A few days before the exams, the teachers held a meeting to discuss the practical component of the exam and the hero-killer incident. The students, of course, were in danger after all the attention they had been getting after the USJ, sports festival and hero-killer incident. More attention meant more chances of being targeted. They were aspiring heroes, after all.
So, the question was, how would the school keep the students safe? Well, the answer was simple. Help the students get stronger. Physically and mentally. For this, the teachers had decided to give a little twist to the practical exams. This year the first-years wouldn't be fighting robots but the teachers themselves, at the suggestion of Aizawa.
Once the teachers had agreed to Aizawa's suggestion, Aizawa determined the teams based on every student's personality, strengths and weaknesses.
"Next, for Midoriya, Bakugo and Sano." Aizawa said, skimming the student's profiles. "I'm leaving them to you, All Might."
All Might sat in his original form, sweatdropping at what Aizawa said. Why would he pile these three up together? Bakugo and Midoriya did not get along, and Sano would only get crushed between them.
"I did not put them together based on ability and grades," Aizawa said. "Just on how badly Bakugo and Midoriya get along."
"But why young Sano?" All Might asked.
Aizawa put the papers down and moved his hair away from his face. "Have you noticed Bakugo's and Sano's relationship? They're a couple now, and I haven't seen Bakugo being nice to anyone but her. On the other side, there's Midoriya, someone he seems to loathe. How would Bakugo react in this situation? Sano might be able to glue them together by the end of the battle since she'll have her stubborn partner on one side and her best friend on the other."
"And what if it doesn't make a difference?" All Might asked.
"Oh, it will. Maybe not immediately, but the result will show up one day. Maybe Bakugo will learn from his mistakes."
"Alright, I'll take care of them." All Might said.
...
Akira
"And Midoriya, Bakugo and Sano are a team." Aizawa sensei said. We were standing outside the school in our hero costumes. The teachers had surprised us with a last-minute twist. We were not going to be fighting robots. We were going to fight our teachers.
"And their opponent..." Before Aizawa sensei could finish his sentence, the opponent presented himself, falling from the sky.
"I will do it!" All Might exclaimed.
"All Might?!" The three of us cried in unison.
"Work together to beat me, you three!" He said, holding his fist in front of him. I looked up at the tall, muscular man, gulping. If things couldn't get any worse, I got mushed together in a team with Bakugo and Midoriya, and then our opponent was All Might. Were we expected to beat the number one hero? Bakugo gave Midoriya death glares while I looked at them, sweat dropping. Nope. Things are going south.
We had to handcuff the teachers or escape through the gate.
"It's kind of like combat training," Kaminari said.
"But it will be different than combat training!" Present Mic shouted. "You'll be up against someone waaaaay better than you!"
"In cases where there's too big a difference between your abilities, it would be smarter to run away and get help. Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, Sano. I'm sure you four will understand this." Aizawa sensei said. He was referring to the stain incident. My scars suddenly felt itchy.
"By the way, Sano." Aizawa sensei said. "Since your quirk is teleportation, you could easily teleport to the escape gate and pass. So, you are forbidden to use your quirk to escape."
"Eh?" I gasped.
"Yeah, since that's unfair. You cant teleport to the gate and run outside. That's not allowed either."
"So I'm not allowed to run?!"
"You are." Aizawa sensei said. "Just not allowed to use teleportation to escape. You can run instead."
Sounds fair. But if it were allowed, I'd pass in a second.
The teachers put on handicaps made by the support course, which weighed half their body weights to make the fight fair.
"To allow us to consider fighting you, huh?" Bakugo said, standing to my left. "You're underestimating us."
All Might chuckled and then looked at us with an evil face. "I wonder."
I looked up at Bakugo. His face said one thing, glaring at All Might with crimson eyes. 'I will beat you.' Of course, he would fight All Might instead of running away, even though the logical decision was to run away. I looked to my right. Midoriya. I huffed and slumped my shoulders. My best friend was on one side, and my boyfriend was on the other. Both wouldn't look each other in the eye. If we had skimpy communication during the fight, we were bound to fail.
Kirishima and Sato's match started, and they went to their battle zone while everyone else was coming up with strategies.
"Umm... so maybe we should come up with a strategy too...?" I said, breaking the awkward silence hanging in the air. It made me want to suffocate.
"Yeah, we should," Midoriya said. "It's best we make a strategy to run since we're facing All Might." Thank God he had the same thing in mind.
"Shut the fuck up, you runt!" Bakugo snarled and grabbed my arm, walking away. "C'mon Akira, let's make a plan to beat All Might."
"K-Katsuki, can you please look into this calmly?" I pleaded. "It isn't going to be easy defeating All Might."
Bakugo stopped in his tracks and looked back at me, his grip still on my arm.
"So you're gonna choose that damn Deku over me?" He asked, his voice slightly raised.
"Katsuki, this isn't about that! It's an exam, and I want to pass! Let's look into it logically, okay?"
"I beat All Might and gain victory! 'Aint that logical?!" His grip on my arm got unconsciously stronger.
"Katsuki, my arm."
"I'm gonna fucking beat All Might and that final!" He snapped.
"Katsuki, you're hurting me!" I winced. His eyes widened, and he let me go, eyes apologetic.
"Katsuki, babe," I took in a deep breath. "I know how bad you want to beat All Might, but this is an exam, alright? We have to pass. And let's not forget the time limit. If we concentrate on beating All Might, we'll never be able to make it before the time-" I was going to caress his cheek when he turned his back on me.
"Fuck it!" Bakugo snapped. "You're no different than that damn Deku. A fucking coward. Go kiss his ass or something." And he walked away.
My hand fell to my side as I watched him walk away. A fucking coward. His word played in my head on a loop, and I didn't even realise when tears pricked in the corner of my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see Midoriya shaking his head. I wiped my eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled.
"Let's just go to the monitor room," Midoriya said. "We can think of something there."
"Yeah, okay," I said. "Did you get your notebook, by the way? I left it on your desk this morning."
"Oh, so you found it," Midoriya said. "I was looking for it all over yesterday."
"Yeah." Midoriya's conversation with All Might crossed my mind, but I pushed it back. I had other things to worry about. Bakugo's words pierced my insides like needles. He probably said it in the heat of the moment, but it still hurt. If only he could be nicer to Midoriya. I tried to talk to him about it a hundred times in the past, but he always snapped when I bought it up.
I sighed and rubbed my arm, staring up at the screen. Kirishima and Sato seemed to be having a hard time against Cementos sensei.
I'm not going to fail this, even if Bakugo remains stubborn.
...
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DREAM LANTERN || Katsuki Bakugo
Fanfiction*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.* ♪ 𝙻𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚍𝚎. ♪ She is the light that brightens his world, the flame that fuels his passion. She is his best friend, his match in power, his formidable foe...
