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Their Hero Academia – Chapter 63: Final Exam part 5: Final Essay

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia! Please note, this chapter may undergo more extensive editing before it gets posted to AO3/FF.net, as there’s a lot of fight scenes that may need clarity editing.

Earlier chapters can be found here

At the last moment, before Kamuy had launched her shockwave, some instinct had prompted Izumi to throw up an ice shield. Desperately, faster than she ever had before, she’d leached heat from the air, forming a protective wall in front of her, reinforcing it even against the shockwave that had followed. She regretted immediately that she was unable to extend her protections to Chihiro or to any of her other classmates.

When the ringing in her head cleared and she was able to see again, a moment of fear touched her heart, an icy stab into the heat she had absorbed and that suffused her body. Chihiro, Ojiro, Aoyama, and Asuka were all on the ground, alive, but very clearly knocked out. As skilled and powerful as her classmates were, against such overwhelming force, they had no defense. She had hoped that Asuka’s Frog-Shadow might have been able to protect her, armoring her as she had during the Sports Festival, but such, it seemed, was not to be.

And all Izumi had done was protect herself. Her teachers, as well as Katsumi, would say that insuring her own safety had meant she could continue to act and protect others. But it did nothing to ease the guilt she felt.

Kamuy, it seemed, was still standing, admiring her handiwork. She’d lost a bit of mass from expelling her accumulated energy, but still remained a large and imposing foe. That she seemed to be able to hold onto the energy she absorbed until she needed it was enviable. The bands of Izumi’s regulator rig were screaming an angry red, a sign she needed expel heat and expel it quickly.

“Still standing?” Kamuy taunted. “Pretty impressive. I wouldn’t think a little twig like you would last this long.”

With some amount of satisfaction, Izumi realized that Kamuy was a very big target indeed.

“But a twig, properly propelled,” she said, bringing her hands up, “can pierce even the mighty oak.”

Izumi reached inside herself and found the heat she had been storing, like a crimson hot core inside her. But instead of changing it into fire, she put to use the training that Uncle Denki had helped her with, expelling the heat directly. The very air in front of her turned wavy and shimmery, refracting from all the heat she was putting out into it.

“Hey…” growled Kamuy, “what’re you doing…?” Already the big woman was sweating so hard it was pouring off of her and soaking through her clothes. Her breaths coming in ragged gasps, each one clearly a struggle. She swayed, unsteady on her feet, as though a stiff breeze might soon blow her over.

“Whatever you’re doing… cut it… out…” Kamuy took a few ineffective swings as thin air, as though that might stop the heat assault. But as addled as she was, they were clumsy, weak, and ineffective, with no power behind them. Izumi knew she was threading a careful line. Too much heat could kill a person easily and she had no desire to be a murderer, especially given that this was only an exam. But nor did she wish to give Kamuy a chance to recover and possibly hurt her or her friends.

Kamuy began glowing and steaming again, losing mass as she poured her energy into resisting Izumi’s attack. Step by step, she pushed her way forward, even as the concrete beneath her feet began to soften from the heat she was enduring. That was unfortunate. Processing this much heat as once, pushing her Quirk as far as it would go, Izumi could feel the strain upon herself and she did not know how long she could maintain this level of exertion. Her knees were starting to feel weak and even keeping her arms up to keep pointing at Kamuy was beginning to become a strain. Her arms traced small circles in the air as she failed to hold them straight.

And still, Kamuy came closer. The Villain took step after step after step, her face twisted in a grimace as she fought for every inch. But Izumi would make her fight for that, even if it cost her dearly, even if she collapsed. Because every second this woman spent fighting her was one that gave her classmates and friends time to overcome the other Villains.

They were counting on her. Everyone was counting on her. She could not, would not, be the reason that they failed!

And still Kamuy came onward, trailing steam like some ancient and slow moving train. “You… gotta… be… just… about… out… kid,” she hissed. “Those damn… blinky lights… are a dead… giveaway.”

Damnation, she was right! Izumi was just about out of heat to throw at her, the crimson hot core she’d been drawing on depleted, the bands of her regulator rig showing a green that would have, in any other circumstances, been reassuring.

Now, it was a little terrifying.

The wave of heat stopped abruptly, as she exhausted her last reserve. The change in the air was immediate and Kamuy instantly stood a little taller, a little stronger, though it was clear surviving the assault had cost her dearly. Her own reserves must have been nearly as depleted as Izumi’s were. Though that still left her a large and muscular foe. She could still overpower Izumi. She was a fit girl, especially for one with her chronic health issues, but there was no comparison.

So she had to end this now.

Kamuy rushed her, fist draw back to strike, and Izumi acted on instinct, her body and Quirk moving before she even had a chance to think. Thick ice shot up around Kamuy, covering her body and lifting her off the ground in an instant. On her regulator rig, the bands changed from a safe green to cautionary orange without ever even passing through the alerting yellow. The temperature around her had dropped by several degrees, enough that, for a moment, Izumi could see her breath on the air.

But when it was done, Kamuy was entombed in a pillar of ice, only her head and fingertips poking out. She hadn’t frozen her solid, so there was probably minimal risk of cell death. But she had beaten her. She had won.

And still she remained standing. Izumi had pushed her Quirk and pushed it hard. But she had not given in to her weakness, had not fallen.

But she could not celebrate her accomplishments, not now. Not when the others were still battling.

She would celebrate when they won, but the personal victory would lend her strength to continue the fight.

***

Things, Katsumi thought, had pretty much gone to shit. The Villain called Jawbreaker had grown to monstrous size and mass, towering over all of them by more than a meter. More than that in her case; height was not her friend. Now made of metal, rock, and concrete, he was shrugging off everything they could throw at him. She still ached from where he had hit her, with a fist that was nearly as big as she was tall.

But she’d be damned if she was going to go down without a fight, even if she was completely out of ammo for her disk-launchers. She hadn’t backed down in the face of a damned Nomu, she wasn’t about to back down in the face of some Villain Aiazwa had gotten from somewhere to play rent-a-goon. Some part of her was afraid though. Not for herself, but for Izzy. She knew she shouldn’t be, knew that Izzy had more than proven she was capable of taking care of herself, but the thought still remained. She pushed it down, channeling it into something she could use. The sooner she clobbered this guy, the sooner she could check on her.

Jawbreaker let out a laugh, his punch connecting solidly with Toshi. Toshi had amped up his gravity enough that he was starting to sink into the ground, but the blow was still enough to push him back, gouging deep troughs in the street. A second blow hit even harder, sending Toshi smashing into the side of a building again. Above Jawbreaker, the Iida twins swooped down again and again, ineffectively striking against him. The Villain—though faster than he looked—was still not fast enough to catch them. Both broke off the attack. Sora to check on Toshi, Tensei to get space to think through his next move.

“Okay, you two,” she told Shinso and Haimawari. “I’ll knock him off his feet, you know him down. You’ll know it when you see it. Jetset! Give me a distraction!”

Haimawari nodded. “Got it. Bring the boom.”

Shinso nodded rapidly, head bobbing like it was on a spring. “Got it!” he said. “Going to have to hit him *really* hard though! He’s tough!”

A grin spread across Katsumi’s face. “Ain’t nothing tougher than me.” She cracked her knuckles. “And Newb? Only I get to bring the boom.”

“Arms! Rocky!” she shouted. “Clear the way! Big boom coming through!”

At her shout, Shoji and Koda backed off from their assaults on Jawbreaker. Koda had fast grown a thick redwood tree and Shoji had used his incredible strength to turn it into an improvised club. It hadn’t done any good. Jawbreaker had ever taken a big bite out of it, added hard wood to his make-up as well.

Tensei Iida swooped down from the sky, smashing both fists into Jawbreaker’s skull. There was a metal on metal clang, but Jawbreaker wasn’t hurt in the slightest. He swung wildly at Iida again, and this time he Iida was just a little too slow. Jawbreaker’s fingers closed around his legs and he slammed Iida into the ground again and again. With a grunt, he tossed the boy over his shoulder. There. She hadn’t meant for that to happen… but that was her opening.

Katsumi slapped a palm on the ground, extending her explosive power through it, triggering a series of increasingly large explosions in a rapid-fire, firecracker line that lead straight to Jawbreaker. She concentrated, putting as much power as she could into the last one.

KABOOM!

For just a moment, the explosion caught Jawbreaker off-balance, sending him teetering on his feet. “What the hell…?!” the Villain cried out, arms swinging wildly.

“Now!” Katsumi bellowed.

For all the times they’ve bugged the hell out of her, Shinso and Haimawari are good at following orders. And more importantly, they can hit hard. Shinso sucked in a breath and unleashed another blast of sonic force, her own proximity to it making Katsumi wince from the noise, while Haimawari braced himself and unleashed another blue-white blast. Both attacks struck Jawbreaker dead on, with enough force to land him smack on his back. It made a sound somewhere between a building collapsing, an avalanche, and a trash can rolling down the stairs.

“Rocky!” Katsumi shouted again. “Tie him up!”

“I am on it, Bombshell,” Koda said, tossing more seeds. They began growing instantly, ensnaring Jawbreaker with thick, thorny vines, weaving all around his body and limbs.

Jawbreaker was already struggling against them, even as Koda tried to keep the pace, growing them as vast as they were destroyed. Dammit. Koda’s vines alone weren’t going to be enough. Time for what was usually her Plan A: Overwhelming Force. “We hit him,” she said. “Hard. Now. Everything we’ve got.”

It was already too late. Jawbreaker let out a laugh. “It takes more than that to keep me down,” he said. He was already getting back on his feet. Vines snapped like twine. “We’re in the home stretch too. That means the kid gloves come off!”

He lashed out and despite having seen it several times over, she still couldn’t believe how someone that big could move that fast. Koda and Shoji, the closest, paid the price for her few seconds of hesitation. Shoji threw himself in front of Koda, using all six of his arms to block Jawbreaker’s strike, but jawbreaker brought his other arm around and slammed it into Shoji from the side. He went flying and when he landed, he did not get up.

Koda lasted only a moment longer, trying reaching into her pouches for more seeds. She fast-grew a circle of trees around Jawbreaker, briefly trapping him, until he simply punched his way through and took her down with another swipe of his massive, multi-element fists.

It had all happened so fast, she hadn’t even had time to move. But now, she was spurred into action. “Get that fucker!” she shouted, rushing forward.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of Shinso and Haimawari firing again, their blasts sailing past her to strike Jawbreaker. She had to trust that they were going to do their jobs, because the bad guy in front of her was all that she could see.

Fortunately, Koda’s failed attempts at containment had provided her with plenty of ammunition. She quickly grabbed shards of the felled trees and tossed them at Jawbreaker, peppering him with small explosions. Even putting everything she had into them… it wasn’t enough. Nothing left to make a big enough boom with.

“Hey, ugly!” she shouted, grabbing a handful of splintery pieces of wood in each hand. When he turned to look at her she tossed them all at his face, letting them explode like little firecrackers.

Here, he actually screamed, one hand going to cover his face, the other swinging wildly and easy to dodge. As his hand swung by, she slapped it with her own. The material of her gloves now let her channel her explosive power through them directly, and the explosion she created charred his transformed flesh.

“Yeah!” Shinso cried out. “We’ve got him now!” He hit Jawbreaker with another sonic scream.

“”Blast now, brag later, Shinso!” Haimawari called out. He was zipping around Jawbreaker’s other side, his feet and one hand on the ground, his other hand in the air and unleashing a barrage of low-powered blasts. They weren’t strong enough to do much—if any—damage, but they served as yet another distraction.

“Katsumi!” a voice—Toshi’s—cried out. “Give me an opening!”

She grinned again, slapping both hands on the ground again and setting off a powerful explosion. This close to it, the explosion left even her ears ringing, but it did the job, further throwing Jawbreaker off balance from already having been temporarily blinded.

She heard the roar of Sora Iida’s engines before she saw the two of them, zooming towards Jawbreaker and Sora carrying Toshi by the wrists. At the last second, she released him and judging by how big of a clang the impact of Toshi’s body made with Jawbreaker’s, he must have gone about as far up on his gravity as he could. He pushed off the Villain’s body and landed next to her. The blow managed to stagger the giant for a moment, at least.

“About time you stopped loafing around,” Katsumi said.

“Give me a break,” Toshi replied. “I’ve been hit a lot today.”

Jawbreaker reared up and was ready to strike again. Some guys just took a lot of hitting, it seemed.

***

Before Jawbreaker could strike again, a blast of fire hit him square on, setting fire to parts of his body that were made of wood. He let out a cry of alarm and smarted smacking at the burns, trying to smother them. Thick ice walls followed, briefly blocking him off. Toshi risked turning his head to find the source of the blast and was greeted with the sight of Izumi propelling herself along an ice slide to meet them.

“Glad you could join us, Iz,” Katsumi said.

“Well, someone clearly has to keep you out of trouble,” Izumi replied. “As always.”

“Was that a joke? You pick now to start telling jokes?”

Izumi’s arrival meant good news and bad news. It meant they were down to one just one Villain to deal with. But it also meant…

The sound of fists on the ice wall told him they didn’t have much time.

“The others?” he asked.

Izumu shook her head. “All defeated.”

They were it then. Six of them against a Villain who just kept taking whatever they had and kept coming back for more. It was only then that Toshi realized there was a question he’d been reluctant to ask. He shouldn’t have. One of Dad’s often told stories was how Grandpa Might and he had first met, when Grandpa Might had smashed the Sludge Villain to pieces…

It was an extreme solution. One he hadn’t wanted to suggest they try.

“Shota,” he said quickly, as cracks were appearing in the ice wall. Maybe just a couple more blows. “Has Jawbreaker ever been smashed or broken by a Hero?”

Shota’s purple eyes went wide. “Oh, a bunch of times! Sometimes, he just eats more and it grows back, and sometimes he gets so smashed up it makes him change back, but all his people parts are still there!”

“Saying we should go all out, Midoriya?” Haimawari asked. Between his goggles and bandanna, his expression was almost unreadable, but Toshi could hear the doubt in his voice. “That’s a lot to throw at a guy who’s just testing us.”

Toshi nodded. “The real world’s not a test. You hold back too much there… Villains like him will kill you.”

“Okay then,” Haimawari said. “I… might have something.”

“Make it quick, Newb,” Katsumi said.

Haimawari told them his idea. Toshi had to admit, it was a pretty good one. “Then we’ll do it like that then,” he said. And then there was no more time.

The ice wall shattered, Jawbreaker breaking free. “That really hurt, kid,” he growled. Patches of wood on his body showed deep burn marks, but he seemed just as large and stroke as eve. “My turn!”

“Hit him!” Toshi yelled. “Everything you’ve got! Izumi—containment! Everyone else… hit him!”

Izumi was first, unleashing a powerful wave of ice that entrapped Jawbreaker from the waist down, trapping his lower body in a block of ice. It was already cracking against his great strength. But Izumi was hardly alone in her attacks and it only needed to give them an opening.

Shota hit him with another sonic blast. It shattered the rest of the ice, but it hit him hard, kept him off balance. He must have taken in a pretty big breath beforehand, because the beam was strong and sustained. Haimawari quickly zipped behind him, then powered up for a focused, intense blast. He couldn’t sustain a single beam like Shota and required a moment to charge up a stronger shot, but he was bringing everything he had.

Sora hammered him with a series of rocket propelled blows, raising a small series of cracks on Jawbreaker’s body, never standing still for a moment. With what had happened to her brother, she wasn’t letting up at all. Bombarded already by Shota and Haimawari, he stood little chance of catching her.

Katsumi, freed from any need to hold back, went all out, tossing whatever she could at him, hitting him with explosions big and small. She kept herself light on her feet, never staying in one place for long, but steadily getting closer. Dodging under one of Jawbreaker’s strikes, she reached up and slapped her hand against his arm.

KABOOM!

Jawbreaker let out a scream as his left arm exploded. The sight and sound of it was more than enough to give everyone pause. Even knowing he had asked his friends to go all out, Toshi felt guilty for it. It looked like it had to hurt.

It was also the opening he needed. Toshi forced himself not to think about the harm that he had done and took a couple steps back, canceled his gravity, and jumped, launching himself at Jawbreaker like a missile.

But even in pain, Jawbreaker was ready and swung a massive arm. He hit Toshi full on, just as Toshi had shifted to full gravity. There was a satisfying sound of cracking, but so powerful was the blow that Toshi went flying anyway, smashing into and through the building across the street.

As he landed, Toshi heard a rumble and struggled to stand, but couldn’t get his feet under him. The building creaked…

And came down on him.

***

“Toshi!” Sora Iida screamed, dropping to the ground with far less grace than usual. She tapped the side of her helmet. “Toshi, come in! Speak to me!”

No response over the comms wasn’t good. It meant Midoriya was unconscious or hurt or… No. Isamu instantly pushed that thought aside. The teachers wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. They were monitoring them, of course. Watching them. If Midoriya were really hurt, they’d have stopped the test, gotten Doctor Izumi out. Hell, his grandfather would probably have already been out here, digging through the rubble.

It didn’t mean Midoriya was going to be rejoining the fight any time soon though. Which was… not good. Deprived of one of the strongest Quirks in the class, it left them were a lot fewer options for fighting Jawbreaker.

“Word of advice, kid?” Jawbreaker said. “Don’t take your eye off the Villain!” He lashed out with his remaining arm and struck Iida hard, seeming not to notice the spider-web of cracks that spread up his arm from the blow. The red and silver armored girl went flying and did not get up when she landed.

Jawbreaker dug his fingers into the ground, breaking up the street to shovel more pavement into his mouth. As he did, his left arm started growing back, now being made entirely out of pavement. Isamu wasn’t sure how much time they had left in the exam… but he was certain having a Villain like this still rampaging about wasn’t going to do their scores any good.

“And you shouldn’t take your eyes off me!” Kirishima-Bakugo, now behind the Villain, shouted. She once again placed both hands on the ground and channeled a powerful explosion through it. The ground around him exploded in a series of bangs that were more flash than flare, momentarily stunning him.

“I think I have done just about all I can,” Izumi announced. “Katsumi, gentlemen, if you would?”

“What the hell are you talking about, kid?” Jawbreaker snarled. “Haven’t you seen yet that none of you are beating me?”

“Yeah, well,” Isamu said. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

“We tricked you!” Shinso shouted. “We tricked you good!”

“What are you��?” Jawbreaker began, and only then did he notice all the spider-web cracks that had appeared all over his body, all the places he had hit and been hit. At the layer of shining frost that had formed all over his body.

When Shinso had mentioned that Jawbreaker could be shattered and reform without killing him, Isamu’s mind had kicked into overdrive. Short of Shinso’s disintegrating scream thing or Kirishima-Bakugo pumping out way more explosive power than he’d ever seen her do before, none of them could have possibly done enough damage to him to completely slow him down. They could blow off limbs, as Kirishima-Bakugo had managed to do, but that was riskier and required more precision targeting. And as they had seen, he could just consume more to regrow them.

Instead, while the rest of them kept him distracted, Izumi had slowly been leeching heat from the material of his body directly, slowly freezing him up little by little. Midoriya should have been the one to deliver the final blow, but…

As realization dawned on Jawbreaker’s face, they let him have it. Kirishima-Bakugo unleashed another wave of explosions across the ground, Shinso screamed and unleashed a powerful wave of sonic force, and Isamu put everything he had into his blast, firing his repulsion force outward in one massive shot.

The attacks hit Jawbreaker all at once, exploding the majority of his body into a shower of frozen shards. His head and shoulders hit the ground with a groan, still very conscious.

“You kids haven’t won yet…” he growled, trying to tilt so he could begin eating the street again.

But then Izumi acted again, shooting a pillar of ice up beneath him that then wrapped around the head, completely encasing it in ice.

There was a long, quiet moment before any of them could even breathe.

“Did we… did we do it?” Shinso asked.

“I, ah, I think we did,” Isamu said, scarcely believing the words out of his own mouth.

“Damn right we did,” Kirhsima-Bakugo said. “Thanks to Izzy here.”

Izumi bowed her head, then held up a hand. The bands of her uniform were glowing orange and perspiration covered her face, but she was still standing strong. He’d been worried that she might have to push herself too far with his plan, but she’d offered herself up for it anyway. “A group effort. I am owed no more praise than any other.”

Another quiet moment followed, as the rush of battle began to wear off. Isamu was already thinking they needed to check on Midoriya and the others who’d been knocked around over the course of the exam. Which he would do. Just as soon as his heartrate returned to normal.

“But,” Shinso said, “then why isn’t anyone telling us it’s over. Shouldn’t there be a bell or alarm or something.”

Damn. He was right.

“Looking for this, Heroes?” a voice called out. Across the street, in the shadow of a building, was Shadow-Thief. And she was holding Recovery Girl. Or rather… Doctor McGuffin! “Guess you’re too late!”

She disappeared again, reappearing in the shadows further up. Isamu had a good eye for distance. They’d been told they couldn’t allow Doctor McGuffin to get more than 100 meters from the shelter, or they’d lose. He estimated she’d already made it 50 meters…

“Put me down, you hooligan!” Recovery Girl snapped, smacking her fists against Shadow-Thief’s head and shoulders. “Kids these days, no respect for their elders!”

“Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me, old woman! You’re supposed to be playing along!” Shadow-Thief vanished again, disappearing and reappearing even further away.

Too far for anyone to blast her, too far for Izumi to trap her with ice, all of which were too risky to begin with. Too far for anything.

Anything but him.

Isamu threw himself forward and called upon his Quirk. He thought he’d put everything he had into that last blast again Jawbreaker. He turned out to be wrong, blasting himself forward with reserves he hadn’t thought he’d had.

It hurt, like a burning sensation in his hands and feet, and he could feel exhaustion threatening to claim him the longer he did it, buildings speeding by as he pushed and pushed and pushed every ounce of repulsive force he had left in his body.

Shadow-Thief was still getting away. Twenty-five meters until the boundary. Twenty meters. Fifteen. Ten. He was getting closer… so close…. Five meters… He just needed one last push!

There were no shadows big enough left, forcing Shadow-Thief to try and run the last five meters. Isamu unleashed every last ounce of energy within him and shot forward like a paperclip from a rubber band. He smacked into her legs just before she made it the final meter.

Recovery Girl went sailing into the air and he desperately disentangled himself from Shadow Thief, getting under the elderly woman just in time to catch her, sinking to his knees.

Somewhere, an alarm sounded, signaling the end of the three hours of their exam.

It was the last thing Isamu heard before he passed out.

#my hero academia #their hero academia #fan fiction #fan fic #my writing #toshi midoriya #katsumi kirishima-bakugo #izumi todoroki #isamu haimawari

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