Arc 4: Begin of the Exams
Hawks came home from his shopping trip. He opened the door of his house, and he could immediately smell the distressed scent of a pregnant omega. The sour pheromones impregnated the air and seeped out of the bedroom through the whole living room and kitchen.
Keigo rushed over to Dabi’s quarters, opened the door, and had to cover his nose because the stench was so putrid. “Dabi!” He called out, placed the bags next to the door, and walked closer to the closet. He knocked on the door; he didn’t want to scare Dabi more than necessary. He heard whimpering, and he just couldn’t stand to listen to it. He opened the doors, and he squatted down. “Dabi!” he repeated. He grabbed the edge of the blanket that covered up the villain and pulled it aside.
Dabi snapped out of it, gasping and looking around with scared eyes. He still seemed so far away. “Dabi, can you hear me?” he snapped one time with his fingers to get his attention. Dabi’s pupils snapped towards the sound, his breathing was still rigid, and he had trouble staying in the present.
“What happened?” Keigo asked. He wanted to grab the villain, but he remembered that the other omega didn’t like touches, at least if he hadn’t allowed it before.
“S-Shigaraki … I … I heard him over the mating bond …” Dabi murmured when he had collected himself enough.
Keigo gritted his teeth. “He’s not here! He can’t find you here,” he reassured the distraught omega. This went on for months. How could he make him feel better?
“I know … but it’s still so confusing. It feels so real. I know it’s in my mind, but I can’t do anything against it …” He was still shivering like leaves in a storm.
“I’m sorry that I can’t do something against it,” Hawks apologized.
“Bullshit … I don’t need your pity. It’s my fault anyway for mating him in the first place,” Dabi’s voice got harsh.
“It was a mistake, and now you get punished for it. That’s not fair; this was completely out of your control!” Hawks looked him in the eyes.
The distressed omega looked down; his hand was rubbing over his belly, and he started to purr to soothe himself. He shook his head. “I don’t want to think about it. Did you get more stuff for me?” He changed the topic; he was so sick of thinking about Shigaraki.
Keigo raised his eyebrows; he exhaled and nodded. He didn’t want to push Dabi if the villain wasn’t ready. “Yeah, I got some things for you,” with the help of his feathers, he brought the bags over. Only the ones for Dabi, though. He didn’t want him to accidentally stumble over the Endeavor merch.
Dabi was rummaging through the bags, still purring. He pulled the blankets and pillows out and immediately started to scent them; this way, he had to concentrate, and the sour, distressed scent got less and more peppermint scent came back. After that, he started to place the new items in his nest. “Thanks …” he murmured.
“Not a problem,” Keigo watched him preparing the nest. He had started to purr as well, just to help him calm down.
After a while, Dabi seemed to be done. He crawled out of the closet, holding a hoodie in his hands. He wanted to change into it because his current one was drenched in his distressed scent, which was uncomfortable.
He sighed, pulled the pullover over his head, and changed into the new hoodie. Thankfully, it was huge, and he almost completely disappeared in it. He purred somewhat happily. After that, he sat back in his nest. “Much better …” He wrapped the new fluffy blankets around himself and leaned back.
“Should I leave you alone?” Keigo asked.
Dabi hesitated for a few moments. “No ... Can you stay with me?”
“Of course!” the winged hero promised.
“Thanks …” Dabi exhaled. He was still a bit scared to go back to sleep, but he didn’t want to do anything else. He was so exhausted he just wanted to do nothing. So he wrapped himself tighter in the blankets and leaned back in his nest. Hawks got rid of his feathers and sat next to Dabi. He closed the door as far as possible, and they were submerged in darkness again. However, this time, Dabi felt different; he felt safer than before.
He purred while leaning against Keigo. He hoped so much this would keep Shigaraki out of his mind.
In the next few days, they found a lot of criminals and captured them. Katsuki had a lot of fun doing that. That was the job of a hero, and he loved it. It felt really good to beat them down and cash them in.
They, unfortunately, had no further clues about Darleen, which sucked. But there was so much other stuff to do that they couldn’t think about it too much.
But every fun had to end at one point. July came, and they had to return to school for the first-term final exams. Luckily, learning wasn’t hard for Katsuki. What was hard was that Eijiro didn’t learn with him. Deku was tutoring Eijiro. Even though they could control themselves better now, they still stayed away from him.
During his internship, he had no space to think about any kind of relationship, and he was glad about that. But now it slowly came back. Of course, it was stupid, but some nights, he wished he could cuddle with the real Izuku and the real Eijiro, not just the pillows. But no can do.
Instead of Eijiro, Denki sat with him. It was a lot more challenging to teach Denki. At the moment, he was playing with one of his stim toys, a hairy rubber ball. Katsuki looked at him and saw that Denki had something on his mind.
A little bit exhausted, Katsuki sighed. “Okay, what is it? What’s on your mind, sparky?”
Denki blinked a couple of times; he had this deer-in-headlights look. He started blushing and fidgeted even more with the ball in his hands.
“Is it Shinso again?” Katsuki asked. He wasn’t up to date with Denki’s dating life.
“Ahh, uhhh nooo! It’s not Hitoshi,” Denki mumbled. “I … ah … uhm … I – it’s nothing! I just can’t concentrate …”
Katsuki raised his eyebrows and put down the pen he was holding. “It’s even worse than usual! C’mon sparky, what’s up? Is it nightmares again?”
“Nah, I haven’t had a nightmare in a while. The therapist is helping …” his voice faded.
Katsuki sighed and released some calming pheromones. Denki visibly relaxed; he put his elbows on the table and lifted his hands. He supported his head with them. He exhaled deeply. “I-it’s about some of the stuff we are talking about …” he started.
“Hm, okay. Do you want to talk about it?”
“I … I want to, but I am afraid you’ll get angry at me,” Denki looked up nervously.
“Why would I get angry at you?”
“Because you might think this is weird or something. I don’t want you to think of me that I am a freak or anything.”
Katsuki was now really confused. “What? Denki, just spit it out. You’re always a weird freak, so that’s nothing new.”
Denki’s face got as red as a tomato, and he exhaled and clenched his hands around his stim toy. “Uh, well, you know ... I-In one of our conversations, I-I mentioned that I’d rather be an omega than a beta, right?” he stammered.
Katsuki furrowed his eyebrows; he remembered the conversation. “Yeah, I remember.” A low growl slipped past his lips.
“Uhm, you see, I ...” Denki got redder in the face. “Oh, forget about it! I shouldn’t have started this conversation. “I-I better go ...” He wanted to get up, but Katsuki grabbed him by the arm.
“Hey, wait!” Katsuki called out.
“N-No, I want to go,” Denki squeaked.
“Could you just explain yourself? What’s with you and being an omega?” Katsuki was massively irritated.
“I … uh, I want to, uhm … you see … I-” and then Denki short-circuited.
The omega stared at him in disbelief. “What the fuck just happened?”
Denki had his usual dumb facial expression, and he gave two thumbs-ups. Annoyed, Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose. “What now?”
He closed the notebook and stood up. He pulled Denki up and brought him to his room. He grabbed Denki’s wrist, and the idiot followed him with no problem.
Katsuki stood in front of Denki’s room and opened the door. They entered, and then Katsuki stopped. He looked at Denki’s bed. It was full of pillows, blankets, and plushies. It almost looked like a nest! But Denki was a beta; they didn’t prepare nests … Only omegas did.
He looked at the idiot next to him. He was still out. Sighing, Katsuki led him to the bed – or nest – and he helped him lay down. Afterward, he got a wet towel and placed it on Denki’s head. This idiot fell asleep pretty quickly.
Katsuki watched him sleep for about an hour. He wondered what was up with Denki.
Eventually, Denki regained consciousness. He sat up in his bed – nest – and blinked in confusion.
“Good morning, princess,” Katsuki said from the chair he was sitting in.
Denki shot around and stared at him with wide eyes; he looked mortified when he realized they were in his room. “So, are you now gonna explain to me what the hell is going on?”
Still blushing, the beta looked down; he grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly. “Look … I am seeing the therapist not just for my nightmares …”
“Oh? Then why?”
“Well, I … Ever since I was a pup, I wanted to be an omega ... I would always try to nest. I had so many blankets, pillows, and plushies. But since my parents are betas, there was no way for me to be one ... It made me incredibly sad because while they thought it was cute as a child, they started to tell me to behave accordingly as I got older.”
“So, you really want to be an omega?”
“Yeah, I was so frustrated when I presented as beta and jealous every time someone presented as omega. It was bad enough with the girls, but then, you presented as omega. I wanted to cry because you had what I wanted.” Denki gritted his teeth.
Katsuki raised his eyebrows at that. “Wow, I didn’t know that.” For a moment, he thought about it. Essentially, Denki was going through the same as he. He hated to be a beta, and Katsuki hated to be an omega.
“No one was supposed to know. After all, transitions aren’t possible. But since the attack, I started nesting again. I just can’t live without it.”
“Ah, I see. That’s why you prepped a nest,” Katsuki looked over to the bed.
Shyly, Denki nodded. “Yeah, it helps me cope,” he peaked over the pillow towards Katsuki. “What do you think?”
Katsuki blinked a few times. “It looks really good. Really comfy,” he complimented. He could see the smile on Denki’s face before he buried his head in the pillow.
“Thanks!” For a moment, he hid his face. “You know, my therapist told me that I could maybe socially transition. Even though I wouldn’t be physically an omega, I could socially live as one.”
“Really? Well, that would be good for you, right?”
“Yeah, I would love to be called an omega ... But I’m also kind of scared of what the others would say.” He had a concerned look on his face.
“You are concerned about that?” Katsuki tilted his head.
“Yes, I am. After all, this isn’t normal ... I don’t want them to be mad at me.”
“Why would they be mad?” Katsuki tilted his head in confusion.
“B-because this is so weird and strange. They might think I’m a creep and just use that as an excuse to be with the omega girls. Also, you don’t like being an omega, so ... I don’t know,” he shrugged.
“You’re foolish, dunce face! Just because I don’t like to be one doesn’t mean I am mad at you for wanting to become an omega. If you feel that’s the right thing for you, you should do it.” Katsuki scoffed. “And don’t think so badly of our classmates. They wouldn’t think that of you.”
“So, you would be okay with that?” Hope was in Denki’s eyes.
“Of course, idiot!”
On Denki’s face grew a smile. He jolted forward and threw himself onto Katsuki; he pulled the omega into a hug. “Thanks!”
Katsuki huffed and hugged him back for a while. “So, have you told any of the others that you want to be an omega yet?”
Denki sat back on his nest. “No, I will, but not right now. I can’t… I don’t know …”
“Take your time, don’t force yourself.” Katsuki looked at him and tilted his head. “Do you want me to call you an omega, or should I wait until you come out to the others?”
He blushed slightly. “Please wait until I come out. Otherwise, they will be confused.”
“Sure thing.” Katsuki smiled at him. He stood up. “I’ll go then. Ochako and Mina wanted to study too.”
“Ah, right, okay. Thank you, Kacchan! Thank you for understanding!”
Katsuki waved before he left the room.
Happily, Denki hugged his pillow tighter and lay back in his nest. The first step was done!
In Katsuki’s opinion, the written exams were not that hard. He had no trouble getting through them whatsoever. Mina and Denki looked really exhausted after the tests, but Eijiro was a little more relaxed.
“Phew, this was even harder than the last exams,” Mina exclaimed on the last day of the written exams. “Even with Katsuki’s help, I am unsure if I got everything …”
“I hope the practical exams aren’t as hard as last year,” Denki whined.
“I wonder if we have to fight against the teachers again, ribbit,” Tsuyu mumbled.
“Hm, I don’t really see that happening again. At least not in the same fashion as last year,” Izuku muttered. “Maybe a different fight scenario? Rescue? Nature disasters?”
“He hasn’t muttered in a long time!” Ochako mumbled. “Good to hear it again,” she smiled brightly.
All Might advised them to change into their Hero Costumes. After they all changed, they made their way over to the fighting grounds. “SHOTOOOO!” Shoto heard before he saw him. His eyebrow twitched, and he felt the urge to immediately turn around and walk away.
“What’s Endeavor doing here?” Ochako asked.
“I’d like to know, too,” Shoto grumbled. He didn’t hate his father that much anymore. However, he was annoyed that he had to make a circus out of it.
The students were stunned at the number of Pro Heroes they were facing. In front of them were some of the strongest heroes, most of them alphas. “Welcome students to the practical part of the final exams,” Nezu greeted them.
“You may wonder what all the pro heroes are doing here. Well, they will be your enemies in this part.”
“Damn, this is an upgrade compared to last year,” Hanta mumbled.
“But, Mr. Principal, how are we supposed to fight and win against the top heroes of Japan, ribbit?”
“Good that you asked. They will have weights again, even though the weight is reduced. You all got much stronger since last year, so you have to face stronger opponents. This time, the extra weight they have to carry is only a quarter of their weight. But you, too, have some ‘unfair’ advantages if you want.” Nezu looked over to the feral alphas.
“Midoriya, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Shinso are exceptionally strong when they tap into their feral state. You are allowed to use it, but be warned: If you lose control to a point where you start to attack the other students, you will get removed, and you will fail the exam.” He informed them.
“Yes sir!” the four students answered.
“To keep things fair, no alpha commands either. Especially you, Midoriya,” Nezu added. During their internships, Midoriya had trained his commanding powers with Endeavor.
“Aye, I wouldn’t do that. Besides, I am still not good at commanding older alphas,” he shrugged.
“The pros and some of the teachers will be the villains this time. So you need to work together and capture all of them!” Nezu continued.
“But, the ‘villains’ can also capture you guys. If you get captured, you fail. This time, it is really hard, so give it your best!”
The pros included the alphas Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Mirko, Gang Orca, Fat Gum, Hound Dog, Tiger, Present Mic, Midnight, Ectoplasm, Gran Torino, and Lemillion. The three betas Manual, Mandalay, and Ryukyu, as well as the omegas Hawks, Pixie Bob, Eraser Head, Nejire-chan, and Suneater – who honestly looked like he wanted to go home again. They left to prepare for the battle. It would start in one hour.
“Ooh, I am so nervous!” Denki mumbled. “I hope this time, I get a better chance. Dammit …”
“Hey, dunce face, show a little bit more self-confidence,” Katsuki growled.
“Okay, guys, we should make a plan,” Izuku said, and the students walked over to the waiting room. “We must decide which pros we should target first and who is targeting who.”
“God, this doesn’t look good!” Mina whined. “They are all too powerful! How are we supposed to handle that?!”
“We can do that if we work together! We will find a way!” Momo tried to encourage her.
“So, let’s see, which ones are the most troublesome?” Tenya started.
“My father, obviously,” Shoto murmured. “He is the number one, after all.”
“Best Jeanist with his fiber quirk is really tough,” Katsuki said. “We need to be careful around him too.”
“Hawks is a speedy and versatile fighter,” Fumikage added.
“We already fought against Gang Orca, and we know how strong he is. So I think we can deal with him,” Shoto mumbled.
“It would be really good to get Mandalay out of the game as soon as possible. She can give everyone directions with her telepathy. Hound Dog can find us easily, too, with his super fine nose. And Gran Torino may be old, but he is still super strong; don’t underestimate him,” Midoriya muttered.
“Mirko and Edgeshot are tricky too. Not to mention Fat Gum. If we hit him too much, we get in trouble,” Eijiro interjected. “We need to keep that in mind.”
“How the hell are we supposed to win against Mirio? That’s so unfair; we don’t even have quirk-erasing powers!” Mineta complained.
“Good thing Suneater will probably be not much of a trouble. He’s still very much afraid, and we just need to use some intimidation for him. And the girl is deadweight, too. I could rip her from the sky, no problem,” Katsuki grumbled.
“Tsu and I know how to deal with big villains. So you can leave Ryukyu to us. I mean, she knows our tricks, but if we catch her, we can bring her down. Mineta, you’re going to help us, too.” Ochako looked from Tsuyu to Mineta.
“Fine, I do what I can,” the alpha murmured.
“Koji and I can take down Present Mic; we did the same last year,” Jiro said.
“Tiger has great strength and is otherwise scary, too. So, someone who can tank a lot should take him on. The same is true for Fat Gum. Hey, Eijiro, you think you can tank Fat Gum or Tiger?” Tenya asked.
“I’ll try. My Unbreakable gets really hard when I go into rage mode, so I should be able to tank at least one of them. But I think Fat Gum is more trouble, so I’d rather take him on.”
“Good, that’s settled then. What do we do about the rest? There are twenty-one pros and twenty-one students, but I think it safe to say not everyone can deal with a pro on their own,” Momo mumbled.
“Yeah, no way this is going to happen. We need to team up for some of them.” Mezo said.
“We get these cuffs from last year, right?” Toru asked.
“Yes, we can use these to catch the pros. But they have them, too, so we need to be careful,” Tenya answered.
“Then I will try to sneak up on Best Jeanist. If I manage to do that, we’re good,” Toru proposed.
“We can try that. But we should have a back-up. Best Jeanist isn’t so dumb that he would fall for a trick like that,” Katsuki growled. “I’d like to take him on, to be honest. But we still have no one for the ninja and the rabbit. The orca is still without an opponent, too.”
“I will take on Endeavor. I can’t wait to finally fight him,” Shoto growled. He bared his teeth, and his eyes glowed orange.
The omegas flinched back. “Wha, Shoto! That’s creepy!” Toru cried. The heta blinked a few times.
“I apologize,” he mumbled.
“Okay, Shoto will fight Endeavor. Is there someone who can be the back-up? I doubt that he can beat him completely on his own.” Tenya put his hand on his chin.
“I can try my best to make weaponry that will work against Endeavor,” Momo said. “However, I am sure I won’t be able to fight him head-on.”
“That is still good. Then you are the back-up.” Tenya nodded.
“I will take on Mirko,” Izuku said to everyone’s surprise. “What? She is super strong and agile. She also uses her legs so that she will be a good opponent for me. Besides, she is the number 5 pro hero and an alpha. And I can still capture her with blackwhip.”
“Good thinking. If you manage to capture her in time, you can still help with the other opponents,” Iida said.
“Yeah, I plan on fighting Gran Torino too, don’t worry.”
“So what do we do about their surveillance? Hawks can sense stuff with his feathers, Hound Dog has a good nose, and he will most likely tell Mandalay we are, so we need to trick those two,” Fumikage said.
“We could use my mucus, maybe not on everyone, but on at least a few. It showed that people, relying on their sense of smell, get confused by that, ribbit,” Tsuyu proposed.
“That’s a good idea. We also should place Jiro and Shoji in spots where they are not easily spotted but still get the most value out of their quirks.” Momo crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Tsuyu lifted the sleeves of her hero costume and started producing mucus.
“I will try to catch the villains with my tape. You all need to give me some time to prep something. It sucks that we have to wait here while they can do whatever,” Sero complained.
“Well, in real battle situations, we won’t have the time to prepare beforehand. But we will give you as much time as you need,” Tenya reminded him.
“I can use my balls to help out, too. That will make it extra sticky,” Mineta proposed.
“Good idea; after that, you can join Tsuyu and Ochako,” Hanta nodded.
“Ectoplasm is an opponent we already fought, so we should be able to handle him. Otherwise, I want to try my luck with Hawks. He trained me, and I want to know what I can do against him,” Tokoyami declared.
“Alright, I will try to help and take out the likes of Midnight or possibly Eraser Head,” Tenya said. “My helmet will block out her quirk, and she most likely can’t remove it without coming close to me.”
“Eraser Head will be a problem too, but don’t worry. I will take him on,” Hitoshi’s eyes glowed red. “As for the other heroes, I can try to come close to the problematic ones. If you can manage to capture Mandalay and Hound Dog, they will have no warning.”
“Shinso, I want you to try and trick Lemillion,” Deku looked at him. “As it seems, he is one of the most dangerous opponents since we cannot touch him. We need to trick him. So you have to focus on him, okay?”
“Hmpf, alright … Maybe we can combine that with capturing Eraser Head,” Shinso suggested.
“That’s a good idea! We need to try it!” Deku smiled at him, sharp-toothed.
“Denki, Yuga, will you take care of Gang Orca? Ideally, we keep him away from the water, and you can shock him. Your electricity should do a lot of damage,” Izuku suggested. “And the navel laser as a back-up. I also assume that Manual will be close to him; to supply him with water, you need to take him down, too.”
“Alright, on it!” Denki gave him a thumbs-up.
“Of course!” Yuga sparkled.
“I will take down Hound Dog, maybe,” Rikido started. “I would normally go for Tiger, but his body is really soft and stretchy. I am sure my punches won’t work on him. And Pixie Bob is like Cementoss to me if we fight in the wrong terrain.”
“Good, that leaves Edgeshot, Pixie Bob, Tiger, Nejire-chan, and Suneater.”
“I will gather as many animals as possible, especially birds, but insects too, for Present Mic,” Koji said.
“Then I will try to fight against Tiger,” Ojiro offered. “Even if it is just enough to stall him.”
“Okay, I’ll attack Pixie Bob. My acid should be good enough to deal with her. But Aoyama, when you’re done with Gang Orca, you come and help me,” she demanded.
“Oui, oui!”
“As I said, I blast the girl out of the heavens. And this Suneater guy is no problem, either. I’ll just scare him. Otherwise, I might try to get to Edgeshot. That dude’s a real pain in the ass.”
“Good, Kacchan. That sounds like a plan. You guys need to move to the next target whenever one of the pros is captured. It is hazardous to leave one of them unattended. They know we can’t deal with them alone, that’s why they chose so many heroes. We can’t really team up, or at least not in drawn-out fights. Otherwise, the other team will take the lead,” Izuku explained. “We need to do this quickly and as efficiently as possible! That means no mercy! If any of you gets the chance to cuff one of the pros, do it!”
There was real pressure while Izuku talked. The omegas shivered a little; even the betas were stunned. The alphas clenched their jaws. That was the presence of a prime alpha …
They continued to form strategies, and then the hour was over …
