"I haven't studied AT ALLLL!"
It was the final week of June, one week until our end of term tests, and Ashido and Kaminari were both panicking, as they had been bottom of the class in the midterms.
"With the sports Festival and internships, I didn't have time to study," moaned Kaminari, clutching his head while Ashido laughed.
"Sucks that there's a practical portion too," sighed Mineta, who had placed in the top half.
"I thought you were one of us!" cried Ashido.
"Guys like you are only likable when they're morons!" added Kaminnari. "Who's gonna love you now?"
"The world, I guess," said Mineta.
"Ashido, Kaminari!" piped in Midoriya. "Let's do our best! It'd be great if we could all go to the lodge, right?"
"Yes!" I added, doing my best to encourage my classmates.
"If you just attend classes, it's hard to fail," said Todoroki.
"Words can hurt, you know!" cried Kaminari.
"Hey, you two," Yaoyorozu called from the back of the classroom. "I might be able to help you with the classroom stuff."
The two students exclaimed with joy to hear her offer. Jirou appeared as well. "I'm not as bad off as either of them, but how about helping me too? I'm having trouble with quadtratic functions."
"Me too?" asked Sero. "I'm struggling with classical lit."
"Me too?" added Ojiro.
"This is wonderful!" cried Yaoyorozu, jumping to her feet. "Yes, let's do it! We'll hold a study session at my residence over the weekend! I'll call mother and have her prepare the great hall to set up, it'll be the perfect spot! What kind of tea does everyone like, I'll have her make sure we're stocked. In my family, we always drink Harrod's or wedgwood, so if you have any other preference let me know. When we're finished, you'll all be model students!"
Later that day in the cafeteria, I lunched with Midoriya, Todoroki, Uraraka, Asui, and Hagakure, and we were all engrossed in our upcoming exams.
"The content for the test for all the normal subjects is probably within the scope of our lessons," guessed Midoriya. "So those shouldn't be that hard. It's scary that we don't know what will be in the practical exercise."
"Nothing too extreme, I imagine," i said cheerfully.
"So about the academic subjects being manageable.." asked an embarrassed Uraraka, who had placed 13th.
Hagakure cut in with, "Mr Aizawa said it'd be an overall summary of what we did this semester."
"Yep, and that's about all we could get out of him," said Asui.
"So there were battle trial, rescue trainings, and basic training, right?" asked Uraraka.
"Studying for the test, plus keeping in top tier physical condition," Midoriya began, before the elbow of a boy from Class 1B collided with the back of his head. He had sleek blonde hair and a rather unpleasant grin. If I recalled right, his name was Monoma.
"Ah, my bad," he sneered at Midoriya. "Your head's so big I ended up hitting it."
"Monoma, from Class B, right?" asked Midoriya. "That really hurt!"
"I heard you three stumbled across the Hero Killer," Monoma told us. I did my best to ignore him, but he kept on going. "The ways in which you've been basking in the spotlight have only multiplied ever since the Sports Festival, haven't they Class A? Only the attention you're grabbing isn't out of expectation, now it's in the form of trouble! So scary! One day, we might get caught up in the trouble, and then get hurt - and - "
From behind him, a girl appeared to karate chop him unconscious. She was tall and lean with a red ponytail"That's not funny, Monoma," she reprimanded him. "You heard what happened to Iida. Sorry bout that, Class A. This kid's heart is, well…"
"Kendo!" I cried, recognizing her from the Sports Festival.
"Anyway," she continued, "I heard you say that you didn't know what the end-of-term test would be. Between us, It's meant to be combat against robots like the entrance exam."
"Really?" cried Midoriya. "How do you know?"
"I know an upperclassman personally, and asked," grinned Kendo. I know, cheat, but oh well."
Midoriya began muttering under his breath. "It's not cheating! Of course it makes perfect sense, the acquisition of prior knowledge would then come integrated as a vital part of the exam. Damn, we should have asked an upperclassman, why hadn't Iever thought to?"
"Are you stupid, Kendo?" Monoma cut across this abundance of talk. "You just threw away our whole strategic advantage! This was our chance to forestall that detestable Class A!"
At this, Kendo whacked him again. "They're not detestable," she remonstrated, then walked away carrying him behind her.
The three days of written exams were nerve-wracking, but I'd never had much trouble with exams, so getting through them left me mostly indifferent.
The day of the practical exam, we lined up in our testing site to see all of UA's staff awaiting us.
"Right, the text exercise will begin shortly," said Sensei. "Obviously you can fail this test, too, so if you want to head to the first lodge, don't make any mistakes."
"Why are all the teachers here?" Jirou asked, voicing the question on everyone's minds.
"I've no doubt you've all learned what information you could about the test beforehand," said Sensei, "so I think you already hold a vague notion of what you are to do."
"Just like the entrance exam, it will be robots!" cried Kaminari.
"I can just see the fireworks, the curry, truth or dare!" cheered Ashido.
"I'm afraid - nOT!" cried a strange voice from inside of Sensei's scarf. Principal Nezu jumped out. "Due to various reasons, we're changing the test this year."
"What do you mean?" asked Yaoyorozu.
"Well," the principal explained, climbing down from Mr. Aizawa's scarf…
It seemed they were afraid of a villain revival, so our sensei summarized, "From now on, e'll focus our tests more on person-to-person battles, emphasizing a teaching environment as close as possible to a real battle. Which means, that from here on you will all form pairs and engage in one-on-one combat with one of these teachers!"
"Against a teacher?!" gasped out Uraraka.
"Additionally, your partners and opponents have already been chosen. They were chosen at my discretion, baed on a combination of grades, familiarity, and skills. Here are the teamups."
I had been assigned to work with Ojiro, against Power Loader sensei. Midoriya unfortunately was stuck with Bakugou against All Might, Todoroki with Yaoyorozu against Aizawa, and Uraraka with Aoyama against 13.
Sensei continued,
"The ten teams will be starting in their respective stages simultaneously. The general outline of the test will be explained by teach of the teachers you'll be battling. You're t be transported by the campus bus. Time is precious, so get in them promptly."
Our bus took us to a mock suburban landscape. Mr. Power Loader explained our task. 30 minute time limit, win by either getting the handcuffs on the teacher or running through an escape gate to safety.
"Running and asking for help can be a completely legitimate strategy. Iida, you should understand that. The Other two, as well.
Of course. We must rectify our mistakes. Or rather, mine.