'Listen to me, Kacchan!'

'Shut up Deku! And stop following me home!'

'It's been a week! You need to talk to me!'

'I won't!'

Izumi walked angrily towards him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face her. 'We won't pass if—'

Bakugo hit her hand away from him. 'I don't give a shit!' He yelled. 'I don't need your help in the exams, I can pass with just my own power!'

'That's not what the exams are about!'

'I don't care!" he shouted.

'Neither of us will be able to pass if we don't work together!' she shouted back. Izumi stood up straight and clenched her fists, face filled with frustration. 'I know you want to pass Kacchan, I know you do. But why,' her voice lost its intensity, and was replaced by an almost pleading, 'why don't you accept the fact that we have to work together?'

'As I'd said, I don't need help from someone like you!'

'Yes, you do!I'm your partner! We need to work together on this!'

Izumi tried to grab Bakugo again, but he pushed her away from him, making her fall on the ground. For a moment, Bakugo glanced, then turned away from her.

'Then who?' yelled Izumi. 'Who do you need help from? We need to at least talk Kacchan!' She glared. 'Just please, talk to me!'

Bakugo glared at the girl on the ground. 'You wouldn't understand, Deku.'

—

'So, I'm guessing that the conversation didn't go well?'

Shinso leaned, arms crossed against the wall, watching Izumi work out. She wiped off the sweat from her mouth, and looked at Shinso, panting.

'Is it that obvious?' she asked, standing straight.

He put his hand on his chin. 'Let's see…You seem tired, you aren't smiling, and the positive aura that you've had this entire week is gone.' He said. A small smile appeared on his face. 'I knew something was really wrong when Uraraka greeted you this morning, and you didn't turn into a human tomato.

Izumi's face, pale a few seconds ago, was now filled with a blinding pink. 'It was that obvious before?!' she asked, hands covering her face.

'It was, but I'm just pretty good at reading people. So Uraraka probably doesn't know about it yet, don't worry.'

'T-Thank goodness.'

A calm expression appeared on the boy's face, ad he turned towards her. 'Todoroki has a meeting with Yaoyouzu about the exam, so it's just going to be me and you. You're welcome to rant to me about it if you want.'

Izumi let a loud groan to the air, and her focus went back to the punching bag in front of her. Thudding her head on the punching bag, she started to lightly punch the bag with one hand, and slowly, the power behind the punches increased. Frustration built up inside of her, and she let it out bit by bit through her punches.

'Izumi…?' asked Shinso cautiously.

The girl didn't reply, and her other hand started to punch the bag as well, pushing the bag further backward each time with the force that she applied. The punches slowly got more and more powerful, as she subconsciously activated her quirk through her hands. Her movements got faster and faster, as she let out more of her emotions through her fists. Small flickers of the lightning danced around her skin, as she let out one particularly hard punch, using about 15% of her power, and knocked the bag straight to the ground. She breathed heavily with her fist still in the air.

A wet towel fell on her face. Prying it off with her fingers, she looked at it, and then looked at Shinso. 'Clean your face.' He called, walking over to her, 'It's covered in sweat.'

Continuing to pant heavily, she took the towel and started wiping her face with it. 'Thanks,' she called out to Shinso and sat down on the ground. He shrugged.

'You needed it.' he sat in front of her, his hand leaning on his cheek. 'I've seen you emotional before,' he started, and Izumi looked at him, surprised. 'Sports Festival.' He reminded her. 'I see a pattern in all the times you get emotional, in every incident, you're always trying to save someone.' He counted on his fingers. 'When you went against me at the festival, you tried to change my mindset about my quirk. During Todoroki's battle, you were yelling to him about his quirk?…' He shook his head. 'Anyways, I assume that it's the same condition this time.'

The small hand clenched around the towel.

'S-Shinso—'

'This time, it's about Bakugo, right?'

'…'

'It's what I said, right?' Shinso ruffled his hair. 'Izumi, let me ask you a question. Why do you care so much about Bakugo? It's obvious that he dislikes you, and treats you horribly. ' He made eye contact. 'You don't have to work this hard, just to able to talk to him. So why? Why do this much work?'

'Shinso, you-you wouldn't under—'

'Then tell me, Izumi. Tell me why you put up with him.'

Her hands clenched tighter on the towel that she held and then relaxed. 'I…I can't tell you.'

Silence fell in the air, and the tension only grew with it.

Shinso sighed and looked at Izumi. 'If it's a personal issue, then I can't really do anything about it,… can I?He said quietly and stood up.

Izumi bit her lip in concern. 'Shinso…It's not you. I wouldn't just… not tell you, it really is just between me and Kacchan.'

Shinso looked at her, then looked away. 'There's five minutes before the exam starts, I think that you should have some time to yourself about this situation.'

Izumi gave him a shaky smile. 'Y-Yeah... I think that—that would be good.'

Silence fell between them again. Izumi's small hands fidgeted with her hair.

''Well, good luck.' Giving her a small wave, Shinso walked away to the entrance.

'Shinso?' started Izumi, and the boy looked back, staring at her. 'Um… I just want to say. You..really don't have to worry about Kacchan and I. I've known him since we were toddlers so I can tell when..when he has, um, something on his mind. So… I think I think that—'

'I understand.' Izumi looked up in surprise. 'As I've said before, I'm pretty good at reading people. Bakugo's been acting strangely around you, and according to what I've heard of him before I came here, his behavior is definitely different.' He sighed. 'Izumi…he's Bakugo. He has a boiling temper, and If I were you, I…I wouldn't save him.

'I would!' said Izumi, hands on her chest. 'Kacchan's my friend since childhood, I have to save him!'

'Izumi…You shouldn't—'

'A hero is someone who saves people! If I can't save Kacchan from what he's going through, how will I save anyone else?'

'Izumi…'

'I just…I just want to see Kacchan be happy…'

'…'

The bell stopped their conversation.

THIS IS THE FIRST CALL FOR THE FINAL EXAM! WILL ALL STUDENTS PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE GYM. exclaimed the announcer.

'Ah! We, we got so carried away that—I need to grab my bag—the gym—'

Her bag swiftly fell in her arms, and she caught it on instinct. 'Hurry,' said Shinso, looking away, 'or you'll be called as absent.'

'Y-Yeah! Got it. Um, sorry about, um, ranting to you all of a sudden.'

'It's fine.'

She quickly hung the bag on her arm and ran towards the door. Before she left, however, she glanced back at Shinso.

'Shinso?' she called.

'This better be quick.' he said.

'There's a question that's been nagging me for the past few days…What did you want to say to me on your first day of school?'

He paused for a few seconds and then waved it off. 'Nothing important, now hurry before you're late!' She nodded and ran out of the room, leaving Shinso by himself in the gym.

Izumi had already changed into her hero costume prior to the training so she wouldn't waste time on changing. Charging through the hallways, she bolted to the gym, her legs running as fast as they could. It wasn't a very long run from the training grounds to the gym, and as she ran outside, she could catch sight of a small group of people. Skidding and sliding on the sidewalks, she finally made her way there, at the end of the group. Uraraka caught sight of her and pushed her way towards Izumi.

'That was a close one, Deku-chan! It really isn't like you to be late.'

Panting, Izumi looked up and saw a group of Yuuei teachers coming in through the gym facilities. She'd made it just in time. As she recovered from her long run, she heard other students talking about the sudden appearances of the teachers.

'Why are there so many teachers?"

'What's that huge lump on sensei's neck?'

'I'm so nervous for the final exam!"

Aizawa coughed, and the crowd of Class 1-A students grew quiet.

'As you may or may not know,' started Aizawa, who was at the front of the group and strangely, had a huge lump in his bandages. 'This year's exam is going to be mainly focusing with your partner to destroy robots worth different points, like the entrance exam.'

Everyone nodded. Denki whispered to Mina. 'Thank goodness the older students told us about the exam information, or else we probably wouldn't pass the exam!' Izumi had to agree with him on that, working with Kacchan was already hard, she didn't need anything else to make it harder. She had worked hard the entire week, focusing on the robots and their build, to find weaknesses in their amour. After a week of research, she was definitely ready.

'But,' and everyone perked up hearing Aizawa-sensei talk again, 'this year…' The pile of bandages leaped into the air, and landed in front of them, revealing Nezu. 'This year will be a little different!'

'Principal Nezu!?" shouted Mina. 'What are you doing here?

'That's exactly what I'll be explaining!' exclaimed Nezu. 'Fighting robots certainly was last year's exam, but there have been so many recent villain encounters including Yuuei students, and that has become a problem for us, the teachers at Yuuei. So, in order to cope with this new change, we've decided to change the exam!' Nezu gestured to all the teachers surrounding him. 'Instead of fighting robots, each pair will be assigned with a teacher to fight!'

'What!?'

'Seriously?!"

Nezu continued to explain the reasons behind changing the exam, but Izumi couldn't concentrate on what was happening. Their small window of success was suddenly turned even smaller. Her research, all the research that she did over the week was all for nothing. She gritted her teeth and looked at Bakugo, who was trying to avoid eye contact. Kacchan, you and I both know this. She thought. If we don't work together, we won't stand a chance against the teachers!

'The first team,' continued Nezu, 'Team Bakugo and Izumi, will be fighting against…'

A shadow suddenly appeared from the sky. 'I have entered in a completely normal way!" exclaimed a familiar voice, and All Might crashed into the ground, making a heroic entrance. Everyone else started to chatter and get excited under the aura of the No.1 Hero. Under normal circumstances, both Bakugo and Izumi would've been relieved to hear that voice. But in a place like this, both of their eyes widened in fear, fear of what was next. How would a team like us, with no preparation or teamwork, defeat someone like All Might?

—

It was a beautiful day in Japan. The spring air was warm, yet had a slight chill in the air. The sakura blossoms bloomed and draped the road in a blanket of gentle pink. The sun shone high in the sky, rays of sunlight making rainbows on the freshly fallen dew of the morning. Students of all different talents were outside, preparing for exams. Yet, Hitoshi Shinso had to spend it in a small, dark room.

For about the 5th time that hour, he groaned loudly out of boredom. While the other people in his class were preparing for the final exams, he had to sit in a small room for the entire afternoon because there was nobody available to supervise him. Lounging on the couch, his eyes darted around the room, looking for things to entertain himself before the exams started. Suddenly, there came a sharp knock on his door. Startling Shinso, he got up to greet his uninvited guest, happy for finally, something to happen.

'Is it Sensei? Please get me out of here. I'm absolutely bored in he—' His sentence didn't get to finish. As soon as he opened the door, his eyes met the cold gaze of Todoroki Shoto. The boy stood, towering over Shinso, with a face devoid of emotion. The bored monotone expression on his face quickly switched over to a smirk, so swift and convincing, it was like putting on a mask.

'Long time no see. What do you want from me, pretty boy?'

'Drop the act, Shinso.' said Todoroki, still emitting his cold glare. 'We both know that you're faking it.'

'Fine.' The emotion mask was taken off, and his face returned to the unmoving expression. 'It's not like I want to act all cheery in front of you, anyways.' Gesturing him to come in, Shinso walked back to his couch, and Todoroki followed. Shinso sat back on the couch. 'So, what does the great and mighty Todoroki want with me?' he asked, goading him.

Todoroki pulled a chair from the neighboring table and sat on it, while still staring daggers at Shinso.

'You know what I'm here for, Shinso.'

'I'm afraid I don't, my apologies.'

The boy threw a death glare at him, and Shinso looked back, unaffected. Silence hung in the air, like how one's body would. An eerie cold silence that remained unbroken as the boys continued to stare.

'I want you to stay away from Izumi, Shinso.'

AN:

Hello everyone! This is just a quick note to thank everyone for helping me reach 100 subscribers to this fanfic! I definitely didn't expect this to gain as much attention as it is right now, and I am really thankful to everyone because this is a huge confidence boost for me to continue writing. If you have any ideas or possible one-shots (because I will be fitting some of them in between the arcs), please leave a review!

Thank you all! ヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ