"What the hell are you doing, Deku?" Natsuki shouted, staring across the street at Midoriya. "This is a hero school! If you want to kill someone, do it when I'm not fucking here, damn it!"
Midoriya's eyes widened. "Natsuki, I—" Before he could finish, a sudden impact slammed into Natsuki's back. "Gah!"
The person he had just 'saved' had actually kicked the living day out of him?!
His body lurched forward, but he quickly caught himself with an explosion beneath his feet. He twisted around, landing several meters away as his aching arms instinctively came up.
The contestant he had just protected stood in front of him. She smiled mischievously, "....thanks for saving me, hero~"Instead, they immediately moved forward again, throwing another kick towards him.
Natsuki's eyes narrowed as he shifted his weight and dodged to the side, the kick passing harmlessly beside him. He spun with the movement and fired an explosion directly into the contestant's torso, sending her flying across the street.
Natsuki landed and shook his hands, ignoring the dull ache running through his arms.
He didn't expect himself to need this much of exertion in an exam he ... didn't understand
He shook his head, focusing on the girl who stood up
He wasn't in good shape, but he wasn't made of glass either. The attack had hurt, sure, but he wasn't crippled.
If anything, the attack had just pissed him off. He turned toward the girl, she was wearing the U.A. uniform and walked toward them with a focused expression, the playful mischief, nowhere to be seen
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Before the girl could answer, a shadow suddenly appeared above Natsuki. His eyes flicked upward. Another girl, looking almost—no! The exact same girl, descended from above with both hands clasped together.
Natsuki immediately jumped sideways. "What the—?!"
The student's clasped hands slammed into the ground where Natsuki had been standing, causing him to jump away, flames suddenly erupted from behind Natsuki.
The fire slammed into the girl without hesitation and sent her tumbling away. Natsuki landed and turned his head, only to see Midoriya standing there with flames curling around his body.
"Natsuki," Midoriya said, his expression still confused. "I don't understand why you're attacking me, but I wasn't trying to—" He paused, then emphasized the next word. "—kill the contestant. They attacked me first. I was defending myself."
Natsuki frowned. His eyes moved between Midoriya and the two identical girls. So that's what happened.
He had only seen the end of the confrontation and immediately assumed Midoriya was the aggressor.
And if that was true... then this was another sign that whatever he remembered about the original story couldn't be trusted completely.
Damn! He really shouldn't have trusted those Chinese MC mentality, this was his old world's fanfic's problem!
Spreading misinformation!
Maybe the changes he'd noticed weren't even isolated incidents. Maybe his own actions had already pushed things far enough away from what he remembered that trying to predict events was becoming pointless.
'You were assuming the plot was still following what you remembered?' Gyuki's voice rumbled inside his mind.
'Can you even be certain that what happened before this had anything to do with the plot you remember?'
Natsuki's expression tightened. Gyuki wasn't wrong. His memories weren't some holy script that the world was obligated to follow.
He'd already seen differences, like katsumi and Midoriya, but because he had saved both eri and toga using that advantage, he felt ot wasn't necessarily useless
They were simply memories of a story that might have been completely different from the reality he was now living in.
The could be referrenced but not trusted blindly
He couldn't keep relying on them every time something unexpected happened.
He looked back toward Midoriya. "So... what exactly is that chick's ability?"
Midoriya looked at the two girls with intense eyes! "I feel like they have something to do with cloning"
"I already figured that much, smartass..."
Natsuki restrained the urge to roll his eyes before, turning to the 'girl' infront of him
"So, mind telling me what you could do? A cute girl like yourself feels more attractive when she's speaking"
"Cough!"
Natsuki:.....
Stunned (she's flattered) clone girl:.... [•∆•]
Midoriya's cough broke the ambiguous atmosphere that hadn't even been born
Midoriya hurriedly suppressed his sudden cough.
Flames continued curling around his body as he pulled a bottle of water from somewhere and began drinking.
Natsuki watched him for a moment before remembering the minor side effect of his Quirk.
The more flames Midoriya produced, the more heat built up inside his body, causing him to lose water at an increasingly rapid rate.
Before either of the three (actually 4) could continue, a voice suddenly descended across the entire testing area, booming from the speakers positioned throughout the city.
"Attention, contestants! An unexpected situation has occurred!" The students, robots, and even the contestants fighting each other gradually came to a stop as Present Mic's voice echoed across the battlefield.
"Some of you may have already noticed that there is an additional group of friends joining you in this battle arena!"
Natsuki's eyes locked onto the 2 girls in front of them, both of them looking at him with an intense lust for battle.
Kikyo:No Natsu-chan! They're lusting for your body!
"Additional group huh.....I assume that's you...? Who are you actually?"
"Rita, just Rita! I'm looking forward to the day I get you're lastname!~"
Midoriya who had finished recovering, suddenly started coffing again, breaking the infant intimacy before it was born
Present Mic laughed loudly through the speakers. "That's right! In hero society, unexpected situations happen all the time!
Therefore, you are expected to expect the unexpected!" He paused dramatically. "Ooh! What a tongue twister!"
His laughter echoed through the arena before his tone became slightly more serious. "And now, it's time to introduce the next hidden rule of this exam!"
The students listened carefully. "You may have been wondering why there are so many robots!"
Natsuki's eyebrow twitched.
'Yeah actually, I've been wondering that for a while now.'
Present Mic continued. "Well, it's because this exam isn't only about how many points you can earn! It's about how many points you can keep!"
A murmur spread throughout the arena. "The contestants you've been fighting aren't simply the robots, which you get points from! There are also other students who's job is solely to hinder you!
Depending on how you perform against them, the judges may award you additional points... or take points away!"
The students immediately began looking around at one another in wariness "So remember! Getting a high score doesn't mean anything if you throw those points away through careless mistakes!"
Present Mic's voice suddenly became louder. "And here's your big hint from your favourite DJ!!" He laughed.
"The judges are looking for more mistakes than solutions!"
Silence settled over the arena for a moment as the students processed those words. Natsuki stared at the girl who was glaring bloody murder at Midoriya.
'So that was their purpose. '
The robots weren't the entire test. These people were here specifically to interfere with them, force them into bad situations, and see how they reacted.
'Wow' Natsuki thought. They really didn't tell us anything.
Kikiyo's voice immediately erupted inside his head. THEN BEAT THE BITCH IN FRONT OF YOU! she screamed hysterically. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Natsuki ignored her completely. He took a slow breath before a grin gradually spread across his face.
The exam he'd thought he understood suddenly had questions he hadn't expected. That was interesting. He turned his head slightly toward Midoriya without looking directly at him.
"Hey, Izuku."
Midoriya looked over, flames beginning to gather around his right hand. "Yeah?"
"When was the last time we had a race?"
Midoriya's eyes widened. For anyone else, the question probably wouldn't have made much sense.
But he understood exactly what Natsuki meant. Their races had never really been about running.
When they were younger, they had competed to see who could destroy their targets the fastest. Back then, the targets had been harmless objects.
Now, the targets were the other contestants.
Midoriya's rational side immediately told him that there was no reason to turn this into a competition.
They were supposed to pass the exam, not worry about who could defeat an opponent faster. But as flames curled more intensely around his arm, something else awakened inside him.
Natsuki was his rival. He had never needed to say it aloud for it to be true. And if Natsuki was challenging him now, there was no way he was backing down.
Up on the observation deck, Nezu watched the scenes of students panicking after being ambushed by UA's 'assasins' and smiled. He turned toward Aizawa. "Shota, what made yiu think of this change in our UA examination" He paused, tilting his head.
"You usually complain that this test is suitable for those with combat based quirks, yet here you are making it an even bigger challenge for those without combat based quirks"
Midnight, seated nearby with a drink in hand, glanced toward the screens displaying Natsuki and Midoriya. A knowing smile appeared on her face. "Yes. I'm curious too."
Aizawa didn't answer. His eyes remained fixed on the displays, watching the two boys prepare themselves.
For a brief moment, his thoughts returned to another figure who had spent years giving him constant headaches.
"....an annoying brat."
End of chapter 9
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Finally back baby! Throw some stones please!