"They're our students," the black-haired man told him. "They should be learning from everything, even their tests. You should do the same for yours tomorrow — I won't stop you."
"That's bullcrap and you know it! You're just going easy on your students to help more of them pass!"
While the two teachers continued their one-sided bickering, Izuku turned his eyes to the pink girl stuck beside him. "I take it there's no rescue bot?"
"Not a thing," she sighed. "No other teachers or traps, either. It's just them. Sorry for nearly falling on you."
"Kan-sensei is more skilled with his blood than I anticipated," Shiozaki apologized over them. "And it seems our teacher is as skilled as he was when fighting the villains. I have a hard time believing they are as hindered as they promised."
"We are," the white-haired hero spoke up to answer her, pointing at the bronze band on his forearm. "These are slowing us down, and the extra weight is tiring us out faster than we normally do on the job. We just work longer than this."
Aizawa stepped up, his hair faltering for a moment that Shiozaki's vines could rise again, but his hair returned and her quirk deactivated again. "You have the scaffolding of a plan; using your bodies and the vines to block my vision, escape the higher floors to scout the rest of the building, and leave my quirk effectively useless with the one person it doesn't work on. But Ashido shouldn't have left you two to fight on your own when her Acid could give his blood trouble, or have someone more confident in fighting take me on." Izuku fixed a soured stare on the teacher, but the man focused his sight on the two students who he could erase the quirks of. "You haven't made contact with the rest of your classmates since you arrived, so no back-up is coming to assist you. Is this where you fail my test?"
Was it, Izuku wondered woefully. He didn't have the confidence in his strength to be a brawn for the team and that showed when it came to finally fighting, and the strategy he wanted to offer had resulted in their concurrent capture at the hands of their own teachers. Beneath the quilt of blood, he gripped the hilt of his bat tight. He promised he wasn't going to disappoint his teachers; his friends; himself. All the effort he put in — and all the effort people put into him — couldn't just go to waste.
If you're actually trying to win and prove yourself better than everyone, then you need to hit your way through whatever wall they place in front of you. You lose if you give up; you lose if you surrender; you'll lose if you think for a second that you can't win.
The same damn speech from Garou that played in his head when he wanted to find the strength to fight, and he pushed against the curtain of blood holding his right arm to the wall. To hell if it was the mantra of a criminal; it was the mantra that gave him power. Fighting gave him his strength, and holding it back in a fight did no one any good. His arm lifted off the wall, bulging out the crimson liquid at his side, and he met the controlling hero's wide eyes with a grin.
Don't think; just hit.
Izuku couldn't do either of that, the way he did. He couldn't use his strength to just hit someone and expect them to be okay. And he couldn't not think, the activity he always did about every little thing. But he could do the opposite of both, and not have to lay an iron on either hero, now that they were beside one another. He just needed his teammates to be fast, too.
Vlad King shot an extra stream of blood at Izuku likely meant to merge with the rest and double down on his restraints, but with a roar of power he ripped his arm from the blood and clobbered the stream shooting at him, splashing it back at the heroes — right in the face of Eraserhead. "Vine, now!"
Shiozaki's vines came to life once more, surging at the pair of heroes and colliding with the blockade of blood the Class 1-B teacher rose to protect them. Ashido pushed through their bindings with acid-riddled palms, freeing herself first and weakening the blood around them to fall out too. Izuku gave her a quick nod of thanks before looking at the other girl.
"Give Pinky the restraints," he ordered, and turned back to the pink-skinned girl. He jabbed a finger at the floor. "Head straight down again. See you there." Without waiting, he dashed forward, sliding under where vine met blood, stopping just in front of the two heroes with his bat chambered behind his back, and smashed the floor between them apart. All three of them fell with the crumbling floor, collapsing on the next level's carpet, and as the teachers collected themselves landing on their feet, Izuku went to his next move.
He rushed towards the windows ahead when both heroes tried to swipe for him. He stopped but a few feet traveled, twisted his body back towards the teachers, and swung his bat at the air between him and them, nothing held back. The force alone created a gust of wind that, while not strong, caught both men off guard and staggered them back away from him. There to catch them, fresh from falling from another man-made hole, was Ashido, slapping the restraint cuffs on their wrists.
"Cementoss and Thirteen have been captured," a woman's voice above announced. It sounded like the homeroom teacher Togata had, Izuku noted. "Eraserhead and Vlad King have been captured. Five teachers remained."
The white-haired hero shifted wildly in demeanor, losing his battle-serious face for a disheartened grimace he turned on his colleague. "What did I tell you, Shouta? You and your damn favoritism. Why couldn't you just fight your students like a normal teacher?! Nedzu's gonna be on your ass for this!"
Lifting his bloodstained goggled, the black-haired man looked back uncaring. "I'll throw willingly against your class if you shut up."
"Like hell I will! Where did all that crap about teaching go?!"
Ashido bounced giddily between the two men, bowing her head to the blood-controlling hero. "Well I think I learned a lot today!"
"Don't come to his defense," he waved her off with a growl. "He sleeps like a caterpillar."
While his classmate came to their homeroom teacher's defense, Izuku stepped to the side to collapse in a desk chair. The concept of throwing his weight at his surroundings instead of his targets directly hadn't actually crossed his mind before in training; even with all the baseball tests Hatsume put him through, he had only considered direct combat as his go-to. He was lucky his brain decided to play its part in the exam and break him out of a tight spot, and with his power intact.
At least it was part of Garou's voice cut out of his head.
Shiozaki came descending from the hole he had made with her vines as a chariot to guide her gently. She took stock of their teachers to the side before looking at Izuku. "That was quick thinking, Metal Bat," she thanked him. "I will be frank, I thought your challenge with Aizawa-sensei would have been over sooner than that."
"Not sure how to control my strength against a person yet," he informed her, offering back a smile of gratitude. "Thanks for having my back, and sorry for making you work so hard. I should have thought of this sooner."
"You should have," came from his homeroom teacher walking up behind the green-haired girl, and the green-haired boy huffed. "Destruction of property should normally be avoided in the real world when it can be helped — bills can pile up quickly if you're not careful. But this is a test and the terrain is designed to take a beating as an example of the worst scenarios. At the very least you were mindful about your strength and the effects it can have on a person to strike them with that level of force. The big lug knows all about control; I'll sign him up for a phys-ed course to teach you kids about it."
Oh shit, Izuku balked internally. He had forgotten how many other teachers were in the test, even with the announcements overhead and the voices in his ear—
The building shook; Ashido grabbing onto Kan to stay standing while Aizawa fell into Shiozaki's vines when he stumbled. Izuku shot up from the chair, rushing to the window to find the source of the commotion; and find it he did, approaching from down the road. A giant replication of Ectoplasm stomped down the road, trembling the ground with every step. He passed by the glass without a second thought to any of them inside, like a kaiju storming through the city.
Vlad King balked at the giant. "I guess Ectoplasm wanted to be an impossible wall. The heck is he doing, combining so many clones?"
"We can't capture him, can we?" Ashido asked with a nervous giggle. "I don't think the restraints will fit on him…"
"Not when he's like this," Izuku agreed. "His real body is secured somewhere in the giant. We'd have to get him out first." And thus, another idea came to mind — as did several premeditated apologies he knew would be necessary. He dashed down to the end of the room while Ectoplasm was still partially in front of their building and smashed open the last window.
"Midoriya!" Shiozaki called after him. "What are you doing?"
"Getting him out," he shouted back, and jumped onto the back of the giant's trench coat. The wind hit him in the face as he swayed along the hero's back, but he kept his grip tight. He fit the handle of his bat between his teeth, dug his other hand into the coat, and climbed his way towards the hero's head. There was still more to this exam he could do.
There were only twenty-something minutes left in the exam and Mashirao could not be more stressed about it. Three of their twelve teachers were captured, and only two rescue bots had been found — Iida had swung by their team with one of the robots in hand, explaining he would carry them away from the commotion to ensure they were secured by the time the other two could be found, and Tsunotori handed it off at Yaoyorozu's agreement. That still left the other nine teachers between them and the two robots with less than half of the exam remaining, and desperation was crawling in. While the tall girl remained with Tokoyami as the boy recuperated from their fight, Mashirao ran off with Tsunotori across the rooftops, clearing the longer gaps on her horns while running the rest beside her flying self.
The blonde girl was unsure of their choices, however. "Should we really be running to that?" she wondered aloud, pointing at the Zero Pointer several blocks ahead, locked in battle against ice and laser beams that failed to hold it down.
"It's being controlled by one of the teachers," the blond boy guessed, "and probably the principal. Cellophane said they were in a fight with Cementoss and Thirteen, and neither have been captured, so what is Todoroki doing fighting that thing?"
"Many teachers, then," the girl guessed, gulping loudly. "Got it."
They made it to the fight just a few blocks to the side, avoiding where the ice and lightshow were with some distance to spare. Todoroki was sliding atop the buildings, running circles around the Zero Pointer as he tried coating it in layers of ice that the robot shook to shatter or heated to melt. Uraraka zipped about the air with Aoyama in her hands, but the beams of light they were shooting back at the machine were growing less and less frequent by the second. Hanta was trying his best as Todoroki did, wrapping the machine's arms to its body or the nearest building, only for it to heat up, tear itself free and attempt to smack the two boys with its hands. As Mashirao's eyes gazed down, he noticed the frozen base remained solid, a stone hut not some feet away from the machine, and closer down the road to where he and Tsunotori stood watching, a pair of heroes struggling to push themselves up. "Rocketti!" he called his teammate's name, leaping from the rooftop and beckoning her to follow.
Cementoss had just managed to bring himself to his hands and knees before the tailed teen fell beside him, slapping one of the restraints on the hero's wrist. Tsunotori did the same for Thirteen, when the hero pointed her finger at the blond boy and the other teacher.
"Cementoss and Thirteen have been captured," the woman's voice above announced. "Eraserhead and Vlad King have been captured. Five teachers remained." Mashirao breathed a sigh of relief; Midoriya was fine, and they had just pushed them over the halfway point with their teachers in the same instant.
"Right as you got cocky, Ishiyama," the spacesuit hero groaned to the other teacher. "I thought you were immune to electricity all this time." The stone-faced man looked back at her with visible grumpiness.
"I'm not a Pokémon, you know."
"Thanks for the help, Tailman!" Hanta shouted overhead, swinging by on his tape to climb another building's ledge. "And good work finding the rescue bot! I don't think either of these guys have one with them."
"We'll keep looking then!" the blond boy shouted back. "Tsukuyomi is out of commission and Creati is helping him recover! Ingenium has both the rescue bots in his possession as far away as he could get! Do we know where everyone else is?"
"I can tell you where some of us are!" he heard Jirou shout, and followed her voice back to the robot where her head stuck out of the stone dome. "Get us out of here before the principal forgets and runs us over!"
Leaving their teachers to leave the exam, Mashirao and Tsunotori ran over, climbing atop the stone walls to find the purple-haired girl on a dizzy-looking Kaminari's shoulders, and a hunched-over Sato on the ground behind them. "What happened to them?" the tailed boy wondered.
"Motion sickness and short circuiting," Jirou grumbled as the two blond teens pulled her out. "We should probably break the walls to walk Sato out instead of lifting him; he does not have the energy for that." With her jacks, Tsunotori's horns and the strength of his tail, they did just that to chip away a portion of the wall as fast as they could, and led the two inebriated classmates away from the giant robot in front of them.
"Alright Shouto!" Cellophane shouted, swinging down to the group of teens to help Mashirao balance Sato's weight on their shoulders. The black-haired teen ripped off his helmet, smiling at the dual-haired boy above them. "The coast is clear! Give him hell!" The other boy nodded, and before the six teens had even made it a block, he had thrown a glacier over the machine. Mashirao could still hear it crack and snap like all the attempts before it, though, so he pushed along and urged the rest of them to do the same.
"How many teachers does this leave us with, five?" Hanta questioned out loud. "The principal and Power Loader are inside the Zero Pointer."
"And Ectoplasm became a giant too, didn't he?" Jiro recalled the message they were given earlier. "Which leaves…"
"All-Might," Tsunotori answered, "and Star and Stripe. And two rescue bots are still missing, so—"
"I think we all know," Mashirao grumbled; he was hoping Midoriya's guess that they wouldn't be on the same team would be the reality of their exam, but the instant they realized the teachers were in pairs instead of groups he knew his friend's assumptions were out the window. "Two number one heroes guarding the last two robots. Do we even know where they are?"
Waving at them from down the road, Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami intercepted their group. Both quirk-sick boys were set down on a bench for the tall girl to look over, producing medicine from her palm to give to the muscular Sato. While everyone caught their breath, Mashirao checked the time on Jirou's watch and turned to Tokoyami.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked the bird-headed boy.
Tokoyami nodded. "Dark Shadow has settled from our prior battle. We can still be of use. Where do we find ourselves?"
"Twenty minutes left," Jirou informed everyone. "Todoroki, Uraraka and Aoyama are fighting the principal, I don't know where anyone else is, and we're pretty sure All-Might and Star have the last two rescue bots." Everyone conscious grimaced at the thought.
"Facing them both would be a mighty challenge to pose on us," Yaoyorozu noted sourly, looking back in the direction of the giant robot breaking mountains of ice, "but I don't think they are kind enough to separate and give us a better chance. Not this close to the end, and for all the teachers we've apprehended thus far."
"A secret final boss," Hanta groaned. "And we have no idea where they are hiding. Even if we find them, what are we supposed to do against them?"
The road shook lightly, a loud stomp echoing in the distance. Another followed, and then another after it, and several more came before an Ectoplasm seven stories tall came stomping into view. The kaiju teacher turned his humongous head towards them, and his body followed suit as he stomped down the road in their direction.
"What are we supposed to do against that?!" their tape-using classmate screeched.
A thicket of vines erupted from behind the giant hero, binding against Ectoplasm's body and attempting to latch him to a building. The hero jerked his body with a roar, the vines retaining their hold but pulling chunks of stone and steel with them while he tried to buck Shiozaki's hold off him. Two giants in stature and two giants in presence, Mashirao groaned in his head. How the hell were they supposed to win this?
"I see you fletchlings had located two of the hostages already."
All-Might's voice came like a downpour of cold water on his spine, as the hero's voice came not from the intercoms overhead, but the piece in his ear.
"It is with my deepest condolences," the hero continued, "to inform you that they have found their way back to me. Your plan to distance yourself from the loud noise of my colleagues was well-made, but your foolishness to leave them in the hands of a single man rears it ugly head to reality. Time is running out, children. What will you do now?"
Jirou pounded her fist on the bench, cursing a sentiment Mashirao could see on the rest of their classmates' faces. "They caught Iida. Now they have all four of them again."
"Do we know where?" Tsunotori questioned, turning her eyes away from the approaching giant to the taller girl. "Is there any way for us to trace the locations of our earpieces?"
Yaoyorozu shook her head solemnly. "I didn't design them with that in mind. They could be anywhere in the city we haven't been, but that covers about half the city still—"
Ectoplasm's head jerked forward with a loud crack that brought their attention back to him, and they watched as his head swerved to the side and crashed through a building, stopping his forward momentum. The large hero groaned as he swung himself out of the rubble, snapping his head the other way and sending something off it and flying through the window of an opposite tower.
Mashirao soured immediately. "Izuku, I swear to God…"
The green-haired teen that he guessed it was came leaping out of the broken window, while the hero pushed against the bind of vines with his jaw open to welcome him. Instead of the hero chomping down on the student, however, Midoriya had cracked his bat against the hero's head once more, throwing his body back into the crumbling building he had just crawled out of, destroying it even more. The tailed boy could only gape at the strength of his best friend, now falling into the thread of vines that shot up to catch him in midair; more exploded from behind the giant's approach to trap the hero within the rubble.
"'Nothing like All-Might,' my ass," Jirou grumbled in shock.
"There's the strength he fought that Nomu guy with," Hanta noted breathlessly. "What took him so long?"
A detail Mashirao was sure only he knew of, at the moment, peeling his eyes away to gauge the reactions of his classmates — Yaoyorozu's specifically. Midoriya had only told the rest of their friends he was still testing the theory of a mental block when it showed 'some progress;' but that it was Garou's voice he was repeating, he kept behind his teeth. He'd barely shown anything in practice the past week under that guise, and certainly hadn't repeated a feat even close to what he had in the past, but here he was swinging his weight around like he did against the villains.
At the very least, the sight of his efforts put a look on the tall girl's face he gladly assumed was pride and joy for their friend.
That all changed when Ectoplasm's large body wavered and melted, before exploding alive as it reformed from its side, passing through the loose bundles of vines and tearing them apart. The hero bit at the bundles of vines and tore them apart like an animal to break free, swinging his head around with a roar. Then he bit through the vines that were still holding up Midoriya, swung his head, and chucked the green-haired teen over the rooftops, to the students and that same teacher's horror.
Maybe jumping on the back of a giant and attempting to fight it in a battle of strength wasn't the best idea for somebody who couldn't fly, but in Izuku's defense he wasn't planning on falling off in the first place, so how could he be held accountable? Yes, his idea to stop Ectoplasm from interfering with the rest of his class ultimately culminated in his predicament of spiraling uncontrollably through the air…
It was hard to come up with a better justification when he was soaring over the rooftops at an arc that was beginning to trend downwards.
Prepared for the inevitable, the green-haired teen tried to twist his body of his own volition and prepare for whatever he was about to run into — maybe even break through with his bat poised to strike if he could aim it right. Instead of him ramming into something, however, the opposite happened, and Izuku found himself pulled back into an upward motion by a big pair of arms that stopped his spinning too. Within seconds, they had landed safely atop a roof, and the strong Japanese hero placed the teen gently on the surface. He still fell on his butt trying to stand up straight, but the number-one hero eased his fall from stinging.
"Are you all right, Young Midoriya?" All-Might asked him.
Still dazed from the spinning and rushing air, he only gave the man a thumbs up as a positive response. The hero sighed as he stood back up, patting Izuku on the shoulder.
"For a kid with super strength, you're spending quite a lot of time in the air. At least at the Sports Festival I could tell it was your intent." He hadn't been in the air that many times, had he? Just this and the minefield—no, the Nomu villain did send him flying in the USJ. Maybe that was too many times. "I'll let Ectoplasm know you're safe; it's hard to administer CPR to a Gundam."
"He has one hell of a neck," Izuku breathed out mindlessly, and nearly toppled back from the hero's booming laugh.
"Don't let him hear you say that! We heroes can be self-conscious too, you know."
They both winced at the electronic screech that sounded from a speaker on the building's corner. "All students are still active and unharmed in the exam," the lady's voice announced. "Five teachers remain."
"Thank you, Miss Makima," All-Might said aloud. "That should quell your friends' worry somewhat." He gestured to Izuku's ear. "Have they tried communicating with you?"
Izuku tested his earpiece, and winced at the static that blasted from it. "It's not happy with something I did. That, or it's Mashi's opinion distilled to a tone." Which meant he was alone, unless someone saw who caught him in the air and where they landed. He pushed on his knees and rose to his feet, heaving a breath as he looked up at the hero. "The exam's still going. Do we fight now?"
The big man tapped his chin in consideration before shaking his head. "Not yet. Do you mind coming with me for just a moment?" Izuku did not, and after accepting to be held to the man's side, they launched through the air in a single bound, soaring over rooftops for several blocks before sliding to a stop in the road. The hero led him on their feet to a clearing between two buildings that consisted of a lawn and a swimming pool. On one side of the pool sat the American heroine, sprawled on a lawn chair with a newspaper in her hands; on the other, with rope around his ankle and inches above the water, hung his blue-haired friend.
Star took notice of their presence first, looking at Midoriya with confusion before fixing a judgmental stare at the Japanese hero. "One of the teachers sent a kid flying?" she asked dryly. "Teachers can't do that back in America — one lost their job for that exact reason, actually."
All-Might made a sound of stress with his throat and shook his hand in front of him. "It's frowned upon here too, and it was an accident. Ectoplasm is too soft to threaten a kid's life willingly, especially with the amount of cats he takes care of back home. He named one after you — a big, orange tabby. He's not brought that up yet, has he?"
While the heroine visibly balked at the information, Izuku locked eyes with his dangling friend. "You all right, Ingenium?"
Iida made a mix of regret and anger on his reddening face, a hand holding onto his floating mask to keep it from rocking away. "I've had worse. I am sorry, I've lost the rescue bots to our teachers yet again. Star's power caught me off guard."
The green-haired teen drew his eyes to the buildings beside them, slowly moving his vision back to the hero beside him. "They've hidden all four around here, I'm guessing." The tilt of the number one's head provided as answer enough. "Hang tight, I'll get you out of there soon."
"Now, now." All-Might stepped around, turning his body to face Izuku directly in front of the teen. He pressed his fists into his hip, a massive smile beaming down at Izuku like a threat. "That's some mighty confidence to assume you can save him in front of us. This might just be a test, but that doesn't mean I can give you kids a freebie. You understand you'll have to go through me first, right, Metal Bat?"
The grip on his bat rolled, and his shoulders rose and fell with his breath, all as Izuku met the man's gaze in the shadows beneath his eyebrows. A glistening pair of sapphire eyes looked down at him, humorously meeting his fierce jade gaze.
"I want to be honest with you, Midoriya," the man continued, his cheeks relaxing as his smile subsided calmly. "I've had my eye on you for quite some time" — that wasn't news to the green-haired teen, but maybe it was for the audience they had present — "and I've been curious. I was late to save you and your class from danger and pain when villains first invaded this school, but I was told you fought by Todoroki and Lemillion's side against the powerful man they call Nomu. That man was brought to your school to fight me specifically, with the intent to cause me serious, if not fatal, harm. But you, one of our first-year students, gave it quite some trouble all on your own when your upperclassman diverted to stall the leaders of the attack concurrently. Your strength may not be a quirk, but what you are capable of is impressive, and your strength alone might outshine what any of your fellow schoolmates are capable of. I would like to test it, if you would give me the honor."
Izuku looked the man up and down. Fight the number one hero? "I don't think I'm anywhere close to matching you," he commented idly.
All-Might simply shrugged. "Not now, of course. In a few years time? Maybe you can. But I'm not at my best, either." He held up an arm, moving their eyes to the brace wrapped around his forearm. "I am slower than normal, and of course I have to hold back my strength naturally for the fights I find myself in — it's not every day I fight a villain with the strength and durability to match a greater amount of output. But you are far from anything common. I imagine the day you get your license is the last day many people willingly consider committing a crime." He laughed at his own joke, while the teen only basked in the confidence he said it with. "I know you've spent these past few weeks training yourself to harness your power willingly, and my fellow heroes tell me you've achieved just that." The thumb he pointed at the American woman clarified said parties for the teen. "I take it you've not gotten the chance to put what you've accomplished into practice just yet; your teachers are strong but they are not invincible. Caution is a good attribute, but there will be days where pushing yourself is a must, and you should experience that too. So why don't we make a deal; beat me before the test is up and the four rescue bots are yours. The exam will end with you winning it for your classmates. Now how does it sound?"
"Like you brought me along for my looks instead of my help," the American heroine interjected, eliciting laughter from her Japanese mentor. While the man explained that she could do the same for the rest of the students when they followed Izuku's trajectory, the quirkless teen weighed the offer in his mind. There wasn't really a choice to make, as running would lose them all the exam and fighting either hero was unavoidable, so why even give him the formality of his opinion?
If you're actually trying to win and prove yourself better than everyone, then you need to hit your way through whatever wall they place in front of you.
"Alright," Izuku agreed, catching the hero's gaze once again. "I'll fight you. I don't know how to pull my punches — or swings, I guess. Could you try to dodge?"
All-Might quipped an eyebrow and gave a low chuckle. "Cocky, too. I can use my braces to block if I must, but I've bumped blows with villains before; I'm sure I can meet your swing with a punch without bruising my hand. I'll do my best not to break your new bat in return." The hero guided him back to the middle of the road, and Izuku followed despite the protests of their present company.
"I don't have an earpiece, Midoriya!" Iida shouted at him. "You should be calling for back-up, not facing him on your own!"
"Some will be here eventually," Izuku replied. "I can't just walk away and cost us the exam if I can help it. I'll be right back, Tenya."
"Midoriya is just a student," Star and Stripe tried to remind the other pro hero. "That doesn't warrant you to be tough with him, Master."
"I know what he is," All-Might argued back, his smile standing strong. "If anything, I worry I underestimate the boy. Keep guard as long as you can, Cate. I trust you won't need my help."
Izuku stopped in the middle of the road, as did the pro hero that towered over him, leaving only a few feet of space between them. The morning sun dragged the man's shadow to the side, rays of light glistening off his smile. In the distance, the rumblings and roars of battle elsewhere echoed off the walls of buildings. His earpiece buzzed idly in his ear. The wind brushed a curl of hair over the corner of his eye. He breathed, and so did the hero.
"Are you ready?" All-Might challenged.
Izuku swiped a leg back, lifting his bat beside his head. "Are you?" The hero's smile turned almost sinister.
He stepped forward with a stomp, curling his arm back and kicking up dust from the motion alone. "Delaware" — Izuku threw his body forward to meet him halfway, as the fist came crashing its bare knuckles into steel — "Smash!" The green-haired teen went flying backwards, tumbling across the pavement almost half a block from the man, his head barely scraping against the road as he rolled.
A single punch and his world was already spinning, the quirkless teen laughed dryly. He slammed the head of his bat on the ground to push himself up, glaring down the road where All-Might straightened up, still in the same place. Izuku inhaled slowly, and exhaled his body to calm.
He jabbed his bat through the pavement, spun his grip on its hilt, and heaved his bat into an upward swing. The road shattered apart, chunks of black pavement flying at the hero who either dodged, smacked away, or broke apart with a catch. "Clever use of your surroundings there, kiddo. Not everyone expects you to use debris in a fight. Why don't I" — he lifted his leg, the muscles flexing through his costume — "return the favor?!" He slammed his foot back down, not only breaking the road around him but bouncing up a manhole cover beside him, launching it at breakneck speeds towards Izuku with another punch.
Just as responsive, the green-haired teen sidestepped, clocking the steel disc with his bat and smacking it back with a vicious crack resounding in the air.
The Japanese hero had moved, however, having jumped into the air and already on the arc back down when Izuku caught sight of him again. "Quirk reflexes to boot! I'll leave the home runs to you and stick to my own style! Carolina Crush!" All-Might nearly landed on Izuku's head with the side of his fist, blocked only by a bat but still applied pressure that forced the teen down to a knee. The hero pressed into their stalemate, the ridge of his knuckle brushing against the green teen's hair. "I can't imagine my colleagues had pushed you this far into a corner, Metal Bat. How does the adrenaline feel?"
Izuku pinched a smile back, even as the bones in his arms strained to hold the fist off his head. "Ectoplasm threw me through a building already, actually. But yeah, I feel it."
The large man chuckled. "I see I have competition. I guess I better step up my game!" His other hand came flying into Izuku's stomach palm-first, clapping the wind out of the teen's lungs and throwing him back another several feet. His shoes skidded across the road, body throwing itself forward to keep him from falling down again. "I hope it's not cheating, Young Midoriya," the hero called to him, following the kid with slow steps, "but Melissa told me one theory of how you grow stronger as the fight goes on — more so, when you accumulate more damage upon yourself. Not the most comfortable theory, I imagine?"
Izuku coughed through a wheeze, picking up his head as the hero strode closer and closer. "Yeah. It's not entirely incorrect…"
"But letting yourself get to that state is unpleasant, I imagine," the hero finished for him, stopping to stand in front of the teen once more. "Pain isn't preventable, no matter how much you try. Given more time and training, you can at the very least make it infrequent. Your new method is finding the right mental space, if I remember correctly?"
"She tells you everything and then you tell her to lie about the test to me," the green-haired boy grumbled, and the hero laughed.
"In my defense, Nedzu can be quite intimidating when he wants to be! It was either follow orders or forfeit my involvement in this exam. But I wanted to give my two cents on your training, and I think you've come to the right conclusion."
Izuku stared at the hero hesitantly. "It's not perfect," he admitted cryptically, keeping the voice in his head private from the man. "I'm still trying to find the right…headspace, I guess—"
"Do you remember the day we met?"
All-Might's question caught him off kilter, hit with the same prose he gave the man in his office that day after the battle trial. The man's expression had softened, but kindness remained predominant.
"When I told you I didn't think you could be a hero without a quirk," the hero continued, "I thought I was saving a child's life more than I was crushing his dream. As ashamed as I was and am of that choice, I convinced myself it was what you needed to hear. But you didn't listen to me, and spent the next year up to now training yourself to be the person you dreamed to be — that you needed to be, as I've been told is the purest perspective. You believed in yourself when I refused to, and found the strength to pass the exam, beat the competition in the Festival, and protect your friends when they needed to be protected. If being in the right mindset was all it took for this power of yours to show, you pioneered it against the odds. You've been doing so from the very beginning."
The very thought of that reality hit Izuku — not like a truck, but a warm breeze, to consider. He hadn't felt strong until that day in December, fighting criminals in the mall beside Yaoyorozu and protecting Eri. It was the first instance he felt he had tried to be a hero since the days of standing up to Bakugou on the playground. It was the day he looked back on and wondered, what did it take for him to pull that off?
To help him answer that, All-Might asked him, "What have you been telling yourself, in our fight? In this exam?"
Paraphrasing, he answered, "Do not give up."
"I imagine you must have thought something of the same breath when we parted ways; when I told you to do just that." The smile on his face was much smaller, almost sorrowful through its pride. "It is a good thing to tell yourself, in our line of work. We cannot surrender, no matter the opponent we face, or the obstacle we approach. As heroes, we cannot give up just because the odds may not be in our favor. If we are to protect the people, justice, and the peace of our society, then it cannot matter how hard they hit; you must hit back harder. You must believe you can, and you've been doing just that. You have found power because you believe in yourself."
If the hero's initial praise was like a warm blanket, his speech of confidence rolled over Izuku like a tidal wave. The tense sensation of his aching muscles eased. The voice in the back of his head couldn't be heard.
"Ah," All-Might gasped lightly, expression turning uncomfortable. "My apologies for making you cry, Young Midoriya. I know my speeches can be moving, but I was hoping this was more uplifting than that."
Was he crying? Wiping the corner of his eye confirmed that they had begun to water, though the downpour hadn't commenced without his knowing, thank God. He chuckled softly. "It's a genetic thing," he muttered. "And it was good to hear, actually."
"I don't know if I'm right, but I'd like to think I am." The hero nodded solemnly. "I would like to be, for one of my students. Can you at least give it a consideration?"
It made some sense, Izuku did consider. It was Garou who voiced the idea, but it was himself replaying the words in his head. It wasn't anger fueling him or pain pumping blood through his veins, but self-worth that empowered him? Not someone else's motivation, but his own urging him to fight and stand up for himself, starting from way back when no one else did?
"Izuku." Yaoyorozu's voice cracked to life in his ear, piercing through the humming static of his ear piece. "We could hear the sound of fighting wherever you went. We're on our way; just hold on a little longer! We have a plan!"
I think you'd make a fine hero too.
No, he resolved. Someone else did believe in him. Many people believed in him now. He didn't need to say it to himself to believe it too, and he didn't have to rely on the voice of someone who broke his trust. If all he needed was the belief he could, he had plenty of voices to substitute.
"We have ten minutes left or so?" Izuku asked the hero, and the man looked at the invisible watch on his wrist and shrugged. "Can you keep fighting?"
"Oho?" All-Might's mood returned to a chipper attitude. "Do you feel up to it?"
He responded with a step and a swing, hit bat coming head-to-head with the hero's fist. It was enough for an answer.
All-Might pushed through the punch but Izuku stepped aside, turning his fist to slide his knuckles against the man's arm while the large fist clipped the side of Izuku's arm. The quirkless teen twisted his body, arching his bat over the man's triceps to aim for his head, only stopped by the palm of his other hand.
"Aren't you taking bold moves?" the hero noted boisterously. "Is this you taking my advice to heart?"
"Sorta," he admitted with a grin. "Who said it's just my heart I'm listening to?" The hero's smile only grew wider.
"I like it!" With the power of two hands, the great Japanese hero slammed the side of his arm into Izuku's side, throwing him to the sidewalk. "A hero carries not his own heart into battle, but those of the people who believe he can save them! All the people behind him — their hearts drive their own! What inspired that, may I ask?"
Izuku stretched his back, pulling where he felt a bruise must have formed. "The right voice," he answered. He swiped to his side suddenly, smashed through the body of a lamp post like a lumberjack and cleaving it in two. The larger half fell over as he wanted, and he swung his bat back the other way into the butt of it, shooting the majority of the pole at the hero like a missile. He missed, of course, as the hero bent backwards to duck under it, but Izuku was already running at the man by the time All-Might pulled himself back up. The hero punched at his approach, and the green-haired teen copied the man's dodge, sliding under the fist that barely missed his nose, and jammed the head of his bat into the man's stomach.
"Oof!" The large man stumbled back with a strained huff, hands clasped over his stomach with a pained smile forced on his face. "Of course…you remember about that. I guess I should have seen that coming, with how I'm throwing you around." He caught his breathing with steadied exhales. "Might be hypocritical of me to ask, but can you watch the force you put behind blows there, at least?"
"Or you could sit this out." Star and Stripe appeared behind Izuku, falling from the sky; he wondered what all her quirk could accomplish, if she could approach silently like that. "That looked like it hurt more than it should have, Master. You've already spent an hour like this." That quipped the teen's eyebrow, learning she knew his secret too, but given who she was to him that wasn't a surprise.
All-Might barked a laugh. "Nonsense, Cathleen. I've not even begun to push myself." He picked his head up, giving the woman a nod. "I'd do the kid a disservice to bow out after a single blow. I'm sorry I'm not giving you much to do, but do you mind watching the rescue bots for a little longer? Before more of these little hatchlings show up."
A glint caught the corner of Izuku's eye, drawing his attention upwards for but a moment before he turned back to the large hero. "Why don't we make this more interesting, sir? She can stay to fight with you, too."
"Really? A two-on-one in our favor? You've just begun to look motivated, and you already think you can take on two heroes alone?"
Wind shot down Izuku's back as something landed behind him, and a thick tail topped off with a blond tuft of hair curled in front of his body. He met All-Might's rising eyebrows with a smile.
"Who said I was alone?"
Cathleen stared down at Tailman — who stood back-to-back with Midoriya — blinking at the boy with light surprise. Looking above them, she spotted Rocketti, Cellophane and Red Riot staring back down from over the rooftop ledges. Running onto the scene behind All-Might came Creati and Battle Fist, and appearing down the road behind herself was Tentacole. Here she was, thinking the point was to judge Midoriya like her mentor had asked.
"Thanks for giving them time, All-Might," Midoriya thanked the Japanese hero. "This everyone?"
"Mostly," the tailed boy behind him replied. Cathleen appreciated how he tried to maintain a brave face while staring her down — or up, technically. "Ectoplasm and the principal are still fighting, and some of them are out of the count right now. What you see is what you get."
"I'll take it. About half of our class, then?"
"Just under. Best we've got."
The number one hero of Japan hummed, looking over the head of the two boys to look at Cathleen on the other side. "It seems my offer to handle the rest of the students won't hold up," he commented calmly. "Do we think they're stalling to let the others find the rescue bots?"
"Probably," the American woman guessed, counting the eight heads of the students again. "Two teachers can't be holding up more than a third of the class right now. That leaves four or five students, Ingenium included? Should I head back to stop them?"
Midoriya looked back over his shoulder, meeting the hero's gaze. "You know we can't just let you leave," he said aloud for her to hear.
"Oho?" All-Might challenged. "Do you intend to stop us?" Both teens suddenly shifted on their feet into fighting stances, and both heroes did the same to match them.
"We do," the green-haired teen stated confidently.
Looking slightly uneasy at the prospect of fighting her, Tailman turned his head to the other teen slightly. "You got a plan here?"
"I do," Midoriya admitted, raising his bat to hand over his and the tailed boy's pressed shoulders. "Jump." The blond teen did as he was instructed, and the green boy smashed his weapon into the road.
Cathleen followed the instruction, too, as the single blow cracked the pavement like a meteorite had struck, dust and pebbles kicking up into the air with the force. While she was still in the air, the American hero watched tape shoot down from the sky and wrap around her waist, pulling her higher into the air as Cellophane and Red Riot heaved her up with their combined might. A pair of horns shot past to collect Tailman by the costume pulling him through the air with her. Back on the street, the plume of smoke broke apart as All-Might and Midoriya met each other's strike, fist to bat.
Staying to fight wasn't exactly the smartest option to put pressure on the kids, the blonde woman reminded herself, but if her Master was going to stay and fight, she'd do him the honor of following suit.
She slapped a hand over the tape on her waist and shouted, "The tape will have the tensile strength of paper!" The binds snapped not a second later, shredding apart as she ripped the band of it off her body. Tailman curved through the air on rocket-powered horns, zooming past the heroine to higher in the sky, and she twisted her body just in time to block his tail with her arms, the strike smacking her down to the rooftop with the other students.
Red Riot charged as she stood up, his footsteps heavy under his stone skin as he threw a punch for her stomach. "Crimson Clobber!" The force behind it was strong, even if Cathleen managed to catch it in her bare hand. The same could be said for the blond boy still falling towards her, striking again with a, "Revenge Smash," his tail slapping against the palm of her other hand.
"Cute moves, boys," she teased, spinning while they were both off their guard and tossing them aside together. "And good names for them, too. I hope they're not the whole of your arsenal."
Rocketti came flying over the head of both boys, propelled feet-first towards the hero as she dropkicked Cathleen in her defending arms. "Stallion Bash!"
The American hero chuckled under the pressure, pushing her feet down when she slid back slightly. "Look at us, American citizens fighting each other in someone else's nation. What brought you so far from home?"
"My dreams!" the younger girl shouted back proudly, leaping off the hero's forearms and landing in front of her classmates. "This is my new home!"
"Good choice," Cathleen agreed. "Would have come to this school too, if I could have afforded it back then." Tape wrapped around her again, snagging her by the calves and pulling her slightly off balance, even turning her attention around to the responsible student.
"Fastball" — her head snapped back around, as Red Riot came flying at her, propelled by Tailman's throw and Rocketti's horns — "Special!" Curled up in a ball, the student slammed into her hands, pushing the hero all the way to the rooftop's edge, stopped only by digging in her heels.
Cathleen met the red-haired boy's smile with a smirk of her own. "Good try," she praised, and kicked her feet around. She spun, her own might pulling Cellophane towards her, and threw the stone-skinned boy at him. Reaching down, she Ordered the tape on her legs to snap apart, and they did. She stood tall, facing down both pairs of children with a smile to rival her master's. "You students have some impressive teamwork and quick thinking. But you'll have to do better than that."
Then Midoriya flew straight past her.
Her head snapped back to watch the green-haired teen soar upwards wildly, and looked down over the ledge to find the Japanese hero posed proudly with his fist in the air. A bit overkill, no?
"Goddamnit Midoriya!" Cellophane shouted. "Just stay on the ground!"
A pair of Rocketti's horns shot up to snag the quirkless boy's jacket, flying him around safely. From high above, Cathleen could barely make out how the kid twisted his head towards them, pointed his finger in her direction, before his body snapped around and plummeted towards her at a blinding speed. "Scatter!" the younger American shouted to her classmates, and the older woman followed suit to jump out of the way of the green-haired boy's swing. The boy slammed through the rooftop like a missile, and the top of the building caved in with him crashing through a floor or two.
As she landed atop a different building, the blonde woman turned her attention back to the street, watching All-Might barely budge as Battle Fist challenged with her enlarged hands. Several feet behind them, Creati stood by doing seemingly nothing more than speaking. Before Cathleen could jump down to join them, a stretchy arm shot from the alley and grabbed the Japanese hero by the ankle, catching him off guard and yanking him between the buildings.
"Master!" she shouted, leaping off the building and chasing after the captured man. The long arm pulled the hero into the road through a sewer tunnel, and Cathleen hopped in after them, landing on the dry stone before her frazzled mentor. In front of them both, Tentacole stood tall at the tunnel's crossroads, lit poorly by the flickering light about, darkness seeping from the bundle of arms wrapped together on his back.
"Sorry about the sudden motion, sir," the tall teen apologized. "But you have been summoned."
The taller hero heaved to his feet with Cathleen's offered hand, thanking her before facing the student. "It's no problem, but it is not safe for us to fight in such a confined space, Young Shoji."
"You were summoned here to fight." The darkness erupted from Tentacole's arms, a body like a raven thrice the size of either hero pressing into the walls of the sewer. The head of the student it belonged to rose over the tall teen, Tsukuyomi's eyes glistening with Dark Shadow's. "You were summoned to drown in the deep." Two giant fists shot forward, crashing into both heroes who met the blows with their own, still pushed back by the force of the giant shadow.
"What perfect conditions for you," All-Might commented as the fists pulled back, turning his head to the American woman. "Let's change that, shall we?" He pointed at the ground about their heads. "Give me a soft exit strategy, Star!"
"Right!" she called back, jumping from a crouch to press her hands into the ceiling of the tunnel. "The ground above my head will become like sand!"
As the stone began to lighten and specs began to dribble down, the Japanese hero clenched a fist an inch from the ground. "Detroit Smash!" he shouted, punching straight up and blowing the crumbling earth into the sky with the force of a hurricane; even the pair of students facing them fell back from the winds, while the sunlight that broke in burned the sentient quirk back to its master.
Both heroes jumped back to the surface, landing on solid ground together. "These kids are persistent," Cathleen noted aloud. Her mentor chuckled, tilting his head back to stare into the sky.
"Like no one else," he agreed, and shifted his body to face the building beside them.
The blonde woman followed his gaze above, squinting past the sun to spot the illuminated Midoriya that her master did, standing right on the edge of the rooftop. With grace the kid fell forward, slipping off the building and raising his bat over his head as he fell towards them. Her mentor shifted again, chambering his fist to his side and blowing a faint trail of smoke from the corner of his mouth as the teen plummeted ever closer. Hero and student swung at each other at the last second, their connecting blows kicking up wind and dust that blew Cathleen back a foot, covering her face with her arms. Between them, she saw that their blows didn't connect at all, an inch or so between the fist and the baseball bat, like the force around their swings cancelled each other out before they could meet.
When Midoriya landed on his feet, neither of them let up, their weapons of choice coming to clash in a flurry of strikes back and forth. Where the large hero surged forward with his fist and threw weight into his punches, the teen was quick to block or divert incoming strikes with his bat, even when his own swings of retaliation missed their mark. The American hero wasn't given much more time to admire their clash, as Battle Fist came running around the corner, charging at her and swinging her massive hands at her. More kids fell from the sky like Midoriya, as Tailman and Red Riot joined the green-haired kid against All-Might while Rocketti fought by the other girl's side against Cathleen.
The American woman laughed loudly as she grabbed a punch from Battle Fist, spinning around and tossing her aside just for Tailman to leap up and catch her classmate safely so he could join her and the American student in taking her on; persistent was an understatement. No matter how much she dodged, blocked or redirected their strikes, the students continued to try their hardest. It almost made Cathleen forget the other part of the exam, but the voice overhead of the third-year teacher signaling, "Seven minutes remaining," did the job.
The roaring engines rushing closer brought a stronger reminder.
She barely dodged Ingenium shooting through the air past her, though the kid managed to successfully bash his leg into All-Might's forearm, clashing armor with brace and shattering the guard the hero wore. The big man grimaced as the broken pieces fell to the ground, grabbed the blue-haired student's leg and tossed him into the red-haired boy. With the twist of his body, Cathleen was able to spot a figure down the road, and shouted, "Cannon!"
Creati stood behind said double-barreled weapon, pointed straight down the road — where the students had tried to trap both heroes in, the American woman realized. She leapt into the air as the students all parted to the sides, and All-Might did the same as her. But the tall girl charging the weapon didn't bother moving the barrels to follow. "Metal Bat!"
Cathleen turned her gaze downwards to the green-haired teen still standing in the middle of the road, just beside the path the cannon was aimed. The weapon exploded with smoke as it fired, and the American hero watched in slow-motion as Midoriya swung his bat around his body and caught the cannonballs as they passed him by, striking them upwards towards the heroes at the same speeds. One flew off in the wrong direction well past either of them, but the other caught the Japanese hero, shooting him through the windows of a building where he disappeared from sight with the sounds of destruction.
She gripped the air around her. "The air will solidify beneath my feet!" she ordered, and her fall stopped short as she landed on nothing. She moved to chase after the other hero, only for tape to catch her arm and a hand find her ankle, both pulling her back to the ground. She ripped free of Tentacole's hand and Cellophane's tape before she landed on the road again, and the only one who approached her was Midoriya.
The green-haired boy stepped forward, swinging his bat in full circles between each step, matching the hero's gaze with confidence. "He caught that," the teen told her, eyes slipping away to the hole in the building. "Pyrogel threw a bus at him at faster speeds than that; I doubt we could do worse with one attack. And it's only been an hour" — his eyes found hers again — "so he still has time. He always gets back up." Cathleen's brow furrowed at his words, subtly addressing her mentor's time limit for his hero form; of course, the kid knew to strike the man in his wound, so why All-Might didn't include him on the list of allies they had who knew his secret was a question she'd ask him later. "It's an honor to finally meet you in person. I used to dream about that, to be honest."
The American woman met him with a playful smile. "You should be more careful saying that to heroines, young man. Someone might get the wrong idea." Unlike the night back at their family's apartment, the boy didn't falter from the tease. "It was nice to finally meet you too. I had my own expectations coming here, but you're smashing them to bits quite thoroughly. You've got quite the fighting spirit to challenge the world's greatest hero head-on."
He stopped a few feet in front of her, tapping his bat to the road once. "Are you going to run back for the rescue bots?"
"Are you going to let me?"
"No."
Cathleen rolled her shoulders. "Thought not. You kids don't have much time left anyways, if they don't find them fast enough. Are you sure you can arrest five teachers faster?"
Midoriya repeated, "No," and slid a foot. "But as long as you're here, they have a chance to find them all." He flicked the bat upwards, pulling it back to his shoulder. "I think I finally got and idea for a super move name. I wanna try it out."
She looked just over her shoulder where Ingenium charged from, realizing it wasn't even the road they had come down when her mentor and the kid began fighting — she wasn't sure she knew which direction was correct. "Sure," Cathleen decided. She cracked her neck, pushing her fist into her palm. "We can waste a minute. The force of Cathleen Bate's punches will increase ten-fold." A burning energy surged through her arms under the command of her quirk; that was her limit, just about as strong as All-Might was punching in those restraints, before her body would crack under the pressure. And this kid was pushing back against him? "You ready?"
Metal Bat brought his other hand to the handle of his bat, both hands gripping tightly. She stepped forward, pulling her fist back behind her head.
The kid gave a steady exhale. "Spirit…"
The woman flexed her muscles. "Tokyo…"
"Break!/Smash!"
In one second bare knuckles met solid steel halfway, the American hero's punch meeting the Japanese student's swing with a deafening bang. The next, the glass around them shattered, winding kicking up from the clash of their blows that staggered the other students around. Cathleen flashed a smile through the brief sting of pain that shot up her arm, while Metal Bat mimicked the same emotion as his arms shook to hold the stalemate. They pushed off each other, to step back, and then stepped forward again.
He blocked her next punch with his bat braced against his shoulder. The twist of his body knocked it to the side, steel swinging over his head and grazing the air in front of her face as it clipped past her nose. She came back with a hook from her other hand, clocking the teen in the face and spinning him around; but he went with the spin, propelling his bat behind him for a blow she could only block with the combined effort of her braces originally met to hinder her speed.
She slid back along the pavement, shaking her arms where her muscles beneath tensed. The kid rolled his jaw, heaving a grunted breath. She smiled, and he smiled back. She rushed in, and he met her blow-for-blow. Her fist grazed his ribs, and his bat clipped her shoulder. He swung violently, and she leapt backward over it. The instant she landed, she rushed forward again, fist brushing over the pavement. He slid his foot forward, bat raised over and behind his head, a single emerald eye glistening back at her challenge.
"The rescue bots have been secured."
Her fist stopped inches from his stomach. His bat stopped inches from her head. A light breeze rustled her cape and his jacket.
"Class 1-A has passed the practical exam," Makima announced over the intercom. "The test has concluded."
Cathleen pulled her fist back with her body, slowly rising to stand up strand. Opposite her, Midoriya deflated with another long breath, his shoulders slumping, and he fell backwards on his butt to sit in the middle of the road. Yaoyorozu and Hanta rushed to his side, while the other kids around them found a similar state of exhaustion as they sat down with more grace than their green-haired classmate. Stone grated against itself above them, and the American woman looked to the broken building, where All-Might stood in the hole his crash created. He offered a silent thumbs up, and she returned the gesture in kind.
You have a good kid on your hands, Master. Of course I'll train him.
Everyone was tired when they returned to class, even after splurging on lunch together and taking an hour to catch their breaths and cool off. Izuku did his best to go around congratulating all of his classmates; thanking the ones who fought their teachers with him; praising Shiozaki and Todoroki for stalling two teachers, for the most part, alone; thanking Uraraka for taking care of Aoyama, Kaminari and Sato after they all sat out with individual quirk backlash; and praising Ashido, Asui and Jirou for finding the four rescue bots that won them the exam. Not everyone was happy for not contributing as much as someone else did, but that they passed the exam together for attributing something to the team was enough to liven their spirits by the time he and Yaoyorozu led everyone back to homeroom.
"You kids managed to pass the exam in a group effort," Aizawa acknowledged when they had all quieted down. "Divide and conquer was the plan that saved you from a failing grade in the practical; you're lucky it worked out, in some cases, but your confidence in your peers was not luck. But passing and failing your final exams in full has less to do with the results, and more to do with your performance, as I'm sure some of you are dreading. With your scores on the written exams included, these are those who failed to meet the qualifying grades for both. Kaminari Denki." The blond boy slumped into his desk with his forehead, consoled only by a kind hand from Uraraka reaching to his shoulder. "Ashido Mina." The pink-skinned girl figuratively melted in her own seat, a silent whine on her face. "Sato Rikido." The hulking boy had a similar reaction as his blond teammate, though his face expressed more nausea. "Aoyama Yuga." The French teen shared the former boy's sickly expression. "Iida Tenya."
Izuku's head snapped to attention, twisting to his blue-haired friend at the front of their assembly. Iida's form shifted and froze in rigid form, but he ultimately tilted his head down while shoulders slumped in silent shame.
"As you're all aware," their teacher carried on, "these grades do affect your involvement with the summer program scheduled for when you return from break — you will all still be attending the summer camp program together. For the five I've listed, you will be partaking in extracurricular studies atop many of the planned programs and exercises you will share with the rest of your class. I have a syllabus for you five to collect before you go home today. For the rest of you" — he looked over the heads of the students — "don't expect to slack off. We will work you hard, and your classmates harder. Enjoy these days of brevity. And congratulations."
As his class was finally permitted to go home, Izuku beelined it through the desks to his blue-haired friend, still seated at his own desk. "You alright?"
"Beyond my pride," Iida admitted hoarsely. "I was confident I had done well on the written exam, and I thought I had helped enough on the practical. I'll ask sensei when I leave, what it is that I've missed."
"You did well," Yaoyorozu praised as she joined on the other side of the boy's desk. "The idea to divert from the known fighting with the rescue bots to keep them safe wasn't a bad one; running into All-Might and Star was just bad luck."
"Maybe it was my follies, then; being captured and losing the bots entrusted to me. I had thought capturing Snipe would at least account for something."
"Maybe losing the bots again made them overconfident?" Izuku suggested. "All-Might bet all of them on a fight with me; I'm not sure he would have been so kind if they only had two and didn't know where the others were. I think being caught helped us, in the end." Iida did not look as convinced at his spin of the narrative, but he thanked him for the attempt.
Before anyone had actually left the classroom, Ashido — rejuvenated and with color returning to her skin — bounced to the front of the classroom. "We should do something to celebrate winning the practical!" she suggested. "We kicked our teachers' butts" — Aizawa grumbled wordlessly from the beanbag he slithered into behind his desk — "we should do something together."
Without missing a beat, Todoroki slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out the door with a curt, "Goodnight," and nothing more.
"Ashido's right," Izuku spoke up, stepping forward to join her. He gave his classmate a nod to her feverish smile before facing the rest of their class. "We should do something together if we can. We only won this because of each other. We should do something before the summer camp — something to celebrate each other."
"Oh!" Tsunotori perked up, shooting a hand into the air and waiting loudly for Izuku to point at her. "We could all go shopping! We can go to the mall, hang out, grab supplies, see a movie, have lunch…" The girl continued listing activities, rocking on her feet as she listed on and on unbothered by the stares around her.
"That is a good idea," Yaoyorozu agreed. "A day together to relax and still prepare for the summer camp would be most optimal, and a good excuse for everyone to come together to find something specific they'd like to do." She gathered their classmates around her, pulling an itinerary from her bag and collecting times of availability from everyone, trying to find a date that they could agree upon. Izuku watched, silently and patiently, for a brief moment simply lost in his thoughts.
He was broken out of them by the slow-moving shade of color in the corner of his eye, and he turned to Ashido, leaning over the podium with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face he'd seen yet. "I know you better."
"Oh, with this again," he sighed and turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Dude, you've been, like, so obvious about it. I'm pretty sure half the class is expecting it. Are you ever going to tell her?"
Izuku breathed softly from his nose, gaze falling on the tall, raven-haired girl, whose voice from past and present had encouraged him to challenge two number-one heroes. "I will," he decided, just as their class had come to an agreement on a date. "Tomorrow."