Broken Chains

By the time he reached the evacuation area, he found it was a mess. People were fighting, trying to keep the villains away while those with fast Quirks were transporting everyone to safety.

" Get them to the back, Seijin-kun!" Midoriya told him as he ran past him, holding a kid in his arms. Ashido and a few more of his classmates were following in tow.

" Let's follow after him!" Kyubi and Thunderbird followed the green head to where they were keeping the wounded away from the fight.

" You over there! Are those victims badly injured!" An older girl shouted at him.

Yuu snapped his head in her direction but quickly answered. " One of them had injured his leg but it doesn't seem to be serious, there are no broken bones or visible wounds. The other is completely unharmed."

" And the girl?" She said looking over at Yumei who was dropped by Thunderbird with a tsk sound.

" A hero I had taken away from the villains."

" I see. You!" She addressed Yumei while helping the man dismount Kyubi's back. " If you can't help with the fight, we need assistance here with treating the wounded."

Yumei took one glance at the evacuation area before heading the other way. " My Quirk is best suited for fighting." And she went to face off a few minions.

" After what she had done, not even an apology!" Whisper snorted.

" She was worried for Sora, I can't blame her." Yuu's head hung down as he thought about her words. She might have been right to a certain point.

" I don't think you brought me here so you could sit there and think." Thunderbird pointed and Yuu snapped back to reality.

" True! Thunderbird, please help with protecting the first-aid area! Kyubi! Let's go help with the evacuation of the injured ones!" He ordered them, his eyes glowing as he poured even more energy into them.

" Roger that! " Both went to fulfill their allocated roles.

" If you need help transporting the wounded, let me carry them!" Kyubi announced as soon as she met with a few students carrying two old men unable to walk. They exchanged looks and left them for the fox.

" Yosh! Let's keep it this way!" Whisper cheered.

Yuu looked back at the battle raging a few meters away from them, he could hear the ones fighting. Todoroki, Yoarashi and Gang Orca. " Take care, Todoroki-san..."

After a few minutes, the evacuation was completed. " Take care of them." The purple head said before going back to the fray raging on. " Midoriya-san didn't get back, I'm sure he's fighting out there."

" Then we have to support him!" Kyubi sped up. She found the green head boy just as he and Ojiro were taking down some minions.

" Don't mind if we join too!" Whisper shouted proudly as Kyubi hopped in the middle of the circle unleashing her fire and taking the minions by surprise.

" Thank you, Seijin-kun!" Said Midoriya.

" It was nothing, Midoriya-san..." Yuu pointed at where Gang Orca was. " Please, go and help them! Todoroki-san and Yoarashi from Shiketsu are having a hard time!"

" I see! Ojiro-kun..."

" I'll be fine!" He assured him while wringing his tail around a minion's neck and knocking him out.

Midoriya rushed over to where the spiral of wind and fire erupted while Yuu and Ojiro focused on the villains.

" Don't forget about me!" A loud shriek was heard before hundreds of pillars of lightning fell upon the villains, knocking them back. Yuu looked up at the large bird circling the sky. " There were no enemies left where I was so I came searching for more." Yuu merely smiled at him.

" Ojiro! Seijin!" Ashido joined their small fight.

" We're here to support you!" Tokoyami added, Dark Shadow immediately tackled a few soldiers.

Asui, who for sure seemed to have appeared out of thin air, swept away a few of the villains trying to sneak on them.

" A new ability of your Quirk?" Whisper asked her excitedly and the girl confirmed it.

" Asui-san, what about Sora and the rest?" Yuu asked.

" Are you done with the search and rescue already?" Ojiro added.

" Call me Tsuyu-chan. And yeah, pretty much. Sora-chan and the rest are leading the victims. Ribbit! Look out!"

But Mora from Shiketsu tackled the villains who attempted to ambush Ojiro. All the schools joined hands together to defend the evacuation area. But the fight didn't last for long for the siren blared, marking the end of the examination.

Mera announced that the last of H.U.C's members had just been rescued. The villains stopped and the students heaved sighs of relief. It may have been an hour or two at most, but Yuu felt it had extended for ages. With Mera's call for them to get changed, they all left the field...

________________

Moments later, Yuu would have done anything for him to have continued taking the exam and not stand there, anxiously awaiting his result. The incident with Yumei weighed on him heavily, not knowing how the ones scoring him would take it.

" Okay... Everyone, thanks for all your hard work..." Mera was standing on a podium in the middle of the field with a large TV screen behind him. He proceeded to elucidate the scoring system. " Anyway, the names of those who passed are listed in syllabify order. Please check the list keeping those words in mind."

Mera flung his arm at the large TV as it displayed a list of names. Sora moved forward, standing on the end of her feet so she could see. Whisper was frantically skimming through the names which began with S.

" There it is!" Sora's eyes widened in disbelief while she gaped at the screen. " My name is there..."

" Yuu! It's there!" Whisper shook the boy vigorously at that. " You've done it Yuu! You've done it, soldier!"

" I... I made it... even with the incident with Yumei..." Yuu couldn't begin to believe it. Before he knew it, his eyes overflew with tears.

" Well done! Yuu!" Sora flung herself on him, hugging him tightly. " We're semi-heroes now!"

" Ah! I made it! Thanks for encouraging me Sora!" He smiled down at her. " I couldn't have done it without you!"

" What are friends for." She beamed at him. All around them, cries of rejoicing echoed as people found their names on the TV, however, two of their classmates didn't join in. Both Todoroki and Bakugo failed, much to their surprise. It came like a shock for the top two to fall behind that they weren't at all surprised when Yoarashi smacked his head on the ground before Todoroki, offering a sincere apology.

While Mineta tried to use the situation to get at Todoroki, Iida kept him at bay.

Their papers then were distributed among them so they could look back at their own mistakes.

" Hee!! 86! Are you sure this is my paper?!" Sora said holding her sheet at Mera.

" Why are you shocked? You were amazing down there, Shirogane-san," Yaomomo told her.

" It's because you told us all that stuff down there we could handle the H.U.C members probably," Jiro pointed with a gentle smile.

Whisper looked down at Yuu's paper when he didn't budge before his eyes bulged out. " 90! You actually got 90!"

" How?!" Yuu looked again and again over the sheet. He frankly thought he might fail because of his little quarrel with Yumei.

" Who cares! Just enjoy it!" Whisper slapped him on the back.

It was then that an announcement was made, in which Mera reminded them of the responsibility of upholding the provisional license and what effects it may have on society. After all, they were the ones to uphold its balance after the retirement of All Might.

As for the ones who didn't pass, they were granted another chance at redoing an individual exam after attending a 3-month-long special course.

Sora and Yuu smiled back at Todoroki. They will be waiting for him just like Iida and Midoriya...

________________

By the time the sun began to set, they were each catching their license in hand. Sora was practically rubbing it on her face whilst Yuu almost refused to stow it away in his pocket, looking at it every now and then.

" You know, I would have sent its picture to your parents, so to make them eat their words," Whisper smirked proudly as he snatched the small license from him and admired it.

" I will, actually. But not to make them eat their words. At least, not the way you put it." Yuu's eyes darted back to their teacher who was talking with Ms. Joke. " I want them to know that I've got people who trust in me and are pushing me forward."

" You're such a goodie. If it were me, I would have rubbed it against their faces after what they had done," Whisper huffed.

" Then, I'm glad it's not." He sweated.

" Seijin-kun" Yuu almost flinched at that voice as he looked back at the girl, now back into her uniform, walking over to him. " Relax, I'm not going to petrify you."

Even with that said, it couldn't bring Yuu to fully let his guard down. Yumei had a crestfallen expression on her face as her eyes slowly fell to the ground. " You probably didn't know but... I didn't make it..."

" Eh? Eh! But, with your Quirk against those villains..." He exclaimed. He had passed her while she was fighting and saw her single-handedly wipe the ground with them.

" Once you fall beneath the benchmark, there is no way you could earn points again. I've wasted my time looking for you, and even lost more points for attacking another hero while he was in the middle of rescue." She heaved a sigh and bowed her head. " I'm really sorry about today. I've acted out of anger and went after you."

Yuu's eyes dropped slightly at that. " Rise your head. What you said was true." His head fell even further at that. " You were right, I still I'm not able to be much help to Sora. There were times when I couldn't even stop her from doing reckless things. And... at the back of my mind, I always thought of your words and wondered; if it was you, could you have stopped her, could you have protected her? I was unsure."

" Yuu..." Whisper's eyes softened at the boy. He knew he had been placing a lot of responsibility upon himself and had been regretting not being there for Sora at both at the camp and Camino. That was why he trained harder than anyone else.

" But still, that was the very reason I shouldn't give up. That was the very reason I had to push forward. Because I couldn't do much didn't mean I should fall back and lament my faults and mistakes, I had to get stronger to protect her." When his eyes rose up, they bore an unwavering resolution. Yumei was rather taken aback at that.

" I just realized it... your stuttering stopped." Yuu blinked twice at her while Yumei pushed up her glasses. " Maybe it was me who didn't change. I refused to take a close look at you, to see just how much you've made it. After all, you managed to break my petrification."

She raised two curious emerald eyes at him. " How come you did it? No one ever done that before."

Yuu rubbed the back of his head at that. " Well, I kind of realized it when you froze me back then, that you didn't actually freeze my body..."

" Ho?" She urged him to continue.

" I suddenly had that thought taking over my mind; ' You can't move, don't even try, you can't move a muscle, you're already petrified'. Only that thought was there, everything else blurred and pushed to the very back of my mind. But then, I forced myself to remember..."

Yumei's eyes didn't swerve away at all, listening avidly to him. " The reason I was doing all of that, Sora. My mind seemed to function again. I reminded myself there were people out there who needed my help. And as I recalled... past memories, the chains you put on my mind didn't seem strong anymore. Slowly the thought that was convincing me I wasn't able to move receded and, I broke free."

" I'm surprised..." Yumei gave a small chuckle. " Few realize exactly what my Quirk is. "

She took off her glasses and smiled. " That's true, I couldn't have petrified your body for real. My Quirk only embeds the thought that you are petrified into your mind. Most people can't fight back that thought. In other words, I petrify one's mind."

Hakuja Yumei. Hero Name: Medusa. Quirk: Mind Petrification. She can petrify a person by forcing them to think they are unable to move simply by looking at them. The person then stays immobile as long as they think they are petrified. By the way, her Quirk doesn't work through glass.

Yumei took a deep breath. " I see now. People's opinions and words are one's chains. For you who were used to being belittled and told that you couldn't do anything albeit continued fighting, my chains were nothing for you. Anyone in your shoes might have actually given up after being told over and over that he couldn't make it, but you didn't."

" It was all thanks to Sora," Yuu added. " She was the one who always got my back."

" Yeah, she was the one that helped you break those chains before. So it would only make sense that thinking of Sora cleared your mind and helped you overpower my Quirk. " Yumei's smile softened. " I'm impressed."

Her eyes sharpened as she looked up at him again. " Still, I would rather you grow stronger. Don't put our Sora in any more trouble. You get that!"

" H-Hai!"

Yumei was rather satisfied with his answer. " Good. You better protect her." She said putting her glasses on again while the white head rushed over to her.

" Yumei!" She stopped inches away from her. " I just heard! How come you didn't make it?! You were the first one to finish the first test!" She said shaking her as though hoping answers would drop off like that.

" I made some misjudgments, that's why," she said calmly, " but it's not over yet. I will be taking the exam again after 3 months. I will catch up with both of you. Until then, you be careful, okay."

Sora nodded at her before giving her one last hug. She pulled away just as Yoarashi came running to them, talking to Todoroki on the way and saying bluntly that he disliked him, although apologizing all the same.

" What an inconsistent guy ..." Whisper rubbed his face tiredly.

" He's just too blunt for his own good. But he has a nice heart." Yumei shrugged as the boy came before them.

" I'm sorry but I was told to get you! That's all! Goodbye UA!" He waved at them, dragging Yumei behind as if she were some luggage while he ran back to the rest of his schoolmates.

After saying their goodbyes to Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu, they mounted onto their bus. It was rather noisy and rowdy at first, all were excited about the exam and all had stories to tell. But after a few minutes, the bus was the calmest Sora could ever recall it. Everyone had either dosed off or were too tired to even strike up a conversation.

Sora looked at Yuu by her side, he, as well, had fallen asleep, his head leaning against the window. Whisper, for the first time in her knowing him, was sitting quietly on the boy's shoulder, apparently tired as well.

Feeling all the excitement of the day sipping away, Sora leaned her head on her friend's shoulder and decided to join the sleeping club...

________________

Congratulations!😘🎉

You should pass by on the weekend so I can throw a celebration!

Sora could hardly contain her laughter as she read her grandma's reply. She could tell she was really excited about the news. Sora then looked back at her friend, he was sitting on the other couch, checking his phone every now and then. He must have been hoping for a reply too.

" We've got regular classes starting tomorrow, huh?" Jiro sighed as she flopped back on the puff stool.

" There is no rest for heroes," Yaoyorozu told her, sipping her herbal tea.

" But man, a lot sure has happened!" Sato cracked his neck in the hope of relieving some exhaust.

" I will never forget this summer for the rest of my life," Tokoyami added.

" Going to camp, getting attacked by villains, having to live in a dorm, and also getting our provisional licenses..." Sora ticked a list with her fingers. " That was truly a lot for one summer vacation. "

" There was a lot of dangerous stuff though." Uraraka pointed, taking the stool beside Sora while hugging Koda's rabbit.

" Still, that shouldn't prevent you from focusing on your studies and giving all your attention to your education!" Iida piped in, his hand moving more excitedly than ever.

" You're the most excited out of us here." Whisper pointed.

" Either way, this doesn't mean we're heroes yet. We just are a step closer, like what Aizawa-sensei said," said Yuu, once again taking out his license and admiring it.

" True. We're only granted a chance to take a closer look at how things work after all. We still have to work harder to become pro heroes." Yaoyorozu agreed.

" That's right! Only hard work could get us there!" Iida added.

" Iida, you're really such a diligent person." Whisper snorted.

" Thanks for the compliment, Whisper-kun!" Iida retorted.

"Wait... I didn't... forget it, Iida is in a very good mood he wouldn't be teased today." Whisper sweated.

Sora's head reared just as she heard Bakugo whispering something to Midoriya and her blood almost froze in her veins. That aura, could he be aiming for a fight?

Yuu's eyes flicked from both of them to his horror-struck friend.

________________

" Maybe we should tell a teacher," he whispered waiting by the elevator along with Sora. " I mean. You saw his face, I doubt he's up to anything good."

" I know." Sora looked back at the green head waiting in the living. He didn't go up to his room, merely sitting there and fiddling with his phone. Her guess was that he was waiting for the living to empty.

" Sora..." She looked back at her friend. " Do you know something about Midoriya-san I don't?"

"No. Why would you ask that?" She shrugged one shoulder, offering a rather forced smile. Knowing she was far from convincing him, she decided to change the subject. " You know, let's talk with him."

She said stepping back into the lighting of the living. Midoriya looked up as both of them approached. " Figured you heard it."

" Are you doing it? From what I can see, he is seeking a fight," Sora stated.

" Maybe it's better if you don't go. You'll be probably breaking about a dozen dorm rules," said the purple head.

Midoriya seemed to consider it for a moment and then he steeled himself. " I have to go out and talk to him. We can't avoid each other forever you know."

" We know, but..." Whisper seemed rather worried. He knew Bakugo very well and it was almost impossible for their talk not to end with at least a few scratches.

" I'll be fine." Midoriya stood up and offered them a smile. Then he walked over to the door.

" Yuu, I believe you said you had All Might's contact info?" Sora whispered to him when Midoriya was out of the door frame.

" Right," he said recalling the two teachers giving him their numbers after their short visit to his house in case he needed to consult them.

" Time to ring him then."...

________________

After feeding their teacher on the situation, both of them went back to their rooms. They lay down, eyes wide open, and unable to drift to sleep easily despite how tired they were. It wasn't until late in the night that their eyelids grew too heavy and they fell into deep slumber.

They woke up the next morning to a rather, intriguing scene. Both Bakugo and Midoriya, still not changed into their uniforms, were vacuuming the living area.

" What?!" The whole class chorused as Midoriya explained why they weren't attending school for that day. They all kept pointing out how stupid and idiotic their actions were that Bakugo seemed to consider vacuuming their faces as well.

" So, did you guys make up?" Uraraka asked as they went on to the green head.

" It wasn't so much 'make up', as..." He seemed to search for the right phrasing. " Hmm ... it's hard to put into words..."

" Get your butt kicked." Whisper sniggered at that and Yuu had to squeeze his large head.

" Can't you learn to hold your mouth? Midoriya-san has enough on his plate."

" You're lucky you got away with house arrest." Iida rose up his hand rather vigorously that Sora thought he was going to give Midoriya a chop on the head. " That means you two will miss the opening ceremony we're going to now."

Todoroki was rather concerned about the blond's course for the provisional license. Not that it seemed like a pleasant reminder.

Sora stared at the blond muttering under his breath. His aura had certainly changed from last night. It felt calmer and... less disturbed. Much more importantly it didn't seem to clash with Midoriya's like it always did whenever they were too close. She smiled at herself. " Seems they sorted things at least."

" What do you mean?" Yuu asked her and Sora merely gave a beaming smile.

" Let's say I'm looking forward to the Bakugo-kun who will be joining us in five days."

" Thanks for the cleaning, then!" Kaminari shouted from the door as they all left for the school. He almost got a trash bag in the face...