Chapter 30: Finals

It is now the week before exam week. It is here in which a lot people started to really panic.

Or in our class's case…

""I didn't study at all!""

Ashido and Kaminari, the lowest ranked people in our class are having a freak out over the upcoming exam that they are very ill-prepared for, in completely different ways. Kaminari is agonizing over the fact that he forgotten about the exam, while Ashido is laughing it off rather carefreely.

Although if you look closely, her smile looks a little forced…

"Between the Sports Festival and Hero Internship, it has totally slipped my mind!" The lighting teen cries out.

"Didn't you join us in our group study sessions, Mina-chan?" Tsuyu asked.

"Well, I didn't really get any of the materials…"

"All those hours… wasted…" I groaned out loud.

The past weeks of group study sessions with Ashido felt like I'm trying to teach a brick wall at times. No matter how much I tried to explain to her, she just gave me the same blank look every time. Add to the fact that she keeps bugging me about mine and Taikou's 'relationship' status every time…

How did she even pass the written entrance exam to begin with!?

"Midterms were, well… we haven't covered much since starting school, so they weren't all that tough." Satou noted, "But now we have all these other events, the finals are definitely going to much harder."

"And there's the practical exam to worry about." Tokoyami added, "The midterms didn't have one, so it is a mystery how is to be conducted."

It is a mystery, with exception to me at least.

"Let's do our best, Kaminari-kun, Ashido-san!" Midoriya encourages them, "It'll be great if we can all go to the training camp, right?"

"Yes!" Iida agrees with great vigor, "If you work hard, you are assured to prevail!"

"Haven't you been attending class?" Todoroki pointed out, "How could you possibly fail?"

"Argh! Words really hurt; you know!" Kaminari cries out.

"Um…If it's academics you need help with, I could lend you two a hand." Yaoyorozu offers them, "The practical on the other hand…"

"Thank you, Yaomomo!" Ashido cheered.

"Yaoyorozu-san, as a warning, Ashido-san isn't easy to teach." I warned her.

"You're just a bad teacher, Genko-chan!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"I-I'm not exactly bad as them, but…" Jirou bashfully walked up to her and asked, "Mind helping me out as well? Quadratic equations are kind of tripping me up…"

"Ah, me too! You're good with classic Japanese, right, Yaoyorozu?" Sero asked as well.

"And me too?" Ojirou shyly asked too, "There's somethings I still don't get…"

"O-Oh… OH! Y-Yes, of course!" Yaoyorozu accepts happily, "Then let's hold a study session at my place! I'll have to get mother's permission to open the lecture hall for this… ah, what kind of tea do you all prefer? We always stock on…"

The moment the discussion turns to tea, I ignored the bluntness and difference in monetary status and turns to Kirishima, "So, one last session this weekend?"

"Oh, definitely. I think I'm starting to get physic equations down."

"That's great to hear. Oh, and Taikou wanted to know if you are down for some sparring practice afterschool today?"

"Sure. Same place, same time?"

"Yup."

I have also been using the past weeks to get my body and quirk back into proper working form. If I were to prevent Bakugou from getting captured by the League, I would need to past this exam and not end up in the supplementary group with Aizawa and Vlad King. Sero and Ashido would do great with trapping the villains with his tape, and Kirishima and Satou are strong tanks if they need to be.

And if all else fails, we can have Kaminari just kamikaze them.

Also, Kirishima turns out to have a good affinity with boxing. Considering his hardening quirk, that might be a good thing. He has a slow, but incredibly strong right hook.

"Hey, Genko-chan." Hagakure whispers to me, shocking me as I didn't realize she was that close to me, "Just wondering but… Do you have any idea what the practical exam is going to be like?"

"Oh… um… no?"

"So, you do know, don't you!?" She cries out, "I bet Hermes-sensei told you, didn't he!"

"Hey! That's favoritism!" Kaminari shouted at me.

"No, no! Dad didn't tell me anything about the practical, I swear!" I assures her, "And even if I did, I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, not even my class!"

"Come on! Show us some kindness here!" Kaminari cried, "At least give us a hint!"

"I told you, I don't know!"

Speaking of dad, he has been acting pretty weird lately… I wonder if that has anything to do with the exam changes…?


Then, after afternoon classes are over…

"Robots? Really!? Oh, that's a relief!"

I grimaced at Midoriya's info from Kendo as I packed my bag. I've heard the same information from Taikou as well, something we both already know that it would be case normally.

It was mostly curiosity when I was in middle school, but dad told me, and by extension Taikou, that the practical is basically pitting us against the robots from the entrance exam. It's mostly to gauge how much the students have grown over the months since their admittance into the Hero Course.

But that is before Nezu changed it in accordance with all the rising Villain activities over the past weeks into a combat exam against the teachers, against Pro Heroes. Something I knew that dad knows about but didn't tell me anything. The only reason I know of this is because of my memories of the canon timeline.

But seeing as my very existence has altered the canon timeline greatly, as with Ingenium still being on active duty and not confined to a wheelchair for life, I'm not sure how this is going to change.

Then again, this is just an exam, so I doubt there would be much change, like with the Sports Festival. But it would be nice if more people pass the practical exams. At least we have more people to rely on when the League of Villains inevitably attack the camp.

"Yeah! Against robots, we just let loose for an easy win!"

"Woohoo! Summer camp, here we come!"

I'm not really one to rain on their parade, but…

"I think it might change though." I pointed out, getting both their attention and pulling the metaphoric rug from under them as I continued on, "We have an infiltration in UA just two months ago, and Hosu city was attacked by a group of the same monsters. Do you really think that the practical exams would be the same as previous and more peaceful years after those two major incidents?"

That should be enough to convince them to not underestimate the practical exams. Hopefully.

"Y-You think so?" Kaminari stated, "But aren't you perhaps overthinking things?"

"Ah… Tatsuya-san does have a point there." Midoriya noted, "It wouldn't be strange if they would change the exam details to suit the current increased Villain activities… and that not mentioning the fact that-"

"Humans, robots, I'd just blast them all away." Bakugou noted as he packed up, "It makes no difference either way, so why's make such a big fuss over it, morons?"

"Who are you calling a moron, moron!?" Kaminari shouted at him.

"Shut up! You're the moron that couldn't even figure out how to dial back his own quirk after two months of training!" That harsh remark has stunned everyone as he turns to Midoriya, "Hey, Deku! It seems to me that you're starting to manage that dumb quirk of yours. Either way, stop copying me!"

"Does he mean the other day when Deku-kun was moving about like Bakugou…?" Uraraka wondered.

"But he also moved like Naru-kun, too." Tsuyu pointed out, "In fact, I think he move more like Naru-kun than Bakugou."

"I'm not looking for some hollow victory like at the Sports Festival!" The explosive teen shouted angrily, "When it comes to our term grades, like or not, I'm going to crush you into dust! I'll open up the gulf between our abilities so wide, that it'll kill you dead! You too, half-and-half!"

With those last words, he left the classroom, loudly slamming the door on the way out. You can hear the loud stomping of his steps echoing down the hallway.

"Yikes. Haven't seen Bakugou like that in a while." Kirishima noted.

"Is it uneasiness? Or perhaps sheer hatred?" Tokoyami pointed out.

"A little of both, I think…" I muttered under my breath.

If I remember the timeline right, this is one of the many moments down the road that Bakugou would have to face the fact that his misplaced grudge with Midoriya isn't good for his future. That he needs to curb his ego and get over his inferiority complex if he is going to get stronger as both a Hero and a person.

Hopefully, with Midoriya being way better skilled than the one I know of, it would change for the better…


The days flew past us and soon enough, it is exam week.

The written exams are split through the week, with each day dedicated to at least two subjects for the morning and afternoon period. Thanks to Yaoyorozu great tutoring (Which Ashido would never stop teasing me about), Kaminari and Ashido manages to get through them without a chance of failing.

And soon enough, it is the day of the practical exam.

Everyone is all geared up in our Hero costume, ready for whatever the exam is going to throw at us, all assembled at the bus stop where the teachers are waiting for us.

"Hm?"

I scanned the teachers that are to be our examiners for the practical. Most of the canon group is here, but I didn't see Nemuri-nee among them. That is odd. Did they have a change in staff? Is she going to be testing Class 1-B instead of us?

If that's the case, then most of the plans I came up with to counter her would be for naught…

"Now that everyone is here, let's prepare for the practical exam." Aizawa tells us, "It is, of course, possible to fail this exam. If you want to attend the training camp, then don't mess this up."

"That's quite a lot of teachers for one exam…" Jirou noted as she turns to me, "You might be right about the change in exam details."

"Shouldn't we wait for him?" Thirteen noted.

"It's his fault for the last minute change…" Our homeroom teacher grumbles before continuing, "Knowing you guys, you probably asked around and you might think you have a vague idea of how this will go."

"It's a robot rumble, like the entrance exam! …right?" Kaminari hesitantly asked.

"Not quite!"

As if on cue, Principal Nezu popped out of Aizawa's scarf like a rabbit in a magician hat, "Due to various circumstances, we have revised the exam format!"

"A revision…?" Yaoyorozu noted in shock.

"Told you." I tell the two class idiots; both of them stunned still from the sudden difficulty spike for them.

"Well, you see…"

He then proceeds to explain to us how the exam committee, after reviewing the past exams and considering the fact that more battles against Villains are going to be the norm moving forward, come to the consensus that the usual robot rumble practical exam isn't going to cut it in the current Hero climate, especially with the League of Villains active and causing havoc.

And to their defense, the whole robot rumble idea was originally a way to avoid the claims and suspicions that people are harmed in the entrance exam.

"As such, from now on, we'll focus on battles against flesh and blood opponents. It is critical that our teaching simulates practical experience as closely as possible!" Nezu declares to us, "As such, you students are pairing up, and fighting our teachers here!"

"Against… our teachers…!?"

"Your pairings and assigned teacher have already been decided." He explained, "Your battle moves, your grades, your friendships with one another, all those factors and more are judged when picking them."

"Wait, then won't we have a pair left behind?" Iida pointed out, "There're not enough teachers for this to work!"

"No, it's just one of them is late, no thanks to his late minute suggestion…" Aizawa grumbled.

"Sorry! Sorry!" A very familiar voice calls out as a blur zig-zags down the street and skidding to a stop in front of us, "I got too into warming up that I lost track of time."

Words are lost to me when I saw the last examiner I definitely did not expect to be here. Thankfully, Midoriya decided to say what I was going to scream anyways.

"H-Hermes-sensei!?"

Omake


Sorry. No omake this chapter… -_-|||


A short one, this chapter is.

Sorry, I've been checking out the Star Wars lore for the past week.

Well, this chapter mostly a bridging point towards the next arc, so it can't helped for the short length of it. Hopefully, the next one would be better…

With that, I thank you for reading this!