21

The lead-up to their final exams was a mixed bag for Class 1-A. For those near the bottom of the class rankings, such as Ashido and Kaminari, it was a tumultuous nightmare with direct implications on their eligibility for summer training camp. For those near the top of the rankings, such as Izuku, Shoto, and Yaoyorozu, it was business as usual, although Yaoyorozu was admittedly dreading the practical exam. Ultimately, though, everyone was on a mission to prepare as best as they could for the written and practical tests in order to be allowed passage to the training camp.

Izuku wasn't particularly worried about the exams. Provided the written portion wasn't designed by Nezu himself specifically to mess with him, he was confident in his ability to ace it. The practical would likely be more challenging, but he didn't anticipate anything that he wouldn't be able to handle, especially after the circus that had been their semester.

Many of his classmates, on the other hand, did not share his confidence.

"I'm a little worried about the practical," Toru lamented at their lunch table. "Aizawa won't tell us much about what to expect, just that it's comprehensive."

"That could mean robots, rescue training, or actual combat against other people," Tsu added next to her while picking at her food. "Or some combination of all of them."

"Did your mom give you information about the exams?" Ochako asked the absentmindedly-eating Izuku across from her.

"Nah, she was pretty tightlipped about it when I floated the topic," he shrugged, much to her dismay. He paused with his chopsticks and put the soba noodles back into his dish before looking up. "Completely off-topic, but how does your Invisibility work, Toru? Does all light pass through you as if you weren't actually there, and how do you see if that's the case?"

"Hm?" Toru acknowledged before the question caught up with her and she put her chopsticks down. "Oh, light doesn't just pass through me entirely. Otherwise, I'd be blind, like you said. I just refract almost all of the light I come into contact with at any given moment. The amount that I don't refract is so negligible that I'm pretty much invisible to anything short of heat sensors and black lights. My own eyes are immune to it, though. I can see myself below the neck, I just don't show up in mirrors or on camera."

"That small fraction of light that you don't refract," Izuku began, now completely invested in the conversation upon learning about the intricacies of a quirk, "is it a fixed percentage, or does it change?"

"It can fluctuate," she answered. "Under very specific conditions and at very specific angles, I am visible to the average naked eye. That rarely ever happens, though."

"And beyond that, you'd only be detected with an infrared or UV sensor since you don't refract those parts of the electromagnetic spectrum," Izuku concluded, and Tsu, Ochako, and Iida also found themselves invested in the conversation. Shoto, meanwhile, continued eating away at his bowl of katsudon.

"Pretty much, yeah," Toru confirmed with an unseen nod.

"Fascinating," Izuku remarked while scribbling away in his notebook that the 5 other occupants of the table were absolutely certain was not there mere moments prior.

"If you can see yourself but don't show up in the mirror, what do you do with your hair?" Ochako posed to her invisible friend.

"Who says I have any?" Toru posed in return with a glimmer of mirth in her tone. "I could tell you that I inherited the physical traits of my dad's chameleon mutation, and you'd never actually know if I'm lying or not."

"…That's fair," Ochako conceded.

"So, your father has a chameleon mutation. What about your mother?" Iida chimed in.

"She's bioluminescent, but she can turn hers on and off, unlike me," she answered. "Her dad could also go invisible, but he could only do it for minutes at a time. I guess I inherited a permanent version from him; I don't really know. Quirks are weird."

"Understatement of the year," Izuku chuckled before ducking his head out of the way of an errant elbow from a student walking behind him.

"Oh, sorry," came the decidedly unapologetic drawl of Neito Monoma. "Your head's so big that it's hard to miss."

"No worries, I've got nothing against the visually impaired," Izuku assured in a manner that the others seated couldn't accurately determine the innocuity of.

Monoma's eye lightly twitched at the perceived jab as well as the light snort from the seated Todoroki.

"You three encountered the Hero Killer," he stated with little fanfare, and the silence and newfound attention he received from two of the three boys in question caused his haughty smirk to return. "Class 1-A really isn't content with not being the center of attention, huh? You do realize that you're not actually in the spotlight because people think you're competent heroes, or because you're 'worthy,' or anything that absurd, right?"

Now he had the full attention of 5/6ths of the table, and the sight of Ochako glowering at him only served to emboldened him. "The reality is that you all are damsels in distress that keep wandering into trouble, so here's a little food for thought: what happens when the rest of us are caught up in the messes you all create and we become unwilling victims to whatever horrible villains you decide to rain down upon us?"

Monoma, so wrapped up in his rant, did not notice Kendo stomping up to him with the intent of knocking him out for antagonizing the other class. However, before she could touch him, her wrist was wrapped up in soft, purple rope-like flame, and she followed it in surprise to Izuku casually extending it from his index finger. Monoma was taken out of his rant when he realized what had happened, and he looked back and forth between his bewildered classmate behind him and the seemingly unbothered Izuku in his seat.

"I didn't even…" Monoma quietly began, but Izuku cut him off.

"You didn't notice, and that's exactly the problem, isn't it?" Izuku casually remarked from his seat as he killed the flame. "I'm right in front of you, you're looking right at me, and I still managed to catch you by surprise. That's not even to mention the fact that you didn't notice Kendo's approach at all."

Monoma's look of surprise transformed into a sneer, and Izuku sighed before giving the boy a pointed glare. "If and when the day comes where we 'drag you all into our mess,' then the hope would be that you guys can handle yourselves just as well as us. If you are really as good as you claim yourself to be, and if the perceived gulf between 1-A and 1-B is as overblown as you claim it is, then you shouldn't have much trouble surviving the same near-death experiences that we all did, right?"

"Move it, Monoma," Kendo growled. "You've been enough of an asshole for the year already after that display."

Monoma only scoffed and walked away from the table, and Kendo sighed.

"Sorry about him… again," she genuinely offered. "He's been really deep into his 1-B superiority shtick since internships ended."

"It's all good," Izuku waved it off. "Finals are on us and tensions will inevitably run high."

"Speaking of finals, I heard from one of my friends who's a Third-Year that it'll be combat against robots like the entrance exam," Kendo revealed.

"Seriously?" Ochako asked, and Tsu, Toru, and Iida were just as surprised at the coveted info.

"It's only what I heard, but it's better than going in blind," Kendo shrugged.

Izuku wasn't entirely convinced. Fighting more robots would be much too simple, and it wouldn't really test them on anything beyond their destructive capabilities, which the entrance exam and sports festival both already tested. He suspected that Principal Nezu had something else in mind for them, but it was ultimately pointless to speculate. They'd find out when they found out.

It was then that Shoto brought his attention away from his meal, and he turned to look at Izuku. "I think I like katsudon almost as much as soba."

"Really?" Izuku asked with a bright smile. "Glad to have another enlightened soul in this world."

Shoto nodded, and he looked to Izuku's soba. "How was yours?"

"Definitely in my top 3," Izuku confirmed, and Shoto gave his friend a small smile.

The 3 days of written exams came and went, and, ready or not, the practical exam was finally upon them. Class 1-A stood before the teachers of UA in their costumes, and they were mostly psyched up for whatever was to come.

"Now then, let's begin the last test," Aizawa instructed to the assembled students, and only Izuku noticed that his scarf was more bulbous than usual. "Keep in mind that you can, in fact, fail this final if you make any stupid mistakes. Your attendance at training camp depends on this."

Aizawa fixed them all with a firm glare. "Now, I expect that you all have tried to gather information about what you'll be facing today, but curb your expectations because they're most likely inaccurate."

The bulge in his scarf moved, and out popped their principal. "This year's test will have a new focus: hero work, of course, but also teamwork, critical thinking, and combat against actual humans. You all will be working together in pairs against one of our esteemed UA teachers!"

That caught the class completely by surprise. Not only were robots not on the menu, but they'd be facing their very own instructors who were actual pro heroes with loads of actual experience. Those who were previously eased into a robot-induced false sense of security were swiftly snatched out of it, and it only heightened when Aizawa revealed that their partners and opponents had already been selected for them.

"First up, Midoriya will be paired with Bakugo," Aizawa announced, and Izuku's eyes widened a fraction whereas Bakugo didn't quite know how to feel.

"Your opponent…" Aizawa trailed off, and a loud, boisterous laughter erupted from above the building they were all standing in front of.

"I AM HERE!" All Might shouted as he vaulted over the building and landed in front of the shocked students. Izuku and Bakugo had very different reactions to the prospect of battling the Number One Hero. Bakugo was grinning madly at the idea of doing direct battle with the greatest hero of all time and proving himself once and for all. Izuku, meanwhile, was both unnerved that arguably the most powerful man alive would be attacking them and somewhat excited to be able to cut loose against an opponent that could most certainly take it.

Sitting at her desk in an office at Ketsubutsu, Ms. Joke was nearing the end of grading her students' final exams. Suddenly, her hand froze in the middle of a question, and her eye began to twitch.

"I'm gonna skin that bunny for corrupting my intern."

"To introduce your opponent!" All Might finished with his signature grin.

Just like that, Bakugo's own grin vanished and irritation took over. Izuku, while a mixture of relieved and mildly disappointed, looked on curiously for who their opponent would actually be. He took stock of the assembled teachers, and just about everyone short of Recovery Girl was present. It wouldn't make sense for All Might to show up just to introduce someone who was already standing there and could've just introduced themselves, and he doubted that they would fight Recovery Girl. That only left…

Oh.

Oh no.

On cue, as if Matatabi was playing a cruel prank on him, a slender form in a black unitard stepped out from the shadows and around All Might. The dark green boots, utility belt, gloves, and hair came into view, and one thought simultaneously ran through the heads of both boys: 'Shit.'

"That would be me," Verdant announced to the pale duo of Izuku and Bakugo.

"Come on, can we get All Might instead?" Izuku almost pleaded to his homeroom teacher.

"No," he succinctly denied with a smirk.

"Think of this as the conclusion to your training," Verdant offered to Izuku with a smile that was neither warm nor comforting. "You've been on excursion since the entrance exam. Show me what you've learned."

Then, she turned to Bakugo, and the smile became even more dangerous. "And you, let's see if you've learned anything at all since the start of the year."

"You'll all have 30 minutes to complete the exam," Nezu explained. "Your objective is to lock one of these pairs of handcuffs onto your adversary or escape from the combat zone entirely."

"This exam will be very similar to a real battle scenario," All Might continued. "You must think of your teachers as real villains, or else you will be crushed. But, in an ordinary situation, the experience gap would be too much to surmount, so we called on our Support Department to whip us up an equalizer in the form of ultra-compressed weights!"

"You think we need a handicap in order to beat you?" an offended Bakugo growled.

Verdant only smirked and got right into Bakugo's face. "Yeah, you do. Got a problem with that? Prove us wrong."

The blonde practically snarled, but quickly paused and took a breath to calm himself. He sent a smoldering glare back at the retired pro. "Damn right, I will."

"The tests will take place simultaneously, so here are each of your stages," Aizawa spoke up with a stack of papers for the 10 teams. "The designated training grounds shouldn't be hard for you all to find, but for those of you with off-campus stages like the USJ, buses are already prepared. Don't waste time."

With that informal dismissal, the paired students scrambled away towards their designated stages. Verdant shot the two a final look before walking away.

"Don't keep me waiting," she called out to the two as she departed.

Izuku and Bakugo stared after her retreating form, and they briefly shared a look before Bakugo huffed and walked away towards their exam stage. Izuku noted that the blonde looked like he wanted to say something, but he put it out of his mind for the coming exam. It certainly wasn't going to be as easy as he expected.

Shoto, meanwhile, stared at the retreating duo of Izuku and Bakugo. He had only briefly seen Verdant in action at the USJ, and he figured that even with the destructive power both boys possessed, they probably had their work cut out for them. Stain showed them all that one doesn't necessarily need excessive firepower to be dangerous.

He turned to his partner for the exam, Yaoyorozu, and he noticed that she looked rather uneasy.

"Is something wrong?" Shoto seemingly surprised the girl with the question since she quickly shot up straight.

"Oh, no, everything's fine," she shakily tried to assure, but even she doubted that she sounded very convincing.

Shoto blankly observed the girl for a lengthy moment, and she began to lightly fidget under his two-toned scrutiny. Externally, he gave nothing away to her, but internally, he was carefully considering how to go about the situation he found himself in. Yaoyorozu was clearly unnerved about something regarding the exam. Ordinarily, he would elect not to think about it and focus on the task at hand, but he couldn't help but think about how Midoriya cut through his defenses to reach out to him for no other reason than because he wanted to help him, and he really needed help at that time.

So, looking at the girl experiencing some sort of emotional turmoil, what would Midoriya do?

"It might be good to talk about whatever is troubling you so that it doesn't bog you down during the exam," he reasoned. "We can talk on the way there."

Yaoyorozu was taken aback at the proposal from the usually stoic and reserved teen. More than that, he raised a pretty valid point. "O-okay, sure."

As the two began their trek, an awkward silence fell over them as Yaoyorozu worked up the nerve to say what was on her mind. Shoto stayed silent, struggling at winging his attempt to be helpful but refusing to back down after already committing to the action.

"Do I deserve to be here?" she finally spoke.

"Hm?"

"Do I deserve to be here at UA in the hero program amongst so many other exceptionally talented people? People like you, Midoriya, or even Bakugo?"

Shoto was initially silent as he considered what she said. He didn't quite understand what she was getting at; she was at the top of their class and had a powerful quirk, as well as the know-how to wield it efficiently and dangerously. Why wouldn't she consider herself to be among the people she named?

Then again, she named Midoriya, and he would firmly place his new friend in the category of what Natsuo deemed "bullshit personified," a designation for things that shouldn't exist or are too good to be true and just exist anyway in spite of all logic. All Might was the premier example to point to.

"As a rule of thumb, Midoriya probably isn't the best person to compare yourself to," Shoto responded. "In anything."

"But aren't you two practically rivals?" she questioned. "You're basically each other's equal in strength and skill, as well as foils to each other's quirks. Even the Hero Killer acknowledged you both."

Shoto was about to comment on that, but she continued. "Meanwhile, I got in on a recommendation that I truly didn't even deserve just because my family had the connections, and I've done nothing of note outside of academics since then. I was useless in the sports festival once I was on my own, and Uwabami only selected me for an internship for my looks, not for my lacking ability. I've never been able to meet anyone's expectations for me, and I'm painfully mediocre at the one thing I've legitimately wanted to do in my life."

The tears pricking at her eyes ramped up their attempts to escape. "Maybe they were right all along. I should've just stuck to being the heiress instead of chasing a childish fancy."

Once again, Shoto was silent. While he may not have agreed with her summation of herself, and he didn't know who "they" were, he was beginning to understand the situation he was dealing with. Again, he had absolutely no idea how to approach consoling someone, so he was left with one thought: WWMD?

He tentatively reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him through puffy eyes in confusion.

"You're not alone," he assured. "You never are."

Yaoyorozu sniffled, and Shoto felt a wave of déjà vu before pressing onward. "I know a bit about meeting insurmountable expectations. Our situations aren't exactly 1:1, but my old man wanted me to be something I wasn't meant to be, and I had to let go of basing my existence around him, even if it was based purely around spiting him."

Yaoyorozu did not wake up that morning expecting to get a bit of insight into her classmate's backstory and his rocky relationship with his father, the No. 2 Hero, but she was certainly captivated by everything he was saying.

"Now, I live and exist for myself and myself alone," Shoto continued. "I want to be a hero, and I'm going to do it my own way. I'll be the kind of hero I want to be, not what anyone else expects of me. You want to be a hero, too, and you're already well on your way, regardless of what anyone has to say or think about it."

He mentally noted that they were approaching the exam stage before continuing. "You may not be as strong or have the raw power that Midoriya or I have, but you're far superior in other areas. You're smarter than I am, and you're probably a lot better at planning than I am, too."

He paused again, and he racked his brain for anything else to say. Then, something came to him. "You got two votes for class rep at the beginning of the semester, right? One of them was from me. I believed that you'd be good at the job, and I still do. I believe that you're a much better leader and hero than you give yourself credit for, and I believe that you'll lead our team to a decisive victory in this exam."

The two stopped their trek, only partially because they had arrived at the exam location. Yaoyorozu was floored; nothing could have prepared her for hearing something like that from her generally stoic classmate. The only person who spoke less than him was Koda, and the animal whisperer was functionally mute. To receive such heartfelt encouragement from him when she was practically at her lowest made her both want to cry and march into the exam with a fire she had never realized she possessed.

It didn't hurt that the implication in his last remark was as clear as day: he was letting her take the reigns and plan their strategy because he truly believed in her. Honestly, the way he spoke sounded a little alien coming from him. She knew that he meant it, but it would've felt much more fitting coming from-

Oh.

Well, that made much more sense to her. Midoriya was impacting lives without even being present.

"Now, let's go pass this exam," her partner encouraged with a nod.

Yaoyorozu closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and steeled her newfound resolve. "Thank you, Todoroki. You're a good friend. A great friend. Let's pass this exam."

The exam stage that Izuku and Bakugo found themselves in was a surprise to both. They didn't quite know what to expect when they were instructed to head underground, but a series of massive sewer tunnels wasn't on the list. The most spacious area was a dimly lit redwood forest of cement support beams that provided ample cover and shadows to skulk around in.

"Where the hell does UA get the money for this?" Izuku thought out loud. A low grunt from his partner for the exam drew his attention to him, and he took stock of Bakugo's pensive demeanor.

"You've got something on your mind," Izuku stated to his partner. It wasn't a question, and Bakugo knew that.

"Whatever beef you and Icy-Hot had is settled," the ornery blonde snorted. "He got his rematch, but I never did. We're settling it after this exam."

Izuku blinked, and then he shrugged. He could certainly understand the frustration a de facto victory in the sports festival would generate. He had no problem obliging his request.

"So, got a plan in mind for this?" Izuku asked.

"The hell do you think?" Bakugo scoffed. "We find Aunty and blow her up."

The blank stare Bakugo received in response made him huff in frustration. "Yeah, I know, not that simple. And why the hell are you asking me? You're the nerd with plans for every situation. Besides, you should know a lot more about her skills and fighting style than me."

Izuku cupped his hand around his chin and hummed. "Well, it's safe to say that she doesn't have the same firepower that we possess, so taking us both head-on wouldn't be wise. She'll likely stick to the shadows and employ hit-and-run tactics to wear us down before taking us out. All she really has to do is incapacitate us in the span of half an hour in order to win. We're the ones who need to defeat her or escape."

"And there ain't no fucking way we're running," Bakugo growled.

"…Right," Izuku shrugged. "The question becomes how we go about fighting her. Close quarters would be difficult."

"That's one way of phrasing it," the blonde remarked while rubbing a phantom pain in his ribs. "And I can't go all out with my quirk with all the support beams around."

Izuku blinked, and his head snapped up to gawk at Bakugo. "Do my ears deceive me? Is that character development?"

"Fuck off, nerd!"

"Jokes aside, we could use your explosions and my flames to light up the immediate area and expose her position when she slinks off. Now there's just the matter of what tricks she'll have up her sleeve that I don't know about."

"You think she's holding out on you?"

"I'm certain of it."

"ATTENTION! ALL STUDENTS HAVE REACHED THEIR TESTING AREAS! THE PRACTICAL EXAM WILL BEGIN IN 30 SECONDS!" the voice of All Might bellowed through an intercom somewhere in the massive room. The two teens nodded to each other and stepped foward into the darker expanse of the room.

"BEGIN!"

Izuku and Bakugo were not given any time to think before they were hit with a flash bang and smoke bomb combo to disorient them, and Bakugo was immediately met with a stiff kick to the jaw while his vision was obscured that sent him sprawling to the ground. Izuku engulfed his arm in green fire and swung it to blow the offending smoke away just in time to narrowly dodge a kick aimed right at his head. He brought his strengthened arm up to block the punch that followed, and he snatched her arm into his grasp and threw her over his shoulder towards a support beam. Verdant recovered from the throw and kicked off of the beam just before Izuku's fist impacted the structure and knocked a few large chunks of concrete off of it.

"Irresponsible," she chided while extending her arm. Izuku, immediately realizing his error, ignited a bright yellow and ducked out of the path of the chunks of concrete that zoomed from behind him right through where he once stood, but he wasn't able to dodge the vicious punt to his chin that sent him to the ground with his partner. Said partner blasted himself back into the fray with a furious cry, and he unleashed a decent-sized explosion at the woman, but she was already gone.

"Fucking hell!" Bakugo cursed.

"She really isn't holding back," Izuku mused as he climbed to his feet.

"No shit," Bakugo responded. "We can't let her control the pace. She can't take us both on at once, so let's find her and overwhelm her!"

Izuku nodded and his yellow flames intensified while Bakugo blasted into the air and zigzagged around the columns. The smaller explosions he was setting off illuminated the area enough to expose Verdant's hiding spot, and Izuku zoomed into action once they spotted her. He bounced from pillar to pillar toward her while Bakugo came down on her position from above.

Verdant shot them both an unsettling grin that practically beckoned them to attack, and attack they did. Izuku was first, launching himself at her with a yellow fist to her guarded abdomen. Verdant grabbed him and used some of his momentum to pivot and toss him into the air toward the approaching Bakugo. The explosive blonde snarled and snatched him with his left hand without missing a beat, and he unleashed a powerful explosion at the ground she was standing on, creating even more rubble. As expected, she dodged the blast, but she was very quickly met with the form of her son flying at her courtesy of Bakugo.

Izuku and Verdant met in combat once again, this time launching into a heated exchange of blows that the woman was swiftly getting the better of. Having taught the boy just about everything she could, she was easily able to read his movements and counter his attacks because they were so familiar to her. The ease in which she was keeping him at bay was almost disappointing to her until a fist wreathed in green fire seemingly cut through the air next to her face, slicing through some of her hair in the process. Then, all she saw was her son's smirk before Bakugo practically materialized from the darkness and propelled himself around a pillar to hit her in the back with an explosion that both sent her flying and knocked the wind out of her.

Quickly recovering, she instinctively grasped the discarded rubble from the explosion with her quirk and pulled it towards her with the two teens in the line of fire. They had seemingly been expecting that, as a wall of orange formed behind them to block the rubble and Bakugo launched for her unimpeded with more explosions at the ready. It became clear to her as the blonde peppered her with his quirk that the two had deliberately led her into a trap, with her son acting as a distraction and support while Bakugo unleashed hellfire on her.

She was genuinely proud of the two for the quick thinking, and she'd definitely make them a big meal after it was all said and done. However, it was not all said and done just yet. It was about time that she introduced the two heroes-in-training to the Silent, Green Assassin.

As Bakugo was bombarding her with small explosions to wear her down, she reached to her utility belt and grabbed a large capsule of powdered sugar that she prepared specifically for the battle. She whipped the powdery substance between herself and her attacker, and she stuck her left hand out, practically strafing out of the line of fire of the much larger explosion than Bakugo intended to release due to the ignition of the sugar, the backfire of which sent him sprawling back to the ground with light burns on his upper body. Her open palm landed on the nearest pillar, but her focus shifted when that arm was then ensnared in a collection of violet ropes courtesy of her son, followed by her waist and midsection becoming tightly coiled with even more of the ropes. She turned to see her son readying a green flame-enhanced haymaker while he had her locked within his clutches. With a simple flick of her wrist, the teen stopped dead in his tracks with a gasp and crumpled to the floor like a severed marionette.

"The fuck?" Bakugo questioned before a flick of her other wrist sent a wave of pain through his ribs, sending him crashing to the ground as well. The two boys writhed in blinding pain on the cold concrete, struggling with all their might to figure out what the hell was going on. All the while, the retired pro hero stood over them with an appraising smile that just bordered on sadistic.

"Funny thing about my quirk is that it isn't just a derivative of basic telekinesis," she began with a much bubblier tone than anyone should have in her situation. "I can attract anything that could feasibly fit in my hand, and that includes tugging at your bones and internal organs. I wonder how you'll get out of this jam."

"I wasn't aware that her quirk could do that," a deflated Toshinori said in mild horror as he watched the screens showcasing the concurrent exams beside Recovery Girl. His hand unconsciously traveled to his scarred side with a grimace. "To manipulate someone's internals like that…"

"She needs some way to incapacitate people with strong mutations and super-powered oafs like you," Recovery Girl answered. "Quirks can do a lot to make your body as solid as can be, especially externally. Most people can't do much for their internal organs, though. You can't just make them rock solid. It's an easy thing to exploit when you need an edge against an opponent that outclasses you physically."

Toshinori hummed in acceptance, though it didn't make him feel any less queasy about it. Recovery Girl, meanwhile, watched the screen with a bit of worry for her friend. They had gotten to know each other a good bit since she started working at UA, and the old medic learned a little bit about why the mother retired in the first place. It wasn't pretty, and she just hoped that the woman didn't lose herself in the battle, especially with her own son involved.

Verdant watched the two boys squirm in front of her as they tried their hardest to soldier through the excruciating pain and make it back to their feet, but each time they made a push, they were unceremoniously brought back to the unforgiving floor. The pain was otherworldly, and it only grew as the seconds ticked on. It truly felt as though several of their bones, muscles, and internal organs were practically fighting to shoot out of their body.

"It's a strange feeling to have your life literally rest in someone's grasp, isn't it?" Verdant spoke to the two, not that they were really listening very hard with the torment they were enduring. "That feeling of hopelessness when the situation looks so completely bleak, when you feel that there's absolutely nothing you can do to survive. Rock bottom is either a grave or a turning point. Are you a survivor, or is this the end of your road?"

Now, Izuku was listening. He got the gist of what his mother was saying, and it dawned on him that their current situation was quite literally another test within the test. She was testing their mental fortitude to soldier on at their lowest, literally against all odds. He craned his neck over to Bakugo, and he was met with a shaky yet determined nod. The two had a conversation with only their eyes, and they were in agreement on a plan.

Izuku fought through his mother's quirk and reached into his costume for the handcuffs, and he brandished them with a weak grip once he got a hold of them. In a flash, though, the handcuffs were swiped out of his grasp and into Verdant's awaiting hand.

"I don't think so," she practically cooed with malice, and it started to unnerve the two teens. Bakugo stared up at his pseudo-aunt before them, and he noticed that her eyes became a little vacant, a thousand-yard stare occupying its place before the pain ramped up even more, and he curled in on himself with a howl.

"How does it feel, Musha?" she began in a strangely dead tone. "To be the one with your life in my hands? To be at my mercy? To be certain that you'll die a horrible death, alone and forgotten?"

She knelt down and leaned closer to Bakugo, her usually weary, emerald eyes now dull and unfocused. "Do you feel what I felt now?"

Before Bakugo could gasp and Verdant could utter another word, she was kicked in the side of the head by a newly mobile Izuku who snatched the handcuffs from her grasp. While she was temporarily disoriented, he quickly latched them onto her wrist and connected her to himself, ending the exam right then. A buzzer sounded once the cuffs were applied, and All Might's voice bellowed over the hidden intercom once more.

"MIDORIYA AND BAKUGO HAVE PASSED THEIR EXAM!"

Izuku would have been able to pick up on how strained All Might's voice was in that announcement had he been paying any attention whatsoever, but his focus was instead on his mother who was sloppily trying to compose herself. Needless to say, he was highly unsettled by what he had witnessed and heard from his mother.

More than that, though, he was livid. It didn't take a genius to surmise that his mother wasn't seeing Bakugo in those last few moments, rather someone else who had apparently left her for dead in the past. The utterance of "Musha" narrowed it down to who that could have been, and Izuku could feel the blackness that he had been trying to run away from spark back up with a fiery vengeance.

If his suspicions were correct, he was going to fucking kill a Top 10 Hero.

"I-I'm so sorry," the hushed whisper from his mother shook him out of his rage, and he laid eyes on the quivering form of the woman who raised him. She was staring down at her hands in utter horror, and tears were practically pouring down her cheeks. "I'm so, so sorry."

Without a moment's hesitation, Izuku wrapped himself around his mother and nestled her into himself with his free arm, and she practically melted into her son's comfort as she broke.

"It's okay, it's okay," Izuku assured. "You're here, and you're safe. You're alive, and you have me. You'll always have me."

While Inko slowly composed herself from within the comfort of her son's hold, Izuku met eyes with Bakugo. The blonde's typically angry gaze was nowhere to be found, and all that remained was a look of genuine concern. As if silently asking for permission, Bakugo ignored the residual pain from her last attack and tentatively reached for the woman he saw as an aunt. Izuku nodded, and Bakugo placed a gloved hand on her shoulder, bringing her out of her quiet sobs and focusing her attention onto the son of her best friend. Then, she looked up at her own son sporting a mixture of concern and distress that was far too aged for her liking.

She took the deepest breath she could muster, and she offered the two boys a grateful, watery smile. "I'm okay. Thank you both."

"You sure?" Bakugo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied, and she brought her son into the biggest hug that being handcuffed to him would allow. "I love you so much, Izu."

"I love you too, mom," Izuku lowly responded to hide the emotion in his voice from Bakugo, but it was unsuccessful.

That didn't matter, though, as Inko looked to the blonde and motioned for him to join the hug. He begrudgingly did so.

"And I love you, too, Katsuki," the mother said warmly.

"Whatever, likewise, Aunty," Bakugo grumbled.

When the trio broke the group hug, she fixed the two with a proud, beaming smile. "You boys were absolutely stellar! I am so unbelievably proud of how far you both have come."

"At points, it felt like you were practically strafing around to avoid hits," Izuku commented as they walked through the massive tunnel towards a smaller tunnel that presumably led to the exit. "I knew you were really agile and quick on your feet, but that was ridiculous."

"It's part of my quirk," she explained with a giggle, much to the surprise of both teens. "Attraction of Small Objects works two-fold; I can attract small things, and I can also attract myself to larger things. In the second instance, I am the small object."

"How the hell does that work?" Bakugo questioned.

"It's partially that my quirk was mislabeled when I was a child. Back then, I could attract pencils, dolls, and other things, and we all just kind of thought that was the extent of it. When I started training to be a pro, I experimented with the limits of my quirk and discovered a few other aspects to it. With objects that are too big for me to attract, I can sort of flip a switch and send myself toward them instead. I do it in battle by attracting myself to walls or the floor to give myself a non-negligible boost in speed and mobility."

"So, that's why you're always so hard to hit," Izuku grumbled while scribbling away in his notebook that Bakugo had half a mind to destroy for popping out of literally nowhere.

"Yep," she cheerily confirmed as they exited the larger tunnel and strolled closer to the exit of the exam stage entirely.

None of the three mentioned the hiccup at the end of the match. The two boys were left with several thoughts whizzing about their minds, but each boy had one thought present itself to the forefront ahead of all the others.

For one of them, it was added confirmation that Inko was a truly terrifying individual and a kernel of information about a pro that he'd have to look into.

For the other, it was a bit of a wake-up call. He never wanted to force his mother to talk about anything, but he felt that he'd eventually have to.

Toshinori and Recovery Girl watched the screens in silence.

"What was that all about?" Toshinori asked in concern, and he could even feel One For All buzzing within.

Recovery Girl sighed. "She has some unresolved baggage from her time as an active pro. I don't know the full story, and I can't make her talk to anyone, but maybe her son will have some luck."

Toshinori turned back to the screen with a frown. Luckily, Midoriya and Bakugo were one of the first teams to finish, so he could ease his mind with the rest of the students' exams.

Tomura slumped into his seat in one of the booths of the bar with a glass of whiskey in hand. A short huff escaped him before he downed his drink in one go. It had been a few weeks since the release of the Stain video, and the recruitment effort for the League had been slow going. The bulk of the interested parties were either low-level weaklings looking to move up in the criminal underworld or unstable psychopaths just out to murder indiscriminately. The second category wouldn't have bothered him much before, but he constantly found himself thinking back to the things Stain had said to him.

Sensei didn't like him questioning who he was or what he even wanted to accomplish, but Tomura was nearing a point where he didn't care how Sensei felt. Sensei wouldn't even tell him why Player 2 was so important to the man beyond his belief that he was connected to All Might, as dubious as that connection felt to Tomura. He hated not being in the loop, and he especially hated being underestimated and talked down to.

On the subject of All Might, the Symbol of Peace was becoming muddied in his mind, as well. He wanted to destroy All Might because he loathed everything the man represented for their broken society, that much he felt in his bones. However, did he actually hate All Might as a person, as well, or was Sensei just projecting his own personal disdain for All Might onto him?

And that just tied back to the crux of the issue: who even was he? Was Tomura Shigaraki even a real person? Was he just a puppet for his sensei, a successor when it was convenient, and a pissy child when it wasn't?

Going even further, what did he even want to do with society after tearing it down? Did he want to build a better one in its place, or did he just want to play in the ashes?

His inner struggles had bled into his selections for recruits. Even when parsing through the decent candidates, he wasn't satisfied with the motivations he came across. The best recruit Giran had been able to bring them thus far was some whiny brat with an axe to grind against UA, and he was only memorable because he had a rather useful quirk.

"Shiggy, how's it going?" came the smooth call of the League's info broker as he entered the bar.

"Call me that again and I'll make a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle out of you," Tomura growled.

Giran's smile widened, putting the gap in his teeth on full display. "Aw, don't be like that, you know you love me too much to kill me. I'm also much too valuable to get rid of."

"Why the hell are you here?" Tomura begged the man to get to the point.

"I come bearing gifts," he started before beckoning in three new arrivals. "I know you've been iffy on the last few batches, but I'm feeling good about these three."

In stepped a unique collection of individuals. One was a tall, slender man who looked a little older than Tomura. His red hair somewhat hung over his eyes, but he could see the boredom in his gaze that complimented his slouch. They were already starting off on the wrong foot if one of them looked like he wished he was literally anywhere else but there.

The second one was an equally tall, slender man covered in a myriad of burns and staples with a bored yet piercing turquoise gaze to round it out.

"So, it's really you," the second arrival spoke. "I saw a picture of you, but you look gross in person."

"You're one to talk, patchwork," Tomura shot back before assessing the final arrival.

She was a short, teenage girl with an unsettling smile and what looked like a knife hidden in her sleeve. He'd have to help her hide those better in the future.

"It's the hand guy!" the girl excitedly cheered. "You're friends with Mr. Stainy, right? Please, let me join the League!"

Tomura's eye twitched, but he kept a lid on his emotions. "Who are you, and why do you want to join the League?"

The girl's bright smile dimmed, and her eyes minutely started to sag as if a lifetime of exhaustion had just caught up with her in that moment. Tomura could relate.

"Because existence is pain when it doesn't have to be," the girl bluntly stated before her smile returned and the mania in her eyes was back. "Himiko Toga! The world is a hard place to live in and I want to make it better!"

Tomura was mildly taken aback by the mood whiplash, but he supposed that he could empathize with that desire, which was news to him because he wasn't even aware that he had the capacity for empathy.

"What about him?" Tomura pointed to the burned man.

"Unlike her, this guy doesn't have a serious rap sheet as of yet, but he holds true to the Hero Killer's ideology," Giran supplied.

"More or less," the man shrugged. "Society is fundamentally broken and someone has to step up to do something about it. Since Stain is out for the count, might as well be me."

"And your name?" Tomura groused.

"I go by Dabi," was his simple reply.

"Real emo," Tomura muttered before turning to the last arrival. "And you?"

"Names are power. Call me Kusari," he flippantly answered.

"And why are you here?" Tomura gritted out. The 2edgy4me shtick from the two men was really starting to grate on him.

The redhead raised his head at the question and locked eyes with Tomura through the villain's mask. Something seemed to change within the man, and that put Tomura on edge.

"This superhuman society has been forced into a bronze straightjacket by needless and discriminatory regulation of our very birthrights. Burn it down and start anew where people can wield their natural abilities as they please."

Everyone, even Kurogiri, stopped and stared at the man. Giran wasn't super knowledgeable about him, which made the broker nervous, and he only brought the redhead with him because he could sense the predator under the calm façade and figured that Tomura would enjoy having a reliable mercenary. Toga and Dabi gave him long looks, one curious and one calculating. The smoky barman considered him carefully before looking to Tomura. The man's answer felt adjacent to popular rhetoric he had encountered before, and he wondered if Sensei was listening.

All For One was indeed listening, and if he had eyes, they would have been narrowed at Kusari's declaration. It appeared that Destro's nth-times-removed brat was trying to make a play. He could only smile at the development. Things really were becoming so amusing.

Then, without another word, Kusari slid his hands into his pockets and resumed his slouch before looking to Kurogiri. "Got any Yamazaki?"

Kurogiri nodded and retrieved a bottle of the requested whiskey as well as a freshly-cleaned glass. Tomura silently watched the man meander to a stool at the bar and sit down with his drink as if nothing had happened. Yeah, that man was dangerous.

More than that, he had conviction. All three of them seemed to have it in their own special ways.

Conviction and an identity. They all had it. Hell, even Spinner and Kurogiri had it. It was what the League needed.

It was what he needed.