"I haven't studied AT ALLLL!"
It was the final week of june, one week until our end of term tests, and Ashido and Kaminari were both panicking, as they had been bottom of the class in the midterms.
"With the sports Festival and internships, I didn't have time to study," moaned Kaminari, clutching his head while Ashido laughed.
"Sucks that there's a practical portion too," sighed Mineta, who had placed in the top half.
"I thought you were one of us!" cried Ashido.
"Guys like you are only likable when they're morons!" added Kaminnari. "Who's gonna love you now?"
"The world, I guess," said Mineta.
"Ashido, Kaminari!" piped in Midoriya. "Let's do our best! It'd be great if we could all go to the lodge, right?"
"Yes!" added Iida.
"If you just attend classes, it's hard to fail," I remarked, somewhat amazed by their incompetence.
"Words can hurt, you know!" cried Kaminari, and I agreed. I felt a little sorry, but it was the truth. What was I supposed to say?
"Hey, you two," Yaoyorozu called from the back of the classroom. "I might be able to help you with the classroom stuff."
I was a little surprised; Yaoyorozu had never offered study help before. While both Kaminari and Ashido were jumping in grateful joy, I saw Yaoyorozu look down at her desktop as if in deep shame, and heard her murmur, "I'm afraid I won't be any help when it comes to the practical, though."
I was surprised. I had started to notice that ever since the Sports Festival, Yaoyorozu was no longer particularly boastful. At the start of the year, when I'd first known her, she'd been nearly as confident as Bakugou, though with a better manner of expressing it. But lately, she seemed rather doubtful, down on herself.
While I watched her, her friend Jirou appeared as well. "I'm not as bad off as either of them, but how about helping me too? I'm having trouble with quadtratic functions."
"Me too?" asked Sero. "I'm struggling with classical lit."
"Me too?" added Ojiro.
"This is wonderful!" cried Yaoyorozu, jumping to her feet. "Yes, let's do it! We'll hold a study session at my residence over the weekend! I'll call mother and have her prepare the great hall to set up, it'll be the perfect spot! What kind of tea does everyone like, I'll have her make sure we're stocked. In my family, we always drink Harrod's or wedgwood, so if you have any other preference let me know. When we're finished, you'll all be model students!"
It was a relief to see her back to normal.
Later that day in the cafeteria, I lunched with Midoriya, Iida, and their friends - Uraraka, Asui, and Hagakure, while they discussed the upcoming exams.
"The content for the test for all the normal subjects is probably within the scope of our lessons," guessed Midoriya. "So those shouldn't be that hard. It's scary that we don't know what will be in the practical exercise."
"Nothing too extreme, I imagine," said Iida.
"So about the academic subjects being manageable.." asked an embarrassed Uraraka.
Hagakure cut in with, "Mr Aizawa said it'd be an overall summary of what we did this semester."
"Yep, and that's about all we could get out of him," said Asui.
"So there were battle trial, rescue trainings, and basic training, right?" asked Uraraka.
"Studying for the test, plus keeping in top tier physical condition," Midoriya began, before the elbow of a boy from Class 1B collided with the back of his head. He had sleek blonde hair and a rather unpleasant grin. If I recalled right, his name was Monoma.
"Ah, my bad," he sneered at Midoriya. "Your head's so big I ended up hitting it."
"Monoma, from Class B, right?" asked Midoriya. "That really hurt!"
"I heard you three stumbled across the Hero Killer," Monoma told us. I did my best to ignore him, but he kept on going. "The ways in which you've been basking in the spotlight have only multiplied ever since the Sports Festival, haven't they Class A? Only the attention you're grabbing isn't out of expectation, now it's in the form of trouble! So scary! One day, we might get caught up in the trouble, and then get hurt - and - "
From behind him, a girl appeared to karate chop him unconscious. She was tall and lean with a red ponytail"That's not funny, Monoma," she reprimanded him. "You heard what happened to Iida. Sorry bout that, Class A. This kid's heart is, well…"
"Kendo!" Iida cried, apparently recognizing her.
"Anyway," she continued, "I heard you say that you didn't know what the end-of-term test would be. Between us, It's meant to be combat against robots like the entrance exam."
"Really?" cried Midoriya. "How do you know?"
"I know an upperclassman personally, and asked," grinned Kendo. I know, cheat, but oh well."
Midoriya began muttering under his breath. "It's not cheating! Of course it makes perfect sense, the acquisition of prior knowledge would then come integrated as a vital part of the exam. Damn, we should have asked an upperclassman, why hadn't Iever thought to?"
"Are you stupid, Kendo?" Monoma cut across this abundance of talk. "You just threw away our whole strategic advantage! This was our chance to forestall that detestable Class A!"
At this, Kendo whacked him again. "They're not detestable," she remonstrated, then walked away carrying him behind her.
Back in the classroom, Midoriya informed Kaminari and Ashido about the test.
"If it's just robots, then it'll be a walk in the park!"
"Must be happy because your quirks are hard to adjust against human opponents…" mused Shoji.
"Yep! So with robots we can win like that! Easy as pie!"
"Now we just need to get someone to help us study," agreed Sero.
"Now we're shoe-ins for the first lodge!" said the doorway, Bakugou snarled,
"Who cares if it's people or robots, it's all the same when they're blown away. Walk in the park my ass."
"Who're you calling an idiot?" demanded Kaminari.
"Shut up, you don't need to bother about adjusting idiot!" Bakugou then rounded on Midoriya, who was standing by me. "Hey! Deku! I dunno what's going on with your power, but I've seen how you're using it and I want you to know - it's seriously pissing me off."
"He must be talking about how Deku was jumping around like him the other day," remarked Uraraka.
"Let me tell you right now, I don't want some shallow victory like in the festival," Bakugou snapped. "By the end of term, we'll see by our grades who's better, whether you like it or not. I'll annihilate you, leave you in the dust and fucking murder you! And you too, Todoroki!" he added, turning around to shoot me a similar look of loathing before slamming the classroom door on his way out.
The three days of written exams were nerve-wracking, but I'd never had much trouble with exams, so getting through them left me mostly indifferent.
The day of the practical exam, we lined up in our testing site to see all of UA's staff awaiting us.
"Right, the text exercise will begin shortly," said Sensei. "Obviously you can fail this test, too, so if you want to head to the first lodge, don't make any mistakes."
"Why are all the teachers here?" Jirou asked, voicing the question on everyone's minds.
"I've no doubt you've all learned what information you could about the test beforehand," said Sensei, "so I think you already hold a vague notion of what you are to do."
"Just like the entrance exam, it will be robots!" cried Kaminari.
"I can just see the fireworks, the curry, truth or dare!" cheered Ashido.
"I'm afraid - nOT!" cried a strange voice from inside of Sensei's scarf. Principal Nezu jumped out. "Due to various reasons, we're changing the test this year."
"What do you mean?" asked Yaoyorozu.
"Well," the principal explained, climbing down from Mr. Aizawa's scarf…
It seemed they were afraid of a villain revival, so our sensei summarized, "From now on, e'll focus our tests more on person-to-person battles, emphasizing a teaching environment as close as possible to a real battle. Which means, that from here on you will all form pairs and engage in one-on-one combat with one of these teachers!"
"Against a teacher?!" gasped out Uraraka.
"Additionally, your partners and opponents have already been chosen. They were chosen at my discretion, baed on a combination of grades, familiarity, and skills. Here are the teamups. To begin with, Todoroki is with Yaoyorozu. Against me."
Against Sensei. I see. Yaoyorozu and I have two of the strongest quirks in class, so they're hoping to force us to fight without our powers. Without her abilities…I thought, glancing at my partner, who indeed looked nervous. I'll have to make sure we win this thing. Can't get her any more down on herself than she's already being.
"The ten teams will be starting in their respective stages simultaneously. The general outline of the test will be explained by teach of the teachers you'll be battling. You're t be transported by the campus bus. Time is precious, so get in them promptly."
Our bus took us to a mock suburban landscape. Sensei explained our task. 30 minute time limit, win by either getting the handcuffs on the teacher or running through an escape gate to safety.
"Running and asking for help can be a completely legitimate strategy. Todoroki, you should understand that. The Other two, as well.
I recalled the words Native had said to me while we fought Stain. Right. Run to win.
