(Kaminari POV)

"Pencils down everybody. The last person in each row collect your papers and bring them to the front," Aizawa told us. Before leaving the classroom, he collected the papers in one neat stack and tucked them under his arm. "Hey Izuku, thanks for helping me. You really are an angel, man! I'm so happy I got through this," I cheered, offering a fist bump. I grinned even wider when he obliged the gesture. "Thank you for listening," he replied, giving Mina a slightly targeted glance. She flinched under his harsh glare, knowing very well of her crimes. I cringed at the memory of Mina fighting Todoroki for pie, but eventually agreeing on two slices each. Mina took more than two slices. She also talked about pie for a good while before Izuku smacked her upside the head to tell her to be quiet and focus on her work.

She may be my friend, but she deserved that.

. . .

(Nobody POV)

The next day was the day of the practical exam. All of class 1-A stood in front of every teacher in the school, excluding All Might. "I have a feeling I know who we're going up against, Azzy," Izuku whispered to his brother. Asriel gave a nervous nod, knowing what Izuku was implying. "Practical exams start now," Aizawa declared. "It is possible to fail this exam. If you want to go to the training camp, then don't make any mistakes," he warned. "There are a lot of teachers..." Jirou pointed out. Izuku, Asriel, and Shoto already knew why that was, but opted not to warn them. However, her statement didn't go unheard by Yaoyorozu who was standing right next to her and now looked deep in thought as if she was trying to figure out the reasoning for this change.

"I expect that you all have gathered information ahead of time and have some idea of what we will be doing?" Aizawa questioned, obviously testing his student's ability to gather intel. "We're fighting robot warriors like at the entrance exam, right?" Kaminari cheered, acting as if he knew all the answers to everything. "Fireworks! Curry! Test of Courage!" Mina cheered, though she sounded like she was just hoping for a repeat of the festival. "Too bad! For various reasons, the exam will be different this time!" Nezu replied, popping out of Aizawa's scarf. "Different?" Momo asked.

"Sorry for not telling you guys, Izu made me keep it a secret," Asriel said sheepishly. "He wanted to test if you would trust word of mouth rather than finding the information yourselves. I was also sworn to secrecy," Shoto added. "Wanna tell them the big surprise, Principle Nezu?" Izuku asked, allowing a cocky smirk to spread across his face. "And you call yourself an angel..." the chimera giggled to himself, greatly amused by Izuku's cruel antics towards his class. Said class was calling him a traitor for not informing them of valuable information. One could hear Izuku calling them a bunch of sore losers for trusting outside sources instead of discussing it with their own team. "From now on, we want to focus on person-to-person combat and hero work, and stress teaching that is closer to actual fighting. So..." he explained, pausing for a feeling of suspense. "We'll have you form teams of two to fight against one of the teachers!" he excitedly revealed. Nezu took a small glance over to Izuku to see Asriel and Shoto tiredly sighing at Izuku's giggling form. He was enjoying this way too much, and that was something Nezu could relate to.

Nezu suddenly got a strong urge to take Izuku under his wing and make the boy his protege.

"Against... the teachers?" Uraraka hesitantly asked. Refocusing on the class, Nezu continued with his speech. "In addition, the pairs and who each pair will be up against have already been decided. These were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades, and interpersonal relationships, so here they are: First, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu are on one team," Nezu said darkly. "And they're fighting me," Aizawa finished, his classic smirk showing once more. "Izuku and Bakugou are a team-" Nezu announced, causing the said students they look at each other in surprise. "- and their opponent..." he said. Suddenly, a loud gust of wind passed, quickly followed by a very large man who landed on the ground in a very heroic pose, dramatic as always. "I... will do it," he said menacingly.

"All Might?!" Bakugou gasped in surprise. Izuku saw this coming but wasn't appreciating not being able to work with his brother.  He didn't understand why Nezu would pair him up with someone who made teamwork practically impossible. He would have expected to be paired up with someone who he had known would work well with him. "Work together to beat me, you two!" All Might challenged. He gritted his teeth and gave Asriel a silent apology. Asriel responded with a broken smile as if to say "Good Luck", which was greatly appreciated. He'd need all the luck he could get if he was paired up with this living bomb.

As for the rest of the teams, Sato and Kirishima were against Cementoss, Tokoyami and Asui were against Ectoplasm, Ojirou and Ilda were against Power Loader, Uraraka and Aoyama were against Thirteen, Kaminari and Mina were against Nezu, Jirou and Koda were against Present Mic, Shoji and Toru were against Snipe, and Sero and Asriel were against Midnight.

"The time limit for the exam is thirty minutes! You're objective is to either put these handcuffs on a teacher-" he explained, holding up a pair of quirk canceling handcuffs that he got from... somewhere, "- or to have one of you escape from the stage!" he finished. "Capture the teacher or escape... it's kind of like combat training," Kaminari thought out loud. "Is it really okay to run away?" Mina asked. Nezu assured her that it was okay, easing Mina's worries. "But it'll be different than normal combat training, 'cause you'll be going up against people waaaaayy better than you!" Present Mic bragged. "Better than us? I can't really imagine it, though," Jirou said, pointedly looking at Mic while her partner quietly whimpered nervously. "Hey now, don't get so full of yourself. Our teachers are pro heroes, ya know," Izuku chimed in. "Yeah, watch your mouth, girl! Ya hear?" Mic angrily screeched, causing Jirou's partner to cower behind her. Izuku nodded in agreement, giving the poor man a thumbs up to show his respect towards the pro. Seeing the boy's support, he calmed down significantly but was still seething over the insult.

Thirteen took this time to speak up. "This time, your exam will be similar to a real battle. Please think of us as villains," she said. "Assuming you come across an enemy, if you think you can win a fight against them, then that's fine. However-" Snipe added, getting interrupted by Aizawa. "In cases where there's too big a difference in your abilities, it would be smarter to run away and get help," he said. "Asriel, Ilda, and Izuku, I'm sure you understand this very well," Aizawa said, singling out the three in the "Hosu Incident". The three students nodded in understanding.

"That's right! Your decision-making skills are being tested! But with these rules, you're probably thinking your only choice is to run, right? That's why we had the support course make these for us!" All Might said, reaching into the pockets they didn't know he had. "Ultra Compressed Weights!" Mic said, holding out a very well-detailed metal bracelet with black rectangles on it that were supposedly weighted. "We'll put on about half our body weight," All Might explained. "It's to give you a handicap. It's old-fashioned but it makes it hard to move and eats up a whole lot of stamina! Oh, shoot they're heavier than I thought..." he said, whispering the last bit in hopes nobody would hear. "By the way, there was a competition to decide on the design, and we ended up using Young Hatsume's." All Might added in.

Asriel thought back to the pink-haired girl in the sports festival, mentally noting to congratulate her later. "Hatsume?" Izuku muttered, confused at the unknown name. "To make us consider fighting you, huh? You're underestimating us," Bakugou growled. Izuku couldn't understand where the confidence in his classmates came from. At least he and Asriel had a reason to be confident, but he wasn't going to claim himself better than anyone until proven elsewise. The words "never underestimate the enemy" rang in the back of his head and he opted to listen to them once more. He had learned the consequences of ignoring that voice many times over because of Undyne.

All Might laughed in response, glaring darkly at Bakugou, "I wonder." Izuku choked on a laugh when he saw All Might's expression, though. One of his eyes glowed a terrifying icy blue, and Izuku was immediately reminded of Sans and his magic eye that activated when using powerful magic. Izuku knew very well that All Might wasn't Sans, but he couldn't help but remember the many times Sans had jump-scared Asriel with his magic. The many times he would roughhouse with Papyrus as kids, or the times he would play pranks with Izuku on anyone they saw fit. He really wanted to take All Might seriously right now, but the glowing blue eye and permanent smile were hard for Izuku not to laugh at.

"Alright, each team will take the practical exam in order on the prepared stage. Sato, Kirishima, get ready," Aizawa told them. "Yes Sir!" They spoke in unison. "Those waiting their turn can watch the exams or think of strategies as a team. Do what you want. That's all," He informed, walking inside with the other teachers. The class followed, already discussing their plans quietly amongst themselves.

. . .

"Looks like I've got my work cut out for me today," Recovery Girl sighed. Izuku had gone to the monitor room to watch the fights. And apparently, he wasn't the only one either. Uraraka had walked in, looking emotionally done with whatever upset her. "You're here to watch the fights too?" she asked. "Yeah, we don't get many chances to watch the others fight. Besides, even if I wanted to talk strategy, Bakugou is too prideful to listen to me. He plans to do this whole thing solo," Izuku complained. "Yeah, I can relate. It's pretty useless trying to talk to Aoyama, too. He was posing in the mirror so every time I tried to say something, he just asked about his cape," she said. Izuku clicked his tongue in annoyance. "That's why I wanted to use everyone else's fights as a reference," she continued. Izuku nodded in understanding. He was grateful that someone else understood his train of thought, at least.

Kirishima and Sato's fight were announced, and the two competitors took off into the faux city. Cementoss shot a surprise attack by cutting off their path with a cement wall that they punched through. While the act itself was flashy and cool, the strategy itself was poorly thought out. "Go for it, Kirishima!" Uraraka cheered. Izuku solemnly hummed, "They won't win at this rate..." he deduced. "Huh?" Izuku heard her confusion and continued with his explanation. "Kirishima and Sato's quirks are amazing, but there's a limit to how long they can use them. On the other hand, I don't believe Mr. Cementoss has that. The more time passes, the more of a disadvantage Kirishima and Sato will be at," he told her. "No way..." she sadly whined. "This practical exam is pitting students against teachers they'd have a hard time with on purpose. I think the key will be how they deal with their weaknesses to pass," he finished.

"That's exactly right," Recovery Girl chimed in, gaining the attention of the two. "Before your own turns come around, you should think carefully about your compatibility with the teacher you'll fight," she told them. They turned back to the fight to see Kirishima and Sato struggling to keep up with the never-ending walls of cement. Instead of gaining ground on the hero, they were slowly being surrounded by cement until they were trapped and thrown around in a wave of thick grey liquid. "Team Sato and Kirishima retire due to loss of consciousness," a robotic voice announced through the speaker system. "Oh dear, it's the first round and I already have work?" Recovery Girl whined, slipping off her seat and walking out of the room.

"No way... it was this one-sided?" Uraraka gasped, covering her mouth with her hand in surprise. "Their quirks were too ineffective against his. They could have planned around their weaknesses and come up with a plan that would outsmart the enemy, but they opted to use brute force and lost in a battle of endurance. They needlessly used up all their energy when they could have tricked Cementoss into capturing himself," Izuku explained, criticizing their mistakes. Uraraka wordlessly listened, knowing just how right he was.

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(I got a commission from a friend. My very first commission. And it kind of got me thinking about putting myself out there. I have a DeviantArt and a Tumblr if you want to contact me for one, so I'll put it on my profile page. Give it a look when you get the chance.

Welp, Thank you for reading. See you soon!)