15

Chapter Text

Izuku slept through most of the rest of day, waking up once again in the nurse's office once the sun had already set. He managed to open his eyes with a degree of effort and looked to see not Uraraka, but Katsuki sleeping on the chair next to his bed.

"Kacchan." Izuku's dry throat woke his friend up from his light sleep. The blonde boy opened his eyes and glared at him. "Deja vu, huh?" He laughed weakly.

Katsuki tossed a water bottle to him, which he caught with both hands. "Izuku… What the fuck happened?"

Izuku took a gasping breath after downing the water in one go. "I… I lost control of my quirk. I had a bad instinct flare-up."

"Was it cause of the creepy kid?" Katsuki spoke flatly.

"Mineta?"

"Sure, whatever." Katsuki merely shrugged. "Answer the question."

"Yeah. It… it wanted to kill him, Kacchan."

"Shit." Katsuki rubbed his hand through his hair. "You didn't though. What happened?"

"Uraraka happened." Izuku noticed his friend's eyebrow raise. "She talked to me, and it helped me focus. I pulled myself away and sort of uh, punchedaholeinthewallandjumpedout."

"And you flew away?"

"Uh, no, not exactly." Izuku looked away awkwardly. "I w-wasn't exactly in control of my quirk. Uraraka jumped after me and saved me from hitting the ground."

"Dumbass!" Katsuki glared at him. "I leave you alone for fifteen minutes and you manage to almost kill yourself. Amazing!"

Katsuki leaned back in his chair. "I couldn't see a damn thing in the observation room, but All Might dashed out of there as soon as the match ended. We couldn't even see the wall you apparently jumped out of cause of the camera angle. I'm guessing All Might heard Uraraka panicking over that communicator."

"Makes sense," Izuku sighed, thankful his classmates hadn't seen his episode. "He found Uraraka and me once she, uh, calmed me down. She carried me here."

Katsuki stared at him hard for several moments. "You told her, didn't you?"

Izuku flinched. Katsuki knew him too well. "…Yeah…"

"Did the fall make you stupid?" Katsuki rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Well, my quirk was asleep after Recovery Girl healed me, so kind of, yeah." Izuku shrugged.

"Just… why? Why let her know about all this?" Katsuki looked as exhausted as Izuku had been before his nap.

"I… I don't know… But I trust her." He smiled sheepishly. "Especially since she's saved my life twice." His shoulders slumped. "To tell you the truth, Kacchan... I was considering dropping out of UA."

Katsuki immediately sat back up. " What? "

"I almost killed a student and I had lost control of my quirk," Izuku explained quickly. "I was ready to give up, but Uraraka convinced me to stay."

"I would have kicked your ass if you tried to quit," Katsuki sneered. "You need this stupid school as much as I do. Shame you missed the rest of class. I'm sure you would've wanted to take notes."

"Oh, right!" Izuku sat up quickly. "The other matches. How did they go?"

Katsuki reached into Izuku's backpack that he had brought with him and tossed him his notebook and a pencil. Izuku quickly flipped it open and prepared to write.

"Alright, Team B and Team I, follow me." All Might had returned to the observation room and quickly resumed class. "I would like to review the work from the first match, but we're behind schedule."

Katsuki walked up to All Might along with the other two students. Katsuki looked at the two taller men and glared. "Which one of you is with me?"

"I am!" A cheerful voice next to him took him by surprise. He jumped back but didn't see anybody next to him.

"What the…" He looked all around until his eyes caught a pair of floating gloves. "Oh, you're that invisible chick, right?"

"Hagakure, yes." Her voice sounded like she was rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." He turned away from her and followed All Might. He glared at the ground, deep in thought.

The five of them made their way to a different building than the previous group and once they arrived, All Might sent Katsuki and Casper inside to prepare. Their weapon was on the third floor, near the far side of the building.

"So, what can you do besides be invisible?" Katsuki asked dryly.

"What can you do besides make explosions?" she retorted.

He turned and glared at her. "It would be stupid to try and hold them off. We need to take them out."

"If it was anyone but Kyouka or Shouji, I would have a serious advantage. There's two people in this class that can detect me and I get put up against one of them." Casper sounded frustrated.

"Three, but that's not important." Katsuki crouched down as he thought, stretching his legs. "So Arms can hear you?"

"Yep. I tried to sneak up on him after dinner yesterday just to test. He heard me right away."

"I can fix that." He popped off a few explosions in his hand. "I'm good at 'loud and distracting.'"

"That could work." She tossed her gloves off and closed her hand over the capture tape, making it disappear from view. "You distract them, I'll sneak around and capture one of them. Then it's a two-on-one fight."

"Take out Arms if you can." He stood up, stretching his arms.

"I think Todoroki is the bigger threat, didn't you see him at the test yesterday?" Casper's tone was not appreciated.

Katsuki huffed. "Fine, whatever."

She began to take her shoes off, but Katsuki had a thought. "Keep them on."

"A pair of shoes is pretty conspicuous, Bakugou." Where did she get off being this sassy?

Katsuki checked one of his gauntlets while he explained. "You were the one who was warning me about Half-and-Half. Remember how he used that big ice attack on the softball throw? You might want to keep your feet warm until we find them."

"That's… you think so?" Casper hesitantly put her shoes back on.

"I wouldn't normally care what you do, but my grade is riding on this. If you take them off, do it later. Better safe than dead."

"I don't think that's how it go-"

"Time begins now! Team B, enter the building!" All Might's voice cut her off.

"No point standing around." He stepped out into the hallway and began to pop of small, but loud explosions every few seconds.

Katsuki's warning seemed prophetic as suddenly a wave of ice rounded the corner and froze the entire hallway, including the two students' ankles.

"Wow, you called it. Thanks for that." Casper carefully slipped out of her shoes and onto the icy ground.

"Wasn't me. Izuku thought he might have that kind of power, I don't think even he imagined Half-and-Half could pull something like this off." Katsuki quickly blew his feet free with a few small explosions.

"I'm counting on you, Bakugou." The girl softly made her way down one of the side hallways, leaving footprints in the ice.

Katsuki smirked and continued to make noise. It wasn't long before the glowing red eye of Half-and-Half's hero costume appeared in the dim light of the hallway. "You look stupid," Katsuki snarled between explosions.

The heterochromatic student looked behind him. "Your partner is frozen, you should give up. Fighting will only make it harder for you."

"I didn't come to UA to take it easy! What are you, weak?!" Katsuki roared, intending to further help his teammate.

Half-and-Half's eyebrow twitched at Katsuki's furious yell. "You remind me of someone I hate." He shifted his right foot slightly, sending a wave of ice at the blonde.

The blonde raised both his hands, blowing the wave of ice away with a large explosion. He ran towards the boy with an anger-fuelled yell and Half-and-Half let another blast of ice go. Katsuki jumped, his right arm behind him to give him extra height, his left extended to blow a hole in the top of the ice.

"What was that?!" Katsuki landed about twenty feet away from the other student. "That was even weaker than the first one!"

"Shut up." Anger burned in Half-and-Half's eyes.

"I saw the shit you pulled yesterday! You're holding back on me!" Katsuki raised a gauntlet towards the boy and sneered. "I won't hold back against you, so you best come at me like you mean it."

"You want me to stop holding back?!" Half-and-Half's cool composure was cracking fast. He raised his right foot slightly. "I'll give you everyth-"

"No you won't!" Casper yelled triumphantly as capture tape was wrapped around the student's arm.

Half-and-Half stared wide-eyed at the tape as his anger drained out of him, replaced with shock. "But how? I froze you."

"You f-froze my shoes, T-T-Todoroki, not me! Those were j-just a d-decoy." Her teeth were chattering. "I'm s-still really c-c-cold, though!"

The captured student looked back to see the trail of footprints in the ice, then hung his head in defeat. Katsuki huffed as he walked past him. "One down, one to go."

"You're w-welcome." Casper said sarcastically, some of the bite in her tone lost as she shivered. "W-where's Shouji?"

Katsuki made a noncommittal noise and began to walk towards the stairs Half-and-Half came up. "Time to find him."

"W-wait, Bakugou. What if Todoroki t-told him to sneak around while h-he distracted us? W-we should wait a-at the bomb," she argued. "A-also, could you g-g-get my s-shoes for me?"

Katsuki thought for a moment. "Fine. We'll wait." He walked over to her shoes and carefully extracted them.

The two of them headed back to the weapon to wait. Casper was shivering the whole time, and it sounded like she was rubbing her arms and legs trying to stay warm. Fortunately for her, they didn't have to wait long before the sound of someone walking on the ice outside echoed through the hallway.

An eyeball poked around the corner of the room. Katsuki smirked. "Come on, Arms. You're boring me."

Arms' impressive height and bulk rounded the corner, blocking the doorway. Two of his arms had eyes on them, locking on to Casper as he spotted her. Katsuki raised his right gauntlet again, pulling the handle back. "Listen up. My gauntlets have been storing my explosive sweat since I put them on. They're charged up for a massive explosion."

Katsuki enjoyed the look of surprise on Arms' face. "Surrender and I won't use it. Take another step, and I'll blow you away."

The tall student glared at Katsuki over his mask. "You wouldn't."

"Why not?" The blonde grew a crazed smile. "I'm a villain, aren't I?" He placed his hand on the pin.

"Bakugou, stop! You are forbidden from using that gauntlet!" All Might's voice blared over the speakers.

Katsuki lowered the gauntlet slowly. "Fine." He threw his arms behind him. "We'll fight hand-to-hand!" He rocketed towards Arms, ready to attack. The giant of a student threw one of his sets of arms forward, ready to intercept, but Katsuki was ready.

He set off a small explosion in front of him, stunning Arms and sending him flying overhead. He used another blast to stop his momentum as he soared over Arms' head, ready to blast him in the back. Katsuki had never fought someone like Arms, however.

The taller student's other set of arms had tracked his flight, and he reached up as Katsuki flew overhead and grabbed his foot. With two of the hands on his other arm, he quickly wrapped the capture tape around Katsuki's leg.

However, this made him take his attention off of Casper, who dashed underneath the action and wrapped one of Arms' legs in capture tape as well. Katsuki and Arms were both stunned silent, staring at the floating tape below them.

"Score t-two for T-Tooru!" the invisible girl bubbled. "You were r-right about you b-b-being a good distraction, Bakugou!"

"Both heroes have been captured! The villain team wins!" All Might declared the end of the match.

"Where did you get that tape?" Katsuki asked as Arms set him down. "I still had mine."

"I pickpocketed T-Todoroki for it. I kept it h-hidden in my hand so S-Shouji wouldn't see that I had the tape," she explained. "I was h-hoping that it would… encourage him to t-t-take his eyes off of m-me."

Katsuki smirked.

"Were you really going to use your gauntlets?" Izuku asked, half surprised.

"Nah." Katsuki leaned back in his chair. "I got enough lectures from your dad about collateral damage to use it indoors, and especially not on someone who wasn't an actual villain. I was just hoping to intimidate him. I probably could've done it too, if All Might hadn't stepped in."

"Figured." Izuku smiled as he continued to write. "By the way you described it, it sounds like you really got under Todoroki's skin. Very clever to use that to your advantage to get him to lose his composure."

Katsuki shrugged his shoulders. "I wonder who I reminded him of."

"You might want to be careful you don't make an actual enemy, Kacchan," Izuku lectured.

"Yeah, yeah…"

Izuku took another minute or so to finish scribbling in his notebook. "Fascinating. You're right, I had no idea Todoroki could be so precise with his quirk; freezing you both by the ankles even though he couldn't see you…"

"Yeah, and get this," Katsuki continued, "after we finished? He melted all the ice. He's got fire powers from his left side."

Izuku's eyes went wide as he flipped back to Todoroki's page. "That makes sense, given who his father is. It also potentially explains why his hair color is split down the middle, as well as his heterochromia. There must be a reason he hadn't used his fire before; it wouldn't have been very useful in the quirk assessment test, and I suppose he didn't want to burn you or Hagakure when he didn't have to, but still it's a little strange tha-"

"Motormouth, shut up!" Katsuki let off a small explosion to get his attention. "We should get back to the dorm if you're feeling good enough to mumble."

"I'm always feeling good enough to mumble, Kacchan," Izuku laughed as he got out of the hospital bed. "I should ask our classmates how their battle trials-" He stopped suddenly.

"Oh, crap. Our classmates." His eyes went wide. "What am I going to tell them about my test? What's my excuse? What did Uraraka tell them?!" He began to furiously think about solutions.

"I caught Uraraka on my way here." Katsuki sharply tore him out of his thoughts. "I told her not to say anything about it to anyone and just tell anybody who asked to wait for you," Katsuki sighed. "I swear, what would you do without me, dumbass?"

Izuku smiled as he picked up his backpack and the two of them walked out of the Nurse's Office.

The two boys made their ways back to the dorm in the darkness of the early evening. They opened the doors and walked inside, Katsuki giving Izuku a fistbump as he made his way to the stairs, intent on getting a good night's sleep. Izuku would have normally followed him, but he had something else he wanted to do first.

"Hey, Midoriya's back!" Kirishima was sitting on a couch near Ashido and Tsunotori and was waving at him. Several other students were hanging around the kitchen area or sitting at one of the tables, and very quickly, Izuku was swarmed by them.

"Hey man, are you alright?" Kaminari asked worriedly. "We heard you fell out of the building!"

"Yeah, Iida said you were acting strange," Satou followed.

"Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine!" Izuku took a step back from the large group of concerned students. "I, uh, well, I had some bad cramps from being dehydrated, you see. My quirk can be volatile if I'm not careful. Rookie mistake, I know, but I sort of forgot because I was so excited about training!" He rubbed the back of his head, hoping the students would buy it.

"Oh, that makes sense," Sero said, rubbing his chin. "I'm glad you're okay, dude."

Izuku couldn't believe his excuse had worked and just stared for a few seconds. "T-thank you all for your concern! I appreciate it."

"Hey, Midoriya, come sit with us." Kirishima pointed her thumb to the couch she had been sitting at as the students dispersed. Izuku followed her and sat down on one of the comfy chairs, forming a small circle with the three women.

Izuku noted the suspicious look from Ashido, but opted to ignore it, hoping it would pass. He flashed a smile at the group. "I was actually hoping to talk to you guys." Tsunotori raised an eyebrow at him as he pulled out his notebook and pencil. "Can you tell me how your matches went? I can't believe I missed them!"

"Not before you tell us what happened in your match, Midori." Ashido squinted at him. So much for hoping it would pass.

"Uh, well, there's not much to tell." He rubbed the back of his head. "Uraraka collapsed the stairs, I destroyed the lights. When Iida and Mineta showed up, I goaded Iida into running inside, where Uraraka was waiting. She made him weightless, I wrapped him up, then snuck forward and grabbed Mineta. Pretty open and shut."

"Uh huh. And after the end?" Ashido wasn't letting up.

"I told you, I-I got some cramps." He smiled and quickly turned to Tsunotori before she could respond. "Tsunotori, how did your match go? Please, don't spare any detail."

"I-is it okay if I speak English?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sure." Izuku smiled. "Just go a little slow and try to avoid the big words, okay?"

Pony and Momo found their weapon on the fourth floor of the building. Momo immediately went to work setting up defenses. She made them both rubber boots to wear and set up a large amplifier next to the weapon. Momo then produced a large stack of steel plates that she fit along the door frame, effectively creating a steel barrier.

Pony spent most of the time being ordered around, moving the weapon to a different location, positioning the amplifier, helping to put the steel plates on the door and more. She was happy to be of assistance and grateful that she was partnered with someone who spoke English.

Once time began, Pony didn't do much. Both women waited in the back of the room for the 'heroes' to find them. It didn't take long, thanks to Kyouka's quirk, and soon her and Kaminari were standing outside. They tried to open the door, but found it quite impossible.

The two gave up quickly, but after a few seconds of silence, pulsing waves of force started shaking the room.

"She's plugged in," Momo said in English. "Pony, cover your ears!"

Pony put on the headphones Momo made for her as the tall woman turned on the amplifier, blasting sound towards the entrance. The pulsating waves quickly stopped as they heard a pained scream from the other side of the wall.

"Sorry, Kyouka, but you can thank Midoriya for the idea!" Momo shouted as she shut the amplifier off. "You're welcome to keep trying, but I would rather you didn't; I don't want to damage your hearing."

In the end, the heroes just didn't have the firepower to break down Momo's barricade without Kyouka's quirk. Pony was happy she won, but a little disappointed that she didn't get to do anything.

"Yaoyorozu really is impressive," Izuku muttered as he finished writing. 'But why was Tsunotori blushing the whole time?'

"If you give her preparation time, she might be the most dangerous student in class." He nodded as he rubbed his chin. "Thank you, Tsunotori. It's a shame she dominated the exercise so much. I would have liked to learn more about your quirk and the others. I suppose there will be time for that later." Izuku shrugged.

"Ashido, how did your test go?"

"Well, mine wasn't as simple as Pony's…" She eagerly began to recount, apparently temporarily forgetting her suspicion..

Mina and Aoyama were given the go-ahead by All Might and entered the building. They didn't have any detection abilities like Shouji or Kyouka, so they had to do it the old fashioned way. Aoyama strutted through the hallways, looking more interested in himself than the exercise. Mina, on the other hand, skated along easily thanks to the special boots she wore.

She slid down the hallways, quickly covering ground as she looked in the rooms she passed. It took her about five minutes to find the bomb on the fourth floor, Kouda and Satou standing guard around it. The look on their faces as she skated by and waved at them with a smile was truly priceless.

"Surfs up!" Mina shouted as she skated up behind her partner once she found him patrolling down on the second floor. She accidentally splattered a bit of acid on his cloak, burning some holes in it, much to his annoyance. "Oops! My bad!" She smiled sheepishly as she clapped her hands together in apology.

They quickly made their way up to the fourth floor and got into position around the door. "Do you have a plan?" Mina asked.

"The same plan that I always have, chéri," Aoyama winked, "I will dazzle them!"

"Wait, what?" Mina watched the blonde boy step boldly into the open door.

"Adieu, gentlemen!" His bright blue laser shot forward, causing Satou and Kouda to dodge out of the way. A giant hole was blown through the back wall as the laser sheared through the concrete.

Mina used the opportunity to leap to her feet and skate past Aoyama into the room. She quickly moved past Kouda before he could pick himself up, so all that was left between her and victory was Satou. She moved hard to the left to throw him off, then cut quickly back to the right. Satou stumbled as she jumped at one of the pillars to the right of the bomb, quickly secreting potent acid.

Her feet dug into the pillar slightly and gave her good leverage to push herself off. Mina lunged towards the bomb as Satou jumped towards her. She managed to stretch out and put her right hand on the weapon right as the muscular man grabbed her by the ankle and flung her backwards.

She flew across the room and landed hard on her back, but it was too late. All Might's voice echoed through the room, declaring her team the winners.

Izuku scribbled as fast as his hand would let him, determined to record everything he could. "You got thrown across a room? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Midori, I'm not the one who fell out of a buil-"

"Kirishima!" Izuku interrupted her hastily. "How did your fight go?"

"Ah well, you see…" Kirishima began.

Sero and Eiko noted that the weapons had been on the upper floors for each of the previous fights, so they decided to start at the top. Fortunately, their building had a fire escape on the side of it and they quickly ascended to the top floor.

From the fact that half of the lights were destroyed, it seemed like their assumption about the bomb location was correct. It also seemed like they weren't the only ones who picked up a thing or two from the previous matches.

The upper level was one large room, filled with pillars at regular intervals. Eiko could spot the weapon in the middle of the room, but between her and her win was Tokoyami and Tsu. "Alright, Sero." Eiko hardened her fists and smashed them together. "We've got nearly the entire time limit to touch that weapon. We got this."

As soon as they started to move forward, a great shadowy monster emerged from under Tokoyami's cloak and rushed towards them. The two dodged out of the way as Dark Shadow slammed down between them, separating the 'heroes'.

"I'll take Tsu!" Sero yelled back as he ran off behind a pillar.

"That means it's you and me, Tokoyami!" Eiko ran towards her opponent, arms crossed in front of her.

"Fight well," Tokoyami responded stoically as his quirk reared back and dove down on Eiko. The red-head hardened her arms and took the blow, grinding backwards across the ground. Before she could recover, Dark Shadow was on her again, driving her further away.

Realizing that brute force was not an option, Eiko dropped her guard and dove out of the way of the next attack, rolling behind one of the room's many pillars. She continued to dash from pillar to pillar, barely dodging Dark Shadow along the way. She was kept at distance, never being allowed any closer to the weapon.

On the other side of the room, she could see Sero engaged with Tsu. Her powerful legs allowed her to hop around at unpredictable angles, dodging every stream of tape shot at her. Eiko saw him in a similar situation of hopelessness and made the call. "Sero! Trade me!"

The black-haired boy nodded and taped a pillar, pulling himself towards Eiko. The two heroes-in-training high-fived as they crossed paths. She squared up with Tsu, hardening her arms again as he ran towards her.

Tsu jumped up and stuck on a pillar near the ceiling, out of her reach, and shot her tongue at her. She swung her arm forward like a sword, striking her tongue and causing it to recoil. She took the opportunity to run towards the weapon, aiming to touch it and win.

The other woman saw Eiko run past and jumped towards her, feet aimed towards her back. She looked back just in time to brace for impact, hardening her back to taking the kick, using the force of Tsuyu's kick to roll forward onto her arms and back onto her feet, never breaking pace.

Tsuyu bounced off of her and onto another pillar, shooting her tongue at Eiko again, this time catching her around the waist and arms, wrapping her up. "Sorry, Tsu!" she yelled as she hardened her arms and chest and struggled, rubbing her sharp skin against the tongue. Tsuyu yelped in pain and released her, allowing her to continue running towards the goal.

Eiko's victory was nearly within her grasp when suddenly Tsu sailed overhead, grabbing the apparently hollow weapon with her tongue and pulling it away from Eiko as she outstretched her hand.

"Damn!" She took the time to turn and take a look at Sero. Tokoyami had been taped to one of the pillars, but that did nothing to prevent Dark Shadow from moving freely. Eiko turned to run and assist her teammate when Tokoyami scored a direct hit on the taller student.

Sero was tossed backwards, hitting a pillar with a resounding thud and slumping down to the ground. Before he could stumble to his feet, Dark Shadow swooped down on him and wrapped the white capture tape around one of his arms. Eiko barely had time to harden her arms before Dark Shadow turned onto her once more.

She was struck full on, just like Sero. As Tsu protected the weapon, Tokoyami continued his assault. Repeated blows to Eiko drove her backwards; she dug her feet in, but the bone-crunching blows were grinding her up against one of the room's many pillars. Without time to plan, she did the only thing she could think of and hardened her back against the assault.

Dark Shadow continued to crash into her, each attack driving her further into the pillar as the stone began to crack. After a dozen attacks, the pillar began to crumble as Eiko was pushed deeper into it. She shook with exhaustion, each feral blow becoming harder and harder to resist. After nearly thirty powerful strikes, her hardening began to fail, and after ten more, she broke, collapsing onto one knee.

Before she could catch her breath, Dark Shadow came at her from above, flattening her against the ground. In her exhausted state, Eiko couldn't push herself back up, and Tsu slowly approached her and wrapped tape around her arm.

"You fought valiantly, Kirishima," Tokoyami said as his quirk released her. "Feel no shame for your defeat."

Eiko could only try and catch her breath as All Might's voice rang out, announcing her loss.

Izuku scratched his with his left hand as he finished the last of his notes. "Tokoyami is much more powerful than I thought… I wonder why they broke the lights, perhaps his quirk performs better in the darkness? That would make sense, judging from it's name… or perhaps he was simply attempting to obscure the battlefield. Tsu being able to carry the weapon with her tongue indicates a level of stren-"

"Uh, Midori? You okay?" Ashido's half-worried, half-amused voice brought an end to his mumbling.

"Oh! Uh, yeah, fine. Thanks, Ashido." He laughed awkwardly as he closed his notebook.

He sat back in his chair, analyzing what he had learned. "It seems like the villains were at a major advantage during the exercise. Ashido's team was the only one of five to actually win as the heroes."

"I said that during your match!" Ashido pointed a finger at him. "All Might said that heroes are at a disadvantage all the time, and we have to learn to overcome it or something."

"Yeah, it was inspiring as hell." Kirishima smirked. "Even though I lost, I don't have any regrets. I tried my hardest and did my best. That's all I can ask of myself."

Izuku smiled as he stood up. "As much as I would love to talk to you all, I need to speak with Iida before I go to bed." He let out a huge yawn. "Recovery Girl's quirk takes a lot out of you."

"Iida?" Pony grew a look of confusion. "Why?

"I… I just need to talk to him. Sorry." He hastily waved goodbye and headed for the stairs.

Izuku took a deep breath and knocked on the door of room 303. After a few seconds, the door opened as Iida stood in front of him in his sleepwear.

"Midoriya?" He looked slightly surprised to see him.

Izuku threw himself down into a deep bow. "I would like to apologize for what I said during class today. I have nothing but respect for you, Ingenium and the Iida family. Please accept my apology."

"Your apology is accepted, but unnecessary," Iida responded flatly, causing Izuku to slowly stand up. "I do appreciate it, however."

"You're… not mad?" Izuku was surprised how easily things were working out.

"Of course not. You were merely acting the part of the villain. If anything, I commend you for being so dedicated to your schoolwork!" Iida chopped his hand emphatically.

"R-really?"

"Yes! Even All Might said as much." He threw his arms wide. "In fact, you received the MVP from our match for fully embracing the spirit of the exercise and facilitating the capture of both Mineta and myself."

"I… I didn't know that. I'm impressed that you're so level-headed about this, Iida." Izuku let out a large sigh. "It's a weight off my shoulders."

"Furthermore…" Iida paused for a moment, considering his next words carefully. "I actually want to thank you for… exposing a weakness of mine."

"A weakness? How so?" Izuku had foreseen this meeting going much differently.

"Your personal attacks against my brother clouded my judgement. After the match concluded and I was assured that you were unharmed, I couldn't stop thinking about what you said to me and how I reacted." Iida crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "I thought to myself, 'what if a real villain used that against me?' I realized I could be provoked into acting rashly during a truly dangerous situation."

"I… wow, Iida." Izuku grew an impressed smile.

"Experience is one of the most important tools in a hero's arsenal, Midoriya, and today, you gave me incredibly valuable experience." He smiled at the shorter student. "Tenya Iida will be that much better of a hero thanks to your actions."

Izuku stared at him for a few moments before beginning to laugh heartily. "You are something else! I have a lot to learn from you, Iida; even more than I thought." He paused and took a deep breath. "I made a promise to you at the entrance exam, and I'd like to see it through. Friends?"

Iida nodded emphatically. "I'd like that."

"Thank yo-." His thanks was interrupted by another large yawn. "Oh man."

"You should get to bed post-haste, Midoriya," Iida lectured him.

"Agreed." Izuku turned away from him with a wave. "Goodnight, Iida."

"Goodnight, Midoriya."

Notes:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you thought in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!