Hijiri groans as he pulls himself out of some destroyed shelves, keeping an eye on the outside where smoke and dust was obscuring his view. He cracks his neck and puts out the fires in the store with a wave of his hand.

"Hahahaha! That nearly got me!" All Might's laugh echoes through the smoke. The smoke is then blasted apart by a punch from All Might, revealing the man standing down the street with no visible injuries. "That was a good attempt if you were trying to hit me!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Bakugo bellows, rocketing out of his building and barreling straight at All Might, pulling a pin on his gauntlet. A giant explosion crashes down the street and over All Might, the fire of the explosion crashing into the buildings through the shattered windows.

Hijiri climbs out of the building and looks down the road towards where All Might was, realizing that their teacher was still closer to the exit than they were. Hijiri launches into the air and onto a nearby rooftop, watching All Might rockets out of the smoke and grabs Bakugo by his face before throwing the boy into the ground. All Might lands in front of Bakugo and looks into the shop where Hijiri had ended up.

"Where are you, Hero? Your partner is losing!" All Might taunts, Hijiri huffs and glares at All Might. Hijiri creates a few balls of fire and sends them around the rooftops and aiming at All Might.

"I-I won't lose!" Bakugo screams, raising his other gauntlet and grabbing the pin, training the attack at All Might. Then his gauntlets shatter as All Might punches both of them once, leaving him without his strongest attack. "Dammit!" Bakugo yells, exploding his hands anyway, forcing All Might back half a step.

Hijiri takes the opportunity and blasts the fireballs he had created earlier at All Might before jumping away from the building's edge, raising an orb of white fire in anticipation. A second passes before All Might's hand grabs onto the building's edge and cracks into the concrete, acting as leverage for the man mountain to pull himself up from.

"Inferno!" Hijiri yells, directing the flames from the white orb into a pillar of fire. All Might vanished into the attack and Hijiri took to the air as soon as he ran out of fuel, his wings spreading and sending him towards the exit. He risked a glance over his shoulder at where All Might should have been, only to find no-one there. "What-?"

"Miss me?" Hijiri whips around as All Might slams his head forward, headbutting him into the rooftop under them. "Because I didn't miss you." All Might continues, grabbing Bakugo's outstretched arm and slamming him into the ground with it. He grabs some of the metal railing and sits Bakugo against it before bending the metal to hold Bakugo in place. He then turns to Hijiri, who he squats down next to. "So, what're you gonna do now?"

Hijiri just glares silently at All Might. All Might shakes his head and points at Bakugo, who was straining against the metal and yelling curses at the two of them.

"If you had worked with him, you may have won." All Might says. "But you didn't, and now you have no moves to play. So, we're gonna sit her for the next few minu-" All Might was interrupted by Hijiri breathing fire straight into his face, blinding and surprising the Hero. He then rolls over and gets up to run away.

Hijiri's eyes meet Bakugo's and the two glare harshly at each other for a moment before Hijiri jumps off the roof and uses his wings to fly into the maze of alleyways, knowing All Might would be after him in a few seconds. 'Working with him? Fat chance.' Hijiri grumbles.

Hijiri stops and stares, he had somehow gotten his directions mixed up and found himself back at the start, he spots All Might jumping over the buildings towards him. Hijiri retreats back into the alleyways, diving between buildings and around corners. Hijiri started pushing himself even further when he started to hear the impacts of All Might's feet and his shadow out of the corner of his eye.

Hijiri blasts around the corner of a building and erupts into the air above the main street. 'Shit!' Hijiri spins around, raising his arms to protect himself from the attack he could feel coming, the attack he had felt coming since he spotted All Might chasing him from the entrance. And the man didn't disappoint, his muscular arm slamming into his guard like a steel beam.

All Might launches him into another building, but this time he follows him in and puts his foot on Hijiri's chest to hold him against the wall.

"As I was saying. We're going to wait out the time right here, while Young Bakugo waits on a rooftop." All Might says, keeping his foot planted as he crosses his arms. "Now, let's talk. Why didn't you save Bakugo after you attempted to burn my face off?"

"I don't need him." Hijiri hisses out, pushing at All Might's foot. "I could have passed while he acted like an idiot."

"Then why didn't you?" All Might asks, blue eyes staring into Hijiri's blue and green. "Why are we in this position, when you say you could have passed? I'll tell you why. Because you need him to escape me, you can't do it by yourself. I don't even think you believed you could."

"O-of course I thought I could! Why else would I have attacked you for!" Hijiri yells, fire flickering into his hands until All Might presses his foot down harder.

"You chose to attack me instead of running away multiple times, even if you didn't realize it." All Might lectures softly. "And you also act the same way Izuku does, you couldn't even leave Bakugo alone with me when you saw me beating him, you stepped in and saved him subconsciously. If you truly wanted to win, you would have left him to fend for himself."

Hijiri looks at All Might with a confused face, his arms dropping to the sides as he thinks over All Might's words. All Might watches as several emotions cross Hijiri's face, most commonly anger or confusion, finally it went blank.

"That can't be all you wanted to talk about." Hijiri says eventually, his voice kept carefully blank.

"You're right..." All Might sighs, looking away before sighing again. "I wanted to ask about why you and Young Bakugo dislike each other so much."

"He bullied Izuku for ten years." Hijiri replies, anger slipping into his tone as his eyes narrow. "All because Izuku was Quirkless. I defended Izuku from Bakugo and his cronies, they didn't like that." Hijiri looks past All Might and growls. "Bastard couldn't beat me, so he hurt Izuku when I wasn't around. He fucking beat Izuku for something he couldn't control!" Flames erupt from Hijiri's head like a volcano, startling All Might. Hijiri started yelling, his voice going hoarse. "He burned him! He destroyed Izuku's books and clothes! He got the whole school to do the same! The teacher's didn't care! They blamed IZUKU OR ME! HE TOLD IZUKU TO KILL HIMSELF!"

All Might stared in shock as Hijiri huffed as tears started running down his cheeks. "And I couldn't stop them... I couldn't protect my own brother! How can I be a Hero if I can't protect my own family! Tell me All Might! Why couldn't I protect the one person closest to me!"

"Hijiri, my boy..." All Might says, at a loss for words.

"Why, why, why, WHY DID THEY HURT IZUKU?!" Hijiri yells, snot and tears streaming down his face as he thrashed under All Might's foot. "WHY DID THEY HURT THE NICEST PERSON I'VE EVER MET?! WHY DIDN'T THEY HURT ME INSTEAD?! WHY DID I GET A QUIRK AND NOT IZUKU?! WHY DO I HAVE THIS POWER IF I CAN'T EVEN USE IT TO SAVE MY BROTHER?! Why... Please, All Might, tell me... why?"

All Might stared down at the boy with a complicated mess of emotions, the alarm signaling the end of the exam unheard by both as All Might tried to find an answer, any answer.

"Was it because I wasn't good enough?" Hijiri asks, staring straight into All Might's eyes. All Might didn't know what to say, so he stayed silent.


Sorry the chapter was so short... I just had to face my biggest fear(Not being good enough) while writing this and give it to apply it to Hijiri's situation.

I don't cry often, but this hurt to write, so I'll make the next chapter longer, I just can't with this one.

I'm going to cry now, hope you enjoyed this.