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Aizawa Shouta would not be the first person that comes to mind when people think of the title of "proud dad".
If civilians asked the Yuuei staff, the vision of a dark-haired, grumpy, zombie of an underground Pro-Hero should be at least a hundred miles away from their minds— and, Pro-Hero Present Mic, sunshine blob reincarnate, Yamada Hizashi, ought to be wailing through his stitch-themed 'OHANA-MEANS-FAMILY' class pictures due to his natural volume— but Shouta could confidently say that he is proud of his class this year.
Although their year had been unlike the current Yuuei's third years' lives so far(filled with villain attacks, blood, kidnappings, and the like), class 1-A still had their arguments, mishaps, and horrible backstories that they bonded over. And Shouta is proud, so proud of how far they've come.
Kaminari and Ashido are currently complaining about how Bakugou rejected another admirer's good luck chocolate offering before coming to the exam because— Dude, whaaat? Chocolates are the gifts from the gods— the opening of the gates— the Aphrodite to your... weakass Dionysus! You have to get... it~ sometimes too ya' know—
"Blasty's gonna die alone with his Greek Mythology thingy at this rate!"
"Hey, dying alone is manly too! No shame, bro!"
"How high are his standards anyway??? Does he even have standards?? Bakubro can a person even handle you—?"
BOOM
"Holy Hades, Dunce Face! One more word and I'm gonna throw you off the motherfucking bus, do you hear me!?"
Yeah, Shouta loves this class.
Their bus arrives at the Takoba National Stadium and most of Shouta's class looks nervous or apprehensive. They notice that the place is big, each of them notes as they twist their heads from side to side, but once they realize how massive it really is, it only made them even more nervous. Pre-performance jitters are valid, yes, but being this stiff would make them greatly irrational instead... He frowns, Well that's not good...
Did he not tell them that they have another chance if they fail?
Mentally shrugging, he nods at Iida to get them out of the vehicle and they all stretch lightly. The kids marvel at the size of the place a little bit before he decides to get their spirits up, Wouldn't hurt to try, right?
"Alright, all of you are still first years and you know that usually, only the second and third years take this exam. But Nedzu decided to extend the offer to Yuuei's first years due to the number of attacks recently! Use this experience— whether you pass or fail— to know what you need to improve on and what to expect next time. So just do your best, okay?"
His students perk up at this, and he's honestly quite offended. Just because he doesn't do positivity much doesn't mean he can't.
Yes, he's stoic— more like unemotional, emotions are illogical— but Pro-Hero Eraserhead giving pep talks?
Even Shouta doesn't know why he did whatever that was.
He does.
But he can see that they're taking what they can get and trying to pump themselves up too because their looks of nervousness turn into excitement and their apprehension into determination, Good.
It's Uraraka who gets herself back together first and she shouts, "Go beyond!"
And everybody joins in and decare their school motto together, "PLUS ULTRA!!!"
But from their cheer, he hears two unfamiliar voices. He looks around and spots a— giant. There's no other way to describe the boy but as a giant. He knows that this student is a first-year that rejected his Yuuei Recommendation for reasons unknown.
Again, illogical—
Recalling the files, he scrapes his slug-speed memory for giant's name— Yoarashi Inasa.
He was first in the recommendation exam— surpassing Todoroki— and had a strong wind elemental-type quirk, best be wary.
"ULTRAAA!!!!! I LOVE YUUEI!!!"
Giant— Yoarashi— says this while giving one of the most enthusiastic fist-pumps he's ever seen in his lifetime—
Their white collared shirts, dark pants, and dark jackets with blue-orange hats that have their school logo— he's from Shiketsu.
Shouta can already feel the giant headache ringing its impending doom from the back of his mind. Shiketsu is Yuuei's rival from the West, Is he declaring some sort of war?
There's another voice— Shouta almost missed it— but it's kind of hard to miss when she's still going on while running towards Bakugou— Oh no.
"ᴜʟᴛʀᴀᴀᴀAAAAAAA!!!"
She crashes into Bakugou and he stumbles a bit before steadying them both by catching her waist.
The girl is small, the top of her head looks like it reaches until Bakugou's nose, she has big green eyes and thick eyelashes, a button nose, freckles, a big innocent smile that's being addressed to Bakugou— with green wavy hair tied into a ponytail underneath a white floppy-looking hat and two green chin-length bangs framing both sides of her face.
She's wearing a white, double-breasted blazer with a high collar and a gold trim that reaches halfway down her thighs, its sleeves elbow-length and cut off by wide pale blue cuffs, a large green bow at her neck, a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with matching dress pants, white gloves with green X's across her gloves' wrist straps, and white boots. The uniform is from Seiai Academy, except for the bow's color, But why is she here?
Shouta can only assume that his students wonder the same thing as the girl keeps rambling at high speeds to Bakugou, his student replying from time to time and adding his thoughts, But how is he able to understand? She's talking so fast-
He sees Todoroki side-eyeing Yoarashi—
Oh no, pining.
He only hopes to be as far away as possible when that tension breaks. Something seems to be holding them back, What is it?
Is it the schools? The gender? The height? Shouta doesn't know, and he's not sure if he wants to know.
Weirdly enough, Yoarashi is looking at the girl with longing— no— that's awe.
Why?
The rest of the Shiketsu students catch up with their giant when Yoarashi flaps his hands frantically and whispers— very loudly, "She's here!!!"
All of them look around until they see the girl Bakugou is currently having a civil conversation with while— his face is neutral oh my god is this hell— and all of them look at her with that same awestruck expression, Who is this girl?
Again, the world doesn't seem too keen on him catching a break because he hears the tell-tale laughs of Fukukado Emi, Underground Pro-Hero Ms. Joke, and oh no she's coming here and she has more kids—
"Hey there Eraser I see you haven't expelled any of your students yet! Why don't we get a drink after this— marry me? YES—! Is that her? Oh, it is her! SHE'S HERE!!! KETSUBUTSU HURRY!" Emi exclaims while keeping an eye on the girl, What is with this girl?
A curly-haired boy rushes over from their group, black hair bouncing with each step, and when he's near enough he scans the growing group of kids, and... there it is, that awestruck expression.
Almost all of them are cussing or pinching themselves like they honestly cannot believe that this small girl is here, but all of Yuuei have no idea what's going on. It's like an inside joke that only Yuuei doesn't know and it's making Shouta frustrated. Not knowing this something is making him very frustrated.
After a while, the Shiketsu students make themselves as orderly as possible and they bow to introduce their school and their first-year representative which, unsurprisingly, is Yoarashi.
The same goes on with Ketsubutsu, but Shouta notices how both schools bowed to the direction of the girl and Bakugou more than the teacher— which is him, hello— and from the looks on his Yuuei students' faces, they noticed too.
The girl waves at them enthusiastically before going back to chatting Bakugou's ear off while Bakugou just scowls at them and turns his back to them as he focuses on the girl. The other schools are seemingly not deterred by the bitterness of the blonde, taking the girl's wave in stride instead.
The Ketsubutsu representative— Shindou Yo, his mind supplies— asks the pair how they know each other, a question Shouta's sure everybody would like the answer to.
The girl replies with a beaming smile and an enthusiastic, "Kacchan and I are childhood friends!" at the same time Bakugou says, "I've known this shitty nerd from fuckin' diapers."
Both of them turn back to their seemingly endless conversation, completely ignoring everybody else gawking at this sudden revelation, How are they not more like each other? And... Kacchan?
While everybody was still processing these facts, Hagakure asks the question all Yuuei students— and teacher— that's been on their minds, "I'm sorry, Bakugou who's the girl you're talkin' to?"
The girl— who still doesn't have a name in Shouta's head— immediately gets flustered and starts apologizing for being rude and not introducing herself earlier while the rest of the students are gawking at Yuuei.
But as the girl bows deeply to introduce herself, she gets dragged away by a Seiai student with pale lavender eyes and hair— Intelli Saiko. Shouta knows who Intelli is due to her quirk, IQ, and her meetings with Nedzu, she's a second-year now and she hasn't been in meetings with the principal since the start of this school year... Perhaps the green girl is Nedzu's new student? He censors any sightings of his new student to hide their identity so maybe-
No. Theorize later. Exam first.
As the girls get further and further away, Bakugou squints at the group— leaning forward, searching, looking— trying to find something. There's nothing Shouta can see there but a black metal briefcase—
The blonde whispers, but with feeling, "Oh, fuck the gods."
Bakugo turns slowly, very slowly, with wide eyes and an uncharacteristically pale face, he says, "We're fucked."
Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu, with raised eyebrows, say lines like, "What did you expect?", "Duh, she's here.", and nervous— borderline manic— cackles.
And Shouta has no clue who she is.
Yuuei bid their goodbyes to Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu before heading into the venue, quickly changing into their hero gear and meeting back up inside a cramped room with a sleep-deprived host of the Hero Public Safety Commission, Yokumiru Mera.
Mera explains how people have three targets on their body that light up green when they hit one of another person's targets and lights up red when their target is hit by another, and how only a small portion of the examinees pass the first round.
Yuuei students watch as the green girl separates from the rest of Seiai Academy, swinging the metal briefcase by her side as she approaches the area with tall buildings, commercial-type industrialization skyscrapers, and more.
As class 1-A start to follow her, Bakugou stops them with uncommon phrases like, "It's not worth it, trust me." or "Don't follow her, you'll die."
Normally, nobody would listen but his face is paler, all his expletives vanished, and his tone somber— very unlike his normal speech— which made them too scared not to obey.
On the stands, Shouta notices how the schools that were(are) awestruck with the girl gave her a wide berth or seemed to be avoiding her at all costs too, Huh.
While Aizawa is busy contemplating why they seem to flock and steer clear of her at the same time, Emi asks him a question, "Do all of you not know yet, you're positive?"
Aizawa raises an eyebrow at her and replies with a simple, "No, why?"
Emi laughs.
Yuuei seemed to have decided that it would be a good idea to separate to 'divide and conquer' and not steal each other's points, which would have been a good idea... If they remembered that all of their quirks were televised during the sports festival.
After being content with where they ended up, Mera's voice spoke dryly through the speakers, "Start. Or whatever, I don't care, I only care about wanting to sleep."
Immediately, groups from different schools were being ambushed, but none were as targeted as Yuuei.
Fifteen minutes of constant battle, yet nobody passed still, "I'm so tired. Any minute now~ And none. Not yet? How is there nobody finished ye- Oh and we have our first pass, oh gods- she took out 200 applicants... Uhm, ninety-nine slots left. Good luck."
Most Yuuei students gulped, already having a vague idea of who Mera meant by 'She', and how she took down 200 students by herself, What's her quirk?
In the factory-like part of the stadium, Utsushimi Camie uses her illusions to make Sero and Ashido fight, while taking all of Tokoyami's targets herself. She looks at how she turned a hundred students against each other and took out more than fifty, licking her lips as she did so.
"Ninety-eight."
As Camie walks in the direction of the waiting room, she didn't notice a teen using his ice to blind himself while fighting his opponents only by ear.
On mountain-range terrain, Shindou Yo and four other Ketsubutsu students succeed in splitting up Aoyama, Ojiro, and Koda, before ambushing them one by one. They forgot to look up as Uraraka could be seen trying her best not to waste her lunch while holding onto the tip of the mountains.
"Ninety-three."
Nagamasa Mora could be seen sitting down and meditating by the lake, seemingly trying to find students to trap with wet hair. Since wet hair is harder to remove than it is dry and silky, it isn't long before Asui, Sato, Hagakure, and Mineta find themselves trapped with all their targets red.
"Ninety-two."
Sitting down with an unusually frustrated underground hero, Emi finds herself wondering why Shouta is so hellbent on his kids getting their licenses... They're only first-years after all, why is he getting so mad? Maybe he's gotten attached, huh.
Within the urban areas of everyday food shops and usual downtown scenery, many... globs of flesh can be seen scattered around the area with Seiji Shihikura in the middle, tapping all of Jirou's targets with his ball. Shinsou, Yaoyorozu, and Shoji could only listen with their green targets from inside one of the fake buildings as their classmate gets taken out.
"Ninety-one."
And on a building overlooking an open highway, Yoarashi Inasa takes out 100 applicants with his wind, effectively eliminating Yuuei's Iida, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Bakugou.
"Ninety."
"..seventy...fifty...spots left."
"...Zero. The first test is done, passers wait while we set up for the next test."
Yuuei finished the first round with only five students passing, Uraraka from the mountains, Shoji, Shinsou, and Yaoyorozu from the urban areas, and Todoroki from the factory.
In the waiting room, the girl is seen giving everyone a thin screen that attaches to the passers' forearm before the rescue simulation starts.
Cameras are rolling, and examinees are shown on the many screens in the stadium. While most screens are split between two or more examinees, one screen is dedicated to the green girl from Seiai, questions run through the minds of the Yuuei students, Why?
Due to the number of students who take the exam, examinees usually leave immediately after failing, but it seems like only a handful left. It almost feels like the sports festival, people are seen cheering for their classmates, others for their upperclassmen, while most of them are focused on the green-haired girl.
Students from Ketsubutsu, Shiketsu, and Seiai who failed the first test are all sitting in the same section, although further apart.
As they wait for the second test to start, Yuuei hears the conversations of the other schools between each other, ranging from discussing fries and burgers to training regimens, to video games, and, let's spar together sometime!
"Hey, do you think she's gonna do it? Are the betting pools still open? Not to be a Debby-downer, but I just don't think 100 is possible dudes." Shouta hears this from a Ketsubutsu student from three rows away.
"I bet on 87 bros, it's probably the highest I think she could reach."
"What? No way, have you ever been around her? She's getting a 96. Definitely."
Shouta pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply— Bakugou spoke up from where he was slouched in his seat, "Oi! Fuckin' dipshits! You bettin' on her?"
All the students from around them started shouting affirmatives, causing Shouta to look at the screen of the green-haired girl. She's talking with Yoarashi and Shindou, wearing a big smile that made her eyes crinkle around the edges. Her kindness seems so genuine...
"OI, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS I'M BETTING ¥5500 ON HER GETTING 100!!!"
Silence.
My student is stupid. That's the only logical explanation. He's stupid.
"Are you sure? You're the only one betting on 100, right guys?" Oh? The girl who spoke is a Seiai student, one of Intelli's pawns, and they're not betting on 100? Hmm.
He watches as Bakugou pulls out ¥5500 from his wallet and places it on the empty chair labeled '100', with piles growing larger as the number went down, though it seems nobody believes her getting lower than 80.
When Bakugou slouches back down on his previous seat, Shouta hears him grumbling about, "...fuckin' extras don't know what she's capable of."
Shouta doesn't.
As Mera finishes explaining the mechanics of the second round, many notice him waiting for the green-haired girl to finish warming up, though nobody paid it any mind.
When the walls fell, almost everybody was looking at the green girl's screen as she runs as fast as she could to the nearest building and jumps back and forth between walls to reach the rooftop, using windowsills or mere cracks on the walls. She does this many times over, sometimes flipping or twisting mid-air until she reaches the rooftop of the highest building.
The people watch in awe, how she opens the black case, the underside of its top sporting a green X shape with orange-black-orange trim. She takes out different parts and quickly assembles a black modified sniper rifle with green accents, before taking out... earphones?
Mera was quick to explain how they pick up certain sounds while blocking the sound of her gun's shots, he also explained how they checked her gear and made sure it was safe for her and others before quickly adding, "Oh, and she built everything herself."
At this point, people whose quirk works well in specific terrains also begin to head off, finding places to set up temporary medical bases.
Awed exclamations ring throughout the stadium as the girl fires shot after shot, attaching trackers on buildings that had the Help Us Company people inside.
Some examinees, mostly Seiai Academy students, were already briefed by the girl on where and how they should camp on the different terrains as well as how to make sure the surroundings are stable.
The examinees who passed the first round all look at the screens on their forearms as it seems to show where they are most suited, how many people they need to rescue, their injuries, how they should be treated, and the easiest and safest route to take to get to the nearest medical bay.
People watching from the stands look in interest as she shoots three consecutive bullets seemingly straight up into the air— the trackers get swept away by the air currents and stick to the building where they were intended to go.
As soon as she finishes marking every HUC member's location with trackers, she tosses the metal briefcase up in the air and catches it after it turns into a thumb-sized box, quickly stashing it underneath her hat.
The cameras catch her grumbling about most girl uniforms not having big enough pockets, making most of the female audience cry out in tandem, all shouting about the pocket rights.
She straps her rifle to her back and jumps to the ground from the rooftop of the highest building. The crowd somehow screams and holds their breath simultaneously as she falls faster and faster.
Everybody lets out a sigh of relief as she rolls gracefully and expertly on the ground, white uniform miraculously without any dirt, some cheering loudly.
Most people's gaze flickers through screens now that the girl is focusing on rescue work, smiling, and talking to them while discreetly asking questions about how their lives are normally.
When a HUC member asks as to why she's so attentive about people's home lives, she just smiles sadly and answers, "I know what it's like to be unheard."
The HUC member has a mic so what she said could be heard throughout the stadium, but before people could react—
One of the stadium walls caves in.
Mera's bored voice echoes throughout the stadium, "Oh no, there has been a villain attack. Oh no, villains uwaaah~"
The girl is quick to mutter assurances to her charge without the actor needing to act scared while sending a signal to the screens of examinees with offensive quirks, telling them to get their most recent rescue to the bays as soon as they can because their presence is needed for the villain attack. The others' screens also inform them that some of their teammates may leave to fight.
"You wanna know something?" The girl asks her charge, aware of the mic but also aware that the people she'll be talking about are paying the screens no mind, "I'm going to try and predict what's gonna happen, 'kay? Your shirt says 'in late adolescence' so this should be okay... I think. The baby rescues shouldn't be able to hear this. Right? Riiiiight?"
They hear a group of people giving an affirmative noise from across the stadium, several people snort, even the HUC member she is carrying.
"Even if the villain hears this, they probably still can't avoid it from happening so— Seiji Shishikura and Nagamasa Mora will work on crowd control, and Utsushimi Camie will hide the new med bay... Shindou Yo is probably the only one in the nearest bay with an offensive quirk. Oops okay, that's faulty planning on my part. Anyways!"
The HUC member is giggle snorting now, the stands have people sniggering, and Mera is chuckling along.
"Icyhot n Yoarashi are gonna get there fast, maybe even at the same time, Icyhot with his ice would be slower than Yoshi's wind but Icyhot was closer to the villains anyway. They're gonna attack at the same time to show off for each other— honestly, it's like peacocks presenting their feathers— and they'll probably negate each other's attacks. So they cover up with hate while getting immobilized at the same time."
As the green-haired girl says this, it begins to play the same way across the arena.
"Is it happening?"
People are chortling with laughter, some are cackling, and some are wheezing.
She whispers something into the ear of her charge, their faces lighting up with matching mischievous grins before the HUC member pretended to speak into the girl's comms, "GET A ROOM, IDIOTS!"
The entire stadium erupts with laughter as both Todoroki and Yoarashi hide their blushing faces by glaring, even Gang Orca is trying to cover up his shaking shoulders with coughs. Many are wolf-whistling while others are cooing and making high-pitched squealing noises. The girl discreetly got everybody from the nearest medical bay to the new one Camie was hiding with all of this happening.
Soon they arrive at the battlefield and she carries both the HUC member and Shindou to the newer med bay. By the time they were settled in, the girl only smiles softly as she begins slowly backing away from the HUC member and asked one more question, "Cheer for me 'kay?"
Then she runs to the closest building, up to its roof, across many rooftops, and onto one section of the stands behind Gang Orca's minions, not noticing that it is the stand where Yuuei, Seiai, Shiketsu, and Ketsubutsu students are sitting.
She grabs her rifle from where it was strapped on her back, she then turns to one of the people in suits grading the examinees and smiles brightly, "Hi! can I shoot from here?"
The man only nods and climbs up the stairs to sit with two underground heroes. The girl proceeds to change her bullets and with one last click, begins shooting.
Gang Orca's minions begin going down one by one, some even shooting their allies as the girl barely moved from her spot, only leaning when the cement bullets get too close.
"Bunny."
The voice shocks everyone else out of their awestruck stupors as she takes out a quarter of their squad in two minutes. Bakugou keeps his face neutral as he calls out to the girl, people noting the nickname as a sentiment to their childhood friendship.
"Yeah?" The girl replies with a relaxed tone, not even sounding out of breath from all the running she had done.
"Bunny." The blonde repeats, voice firmer, "Your skirt's riding up."
"Mhm. Fix it please."
Bakugou huffs before sticking his right thumb through a small circle made by his left index and thumb. He barely gives it any thought to aim before firing a small blast, just enough detonation to provide the wind power needed to bring the upturned skirt down.
"Thank you Kacchan!" She chirps just as she manages to shoot down the last minion.
She starts running towards the stand's railing as she seems to make her rifle into two pistols, she reloads them with new magazines as she jumps from the railing toward Gang Orca himself. Gang Orca tries to hit her with a sonar blast from far away but she just tucks into herself to be unaffected as possible.
After the blasts fade, she starts running at the 'villain' again, mostly using her legs to kick and duck, trying to make him forget about her pistols, always aiming at pressure points. After a while, she applies pressure just right that makes Gang Orca fall to his knees, she then cuffs him as quickly as possible while keeping a pistol on his forehead, not even looking behind her as she shoots a stray minion beginning to stand.
She takes a deep breath as the buzzer signals the end of the test. Mera's voice reverberating over the stadium, "All the HUC members have been rescued for a while but I didn't want to stop the fight—" an entire section of the stadium notice how both Bakugou and the girl snorts at this, "but please wait in front of the big screen for the list of passers"
Aizawa Shouta prides himself on being logical, it's his life rule, logic.
But as he watches the green-haired Seiai student move like a well-seasoned Pro, he can tell that isn't the reason why everyone is so awestruck because many other students can already move that way, maybe not as graceful as her, but it's just a move so what's so special?
He knows it's not her quirk, she hasn't even shown the signs of her quirk yet. Maybe it's a mental quirk? Maybe it's just very subtle? But it isn't flashy so that must not be the reason... So why is she so important?
The girl frees Gang Orca and gratefully bows to him for giving her a good match, they both share their pleasantries as they part ways. The girl flips a switch on one of her pistols and all at once, the minions can move again. She walks over to Yoarashi and Todoroki as the three of them sit cross-legged in a triangle.
She looks tiny.
She begins dismantling and cleaning her guns as they talk, her getting the metal briefcase back from her hat and arranging the gun's parts inside.
There are still cameras and mics all around the stadium but only bits and pieces of their conversation can be heard, mostly coming from the girl since she has so many cameras on her.
"...fuck each other off the field, yeah?" Is the first thing they make out, a lot of them begin laughing as Bakugou falls off his seat cackling madly.
The next thing they hear causes Yuuei to tense up, "...your fire?"
They all know from his stories and their bonding nights that Todoroki never had a good relationship with his father, him being the reason why he refuses to use his fire- but the girl's next words hit right in the heart, "...dies... family grieve... blood on your mother's hands, does she control your ice? No? Then control your fire, Todoroki Shouto."
Because they know he's strong, they know that he can save so many people with his ice alone but is all he can do? People die on the field, heroes can't save everyone. If he's hurting himself and others, can he look back and say he did his best?
And then, as sudden as the gloom came, it disappeared. Todoroki catches on fire and his smile is soft, many let out shocked gasps as Todoroki is using his fire. And he's smiling. Students from Yuuei share a breathless, "Holy shit."
The girl glances at Yoarashi, how he's drawn to him like a moth to his flame, as he never seems to get enough, no matter if it burns. So she gets up, dusts herself off, pats both of them on the head before skipping away with her case swinging idly beside her.
As she reaches the front of the screens, Shouta grows confused again because they're showing the passers' names and scores, but they often don't, considering it'd be painting targets on their backs, Why now?
And then Mera breathes out, "Holy shit she did it."
People look at the very top of the scoreboard and the top name is highlighted:
M I D O R I Y A
" A R C A N E "
I Z U M I
100
The people who didn't know the green-haired girl now look at her in shock.
That girl is Arcane, the first-ever quirkless hero course student.
It's rumored that she was denied in at least 40 hero schools just because of her quirk status, including Yuuei. This means she took over 41 entrance exams, just to get into a hero school.
And she just proved how the quirkless can be strong, awed, respected— heard.
Arcane would reform the system, point out the flaws, and be a symbol of what to do. People said Arcane would be the Symbol of Hope. And as the people watch her today, there was no doubt about it.
"I've worked with her," Shouta says lamely, "I've worked with her."
Shouta sits there as he finally realizes how special that girl, Arcane— Izumi— is. And he's pretty sure his students have the same gobsmacked expression on their faces too. And Emi is just cackling at them—
Bakugou tilts his head back to look at the students sitting on the rows above them, a cocky smirk playing on his lips, tone taunting, "Pay up, motherfuckers."
On the field, Arcane can be seen getting head pats from many people, all of their screens showing a 'Hope to work with you on the field! -Arcane (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧'
As they walk back to their busses, dazed, Shouta notices how their bus was next to the other schools' with Ketsubutsu to the farthest left, Seiai to its right, then Yuuei with a significantly bigger bus, and finally Shiketsu with a similarly sized bus.
Yuuei's Yaoyorozu can be seen conversing with Ketsubutsu's class president, Seiai's Intelli Saiko, and Shiketsu's second-year representative while the rest of their classes were making plans for training sessions together and buffets to build our teamwork through food—
Shouta finds Todoroki, Yoarashi, and Shindou off to the side in their little group with Arcane, with her hopping over and complimenting Shinsou's quirk and how good it would be in hostage situations, suicide attempts, panic attacks, and more. Shinsou just brushes her compliments off but Shouta can see them getting to him from the light color dusting his cheeks.
All of the students mix their groups as they stop in front of the buses, Arcane still happily chatting away about strategies and techniques to try with their quirks—
She suddenly gets yanked away from their small group and hugged tightly from behind with arms around her waist by Bakugou Katsuki—
It's silent, everybody is gaping at the pair, and Arcane is just chatting away.
"I failed, 'Zumi..." He didn't yell, shout, or scream by any means, it was said softly but they felt deafening coming from Bakugou.
Students who failed their exams seeming to dull. Shouta never expected one of his star students to sound so defeated, so broken, so Shouta opens his mouth to say something—
Arcane tips her head back onto his shoulder and looks him in the eye, "Mm, my Symbol of Victory may lose his battles sometimes but he always wins the war, right 'Tsuki? So just try again, and win." Katsuki- Tsuki? Like... Moon[月]?
She says this while playing with one of Bakugou's bracelet-wrist-warmer-hybrid-things that he never takes off and oh—
Oh.
Arcane is wearing a matching design on her glove-wrist-things, and oh they were being so obvious—
Bakugou snorts as he nuzzles into Arcane's neck, mumbling, "You're right... Gonna blow those fuckin' extras to pieces."
"So not manly bro!"
Every student gets the same look in their eyes, steely determination oozing from their stances, complaining about how they shouldn't be written off as competition yet, and Shouta thinks her words must be magic.
Arcane plants a soft kiss on Bakugou's forehead and asks him softly, worry evident in her tone, "You good, 'Suki?" Suki? As in... Like[好き]?
Where he replies with a short, "M'doing better now. Thanks, nerd."
"Anytime. You've gotten heavier by the way."
"HAAAH!?! YOU CALLIN' ME FAT HUH?" Bakugou pushes her away, trying(and failing) to glare at Arcane while hiding his fond smile beneath a smirk.
And just like that, the pair breaks the subdued atmosphere by running around and using Yoarashi as a pillar to hide behind, people laughing along as they hurl insults back and forth.
"Sooo..." Izumi's head whips around to face Camie and Mina, both sporting wide evil grins, "How long have you two been dating?"
Izumi matches their grins as she side-eyes Katsuki, "Guess!"
"Bunny no—"
"Bunny yes."
People begin shouting numbers, all ranging from a month to a year, seemingly forgoing how they were childhood friends.
Suddenly, Hitoshi speaks up from where he is chatting away with Seiji, "...five."
Both Katsuki and Izumi whip around to face him, one wearing a bright smile while the other almost snarling, "Five!"
"You've been together for five years? Wow, Bakubro must be a handful—!"
"I swear to gods, Pikachu, I will behead you—!"
"No, no! Since five years old! So like... around eleven years ago 'Tsuki found me getting beat up with three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and some cuts 'cuz my lack of quirk—"
Many students have expressions of dread, while many also hold those of sympathy and understanding. Katsuki just crosses his arms and looks away, grumbling as the pink on his cheeks gets brighter and brighter.
"—and then he scared them off with his booms screaming something like, 'unless you want your shitty entrails hanging from a lampost and your blood spilling out the all of the motherfucking slurs you called her on the pavement in ten seconds then you better scram u shitty ass extras'—"
People laugh along as she did a scarily accurate imitation of Bakugou while some laugh at how she calls his explosions booms.
"—after they ran off, he carried me on his back to a neighbor we had that had a healing quirk and asked— quite politely, by his standards— to heal me and he'd do her errands for a week. Then he carried me again, even though he didn't need to, all the way to his house because my mom was out working at the time and he didn't want to leave me alone."
She smiles softly, aura melancholy, "When we got there, he dropped me onto the couch, ran up to his parents, and asked them if they shared every thing of everything and he ran back to me after they said yes—"
Nobody except Izumi notices as Katsuki jumps onto the roof of Yuuei's bus, swinging his legs back and forth as he leans back on his hands and gazes at the rising moon, face completely serene.
"—he said that he'll share his awesomeness with me as long as I'll be his bride."
Izumi finishes with a big smile and a little snort, holding up one white wristlet with a green X and orange trim, Katsuki's matching wristlet has a black base, an orange X, and green trim, the bracelets look like wrist warmers but are thinner and sleek, Izumi's connecting to Seiai's gloves while Katsuki's connects with the gloves on his hero costume.
"We gave each other bracelets that day and we still have them but they're very... frayed now so we got new ones from the Yuuei's support department, he feels it when I tap it and vice versa so that's pretty cool, they have trackers and stuff too."
Izumi then turns to look at Eraserhead, bowing slightly, "That's how he was located the morning after he was captured. I planned the raid with Sir Nighteye, but I wasn't allowed to fight yet. So, thank you for taking care of him Eraserhead-san!"
Eraserhead almost does a spit-take when she bows again, deeply, "When I heard Arcane would be the strategist of the raid, I'll admit I was a little bit skeptical since I only heard your name in passing at the time. But the plans were flawless, every time something went awry, we had a backup plan ready, and all of them were from you, so thank you." he rebuts, making Izumi stutter about how they were the ones who fought and—
"Oi nerd cut it with the sappy bullshit already! S'not like you haven't been kidnapped over thirty times in the past six fucking months!" Bakugou yells from the roof of Yuuei's bus, patting the spot next to him.
She only laughs as she kicks off the side of the bus before flipping and landing on his lap instead, people already chatting away in their groups.
Izumi looks at the rising moon and says, "Tsuki ga suki."
[月が好き]... Could be interpreted as "I like the moon.", "I like 'Tsuki." or "'Suki is the moon."
Katsuki just grumbles as he tightens his arms around her waist, "I told you to cut it out with the fucking sappy shit, shitty nerd."
Izumi leans back, gazing into ruby eyes, "Save to win,"
Katsuki gazes back, smirking, "Win to save."
Yeah, Shouta thought, his kids sitting back on the bus as they tease Bakugou's loyalty and ask for the future chocolates, I love this class.