They were still screaming.
The noise filled your ears, below where your group was located two people's cries could be heard.
You pressed your hands harder into your ears. "Stop it!"
Bakugous voice broke through the noise. "Shut up! Save yourselves, you whiners!"
You tried to get your breathing under control. This wasn't real, these people weren't actually hurt.
The announcers' voice resounded throughout the arena. "It seems we have a slight commotion, unfortunately, we are unable to pause the exam for the sake of only one student. Best of luck."
"What the hell? Can they not see that something is seriously wrong?" Kaminari had bent down next to you.
Your breaths were coming out evenly now, and the noise had died down a bit.
Many of the victims had most likely been saved already, the exam would be coming to an end soon.
You opened your eyes and looked to your group. "You guys need to go, don't wait around when you could be earning points to pass."
Kirishima and Kaminari both looked at you worriedly.
"Are you sure you're gonna be ok? Things were looking pretty bad for a second there."
You were shaking slightly, but your initial reaction had passed. You weren't going to let them fail because of you.
You gave a weak smile. "It caught me off guard. Let's just get the rest of this over with."
The two of them still seemed unsure, but nodded.
Bakugou turned around. "Fine, then quit talking and get to it."
You glared but stood up.
Your legs were shaking, more than they should be. You looked around and noticed that your friends were unsteady as well.
Kaminari looked around in fear. "Um, guys why is the ground shaking?"
Rocks began falling off of the cliffs, pieces of the buildings broke off, and the shouts began growing in volume once more.
Out of nowhere, an explosion came from the sky, and two buildings came tumbling down.
Why does every test have to include life-threatening elements? Is this even legal?
The announcer spoke once again. "A villain has completed another large scale attack."
More explosions began firing from the sky.
Your teammates were staring in shock. And suddenly you felt the air becoming warmer. Looking up a blast was hurtling right towards where you were standing.
You threw Kirishima and Kaminari out of the way using your air ability and sped to Bakugou. Wrapping your arms around his chest you used your momentum to push the two of you far to the side.
The blast hit and chunks of earth went flying. A large hole had replaced the ground you had been standing on moments ago.
You and Bakugou landed hard and slid across the rocky terrain.
When you came to a stop his body was spread over yours, the two of you breathing heavily.
You raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure that's like the third time I've saved your ass."
He pushed himself up. "I could've done it myself."
"Always so ungrateful."
You heard footsteps coming from afar. "Terrorists have appeared and are beginning to sweep the area. Hero candidates at the scene should continue their rescue efforts while also suppressing the newly-arrived villains." The announcer spoke as if the situation was of little interest to him.
"Are they serious?!" Commotion came from the center of the arena, where the rescued were supposed to be taken.
"The villains are attacking the rescue area, they're gonna have to evacuate."
Bakugou turned to the center of the commotion. "I'm gonna fight."
"No, you won't make it in time. I'll go over there and help with the villains. You find Kirishima and Kaminari, and search for any remaining victims that were missed."
"Don't tell me what to do!"
You rolled your eyes. "I'll see you at the end of the exam."
Before he could protest, you took off towards the area where the villains were undergoing their attack. Saving people may not have been your forte, but fighting was right up your alley.
Students were running with people on their backs, trying to get away from the large wave of villains making their way towards them.
You stopped close to Ashido who was running with a little girl. "They're getting closer! We aren't gonna make it!" She yelled.
"Keep going I got this!" Once everyone had run past you and you were sure no victims were left in the area, you threw up a wall of rock behind you. Blocking the villains from getting past.
Up ahead were Midoriya and the boy from before who had provoked you. It seemed as if the boy had been incapacitated and Midoriya was attempting to pull him away from the oncoming attackers.
You ran up next to them and Midoriya looked up. "They're too close. We have to be the front line."
You felt a hand push you to the side. "I'll take care of this."
The boy was no longer unconscious, he placed his hand on the ground and sent a vibration that caused the villains to be knocked down.
"Woah, Shindou! I thought you couldn't move because of the blast." Midoriya sounded impressed.
It had been an impressive move, but you were pissed.
Shindou raised his head to you. "We don't need you here, as you can tell." He gestured to the fallen villains. "I could've taken out Gang Orca as well, but those two first years ruined it!"
You looked past the villains to the center of the battle. Todoroki and Inasa were both using their quirks, but one was continually getting in the way of the other. From what you could tell they were in the midst of a heated discussion.
"I've tripped the villains, now if you want to be useful make sure that they're out for good." Shindou had stood up and was looking between you and Midoriya.
"Right!" Midoriya jumped forward. When he had left you quickly turned to Shindou and sent a burst of air that caused his legs to fall out from under him. He landed on the ground with a grunt.
"Oh don't just lie there. If you want to be useful you should be gathering the remaining injured."
You ran after Midoriya, in the distance you could see flames. They were swirling around in a tornado-like form, surrounding Gang Orca.
The villains were running back trying to help. But you shot through, sending bursts of electricity in their direction. Midoriya hit a group of them with his leg. The villains were shooting cement out of blasters attached to their arms. But they were no match, Ojirou dropped down and overpowered a group of them using his tail, Midoriya was pushing with full strength, and you were sending out different attacks left and right.
You sped over to Ojirou and Midoriya.
"Nice moves!" Midoriya smiled at you.
Ojirou bent down. "The injured have all been evacuated, and reinforcements should be here any minute now."
Todoroki and Inasa were still holding off Gang Orca, using their quirks to create a whirlwind of fire around him. Suddenly Tokoyami appeared with Dark Shadow, knocking more of the villains to the ground. Ashido jumped in front and shot a stream of acid from her hands.
"Hey, guys! You miss me?" She jumped again as Tsu lept in and used her tongue to knock the cement shooting villains off their feet.
The only villain left was Gang Orca, he was still surrounded by the fire cyclone.
You and your classmates ran towards it. Heat pulsed through the air, and sweat began dripping down your forehead. After another minute you heard Gang Orcas' voice inaudibly yell through the fire, and the next thing you knew a blast shot through the air. The fire was blown to the side and he stepped towards Todoroki who was lying on the ground.
Midoriya shouted and jumped forward. "Get away from those two!" He kicked Gang Orca but the villain managed to grab hold of his leg.
The rest of the students began to move forward, ready to attack.
But then a buzzer sounded.
"Um, yeah, at this time all of the actors who were deployed have been rescued from the disaster zone. It may seem anticlimactic, but with this, the provisional licensing exam has been completed. After we tally your scores, the results will be announced here in the arena, anyone injured should visit the infirmary. The rest of you are free to change clothes and wait wherever you'd like."
Ashido came up next to you. "Wanna go get changed? My outfit is insanely dirty after that."
"Yeah, sure."
You followed the other students to the exit, most looked pretty banged up. Walking into the changing room you got a few glares from the girl who you had taken down earlier and her friends.
Jirou came in alongside Tsu and Ururaka.
"That was intense," Jirou said after sitting down.
"Yeah, I'm ready to eat and go to bed." Ashido sighed.
Ururaka leaned her head back. "I really hope everyone in our class passed."
Most of the other girls had finished changing and left the room. You took a drink from a water fountain that was near the door.
"Y/N how many people did you manage to rescue?" Ashido asked.
You laughed a little. "None."
"How? Out of everyone, I thought you would be the one with top points."
"Well, my past likes to hit me at pretty inconvenient times."
Tsu gasped. "Wait, so the announcement in the middle of the second exam was about you?"
"Yeah, if I hadn't calmed myself down things could have gotten pretty bad. But apparently, the teachers didn't care enough to do anything about it. Hell if I had hurt anyone they probably would have been glad to have another reason to lock me up."
"Don't say that. They probably just didn't realize the severity of the situation." Ururaka stepped out in her normal clothes.
You scoffed. "Yeah, maybe."
You walked out of the changing room and back into the arena. A crowd of students had gathered waiting for the results.
A large screen had been placed on a platform, and the announcer sat at a podium in front of it.
"All right everyone. Thanks for your hard work on today's exam. Now before I announce the results, I should probably explain the way that we evaluated you."
"Tch, can he just get on with it already." Bakugou walked up next to you, Kaminari and Kirishima following behind.
"We had a two-fold demerit system that we used to determine your final scores. In other words, we based it on how few mistakes you made in a crisis. Anyway, the names of those who passed are listed here in alphabetical order. Keep my words in mind as you search the screen for your name."
Everyone nervously searched the screen, shouts of excitement were heard along with a few cries of disappointment.
Kirishima pumped his fist. "Right on!" His eyes continued searching the screen. "But-"
"No!" Bakugou was seething. His eyes were narrowed and his fists were curled.
He hadn't passed.
Guilt washed over you, had it been because of your breakdown? When he had yelled at those people to get them to be quiet?
You scanned the list of names, your nerves beginning to grow.
Your name wasn't on there either.
"Assholes!" They led you into a situation that was designed to work against you, and when you had reacted in a bad way they hadn't done anything to help, and now they were failing you because of it?!
Everyone was beginning to stare, and you felt anger bubbling up inside of you.
Workers began walking around holding sheets of paper. They held your results and the different areas where you lost points.
You grabbed yours and began to read it over. As you did your grip began to grow tighter. The passing number of points needed to pass was fifty. The largest amount of points you had lost because of "incapability to handle a surprise situation." The next was because you "reacted in a way that could potentially scare the victims," and lastly was "harming another teammate." In total, you had been left with forty-nine points.
You crumpled the paper in your hands.
"Moving forward, those of you who passed can exercise the same authority as pro heroes, but only in an emergency. As for those who did not pass, we don't have time for you to feel bad about your loss. Instead, we offer you a chance to redeem yourselves. After you attend a three-month-long special course and pass an individual test, we plan to issue a provisional license to those of you who failed as well. We want to see you reach the same level as your classmates."
A three-month course? Do I really want a license that bad?
The announcer concluded his speech, and everyone began filing out of the building.
Bakugou looked slightly less pissed off after hearing that he still had the opportunity to gain a provisional license. Todorki had a determined expression on his face, you had been surprised when his name hadn't appeared on the board.
The sun had begun to set when you made it to the front steps. The students who passed were holding their licenses like gold.
You climbed onto the bus and rested your head on the window. Jirou sat next to you and the two of you rode in silence.
When you finally pulled up to UA it was completely dark outside. Everyone was chatting excitedly about today's events, you were halfway to the entrance of the dorms when a voice called you back.
"Y/N, we need to have a conversation."
You turned and saw Aizawa standing next to All Might. He was looking at you with sadness in his eyes, All Might was staring towards the ground.
You began walking back. "Yeah, I figured we'd talk after what happened at the exam."
"I do apologize for that. I did not know what they had in store, and they wouldn't listen when I asked them to pull you out. I am proud of you for being able to pull your emotions back in, that must have taken effort."
"Yeah," you looked over to All Might. "Is that all you wanted to talk about? Or..."
Aizawa sighed. "I know it's been a tiring day and I asked them to leave this until tomorrow. But the other teachers feel that they need to know the details of your experience with the villains."
Your brows narrowed. "Why?"
All Might finally lift his head. "I have just returned from a meeting with your father. There are some things you need to know."
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The three of you walked to Aizawa's office. Your stomach was growling and you were slightly pissed off that they had sprung this on you before you could eat dinner.
"So are we meeting with all the teachers right now? Like I'm gonna have to spill the details of my capture in front of a bunch of people I barely know?"
Aizawa shook his head. "We'll talk first in my office with just us three. I will relay any information deemed important to the others."
You walked through the hallways and up a few flights of stairs. He stopped in front of a door and used a key to unlock it.
Aizawa's office was small, it held a desk with a computer and a few stacks of paper. He turned on the light and gestured for you to take a seat.
"Do you know why the villains were holding you?"
"I mean they told me that they wanted me to join them, but now that I know about All For One then it probably had something to do with him."
They both nodded.
"There were a few times when I tried to pretend that I was willing to join them, but they always saw through it somehow."
"There are things you haven't told us arent there? Your reaction at the exam today had to be a result of something that happened during your captivity."
A chill spread through your body. "Yeah, it's something I've tried to forget."
"We need you to tell us what it was."
"It's... bad." You looked down at your hands.
Aizawa put his hand on your shoulder. "I'm sorry, but you need to tell us everything."
"When they first had me apparently they were given orders to leave me unharmed. They had planned to use my brother as a tool to get me to do what they wanted, but they had killed him accidentally when they attacked my house." You took a deep breath. "They thought I would listen if it meant other people's lives would be saved, so they brought in a woman."
You shut your eyes as the memory of her face began to show. "They tortured her, telling me that she would be let go if I did what they asked. But I couldn't, and they killed her."
"You're saying a woman died?" All Might was studying you.
"Yes, I'm saying a woman died. I think they realized that it was pointless because after that they didn't bring anyone else."
"This is something you should have told us. The situation is now worse than before, if a woman died then there is no avoiding the police now."
"Great. Anything else you wanna throw at me tonight?"
All Might sighed. "As much as I hate to say it I do believe you have the right to know. After my conversation with your father-"
"Stop calling him that."
"Right, my apologies. After my conversation with All For One, I have begun to understand the villains' true intentions for you."
"And what would those be?"
He was silent for a moment. "Although they did want you to join their cause, there was more to it. You were meant to inherit his power, he wanted you to be the next holder of All For One."
"What does that mean exactly?"
"It means that he wanted to pass down his power to you."
"Yeah I got that, but how would that be possible? And if it was possible, what's to stop me from taking his power and then killing them all?"
"His power is... unique. He claims it is possible to give it to other people as long as they are willing participants. As for your second question, I believe that he has devised a way to hold control over the successor of All For One. If you had taken his power he would have been able to sway your every move, which means you would be unable to harm any of them."
You let the information sink in. "So I would have his power, but he would still be the one controlling it?"
"Yes, I believe that is correct."
"I guess it's a good thing I didn't give in then."
Aizawa spoke. "Yes, out of all people we're lucky it was you. Most other people wouldn't have held out for as long as you did, and we would all be in serious trouble."
"Glad I could help the hero community by having my family killed and getting held captive by villains for months."
"That's not what I-"
A voice came from a speaker in the wall. "Hey, Eraserhead. Two of your students are loitering at Ground Beta! You are responsible for rounding them up!"
Who would be out at Ground Beta right now?
Aizawa stood up, his jaw was tight. "Are you kidding me?"
All Might stepped forward. "I have a feeling about who they are. I'll handle it Eraserhead."
"Bring them back here once you're done."
All Might left the room. You hunched over in the chair and sighed.
"I really am sorry about the exam, I had no idea that it would be built like that. And I was unaware of the harsh memories that could be associated with rescuing people."
"They did it on purpose, didn't they? They were trying to see if I was 'good' or not, and I failed."
He remained silent.
"Good to know." You stood up. "Thanks for telling me about All For One, I'm gonna go back to my dorm and eat something. I'll process all of this later."
"Alright, I'll see you in class tomorrow."
"Yeah, goodnight."
You walked out of the office and back towards the dorm building, it was past curfew so most of your classmates had gone to their dorms for the night.
You grabbed something from the kitchen and walked to the elevator. You made it to your dorm and sat down on your bed. Your mind was reeling, you hadn't realized how bad things could have been if you had complied with the villains' demands.
Today had been long. The exam had taken a lot of energy out of you, which wasn't a surprise considering it was apparently meant to test you.
You turned on the TV and started a new episode of your show. Taking bites of your food while watching.
After a little while, you heard your door open. You turned your head and saw Bakugou step in. He was covered in bruises and scrapes.
"What the hell?! Are you ok?"
"Oh yeah, I'm great."
You stood up and put your plate on the desk. "You need to go to Recovery Girl, the injuries are small but there's a lot of them."
He stepped around you and walked to the bed. "I don't need to be healed. I'm not giving that damn nerd the satisfaction."
You turned around and put your hands on your hips. "It was you and Midoriya at Ground Beta?! What the hell were you doing?"
"We had some things to settle."
You rubbed your eyes. "That was incredibly stupid."
"Whatever."
There was a bruise around his left eye and you walked over to your bathroom. You grabbed a washcloth and poured cold water over it. Walking out you went over to where Bakugou was sitting.
"What are you doing?"
"Your eye's gonna swell, it needs something cool." You held up the washcloth and he looked at you curiously.
But he didn't protest as you placed the cloth over his eye. His body tensed when the cold water came in contact with his skin but after a second he relaxed.
"Hold that there, I'll be right back." You went back into the bathroom and grabbed a few bandaids along with another damp washcloth.
You walked back to him and placed the items on your bed. You used the washcloth to clean off the scrapes. You unwrapped a bandage and put it on the cut that was on his chin. You repeated that, placing them over the cuts on his face and shoulders.
He stared at you intently the entire time but didn't say a word until you were finished.
You gathered up the trash and threw it away, you brushed your teeth and washed your face, and then turned off the light and headed back to the bed.
When you had lied down you felt him turn towards you. "Why did you do that?"
You rolled over and looked into his eyes. "I used to get scraped up all the time at home. My mom would always patch me up and it made me feel a little better. After I was taken, I would always wish she was with me. I would get some pretty bad injuries because of the chains, or when I would try to..."
"Try to what?"
You took a shaky breath. "Nothing, I just wished there had been someone there to comfort me. I know you won't admit it but you're upset about something. I guess I just wanted to help."
He blinked a few times. "Thank you. No one has ever really done anything like that for me."
You smiled. "I also couldn't have you getting blood on my sheets now could I?"
A small laugh left his mouth. "Right, of course not."
You rolled back over and shut your eyes.
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Bakugou's POV:
He didn't know how to feel.
When you were telling him about what had happened, he had felt angry. Angry at the ones who had driven you to feel that way.
He was still watching you, your breathing was even and you seemed relaxed.
He had noticed that you always slept holding onto something, right now your arms were wrapped around a pillow. Similar to how you had done with his arm the other night.
Sleeping was the one time you looked truly vulnerable. It calmed him to know that there were at least some moments of peace. It would leave once the nightmares hit though, he hated that.
Before looking away he lightly stroked your arm with his finger, and made a silent promise to himself.
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Sorry for the delayed upload guys, some of you may know that things got a little crazy the other day.
It came to my attention the other night that people have said that this story has very similar elements to 'Opposites' by lancalianaimes. Because the stories are based on the same shows, with the same characters, and the same love interest there are bound to be similarities. I would never intentionally copy anyone else's work, ever. I have spoken with the author and the situation has been resolved, all is good.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! The next major plot point is coming soon, and it is intense.. I'll have a new chapter up Wednesday, thank you all for the love and support. You guys are amazing and I love reading your comments.