Chapter Text
Standing in the fake building, Cross couldn't help but wonder how much money the school really had. He heard about the entrance exam, and he fell into their fake city and saw it first hand, but this was getting ridiculous.
If he had that much money, he'd buy a buttload of chocolate and tacos for him and Epic to share.
"So, what's our plan?" Yaoyorozu snapped him out of his thoughts. Cross hummed in thought.
"What's your quirk?" he asked her. She looked a little confused before she realised.
"Oh right, you came in after the first day," she laughed sheepishly. "My quirk is Creation, it allows me to use lipids in my body to create objects that I understand down to their atomic composition."
There were a few words Cross didn't quite understand but he got the gist of it.
That sure is useful.
No wonder she wanted to become a hero, and why she seemed like the studious type. Then, he had an idea.
"Hey, do you know how to make knives?" Cross asked, an evil glint in his eyes, his fingers drumming against the gold casing of his necklace.
---
"So can you hear anything?" Kaminari asked Jirou, whose headphone jacks were pierced into the floor. She sent him a slight glare that screamed 'be patient!'.
The two had opted to first take shelter in a room at the bottom floor of the building.
She closed her eyes, allowing herself to fully focus on the vibrations she could feel.
Footsteps... walking... running...
She snapped her head up.
"Someone's running in our direction!" She called out to Kaminari who had begun pacing around the room.
"Huh, now?!" He scrambled to get into a fighting stance as they heard light footsteps nearing the room they were in, before they stopped.
The two waited with bated breaths, as it seemed that whoever had been dashing towards them had disappeared suddenly.
Jirou's mind was racing, chances were that it was Cross, since Yaoyorozu didn't seem like the type to rush into battle. But even if that were the case, why would he come directly to them? Was he so confident? And where was he now?
The footsteps had stopped suddenly. They were already light, hard to hear had they not been dead silent. It was as if he teleported away. Jirou cursed the fact that she didn't try to pry more about his quirk, considering he wasn't around for the quirk apprehension test.
Skeletons, he should have something to do with bones, right? Something that that shouldn't let him teleport away like he seemingly did.
Neither of the two wanted to open the door, and stayed rooted in the positions, waiting for the person outside to enter.
Suddenly, in a blink the eye, the door swung open and a knife shot at Kaminari with a shocking speed.
Jirou barely had any time to react before bones shot out of the ground, surrounding and caging her.
On the other hand, Kaminari had just narrowly avoided the knife as it sped past his face, the blade only lightly grazing his face, leaving a small scratch.
He was in shock for a while, but the sight of his teammate being caged snapped him out of it and he let out an electric shock towards Cross, who had entered the room soon after launching his knife.
Cross dodged it easily, but his attention was diverted enough that his bones dropped down enough for Jirou to jump out.
She plugged her jacks into the ground, sending vibrations through the ground hard enough that Cross stumbled, teetering off balance.
"Go!" She yelled to Kaminari, who didn't wait more than a second before rushing off to the bomb.
Seeing as he hadn't brought out another knife, Jirou had reason to believe that the one he threw was all that he had.
I just need to dodge his bones...
But instead of using his quirk, he got into a fighting stance, throwing a punch that she had to drop down to avoid. She proceeded to try and make a swipe for his legs, but was immediately pinned down, one of her arms pressed against her back as she was pushed down.
She grunted as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but all that got her was him further pressing her face to the ground.
Cross disarmed her as best as he could while pulling out the capture tape from his pocket. Soaked in sweat, Jirou managed to slip her arm out from under his grasp, throwing a punch towards his face.
Acting purely on instinct, Cross summoned a white, boney knife and caught her arm in the hole in the weapon, twisting it away from him as she groaned in pain.
"Sorry, you startled me..." Cross muttered apologetically as he wrapped her up in the capture tape. He didn't really want to beat these kids up, he's not like Killer. But at the same time, he was too competitive and too prideful to lose to them. So maybe a bit like Killer.
At that point, Jirou could only let out a sigh, resigning herself to defeat.
"Good fight," she said sadly, feeling disappointed in herself. She should have known Cross would have another knife, she had let her guard down. Although, the second knife looked awfully different from the first...
Cross looked away, not knowing what to say. He was honestly expecting more. Maybe Midoriya and Bakugou really were just special. He leisurely stood up, making his way to Kaminari and Yaoyorozu.
I hope she's handling herself OK.
---
Kaminari panted as he ran up the stairs, internally groaning to himself. Why did they have their base on the ground level? He'd be out of energy by the time he got to the top floor.
He stumbled clumsily to the final step, sighing in relief before focusing on his objective.
Wait, what?
The bomb was in clear view of him, but Yaoyorozu was no where in sight. He immediately had his guard up.
Yaoyorozu had a Creation quirk, it was likely that she had set up some traps, he needed to be ready.
Eyeing the floor and walls warily, Kaminari made his way to the bomb, keeping an eye out for the girl. The closer he got, the more he felt that it was too easy.
Maybe Yaoyorozu had gone down to back Cross up? It was possible that him and her could have passed each other, there were multiples stairways in the building. But wasn't that too convenient?
Whatever, as long as he touched it, they would win! He reached his hand out towards the bomb, feeling more assured of himself by the second.
Closer... closer...
He made contact with the bomb! But...
"It's flat?" he gasped, realising he had fallen into their trap as the cardboard toppled over under his hand. He had no time to react before Yaoyorozu began charging at him, bo staff in hand. She swung it towards his legs, sweeping him off his feet in an instant.
While on the ground, he could see clearly. Yaoyorozu had made a fake wall to cover the real bomb! It was just that from his perspective, standing right in front, he couldn't see it.
He jumped up to his feet as Yaoyorozu swung at him some more, panting heavily.
She's slower...
Yaoyorozu must have already used up a lot of energy to make those props. She was counting on knocking Kaminari down swiftly, but he had reacted faster than she had hoped.
Kaminari observed her carefully, trying his best not to let himself get distracted, focusing purely on her face and hands. He didn't really want to have to beat up a girl. As Kirishima said, that was super unmanly. And he didn't want to ruin his potential chances with her before they even got to know each other!
He just needed to stay out of her reach and wait for her to tire herself out. Then he'd tie her up in the capture tape, touch the bomb and win!
Stepping out of her range was easy, as she was becoming more sluggish by the minute. But nevertheless, she continued to swing at him, feeling even more frustrated as he stepped out of range.
Come on! Take me seriously!
Kaminari took another step back, then another, and another, and—
His back touched something, but it wasn't a wall. Yaoyorozu gasped in relief. He turned behind and looked down, seeing the monochrome skeleton behind him.
"Hi," Cross looked up at him with a sinister smirk, knocking him down immediately. He began moving to tie Kaminari up before turning to look at Yaoyorozu, who stood there awkwardly panting, rubbing her arm.
She had barely done anything. Kaminari could have taken her down if he wasn't so nice and they would have lost. In the end, she needed Cross to save her. She felt a sense of uselessness she had never felt before.
"Hey," she heard Cross call out to her. He held the capture tape towards her from where he was pinning Kaminari down, who was still trying to wiggle away. But Cross was surprisingly strong for a skeleton.
"Wanna do the honours?" he gave her an awkward smile. She perked up in surprise, walking over towards them. She looked at Cross, who was looking away. She may have been seeing it wrong, but it looked like his cheeks were dusted a light purple. She let out a small giggle.
She moved to tie Kaminari up, who for some reason stopped trying to wiggle away and began blushing profusely.
This isn't so bad...
Yaoyorozu didn't know why, but she suddenly felt like whacking his head.
"The villain team wins!"
---
"That was an excellent performance, good work to all of you!" All Might complimented the four who stepped into the room. Their classmates clapped for them as they had done for the previous group that had finished before moving on to discuss as All Might asked the class who the MVP for the round was.
"I believe that it was Cross," Yaoyorozu chimed in. "He did most of the fighting and took down both people in the hero team while I..."
She looked away in embarrassment. All Might nodded in understanding.
"Don't sell yourself short, young Yaoyorozu! Those props you made distracted young Kaminari for quite a while, and you managed to catch him off guard, all by yourself and continued to fight even when you were tired, you did a great job," he rested a large hand on her shoulder gently, giving her a warm smile.
She stared at him, nodding with a big smile plastered on her face.
"I thought it was pretty reckless for Cross to go after the two all on his own, but he's really good!" Kirishima commented.
"Oh yeah, when he caught Jirou's hand with that second knife, it was so cool!" Uraraka cheered.
That made Yaoyorozu pause, second knife? She had only made him one, and even then she was relunctant. That was... strange. But she opted to ignore it, maybe he had a second one on him.
Everyone gave their compliments to the four, especially Cross, who was standing stock-still.
"Dude, you gotta teach me that move you used to take me down, that was awesome!" Kaminari begged, bending down to sling an arm over Cross' shoulders. When Cross didn't respond, he looked at him before his mouth dropped open in shock.
"Yo, you blush purple?" he gasped. Cross' entire face was flushed a deep purple, his hands trembling by his side.
It wasn't his fault! He just, hadn't been praised so much before, especially after he destroyed his world. The most he got were playful to malicious jabs from Killer and an occasional 'good work' from Nightmare (he especially savoured those)
He had almost forgotten what it was like.
"Tha- thanks..." he whispered shyly as the rest awed at his abnormal blush colour. Good thing Midoriya was still in the infirmary, he didn't want to have to answer anymore questions about his biology.
All Might stood by silently, taking note of this revelation.
"Well then!" He clapped his hands, getting everyone's attention. "On to the next group!"
Cross sighed in relief. It was nice to get complimented sometimes, but anymore and he would combust. He focused on the screen as the next two groups entered the building. Kaminari and Jirou weren't anything too special, while Midoriya and Bakugou were definitely bigger powerhouses. It'd be good to observe how strong everyone was.
---
In the end, the other few that caught his attention were Todoroki and Tokoyami. For Tokoyami, it was more of his quirk that caught Cross' attention. It felt a bit like Nightmare's, except it depended on the darkness rather than negativity.
"Oh right, Cross," All Might called him to stay back as the others went back to class. He informed him that Shouta and Hizashi would be taking him back home. Cross nodded before going back to class with the rest.
Midoriya came back to class once it was almost over, and a group of classmates surrounded him, complimenting him on his performance during the battle trial. Cross left silently, not bidding goodbye to anyone.
As he waited outside for his teachers to pick him up, he could hear a faint but familiar yelling. He made his way towards the sound. Who else did he find but Bakugou and Midoriya.
I really hope they settle this soon, it's becoming a pain.
He was about to walk away when he heard.
"I obtained this quirk from somebody else," Midoriya said, not seeming to care that others may hear. Personally, Cross didn't understand the significance, he wasn't too sure if quirks were transferable. But from the look on Bakugou's face, it seemed that they weren't.
Then it was just more ranting, and Cross walked away, wondering if this new piece of information would be important in the future.
He was soon pulled out of his thoughts as he bumped into Todoroki, who looked paler than before. He quickly remembered that the scarred boy had to go to the infirmary due to mild hypothermia from the overuse of his quirk.
That was another thing about this world. Quirks could harm the user, so what good were they? He'd never understand.
The two stood in silence, Cross begging for his teachers to take him away from the awkwardness. Todoroki didn't bother to make any small talk either.
"Cross," Shouta called out, Hizashi trailing behind him. Cross jumped up, giving Todoroki a small wave goodbye as he followed the two adults to their car.
Todoroki, on the other hand, was left starring as the three drove away, the cogs in his brain turning.
Wait...