Yumei's match against Suri is on. Who comes out on top? Izuku has a scare. Yumei and Shinso get their results.
"Hurry it up, slow pokes!"
"Fuck off, I'm right on you."
"I'm trying to listen as we move!"
"You two haven't changed since the Sports Festival!"
Suri grumbled as she and Bakugou sped through the maze of pipes, vying for who was in the lead and leading the group. Suri felt that being class rep and, ya know, the whole Queen of Class 1-A meant something. It meant she should be lead. Bakugou, of course disagreed. But of course, he'd shot them in the foot in the way of strategies because his entire plan was follow the leader with him being the leader.
In their strategy meeting, Suri was with Sero on the idea of setting up an ambush and waiting for an opening. If they were right, then everyone on the opposing team was all defense which would make it an easy plan to pick them off one by one. That's what Suri, Sero, and Jirou wanted to do. Bakugou ran off and forced them to run behind him, putting his plan into effect which was to go on the strike and hit them with everything they had in one go. It was surprising that, of all people, Atiena agreed with Bakugou.
As they made their way into a clearing within the pipes, Suri's nose flared and her eyes went wide. Bakugou must have seen her reaction as they entered the clearing because not a second after her reaction to the scent of the opposing team, Bakugou growled.
"Stop! They're here!" Bakugou shouted, then turned his sights onto Jirou. "Lobes! Mohawk! They're all close by. Find 'em!"
"I have a name you know," Jirou grumbled as she jammed her earphone jacks into the ground and closed her eyes to concentrate.
Suri rolled her eyes and lifted her head and let her mouth hang open as she took in the surrounding scents, using both her nose and the glands on the roof of her mouth. Her ears twitched wildly as they began picking up hundreds of sounds and her sense of smell picked up more than four dozen scents surrounding them.
"The fuck is that?" Suri breathed and looked around wildly.
Meanwhile, Jirou's eyes were wide and the look on her face was frantic and filled with panic and anxiety.
"What's the hold up?" Bakugou shouted.
"Trap!" Suri shouted before her eyes locked onto a sight that was both incredibly intriguing and horrifying to witness. There was a mouth with fanged teeth floating in the air just behind Bakugou's head.
"Yep! It's all over now," Tokage snickered as the noise began to amplify. The realization that this was her Quirk came too late as she began to pummel everyone with dozens upon dozens of pelting blows like she was her own hail storm.
They'd heard that Tokage could split her body into pieces and control those pieces at will but they'd never seen her in action. If they weren't having to brace from all of the small attacks, Suri could honestly say that she would have an Izuku moment and love to study her Quirk. Especially with how fast she could be with controlling bits of flying body parts that were quick enough to evade Suri's claws. Suri's attention went elsewhere as she tried to train her senses to stop focusing on the noise Tokage was making and her scent and try to find the others. That strategy went out the door when a second problem arose.
"Barricade Tape!"
Sero shouted and ribbons of his tape began to cover their surroundings in an effort to keep Tokage at bay. It was both a good idea and a lousy one because sure, it kept Tokage at bay from continuing to pelt and attack them at will. But it did one more thing that put them at a disadvantage; it put them in a cage.
"Sero, no!" Suri shouted but it was already too late.
"Like I said, it's all over now," Tokage reiterated with a shark toothed grin.
"Glue Squall!"
Bondo unleashed his attack, coating the pipes surrounding them and all of Sero's own tape in glue and liquid cement. It made it so that they were like mice surrounded by sticky traps with nowhere to go. Nowhere unless they gave themselves an out.
"This way," Sero shouted, trying to push back towards the way they came only for Kamakiri to come crashing down and cut off their escape route. Literally.
"Hah! Too slow," Kamakiri sneered with a grin, blades extended proudly from his forearms.
"Fuck it," Suri shouted with a growl. Quickly she attached the steel claws from her hip pouches and then shot upwards, twirling herself in the air as she swiped her claws through and slammed the sticky pipes away from them. It was at the same time that Bakugou sent off a few blasts, doing the same as they quietly literally tore the roof off of their location. "Room with a view!"
"That's your move?" Kamakiri scoffed from above the group. "Now there's nothing to protect them from me."
"Or me," Yumei hissed from behind them.
Kamakiri rocketed downward, heading straight for Jirou ready to take her out. Suri was about to move to get her out of his way when the most curious thing occurred; Bakugou put himself between Jirou and the mantis boy. Albeit he literally kicked her out of the way by stepping off of the rocker girl's back and ass to get her out of the way before putting a point blank blast right in Kamakiri's face. Suri then grabbed Jirou by the arm, swinging her behind her back as Yumei made her move. There was no time for Jirou to blink because in those few seconds she was twisted in several directions, being protected from Kamakiri in one direction and Yumei in the other. By the time she blinked she found Suri in front of her, the beast girl's escrima sticks already snapped together into her bo staff and inside Yumei's mouth.
It was the first time in a long time that Suri had seen Yumei use her fangs and knew the younger girl meant business. It made Suri smirk and push back, forcing Yumei back as her muscles rippled and her wolven paws dug into the ground beneath her. To counter, the snake girl whipped herself around, withdrawing herself and snapping her tail at Suri and Sero. Once she was backed away, she and her teammates took off, retreating as fast as they could.
That must have been Tokage's plan in action; ambush, attack, then regroup.
"Don't underestimate us! We're gonna win this," Bakugou called out. "No casualties, we're going five zip!"
Bakugou gave chase to Kamakiri while Suri went after Yumei and Jirou and Sero gave chase to Bondo. In front of them, Katsuki was ambushed by Awase and got trapped, being welded to a series of pipes he was going through. Suri growled, sheathing her escrima sticks and clawing at the welded spots. They had been tough enough to hold Bakugou in place but were fairly easy work for her titanium claws as she went through them like an axe through wood.
Once free, Katsuki growled with a grin and blasted his way towards Awase who quickly constructed himself a helmet and body armor to try and keep the explosion user at bay. He received a blast to his face for his effort but that was as much attention Bakugou gave him as he was immediately hit with a Heartbeat Wave from Jirou which hit him hard enough to rattle his brain and make him fall unconscious. It was an easy wrap job for Sero, effectively capturing Awase and taking him out of the fight. As that happened, Suri poured into her and Atiena's power, disappearing out of view when Bondo looked back to see if he'd escaped. All he saw was shimmering air when he looked over his shoulder.
When he looked back he found a pair of fiery golden green eyes staring him in down and a well toned and muscled arm waiting for him. He ran headlong into Suri's arm, giving him a Clothesline from Hell, that took his feet out from under him and sent him into an involuntary backflip. He barely had time to recover after he landed hard on his stomach before Suri grabbed the back of his costume and then tossed him like a sand bag.
"Sero, catch," Suri grinned as she tossed the big bodied Bondo back towards her teammates who secured him and tied him up next to Awase. And that was just as Bakugou blasted Kamakiri into a wall, knocking him out as well before setting his sights on their leader.
"Three down, two to go," Jirou called out.
Suri heard a hiss behind her and turned around in time to find a giant snake girl flying at her in a flash of speed. She braced herself to get run over by the incoming girl only to watch go in, rolling herself into a ball, turning herself into a giant white and pink scaled boulder. The move took Suri by surprise and she hesitated, unsure of what Yumei's plan of attack was and that was when the balled up snake girl went airborne.
"Viper Comet!"
Suri braced herself as the snake girl came down on Suri like an asteroid, slamming the beast girl with the entire weight of her body and the force of her momentum. The move, which impressed the hell out of Suri, flattened her into the ground and left her breathless. The force of impact was enough to give Suri bruised ribs and left her feeling like she'd been hit by a tank. Which she sort of had been. Yumei unraveled herself as she rolled away from where she'd leveled Suri and turned back in a fighting stance, ready to go a few rounds hand to hand with her friend.
Yumei hissed as she saw Bakugou heading for Tokage and she quickly looked around for something to help. Part of her knew she was doing something dumb by not keeping the pressure on Suri but knew she would lose if she didn't help their team's leader. She opted to choose the latter. She whipped her tail at some of the surrounding debris, grabbing some of the wrecked pipes in her coils before flinging them with both her tail and her hands at Bakugou. It made him hiss and sneer as he had to make extra movements to dodge the debris she was flinging at him. Among the debris, she saw one of Tokage's body pieces retreating back to the rest of her and saw something attached to it. Eyes widening, she tried to hit the section of the lizard girl's body but missed, cursing under her breath.
"Tokage! Watch out!" Yumei screamed and was about to go help when she saw Suri getting up in her peripherals and she had to make a choice on opponents.
"Suri, heads up," Jirou called out as she tossed something their way.
The beast girl was on her knees when she saw one of Bakugou's stun grenades coming her way, the pin already pulled. Suri had enough time to slam her eyes shut before it exploded in a blinding bright light and she heard Yumei scream and hiss from the pain.
"No, I'm not gonna let you beat me, Suri," Yumei screeched and flicked her tongue outward, catching Suri's scent and instantly turning on her. The snake girl slithered quickly in Suri's direction, blindly following her senses. "You're mine!"
Yumei opened her jaws wide, bearing fangs as she reached out and grabbed at Suri who caught her hands in hers and dug her feet in to stop the rampaging snake girl. Suri growled as she pushed back and held Yumei at bay, stopping her in her tracks before pushing back and forcing the younger girl backwards. Suri heard a loud explosion and Tokage's scream not far from her as she was hit point blank before she too fell unconscious. As Suri growled she suddenly felt Yumei's strength get taken out and watched as tape began to wrap around and bind the snake girl into submission. Sero pulled hard on his tape and forced Yumei back, throwing her to the ground and effectively taping her entire body to the ground and taking her out of the fight completely.
"Class A wins!"
"No," Yumei gasped before becoming frantic, her voice rose from a whisper to a disgruntled scream as tears began to pool in the corner of her eyes and begin to leave burning tracks down her cheeks. "No no no no no. Fuck!"
"Yumei…"
"Fuck! I can't," the snake girl screamed, hissing as she tried to break Sero's restraints. "No! I… I can't let it end like this."
"Hey! Scales." Bakugou sneered.
That made the snake girl hiss and turn her gaze on the explosion user as he made his way towards his team. The two of them shared a glare, practically burning a hole into the other person. The hiss that Yumei let out filled and resonated throughout her entire body and, surprisingly, it made him pause in his steps towards her. What Yumei didn't realize is that his cautiousness towards her as he approached meant that he was taking her seriously. It made Suri think better of her classmate for showing a semblance of respect for the girl. It was a vast difference from when they first met or even just before the match.
"Stop bitching about defeat," he growled.
"Bakugou," Suri muttered under her breath, shooting him a small warning glare.
"Same with you, Lizard Chick," he looked over his shoulder at Tokage, shooting her a glare as well, as she slowly came to and grunted in anger. "Get stronger so I don't kick your asses so easily next time. Got it!"
"Tch. Whatever, dude," Tokage scoffed and shook her head with a twisted smirk.
"Get fucked," Yumei rolled her eyes and turned her head away from him.
"That's her job, Scales, not mine," Bakugou smirked wide, throwing a thumb in Suri's direction as he walked away and off the battlefield.
The remark made everyone stop dead in their tracks and stare at him in awe as he walked away. They didn't know what to make out of the comment or the attitude because…
"Did Bakugou… just make a joke?" Sero asked what everyone was thinking.
Suri let out a choked laugh as her mouth curled upwards into a surprised smile. She watched him disappear before she started chuckling softly and turned back towards her friends.
"Yeah. He did," she said, still in a little awe.
There was another long moment of silence between everyone before Sero sighed and broke it as he told Yumei he was letting her go. The next few seconds found him pulling his tape off of her and releasing the bindings around her arms and torso. Once it was all off, she sighed and hung her head as her hands rubbed at her scaled skin where the adhesive had stuck onto her. It was another moment as Suri looked back and forth between her teammates and the members of Class B who were beginning to come to and start moving again. Suri nodded slowly as she looked back and forth between everyone and then got onto her knees in front of the snake girl who was scrunching herself low to the ground in defeat. Low enough that, if she'd had legs, she would be sitting on her own knees.
"Hey," Suri said softly. "He might be an asshole, but he's right. You've got nothin' to be ashamed about, hun."
"Yeah, sorry I dragged you guys down with me," Tokage smiled weakly and sighed as she looked from one of her teammates to the other.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I mean, once Bakugou became a team player we were screwed," Awase shrugged and got up once Sero released him, Bondo, and Kamakiri.
Together all of them left the battlefield and regrouped onto the viewing platform, Suri and Yumei getting a big hug from Tooru. Before they could really catch up though, Yumei was called over to the side by Midnight. Knowing she was getting called over to the teachers, a nervous shiver ran through her entire body, and she gave Tooru and Suri a sad look. Her mind had pretty much settled that, because she had two losses in the books, she was all but screwed. Seeing the look on her face, Suri locked eyes with the teachers and then grinned.
"I'll be right back, hopefully I don't miss too much of Izuku and Mina's match," Suri said as she crossed her arms behind her head and began strolling towards the awaiting faculty. "C'mon, Yu Yu, you don't wanna leave them waiting."
"Suri, wait," Yumei groaned, giving her friends a nervous wave as she slithered to catch up to Suri who was already several steps ahead of her. "It's me they wanna talk to. I got this."
"I mean I wasn't gonna speak for you or anything," Suri chuckled. "I just want you to know I got your back. We all do."
"I know," Yumei smiled and took a deep breath, slithering faster to outpace Suri and take the lead as she came to the teachers. "And thank you. For, like, everything."
"Love you, sweetie," Suri grinned and blew the snake girl a kiss before backing away to head back towards Tooru.
"Love you too," Yumei smiled back, blowing a kiss of her own before she let her expression become more serious and she tried to hold herself up proudly. She then turned herself back to face Midnight, All Might, and Principal Nezu and whatever result they had for her.
Suri looked back over her shoulder to see All Might talking to Yumei, who was having a small fangirl moment like she always did whenever talking to him. Once he gave his review he took a phone call and went to the side to have some quiet so that he could talk to whoever was on the other end. She bowed to him graciously before turning back to Midnight and Nezu, their art teacher swooning and gushing about something - most likely getting turned on by the whole summer of youth thing she was always going on about. It was a bit weird that, of all things, that's what she was getting off to. Oh well, at least it wasn't feet, right?
"How's our Green Bean and Alien Queen?" Suri said as she came to stand with Tooru.
"Izuku's using himself as bait and he's gone ahead of the others," Tooru said, pointing to the screen where it showed Izuku getting into a battle against Monoma. On the other, a wave of debris was being flung towards Mina, Ochako, and Mineta. Mina was trying to melt half of it while Ochako was floating the rest to get it away from them when the debris exploded and rocked the three backwards. "Damn."
"Yanagi, Kodai, and Shoda are solid as fuck together," Suri noted out loud. "They have that three tier attack practically perfect."
"They have great chemistry, that's for sure," Jirou said next to them.
"Yeah, so it'll be rough but if you can separate them, you should be able to take them out one by one. The smart play would to do what Kendo did; ambush, split 'em up, and put 'em down," Suri continued her commentary. Flinching when she realized she'd referred to the way Tooru's group had been taken out. "Maybe they… Izuku?"
Suri's eyes narrowed as she watched black electricity surround his gauntlet before it exploded outwards in a series of tendrils. Then came the destruction that became rampant as the tentacle like strands of energy whipped and lashed out wildly and indiscriminately. She was about to ask when he learned this new move and then she saw his face; pained, straining, and full of absolute terror.
"Suri, what is that?" Tooru asked, just as nervous as Suri was. She'd seen Izuku's face too.
"I don't know," Suri said, watching on and feeling her own fear begin to swell inside her.
"Aizawa! Vlad!" All Might called out, his own fear vividly apparent in his eyes. "You need to stop him! Something's wrong!"
Suri looked back at All Might and before she could even think, she was back into beastwoman form, Atiena's energy spiking and filling her up. She ran, disappearing in a wisp of shimmering air as she ran towards the battlefield where Izuku was located. Did she have a plan? Absolutely not. It didn't matter though. All that mattered was that Izuku needed help and she needed to get to him as fast as possible. She felt a sting of remorse because she hadn't said anything to Tooru but she hoped that the invisible girl would understand. She figured that, if Tooru could move as fast as she could, Tooru would have been the one to run first.
"Shinso! Brainwash him!"
Suri heard Ochako call out, she sounded desperate and in pain as she screamed but Suri wasn't sure why she'd be in pain. She was ready to round a corner when she heard the next bit of exchange as she hurried towards her boyfriend, jumping out of the way of a section of pipe that got thrown her way thanks to this new destructive power of Izuku's. He was out of control and she needed to help him. That's the only thought that was going through her and Atiena's shared mind as they both thought of only saving him.
They owed him for saving them back with De'Jon.
"Midoriya, let's fight!" Shinso called out directly to the greenette.
She was only a hundred or so yards away now and she prayed that Izuku had the mind to answer. She knew what Shinso's Quirk could do and Ochako was right; that was their best shot to get Izuku out of commission.
"Grr! Okay!"
Suri let out a breath of relief as she heard Izuku call out and just like that he and his raging power fell silent. That didn't change the fact that Suri was still rushing towards him because she needed to see him and needed to make sure he was okay.
"Hang on, baby, I'm - hng!"
Suri choked and nearly sent her stomach out her throat as she hit a wall in midair and then got jerked backwards violently. She hit the ground and rolled end over end, grunting as she made friends with the ground in a painful way thanks to a bunch of grey ribbon surrounding her. When she finally got her bearings she say up to find her arms bound behind her back and her entire torso caught up in Aizawa's capture scarf. She snarled at her teacher and Vlad King, practically foaming at the mouth from the sudden burst of rage she felt.
How dare they capture her!
"Let me go!" Suri sneered.
"Hold on," Mr. Aizawa replied, rolling his eyes as he turned his attention back to the battlefield.
"We're letting it go on?" Vlad King asked, clearly just as out of the loop as Suri was. "There was clearly something wrong with Midoriya."
"If it happens again then I'll jump in and pull Midoriya out but Shinso managed to calm him down this time," Aizawa said matter of factly. "If it's Quirk related then I'll have no problem stopping it."
"So why let them keep going," Suri asked pointedly.
"Cause their hearts are still in it," he retorted, like that answered everything. "Shinso, Midoriya, all of them are still hungry to win."
"You… indulge them," Vlad replied incredulously. "That's unexpected."
"I guess," Aizawa shrugged.
"Are you sure about this? I mean really sure?" Suri asked, narrowing her eyes at her teacher as he watched the fight more carefully.
The fight was still going on, Monoma attacking Izuku but getting taken to the ground by Ochako. Suri's eyes went wide because she was pretty sure that Monoma had touched Izuku and should have borrowed One For All, which was extremely dangerous for him, but nothing happened. It was like when she had him use his Quirk on her at the beach, he'd drawn a blank per say. Which was extremely lucky for both Izuku and Monoma. While Monoma wrestled on the ground with Ochako, Izuku made his move on Shinso, taking the fight to him.
"Eraser," Vlad said cautiously. "Midoriya's making a move."
"I'm watching," Aizawa replied simply.
And that was when Suri's eyes went wide again.
The black tendrils that had shot from Izuku's wrist before were back. This time though, they weren't going wild and he wasn't a rampaging mess. It looked like he was in control as he used two tendrils to grab sections of pipe near him and wield them as weapons. Shinso was able to dodge the attacks as they came for him, making a retreat just as Izuku fell to the ground in pain again. Suri watched closer as the black masses fizzled out and disappeared from sight, which only raised even more questions for her. Though she wasn't the only one who had a million questions of what the fuck was happening.
Even though the power fizzled away and left him hurt, the greenette still kept going and never showed an ounce of quit in him. She grumbled as Izuku took chase after Shinso and Ochako disappeared with Monoma so that, now that she was down in the battlefield, she had no idea what was happening. She wanted to go deeper and get a front row view of what was happening with her boyfriend, her girlfriend, and one of her best friends. She heard a few more explosions from what she realized was Shoda's Quirk in action, screams and especially loud grunts from what she believed to be Mina and Ochako. And of course the squealing that was ever prevalent thanks to Mineta and whatever the fuck was happening with him. Then there was another guttural yell that preceded a calm silence that overtook the entire battlefield.
That guttural yell sent shivers down Suri's spine, reverberated inside her core, made her eyes go wide and her mouth run dry. It was the same feral scream she'd heard the day of the entrance exams all the way back in February back at Dagobah Beach. The day she'd first laid eyes on Izuku and she and Atiena had that first flame of desire kindled inside them. It was him, declaring his triumph. And gods did that declaration do something for her and her beast.
"And with a clean 4-0 score! Victory goes to Class A!"
Suri took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, shuddering as it came out and she had to think of anything to get her mind off of Izuku. Or her mates. Or her playmates. Anything that was not sexy and could do things to Suri that every part of her being was screaming for. Anything!
"Kuroyashi."
Aizawa's voice made her flinch and jump from the surprise. She blinked rapidly and had to quickly relearn how to breathe before she turned her attention up to her teacher and she quickly nodded. He raised an eyebrow at her, looking at her like she was one of the biggest idiots he'd ever had the displeasure of teaching. To her credit, she was not one of the biggest idiots he'd ever taught. No, she was just one of his biggest pains in the ass right along with Izuku, Bakugou, and Todoroki.
"Walk and talk," he deadpanned as he turned back towards where the rest of the students were waiting and where the participants of Match 5 would be soon. Vlad King led the way this time as Aizawa not so subtly waited for the beast girl to get up and moving. "Two things. One, what the hell did you think you were doing? I thought you'd gotten smarter than to just rush into things. And two, you wanna tell me about what happened with Midoriya just now?"
"Honestly," Suri groaned as she followed Aizawa, picking pace and hopping through the tubes and twisted maze of metal and concrete back towards the platform. "To answer both of those; I don't know, sir."
"That's… illogical," he groaned, shaking his head.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But," Suri rolled her eyes and then thought long and hard about what had transpired. "Izuku was in trouble and I needed to help. I know most of it, okay all of it, is because of my feelings for him. I know that's illogical in your eyes. But more than that, again, he was in trouble and it's my duty as class representative, Lupra, and a hero to help."
Aizawa looked back at Suri for a long moment before he sighed and looked forward, letting his fast rest into a soft scowl as he thought of something. She sounded way too much like him.
"You need to learn more from All Might than just those little speeches," he grumbled. "It's great for being in front of the camera but it's still a useless gesture. Yes, we rush into situations all the time but we also have to be thinking of strategies and contingency plans. You need to work on your decision making skills a lot more. That's why Bakugou didn't respect you as a leader capable of coming up with a plan during your match."
"And his plan was much better than anything else?" Suri scoffed. "He didn't even let us get a chance to gameplan at all."
"Because you were too busy cosying up with your bedmates," Aizawa said bluntly.
"Excuse me!" Suri exclaimed in shock.
"I get that your kind is driven by your feral needs. Fine. But please, for the love of god, try harder to not drag your comrades down with you into depravity," Aizawa sighed. "We already have enough of that with a certain other faculty member."
"Hey! Depraved or not, I still do fan-fuckin-tastic in her class and I happen to be one of her favorites, so nyeh," Suri replied incredulously, turning up the brat factor and sticking her tongue out at her teacher. He simply shook his head and groaned before moving faster to get back to the other students and leave Suri in the dust.
"And that brings these five matches to a close. You showed us some great battles out there, proving how well you know your enemies and yourselves," Midnight announced. She'd made sure to wait until everyone had either gotten back to the platform or was just arriving before she began her commentary. Commentary that was far more unbiased compared to Vlad King. "Class B took one victory in Match 2 while holding Class A to a draw in Match 3. But with victories in Matches 1, 4, and 5, Class A is your winner!"
The mood of Class B soured as they all began to lament their losses. It was also made apparent they weren't the only ones not satisfied with their performances.
"Mr. Aizawa. I couldn't accomplish anything on my own. I'm still lacking," Shinso stated mournfully, clutching at the capture scarf he'd been wearing and trying to perfect. "And I'm guessing this was my Entrance Exam, wasn't it?"
"He knew?" Vlad King said, shocked from the response.
"We both did," Yumei answered while she and Shinso shared a glance.
"Based on the timing and the format, this was a perfect way for you to test us without costing you anything. Plus you let us fight twice," Shinso shrugged and Yumei nodded with her own shrug which said they were thinking the exact same thing.
"Hmm. They're sharp," Vlad King muttered under his breath while Aizawa said nothing.
"First, we have some post game analysis to go over," Mr. Aizawa finally said after a long moment of silence before he turned to face all of the students. "First off, Midoriya, what the hell happened out there?"
The whispering and rumors began to fly, creating a small static like buzz on the platform while Izuku tried to come up with some sort of explanation. Of course he couldn't tell anyone who didn't already know about One For All. So he did the best he could and danced around the topic at hand.
"I… still don't really know," he answered vaguely. "The power just welled up inside me and I couldn't control it. It's like something I believed in up until now all of sudden just turned on me. It was terrifying."
Way to go on confusing the audience even more Izuku. It also didn't help to subside the worry and fear in the gazes of Suri, Mina, Tooru, and Yumei as they watched him.
"But when Uraraka and Shinso tried to stop me, that helped me realize it wasn't bad at all. If Shinso hadn't used his brainwashing powers to knock me unconscious, I'm not sure what would have happened." After that small explanation he turned to face Shinso directly, "you asked if I was bluffing. I wasn't. I honestly have no idea what was happening so thank you. Both of you."
"That's true! Facing down Midoriya's little rampage Shinso and Uraraka both demonstrated some quick thinking and fast responses," Midnight commented excitedly/ "The way Uraraka put herself on the line to save her friend was truly spectacular. I loved it!"
"Yeah Chako! You just jumped right on him, quick as a whip," Mina commented deviously and giving her a mischievous glare as she got up into the brunette's face. "And you just wrapped him up in your arms real tight."
Ochako did an absolutely horrid job at hiding her full body blush and tried to not look at anyone as she started quietly panicking. It was something that didn't go unnoticed by anyone, especially Suri, Tsu, Tooru, Mina, Yumei, and Izuku himself.
"I-It's true that I acted before thinking so in the future I should try and keep a cooler head," Ochako admitted. "But… if the opposite is doing nothing and regretting it, I'm happier jumping in to help."
"You've matured a lot, Uraraka. Good job," Aizawa stated quietly.
"I wasn't just doing it for Midoriya's sake," Shinso added after a small lull of silence. "Uraraka gave me an order and I followed it. Plus I saw the other three getting attacked by that black energy and knew we'd probably lose if we didn't put a stop to it. I did what I did cause I wanted to fight Midoriya and beat him. It only worked out by chance but in the moment I was only focused on myself and what I wanted. I-"
Everyone had been so captivated by Shinso that no one noticed Aizawa walking up to him. Their teacher grabbed at the capture scarf around Shinso's neck and pulled it, practically strangling him in the moment. It was a good way to get him to shut up and stop lamenting his decisions or make himself seem more selfish than he actually was. Aizawa would have known because it was the exact same thing he did all the time.
"No one was asking any more from you than that," Aizawa lamented. "Everyone here has already spent months training to become heroes who save people. Embodying that ideal after throwing you in the deep end is impossible. That would take talent on par with All Might. Acting for the sake of others; saving people takes more than just that. You'll never protect anyone until you find whatever strength you need for yourself. That being said, Nagamaki." Aizawa continued before pausing and turning to the snake girl.
"Sir!" Yumei chirped, straightening herself up and going to attention as he addressed her. She'd practically almost saluted him.
"I would have liked to see more out of you," he stated directly, making Yumei flinch and look away in shame. "You've said yourself that you have a lot to prove. What do you think you showed us here today?"
"Part of me wants to say potential but honestly, probably not much," Yumei sighed, balling her fists and hanging her head. "In the first match I was completely unprepared for being on the battlefield and got separated from my team. I feel like there's a lot I could have done better like helping to eliminate Kendo or Komori. I could have been more cautious of Komori. Same in the second match. I don't think I was cautious enough or executed our plan good enough. I just could have done… more."
"Do you think I was asking for more out of your performance?" Aizawa asked.
"No sir. More out of myself," she replied, sighing in defeat. "I don't have the experience I need to keep up with the rest. I was hoping the little bit I do have would have helped but in the end. I'm still as inexperienced as I've ever been."
"Your actions in your second match prove otherwise," Aizawa stated flatly. It made Yumei look up, her brows curling into disbelief at what he'd just said. "Both of you. Your actions, even if they weren't satisfactory to yourselves, were more than enough for a passing grade."
"I-I… T-They were?" Yumei said with shock, speaking for both her and Shinso who's eyes went wide and he stared into the teacher's eyes in disbelief.
"Indeed," Aizawa said simply.
"We're going to continue evaluations," Vlad King interjected into the growing chatter of noise that was buzzing with excitement. "But, yeah, probably - no, most certainly! Shinso will be joining the Hero Course starting his second year."
"And I'm pleased to give my full recommendation to Miss Nagamaki, who will join the Hero Course as a first year," Principal Nezu added with his usual excited and pleased tone.
"Yu Yu, you did it!" Suri, Mina, Tooru, and Izuku exclaimed excitedly, all quickly crowding around her and happily hopping up and down around her.
Yumei began nervously laughing, looking back and forth between everyone. Her breathing increased rapidly and it looked like she would be sweating bullets nervously as she stammered and struggled to even speak at all. It was a lot to take in for her and even though she'd heard the words from Aizawa and Nezu, it was still hard to believe. She'd done it. She'd gone from a low level crook and nuisance to a girl that had gotten back onto the straight and narrow. This was it; she could finally see the path to being a hero right in front of her and that brightness made it possible for her to finally speak.
"Y-Yeah… I-I… I made it!"
A/N: Welcome back everyone. If you're reading this then we've gotten caught back up together after my session of rewrites and reworkings. Not a whole lot changed after removing the smut chapters but I thought there were some good updates to the story overall. Next week we'll be back to a single chapter per week schedule so you don't get the arc dumps anymore.
I'll leave it here with this. I can't believe how far Yumei has come in this story. She was written as a one off character back in the USJ meant to be just a throwaway villain but while I was writing that chapter something changed. Now she's a full fledged member of the group and she's come a helluva long way from just being this gal snake chick. Hopefully all of you have enjoyed her journey along with Suri's.
See ya'll next week and thank you for the continued support. Love you guys.