Chapter 36 – Worst Case

"I mean it isn't that bad... right?", Kendo 2.0 was trying to look for a ray of hope. Alas, there wasn't one, but there was no point in giving it up before even starting!

"She kind of has a point, we did prepare for this exact case, didn't we?", the fact that they prepared for it didn't make it automatically better. But Tetsuya, and by extension, Tetsuya 2.0 majorly lacked practical fighting experience.

"We were 'trying' to prepare, we never came up with anything... We can't even Cut-Copy-Boomerang!", Nanami never felt this hopeless before even starting a fight. But this was the worst of the worst cases. Madame Sonic wasn't out patrolling at that time so she allowed Nanami to Cut Boomerang, but without practice, it could do her more harm than good.

Which was a shame because she could go all out if she had practised using Boomerang. As it stood, she had to fight All Might alongside Monoma to pass her exams!

But as her friends kept passing their exam Nanami fell further into despair.

"There's no way he'll give it his all if everyone passes... WHY ME?". As she thought that, she felt slightly disappointed in herself. She was given an opportunity to fight All Might!

"If anything, I get him all for myself if Monoma doesn't..."

"Don't worry he won't if everyone else passes...", Monoma 2.0 interrupted Nanami hyping herself up, "There is obviously one way to approach this situation..."

"FIGHT!", Tetsutetsu 2.0 had been in high spirits ever since the pairings were announced!

"How primitive... Oh well, I guess that's how you've always been, but I have a better suggestion. How about we sabotage others, that'd force Monoma to put in the effort!", even though Monoma 2.0 didn't have a physical tangible body, it suffices to say Nanami and the others in her head put a tape on Monoma 2.0's mouth!

"So Monoma... what's our battle plan?", despite basically knowing the reply, Nanami felt an obligation to ask anyway.

"I don't think we can beat All Might..."

It was obvious from the start, but even if Monoma gave his all, did they ever have a chance?

"I... don't know but we gotta try, how about...", in any case, both of them together would perform better than her alone!

"Besides like 4 people failed from A section*, everyone else from our class has passed, we'll outperform irrespective of this fight.", this was the reply Nanami was expecting at first. However, sooner or later, she was back at square 1.

"How about at least trying? I don't know, try copying All Might's quirk, I can't possibly use it with Cut without breaking my body by the knockback... and keep these handcuffs just in case we get a chance to win that way.", she said as they both walked into their exam centre.

"I guess I can try, I imagine it'd be a great tool to have at my disposable if I manage to get his quirk.", Monoma wasn't too excited at the prospect of having to face down All Might. Villains with a lot more experience don't enjoy it either, so Monoma's cowardice couldn't have been blamed there.

"I almost forgot...", Nanami said as a piece of the road's concrete missed her very slightly. "... he starts with that attack!", she yelled as she managed to dodge the oncoming debris!

She looked to her right, to check how Monoma was doing. Surprisingly enough, she saw no sign of the latter!

"Did he hide in the buildings? That's quite smart... but also fast... Dammit did he get a speedster quirk too?", as Nanami's mind panicked she glance on the road beside her.

It wasn't lethal, thankfully, but Monoma was hit on the head and was bleeding and got a strong concussion from the look of it.

Nanami quickly snapped her fingers to make some ice using Todoroki's quirk. She made a weak, but strong enough to support the duo and took Monoma to a rooftop and laid him there.

"That... was too... fast..."

It definitely was. All Might didn't intend to hold back a single bit! Though he didn't intend to kill them, it was definitely as intimidating. Current Objective: SURVIVE... Or protect the injured first.

"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING HEROES?", All Might shouted as he walked towards the building atop which Nanami was hiding.

"Seize the initiative, don't let him get a jump on you...", Nanami said to herself as she snapped her fingers and jumped onto the road in front of All Might.

She felt a slight breeze before she looked up. All Might wasn't there.

"He's behind me, they always are!", she prematurely backflipped and managed to dodge All Might's punch and then a kick to the latter's back helped her gain some distance and she visibly grew in size and launched a punch with her right towards All Might.

Instead of blocking, All Might charged head-on! She snapped the fingers in her left hand and produced a huge ice wall towards All Might. It froze up half her body, but she thawed herself out with her fire.

She ran up to the top of the building using the ramp she made earlier and picked up an unconscious Monoma and snapped her fingers to produce wings out her back. Even though she could comfortably fly without flapping her hands but having her hands available gave her confidence while flying. But with Monoma in her hands, that was out the question, so she had to fly close to the rooftops.

All Might admired the plan that she had come up with but as a teacher, he couldn't let it be 'that easy'.

"DETROIT... SMAAAAAAAAAAASH", All Might shouted as he punched in Nanami's general direction. She could probably dodge All Might if he came jumping towards her, but there was no way to dodge the shockwaves created by the punch.

With her wings thrown out of balance, she snapped her fingers to create an ice ramp to make the fall slightly more gradual than it was going to be. As soon as she regained her footing All Might had already caught up to them.

All the students were watching Nanami's match. They hoped that she would make it but realistically, with Monoma down, a win seemed very unlikely. Nanami's expression, at least the part which could be seen on the camera, was of someone out of ideas.

Nanami snapped her fingers as she faced All Might. Unsure of the quirk Nanami had activated, he rushed to knock her down.

"All Might is just... too strong... too fast", Kendo wasn't the only one thinking that.

"It looked so much more hopeful when I saw this on TV", Nanami said moments before All Might's fist connected and as everything got tinged in Yellow for her.

Even with Boomerang activated, All Might seemed like he was moving! But she was faster in these few moments she had... Nanami sidestepped and tried to put on the handcuffs she picked up from Monoma's body.

As she was about to lock on the handcuff, she felt the most terrifying gaze she had ever experienced.

All Might turned towards her, while her world was still tinged Yellow, and tapped his fingers onto his wrist.

Nanami snapped back to her original position, almost entirely out of breath. But All Might's fist wasn't coming at her anymore. But she did hear a snapping sound as did the other students, followed by a shockwave which pushed back Nanami's back to the nearest building.

"That was... just the shockwave caused by him... breaking the Handcuff... that'd be incredible if he wasn't just destroying my classmates...", Tetsutetsu observed in complete awe of the number 1 hero!

"I think I broke the weights... As for you, young Nanami, that was a valiant effort but that wouldn't be good enough against a real villain I'm afraid", All Might said while walking towards Nanami.

He felt a slight presence behind his back and as he turned back to check on it, he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"U.A. is constantly preparing walls and making the students overcome them. In order to keep overcoming those walls without losing steam, the students need a concrete goal to focus on. It's not so easy a path that one can climb it with vague feelings of wanting to be a hero. Even if they do become heroes, people whose end goal is to become a hero have no future...", Recovery Girl uttered these words on the previous day of the exam.

Monoma's end goal seemed like a mystery to most but that was for the future, which was to come, right now he had made contact with the hero in possession of "THE STRONGEST QUIRK".

FOOTNOTES:

* - Sero had seemingly passed thanks to Mineta. It was only later that he was told that he failed.