Thanks for 40K reads everybody!! The love on this story is INSANE!! I hope you all know I take my time to read and like every comment<3 tysm!!!

The art for this milestone was suggested by my friend Ray in the discord server!! Everyone say ty ray i would not have come up with this on my own LOL

Next milestone might have some new silly art too!! like... Aki and Mina style swap...? Fav scenes from the story...? Idk but we'll have to reach 50K reads first!!

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Deep in Todoroki's backyard, close to the edge of the forest, I sat on the grass with my legs crossed. The sun had long set on the horizon, but nature never slept; the chirping of crickets took the place of the cicadas that buzzed endlessly during the day. I watched Sekoto Peak in the distance, and slowly let my eyes flutter shut. I breathed with each breeze that flitted between the leaves and the blades of grass, and meditated.

I slowly became more aware of the scent of the earth; cooling after a long day in the summer sun. My ears perked with every creak of a branch and every rustle of bushes. In my minds eye, I could see the world around me— from the small clearing around to the woods and the rough skeleton of the mountain. I could feel each little firefly as they rose from their slumber and took to the sky.

Alone for once, I listened intently to the world around me. Then, I began to listen to myself.

My fingers swished gently across the very tips of the blades of grass, and then back to my side again. It was almost like one would pet the head of a child to comfort them while they slept. My mind filled with images of a dense forest filled with wildflowers and weeds that climbed up past my knees. Vines dangled from the canopy of leaves that filtered the moon into little splatters of light across the forest floor. I breathed deeply, in tune with the music of the wind through the trees.

— I noticed the slight change of heat before I heard the footsteps. The grass around me almost shivered as my eyes drifted open. The vision of the dense forest was replaced immediately with Todoroki's backyard.

"You've made yourself at home," rumbled the voice of Endeavor, the cause of the heat at my back.

"I'm over here quite often," I turned to face him, remaining seated on the ground.. "Not that you're home enough to know."

Endeavor held a rather large hardcover book in his hands. His brow was furrowed and he looked disgruntled. I watched, perturbed, as he took a seat in front of me. He shoved the book into my lap and rested his chin on his hand, wordlessly.

The book was an old U.A. yearbook. When I pulled open the cover, the spine opened a few pages in to a bookmarked page. They were photos of first-year students. My heart quickened. Near the top of the page, staring back at me with a beaming smile, was a girl. Her skin was a coppery red and her cheeky, freckled grin was framed with wild emerald curls. Her hair was decorated with wildflowers and two short antlers poked up above the green frizz. Her dark eyes were alight with glee as if the photographer had caught her in the middle of a joke.

The name beneath the picture read Haruna Adamus.

I stared at the page until my eyes began to burn. A deep, frightening sadness washed over me the longer I looked, but I could not tear my eyes away.

"Does she look..." Endeavor began, "...Familiar?"

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. "I don't know," I answered. "I thought maybe seeing a picture would, but... I don't know."

Endeavor closed his eyes. "I see," he spoke stoically. "I will be honest with you. When I first witnessed you at the Sports Festival, I was unconvinced you were an Adamus. The way you apply your Quirk is... deeply calculated, but there was a split second in your final match that made me reconsider. I took you in as an intern to see if I could discern any resemblance between the two of you. I remain unconvinced."

My eyes flicked down to the picture of Haruna who was frozen on the page, 15 years old forever.

"Still..." Endeavor continued, "If Haruna ever had a child... she'd be around your age. Regardless of whose child you are, I believe you may be the key to finding out what happened. Call it a pro's intuition. If you wish to delve deeper... I wish you luck."

The hero rose to his feet and gestured at the book. "I've no use for that anymore. You may keep it, if you'd like."

I looked down at the book in my hands and gently touched the picture of the Adamus. What could have happened to all of them; to this sweet girl, that she disappeared so suddenly off the face of the earth?

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Three days of written exams passed in the blink of an eye. I cast occasional glances at Mina and Kaminari, who remained deadly focused on their papers the entire hour. I only got stuck a few times, but was saved by the consistent practice I did with Todoroki. Occasionally, Bakugo's voice would yell in my mind, "You forgot the decimal point, idiot!" and save me from making a stupid mistake on my paper.

"Pencils down, everybody," Aizawa called. "The last person in each row may collect the answer sheets and bring them here."

"Thanks, Yao-momo!" Mina cheered as the tall student collected hers. "I might have a chance thanks to your help."

All that was left now was the practical exam.

The following day, the class met at the Center Plaza – the Practical Exam area. As our scattered class approached Plaza, the figures awaiting us came into focus.

Why are all of the teachers here...?

"We will begin the practical exam now," Aizawa announced. "Of course, it is possible to fail this exam. If you want to go to the training camp, ensure you don't make any stupid msitakes. Now, I expect that you have all gathered information ahead of time and have some idea of what you will be doing–"

"We're fighting robot warriors like at the entrance exam, right!" Kaminari cheered.

"Fireworks! Curry! Test of Courage!" Mina proclaimed.

"Too bad!" A small voice proclaimed. Aizawa's scarf shivered until the principal popped out. "For various reasons, the exam will be different, starting Now!"

Fuck. This rat is never good news.

"Different...?" the class tittered. "What do you mean, different...?"

Nezu climbed down Aizawa's saggy black uniform and nestled into Thirteen's arms. "From now on, we want to focus on person-to-person combat and stress heroism that is closer to actual real-life fighting! So..." Nezu leaned forward menacingly, "We're going to have you form teams of two to fight against one teacher!"

I groaned under my breath, warily scanning the teachers before us. "Shit."

"In addition," added Aizawa, "the pairs and who each pair will be up against have already been decided. They were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades, and interpersonal relationships. The teams are as follows: First, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu will face me. Next, Midoriya and Bakugo are a team, and their opponent will be..."

All Might plummeted out of the sky and into the ground. "Me!" he said, clenching his fist before him. "Work together to beat me, you two!"

Well fuck. That's going to be a spectacle. I glanced to the side to see Bakugo already seething in Midoriya's direction. Yeah... this is going to go very well.

"Now, we'll announce the teams and the teachers they'll be up against all at once!" Nezu cheered.

The first match was to be Kirishima and Sato against Cementoss, followed by Asui and Tsukoyomi facing Ectoplasm. Ojiro and Iida were placed against Power Loader, and Yaoyorozu and Todoroki would be completing their match against Aizawa.

As I watched the students get thrown into pairs and the teachers assigned to them, I felt increasingly nervous. Wasn't there an odd number of students? How would they deal with that?

Aoyama and Uraraka would be teaming up against Thirteen, Kaminari and Mina would face Nezu, Koda and Jiro were fighting Present Mic, and still my name was not called. Shoji and Hagakure were partnered against Snipe, and Mineta and Sero's opponent was called out as Midnight. Bakugo and Midoriya were announced, and their opponent was of course All Might.

That left only me. No teachers remained.

"Lastly, Akiharu!" Nezu called all the attention to me gleefully. "Because of the odd numbers, you will have to be a one-man army. As for your opponent, we've requested the help of a special guest..."

The feather strung around my neck tugged toward the sky. With a rush of wind and the fluttering of feathers, I watched in disbelief as Hawks landed in front of me.

"That'd be me!"

Surprised exclamations shot through the class as I stared down the hero in front of me. This is so unfair. I glanced at Nezu to see the rat bastard was radiating pure joy. The evil glint in his eye led me to believe this was some sort of cruel payback for flipping the bird in his office.

"Let's have a good match!" Keigo exclaimed, raising his hand. Rolling my eyes, I took off the leather strap around my neck and pushed it into his palm, neglecting the handshake. I pretended not to hear Mina and Hagakure losing their fan girl minds in the background.

"I don't suppose you'll go easy on me?" I griped.

Keigo grinned. "That'd make me a terrible example, you know?" he chirped, sharing a secretive wink.

"That's it for the partnering!" Nezu said. "The time limit for the exam is thirty minutes. Your objective is either to put these handcuffs on the teacher, or to escape from the stage."

"Capture or escape... It's kind of like the combat training we did on our first day, right?"

"Of course, this time you'll be up against someone waaaaaaaaay better than you!" Present Mic said.

I eyed Hawks across from me. He was radiating pure glee. "No shit."

"Assuming you come across the enemy, if you think you can win a fight against them, then that's fine. However, in cases where there's too big a difference in your abilities, it would be smarter to run away and get help," Aizawa explained.

"That's right!" All Might chimed in. "Your decision-making skills are being tested! But with these rules, you're probably thinking the only choice is to run, right? That's why we had the support course make these for us!" he reaches into some pocket in his skin-tight bodysuit and pulls out a bracelet-like item. "Ultra compressed weights! Each teacher will put on about half of our body weight. It's to give us a handicap. It's old-fashioned, but it makes it hard to move and eats up stamina! Oh shoot, they're heavier than I thought... By the way, there was a competition to decide on the design, and we ended up using Young Hatsume's!"

"They're to allow us to consider fighting you, huh?" Bakugo muttered. "You're underestimating us."

All Might laughed easily, as he usually does, before his gaze thinned. "I wonder..."

I raised my hand sheepishly. "Um, isn't the point of having two people on a team supposed to make escaping a plausible option? In my case, though..."

"Not to worry, Akiharu," Nezu smiled. "Hawks will be incurring an additional penalty of being at half capacity with his wings. It's up to you to overcome any additional struggles yourself!"

Fuck this place. I hate it here.

"All right, each team will take the practical exam in order on the assigned stage. Sato, Kirishima, prepare yourselves. The rest of you can watch the exams or think of strategies to use in your own match. Do as you want. That's all."

As soon as Aizawa receded back into the building, my classmates began chattering amongst themselves.

"Ojiro, I would like to brainstorm our Quirks compatibility!"

"Tokoyami, let's come up with a plan."

"The real problem is how to strip Ms. Midnight, right?"

"No. You're such a scumbag," Sero said, aggrieved, as he trailed behind his partner.

"You think if I beat him up I can take his place?" I called.

"I wish," said Sero, eyeing Mineta. "Unfortunately, I don't think Principal Nezu will let us pass the exam."

"Damn gerbil..."

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