Chapter 20 - Getting to know and Exam Ends

Stiff.

Restrained.

Those were the two things Leo felt after rousing from his forced sleep. With eye gunk in his eyes, he couldn't fully open them, nor did it feel great.

Leo twitched and moved his figure around; he found them to be... tired. Surprisingly, none of them screamed in pain. Although his legs did have a heavy feeling.

With his proportions stiff, he languidly stretched, eliciting pops throughout his bones. "Ugh~" he groaned in pleasure, never having felt such a pop that ran all over his system.

Having loosened up a bit, he reached for his eyes, rubbing and picking the gunk out with his fingers. It was quite a chore, especially when something wrapped around his digits.

With the gunk out, his eyelids shot open instinctively, looking for the source of his stiffness. And upon laying eyes on his seeable proportions, he couldn't help but utter in disbelief, "What?"

White wrappings, gauzes, and bandages were wrapped all around him. It was done so bad that it couldn't even be passed for a Halloween costume. And another thing, he had reddish-brown splotches everywhere!

'Well, that explains the stiffness around me,' Leo thought, weirded out by the situation.

Having felt no pain, Leo, without question, tried moving with a flick, trying to remove his wrapped prison. However, a cough sounded behind him before he could buck some more.

*Ahem!*

Hearing something, Leo trashed even harder, unaware of an entity in what he considered his base.

The cougher sighed to herself. "Wiggling like a worm sprinkled with salt does no wonders for you. And this might answer your worries; I'm your teammate."

Raiden answered, having guessed that Leo may have forgotten or slipped in his mind that he had a new occupant in this cave.

And she was correct to assume.

Leo, a bit less on guard, stopped wriggling and notched his head towards the voice instead. "Ah, now I remember."

He said nothing else but stare at her, trying to study her whilst he sat up properly, not removing his gaze from her.

"Have you not seen beauty such as me? With how hard you stare, I might just assume you've never seen a person." She quipped, uncomfortable with his stare.

"Ehm, no. I have seen better," his reply instant. "I was just studying you. After all, you were the person who struck a lightning bolt at me; I am Leo; nice to meet you." His greeting was sarcastic now that he recalled how he ended up like this, yet he still offered a handshake.

Ignoring his comment about the attack, she gibed back. "Studying me? I'm glad to know you study. Your appearance matches that of a brute, dirty and brawny. Raiden. Raiden Ei, pleasure is mine." Accepting the gesture of a shake.

Each giving their sardonic greetings, they had a miny staredown as they shook hands. But Leo broke the growing ice between them.

"Japanese?" Leo asked, somewhat interested in meeting another fellow Japanese. Of course, his appearance was the FURTHEST thing from a half-Japanese.

He noticed her apparel, style of hair, and minor features on her face that seemed oriental in nature.

Raising a brow, Raiden nodded. "Yes. I am Japanese, but only half. I'm assuming you got it from my apparel?" She asked, elegantly entering a seiza way of sitting.

"Yes and no. One, your hairstyle; two, your eyes; and three, yes, your clothes. Your clothes are far too real to be cosplay materials. And finally, I noticed your features... mainly the eyes.

"Anyway, how long was I out? I can at least guess I was out of it for half a day."

Immediately, Leo tried swerving the topic, wanting to avoid entering casual topics when you're in the middle of an exam, especially SHIELD Academy's exam.

Raiden looked at him and shook her head. Raising two fingers, "Two days. You were unconscious for two days. I had to manually pour water into your mouth."

'Two days!? Doesn't that mean today is the last day!?' Leo's thoughts became rambunctious, not easy, with the idea of it being already the last day.

However...

The last part caught Leo in for a loop, too, "E-Excuse me? Manually guided?" He stuttered, thinking of the implications. 'Did this person perform mouth-to-mouth guiding?'

Hearing this, Raiden scoffed and scrunched her brows at the insinuation. "Cease the scandalous thoughts; I did no such thing! I merely propped your body up and slowly dribbed the water from its bottle into your mouth."

"Do you honestly think I would lay my lips on a stranger? One caked in the blood of examinees, no less!" Just the thought of someone thinking of her as some harlot infuriated her.

Her face was not a shade of red from embarrassment, but her eyes sparked with electricity. Expressing her riled emotion at the matter.

"Okay, okay, sorry, geez. My bad, even I would be uncomfortable with a stranger's lips on me. But, thanks for taking care of me." Leo brought two hands up as a sign of guilt and apology.

Raiden hearing Leo's excuse was now torn and annoyed. On one end, she didn't like that the other party labeled her lips uncomfortable; on the other, she just wanted to get past this conversation.

'...This person just devalued my lips unknowingly...' Were the thoughts swimming in her head.

"Y-You're welcome," she uttered. "Anyhow... *Cough* To get you up to speed on what happened, I have been hunting the points for us. Currently, we sit in the mid-1500s point-wise ever since our points merged. But since we are a team, we will split that at the end of the day. Practically, 750 each.

"So, now that you're awake. How would you like to proceed?" Shed asked, curious as to what her impromptu partner would say. One can know bits of a person's character with simple questions like these.

But Leo raised a curious brow, never expecting the young lady in front of him to ask his opinion. He figured people like these were the bossy type.

Leo didn't answer, however. He steadily stood up and removed bandages that restrained his joints: elbows, shoulders, knees, and the such. "Before I say anything, I'd like to inspect myself."

It was instilled in him by his mom. Whenever he was injured during training, his mom always checked his condition. The worst thing about the human body was a hidden injury. The types that healed but not correctly and would then become a future problem.

Free to move as wished but still covered, he went into postures, almost like yoga routines.

Meanwhile, Raiden watched in interest. 'Quite the flexible one for someone so burly; how unexpected.'

"And what is it that you're trying to inspect? You're still injured, so I doubt you'll be able to inspect anything properly." Raiden said, still watching keenly. 'Maybe I could learn something,' she thought.

Still, in his routine, Leo answered. "I'm checking for hidden injuries. Though usually, someone would observe me. And that someone is usually my mom. Mom said you'll never reach your peak potential if you have an uneven body."

Leo's face, as he recounted, was one of pride, delighted to share that his mom was a part of his journey and not merely watching from the sidelines.

Still, in a seiza, Raiden nodded at his explanation. 'That makes logical sense. A balanced body is needed to reach the peak. Props to the mother,' thinking to herself.

After his routine, Leo concluded that he was not fit to do any further extraneous physical movements.

Shaking his head, "Sorry, I can't continue and mustn't continue. I can feel quite the strain on my legs and midsection." Pointing at his midsection, though he specifically pointed at the lightning bolt's impact area.

Unsure what to feel, Raiden apologized as a courtesy. "Nah, nothing to apologize for. Anyway, I think it's best to part ways. I wouldn't want to hold you back from getting more points anymore. What do you think?"

Leo was already satisfied with his points, and the fact that Raiden went beyond the deal was shocking. After all, Raiden could have left Leo and let the emergency protocol take Leo away, eliminating him from the exam with the points he had earned.

However, what he did not expect was Raiden's answer. "I understand, and thank you for the concern. However, I would decline that notion. We made a deal, and I intend to finish it." Raising a hand to deny.

"Another thing, it was a blunder on my part. When all's said and done, my actions led to this. If I had not fallen to my curiosity to go after you, we both would have been fine and dandy; wouldn't you agree... erm... what's your surname?"

Seeing the well-spoken girl halt her tongue because of not knowing his surname was quite the site for Leo. "Haha, sorry about that. I forgot to introduce that too! Morningstar. Leo Morningstar."

Leo's respect for Raiden rose after hearing her reason to continue with their teaming up. 'Right, she's probably raised like the traditional Japanese, whereas I was raised like an American and Greek, basically.'

"Morningstar? Quite the rare name; I can't say I have ever met one, nor is there a notable Morningstar with a quirk as strong as yours. Any of your parents' heroes, by any chance?" Comments Raiden.

The crux of Leo's quirk history. With a quirk as strong as his, it's almost impossible to not have a Hero parent or a relative in Heroics. It's already proven that Heroes or people who extensively use their quirks and sire children tend to have stronger quirks compared to a civilian's child with a similar quirk.

According to biology, the parent passes on an evolved quirk cell to their children. Hence, why a Hero's child can literally strengthen their quirk easier compared to a civilian's child.

Children of civilians need to pry locked doors open, while children of heroes merely need to open them to improve. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean Heroes of civilian parents are always weaker. After all, hard work and talent still matter. Or winning the quirk lottery, just ask Stars and Stripes.

Or an easier but unethical approach is purposely finding a partner with a similar quirk as yours, then forcefully sire a child with a stronger form of their quirk.

Anyway...

"Haha, well, Morningstar is actually my mother's. My father has always been out of the picture. But to answer your question, yes. I do agree. Even so, we're here; let's make the best of it." Lying without so much as a twitch.

Leo immediately swerved the discussion; he was uncomfortable when questions pertained to his family, name, and quirk. It reminds him of what isn't there but also affirms his choice to enter this profession.

To turn a blind eye to his family's plight and hopping the villain doesn't come knocking would be foolish and naive.

Seeing the blatant swerve of the discussion, Raiden instantly put two and two that Leo was uneased about such matters.

To ease the swerve, Raiden shared a similar experience. "I share my mother's maiden name as well. My father rarely appears and chooses to travel the world. Though I suspect he wants no business with me since my surname is my mother's, after all." She said with a shrug.

'Welp, damn. Now, this just made me guilty. I know what happened to dad, but Raiden seems to think that both our dads are deadbeats.' Leo surmised.

However, the two do have something in common. Both were lying about their parentage situation.

Raiden herself actually understood why her dad was always out and about and why her surname couldn't be her dad's. He was an infamous Hero who sought challenges, although his hero title was questionable.

But still, Raiden's father was present as she grew up, with the longest absence ranging to two months tops. And he, Kayden Break, also chooses not to appear publicly with his family for their safety and privacy.

On the other hand, Leo, too, couldn't just say his dad's name since he was officially married to Yuna Shimura, his undercover mother, now Lucy Morningstar.

The two merely use the reason of deadbeat fathers, so the other party feels uncomfortable to further divulge their background.

Funnily enough, the two didn't look to be lying, and simultaneously, Raiden also felt a bit of guilt asking questions about Leo's parents.

"Haha..."

"Haha..."

A courtesy chuckle escaped their lips that only added awkwardness to the situation.

"As you were saying," Raiden said, bringing the discussion back to the exam, "I believe we are already set for the top of the exam. If I learned one thing in this exam, it's to be content.

"And I'd be a fool to get myself eliminated when it's already the final hurdle. Especially when the other still contending contestants are out for blood and attacking whoever to remove more of the competition."

Though, her explanation got Leo's attention. "I'm taking you scouted the surroundings. You spoke as if you saw the examinees."

"Indeed, I did. Before you awoke, I simply made the required 30 points for each of us, then went to scouting." Closing her eyes in thought to recall her actions. "Examinees were actively hunting others now; many individuals and teams are on the desperate end to increase their points and stop others from going higher, hence the fighting."

Leo nodded his head at her, 'Scouting... I should've done that rather than blindly going around. But hey, it was effective with the number of robots. Or was it only effective because I kept picking off examinees at night in my vicinity? Which resulted in fewer people going after the bots, could be.'

Concluding his thoughts, he proposed an idea.

"Do you want to just eat while we wait for the end?" He suggested.

Raiden, already feeling comfortable in the cave, gave in to the suggestion. "Very well. I suppose we have done enough to warrant this rest. However, I do wish you could use a bottle of water to wash your pits; they smell." Waving a hand over her nose, showing her irksome.

"Hahaha! Sorry about that, Ojou-sama," he said teasingly. It was his first time conversing with someone who had quite a noble way of speaking. And hearing this, Raiden was not amused but allowed it to pass. She chalked it up to teenage banter.

But she did note that his way of saying Ojou-sama was rather... good. If she had her eyes closed, she would mistake it for a native Japanese speaker who had a slight foreign accent.

And with that, the two spent the rest of the exam eating Leo's hoarded provisions.

_______________

After the exam, examinees who managed to not quit, get eliminated, or be escorted off were taken to a sizeable ship whose main purpose was for medical uses.

It was a hospital on the sea.

Fortunately, no examinees got killed, but some were mentally exhausted to the point where their experience on the island was enough to make them choose another Hero Academy for their future, as if they even had a chance to be considered.

Leo's appearance on the ship actually made medical attendants usher him with urgency. He was, after all, bandaged and wrapped unprofessionally; the reason why they had to urgently cut open his wraps was that he was caked in blood residue and wrapped like a third-rate mummy.

But much to their surprise, his wounds were already healing, leaving slight slash-like scars behind. Nevertheless, they treated his injuries, mainly the legs and abdomen, specific areas that Leo pointed out needed checking.

And, of course, with SHIELD's prestige, they had a top-tiered healer-type quirk on board. The doctor healed patients by ingesting mass amounts of HIGH-quality foods and letting them churn in his stomach.

He would then regurgitate the dissolved food, which has transformed into a healing mixture. Afterward, he would apply them to the wounds and heal in seconds.

If patients had internal bleeding or a concussion, the patient, sadly, would have to ingest his quirked vomit. For the healing mixture to enter their bloodstream. Or, if they're lucky and not in need of urgent care, then an IV bag with his 'vomit' would do.

Of course, the patients have no clue. Truly, ignorance is bliss.

So, when the doctor applied the mixture to Leo's wounds, he did not complain one bit and even gave such high praise. With a finishing touch, he was given an IV bag with the mixture to heal his body internally as well.

With that, everything was done. But before leaving the ship, he took a much-needed hot shower. On a serious note, Leo had to use a quarter of a full bottle's worth of shampoo for his caked blood hair.

Eventually...

Leo was given a ride back to his hotel without even seeing a wisp of his partner after the island, but he left it at that. At the end of the day, she was just someone he had known for a few hours, nothing special.

Arriving back at his hotel room, he couldn't help but crash onto his bed. The crisp cold hair was heaven-sent, thanks to the air conditioner. Within seconds, he was out like a baby, awaiting the news of his acceptance.

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CHEERS!