Idealism

| XXII |

After the news of our summer training in the woods, Aizawa leaves the classroom, letting the whole class speak amongst themselves. A commotion starting as soon as the sleepy teacher leaves.  "I haven't studied at all!" Kaminari and Mina exclaim. Kaminari's face was full of regret, whereas Mina brushed it off, as their ranks were dead last. 

"With the sports festival and internship, I didn't study at all!" Kaminari exclaims, clutching his head while Mina laughs out loud. "It's true that we had one event after another, but..." Tokoyami admits. "For the midterms, we'd just started school, so they didn't cover much, so I didn't really have a hard time with them, but with the back-to-back events and stuff finals will be different..." Sato admits. 

"It'll be tough since there's a practical exam, too," Mineta states, his face smug as his rank was 9th.  "9th on the midterms?!" Kaminari and Mina exclaim. They were fuming, angry at the little perverted boy. "And here I thought you were one of us!" Mina accuses. "Guys like you are only likable if they're dumb. Where's the demand for this?!" Kaminari grumbles.

 "The world, I guess," Mineta replies, a pause in between phrases. "Mina, Kaminari! L-let's do our best! We all want to go to the training camp together, right?" Izuku says, his score coming in at number 4. "Yes! as class rep, I also have high hopes that you'll all be moved to action!" Iida asserts with his hand raised. His rank at a 2.

"It's pretty hard to fail if you just pay attention in class." Shoto retorts. "Come on guys! You gotta get off your asses and hit the books if you wanna go! No room for slackers here!" (Name) proclaims with a grin. Shoto and (Name) tying for 5th. 

"Becareful with your words!" Kaminari heeds, clutching his shirt. "You two, I may be able to be of assistance with the class lectures. " Momo offers. "Yao-momo!" cry, eyes sparkling.  "I can't help at all with the practical, though..." She whimpers. Her bright aura dimming and turning dark. 

"I can help with that!" (Name) suggests, an evil smirk on her face. She cracks her knuckles and her neck. "I've been wanting to try new fighting techniques, and I think you two would be perfect to test them out on. OooooooOoOo." Her aura dark and menacing, yet her tone playful. They freeze and laugh nervously. 'I can't tell if that's a joke or not.' The class wonders. 

"I'm not one of those two, but can I join, too? I'm having some trouble with quadratic functions..." Jiro asks with a quirked eyebrow and a lopsided smile. "Sorry, me too! How are you with classical Japanese?" Sero asks, Ojiro joining in the conversation as well. Yaoyorozu's eyes sparkle once again, eager to help her classmates with studying. Momo starts to ramble about preparations. 

☞☞☞☞☞☞☞

At Lunch

"The practical exam, huh? It's kind of scary since I can't tell what'll be on it." Izuku wonders out loud. "I don't think it'll be anything crazy." Iida suggests. "Really? I was actually thinking the opposite. We've been through a lot already this year, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was something as wild as the class fighting Mr. Aizawa something." (Name) says while shoving a whole piece of sushi in her mouth. 

"The written exam questions will come from what we study in class, so I should be able to manage somehow, but..." Izuku pauses. "You can manage, huh...?" Ochaco mutters, her face blank and her rank at 13. "Seriously, what'll we have to do for the practical exam?" Izuku continues to ramble. "'It'll be a comprehensive test of everything from the first semester.'" Toru quotes. "That's all Mr. Aizawa would tell us..." Tsu finishes. "Everything we did so far... So, combat training and rescue training. And then basic training." Ochaco recalls. 

"In addition to studying, we'll have to keep in good physical conditio-" Suddenly something smacks Izuku in the head. "Oh, sorry. Your head was so big that I accidentally hit it." (Name) deadpans. "There's plenty of room for you to walk, bucko." She glares before eating another piece of sushi. "You're from Class B...Um... Monoma! How dare you-" 

"I heard you guys met the hero killer. Just like at the sports festival, you guys in Class A just have all the attention, huh? But that attention isn't because people have high hopes for you. It's because you keep attracting trouble, right?" 

(Name) looks to her side, Shoto casually eating his noodles. She giggles and pokes him while he just gives her a blank look as he eats his noodles. It was their first time eating with other people since the hero killer incident. (Name) was happy that they were extending their friend group, finally sitting at a full table. 

"Oh, that's scary. Someday the rest of us might also be caught up in the trouble you bring and become victims as well... Like getting cursed by the god of pestilence! Oh, that's sca-" He wasn't able to finish speaking before he was chopped in the next, falling to the ground. "Monoma, that's not funny. Don't you know what happened to Iida?" 

"Kendo!" Iida acknowledges. "Sorry, Class A. This guy's heart's just kinda, you know." (Name) slurps her water loudly. "He sure talks a shit ton despite that." "Yeah..." Kendo agrees, patting her hair. "You guys were talking earlier about how you don't know what's gonna be the practical exam for the finals, right? Looks like it'll be combat against robots like in the entrance exam." Kendo spills. "What! Really? How do you know?" Izuku asks. (Name) gets up to throw away her trash, silently asking if anyone needed to throw theirs away. They shake their head and she leaves, Shoto following suit. 

"An upperclassman friend of mine told me. It's kind of cheating, though." Izuku starts to mutter again everyone staring. Someone lightly slaps his cheek. He snaps out of it to look at the culprit. She smiles before leaving to throw away her trash. 

"Are you an idiot, Kendo? We had an information advantage. It was our chance to get ahead of the detestable Class A."

*Chop*

"They're not detestable!" Kendo says, their attention on the two Class B students leaving. 

☞☞☞☞☞☞☞

"Robots? Sounds pretty easy to me. " (Name) grins. "But, is this really helpful for us?" Shoto turns his head to her. "What do you mean?" (Name) turns to him. "Think about it. We're here to learn, right? To become stronger. It's like teaching kids material about ecology, but then giving them an exam about biology that they had learned in the previous unit. They can't get better like that. And we're already kind of ahead of other freshman classes, so why are they suddenly sticking to the original curriculum after all the crap we just went through?" (Name) rambles. 

Shoto shrugs. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see. They'll at least be different robots, right?" Shoto shrugs again. "I think so. " Suddenly, they hear loud voices stir up front. "Hey, Deku!" Izuku looks at him, sucking in a breath. "I don't know if you've figured out how to use your Quirk a little or what, but you seriously keep rubbing me the wrong way." (Name) holds back a choke as her dirty thoughts kick in. Somehow managing, she composes herself, clearing her throat. 

"I don't need another half-assed result like at the sports festival. AT the upcoming finals, we'll get individual scores, so we'll see who's better whether you like it or not. I'll beat you with an indisputable difference! I'll kill you!" Katsuki declares. "Todoroki! You, too!" Katsuki turns his gaze towards (Name) whose eyes widen in surprise. He clicks his tongue before leaving the room. (Name) lets out a breath of relief. "I thought he was about to verbally attack me, too." (Name) jokes. 

"Me too," Shoto agrees. 

'What's up with Lord Explosion Murder?'