Chapter 22: Phase 2

"As you have noticed, you are all trapped in teams of three," Nedzu's voice echoed, "Your objective is to escape. You will be evaluated individually. You have ten minutes," Nedzu's voice cut off.

Watanabe twitched as the speakers cut off. It was obvious that Nedzu was trying to turn them on each other. Unfortunately, it seemed like it would work. The guy he was trapped in with seemed arrogant and egoistic. He was right, "Heh, stupid UA. They can't even trap three people together properly. Guess, I just have to get rid of you!" The guy said and lunged towards Watanabe.

Watanabe cursed and dodged the jabs. He groaned as one of the punches connected with his arm and sent him flying. Watanabe noticed his opponent had tiny holes at the ends of his limbs. He purposely tried to rush him and was sent flying back again, "Propulsion system on his arms, so that's his quirk. Either his quirk doesn't work on his legs or he isn't adept at using them. I will just have to dodge and block for now," Watanabe thought as he got back up on his feet. As he fought with his opponent, he tried to figure out the test. If he incapacitated this guy, would he fail? Or would he be excused since it was self-defense? Nedzu did say they would be judged individually. He turned on his X-ray and his eyes widened, "Look, come on man. Just listen! They want us to fight. We are supposed to work together to get out of this!"

"Heh, as if. You just want me to stop so you can catch me off-guard!" He replied and lunged at Watanabe who had had enough and ducked below the punch before uppercutting him, "I can get him up later," he muttered.

Watanabe jumped back and jabbed strongly at the air. There was a cough and a thud, "How did you see me!?" A female voice demanded.

"My quirk. Look, we both know you can't take me out. You probably rely on stealth. Can we please work together to pass?" Watanabe asked.

"...Pervert!"

"What! No-no, I'm using X-ray, I can just see your bones!"

"O-oh. Sorry,"

"Thanks. Er, what's your name?"

"Hagakure,"

"I'm Watanabe,"

"Tell me what you have in mind,"

"I spotted three different hand scanners underneath the walls. My guess is we are supposed to scan our hands together,"

"Fine, that's good and all, but how do we get this guy to do it. You knocked him out,"

"Yeah, and I doubt he would help if we got him back up," Watanabe guffawed.

"Can we just pull him there and make him rest his hand on the scanner?" Hagakure offered.

"Let's try," Watanabe said. The two pulled the unconscious body and heaved him up against the wall and put his hand up to the scanner, "Ok, let him go," Watanabe said. Immediately the guy fell down.

Watanabe sighed, "We're screwed,"

"I might have an idea," Hagakure offered, "What if we go and scan our hands and then throw a rock at him to wake him up. He'll instinctively put his hand on the panel as support and we'll pass,"

"Worth a try I guess," Watanabe said and the two walked to their individual scanners. They put their hands on the scanners and both picked up a rock from the rubble below their feet. They hesitantly nodded and threw the rocks at the guy, hitting him straight in the head. The guy groaned but didn't get up. Watanabe twitched, "Now what?"

"Hit him till he gets up!"

Watanabe nodded and both picked up rocks again. Two or three hits later, he finally grunted. He groggily got up like he was dizzy. He put his hand on the panel for support. Immediately, the walls started dropping, "Congratulations! You pass!" An automated voice said.

"He passed, but his marks will be deducted," Aizawa commented.

Nedzu nodded, "Throwing rocks wasn't the best idea really. Nor was knocking him out immediately,"

Nemuri sweat dropped at the casual way the two talked.

Kaminari cursed. He had to get trapped with the flame quirk and earth quirk guy. Both of them had decided that Kaminari was way stronger and had teamed up to get him first. He had to fight back with his quirk to not get knocked out but didn't use enough electricity to knock them out. He groaned as earthen armor flung him into a wall. A panel fell off. "Look, a panel! There has to be 2 more! We have to work together!"

"The hell we do! Thought the guy who knocked out Endeavour would be better," The one with the flame quirk said. Kaminari winced as his hand was burnt, "Alright, time to go for a nap!" Kaminari snapped and electrocuted both of them.

"If I can find the other two panels, they'll work with me," Kaminari muttered and started examining the walls. He found the panels and uncovered them. "1 minute left!" Kaminari cursed, he didn't have time to wait for the two to wake up. "This better work," Kaminari said before letting out an electric storm. The circuits overloaded and the wall started falling down, "Congratulations you pass!"

"Problem children," Aizawa muttered.

"Potential!" Nedzu replied.

Izuku half-smiled. They were right, Nedzu had pulled a twist. His choice of words was vague and unclear, making it seems as if they were to fight each other.

Uraraka stumbled about, still suffering from the drawbacks of her quirk, "I don't think I can fight anymore,"

"I'm sorry it has come to this. You seem like a good person. I saw you rescue her too, but I am afraid I must win," Iida said and readied himself. He was glad Uraraka was out of action. Anyone who could send the number 2 hero flying was definitely strong.

"Wait! Look we have 10 minutes! Just let's discuss this for 5?" Izuku asked in an authoritative tone. Living with Watanabe had brought him out of his shell. While he wished Watanabe was a bit more caring about his feelings sometimes, he knew it was too much to expect. Watanabe hadn't gone through the same things as he and didn't know how to console or acknowledge his feelings. At least he had gone about treating him like a normal person and had done brotherly activities with him to try and make him feel good. Not to mention Watanabe was trying his best to make him more outgoing instead of shy, panicky, and scared of everything. Izuku had a feeling that one of the main reasons he introduced him to Kaminari was because Denki was better at consoling him.

Iida's face fell slightly as he thought about it, "Fine,"

Izuku smiled and went into rapid-fire, "Ok, so first thing is Nedzu used the word 'team' instead of 'group'. Traditionally, team is used to signify teamwork. If he wanted us to fight, he would have said groups instead of teams. Furthermore, his statement of individualized marking is to throw off people and make them think we are to fight each other but it might just be a precaution so that an entire team doesn't fail for one person's incompetence,"

Uraraka stared wide-eyed, it did make sense when put like that. She had her concerns but she would support Izuku. She wasn't in any shape to fight so if he was right, Uraraka had a way to pass, "I'm with him,"

"But, why would Nedzu try to fool us?" Iida demanded.

Izuku looked at him with a 'Are you serious?' look that would have made Watanabe proud, "Did you see his interview last year? There's no way on earth, he hasn't pulled something for this phase,"

Iida nodded, "I'll work with you until the last two minutes. If we haven't found anything till then, we fight,"

Izuku nodded, "First, let's check the walls for panels or clues," Izuku said. Iida and Uraraka nodded. It took only a few moments for the scanners to be unveiled. Iida turned red while Izuku grinned foxily.

Aizawa was impressed, "He made it seem too easy. Just under 4 minutes," he commented about Izuku.

Nedzu smiled. He couldn't wait to meet Yagi's students.

"Wasn't phase 2 a bit too easy?" Midnight asked.

"I suppose that's why over 80% failed," Nedzu replied.

Nemuri's eyes widened and she looked to Ectoplasm for confirmation, who nodded, "But how?"

"The thing is," Nedzu started explaining, "Most of them thought the exam structure will be the same so when phase 2 was introduced, they panicked, the others reverted back to their old behaviors, and the personality they put up for a show disappeared,"

"So, you played psychological warfare,"

"Yes. A simple psychological test but a rather effective one," Nedzu cackled chaotically, "You see, panic makes people forget about common sense and how to use their brains. Personally, I don't think you need to scare people to get what you need. People give fear far too much credit. They forget that panic instills fear. Without panic, fear is almost powerless,"