Eria

When classes resumed after the internship, my classmates huddled around each other, discussing about their wonderful experiences during their internships. Some had promising experiences while some were just disappointing.

Speaking of the disappointing experiences, I was talking about the weird hairstyle befallen upon Bakugou, courtesy of Best Jeanist.

"SHUT UP!" Bakugou roared as Sero, Kaminari, Kirishima and I laughed at his ridiculous hair. It then 'exploded' back into its original spiky look.

"IT'S BACK!" We laughed.

"FUCK OFF!"

As promised, we were not allowed to divulge any details of the Stain incident except the 'fact' we were saved by Endeavour. Even though we were skewed by multiple questions, we just avoided answering them.

Aizawa-sensei announced the upcoming final exam for this semester, though he barely divulged any important details. The only thing he said was, if we failed, we will not be joining the Summer Camp during the summer vacation.

The top scorers in our class were calm and cool, but for some, the finals were the harbinger of death. Kaminari and Ashido were panicking since they had the lowest grades during the mid-term exams.

"Everyone, I can help you with your studies if you want," said the top scorer in class, Yaoyorozu Momo. She emanated a lady-like, angelic aura as her friends gathered around her, asking her help. The pure girl looked elated to help.

With only two weeks left from the finals, I hoped it would be enough for me to push up my grades. I was not particularly confident in my studies, even though I scored seventh in the mid-terms.

During recess, I bought a strawberry milk from the vending machine and approached Todoroki, who just bought his usual cold soba lunch. "Here, strawberry milk. Your favourite," I said.

"So, what do you want?" he asked intuitively.

"Ah Todoroki, I always admire your sharp intuition..."

He cocked his eyebrow.

"Could you help me with my studies this weekend? Seventh place is a very risky spot you know..."

He scoffed. "Okay."

I blinked. "That was easy."

"You're my friend. Friends help each other."

I almost wanted to hug him and squeeze him as tight as I could. "Thank you!"

A small smile spread across his face. "You're welcome."

A maniacal laughter drew my attention. Standing next to Midoriya was a blond, holding a tray of somewhat high-class lunch. He had a wicked expression on his face as he mocked us Class 1-A for causing too much trouble to the school.

......who the hell is this obnoxious brat?

The blond's laughter was interrupted by a strong karate-chop onto the back of his head. The attacker was a redhead beauty, who I recognised as the class rep from Class 1-B. She then dragged the blond away like a doll, leaving us confused.

"So she said we will be facing robots, right? That's going to be easy!" Uraraka chirped. The others looked relieved, though I was doubtful of it.

I'll just get prepared. No worries. Everything will be fine. It's just an exam. Nothing could go wrong.

***

Todoroki and I studied together during the weekends in the public library. When we were parched, we went to a café nearby, only to find Bakugou and Kirishima there. Bakugou kept whacking the other boy with his rolled-up book, as if he could force the information into Kirishima's brain.

"This is how I teach!" Bakugou roared when I questioned his methods. His loud voice was causing too much trouble to the other visitors in the café.

"Don't worry, he's a good teacher!" Kirishima grinned, showing a thumbs-up. His bright personality always managed to put a smile on my face.

I eyed Bakugou incredulously, who responded with a glare. "I am the best teacher he can ever get!" He shouted at me.

"Todoroki is a better teacher," I said, just trying to tease Bakugou.

"Really?" Todoroki asked.

I nodded with a smug look on my face.

Unpleased, Bakugou punched the table, causing more ruckus. "Then let's compete, half-and-half, and see who can make shitty hair understand algebra the fastest."

......wait what?

Todoroki blinked. "Okay," he agreed easily.

TODOROKI!

"I'm counting on you!" Kirishima grinned.

So Todoroki and I sat together with Bakugou and Kirishima for the weekends to study for the final exams. Even though Bakugou had a short fuse, he was quite intelligent and could solve difficult questions. Coupled with Todoroki's calm and rational teaching, Kirishima and I learnt quite well from the two 'masters'.

Soon, our first term final exam began with 3 days of written exams. On the fourth day, it was the most nerve-wracking part of our exams—the physical exam.

Clad in our respective hero costumes, the whole class of 1-A gathered at the entrance of the school's stadium. A lot of us were relieved to hear rumours that we will be up against giant, barely intelligent robots for the finals. Todoroki, being the doubtful one, had instilled fears within me that the school would not be easy against us since we were blooming heroes to be fighting villains face-to-face in the future .

Alas, as if his premonition came true, we were greeted by a group of our teachers, who had no reason to be there except for Aizawa-sensei.

"Your finals... you'll be facing us teachers, in pairs," said Aizawa as he smirked, shattering the hopes and dreams of our class.

I glared at Todoroki, who muttered, "I told you so."

As the whole class were divided into pairs that were arranged by Aizawa-sensei, I was the only one who had no partner, since the class had an odd number total.

"So, Takasaki, you're a special case," said Aizawa-sensei.

Please don't say it's because of my stupid quirk. Please don't--

"It's partly because of your quirk."

DAMN IT!

"You will be facing against a mysterious guest pro-hero, who is extremely skilled, talented and have experiences in training new heroes. And you will be facing the hero alone."

Ah crap.

"However, if someone else here in class decides to volunteer and be Takasaki's partner, it would be allowed. But that person would be going through the finals twice, and risk having to fail his or her test in the second exam. It would be a great honour to be 'self-sacrificial', I guess."

I glanced around, half hoping someone to volunteer, half hoping someone would not. I didn't want to be the cause of their failure. I rather face it on my own. However, if the top scorers in class could help me out, maybe we could really do this.

Bakugou caught my glance and shot me a glare. He was not very pleased to be pairing with Midoriya, and up against All Might. So he's out. Same goes for Midoriya.

Iida was being hesitant. Ochako looked apologetic. Yaoyorozu appeared to be quite unconfident even in her own exam.

I avoided looking at Todoroki. I definitely did not want him to fail because of me.

"It's okay, sensei. I'll just do it alone," I said, though my voice croaked and exposed my nervousness.

"I'll do it," said Todoroki abruptly, prompting my heart to leap over a cliff.

"Todoroki! No! What about your grades? I can't have you fail because of me!" I retorted, hoping he would change his mind.

"I'll be fine," he said stubbornly, staying firm on his ground. "Besides, I think you would really fail without me."

"Are you... underestimating me?"

He blinked. "I just thought it would be nice to help my friend increase her odds of passing the exam."

Todoroki! You're too pure! Too nice! You're too good for this world!

"After all, you have a higher chance of failing with your quirk unchecked."

In the end, he still backstabbed me with his savagery.

"Very well then. Be prepared. The first exam starts in 10," announced Aizawa-sensei.

"Thank you," I muttered. "In some ways, you're just too pure and innocent, and a little... idealistically unintelligent."

"I'm not dumb. You're dumb for suggesting to go alone," retorted Todoroki.

I spat my tongue at him, who smiled a little.

"If you feel bad, treat me for soba then. Cold soba," he emphasised.

"I'd treat you as many as you want as long as we pass," I said.

His eyes lit up, like a child seeing a candy. "Really?"

I nodded.

Someone walked between me and Todoroki and nearly shoved me to the ground. A fuming Bakugou was on rampage, somehow grumpier than he was before. He shot a glare at me and Todoroki, muttering incoherent blasphemous words. It seemed like he was not pleased at the both of us for unknown reasons.

I could hear ominous chuckles around me. It was not a good sign.

"Self-sacrificial, huh?" said the mischievous, romance-loving girl named Ashido. "So you would sacrifice yourself for Eria? Why?" she asked Todoroki.

Please don't answer. Please don't fall into her trap--

"She's my friend. And I promised to be her mage," replied the boy nonchalantly.

Ashido nearly shrieked. "Just a friend?!"

"What mage?" quizzed Kirishima as he was fazed. Ochako shrugged.

"I also want a handsome boy to sacrifice himself for me!" Hakagure chirped.

"I would sacrifice myself for you too, Eria~" Kaminari cried.

Iida suddenly boomed. "We must all learn Todoroki's example of self-sacrifice! This is the way of the heroes!"

I ignored the cacophony erupting around me. "Todoroki, you should get prepared. I think Yaomomo seems to be out of herself today."

He glanced at the class rep. "Yeah. I have a plan. See you later."

"Good luck."

Oh well, now I have to think of a good strategy to win this, for both of our sakes.

**

It wasn't easy to go against experienced teachers who have taught and lived years before we were even born. It required calmness, mental acuity, and a lot more than just great physique. Two teams had failed miserably before my turn. I hated to be the cause of Todoroki's failure.

I was in the control room watching every battle until Todoroki and Yaoyorozu entered the room. Todoroki had put on his emotionless mask while the latter had slightly red puffy eyes.

"I will become more confident next time, I'm pretty sure," said the girl as her eyes seemed less clouded now.

"Yeah, I think you will. Aizawa-sensei could really fail us if he used his true strength, but your strategy worked. It's a good strategy. You will become a strong hero in the future, I believe," replied Todoroki.

Yaoyorozu was elated upon hearing his praise. "Thank you for believing me. I look forward to work with you again in the future." A bright smile spread across her flawless face.

Her smile was met with a tiny smile on Todoroki's face—the smile that he rarely shown to people. I thought I was the only one to see that smile under the mask of his cold deamenour, but now it seemed that rule has changed.

It left an inexplicable bitter feeling within me. Why did I feel bitter?

I didn't like the feeling that brewed within me, so I shoved it into a corner of my mind, hoping it could rot into nothing.

"After Bakugou and Midoriya, we'll be next," said Todoroki, who stood beside me. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah......" I muttered.

"Don't worry, I won't let us fail. Should we go over our strategy?"

I nodded. I looked at him, however the image of him and Yaomomo smiling at each other pervaded my mind.

Focus!

"Are you okay? You seem... weird," asked Todoroki.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

I need to focus!

Todoroki suggested us to escape and only engage in battle if the mysterious hero decided to attack us. The odds were against us—we knew nothing of the hero but he would know everything about us. Our flaws were exposed raw.

We arrived at the forest compound, where Jirou and Kouda had their exam earlier. We stood in the middle of the compound, waiting for the signal to start off the exam.

"Remember, we head straight for the exit, and only engage in battle unless we are attacked, okay?" Todoroki reminded. "If you have any good ideas, you should say it too. I don't want to repeat the mistake I did with Yaoyorozu earlier."

Yaoyorozu. Todoroki. Yaoyorozu. Todoroki.

I shook my head, as if my thoughts could be shaken away like that. "Nope, I'm good. Anyway, thank you Todoroki."

"Thank me when we pass," he said.

A loud horn blared, signalling the start of our exam. We exchanged looks and headed west, where the exit would be. We treaded across the compound, staying vigilant of any foreign presence. The forest had fallen into an eerie silence, void of any signs of living. The crickets had stopped singing, the bird had stopped chirping. It was as if all fauna life in the forest disappeared.

It was a bad omen.

"Wait," halted Todoroki as he hid behind a large boulder. I followed his move and peeked at the exit that was just a few meters from us. Just right in front of the exit, stood a cloaked person wearing a plain white mask. His black eyes were visible through the mask's eye holes, and they resembled black holes. He looked awfully like a Grim Reaper, emanating a bad omen just by standing there.

I have never seen a hero like that before. Was there even such a gloomy hero at all?

"Looks like we have to break through," said Todoroki. His eyebrows creased. "Get the handcuffs ready."

I nodded. With a steeled gut, we stepped out from our hiding spot. The masked hero stared right at us and remained silent.

Was the mask part of his costume or was it just to hide his face?

With his dark cloak on, it was hard to tell his body figure. He didn't even speak and stared at us silently.

I activated my quirk and prepared my battle stance, while Todoroki's flames snaked over his arm.

"Let's get this over with—" Todoroki was abruptly cut off as the masked man suddenly appeared before him and jabbed him in his gut. Then he proceeded by grabbing Todoroki's neck and slammed him into the ground, forcing the air out of his lungs. Todoroki couldn't fight back—neither his ice nor his flames came out.

"Todoroki!" I shouted, lurching to protect him. But everything had happened too fast, and even with my quirk activated I was still slow. Too slow.

It felt like I returned to the time when I was petrified by Stain, and could only watch as my friend was beaten up brutally. It was horrifying. I was reliving a nightmare all over again.

What is this? Isn't this just some exam? Why is the hero... what is he doing to Todoroki?! This is supposed to be an exam! Not a death battle!

The hero pulled out a lethal weapon from within his cloak. It was a sharp dagger, glinting with blood lust.

No.

No.

NO!

Before I could reach Todoroki, the masked man stabbed him in his stomach and blood spilled over the place, dyeing the green grass red.

The words that I said before haunted me: nothing could go wrong. However, it seemed reality always liked to play tricks on people.

I watched in horror as my friend's life slowly slip away in the hands of the masked hero. 

***

Valar moghulis. All men must die.

Nobody is an exception, not even a main character.

Don't be mad at me, but see you next chapter.