leave only for the two to stop him. "Wait, Midoriya! Those injuries...you did it again, didn't you? Did you forget what I told you at the beginning of the year?"
"No, but..."
"You got into a scrap with a villain, I can tell the same happened to you too." Aizawa said as he turned to look at Hayato as well. "That's why I need you two to send this message to Mandalay."
"Come on, Magne! Do you only think you can beat me with that weapon of yours?!" Tiger yelled as he was fighting Magne who was blocking and dodging his attacks while Mandalay fought with Spinner close by.
"Damn it, you're persistent!" Mandalay barely dodged Spinner's colossal sword by jumping into the air.
"So are you!" She looked up to see Spinner followed her and swung his weapon at her again.
"SMAAAAAASH!" Spinner's eyes widened in shock as Izuku and Hayato appeared and smashed their feet into his sword, shattering it and the blades that made it up. "Mandalay!" Izuku yelled getting the pro hero's attention.
"Kota's safe!" Hayato yelled shocking the woman.
"You two...!"
"We've also got a message from Mr. Aizawa! Tell everyone with Telepath!" Hayato yelled as he and Izuku landed and continued running.
"Everyone in Classes 1-A and 1-B! In the name of the pro hero, Eraser Head, you are granted permission to engage in combat!" Mandalay nodded and used her Quirk to relay the message to the students in the forest as well as the ones who returned to camp.
'This is what you want...right Eraser?' Mandalay thought as she turned her attention back to Spinner. "But, both of you need to get back to camp immediately! Those aren't normal injuries!" Mandalay yelled noticing Izuku's broken arm.
"I'm sorry we can't! Please tell everyone one more thing! The villains...I know one of their targets!" Izuku yelled turning to the woman. "They're after Kacchan! Please tell everyone!"
"Who's Kacchan?"
"Bakugo! They're after Bakugo!" Hayato yelled clarifying it for the woman. Meanwhile Magne had punched Tiger away and kept her attention focused on the two boys.
'That rumble in the ground earlier...there are two in our number who can fight in a flashy power battle. If one let something slip...then that bloodthirsty Muscular was defeated...?!' Magne's eyes widened as she looked at them and noticed the gash on Hayato's side. 'And that wound...he must have fought the monster Shigaraki sent with us! I can't let these boys get away, they NEED to be killed!' Magne ran from Tiger who tried chasing after her and got ready to attack the two boys who were being slowed by their injuries and exhaustion. But before her fist could connect with Hayato's head, the group watched in horror as her hand got sliced off and she took a step back in pain.
"Now now...don't think I'll let you lay a hand on him." Hayato stopped running and his eyes widened as Blitz stood between him and Magne with his claw covered in her blood.
"That's the Speed Hunter!" Mandalay yelled recognizing the new villain.
"What is he doing here?!" Spinner yelled before feeling something against the front of his neck.
"We were just passing by." Spinner began to sweat as he realized his idol, Stain, was holding a blade to his neck. Mandalay and Tiger gritted their teeth, the situation changing and growing worse in their eyes with each passing second.
"What are you doing?! We should be on the same side!" Magne yelled as she covered her wound while Blitz walked up, wiping the blood off onto his costume.
"I don't see how, I've never seen or met any of you. Hey, Mandalay, relay the message now while Stain and I deal with them." Blitz said as his intimidating aura made Magne fall to the ground and try to get away from him. The two boys took this moment to escape from the area while Mandalay and Tiger stood with no clue as to how to approach their situation.
"I have no choice..." Mandalay gulped and reactivated her Quirk to pass the message onto the students, extending it even to the other adults. 'We've discovered one of the villains' targets! It's the student: Bakugo! Bakugo should try to avoid combat and acting independently! Do you hear me, Bakugo?!'
"Oh shut the fuck up, lady. You're making me lose my focus." Katsuki and Eijiro had run into a dark shadow in the forest and hearing their permission to battle: he charged at it. He stopped as what seemed to be several blades extended towards him, but lucky for him Eijiro jumped in front of him and hardened himself to stop the blades, shattering the ones that were coming towards them.
"Calm down, Bakugo! We gotta be careful now if they're after you!" Eijiro yelled before the two noticed the blades were now rising up and they looked up to see they were coming from their opponent's mouth.
"I have to follow...I have to do my job..." Their opponent let out a cry of anguish, confusing the two until they noticed a severed hand on the ground.
"Wait a second...who was before you and Todoroki again...?" Eijiro asked as the shock of seeing the severed hand made him release his Quirk.
"It was Shoji and Tokoyami, I think..." Their moment of shock was cut short by the blades on the ground retracting and then shooting out again towards the two. Eijiro jumped in to block the attack once more before they watched him retract the blades once more and disappear into the trees around them. "For a scrawny, small fry...he's pretty good at using the terrain."
"Looks like he's got a lot of experience, too. Wait are these things his teeth?!" Eijiro looked closely and noticed that the blades he was blocking were all being shot out from the villain's mouth.
"Show me...your flesh..."
"Who the hell as teeth like that?!" Eijiro yelled making Katsuki simply look at him confused.
"...damn you're a fucking hypocrite." Katsuki whispered before turning his attention back to their opponent.
"Izuku, I'm going to look for Ochaco now!" Hayato yelled as he began to recognize the area he and Izuku were running through.
"I should come with you!"
"You should've listened to Mandalay!"
"She's MY girlfriend!"
"Didn't we go over this?!" The two stopped seeing a purple claw shoot out towards them and tried dodging, but something caught their arms and pulled them behind a tree. Hayato shook his head as he tried to make sense of what had just happened before seeing Mezo standing over him with Izuku wrapped in his arms on his back. "Shoji?"
"Both of you look like hell, especially you Midoriya. You shouldn't be moving anymore, but you're only thinking about saving your friend. What are we going to do with you?"
"Was that..."
"Yeah." Mezo responded as Hayato noticed the blood on one of his extra arms. "We were ambushed by villains, and I covered us. But in doing so, I triggered the Quirk that he'd been desperately trying to hold back."
"Wait...then..." The three looked ahead, through the darkness and the trees, seeing the new monstrous form of Dark Shadow as Fumikage struggled in the middle of its body, fighting for control over it.
"If we want to advance, we have to do something about this." Mezo said as Hayato and Izuku looked at their classmate in shock.
"Get away...from me...!" Fumikage called out seeing his friends in front of him. "You're going to die if you stay near me!"
"Tokoyami!" Izuku and Hayato called out only for Dark Shadow to turn its attention to them and let out a roar that was heard echoing through the entire forest.
"Quiet!" Mezo yelled as the rampaging Quirk started getting near them, but somehow it had yet to find them. "After Mandalay's Telepath told us about the villain attack and we knew not to engage: we were on high alert. Right after that, we were attacked by a villain. I covered Tokoyami, hiding in the foliage even as my arm got cut off."
"Holy-" Hayato covered his mouth as now Izuku noticed the blood coming down from Mezo's arm.
"Don't worry, even though it's not a shallow cut: it's not like I've lost it forever. My Dupli-Arms can even duplicate my duplicated organs, and what got cut off was a duplicate." Mezo explained before turning to their classmate, covered as he continued struggling over control of Dark Shadow even further. "But I guess he couldn't even stand that." Mezo said as Dark Shadow ripped a nearby tree apart with ease.
"In deep darkness, he can't control it..." Izuku noted as he remembered Fumikage explaining his Quirk to them.
"Not just that. It was probably his emotions, like righteous indignation and regret that made it go so berserk." Mezo took a step back and accidentally stepped on a branch, signaling their location to Dark Shadow. The three dodged Dark Shadow tearing through the tree they were hiding behind and hid themselves again. "It reacted to any sound or movement, now it's just a wild beast that attacks anything indiscriminately."
"Forget...about me..." The three's eyes widened as Fumikage called out to them again. "Find the others...and help them! Calm down, Dark Shadow!"
"Dark Shadow is weak to light. If we lead it to the forest fire or to camp, it should calm down." Hayato explained as he looked at the nearby smoke before noticing the poison gas on the other end.
"Kiryuu, what are you thinking?" Mezo asked noticing the boy's pensive look. He looked up at his classmate and nodded.
"I have a better idea. Todoroki or Bakugo has to be around here, they're closer than either camp or the fire. Get him nearby to one of them and they'll help you out. I'm going to deal with that gas, otherwise we're going to be cornered by it the entire time." Hayato grabbed a rock and threw it at a tree behind Dark Shadow, making the monstrous Quirk turn around and start attacking in that direction.
"I don't want to become someone who abandons their friends in need, are you sure they're around here?" Mezo asked making Hayato nod once more before quickly running towards the direction of the gas.
"I'm sorry, Shoji, but I have a crazy idea." Mezo turned his head to look at the boy on his back. "If it only reacts to sound at this point, then use your Dupli-Arms to lure it in as bait and make it follow without attacking us. But if we lure it to Kacchan, he can calm it down with an explosion. If I had to save one of the other, I would risk it all to save both of them."
"You're crazy, Midoriya...but I'll follow your lead!"
"Tokoyami! Let Dark Shadow take over!" Izuku called out shocking the boy and signaling Dark Shadow to start following them.
"You can't keep taking those kinds of hits for much longer, let me blast that motherfucker to kingdom come!" Katsuki yelled as Eijiro protected him from more attacks, this time one of the blades managed to actually cut his cheek.
"Not with all of these trees around, you could light everything up!" Eijiro yelled before they began to hear a loud crash nearby. The three turned to see what was going on and Eijiro and Katsuki's eyes widened as they saw Mezo running to them with Izuku on his back and Dark Shadow close behind them.
"Bakugo! Make us some light!" Mezo yelled frantically as he tried keeping a safe distance from the danger behind them that was growing closer by the second.
"Is that Tokoyami?!" Eijiro tried running to his friend's aid seeing how he was now in tears from frustration and pain. But Katsuki stopped him with a fearful smile on his face. "Bakugo, help him!"
"Wait."
"I'm...the only one allowed to look at a cross-section of these kids!" They looked up to see their opponent try to stab Dark Shadow with his teeth blades. But they only got stuck in the rampaging Quirk's body and it grabbed the villain out of the air.
"No need to beg." Dark Shadow began to squeeze the villain tightly, shattering his teeth, before swinging its arm through several trees and throwing him into the thickest tree nearby.
"That's insane..." Eijiro gulped as Dark Shadow roared once more and got ready to attack them. But before it could, Katsuki jumped into the air and fired several small explosions towards the Quirk. Fumikage let out a sigh of relief as his Quirk retracted back into his body and finally freed him.
"I really am a bad matchup for you." Katsuki said as he looked down at his classmate.
"Thank you."
"Tokoyami, are you okay?" Mezo asked looking at his friend who kept his attention at the ground.
"I'm sorry. Because of me, Shoji got hurt. The influence of the darkness and my emotions...it fueled Dark Shadow. In the end, it got so strong that I couldn't hold it back and ended up hurting Shoji." Tokoyami clenched his fists tightly while Mezo shook his head.
"We can save that for later. Or at least, that's what you'd say right?" Fumikage looked at his friends in shock while Izuku gave him a relieved smile.
"But we need to focus on keeping Kacchan safe."
"I don't need your protection, Deku! I can do just fine all by my fucking self!" Katsuki said as he felt a vein in his head begin to twitch.
"Wait, where's Kiryuu?" Fumikage asked noticing the white haired boy he had seen earlier was missing.
"Hayato...I forgot he was a target too!"
"The gas is getting denser, I must be getting close to the center." Hayato found himself in the poison gas as he felt it begin to grow stronger. He felt himself get sleepier and sleepier with each passing second until he heard a gunshot. He ran as fast as he could and found himself standing face to face with a boy wearing a uniform just like the one he used to wear back in Junior High along with a gas mask and what looked like oxygen tanks strapped to his back.
"Oh look, another kid from that special High School. And no mask? Must have a special kind of Quirk." He watched as the boy raised a small revolver and aimed it at him before he noticed Tetsutetsu on the ground, holding his mouth and trying to keep his Quirk activated.
"Run!" Tetsutetsu noticed Hayato standing next to him and tried warning him, only for their opponent to aim the gun back at him and fire it once more, cracking the metal on the boy's body and making him bleed slightly.
"Tetsutetsu!" Hayato tried reaching for the boy only for him to feel even sleepier and his vision began to blur.
"That's what happens when you try acting all high and mighty for going to such a popular school and just being so pitifully simple." He aimed his gun at Hayato's head and got ready to pull the trigger. All while Hayato tried to get his power back into his body.
'Get up! Get up, Hayato Kiryuu! You're the student of Sir Nighteye...you're the grandson of Gran Torino...you're one of the students of All Might! You can't let some gas stop you here!'
"Pity I didn't get to see what you could do."
'Come on...Mach Two!' He activated his Quirk right as the trigger got pulled and pushed it up to Mach Two, swiftly dodging the bullet by phasing through it. He quickly ran backwards and out of the poisonous gas and took in the fresh air as he looked at the small typhoon of the villain's power in front of him. He took a deep breath and began to run in the opposite direction of the cyclone, running faster and faster around it, whipping up the wind and it began to spin faster and faster until he created his own tornado that blew away all of the gas in the area until it cleared up revealing the injured Tetstutetsu, the villain, and a ginger-haired girl wearing a gas mask.
"What the?!" Tetsutetsu looked at the boy in awe as the villain tried creating more gas to cover the area again.
"That's Yaoyorozu's boyfriend?" The girl's eyes widened as she remembered a photo Momo showed her of Hayato as the boy changed directions towards their opponent.
"I've had enough of tonight!" He reeled his fist back and delivered a hard punch to the villain's head, completely shattering his mask and sending him flying into a nearby tree from the force behind the attack. "Fuck...I've used it too much..." Hayato whispered as he felt himself grow even more exhausted, finding it harder to stand up straight from a mix of the gas and using Mach Two too much.
"Kiryuu, right? Are you okay?" He turned around to see the two Class 1-B students walking up to him.
"I'm fine...Kendo, right?"
"Yes, Itsuka Kendo at your service. I know who you are, I did do my internship with Yaoyorozu after all." Itsuka explained before seeing Hayato collapse slightly. "You're not okay, we need to get you back to camp." Both students tried grabbing Hayato to help him back to camp, only for him to grit his teeth and push them off of him.
"No. My friends need my help." Hayato whispered as he tried to run again only to fall to his hands and knees. "Fuck...!"
"Stop it, you're in no condition to continue." Tetsutetsu said as he and Itsuka helped Hayato up as he tried to get away from them once more, but he couldn't.
'Ochaco...I need to find and help...Ocha...' He struggled to stay awake before finally giving into the effects of the poison he took in, as well as his exhaustion and overuse of his Quirk finally shutting his body down.
"Are you okay, Ochaco?" Tsuyu asked as she and Ochaco stood face to face with an ash-blond haired girl around their age wearing a school uniform but she was wearing a black face mask as well. Ochaco looked at the cut on her left arm and back at the girl who looked at the knife in her hands disappointed.
"Shallow...Not much blood..." The girl whispered as she began blushing, her focus being on the small amount of Ochaco's blood on the knife.
"That's mean, suddenly coming out slashing at us! Who are you?!" Tsuyu yelled taking a defensive step forward to protect Ochaco.
"I'm Toga. And you two sure are cute." Toga said pointing her knife at the two. "Uraraka...and Asui..."
"She knows our names."
"Maybe from the sports festival?" Tsuyu and Ochaco looked at their opponent with worry as she took a step forward towards them. "In any case, she knows who we are, which means we're at a disadvantage."
"There's not enough blood." Toga closed her eyes and began to remove her mask. "Normally, I'd suck it out directly from the cut to get more, but this machine will start sucking if I just stick it in, so my work will progress very quickly." Toga dropped her mask and reached behind her head to pull out a syringe, pressing a button to reveal the needle at the tip. "I'm gonna stick it in now." Toga charged at the two making them step back in surprise.
"Ochaco!" Tsuyu quickly wrapped Ochaco with her tongue and threw her behind her. "Run back to camp! We were given permission to use our Quirks, not to defeat the villains, but to protect ourselves! That's the kind of person Mr. Aizawa is."
"Tsu, you too!" Ochaco watched as Toga reached Tsuyu and tried stabbing her with her knife, only for the frog girl to barely dodge it with the knife cutting her tongue.
"Tsu..Tsu...Tsu...that's such a cute nickname. I'm gonna call you that now!" Toga said as she began to sadistically smile at the girl.
"Don't. The only people I want to call me that are the people I want to be friends with." Tsuyu tried running away only for Toga to throw the syringe at her, getting the girl's hair and sticking her up against a tree.
"Yay, then I'm your friend, too! All right!" Toga cheered and walked up to Tsuyu as Ochaco ran to them. "You're bleeding, my friend, Tsu. You're so cute. I love blood." Toga said as she looked at the blood on the side of the girl's mouth.
"Get away from her!" Ochaco yelled as Toga turned to attack her with her knife.
"Wow, that blond girl is real cute!" Ochaco and Tsuyu stopped as they recognized the voice while Toga began to blush.
"You think so?!" Toga turned in the direction of the voice only to suddenly freeze in place and drop her knife.
"Yeah...no." The two girls smiled as they watched Shoto and Hitoshi walk up to them. Hitoshi walked up to Toga and kicked her weapon away, before quickly ripping apart her support item from her back and tossing it on the ground. "Now, walk up the tree and stand right up against it." Toga followed Hitoshi's order and stood against the tree, allowing Shoto to use his right side to freeze the ground in front of her until the ice reached up and encased her against the tree.
"Are you two okay?" Shoto asked as Hitoshi walked over to Tsuyu and freed her.
"We're fine, ribbit." Tsuyu said as she hugged the boy for saving her.
"Todoroki...where are the others?" Ochaco asked as Shoto fixed the way he held the boy on his back.
"I'm sorry but I have no idea, Shinso and I got separated from Bakugo and Kirishima and we have no clue on their status. But Kiryuu and Midoriya are the ones that have me worried the most, that rumble in the ground before and the tornado we just saw...only two people are capable of doing any of that in our class." Shoto explained as they began to make their way back to camp together.
"Deku...Hayato..."
"You two are the first ones we've found but now that the gas is cleared up, we have a better chance of finding the others that were on the course." Shoto said before seeing Ochaco stop walking. "Uraraka?"
"I...I have to go look for Deku. If what you're saying is true then he could be hurt."
"Ochaco-" Tsuyu tried stopping her friend only to see her run away. "Come back!"
"Damn it! Shinso, get Tsuburaba and Asui back to camp!" Shoto yelled as he put the boy on his back down and started running after Ochaco.
"What?! Are you two being serious right now?!" Hitoshi yelled as the two of them watched Shoto and Ochaco disappear into the woods together.