"Kacch—!" Midoriya immediately jumped back at the sound of gunfire, watching a piece of the doorway break off due to a precisely-shot bullet. He looked on in horror, as the grounds between Heights Alliance and the academic building looked like a warzone. Smoking pits, shocking displays of his classmates' quirks, he couldn't believe it.
"Wow, they really went all out on this assignment…" Midoriya's attempt to smile in the face of danger was failing, rushing back inside to devise a strategy. But that didn't help Mina's problem.
"Mm! They could've at least warned us beforehand! We're still in pajamas, this isn't fair...!"
"Wait Mina." Midoriya returned with a chair, and suddenly tossed it out the doorway.
"M-Midoriya!? What are you doing!?"
And just as he expected, the chair was shot down in seconds by more carefully placed bullets.
"I thought so, it's Snipe. He's gotta be up on a rooftop somewhere."
"A-are those actual bullets!? Is he crazy!?" Mina almost ripped her hair out.
"No, look at the chair. It's damaged, but it isn't broken. But this doesn't make any sense…" Midoriya scouted the battlefield for answers. "Where's Kacchan and Uraraka?" As he continued to look on, he saw something- a clue?
Sitting atop a rooftop was Snipe, perched, watching the Heights Alliance entrance.
"Damn, it's gotta be Midoriya. Hey! Who was he paired with again?" Snipe held the earpiece while keeping a close eye on the exit of the Heights Alliance building.
"'Think it was Ashido, I could be wrong." Ectoplasm responded, the sounds of white noise and crackling trees in the background.
"No good, she could melt my bullets. Eraserhead! Switch with me!"
"I can't, I'm already in pursuit of Todoroki." Aizawa heaved, it was apparent that he was running.
"Where are you!? We can switch off, I can take care of the kid."
"You'd be running the risk of letting Midoriya and Ashido go? You really wanna do that!?" Midnight intervened, occasionally moaning or spouting some strange sexual comment as she too was clearly in battle.
"Let him go. Doesn't matter." Snipe got up from his position, shooting at the doorway a few more times before making his way to Aizawa's position.
"Heh! Aye yo, sounds to me you're just trying to cover up the fact that Bakugo got the jump on ya, ya dig!?" Present Mic snorted static-like.
"It was a clever move on him, I'll give him that." Snipe recalled what had happened moments ago:
After his foolish shouting towards the enemy, Bakugo immediately jumped back inside. He wasn't a fool, not one of his teachers were going to go lightly on him. But more importantly, they were stuck inside the building, and that was only bad news.
"We need an opening." Bakugo crouched down and dove into his bag, pulling out three...grenades!?
"YOU KEEP GRENADES IN YOUR BACKPACK!?" Uraraka screamed, horrified by the thought.
"YOU IDIOT, I WAS PREPARED!" Bakugo snapped back, shaking his head as he realized this wasn't the time for that now.
"Shut up and listen: I'm gonna blow everything up." Uraraka began to squirm again but was immediately shut down by fuming rage.
"Not us, you idiot! God, you're just like that damn nerd. No: these grenades are jam-packed with my sweat, so the explosion will be big. But we need a smokescreen. When these go off, I need you to make me float, and hold onto me." He pointed towards one of the classroom windows, one of the top floors.
"That's where we need to go. Got it!?"
Uraraka was at a loss for words. This precise planning, dangerous do-or-die strategy, the willpower.
Bakugo was a lot more like Midoriya than she realized.
She blushed a little, before nodding in enthusiasm. "Got it!"
The rest was a blur, even Snipe couldn't have seen it coming: three dark-green objects were thrown from the doorway, Snipe shooting the first one. When a large explosion was cast, he scrambled to be sure that he hadn't loaded the wrong bullets.
"What the!? No...grenades!?" He looked up in shock, smoke covering the grounds.
"Good, he didn't shoot the other two, so they managed to roll a bit farther!" Bakugo devilishly smiled as his hands sparked, looking over his shoulder and into big round eyes. He was taken aback a bit, but he never wavered too much.
"Uraraka!"
She snapped out of her trance, as she too was enjoying the quick glance into each other's eyes. Not to mention how tightly she clung to him, and how much on fire her sense of touch was.
"O-on it!" She pressed her fingertips together.
"Let's go!"
As if grenades weren't enough, Snipe looked up to see— to his disbelief— another blast, with Bakugo flying at the speed of his own bullets. And a trusting Uraraka on his back, holding him close.
"Uraraka's floating Bakugo to make him accelerate at a higher speed, and Bakugo excels at directional control in the air with his quirk. Not bad..." The pro thought to himself. Color him impressed, but he had a job to do.
"Snipe!" Aizawa shouted through the microphone.
"Already on it."
Or so he thought. Bakugo had thrown three grenades…
As the other two explosions went off, Snipe fired but was struggling to line up a clear shot. "Did I get him!? Damn, I can't see! where is he!?"
"Release!" Uraraka shouted.
And all the teachers could hear was the shattering of glass...
"He even pointed his blast away from the building to minimize damage, before getting back on course. The kid's top of his class…" Snipe recalled.
"But..." he reloaded his gun, swift movement as he ran faster than the eye could see.
"It's clear Midoriya is going to move to Bakugo's position. He didn't scatter like his classmates, so he must know the deal already. And if that's the case, this is already in the bag…" he said confidently, passing by the eraser of quirks on the way.
Meanwhile, the pair inside of U.A's academic building was still recovering from their brief escapade.
"Bakugo, that was amazing…!" Uraraka greeted him with excitement and balled fists, exhaustion, and beady eyes. Bakugo's eyes were squeezed shut, focusing in on his breathing and recovery.
"Dammit...I had to fire off a big one...so he wouldn't hit us…" Uraraka's amazement turned into raw flustering, as Bakugo revealed some skin on his right collarbone and shoulder.
"Woah, Bakugo! Hey! What are you...doing..." Uraraka's eyes fell to the medium-sized bruise on his shoulder, then looked at Bakugo who was still panting.
"Bastard got me, his aim's incredible…" He stood, clutching his minor wound and looking towards the door.
"H-hey! Easy, you gotta rest!"
"Rest!? Come on, don't be an idiot! No way we can duck in here, they'll be swarming any minute. Let's go."
But Uraraka wouldn't let him. She grabbed his hand with hers, her hands were so small in comparison. "We need to get you patched up first…" When Bakugo turned around, Uraraka looked at him in concerned innocence. He paused and couldn't help but chuckle.
Bakugo always found Ochako cute to say the least.
"W-what's so funny huh!?" Uraraka fidgeted, demanding answers with a blush. Wait, was he starting to get under her skin?
"Fine." He said, looking back at her with his signature smile that spelled destruction. "But you're leading the way Pink Cheeks."
Uraraka only now realized that Bakugo was a natural at making her heart explode. What was this? It was similar to that feeling she'd get around Midoriya, but no. That wasn't it. This was different. Regardless, a deeper blush crept on her face, and she walked in front of him, releasing his hand.
"Fine." She repeated with a cute pout, opening the door. "We need to get to Recovery girl's office. She's gotta have, uh, bandages or something in there." With that, they were back on the move.
As the two made their way downstairs, another pair made their way up.
"Midoriya, how'd you know it was safe to run!?" Ashido heaved, looking towards her partner who was in the middle of deactivating his own quirk.
"I didn't…"
"...WHAT!?"
Midoriya raised his arms in defense as Mina shouted at him, saying something about how she almost died over a hunch.
"Well, the shots that Snipe fired were off…" Midoriya recalled as how these bullets in particular weren't as accurate as the others. They strayed in a line upwards, as if his attacker were moving away. "If I had to guess, I'd say he was retreating."
"But why? If he had just stayed there, we would've been totally stuck." Mina had a point. Why would he move. Unless…
"Plans changed." Midoriya concluded, looking back at Mina. "If we'd been immobilized inside, they would have surely collapsed on us. But they smoked us out, which is what we all knew what would happen." Midoriya looked to the ceiling, recalling the sight of a broken window and the smoking pits outside. "But Kacchan threw them off guard. No one was supposed to make it this far."
Mina placed her fist upright in the palm of her hand. "Oh, I get it! This whole thing was supposed to be over shortly. Geez, they're seriously underestimating us." True again, but they couldn't just sit around. They were still being hunted.
"Mm. Let's go Ashido, we gotta meet up with Kacchan and Uraraka!"
"Way ahead of ya!"
Izuku and Mina walked up to their own floor, and the acid quirk girl couldn't help but snoop around. It wasn't so often they got to roam U.A after hours. They checked their bare homeroom, Mina using her time wisely and pretending to be Mr. Aizawa, teaching an imaginary class. Midoriya couldn't help but laugh at the matter.
As they left their homeroom, they heard a voice. No, two. The pair was quick to duck behind a wall before creeping forward. They looked up, the Recovery Girl sign hanging in the shadows.
"Mm, Bakugo! Not so hard…"
Come again?
Midoriya recognized that cheery voice, but immediately turned red. Very red. Did they hear that right? He looked to Mina, to see he so pink, so flustered, so...angry?
She stomped out from behind the corner, Midoriya unable to grab her. "Mina! Wait! We don't know what's, uh, going on..." He whispered harshly, as the sound of stitches ripping only fueled their imaginations.
"Oh, I know exactly what's going on!" Mina spat quietly, before stomping to the office. Midoriya had to follow, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was getting himself into something. Something big. The yellow-horned girl burst into the office in a fit of rage similar to Bakugo himself.
"Alright! What the HELL is going on...in here…?"
To this day, it's thought that Mina was so flustered, the room was lit dimly with magenta radiance. The sight of Uraraka in casual night wear, between Bakugo's legs as he shirt was CLEARLY off, while their hands rested in Bakugo's lap, all this skin showing from everyone tonight…
The alien queen nearly fainted, to say the least.
"D-Deku!? Mina!?" Uraraka jumped. She seemed a bit scared and guilty more than anything.
"You guys...w-what, um, what exactly's going on here?" Midoriya averted his gaze.
The explosive boy and 'Pink Cheeks' looked at each other blankly in confusion.
Then, they assessed their situation...
Then, a resounding cry and shout filled the air.
Uraraka pushed away from Bakugo quickly, accidentally-yet-forcefully pushing against his bruise.
"AH! YOU IDIOT!" Bakugo shouted, rubbing his injury.
"I'm sorry! You guys! It's not what it looks like! Bakugo got injured and I was just patching him up with these bandages…" The rosy girl's blush was still at large, as she held up her first-aid tool. As the bandages slightly came apart, a familiar stitching sound filled the air, and it all made sense.
Well, to some.
As Midoriya calmed down and spoke with ease, Mina looked over to Bakugo, who managed to lock onto her eyes. She looked away with a "Hmph!", Bakugo trying to say something but no words came out. Besides, he couldn't say much, not with these pests in the room. Mina and Bakugo's little 'moments' always managed to manifest in secrecy.
Izuku filled Uraraka in on what had happened after they left (leaving his suspicions aside) while Bakugo patched himself up, taking away bits and pieces from his childhood rival's words...
"I see…" Uraraka gripped her chin, pondering.
"You know, I wouldn't have imagined figuring out who betrayed us would be so difficult."
"Yeah, I agree Deku. Especially since it's one of our friends. Ugh! This is so nerve-wracking!" But oddly enough, after staring out the window intensely, Uraraka turned back to her friends. She clapped her hands together, seeming to have developed a plan rather quickly.
"I say we do a counter attack!" Uraraka gestured fighting movements, being as cheery as ever. Mina joined in on the action, but this idea of splitting up just wasn't sitting well with Izuku.
It didn't the first time, and didn't now.
"You guys, wait. We should-"
"Shut it, damn nerd."
Bakugo slipped his shirt back on, stretching and cracking his joints before standing beside Uraraka and Mina. "Let's just finish off the teachers. We'll deal with the damn rat stuff later. Uraraka, let's go, you lead the way." Bakugo said coolly, before nudging past Midoriya.
No... it didn't have that 'Bakugo energy' like the other times.
Midoriya turned to see Bakugo walking behind Uraraka, who was pumped up.
"Now what? He clearly isn't gonna let us join him." Mina stood in misbelief.
"No...not quite."
Meanwhile, Bakugo had followed Uraraka, who'd apparently stumbled into some wildly open space. Wait a second, this was-
"Hey, this is the TDL." the girl blurted out, walking through the door and looking around.
"Huh, yeah...it is." Bakugo did the same, hands in pockets but carefully inspecting the area. "Tsk! It's freezing- the hell were you thinking, dragging us in here?"
It was pretty bare in here, they hadn't realized how dull the place was when it wasn't used for training. Structures remained from previous use, Cementoss' designs fine tuned to the needs of of form of training. But Bakugo's ears tuned into a faint radiating sound. Was that the air conditioning?
"Sorry! Honestly I've just been wondering around. How about you take over Baku...go…"
Uraraka turned to her partner, but all she'd find was an open palm, sparking, and inches away from her face.
"Oh, I'll definitely take over." Bakugo said smiling and with an intent to kill. Uraraka walked back in fear, but she knew she couldn't go anywhere.
"Bakugo? What are you doing?" She mumbled in fear.
"You think I'm an idiot? Ha! Now I'm really gonna send you to hell!" Bakugo was certain: Uraraka was the traitor, and things just didn't get any better than this. He'd get rid of her, fast, maybe use her to see how his new moves were coming along.
"You think I just flew us to one of the top floors for no reason? We don't have any classes up there, moron! So, how'd you manage to make it to Recovery Girl's office so perfectly, huh!?"
Uraraka took a step back.
"I bet you would've tried to catch me off guard- maybe one of the teacher were close by. But then Ashido and that damn nerd came. And you were so quick to split up again. Did you forget? You were all for Deku's stupid plan back in the dorms."
Another step.
"And now I'm supposed to believe you just so happened to lead me to the only place that has air conditioning, which would weaken my quirk?"
Before Uraraka knew it, her back was to the door. Bakugo looked at his partner, but it wasn't just a look. The zero-gravity quirk user found herself genuinely scared, threatened, as Bakugo looked into her soul with a sinister feel of darkness.
"If you think anything's changed since the Sport's Festival Uraraka, you'd better think again. Die!"
Ochako closed her eyes, as Katsuki would surely blow her to pieces…
But she opened her eyes after nothing had happened, only to see Bakugo blatantly confused, looking at the back of his hand.
"I-I can't use my quirk!"
Bakugo, almost instinctively, whirled around, only to be see a man dressed in black collapsing on him, eyes gleaming brighter than his own.
"Dammit…!" Bakugo struggled, but Aizawa's wraps were as hard as stone.
"Not bad Bakugo, you've gotten better at this. But…" the teacher tightened the restraints, Bakugo's grunting in pain a sign that he was finished.
"Why don't you leave the strategizing to Midoriya?"
Bakugo's eyes widened, and all that he knew was that he was going to make Aizawa choke on his blasphemous words. Of course, the farthest he'd get is struggling and blurting out hateful threats.
"You still let your guard down, even if it was just for a second."
"Shut the hell up! If you think I'm finished, you'd better guess again dammit!"
"Oh yeah? How so?"
"~Smaaaash!"
As if on cue, the party of three looked up as Midoriya came crashing into the scene, busting the door and wall down with it. Uraraka helplessly flew with the blast, Aizawa leaping backwards to in shock, using his bandages to steer clear.
"Took you idiots long enough! Get me out of this damn thing already, his ass is mine!"
"Hey, I'm still mad at you, and this doesn't fix anything…!" Mina hushed, kneeling down with a glare as she melted away at the bandages. Bakugo looked away in aggravated defeat, and Ashido swore that if he scoffed at her one more time, she was going to lose it.
"...please."
Mina looked at the explosive boy, astonished. Was she going crazy? "Don't make me repeat myself Raccoon Eyes, hurry up! I doubt he's alone...!" Katsuki barked, but Ashido only giggled, causing him to blush angrily.
Of course, Midoriya had bigger things to worry about: to his left was Ochako using her quirk to land on her feet very cat-like, and in front of him was a man whose chilling demeanor was as scary as any villain, his homeroom teacher.
But for once, things were finally going according to plan.
"Uraraka, how could you!?" Midoriya looked at her, anger, disappointment, there were too many emotions flowing from Izuku, she couldn't react. This was just an assignment; a school play where she was acting as the bad guy. So why did this all become so real in a matter of moments?
"Deku, I-"
"We trusted you! But…" Midoriya looked down, clenching his fists. Uraraka wanted desperately to look into his eyes, but his hair wouldn't allow it. Only a shadow to hide the fact that he was putting on a bigger front than him dressing up in Kamino Ward.
"Kacchan said Uraraka was too bubbly, and that there was no way she could do this." Izuku tied his shoe laces, making sure they were firm.
"Yeah, but what does that matter?"
"Because he's told her that before." The green haired boy rose to her feet. "And normally she'd get flustered. But not this time, she took offence to it."
Sure, Mina was a little slow to the finish line, but she was trying and that's what mattered.
"Don't you see Ashido: she'd faltering. She doesn't wanna play her role! So..."
"I guess that's the only thing you're good for: lying."
Izuku would make her feel horrible about the situation.
"Deku, t-that's not fair!"
"Oh, so you're saying this isn't your fault?"
The girl held her chest while heavy words were hurled at her. Eraserhead hadn't credited the boy enough on his wits, being forced to try his best to silence his words.
"He's appealing to her feelings! They only need a confession." Aizawa went for the boys legs, but he was fast. Izuku had to hurry, Ashido hadn't finished melting away Katsuki's bind, and 5 minutes were almost up.
"Kacchan was injured because of you!" Midoriya jumped from one structure to the next, but distance between him and his attacker was closing. "Assignment or not, if you can't protect your friends, then what have you been training!?"
Suddenly, Izuku slipped on wet gravel. Falling into a puddle, the boy tried desperately to scramble to his feet. But he couldn't move. His leg! It's like it was wrapped in steel! Shota collasped on the boy soon after, binding his mouth shut. But he was too late.
"I didn't ask for this! I'm sorry, okay!?"
"Uraraka, don't!" Uraraka pleaded for forgiveness before Aizawa could stop her, which indefinitely revealed that she was, in fact, the traitor.
Perfect.
"Ribbit!"
As if from the shadows of the night itself, a snake-like tongue shot from a mere few feet away from the girl, tightly wrapping her up with no hopes to escape. Emerging from her camouflage, Asui finally revealed herself.
"Midoriya, you should work on getting to the point a lot faster. Camouflaging puts a strain on my body." Asui muttered, her vice grip keeping Ochaco's struggling to a minimal. Uraraka, who was slowly but surely realizing she'd been fooled, gawked foolishly while she fell for every last part of Izuku's strategy. She was the butt of everyone's joke tonight, it seemed.
"Dammit, I didn't account for Tsuyu." Aizawa urged, before being frozen from the neck down. Ice?
"I see..." With the hand he did have free, Shota removed his goggles, amazed with all the planning. "He tripped on purpose, leading me into water."
"Not bad Midoriya." Todoroki stepped out from the rock formation down below, releasing a chilling puff of air while his left side lay frozen. Ice stemmed from his hand and covered the distance between him and his teacher instantly, a trial of water trickling down the cliffside.
"So the gang's all here…" Aizawa spoke calmly, watching Class 1-A pour in from the darkness with smiles on their roughed-up faces
"Reverie in the dark." Tokoyami said coolly. "You've been saying that the whole way here…" Hagakure snorted.
"Asui had been following Kacchan and Uraraka since the beginning." Midoriya explained, which this warranted unease in both Bakugo and Uraraka.
"Everyone was already in position. While Kacchan distracted you guys down here, I knew that this mission wouldn't be a success unless we knew Uraraka was our target. And she confirmed that."
"Looks like you guys'd better take us seriously next time teach!" Kirishima remarked.
"Next time!? Shut up, don't give him any ideas!" Mineta had just about enough of tonight's circus.
"It wasn't easy, but we managed to get one over against the teachers. We've come such a long way, I'm so proud of everyone..." Yaoyorozu commented.
Aizawa sighed. "Not bad- ok. I forfeit." Then he proceeded to declared that this had been a Class 1-A victory.
He kept the debrief short, as the reminder that class was in less than 6 hours was a major shock to all of them. They may have passed, but it was Aizawa, like usual, who'd get the last laugh.
While everyone had their fun, Ashido slipped out of the training facility, searching for a girl who'd kneel down to the floor, holding her knees in shame.
"Hey! Uraraka!"
"Leave me alone."
But of course, Mina would find a seat next to the girl. The two sat in silence, Uraraka's light sniffling and shuffling around the only noise as their classmates and students began to wrap things up.
"I just find it strange..." Ochaco drew circles in the dust of UA's floors. "How fast we can turn on each other, over something so stupid."
Mina understood, nodding her head in acknowledgement. How fast her classmates turned into a menagerie of animals, fear of the unknown haunting them since the night in the forest. Rumor had it that there was a 'leak', that someone was spilling information to the League of Villains. But Ashido couldn't believe such nonsense. One of her friends? Don't make her laugh.
"Yeah, I get it..." A nonchalant response was something Uraraka was expecting, scoffing. That was just Mina Ashido. Strong, physically and mentally. How Ochaco longed for that kind of solidified demeanor.
"But you wanna know somethin'?" Mina hopped to her feet, the pink girl's hand hanging in the crisp air. Puffy brown eyes look up, and became captivated by orbs of much greater power.
"Nothin' comes between us Ochaco~! Right!?"
Uraraka only stared in awe of the girl, who sweetly smiled back. Uravity closed her eyes, chuckling to herself before returning the expression.
"Right." She'd take Ashido's hand, and rose from her brief fall.