Their Hero Academia

by Zylly

Twenty-five years after Izuki Midoriya and the rest of Class 1-A first set foot in the halls of U.A., their children begin their own hero academia. What adventures and challenges await the newest generation of future heroes? Can they possibly live up to the standard their parents set? Will they put Aizawa into an early grave? Or will this be the most Plus Ultra class of them all?

65. Chapter 59: Final Exam Part 1

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 59: Final Exam Part 1: Read the Directions

The two weeks had passed very quickly, filled with cramming and practicing, and just a little time for themselves. Midoriya and Tokoyami had been very insistent on that last point, stressing that looking after their mental health was just as important as their physical health and their academic progress. Isamu had been glad for the breaks, however brief they had been, as he'd gotten time to spend with his girlfriend. Class 1-B was just as busy with their exam prep, of course, but maybe once things were all over…

And the academic exams had indeed been rigorous, making the midterm look like a cakewalk by comparison. He was sure he'd done well on the physics exam, less so on the math exam (yes, physics was math, but the practical applications in physics made it a lot easier), with the rest falling on a spectrum of certainty. He was pretty sure he hadn't failed any of them, at any rate.

And then it was Friday morning, the day of their Heroics Exam. The day all of them had been dreading. Class 1-A filed into the classroom that morning with a tension hanging over the room like they were waiting for the dam to burst.

At the front of the room were Aizawa and All Might. The former looked less his unusual dispassionate self than like some vulture eagerly awaiting the moment where the guy drops dead. Isamu had a strong suspicion that whatever was going to go down in the exam, he had a heavy hand in it. All Might looked slightly more serious than usual as well.

"All Might is going to brief you on the details of the exam," Aizawa said. "As well as some additional announcements. Once those are complete, you'll change into your costumes and then we'll travel to the exam site."

"Ahem, yes," All Might said, stepping up to the podium. "First… the announcements! Starting with the next semester, I will no longer be your Heroics teacher."

That got a collective gaps from the class. "You didn't say anything about this, Grandpa Might!" Midoriya piped up. "What's going on?"

"Ah ah ah, you did not allow me to finish, Young Grandson!" All Might bellowed. "Yes, I will no longer be your Heroics teacher… for I will be your Principal!"

Well, that was unexpected. Sure, somebody had to get the job, but All Might? Isamu supposed he was a veteran Hero and teacher, but sometimes he just seemed so goofy it was hard to picture him in a position of authority like that!

All the same, he joined the rest of the class in clapping and cheering at the news. Of course, that left a new question open…

"We are current looking into a candidate to replace me as your teacher," All Might said, as though sensing the question lingering on the air. "We'll make the announcement about that when things are more certain."

Satisfied with that, All Might moved on to the matter of their exam. "As you already know," he began, "your exam will be pass or fail for the entire class. Aizawa, Vice-Principal Midnight, and I will be watching you during the entirety of it and scoring your performance accordingly."

All Might pressed a button on a small remote and a diagram of a vast cityscape. It looked like one of the training grounds, but not one Isamu was familiar with. "This is Training Ground Omega," he began. "A vast cityscape. While we have done numerous training exercises there with the second and third year Hero Courses, this will be your first time there. While Heroes typically patrol and act around their Agencies and familiar territories, they never know when they may be called to more distant action."

He pressed the remote again, cycling through pictures of the cityscape until it came to rest on a civilian defense shelter, a heavily protected building used in larger cities to give civilians a place to safely gather in the event of giant Villains or large-scale disasters and Villain attacks.

"For the purposes of your Exam, though," All Might continued, "it is Omega City. An isolated city devoted to scientific development. An unknown number of Villains have attacked the city, forcing the population into hiding. Many of them were able to make it the defense shelter, but many more still remain outside it. Furthermore, the Villains are after Doctor McGuffin."

A picture appeared on the screen. "Recovery Girl?!" the class shouted.

"Er, ah, no," All Might said. "Doctor McGuffin. They're after her Quirk research, which will make their own Quirks that much more powerful. But for the moment, she is safe in the shelter."

He clicked the remote again, bringing up a series of bulleted points. "You will have three hours for this exam and your objectives are threefold. In order of priority: protect the civilian defense shelter and Doctor McGuffin. They Villains will try to attack it and capture her. If they manage to get to the shelter and get her more than 100 meters away, you lose.

"The second objective is to rescue as many civilians still outside the shelter as possible. The Villains may potentially operating in any area of the city, so you many have to protect the civilians from them, in addition to rescuing any trapped or injured by the damage the Villains caused. We won't be giving you specific numbers, but if too many of them die, you lose.

"The third and final objective is to defeat or capture the Villains, or failing that, delay them long enough for time to run out and "help" to arrive. There's failure conditions built into this as well. You can't simply hole up and wait them out."

That… that was a lot. Almost to the point of being overwhelming. Even with sixteen of them out there, it was a lot of ground to cover and a lot to keep track of. Isamu could see Midoriya in the front row, already hunched over and scribbling furiously in his notebook. The way his mind worked, he probably already had the layout memorized and six plans in mind. And it didn't look like All Might was done either.

"However, we will also be evaluating you on a variety of criteria, including your performance in the field, your decision making, your initiative and innovation, and your ability to work together. Being defeated or knocked out does not necessarily mean a loss or a failing grade, depending upon the circumstances involved."

Which meant he couldn't just sit back and let the others take the lead. He was good at letting other people take charge like that. But maybe he could step up here. So many people had seen something in him. They couldn't all be wrong. …Could they?

"In addition to those watching and Recovery Girl," All Might added, "Doc Clock and Water Spout will be in the shelter as civilians and will intervene if and only if it becomes absolutely necessary for your safety. Robots will represent civilians in the field.

"Make no mistake," All Might finished, "this is as serious a challenge as you have ever faced. But you have all performed remarkably this semester and I have every faith in your ability to go beyond!" He flashed a "V"-sign. "Plus Ultra!"

Before the class could join in, Aizawa shut that down. "You've been briefed. Get changed into your costumes and be outside on the bus in ten minutes."

There was fifteen seconds of stunned silence before they bolted from their seats to their costume storage cubbies.

The civilian defense center was behind them, along with several smaller buildings, most of which looked damaged and broken. But there was nothing behind it, so they only had to worry about attacks coming from the sides and front. And maybe above, if any of the Villains had flying Quirks. Those weren't super-common, but not uncommon either, especially when there were two of them in their class alone. Off in the distance, the sounds of destruction could be heard, and smoke could be seen rising from a few different points.

Yeah, Isamu thought, they were definitely being dropped right into the middle of the action. Sixteen of them against an unknown number of Villains with unknown powers, an unknown number of civilians to rescue, and a whole lot more unknowns.

They had ten minutes to strategize and then the exam would begin. Isamu adjusted his gloves and kneepads, then made sure his bandanna and goggles were on tight.

"What's the plan, Gravi-Might?" he asked, using Midoriya's codename now that were in the field. Maybe he shouldn't have been deferring to him so easily, but the green-haired boy was usually the first one with a plan. Isamu had given it some thought on the way over, mostly recognizing that he should probably be one of the people out in the field. The more space he had to operate in, the better, even with perfecting his ability to turn his sliding field into projectiles.

Midoriya bent down and sketched a quick outline of the cityscape in the dirt, getting some on his bare fingers. "Okay, so some of us need to stay here and protect the shelter. The Villains are after Doctor McGuffin, so they're going to show up here before too long. But the rest of us need to cover the cityscape and look for civilians."

"And the Villians," Kirishima-Bakugo (Bombshell, he reminded himself) said, fiddling with the disk-launchers built into her gauntlets. Of course she'd be more interested in fighting.

Midoriya drew three arrows in the dirt. "Three search and rescue groups, one going this way, one going this way, and one going this way. Splitting up as needed."

There was the sound of another explosion. Mineta (Purple Rein) pointed off in the distance. "I recommend starting the opposite of thattaway."

"Who goes where?" Sero asked, his pink face visible behind the clear visor of his helmet. Isamu still couldn't believe he'd gotten "Stick 'Em Up" approved as his Hero name.

"We need to focus on defense, mobility, and rescue," Midoriya said. "I'm going to stay here. I'd like Shock Jock, Purple Rein, and Thermo-Dyanmic with me."

Izumi winced at that, the indicator bands from the regulator rig on her blue and orange costume showing a cheery green. "I am capable of field action," she said, firmly. The look in her eyes was challenging, reminding him of her match with Kirishima-Bakugo in the Sports Festival. She and Midoriya were good friends, but Isamu thought he respected her abilities more than that to sideline her…

Midoriya shook his head rapidly. "It's not that. Your ice walls will make for the perfect defense if it comes down to the wire," he said.

Oh, right. Duh. Fortunately, Izumi accepted the answer with a small nod. "Very well."

"Other than that… Slyde, Jet-Red, Jet-Blue, I want one of each of you in each of the rescue groups. Somebody who can get from place to place quickly if they have to. And then I want Bombshell, Radiance, and Amaterasu to go with separate groups to spread out our heaviest hitters."

"About time you recognize my usefulness," Aoyama said, giving his cape a flick. He was already glowing brightly in the sun.

A rapid-fire discussion followed and teams were quickly assigned. Isamu was working with Tokoyami, Ojiro, and Sero. A pretty good balance of skills there. He just had to be sure he was pulling his own weight and not letting anybody down.

An alarm klaxon sounded.

All Might's voice rang out over the loudspeakers. "Your exam begins… NOW!"

As Toshi watched the three search and rescue groups move off, he wished them all the best of luck. He had a feeling they were going to need it. Everyone was going to have to give their all here, himself included. No coasting, no trying to boost the others at the cost of himself. If they all didn't do this just right… they all failed.

So no pressure or anything.

They'd all been issued headsets for communication. That would make things easier if things got bad in any direction. Plus he had Kaminari on his team, who had additional communications equipment in her new costume she could power with her Quirk. He tapped the headset twice, the frequency for inside the shelter. "This is Gravi-Might," he said. "My fellow Heroes and I are the scene. No signs of trouble here, but we've dispatched Heroes to look for survivors. Everyone okay in there? Is Doctor McGuffin safe?"

"We're all right here," came Uncle Kota-Water Spout—'s voice, playing the part of a civilian. "Including Doctor McGuffin. Scared, but alive."

"Headcount?"

"Over a hundred, counting myself. I don't know how many are still out there."

To be expected. Their teachers wouldn't make this easy on them.

"Thank you," he replied. "Don't be afraid. We're here and we're not going to let those Villains get past us."

In the distance, he could hear a rumbling. "Okay," he told the others. "I'm going to get some height. Thermo-Dynamic, ice barriers at the choke points. Shock Jock, Purple Rein, get ready for anything."

Toshi took a breath, canceled his gravity, and jumped. The civilian defense shelter was only two stories tall, with most of its space being underground. He landed easily, quickly scanning in every direction. Even if there was no "behind" the shelter, due to how the training ground was set up, he didn't want to be docked points for missing a potential avenue of attack. Too many small mistakes would probably be just as bad as a big one.

Below, he saw Izumi's ice walls going up, blocking off the streets. Maybe not the best idea? They'd keep the search and rescue team from returning easily, but between the Twins, Haimawari, and his own Quirk, they could probably work past it? Protecting the shelter was the primary mission objective…

Dammit, there were way too many choices here. Was this what Dad and Mom felt like all the time?

The rumbling continued. Something big and heavy was definitely coming their way. He could see them now. A massive metal man, coming in from the north. Not one of the teachers or any of the rest of the school staff. Maybe it was another Hero that Aizawa had roped into things? There were a few different Heroes who could turn themselves into metal, but at this distance, he couldn't tell if it was any of them. Maybe binoculars would be a good idea to add to his costume.

He tapped his communicator. "Coming in from the north," he said. "Big metal guy."

"My ice wall is in place," Izumi said. "Solid and a foot thick. I am not sure how long it will hold. But I can reinforce it, if needed."

"This isn't a sprint," Toshi said. "It's a marathon. Let's see what he does."

Below, he could see Mineta seeding the ground in front of Izumi's barrier with her sticky balls. Kaminari adjusted some device on her new costume's gauntlets, plugging her Cords into them. Ever since she'd gotten the new costume, Kaminari hadn't fried her brain once during training. He hoped that would stay true for the exam.

"Coming up quick," he told the others. How could anybody that big—built like a sumo wrestler—and made of what looked like solid metal move that fast? Had he seen him before, maybe in some old video? The distorted metal face and the distance made it difficult to see. For a moment, he'd wished he'd kept Shota on his team. He'd probably know, even that far out. "Brace yourselves."

The metal man crashed through Izumi's ice wall like it wasn't even there. Toshi took a couple steps back, then launched himself off the roof. He dropped like a missile, increasing his gravity several times over.

CLANG!

Toshi hit the metal guy hard, making a sound that made his ears hurt. But he bounced off, smacking into the outside of shelter with an impact that made his bones rattle, even with the gravity turned up.

There was a terrible screeching sound as the metal man's face twisted up in a cruel smile. "Gonna have to do better than that, kid."

"What could do this kind of damage?" Iida asked, as Katsumi's team made their way through the cityscape. His expression was unreadable behind his silver helmet, but the tone was unmistakable. "I am seeing intense structural damage, multiple fires, compromise power grid…" He dropped out of the sky, firing his Jetpack Quirk in short bursts to land.

"Doesn't matter," Katsumi said. "We get the people out and if we run into any Villains, we hit them until they stop moving." Something about this whole thing felt… off. Maybe she was just still wound up over, well, everything going on in her life right now. But nothing was ever easy or simple where Aizawa was involved.

Right now, though, there was a job in front of them: search and rescue. Not her forte, but there wasn't anything out there she couldn't do.

"Heroes are here!" she shouted. "Call out!"

"Over here!'

"Oh thank goodness!"

"I need help! I'm hurt!"

"My wife… you've got to help my wife!"

More voices quickly followed, tinny and robotic. Most were coming from the nearby ruined buildings. Too many of them. How the hell were they supposed to know who to help first? They were all buried inside or trapped somewhere. No way to assess.

She took a breath. Make a decision and commit to it. The same way she did everything else.

"Okay," Katsumi said. She was grateful now, more than ever, for having done her Internship with Aunt Ochaco. Even if it has started disastrously, she was more prepared than ever for the ins and outs of rescue work. "With Villains on the loose, we gotta play this smart. Nobody on their own. We do pairs. Arms, you're with me. We're going right. Lips, go with Jetset to the left. Call out if you need help."

"Question," Sato said, raising his hand. "Do you not actually know our names?"

"Question time's over," she snapped. "We're burning daylight! Move!"

She didn't bother looking to see if Shoji was following her. Instead, she took off to the nearest building. The storefront was damaged, but accessible. Even the plate glass window was intact for the moment. Inside, shelving units had been overturned and the lights were out. The lights were out, but enough sun still filtered through from outside that she could see. A thick cloud of dust hung in the air, causing her to cough. Definitely needed a filter or a rebreather or something on her suit when this was over. Canned goods, boxes of nonperishable, and fresh fruits and vegetables were strewn all over the ground. "Rescue's here! Call out!" she shouted again, eyes scanning.

A tinny but clear groan reached her ears and she saw a robot pinned under one of the shelves. With Shoji behind her, she quickly sprinted over. "Hey," she said, "we're here. It's gonna be okay." She reached out and touched his neck, then double-checked the stimulated pulse in his free arm. "Breathing" seemed okay too. The robots designed for rescue training were stupidly lifelike in some ways.

Not like what had happened during her Internship. Safe, survivable injuries. This, she could handle.

"Vitals are stable," she said. "We're gonna get you out of here." She felt a little foolish reassuring a robot, but they'd had to do so during rescue training at the USJ, so she figured it was being tracked here too. She turned to Shoji. "Think you can lift this? Doesn't look like any real crush injuries."

Shoji nodded, not bothering with words. They weren't close, couldn't even really call him a friend, but she respected that he just got down to business without wasting a lot of words. Definitely in the least amount of nonsense category for her classmates.

With not even a grunt, he hefted the shelf off the robot. "Anyone else here?" he asked.

"Just me," the robot reported.

That was some good news, at least. Shoji scooped him up to carry him outside, carefully using his many arms to support him in case of other injuries. As they passed the doorway into the street, a light one of the robot's chest turned green.

"Rescue complete," the robot said. "You may set me down."

As Shoji did so, Katsumi looked around. The building across the street's entrance had been blocked when they'd first passed, covered in rubble. Now though, it looked like someone had eaten their way through it. Sato then. Good. But where was he and Iida?

The answer to that came in the form of the sound of a fist hitting metal. Iida's body came flying through the chewed-entrance, landing on the street in front of them. He was still moving, though, even with a dent to his chest armor, slowly getting back to his feet, His arrival was followed shortly by the biggest woman Katsumi had ever seen, larger and more muscular than even All Might in his heyday.

Of Sato, there was no sign.

Though her own exams had finished on Thursdays, Koharu wasn't thinking too much on the results. With her getting into the Hero Course being partially dependent on passing those, she'd studied like there was no tomorrow, cramming in knowledge until she felt like she could practically fire out her String Shot in the shape of the texts she'd consumed. She was pretty sure she'd run Mogura and Tokuda ragged with all the studying.

No, what she was thinking about was the Hero Course final exam unfolding in front of her on a wall of monitors. When All Might had offered her the opportunity to watch the exam and get a first-hand look at what she'd be getting herself into, she'd jumped at the chance.

So now she was in the monitor room with the former Number One Hero, a woman who despite being more than old enough to be her mother was still distractingly attractive, and Class 1-A's homeroom teacher, who gave off the impression of being a hobo they'd picked up off the street, despite also being, somehow, incredibly frightening. He was sitting bolt upright in his chair, eyes darting from screen to screen. All Might and Vice-Principal Midnight were watching too, but they paused occasionally to take notes. Aizawa never looked down. She was glad to be on the other side of the room from him. He was frighteningly intense.

And he was going to be her teacher next year!

Midoriya and Haimawari she knew already, and she'd been talking with Ojiro, Sero, and Sato since the Sports Festival. The others, she was mostly unfamiliar with. She's fought Mineta at the Sports Festival, and had been on Kirishima-Bakguo's team during Quirkball, but beyond recognizing some names, she didn't really know anything about the rest.

She found herself scribbling down as many notes as she could. What to do in emergency situations, what her future classmates were capable of, questions to ask later. She'd been given a great opportunity and was determined not to waste it.

The way Class 1-A worked together… she could tell most of them had grown up together. There was a trust and teamwork between all of them that she envied. Even Haimawari, who was the self-professed "new guy," seemed to fit in like a glove.

And despite how well it had carried her, her Quirk suddenly seemed very small and insignificant by comparison to theirs. Powers over gravity, electricity, speed, fire and ice… could she really keep up with that?

"Your grandson is a natural leader," Midnight told All Might.

"He gets that from Izuku," All Might said. "He always had a way of finding friends and making people want to listen to him."

"They're too reliant on him," Aizawa said, flatly. "We should have forbidden him from coming up with any of the plans."

"You know as well as I do that wouldn't have worked," Midnight said. "You might as well try and stop the Iida twins from being exuberant or Mineta from being so enthusiastic."

"I would if I could. And that isn't the word I'd use to describe that girl."

"Still," All Might said, "they're off to a good start."

"We'll see what happens when they get into the real meat of the exam," Aizawa replied. "Which should be right… about… now."

"I'm still not sure about this," All Might said, actually sounding a bit worried. On a few of the screens, Koharu could see costumed individuals starting to engage with the teams. "I know you vetted them, Aizawa, but still…"

"What?" Aizawa asked. "Their world just got infinitely more dangerous over their Internships." That was putting it mildly, Koharu thought. "History is repeating itself. You don't think they need this push?"

"No, that's not what I…"

"There's no room for playing it soft anymore," Aizawa said. But it was what he said next that made her blood run cold. "They're fighting real Villains now."