(Chat we're locked in)
(Y/n POV, day of the provisional license exam)
After what felt like years of waiting and training, the exam was upon us. We all stepped out of the bus, and my nerves were really building up.
We were the only full first year class to take the exam, and seeing it all in front of me,
It was all really intimidating.
"Nows the time for all you kids to finally hatch and become chicks." Right, Aizawa sensei pep talk.
"Hell yeah! Let's become chicks, you guys!" I smiled a little at Kaminari's stupidity.
"alright, lets get ready with the usual, PLUUSS-" Kirishima was ready to get the class fired up, when he was rudely interrupted.
"ULTRAAA" This guy from a different school had burst in, finishing our motto.
The shenanigans continued, with this guy from Shiketsu was it? I recognized that hat. I looked at Shoto, who was standing a few meters away from me, next to Midoriya. He looked like he recognized him.
We still weren't exactly glued together anymore. He's tried to talk to me, but I just haven't been up for it. Everytime I try to open my mouth to talk, Touya's words replay in my brain.
"Do you really think Shoto has, and always will protect you?"
It loops in my head whenever we hold a conversation, I can't help it, as much as I want my brain to stop, it just won't.
"I'VE ALWAYS LOVED UA! IT'LL BE AN HONOUR TO BE ABLE TO COMPETE AGAINST YOU GUYS, I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!" This strange guy was screaming as blood ran down his forehead, from smacking his head into the ground? What a strange bunch. He began to walk away with his schoolmates, when I noticed a girl from Shiketsu.
She had light brown hair down a little past her shoulders. She was insanely pretty. She must've noticed me staring because she gave me a smile then a small wave, like she knew me. I gave her a hesitant wave back and her face lit up a bit. She gave me a sly wink and caught up with the rest of her school.
My face burned a little. The fuck was that about?
"Inasa Yoarashi, that guy, last year when you guys enrolled, he got top scores in the entrance exam, but turned down the offer." So he's a first year like us... maybe this will be even harder than I thought. On top of that, if he got top scores in the entrance exam, then he was even stronger than my twin. That's a terrifying thought...
"He turned down UA but went on and on about how he loves us, what a weird guy.."
"As weird as he is, he's the real deal, keep an eye on hi-" Mr Aizawa was interrupted by another school.
"Eraser? Is that you Eraser?" Aizawa completely tensed up.
"I've seen you all over TV, but its been so long since we've seen each other in person!" A hero-teacher strolled up to him. I recognized her, Miss Joke? Her quirk makes people uncontrollably laugh. God, that would be such a fun quirk. Imagine making Katsuki laugh his ass off.
Oh goddammit brain, I don't want to think about him either. Since I slapped him, I've been too embarrassed to bring it up and try to apologize. Just thinking about has me covering my face with my hands.
"Ah, Y/n, are you alright?" I look next to me, Jirou has a concerned look on her face.
"It's nothing, I swear!" My face goes bright red with embarrassment.
With my twin being a weird situation, and Bakugo being also a weird situation, I've been spending my time with Jirou. I finally asked her about learning an instrument, and she agreed after a bit of convincing.
"Guitar lessons? I-I don't know. I don't even know why you want to learn, not like its gonna help much." We were in her dorm, as I admired all her instruments like last time I saw them.
"I think it will. My minds been... busy lately. It'd be good for me to put some energy into something that isn't hero work or anything." I sat on her bed next to her.
"Well- when you put it that way... I did say I would that time didn't I? Might as well. Consider it a thank you for helping me at the training camp."
And my first lesson was right then.
She's been a massive help this whole time, even if she doesn't fully understand what's going on. Honestly, I don't know why I was so cold towards the girls at the start of the year, they're all some of the nicest people I've ever met.
The students from the other school, Ketsubutsu academy, were all mingling when Aizawa called out to us.
"Oi! Get your costumes on everyone, time to get to the briefing! Don't waste time."
"Yes Sensei!"
(after changing, at the briefing)
We were all changed, and in a very small boxy room with all the other schools. It was insanely crowded. Usually when it's crowded, I hold onto Shoto's sleeve so I don't get lost, I guess the habit clicked and I clung to Jirou's.
"Are you alright?" Jirou asks, slightly concerned.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sorry habit.." I mumbled out and let go. I didn't notice Shoto staring at the encounter, sad.
"Looking at everyone makes me realize just how many schools there are..." I say. "It's so jarring"
Next thing you know, a very sleepy voice hushed the mumbles of the room.
"Now, for this provisional license thing... I'm Mera, from the Hero Public Safety Comission..." How captivating. I can't even lie, I forgot that was a thing.
"My favourite kinda sleep is the non REM kind... I've lost so much sleep putting this thing together.." I like this guy, he needs a Benadryl more than I do.
"Anyway, I'll give you guys the orientation."
The run down, it's all 1,540 of us in a free for all bloodbath. We're given targets that we put anywhere we want on our body, as long as it's visible. We also have a set amount of balls that will hit the target, and light it up. Once all three of our own targets have been hit, we're out. Once we defeat two people, we become one of the 100 people that pass. Yep, 100. a small fraction of us.
I place a target on my thigh, one a little above my belly button, and my shoulder. To me it didn't really matter where, as long as it wasn't my back.
"We start in one minute, after we open"
Open?
A mechanical whir caught me off guard when the walls and ceiling began to unfold, revealing to us the arena our little hunger games would be held.
There were many different areas, a vast rocky plane, a city area, an area with twisting metal pipes and buildings, so on and so forth.
"Find an area that suits you most, use your quirks well. I'm expecting this to be hasty so I can go for a nap sooner." The more he talks, the more I like him. I'll be as speedy as possible so this guy can go pass out for the next few days.
If its a first come first serve situation, then people will try to stick together, taking out other schools first.
"We should stick together!" Midoriya calls out to our class. I nod in agreement.
"We'll have an advantage being with people we know, lets not spilt up too much." I say, but I see Shoto walking away towards the area of metal pipes.
"I'm going alone... I'll be able to use my power more freely. N/n do you want to come with?" He says to me. It gets a bit tense.
"I think I'm going to stick with the class, sorry Shoto." He lets out a sigh, and runs off. It's quiet, until Bakugo and Kirishima run off too, Kaminari trailing behind them, The explody boy saying some kind of insult towards us.
I sigh. We're already splitting up, fun. Shoto did have a point, but I don't want to use his help. I should do this on my own.
"It's not a good idea to go alone, after all, we're the only people with known quirks."
"Right, the sports festival." I say, this might be a lot harder than I thought.
A majority of us are running through an earthy plane, towards a spiral shaped mountain.
The buzzer sounds, and with the information I had, the exact thing I suspected happened. All the other schools came charging towards us. Balls in hand, we were very much outnumbered.
"It's like a massacre."
A bunch of the orange balls came flying towards all of us, and we all began to dodge best we could. I put up an ice wall at the right time, and quickly melted so I could see where the next ones would come from, protecting anyone behind me from 1A who needed it.
I did this over and over, trying to run around and find a good spot to aim at our attackers. It was incredibly difficult however, with the sheer amount of people there were. People from Ketsubetsu were using their quirks to try to get us, and as Jirou and Mina protected us, I tried to observe. I need to understand these quirks if I want to pass.
And, I want to know who from the league is here, and how on earth they snuck in.
Next thing, one guy has his hands on the ground, and it starts trembling, and breaks. I try to stand still as rock and earth are flying through the air, I see we're being split up. Smart kid.
"ACK!" A smaller bit of rock hits me and I stumble a little.
"Fuck! Oi Y/n!" I feel a familiar texture wrap around my waist and I'm pulled away from the fate of being split up from everyone, but I see Midoriya falling.
I fall to the ground, behind a massive rock spike, and see the tape around me.
"Ah Sero, thank you." I say. Deja Vu is real.
"All good, sucks I couldn't reach Midoriya in time, he might've fallen nearby, we need to try find him." I nod in agreement. "We should be stealthy," I add, "not draw any unwanted attention."
We silently creep our way around. We run into another school every now and again, but manage to get away unnoticed as we are totally outnumbered.
"Couldn't you just freeze them all and we all get our points?" Sero whispers, I shake my head. "We don't know their quirks, we saw what that guy did to the ground, there's no telling whether or not they can break free or dodge it, better to play safe and find safety in numbers."
Not very far away, we hear crumbling and crashing ring out.
'Shit, someone might be in trouble.' Me and Sero glance at eachother and nod, we need to make sure our class is safe.
We make our way over, when someone lands in front of us, a girl from a school I don't recognize.
"Gotch-AAA!" Immediately I act, freezing her on the spot and Sero uses his tape to keep her hands behind her back.
"You should take this one." I say, as much as I want it.
"No, you should." Oh goddammit you good kind man.
"Think of it as a sorry for not helping at the training camp." He says, before grabbing one of my balls, putting in my hand and dragging it over to the poor girl, and making me punch each target.
"Why are you apologizing? That wasn't your fault..." I give him a frown, feeling guilty for taking a point he could've gotten. "W-well, I guess I still feel guilty, I can't even begin to imagine what you went through, and I can always get my two later, when we kick every other schools ass." He says.
"Oh shut up you two and let me go wallow in my misery!" The girl in front of us speaks out. We hush her and I melt her ice as Sero frees her. She walks off dejected and we keep moving. We bump into Uraraka, and she says she's following the same sound we heard.
We're running around when we see the flash of green hair, and a naked girl launching herself at Midoriya. Sero immediately blocks her path with some tape and I aim my fire at her. She backs off, and I recognized her as the Shiketsu girl who winked at me earlier. My face went a little pink at the memory, and she notices.
"Ahh we keep getting interrupted, but its Y/n! I'd like to get to know you too!" She says with a wide grin.
"I'm kinda jealous."
"Shut up Sero, focus."
"Uraraka!"
Uraraka jumps in and tried to touch her, to get her to float, but the girl dodges with ease, amazing reflexes.
She jumps away and crouches down on a boulder. "What a shame... I really wanted to chat more, but I suppose now is a bad time... Uraraka Ochako, he trusts you a lot." And she slinks away.
"Oi you molester! Get back here!" Sero starts to run after her, but I stop him. "We need to stick together, she had no clothes which means no targets, she probably went to get them." Midoriya nods with me.
"It wouldn't be smart timewise to go after her." He continued. "Also, you guys are real...right?" I gave him a confused look.
"Well, earlier, her quirk made her look exactly like Uraraka." I saw Uraraka go bright red and Sero's helmet pop open.
"WAS SHE NAKED TOO?!" He was aggressively shaking the poor green boy.
"NO! SHE HAD HER COSTUME ON??? WHY WAS THAT THE FIRST THING IN YOUR MIND?!" Midoriya defends himself quickly.
We huddle up behind a boulder as Midoriya explained what had happened to him.
"So she has a sort of transformation quirk?" I say, we don't know the requirements needed for it to work, but I have a really weird feeling about her.
"Geez, the other schools really know a whole lot about us, even that you and Uraraka are close." Sero commented. That is weird.. how did she know? The cavalry battle? But is that enough information to get that conclusion? I think back to Touya's words.
"One of our members will be at the exam."
Maybe that's her. The uneasy feeling in my stomach grows stronger, is that why she winked at me? God, I thought she was just gay or something, Stupid Y/n! I mentally facepalm.
"Anyway, what are you guys doing here?" Midoriya asks.
"Me and Y/n heard a commotion so we rushed over, and ran into Uraraka on the way." I nodded.
"We should find the rest of the class, but 30 people have already passed right? The intercom man was saying it." Sero said. "Y/n already took out one person, so she only needs one more point."
"I'm still glad its 4 of us now, we'll all be able to pass in no time." The other 3 agree with me.
"Also, one person already? As expected Y/n!" Midoriya gave me a smile.
"Really Sero should've taken it, but this gentleman passed up the chance."
"Awww, cute!" Uraraka says, I give her a 'um no..' glance.
"Another group has passed, bringing the grand total up to 60. Only 40 more to go..." We hear over the intercom.
"Ahhh people are passing in groups, we need a plan." Sero says, redirecting the focus.
"Even if we can't find anyone, we can do something about the group nearby." Midoriya seems to have gathered his thoughts.
"Damn already? That's Midoriya for you." I say, happy about the team decision I've made.
"One was trying to get ahead of the others, when a large group goes after a smaller one in a game like this, they'd end up fighting over their prey, right?" I nod in agreement.
"That's right, that means they'll split into smaller groups eventually." Uraraka says. I think back to the girl me and Sero got, she was probably trying to get points before the other competitors, but we took her out easily.
"It's easy to look at this game like target practice, but without knowing their abilities it'd be time consuming right? So, we should restrain them before hitting their targets, and restrain just enough for all of us to pass. That way, we all get to pass, no issue."
"Smart, me and Sero can easily restrain them, and there are others in our class that can do the same. this is a pretty solid plan." I add on, and Sero chimes in. "I wonder if that's what they're testing in the first place.."
"Shh!" Uraraka hushes us. "They're getting closer."
I hold a hand over my mouth, trying to listen, and sure enough I hear the sound of scattered footsteps inching closer and closer.
"What do we do?" Our voices are even more hushed than before. "I'll go out. I can act as a decoy while you three restrain as many as possible, your quirks are suited to that." I nod, but look concerned. "You've already got one target out, your plan is smart but make sure you don't fail, ok?" He nods at me, a small smile on his face.
"Roger."
"Eh?! Fine.."
"Don't worry about me, we can do this." He nods at us.
"Ready...now!"
He sprints out, and the opponents all chase after him, launching attacks and balls his way. He seems to be trying to drag them all to one area, and its working. Uraraka would make them float as Sero tapes them, flinging towards me where I'd freeze them against the ground, being careful to make sure that all the targets are still visible. I dodge when necessary and everything is going off without a hitch.
"I'm actually gonna pass, Touya!"
(after the 4 pass)
All 4 of us are bounding with energy as we're walking towards where we need to get when we collect our points. I think I'm actually bouncing as I step.
"It worked so well!" I say giving Midoriya a soft pat on the back. "You're genius, I swear."
"I'm so glad... there were some points where I was a little worried." He sighed. We all made small talk as we walked, and a few meters away, we see Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari, all three of them had passed as well.
"Hey look! WOOO GO 1-A!!!" Sero and Uraraka wave them down as Kirishima and Kaminari join in on their chanting. "GO 1-A! GO 1-A!" I chuckle softly at their antics, as Bakugo walks straight past.
"Ah! Kacchan! I-I'm glad you passed!" Midoriya says, quite anxiously. Bakugo scoffs before saying something quietly to him. Probably some form of an insult. He then turns to me. We make eye contact for a second before I look down in embarrassment, still ashamed of when I slapped him.
"Oi. Y/n. We need to talk." He says. He didn't use that nickname, and his voiced isn't really raised. "Ok." I mumbled out.
I walk with him into the building for all the people that had passed. Before we even take our targets off, we find a quiet corner to have a talk.
"So?" I get out, still not looking at him.
"I just...fuck how do I... um, I'm...sorry." He awkwardly says. It's obvious he's never done this before.
"Why are you apologizing? I'm the one who slapped you." I say. "Sorry for that...by the way..."
He sighs. "I shouldn't have grabbed you like that, you were very clearly not in the mood to talk. I was a massive dick." This is weird side of Bakugo I never thought I'd ever see. I looked up at him, finally. he didn't look incredibly down or upset, he had this unreadable expression, something like... guilt?
"It's alright. I was angry, but I shouldn't have taken that out on you." I fiddled with my fingers a little. "That had nothing to do with you."
"I know. So are we cool? Because my sleep schedule has been fucked lately." I chuckle. "Me too, Katsuki."
We go to take our targets off, and he goes off to sit with Kirishima and Kaminari. I spot Jirou, Yaoyorozu, Shoji, and Tsu and immediately go over and congradulate them. I spot Shoto in the corner of my eye. Midoriya's already next to him, talking. I should probably tell him I'm glad he passed, because I am. So I take a deep breath in and go over.
"Ah, N/n, you passed. Midoriya was just telling me about it. I'm proud." He gives me a soft smile. I feel my heart wrench a little. He's still so nice even though I've been ignoring him.
"I'm glad you passed, Shoto." I say, it felt forced. I felt guilty. I wanted to cry, hug him and apologize, but at the same time, I wanted to turn around and walk away from him without a word.
I saw his smile fall when I didn't call him his nickname. "I hope... we both pass the next test as well." He gives me a small nod. I feel awful.
"Do you think Shoto has, and always will protect you?"
Oh God, please don't start, please be quiet brain. I quickly turn around and get back to Jirou.
(Shoto POV)
I'm hurt, to say the least. We she walked up to me, I thought, just maybe, she would back to her old self by some miracle. I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"Shoto, I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong, maybe shes just... out of it?"
I'm glad he's trying to help, and I really want to believe him, but I look at her mingling with our other classmates, happily congratulating the ones walking in as well. I remember how she held Jirou's sleeve before the exam started. I thought that that was what she would with me, I was the one to make sure she was safe.
I feel a tear run down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away. What did I do?
__________________
Raaaaaaa
Next chapter surely this lil arc will be over with *fingers crossed*
I hope you enjoyed this slightly longer chapter. It's currently 2am and I want this published ASAP so if there's any mistakes I'll just edit later lol
Thanks for reading <3
- Author Chan
(3651 words)