Chapter Text
There were three things Izuku noticed as he walked down the path. The first thing was that there was only one direction he could go. There were no turns or even dead ends from what he could see. It was just one line. That thought both excited and terrified him. It would make finding the buzzer easier, but it also made him nervous about which hero was on this floor.
The second thing he noticed was that the paths were much larger than they were on the first floor. Izuku could actually spread his arms out and still have room between his hand and the wall. That would be useful when he eventually ran into the hero.
The third thing he noticed was that if he narrowed his gaze at the top of the walls, he could see small gaps. Just barely big enough to fit a finger through, but gaps nonetheless.
When he turned the first corner, he felt himself tense up. When it came to the first maze, there were so many paths that there was a slight chance that Izuku could have avoided Present Mic. But if there was only one path now, he had no choice but to face whoever was up ahead. He gulped and forced himself to push forward.
He could have ran just to give himself more time for the upcoming fight, but then he reasoned that he might be too out of breath by the time he got there. He had no idea how long this maze was. And given the gaps in the wall, he had a feeling he knew just exactly who he was facing.
He hadn’t seen any gaps between the wall and the floor, though. If his assumption about the hero was correct, then he’d have more time to reach her before her gas got to him. Gas rises faster, after all.
He also made his plan reach the buzzer because there was no way he could restrain Midnight before her gas made him fall asleep. Not without a filter in his mask, that was.
Eventually, he came to his first choice. Go forward or turn right. He went forward. Turned left. Dead end. When he turned around, he froze. Small, purple particles were inching towards him.
Midnight had found him.
He instantly held his breath and began running, this time going down the turn he hadn’t before. Midnight was at the end of the hall. As she walked, she pulled out her whip. It cracked through the air.
“Hello, hello Kumo,” she sing-songed, letting the whip drag along the ground. “Long time no see.”
Izuku ducked into the hall next to her, narrowly avoiding the whip. She laughed. “I love it when they run,” he heard her say.
He was in a large space. Each side had an opening. Shit. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold his breath. If he didn’t find the buzzer soon, he’d be forced to inhale. Although. The gas hadn’t reached his chest yet. It was still spreading across the floor. He would inhale some, yes, but it wouldn’t be enough to put him to sleep. That was one of her weaknesses. She couldn’t control where it went.
Midnight grinned as he took short breaths. Izuku booked it down a hall when he felt her whip touch his back. He hadn’t meant to let her get that close. Another dead end.
When he got back into the large space, the gas had risen a lot. It was up to his torso now. Another crack of Midnight’s whip sent him down another hall. He internally cheered as the buzzer came into view. He reached out a hand. He was so close. Just a few more steps.
He gasped as he felt the whip twist around his wrist. Midnight pulled him back and delivered a swift kick to his stomach. Izuku was sent to the ground. The ground where the gas was. He held his breath, already starting to feel slightly woozy.
Izuku popped off his finger caps and aimed when a pair of heels came into view. He managed to get one of them, and that was enough for him. He scrambled to his feet and ran back down the hall. He could hear Midnight struggling behind him.
Izuku looked over his shoulder to see Midnight back on the hunt. Only this time, she was missing a heel. It would have been funny watching her move up and down so dramatically if he wasn’t on the verge of passing out.
The whip circled around him again. Izuku just yanked as hard as he could. It didn’t budge. He still grew closer to the buzzer.
He could feel himself slipping out of consciousness. No! You can’t. Not when you’re so close!
His fingers brushed against the plastic. He tried to find enough strength to push it. Before he could, though, his legs gave out from under him. He crumpled to the ground. He didn’t press it. He couldn’t. He didn’t even have the strength to stand for crying out loud!
He hit his head against the wall over and over. At this point, he should just inhale and fall asleep. That would beat the pain in his lungs.
“Kumo clears the second round! Midnight, please turn off your Quirk.”
Izuku’s head snapped up. Something fell next to him. It was a gas mask. He hurriedly took off his own mask to replace it with the gas mask. He inhaled, finally letting his lungs take a break. Realizing what he just did, he turned around. Midnight was facing the other way.
“What. . .” Was all he could say. He continued taking heavy gulps of air.
“You hit the buzzer with your head, kid,” the R-rated hero said.
“Huh?” Izuku looked at the wall, and sure enough the buzzer was right at head level.
When the gas cleared out, Izuku tossed the mask aside and grabbed his own. He refastened it and told Midnight she could turn around.
“Catch your breath before you move on.”
“Man,” Izuku sighed. “If it gets harder from here, I’m scared All Might will be the final room.”
Midnight just laughed. “Just you wait, kid.”
It took him a few minutes to fully catch his breath. If it had just been running, he would’ve been fine. But holding your breath at the same time? It was a wonder how he was still alive. Other than the heroes wouldn’t let that happen, of course.
His legs were still shaking when he finally stood up. As soon as his hand left the wall, an opening appeared above him. He waved goodbye to Midnight as a pillar started lifting him up.
He faked confidence when he started Midnight’s floor. But now that he had survived, he felt a new surge of courage flow through his tiny body. He could do this. He fist pumped the air before stepping off the platform.
Just like Midnight’s floor, there was only one way to go. Unlike Midnight’s floor, however, it led straight to an open space. An open space with three Ectoplasm clones.
Izuku cursed under his breath. He cursed again when the doorway behind him closed.
“The path will open once all clones have been defeated or restrained,” Nezu’s disembodied voice said. “Begin!”
The clone in the middle began the assault, running straight at Izuku. The vigilante dodged a kick aimed for his side. He eyed the other clones. Why weren’t they going after him?
The Ectoplasm clone swiped his leg, knocking Izuku down. The clone aimed another kick, but the teen was faster. He rolled up to the nape of his neck, and used both legs to get the clone right in the chest. The clone stumbled back before exploding into a pile of goo. Izuku wrinkled his nose in disgust, but didn’t have time to wait.
Soon enough another clone started for him. He easily dodged the kick, but he didn’t account for the other clone to get him in the back. Izuku flew across the room, gathering scrapes across his abdomen.
Lulled into a sense of security, I guess.
Izuku stood up but made no move. The clones stilled too, obviously waiting for him to make the next jab.
Quick, what did he know about Ectoplasm. He lost his legs during a fight and replaced them. He could spit out ectoplasm to create clones, hence the name. And his clones could either be defeated by Ectoplasm himself or if they took enough damage.
That first clone proved it, but Izuku wasn’t sure he wanted to get in that position again. That left him with. . . His knife. Nezu had said nothing lethal, so if the blade was just kept away from any vital areas he should be fine. They were clones anyway.
Izuku decided to reveal his plan when he got closer, and charged towards both clones. He was met with a series of kicks and flips.
He jumped behind the clones and reached into his back pocket. He had moved his knives to his belt instead of the fanny pack when he left Mei’s. The sound of a zipper probably would’ve given them a clue.
One knife in each hand, he didn’t wait for the clones to turn around. Instead, he just jammed the blades into the clones’ backs.
Izuku froze and let go of the knives when the clones spewed out ectoplasm. It looked too much like blood spilling out. The clones were soon piles of goo on the floor, leaving Izuku covered in it. The knives clanged to the ground.
He stared at the mess. He had witnessed blood of course, can’t be a vigilante without it. He had witnessed people dying, too. But he’d never been the cause of it. He didn’t like that. He didn’t want to do that again.
“Five minutes remaining.”
Izuku snapped out of his thoughts, and knelt down to grab his weapons. Shaky hands gripped the handles. He wiped them off before pocketing them. After this was over, he was throwing the knives away.
There was a new opening on the other side of the room, which Izuku quickly followed. He wanted to vomit in the next space.
Three more Ectoplasm clones stood in the room. This time, they didn’t wait for the door to shut. They just ran at him. All three at once.
Izuku dodged and rolled and kicked and shot webbing. By the time he finished that room, he swore he would throw up if he ever saw ectoplasm again. The substance, not the hero.
The next door opened, and Izuku breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of no clones. Although he did tense back up when he saw who was there. Snipe stood in the center of the room, guns drawn.
Noticing Izuku’s hesitance at entering the room, the hero quickly said, “Don’t worry. These are BB-guns.”
That calmed him down a little, but getting hit with those pellets still hurt. Well, that was the point, wasn’t it? He’d already been kicked and thrown around concrete. Might as well add getting hit with plastic bullets to that list.
But wait. Didn’t Nezu say there would only be four heroes? Izuku supposed clones didn’t really count.
Once again, the door behind him closed up. Izuku wasn’t even given a moment to prepare before a pellet hit his stomach. His hand instinctively went to the source of pain. How could he fight a hero who never missed?
He was in the middle of attempting to dodge and failing when he remembered his fanny pack. He made note of where the buzzer was before unzipping it and pulling out three smoke bombs.
Snipe had to have the person in his field of vision. Couldn’t be in his field of vision if he couldn’t see anything at all!
Izuku threw the first smoke bomb on the ground. It gave him enough cover to move around, but not enough to get past the hero. Izuku willingly took another pellet to the side in order to get the smoke bomb near Snipe. The last smoke bomb went towards the buzzer.
With his path now laid out for him, Izuku bolted over to the buzzer. Another pellet collided with his skin right as he pushed it.
“Kumo passes the third round!”
“You okay, kid?” Snipe called as he put his guns away.
Izuku waved him off, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. He held his side, putting slight pressure to lessen the pain.
For the last time, a hole opened up above him and he was lifted up.
There were no walls when he stepped off the platform. Instead, there was just a pillar in the middle.
And All Might.
Oh god, he was fighting All Might.
Izuku gulped and took a few steps forward.
“Young Kumo!” All Might said, voice loud as always. “Congratulations on making it this far! Now, let us- hold on. Are you alright, Young Kumo?” The man gestured to his side.
Izuku looked down. He pressed a finger to his wound. It came back red.
“I’ll be fine,” he assured.
“We can stop if you’d like. I’m sure Nezu has more than enough video to go off of-“
“I’m fine!” Izuku yelled, surprised that he’d raised his voice at the number one hero. “I just. . . This is my only chance at getting into the hero course. I want to try.”
All Might rubbed the back of his neck, trademark grin appearing strained. “That is very admirable, however-“
The man was interrupted by Izuku aiming a fist at his face. All Might swiftly dodged.
All Might pushed his arm away, knocking Izuku off balance and sending him to the floor. Izuku pushed himself so his elbows held him up.
Yeah there was no way he was fighting All Might if a simple brush of his hand sent him flying. So where was that buzzer? It wasn’t on any of the walls. He had looked all over, even going over the walls three times.
The only thing in the room were the two people and that strange pillar.
If Present Mic could crack the walls, then All Might would definitely be able to destroy it.
Bingo.
And so Izuku resorted to just running around the room, trying to get All Might to hit the pillar. If the veins showing through his head were anything to go by, then All Might was definitely holding back.
Izuku would’ve gladly gone straight for the pillar, but he risked the chance of the hero catching on. He had to get him to lose focus first.
Nezu’s announcement came through, signaling there were three minutes left. Izuku took that as his queue to go for the pillar. He leaned against it, catching his breath. He had enough exercise for once in his life. His patrols weren’t as strenuous as this. He decided then and there that he wasn’t doing patrol that night. He needed a break.
Izuku blinked as his vision started to swim. His legs started shaking. He numbly looked down at the ground, seeing red ooze from the bottom of his pants.
Oh, it’s the blood loss, the vigilante thought before promptly passing out.
_____________
There were whispers floating around him. He couldn’t make out what was being said. He tried to focus on them, but that only made the ringing worse.
His face scrunched up as he forced his eyes open. He squeezed them shut immediately. It was too bright.
A voice shushed the other one.
“There, there, dearie,” the first voice said softly. “You’ve been out for two hours.”
Izuku finally pried his eyes open. The light was still bright, but he pushed through it. He stared at the white ceiling. A monitor beeped. It took Izuku a while to realize it was his heart beat.
“Where?” was all he got out.
A short figure hopped up onto a stool. “You’re in U.A.’s infirmary.”
Izuku, decidingly ignorant to Recovery Girl’s warning, moved himself so he was sitting up. Realizing she probably lost the battle, she just decided to begin checking his vitals.
Izuku looked around the room. They were alone. Except for the big man sitting on the bed next to him.
“All Might?” Izuku asked. “What are you doing here?”
The hero cleared his throat. “I wanted to make sure you were alright, Young Kumo. I knew you were injured and I should have done a better job to stop you.”
Izuku shook his head. “That’s not your fault! I didn’t want to listen.”
“Doesn’t matter whose fault it is or isn’t,” Recovery Girl said, unstrapping the blood pressure cuff from Izuku’s arm. “What matters is that you rest now. I found one of Snipe’s pellets in your side, young man. Why didn’t you tell anyone that you had a serious injury?”
Izuku shrunk under her sharp gaze. “I.. I never got the chance.”
Recovery Girl huffed and shook her head. “Well, as long as you rest it will be fine. It’ll leave a scar, but you’ll live.” She gave him a gummy and shooed him off the bed.
Izuku slowly got off the bed. Recovery Girl gave one last kiss to his skin before walking over to her desk. With nothing left to do, the teen turned to leave.
“W-wait, Young Kumo!” All Might said, reaching an arm out. Izuku stopped, handing gripping the door handle. “Nezu stopped by while you were sleeping. He said to stop by tomorrow at noon to discuss the results.”
Izuku gulped and nodded. “Thanks.” He opened the door, but stopped before he stepped out. “Nobody, uh, they didn’t take my-”
“Your identity is still hidden,” the hero assured.
Izuku nodded again, bidding the man goodbye and stepping into the hall.