As the Black Abyss' Dark Dragon stormed into the darkness, taking on the entire Seijin High School by himself, the shrewd ones like Yo Shindo took advantage of the dim, dusty, broken, but spacious environment to go around it… for the rest of the UA students.
The thing was, 2-A had anticipated such a move.
Because of the earlier shock of all the Schools attacking them, which they survived only due to Midoriya's miraculous display of strength, and then later Yo's use of Tremoring Earth, they had been forced to execute their plan way earlier than planned.
Despite the forced, earlier execution, it didn't mean they were on the losing end.
And Momo knew that, more clearly than anyone.
She looked up, then.
Somewhere in the darkness, on the ceiling, was Kaminari.
Using Uraraka's Quirk, they had sent him flying toward the ceiling right after gathering up following the attack, taking advantage of the clouds of dust. Since he was going to crash into the ceiling without slowing down, Uraraka needed to cancel her Quirk on him.
So, they had Mineta attach one of his sticky balls to one of Kaminari's hands.
In that way, he wouldn't need to worry about letting go while using his Quirk to its maximum potential, as doing so would cause him to lose his wits.
"We were lucky…" Momo said, coughing.
Uraraka nodded next to her. "If Kaminari and Mineta had gotten separated like Shoji, Aoyama, and Sero, then we would have been in great trouble…"
Momo looked around.
The scale of Yo's attack had been so large that it had thrown them far apart from each other, despite them standing packed together earlier.
Momo looked at Mina and Hagakure as they helped Ojiro up.
Then, her head turned, and she spied Jiro, Tenya, and Sato, with Mineta pulling Asui out of a ditch beyond them.
"Everyone!" Momo shouted. "Gather up! They must be coming!"
Booms rang out in the background as Tokoyami raged across the ground, attacking anyone and everyone. However, his seemingly almighty acts were nothing but a veil over reality. It wasn't like he could keep using Dark Dragon as long as there was darkness around him.
The core of that Ultimate Move wasn't only darkness, but also how long Dark Shadow could resist the innate madness.
Tokoyami hadn't trained nearly enough with Dark Shadow to maintain Dark Dragon for longer than a minute.
Which meant that if they needed to carve their way to safety, they had to do it now.
And just as the remaining students gathered around Momo and Uraraka, the mass arrived, hungrier than ever.
"I can see them using my Infrared Quirk!" one of the students, hidden in the flickering darkness, shouted. "They are standing in the middle of that crater! Let's attack together!"
"Guard me!" Momo shouted, taking off her jacket, and Uraraka and Mina hiding her between them.
Outside the crater, Itejiro from Ketsubutsu Academy used his Boomerang Quirk to throw at least a dozen balls. Instead of going straight, the balls dug into the earth as they traced a curved path toward the UA students underground.
Even more students began using their Quirks while throwing their balls, taking a lesson from the earlier fiasco.
"Let's see how you survive this…" Yo mumbled, grinning, putting his hands on the ground again. "UA…"
…
Meanwhile, across the stadium, where it was still daylight, another Midoriya-like event was playing out.
Inasa Yoarashi from Shiketsu High School appeared on top of a building, looking down at the hundreds of students who had gathered there.
There was a smile on his face.
Veins were throbbing on his head, too.
It was hard to tell if he was enjoying the Exam or about to explode in anger.
It was he who had wanted to be the first one to clear the first stage. Instead, UA took his spot, getting all the attention as usual. No matter what he did now, he wouldn't be the first one to pass the stage, anyway.
Inasa lifted his head and stared into the darkness.
He could feel the tremors even here as a monstrous dark figure with two bloody eyes roared.
That would indeed be a great feat, Inasa believed — taking down that monster singlehandedly.
But, in his experience, that monster wouldn't remain a monster for long.
It must be Fumikage Tokoyami from UA, using his Dark Shadow Quirk, Inasa knew.
No.
Inasa shook his head.
If he had wanted to pursue UA, he would have done so with others.
Still, despite losing the first rank, Inasa did want to pass in the most bombastic way possible.
Slowly, his gaze again fell upon the hundreds of students at the foot of the building, and a sly grin appeared on his face.
…
Bakugo entered a building, Kirishima following him.
"We should stick to the plan!" Kirishima said, looking over his shoulder at the sound of the Dark Dragon's roar.
"Who cares…" Bakugo grumbled, looking left and right. "Why is it so empty? I swear I saw many students entering this building earlier…"
"What?!" Kirishima hissed. "And you walked right into it?! Why?!"
Bakugo had just opened his mouth to say the obvious when the entire corridor they were standing in became cold.
As Kirishima hardened his body, a girl appeared in the distance, wearing a white uniform, a mask on her face, and metal gloves on her hands.
"Stupid as ever, UA…" the girl said mockingly. "Walked right into our trap."
"Oi!" Kirishima reacted at the insult.
Before he could follow up with a remark of his own, the Supervisor's voice again boomed across the speakers…
"We have a second winner…" the voice said, sounding even more alive and shocked than before. "… Inasa Yoarashi from Shiketsu High… and… he took down a hundred and fifty students to pass the Exam."
Bakugo's teeth clenched, grinding with an audible noise.
That was all he needed.
First, it was that damned nerd!
Now, it was that over-enthusiastic moron!
Sparks exploded from his hands as he looked at the girl before scanning the entire building.
"Trap, huh?" Bakugo said, grinning, making a chill run down Kirishima's spine. "I assume… all students from your School are here, then…"
And, in the very next instant, a loud explosion shook the entire stadium…
… its shockwaves rattling the domed ceiling like a bunch of rotten leaves!