ATOMIC STRUGGLE

7「test of courage」7

"Whoa Bakugo, you're really good with that knife!" Uraraka exclaimed as everyone was getting ready for dinner. "It's weird.."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S WEIRD HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE SO DAMN BAD AT EVERYTHING?!" The blonde demanded, glaring at the girl and continuing to cut up vegetables. 

"Look at that," Kaminari commented as he slid past the two. "He's not blowing stuff up."

"I'm too tired for this." Kirishima grumbled. "Can't even ask Izak to give me a refresh, this sucks."

"At least we're getting better," Shinso said, side-eyeing the redhead. While everyone else had mostly been sticking to one method of training, the mind controller had been doing multiple things. First, he would work with Koda and do vocal exercises. Then when his voice was rough from all the yelling and his hands were cramping from how often he'd been utilizing his vocal modulator, he would go for the last half of Tiger's Boot Camp to increase his body's overall strength. 

That was all the teachers were having him do, but that wasn't all that he was making himself do. At night, when almost everyone was asleep and the ones with extra courses were with Aizawa, the purplette would go out into the forest and work on his depth perception in the dark while simultaneously getting better with his capture weapon skills by swinging through the trees. It was hard work, and he honestly suspected that he was getting less sleep than the remedial bunch, but he was okay with that. 

As he moved his gaze from Kirishima over to Izak, the teen felt himself relax. He was pushing himself for Izak, so that he could rise to his expectations as fast as possible. And, when they were all together like this, Shinso made sure to watch everyone's movements. Each time someone walked, turned, flinched, each time a muscle contracted in a reaction to something, he made sure to note it all. 

Because not only was he determined to meet Izak's expectations, Shinso was aiming to surpass them and show the maroonette that he was even more powerful than either of them had ever hoped. 

"GUYS!" Shinso broke out of his thoughts as Iida suddenly shouted. "Your hands aren't moving! We'll never make the best stew if you stop now!"

"Calm down, we aren't on the clock or anything."

"But still, we should give it our all anyway!"

"Just do it."

~*~

"Perfect," Pixiebob grinned. "We've filled our bellies and cleaned the dishes! It's time for~"

"A TOTALLY AWESOME TEST OF COURAGE!" Ashido squealed. 

"We're gonna win!" Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Sato cheered along with her. 

"Not so fast," Aizawa spoke up, immediately putting a damper on their cheer fest. "As much as it pains me to say it, but the remedial class will be having lessons with me tonight instead."

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

"Sorry," Aizawa wasn't into being yelled at, so he wrapped them all up in his capture weapon. "Your training during the day didn't impress me, so I'll be using this time to."

"Aww, give me a break!" The guys cried as they were led away. "I just wanna prove my courage!"

"Okay, so!" Pixiebob took over and began explaining how the test of courage was going to go. "Class B is going to start out as our scarers. When they're in place, class A will leave in pairs every three minutes. There are tags with your names on them at the far end of the route! Your goal is to collect those."

"Revelry in the dark," Tokoyami said, causing Uraraka to purse her lips. Why does he keep saying that?

"Now, those that are scarers aren't allowed to make physical contact. Use your quirks to terrify the others, got it?" Pixiebob went on. 

"The winners are the creative students who make the most people piss their pants!" Tiger announced.

"Did we need that visual?" Jiro sweatdropped. 

"I see," Iida gawked. "They're encouraging us to stoke our imaginations as we compete with each other all while showing us other uses for our quirks in the process! AS EXPECTED OF UA!"

"Alright!" Pixiebob thrusted her hand up with a bunch of paper slips in it. "Everyone draw to see who your partner will be!" Thus, everyone drew a slip from her hand and looked at the number that was attached to it, and went to find the other person that had drawn that same number. 

Since there were 22 students in class A and four of those students were in the remedial course, 18 teens would be taking part in the test of courage. Thus, 9 teams were made. Shoji and Tokoyami were team one, Todoroki and Bakugo were team two, Jiro and Hagakure were team three, Yaoyorozu and Aoyama were team four, Izak and Koda made up team five, Uraraka and Asui were team six, Ojiro and Mineta were team seven, Shinso and Midoriya were team eight, and Iida and Ashido were team nine. 

And suddenly several people wanted to change partners, but the pussycats weren't going to allow that, so everyone was stuck with who they had drawn. "Revelry in the dark," Tokoyami said for the third time that day. 

Soon, groups were heading into the forest, and screams came back out with each passing second. "Class B seems to know what they're doing," Shinso remarked to Izak. "Either that, or everyone so far doesn't handle jumpscares well."

"Probably both," The maroonette replied.

"Team number five!" The blonde pro called, making Izak give Shinso a nod before heading over to her and his partner. "You're up kitties~ try not to wet your pants!" Pixiebob sang as she waved the two off into the forest. Thus, the two walked down the path, Izak keeping his eyes peeled for the people of class B as Koda trembled. Three minutes later, Uraraka and Asui were up and moving through the forest, holding hands in an attempt to gain courage from the other's presence. 

Suddenly in the clearing, Pixiebob frowned and sniffed pointedly. "What's this foul smell on the air?"

"Hey Shinso, you see that?" Midoriya asked, elbowing him lightly and pointing over at where smoke was rising from the forest. 

"Black smoke?" 

"Has something been set ablaze?"

"Maybe a fire on the mountain?"

"Hey you two, come back!" Mandalay called after Uraraka and Asui, but blinked when she realized that they were on the ground. "What the..."

"Huh, why can't I see anythi---" Pixiebob suddenly yelped as something hit her and she flopped down on the ground. 

"Pixiebob!" Mandalay screamed, whipping to face the attacker, except she could no longer see either. And then she, too, fell to the ground as something hit her. 

"What?! No way," Mineta backed up as some people were seen standing in front of the group, weapons in hand. "I thought they made sure no one could find us, so why the heck are there villains attacking this place?!"