Mera's voice came through the speakers and cut the breath of more than half the remaining students in the arena.
"Important update. Only thirty seats remain for the first stage. I repeat, thirty seats."
In the rocky valley, those words reached Bakugo like a spark in a powder keg.
"Rocks."
One word. Kirishima heard it and understood everything.
He hardened his arms and drove his feet into the ground. Massive stone blocks launched toward Masaki and the Ketsubutsu students above the slope at a speed that was hard to track.
"Primitive distraction." Masaki sidestepped a large boulder with ease. "If you think throwing rocks will compensate for losing your Quirk, Bakugo, then you're even dumber than..."
He stopped.
Bakugo wasn't in front of him.
Bakugo had used those two seconds to sprint backward, clearing the suppression range. The moment clean air met his sweat, he released a double explosion from both hands and launched himself forward like a missile.
"Idiot! The second you enter my range you'll lose it again and..." Masaki started.
But Bakugo didn't need an explosion inside the range. He needed momentum. His body twisted in the air and a pivoting kick found Masaki's jaw with everything he had.
Masaki hit the ground and lost consciousness on impact. The invisible field dissolved with him.
Bakugo landed on his feet and looked at his hands as the sparks returned. Then he looked up at the five remaining Ketsubutsu students who had frozen where they stood.
"Where were we?" he growled. "Right. You were saying I'm just an angry teenager who shouts loudly."
Less than ten seconds later, the valley was quiet. Kirishima and Kaminari handled the five together. Three seats filled at once.
In the industrial zone, the air was unnaturally cold and Todoroki's breath came out as thick white vapor. Ten students in black and red ninja uniforms surrounded him from every angle. On top of metal tanks, on iron staircases, in every corner.
The team leader smiled with certainty. "We analyzed every second of your fights at the Sports Festival. You're a monster with ice, but you have clear limits. Our heat weapons will melt anything you throw in seconds. You're completely exposed."
Todoroki's expression didn't change. But his mind was moving. The Sports Festival. I never used my left side there.
A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Fine." He drove his right foot into the ground. "Show me how you melt this."
A large hollow ice wall launched toward them, shaped like a tunnel connecting them directly to him.
"Foolish! Attack!"
The ten ninja entered the tunnel smiling, dissolving the walls easily with their heat weapons, closing in on him in a tight cluster.
"No escape!"
"You're the ones who trapped yourselves."
Todoroki raised his left hand.
And for the first time in this exam, the fire came out.
A wave of actual flame rushed into the enclosed ice tunnel and turned everything inside into scalding steam in under a second. The heat weapons designed to melt ice became a liability as they super-heated inside the trapped vapor until the ninja were forced to drop them, their hands burning.
Visibility vanished completely.
From inside the white hot cloud, Todoroki walked with quiet, measured steps. He moved between them in complete blindness and attached balls to their targets one by one without a sound.
When the steam cleared, all ten ninja were on the ground.
Todoroki turned toward their stunned leader. "Information is power." He turned to leave. "But blind dependence on it is your biggest weakness."
In the waiting room, Zoro lay in the furthest corner with his hands behind his head. The three swords in place. The peace he wanted didn't last.
"This is truly incredible!" Inasa walked toward him with an enthusiasm that had no justification. "You're the swordsman from the Sports Festival! Your performance there was filled with burning passion! And when I saw you outside a moment ago, your aura was cold and sharp like a blade! Does your fighting style use wind as well? Because I saw how you changed my balls' trajectories with..."
"You're annoying."
Inasa stopped.
Zoro opened his eyes fully and stared at him with the kind of gaze that had stopped Shiketsu students in their tracks. "If you don't close your mouth and get out of my face right now..." his hand moved slowly over Sandai Kitetsu's hilt, "I'll make those winds of yours cry."
No fear showed on Inasa's face. His smile widened further. "Oh! That dark passion! I really like this a lot, it makes me feel..."
Crash.
The door flew open hard enough to nearly tear through its hinges. Bakugo walked in wiping sweat from his forehead, Kirishima and Kaminari catching their breath behind him.
"Crushed them all!" Bakugo announced with a satisfied smirk and scanned the room. Then he saw it.
Zoro in the far corner. Looking at him with total boredom.
Bakugo's voice dropped to a sound like a wounded animal. "You're already here? You qualified before me? How dare you, moss head!!"
"Bakugo." Zoro's voice was flat and cold as he closed his eyes again. "You're late. I thought you fell out of the exam and left us in peace."
"I'll explode you right here, right now!!!" The fire lit up in Bakugo's palms as he stepped forward. Kirishima grabbed him from behind instantly. "Calm down! We're in the waiting room! They'll disqualify us all if you start a fight in here!"
"Oh! This is passionate too!" Inasa called out, clapping his hands together.
Bakugo looked at him with flat red eyes. "Who are you?"
"Inasa Yoaras..."
"Don't care."
The door opened quietly. Todoroki stepped in, a faint trace of steam still coming from his clothes. He stopped at the entrance and took in the scene. Bakugo shouting. Kirishima restraining him. Kaminari trying to help. Inasa applauding. Zoro back to sleeping.
Todoroki put his hand in his pocket. "This is more exhausting than the fight outside."
"At least the enemies outside were quiet," came Zoro's voice without him opening his eyes.
Todoroki walked to the opposite side of the room and sat down.
In the arena, Midoriya was still catching his breath when Uraraka and Sero appeared through the dust. He looked at them for one second.
Uraraka stepped toward him with one expression that left no room for anything light. "Deku, we need to move fast. Time is running out and seats are filling."
"Thank goodness. You're real this time." Midoriya exhaled deeply. "I just got hit by a fake version of you."
Sero replied with his usual easy smile. "We saw it. You hesitated just enough. Good thing we got here when we did."
"It's not the time." Uraraka said. "Do we have a plan?"
Midoriya was already moving toward the corridor as he spoke. Sero creates a web of traps in the narrow passages with his tape. Uraraka sends objects skyward to strip them of anything they hold. He handles the precise strikes.
The teamwork was seamless in the way that only comes from having gone through things together. Three people completing each other without needing to explain. Three seats filled.
In the dark, cold industrial building, Yaoyorozu was shivering. Saiko sat on the opposite side drinking tea with a composure that didn't match the temperature she'd imposed on the space.
Saiko's voice came through a speaker. "Every move you made, I anticipated it. Yaoyorozu Momo, your intelligence won't be enough here. Surrender."
Shoji was making extra arms to cover Yaoyorozu and Jiro from the freeze. He looked at her with steady eyes. "Yaoyorozu. Focus. We'll protect you. Do your work."
Yaoyorozu took a slow breath. The cold was still biting at her skin but something steadied in her expression.
Saiko expects the heater. Saiko doesn't expect the speaker.
She built it and handed it to Jiro. Jiro plugged in her earphone jacks and released a sound wave that cracked the walls and sent the steel door flying.
The attack waiting outside from Seihai's students came exactly as Yaoyorozu had anticipated. Tsuyu and Shoji handled the counter in under thirty seconds. Saiko found the balls on her targets before she fully understood how the situation had inverted.
And as Yaoyorozu's group was filling the last seats in their section, Mera's voice cut through the arena again.
"Urgent update. Only ten seats remain. I repeat, ten seats."
In a quiet corner of the arena, far from any noise, Aoyama sat behind a rock. His shining cape was dirty and torn. Iida stood beside him, his engines running quietly, his eyes searching for any exit.
Aoyama looked at the ground.
"Iida." His voice was nothing like its usual self. Quiet in a way that didn't sit right. "Seer. Leave me. I'm slowing you down. I always felt I wasn't like the rest of you. I don't have a place among you."
Iida took hold of his shoulders with both hands.
"What are you saying, Aoyama?!" The eyes behind his glasses weren't carrying the usual structured anger. They carried something heavier. "We are Class 1-A! Not one of us is going to leave another behind. We're qualifying together. All of us. Did you hear me? All of us."
Aoyama blinked. Then looked up at the open sky above him.
Ten seats. And time closing in.
"Iida." He stood slowly. "Use this."
He put everything he had into his device. The Navel Laser launched into the sky as a white column of light that cut through the clouds and could be seen from far away.
Aoyama cried out, the pain visible. "Use this and run! All the enemies are about to come here!"
Iida defended the position alone with everything he had. The numbers grew with every second. The situation looked catastrophic.
Then the shadows started appearing.
From every direction. From between the buildings. From above the slopes.
Ojiro. Mina. Sato. Tokoyami. Mineta.
They saw the laser. They didn't ask. They didn't hesitate. They understood.
They all came forward.
Tokoyami released Dark Shadow and it tore through the front lines. Mina's acid dissolved the defenses. Mineta's balls locked down movement. Every person played their role as though this exact moment had been the one they trained for.
Aoyama's enemies found themselves surrounded after they had been the ones surrounding.
And in the chaos, Aoyama's fingers moved.
Beep.
Beep.
Two quiet electronic tones.
The last two seats.
Iida. Aoyama.
Then.
The whistle.
"The qualifying number has been reached. Stage One of the Provisional Hero License Exam is over."
Mera paused. "Students who met the requirements have qualified for the next stage. The rest, your exam ends here."
In the waiting room, the doors didn't stop opening.
Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Tsuyu, Shoji. Then Midoriya, Uraraka, Sero.
Bakugo was in his corner watching every face that entered with a look that didn't acknowledge he was counting. But he was counting.
When Iida and Aoyama came through the door together, the room detonated.
"We did it!" Uraraka called out and didn't try to hide the tears in her eyes. "All of Class 1-A!"
"Man!" Kirishima went straight to Midoriya and put both hands on his shoulders. "I thought we were going to lose you back there!"
Midoriya laughed, still breathing heavily. "It couldn't have happened without you. Sero and Uraraka came at exactly the right moment."
He looked around. His classmates' faces. The exhaustion on them and the smiles on them at the same time. Something you can't produce except by going through things together.
Aoyama moved to Iida quietly. "Thank you." It came out small. "If you had left me in that moment..."
"I was never going to leave you." Iida said it with no room for argument. "This was never a discussion."
Aoyama looked at him and smiled for the first time in a long while.
Todoroki approached calmly and looked at the crowded room. "You're late." His tone suggested relief in a way that didn't match its coldness. "But that was expected."
Zoro opened one eye. He looked at the entire room. All these exhausted, happy faces. Then he closed his eyes again.
"Loud group." He said it to no one. "But at least none of them fell outside."
In the monitoring room, Miss Joke was still looking at the final numbers on the screen.
"Eraser." She said it in a tone more serious than her usual. "This coordination isn't normal. Students usually become selfish in the deciding moments. But your students did the exact opposite."
"I didn't teach them that." Aizawa answered. "Experience taught them. And the blood they've shared proved to them that surviving in this world is impossible without real faith in the people beside them."
"How do first-year students reach this level?"
Aizawa looked at the screen. "Because their first year was not a normal one."
He turned toward Miss Joke. "But this was Stage One. It was the easy test. The real exam, where they'll face something else entirely, starts soon."
.
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