"BEGIN".

"Yaoyorozu, it doesn't matter what. Just keep creating small objects. If you ever become unable to, then assume Sensei is close by. this test will depend on who finds who first. The second we confirm his position, I'll draw him away, and you can run to the escape gate. Until then, don't get too far from me."

She said nothing. It was obvious she understood, but for some reason, she was looking away from me. However, she nonetheless followed my instructions and began creating - something odd. Like wooden painted gourds. "I know I said anything, but what are those?"

"These? They're just Russian nesting dolls." She tucked them into the belt on her costume.

"I see," I said, though I didn't quite understand. I checked to make sure my ice was still working. "Well, just let me know if your quirk starts acting strangely."

"I'd expect nothing less from you, Todoroki," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"Not only did you hammer out a strategy against Mr. Aizawa, you knew exactly what was best as soon as we started."

You see me that way? "It's nothing."

"No." She stopped walking. I turned to see her, and saw that she had her hand at her chest, and was looking down - as if ashamed. "You're wrong. As students who got into UA through recommendations, we started from the same place, but in terms of the practical skills that a hero needs, I haven't been able to do anything that stands out. During the Cavalry battle, I just followed you orders. And when it was my turn to fight, I lost before I could do anything."

I remembered how she'd spoken of herself when the others were talking about exams. Before I could say anything, however, I noticed - she'd stopped -

"Yaoyorozu, your Matryoshkas! He's here!" I looked around wildly.

"I'm so sorry - " she began, but was interrupted.

"If you're really sorry, then you should be acting." He dropped from the sky and cut in between us. I raised a hand to use ice, but nothing came out. "I'd suggest that you prioritize evasion, since I've taken your quirk from you."

"Yaoyorozu!" i called to her. "Run!"

"Uh - ah!" she gasped, before turning and running for it.

"That's your plan then?" said Sensei. "Fine by me."

Before I knew what was happening, his scarf had wrapped around me and I had been pulled over the power lines, hanging about ten feet above the ground.

"You're the offense of this team, so I knew I had to capture you first, no matter what," he said, securing the other end of the scarf around a pole. I still couldn't use my quirk, but -

"Do you really think this will hold me?" I demanded. "Flame or ice, either one will break these bindings."

"Use whichever you want, but watch your landing," he replied, tossing something across the ground. I was dangling over a field of -

"Caltrops? You pretending to be some kind of ninja? That's a nasty countermeasure."

"This isn't like when you faced the hero killer," said Sensei, adding eye drops to his red eyes. "I know there're two of you, and I know your quirks, so you can bet I'm ready to counter whatever you do. You took on more than your fair share with this plan, though. Thinking of the girl is nice and all, but maybe you should've listened to what she had to say."

And with that he was off, leaving me to dangle above the ground with my head spinning. Yaoyorozu - listened to her? "maybe you should have listened to what she had to say?"

Come to think of it…Her face from before came back to me - that uncertain look. It did seem like she was holding something back.

"Todoroki!"

There she was - running back towards me. She got away from him?

"Yaoyorozu."

"Todoroki!?" she cried, looking stunned that I'd been captured.

"I'm so sorry, I - I should've - "

"Hey! Mr. Aizawa's coming!" I called out, seeing him running our way.

"Yaoyorozu! You've got a plan, don't you?" I cried out to her. "I'm sorry. I should have asked before, and not told you what to do. But you have an idea, right?"

"Your plan didn't work, so there's no way mine will be any good," she murmured, looking away from me. "We're both gonna fail."

"Spit it out already! I'm saying you're the one who's better at this kind of stuff. When we were voting for class rep, you had two votes, remember? One of those votes was mine. Because I thought you would be best at leading our class!"

She was looking at me as though she was about to cry, her lower lip trembling.

Sensei appeared, as if from out of nowhere.

"You done?" he called. Yaoyorozu reached into her belt for the Matryoshkas.

"Todoroki, close your eyes!" she cried.

I wasn't sure what was going on, but I did as she said. Through my eyelids, I could almost see the blinding light from something that Yaoyorozu had thrown at Sensei. Light - for his eyes - that's brilliant. She was planning this from the start.

I felt the binds lowering me. I took the chance of opening my eye and saw that Yaoyorozu had cut loose the other end and was lowering me gently to the ground, where I could step safely.

"I do, Todoroki! I do have one. An ace-in-the-hole operation that's sure to lead us to victory against Mr. Aizawa!"

"An ace in the hole operation?" I asked, taking up a defensive stance as Sensei regained ground.

"Right! Actually, I'd thought about it from the start."

"All right, tell me."

Sensei's scarf came flying at us again and I stretched out a hand, instinctively, to push her to safety, calling "Yaoyorozu!"

I reached my left out to send fire at Sensei, but nothing happened.

He's erased it.

"Todoroki, come on!" Yaoyorozu cried, running for it. "Let's hide, both of us."

As we got out of Sensei's earshot, she continued. "It looks as though Sensei's eyes have become a little less steady."

"Because of what happened at the USJ? So?! You wanna use that?"

"No, for the moment we must escape from his line of si ght. If we only have enough time, then it will be our victory."

"Time…" I muttered. "To escape from Sensei's line of sight. Is that even possible? We can't use our quirks."

"From now on, just do as I say! Keep trying to confirm whether you can use your ice. It's wrong to go in thinking we can't use our quirks at all. If only for a moment, a gap, a chance will open! So between the moment he blinks and the moment he opens his eyes once more, you'll be able to bring it out, right Todoroki? that attack you used during the Sports Festival, the giant ice wall."

In the moment - my ice returned, and I did it, at once. We were safe behind a glacier.

"I blocked us off," I said to her, defrosting myself and turning back to face her. "Now we can use our quirks. Tell me the whole plan now - "

I stopped dead. She had opened up her shirt - she was facing away from me, and something was coming out of her chest - her shirt was open -

I turned away, trying not to think about that. "Is that Aizawa's scarf you're making?"

"Yes. I don't know the materials or exactly how it's constructed, so it's not exactly the same. I've woven a certain other material inside. Seeing as we're in a residential area, we have to contain damage to the town as much as we can. Plus, that binding weapon he uses move so swiftly it's hard to grasp. So this is my plan…"

"And with that, our chances of success should be higher than trying to run. This battle will be decided in a split second. Is that Ok?" she asked me. Asking me. Checking in, like I failed to before. But yeah.

"Yeah. No complains here."

Covered in her clothes, carrying mannequins like our heads, we ran for it - into his line of sight, but with the cloths, we were safe.

"You'll get demerits for that," came Sensei's voice, as his scarf wrapped around the mannequin heads and slammed them together. Yaoyorozu's hand had missed the catapult lever -

But sensei jumped away. Losing no more time, Yaoyorozu slammed her hand onto the catapult and launched our surprise weapon into the air, around Sensei.

"TODOROKI! GET DOWN AND BLAST YOUR FIRE" she screamed to me. Obeying her words, I blasted my flames low from beneath the sheet.

"Against you, Sensei," she announced. "I knew that our quirks would be unreliable. Ever heard of nitinol alloy? When heated, it temporarily returns to its original form. It's an alloy with shape memory!"

The scarf wrapped around Sensei, right on cue. Trapping him, and letting us handcuff him.

We had passed.

"That worked out well," I said thoughtfully. "It was almost a little too smooth."

Yaoyorozu, who was holding onto the edge of our capture weapon, mused, "Honestly, it shouldn't have worked out. When I went to trigger the catapult, I made a huge mistake. Mr. Aizawa noticed, but still jumped away. I think he allowed himself to get captured by my trap on purpose."

I looked at her, nervous. Was she about to start doubting herself again?

"I was just waiting to see what Todoroki would do," said Sensei brusquely. "I could see you, but he still had a cloth over him, remember? I thought he'd try and freeze me, so I figured it was better if I just backed off. Looks like doing that ended up playing right into your hands."

"It really was just a matter of timing, like you said," I realized aloud. She'd been right. "Thanks, teammate - "

Yaoyorozu had clapped her hand to her mouth, and started crying.

"Whats' wrong, are you sick?" I asked, a little alarmed.

"N-no, it's nothing!" she gasped out.

"If you're feeling sick, there's a pressure point you can push on your foot -"

"No, I told you, I'm fine!" she gasped out, and when she pulled her hand away from her mouth, I saw that she was smiling through her tears.

In the end, everyone in class passed the exams except for Ashido, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Sato. Midoriya and Bakugou, it seemed, had actually worked together to defeat All Might. In spite of everything I knew about how strong those two were, I was really kind of impressed that they'd put aside their differences and worked together.

Like I did with Yaoyorozu, I thought to myself.

Working with others wasn't always so bad.