❝Rethink❞ (BNHA x BSD)

♥ Chapter 9 ♡

The exams were upon us. The written ones went well enough, considering that I had paid attention in class, studied on my own, done practice problems with Todoroki and even received extra tutoring from the Mafia. I guess they felt insecure about my achievements thus far: nothing.

But it all came down to the practical exam. This would determine whether I would be accepted into class 1-A. If not, the whole mission and therefore the hero society as we knew it would be in jeopardy. I was spared of the details.

The whole of class 1-B had gathered in one of the school's practice grounds where most of the faculty had gathered. The exam was simple: a two-on-one battle with one of the teachers acting as villains. Run and win or fight and win The time limit was 30 minutes. We couldn't form our own teams, that was done by Mr Kan with the intent of making our lives as difficult as possible.

Mr Aizawa continued introducing the exam as this change was suggested by him, "But you probably knew all this already because 1-A had their exam yesterday. But this doesn't change anything. You could have come up with 19 different strategies to be ready for any matchup. It's  what you should have done." His face looked stern. "But I get the feeling you didn't."

Everybody shifted a bit, avoiding other's eyes. There were some disagreements and unsolved 'social issues' in 1-B. And almost everyone hated Monoma.

Instead of Mr Kan announcing the matchups, Mr Aizawa wished to do the honours himself.

I was crossing my classmates' names in my head, dreading that I'd end up with him.

"Eliana and Monoma, your opponent with be Vlad King."

Oh, I thought. They're brutal.

After the first pair left for the exam area, I turned to Monoma. "Let's plan, Monoma."

"Yeah, let's." He grinned. He probably felt smug about finding out what my quirk was.

We were the second pair to be assessed. This meant we had some time to plan, which we did.

"Monoma," I began, "you can copy my quirk, right? You must have at some point, right?"

"I did and guess what? I found out you're lying. I couldn't predict anything. But did I blab? I didn't! Ha!"

"Wow, how high and mighty of you," I deadpanned.

"Is your quirk having confidence? Because I felt super confident."

"It's called Obey. I can command anyone just by giving them an order."

Monoma opened his mouth to for another one of his smack talks but I stopped him. "Monoma, shut your mouth until the exam." He did.

~

The horn sounded as we stood near the entrance. Our plan was to avoid combat and run to the exit. We were up against Vlad King because we were weak with physical combat after all.

Strangely enough, I wasn't nervous. The Mafia had hacked into the camera system so that they could see how I was doing. But it was most probably only Sir Nakahara watching, others had other concerns. But there was a drawback: no sound. Some people from class 1-A also had promised to watch me from the monitoring room as well. Their support was comforting. I tried to forget Mr Aizawa.

"Let's do this," I said as I held out my arm to him for a low five.

"Yeah." He responded to the low high and turned one of his clocks on. He had copied my quirk. I had concluded it was the best shot we had in that situation, just in case Vlad King came after either of us.

But before Monoma was about to dash off he said, "Eliana, stand there and don't move until I reach the exit."

I was immediately frozen in place. He ran off while I was busy trying to get my feet off the ground but it was as if they were glued there. Yikes. At this rate I would fail because I didn't do anything. Just how Sero from 1-A failed because he fell asleep under Midnight's scent.

Monoma was already so far ahead I couldn't reach him with my quirk. He actually had to hear what I said for it to work.

Up ahead, I could see Monoma making good progress. Vlad King was nowhere in sight.

Think. There has to be a way to escape this command. He could only copy it for ten minutes, which would hopefully reset it, but I didn't have ten minutes.

"And why are you standing here?"

My homeroom teacher approached me from the right.

I decided to 'break character'. "I can't move. Monoma copied my quirk and used it against me."

He furrowed his brow but didn't say anything.

"Speaking of, shouldn't you be there where the bigger threat is?"

"It's taken care of."

Seconds later I could see Monoma be pinned to the wall with a sound of surprise. I had no idea what happened but he was now trapped and alone. It was probably Vlad's blood but I hadn't known he could control it from so far away.

"It's not over yet, Vlad King," I said, remembering it was an exam. I couldn't give up yet. I couldn't let Monoma cause the downfall of the hero society. Could it be that Monoma is working for the villains? No, I'm working for the Mafia. I'm the less innocent one. Oop- that's not important right now.

Vlad King grabbed me and tried to lift me, but my legs wouldn't leave the ground. They wouldn't even leave my cargo boots.

"Well, if you're stuck here..." he said before running off.

I knew that having time to think was a luxury in a situation like this. I could use my quirk to command myself, but I had to be extremely careful. That's what my father had stressed, the importance of choosing the right words and exact phrasing to make sure I didn't screw myself over. He had told me to practice it daily with speaking, but it was too difficult and I had decided to keep quiet at some point instead. Now the lack of practice showed.

But I couldn't help it, I could feel my lips curling upwards. I had finally figured out a way to train my quirk.

The horn blared again. "Team Monoma and Eliana have passed."

Monoma must have used my quirk to command Vlad King to release him and stand there while he escaped. That schmuck.

The condition "until I reach the exit" had been fulfilled and I could finally move. But when I turned around to exit through the entrance, Mr Aizawa was already waiting for me.