Midoriya could hear the tap tap tapping of a bouncing foot on the hard floor from behind him. Paired with the clock tick tick ticking, he couldn't focus on his assessment. He could feel his mind going a mile a minute, running from someone, something. 

But he had to find out the code first. 

There was a hidden message in the writings, he knew it. Afterall, it was them who led him to UA, who helped him figure out the trick into getting in. He knew they would help him find the pattern. 

He leaned forward in his seat, slumping so jerkily it looked as if he was crumbling. Like a deck of newly stacked, towering cards just about to topple. 

Topple, hobble, squabble, scribble. 

That's it, all he had to do was make his own key. Draw the pattern of his own thoughts in the bubbles. Fill the empty space with his own mind. Maybe then he could find the key. 

He first started honing in on his surroundings, hearing the shaky breaths of concentrating peers around him. The tapping of pencil caps on desks. The occasional sound of someone scuffing their shoe. Sighs. Pencils dropping and rolling and being picked up. The sound of seats groaning as their occupants sit and move and twist. 

They're convulsing. He thought. He could feel the presence of Seven agreeing with him. The pain has already started. A beat passed. I have to find the key. 

And so he filled in the blanks, filled in all the bubbles, and added designs and symbols and drawings to the blank space, his hands refusing to stop until all the white was filled with a pattern. 

For every swirl he tapped the side of his nose, a feeling of impending doom looming like a figure from behind him. They're watching. I have to hide the pattern to get the key. He said, subtly scooting the paper closer to his hunched over figure, almost cradling the test close. 

He could feel the eyes burning into the back of his neck, branding his body with the scars of being forever surveillanced. He tapped the side of his nose, filling in another bubbled C with his free hand. 

He found his eyes glued to the page, even as the drawings and patterns and swirls were long finished and filled. Now he just had to look at the spaces in between. 

The words are always where you can't find them. Keys must be hidden. He thought out, neck twitching as all the noises around him amplify. 

He wrinkles his nose. 

They're trying to distract you, comments Two. 

No, they're trying to win. Five speaks up, voice stiff. 

He could feel a chill roaming up his back. The noises surrounding him made him want to look up, to cover his ears, to leave, to go home. To shiver. 

I can't let it see me shiver. Once the convulsing starts, I can't find the key. 

They need the key to heal, purred number Three. 

I know, Midoriya thought, suddenly overwhelmed by the pain of his peers and the eyes on his back, and the patterns looking him dead in the eye, and his test remaining key-less. I need to help them but I can't find it. 

His eyes wouldn't blink at the paper, he forced his focus not to wan. A burning sensation accompanied his ministrations. He shifted, feeling his shoulders twitch. Hands shaking, he found himself attempting to fill in the spaces of all the paper. 

The designs will lead to truth. Spoke Four with a voice so sarcastic, it nearly made Midoriya want to cry out in annoyance. He felt as if his mind was being crushed by the swiveling, swirling, whirling, whipping noises around him. 

Someone to his right was humming a beautifully haunting tune. It struck memories of children dancing, laughing, talking, screaming as the ground collapsed from under their feet. Splat, splat, splat. Midoriya felt trapped as his mind’s eye conquered the image of the children being subjected to horrors of death and bloodshed only seen by the cruelty of the world. Splat, splat, splat. Limb by limb they fell and second by second, they tore away from their bodies and each other. 

Splat, splat splat. 

Suddenly the test beneath Midoriya was filled with silvery graphite and designs and swirls and tears and sadness. The teen felt a sense of dreaded despondency wash over his entire being. He felt more tears run down his face as he was pushed back into the turmoil-filled reality of life itself. 

“...ori…” 

You’ve ruined it. Screamed a few voices all at once. Their anger flitting through his head like a crazed swarm of hornets. More tears fell onto the test, smearing the graphite, the lines, the answers. The key. 

“Mi…”

Midoriya suddenly felt as if gravity was weighing him down, pushing him to lay flat against the desk in an attempt to drown out his raging thoughts. Screaming was filling his head, telling him to get away from the paper, to fix it, dab it with his sleeve, rip it to shreds. 

A hand was pressed onto his shaking shoulder, causing Midoriya to nearly jump out of his skin. He didn’t know who was there or if they were talking. All he knew was that in that moment, the world was deathly silent and the key was lost forever.  

“Midoriya…you oka..?”

Let the world swallow me up. Let it eat me whole and leave only my remains. He thought to himself, letting his body limply fall forward and cover his ruined test with a blanket of his sorrows.