Seiji is going to try and fail me. He's going to do his damndest to make sure I don't get past the first part, no matter who's around me. I just have to stay away from Katsu and the others, then they won't fail because of me.

So, why the hell are they following me?

"C'mon Leiii, let us come with you! If not we're gonna be stuck with Bakugo, and no one wants that," Denki whines, tugging on the back of her shirt as Eijirou follows behind with his arms folded behind his head and Katsuki shakes his head. "Come on, you're the best!"

"Shut up you dumbass!"

"See! He's still a big meanie!"

"Maybe we shouldn't fight," Eijirou suggests, tilting his head. "Who knows if they'll deduct points for infighting, we should really try to work together instead…"

"You guys should just focus on getting your own points," Leinei says, stopping to turn and look at them. "You're more than capable of doing that without me," she adds with a wan smile. Denki groans, slouching forward with his arms dangling in front of him as he pouts.

"Usually I'm all for the badass lone knight act you have," he tells her as she tilts her head. "But you and that Shiketsu dude looked like you had some beef. Is he your ex or something?"

"Oh god no," she replies, cringing. "Seiji and I-it's complicated."

"Definitely an ex then."

"Once again, no," she corrects. "It's complicated and I'm-this isn't the best time to explain a long story. There is still a time limit."

"All the more reason we should work together!" Denki remarks. "Right, Kiri, Bakubro?"

"Working together wouldn't hurt," Eijirou adds, reinforcing his point from before. "C'mon, Bakugo."

"If she doesn't want to work with us, she doesn't have to," he grumbles, surprising the three others as they look at him. The vein in his head ticks out, his eye twitching. "What? No point in wasting time trying to convince her to get out of her head. If she fails, it's her own fault."

"You're still mad about earlier," Denki teases, huffing. "We're all friends, we should be working together."

"Why are you mad?" Leinei asks, confused. "Nothing really happened for you to be mad-"

"So we're working together!" Eijirou pipes up. "It's decided! We work together, get this test done with flying colors because we're amazing, and then we go onto phase two of the exam, and we go home with licenses at the end of this all!"

"Yeah, what Kiri said!"

"Katsu-"

"Whatever. If this is how you guys want it, then you'll be following me, got it?!"

"Alright," Leinei relents, shaking her head with her small smile. "Then we can talk about this mad thing at home?"

"Whatever. Come on, extras."

"He must be really mad if he's lumping you in with us," Denki whispers as they start heading in the opposite direction Leinei was going originally. She shrugs, rubbing the back of her head as they walk. Why would he be mad…is it the Shindo thing? If he's mad about it, he could just tell me…It's not that big a deal, is it? It's not like I'm leaving him for Shindo.

She sighs, lengthening her strides to walk alongside her partner. She nudges his hand with hers, trying to get his attention. He ignores her instead, looking straight ahead rather than at her. Her shoulders slump slightly as he picks his pace up, staying a few steps in front of her rather than beside her. So he's that mad…Maybe we can figure all of this out later…

Hopefully.

It didn't take long for the group of four to stumble upon several meatballed examinees on a bridge structure. Those examinees were wriggling and squirming, muffled noises coming from the lumps of flesh. The squishing noises alone were enough to make Denki almost lose his breakfast.

"Oh god that's so gross," he groans, covering his mouth as Eijirou shudders. "I'd hate to be them!"

"Super not manly at all to do that…"

"Their targets aren't lit up," Leinei points out, Katsuki nodding in agreement.

"You're really not about to just take advantage of the fact they can't fight, are you?" Eijirou asks. "That isn't-"

"I never said I was going to. I was making a point," she replies, shaking her head. "They were placed here for a reason. Even then, there's enough of them here for us to get the points we need to pass."

"Just what I'd expect from UA students," a familiar voice announces as a shadowed figure steps out to the center of the meatballed examinees. "I'd think you're a fool if you rushed in without thinking. Especially you, Salinsa, since you have schooling from our esteemed institution."

"It's that damned extra from Shiketsu," Katsuki grumbles as Eijirou hardens his arms. "Will you just screw off already!"

"Leave him to me!" the redhead yells, charging past his friends and towards Seiji. He sighs and shakes his head, a discolored streak of flesh flying from behind his back to smack Eijirou in the face. He staggers back a bit, trying to scrape it off his skin until the flesh lump expands over him. There's a muffled cut off scream before the lump completely covers him, squishing and contorting their friend's body until it recedes and leaves only a fleshy colored meatball with tufts of red hair sticking out.

"Oh god that's gross," Denki groans, a low whine in his throat as the meatballed Eijirou shifts around and makes disgusting squelching noises as it tries to slither its way over to the trio. "Why would you do that! Weren't you two friends or something, why are you doing this gross crap!"

"Us, friends?" Seiji scoffs, shaking his head before lowering his chin. "One of you is a monster parading around as if her crimes shouldn't have landed her in Tartarus. My father still longs for the days you end up on his rounds list."

"Shut up, Seiji," she growls, gripping either end of her scarf in her palms. "You're not allowed to talk about that!"

"I'm not mentioning anything by name," he retorts, looking tilting his head back and looking down his nose at her. "Though, I'm sure your friends can put two and two together. I'm sure they're smarter than I believe them to be. Our schools are said to be on the same level, sisters in a way. But by the look on his face," he nods his head towards Katsuki, who is just glaring at him, "you've said more than I have."

"What's he talkin' about, Lei?" Denki asks, glancing at his friends. "Did something happen?"

"A lot happened. But we aren't at liberty to speak about it without being silenced. Must be nice having such high ranking officials keeping your dirty laundry under lock and key."

"You don't know the first thing about her," Katsuki growls, lifting his arm up and bracing his elbow with the opposite hand. "Her siblings wouldn't back her ass if she was in the wrong, and I know that. Watch the next damn thing you say, or I'll blow you to fucking pieces."

"I'd say that your school has too much prestige and beauty for students to be acting in such a disgusting manner, but all of that went out when I saw the Slaughterer wearing your school's crest."

Aizawa sighs softly as he fixes his posture in his seat, trying hard to keep from tapping his foot as he watches his students face off against the other schools. The familiar giggles of Ms. Joke make him groan internally, glancing over at the green haired woman sitting two rows down from him in the stands and giving a half hearted wave.

"You must be Shouta Aizawa, from UA."

A meek male teacher stands behind a woman with constantly shifting, electric blue hair, her arms crossed over her chest as she looks over her glasses at the sitting teacher. She has the Shiketsu crest over her heart, lifting a hand to fix her glasses as she looks Aizawa up and down, shaking her head after.

"And you are…from Shiketsu? I don't recognize you from any of the billboards," he replies stagnantly, choosing instead to look back at the arena below. "If you've come to tell me how your class is going to crush mine, please leave now. My students are going to do just as well as yours."

"No, actually, I wanted to speak with you about one of your students," she replies, glancing over at her shoulder at the meek teacher to dismiss him. He scurries off, letting out a breath of obvious relief as she looks back at the UA teacher. "My name is Edana Aldebrand."

"I suppose this is the part where you tell me why that matters?"

"I suppose the name Aldebrand isn't that important to you," she sighs, taking the seat three down from him and crossing her knees. "But I'm sure Blaise is."

"One of the victims of the Shiketsu Incident."

"My sister in law," she confirms, nodding as she leans back and closing her eyes, her hair crackling around the plastic and fabric of the chair. "I'm sure you can guess which student I'm speaking of by this point, and no I'm not here to wish some kind of cruel revenge on that poor child."

"That's new," he remarks, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Then why bring it up?"

"She did the world a favor in my eyes," Edana continues, shrugging. "My sister in law was a raging bitch. Abused her wife, tried to abuse our parents. From what I heard as a student teacher, she verbally accosted the students a lot. I saw Salinsa trying to ask her for help multiple times only to be shoved off. As far as she's concerned, she helped to correct a failing system. They cracked down on teachers after the incident. And helped to establish safer spaces in the school itself, implementing a zero tolerance bullying policy as well that actually goes to help the victims rather than punish them."

"Impressive. All of this came about in a year?"

"Surprising huh? There's still some bugs in it, and a lot of hatred directed towards that poor girl, but…she helped my family to heal, and move on from the Wicked Bitch. Oops, shouldn't speak ill of the dead huh?"

"Not my business if you do," Aizawa murmurs. "I didn't know the woman, I personally couldn't care less."

"Wonderful. Just to let you know, I have faith that Salinsa will pass. She's a smart girl. I was always personally rooting for her, even when she was pulled out of Shiketsu." Edana stands up, fixing her glasses again before pushing her hair behind her ear. She crosses her arms over her chest again, looking ahead at the arena below. "But I do feel there is one thing you should know, about her."

"What's that?"

"The day it happened. She had a smile on her face. I don't know if she realized it herself because it all happened so fast, but she smiled as it all went down." She turns her head to study the passive faced man. "I don't think she's a bad person. I don't know her personally, or taught her like you have, but just keep an eye on her. She may need more help that she lets on."

"I will keep that noted. Thank you."

"Of course. We each have to help to raise the next generation of heroes. I see a lot of potential in each of your students. You're doing a good job with them, Eraserhead."

"I look forward to seeing your students blossom as well."

"Fuck!"

Leinei grabs Denki's shirt and ducks down to avoid a ball of flesh flying at their heads. Seiji grits his teeth, taking a step forward as his eyes fill with murderous rage. Denki is doing his best not to panic as Leinei takes in the fact Katsuki and Eijirou were down for the count now, meatballed into the same disgusting lumps of flesh as the others.

"We're gonna fail, we're gonna fail and be the laughing stock of the class," Denki whimpers, Leinei's hand still fisting in the front of his shirt as she tries to figure out how the hell they were going to take him down.

"Denks, shut up," she growls, shocking him for a moment as her blue eyes burn into him. He squeaked as she let go of his shirt, wringing her fingers. "He's after me. So this is what's going to happen."

A good hero doesn't attack those who are down. I shall wait for them to come at me again.

But Seiji's patience is starting to wear thin, the vein in his forehead throbbing as Leinei and Denki whisper amongst themselves, still crouched down as his flesh hovers around him. He looks at their meatballed friends, who were still trying to squirm out of his quirk. Heh. Good luck.

"Alright, Shishikura!" Leinei yells, standing up and getting his attention. "My friends have nothing to do with any of this. You're going to undo your quirk on Katsu and Eijirou and then you can beat me into a bloody pulp all you want, so long as they get to go."

"Heh, sorry. Do you really think I'm that stupid?" he scoffs, sending his roiling flesh at them again. Leinei barely ducks out of the way, rolling towards him rather than away or towards her friends. "I don't know what you're playing at, Salinsa, but this game is over. You're going to end up in Tartarus where you belong!"

He recalls his flesh, and notices he can't see Denki. He must have run away, the coward. He was in tears before. Oh well, this just makes my-

"Denki now!"

"Right!"

Seiji finally sees the silver and blue discs on his flesh balls, his eyes widening as he finally sees that Denki was ducked down behind the purple haired girl before. He only stood up with his arm outstretched, sending electricity towards the discs as they used the boy in the middle as the final connector in their circuit. He screams, his back arching as the electricity races through his body.

"I don't know what your beef with my friend is," Denki growls, his chest heaving as the shock wears off, Seiji panting and doubled over. "But she's our friend and we love her. So if you're trying to take her from us, I'm going to give it all I've got to make sure she stays where she's at!"

Well I didn't tell him to say that.

"You idiot," Seiji growls, trying to correct himself as the meatballed duo manages to start reforming themselves. "You have no clue-"

Leinei's scarf wraps around his mouth and neck, the purple haired girl seemingly teleporting in front of him. His eyes widened as she tilted her head, her blue eyes gleaming bright. He hadn't realized he took a step back, focusing on the way the scarf tightened slightly and how he was starting to struggle to breathe.

"Watch what the hell you call my friends," she whispers, a slow smile breaking on her lips. Fear makes his heart skip a beat, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"You'd be doing the world a favor by snuffing him out," Dabi's voice whispers in her ears, a soft alluring purr that makes her tighten the scarf even more. Seiji falls to his knees, unable to deactivate his quirk to bring it back to his body, leaving him to slowly suffocate. "He wanted you dead…what's wrong with wanting the same for him?"

"You're pathetic," she says, lifting her foot and pressing the heel of her boot into his shoulder. He cringes in pain, clenching his eyes shut as he tries to force any kind of breath into his lungs through the fabric. "Honestly. Throwing yourself at others looking for pity because your brother got his feelings hurt and shoved a pen in his neck?" She didn't recognize her own voice, or the words leaving her lips, feeling breathless with how fast her heart was beating in her chest. "Your brother made his bed, so grow the fuck up."

"That's right," Dabi's voice continues to purr, the feeling of his hands on her shoulders and squeezing. "Tell him. Let him feel all of the pain you've kept bottled up for so long. Show him how worthless his life truly is."

"You're an ugly person," she continues, not realizing behind her that Eijirou and Katsuki were finally out of their meatballed state and watching her. "Be glad I'm doing you the favor of pointing it out now, because you've gone so long thinking otherwise, you've deluded yourself. You should be thanking me."

"Lei, I think that's enough," Eijirou calls, stepping forward with his hand outstretched. A sharp glare from her quiets him, slowly lowering his hand.

"Don't worry about them. Show him. Show him the monster you really are."

"You want me to be a murderer?" she whispers, leaning forward until their faces were a breath apart. "You want me to earn the moniker you've been throwing around this entire time? Stop breathing then."

"Leinei."

She stiffens hearing Katsuki's voice, feeling him wrap an arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders. Her grip on the scarf slowly loosens, letting Seiji gasp for breath and feel the oxygen rush back into his body. Her vision blurs as the boy holds her tighter, pressing his forehead to the back of her head.

"I know they hurt you," he murmurs as the fight leaves her body. "But you hurting him isn't going to fix what happened. Don't become what he thinks you are. Please."

"Kat..su.."

Eijirou and Denki come over as Katuski eases her away, restraining Seiji so he could recuperate without launching a counterattack. Leinei wipes the tears from her eyes as she stands with her back towards them, not able to look her boyfriend in the eyes after what just happened.

"Are you okay?" he murmurs, cupping his hand under her chin and tilting her head back to force her to look at him. She feels the residual heat from the edge of his gauntlets, feeling tired now and leaning into his touch.

"M'fine," she mumbles, nodding. "Just..just lost myself for a second. It won't happen again."

"Just making sure. You made me worried there, y'know."

"I'm sorry."

"We're having a talk later, alright?"

"Right."

"Hey guys!" Denki yells, getting their attention as he points to the meatballed examinees morphing back to normal. "Let's get our points!"

This chapter was definitely a little bit harder for me to write. I don't really know why. I had the end goal in mind, just didn't know how to get there. Happens sometimes! Sorry this took so long! The second half of the exam will go by much faster. I hope you're having a wonderful valentines day!

~Luna