Chapter Text
Sunday 2:30 PM
Midoriya trudged on though the forest as every twig, leaf and plant was crushed under his boot. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and he hated that he felt like that. The sounds of him breaking the forest wasn’t loud enough to drown out the endless degradation that was following him. He tried his best to ignore it, but it was really starting to cut deep and personal. If he addressed it he’d have to look back and start something. They didn’t have time for that. They didn’t have time for this nonsense either, but here he was unable to escape it in this vast forest. He wonders if he knocks him out, completes the exercise and comes back with him and the flag does he still pass. Would Mr. Aizawa pity him enough? No. The answer was no. Midoriya already knew the answer.
Midoriya looked to the side where the river raged on. They must be getting closer to the waterfall. Good. That means that they were on the right track and it had been roughly a half an hour since they set off from basecamp. Despite having to walk, instead of running, they were making good time to the destination.
“Here I thought you were the nice one in your class despite that big head of yours.”
Midoriya knew he was a pretty nice guy and he’ll take the last part as a compliment, meaning he was pretty smart. Smart enough to figure out how to use his quirk in such a short time and be in the top five in his class.
“So you really are just going to ignore me the entire time and take all the credit just because you can use your quirk huh?”
Midoriya was just going to ignore him for the general part unless they really needed to talk to each other or he quit the pointless insults. Not the most heroic or grade worthy strategy, but Izuku hadn’t been suffering the last 2 days to fail.
“You’ve probably had it easy and been able to show off your entire life. Never had someone tell you couldn't become a hero with your power. Had others supporting you from the start. You didn't have to embrace your darkness to get where you are. All this will do is show that Class 1A just cares about being in the spotlight. This will be no different to any part of life inside the classroom or not.”
The stick that crunched under his foot snapped like the last of his patience.
.
.
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Four Days Earlier - Thursday 4:00 PM
Hearing that they were doing another exercise with Class B was at first exciting. Especially since it was not long after the disaster he had made the last one with the emergence of Black Whip. That wasn’t a problem now since they started work studies and Endeavor helped him control it. Last he checked no predecessor quirks were going to come out this time.
It wasn't often they got to see the progress and learn from and with the other first year heroic class so this would be a great experience and a nice break from work studies. It would also be the first time they were together for more than a class and it would be for an extended period of time since the summer camp was cut short thanks to the League of Villains.
Mr. Aizawa said this would be vastly different from the battles. They'd be going on a weekend field trip, 3 days, Friday until Sunday. They thought ahead and were sending more than just their two homeroom teachers. All Might, Recovery Girl, Ectoplasm, Present Mic, and Midnight were also coming along to the mountain area that was located a few hours away from UA. They were mostly helping with set up and the obvious in case of injuries.
The entire area had been inspected and they weren't allowed to bring anything except necessities and their costumes. Which meant no cellphones and all their luggage was to be inspected before leaving. They didn't want to risk their students and take all precautions. Teachers would have emergency cell phones that only connected to the school, specifically the principal, and to each other. Altogether it seemed like it would be a safe trip from anything they wouldn’t normally find out on the mountain.
“I do wonder what we’ll be doing.” Iida said as he and Midoriya had sat together next to Todoroki who was in the row next to them.
“Not sure.” Midoriya answered. “Considering we’ll be in the mountains I want to guess a form of rescue training and search.”
“Very astute Midoriya!” Iida said.
“Then why would they include Class B?” Todoroki asked.
“Not sure. I guess it gives us more opportunity to work together or against each other. We work with our class all the time so they’re probably trying to put us against someone we don’t know.” Midoriya guessed.
“Seems most likely.” Todoroki agreed.
“I hope we’ll all be model students and not cause hassles for our teachers. If so then these next three days will go smoothly!” Iida said.
“I doubt that.” Midoriya sighed, remembering everyone that was going to be there. While everyone in the hero course was on the same path to one day become pro heroes they all had very distinct and strong personalities. Oh boy…
They arrived at the base at around 7pm where they were then served dinner. Afterward they were told they’d be discussing the schedule before going to bed so they’d be well rested for the start of tomorrow’s exercise.
"Listen up. This will be a joint partner exercise to see how well you work a 'random' individual from another agency or in this case the other class. This is a longer exercise with a lot more space so we need the extra days to grade you properly. You won’t have to attend classes Monday as a day to recuperate. While it is not your turn I hope you're paying attention to your classmates or preparing your turn. Here is the schedule we will be following. Four teams in the morning, three in the afternoon. Your team and what order you’ll be going will be announced tomorrow." Aizawa explained as he showed the schedule on the board.
Daily Schedule
7 AM = Wake up
8 AM = Breakfast
9 AM = Change and Warm-up
10 AM = Start the exercise
Team 1 - Path 1
Team 2 - Path 2
Team 3 - Path 3
Team 4 - Path 4
1 PM= Teams should be returning
2 PM = Teams 4 5 6 down Paths 1 2 3
5 PM = Team should be returning
6 PM = Review
730 PM = Dinner
830 PM= Free Time
10PM = Bed
Day 2
Repeat
Morning Teams: 7 8 9 10
Afternoon Teams: 11 12 13
Repeat
Day 3
Repeat
Morning Teams: 14 15 16 17
Afternoon Teams: 18 19 20
7PM = Leave For UA
The night seemed to fly by as before they knew it their class representatives were calling for them to wake up. While there was moaning and groaning about it being too early, but they got in gear when they threatened to get Mr. Aizawa. Midoriya chuckled as he watched Kaminari and a few others from his class fly out the boy’s room wide awake filled with terror. And of course, Mr. Aizawa sips on his coffee with a straight face. Before they knew it was after 9am and 40 hero students stood in full costume ready to begin.
"For the assignment, think about it like this." Vlad King said. "You and another unsaid hero have been dispatched to retrieve what could be a person or precious cargo. For this exercise it's a flag. You have 3 hours to travel your path, find the flag, and return. You're graded on how fast you are, how well you work together, and completion. When you return to school you’ll also write a report about you and your partner did well and could improve on."
“This won’t be easy. You’ll have to navigate the terrain and the obstacles laid out for you. If this were real it could be a number of things such as weather, natural terrain, or even villains. This is why we’ve requested the aid of the other teachers to add some difficulty if it comes to it. Your team will have a communicator with a tracker so we know where you are at and what's happening. It also relays what you're saying to us and every mile of the woods has a camera. If you run into trouble that isn’t to be expected, let us know. No one outside of UA should be here. We’ve checked the areas and wildlife seems to be rare around here, but still be on your guard.”
“Yeah, the only beast around here is Shishida.” Kaibara joked around.
“Not cool dude.” Shishida snorted.
“Back to the point.” Aizawa said, narrowing his eyes on them. “We will check in every half hour. Failure to respond will dock points and if you don't respond after we've contact you three times we will come looking. If for some reason it goes out we will go to your last known location. If you go past 3 hours we will go to your location and you will fail. You better be in trouble if that's the reason. There is also a distress button on the side if you’re unable to verbally communicate. Now, you’ll be in pairs. In a normal setting this might be random so we're doing something similar. You each are assigned a seat number in class. The student in the other class with the corresponding number is your partner."
"I hope number 19 is uber hottie!" Mineta said, looking over at all the Class 1B girls. Each one of them was a babe just like the girls from his own class! Would it be the tall Kendo! The cute Pony! The sexy Tokage! He gets a chance to look at the competition is all! Size them up and check those out while he’s–
"Whoever you are, you have our permission to smack him or leave him up there." Mina said, smacking him in the back of the head as all the girls glared at him.
"Oh man…I feel for the person who has Monoma." Kaminari whispered as he snickered. "Let's hope for entertainment value, it's Bakugou."
"What the hell you say Sparky!" Bakugou yelled, overhearing him.
"For the sake of the mountain I hope it's not." Kirishima added.
Midoriya chuckled to himself. While he'd never say it out loud, it would be funny. Those two got along like oil and water. They'd blow up the whole mountain. Considering how he is with the class, no one was going to have it easy with him as their partner. The best options were some of the more level headed of his classmates like Yaoyorozu, Tsu, or Iida or more quiet like Koda or Shoji. Midoriya didn't have to look at the girls to see they were hoping it was Mineta.
"Here are your partners." Aizawa said as he pushed a button on a remote that showed a hologram of the seating assignments.
Midoriya's stomach dropped. He wasn't laughing anymore.
#1 Aoyama and Awase
#2 Ashido and Kaibara
#3 Asui and Kamakiri
#4 Iida and Kuroiro
#5 Uraraka and Kendo
#6 Ojiro and Kodai
#7 Kaminari and Komori
#8 Kirishima and Shiozaki
#9 Koda and Shishida
#10 Sato and Shoda
#11 Shoji and Tsunotori
#12 Jirou and Tsuburaba
#13 Sero and Testutestu
#14 Tokoyami and Tokage
#15 Todoroki and Fukidashi
#16 Hagakure and Honenuki
#17 Bakugou and Bondo
#18 Midoriya and Monoma
#19 Mineta and Yanagi
#20 Yaoyorozu and Rin
#18
He was with Monoma.
“Any questions?”
Midoriya had a question. Could he switch partners? He and Monoma weren’t…enemies, but they certainly weren’t friends. Midoriya could count on one finger the one time they were civil and that was when they had gone to see Eri with Aizawa. He was practically forced to behave with his teacher there. Afterward, they haven't interacted, but he's pretty sure the guy still hates his class and by association him.
“And there won’t be switching partners.”
Damn it.