The remaining two written exams passed without issue. They presented no more difficulty than the ones that came before them, and soon enough Izuku and his classmates were receiving both their grades and their placements in the class's academic ratings.
As per his expectations, Izuku received both perfect scores on all of his exams and first place in the ranking. He was followed by Bakugou, Yaoyorozu, and Iida, with Ochako ranking as fifth in the class, much to her delight, as she didn't think she would place so high.
In fact, that surprise seemed to be a somewhat common trend for much of the class. Many of them had performed better than they originally expected. Even Ashido and Kaminari, who despite placing in nineteenth and twentieth respectively in the class rankings, had achieved scores on their exams that were worth admiration. Enough for Aizawa to even praise them for it.
And with the written exams over and done with, and the stress that came with them gone, the week that separated them from the practical portion of their exams passed quickly, and with considerably more excitement than what the written ones had brought. They hadn't been told anything of what the practical exam would consist of—all they had been told was that it would take place over two days—but most of the class believed that it would revolve around fighting the same robots that they had faced in the entrance exams.
Izuku agreed with them in part. He too suspected that the exam would be some sort of fight or another. There weren't exactly very many alternatives; pretty much everything practical they had done thus far with Yueii had either been, or been related to, fighting. There had certainly been other lessons spread throughout the year, from rescue, to strategy, to even stealth, but even with those lessons, they'd had far more that had to do with fighting. It was understandable, of course. Most of what a hero did, and the most important part to be thoroughly prepared for, was fighting criminals and villains. Rescuing civilians and inspiring hope and feelings of safety were all well and good, and were certainly important aspects of being a hero, but they were nearly meaningless if a hero couldn't first put a stop to whatever had made those things necessary in the first place. So it made sense that, being in the heroics course of the one of the top hero schools in the country, the main thing that would be focused on would be that the students know how to fight as effectively as possible.
However, though he agreed with his classmates in that the practical exam would involve a fight, he felt that they were mistaken when it came to what they would be fighting. He didn't think that Nezu would settle with simply allowing them to fight a few robots.
With how proficient 1-A had shown themselves to be and with Yueii's tendency to push them, not to mention the constant underlying threat of villain attacks that had existed since the USJ invasion, they were going to be challenged in some way. The robots were far too easy of a fight for that to happen.
Even discounting how Izuku had torn through them like paper, the rest of 1-A had dealt with them far too easily for the robots to even be considered enough of a threat to be their opponents. That was evidenced simply by the fact that they were attending Yueii in the first place. They had been pitted against hundreds of other applicants, all fighting the same robots, and they had all performed well enough against them to be accepted into the heroics course. Even taking into consideration that Nezu and the support department could most likely vastly increase the difficulty of the robots, they still probably wouldn't be good enough. No, their opponent, whoever or whatever it might be, would have to present much more of a threat.
Taking the possibility of the entrance exam robots out of the question, the only remaining possibilities were each other—students fighting students—or some other living opponent.
Izuku wouldn't put it past Nezu to pit students against one another for their exam, whether it be the students of 1-A facing off against each other or 1-A going against 1-B. Facing against their own classmates would certainly present more of a challenge than robots, especially if the passing of some was dependent on the failure of others. However, he didn't think that–that was what would happen.
For starters, the teachers had already seen the students fight against one another, both in the numerous training exercises and mock fights they'd participated in through their heroics classes and during the sports festival. And aside from that, if their intention was to judge how proficient each student had become, the best way to do that was to pit them against something that could serve as a standard, which other students would do a poor job of doing for a number of reasons, least of which because of the gap in ability that was present between some of the students. Hagakure, Sero, Mineta, and Kirishima against someone like Bakugou, for example. Even disallowing the usage of quirks would not put any of those matchups on even footing.
In that sense, robots would be perfect, as each one would behave exactly the same and according to parameters set by the ones judging the exam. But something that would perform that role even better, or rather, someone who could, would be someone who both already knew how to fight to a Pro Hero's and Yueii's standards and who could adjust themself and how they fought to suit any particular student.
There were, of course, several people that could potentially fit that description, all of whom were Pro Heroes, but Izuku suspected that the actual opponents of the exams would be their own teachers.
It made sense. What better way to determine how far the students had come than to have the teachers themselves fight them? And not only would each teacher be aware of their own abilities and be able to use that awareness to properly judge the students, but knowing the students, and likely knowing what weak points they may have, meant that specific teachers could be put against specific students to introduce challenges beyond simply fighting. Putting someone like Kaminari or Ashido against a teacher like Eraser, for example, would be especially challenging, as the two of them had a much heavier reliance on their quirks in combat rather than their hands. Someone like Ochako facing off against him would simply result in the two of them being a bit more even footing, as hand-to-hand combat was her strong point, with her quirk merely serving to augment her skill. Though even her proficiency probably wouldn't be enough to quite cover the gap created by many more years of experience that Eraser had.
Conversely, putting someone like Ochako, who was strong in close quarters fighting, against Midnight, would require her to think of an alternative method of fighting, as she wouldn't even be able to get close enough to use her hands without falling victim to Midnight's quirk.
Either way, whether he was right or not, they would all know for sure soon enough. Today was the day that the exam would start, and Izuku was making his way towards the training field where Eraser had held his quirk apprehension test, with the rest of his class following close behind, all of them dressed in their hero costumes.
Izuku was fairly confident in his theory though, which only turned into certainty as the training field came within range of 'All Sight,' and he saw a group of teachers standing there, apparently waiting for the class to arrive. Nearby was a giant tent filled with infirmary beds, medical equipment, and what looked to be a copy of the control centers that the class would typically gather in to watch a training session. Recovery Girl was also in the tent, sitting in a corner and looking like she was asleep.
Of the teachers that were waiting for them, Izuku could see Present Mic, Midnight, Ectoplasm, Cementoss, Thirteen, Power Loader, Snipe, and Eraser, with Nezu standing on his shoulder. All of their teachers plus a few more were there. The only one missing was All Might, who wasn't anywhere within view of 'All Sight.'
Assuming Izuku was correct in that the teachers would be their opponents, and that All Might would be participating, that would make ten teachers for twenty students. Would they each have two separate fights then? Or would the students simply be paired up?
Both options made sense. The exam would apparently be taking place over two days, lending credence to the possibility of each teacher fighting twice, but it also made just as much sense to have two students facing off against one teacher. Because despite how proficient Izuku's class may be, with about three or four exceptions, one of which being himself, most of his class wouldn't be able to go against most of the teachers in a direct one-on-one and succeed.
Izuku's theories ran through his mind as he and his class made their way to the field, until eventually they stood before the gathered teachers. Eraser, standing at the front of the group of teachers and with the principal on his shoulder, took a step forward and addressed them.
"As you're all aware, we'll be starting the practical portion of your exams today. Now, you all performed admirably on your written tests, but it's important for you to remember that you can fail this portion just the same. So keep that, and the summer camp retreat that we told you about, in mind as we get started."
"Oh yeah!" Ashido said. "I can't believe I almost forgot about that! This is gonna be so much fun! I can't wait!"
Izuku caught a flash of barely contained mirth—or was that sadism? Both maybe?—in Nezu's eyes at Ashido's words. Something about what she'd just said was incorrect, either the idea that the summer camp would be nothing but a reward, which Izuku still doubted, or the implication that the practical exam would be no obstacle for her to get there. Whichever it was, Nezu couldn't wait to drop the bomb that would correct her.
"Yes indeed!" The rodent exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "This shall be quite fun!"
Ah there it is. Looks like it would be the latter option; the exam would be harder—probably much harder—that most of the students were expecting. Izuku was still holding out for the summer camp retreat not being a retreat at all though.
"Allow me to explain the details of your exam. We've intentionally refrained from providing you with any details until now, so as to prevent you from doing anything specific to prepare for what is to come. For despite this being an exam, it is just as much a chance for us to understand where you all stand, and see what we can do to help you continue to improve."
"Now, despite our withholding information, you all have no doubt come up with your own ideas and theories about what is to come." His eyes flashed over at Izuku at that, whose mouth quirked up in a small grin, which was reciprocated almost imperceptibly for a fraction of a second. Izuku's grin grew a bit with that. Nezu knew that Izuku knew—or at least had a fairly good idea—of what would happen. "I imagine that you all have probably heard a few rumors from your upperclassmen and are under the impression that you will be facing off against robots once again, as most of you did during the entrance exams."
There was that flash of sadism again. The rodent was enjoying this. Izuku could understand, even now, after what should've been a blatant warning to the contrary, some of his classmates still thought that their exam would consist of robots. A number of them still gave off the sort of confidence that came from thinking that they knew what was coming. The others, the ones smart enough or observant enough to notice, narrowed their eyes in suspicion at the principal.
"But I'm afraid that's not what we'll be doing!" Nezu exclaimed, clearly enjoying the way that the few mistaken students froze with the realization that the exam was going to be something unexpected. "Instead of robots, your opponents for this exam will be us!"
The slight apprehension that had been present immediately gave way to anxiety and fear with Nezu's words. What had only moments ago seemed like an easily surmountable obstacle was now a mountain in front of them as they realized why all of the teachers were actually standing in front of them.
"We will be pairing you off into groups of two." Nezu continued. "And each group will face off against a pair of two teachers."
Izuku finally felt a bit of surprise of his own at that. He'd suspected that they'd be fighting teachers, and that they might be grouped up to do so, but he would admit that he hadn't been expecting their opponents to be two teachers.
He smiled. This was becoming interesting.
"Both the student and teacher groups have already been determined. And before you worry too much about things, all of the teachers will be fitted with weights to serve as a handicap to make things a bit easier on you."
Yaoyorozu, one of the few that hadn't openly reacted to the reveal, raised a hand. "Excuse me, but given that there will be ten groups of students, but there are only nine teachers here right now, does that mean that the tenth is-?"
"Oh yes indeed, Miss Yaoyorozu." Nezu answered, interrupting her in his own excitement. For two groups, one of their opponents will be…"
At that moment, likely the result of Nezu's planning to get the timing right, All Might's trademark laugh sounded out. Izuku looked up as the man finally entered into the range of 'All Sight,' tracking him until he landed with a thud in front of the group of teachers.
"Now then…" All Might said, obviously trying—and succeeding, based on the reactions of some of Izuku's classmates—to come off as intimidating. He was enjoying this as well. "Shall we begin?"
The reason that the exam would be taking place over two days was so that the teachers would only have to fight once per day. With five pairs of teachers to ten pairs of students, the teachers were going to end up having to fight twice. And with the handicaps they were fighting with, it would be better for the quality of their second fight if they were able to recuperate beforehand.
To add to the fun—mostly Nezu's, Izuku imagined, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't finding this all just a bit exciting as well—only the matchups for the first day had been announced. Both the student pairs and the teachers that they would be fighting against for the second day had been deliberately withheld so that they were all caught just as off guard as the ones fighting today.
The groups that would be fighting today were Todoroki and Kaminari versus Eraser and All Might, Ojiro and Sero versus Ectoplasm and Nezu, Iida and Mineta versus Cementoss and Power Loader, Kirishima and Satou versus Thirteen and Present Mic, and Ochako and Tsuyu versus Midnight and Snipe.
All of the students who would be fighting today had already been led to nearby waiting buses along with the teacher pair they would be going against. And all the remaining students had been led to the observation area within the tent to watch.
Along with the handicap weights that all of the teachers would be wearing, Nezu had explained that in order for the students to pass, both students in a group had to, within thirty minutes, either escape whatever training site they were in, fully incapacitate a teacher, or incapacitate them with the capture tape they had been provided and keep them captured for five minutes—or for the remaining duration of the exam, if less than five minutes remained—preventing the other teacher from rescuing them.
Nezu was the only exception to the handicap, as all four weights that a single teacher would be wearing weighed more in total than he did. That and he wasn't planning on actually physically fighting anyone. He had informed them all, with a smile that had a few of Izuku's classmates taking involuntary steps backwards, that he would gladly surrender to anyone that could survive long enough to find him.
Nezu's—successful—attempts at scaring his classmates aside, Izuku was interested in the matchups.
Todoroki was one of the powerhouses of their class. It made sense that he'd be matched against the powerhouse teacher All Might, and Eraser, who could take Todoroki's power out of the equation. And Kaminari, who similarly relied greatly on his quirk, would have to think of some other way to fight. However, with All Might's situation being what it was, and with Eraser being aware of that, the two teachers' ability to fight together was all but nonexistent. They wouldn't be able to act together without risking All Might's quirk being deactivated, which he wouldn't risk at all. So if Todoroki and Kaminari were smart, they would do their best to keep the fight on Eraser, because with the limits of Eraser's quirk and the power that both of their quirks held, provided they could actually use them, meant that he was their best shot. No amount of effort on their part was likely to have much effect on All Might.
Ojiro was a fighter who would have to face against an endless group of enemies, and Sero's specialty with his quirk was in restraining enemies, which wouldn't be very effective when most of his enemies could be recalled in an instant only to reappear just as quickly, unrestrained. The two of them would have to find a way around that while dealing with whatever Nezu would throw at them, which depending on how much he had done to prepare the training site, could be quite a bit. Anything from traps spread through the area to making use of the entrance exam robots that had been discounted. Between Nezu's mind and the resources at Yueii's disposal, he had the potential to present more of a threat than any of the teachers except for All Might.
Iida would have to be careful about using his quirk, not just because of his two opponents, but also because of his ally. Both teachers could make the entire area unstable and almost impossible to safely traverse, while any usage of Mineta's quirk could potentially create a trap just waiting to catch Iida.
Kirishima would be facing against two enemies that could attack without actually making physical contact with him, rendering his quirk nearly useless. And both he and Satou would find it difficult to get within melee range of either teacher. Though, if Kirishima's hardening also transformed his eardrums, and to the extent that it reduced his sense of hearing, and if they both realized that, as powerful as Thirteen's quirk was, she wouldn't actually use it directly on either of them, then they could win with relative ease.
And finally, Ochako would have to find a way around both Midnight and Snipe keeping her at a distance and preventing her from using her quirk on either of them, which would most likely count as fully incapacitating them. And likewise, Tsuyu would have difficulty reaching either, though she did have a slight advantage in that her tongue might be long enough to reach Midnight through her quirk, though that would simply lead to Somnambulist being ingested after being stuck to her tongue rather than inhaled, which Izuku imagined would have the same end result.
All five groups could quite easily fail their exam, but Izuku could also see ways for them all to win. It would be up to them to find a solution themselves.
As the Izuku and the rest of the spectators all settled in to wait for the fights to start, he realized that he already had a decent idea of who he would be fighting. Because really, there weren't a lot of options, not if their goal was to present a challenge.
He couldn't say with any sort of certainty which of the remaining students he would be paired with, but he was fairly sure that he would be matched up against All Might and Nezu.
All Might was an obvious choice. In terms of the raw power that Izuku had displayed thus far, All Might was the only choice to counter it. Eraser was a contender as well of course. His quirk wouldn't have much affect on Izuku now that he had a good number of mutative strength quirks that couldn't be erased, but it wasn't as if he knew that. But even if his strength could be erased, Eraser would have to hope that he could finish a fight with Izuku quick enough for that to matter, because with his speed, he could retaliate in the time it would take Eraser to blink.
As far as who All Might could be paired with, that was a bit harder to figure, but not by much.
There weren't many teachers whose quirks would have any impact in a fight with Izuku. The strength that Izuku could throw around, and the resulting blasts of air that he'd showcased before meant that Cementoss and Midnight were discounted. He'd already shown that he could fight against groups with minimal effort, and more combatants couldn't easily close the gap created by raw physical ability, so not Ectoplasm. Izuku's pain tolerance, which was likely much greater than the teachers, combined with his healing ability, meant that he could simply endure and then later heal from any damage that Snipe or Present Mic could dish out. He could fly, which meant that Power Loader wouldn't be of any use. Eraser was discounted, if not for the reasons that All Might was Izuku's greatest counter then because of the fact that his quirk would work to counter All Might's. And Nezu would know that Izuku was smart enough to see Thirteen's obvious weakness.
Which left only the rodent himself. Depending on what resources he would make use of for this exam, he was the most likely choice to pair with All Might.
And after all, what better matchup for Izuku was there than the hero who could match his strength and the hero who could match his intelligence?
Izuku smiled at the thought of being able to fight the two of them, because there was the chance that it might be an actual fight.
Most fights, simply by nature of the abilities at his disposal, had a tendency to be boring. He could, of course, make a fight more fun by limiting himself, or by focusing on an effect of the fight such as causing fear in his opponents rather than the fight itself, both of which he did nearly every night as Oni, but neither of those things really compared to the exhilaration of a real fight.
In order for a fight to be truly fun, there needed to be some sort of risk of failure. That's why fighting the Noumu in the USJ had been so fun, even if he'd been experiencing a great deal of anger at the time due to actions of the villains. It was because the Noumu's abilities matched up so evenly to his. Had he gotten careless, or had he failed to take its quirks when he did, he very easily could've been beaten, and yet, anger aside, that fight had been fun. He wasn't having fun in spite of the danger, he was having fun because of the danger, because his life was on the line and because he needed to give everything he could afford to in order to win.
Now, granted, had Izuku been giving everything from the beginning, had he been fighting as Oni and had he aimed for taking the Noumu's quirks as quickly as he could, the fight likely would've ended sooner and much easier, but that wasn't the point. The point was that, due to the circumstances, that fight had been a true, enjoyable fight.
And now, even if he'd acquired enough quirks to make his physical capabilities comparable to, if not greater than All Might, and even if there was a chance that he was smarter than Nezu, the two of them working together had the possibility to present a greater challenge than anything else in this situation might. The stakes weren't nearly as high, and he felt that the odds were still in his favor when it came down to it, but he still felt some excitement at the mere possibility of a challenge.
Through his growing excitement, Izuku noticed activity on the screens before him. The five fights had begun, and the participants of each were beginning to move. He gave his head a small shake, forcing his smile back as he focused on them.
He still had to wait a day anyway. It wouldn't do to get overexcited.
The fights all proved to be at least somewhat interesting to watch, with some reaching conclusions that met his expectations and others that didn't. Three of the matchups ended with the student teams winning, with the other two obviously ending in failure.
As per his expectations, Ochako and Tsuyu found a way around Midnight and Snipe. Their initial plan was to ambush the two teachers at the exit point, with Ochako sending debris floating over their heads and dropping it down on them. Thankfully, the exam took place within one of the mock cities, so Ochako had plenty of objects to use her quirk on. The plan failed almost immediately though, when Snipe caught sight of them before the first piece could even reach its destination. That led to a chase between the two groups, with the two teachers chasing Ochako and Tsuyu through the streets. Midnight forewent her usual strategy of moving slowly to allow her quirk to build up into a larger cloud around her in favor of a more direct approach of using her whip to stay on the attack. Meanwhile, anytime Snipe had an angle, he would rain down a constant hail of bullets.
Izuku could tell immediately that Snipe's handicap must've been that he was required to miss a certain number of shots between every hit, because there was no way he would miss as many as he was in a real fight. He could tell that the hero wasn't using real bullets though, as there were hits. Most likely rubber bullets, which Izuku could attest, from personal experience, didn't hurt nearly as much as actually being shot, though the two students were most likely already covered in bruises from just the first few minutes of the fight.
It took a few minutes of this, of the two of them running between buildings and attempting to avoid both Midnight's quirk and a near constant rain of bullet fire from Snipe, for them to come up with a plan to shift things into their favor.
The first thing they did was stop running abruptly, catching the closely pursuing Midnight off guard. Tsuyu immediately turned to engage her while Ochako used her quirk on everything close to her, raising up a field of debris. Tsuyu could only manage to force Midnight back rather than subdue her since Snipe was backing her up and a cloud was beginning to build up around her, but that was all she needed to do, because Ochako's debris field was enough to change the dynamic of the fight. It blocked Snipe's sightline, meaning that he couldn't attack without shifting locations first, and forced Midnight back from her aggressive chase, making her switch to her usual tactic of a slow pursuit while covering the area in her quirk.
This started a much slower chase between the two groups. The debris around them prevented Snipe from attacking, forcing him to waste time circling around to a more favorable angle, taking him out of the fight for short periods of time. Meanwhile, Ochako and Tsuyu were forced to continuously move away from Midnight to avoid the cloud of smoke, with Ochako making use of a number of grappling hooks that she had recently requested be added to her costume to keep much of the field of debris moving with her.
She attempted to slow Midnight's approach even further by sending objects floating above and dropping them back down at the right moment. It didn't work in catching Midnight off guard, but it did require her to proceed with more caution, watching the sky to predict where objects would fall.
The ability to pick out a single object her quirk was affecting and return weight to only that one was something that Ochako had learned relatively recently. Izuku had brought the idea up to her one night during dinner, and in her excitement she had immediately set about trying to accomplish that. She'd been successful after a few days of trying of course, she was too skilled to allow for anything less. She could, through focus, pick out individual objects she was using her quirk on, and return the weight of only those objects. The process took a great deal of focus, and much more effort than the usual wide-spread deactivation, but it increased the potential of her quirk considerably.
Though, while Ochako's idea of trying to slow Midnight down was working, it would most likely lead to her being exhausted before long. Izuku could already see the beginning signs of nausea beginning to appear in her expression.
Thankfully, with Snipe and Midnight occupied as they were with Ochako's quirk, that opened up the perfect opportunity for Tsuyu to act.
Snipe had spent the majority of the fight a good distance away from the other three participants. His usual method of fighting was to maintain distance from his opponents and pepper them with gunfire until they were incapacitated. This wasn't the best tactic for the exam, with how much the urban environment limited his vision and being unable to do any real damage to his opponents, but he couldn't afford to stay close to the fight, especially once Midnight switched to her own usual tactic. So, with Ochako's debris shield blocking off his line of sight, he was forced to circle around buildings in an attempt to attack, only to be forced to move again after a few shots. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as time was on his side and as the students couldn't get close enough to Midnight to capture her while he wasn't looking. However, he'd made a mistake in his movements.
Had Snipe been smart about it, he would've moved to a spot where he had a shot, and waited for either of the students to make a move to attack before attacking himself, instead of simply attacking the moment he had line of sight. So, the two students knew the moment he'd gotten into position by the hail of bullets that would come for them.
And even worse than that, Snipe made no attempt to randomize his movements, or to even keep circling around in the same direction. His initial position had been following directly behind Midnight at distance, firing from behind her whenever he could. As soon as Ochako had her shield, he circled clockwise around them for a better position, and then as soon as she shifted her shield, he went right back to where he was initially. And he repeated that pattern every time he needed to move, to the point that Ochako and Tsuyu knew where he would be moving to the moment his attacks halted.
Now, this very well could've been purposeful on his part, an attempt to make the exam just a bit easier on the students. But whether or not it was, it led to them winning.
As soon as they noticed the pattern, rather than moving the shield preemptively to block the bullets before they could even be fired, Ochako and Tsuyu came up with a plan. During one break in Snipe's attack, Ochako sent up more debris into the air than before, while also grabbing more to pull along with her, obstructing Midnight's view of them as much as possible. Then, the moment Snipe attacked again, and was forced to move again, Ochako dropped everything she had sent above Midnight, causing a bigger distraction and giving Tsuyu an opening to jump away and latch onto nearby building without Midnight seeing.
Moving as quickly as she could, Tsuyu moved along the sides of buildings to where Snipe would show up. She didn't attack him as soon as he showed up though. From the first trap they had tried to lay, she knew that he would be able to see her before she could get to him. So she waited until Ochako moved her shield again, and he went to move back to his other position. Then, as soon as his back was turned and his focus was down, she dropped down from her spot halfway up the building and had her tongue around him, holding his arms to his torso, before he could react.
She quickly wrapped her capture tape around him, and then from that point it was simply a matter of carrying him further from where Ochako and Midnight were, so that time would run out before Midnight could have any chance of rescuing him.
The fight was quick to resolve after that. The moment that it was announced that Snipe had been captured, Ochako dropped everything she'd been carrying with her and used her quirk on herself, jumping out of Midnight's reach and using one of her grappling hooks, despite having barely trained to use them in such a way, to grab the side of a building to prevent herself from floating too far away. Midnight took the opportunity to attempt to get to Snipe, but the exam ended before she could even get close, resulting in Ochako and Tsuyu's victory.
The other exams, despite being somewhat interesting, were nowhere near as entertaining.
Unsurprisingly, Todoroki and Kaminari didn't manage to succeed against Eraser and All Might. They had come close for a few moments, actually managing to incapacitate Eraser—though even that was the result of a chance mis-timed blink allowing Todoroki to freeze him long enough to wrap him in capture tape—but All Might had shown up in the next moment to free him, before returning to the exit point a second later. The whole fight started over again from there, and that time, Eraser didn't make the same mistake, effortlessly incapacitating both of them.
Also unsurprisingly, Ojiro and Sero lost against Ectoplasm and Nezu. The nearly endless onslaught of clones, which was supplemented by an even more endless onslaught of robots—Nezu evidently was making use of the entrance exam robots that everyone originally thought they would be fighting—proved to be too much for them. They certainly put up a good fight, and had they acted quicker, there were opportunities where they could've gone after the real Ectoplasm, but in the end they lost, in the second longest exam after Ochako and Tsuyu's.
Kirishima and Satou managed to win against Present Mic and Thirteen. Evidently, Kirishima's hardening did indeed work to reduce the effectiveness of Present Mic's attacks. Either that or he was good at simply enduring the pain. The two teachers had separated so they could both use their quirks without putting the other at risk. Kirishima and Satou were apparently smart enough to realize that they simply had to get close to Thirteen and the fight would be over, as Satou did exactly that, incapacitating her with capture tape, while Kirishima did his best to keep Present Mic from getting to her. His ears were bleeding by the end, but he managed to succeed, earning them a win.
Finally, just a little bit surprisingly, Iida and Mineta won against Power Loader and Cementoss. Taking place in an urban environment, Cementoss had completely dominated and controlled the fight, leaving the two students nothing to do except attempt to run, with Iida carrying the much slower Mineta. Their situation was made even worse by Power Loader constantly making the ground unstable around them. More than once, they were nearly caught in a pitfall.
It wasn't until, completely by chance, Mineta happened to attack and hit Power Loader with his quirk while the hero was briefly exposed after creating one such pitfall, that they were presented with a chance to actually win. Taking advantage of Power Loader being stuck for a moment, acting as quick as they could, Iida brought Mineta closer so he could cover the hero with his quirk as much as Cementoss would allow, before running again.
Thankfully for them, since Power Loader was incapacitated with Mineta's quirk instead of the capture tape, and was therefore stuck to the group in a way that neither he nor Cementoss could resolve, they managed to win.
With four students failing, and six passing, the first day of the practical exams had concluded. Once all the teachers and students had made it back to the observation tent, and had received and medical attention they needed from an only slightly irritated Recovery Girl, they were all dismissed.
With everyone changed back into their uniforms and heading out of the building, Izuku and Ochako invited Tsuyu over for dinner, to celebrate her and Ochako passing. She declined, saying that her parents had already made plans to celebrate. Izuku and Ochako didn't falter though, and simply made plans to invite her over the next day, once Izuku had passed his own exam.
Tsuyu already having plans did nothing to stop them though. They both still returned to the apartment in high spirits, and along with Rei, they celebrated Ochako's success over a special meal that Izuku put more effort into than usual.
And when night came, Oni went about his vigilantism with a bit more enthusiasm than usual, his excitement for what the next day would bring bleeding over into the excitement he sought out at night. He wasn't sure who the Hosu equivalent of Tsukauchi was, but he left a considerable mess for them by the time he was finished. Their prisons would be receiving quite the influx of criminals. He also ended up taking two new quirks to add to his ever–growing collection.
When morning came again, Izuku was ready to get to Yueii to get things started.
Just as they had the day before, Izuku and his classmates changed into their hero costumes as soon as the day started, and made for the training field. And just as they were the day before, the teachers were all waiting for them. The only difference, aside from a bit less enthusiasm from his class, especially from those who had failed their exams the day before, was that All Might simply emerged from the observation tent as they approached, instead of making his entrance by falling out of the sky.
"Greetings once again, students!" Nezu called out from his spot on Aizawa's shoulder. "Now that half of you have made it through your exams, it's time to see how the rest of you fare! No surprises this time, unfortunately, so today we'll just get straight to announcing the groups."
Izuku doubted the 'no surprises' part of that. Nezu saying that he had no surprises planned was like Oni saying that he wasn't planning on sending anyone to the hospital on a given night. It was certainly possible, but the alternative was much more likely. Whatever the case, Izuku chose to not focus on that. The teachers that he would be fighting was much more interesting anyway.
"Shouji and Jirou will be facing off against Midnight and Snipe." Nezu started. "Yaoyorozu and Ashido will fight Cementoss and Aizawa. Kouda and Hagakure against Present Mic and Thirteen. Aoyama and Tokoyami against Power Loader and Ectoplasm."
"And finally," he said, looking at Izuku, who was already smirking as his theory was proven to be correct, "Etsumi and Bakugou will be facing off against All Might and myself."
"Oof." Izuku heard one of his classmates say. "All Might and Principal Nezu. Good luck you two."
Izuku didn't react. His smile only grew as he felt the anticipation that he usually experienced before a fun fight make itself known.
"Oh, nope. Never mind. We've already lost him." Someone else said.
"Now then!" Nezu continued. "Let's not delay in getting these exams started! Best of luck to all of you!"
Izuku's fists clenched, and he looked over at Bakugou who, even through his usual apathetic expression, seemed to be just a bit apprehensive about their matchup.
"Come on Bakugou." Izuku said, moving towards him, and towards the busses that sat past him. "Let's have some fun."
"So, is this the part where we fear for our lives?" Kirishima asked as the remainder of the class gathered in front of the screens that would be displaying the fights. "Because Etsumi looked waay too excited that he's going to be fighting both Nezu and All Might. The way he was smiling was actually kind of scary."
Ochako had a smile of her own as she watched Izuku and Bakugou moving towards their training site. "Think of it from his point of view." She said, attracting the attention of her classmates. "You all know how strong he is, and all of you have fought him before. Do you think any of the other teachers would stand a chance? He's just excited that he might actually have a challenge."
Kirishima scratched the side of his head. "That's… a good point, actually. I don't know if any of the other teachers would be able to beat him. Maybe Snipe if he were allowed to use real bullets? Though at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if Etsumi turned out to be bulletproof."
Ochako's smile took on a more amused edge at Kirishima's words. She knew that Izuku could become bulletproof if he wanted to. She also knew that none of the teachers would stand a chance against him. Granted, part of that was simply the faith she had in him, but last night, over dinner, Izuku had explained in detail how easily he could counter all of the teachers.
"Actually, are we even sure that All Might and Principal Nezu will be enough to beat him?" Mineta chimed in. "Etsumi's crazy–strong, and I don't know if we've ever really seen him go all–out."
"C'mon man, this is All Might." Kaminari countered. "The strongest man in the world, with the smartest person in the world backing him up."
Conversations broke out amongst several of the students as they added their own two cents to the discussion, but after a few moments, Todoroki, of all people, spoke up, silencing them all.
"But are we certain that Etsumi is neither of those things? It's possible that he is both the strongest and the smartest person in the world."
The room went completely silent at that, and a second later they all turned to look at the screen showing Izuku and Bakugou as the announcement to begin sounded out.
"I don't suppose you have a plan for how we're going to do this?" Bakugou asked as he and Izuku made their way towards the center of the mock city. "We ought to have something figured out before the fight starts."
"The fight has already begun." Izuku replied. "It started the moment we stepped through the gate."
Izuku was probably letting himself get a bit too excited for the fight, but whether or not that was the case, or if this was going to be as much fun as he'd been expecting it to be, he'd allowed his anticipation to grow to the point that he was already hypersensitive to his surroundings. Though, granted, that wasn't much of a step up from how he usually was. With 'All Sight,' and with how his intelligence quirks forced him to operate in such a way that nearly every single bit of sensory input was taken in and analyzed in some way in the back of his mind, he was already almost constantly aware of his surroundings, but with his body subconsciously preparing for a fight, everything non-essential was falling away to make room for only what was necessary for the fight. Things like his sense of smell and touch, even his hearing to an extent. They all fell to the wayside as he focused on just his two senses of vision.
And with those senses—mostly 'All Sight'—he saw what lay around him and Bakugou, waiting for the signal to begin.
The ground floors of all the buildings within the mock city were completely filled with robots. And below them, there were several areas underground that looked like massive elevators, holding even more robots.
For the most part, the robots looked quite similar to those that were present at the entrance exam—he recognized the designs of each of the three tiers present amongst them, the single–wheeled–two–armed one–pointer, the four–legged two–pointer, and the three–pointer with tank treads, two arms, and guns on its back. Looking closer, though, he could see things that set them apart from their predecessors.
First and foremost, all of the metal looked significantly stronger. The entrance exam robots had felt almost hollow when he'd torn into them, but these ones looked exceptionally more solid, the metal considerably thicker. In places, they resembled the armored doors he so regularly encountered when terrorizing The Triad.
Beyond that, each and every one was filled to the brim with tools and weapons that had not been present in the entrance exam robots. He could make out what seemed to be gun barrels in each and every one, not just the ones that resembled three–pointers, and not even in obvious spots like the massive guns on their backs, but hidden in innocuous places like hands and heads and even placed to fire between plates of armor on the torso. Those guns seemed to hold everything from some kind of liquid to rolls of cables to what he figured were rubber bullets—since he doubted that Nezu would make use of actual ammunition—though he wouldn't be surprised if there was something off about them.
These were robots built to put up a fight. Not like the papier mâché versions he'd fought before.
They looked ever so fun.
"What do you mean?" Bakugou asked.
Izuku hummed to himself, considering his answer.
"Say, Nezu." He asked aloud after a moment. "The spectators won't be hearing anything will they? They're limited to only watching?"
Immediately the rodent's voice sounded out from a speaker somewhere off to their right. "Of course, Etsumi. You're free to discuss whatever you wish."
Izuku could hear the smile in his voice. He was enjoying this. But, nonetheless, Izuku was glad that Nezu had understood what he'd been asking. He and Bakugou were free to mention One For All in their planning, since everyone involved in the fight knew of its existence.
"Right." Izuku said. "The two of us are both capable of exerting a tremendous amount of power and relying almost solely on hand–to–hand combat. I expect that Nezu intends to make use of the robots we saw him use yesterday to limit that as much as possible. Expect them to have methods of limiting our movements and debilitating our senses. For you specifically, I would imagine he has a way to take your explosions out of the equation. Keep an eye out for any liquids they might spray, as they'll probably be meant to mix with your sweat and nullify its explosive properties."
"Oho! Right you are on all accounts, Etsumi!" Nezu's voice sounded out from a different direction. "As impressive as always! Now all that remains to be seen is whether or not you can do anything about it!"
At his side, Bakugou brought his hands together, cracking his knuckles. In the blink of an eye, he was wreathed in orange lightning.
Izuku mirrored him, bringing his own hands together. At the same time, he pulled on his strength quirks, all of them. With their activation, his muscles bulged beneath his skin, and the smell of ozone filled the air. He relished the warmth that surged through his limbs, and the sheer power that followed it.
"So manly…" Kirishima whispered, causing Ochako to let out a quiet laugh as she continued to watch.
"You do have a plan, right?" Bakugou asked.
"Oh, Nezu and I could sit around trying to out–plan each other all day long without actually getting anywhere which is why we won't be making use of one. For this we will simply make use of something that he cannot plan around: brute force."
Noticing that Bakugou was about to speak, Izuku continued. "If that's not enough for you, then just remember this: do not focus too much on the robots. Remember that they are not our opponent, All Might and Nezu are. Keep One For All active at all times, don't let yourself get swarmed, keep yourself moving, and try your best to capture one of the two, or escape to the exit if you can't."
"And what about you?"
"Basically the same rules, with one tiny difference."
"And what's that?"
"I intend to have fun with this, so I'll be ignoring most of them."
Before Bakugou could say anything else, a buzzer sounded throughout the mock city, announcing the start of the exam.
Izuku smirked as he turned towards where his opponent was immediately making a move. He raised a hand towards Bakugou as he watched All Might raise a fist on the other side of the city. With a flick of his wrist against Bakugou's shoulder, Izuku sent him flying off to the side.
"Go that way." He said. "All Might is mine."
He watched as All Might threw a punch, and the following surge of air tore its way across the city. It didn't knock any buildings down, but he saw almost every piece of glass between them shatter
A smile stretched across Izuku's face as focused entirely on the incoming fight right in front of him, everything else falling away. Raising his hands, he brought them together with as much force as he could just as the surge reached him, activating 'Air Cannon' at the last second for an extra push. The shockwave he produced canceled out All Might's, leaving nothing but a massive cloud of dust to fill the area.
Before the dust could even begin to settle, Izuku's tail coiled and tensed beneath him, as he watched, waiting for All Might to make his next move.
The instant that All Might made to start moving towards him, Izuku exploded forwards, the ground beneath him pulverized with the force. All Might noticed his approach at the last second, raising his hands to intercept. They impacted with enough force to shake the ground around them, hands locking as they pushed against each other.
"Coming to fight me directly, hero?" All Might asked, clearly playing a 'villainous' persona. "Are you sure that's the best move for you and your teammate? With your speed you probably could've made it close to the exit before I could catch you."
"Oh please." Izuku responded, bearing down on him and forcing him back a step. "Why would I do something like that? There's no need to rush things, we've got half an hour to play. Besides, if I was that concerned with winning, I'd go find Nezu in his little underground bunker."
Nezu was deep underground at the moment, sitting in a room at the very edge of 'All Sight's range, almost directly below Izuku. He hoped that him knowing where the rodent was, despite having no immediately obvious way to know, would make the unshakable Nezu falter just the slightest bit. Not for any advantage of course, merely to add to his own enjoyment.
He couldn't tell whether or not it worked, but it at least got some response out of Nezu. A response in the form of a swarm of robots bursting forth from the nearest buildings.
Izuku laughed as he forced All Might's arms to the side, then thrusting his own arms forwards an instant later, striking him in the chest and sending him flying into a building, just in time to address the robots that now surrounded him.
The swarm charged at him from all sides, many of them revealing the weapons that Izuku had seen before and leveling them at him. He let them come. He wanted Nezu to throw everything at him, only to show that it was pointless. It was too bad that he wouldn't be able to see Nezu's face when it happened.
All at once, the swarm attacked. Metal cables shot forth, wrapping around him and pinning his arms and wings to his body, liquid sprayed across his face, blinding him, stinging his eyes, and aggravating his lungs in a way that felt suspiciously similar to pepper spray, and rubber bullets and metal pellets pelted him from all sides.
Izuku flexed his arms, testing his restraints. If it were possible, his smile stretched even further when the metal groaned and complained with only a slight bit of effort.
"I do hope you have something more impressive in your arsenal than steel cables." He taunted. "Otherwise, you won't be able to get very fa-"
His words cut off as electricity surged through the cables, causing his muscles to seize. He could feel it filling up his newest stockpiler, the new power thrumming through his flesh in a different way than the original shock.
"Not to worry!" Nezu's cheerful voice sounded out. "I think you'll find that I have plenty of tools available to me!"
Now this was starting to get fun. If Nezu was willing to go so far as to pepper spray and shock one of his students, then his ruthlessness combined with All Might's power might actually present a challenge. The electricity did hurt just a bit, as it was one of the few things he didn't currently possess a quirk to automatically guard against—maybe that was something he ought to look into at some point in the near future? He did already have such a quirk for temperature-based harm—but it wasn't as if pain was something to get in the way of his fun.
With a quick pull on 'Metallum', metal flashed across Izuku's body, just under the skin. Immediately, the pain and the seizing lessened, though the electricity arcing across his skin still hurt. Just as he was deciding what to do next in order to mess with Nezu, he noticed All Might finally returning to the fight, his voice sounding out through the mock city.
"Carolina…"
"Oho. Interesting choice. Let's hope you're putting your back into this one."
"Smash!"
The blow struck Izuku's chest, and he felt the impact travel through his body, even with 'Shock Absorption' doing its job. It sent him flying backwards—not as far as he had launched All Might due to much of the force being cancelled out, but even that much was impressive in its own right—pulling the robots—who had not ceased their shocking—that had him restrained along with him.
He landed on his back, the impact sending the slightest twinge of pain through his restrained wings.
Izuku coughed, smiling up at the sky. "Astounding. I was hoping that this would end up being fun, and it seems that I won't be disappointed."
He lifted his head to look at All Might and the swarm of robots, though his eyes were still squeezed shut. "I actually felt that."
Lifting himself up off the ground, he grinned at the man. "Let's see what else you've got in store."
"Holy shit!" Kaminari exclaimed. "Did he just completely tank an attack from All Might!?"
"See? I told you." Mineta responded. "Crazy strong."
Izuku flexed, snapping the cables that held his arms down. Reaching up, he grabbed at the stray cable that had wrapped around his neck, trying and failing to restrict his breathing, and tore it loose. With it in hand, he yanked the robot on the other end towards him, throwing a punch as soon as it came within range, tearing straight through the reinforced metal and disabling it.
As the remains fell to the ground, Izuku raised his hands to scrub at his eyes. They were practically swollen shut at this point, and his face and throat felt like they were on fire, which he had personal experience with. More interesting than the pain itself, was the fact that his healing quirks had not addressed it. They were probably only able to handle actual physical injuries, and this was just a case of something irritating his flesh, not actually injuring him. It was like the difference between being injured and being poisoned. Though even if they did work on something like this, it wouldn't accomplish anything because whatever had been sprayed in his face was still there. That part of the issue was easily addressed though, just not right this moment. He would use 'Shower in a Can' as soon as he had a chance to do so without it being obvious.
Despite that, Izuku focused on his original healing quirk. It was nowhere near as quick as his more recent additions, but it was considerably more thorough. It could heal scar tissue, and over the years he'd found that it even worked in sync with some of his body's natural functions, such as his immune system and his body's ability to filter out toxins. Izuku had gotten food poisoning, and been actually poisoned, a number of times in the past, and his healing quirk kept him alive when he likely should've died. It might not be effective now, but it was much more likely to work than his newer quirks.
Taking advantage of his apparent distraction, two robots charged at him, one from either side, raising metal fists to swing at him. He let them. Their attacks landed on the sides of his head, but unlike All Might's hit, they couldn't do anything against his shock absorption. His hands darted out, latching onto their heads, his fingers gouging into the metal. Before they could do anything, he brought their heads together, pancaking them. He threw the disabled robots into the swarm, taking out a few more.
"I do hope that you weren't under the incorrect assumption that I need my eyes to fight you." Izuku said, pulling the last of the stray cables off of his body. "Honestly, I'd be tempted to claw my own eyes out just to prove a point if it weren't for the students watching."
He rolled his shoulders, and rolled his neck to crack it, before grinning at All Might. "Well then. I suppose that could be considered a warmup."
An almost lazy swing of his arm, with 'Air Cannon' added on for good measure, sent most of the robots to his right flying backwards into the building they emerged from.
"Sorry Nezu, but you might want to save your robots for Bakugou. I don't think they'll be of much help to you here. Not with this next bit at least."
Without warning, Izuku dashed towards All Might, throwing a punch that the man just barely intercepted at the last second with a punch of his own, the impact sending a shockwave exploding through the area, throwing the rest of the robots back. He felt the force of the impact surging through his arm, threatening to overwhelm his shock absorption, and he loved it. A second punch quickly followed, once again intercepted at the last second.
Izuku bore down on All Might, leaning in closer as they struggled against each other.
"Let's up the ante a bit, shall we?"
He broke apart the struggle, backing away for a moment, before attacking again. His hands blurred as he threw punch after punch, each and every one being countered by All Might. Every thrown fist collided with another with an explosive shockwave in a near-exact match of Izuku's fight with the Noumu in the USJ. The mock city rumbled around them in response to the power being displayed. Each and every hit carried so much force behind it that Izuku could actually feel his shock absorption being overwhelmed bit by bit, to the point that if his bones and muscles weren't currently solid titanium, he'd be forced to rely on his healing quirks to let him keep up. Once again, he found himself amazed by the fact that so much power, and the ability to withstand it all, came from just a single quirk. Granted, it was a quirk that spanned generations, but a single quirk nonetheless.
After several long seconds and several hundred thrown punches, Izuku decided to start increasing the tempo. At the moment, he was fighting at close to the level of the Noumu, and All Might seemed to be keeping up just fine, but he could push things further, and with how rarely he had the opportunity to come anywhere close to exerting himself, he intended to.
With that decision, every new hit came just a touch faster and with even more force behind it. He pushed it further and further, until the cumulative power of sixteen strength quirks and seventeen speed quirks was going head–to–head with the single most powerful quirk in the world.
Izuku could now see stress fractures forming throughout the metal of his arms, being healed as quickly as they appeared, and with each hit, the shockwaves surging through the mock city grew stronger, until cracks began to form along the bases of the buildings closest to them.
He could also see where All Might was beginning to struggle to keep up with him. Slowly, ever so slowly, All Might was being forced back.
Deciding to change things up, Izuku abruptly pulled back for a fraction of a second, disrupting what had been a constant, yet gradually increasing tempo, and throwing All Might off. The man didn't stumble—he was the number one hero, and one of the strongest people on the planet, he did not stumble from such a simple trick—but he was thrown off-balance for just long enough for Izuku to take advantage of.
Planting a punch in the center of the man's chest Izuku sent him flying backwards once again, into the same building, which this time collapsed on top of him.
Taking a moment while the swarm of robots—which had been waiting a close as they could manage to—surged towards him once more, Izuku looked down at his hands, which were trembling slightly. The resultant forces of his attacks meeting All Might's still sung through his flesh.
He clenched his fists, relishing the slight soreness in his forearms, even as it rapidly vanished as his shock absorption and healing caught back up.
"Truly astounding." He whispered, before rushing forwards to meet the robots, not giving them the chance to attack again.
They didn't stand a chance against him. They might be considerably stronger and more durable than their counterparts in the entrance exams—and had these been the robots he'd fought, he might've found himself facing something of a challenge—but so was he. He tore through them just the same; their thickened and reinforced metal bodies still collapsed and sheared and tore apart in the face of his assault. He didn't even give them the satisfaction of acting like their weapons had any effect on him. Every swing of his arms snapped their metal cables, and those that still managed to wrap around some part of him simply got dragged behind him, their constant shocking doing nothing more than providing a slight annoyance. Hundreds, if not thousands, of rubber bullets and metal pellets pelted him from all angles, not even doing enough damage to leave bruises with his shock absorption negating it all. Adhesives hit him, trying to restrict his movements, only to be ignored entirely, and all manner of attacks meant to inflict some form of damage were brushed off; enormous plumes of fire, blasts of supercooled air, explosions, heavier projectiles, even sonic attacks, which actually came the closest out of everything to causing him pain.
It was only after noticing a slight sizzling sensation on his skin—acid, which was very quickly absorbed by his stockpiler—that Izuku realized why Nezu was attacking so ruthlessly. It was because the rodent knew that Izuku could take it. He was only attacking with things that he'd seen Izuku withstand. Aside from possessing a healing factor capable of restoring lost limbs, Izuku had already fought against each of these things.
Kaminari's electricity, Todoroki's fire and ice, Bakugou's explosions, Jirou's sonic attacks, Mineta's adhesive attacks, Ashido's acid, Izuku had already shown that he could withstand it all.
"How interesting." Izuku said, not pausing in his shredding through the robots. "Making use of methods of attack that you know I can survive. You're pushing as far as you know for certain that you can."
He grinned, pulverizing a whole group with a swipe of his hand. "That alone won't be enough though. If you have something to control the severity of these attacks, I would recommend that you turn it as high as you can go. Otherwise it won't be as satisfying to brush them off."
"Ah, hold that thought though." He said, swiping away the surrounding robots with another massive shockwave, assisted by 'Air Cannon.' All Might was finally beginning to emerge from the ruins of the building that had collapsed on top of him. Izuku turned to face him.
At that same moment, a massive explosion shook the mock city, pulling away some of Izuku's attention.
He saw Bakugou, mostly unharmed aside from a collection of bruises, small cuts, and some singed hair, making his way towards him. He was bouncing between the walls of buildings to avoid the robots below, partially using his enhanced strength, and partially his explosions.
He made it to Izuku just as he was gearing up for round two against All Might, who was just beginning to make a move. Kicking off from the nearest building hard enough to leave cracks, and with a boost from his explosions, Bakugou intercepted All Might, launching a punch of his own at the man. It didn't land, nor would it have done much if it did, but it did make him halt his advance, bringing up an arm to block the attack. All Might countered an instant later, bringing his other hand up to smack Bakugou away, launching him directly at Izuku, who raised an arm to catch him.
"Spoilsport." Izuku said, setting Bakugou down. "Don't interrupt my fight, it was just about to get good again."
"Etsumi…" Bakugou huffed, out of breath. "Can you please take this seriously? There are too many of them. The whole site is completely packed with these robots."
His orange lightning had vanished. Either All Might's attack had broken his focus, and his hold on the quirk, or he was simply exhausted already and taking the opportunity for a short break.
"Rude." Izuku responded. "I am taking this seriously, but there's no reason I shouldn't be able to have a bit of fun with this as well. And besides, I did tell you not to focus too much on the robots."
A few robots surged forwards before Bakugou could respond. Izuku raised a hand towards them, with Bakugou mimicking the action beside him. Flicking his fingers at them sent a focused blast of air at them, while an enormous explosion tore through them, the heat severe enough that Izuku felt it ever so slightly through his temperature resistance quirk, and the remains of the robots hit by it were left glowing red and orange.
"Can you please just focus on passing the exam?" Bakugou asked, grabbing at the wrist of the hand that he'd just used to attack. Looking closer, Izuku could see a hairline fracture. Either he'd briefly gone beyond his limit with One For All at some point, or his boosted natural quirk had been a bit too much for his own natural resistances to it.
Izuku sighed. "Fine, I suppose I'll at least help you get to the exit before going back to my fun."
"Are you quite sure you should be discussing your plan right in front of the ene-?"
All Might's words cut off as Izuku moved without warning, planting another punch to his chest just barely too fast for him to catch and sending him flying once more, this time into the building just behind the one that had collapsed. This one collapsed as well.
Putting his hand on the shoulder of a distracted Bakugou, Izuku moved him slightly to the side, before raising a fist. Pulling on 'Air Cannon' again, he threw a punch that sent a shockwave barreling through the mock city, a stronger version of All Might's opening attack, as it had the first two buildings in its path collapsing to the ground.
"The exit's that way." He said, pointing in the direction he'd just punched. "Shall we?"
Bakugou just nodded, wincing slightly as he rolled his injured wrist, small explosions popping along his palm. In an instant, he was wreathed in orange lightning once more.
Taking the lead, Izuku dashed forwards, batting away entire groups of robots at a time with each swipe of his arm. Bakugou kept pace just behind him, taking advantage of the path that Izuku was clearing and keeping the few robots that caught up away with his explosions.
They reached the exit gate in no time, cutting through the swarm of robots to find a number of unique ones guarding it. They were bigger than the others—though nowhere near the size of the zero–pointer—and looked a bit tougher.
Izuku, having already noticed them before they were even visible to the eye—which he still couldn't use, his eyes were still swollen shut—charged them immediately, interested to see if they would put up a better fight than the rest. Blading his hand, he impaled it into the chest of the nearest one, and the one directly behind it. They did feel ever so slightly tougher than the others.
Throwing them aside, he went for the next one, pulverizing its head just as Bakugou soared past him with another huge explosion, clearing the gate. Right at that moment, Izuku saw All Might heading for him, and cleared away the rest of the surrounding robots with a blast of air as he turned to face him.
"Now then. Where were we?"
Suddenly, right then, a buzzer sounded out from around him, followed by an automated-sounding voice.
"Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku Etsumi have escaped the testing site and passed their exam!"
Izuku blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
Looking around at the ground, littered with the scraps of robots as it was, Izuku saw where the tip of his tail was sitting right in the gate.
"Huh…"
Realizing that his fun had been cut short, Izuku grimaced slightly.
"Tch. Damn."
Taking a deep breath, Izuku rolled his neck, before letting it out slowly, letting his adrenaline rush begin to fade with it.
He sighed. "Oh well. Nothing I can do about it, and the outcome would've been the same either way."
Besides, he could do a little bit to make up for it by terrorizing criminals later, so at least he had that.
Giving his head a slight shake, he turned and moved towards Bakugou, who was kneeling on the ground a short distance past the gate. He extended a hand towards him once he was close enough.
"How hurt are you? Aside from your wrist."
"Nothing too bad." Bakugou responded, still out of breath. He accepted the proffered hand, letting Izuku pull him to his feet. "My right ankle's a bit sore where I overdid that jump to get to All Might just a little bit, but other than that, nothing serious."
"Good. You've already improved considerably, given how you maintained it through the fight. Just keep it up and you'll be a match for All Might soon enough."
Speaking of, All Might approached the pair, laughing as he did, and subtly massaging his wrist, disguising the action by taking off his weights a moment later.
"An impressive showing from both of you!" He exclaimed. "I must really be getting old. I was barely able to keep up with you at all, Young Etsumi!"
"I only wish we could've gone a bit longer." Izuku said. "It was just starting to get fun."
All Might let out another boisterous laugh. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same, just a little. I don't remember the last time I had to fight so seriously."
That was definitely a lie, and the way All Might's hand drifted up to his side gave it away. Izuku didn't say anything about it though, instead just grinning.
"You have my number. I'd be more than happy to pick up where we left off whenever you want."
"Ha! Tempting, Etsumi, very tempting. But with Yueii ending for the summer soon, I'm afraid I'll likely be spending most of my time focusing on hero work."
Izuku shrugged. "Suit yourself. You know where to find me if you change your mind."
"Now then." He continued, bringing a hand up to wipe at his face. "Let's get back so I can get this shit off of my face. Because right now it hurts to breathe."
The rest of the matchups for the day didn't seem nearly as interesting now that Izuku had gone through his own.
Aoyama and Tokoyami succeeded against Power Loader and Ectoplasm. It was mostly because of sheer luck, with Tokoyami happening to fall into a pit trap, and the resulting darkness boosting Dark Shadow just enough to overpower Power Loader when he'd come to finish him off. Kouda and Hagakure won against Present Mic and Thirteen when Kouda took advantage of Present Mic's, apparently paralyzing, fear of insects. Thirteen didn't even get a chance to try to rescue him, as the shock rendered him unconscious, which meant that he was considered fully incapacitated. Yaoyorozu and Ashido managed to win against Eraser and Cementoss, with Yaoyorozu making a number of flashbangs that blinded Eraser just long enough for them to capture him. Then, instead of trying to keep the captured Eraser away from Cementoss, they focused on keeping Cementoss away from Eraser, engaging him directly and not giving him a chance to rescue. Jirou and Shouji were the only pair to fail, losing to Midnight and Snipe. Between a constant hail of bullet fire and the spread of Midnight's quirk, there wasn't much that the students could do in response.
In the end, the class concluded their exams with only six failing, much to their disappointment as they believed that they wouldn't be able to attend the 'reward' summer camp. Thankfully for them though, once everything was over and everyone was gathered back at the observation tent, Eraser revealed that everyone would still be able to attend, though that those who failed would still have to undergo remedial classes, which only further reinforced Izuku's theory that the summer camp wasn't going to be a reward at all.
When everyone was dismissed, for the day and for the summer, until they met again for the summer camp, this time, Tsuyu traveled with Izuku and Ochako back to the apartment. The three of them, along with Rei, ended the day with a dinner to celebrate their passing the exams and the completion of the first leg of their paths to becoming heroes.