Shoji and Todoroki were acting as Heroes, while Ojiro and Hagakure were the villains. Many of the other students, watching from afar, suspected that the villains had the advantage. Hagakure's Pocket Monster could turn invisible, and Ojiro had clearly been maximizing his Atavist skills. They had the advantage on stealth and physical strength. The only wildcard was that no one really knew what the two Heroes could do.

--

"Do we have a plan?" The Ork asked the trainer.

While the trainer in question was dismissive towards him, for once he felt that it wasn't due to his heritage as an Ork. The boy merely seemed to dismiss everyone.

"You're a hermetic mage, correct?"

"Yes," Shoji answered uncomfortably, somewhat impressed that a trainer knew enough to ask that.

"Can you access the Astral Plane?" That…was even more impressive. "Find out where they are, and then I can handle them."

Well, that dismissal was a bit annoying, but the first part of the plan was solid enough. Shoji had little issue channeling his Essence until it left his physical body. While his form slumped over in a meditative position, his spirit passed into the building, checking wall after wall until he stumbled upon their enemies, the girl standing back and letting her Pocket Monster blend into the colors of its surroundings, becoming invisible to the mundane eye, and the boy used his tail to cling to the ceiling. With anyone else, they would have been well-hidden.

The ambush was expertly planned, and the girl clearly knew how to play to her Monster's strengths, her own ability to hide complementing it perfectly. It was just too bad they had no protection from Astral Sight. Shoji felt no guilt. Such unlucky breaks were part-in-parcel of being a Hero.

When he returned to his body, informing Todoroki of their precise location and how their ambush was set up, the trainer nodded. He then ran forward without further words.

--

"Sableye, Night Shade," Todoroki muttered while pointing in the direction Shoji had pointed out.

Sure enough, a bipedal chameleon with a zigzag pattern across its stomach flickered into existence. Said zigzag started to glow gray, then turn transparent. As anticipated, the Kecleon instinctively turned into a Ghost-Type. A perfectly fine strategy with most types, but not with this one.

"Shadow Punch," he murmured, letting the now super-effective move hit right at the target that thought it was at an advantage. He didn't even bother ordering Sableye to dodge the monkey's kick. Ojiro passed right through his Pocket Monster, to the boy's surprise, prompting Hagakure to shout that it was a Ghost-Type.

"Psybeam!" She shouted, which caused Todoroki to have his first real emotional reaction throughout the entire fight. Not because his victory had come into question, it was just as useless a move as a physical attack, as they learned to their dismay when it did nothing, but because it was an advantage bought from Sableye's Dark-type. What he inherited from…that man.

--

Hagakure let the situation get her down, causing her to do nothing when Ojiro decided that, if they couldn't do anything to the Pocket Monster, they could still go for the trainer. Unfortunately, without his partner actually helping him, that meant getting past the Pocket Monster.

He could block its attacks…decently well, he supposed, better than a non-Atavist could at least, but he couldn't see a way past it without letting his own guard down. Plus, he guessed that Todoroki was hardly a slouch when it came to physical matters in his own right; the boy's physique and implied work ethic thus far indicated it.

While probably no match for an Atavist, he wasn't an opponent to easily take down alone…the words proved prophetic as Todoroki grabbed his arms while Ojiro was dodging one of Sableye's attacks, demanding he yield. When the next strike from Sableye scarred his back before Ojiro could escape, he agreed to Todoroki's demands. Hagakure, seeing that her partner was down and her best strategies had failed, also held her hands up in surrender.

--

"Well, that second match took up a lot less time than the first," All-Might noted.

He had wanted to ease the palpable tension in the room, but a quick glance showed that he had failed. The first bout of the day had turned out to be far more intense and full of twists and turns than he anticipated for a group of freshmen in what amounted to a show-off session.

The second wasn't so much lackluster in comparison but so one-sided as to be a little embarrassing for the losing team.

The first group left both sides roughed up far more than they should have been, while the second group showed far less than he was expecting.

"So, now that four of your classmates have shown their mettle," Hagakure, Ojiro, and even Shoji did not look pleased by that compliment, nor did Iida for that matter, while Bakugo continued to stare in shock, "what do you think they did right and wrong? Or, before we get to such a broad and detailed question, who were the MVP's of both fights?"

A lot of students started muttering. While none were confident enough to voice their thoughts out loud, he vaguely heard Midoriya and Todoroki popping up quite a bit, causing him to suppress a grin with what he anticipated to be a surprise.

That was, at least, until Yaoyorozu spoke up. "Tenya Iida in the first one. He was the only one who consistently stuck to the objective. While Bakugo and Midoriya used the time to settle a personal grudge, Ururaka went along with Midoriya's plan, a plan that only worked because of the conditions of the exercise. With an actual bomb, disarming it the way they did would be foolhardy and ineffective. How would Baltoy disable it, and that monstrosity would have made an actual bomb explode earlier with its actions. Iida focused on defending the bomb the entire time, quickly assessed his opponent's weaknesses and held his own easily even with a type-advantage, and tried his best to adapt to an unexpected situation."

"For the second one, while Todoroki seems like the obvious choice, it could be argued that Shoji had the best teamwork, putting his skills toward the objective as a whole and negating the opposing team's advantages when his teammate chose to work by himself in a team exercise, even when it was less than optimal."

All-Might nodded to hide his grimace. She basically said everything he had planned to say, robbing him of his first opportunity to wow the children with his wisdom.

He quickly amended, "I also want to give credit to Ojiro for adapting his strategy rather than giving up when the situation turned against him."

Hagakure slumped over in shame, realizing the chastisement hidden behind the praise. He wasn't going to single her out here. That could use a discussion later.

--

Yaoyorozu herself ended up a villain in the next match-up, fighting beside Mineta. 'Fighting' wasn't exactly the right word to describe it, as he was mostly staring at her ass while she leaned over to direct her drones in setting up traps around the entranceways. If asked, he would simply say that he trusted in his clearly competent partner, even if no one would have been fooled. Said partner herself would only be fooled by the fact she was studiously ignoring his stares.

The fact that there were plenty of things Wurmple could have done (trap-laying was arguably one of the Monster's specialties), belied such a claim, but he couldn't miss this opportunity to get up, close, and personal with that body…he had to resist the urge to leap onto her and hide when one of her drones started launching rubber bullets.

--

Kaminari and Jirou stared at the building they were expected to infiltrate. Fortunately, the place they had to reach was pretty obvious; the cyberpunk drones weren't exactly subtle in what they were guarding. Unfortunately, Jirou didn't have an immediate plan for how to get past them. Nor for avoiding the stream of bullets currently assailing them.

"I have to say, they'd probably be easy enough for me to fry," Kaminari awkwardly admitted.

"Sure, but what do we do afterward," Jirou wondered, completely missing how concerned he felt about his own suggestion. "We need some intelligence on what they're doing up there. Or I guess we'll just have to go in, guns blazing."

Noting how much time was passing, Jirou was ready to go for that option, much more than her partner was.

"So, you ready to start this show?" Whismur shouted something beside her, but Kaminari merely stared at Pichu in embarrassment.

"Um, well, you see…"

"Come on, it's time, fry those robots before they can take us out!"

Receiving an order from such a pretty girl did something to him. It made him ignore his hesitation, move forward with his goal in mind, and shout out, at the top of his lungs, "Pichu, Thundershock!"

--

Contrary to how the tale would be told later, the Hero team in this round did not eliminate itself in one attack while the Villains literally sat and did nothing. Pichu's electrical burst did, in fact, fry several of Yaoyorozu's drones, before the little mouse lost control and sent the same overcharged wave of energy crashing down onto itself, Whismur, and both human trainers.

Three of them were still kind of standing, albeit with a bit of effort, and it actually took Mineta exploiting the opportunity to have Wurmple launch a String Shot at them before they were officially down, but yeah, there was no way to honestly present the events as they occurred and have Kaminari come out looking good. Jirou only came out better by technicality; as All-Might pointed out later, she did have the chance to learn about her partner's potential weaknesses before giving him orders, even if he was more at fault for not explaining them.

There was a small degree of debate over the role of MVP; some pointed out that all of Yoyorozu's defenses were destroyed and Mineta actually caught the villains, while others noted that he just mopped up and that she did most of the important work, and would probably have accomplished a lot more in any other match-up.

All-Might himself sided with young Yaoyorozu, briefly scolding young Mineta for doing so little to aid his partner, before calling out the next group.

--

The next fight was far more in line with what All-Might expected when he started these battle trials. Sero and Kirishima prepared a defense, sort of, with Sero's Bellsprout getting into position to attack anything from a distance while Kirishima held a hardened Metapod like a club, and Asui and Tokoyami chose separate angles to attack from.

Asui exploited her inhuman dexterity to cling to the walls and move silently, striking Kirishima when his back was turned, while Tokoyami had Murkrow distracting Bellsprout while he himself attempted to evade Kirishima and Asui's fight to move toward the bomb. Sero tried to intercept his opposing trainer, devolving the entire thing into a stalemate that lasted until Bellsprout collapsed from a disastrously impactful Peck from Murkrow and Tokoyami's Pocket Monster was free to assist him.

All four admitted that the fights were filled with close calls, and no one was willing to suggest that they were the 'MVP.' All-Might handed the title to Tokoyami anyways.

--

A part of All-Might was mildly disappointed that the last fight turned out to be the last remaining non-trainers opposing two trainers; part of UA's less official mission was to foster peace between the races, not encourage more division than already existed, but he remembered that he had chosen this randomized method and simply hoped that no one took any moral lessons from this.

--

Mina found herself performing all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers to dodge the humanoid rhino in front of her. Luckily, she was an expert at those very maneuvers, especially since her partner wasn't proving particularly useful at facing off against the equally large goblin that was sending out bursts of energy toward him.

He kept trying to pose, showing off his 'sparkles,' while his Pocket Monster kept shouting in excitement while not really doing anything. Her Pocket Monster wasn't doing anything either, but that was because it was waiting for just the right moment…there!

As the Atavist called on his physical gifts to enhance his strength even further, he charged forward with his horn jutted out like an actual rhino. This gave Slugma the perfect opportunity to move its semi-liquid body into his way and have the lummox slip over its pseudo-lava. While hardly as hot as real molten rock, it was hot enough to have Sato screaming in pain.

"Ember!" She shouted as she herself went for a jumping kick. Her Pocket Monster's attack was brutal, making her opponent scream in pain even more.

Her own attack just sprained her ankle. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" As she gripped herself in pain and tried to focus, Sato reacted to his pain by flailing his arms around randomly. She got hit. Of course she did.

--

Koda was slightly glad that his opponent wasn't attacking directly. He hated violence, and had gotten into this profession with hopes of helping people. He hated getting hurt even more.

Unfortunately, he did understand that he couldn't avoid fighting in all circumstances, and so he needed to push forward and send forth more Power Darts…which Aoyama continued to barely dodge. At this rate, the Drain was going to hit him badly.

Focusing on his opponent, he went for a different tactic. "Decrease Quickness," he muttered under his breath, calling on the power of Bear, on the very concept of Bear, and striking down the enemy's body like a prey animal that moved too quickly yet impertinently.

Sure enough, he saw his opponent slowing down, struggling to move. It was causing more Drain than he'd expected, but Koda was certain that he could get in there and just barely overpower the slowed-down shiny boy, capturing him and getting the win…the Pocket Monster, the bizarre cat-sized sunflower seed with a face, sent two razor-sharp leaves at him when Koda charged its master. It was the first thing the creature had done throughout the whole fight.

Surprise, rather than power, let it cut into Koda's shoulder and draw blood. It hurt more than he was expecting. He felt like a cornered bear, cuddling and passive, merely wanting to be left alone, until some ingrate poked and prodded and wouldn't let go until the bear showed him why it was a bad idea…

--

All-Might was now tempted to stop the fight, seeing as two of the students appeared to be going on mindless rampages. While it happened, it was always a bad thing and not what he wanted for his Battle Trials.

Unfortunately, indulging Izuku's mental state earlier meant that he had no excuse to stop this fight after letting the first one escalate so far.

He might have thought more on a potential excuse if someone, he didn't know who, spoke up about 'the animal and the monster going wild' and the exact concerns he noted at the start of the fight showed up once more.

Looking back at the group, Young Asui and Young Shoji looked pissed off, while Young Ojiro was staring aghast.

Young Yaoyorozu spoke up. "Nothing they are doing is worse than what that trainer with the Voltorb did earlier!"

"Well, yeah, but that was one trainer, not all the trainers on a team," Sero pointed out, earning him several glares.

While All-Might considered how best to approach this topic, he found himself paralyzed by the question of whether it would, at this point, be better to stop the fight because the non-trainers were rampaging and ending the bad optics, or keep it going because stopping the fight now would mean that everyone remembered it as the battle where the troll and the rhino atavist went crazy and had to be put down by their teacher.

--

Luckily for their teacher, Sato calmed himself down when he noticed Mina being sent flying, and, noting that one of his opponents was hit badly and the other was unnaturally slowed down by a spell his partner had managed, he charged. Neither trainer was able to regain focus fast enough to stop his next attacks.

--

When the victor of that match was finally declared, All-Might noted Sato as the MVP for managing to bring himself back from a perilous situation. He noted that all of four of them had a lot to work on, in particular pointing out that Aoyama almost seemed unused to the idea of even having a Pocket Monster.

Before letting them go to reflect on what they'd seen that day, the Pro-Hero remembered the earlier exchange during the last fight and brought up something he hoped got through to them.

"I want you children to remember to work on and improve your Unnatural talents. You all have potential, and weaknesses, and all of you have something to contribute to our society."

He put a lot of emphasis on the word 'all,' hoping that they understood he was referring all 'three' of the categories gathered here. They nodded in agreement. From their facial expressions, he doubted that it made any real impact, but that was an issue to unpack in the future.

--

Bakugo was completely unconcerned with whatever message All-Might thought he was trying to deliver with that 'all' nonsense. He was too busy focused not just on his loss, but how said loss compared to the victories that the other teams managed to pull off.

The last two had been fairly even match-ups, and that embarrassment in the middle told him nothing about the winners and only that the losers were truly just extras, but that second fight…Todoroki had outshone him. Effortlessly taking down both opponents by himself, the way Bakugo thought he could have, and barely taking a hit in return…did he take a hit in return?

Bakugo couldn't remember, and that was screwing him up just as much as his loss to Midoriya was. He was the best. He always had been. It never occurred to him how small a sample size he was really working with before…no, he was not about to cry, not about to break down.

When the bell rang to let them know classes were over for the day, he was the first to leave the classroom. It was definitely not to hide his emotions from everyone else. That would be ridiculous. What did he care about those extras?

Midoriya ran up too him, apparently trying to talk to him about something. Was he here to gloat? No, it turned out that that would have been an improvement.

"I'm sorry Kacchan, but you have to understand," Bakugo didn't hear what the boy had to say next, as he was too stuck in his own head after the first sentence.

Sorry? Sorry? Did Useless of all people just pity him? It was just like when they were children. When he had fallen into that pond and Midoriya had no faith that he could save himself, in spite of the fact that Bakugo was obviously so much better than him. Just like how he'd down looked down on Bakugo all these years, hiding his Pocket Monster's real strength.

And now, he couldn't dismiss it, not with that Ttodoroki kid objectively being better than him…"can it, useless!" He shouted. "I'll just get better. If I'm not actually the best now, if I'm not better than any of you extras, then I'll become the best. It's a better origin story anyways."

That was all the pair had to say to one another. At least, Bakugo had no interest in continuing the conversation, and walked away as Useless started saying some incoherent nonsense about Magikarp having been 'given' new power. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

--

Momo Yaoyorozu was finding the upcoming conversation much more difficult than she thought. Having known racism against her kind as an abstract force that tormented and oppressed others but never having actually dealt with a significant amount personally, she had all sorts of images in her head about confronting and what it would look like.

That one weird boy from the Recommendation Exams had already exposed her to comments born from earnest ignorance, and now she had comments from her classmates that…she didn't know how to respond to. She had thought that hate would be easy to recognize and destroy, even if 'destroy' merely meant standing up to her own satisfaction, but now it was uncomfortable. On top of that, it wasn't really 'hate,' though it wasn't 'earnest' either.

Sero had made mention of a flaw in both Atavists and Trolls, or at least shamans dedicated to Bear, that were…well, based on an accurate assessment of what the two in question were doing at the time. But Sero had been so rude about it, and her pride as an elf couldn't let that slide.

Then again, she also felt uncomfortable rocking the boat by making it an issue. When reading about hate-crimes, she had always scoffed at this very attitude, but now she understood just how anxiety-inducing starting these conversations could be.

Steeling herself, she found Sero as he was leaving the school and confronted him. Politely, but still a confrontation. "Listen, I wanted to talk to you about your comments earlier."

Sero rolled his eyes, and held his hands up in apology. "Listen, I'll admit that the word 'monster' was a bit offensive, and I shouldn't have worded it that way, but if they know that's a weakness then they need to work on it if they want to be Pro-Heroes. You can't say it isn't true."

Momo sighed, trying to figure out how to go about this tactfully. "But you didn't just criticize their lack of control, you explicitly tied it to their race. You didn't say anything about Bakugo or Midoriya, in spite of both of them showing similar issues with rampaging, and I also didn't hear anything about Kaminari and his clear control issues."

Sero looked uncomfortable, and chose to deflect rather than answer her point. "Hey, I'm no trainer supremacist or anything. I've got no problem with Metas or Atavists, and anyone who wants Metas or Atavists killed or kicked out of schools or anything like that can take a long walk off a short pier. Or better yet, put all of the Humanis and other types like that with all the Tir Na nOg guys, and let them kill each other off so us normal people can get along without them."

She…had no response to that. While being familiar enough with rhetoric to note that he had switched to a different but related issue rather than discuss the issue at hand, probably without consciously understanding that he had done so judging from his displayed intellect, she also recognized that he had at least an abstract understanding that looking down on non-trainers was wrong, whether he knew enough to apply it or not.

She might have been satisfied with that, had he not gone on to categorize Tir na nOg, an organization dedicated promoting the cause of Meta-Humans (with admittedly some extreme methods), to organizations dedicated to letting Trainer-supremacists spread their hate…

"I can agree to that," Shoji noted before she could say anything. "We'd all be better off without those hate groups. Still, Yaoyorozu here is right. If you're going to criticize someone, criticize what they're doing wrong, not what they're doing as a member of their race. You can keep that in mind, right?"

They were all amenable, which should have been a good thing, but Momo still felt like things hadn't been properly settled. Oh well. If the issues between the three categories could be solved with a single conversation, they already would have been.