Shiozaki laced up her black knee-high boots and threw on her flowing white robe. She straightened the crown of vines on her head and took a final drink of water. Clasping her hands together, she whispered a quick prayer, then followed the other girls out of the changing room.
She bore a determined but anxious gaze in her eyes as she walked, her breathing slow and manual, her fists clenched tightly enough to crush apples. The air around her was thick with trepidation - even Tokage had stopped cracking jokes.
The girls crossed paths with the boys in the corridor, and together, they headed down to the exit to start their final exams.
They stepped out into the courtyard so that they could receive their instructions from Vlad King. However, upon entering, they found him and eight other teachers standing in wait, including the small furry principal.
"Uh...why are so many of our teachers here?" Shihai Kuroiro asked as he frowned, a bead of sweat rolling down his dark face.
"Maybe they're supposed to be our invigilators." Kendo said, though she looked doubtful.
"Nine of them just for that?" Tokage said sceptically. "This doesn't feel right..."
"...All of your pairings, as well as which teacher you'll be fighting against, has already been decided." Vlad King declared. "I will now list out your matchups."
Her face pale, Shiozaki glanced around at the rest of her class. She was not surprised to see perturbed looks on many of their faces. Their teachers had taught them everything they knew - defeating them was an extremely tall order.
Some of her classmates clearly felt more nervous than others.
"Twenty of us, that makes ten teachers..." she heard Juzo Honenuki saying.
Suddenly, Honenuki staggered backwards, waving his hands around wildly as though trying to ward off a rabid beast. Even through his helmet, Shiozaki could practically see the sheer panic on his face.
"W-wait!" he spluttered. "Does that mean two of us are going to have to fight...A-A-All Mi-"
"No, All Might unfortunately declined to test a pair from our class." Vlad King said in a tone so sombre that the students might have thought someone had died. "Something about needing all his strength to test two kids from Class A."
He then added in a whisper that carried throughout the crowd, "Favouritism."
A few of the students muttered their agreement with their teacher's grievances, but Shiozaki didn't envy whoever it was that had the misfortune of attracting All Might's personal attention. She said a silent prayer that went out to them.
"Then...who's our tenth opponent?" Yosetsu Awase asked.
Suddenly, a black blur dropped down to the ground seemingly out of nowhere, two grey scarf trails floating down behind him.
Shota Aizawa stood up and glared at the class over his shoulder.
"Me."
A freezing chill ran down twenty spines at his intimidating gaze.
"How unlike you to be this tardy, Eraser." Vlad King said disparagingly. "Now, as I was saying before the interruption, these are your matchups."
Two by two, the students' names were called out along with the teacher they were going to fight. Tetsutetsu and Sen Kaibara were pitted against Cementoss. Kuroiro and Komori were assigned to Thirteen. Manga Fukidashi and Hiryu Rin were facing Midnight.
"Shiozaki and Monoma, Eraser Head."
Aizawa's gaze instantly darted over to Shiozaki. Even though it wasn't a particularly intimidating look, she still felt like those cold, lifeless eyes were piercing right through her.
He stepped forward, approaching her and her teammate.
"Ibara Shiozaki, Neito Monoma - is that right?" he said, loosening his scarf with a tug of his hand. "I've seen your progress reports from Vlad King. The two of you are highly proficient with your Quirks. Proficient - but reliant. Against me, you'll find that you have little opportunity to exploit your abilities as you please. So if you want to pass, come at me rationally and prove that you're not just one-trick ponies."
Shiozaki found herself frozen under his cold stare. Her throat felt like dry rock and she couldn't move a finger. This had to be the worst luck she had this year - to be pitted against the one teacher she knew almost nothing about...on top of that, how on earth were she and Monoma supposed to defeat a foe who could effortlessly shut down their Quirks on a whim?
No, I can't think like that, she told herself firmly. Fighting against the feeling of paralysis in her fingers, she slowly curled her hands into fists. She could win this - she had to win this. If not, all those sparring sessions with Bakugo might as well have amounted to nothing...
She glanced over at Monoma, expecting to see him looking at least a little nervous. However, he was returning Aizawa's gaze with his usual look of smug arrogance. Shiozaki couldn't decide if this made her feel relieved or more worried.
The sound of Vlad King's clipboard snapping shut told her that he had just finished announcing the final group of combatants.
"Alright, that covers everything." he said loudly. "The school buses will now take you to your respective test venues. Hurry up and get on, time is short."
One brief bus ride later, Shiozaki and Monoma were rushing through their examination site, a disused cargo holding facility. The vast area was cordoned off by tall steel fences, the entire landscape painted a dreary industrial grey. They ran past dusty crates and barrels in labyrinthine alleys made from stacked steel containers, their feet pounding noisily on the occasional manhole cover, massive cranes towering high above their heads.
"Monoma." Shiozaki said as they ran. "You know why we were assigned to this site, don't you?"
"I am well aware." Monoma said, his smile now significantly less arrogant. "We're practically going through a maze - we have no way to escape if Mr Aizawa corners us, and since he knew the layout of this stage, he can easily spot us before we spot him. This test is forcing us to face him head-on."
"Then you must know that we'll definitely be forced to fight him without our Quirks at some point. Be prepared to switch to hand-to-hand combat tactics at the first sign of him."
"I shall keep that in mind. But still, it would be preferable if we could use our Quirks freely. That is why I came up with our plan, after all."
"That's great and all, but..."
Shiozaki's voice trailed off, a troubled look on her face. Monoma glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes?"
"Will he really fall for something like that...?"
"What? I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about!" Monoma roared, rearing his head and laughing like a hyena. "My plan is completely foolproof!"
After a while, his laughter died down and he wiped a tear from his eye.
"Still, for our scheme to succeed, we will first have to scout out Mr Aizawa." he said. "A height advantage should do the trick. Shiozaki, if you would please-?"
"Of course."
At once, she crouched down, preparing to use her vines to scale the surrounding crates.
Suddenly, her face went pale.
"Um...Monoma?"
"Yes?"
"My vines...won't move."
They heard a cold, harsh voice from up above.
"If you expect me to be passive and hide away when I'm testing students, it's no wonder my class is doing better than yours."
They both looked up in horror. Aizawa was hanging upside-down from the nearest crane using his scarf, his hair billowing in the windless air. His eyes were fixed unmovingly on Shiozaki, given away by the eerie red glow behind his goggles.
Monoma stared up at him blankly.
"Ah."
Suddenly, he turned and bolted off towards one of the gaps between the steel crates.
"Well, it looks like we must improvise!" he squeaked. "Shiozaki, your role remains the same! Distract him!"
"Wait, Monoma! Don't leave...me..."
But he was gone.
Her face darkened like a stormcloud. "Iscariot."
"Your next mistake would be not giving me your fullest attention when you've already been caught off guard."
Aizawa leapt down from the crane and flung two strands of binding cloth at Shiozaki, darting towards her like sleek grey arrows. She flung herself aside and dodged, and a second later she heard Aizawa's feet hit the floor. Whirling back around, she just barely glimpsed his hand slashing through the air at her.
Aizawa moved in on her with strike after strike, his limbs cutting the air with the agility of a dancer but the ferocity of lions, his scarf whirling around him like a tornado. Shiozaki was powerless to do anything except cower behind blocks and guards. She willed her vines to move, but it was like they were withered, dead.
Eventually, Aizawa broke through her guard. A series of concentrated blows struck her in multiple places, and she fell to the floor, stunned and gasping. As her surroundings swam before her, she watched Aizawa pull out a vial of eye drops from his utility belt and put some in his eyes.
"Now, time to deal with your friend..."
Behind him, a manhole cover rattled. Shiozaki turned rigidly still, watching with bated breath as a pair of eyes framed by short blond hair peered out from the crevice. Monoma reached out to Aizawa's leg, his eyes possessed, his fingers stretched taut...
Aizawa's foot suddenly came slamming down on his hand.
"Gah!"
"Please, an attack from behind couldn't have been more predictable."
Without as much as a glance over his shoulder, Aizawa threw his scarf around Monoma. He flung him out of the sewer and across the lane into a massive steel container, making him yell out in pain. He fell to the floor, his body still bound in the scarf.
"Monoma!"
Shiozaki scrambled to her feet and rushed towards her teammate, reaching out to free him...
A second coil of scarf seized her outstretched arm. Aizawa pulled his weapon like a pair of reins and Shiozaki turned back around. He leapt towards her. She dived sideways, and the cloth loosened from her arm. She darted into a gap between the steel containers. Aizawa gave chase. As she emerged onto the neighbouring alley, a swirl of cloth snagged her by the ankle and she fell face-first into the concrete.
Groaning, she forced herself weakly to her feet, stars blinking in her eyes and a throbbing in her nose. She glanced hazily across the lane at Aizawa. He was standing with his body at an angle to hers and one hand raised like a martial arts master. His gaze narrowed as their eyes met, as though goading her to attack him.
Shiozaki compelled herself not to fall for his taunt. Breathing slowly and deeply, she gave her body time to recover as she considered her best way forward. She was going to have to face Aizawa head on - there was no way around that. But it was also impossible for her to defeat him one on one - unless she could take him by surprise...
Her mind working rapidly, she tried to recall everything she had learned from Bakugo during their skirmishes in Training Ground Beta. All those snide remarks she had endured while getting beaten to the ground over and over - the time to use them was now.
Lord, please let me win.
Clenching her fists, she started to walk forward. Her walk turned into a run as she charged at Aizawa, her fist raised and ready to throw him a right hook. Aizawa moved his arm to protect himself - changing course, she dived down and kicked him in the knee.
"Ugh-!"
His balance broken, he staggered backwards, and Shiozaki aimed an uppercut at his jaw. Quick to recover, Aizawa parried the hit with his arm. The two of them traded blows for about half a minute, with Aizawa mostly defending against Shiozaki's potent, killer-like strikes. And though his defences were too keen to let anything through, Shiozaki could tell that he was not prepared for this.
After a moment, Aizawa seized both her fists, halting her assault. He started pushing back, slowly overpowering her as he forced her arms aside. Thinking fast, Shiozaki struck him in the face with a vicious headbutt. Her thorns dug into his skin - he grunted out in pain - he blinked! Feeling life flowing through her vines once again, Shiozaki used the narrow window she had to knock Aizawa away with a swing of her vines.
Aizawa crashed to the floor, his lank hair draped over his face - he wasn't looking at Shiozaki. Seeing this, she quickly sent her vines darting forth to ensnare him. Suddenly, Aizawa grabbed his scarf and coiled it around her vines, binding them together. Shiozaki gasped - an intense pain stabbed her across the back of her skull as Aizawa gave the scarf a pull, reeling her in towards him like a fisherman with his catch. He whirled her around and wrapped his arms tightly around her neck, placing her in a powerful chokehold.
It was only for a few seconds, but Shiozaki quickly felt her consciousness slipping away. She gasped uselessly for breath, the blood draining from her head as she tried feebly to resist him.
From somewhere up above, a loudspeaker rang out, "Team Tetsutetsu and Kaibara have passed the examination."
"Oh? It looks like your friends are doing quite well." Aizawa said. "But at this rate you two will be the first ones to fail."
Shiozaki's fingers clawed weakly at his arms.
"Though if it's any consolation, you probably would have won against another teacher, fighting like that-"
A whirl of vines appeared around Aizawa's eyes, not from the head of the girl in his grasp but from somewhere behind him.
"What?"
More vines seized his wrists and wrenched his arms aside. Shiozaki forced herself away from him, clutching her throat and gasping. Aizawa whirled around and the vines released him. Monoma was standing across the alleyway, several odd portions of his blond hair replaced by thick, thorny vines.
"I'm terribly sorry for leaving you in the lurch back there, Shiozaki, but I must thank you for touching my hand when I was tied up earlier." he crawled, gazing haughtily at Aizawa. "Though I must say, it took me longer than I expected to free myself from that dastardly weapon."
A hand swung towards Aizawa's head from behind. He spun back around and seized Shiozaki's arm, freezing her vines with a glare of his eyes.
"Monoma! Do something!" she yelled. "They say he can only erase one Quirk at a time!"
"Understood!"
Monoma sprang towards Aizawa with his hand stretched wide, touching his fingertips to the back of his head.
"Yes!"
At once, Monoma's eyes shone red and his hair flew up. Aizawa's hair fell to his shoulders as the red glow disappeared from his eyes. Determined to cut off all means of escape, Shiozaki immediately trapped him in a tight cocoon of vines, leaving nothing but his wrists free.
"Excellent, now all that's left is to cuff him!" Monoma said with a satisfied grin as he reached for the set of golden handcuffs fastened to his belt. "Would you like to do the honours?"
"I don't mind."
Monoma tossed the handcuffs across the lane at Shiozaki. She caught it in both hands and approached Aizawa carefully, making sure to keep her vines tightly coiled around him.
"Just make it quick, my eyes are getting dry. You know, this means we'll have passed this test in just under five minutes!" Monoma said boastfully, glancing over at Shiozaki. "Perhaps when this is over we can go over to 1-A and rub it in their fa-"
"Monoma! Don't look at me!" Shiozaki yelled out in alarm, the grip of her vines rapidly weakening.
"Ah, right-"
But Aizawa had already broken free from her hold. He shoved Shiozaki onto the floor with a swift movement of his arm, then leapt straight towards Monoma, sinking his knee into his stomach.
A comically surprised look appeared on Monoma's face as the strike connected, and he let out an odd gargle of pain as he was sent flying backwards into a pile of wooden crates. He crashed through the crates with a loud shattering noise and sank to the floor, slumped over unconscious.
"Well, I was about to free myself anyway, but thank you for speeding up the process." Aizawa said coldly, brandishing the long combat knife that he had somehow transported into his hand. He turned back to face Shiozaki, who was staggering back to her feet.
"Now, where were we?" he said, replacing the knife in his utility belt.
Shiozaki stared at him silently, but her mind was racing. Monoma had just said something that caught her attention - he said his eyes were feeling dry...
She dashed down the side of the alleyway, trying to circle around to Aizawa's back. He whirled around in response, his glowing eyes fixed firmly on her. He pounced. Shiozaki leapt back, dancing out of range of his scarf while weaving in several attacks that she deliberately put no weight into. Her eyes tracked Aizawa's every move as Bakugo had done with her a dozen times before, ensuring that not a single strike could catch her by surprise.
After a while, she thought she could see Aizawa starting to squint behind his goggles. But she remained calm, not rushing in until she was sure it was safe. She dodged a rapid spinning kick from Aizawa, and she glanced back up to see the glow in his eyes dimming...
Aizawa's eyes snapped shut.
In an instant, the breath of life rushed through Shiozaki's vines again, and she immediately sent every last tendril swirling around Aizawa, binding him twice more tightly than before. She saw him reaching for his knife, and she secured his hands to his front, robbing him of all movement before springing forth and slamming the handcuffs down on his wrists.
A terrific feeling of victory surged through her as the cuffs clicked shut, her heart pounding fit to burst, the declaration of her team's victory blaring from the loudspeakers above no different to her ears than the cheers of the stadium during the sports festival. She passed - she almost didn't dare to believe it...
"Well, colour me surprised." Aizawa muttered from within his thorny prison.
"Oh! I-I'm terribly sorry, sir!" Shiozaki said in a fluster, hurriedly rushing over to free him. "I knew I only had a second to act, so I thought it'd be safer to go over the top-"
"No, that was the most rational move. Excellent work." he said. "I'm more impressed that you managed to deduce I had a time limit on Erasure."
A blush spread across Shiozaki's face as she smiled lightly.
"Well, I really have Monoma's big mouth to thank for that. If he hadn't given me that hint, I wouldn't have won..."
Her blush deepened and she glanced off to the side.
"And I have someone else to thank, too."
Aizawa's eyebrows raised up curiously, but he didn't inquire further.
After the last team from Shiozaki's class returned to the school grounds, Vlad King dismissed them for the day. As they began filing out of the courtyard in droves, Monoma sauntered up to Shiozaki from behind, his fingertips pressed delicately together, his nose in the air and his arrogant smile back on his face.
"Well, all things considered, that went rather smoothly, don't you think?" he asked. "We're definite shoe-ins for the summer camp now!"
"I'm not too sure about that." Shiozaki said, looking at him darkly. "I just had a talk with Mr Vlad King about our prospects while you were unconscious. He said he's quite upset that you abandoned me at the start of the match-" her eyes flashed accusingly. "-even if it was to stage a surprise attack. He's also livid that you erased my Quirk just when we were about to capture Mr Aizawa - something about forgetting what you were meant to be doing at the time. I'd be worried if I were you."
"Once again, your words are a complete enigma!" Monoma laughed. "There is no way I could have failed!"
After Class 1-B had left, Class 1-A was called forth to start their examination. Likewise, they were split into pairs and then driven off to their respective testing sites.
"Kacchan, wait..."
Ignoring the meek voice calling out for him, Bakugo doubled his pace. He marched down the empty road with hate brimming in his eyes, his fists clenched so tightly that they hurt. He still couldn't believe what he had been tasked with doing. He still wanted to believe it was some sort of sick joke...
"Kacchan, I really don't think it's a good idea to rush him head-first-"
"Why the hell shouldn't I?!" he roared, his violent voice piercing the silent cityscape. "I'll just toy with him until he's tired and then kick his ass!"
He sped off ahead again, his hands quaking and blood pounding in his head. If he wasn't feeling so tense about having to fight All Might, he would have already turned and punched Midoriya in the face...
Midoriya's footsteps quickened behind him.
"Kacchan, will you please just listen for a second?! There's no way you can beat All Might-"
It was like something snapped inside him. All rational thought was obliterated from Bakugo's mind as quickly as a snowflake in magma. No way he could beat him...?
Whirling around, Bakugo swung his fist viciously at Midoriya's face.
But at the last second he froze, his fist quivering less than an inch away from Midoriya's pale visage.
For a second neither of them spoke. Then, Midoriya said timidly, "K-Kacchan?"
Bakugo didn't answer. He stared past Midoriya's eyes into a void of anger and confusion. What the hell was he doing? There was no way he actually felt sorry for that damn nerd, right? Did he really take his promise to that crazy girl that seriously?
He slowly lowered his fist. His expression was unreadable as he glared down at the road, his eyes narrow as slits.
"Kacchan?"
No answer.
"Kacchan, wha-"
"Aaaaaaaaaargh!"
Alarmed, Midoriya took a step back - but Bakugo seized him by the collar of his costume and pulled him towards him. He glared furiously down at Midoriya, his eyes filled with crimson fire.
"Listen up, you little shit!" Bakugo yelled, shaking his former friend roughly. "The only reason I haven't beaten you up yet is because I promised someone I'd stop being a fucking dick to you! I still think everything you've said in the past five minutes is worth shit in a sewer!"
He paused for a moment to draw breath.
"But fine! I'll listen to your worthless plan! Though first, get this in your fucking head - there's no way we can just run from someone as goddamn fast as All Might! So whatever you're thinking of-"
A deafening bang cut him off mid-sentence. Glass shards and rubble pelted Bakugo and Midoriya across every inch of their skin as they were blown away by the shockwave, and as the dust cleared, they saw a huge, hulking figure stomping through the destruction towards them.
Bakugo spat the dirt from his mouth and leapt to his feet.
"Oi nerd, you alive?!"
Midoriya clambered up hastily behind him. "Y-yeah...!"
"Good, then tell me your stupid plan already!"
Three days later, Bakugo's class received the results of their examination. While not everyone had passed the practical, Bakugo's track record remained pristine, and Aizawa's announcement that everyone would be attending the summer camp was met with cheers of elation. No sooner had he left the classroom than Toru Hagakure proposed that everyone should go and shop for what they needed as a class.
"Hey, that sounds like fun!" Kirishima said eagerly. "Bakugo, you're coming too, right?"
"I've got better things to do." he snapped. "Goodbye!"
Without another word, he swung his bag over his shoulder and left the classroom. He went downstairs into a mostly empty corridor and headed towards the gates. Nothing much happened to bother him until-
"Hey, Bakugo!"
He looked over his shoulder. Shiozaki was rushing over to him with a joyful smile and a spring in her step, her hands tilted up gracefully on either side of her.
"Oh, it's you."
He stepped aside and let her walk beside him.
"I take it you passed everything?" he asked, taking in her cheerful demeanour.
"All thanks to you." she said brightly. "Seriously, I only managed to take down your teacher because of everything you taught me. I can't thank you enough-"
"Stop. I'm not going to take credit for your efforts." Bakugo said firmly. "If you passed, then great. Good job, I'm proud of you, what else do you want to hear?"
She blushed. "What about you? How were your grades?"
"Top scores, third in the class." he said like it was no big deal. "Guess I'll see you at the training camp, then."
"I hope so, I'm going to have to buy some of the things on the equipment list first. Knowing you, you probably have all of that already."
"I've got most of it, I still need to buy a handful."
"I see - you'll be going with your friends, I suppose?"
"Nah, busy." he said evasively, not looking at her.
"I understand." Shiozaki said with a nod. "My class wanted to go on Saturday, but I promised I'd help Sai with the car, so I told them to go on without me - I'm perfectly fine with that, of course, but it does feel lonely going shopping by yourself..."
She fell silent for a moment.
"Hey, when are you going, anyway?"
"This Sunday, why?"
Bakugo glanced over at Shiozaki. She was eyeing him intently with an eager smile.
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"I'll make it up to you."
"No, damn it, no - just no - stop giving me that face, Angel, I said no-"
On Sunday, Bakugo was filing notes at his desk when the alarm on his phone went off. He picked it up and read the alert:
"Meet Vines Mall, 15:00."
He raised a hand to his head, groaning.
"How the hell does she keep doing this to me?"
Hello Future Me on YouTube was a huge help in making this chapter turn out the way I wanted. If anyone wants advice on writing fight scenes, do look up his video on the subject - he knows what he's doing.
As usual, thanks for reading, I love y'all. 3