Chapter Fifty-One: Search and Recovery

It was only the first test and already Katsuki knew they would fail.

The simple rescue scenario they'd selected was supposed to take them all of one hour to complete. Two hours had already gone by, and Katsuki and his hopeless team were still meandering the streets in search of the three "citizens" they were supposed to rescue from the staged villain attack. From the list provided, they'd chosen a more open setting since both his and Icy Hot's quirks weren't really suitable for fighting indoors. The city they'd been tossed into for their fake rescue was a lot larger than Katsuki had originally anticipated, dragging out the minutes that they couldn't afford to waste.

It can't be that hard to find three people, he thought as they stood beneath a large awning to catch their breaths. Along with the fake city came a not so appreciated surprise: rain. Nothing in the description of the scenario had mentioned shitty weather. He bet Aizawa was smirking somewhere right now about how stupid they all looked stumbling around in the pitch-black city while hard rain pelted them from every direction.

He glanced to his right, noting not for the first time how badly Aisla shivered in her costume. It wasn't made for poor weather conditions—leaving exposed skin that allowed more water to strike her and freeze her to the bone. He knew she must be turning blue by this point, but there was nothing he could do about that.

"Maybe we should check underground?" Icy Hot suggested for the third time that day.

Katsuki wanted to roll his eyes and tell him what an idiot he was being—because obviously there weren't any fake victims underground—but…

Aisla coughed and sucked in a gasping breath before choking out, "I'm okay!"

He sighed. "Let's do it," he agreed flatly. They had already been wandering around for a while, so maybe Aizawa had stashed the citizens underground. It would be a shitty thing to do, but he wouldn't put it past the pro to stoop that low. Maybe he didn't want any of his students to pass this screwed up exam.

They made their way to the nearest sewer drain and filed inside. Katsuki went first, then Aisla, and Todo brought up the rear. Katsuki had just made it to the bottom when he heard Aisla's shriek of fear and Todoroki's gasp of surprise. He glanced up and saw Aisla slipping down the ladder, desperately reaching out to grip the bars but unable to get a good latch with her rain-soaked fingers. He heard the painful smacking of her head and limbs hitting the ladder as she fell, but he was helpless to do anything except wait to catch her. If he tried to climb up and grab her sooner, they would both fall.

Todoroki shot him a panicked look as he uselessly stretched out a hand to try and grab hers. She was falling too fast, though, and after a couple seconds, she was already plunging into Katsuki's waiting arms. He thought he'd had a good stance, but her momentum and added weight made him instantly fall onto his back. The air was knocked out of him, but the pain wasn't as bad as it would have been for her if he'd let her fall.

"S-sorry!" she stammered as she remained frozen on top of him, body shaking violently from both fear and cold. "I'm so sorry!" She was probably crying, too, if the slight tremor in her voice was any indication, but she'd buried her face in his chest when they landed, and either couldn't or wouldn't move to look at him.

"It's fine," he assured her, though her body weight was kind of pressing against his ribs in a painful way. Still, having her so close made him wish he could wrap his arms around her and hold her there, despite the uncomfortable feeling.

"Aisla!"

The weight was lifted at once as Todoroki pulled her off of him to wrap her up in his arms. "I'm sorry, Aisla! I should have used my ice to make a slide or something. I didn't even think about it. I panicked. I'm sorry."

"I'm okay," she panted, though she still visibly shook in her friend's arms. "Don't feel bad. I didn't get hurt."

"Thank god Bakugo was down there to catch you," he said with a sincere look in Katsuki's direction. He was pretty sure there was no one on earth that bastard cared about more than Aisla Haru. Katsuki was a little jealous of the relationship the two shared, but he knew it was nothing more than a very strong, very weird friendship. Even so, it was more than Katsuki had with her right now. He would take a weird friendship with Aisla over what they had right now any day.

Katsuki heaved for breath for a moment before pushing to his feet and assessing the damage. A few rungs of the ladder broke during Aisla's fall, but it wouldn't be impossible to get back up. However…

"If there really is someone down here, we aren't likely to get them out through there," he realized aloud. He frowned as something else came to mind. "Although, that wasn't much of a possibility to begin with." He still believed that whoever they were rescuing had to be hiding out somewhere on the surface.

"It's very slippery with the rain coming down so strongly," Todoroki agreed as he followed Katsuki's gaze up the ladder. "And at this point, I don't know whether or not finding someone down here would be more of a help or a hindrance. We've already wasted over almost two hours on this exercise, and it's only the first one."

"It's all my fault," Aisla whimpered, voice muffled in Todoroki's chest. Another pang of jealousy struck him when he recalled all the times she'd been in his arms. He shook off the feeling and focused on the task at hand.

"Of course, it's not your fault," said Todo. "Honestly, we're all to blame for not considering they would throw some sort of obstacle in to screw with us. We should have been better prepared."

Katsuki nodded his agreement but said nothing as he considered their options. There wasn't much they could do with the time limit. They only had a total of five hours for their entire exam, and they still had two more tests to complete. They could probably take out the villain easily enough between the three of them, but they still had no way of knowing what this 'covert ops' mission would entail. For all he knew, that could take up the entire five-hour period. If they didn't make up the time on the villain attack portion, they would have no hope of passing.

"Let's get moving," Katsuki suggested. He started walking along the cement path without waiting to see if his teammates had another opinion. After a moment, he heard the shuffling of footsteps and a sharp hiss of pain. He spun around just in time to see Todoroki catching Aisla from falling into the murky water.

"You're injured," the bastard said worriedly. Katsuki followed his gaze down to her swollen ankle and let out a curse. That was going to seriously slow them down for this test. If Aisla couldn't walk properly, she was going to have a hard time keeping up. Plus, he knew that being in pain affected the stability of her quirk.

"I'm fine!" she lied quickly, pushing Todo away and putting weight on her ankle. She made a pretty convincing effort with her expression, if not for the obvious shine in her eyes that indicated the threat of tears.

Katsuki let out a frustrated sigh. "Aisla!" he snapped firmly, "Shut the hell up and ask for help when you need it!"

Aisla's lip puckered and she looked away from him. "I don't need any help…" she muttered stubbornly.

He rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to forcibly throw her over his shoulder. If she wanted to be a stubborn ass, then so be it.

He shrugged and turned back around. "Fine. You heard the idiot, Todo! She doesn't need our help!" He stomped onward without looking back to see if Aisla was now crying. She was in one of her stubborn moods again, it seemed, and he didn't have time to deal with that when they were on a time limit!

"Let me help you," he heard Todoroki insist several feet back. Katsuki shook his head. That dumbass was going to get an earful from her if he didn't leave her be. Didn't he understand her at all? When Aisla got like this, there was no reasoning with her. Especially when it came to her own insecurities. She didn't like to feel weak, and asking for help in a situation like this was definitely bringing her insecurities to the forefront of her mind. Katsuki knew that pushing her right now would only make her angry.

"I'm fine, Shoto," Aisla said shortly. "We have to get going."

Better drop it, Katsuki silently advised, slowing so as not to get too far ahead.

"You're going to make it worse," he pressed.

"I'm not weak!" she shrieked at him.

There it is, he thought with another eye roll. There was the tenacious girl he knew so well.

"O-okay," Todoroki sputtered.

"Hurry the hell up!" Katsuki snapped over his shoulder. They were nearing a forked path and he didn't want them to end up going in different directions. Then, they would be the ones in need of rescuing. "Come on! We're going left!"

"Why?" asked Aisla as she struggled to catch up. He glanced down at her, noting the sheen of sweat on her forehead and slight pink of her cheeks. She was still trembling, too, and he wasn't sure how much of that came from being drenched or from the effort of walking on an injured foot.

You are so damn stubborn…

"Because the sewer ends that way," he explained, pointing to the right.

Aisla followed the line of his finger, then frowned up at him. "How do you know that?"

"Because there's no more city that way!" he snapped.

Aisla flushed. "Oh. Right. I mean…left it is!" She started forward, making a big show of walking on her ankle without limping too much or crying out in pain. He wondered how long she'd be stubborn for, but knowing Aisla, it could be a while.

She must have learned this stupid stunt from Deku, he suddenly realized. That idiot was always breaking himself in training and during villain attacks. He never gave up either, no matter how badly he was injured.

Katsuki let out a sigh that came out more like a growl. Aisla turned a glare over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him. Despite his annoyance and the frustration of losing so much time, Katsuki couldn't help the answering snort of barely contained laughter. The hardness in her eyes evaporated in an instant, replaced with a twinkle of amusement. She knew just as well as he did that she was being unreasonable and stupid.

Katsuki was so busy looking at Aisla's smile that he didn't notice she was drifting toward a wall until she smacked right into it with a crack. She let out another shriek of pain. Her body bounced off the wall and she stumbled, falling over her own feet and landing on her rear in a puddle.

"Aisla!" Todoroki panicked. He rushed forward, but Katsuki grabbed him by the arm to stop him. He glared at Katsuki so hard his eyes pulsed from the effort.

"Let her do it herself," he growled low. "She won't appreciate your help right now. She already feels shitty enough about the test."

Todoroki struggled against him for another moment and then finally relaxed. He yanked his arm free when Katsuki allowed it, and they both stood there for a moment, waiting to see what Aisla would do. She was still crouched on the ground, face buried in her palms as if trying to push back the pain. After a long moment of this, she finally let out an annoyed breath and pushed to her feet. She turned and gave them a lopsided grimace Katsuki thought might have actually been an attempt at a smile.

"Let's go," she said, with an air of bravado.

They followed her progress, and Katsuki regretted whoever's stupid decision it had been to come down here more with each step. They were never going to find the lost citizens, and they were never going to pass this test. It was the provisional license exam all over again, only somehow more embarrassing.

"This is stupid." The muttered words spilled from his lips without permission. He hadn't meant to say them aloud, but now that they were out… "We're getting nowhere!"

Aisla stopped mid-stride and slumped. "You're right. This is stupid."

"So, you think my test is stupid?"

Katsuki swore, Aisla straightened, body going rigid, and Icy Hot made an irritated sound in the back of his throat as they all turned to face the newcomer.

Eraser Head stepped out from the next corner, eyes gleaming red through the slits in his goggles, and scarf shooting forward, nearly capturing Katsuki by the leg. "You didn't think this would be an easy win, did you?" he asked, striding forward with slow, precise steps. His goggles made it impossible to know where he was looking, but somehow Katsuki knew who he was after.

"Aisla, move!" he shouted, a moment too late. Eraser Head's scarf wrapped her up and yanked her backward with an ear-piercing scream that echoed through the tunnel and vibrated his skull.

Aisla flailed in his hold but it was no use—the capture item held strong, and within a second she was trapped in Eraser Head's hold. He tightened the scarf, making her wince in pain, and gave Katsuki and Todoroki a red-eyed glare.

"I'll be taking this," he growled, before turning on his heel and disappearing from sight.

"Aisla!" Katsuki and Todoroki cried simultaneously. Then, as one, they leapt forward and raced after their teacher. He was faster than they gave him credit for, and the underground sewer system went a lot farther out than Katsuki had originally thought. There were twists and turns that had Katsuki and Todoroki bumping into one another in their haste to catch up to the pro hero.

"How the hell is he so fast?!" Katsuki bellowed. "Find her!"

"I know!" Todoroki yelled in response, as he picked up speed and nearly barreled into Katsuki.

He growled, feeling much more anxiety and anger than was appropriate for a pretend kidnapping. Even knowing that it was only their teacher who'd taken Aisla—the same lazy hero who slept during class and drank applesauce out of a pouch like a two-year-old—Katsuki couldn't stop the smothering sense of fear that something was going to happen to her because of him. So, he pushed his legs to move, even though he was already getting tired, and followed the sounds of Aisla's muffled shrieks.

"Bakugo! Another fork up ahead!"

Katsuki roared in frustration at the sudden three-forked path ahead. "What the hell kind of bullshit is this city?!"

"Which way did he take her?" Todoroki's gaze flicked between the three paths, eyes wide with just as much real panic as Katsuki felt.

"Aisla, goddammit!" he screamed, voice echoing loudly through the tunnels.

"Help!" came a faraway plea, barely audible now.

"This way!" Katsuki followed the right path, running along the edge of a short ledge leading into dark, goopy liquid that made Katsuki's nose wrinkle in disgust. He gagged as he ran, desperate to find Aisla and get the hell out of this place.

"Watch out!" Todoroki called as Eraser's scarf shot out once more. Katsuki had half a second to either block or attack. Deciding Eraser Head probably already activated his quirk, Katsuki dropped onto his stomach.

"End of the line, heroes!" Eraser Head growled, low and menacing as he stepped out from the shadows. Honestly, if he hadn't just kidnapped Aisla, Katsuki would have been impressed that his teacher had taken the time to engage them like this. The last time Mr. Aizawa took part in a class exercise to this scale, Katsuki hadn't been able to fight him. Todoroki had, and Katsuki hoped he'd taken some helpful knowledge from that experience. Not that he needed it, of course.

"Where the hell is Aisla?!" Katsuki yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Oh, you don't need to concern yourselves with her anymore," the pro drawled, taking on his role as villain a little too seriously. "The only thing you need to worry about now…" He threw out his capture item and expertly wrapped Katsuki up before he had a chance to so much as blink. "…is me!"

"Bakugo!" Todoroki cried and sent an ice attack that was instantly blocked by Eraser's quirk.

"DAMMIT!" Katsuki raged, flailing uselessly in the binds. "LET AISLA GO, YOU BASTARD!"

"Not a chance." He tightened the capture item until Katsuki gagged from the pressure, then flung him across the room. He hit the wall hard, cracking his head before forcing himself to his feet and trying to throw out a stun grenade. It was pointless, though. Fighting Eraser Head with a quirk wasn't going to work.

"Let me fight you!" Katsuki bellowed as he surged forward, Todoroki right by his side. The two came at the pro from both sides and watched the scarf that hovered in the air around him as if he couldn't decide who to use it on first.

Finally, a malicious grin lit his lips as he bounded toward them. Katsuki let out a battle cry as he ducked low and aimed a kick right at his knees, hoping to knock him off balance. Todoroki had the opposite idea and tried for a face attack. Eraser had them both by the throats in a matter of seconds, holding them a foot off the ground so their feet dangled there.

Katsuki sputtered for breath, tearing at the hands that bound him in one last desperate attempt to free himself.

"STOP!" The shrill, ear-shattering scream could belong to only one person.

Aisla stood behind them, chest heaving, blue eyes reflecting the harsh light in the tunnel and giving them an almost reddish glow. She did nothing else except stand there, but damn did she look deadly. Katsuki was almost afraid to look at her. At the same time, he felt Eraser Head's fingers slip slightly and knew he probably blinked in surprise. No one had been expecting Aisla to come charging in like that.

Katsuki used this brief moment to his advantage, and used the stored up sweat in his palms to blast his instructor right in the chest. He flew backward and Aisla dove out of the way as Todoroki encased the pro in ice.

"YOU'RE OUT, ERASER HEAD!" Katsuki hollered.

His expression turned bored. "Finally, I was about to fail you all."

Katsuki bristled. "THE HELL YOU WERE!"

"Does that mean we passed then?" Aisla asked carefully, coming to stand beside Katsuki and Todoroki.

Their teacher nodded. "You passed. You rescued the girl, who then rescued you, then you immobilized me. And then you let me go, Todoroki," he added pointedly. The other boy immediately started melting the ice around their teacher.

Aisla was frowning. "That wasn't anything like the description of the exam we were given…"

"Obviously the choices were total bullshit!" Katsuki yelled.

"Not completely," Aizawa disagreed. "There were still parts in the scenario that were useful, had you followed the given path."

They all froze.

"What…path?" Aisla asked slowly.

"The very clearly laid out path we made for this test," Aizawa explained tiredly. "You know, the one street in the entire city that was lined in lanterns? And a towering building on the other side with all the windows lit up?"

"Oh." Todoroki slumped. "I guess I did see that."

"The rain made it hard to see anything!" Aisla whined in protest. "How were we supposed to know to go in there?!"

"You were supposed to follow the prompt," their teacher sighed. "Rescue the citizens and capture the villain."

"That wasn't a prompt," Todoroki argued quietly.

"The villain part wasn't!" Katsuki agreed, fists clenching. "The rescue part was at the bottom of the sheet!"

Aizawa shrugged. "We incorporated two tests into one. Congratulations, you narrowly passed both," he deadpanned.

"NARROWLY?!" Katsuki snarled.

"Thank you, sir," Aisla said politely, ever the suck up. "We appreciate you going above and beyond. Right, boys?" She gave them each a pointed glare.

"Of course," Todo agreed at once. "Although, with Aisla's injury, we should probably get her to Recovery Girl straight away."

Aizawa nodded. "Yes, I noticed the ankle. Should be an easy fix." Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief. "However," he added, rising from the ground and wiping ice crystals from his pants, "you're all still in a test, so leaving these grounds will result in forfeiture."

Katsuki gaped. "The hell it will! She can hardly walk on that thing!"

"I told you, I'm fine!" she snapped, still showing her stubbornness even in front of their teacher.

Aizawa checked his wrist watch. "You've all wasted eight minutes standing around talking with me, which leaves you with a total of two hours and forty-six minutes to complete your final test. I suggest you get moving. Your scores for this round were perfunctory at best."

"WHY YOU—" Katsuki was this close to giving his teacher a stun grenade to the face when a trembling hand slipped into his own and killed whatever rage was left.

"Let's go," Aisla murmured, giving him an encouraging smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "We have to kill this next one. Right?"

His smile felt lopsided and wrong, but he still managed one. "Finally, words I can understand."

She tugged him past their teacher, whose expression was unreadable again, and through the opening she'd come through to 'save' them from Eraser Head. A large room was set up there with Mr. Aizawa's sleeping back, a dozen empty applesauce pouches littering the ground, and a couple of apple cores. Katsuki jumped when his foot crunched a box of pocky, creating a loud echo in the small room.

Aisla laughed. "Wow, you really jumped high just now. Do you have something against pocky?"

He scowled and kicked the box across the room. "No. Mr. Aizawa is just as lazy as ever, I see. Is this what he's been doing the whole damn time we were running around that dripping city? Sleeping and stuffing his face? How can he call our test perfunction when he wasn't even watching it?!"

"I think he said 'perfunctory,'" Todoroki corrected with a frown.

"It means he thinks we totally sucked," Aisla added helpfully. "There's the exit." She pointed to another unstable ladder leading back up to the city.

"How did you know it was there?" Todoroki asked as they approached the base.

"I asked," she said simply.

Katsuki clenched a fist. "DAMMIT, AISLA!" he roared, making her jump and let out a squeak of pain when she stepped on her sore foot too hard. "I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU AND YOU WERE JUST CHATTING WITH OUR TEACHER THE WHOLE TIME?!"

"Well, I was tied up," she offered with a shrug.

"Somehow that makes it sound even worse," Todoroki said, echoing Katsuki's own thoughts.

"That bastard didn't even let you use your quirk," he muttered.

"That's alright," she said softly. "I'll have my chance to shine soon enough. Besides, I train with Mr. Aizawa almost every day, so he already knows all of my moves. It would be next to impossible to surprise him."

Katsuki stared blankly at her.

She shifted uncomfortably. "What?"

"That's what you do every night after dinner?" he asked in disbelief. "You have extra training sessions with Mr. Aizawa?" Somehow, this made him simultaneously jealous and nauseous. Why would anyone, especially a girl, want to hang out with that hobo every night? It wasn't as if he didn't know she was training with Aizawa, but…

Now, her expression turned sour. "Hey, he's a great teacher! And he's an awesome hero!"

"No one said he wasn't!" Katsuki snapped.

"Then, what's the problem?" she asked just as sharply.

I wanted you to train with me! he thought in irritation, but since he couldn't say that aloud, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out.

"I'm…sorry," he growled unintentionally. "It's none of my business. Let's just get this exam over with."

He took in her look of surprise as he pushed past to the ladder and began climbing. He was going to be the first one up there, just in case any of their other instructors decided to attack them. Katsuki would take the brunt of the damage this time. Aisla's ankle couldn't hold up for much longer.

He pushed the heavy metal aside and rain immediately pelted them once more. He hurried up the rest of the way, then reached down for Aisla's hand as she climbed up next. When she stubbornly refused his help, he gripped her arms in his hands and yanked her the rest of the way up and out of the hole.

"Hey!" she protested, scowling.

"Your ankle's still hurt," he scolded her. "Also, we're in a hurry! Stop whining and let's move."

"Do we even know where to go next?" Todoroki asked as he climbed out of the hole and replaced the manhole cover.

"Weren't you listening?" Katsuki turned and pointed up. "We're going there!"