Multiple shots tear away the manhole cover from my grip. I leap into the alleyway, where the 'ping' 'pang' sounds of ricocheting projectiles pound against our cover. Several more shots scrape against it, while some blast onto the wall across from us. A few of them bounce off entirely and zig-zag down the alley. Mineta's screaming. My tongue lashes out and tosses him inside an open dumpster. I cling my fingers onto the broken bricks of the wall, leaping upwards and away from the trajectory of the bullets.
After some time, the gunfire halts - and resumes further in the distance. For now, we're not the targets.

"Mineta, now's our chance. We'll go around this building and make our way into one of the highrises. We'll get a better vantage point at its top while avoiding his line of fire."

"No way!" he screeches at me, "We'll never make it! Jiro and Sato tried going down that way and now they're dead!"

I smack the side of his head. "Stop exaggerating. This is just a training exercise."

"He has a machine gun!"

"It's shooting rubber bullets. It won't kill you."

"What if it goes through my eye and brain?"

"Why do you think we're wearing safety goggles?"

"It'll still hurt like hell!"

"That's the point, don't you think? This is to make sure we do our best to avoid getting hit." I lift him out of the dumpster and pat away the banana peels stuck to his clothes... Wait, were these dumpsters used? I thought this place was filled with just empty props.

"GYAAAA!" Mineta's screams bring me back to the situation at hand. A bullet flew into the alley and knocked a grape ball out of his hair. "HE'S GOING TO KILL US!"

I cover his mouth. "Stop yelling. We need to get around without him noticing."

The little grape-head pulls my hand off of him. "That's not happening. I'm not going to get my jewels shot off from such a stupid plan."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"Yeah." He climbs back into the dumpster. "Hide in here until he runs out of bullets."

"We're on a timer, Mineta."

"Then let someone else complete the exercise! Only one pair needs to escort the hostage out successfully, right? We're not the only team left, you know."

"Why do you always have to be a coward?"

"Because I'm smart enough to know when to call it quits. If every unqualified hero went out there, sacrificing themselves willy-nilly, when someone better for the job could have done it themselves, then we'd be all out of heroes and the villains win."

"That's a rational thought."

"Yeah, it is. So get in the dumpster with me."

I grab one side of the large, metal bin and begin pushing.

"What are you doing?" Mineta asks as he peeks at me from the bin's opening.

"Putting your words into practice."

His head pops out of the dumpster's top and looks around. He quickly dives back in. "WHY ARE YOU PUSHING US TOWARDS HIM?"

"Because this is the job we're better suited for." I say as I plant my feet on the dumpster's side and grip my hands to the floor. "Mineta, you may want to coat the inside with your hair. This is going to get rough."

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?" Mineta wails loudly. The 'thump'ing sounds inside the bin at least shows that he's following my suggestion.

"Time to be the distraction!" With one hard kick of my legs, I launch the dumpster down the road - watching its contents spill from the top. It rumbles violently across the broken asphalt, screeching and clunking loudly with every bump it hits. Some of the screeching is coming from its sole passenger. In seconds, the dumpster is lit up with ricocheting gunfire. "He took the bait."

Mr. Aizawa leaps around a far corner of the street, launching bands of his scarf to intercept the dumpster. Whether or not he knows that the person inside is just a distraction, he has to immobilize them at all costs. If the dumpster actually makes it to the end of the street, and its passenger makes it out in one piece: then they'll be right where the hostage is.
As his role as the villain in this exercise, Mr. Aizawa can't risk that. Tearing away the tops of the dumpster, he slowly points his weapon into the opening and gestures for the person inside to come out. Mineta crawls out, shaking.
If Mineta is shot at least once, or surrenders, then he's out. And if he's out: I'm out. Students can only succeed in this test as a paired team. If one fails, both fail: the mission objective requires both teammates present for its completion. In other words... I just gave up my chances of passing this test. But I knew this would happen.

I sacrificed my win, so that he could have a clear shot.

"SMAAAASH!"
The air surrounding the dumpster bursts into a sonic boom. Chunks of asphalt and other debris fly out in every direction, leaving behind only large clouds of dust.
High above the ground, floating at the peak heights of the highrises, Midoriya Izuku could be seen - holding out his arm and looking pretty cool.

I had a feeling he would be waiting up there. During a phone call we had two days ago, Midoriya mentioned that Mr. Aizawa, also known as the hero 'Eraserhead', always had the upper hand in battles where he had a clear line of sight - whether that meant fighting in an open field, or at a higher vantage point than his opponents. If you could remove either of those from him, then you would cut his Quirk's effectiveness in half. At least, that's what Midoriya theorized.
With that conversation still fresh in my memory, I figured that Midoriya would stick his team to the inside of buildings, the shadows of alleyways, or the tops of buildings for this test's settings. I ruled out the first option since Midoriya said his Quirk becomes a hazard for others indoors. The alleyways were next on the list - and it was where I spent a majority of my time searching for him. However, Tokoyami and Iida were the only other people I found in the alleys - and they politely declined joining our group. This left the tops of buildings as my last guess for where Midoriya's team would be hiding. And if I couldn't make it to him from where I was, then I could at least make his target easier to hit from up there.
He, Bakugo, and Todoroki are the strongest aggressive fighters in our class. If anyone could take on 'Eraserhead' in this time-limited scenario, it had to be one of them. So our best bet at passing this test was to act as one of their supports. These days, I'm a little biased in which of them I'd lend my help to.

"ASUI! YOU JERK! LET ME GRAB YOUR BOOBS!" Mineta ruins the auspicious moment with his childish wailing. He came out of the smoke clouds, running towards me and crying.

"Glad to see you're safe."

"NO THANKS TO YOU!"

"Did you get shot?"

He sniffles. "No."

"Did you surrender?"

"I didn't get a chance to! Midoriya blew me up before I could say anything!"

"That's good news, then."

He tries to grab my chest when I look away from him. But I've gotten used to him. I swiftly kick him down. "Quit that. We still have a job to do. Speaking of which... You were the closest one to the hostage, why didn't you go over there to grab her?"

"Because the teach picked up the hostage and ran."

My eyes widen. "He's still moving?!"

A magazine of gunshots is heard. Blowing holes through the smoke, a spray of bullets fly up towards Midoriya - who's still floating from where he had made his aerial strike.
Wait... he's floating? Ochaco, you ditz!

"Come on! We have to back them up!" I yell at Mineta.

He looks at me defiantly and yells back, "No way! I'm not going back in there! I'm going to find another dumpster and hide! One that you can't push around!" I would argue back, but he's already stomping away. I don't have time to argue. And I'll only slow myself down if I try dragging him with me. So I guess I'm doing this myself.

I crouch down and leap towards a canopy. With a hard press, I hop off of that onto an emergency stairway. I bounce up to its next level, and the level after that - clearing seven floors before I run out of easy platforms. I can climb up the walls, but that would take me too much time. I twist around and spot a small, open window down the street. It's a stretch, but I kick as hard as I can and barely land it with a hard grip. I nearly slip off the dust-marked sill when I see someone crouched at the window's opening.

"Tsuyu!" she calls out to me in surprise.

"Momo?" I call back with a tilt of my head. Beside her is the large figure of Shoji - slightly concealed in the room's shadows. "Shoji." I greet. He nods my way. Looking around, I notice several cartridges and patterned cylinders lying on the floor. At second glance, I realize that I've seen this sort of thing in an American movie before. "You're making a gun, Momo?"

"An M24 SWS, to be a bit more exact." she says casually. Her hands are working fast, putting one piece over another and sliding them together. "I had to form these piece by piece since it would take too long to create it in its finished state."

"You know how to use one of those things?"

"No... But I'm thankful that Shoji was paired with me for this. He's a sharpshooter."

Shoji uses one of his arms to cover his already-covered face. "I've only used one in a shooting range. I've never actually used a live one in a battle situation."

"That's good enough for me." Momo gives him a confidence-building smile. "If you can just shoot around Mr. Aizawa's feet: that should force him back from his escape route. Then it will be easier for the others to secure the hostage. And, don't worry, the bullets I'm making aren't lethal - so feel free to hit Mr. Aizawa with them."

"R-Right..."
I feel bad for Shoji. The nervousness in his voice shows that he's exaggerating his actual experience with the gun. Most guys his age get a lot of their 'gun experience' in video games. I wonder if he's the same. Though, I really don't have the time to wonder any more than I have.

"Momo, can you make me something I can throw?"

"Like what?"

"Something that can blind would be helpful."

"That could take me a few minutes."

"It can be something really simple."

"Simple... simple... Ah. Here." She tosses me a small pouch. "It's just sand, but -"

"That works. Thanks Momo!" I turn away from them and return my focus to where I saw Midoriya last.
He's not up in the sky anymore. Below, the smoke of the earlier explosion had already dissipated. Eraserhead is gone as well. Nearby gunfire makes my neck crack as I snap my attention towards the sound: coming from a rooftop just a few meters away.
There he is. Midoriya is leaping from one building to the next, with Ochaco in his arms. Bullets zip past him while he moves between varying obstacles - consisting mostly of large cooling units and billboards. He won't be able to keep that up for much longer, since the buildings ahead of him have little to no objects on their roofs.
I have to reach him before he runs out of cover.

Leaping from the window, I scramble onto the top of a smaller building and use its billboards to jump up to my next building-top. I'm getting closer. A jump. Then another leap. Two quick hops. A quick climb up one floor. Now I'm at the same level as them. But there's still a large gap between our buildings - one that I can't leap without risking getting shot.
My eyes follow the source of the still-barking gunfire - and I find Eraserhead running towards Midoriya. The hostage is tied to his back. He's definitely on the attack now. But why would he risk losing his own objective by going this far from the escape route? Isn't that breaking his role as the villain?
Wait. If he's taking his hostage with him... Then...
I turn to see where Midoriya and Ochaco are heading... They're not running away from Mr. Aizawa. They're running towards his new escape route. They're trying to get rid of it! A helicopter is hovering a few buildings away. It must have changed its initial pick up point after Midoriya's earlier attack compromised it. If it's forced to retreat any further - then Mr. Aizawa won't be able to leave with the hostage - which should remove our time limit for this task!
But if Midoriya's aiming after the helicopter from here, then that means he's already given up on securing the hostage himself. He can't possibly attack the helicopter without placing himself in Mr. Aizawa's line of fire. Midoriya's sacrificing his win so someone else can.

But if everyone here's sacrificing their wins so someone else succeeds, then there'd be no heroes left and the villain wins. Darn you Mineta for always ending up right.

"Deku! Now!" Ochaco yells.

"Go!" Midoriya straightens his back, twists slightly, then flings Ochaco towards the helicopter.
Uraraka soars through the air, darting towards the black and blue vehicle. No bullets fly after her - as they could damage the villain's only getaway. Her body slams into the helicopter and almost slides off. The next second, the helicopter rises higher into the sky - and continues to ascend until it flies out of view.
Eraserhead's only way out has been removed. All that's left is for us to leave with the hostage.
Shouts and roars are heard back at roof-level. Midoriya is trying to fight Eraserhead alone, with his bare fists. The only reason why Uraraka's attack on the helicopter worked was because Eraserhead's attention was below her. If Mr. Aizawa attempted to cancel Uraraka's powers mid-flight, then Midoriya would have been able to blow him away with his Quirk. Instead, the Quirk-nullifying effect was focused on him, and prevented him from a surprise attack.
And it's preventing him from a frontal attack. Without his powers, Midoriya is only a well-trained boy. Facing against a Pro with years of battle experience, he won't stand a chance.

Mr. Aizawa knocks Midoriya away with the butt of his gun, then follows up with his scarf - wrapping bands of it around Midoriya's neck and wrist, before slamming him onto the ground. "Give it up. You've already lost this fight. Your partner's out of bounds, so you're already disqualified."

"You... You don't know that." Midoriya coughs out as the scarf wraps tighter around his neck.

"Neither do you. So then you should be trying to confirm her safety."

"She'll... be... fine!"

"Sadly, you won't be." Before Eraserhead could give his scarf one more tug, he loses his footing and staggers sideways. "Wh-What?" His goggles are flung away from his eyes, causing him to wince from the flare of sunlight.

My landing is rough, but I made it just in time. "Midoriya!" I yell.

"Thanks! Asui!" Midoriya breaks through his bindings in an instant and charges for Eraserhead. The villain forces his eyes wide open and cancels Midoriya's upcoming strike. He doesn't falter, following through with a few hard punches against Mr. Aizawa's stomach, arms, and chin.
The strikes stunned him and knocked the gun out of his hands... but it wasn't enough to make him blink. Mr. Aizawa rolls Midoriya into several layers of his scarf then slams him back to the floor. He pushes aside a kick from me and catches me by my hair. He pulls hard.

So I pull hard. My tongue is wrapped tightly around his knee, forcing him into another stagger.
Midoriya breaks away yet again, but is kicked back down immediately.
Eraserhead wraps bands of his scarf around my tongue and slides it quickly off his knee. He should have wrapped it around my neck instead.
I force my stomach to regurgitate, and hack up a small pouch. With my digestive fluids having already weakened its fabric, the pouch rips open and explodes against Mr. Aizawa's eyes. He cries out in pain and annoyance.
Midoriya's back up, and from his expression: I know what's coming next. I clamp my feet around Aizawa's hips, and wrap my hands around the hostage's elbows. With one hard kick of my feet, I simultaneously pull the hostage free from Eraserhead's back, while launching him towards Midoriya.

"Delaware! SMASH!"
An explosion of air sucks out all the sound from my ears. The vacuum lifts me off my feet and hands. Just as I'm about to be pulled along with it, Midoriya grabs me by the ankle and swings me toward his grasp. My goggles fly off with the bursting wind - as does one of my boots.

In the distance, I can see Mr. Aizawa's figure being flung further and further away. My worry of him not surviving the fall is put at ease, as he flips himself right-side-up and uses his scarf to secure his landing.
Pros really are something else.

A few seconds pass in relieved silence. Then I suddenly realize the position I'm in. "Um, Midoriya…"

"Yeah?"

"You really like carrying me like this, huh?"

Midoriya looks down at me, soon noticing that I'm scooped up in his arms, princess-style. "AH!" His face changes to a familiar shade of red - that cartoon tomato red. He's about to let me go, but I stop him by quickly grabbing onto his shirt.

"Wait."

"E-Eh?"

I pull a phone from my back pocket and hold it out in front of us. With a succession of screen taps, I take around five or six photos of us. "There." I swing myself out of his grip and begin looking through the photos.

"EH?" His face is redder than before. I didn't know that was possible.

"We need more pictures together. We only have the ones from the photo booth, and that one from lunch." I say as an excuse. Telling him the actual reason would give him a heart attack. I put away my phone and pick up the hostage... which is just a female-shaped mannequin with the word 'HOSTAGE' written across its chest. I drop it into Midoriya's arms. "There, you can carry this princess."

His face is glowing in its red this time. I'm afraid he might explode. Before he could, he shakes his head, possibly to clear his thoughts - though he can't seem to clear the redness in his cheeks. "Right. We need to get this to the exit before Mr. Aizawa recovers." he assesses calmly.

I disagree calmly. "No, you and Uraraka need to get it to the exit. Only one team needs to clear this test in order for all of us to pass. But you and I can't be the ones to do it, since we're not in a team."

"Okay, but it might take me a while to find her, so then would you and Mineta want to bring it in?"

"Mineta's hiding right now - so it might take longer for me. Besides, Eraserhead can't cancel out my Quirks. I'm better suited for keeping him busy."

"But wouldn't it be easier if -" A loud shot echoes throughout the faux-city. Midoriya looks at the ground across from us, confirming that the villain's gun is still here. "Did he have two guns?"

"No." I look at the buildings down the street. A shadow backs away from one of the small windows. "That shot came from Momo. Her and Shoji are keeping Mr. Aizawa back."

"So they're still around." Midoriya sighs in relief. "It's nice to know we're not the only ones left."

"I saw Tokoyami and Iida earlier."

"Iida was shot in an alleyway. They're out."

"How about Bakugo's team? Or Todoroki's?"

"Todoroki was teamed with Aoyama - and Aoyama was shot early on. Bakugo was with Ashido, but I saw them leaving like they had already been hit. Ojiro's out. Sero and Koda are out. Though I haven't seen Kaminari, Kirishima, Hagakure, Jiro, or Sato. One of them had to be Ojiro's partner. Though I don't know what happened with the other four… Did I say something funny?"

"Huh?"

"You're smiling at me."

I am? "Oh…" I calm my lips a bit. "I'm just impressed that you were able to see all of this while the rest of us were running around blindly."

"I was watching you guys while I was going up the building. But I couldn't make a move until you and Mineta pulled that stunt."

"And you nearly got your head blown off too." I punch his shoulder. "What were you thinking - using Uraraka's Quirk to float you around like that? You were an easy target. It would've been smarter to strike him from the rooftop's ledge."

"I couldn't get a clear shot from the ledge…"

I sigh, then stretch my legs. "Well I don't have time to keep lecturing you. Momo needs my help. I'll see if I can find Mineta and force him to help us too. You have to go and find Uraraka." My left foot is cold. Hopefully I run into my lost boot down there.

"Okay. And Tsuyu?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you. You saved me."

My cheeks hurt. "Go already."

Midoriya flashes me a thumbs-up then leaps off the building.
I look over the ledge to watch him go. He's already made it past two streets by the time I spot him. Looking around, no one else is within my immediate proximity. Momo and Shoji seem to have moved into another building, as I hear their rifle's shots further away than before. Mineta's scream is heard too. I hope they didn't accidentally shoot him. A few blocks down, Kaminari and Kirishima are running towards the sound of the gunfire - they look to have been lost this entire time. Knowing that Momo has some back up heading her way relieves me.
Now I don't have to rush.

My thumb slides a memorized pattern, and my phone 'click's off its lock screen. The window I had opened last reloads itself - with the picture of Midoriya carrying me in his arms. Our pose is hardly a thing of beauty, especially when you notice just how dirtied and ragged we look. But what it lacks in romance, it makes up for in its character and… cuteness! It's such a cute picture! Yay!
I let out an excited 'kero!' I'm very pleased with how this photo turned out. We genuinely look like one of those hero couples! The kinds you see every now and then in the articles of those Quirk magazines. Roughed up and bruised, but still smiling or laughing together. Those kind of pictures are always so cute and awesome to look at. I never imagined myself being in a photo like it.
Breathing out a long sigh, my body sinks down to the floor in relief and satisfaction. The sky is in my view now - my head tilted back, leaning myself on the building's inner-ledge. I slide my hand onto my face, pushing strands of hair to the back of my ears, and covering the sun's light from my eyes.
In my mind, I can see Midoriya's face - his shining eyes - his cheerful grin - his serious frown – his bare back - his half-clothed shoulders and neck - his cloth-torn chest - his half-sleeved arms, all images pooled from glancing memories of the times I've seen him… in class, during practical exams… other places. These features of his are practically memorized by now.
It's still embarrassing to admit it to myself, but I've grown to find them attractive. I've grown to find him attractive. And even more embarrassing is the fact that I've definitely grown feelings for him...

This is no longer just a harmless daydream. When did I stop playing pretend and actually fall for him?

What a mess.
I swipe my finger, and look through the other photos I've taken of him.