"W-what?" muttered Midoriya, turning towards Bakugou. In the distance, the lift doors opened.
"He escaped, you fool!" Bakugou shouted, jumping up from his seat and picking Midoriya up. He grabbed her hand and ran out the door, pulling out his mobile phone.
"And why are you yelling at me?" Midoriya shouted, but she didn't let go of his hand. "Are you calling Aizawa-sensei?"
"Yes. I'm sure that snail will call him first."
Bakugou tried several times to call the teacher, but he was busy. Midoriya, seeing Bakugou's unsuccessful attempts, pointed him towards the stairs.
"The lift has gone to the ground floor, so we have to get down quickly!"
"And what the hell do you suggest?"
"If we wait for it to come back up, it'll take extra time. Let's take the stairs down."
"Damn him," Bakugou muttered reluctantly. "When I find him, I'll kill him."
"Kacchan!"
Bakugou and Midoriya were on their way downstairs, but they were too late. There was no one else on the ground floor except Kaminari.
"Hey, stupid! Have you seen the nervous one here?"
Kaminari looked at Bakugou in confusion:
"What kind of nervous person?"
"Kacchan means Nakayama-kun. Didn't he run through here?" Midoriya hastened to interject.
"Ah... Fudo was here. I wanted to ask him what happened, but he shouted at me and ran out into the street," Kaminari replied cheerfully, not even remembering that Fudo himself had asked him not to tell anyone that he was here. "Ah, now I understand why he's nervous."
Seeing that his answer didn't seem to completely satisfy her, Denki continued after thinking for a while:
"But he was on his way to Aizawa-sensei. At least he talked to him."
Bakugou exclaimed and ran out. "I knew it!"
"So what happened in the end?" Kaminari asked, looking around the empty corridor. He shrugged and went back to where he had come from without waiting for an answer.
"Why did you give me these two? Can't you change them for someone more... Calmer and more balanced!"
"Ugh," Aizawa let out an exhausted breath. "I had a feeling this would be the case sooner or later. Where are you?"
"Just left your class's dormitory."
"Fine, come walk with me a little."
"Okay," Nakayama mumbled with some reluctance. "Where can I meet you?"
"Go on. On the way there, I'll pick you up."
Nakayama continued to walk for a while, until he finally caught sight of a lone figure standing in the distance. Seeing him, the figure swayed and raised his hand slightly in greeting.
"What about my wish? After talking to you, I don't think I can change my mind."
" Listen, Nakayama. Did you see Midoriya and Bakugou before your official meeting? On the news or during the broadcast of the sports festival?"
"Well, I did. I saw the Sports Festival this year. But I tell you: My first impression hasn't changed at all. What I saw then and what I see now are two nerds, one of whom keeps breaking her fingers, and even though she was injured, she kept on fighting, and the other one doesn't look like a hero at all. How did you manage to get these two into a hero course in the first place? They should be on a psychiatry course!"
"Do you think they would come to your rescue if you were suddenly in danger? Some sort of relationship must have developed between you since you've been with them for a week."
"I'm sure they won't. Bakugou's hatred for me is so great that he'd actually be happy if something were to happen to me."
"What about Midoriya?"
"She seems strong, but..." Nakayama's shrug was indefinitely. "I don't know. I just find it hard to believe that she is capable of saving someone. She's so... kind and all that."
"All right," Aizawa pondered. "Let me have your mobile phone for a moment. You added their numbers, didn't you?"
With the phone book open, Nakayama handed the phone. Aizawa returned the phone to its owner after writing a few words.
"What did you do?"
"I have sent a distress signal to Midoriya and Bakugou. It's time for a test of your theory."
"Why?!" the Fudo exclaimed in bewilderment as he looked down at his phone. "They're coming here!"
"Oh, yeah?" Aizawa asked, looking at Nakayama as he said this. "You were under the impression that they wouldn't come to your rescue, weren't you?"
At the entrance to one of the training towns, Aizawa and Fudo stopped. Nakayama looked at his teacher in confusion. He tried to understand why they had come here.
"Look over there," Aizawa said, pressing some kind of button on the control panel and pointing with his hand just above the walls that separated the training ground from where they were standing.
The huge robot, which towered over many of the surrounding buildings, suddenly began to move. A horrible noise came from its side, echoing unpleasantly in their ears.
"What is that thing?" shouted Nakayama, jumping back. Even though he and the giant robot were separated by a rather high wall. But if he tried hard enough, the horrible arm could still reach the guy from there. And it looked as if the robot was going to do just that. It was slowly approaching the wall, and every now and then it hit a nearby building, causing it to crumble into tiny pieces. This made Nakayama even more afraid of it.
Fudo turned his fearful gaze to where the teacher stood. But he saw no one beside him. It was unclear when and where he had managed to leave, but all he could hear now was his voice.
"You know, this robot was present at the practice exam during the admission of Midoriya and Bakugou. Everyone in Bakugou's group escaped successfully. But Midoriya's group had problems."
Nakayama barely listened. He turned around and started to run. But several more robots appeared behind him. They were much smaller than the one on the training ground. They didn't look as intimidating. He was under siege.
"Midoriya failed to destroy a single enemy robot during the test. She just watched hopelessly as everyone around her continued to score points for admission. She was trembling, unable to hit any of them. At that moment, we were all sure she wouldn't pass. Since she never used it from the beginning, we couldn't even appreciate her quirk.
"Why are you telling me this?" cried Nakayama, covering his face with his hands in fear. The giant robot came almost to the wall and extended its hand. Only a few metres further and it would have grabbed him, squeezed him in its hands and...
Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, there was a green flash. There was a thud. Nakayama jumped and opened his eyes. The huge robot, to which it seemed impossible to do any significant damage, flew away for quite a long distance.
"But at the very end of the exam, when the devastation caused by that robot left one of the students trapped under the rubble, it only took a second for Midoriya to dare to confront that robot."
Nakayama opened his eyes. In front of him stood Bakugou and Midoriya. Following them, Aizawa came out and held out her hand to the fallen boy.
"She was the one who noticed Uraraka and came to her aid. And she was the one who knocked out that robot with a single blow."
"True, I broke my arms and leg back then," Midoriya said, scratching behind her head. "What was that message?! What if we hadn't made it in time, Aizawa-sensei?"
"You weren't so far away that you couldn't make it in time. That's the first thing. And secondly, I had everything under control."
Aizawa pressed some kind of button again and the robot, which had been hit hard but was still working, finally shut down. Nakayama grabbed the outstretched hand and stood up. Even though he had been terrified by the robot's attack, he had the impression that Midoriya and Bakugo had come so quickly, seemingly without even thinking about it. There was no shame in the fact that he had so much doubt in them, but the unpleasant residue was still there.
"I'm glad that Nakayama-kun is all right," Midoriya said. She covered her hand with Bakugou's, who wanted to say something. "But still... What's going on here?"
"I have been asked to be your replacement," Aizawa explained. "But since I don't have any desire to do so and I don't think it's the right thing to do, this is what we'll do. The three of you will come with me. We all need to have a quiet talk.
