"All right, that's it for class today." Aizawa said as the final bell chimed throughout the school. "There's only one week left before your final exams begin. I'm sure you're all studying constantly, right?" A handful of students shrank in their seats under Aizawa's scrutinizing gaze. "Don't forget to keep training." He reminded them, starting towards the door. "The written exam is only one element. There's also the practical portion to worry about. Good luck."

With a final glare at the class over his shoulder, Mr. Aizawa took his leave, sliding the door closed behind him. Kaminari and Ashido were the first to panic, as was to be expected from the two students with the worst grades in the class. They weren't the only one's whom the exams had on edge, however. Whether it was over the written or the practical, everyone was nervous to some degree.

The written exam though, seemed to be the more dreaded of the two, and it wasn't long before those most in need of help latched onto the classes number one student. Now (L/N) didn't much care about receiving attention. It was something he himself never wanted. Even still, he thought it was nice to see her receiving praise from her classmates. Her hard work deserved to be recognized, and he hoped it would give a boost to her self confidence. She had seemed so down on herself ever since the Sports Festival. It was such a stark contrast to the person he remembered introducing herself at the beginning of the year. The driven, self-possessed individual whose quick thinking outmatched his seemingly invincible quirk during their combat training. He thought it a shame that something as trivial as a single sparring match had extinguished that fire. Though, he wasn't quite sure why he cared.

Hiding from the discussion at his desk in the back, he reached for the bottle of pills stored in the inner pocket of his jacket. Swallowing three of the blue and white capsules, the world quieted beneath a relaxing muffle, allowing him to breathe easy. Their idle chatter seemed so distant, that was until someone shouted his name in surprise.

His ears pricked irritably in the direction of the noise. Just a few feet away, Sero, Ashido, Jiro, Kaminari, and Oijiro were all crowded around Yaoyorozu's desk, all in the middle of asking her to tutor them. But their attentions were now entirely transfixed on him.

"Oh yeah," Kaminari said thoughtfully, "that's right. I forgot about it until now, but the dude's a total brainiac. He totally crushed our first group assignment at the beginning of the year."

"Okay," Jiro twirled her headphone jack around her finger, "so you two got the same score on the midterm. I doubt he'd be too eager to tutor any of us."

Great. Just what he needed. Something else to draw more unwanted attention. Attention like a certain Acid Hero who had been crushing on him since the start of term. Who now thought that she would much rather have him as a tutor as opposed to the girl the class affectionately called Yaomomo. Already able to tell where this was headed, (L/N) decided to put an end to it before it started. Grabbing his things, he quickly made for the door.

The other students in the corridors moved to let the blind man through. He would have rolled his eyes if he could. It's not like everyone's class rankings on the midterms had been some sort of secret. He remembered Iida commending him and Bakugou cussing him out the day the rankings were posted. Why were they making such a big deal out of it now? And besides, he would be an awful teacher. The material wasn't something he'd studied inside and out as no doubt Yaoyorozu did. It's not like he studied every hour of the day with the intention of getting good grades. It was just all he had.

The other children at Shonien's were frightened of him, so it wasn't like he had any friends. He kept to himself and any time he wasn't in class was usually spent hidden away in the boiler room. There wasn't much else for him to do but read. So that's what he did. They became a distraction, an escape. Any and every book he could get his hands on. The orphanage only had a small collection of children's books, but they weren't the only things available. There were textbooks from their classrooms and the kitchen had a good amount of cookbooks. There was reference material in the nurse's office and the music room had a decent collection from which he learned music theory. Of course, only a small handful were made in brail. They were the ones he'd read the most. The others required the use of his quirk to differentiate the black of the ink from the white of the pages. Still, there wasn't a book in the entirety of Shonien's he hadn't read at least a dozen times. And by reading those books so many times, he'd learned.

The textbooks that Ms. Sasaki had taught him basic economic theory, mathematics up to advanced algebra, classical Japanese, English, geology, world history, amongst other things. From the books in the music room he taught himself to play a variety of instruments, his favorite being the piano. Mr. Nakamura had loaned him books from his own collection. Books from which he learned philosophy and how to play chess. He gained an in depth understanding of human anatomy and physiology from the books in Mr. Saito's office, and under the kitchen staff's supervision, had even been allowed to try his hand at cooking the recipes he'd now had memorized. Reading was just a part of who he was. So when Principal Nezu had given him his school books, and all in brail, he'd read them all front to back within the first few weeks, eager to have something new.

The one type of book he didn't like though, was fiction. Stories of thrilling adventures in fantastical lands held no allure to him. He may have relied on books for escape, but he never wanted to escape from reality. Just his reality. He had no patience for the delusion of fiction. Stories about good and evil and how love triumphs over all. Lies. Lies told to children to keep them dreaming of a bright tomorrow. He much preferred fact. Truth. Information based on study and observation. The same observation that taught him books were reliable. That books made for better friends than people.

[My Hero Academia]

Classes 1A and 1B sat for the exams together, but they were structured so they were split into four groups. The groups were determined by each students' grade on the midterms. The top ten student between the two classes made for one group, the bottom ten another, and those that fell somewhere between made up groups three and four. The reason for the structure was to discourage academic misconduct, or cheating. When a D student is grouped with other D students, the temptation to cheat is far less than when an A student is sitting next to them.

(L/N), along with Yaoyorozu, Iida, Midorya, Bakugou, and Todoroki from Class 1A, and Kendo, Setsuna, Juzo, Shoda, and Rin from Class 1B were seated in the same room while Powerloader acted as their proctor. The room was completely silent, save the sound of pencils scratching and the occasional turn of a page, or the click of a button as (L/N) selected an answer from the options read to him over the headphones he wore.

Once finished with their exam, the students were free to leave, though they had to stay on campus as the physical portion of their final was to take place after lunch. Bakugou was the first to hand in his test, followed closely by Todoroki and Setsuna. After double checking his answers, Iida was the next to leave, then Midorya, whose paranoia had him triple checking his work. Rin and Juzo finished at the same time, which just left Yaoyorozu, Kendo, and (L/N).

To be fair, Momo had completed with her test just before Iida had. The only reason she hadn't turned in her paper yet was because she was hoping to convince (L/N) to join her for lunch, seeing as how they'd never gotten to when she had first offered earlier in the year. With just over twenty minutes left on the clock, (L/N) removed the headphones and grabbed his cane from where it leaned against his desk. Quickly gathering her things, Yaoyorozu gave Powerloader her exam and followed (L/N) out the door.

"Hey, wait up." She called, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Do you need something?"

"Why do you always ask that?" She laughed. "It's not like I need something from you every time I approach. Maybe I just want to talk to my friend."

He looked taken aback by that, and Yaoyorozu smiled at the fact she had managed to catch him off guard. But he quickly recovered, once again adopting his severe persona.

"We're not friends."

"Well, maybe we can change that." She suggested. "You know, we never did get to have lunch together."

"Look," he stopped walking and gripped his cane with both hands, "while I admit that I find you more tolerable than the others, do not mistake this to mean we have some sort of... bond. I don't want your friendship, so please stop offering. In fact, it's probably best we stop interacting altogether." He turned his back on her and began to walk away. "I don't want anyone getting it in their heads that I'm willing to talk to them."

She watched his retreating figure with a hurt expression on her face. She knew that he wasn't the most sociable person, and she herself had admitted to Ashido and Hakagure that they weren't exactly friends, but they had, at the very least, been friendly. And they'd been growing closer ever since he'd apologized to her a few weeks ago. Or so she thought.

"You didn't do anything wrong, you know."

Turning, she saw Kendo walking up to her.

"He's like that with everyone."

"I know." Yaoyorozu said solemly. "I just thought that maybe... I don't know. We seemed to be getting along alright. I thought he might open up to me."

"A few years ago, he probably would have." Kendo said sadly. "But he's been hurt in the past."

"Yes, I figured he must have been." Yaoyorozu said seriously. " I just wish I knew why he keeps pushing me away.."

"That's not your fault." Kendo told her. "It's mine."