Hey hey! I'm sorry for not updating in a while, life happened so I've been pretty busy, but hopefully I can get some more chapters up soon!!

-Sin

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Four days after Akina's visit to the support course, she found herself sitting on top of one of the pillars watching as Bakugo performed his new move, a centralized explosion that shot itself out in a linear beam of fire and destruction. The attack went straight through a slab of rock that had been set up for him, causing the center to be blasted away.

"Ha, ha! I did it!" He shouted in celebration. A second later, though, the rock cracked a bit more and a corner piece broke off and fell towards the ground, sheading straight towards All Might. Before Akina could move to catch the chunk, a green blur sped past her and the stone was sent crumbling into rubble.

Akina stared with wide eyes before a grin appeared on her face, these kids were starting to get strong. Seeing them improve this much in only four days made her excited, how much stronger could they get, and how long until they could put up a decent fight against her.

"That's enough, class A!" A voice called out, causing all of the students in the building to stop and look towards the doorway, where class B and Vlad King were standing. "Class B is scheduled to use this training room every afternoon. Eraser, get your kids out of our way."

"You're not trying to kick us out early when we have ten whole minutes left, are you?" Aizawa asked, not surprised by this interruption, probably because this isn't the first time class B had interrupted them during their training.

"Hey did you hear?" Another voice piped up. "The license exam has a 50 percent pass rate. That means your entire class might fail." A new voice popped up and Akina internally groaned. She leaned on her palm as she watched him burst out into laughter. Could Monoma not be like this for one moment?

"Unfortunately, his observations are correct." Tokoyami said. "If we're taking the same exam, then we'll crush each other. That's the hand fate has dealt us."

"We're not going to be in the same exam centers for that exact reason." Akina said, jumping down from the pillar she was sitting on and walking up them with a shrug. Looking towards Monoma, who seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief. "What, scared of a little class battle?"

"What! Of course not! I know for a fact that if class A had to go up against us, they'd be the ones running home to their moms!"

Akina smiled, her expression looking almost predatory, "Wanna stake a bet on that?"

Monoma flinched back, trying to hide the fear on his face, but Akina saw it. She just chuckled as she watched Monoma slowly slink back towards his classmates, trying to get away from Akina's gaze.

"Hayashi." Aizawa said.

"What, it's not like I'm going to fight him, unless he accepts."

"Battle challenge aside, Ms. Hayashi is right." Vlad said, "There are two exam days, in June and September. And the tests are held in three different places. We don't want students from the same place fighting, so, we split you up. Each school has at most one class at a single location."

"How sad we weon't be able to face each other directly." Monoma laughed, moving out from his place of hiding behind his classmates.

"Man. This guy's nuts." Kirishima said.

"Yeah, I think he's officially gone off the deep end." Kaminari said.

Thinking about it, he reminds me a lot of Bickslow. Someone get this guy some totems. Akina thought.

"All those other schools. Huh. Interesting." Sero piped up, driving the conversation away from where it was going. "I didn't know that was the case. So we'll be facing kids from other places."

"Yeah. And on top of that, we're taking the test earlier than most other students." Midoriya said.

"That's true. Very few first years in the country try for the provisional license. In other words, the students will be made up of students who've trained longer than you, and with quirks you don't know about. Ones that are powerful. The actual content of the exam is a mystery, but you can expect that you're going to have a rough time. Try not to get hung up about that, but keep it in mind." Aizawa said.

As Aizawa was telling everyone about how hard it was going to be, Akina felt the glances of many of her classmates on her. If she thought her classmates were getting stronger, she could barely contain her excitement about the prospect of fighting kids with more experience and different quirks. Maybe one of them would being a good fight.

***

The rest of the day passed by quickly and once the sun set and everyone settled down, Akina along with the rest of the girls sat in the main common area. Akina perched on a small cushion next to Yaoyorozu, holding a glass of boba tea in her hand, half asleep as she listened to her friends chatter. She had to get ready to patrol the night shift but relaxing a little beforehand couldn't hurt, right?

"Does it have to be this hard?" Mina groaned.

"Well it's not called intensive training for nothing." Hagakure said.

"That's true, but to think there's only a week left before the exam." Yaoyorozu said.

"Yao-momo, how's your ultimate move coming?" Hagakure asked.

"There's something I really wanna do, but my body just isn't ready yet. I need time to develop my quirk and improve my general endurance."

"What about you, Hayashi? Whenever I look your way during training you're just sitting there, I think I saw you taking a nap one day. Are you even working on your supermove?"

Akina perked up and saw that all the girls were looking at her. "I... I'm working on it. I just don't know what to do."

"It's been four days and you still haven't come up with a super move?" Jiro asked.

"Well, my quirks kind of hard to make a super move for. I have those dirt dragons, but I've already done as much as I can with them for the moment." Akina said as she placed a hand on the back of her neck. "I'm at a dead loss."

"But didn't you go to the support department to get some costume upgrades? I haven't noticed any new support gear."

"Ah, no, more like change my costume completely. At first it was going to be a few tweaks but well... Mr Power Loader and I got a little carried away. For now, I'm using my old costume but my new one should be ready in time for the exam. Anyways, how about you Tsu, I've seen that you've been working hard these past few days."

"Oh, well, yeah. I've perfected a move that makes me even more froglike than before. I'm sure even you'd look surprised, Toru." Tsuyu said.

"I bet! What's your story, Ochaco?" The invisible teen asked, turning the attention from Tsuyu to Uraraka.

When she didn't respond, Tsuyu lifted a finger and tapped Uraraka on the arm, only for her to let out a squeal and snap out whatever trance she was in.

"Ochako? You seem a little tense."

"No, it's nothing. Everything's going awesome. I'm just getting started. Uh... well, at least that's how I'd usually be. The thing is, recently my heart's been all stirred up about something."

"Stirred up? Hm sounds a little like you might have a crush." Akina said, leaning forwards with a grin on her face.

Uraraka's face turned red, and she started flailing her arms around in denial. "What did you say? Hush? Lush? Mush? I don't even know what that is, what is it?" She rambled, her cheeks getting even redder.

"So, who is it? Midoriya or Iida? You're always hanging out with those two boys." Mina asked.

"You've got it all wrong." Uraraka placed her hands over her face and with a faint pink glow from her fingertips she started floating above the group of girls. "That's not it, I swear!"

"She's floating!" Mina cooed.

"Which one? Or someone else?" Hagakure asked.

"Come on, spill it!" Akina said.

"Yeah, out with it. You know we're not gonna give up until we know." Jiro said.

"I swear, it's no one! Besides, it's not like I even know anything about dating."

"There's always somewhere to start! Uraraka, we can help you with your crush!" Akina said.

"It's not good to force an investigation." Tsuyu said. "Let's give her a break."

"She's right. More importantly, it's late. We should call it a night." Yaoyorozu said, standing up.

"Uhg! No! I wanna hear everything! You can't just spring a hint of romance on us and expect me to go to sleep!"

"Come on, Mina, we need to head to bed, we have more early morning training tomorrow and I want to get some shut eye." Akina said, stretching and standing up. "Don't float up too late, kay, Uraraka." With a wave she walked out of the room and headed to her own dorm room.

The moment the door shut, she got dressed in her hero costume and opened the doors to her balcony. She let out a sigh and made sure nobody was watching before she jumped off the balcony and with a soft white magic circle propelled herself through the air as she started her patrol.

The exams were coming, and she might be fighting some strong opponents. She couldn't wait for the next two days to pass by.

***

"Do I really have to? I mean, I could walk, or fly- I can fly you know- Shoji please put me down! Shoji!" Akina struggled as the dupli-armed teen grabbed her by her collar and carried her to the bus that was waiting for them. She didn't care about any of the gazes from the other students around them.

"Please stop making a scene." Shoji sighed.

"Not until you put me down!"

"Hayashi."

"Shoji."

"Please stop it and just get on the bus you two." Aizawa said, looking more tired than usual.

Despite her struggling, Shoji had managed to get Akina on the bus and they were off. An hour of suffering later they arrived at the exam center. The moment the bus stopped, Akina moved from her seat and jumped out the now open window, sliding down onto the ground and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Stop being so weak, freckles."

"Stob being an ass, hedgehog." Akina said, standing up and looking to see that her classmates were stepping off the bus, Bakugo standing above her with an annoyed expression on his face. "Let me suffer in peace."

After a few seconds of Akina laying on the ground and Bakugo standing over her he scoffed. "People are staring, get up or they'll think you're weak."

"I'll just prove them wrong."

"Come on freckles."

Akina was suddenly picked up by her collar and placed on her feet.

"Ugh... I'm getting kind of nervous." Jiro said, looking up at the exam.

"I wonder what they're gonna make us do. Ugh. What if I can't get my license?" M*neta said.

"M*neta." Aizawa said, bending down to meet the short teen's height. "Don't as if you can. Say you will."

"Right, sure, I so got this." M*neta said, though the look on his face said the complete opposite.

Aizawa straightened up and shifted to address the rest of the class. "If you can pass this test and get your provisional licenses, then you novice eggs will hatch into chicks. You'll be semi-pros. I expect your best."

Akina grinned, "You'll get it!"

"Your best will destroy the building." Ojiro sighed from beside her.

"I can't wait to be a heroic chicken!" Kaminari exclaimed.

"Let's call out the usual, you guys! On my mark. Go Plus-" Kirishima said.

"Ultra!" The class said, though there was one new voice mixed in with the class. Akina looked over to beside the U.A group to see some other kids wearing uniforms from a different school.

"You know it's pretty rude to barge into other people's huddles like that, Inasa." One of the students said.

"What? Pardon me. I am so... very... extremely... sorry!" He shouted, bowing towards the U.A students and banging his head on the ground so much so that Akina could smell a hint of iron coming from his head.

"Who is this guy? I do not trust his enthusiasm." Kaminari said.

"Hey, look at their uniforms." Jiro said.

"They're from that famous school on the other side of Japan." Sero said.

"UA in the East. Shiketsu in the West." Bakugo said.

"So, another famous hero school known for producing strong heroes, huh?" Akina said, taking a step forwards with a grin on her face. "I hope you guys can bring a fight."

"Are you underestimating us, so not cool." A girl huffed. She smelled strangely familiar.

"I wanted to say it just once. Plus Ultra! See I really love UA High School. I am extremely honored to compete against such incredible students. I'm so looking forward to it!" The boy from before, Inasa, shouted.

"Oh. Blood." The girl said, getting distracted from Akina as Inasa raised his head to reveal blood trickling down from where he slammed it against the ground.

The other two who were with them just started walking away, leaving the other two Shiketsu students to follow after them.

"Inasa Yoarashi." Aizawa said.

"Do you know that guy, Mr. Aizawa?" Hagakure asked.

"Indeed. He's strong. He's the same year as you all and received the top score for students admitted through recommendations. But for some unknown reason, he turned down his acceptance to UA and went to Shiketsu."

"Wait. He's... our age?" Midoriya asked.

"So he had the top scores..." Akina muttered, an excited look appearing on her face as she watched Inasa walk away and into the exam building. "I wonder what he's capable of."

"Hold on. Is anyone else confused here? This guy says that he loves our school, but, he turned down his chance to enroll when it was offered?" Sero asked.

"Yeah. What a weirdo." Mina said.

"Maybe, but he's the real deal. Keep an eye on him." Aizawa said.

"Eraser?" A voice called out and Akina looked over to see another pro hero walking towards the group with a wide smile on her face. "I'd know that scowl anywhere! I saw you on TV and at the sports festival. But it's been a while since we were this close in person."

"She looks familiar." Midoriya said.

"Let's get married." The Pro said.

"No." Aizawa answered without missing a single beat.

The pro let out a laugh, "Ha,ha! You're a real laugh-riot, buddy!"

"As usual, you're impossible, Joke."

"Oh, that's Ms. Joke! The smile hero! Her quirk is outburst! She forces people around her to laugh, which affects their ability to think and keeps them from being able to move! Her fights against villains are always full of insanity!" Midoriya exclaimed.

"Come on, imagine it! If I were your wife, you'd have a future of constant laughter!" Ms. Joke said.

"That sounds like an actual nightmare."

It's almost like an Ichiya and Erza type of relationship, except Joke seems less creepy. Akina thought, a chill running up her spine as she thought of the Blue Pegasus Guild member.

"It seems like you two are close." Tsuyu said.

Ms. Joke turned from Aizawa to address the class, "Our agencies were near each other. As young heroes striving to make a difference in the world, a mutual love bloomed."

"No it didn't." Aizawa said.

"I do miss your quick retorts! You're my favorite person to tease, future husband."

"So, Joke. If you're here, then that must mean..."

"That's right." She turned towards a group of students and waved them over, "Over here, everyone. This is UA."

"Oh, whoa. It really is Class A!" One of the students said.

"Wow, that's so amazing. I've seen them on TV before." Another said.

"Second years from Ketsubutsu Academy. This is Class 2. They're my students." Joke introduced.

The first kid who walked walked up to them, and grabbed Midoriya by his hands, "Hey, I'm Shindo! Seems like UA's had a lot of trouble this year, musta been tough for you." He moved to Kaminari, clasping his hands like he did with Midoriya. "But even so, you're all still aiming to become pro heroes, despite those harships." He moved to Akina, doing the same with her as he did with the other two. "It's wonderful!" He grinned and winked, "Heart's full of fortitude. I believe that's what every hero in the world needs to have."

"He's too nice." Midoriya muttered.

"This charming pretty boy's gonna steal our girls." Kaminari added under his breath.

"I don't trust him." Akina said flatly.

"And Bakugo, it must have been hard for you, what with that whole kidnapping incident." Shindo said, brishing off Akina's comment with a smile.

"Huh?"

"You have an especially strong will, don't you? Today I'm going to do my best to learn from you. I really hope you don't mind." He held out his hand to shake Bakugo's but the blonde hit it away.

"Stop pretending. What you say doesn't match the look in your eyes."

"Hey man, don't be so rude!" Kirishima exclaimed.

"He's not. Shindo's trying to make us lower our guards against him with praise, so we trust him more and he can take advantage of that trust during the exam." Akina said, an annoyed look on her face. "It's a dirty tactic."

"What, I'd never do something like that!" Shindo said, giving Akina a charming smile that she assumed would normally make girls swoon. As annoying as it was, the constant flirting from the Blue Pegasus trio was helpful at times.

"You can't just go accusing people of things, Hayashi!" Kirishima said, "Sorry, they're kind of just like that."

"It's fine. It proves how tough their hearts are."

"Hey. Get your costumes and head to orientation." Aizawa called to the class. "There's no time to waste."

"Yes, sir!" The class called out and they all moved to follow Aizawa into the building, where their skills would be put to the test to prove they were worthy of being pro heroes.

Akina grinned, How exciting.