Uraraka was glad that she had the willpower to plop out of bed early the following morning or she would never have caught the punctual and now dark-eyed Bakugo trudging out of the dorms well before 7 A.M. If it weren't for him, she also wouldn't have known that he was designated to a different classroom for homeroom attendance at the odd time of 7:30, for whatever reason. "Any idea on what it could be about?" she asked anyway as they traversed to the school building.
Bakugo clicked open his phone and pulled up the e-mail Aizawa sent him. "Not the slightest clue," he admitted, "It's definitely weird, but instructions are instructions."
"But if it's a villain attack-"
"If it's a villain attack, then I'll smash their faces in," Bakugo reassured Uraraka then directed a smirk at her. "I don't crumble under anyone's shoe without a fight. So stop worrying."
Uraraka smiled up at him. "Right. Because you're so tough that no one could possibly ever sucker-punch you."
"You got that right."
"Um, by the way…"
"Hm?"
"What happened to your face? It looks kind of...all marked up."
Unmistaken displeasure united Bakugo's eyebrows and wrinkled the top of his nose. "Nothing," he quickly dismissed and began walking faster.
He continued to trot off, certain he had eluded further interrogation until Uraraka caught up to him with a simple, playful skip in her step and insistently pulled on his shirt sleeve. "It's not nothing!" She pointed at him with a mischievous grin tugging at her lips. "Look at that! They've faded a bit, but there are swirly-looking markings on your cheeks! And a grey circle around your right eye…"
"You're imagining things so just drop it," Bakugo growled. He'd sooner recite some sappy love poem to her than tell the ridiculous truth. At least he'd save face by saying it was for an assignment or something. But that— all he knew was that he'd kill Sero if that idiot ever dared cross his path today. Kirishima, too, that traitor. "Shit nerd wasn't any better either."
"What was that?" Uraraka peeked at him from an angle.
"I already told you— it's nothing," Bakugo whiplashed, more angry at himself for letting his tongue run away from him than at Uraraka's persistent prying.
Not at all bothered by his curt tone, Uraraka caught a giggle from her lips. "Fine, don't tell me," she purred, "I have other sources anyway." Whatever he was hiding from her, it seemed worth her time finding out. She brought her hand back down, letting it brush against Bakugo's as he worked on putting his phone back in his pocket.
He flinched first, causing her to gasp and jump back. "What are y-"
"Sorry, I didn't-" she started at the same time as him.
They looked at each other, wide-eyed, then cautiously tracked some distance between them.
"My bad," Bakugo coughed, successfully tucking his phone in and turning away.
Uraraka squeezed her skirt. "It's...okay…" she mumbled.
"..."
"..."
'Shoot…' Uraraka recalculated her thoughts, 'He became so sensitive all of a sudden. Am I being too...pushy? Maybe I'm treading on dangerous territory here.' She glanced at him and, while he still refused to meet her gaze, she could see his ears beginning to adopt a warmer hue. With her heart churning a mix of hope and delight, she scanned the area for any souls and, upon seeing none, inched back towards Bakugo.
His hair frizzed at her encroachment, but he kept his lips straight and his eyes focused on the golden U.A. sign that gleamed boastfully under the rising sun. Her hand swung close to his. The gentle breeze it emitted was proof enough. The thought to grab it and take it into his own ran laps in his mind, but certain doubts barricaded him. When was it the right time to do something like that? Would his palm be over hers or the other way around? Would she be weirded out if he did it first for a change? Annoyance stamped its veiny mark on his temple. 'Fuck, if I know!'
Uraraka wished she held more wisdom in this department, but each missed swing of their hands only weakened her resolve. In a situation like this, the girlfriend had to take charge, no? So what if he didn't want to hold hands? She wanted to. And unlike the last few times, it wouldn't be done in a teasing or playful manner, but that of genuine intimacy as an official high school couple walking on 'normal' teenage grounds. That wasn't too much to ask, was it? Or so she tried desperately to convince herself but the longer she stared at Bakugo's disgruntled scowl, the more hesitant she grew. Her fingertips felt oddly cold now, curling and uncurling with unconscious expectation. 'Well, if I don't do anything then nothing will ever happen, right? Much less anything amazing…' Holding a nervous breath in her cheek, she stepped closer to Bakugo, deliberately skimming her small knuckles against his to test the waters.
Bakugo's eyes darted her way for a split second then went back to whatever else he was staring at ahead. He kept silent this time and made no effort to pull away.
A couple of other early-bird students announced their shaken nerves as they whizzed past the couple, oblivious to the strained air between the two. None of them stopped, of course. Instead, they continued to sprint towards the school building, bags and books swinging wildly in the air.
Mustering what courage she had left, Uraraka tried to coax Bakugo into accepting her with a shy flick of her index finger against the small curl of his palm. Failing to elicit a response, said finger slid down, catching his pinky on the way and dislodging it from the rest of his rigid fingers he apparently was trying to keep together.
This time, Bakugo's full attention swung to and remained squarely on the rose-faced gravity manipulator, her clumsy invite left hanging in the air. He looked down at her hand that twitched beside his own lonesome one and chuckled briefly at the sight of her slack-jawed mortification. "What the hell are you trying to pull now, short stack?"
"I-I, um…" Uraraka hid the awkward hand behind her back. "Nothing! It was just a...a muscle spasm! That's all."
Bakugo rolled his eyes. This girlfriend of his had many traits going for her, but being a good liar was most definitely not one of them. Not that he minded. In fact, he found it adorable in situations such as this, but he'd keep that comment to himself. And though his inner monologue still entertained the same doubts from before, like with most things, he let his instincts overpower them.
Inhaling deeply, he gingerly raised his hand to meet Uraraka's. She jerked back, not having expected the contact but, to Bakugo's satisfaction, kept her hand where he could still easily catch it. Apparently, his hand preferred to be over hers as it encircled and gently flipped her palm side up. Once grazing her soft finger pads, his fingers set to work on locating every available gap between her own smaller fingers and eagerly fastened into them.
There.
Bakugo and Uraraka dared not look at each other right away, but they knew. Palm to palm and fingertips to knuckles— they were actually and finally holding hands and the less obvious of the two had semi-initiated it. Uraraka wanted so much to squeal her little lungs out but favored not ruining this rare moment.
Bakugo gave her hand a soft squeeze. "...Erm, listen, if...if you ever…"
"Hm?" Uraraka lifted only her curious brown eyes to him.
"If you ever...want to hold hands again, just...do it." Despite feeling anything but angry, Bakugo did what he was best at and scowled. "And I'll do the same...whenever I want to also, got that? I won't take 'no' for an answer!"
Uraraka covered her mouth with her other free hand, blushing furiously under the longer strands of hair that framed her face. She was glad that, without even having to voice it, Bakugo read her earlier insecurities and stomped them flat then and there. He had a funny way of comforting her, per usual, but the candid awkwardness only brought her laughter. A laughter which she could no longer suppress.
"Wh-what now?!" Bakugo demanded, turning to her with bared teeth.
"Well…" Uraraka wiped a tear from her eye. "Since you won't take 'no,' then all I can really say is 'okay,' right?"
Bakugo looked down at his shoes. "...Were you going to say 'no'?"
"Far from it." Uraraka smiled fondly at him and gave his hand an approving squeeze.
"Oh, wow! What's this?"
Bakugo and Uraraka snapped their gazes to the sickeningly familiar voice and found it to be Monoma who had coincidentally arrived at the front doors at the same time as them. What were the odds that he would be going to school this early, too?
"Coming into school while holding hands?" Monoma continued to jeer loudly, turning unwanted attention on the pair. "And it's the Sports Festival winner- Bakugo- with his defeated opponent- Uraraka- too! Officially dating! Hmph, like I said before, Class A would only date amongst themselves since you're all so superior to the rest of us. No need to share popularity with the lower mutts, right? And to flaunt yourselves so shamelessly at school, too."
"Piss off, piss-head," Bakugo grunted and shoved past the bitterly grinning blonde with Uraraka's hand still tight in his grasp. She did her best to match his strides, having noticed that they'd suddenly quickened.
Monoma stepped into the building after the two. "It all makes so much sense now! How did I not see it before? Obviously, to keep the best one in Class A at the top of the scoreboard, Uraraka purposely conceded that match. All to save her precious top-athlete boyfriend, am I right?"
Uraraka stopped in her tracks first, yanking Bakugo to a halt as she spun around to face Monoma. "What...did you say?" her voice quivered.
"I'm just saying that you obviously weren't fighting all that seriously at the time," Monoma shrugged, "But hey, if getting to date the infamous bad-boy Bakugo was all it took to convince you…"
"How dare you?" Uraraka tore her hand from Bakugo's and slammed it against her chest. "I gave that fight all I had! It showed me that I still had a long way to become a hero and I've been working to better myself every day since then! So for you to say something so shallow and contrived is just…!"
Monoma threw his hands up in the air in a mocking gesture of surrender. "Hey, I'm just telling you how it looked. And if Bakugo got a good lay after that, then—" Not another word left him as he was violently pushed against the nearest shoe locker and lifted from the ground by his collar. He glanced down and smirked, Bakugo's crimson vehemence burning his own dull blue eyes. "Hit a nerve, did I?"
"Katsuki!" Uraraka gasped, suddenly aware of the whispers and scrutiny of the other students around them.
Bakugo, on the other hand, gave no thought to them whatsoever. Whenever he was pulled into a fight, as far as he was concerned, it was just him...and his prey. "Listen to me, you droopy-eyed freak, because I'm not going to say this again." He lifted Monoma higher with his one hand. "You're tiptoeing over lava now so you'd better fuckin' watch your step. And unless you won't miss your limbs, do not cross me and that goes for Ochaco, too. What we do with ourselves is none of your or anyone else's fuckin' business."
"'Do with ourselves,' eh?" Monoma held his head high still. "Already passing along your superior genes. You two got busy fairly quick."
"Why, you!" Bakugo moved to punch the living daylights out of the quirk taker but was stopped by a metallic hand. His fist exploded by reflex, but the blast was effectively smothered by the same hand that only seemed to grip his tighter.
It was none other than Tetsutetsu, looking bright-eyed and confused as the other numerous students who were now trailing into the building as the minutes ticked by. "Whoa, what's going on here?" He glanced between the two, pausing to frown at Bakugo. "Why did I walk into a picture-perfect scene of student-to-student violence? This isn't what U.A. stands for, you know."
Bakugo withdrew both of his hands, dropping Monoma on his behind without remorse. "Keep people in your class in check if you don't want their asses getting whooped," he snarled at Tetsutetsu, "This fuckface crossed one too many lines and I was about to instill a painful and permanent lesson— on his face."
It only took seeing Bakugo return to Uraraka's side and put a protective arm around her shoulder for Tetsutetsu to figure out what had transpired. Utterly appalled, he turned to Monoma and scolded, "Coming on to a taken woman, Monoma?! That's pretty low! Even for you!"
The room fell silent and Monoma's jaw dropped the furthest it ever had. Too caught off guard by the grey-haired boy's derailed response, Bakugo and Uraraka simply stood frozen, also silent.
"Tetsutetsu…I think you have the wrong idea here..." Monoma uttered.
"Even after seeing how they display their relationship so clearly," Tetsutetsu continued to defend the speechless couple, "You should be ashamed of yourself! I thought you'd have more honor as a man than that. Kendo would be so disappointed in you if she saw you like this." He helped his dumbfounded classmate to his feet and headed to their respective shoe lockers. "Sorry for any trouble he caused!" he waved to Bakugo and Uraraka, "We'll make sure to keep a closer eye on him! Oh, and congratulations, both of you!"
"Was that...really his way of 'coming on' to you?" Bakugo knew it was a stupid question, but thought he'd make sure anyway.
"I highly doubt it…" Having fallen out of most of her stupor, Uraraka turned to Bakugo and furrowed her brow. "Why'd you do that? I get that he said some pretty rude things about me, but the stuff he said after hardly called for all that commotion. They sounded like total nonsense."
Bakugo looked down at her, frowning quizzically at what she just said. "Oy… Don't tell me you didn't realize the things he was saying? About us?"
"Yeah, something about getting busy with passing around our jeans," Uraraka replied in an I'm-not-an-idiot sort of tone, "I don't get how it's offensive seeing as how we don't wear the same size anyway. And calling it top this, superior that… It's not like we splurge our money on high-end fashion stuff. Not me, at least. Point is, the way you reacted was pretty uncalled for and you should apologize for having taken it so far." It wasn't until she finished rambling that she found Bakugo had left her side and was already going up the hallway in his indoor shoes, slouched, hands inside baggy pant pockets and all. "He-hey! Katsuki, where are you going? Wait for me!"
"Screw that!" Bakugo angrily snorted, "I'm already running late enough as it is and, no, I'm not apologizing to that asshat so you can just forget it!"
"No fair…going ahead of me," Uraraka pouted but immediately lit up when Mina, Asui and Yaoyorozu fortuitously arrived to converse with her. It seemed they had just missed the show.
...
Bakugo tuned everything out from there, leaving plenty of room for a new and abrasive realization to fatten itself in his mind— Uraraka was too innocent! Though admittedly, he was in somewhat the same boat as her when it came to sexual innuendos and slang not that long ago.
What really did him in was one fateful evening about a week after everyone had moved into the dorms. If it hadn't been for Kaminari and Mineta e-mailing him— and several other guys according to the CC list— separate links with the suspicious subject line of "Educate yourself in safety!" he would still be on said placid boat. Though, he should have known better than to open anything that came from those two, so he deserved what he saw. The worst part was, as much as he detested himself as a human being for it, he couldn't stop with just those two links. On the same webpage where they converged, his adulting eyes traveled from one intriguing thumbnail to the next until he'd watched enough videos to feel certain...sensations...festering inside him. They were the same kind he felt when he was first softly exposed to these human impurities back in middle school, but had now gained rawer, unsupervised and unmatched momentum and came with a greater perception that he liked to believe was rooted from his maturing mind.
"Way to summarize 'horny' with fancy words," he could practically hear Sero, who he remembered was also on the CC list at the time, sneering beside him and nearly punched the wall to keep his thoughts from spiraling out of control. It took a while to admit, but those same carnal sensations had surfaced when he and Uraraka were 'bonding' in his hotel room back at her hometown, bringing a rude wake-up call to his otherwise usually level-headed composure. It was an unsettling revelation as to what kind of 'hunger' he felt while kissing and touching her that night and he nearly lost control, too.
And now that Uraraka had more than proved her cherubic innocence in the matter, a frightening and ancient instinct in him began to take form, welling in his gut, clawing at his brain and now his heart. Dare he admit it, he felt...excited to translate clearly for her the innuendos that Monoma spat in careless consecutive sentences that managed to irk him so.
"Fancy words," the imaginative Sero sang again.
'Shut up!' Bakugo mentally fought back. That was why, as she went on explaining her dumb idea to have him apologize for defending both their dignities in the real adult world, he knew he had to get away. The temptation to defile her thoughts where she stood was too great, taking all of his self-control to slip into his indoor shoes and quarantine himself until the 'giddy' feeling in his chest went away. Which it didn't.
"Ahem," a gruff voice coughed.
Bakugo dragged his feet to a stop and looked up to find Aizawa glaring at him, arms crossed and moppy black hair disheveled. "You're late," the sleepless man grouched, "We've been waiting."
Now annoyed, Bakugo straightened himself up and haughtily replied, "I'm here, aren't I?" Despite all his meandering inside his own head, he was secretly surprised he made it to the foreign classroom at all.
Aizawa's glare turned colder, if at all possible. "Quit being a smart-mouth and get in," he instructed, sliding the door open and whisking Bakugo into the room. "Sit down. We're running behind schedule already so I don't have time to go over things twice."
Well, if anything was going to snap him and his hormones back to reality, a cranky Aizawa was certainly it. 'Thank God,' Bakugo sighed to himself and pulled out a chair in front of…
"Hey, Bakugo! You're with our group, eh?"
Sero.
Bakugo's blood-shot eyes pierced daggers into the tape user's oblivious head. "You…" he breathed, "Fuckin' thorn in my ass son of a…!"
Sero began to glow red from holding back his fits of laughter, keeping a finger pointed at the riled blonde. "Pffft...it's still on your face…" he snickered.
Bakugo dug his nails into the chair he held. "I'm gonna kill you!"
"Problem, Bakugo?" Aizawa warned shortly after having slammed the door behind him.
Knowing better than to further rouse their teacher's ire, Bakugo held his tongue and reluctantly sat down, teeth grinding away the frustration of not being able to mold Sero a new and well-deserved head. Preferably a malformed one. Looking around, he noticed nine of his classmates were in the classroom with him:
Ojiro, Koda, Iida, Sero, Jiro, Tokoyami, Toru, Aoyama and finally, Todoroki.
They stole glances at him, save for the invisible girl whom he could never discern where she was looking due to her, well, invisibility. 'What's going on?' Bakugo turned to the board where Aizawa was making a map and list of some sort then proceeded to pull out his notebook and mechanical pencil.
.
.
.
.
"Aaaaa-choo!" Kaminari blew away the tickle in his nostrils and rubbed his arms up and down. "Ugh, what are we even doing in Ground Beta so early in the morning? And where is everyone? I'm missing a partner here!"
"You're not the only one," Shoji pointed out, "I haven't seen Ojiro all morning."
"Koda either-ribbit," Asui piped in.
Yaoyorozu held her chin between her thumb and index finger. "Now that I think about it, it's very unlike Tokoyami to be this late."
The more the class discussed, the more it became apparent that everyone was missing their Hero Analysis partner. And here they all were, fully clad in their hero suits, following the vague All Might instruction to forget usual homeroom and instead head straight for and wait for him at the entrance of Ground Beta at 8:00 A.M. sharp.
"At least we're on school grounds this time," Uraraka suggested, turning to Midoriya and Kirishima for support.
Midoriya nodded. "Without a doubt, this is part of All Might's final. Who knows what he has up his sleeve this time so we should keep our guard up."
"I won't be caught with my boxers below my knees!" Kirishima announced with a face as serious as the one he wore to the Bakugo rescue mission. He noticed his classmates' uncomfortable stares and added, "That's how the saying goes, right?"
"And I thought I was lewd…" Mineta mumbled.
"Look!" Sato exclaimed, "Over there! I see something!"
The class turned to the direction the sugar lover was pointing. Sure enough, coming from inside Ground Beta, All Might was walking towards them, suit and tie pressed loosely against his frail body and a kind hand extended to them. "Welcome, everyone," he grinned, "Pardon my tardiness. I had some...last-minute preparations to take care of."
Midoriya stepped up from the group, his chest protruding with newfound assertiveness. "Has our final already started, All Might?"
"No, no, nothing improvised this time," All Might coughed, waving a dismissive hand. "I actually need to give you all the intricate details of this final before you start since it is technically considered to be of third-year difficulty. So listen carefully-" He stopped, taking notice of the horror and eagerness on the students' faces at his mention of 'third-year difficulty.' "You've faced much tougher villains than this test!" he assured them with his best smile, "So lighten up!"
The class gave their pensive nods and patiently awaited the golden-haired man's extended instructions.
All Might studied every individual one last time, smiled again, and said, "Your final today, in two words, can be summed up as...Role Reversal."
"Role Reversal?" they echoed.
"You will know what that means once you go into the actual assignment. Your mission is 'Rescue the Citizen.' Simple enough, right?" All Might passed each of them a metallic 5x7-inch card along with a small box of some kind wrapped in black cloth. After the last bundle was given, he turned to them again and held up his own card, pointing at the silver button found on one of its corners. "Turn on your digi-pads."
'Where does he get all these weird gadgets from…' Class 1-A pondered silently as they pushed the buttons on their cards. Each one revealed what looked like a description list of some strange picture in the corner.
"What...is that?" a half-laughing Kaminari managed to ask aloud the ultimate question that was on everybody's mind.
"That is your citizen that you need to rescue," All Might explained proudly, "As all of you may have already guessed, these cards act as a compact case file. For stake-out or investigative duties, heroes on the job will often get one to study on the premises. It's mainly a crucial tool for hostage and kidnapping situations which happen more often than you'd think."
Uraraka swallowed the anxiety lodged in her throat. "My citizen, huh…"
They were literal dummies that wore different attires and, if one were to be a woman, included a messy array of makeup along with their own neon-colored wigs. It took plenty of effort for Kirishima, Kaminari and Mina to not lose their composure on continuous laughing fits that would be found most out of place in the midst of All Might's explanation of their crucial assignment. Yaoyorozu glared sharply at them but still could not hide the faint blush on her cheeks that stemmed from her own suppressed amusement.
"They have both gender and age," Shoji took note, unfazed by the picture of a plain dummy wearing a propeller hat on his digi-pad. "What's the point in that?"
Asui's eyes widened slightly. "Because we're also being graded on how we interact with our assigned citizen."
"Bingo!" All Might pointed at his students, flashing Asui a quick wink. "You'll also find on your digi-pads a MAP tab that tells you where each of your respective citizen is located within Ground Beta. Just to review, there are ten citizens to be rescued total, five 'obstacles' you'll meet along the way..."
"Obstacles?" Mineta's hands shook. By now, he and everyone else had learned that U.A.'s definition of the word hardly implied anything small or easily grazed over. "What obstacles?"
All Might's smile grew. "Surely, you don't think villains would make it easy for you to take their victims. And surely, you don't think they always work...alone."
"You don't mean…" Midoriya started.
"Five villainous sidekicks!" All Might held up one full open palm as he said this and then raised the other. "And ten main villains behind them guarding each of your citizens."
"What?!" Uraraka just about screamed.
"That's insane!" Kirishima, Kaminari and Mineta looked at each other and then back at All Might.
On the side, Midoriya was carefully counting each digit in his hand, splitting and joining them in two's before lifting his head and asking, "Five sidekicks for the first phase and ten of us. Does that mean we have to form partnerships amongst ourselves in order to defeat them?"
All Might simply shrugged back. "It's encouraged, but not necessarily mandatory."
"And then we split as soon as we take the big five down," Kirishima concluded with a frown. This assignment worried him, given that his well-known weakness was stamina management in long-term battles. "To take on the boss of a level after defeating its minion is just…"
Yaoyorozu held her arm close to her chest and muttered, "It's a bit...extensive, isn't it?"
"That's why this assignment is classified third-year level," All Might affirmed their fears, "I'm well-aware that it's too soon for young heroes like you to take on something this challenging and demanding, but with various villains on the rise due to my public fall as the Symbol of Peace, we teachers have no choice but to expect greater things from you. I carry that burden with me every day and from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry."
Everyone bowed their heads, pain visible in their eyes.
"All Might…" Midoriya took it the hardest, but his eyes held more determination in them than dejection. Nodding to himself, he raised his head and put on his bravest smile as to reiterate the famous phrase of his favorite hero— 'I'm here!'
All Might noticed this and gave him a thumbs up. "You can and will surpass us one day and it is our solemn duty to ensure you make it through that road. We believe in you and that's why we won't hesitate to break your limits. Find your strength, young heroes! Rise to the occasion and go beyond!"
"PLUS ULTRA!" Class 1-A found themselves cheering, their anxiousness and uncertainties from earlier already forgotten.
"But…" Mina suddenly shook her head. "Shouldn't our partners be helping us with this? Where are they anyway?"
Whoop. Someone brought it up.
"They have their own final to worry about," All Might answered in a rather flat voice compared his bravado from two seconds ago.
"But we're in the same class," Kirishima reasoned, scratching his head. "Why would they have a different test from the rest of us?"
All Might stepped back, his head snapping from one student to the other as they questioned the whereabouts of their partners. "There are too many people in one location as it is so they have to take their test somewhere else," he said hurriedly, pointing at the 9:00 reading on his phone. "Your final has now begun. Find your paths and walk along them as you see fit. Just know that this may be the longest duration test you've taken thus far." He then pointed at the black boxes the students held with their digi-pads. "Just so you know, the second item you're all carrying is your lunch box. Lunch-Rush specifically prepared them with nutritional value and maximum satisfaction with minimal quantity in mind."
While everyone else ogled their mystery lunches, Sato's nose twitched with skepticism. 'Why does celery come to mind?' he frowned, holding up his lunch box to eye level.
Uraraka sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Watch me," she muttered, "I'm going to beat this final and catch up to Katsuki and Deku. I won't be left behind to stare at their backs forever!"
"Who are you talking to-ribbit?" Asui asked, having overheard Uraraka's little pep talk since she stood close to her.
"Sorry…" Uraraka shrugged, "I just get a little competitive at times like this." She noticed the direction Asui was walking in and pumped her fists in the air. "Hey! We're going the same way! I guess this means we're partners, Tsu?"
Asui nodded back. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Wow, this test is going to be something else," Kirishima shook his head, hardly able to believe that he was already tucking his lunch by his waist and following the blinking dot on his digital map. From the corner of his eye, he could see a certain curly-haired classmate of his heading in the same direction. With a jagged smile, he pivoted to that person and called, "Midoriya!"
Midoriya had just finished tying his lunch box to his belt as he jumped slightly and looked up at Kirishima. "Ye-yes?"
"We're heading in the same direction, right?" Kirishima pointed behind him. "Let's beat up this sidekick together! It'll be fun!"
"I'm glad we're on the same spectrum," Midoriya chuckled, "Let's work together then, Kirishima."
"Good luck, young heroes!" All Might formally gave his dismissal and watched as the rest of the students filed into Ground Beta. A smirk tempted his lips as he then dialed a number on his cellphone and held the device to his ear.
.
.
.
.
Aizawa nodded purposefully, uttering a deep, "Understood," before closing his cellphone and shoving it into his pocket. He looked over his early morning group who stared back at him expectantly. "Just to review," he announced, "Your mission is to protect your citizen. Every two of you will have a sidekick guarding the midpoint to both your bases. I hope you all made good use of the last hour because you will be graded on the preparations you took in repelling the incoming villains, how well you communicated with each respective sidekick to help you in those preparations and, finally, how well you'll guard and keep your citizen safe."
'I think I did all that I could for now.' Todoroki rubbed his right arm, bits of ice falling from his wrist to his elbow. "And what of our partners?" he asked Aizawa, "Shouldn't they be taking this test with us?"
"All Might is in charge of them," Aizawa replied almost too quickly, "Given the size of this exam, it proved only logical to split you into two different testing grounds." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "We look forward to seeing some interesting results today. Give it your all."
Todoroki nodded. "I see." Looking around, he noticed Bakugo tending to what also looked like a sore arm under his gauntlet, Iida catering to his neck with his helmet tucked under his arm, Sero his shoulders and so forth. He blinked. "Ah," he pointed at Sero, "Your face…"
As though knowing what his classmate was going to say, Sero waved away the rest of the question. "It's a long story," he groaned, holding his bruised cheek.
"It looks really bad," Jiro commented, "Do you need some ice?"
"No, I'm fine," Sero insisted. He blinked a swollen eye towards Bakugo and heaved a sigh. "My base just had to be in a sector across from his, huh… Really, to take so much effort running all that way just to give me this?" He pointed at his over-puffed complexion. "That's a whole new level of petty, Bakugo."
"Call it fate," Bakugo shot back with a satisfied smirk, cracking his knuckles, "And karma just happened to catch up."
Tokoyami shook his head disapprovingly. "Do you always need to punch things to fix your problems?"
Bakugo glared at him. "Wouldn't be me if I didn't."
"You'll never be a beautiful hero alright," Sero nipped back.
This specific line always seemed to set Bakugo off as he suddenly snarled, "You keep bringing that shit up, tapeface! It's old news!"
Sero held his hands up. "Whoa, easy man, no need to get all defensive. I didn't know you cared so much."
"I fuckin' don't!"
"Bakugo, calm down-" Ojiro tried to intervene but jumped back when the frenzied teen turned his way.
"Guys…" Koda's soft whisper struggled among the clamoring voices, "I-I think...we should focus on Mr. Aizawa's...a-assignment…"
"This is inappropriate hero behavior!" Iida chastised his peers, now wearing his helmet, "All of you need to settle down right now or pray I will petition you all be given proper punishments after exams! Are you listening to me?"
"You're not our dad!"
"Back off!"
"I'll kill you!"
"I'm scared, Mr. Aizawa! Stop them!"
Aizawa stomped his boot, breaking a chunk of cement block under him. His blood-shot eyes swept an icy halberd across the area as he then commanded, "That's enough!"
Everyone was immediately muted, returning to their starting positions with their arms at their sides and their expressions stoic. Bakugo locked his last gauntlet in and redirected his glare to all of Ground Beta ahead.
Aizawa raised a starter pistol in the air and thundered, "Focus, all of you! Your final starts...now!"
On cue, the pistol released its harsh echo.
NOTE: Only a few chapters remain but again, I cannot thank you all enough for the amount of patience and support you've given me through the year (wow!) as I really enjoyed writing this.
You guys are the best.