Chapter 58: The Exams and What Comes After

It wasn't Midoriya's day, as Tokage was able to tease him for another 20 minutes before the rest arrived. They were all carrying snacks and other foods they prepared at home. The first to arrive was Kendo, who got delayed because a villain attack damaged the train line, so she had to get off at a station and wait to take a longer route.

Honenuki came next, having arrived with Tsunotori. She was followed by Asui and her siblings and, finally, Uraraka, who found herself on the same train as Monoma but, despite her expectations, found that he was pretty harmless. The two had been deep in a conversation on the nuances of rescue work, which they had covered a couple of weeks back in class. The last ones to arrive were Manga, Tetsutetsu, and Kuroiro.

It wasn't a bit of a mess, having so many people in the same room, but they managed to make it work, covering just about everything that everyone wasn't sure about. Tokage and Midoriya had gone the extra mile, the former printing out standard practice sheets, which they all did and graded to better understand where they stood. At the same time, Midoriya had asked Haya-sempai about her previous exams as she was the only one who had kept them.

Yes, U.A. changed them every year, but they couldn't make them any harder than the previous ones, just different. This helped them all better understand how U.A. framed their questions and what they expected out of them when it came to answers, which really helped Tsunotori, who could see that grammar and vocabulary wouldn't be too much of a factor as long as you could get the meaning of your answers through.

It's a shame that wouldn't fly for English, which left those who didn't have the best grasp on the language up the creek without a panel, Midoriya included. While he knew how to speak it, to an extent anyway, from years of fanboying over All Might and his American-centric persona, he often got lost in translation or used slang and improper sentences that could fly in casual conversation, not much so in an exam.

Their time together also had moments of calm, as with Samidare and Satsuki, they took breaks to manage the two younger siblings who spent most of their time playing with Koharu, who seemed visibly smug about having the two children petting her. They seemed to bond well with all of them, which was a relief for their big sister, who didn't want them to feel bored or intimidated by any of them, with the U.A. students managing to get in some playtime with their quirks, as while it was technically illegal, it was the same as jay-walking, a law rarely enforced if no-one was hurt.

It certainly made lunch and snack time a lively affair, as everyone had worked up an appetite. With so many different meals and snacks provided, there was something for everyone and even the chance to sample meals that they otherwise wouldn't have.

When Tokage’s parents returned, they proved to be pleasant people, though more like their daughter than Midoriya would like, as her mom started teasing him along with Tokage before she got distracted by the, as she put it, 'adorable tadpoles' in her living room and despite Samidere's initial reluctance, he melted like butter under the Tokage matriarch's affection. Satsuki gravitated towards her patriarch of the Tokage family, mainly because he had one hell of a poker face and was great at throwing his voice and animal imitations, a skill he picked up in college, along with ventriloquism for the fun of it.

Sadly, as fun as the day was, as the sun started to set, they packed up, said their goodbyes, and left for the evening, promising they'd meet again the following Saturday for a recap before their finals that following Monday.

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Midoriya didn't know it, but he felt like he should have, as U.A. went crazy with everything they did, from the entrance exam to their class structure. Why wouldn't their semester finals be any different?

It wasn't like their finals in middle school, far…far from it. How he could have studied up previous year's papers and still be caught off guard was either because he just didn't think about it, because U.A. just had a knack for catching you with your pants down or both.

Either way, they sat through 3 days of written exams, each class’s paper leaving even the smartest of them scratching their heads to eying the clock to make sure they finished in time, which didn’t help the confidence of those who hadn’t been at the top during their mid-terms, Midoriya very much including himself in that count as he came 10th in class last time. When the final day arrived, and the clock ran out again, he wasn't the only one relieved that they didn't have to worry about another paper.

Tokage naturally felt pretty good about herself and her performance, so now they just had to wait for the practicals which U.A. gave them Thursday off to cool their heads and prepare for. When the day came, they had all been excited, believing they would smash up some robots; Midoriya was among those as he enjoyed the exam and the Sports Festival partly because of that. Only when they gathered had they been informed that there had been a change to the practicals, being that instead of fighting U.A.'s robots, they'd face the teachers.

That announcement sparked some fear from the students for all the right reasons, as these were all fully trained and experienced heroes who had worked with them for the entire semester and would have a good understanding of their skills. Yes, they would also have a handicap, but what would that mean for someone like All Might or Ectoplasm, who fought with clones, or Cementoss, who largely remained stationary, or Power Loader, who made ample use of support equipment?

They couldn't even count on the luck of the draw getting you paired with someone good and given an easy…well, easier opponent. The teachers had already paired them up with an opponent and partner.

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Midoriya was paired with Kuroiro, someone he wasn't close to, but he liked to think he didn't have issues with him and the feelings were mutual.  Sadly, their quirks were but at odds with one another as his flames would naturally diminish shadows, which, when they were paired against Cementoss, made things a challenge as his quirk allowed him to quickly alter the urban city environment to his whims, blocking Midoriya's advance and attacks as even while melting, the cement was still within their teacher's control.

Kuroiro had an even worse time as with the exam taking place in the middle of the morning in a setting that lacked shadows, he was strapped for sports to hide and zip through, and when he did so, Midoriya had to remain away, forcing them to fight against Cementoss not as a unified force, but as two people who happened to have the same target. Their teacher was even wise to Koharu, and because all their surprise attacks were left ineffective, as was their plan to try and lure him into the shadows, their teacher proved adept at keeping situational awareness.

It was through a chance thought that they won, as after they pulled back from an attack, Midoriya had transformed and made a break for it, fighting alongside Koharu, which Cementoss handled, all while he kept an eye out for Kuroiro, who seemed absent. Only when Midoriya was close enough, having nearly exhausted himself against Cementoss' unyielding defense, did Kuroiro appear, popping out from his jaws, which Cementoss and the students watching realized Midoriya had kept shut the entire time and relayed exclusively on his arm cannons.

That break was just what they needed as the shadow jumper managed to cuff their teacher, winning the fight.

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The second match was one Midoriya hadn't been able to see in full, as he and his partner arrived just in time to see Tokage and Rin managed to both capture Thirteen. At the same time, Rin made it out the exit simultaneously, giving them a double victory.

Kamakiri and Shiozaki vs. Ectoplasm proved to be an incredibly interesting fight. While the former excelled in close-quarters fighting and the latter in ranged combat and restraint, Ectoplasm's clones made that near mute. They couldn't get to his real body for the longest time, much less find it, as his clones could form ridiculously far from it. Since he was acting as a villain, he didn't remain somewhere obvious, like the exit. Instead, he hid.

There was also some friction in the team, as Kamakiri wanted to track down their teacher and take him down, while Shiozaki wished to retreat and seeing how both could be…opinionated, it meant that it took a while before they could agree on retreat, which still took time, the two only making it put with seconds left to spare thanks to the onslaught of clones that had stood in their way.

Tetsutetsu and Kodai vs. Midnight went…as well as one could expect. Tetsutetsu wasn't dumb—Midoriya knew that—but his issue was that he was too unimaginative with his quirk. He saw himself as a hammer and his targets as nails- so smash, easy peasy, right?

Well, no, Midnight wouldn't play by that game and easily managed to knock him out with her quirk. She nearly took out Kodai as well if the girl hadn't fled. After that, Kodai and Midnight played a game of cat and mouse, with Kodai using anything and everything as obstacles and weapons, which did manage to trip up the R-rated heroine, but she recovered quickly and kept coming back until, in the end, she was caught, being the first to fail.

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When it came to the matches that followed, Honenuki and Shishida, too, found themselves in a tight spot, or more accurately, with few spots to stand on as Power Loader buried himself as soon as it started. While they managed to locate the escape, the entire area leading to it was boobytrapped with pit traps. Honenuki's quirk proved useless against Power Loader, who just dug through the mud-like ground as easily as he would solid rock.

Shishida was also at a disadvantage as he couldn't rush through, nor could he fight, an opponent that refused to come up long enough to fight, and when he did, it was always on his terms. Hence, they had to trick him into appearing when they wanted to. When he did, Shishida charged him but also carried Honenuki on his back, allowing him to get close enough to touch his excavation suit, rendering most of it mud and useful, and unable to escape captured him.

Kendo and Kaibara perhaps had the hardest time facing off against All Might. The Symbol of Peace lived up to his reputation as the strongest hero alive, as he was like a force of nature. They just had to survive, as any chances of victory disappeared before the match started. Still, despite having near-useless quirks against a man as strong and durable as All Might, they didn't just lay down and surrender and fight for the entire match, as painful as that seemed when he would bat them aside, and one would go flying into buildings.

Seeing their odds, Kendo managed to trick All Might into focusing on her, allowing Kaibara to try and sneak attack him, which didn't end up for him; the guy was nearly knocked out as he punted away before the Symbol of Peace turned on her. Kendo, despite the overwhelming odds, refused to back down and took him on, being beaten pretty badly before she was nearly knocked out, saved by the bell when Kaibara, having held onto his awareness despite that hit, had managed to use her distraction to the fullest to make a mad dash for the exit, getting through just before his teammate could be K.O'ed.

After that, they watched a much easier match as Monoma and Bondo had to confront Snipe. A far less imposing challenge than the one that faced their classmates in the last match, but not a cake-walk either, as even if Monoma could get close enough to Snipe, his quirk worked best with things to throw or shoot. In contrast, Bondo's quirk could restrain the man, provided that they catch him up. Still, he proved to adapt to fall for their tricks, and thus, they became the second team to fail when they both failed to make it to the exit or capture their target in time.

Tsubaraba and Tsunotori managed well enough against Present Mic, as while his quirk managed to shatter the former's solid air and send Tsunotori's horns far off course, they did find he had a weakness…bugs. So they covered Tsunotori's horns in them and sent those flying toward him. It was surprising and a little funny to see the voice hero freak out so much, losing his cool long enough for the two to capture him.

In contrast to that, Komori and Fukidashi were the ones that got toyed with when they went up against the principal, who turned their battlefield into the biggest rat maze ever, with the manically laughing principal using a crane of all things to rapidly smash, break and otherwise break any and everything he pleased, causing chain reactions which caroled their classmates for most of the match and even now, Midoriya was sure that he let them spot him so they could finally move in for the capture.

Yanagi and Awase went last, and they had to handle their homeroom teacher who put them through their paces, as both their quirks were useless against him. As for Yanagi, she could use her quirk on him, but that didn't stop him from countering by just using his blood as anchors, grappling lines, or just hardening it and detonating it. At the same time, Awase could make barriers, but he couldn't lock down Vlad's blood as he would revert it back to liquid and free himself.

More than that, he didn't give them time to think and kept on them for nearly the entire match, forcing them to fight in ways they were unfamiliar with and not ready for. Still, they managed to break long enough to make a break for it, using the area to their advantage to slow him down long enough to escape.

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“Something on your mind?” Hado spoke up in Midoriya’s face.

“Wha!” Midoriya fell right over from the chair, Hado looking confused by his response. Amajiki and Haya shook their heads, and Mirio chuckled a little. The four were present because they had invited Midoriya over now that exams were over, with the group having decided to meet at Haya's place. When he had arrived, he had been his typical shy self and stayed close to Amajiki, but he had gotten comfortable enough to at least speak, or he had.

"He must have been out of it if he didn't notice." Mirio smiled as Nejire had been trying to get their junior's attention for a while now.

“Guys, just give him space…” Tamaki reminded them that they shouldn't force him to if he didn't wish to speak.

"We did, and then we went silent for like five minutes. You gotta tell us, what got you so serious looking? Was it finals? Did you do badly, or maybe you saw something strange before coming here?" Hado went into full question mode, something that, if Izuku didn't know her, would have stumped him, but he had gotten practice with her curious nature.

"No-no…it's not that. I'm sure I did well in the finals, even if that last part came out of nowhere…" Midoriya muttered the last part, though it was heard loud and clear.

“Oh yeah, fighting the teacher? That’s some hardcore stuff. Kinda surprised just 4 of you guys failed, and it wasn’t even against All Might.” Yuyu noted as that sounded closer to what they had gone through, though they were in their final year, so that sort of thing was expected; putting first years through it seemed…extreme.

"They wouldn't have put them through it if they didn't have reason to test them as much or faith that they could handle it. With how things have been with all these villains' attacks, they'll probably worried." Tamaki explained, which got the rest to turn to him in surprise at how…thorough he could be.

Mirio laughed at it and smacked his friend in the back, and to his credit, the timid senior didn’t so much as flinch despite how much force Mirio had in those hands of his. “There you go, Tamaki! When you let yourself shine, you can do some amazing things!”

“Still, that makes sense. Things have been pretty hard lately?” Haya frowned as she recalled instances that when she considered them, seemed worse than before.

“Why’s that?” Midoriya asked, which caused Nejiire to gasp as she realized his lack of knowledge.

"Oh yeah, we never told you, did you? But third years do something called work studies, which is like internships but super harder!” She explained that Midoriya was still a little in the dark, so again, Amajiki took over.

"Internships basically have you shadow heroes and act like unpaid interns; work studies have you acting like a full side-kicks, which means more work and a lot of situations where you handle situations that a hero would."

Mirio nodded before adding, "Things can get intense, but it's an invaluable learning experience, as you can take that and improve yourself way more than what you learn in class or in internships. Thanks to mine, I was able to make myself into the man I am now, and I intend to keep improving."

Of yes, Izuku knew that apart from how Mirio wasn't always at the front of the pack of U.A.'s hero course, quite the opposite: despite getting into the school, he was dead last in his class for the longest time. But then, sometime during his 2nd year, he just started to rapidly improve, climbing that ladder till before he finished out his 2nd year, he was at the top, and he hadn't come down from there since.

If work studies could do that for him, what could they do for Midoriya?

"The point is that other villains have been acting up with all the stuff with the League. It's not ideal to worry about that and still need to study for finals, but you shouldn't worry about this till senior year." Haya finished.

"Wait, we're forgetting the topic. You had something on your mind, Hebimi, so please tell us, please!" Hado turned from work to what was important. Something was making her fire-loving friend make weird faces.

"It's the Sports festival; I didn't just get the medal when I won, but a ticket to I-expo," Midoriya revealed, as with how much had happened since the festival and the news that came about Iida's brother, the fact he got the ticket in the mail just didn't feel right to talk about them. After that, he was too busy to think about it at all. He only recalled it because his mother brought it up the other night.

“That’s incredible!” Hado only hugged him harder. Izuku left blushing but returned the hug just as hard, and Koharu between them soaked in the warmth from not one but two bodies. She mentioned that she found it odd that the 3 best students didn't take the podiums like her human had.

"I'm not that bothered by it. We all did well, and we're still learning to be even better." Hado waved off the snake's comments and gave her another lamb chop.

"Well, since I won, I do want to do…but I also got an extra ticket, and I don't know who I should ask." Midoriya sighed. He had already confirmed that Koharu would count on his one ticket, so it wasn't like she'd need one.

“Well, who do you want to attend with?” Haya asked.

“I don’t know!” Midoriya groaned as he turned and buried his head into the table, raising his head to mop. "I have so many nice friends, and then there's you all, and my mom and Ryukyu, so now I have no idea who to ask because I don't want the others to feel upset about it!" He had never had such a chance before; as for him, school trips were a rarity, and he was never the one picking. How was he supposed to choose from the list and not offend anyone?

His phone was packed with friend's numbers and their texts, friends he didn't want to anger by refusing them the chance to attend with him on what could be a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

"Oh, well, we can help by politely turning you down first." Hado shrugged, which got him to turn towards her.

“Pardon?” Midoriya asked.

"We appreciate that you wanted to ask any of us and that it was giving you emotional pain to have to pick, but like we said, we have work studies this summer and won't have much time off. I'm using mine right now," Haya noted.

"And mine won't be up till after I-expo, so kinda tough to plan around that," Mirio added.

“Same…” Amajiki was the third.

"See, so you don't need to worry about us. Same with Ryukyu, as I know, she'll love the chance to see all the shiny stuff they have there; you can just bring some back for her. maybe even one of those T-shirts that said so and so, and all I got was this Tee." Hado finished it up but then got sidetracked for a moment.

"But that leaves everyone else," Midoriya stated, as he was blessed to have many friends, including his mom.

Hado hummed about that, as she knew her junior and how he saw things. He was too much of a sun bean to want to offend, so they couldn’t just pick someone at random. This would call for a debate! “Then we shall brainstorm, Mirio-bring us the brain food!” She ordered as Mirio got up and marched over to Haya’s kitchen, the host not even caring that he started looking through her cupboards.

“It’s junk food.” She reminded Hado, as the girl had been with her when she did her last grocery trip.

"The bag says it's good for the brain."

“It also said it’s made from space sugars and plants…” Amajiki mentioned that Hado had found a new brand of candy the other day and had been fixated on it fiercely.

“It tastes good!” Hado, however, would not budge on that.

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I will admit that this chapter was a bit of a departure from what I typically do with these, but as I faced similar issues to what I had with More Than You Think, I decided to go a speedier route when it came to writing this to get to the more exciting parts. That said, I can admit that this part of the story feels the weakest, so I will have to work harder on the first movie's plot. However, a consequence was that this turned out to be more set up and shorter than my standard chapter range.