Chapter 22: Finals Part 2

"Report," Re-Destro was quite concerned when Curious didn't have her usual smile.

"I made contact with Black Lightning," Curious replied.

"What did he say?" Re-Destro asked. Gisei Kuro was a wild card. The limits to his power are unknown, but he seems to have a high amount of charisma, having been seen working with Stain after his arrest. If Kuro had as much sway on the system as Re-Destro thought he did, then having him in the army would give them a large advantage.

"For some reason, he knew about my affiliation with the army," Curious replied, causing Re-Destro to flinch. "Despite that, he still accepted the interview. He stated that he wasn't against the Meta Liberation Army, but he believes that he can change the system from the inside."

"Do you think we should mobilize against him?" Re-Destro asked. Of course, if war was inevitable, he would like to be the one to strike first.

"I do not believe it is wise to become his enemy if we do not have to," Curious answered. "Our sources say that they have reason to believe that he was directly involved in the death of Gigantomachia."

"What?!" Re-Destro exclaimed. Not even his father was capable of killing such a behemoth. "Is there any evidence?"

"I will email you the files," Curious said.

"Thank you, Curious," Re-Destro pinched the bridge of his nose. "That will be all."

Curious did the Meta Liberation Army salute and left Re-Destro's office. Re-Destro sighed and leaned back in his chair. He had a lot to think about.

Midnight fell to her knees, cuts running along through her body. She wondered how such a young girl could be so strong, yet so sadistic. "Come on, Midnight-sensei~" Toga said, licking the blood off her knife. "I wanna play some more~"

Midnight wanted to respond, but she felt too weak. She collapsed on the ground and passed out. The last thing she saw was Toga approaching her cheerily, her arms swaying back and forth.

Toga crouched by her teacher with full intent to strike when a communications device went off. "Hime-san!" Kuro's voice gave Toga paused. "Hime-san! Snap out of it!"

Toga slowly regained her sanity, dropping her knives. Tears welled up in her eyes. She was doing really well in rehab and was making a lot of progress, but now this happened. "It's okay Hime-san," Kuro soothed through the comms. "Just put the handcuffs on her. I'll deal with the rest, okay?"

Toga nodded and did as she was told. As soon as the light clicked green, Kuro jumped down, holding Recovery Girl. The elderly woman instantly went to tend to the teacher's wounds as Kuro went to Toga. "I-I'm sorry…" Toga choked. She remembered the times her and Midnight would tease Izuku together. She had been so kind to her, yet this is how she repaid her? "I'm so sorry…"

Kuro knelt down and gave the girl a hug, letting the girl bury herself in his shoulder. "It's okay, Hime-san," Kuro soothed. "Everything will be alright. I'm here now, so everything's okay."

He felt Toga nod in his shoulder and Kuro forced a smile. Kuro hoped that he didn't have to reveal her secret just yet.

Sato and Kirishima faced Cementoss with determination in their eyes. They already had a plan set. They both dashed, their quirks activating. Cementoss put up a concrete wall and Kirishima boosted Sato up in the air. Sato flew straight for the concrete hero as he put up a barrier to block the attack. Sato punched the barrier, destroying it. Cementoss continued to put up barriers as Sato crushed them.

Sato's quirk was about to run out when Kirishima dashed behind Cementoss with the handcuffs in hand. Before the pro could turn to put up another barrier, Kirishima threw the handcuffs before being blocked off by a barrier. Sato caught the handcuffs and tackled the pro hero while he was occupied with his teammate, handcuffing him.

"Most impressive," Cementoss said as the light clicked green, indicating that they passed. "You knew that I would outlast you, so you opted for a different method."

"Frontal assault is manly, but it doesn't always work," Kirishima said, smiling. "Sometimes, it's just as manly to use your head."

Shoji and Hagakure have split up. While not going for a frontal assault, Shoji pretended to sneak towards the finish line, deliberately getting caught by the pro-hero. "Surrender now," Snipe said. "You don't have a chance."

"Guess I have no choice," He said, pausing. After a few seconds, he slowly puts his hands up.

"Are you giving up?" Snipe asked.

"Just stalling," Shoji says as an invisible force drags his hands downwards and clips handcuffs on him.

"How?" Snipe asked. "I didn't even hear you."

"I'm a ninja!" Hagakure chirped excitedly. "Isn't that cool?"

Iida and Ojiro stood around 200 meters away from the gate. The only thing between them and passing is a pro-hero and a bunch of pitfall traps. The two students nod to each other and Ojiro gets on Iida's back. Iida dashes towards the hero with his quirk. When he triggers a trap, he jumps up and spins, using a kick to launch his teammate.

Power Loader tries to intercept the student from passing, but Ojiro manages to hit the pro hero square in the face with his tail as he soared off to the finish line.

Aoyama stood on the second floor, jumping and shooting small, consecutive bursts at Thirteen, who promptly sucks them into their black hole every time. "It's futile," Thirteen said. "You might as well stop while you're ahead."

"Nothing is futile when you're as dazzling as I," Aoyama said, literally sparkling. At that point, Thirteen turned around just in time to see Ochaco dash up to her and launch a devastating combo. Thirteen fell to the ground, incapacitated.

"Uraraka-san," Aoyama approached Ochaco as she put the handcuffs on Thirteen. "Do you love Himiko-san?"

"W-what?!" Ochaco almost dropped the handcuffs, her face tomato red. "I have no idea what you're talking about. She's an annoying jerk. She even went to intern with me. If I didn't know any better, I would think she…"

Ochaco trailed off, slowly realizing her situation. "Shit."

Ochaco and Aoyama returned to the room to see Lady Midnight being wheeled out in a stretcher, her body ridden with cuts. "Kuro-san…" Ochaco looks at the pro hero. Kuro was looking at an open door with guilt in his eyes. "What happened..? Is Lady Midnight okay..? What about Sero and Himi-chan?"

Kuro looked at the young lady. "Lady Midnight will be fine," he started. "But I'm not sure if Hime-san will be. She's taking this really hard."

"Where is she?" Ochaco asked. She didn't know what was going on, but she reasoned that she would figure out later.

Kuro jutted a thumb at the open door behind her. "Please be careful, though," he said, almost pleadingly. "She's having a really hard time right now. I don't want her to get any worse."

Ochaco nodded. She cautiously walked into the room to see Toga crying. "Himi-chan…" Ochaco whispered softly.

Toga looked up at the girl, her eyes red and puffy. "You shouldn't get close to me," Toga choked. "I'm a monster."

Ochaco walked up to her, despite Toga's warnings and pulled the girl into a hug. "Of course you're not a monster, Himi-chan," Ochaco cooed. "The one I love will never be a monster, no matter how much you think it's true. We'll get through this together. I promise."

"Normally, I would go straight off and fight by myself," Kacchan said. "But it's fucking All Might."

"Agreed," Izuku said. "We can put aside our differences and pass this test. Remember the move we came up with together?"

Kacchan nodded and they both dashed. As they closed in on the finish line, All Might jumped down, crashing about 50 meters away from him. The kids didn't stop, though. Kacchan jumped up and prepared to use the attack that he had in the sports festiveal.

"Howitzer…" Kacchan said as a tornado of smoke formed around him. Instead of going for All Might, though, Izuku jumped in front of him, and Kacchan launched the attack at Izuku's feet, who with the combined force of pushing off Kacchan with his quirk and the force of the explosion created a sonic boom as he launched for his mentor.

"SMASH!" Izuku roared as he used twenty percent of his power to punch All Might square in the face, causing him to fly back a few meters. "Go! Kacchan!"

The two dashed for the finish line, but All Might got up and intercepted them just meters away from the finish line. Izuku made a split-second decision. His left hand clenched in a fist, as his right hand was already bruised and used one hundred percent of his power to uppercut the pro hero, sending him flying. Kacchan took advantage of the diversion Izuku created to dash past the finish line.

All Might landed on his feet. "I'm so proud of you two, Young Midoriya, Young Bakugo," All Might boomed. "You were put together because you two didn't get along well. It's great that you two decided to team up so quickly!"

Izuku and Bakugo looked at each other before smirking. "Well," Izuku started before the two looked at All Might, huge grins on their faces as they spoke in unison.

"You thought wrong."

"Congratulations!" Nezu chirped as the whole class stood there as the teachers stood with Nezu. Lady Midnight was still with Recovery Girl, and Ochaco was still helping Toga cope with what happened during Toga's exam. "Only one person failed this year! We are so proud of you all! None of us foresaw that so many of you would be passing! As such, we have decided to give the one student who failed a passing grade!"

The students cheered. All of them would be going to the Forest Training Camp and the remedial classes were nonexistent. It was a great day for a majority of Class 1-A.

Izuku was walking down the hallways of the mall alone. Everyone had split off to their own needs and Ochaco went off with Toga. Izuku was muttering to himself when a hooded man went up to him. "Hey, you're the kid from the sports festival!" He exclaimed, causing Izuku to jump. "Can I have your autograph?"

"Sure…" Izuku said as the man handed him a pen and paper. Since he won the festival, he had gotten a lot of requests for this, so he was used to it by now. As he signed the paper, the man wrapped his arm around Izuku. "You're also the guy that fought Stain, right?"

"I wouldn't really call it a fight," Izuku chuckled. "He completely wiped the floor with me."

At that moment, Izuku felt four fingers latch on to his neck. He looked at the man who had a very creepy smile on his face. "I don't know why we met again," he said. "But it must be fate. My name is Shi-"

Shi (the man never got to finish introducing himself) was cut off when a white glove collided with his face, sending him flying. "Shimura Tenko that is not the right way to treat your friends!"

"Shimura Tenko is dead! My name is Shigaraki Tomura and this boy is not-" The man forced himself up shouting but cut himself off when he saw who punched him. "Grandma?"

"It's me, Tenko," Nana said, causing Izuku to look in confusion. How did Nana have a grandson of that age when she looked so young? "I've come to take you home."

"Home?" Shigaraki scoffed. "My home is with All for One. He took me in when no one else would. Not even you were there, so as far as I'm concerned, you're not here now."

"Tenko, I was-" Nana started, looking genuinely hurt.

"I don't want to hear it," Shigaraki scoffed and turned around. "I've overstayed my welcome. I'm leaving."

Nana watched Shigaraki leave holding back tears. He was right. Even if she didn't have a choice in the matter, she was still not there for her grandson, which gave him every right to resent her.

"Nana-chan!" Ryukyu ran over, Miruko not far behind. "Save me!"

"Come one, Ryuko-chan~" Miruko bounded after her friend, holding a swimsuit. "It would look absolutely ravishing on you~"

Nana forced a smile as she looked at her friends, although there was a bit of genuine feeling. Even if her grandson hated her, she would not have to deal with this burden alone, and for her, that was enough.