All Might put a deep gouge into the road as he skidded along it. He was moving around almost faster than Ochako and the others could see, but there was an upside. The massive form of the number one hero hurtled around Ground Beta, blowing holes in buildings with his incredible speed as he sped through the cityscape, unable to stop himself. He was under the effects of Zero Gravity, which he'd never experienced before, so it was her theory that he was unused to managing his power when the familiar force of gravity was taken away. Thus, he was more akin to a natural disaster than an opponent they could fight at that moment, but again, there was an upside. If he was too busy tearing Ground Beta apart, then All Might wouldn't have any time for the three students he was supposed to be fighting. Ochako, Iida and Mineta sped down the main street of the training grounds toward the exit, hoping that their innate speeds would allow them the haste to pass the exam by escaping the grounds before All Might regained control of himself. It was a pretty clever plan, if Ochako said so, even if she'd stumbled into it by complete accident through a reflexive use of her Quirk. Nobody else needed to know that part, though.

Her jubilation didn't last. A gigantic blur of red, white, blue and yellow came down from the sky and crashed into the street ahead of the three of them. Ochako, Iida and Mineta stopped and waited for the dust cloud kicked up in All Might's wake to clear, and when it did, the hero himself emerged in mid-air, hovering a metre or so off the ground. All Might twitched his legs toward the ground as Mineta threw a volley of balls at him, and the wind pressure generated by that gentle kick propelled him upward a few metres and allowed him to dodge the attack. Ochako's heart started beating as she realised that All Might was getting used to Zero Gravity and was learning how to adjust his power output without the limiting force of gravity. Ochako pressed all her fingertips together and made him fall back to the ground, at the same time that Mineta launched another wave of balls at the ground beneath him. All Might crashed to the ground and landed right on top of Mineta's balls, and the three students shot each other grinning glances in the moment where All Might struggled against the binding balls' strength.

When the students looked back at All Might, he flexed every muscle in his body and immediately shattered the road underneath him. The balls did not relent in their binding power, but the road was not so lucky as to stay together in one piece. All Might stood up, and chunks of the road were still stuck to his back like the shell of a turtle, ripped right off their foundations with the same effort anyone else might give to separating two slices of cheese. Ochako's heart dropped into her stomach. She'd always hated the kind of video games where environmental attacks had just as much chance to affect the player as it did the enemies. If none of them had an attack that could shatter that debris, then they would only be able to attack All Might from the front from now on, which meant that they could only attack him in the way he was most likely to counter. At least the debris would slow him down now that he also had his gravity back. Maybe. Ochako quickly wheeled around and slapped the metal shoulder part of Iida's armour, and a pink flash glowed around him for an instant. Iida nodded to her, and even though Ochako couldn't see his face, the meaning was clear.

She and Iida lifted off the ground, both under the effects of Zero Gravity. Ochako began to bounce back and forth between the ruined buildings, building up speed for an attack. Iida had no need for that, however, as blue fire streamed out of his exhaust pipes and propelled him forward so fast that he seemingly teleported to All Might. The kick landed on All Might's forearm, which came up to defend against the attack just as fast, if not faster. Ochako realised that no matter how much his body was weighed down, All Might's reflexes would be just as quick as always. If they made him unable to move his arms and legs, that would be ideal, but just weighing them down was the most they were likely to do. All Might batted Iida away, and he soared through the air, but Ochako intercepted him before he could get too high up. She leapt up and hooked her arm onto his at the elbow, and their momentum did the rest of the work in spinning them around so that Iida went racing back toward the ground and Ochako flailed toward a building, which she kicked off of to continue building speed.

Iida made another pass at All Might, this time going for a low kick, while Ochako went high with a kick aimed for the head. Both of their attacks landed at the same time, and Ochako returned their gravity at just the right time for all the acceleration to transform into force at the moment of impact, which — to the kids' surprise — forced All Might to take a single step back. It wasn't enough to overwhelm him, though, as he used his unrivalled power to bat them away with an arm and a leg. The use of his leg did force him into staggering several steps to the left, though, as he became unbalanced from his reckless move. Ochako and Iida landed on their feet, and watched as All Might stumbled right over a patch of the road that was covered in Mineta's balls. The three kids cheered as All Might's first foot got stuck, which caused him to quickly adjust the other one to prevent losing his balance with the gigantic piece of rubble on his back. His second foot got stuck due to his inability to bend down and watch where he was going, unless he wanted to tip forward and eat cement due to his luggage. Then, his movements caused him to fall backward, and the chunk of cement on his back became stuck as well.

"Alright!" Ochako said with a wide smile. "Now let's book it while he's down!"

Iida's engines stalled at that very moment. When he attempted to run, his exhaust pipes emitted smoke and he paused. Ochako wasted no time in running up to him and using her Quirk on the both of them, and they held onto each other in the air as she talked him through how to leap around in Zero Gravity. Mineta bounced along the ground below them as the three of them made their escape, and they were making good time. They had ten or so minutes left to get out of the arena, and they could see the exit getting closer at the end of the main road. They could really win!

The sound of cement breaking apart and heavy scraping followed them down the street. The students looked back the way they'd come while still moving forward as fast as they could. All Might had freed himself, as expected, and he'd become a cement monstrosity. Two big blocks of road stuck to the bottoms of his feet, from where he'd gotten stuck initially. Piled atop the already heavy debris that had been stuck to his back was a much larger patch of the road that had come with him. It would've been a miracle that he was standing if it hadn't been All Might she was seeing pull off such a feat of raw strength. One For All, she reminded herself, was a mighty force. It was a force that would be hers in the future, if she was lucky. That was a frightening thought, but she put it away for the moment. She had an exam to win. All Might was determined to win as always, though, and leapt after them. His strength and speed must have been severely reduced, however, both by the bands he wore on his wrists and ankles and by the tonnes of rubble he had to have been carrying by that point. There was also the fact that All Might wasn't as strong as he used to be, on account of his injury. His leap was only enough to just miss the kids.

All Might's second leap had him landing almost directly on top of Mineta, who scrambled out of the way using his balls as trampolines. The road all around All Might shattered and cracked apart under his weight, and Ochako was distinctly reminded of Izuku's power by the way the shockwave spread through the ground like deep cracks. She pushed that to the back of her mind and focused on finding a way to ground him permanently. Ochako spun around and launched Tenya at the ground and herself at All Might, who was much easier to get a lock on now that he was slowed down so much. She negated her Quirk as they both fell toward the ground, and she landed atop All Might's cement shell to no effect. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but her own weight having now bearing on All Might's focus was a little anticlimactic. She ignored that and used her Quirk on the rubble weighing All Might down, which did have an immediate effect. All Might's entire body rose up, his posture right and his body relaxed now that he had none of the weight bearing down on him anymore. In that moment of pleasant surprise, Ochako then negated her Quirk, causing all that weight to come crashing down on him once again. All Might let out a few noises of effort, and Ochako grinned. This was the way they were going to beat him. They couldn't outrun him, they couldn't overpower him, so they had to make All Might use up his power and wear himself out. It was a weakness the others didn't know All Might had, but Ochako knew.

Using her Quirk this way made her stomach want to escape her body through her throat, but Ochako made the rubble on All Might's back weightless and returned it to normal six or seven times in the next few seconds, and kept on going even when her body begged her to stop. She kept forcing All Might to constantly adjust his posture and use his strength on and off to remain standing, she forced him to take that impossible weight with inconsistent, random periods of relief that only lasted a second. His complaints were old-timey, and cutesy in a way because he was just like that, but Ochako knew it had to be tough to deal with that kind of strain, even for All Might. He wasn't as strong as he used to be. It was hell on Ochako's stomach, so she needed it to be at least a little bit hard on him, just for her own peace of mind. The already ruined road beneath them cracked and broke apart even more from the repeated stresses of the weight vanishing and then returning at random intervals. All Might got lower to the ground the longer it went on, and Iida and Mineta started cheering.

"Try all you want, but you can't overpower me," All Might said. "Do you think the Symbol of Peace would fall to three children?"

"Go!" Ochako looked at them with a blazing fire in her eyes. "Get to the exit. I'll be right behind you!"

The boys started running right away. Iida used one of his Quirk's lower gears, probably to avoid stressing his engines so much after using his big move earlier. Mineta bounced along his personal trampolines, almost faster than Iida given his holding back. Ochako negated the rubble's weight again and pushed off of it so that the sheer enormity of it, even if it weighed nothing, pushed All Might to the ground in the split second before he regained his composure. She then returned its gravity and used her Quirk on herself as she landed back on the ground. Ochako pushed off the ground and sped after her friends, leaving a hopefully weakened and tired All Might in her wake. Her momentum carried her through the air just a metre or so off the ground, and she caught up quickly to the others within a few leaps. The three of them sped down the street, propelled by their Quirks and the fear of finding out what would happen if they didn't give their escape plan the plus ultra mindset. Iida was getting faster by the second as his engines recovered from his Recipro move, but Mineta was getting slower as his scalp began to bleed from using his Quirk so much. Ochako was also finding herself hesitating before each leap and ignoring the dizziness that threatened to make her throw up every time she launched herself back into the air with no centre of gravity. They were also tired. She couldn't forget that.

"Iida! Grab Mineta!" Ochako said, just as heavy footsteps began to shake the ground beneath them.

"Do you think I would be defeated by such a move?" All Might's booming voice shouted from behind.

All Might was still chasing after them, because of course he was. If he gave up so easily he wouldn't be All Might. Ochako's insane plan had simply been to slow him down. Iida veered off-course and grabbed onto Mineta as he was about to land on another of his balls to bounce off of. The two of them looked back at Ochako, who put her all into one last leap and propelled herself forward with a powerful enough force to reach them. She grabbed onto Iida's shoulders and sighed in relief.

"Run! As fast as you can!" Ochako said.

Iida accelerated at the drop of a hat, and the world sped by them as Ochako and Mineta hitched a ride on their speedster friend. It wasn't anywhere close to Iida's top speed, and it still wasn't faster than All Might, but they didn't need to be that fast. They were most of the way to the exit, they just needed to be fast enough to get there before All Might caught up. Iida rocketed down the street, faster and faster, and the straining of his engines to propel him forward was audible, like a metallic rattle. The footsteps from behind were getting louder. Ochako estimated that they were a hundred metres from the exit. All Might's footsteps were getting closer, and a look back let her see that he was beginning to shatter the rubble attached to him with his movements, meaning he was getting faster as well. Once he had shed the bulk of the debris, he was more or less free to do as he wished again.

"I'm sorry, children, but I'm to prevent you from escaping this training facility!" All Might shouted from a distance that was too close for Ochako's comfort.

Suddenly, a shadow passed over the three students, and they all looked up to find that All Might was descending upon them from the air, covered by rubble and chunks of cement that were still flaking off of him due to the sheer power of his movements. Iida swerved out of the way as All Might landed right in front of them with a shockwave that would've overwhelmed anyone of lesser speed. He outran the shockwave and the spluttering, rattling of his engines only got louder.

"You can rest now, Young Iida. Don't overexert yourself," All Might said as he appeared behind them and went to grab onto Ochako's leg to stop them from escaping again.

Iida looked back at All Might and let out a cry of effort. In a turn of events that Ochako hadn't thought was possible, Iida's exhaust pipes began emitting blue fire once again, and All Might was suddenly gone. They accelerated to such incredible speeds in such a small amount of time that Ochako felt as though her legs were still in All Might's grasp back where they'd run from by the time they crossed the boundary marking the exit of the arena. Iida then lost control over his own momentum and began sliding on his feet across the pavement outside Ground Beta. As the horn that signalled the end of the exam rang out, a tiny, invisible break in the pavement caused Iida's foot to be pulled from underneath him, resulting in Iida himself, Ochako and Mineta all being flung forward and dropped on the ground after taking quite the tumble. Every muscle in Ochako's body hurt, and she was fairly certain that she actually had left her lunch behind after Iida's final Recipro. She sat up, immediately regretted it, and turned away from the boys to dry heave a couple of times. Once Iida and Mineta had gotten off the ground, even if to just sit up, Ochako turned back to them. Iida's exhaust pipes were red hot, and they were spitting out smoke every few seconds. Mineta was sitting and swaying from side to side, and Ochako realised that he might never have experienced Iida's top speed before. Blood dripped down from the top of his head, but he didn't say a word about it. He must have had a higher pain tolerance than Ochako had given him credit for. The three of them slowly bounced back from the drawbacks of their Quirks, Ochako turned to Iida.

"Doesn't using Recipro once stall your engines?" she asked.

"That's correct," Iida said as he carefully stood up, hissing once he put his weight on his legs.

"Then why'd you risk using it a second time?" she asked again.

Iida smiled. "Well, I saw you two risking your wellbeing to use your Quirks to their fullest potential," he said. "It felt right that I should do the same. I would never allow my friends to fall short of their goals because I wasn't ready to risk it all for their sakes."

"That's …" Ochako couldn't find the words. She'd never say it, but Ochako had once thought that Iida was just a little bit too rigid and proud for her liking. That would never cross her mind again. Iida knew how to mix it up and get a little crazy when it counted. "Thank you. Both of you. Mineta, you were awesome, too!"

"Yeah?" Mineta asked, his eyes lighting up. Just when she thought he would make a pass at her or make a gross joke, he smiled and gave her a thumb's up. "Thanks! You were really cool, too! I never thought you could handle using your Quirk that much."

"Neither could I, really. I guess I've gotten pretty strong," Ochako said, looking down at the little pink pads on her fingertips.

She had gotten strong. Ochako knew that now. While they had never stood a chance at beating All Might at his own game, they'd won. Ever since All Might had told her the secret of his Quirk and how he wanted to pass it onto her some day, Ochako had felt a little bit like she'd stumbled into something she wasn't sure she was qualified for. She'd grown since then, though, and she'd just done something she never would have been capable of before UA. If she could do that, rip a victory out of All Might's hands, then what couldn't she do? She had gotten stronger than even she knew. What couldn't Ochako handle? Remembering the shocked face All Might had made when she'd pulled off some of the things she'd done during that exam, Ochako felt a little more qualified for One For All. She had no idea what her limit was after so many experiences had tested that limit time and time again. For maybe the first time, Ochako was excited to find out.


Izuku fiddled with his gauntlets as he paced around within the building they'd taken shelter in, what was probably supposed to be an apartment building. White drywall surfaces, carpeted floors, a wide hall with an elevator and a staircase at the end — it looked just like the one at home. Something in his chest tightened at the reminder of the building he'd lived in for years before Heights Alliance at UA. At that bit of nostalgia, Izuku turned away from the rest of the interior and focused on his teammates once again. He couldn't afford to get distracted by homesickness. Aizawa had to know they were in there, so Izuku wasn't very worried about keeping a low-profile. He kept pacing back and forth, his boots making imprints in the carpet as he walked, and assessed the states of his friends. A deep orange fire flickered in the palm of Todoroki's hand as he stared into it. His intolerance to his flames was almost entirely gone these days, if he used his Quirk at anything but full power. He seemed to be lost in thought, but Izuku couldn't read his expression well enough to tell what he was thinking about.

Yaoyorozu was much the same, deep concentration written all over her face as she consulted the book she always had strapped to her back. From the glimpses he could get of the contents — not that he was reading over her shoulder — it was a hybrid encyclopaedia, chemistry textbook and schematic folder. Her Quirk required her to know the atomic composition of the things she created, as well as its structure, so it made perfect sense that she would carry something like that around. The problem came in that Aizawa hadn't only partnered up three people who relied on their Quirks very heavily in combat. He'd also put together three people who did not exactly tend to take the lead in the art of conversation. Izuku pushed past the awkwardness of breaking the heavy silence and spoke up.

"We should have a more reliable strategy for when Aizawa comes for us next," Izuku said.

"I agree," Yaoyorozu said. "The last plan relied on our ability to keep up with Aizawa in combat before we could find an opening to blind him. We severely overestimated ourselves."

"So what do you propose?" Todoroki asked, putting out his fire.

"I don't believe we will be able to overwhelm Aizawa in hand-to-hand combat without our Quirks. That means we have to do things his way," Yaoyorozu said, snapping her book closed.

"Ambush him?" Izuku asked. "It'd put us in the best position if we can pull off a plan that requires minimal Quirk use, so laying a trap would be smart. One of us could pretend to be hurt and lure him in. I could probably collapse a building to make it look legitimate."

"I … don't think we need to resort to that kind of extreme," Yaoyorozu said with a rigid smile.

"I agree, that sounds convoluted," Todoroki said.

"Maybe …" Yaoyorozu's eyes suddenly sharpened, and she resumed searching through the book in her hand. "I'm not completely certain that what I'm thinking will work. It'll require strategic uses of all of our powers to succeed." She turned to Todoroki. "Are you able to generate specific temperatures? For example, do you think you could produce a flame that is precisely, say, ninety-seven degrees?" After a nod from him, Yaoyorozu turned to Izuku. "Are you able to destroy something that someone is wearing or touching without harming that person?" Another nod later, the exposed portion of Yaoyorozu's torso was sparkling blue and pink, causing both boys to look away. Izuku was not going to bring up how it took Todoroki a fraction of a second longer than Izuku to avert his eyes. "Wonderful! Now, the plan is this …"

Yaoyorozu walked Izuku and Todoroki through her plan as she created a number of items necessary to see it through. She seemed a little bit sluggish afterwards, but she simply pushed through it and continued elaborating upon what she wanted them to do. Izuku followed his orders and climbed the stairs to the second floor to await the signal. He disintegrated a locked door that granted him entry to one of the apartments that had a window facing the street, and opened it slowly with his body behind the wall so that Aizawa, if he was stalking around out there, couldn't see him and erase his Quirk. Once the window was open, he dismissed one of his gauntlets — the left one — so that it compressed itself back into the wristband that hung snugly around his arm. He then tested the flexibility of the gauntlet's fake finger on his right, and found it satisfactory for what he was hoping to do. His role in the plan hinged on his precision, both with his Quirk and with his prosthetic finger, so he needed to be sure. He was not going to fail the exam because he didn't do the prep-work. Izuku was unshakably certain that Ochako was going to pass. He took a certain amount of pride in being her equal. He meant to maintain that.

The first step of the plan was completed when Todoroki exited the building and walked out onto the street. He stood in the middle of the road, and the look on his face was the same he wore on any other day. Izuku wouldn't have known that Todoroki was putting his passing grade at risk for this plan just by looking at him. There were subtle tells, though. He was as still as the ground itself, tensed and ready for action at any moment. It was either anticipation or nervousness, and the Todoroki that Izuku knew wasn't prone to anxiety, so he likely saw something that Izuku didn't. Then, the second step of the plan was completed as their opponent arrived. Aizawa leapt from utility pole to utility pole, ran along power lines and other urban footholds, swung off traffic lights and generally displayed his acrobatic prowess in a way that Izuku could imagine being intimidating in a poorly-lit alleyway at two in the morning. Aizawa crouched atop a utility pole high above the ground and stared down through his goggles at Todoroki, who blankly looked up at him in return. Silence fell for a few moments, seconds seemingly taking longer to pass than minutes, but eventually, Aizawa spoke.

"Your teammates abandoned you?" Aizawa asked. "Not very heroic."

"No. I told them to go. They're on their way to the exit now," Todoroki said, just as they'd talked about inside.

"So you stayed back to make time for them to escape. That's pretty selfless, exactly what we're looking to cultivate at this school. Too bad that means you fail the exam," Aizawa said.

"That's how it goes, right?" Todoroki asked. "A hero is a person willing to put himself in a bad situation if it means someone else benefits. All Might said that once."

"I'm familiar." Aizawa's tone was loaded — with what, Izuku didn't know, but the way he said it sounded like it meant more to him than just the words. "As much as I loathe his type of hero, All Might had a point there. Losing something so that others can gain is at the centre of what heroism means. However, being selfless is different from being suicidal. If you don't care about yourself at all, then you're never going to reach your full potential. For example, you're about to fail this exam because you threw away your shot for the sake of the other two securing theirs. There's merit in that, but now you've left them without a powerhouse in the event that I catch up to them. Not that your Quirks ever mattered in this exam."

Aizawa leapt down off the pole and ensnared Todoroki in his capture weapon. That was step three. It was an instant defeat, since Todoroki did nothing to fight back apart from pointing his hand at Aizawa to no effect. His Quirk had to have been erased, which meant that things were falling into place. Aizawa landed a few metres away from Todoroki and began walking toward him while winding his capture weapon tighter and tighter around his torso, trapping his arms at his sides. Todoroki's whole midsection was mummified by the time Aizawa stepped into the right place for step four of Yaoyorozu's plan to occur. As soon as Aizawa stepped in front of one of the apartment building's windows on the bottom floor, the sound of shattering glass and roaring firecrackers had Izuku grinning. From within the building, a volley of crackling fireworks were shot out of the miniature cannon and burst through the window, detonating in a surge of pops and flashes that quickly enveloped Aizawa's whole upper body. That same instant, Todoroki's entire left side erupted with a hissing roar into yellow flames that burned away the length of the capture weapon that was wrapped around himself, though the majority of it coiled around Aizawa's neck still remained.

It was time for Izuku to shine. He took a few quick steps back and then sprinted and leapt out of the window, flipping through the air and coming down on Aizawa's back. He was still recovering from the flashing firecrackers that had been launched directly into his face, so he did not dodge Izuku's tackle and the two of them dropped to the ground hard. Izuku sat on top of Aizawa and reached out with both hands at the same time. He grabbed onto the capture weapon and it turned into ash in an instant. Aizawa craned his neck to get Izuku in his line of sight and his eyes once again flashed red, causing all of his hair to stand on end at the same time. It was already too late, his greatest tool was scattered around him as mere atoms, unconnected to each other due to Izuku's power. He would've gloated if that had meant he was defeated, though. Izuku tried to hook his covered fingers under the band of Aizawa's goggles at the back of his head, but the man shook Izuku off with an elbow to the ribs and a spin that deposited him on the ground beside the frowning teacher. Aizawa leapt to his feet as Izuku scooted away along the asphalt with his feet. Aizawa stared at Izuku and Todoroki, and the two boys shared a look as well. A sudden feeling that perhaps they should not have pulled their trick off so fantastically passed over Izuku as the silence between them stretched on.

"Do you think that because you can do tricks that you've beaten me?" Aizawa said with a grin that just looked wrong on his face. "I wouldn't be much of a hero if I could do one thing and then had to give up. "

Aizawa blinked and reapplied his Quirk. The buzzing feeling in his fingers that always accompanied Izuku's Quirk vanished, and Todoroki's flames went out like a sputtering lighter. Aizawa's hair stood on end and a red glow broke through the bars of his goggles, and all the while he put his hands up for a fight. He sprinted at Todoroki, who tried his best to defend against the lightning-quick jabs that Aizawa sent his way, but quickly found himself overwhelmed. Izuku jumped in and restored his left gauntlet, which he used in an opening hook that forced Aizawa to dodge under the wide swing, leaving him open for a kick in the back from Todoroki. That kick pushed him forward so that he was in position for Izuku to drive his elbow into the spot between Aizawa's shoulder blades, which he dodged by a hair. Aizawa leapt and rolled away from the two of them, jumping back up to his feet and keeping his eyes on them, which meant that his back was to the building. The two boys rushed him, which forced him a couple of steps back as he assumed a defensive stance. He stepped in front of the window again, and Yaoyorozu popped back up from her hiding spot with a fierce grin on her face, which twisted her usual elegant beauty into something more akin to an adrenaline-fueled frenzied expression.

Yaoyorozu leaned down, and the sound of wood smacking against wood made Aizawa flinch. He spun around to see the arm of a catapult rising and then coming to an abrupt stop to fling its payload out the window at a speed that nearly obscured what exactly it was. The payload, a replica of Aizawa's capture weapon, spread out like a net as it closed the distance from the window to Aizawa, who didn't have the time nor the mobility needed to dodge. As the replica of the capture weapon unspooled itself in flight, the flashbang that Yaoyorozu had placed within its coils emerged, the pin already having been pulled prior to its ejection from the catapult. The replica tangled around Aizawa's entire body, and he stumbled back in his attempts to free himself. The flashbang hit him in the head and bounced back toward the window, but it went off in mid-air. Izuku and Todoroki had enough warning to protect themselves by blocking their eyes, but Aizawa let out a grunt of what could've been pain or effort as he staggered further backward in the aftermath of the attack.

Todoroki sprinted up to Aizawa as he began to make progress in freeing himself from the binding of the replica of his own weapon. His left hand struck Aizawa's chest, and a hissing release of hot air followed the blow, Todoroki's left fist steaming, as he used the Quirk that had returned to him as a result of the flashbang working its magic. That burst of heat must have been at the correct temperature that Yaoyorozu had worked out beforehand, as the replica of the capture weapon then revealed its true nature. It seemed to come alive and snake around Aizawa's body once again, stiffening and tightening on its own as it returned to the shape Yaoyorozu had created it in. It forced Aizawa's legs together, and he lost his footing as it did the same to his arms, which prevented him from correcting his balance. Aizawa fell to the ground, bound and unable to break out. Izuku ran over at the same time as Yaoyorozu did to observe their teacher and make certain that it was over. Todoroki crouched beside Aizawa, keeping his left hand on his chest and maintaining the precise temperature needed to activate the shape-memory alloy that Yaoyorozu had used to create the replica of the capture weapon and keep it rigid. Once they turned him onto his stomach and Yaoyorozu put the exam-specific handcuffs on him, it was over.

They had won.

Aizawa sat up as a horn sounded, concluding the exam. He looked at Todoroki with the strangely expressive non-expressive goggles covering his eyes still, and the students suddenly realised that they were standing around and grinning while he was still tied up on the ground. Todoroki shut off his fire side and cooled the replica capture weapon down so that it could be unwound from around Aizawa, and Yaoyorozu released him from the cuffs she'd placed around his wrists. Aizawa stood up and gave the three students a heavy look that could've been disappointment or pride. He nodded, and his mouth curled upward by the smallest amount. His face barely changed, but it might as well have been a glowing grin compared to his usual expression.

"Congratulations," he said. "You defeated me in combat and managed to make clever use of your Quirks and skills despite the obstacle that my own power presented for the three of you specifically. I particularly like how you split your strategy up into parts that depended on each of your unique skill sets individually, but which still contributed to the other parts of the plan. And you did it without harming me or needlessly damaging the environment around you." Aizawa glanced over and locked eyes with Izuku for a moment, and for just that split second there was such an intensity in his usually dull eyes that it made Izuku flinch, but then his gaze was casually sweeping over the other two once again. Oddly enough, that intensity didn't feel like it usually did — the critical nature of that gaze was gone. "Good job." Once again, Aizawa made eye contact with Izuku for less than a second as he continued speaking. "You've grown significantly since your first evaluations. Keep it up."

Izuku felt lucky that he was able to contain himself. If he hadn't been able to keep his composure, he was sure that he would've screamed right then and there. That was what he'd been wanting to hear for so long. He'd passed the exam and that felt good, sure, but Izuku had also obtained something he'd been working at for months now, even if he hadn't known it. Throughout it all, even when he'd thought that Aizawa hated him for not being good enough, he'd been trying so hard to prove himself to his teacher. Why? It had taken Izuku a while to figure it out, but he wanted Aizawa's approval because they were similar. Both of them had Quirks that weren't very good in a one-on-one fight, so they had to use it to even the playing field in ways their opponents didn't expect. Both of them used tools to supplement their lack of straightforward firepower. Izuku related to Aizawa, in a way. They were similar. He saw parts of the closed-off person he was when he started at UA — or a person he still might become in the future — in the dishevelled man before him. Izuku sometimes wondered why Aizawa was the way he was. He'd never come to a satisfying conclusion about what made a person become like him. Was that just his nature, or was the hero known as Eraserhead the result of his experiences? Those questions didn't exactly keep Izuku up at night, but they did worm their way into his head every now and then. Izuku finally thought he could be secure in the knowledge that the man in whom he saw so much of himself approved of his progress. It felt like Izuku could start being proud of himself, too, if that was true.

Class 1-A's exams ended the way they'd begun — hectic, unpredictable, thrilling. Izuku, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu walked away from Ground Delta that afternoon with their heads held high and their first term at UA under their belts. Now the only question was what came next. Hopefully, the members of Class 1-A wouldn't have to fight as hard as they had in the past to find out. If things went their way, which — like Izuku had said many times before — would be a refreshing change of pace. He wasn't going to count on it, though. He'd meet whatever came next with the same force and will to succeed that had toppled every other challenge he'd been issued since enrolling at UA. Izuku could overcome anything.