Izuku, at first glance, seemed like the kind of person who would have their life together. He had wanted to be a hero for as long as he could remember. Everything he had done had been working towards that end in some way. The pages he had filled with notes on quirks. The hours he had spent tracking down villain fights to witness the pros in action. Someone who didn't know Izuku very well might look at all of his work and make the mistake of thinking that planning ahead was also something the hero-in-training excelled at.

Could Izuku gather the information he needed, analyze possible solutions, and come up with viable plans to get himself out of the trouble he had landed himself in? Sure. The problem, though, came in what Izuku considered considered to be valid course of action. As he stood in front of Hana, makeshift eskrima rods in hand, only one strategy stood out from all the others. If it worked Izuku could be on his way to a new spot with half the time remaining. If it didn't he might be having a conversation with Aizawa sooner than he liked. His grip on the pipes tightened as he faced Hana.

She hadn't moved since his declaration. Instead she watched him, eyebrows drawn down in confusion.

"Pipes?" She asked, vines twisting like snakes in front of her. "What can you do with a pair of broken pipes?"

Not much, Izuku thought to himself. Nedzu had forbidden him from bringing anything with him (The other students don't get support items, the principal had claimed. Izuku didn't buy that excuse for a second.), and the weight of the two uneven pieces of metal felt different from the weight Izuku was slowly growing accustomed to feeling in his hands.

Hana wasn't done talking though. "You know, I have to say I'm kind of disappointed. When Nedzu told us that we would be fighting Aizawa's middle school apprentice who had already secured a recommendation spot, I thought this fight would be more interesting. I mean you managed to impress Aizawa-sensei, and I didn't even know that was possible."

"Your class must be so talented, if that's the case."

The vines between them stopped moving.

"Don't act like you're better than me just because you're Aizawa-sensei's favorite right now," she said. "If you're so great, why haven't you done anything? You haven't even used your quirk yet. All that one on one training, and yet you're too afraid to fight me."

Izuku smiled, head tilted to the side, a reflection of Hana's stance. "Who says I haven't?"

Caught up in her own words, Izuku's question didn't seem to register for a moment, and when it did Hana took a step back, startled. Her vines pulled back as she moved, trying to follow, but they stayed rooted in the ground where they had sprouted.

"What?"

At the stunned question Izuku's smile grew wider. "I said, who says I haven't already used my quirk? That's a pretty big assumption to make, Aihara-san. Are you sure it's the right one?"

"But you haven't attacked me. You haven't done anything!" She protested.

"I can understand why you might have missed it," Izuku said, lowering the rods to his sides without loosening his grip. "It's pretty subtle if you don't know what you're looking for. But did you really expect anything else from someone Aizawa Shouta agreed to train? Subtlety is kind of his thing, isn't it?"

Hana's vines worked best from a distance. From what Izuku had seen and the reports Aizawa had given him she didn't have the precise control needed to counter a close range attack without putting herself in the way too. All Izuku needed to do was close the distance between them enough to limit her options, and Hana's question had given him the perfect opportunity. Just like with Rave and Asahi, all he needed to do was buy himself a little time.

His eyes darted to the building closest to them. It loomed over them, windowless like all the others.

"You should be feeling it's effects any minute now," Izuku continued, inching slowly forward as he spoke, watching Hana carefully in case she decided to attack again. He looked at his bare wrist and shrugged. His grin turned sheepish. "Nedzu wouldn't let me wear my watch in, so I can't be one hundred percent sure how much time has passed. The moment you entered this clearing, though, it would have started to accumulate in your system."

Izuku had studied quirks enough to know that they could be almost anything. Plenty of quirks took prolonged exposure to show any kind of response from the people affected. Maybe if Hana had taken the time to think the situation through she would have realized that it didn't make sense for Aizawa, a pro who relied on ending his fights before they could really begin, to train someone who would need to drag his battles out with minimal damage, but Hana's plan had been derailed at Izuku's response. She had gone into the test thinking she would intimidate a frightened, unprepared, middle school kid into giving up, and here Izuku was telling her she had walked into a trap.

He edged a little closer as she shook her head, stepping even with her vines again. "I don't believe you. A quirk that requires that much time wouldn't be fit for the work of a pro hero. There's no way Aizawa-sensei would train you if that were the case. You're lying."

Izuku laughed, wincing as the sound reverberated through the open space. Every moment that passed meant that rest of his competition was getting closer. There was no way to know how much time he had left before they arrived. "Do you really think you know how Aizawa-sensei thinks? You were moved to the Gen Ed course because you couldn't follow his instructions and take your work seriously. I don't think you're in any position to claim you know what would be best to heroics."

"This is a waste of time," Hana said, raising her hand. Izuku lifted the pipes just as she flicked her wrist in his direction again. Just like the first time a sea of green shot towards him, but Izuku was ready. He dodged out of the way as the vines converged, leaving Hana open as they smashed into the ground. Izuku had just started towards her when pain seared through his wrist, one lone vine wrapping tightly around it tightly as the others lay in a writhing mass where they had landed.

"I thought you might try to dodge it again, and I have to say that was a better attempt. Not good enough though, I'm afraid."

Izuku pulled against the force holding his wrist in place, thorns digging into his skin, but the plant didn't budge.

Hana moved closer. "I told you before I didn't want to hurt you. Stop pulling against the restraint, and I'll fix it so it won't make that injury any worse, Midoriya-kun."

Three feet separated them, the space between still open as Hana made no move to recall her plants. "You can't win this fight, Midoriya-kun."

"You sound like a broken record," Izuku snapped, pulling against the hold on his wrist again. "Is that all you can say?"

"I-"

Izuku didn't wait for her to finish, didn't wait for her to close the distance between them anymore than she already had. In one smooth motion he kicked at the ground with the side of his foot, sending up a cloud of dust and gravel into Hana's face. As she shrieked, waving a hand in front of her to try the clear the haze, Izuku brought the uneven edge of the pipe down in the vine leading to his wrist. Hana might have been able to strengthen them with her quirk, but they were still ordinary vines. Distracted as she was, there was nothing stopping Izuku from cutting right through it and launching himself Hana the moment he was free.

She stumbled as his shoulder collided with her chest, arms flailing as she tried to catch her balance. Izuku stepped around her neatly, using her attempt to help him shove her towards the building beside them. She slammed into the wall besides the door, dazed.

"If you get another chance to be a pro hero, Aihara-san," Izuku said as he opened the door. "I hope you don't waste it. But I'm not letting you take this opportunity away from me."

Hana opened her mouth to protest, but Izuku didn't pause to listen before shoving her into the building and slamming the door shut behind her with a crash. One of the pipes slid easily through the looped handled, blocking Hana from opening it as she banged against the metal from the other side. With no windows for her plants to break through and no dirt on the inside for her to grow new ones, Hana would be stuck until someone let her out.

One problem solved and, if Izuku's estimate was accurate, a little over half the time left to go. He just had to make it a little longer. He could head further into the field, away from the exit, and hopefully avoid any of the other first years who might have heard the crash. He could do this.

Izuku picked the path directly across from the one Tetsurou had taken, moving as quickly as he could down the side of the building while still keeping an eye out for anyone coming his way. His wrist still ached from where the thorns had torn his skin when he tried to pull himself free, but the bigger problem came with the cut on his leg from Hana's first attack. Izuku could feel blood running down his leg, pooling in the top of his sock, and every step felt like a flash of fire shooting up his skin.

He spared a moment to be grateful for the adrenaline keeping him from feeling the full extent of the injury as he rounded another corner. If he had to fight anyone else before the end of the test…

But Izuku couldn't stop because of an injury, not when he was so close to making it through. He refused to let Aizawa down because his reaction hadn't been fast enough to stop himself from being hurt. He had just taken another step when the world suddenly tilted. A hole had opened up beneath where he stood, a dark circle of nothingness that appeared out of nowhere. Izuku had just enough time to recognize the quirk before he was falling, swallowed by the darkness of the portal.

For a moment Izuku found surrounded by inky blackness before another portal opened a few feet above the ground. The pain in his wrist and leg flared as he smashed into the ground, stars dotting his vision as he stumbled to his feet and ran to the closest building.

Another portal opened behind him.

Izuku cursed, latching onto a low hanging pipe. If having to fight Hana had been bad, this was the nightmare scenario. The worst possible person he could have run into at that moment.

Hirai Shiro. Quirk: Portals

"You're lucky you made it out that far, Midoriya," Shiro said, closing the portal he had come through. Any closer and I would have been able to drop you back outside the arena.

He hadn't looked around to see where Shiro had deposited him, too concerned with finding something stable to hang on to, but at the first year's words Izuku looked up and felt his stomach drop. Less than fifty yards away stood the entry gate, the boundary line glaring a bright red even from that distance. Aizawa and Nedzu weren't standing in view of the gate, but Izuku knew they were there. Watching as the situation fell apart around him.

If Izuku let himself get caught up in another one of Shiro's portals that was it. Test over. A single mistake on his part and he would fail. All that running, all that effort to put himself as far away from the boundary as possible had been for nothing. Izuku's grip on the pipe tightened.

From the profile he wrote on Shiro he remembered that, even though he had no size limit on the portal, he could only make one at once. If he opened another one underneath him, Izuku could stop himself from falling by hanging onto the pipe, but there was nothing to prevent Shiro from physically forcing him to let go once he had the portal open.

"Wait wait wait," Izuku said. Could he stall again? It had worked with Hana but...What should he say? His mind raced, but he came up with nothing. No plans. No distractions. Hana had been caught up in her arrogance and the assumption that she could bully Izuku into giving up. Shiro seemed to be under so such misconceptions, and it was only luck that Izuku hadn't failed the first time he fell through Shiro's portal.

He couldn't let go of the pipe or Shiro would drop him outside the boundary. If Izuku didn't let go of the pipe he couldn't fight him. And if he did nothing then he might end up losing anyway. There had to be a solution, but Izuku couldn't see it. Panic settled in his throat for the first time since the test began.

"Did you have something you wanted to say before you lose?" Shiro asked, making no move to come closer.

"Actually, yes-" Izuku started.

"Well too bad," Shiro cut him off. "I saw your fight with Aihara. Talking to you won't get me anywhere. I have better things to do than hang around here."

At Shiro's words a portal opened up beneath him again. Quickly, Izuku pulled himself up so that the tip of his shoe barely touched the dark surface. He could only imagine what he looked like, hanging above the portal with only the overhead pipe to keep him from falling. Shiro certainly looked unimpressed.

"You're actually going to make me come over there and force you to let go aren't you?" Shiro asked, his voice dripping with boredom. "The whole point of this plan was minimal effort."

"That might be your problem in the first place," Izuku commented, teeth gritted as his injured wrist screamed in protest. He forced the pain down, focusing on Shiro. "Maybe you wouldn't be in this situation if you had been in a little more work?"

"I honestly don't care what you think," Shiro responded. "Now let's get this over with."

"Hold up, Hirai!" A voice yelled. Izuku and Shiro both winced at the sound.

"You've got to be kidding me," Shiro said, the portal under Izuku sputtering closed.

Izuku cursed, but didn't let go of the pipe. How had he gotten here already? The last time Izuku had seen him he had been running even further into the maze than Izuku had gone. Had the path he picked looped back around?

Shiro didn't look happy with this turn of events either, which did nothing to make Izuku feel better about his chances at this ending any way other than in a fight.

"Thanks for helping out, Hirai," Tetsurou said, jogging into view. "I think I'll take it from here."

AN: Not as long this time, and not the end of the test but chapter! Finally!

In all seriousness though, I'm having midterms in a lot of my classes last week/this week so sorry for the slow updates. If you're reading any of my other projects, updates are coming. Once this week is over I should have a little more time.

Next chapter: The end of the test, and Aizawa and Izuku have a chat

Thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter! Please let me know what you thought!