Exam Time

Things hadn't quite been the same since the he had last come to her room. It felt as though they were going through the motions of their previous relationship. Now when she teased him, he smiled at her and made a deflective comment and effectively ended the conversation. It was as though there was a barrier around him now, some unseen thing that would be bad if she were to penetrate. Like shaking someone out a of a meditation.

She turned to look at him stretching, facing the doors in front of them. He was the image of focus right now. Even just asking about their strategy felt like it would be somehow inappropriate. What had changed?

The answer came to her as thought she were asking as simple a question as anything; We have put it behind us. They talked about the issue and it wasn't like he really said anything about it at all. He acknowledged it and that was that. He had then told her of his commitment to his dream. The full one hundred percent. That was what she could feel around him now. She supposed it was something like the pursuit of perfection but in doing so it left zero room for anything else.

Poor Uraraka.

She hissed the thought away. Not now. Now was not the time to have a clouded mind. She ought to take a leaf out of Midoriya's book. Without another thought she threw herself into some stretches of her own, turning away from him so as not to distract herself further.

As Midoriya finished stretching his triceps he glanced behind him as saw Mina absorbed in her own routine. He turned back to facing front his mind and heart weighing heavily upon him. They hadn't been in sync at all since the other night, but it all felt so wrong to him. He couldn't say if it was that it was the sudden change to their dynamic or if it was the lack of the real conversation. Either way it didn't seem right somehow.

His mind told him that she had made it as clear as person as kind as her could and that he could be feel free again to pursue his dream. Throw himself fully into it as he knew he must in order to truly succeed All Might. He couldn't disagree with the logic of it at least.

His heart, on the other hand, was torn. It too longed to push himself into the unknown as he had always dreamt of. However, this was no longer his hearts only wish. Someone in him had, at some point, taken a hold of an image of a future in which he did not stand alone as the greatest of all heroes. He stood side by side another. There was no ignoring the fact that in that image it was her. This part of himself demanded that he did not dare to let this vision die any more than he every allowed the death of his dreams of being a hero despite all evidence telling him to forget it. It whispered to him that miracles do happen. What else could you call his fateful encounter with All Might if not a miracle?

Except Mina had already told him that she liked someone else his mind would argue back. It had already caused some tension between her and his friend, Uraraka who seemed to be so fiercely protective of him over the issue. If he pushed it now that would make it worse for everyone just because he was being selfish.

Even if he wanted to, Mina hadn't been the same since then. It was like she was being held back by invisible strings. The Mina he remembered was impulsive, energetic and tenacious. She had regained some of her energy but was certainly not as potent as before. She felt like she had entirely lost her tenacity, however. Her idea of personal space had increased dramatically which he was sad to note, having finally warmed up to it even just as a friend. Lastly, she only now seemed to be impulsive when he saw her with others, that feeling of spontaneity was lost when she was talking to him. It felt as though she might make a joke to tick a box of what was expected of her and then was content to move along instead of to really poke fun at something.

He supposed it was inevitable that she keep him at arm's length now having acknowledged his unreciprocated feelings. To pretend things were as they had been would probably seem to be cruel to her now. He could understand and respect that, though it didn't ease the discontentment in his heart.

Just as Mina turned around the buzz sounded out loud and the gate opened. The pair shot forwards into a high-speed jog as the speaker sounded out Aizawa-sensei's voice behind them.

"There has been a break in at the bank, Mizuho Financial Group, on the 9th block opposing the 8th block. There are two suspects and they have a hostage somewhere within the premises. Apprehend the villains without any harm coming to the hostage and do not allow them to escape." it rang out in usual monotone.

"So, what's the plan?" Mina asked, feeling emboldened by the situation enough to finally break the awful silence between them.

"First, we will need to scope out the situation. Before long I expected we will have Kacchan to deal with. Take him out two on one if he repeats what he did in our hero exercise, then push in and deal with Mineta and the hostage. For Mineta I expect your quirk will be invaluable" he explained, relieved to be speaking on something that wouldn't make either of them feel uncomfortable.

"What if Bakugo doesn't rush us?" Mina posed hypothetically

"If he doesn't then their plan will be to setup obstacles using Mineta's quirk. I'm guessing they will try to create opportunities for Kacchan to blast us into the walls to get stuck. Mineta won't want to risk combat himself given our physical advantage and Kacchan is going to be more than happy to take us both on, is my guess." He replied, his mind rushing to generate scenarios on the spot whilst running.

He had been so focused on his personal situation that he had only considered basic strategies for dealing with the exam. It felt like whenever it came to Kacchan it would just result in a brawl between them. Truthfully, he was hoping it would come to that as he knew Mina would be able to swiftly defeat Mineta and then could rescue the hostage.

Mina nodded, both plans seemed reasonable enough. She, like Midoriya expected for Bakugo to come right out for them, it was Bakugo after all and everyone knew Midoriya was practically a trigger for him. She didn't like that. She still didn't get the relationship between the two boys but right now she didn't have to. Bakugo was their enemy and that was just fine by her. If Mineta came out to play, then she was confident in her ability to deal with him too.

As they rounded the block, they saw the sign for the bank ahead, they slowed their pace, and each looked about expecting to get jumped at any moment. They edged closer and peered in through the window. It looked to be the large branch kind, all they saw through the window were stairs that led up to the second floor and the beginnings of the hallway the stairs led up to. There was no noise, nor any sign of their enemies.

The duo turned to each other, both somewhat surprised

"Looks like it's scenario two then?" Mina posed quietly

"That'd be my guess. We should focus on dealing with Mineta if we get the chance. Either one of us should be able to quickly subdue him if he leaves himself open to us. If both of us have the chance I think you would be best suited for it" he explained. Mina grimaced.

"Yeah, I guess, still let's just take it as it comes, yeah?" she posed, the thought of taking on the grape hero was not exactly a good one. She was confident she could take him down. She was not confident she could do so whilst fully protecting her dignity as that often seemed to be his goal when doing anything physical with the female heroes.

"Right, let's move in" Midoriya whispered as he rounded the corner and entered the bank as silently as he could. Mina followed him inside and up the stairs, slowly as they came to the large set of double doors at the top of the stairs. Instinctively, each took one side and peered around, into the room.

It was a large circular room with a marble floor. On either side in a semi circle there were a collection of bank teller desks with protective windows and a large set of closed double doors on the far side of the room. High above was a mostly glass ceiling, making the room brilliantly lit by the sunlight. The room was decorated with plant pots, chairs and a moderate fountain in the middle. The floor was also covered in purple orbs. Mineta's quirk. They were scattered across the floor, not so closely that you couldn't cross the room, but if it game to a fight in there, it was quickly going to become a bad situation for Midoriya.

"If things kick off in there, can you neutralise those?" Midoriya asked in hushed tone. Mina looked back at him doubtfully.

"Not without making it even worse for you than it already is. It would take about a minute for my acids to stop being so reactive. Plus, a room of this size would use up a lot of my quirk. I can usually reabsorb my acid, so my volume limit isn't usually such a big problem but I'm guessing fighting Bakugo is going to be pretty intense as it is. I don't want to start by using like half my capacity right out the gate." She replied, keeping her own voice low.

Midoriya thought carefully. There was nothing for it, they would have to proceed and just take it as it came, like Mina had said before.

"I understand, then let's play it conservatively and deal with things as they came at us." He nodded. She returned the nod and they quickly and quietly darted into the room. It reminded Mina of crossing the minefield back at the sports festival. Given the dark spots in the marble it wasn't so easy to just run over, she really had to watch were she was stepping. All the while waiting for Bakugo's ambush. It was unsettling and so uncharacteristic of him not to be all over them already. What was he thinking?

There was no sign of Mineta or the hostage either, they hadn't escaped before they had even arrived at the bank, had they? Surely that couldn't be allowed.

They reached the double doors on the other side of the room. They were large dark wooden thing that seemed like the type that were made to stay closed. Midoriya held up his hand to signal 'stay back' as he moved to open them.

Mina pressed herself against the wall to the right side.

Midoriya pulled and they started to move, then resisted. As Midoriya pulled it seemed obvious it wasn't that they were locked, they would be no give if that had been the case. It was probably Mineta's quirk on the other side of the door, sticking the doors together.

Midoriya activated his quirk in the full cowling style, 8%. He took in a deep breath then gave an almighty yank.

In a thunderous crash, the doors were blasted clear off their hinges, the blew apart as splinters and the chunks that remained slammed into Midoriya and sent him hurtling across the room.

"DIE!" Came an all too familiar battle cry. From the smoke of the doorway Bakugo appeared, a manic grin plastered on his face, his arms flexed and his hands cupped, making small popping bursts.

Mina watched in shocked silence as Midoriya, luckily, splashed into the fountain water with a crash. Bakugo hadn't spotted her yet, so focused on Midoriya.

In a violent lunge of water, Midoriya emerged from it. His clothing partially torn though he didn't seem too worse for wear in himself yet. He brushed his chin as he looked hard at Bakugo.

"Deku… where's your little pink b-" he began when Mina decided to launch her own attack. He hadn't been about to let her go, so she might as well capitalise on her element of surprise. She fired a spray of acidic from each hand. Bakugo's head snapped around at the sound and he was able to fire a blast her way with his freakishly fast reflexes. Mina was sent back the one foot between her and the wall, hitting it hard enough for pain to course through her.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya screamed, leaping from the fountain and toward his rival.

Bakugo grinned and blasted off from the air, blasting Midoriya out of the air as they had been about to trade blows. Midoriya was sent flying toward one of the bank teller desks, crashing into it with some force.

Mina, moved toward the doorway then threw more acidic toward her enemy. Bakugo was already moving and just his propelling blasts were enough to scatter her attack harmlessly away. She felt a pang of anger. Was he ignoring her?!

She turned to look behind her, there was a room on either side, the left and right, and then the corridor spilt off to go three other ways; left, right and straight on. No sign of Mineta or any hostage. She turned back to face Bakugo, who was flying up to avoid a plant pot Midoriya had hurled at him with his great strength. What should she do?

She knew she could take Mineta, but this situation was bad for Midoriya wasn't it? That and she didn't want to leave him.

"Go!" he called out to her, waving her away. "Find Mineta and the hostage!"

"Like I'd let you!" Bakugo screamed, changing course in mid-air, hurtling down toward her now. "You did that same trick with round-face!"

Mina let loose a stream of acid toward the incoming boy. He avoided it again by blasting toward her then down, halting his momentum and then flying upwards again. She raised her acid veil in time to have it absorb some of the shock wave. It sprayed on her as parts of it were shook loose from her control but did a decent enough job, at least at this range, of protecting her from most of the force.

If she ran now it would just result in their having to fight two on two whilst protecting the hostage. They had to take Bakugo out anyway, right? There was also this nagging coming from within her that told her not to leave Midoriya alone with him.

"Let's fight him together!" she called out, acid oozing out of her forearms, ready to be deployed as she needed.

Midoriya looked over at Mina who was focused on Bakugo. Neither one was a bad decision, but it felt like while they fought in here, it was his battleground. He had intended to lead him out of it. There were still ways to do that and with Mina at his side they could put him on the defensive, even Kacchan would have to be very cautious due to her acid.

Bakugo boomed back down, nose diving toward him. There was no time to think about it now. He leapt up toward Bakugo, into a shoot style kick as Bakugo countered with a blast of his own. Both attacks connected, hard. Midoriya was blown back down into the desk, crashing through it, the wood splintering around him as his back bowled through it.

Bakugo was sent flying across the room, crashing firmly into the upper-half of the wall on the far side of the room. He grunted and was already blasting his way back toward them when Mina shot across the room, headed for Midoriya, gliding on a potent acid mix so as it neutralise Mineta's quirk as she moved. Bakugo already seemed to be done with his warmup, there wasn't time to be picky about using her quirk now.

She jumped up to the desk, then again off the desk to then jump clear over the plastic window, landing just a few feet from Midoriya, who was already getting back to his feet. Upon hearing a course-correcting explosion she looked up to see Bakugo coming again. Any acid she threw wasn't effective again him, he could just scatter it. Midoriya himself wasn't effective either as Bakugo had the range advantage if only slightly. Then it hit her, ABC. As she turned to him, Midoriya seemed to just be looking back to Bakugo having been looking at her.

The words became stuck in her mouth.

Midoriya leapt off the group to clash once more with Bakugo in the air. This time Bakugo reacted in time to blast Midoriya moments before Midoriya could attack with both hands. This haltied his own trajectory momentarily before he then shot down again toward her.

She didn't have time to see if Midoriya was alright, she summoned another veil, but in doing so lost sight of Bakugo. An explosion came sending her veil into spray. A shadow flew over her. Bakugo was above her. Now behind her. She hadn't even finished turning to face him when another came, this time she was unguarded. The force sent her flying into what was left of the teller's counter Midoriya had already mostly destroyed. Her torso and head connected with, then broke through, the plastic window, her legs through the splintered wood. The next thing she knew she was stuck firmly on the ground, pain ringing throughout her body. Her head pulsed, her back ached and her legs stung. The guy was a monster.

"Is this seriously all you got?" Bakugo's voice called out. He didn't even sound angry. It was more like he was confused by something that was starting to irritate him.

"IS THIS ALL YOU GOT, DEKU?!" he roared out.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Midoriya's voice came, he sounded confident and there was no pain in his voice. Mina couldn't see him from where she was, her head was firmly stuck to one of the orbs, along with her back, right foot and left wrist.

"Now that your extra is outta the way, BRING IT, DEKU!" He challenged, his voice loud and filled with amusement.

Mina gritted her teeth. The pain was shocking to her after just a single impact. She'd never been hit this hard ever. She groaned to herself and reminded herself to breath deeply. Letting it flow through her and out of her. Control it, it's all in your head, right?

She heard Midoriya darting across the floor and Bakugo taking back to the air their battle continuing without her.

She released her acid from herself toward the orbs that restrained her. She didn't exactly have the luxury of time to really mentally block on the throbbing coursing throughout her body. She had lots to get done so she would just have to deal with it.

She pried herself free off the quickly dissolving orbs and looked across at the vacant doors. It felt like Midoriya didn't need her here. Or more accurately, it felt like he didn't want her here. She'd have to make a break for it now while Bakugo still thought she was out of commission. Silently as she could, she got up and bounced towards the door, careful to avoid more orbs.

"Not so fast!" she heard the explosive boy yell.

As she turned, she saw Bakugo diving her again. Fine. She raised her arms and released an acid veil, this time preparing one for the other side too. Just as she did so, she noticed Midoriya flying in from the left side, intercepting Bakugo's blast. She quickly dropped her acid veil as he flew into her, knocking the both of them into the wall next to the door. They fell to the floor after hitting the wall.

"Seriously, WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM DEKU?!" Bakugo roared from where he stood. "YOU TAKIN' ME TOO LIGHTLY TO PROTECT YOUR GIRL LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW?! YOU THINK CAN TOUGH OUT MY ATTACKS SO EASILY!?" he screamed in rage.

Mina picked herself up and felt her own anger flowing through her.

"I don't need you to do things like that, I can protect myself. Rather than protecting me you should be dealing with him!" she hissed at Midoriya. Trying, and failing, to keep her annoyance out of her voice.

"Sorry, it was just a reflex" Midoriya muttered, as he picked himself up as well. Mina looked at Bakugo who seemed to be in a state of enraging further.

"You deal with him then; I'll do the rest." She snapped. She had run over to him earlier to work together but now it occurred to her that as much a trigger Midoriya was for Bakugo, the same seemed true the other way around. Not as much, but looking at it now, it felt undeniable.

"Yeah" he nodded, his eyes locking onto Bakugo again.

"I told you…" Bakugo seethed "THAT AIN'T HAPPENIN'" he stormed, exploding toward them as he said it. Midoriya disappeared in a flash, Bakugo didn't even have time to fire an explosion as Midoriya booted him flying into the fountain with a crash.

Mina turned and ran through the doorless-doorway, passing the doors on the left and right. That seemed too obvious. As she came to the crossroads, she looked both way, each had doors on the left and right and a double door set at the end. She would just have to try each door at a time.

At the same time Midoriya leapt toward Bakugo in a powerful bound, clearing the distance almost instantly. He threw a fist as Bakugo blasted him upwards again. Bakugo wasn't phased by the strike he took now adrenaline coursed through him. He shot up in a single powerful blast, throwing another into Midoriya, knocking him clear through the glass. He propelled himself up higher, following the green haired boy. Another powerful blast toward Midoriya sending him flying even higher through the air, spinning and helpless to the continued assault. He immediately followed up blasting himself toward Midoriya, then up and over him.

Midoriya increased his guard. It hurt but at this range, attacking in this way, he could endure Bakugo's explosions. Bakugo would have to get closer to really do damage to him like this. He dared to grin. Once he got closer there would be counterattack opportunities.

Bakugo noticed and grinned back, his eyes burning into Midoriya's. He shot down, feet first, towards Midoriya, he brought his feet up as he bent his knees up to his chest. Midoriya's eye went wide. In the next moment Bakugo did two things simultaneously. He arms held out above him he let loose a monstrous explosion, rocketing him downward and he also snapped his legs straight, both feet smashing right into Midoriya's forearms he had raised to guard.

"DIE!" He roared in triumph, laughing madly.

Midoriya was sent rocketing downwards, smashing through a window. He braced for impact.

Bounce.

He hit what felt like the world's largest waterbed. Whatever it was sloshed around and he felt himself pressing hard against it. He bounced and rocked but never left the surface. He opened his eyes. It looked to be some kind of board meeting room. He looked up and saw a circular window he had came through and Bakugo dropping in using controlled blasts to land. He turned his neck as much as he could, something was keeping him down. It was a giant blob of purple.

He tried to move, nothing. He increased his full cowling to 10% but still nothing.

"No no no, Midoriya. If you keep struggling, I'll create a nice blanket for you" Mineta spoke up from somewhere outside of his vision.

"Mineta-kun?!" Midoriya asked in alarm. Had he fallen into a trap?

"You think you're the only one who can come up with a scheme, Deku?" Bakugo growled. "Bet you thought I'd just try and brawl you out" he smirked. Midoriya felt his heart sink. That was exactly what he had thought because he was too concerned with what had been going on with him and Mina to think any more deeply about it. He had underestimated the person he saw as the very image of victory. What had he been thinking?

A door burst open.

"Izuku? But You- I was?" Mina stammered. She had just reached the room at the end of the first corridor. She had heard commotion up ahead but now he was here?

She surveyed the room and realised in horror that they had just fallen into a trap. Midoriya was laying in a large purple mass of orbs. Bakugo stood to one side looking at her with what looked to her to be mild annoyance and Mineta stood with Cementoss-sensei bound with orbs in the far corner of the room.

Everyone fell silent.

Mina panicked in her mind. To free Midoriya would take precision work, no way was she going to get that done with Bakugo around. Even Mineta would make this hard. Looking closely at Mineta, he was bleeding from his head so he was at least near his limit, which made sense, but even so.

"Give it up" Bakugo snorted, stepping toward her. She took an instinctive step back.

"Eh?" she stammered

"I saw you before. You were just looking to this chump every step of the way." He continued "And if you're that weak he thought he needed to protect you, I don't wanna waste my time. Don't even bother"

"That's not true!" Midoriya shouted "I just acted on instinct!" Bakugo paused and turned

"Right, and what kind of instinct results in that action? 'Protect the weak'" he sneered. He turned back to Mina "So what's it going to be, cotton-candy?"

Mina squeezed her fists. This kind of intimidation was pretty effective against people who had their doubts and she definitely had her own share of doubts, none of which were about her own ability. Sure, she suspected from their point of view she probably was just an extra given whatever relationship they had. Bakugo looked down and her and Midoriya seemed to have some score to settle. So, she decided against her own better judgment and to leave Midoriya to it. That what she had really thought. It had nothing to do with being reliant on Midoriya or not feeling she could kick Bakugo's ass, if push came to shove and right now, Bakugo sure was pushing.

"You weren't wrong before. I was kinda holding back. Hard not to in that room when I have a teammate so fast it's hard to know I'm not going to get him by accident." She stated anger quivering through her body that Bakugo would dare to presume that she could be intimidated into submitting.

"But now that it's just us" she fumed, smashing a fist into her palm, her smile one that did nothing to hide the fury within "I'm going all out!"

"Hah! Let's go then!" He growled.

Midroyia could only look on Bakugo blasted toward her.

Mina leapt back and soaked the top of the door with acid, turning and sliding down the hallway. Bakugo came skidding to a halt before the dripping acid and fired a shot at the top of the door, sending the decaying frame flying. As he stormed through, he still felt a few drops land on his skin, burning red spots into his arms. Getting angry again he put his arms behind himself and fired off from the ground after her. He watched her sliding to the left and out of sight. He set off more powerful explosion. In pursuit. As he rounded the corner, Mina came flying back around. A pink fist connected into his jaw, made worst by how own enhanced momentum. He shot back and landed on his ass, sliding through the slick

"You think I'm afraid of you?!" she roared she continued her slide toward him. Bakugo made to fire off the ground but nothing happened. Her boot found his stomach as he was send sliding again. He groaned in pain as he looked at his hand. It was covered in her slick. His sweat would just be mixing into it. He tried to stand, but slipped as her boot found his rear and sent him flying again. He needed to wipe his hands clean enough of this stuff.

He screamed out in frustration as he hit the corner of the corridor. He was out of the slime now, and quickly jumped up. As he turned, she was right there. She burst into a barrage of punches, the first being a particularly nasty hook, right into his jaw again, the others a furious flurry into the body. He swung back but with his grenade arms it was slow. She bobbed out of the way and pressed her attack, pounding into him over and over again. Her attacks were fast, precise and hard. She wasn't just athletic; she was trained in something. To Bakugo it felt like what it must have been liked to be cornered in a boxing ring. The hits to the jaw had left his disorientated and although he was tough enough to endure her normally, he felt, this brutal onslaught after that first hit wasn't something he was going to endure. He had to pull his wits in and think. But he couldn't. The dull thud of pain that rocked him wasn't abating any time soon and it took all his focus to keep his arms up defensively. She was beating the sense out of his faster than he could put it back together. Luckily his bulky gauntlets did a decent job of that, but she was still getting around it. At this rate she was going to beat him unconscious.

Mina let loose her fury in the form of frenzied rights and lefts. Everything she had pent up she poured it into her attack. Whenever she saw his arms sag she shot a hook around his arms into his head, when they raised up she dug into his body. She found herself thinking of all the times she had seen the pair interact and how terrible he had been to Midoriya. She found herself seeing Uraraka's crying face. She felt the burning of her heart when she had been sat in her room for hours. It was like a flood gate had open within her and Bakugo had been standing downstream when it had. Her knuckles hurts but she continued to throw the as fast and as hard as she could, constantly into the biggest opening she could find.

She then felt Mineta tackle into her. She lost her balance and the pair of them went flying. Mineta stuck onto her popping off his quirk over and over her. They crashed into the ground. Mineta continued desperately trying to trap her with his quirk. Mina grabbed him and tried to pry him off, having to release acid all over her body to free herself enough to even struggle back.

An explosion.

Oh no.

Mineta let go of her.

A heavy boot connected with her stomach and sent her skidding down the hallway. She bunched up in pain as she faintly heard more explosions. In the next moment Bakugo was on top of her. One hand on her face, the other pinning her arm. He looked pretty beaten up, she was shocked to see his nose and lip bleeding as well as a cut cheek.

Did she do that?

Aizawa's voice came from above, cutting through the commotion.

"Everyone, that's enough. Villains Win"