What could they do inside five minutes?
Izuku had to rattle his head as hard as he could, trying to think of some sort of grand scheme that he and Mina could use to try and sweep the place to save as many Ectoplasm clones as quickly as they possibly could, though he wasn't coming up with too many ideas. The time that they had lost at the beginning of the test had cost them in hindsight, leaving them with a huge disadvantage.
With only eight clones rescued, they had less than a third of the clones rescued, which wasn't going to look good in any way for them. The fact of the matter was, cold mathematics was going to be a huge part in what their results were going to be, so unless they somehow managed to find a way to save about three clones in five minutes, he and Mina could pretty much just say goodbye to their desire to become a Hero Team.
If he really looked at this from a cold, objective stance… He was beginning to doubt that they would be able to pull this off.
He was still going to try and fight like hell to prove himself wrong, of course, but he wasn't going to hold his breath for it, either. Unless there was some kind of secret twist for this particular initiation, like Aizawa-sensei had pulled for the final test of the semester, then they didn't have a whole lot of hope left.
Again though, it was going to take a lot more than that to make Izuku give up. Mina agreed with him from a philosophical stance, and was going to keep helping him fight until the final bell rang, but she was being as realistic with their chances as she knew they had to be.
"There's no way we're gonna pull this off, is there?" The Acid Quirk user lamented with a small sigh, though she didn't sound too upset. She might have been on board with the Hero Team idea, but this had been Izuku's suggestion at first. Sure, she'd like to pass, but not doing so wasn't going to be the end of the world for her.
"I'm trying to think of some sort of strategy…." Izuku muttered, tugging as the green stands he had in his hair, hoping that if he pulled on his head enough, it would in some way make an idea come to life within his head. "But I can't. If we just had some more time or something I might be able to come up with some sort of rescue strategy, but I'm not sure if we can pull this off with how little time we actually have left…"
"Didn't think so." Mina joked at their expense, though it wasn't that funny. "So, what's the plan? Go out in a blaze of glory?"
"There has to be something…."
"You have a freaking Clairvoyance Quirk, Mitoshi, you can literally observe areas that you aren't present in!"
What sounded like frustrated yelling and arguing below the pair of them, Izuku and Mina suddenly felt themselves jump at the sound of their enemies, whichever ones they had this time. The loudest of voices didn't even need a second to be processed – It belonged to Kuroshi.
Both the first year students looked towards one another, and then dropped down into a crouching position, so they would be harder to spot, and then made their way over to the edge of the roof, to peek over the side and see if they could get some kind of visual on the targets that they were nearest to.
Sure enough, Kuroshi was with Oversight and Legacy, and now, along for the side, was the feathery person that Mina had bothered during their time within the Hero Team meeting room. If they were all part of one big Hero team, or two smaller ones, or whatever, neither the First years had any way of knowing. All they were now aware of was an enemy force which outnumbered them by twice their own size.
"Yeah, that'll help when every building in the entire freakin' USJ looks the exact same." The one that Mina had remembered as Oversight responded with the height of sarcasm. "Let's see, I'm looking at them right now, what do I see? Grey, square, rooftops around more grey, square rooftops. That should narrow it down to the entire damn Conflagration Zone!"
The mention that Oversight was literally watching the pair of them as they spoke did freak the pair of them out, but both were careful not to show it in any particular ways, otherwise the Clairvoyance Quirk user would see that they were close enough to react to their words.
"They're looking down from a rooftop. Guess they're scouting for us."
"How the hell did you even get into Yuuei, never mind as a recommended student?" Kuroshi sighed with irritation.
"Watch yourself, Freezerburn." Snapped Oversight, referring to Kuroshi, presumably by his chosen Hero name.
"Shinri." The albino-appearing teenager turned to face Legacy, further displaying his apparent disregard for Hero names or aliases, preferring to simply refer to people by their actual names. "Use your Quirk. See if you can find them."
Without another word, Legacy fell onto her knees, and placed her palms on the ground for a few seconds, activating her Quirk to read the past of the area around them, to determine the whereabouts of their targets. Following their movements from where they last were in their previous fight, Legacy scanned through the most recent events at the USJ, until –
"You're gonna get a kick outta this." She said, with a smile on her face. "Trust me, this is a good'n."
Kuroshi and the feathery person both leaned in with faces that displayed total lack of amusement.
As a response, Legacy simply pointed upwards. When the two older students followed the direction that her finger was pointed in…
Izuku and Mina both froze in place for a moment. That Psychometry had just royally screwed them over!
"Ha, yeah, that is good. Now that's how you get in as a recommended student." Kuroshi grinned, already generating flames between his fingers, a small strand of flame bursting through his hair as well. He made eye-to-eye contact with Izuku, having chosen the one he wanted to take on instantly, his actions earlier having spiked the Pyrokinetic Degree Quirk user's interest. "Feza, kill the hostage clone! Keep them from getting the point!"
"On it!"
Leaping down without any hesitation, Izuku activated One For All as he fell, enwrapping himself in the defence and power that was his Full cowl technique. He knew that realistically, saving one clone wasn't going to increase their score that much, and overall it wouldn't change much of an outcome, but he still wanted to try – He still wanted to give this his big, final attempt. Even if there was no clone down there, he still felt like he had to put up a fight until the very end.
Why they even had a hostage clone, Izuku had no idea - Probably to use as a shield form sneak attacks. Not that it mattered. He was going to save it!
The second he landed, he noticed in the corner of his eyes, that the feathery students known as Feza had indeed darted just underneath the line of sight of the building they were on top of, and had an Ectoplasm clone tossed carelessly aside like a pile of trash which he had just picked up. His Quirk activating, Feza's feathers seemed to stand on edge, sharpening themselves to a knife's edge – Some sort of sharpening, Transformation type Quirk.
Leaping towards the Feather Edge Quirk user, Izuku launched a 5% right hook to the side of Feza's face, not only causing him to drop the clone altogether, but also causing him to start shooting away from the rest of the combatants as he was blasted straight into a wall about fifteen meters away. Normally, One For All didn't have that much of a kick into it, but the fact that Izuku had launched himself towards the target had given him a nice boost in kinetic energy to push his target backwards, granting him even more power than he would normally have had.
It also helped that, compared to the others, Feza was particularly light-weight. With adaptations like feathers, overall more so than Fumikage, his bones were lighter, which meant that less force still had a bigger impact than most attacks Izuku threw out.
Such a display of raw strength did have Kuroshi surprised for a moment – He had assumed that Izuku had some kind of leaping Quirk when he saw that the main plan he had throughout this entire initiation was him leaping away from battle to keep both himself and his partner safe, as well as return any Ectoplasm clones to the safe zone. To learn he was actually working with a strength Enhancement type…
"This is gonna be a lot more fun that I thought." He declared, generating more and more flames into his palms. As his body temperature gave up more and more heat to fuel his flames, Kuroshi began to exhale condensation, the white mist that he expelled as his body cooled. The grin on his face however indicated a total lack of care. Ear to ear, Kuroshi was already having plenty of fun with this situation, and he showed only an eagerness to start to fight. "Mitoshi, you go check on Feza – This Strength Enhancement type is mine."
"What should I do?" Legacy questioned, already drawing her ancient blades from their sheathes.
As she spoke however, Mina began to make herself known to her opponents, using her Quirk to slide down the side of the building. She had grabbed onto the edge of the building as she allowed her body to hang there, and has used her Acid to melt her platform in her hand, which brought her down to the ground at a reasonably fast, but not at all dangerous speed.
"Take pinky over there. Keep her at arm's length."
Though she wasn't sure if that was a reference to her Hero name, or her skin colour – Probably the latter – Mina already felt irked by it. Like she was being taunted. Were Izuku not already about to fight the Pyrokinetic, she would probably try to attack him herself, though she had another target to worry about. Pooling Acid into her palms, and secreting some along her exposed arms, she prepared herself to her shortly-awaited rematch against the Psychometry Quirk user.
Izuku edged closer towards Kuroshi, making sure that he kept his body between him, and the Ectoplasm clone currently feigning being unconscious. By keeping his body in-between them, he was able to shield the clone by taking the hit for it. It'd mess him up, but he doubted Kuroshi would launch a serious barrage of blazes. And if he did – He could already try and counter with One For All.
Though he doubted that it'd do him a lot of good.
"I got a quick question for you…. Whatever your name is." Kuroshi stated, though his confidence seemed to temporarily slip when he was trying to figure out if he'd heard Izuku's name before.
"It's Deku." Izuku responded with his Hero name. He had noticed that Kuroshi seemed to refer to people by their given names, not their Hero ones. Since he didn't know Kuroshi whatsoever, and given they were in the middle of a fight, he didn't feel like giving him his actual name. A small, insignificant act of defiance.
"Right, Deku, quick question – You do know I can manipulate fire, right? I can actually control where I move the fire I make - "
As he was speaking. However, Izuku had already activated One For All Full Cowl, and launched himself towards Kuroshi – He was totally aware how Kuroshi's Quirk worked, and he knew that stopping him before he could generate and manipulate any sort of time was going to make the difference between victory or failure here.
So, as he shot towards the Pyrokinetic Degree Quirk user, catching him by surprise, he launched a solid 5% strike into Kuroshi's left shoulder, knocking out and fire that he previously had in either of his hands, and knocking him back slightly.
"You little – " Kuroshi responded quickly after his recovery, encasing his foot in fire and launching a sweeping roundhouse kick aimed at Izuku's head. " – Burn!"
Blocking the kick was out of the question – All he'd need to do was make contact with this guy, and he'd end up with a nasty burn. Instead, Izuku used One For All to leap into the air, just out of the range of Kuroshi's leg, before allowing gravity to drag him down back towards his opponent, with a downwards punch attack of his own. By using the fire he made to propel himself back, Kuroshi dodged, though it was by a slim margin.
Using more flames to act as a propellant, the Pyrokinetic blasted concentrated fire from the soles of his feet, and swung around Izuku's side, launching another kick, this time one that lack any fire of it towards the green haired boy. Izuku used his forearms as a shield, but quickly pulled back when he noticed that Kuroshi's plan there had been to trick him into thinking he was safe to block in the heat of the moment, before he'd had time to think, and to then ignite the fire on his legs as a melee attacking method.
It hadn't worked though. Izuku had quickly realized his mistake, and backed away, before any repercussions were able to make themselves known.
"Hah! Not bad." Kuroshi complimented, glancing to either side of him, making his next set of targets known. "You're pretty good. Better than some other Strength Enhancement Types I know."
Though it took every single bit of Izuku's strength to keep up with this guy, he was impressed with his own abilities right now. He was managing to keep up with a second year with a Quirk like Kuroshi's!
It was taking everything he had, but he was doing it!
He could really, really fight!
"There's an issue with a lot of you Strength Enhancement types though." Kuroshi said, palming flames into both of his hands. Quickly, his arms shot up – One towards the Ectoplasm clone, and one towards Mina, still battling with Legacy, and unable to see Kuroshi aiming his attack at her. "You can't be in two places at once!"
One hand aimed at the Ectoplasm clone – No, not a clone. A civilian.
One hand aimed at Mina, who wasn't able to protect herself.
A Civilian, and a Hero was couldn't stop the attack from coming towards them.
Suddenly, to Izuku, Aizawa's words came back to him. The words he'd used when he first suggested that they try their hands at becoming a Hero team together.
"Say you have a Villain or a criminal with two guns, one aimed at a civilian, and one aimed at Ashido. You can only save one before the criminal pulls the trigger of both weapons. Which one do you save?"
That was what this situation was right now, only instead of guns, it was a Pyrokinetic.
Impulse wanted to strike Izuku, and move to protect Mina. The clone, the civilian, they didn't matter. They were another one on the list, something that could be recreated again and again and again, a nameless object that had no value to him. But Mina… Mina was what mattered…
But he stopped himself. What he had just thought… That wasn't Heroic at all. That was selfish… In fact, that went against every single rule of what a Hero was supposed to be. Selfless, heroic, rescuing people who had no names or faces or meaning to them, because it was the right thing to do. To act on one's own desires… That was what a Villain did.
That was why Heroes existed. To stop people who thought like that. The Heroes creed virtually demanded that Izuku save the clone, and let Mina deal with the consequences for not being totally aware of her surroundings.
But that wasn't Heroic either…
There was no way to win. No way to be a real Hero in this situation. No real way to achieve victories on both fronts -
Until an action came into his head that he didn't even need a second longer to think about.
He didn't save Mina.
Nor did he save the civilian.
Neither of those were the correct answer. He'd been led to believe that there was a correct answer in this situation, but in truth, there wasn't. At least, not with the options that had been presented to him. That had been another one of Aizawa's 'logical ruses', there was no doubt in Izuku's mind anymore.
Had that Villain with those guns pulled the triggers, then he would have to choose one to save, and that was a choice that no one could begrudge him to make… Hero or civilian, a person would act purely on instinct, and no one could blame them for the choice they made there…
But the Villain hadn't. Aizawa had never said that the Villain had pulled the trigger – Just that they were going to.
Like Kuroshi was going to unleash a blast of flames at both Mina and the Ectoplasm clone.
And there was a way to stop both of them from suffering.
With adrenaline and One For all powering every muscle that he had in his body, Izuku leaped towards Kuroshi at speeds so fast that his target only had a split second to know what was happening to him. Swinging his right arm with as much speed as was possible with his own abilities, and his Quirk, Izuku slammed a solid Detroit Smash right into Kuroshi's chest, blasting him backwards about twenty meters, smashing into a wall so hard, the wall cracked on impact.
The correct choice wasn't to save either of the Villain's targets.
The correct choice was to take out the Villain before they could hurt anyone.
"Argh…" Kuroshi groaned, though his fire did not extinguish. As he fell to the ground when he bounced off the wall, he let out a series of sharp coughs, before he looked towards Izuku again, his entire body now engulfed in flames. Despite the pain he was in, and despite being flawed, Kuroshi was able to give off that same, wide, toothy grin that made Izuku remember Katsuki's attitude to combat and personality. Only this time, he'd been the victory. "Now you're getting the idea, Deku!" Blasting flames behind him to launch himself into another attack, the Pyrokinetic yelled loudly, his hands engulfed in white hot fire that he prepared to shoot Izuku with, "Come at me!"
Feeling a tug at his lips himself, Izuku kept One For All activated, and got himself into a fighting stance, ready to counter the impact that would come when his enemy met him headfirst in the field of battle. Preparing to unleash one of his Oregon smash attacks as soon as Kuroshi got into range –
"AND THAT MAKES THIRTY MINUTES! YOUR TIME IS UP!" A loud call on the USJ speaker system announced the sudden end of the initiation, to the surprised of all the students currently in combat.
Winding down his attacks, Kuroshi fell towards the ground, wiping a cold sweat from his brow, as he let out another sigh of condensation. Legacy immediately backed off from Mina, and retracted her blades.
Mina and Izuku however, stopped, their attacks still at the ready, and exchanged glances.
They'd run out of time.
"It was an impressive display, that much can be said." Ectoplasm said to the young aspiring Hero Team. "I was able to watch everything that you did through my clones, and you were able to perform admirably."
The pair of them had been waiting for about ten minutes after the test was over and they'd made their way back to the entrance. As they had waited, Ectoplasm-sensei had been conversing with the students, wanting their opinions on how they were able to perform. Apparently it was a custom of the Hero Team class to give their own thoughts on the new entries, to see if they were going to be good candidates for the Hero Team group.
Teammates needed to be sure about one another, after all. That was the reasoning behind it.
In a way, that made it worse. The knowledge that their fate was in the hands of people they had just fought against…
"We… We weren't able to save a lot of your clones." Izuku said, sadly. It was true though. Eight out of thirty was a miniscule amount of people in the grand scheme of things.
"Eight is better than zero. If you find yourself in a situation where you can't save everyone, you have to just make sure to save those you can." Ectoplasm said, looking over the results he had on his clipboard. "That's the job of a Hero. To protect the ones that we can, and as many as we can."
Not even All Might was able to rescue everyone. He'd said so himself to his green haired and eyed protégé when asked. Even the number one Hero on this earth wasn't a God. He couldn't save every person under the sun, try as he might.
But even so… He set the standard for Heroes in the current age.
And Izuku and Mina hadn't even come close. And they had tried their absolute best.
"Kuroshi and Mitoshi both noted that you have excellent teamwork abilities, though you both are inexperienced in working in groups on a permanent basis." Continued the Pro-Hero. "The way the pair of you act is to be expected in groups that work together on a temporary basis, from differing agencies. That is what we teach in the Hero course here, yes, but it's not exactly what is searched for in this group."
They had done their best…
"I'm particularly impressed with your work, Midoriya." Ectoplasm suddenly said, catching Izuku's total attention. "You showed the skill of a real leader in the field, and you were able to simultaneously protect both one of my clones and Ashido from Kuroshi's attacks."
Mina suddenly turned to Izuku, a quirked eyebrow raised above a black sclera. "Wait, you did what now?" Noticing that Ectoplasm wanted to keep going however, she changed her question. "Explain to me later, yeah?"
"Ashido, your combat abilities are to be commended." The Clone Quirk user said, scanning his eyes over what she assumed to be notes he had been taking during the initiation. "You were able to act as a distraction for Midoriya while he rescued multiple clones. A high-risk, high-reward strategy that paid off for you and your partner."
"Thanks, sensei."
"But now, the verdict."
Both the first years froze. Mina's hand found her way into Izuku's, and this time, he neither froze, nor looked at her, nor went red in the face. He simply accepted it, and squeezed her hand back.
"Eight out of thirty clones were rescued… As I said, you can only save those that you can, but these numbers are very small, and leave much to be desired. Of course, based on the ones you saved, you were efficient at your actions. It seems that the time you lost figuring out your opponents capabilities is what cost you ultimately, as well as running into the opponents you had at the end. Were it not for these factors, it is possible that you would have been able to save a lot more 'Civilians'. Your teamwork was excellent, and there isn't any doubt that you have potential…" Handing the pair his clipboard, Ectoplasm allowed them to see their final result. "Here."
Izuku was the one who took hold of the board, and together, they both looked for their mark.
Forty-nine out of One hundred. Failure.
"Unfortunately, you were just a few points off of victory. The small number of clones that you were able to rescue was the main reason for your failing."
Mina's hand fell out of Izuku's as she let out a hard, loud sigh, and Izuku just looked at the score with wide eyed disappointment. Neither of them were particularly surprised…. But they had at least held onto a little glimmer of hope that they would be able to scrape by and pass.
The pair of them had given their all, and failed.
Neither of them felt bad about it. They were upset, sure… But they had done their absolute best, and there wasn't much more than that that could be done. They had tried.
They had failed, but they had tried. This wasn't like the End Of Semester Exam. This wasn't a matter of victory or despair. It was a case of trying their best, and failing at something that, in the end, didn't entirely matter.
"It is my belief, however, that with more training and refinement, you two will make an excellent Hero Team." Ectoplasm said, once they had accepted the information. "As such, the pair of you are allowed to take the initiation test once again as soon as you both feel ready. Just be aware that you can only do this once per term."
Looking at one another again, Izuku and Mina nodded. "Yes sir."
"Hey, Deku!"
Appearing from behind of them, and gifting Izuku with a big slap on the back, Kuroshi made his presence known. Before any responses were given, he wrapped his arm around Izuku's head like he were pulling him into a headlock. He grinned at the two of them, offering them smiles that weren't from combat gluttony, but instead from a genuine respectful nature that he kept hidden from the two of them during their fight.
"If it were up to me, I'd've let you in. It went down to a vote though, and some of the others barely got to see you in action."
"T-That so?"
"Damn right it is. You two are pretty damn good at what you do. Lotta newbies tend to fall for those tricks of mine, Deku. You did good."
"Th-Thanks… You're…. Kind of hurting me."
"Not much of a Strength Enhancement Type." Kuroshi teased, but he let Izuku go all the same. "You too, pinky. You've got some skill."
Mina blinked. "Thanks… But why're you calling us by our Hero names?" They weren't in combat anymore.
...Or did he even know what their real names were?
"….Your Hero name is seriously Pinky?"
"Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either."
Kuroshi then shook his head and looked at Izuku. "Hold up, your Hero name is Deku? You said that was just your name."
With a gentle, awkward laugh, Izuku explained himself. "You didn't specifically ask for my actual name, so I just… Gave you my Hero name… M-My name's Izuku Midoriya."
Holding up his hand to shake Izuku's, Kuroshi smiled again. "Well then, Midoriya, hope to see you again here. You two've got the talent to make a Hero team, I'm confident."
Taking his hand, Izuku nodded. "Thanks."
As soon as the next day began, the first thing that Izuku did was seek out Aizawa. He was already in the room when Izuku turned up, sat behind his desk, wrapped up in his sleeping bag, though he wasn't asleep. At least not yet. He probably would be in about five minutes while he waited for everyone to arrive.
"…Aizawa-sensei." Izuku spoke up, standing opposite his homeroom teacher, so he would be able to look him in the eye as he gave him his answer.
Aizawa looked up at Izuku, seemingly confused for a second. He blinked twice at the sight of the green haired boy, and groggily answered him. "What is it, Midoriya?"
"… I wouldn't save Mina. And I wouldn't save the Civilian either. Instead… I'd take the villain with the gun down, so he couldn't hurt anyone at all."
For a moment, Aizawa just looked at Izuku blankly, showing neither any sides of understanding or recollection of the question that he had sprung up on Izuku just yesterday. Instead, he looked at Izuku like the student had just gone crazy.
He then smiled. "Good answer, Midoriya."