Chapter 8

To say that Yaoyorozu was anticipating the upcoming exercise was putting it lightly, the young woman barely able to prevent herself from bouncing on the balls of her feet. She wanted an opportunity to engage with Shirou and prove her worth and she had it right here, right now. She had just heard what Shirou had said before he and his team had entered the facility, he could only make medieval weapons.

She could make anything that she knew the inner workings of.

How could a sword compete with a firearm?

Not that she would be using real bullets! She didn't want to kill Shirou, far from it. She needed to teach him, and subsequently, his team a lesson.

Speaking of teams, while hers had the number disadvantage it was actually well rounded and would do well storming the building. Sato was their powerhouse, though due to his quirk his strength would only last so long. Hence they had planned to use him in sparse moments, tagging him out with Kaminari whose electric ability would keep any potential counter attackers at bay.

Kaminari had also been given the title of their VIP, the belief being that the members of the opposing team would be more than a little hesitant to get close to the member of their squad that could constantly produce an electric field around them, a great defensive measure. While all this was happening, Tokoyami would be running as decoy, hopefully creating the idea that he was the VIP that would cause their whole team to be eliminated. Due to the strengths of his own quirk, Dark Shadow, he would be the hardest physically to handcuff so it would make sense that he would be targeted by either strength or numbers, depending on who encountered who.

"BEGIN!"

All Might's voice boomed around them, signaling the start of the competition and causing the members of Team D to begin their assignment.

They proceeded slowly, knowing full well that Team E had had a full ten minutes to scout out the building and prepare accordingly. Also, it didn't take them long to notice the cameras located in the corners of the corridor, informing them that their entire performance would be monitored by All Might and assumably their peers. Yaoyorozu couldn't help but smile, hoping quietly that the whole thing was being recorded so that she could watch these next few minutes over and over again.

The path ahead branched off, the trio of Kaminari, Sato and Yaoyorozu took the left path, Tokoyami taking the right. The three students approached the stairs slightly hesitant, expecting an ambush to be awaiting them. Sato stepped forward first and found that it was an ambush of sorts. At the end of the room stood Midoriya and Mineta, the two of them bracing themselves for the conflict to come.

The room they were in had purple balls seemingly littered across the ground, no pattern apparent. It was heavier on their side but that was nothing unexpected. The real question though, was what did they do?

None of their team had truly paid much attention to Mineta during the quirk assessment test the previous day. His small frame meant that his physical abilities weren't that great but he had managed to get into the Hero Course ahead of hundreds of other applicants. That meant that his quirk was something that couldn't be underestimated. While yesterday would have been an excellent day to watch and learn everybodies capabilities, most of the attention had been focused on the person who had already stood toe to toe with heroes. Without anything outstanding, nobody had truly paid attention to Mineat and what the balls that he produced from his head were capable of.

They needed to be avoided though, that was clear.

Sato moved forward, careful to watch his step as he proceeded towards the two smaller students.

Kaminari followed behind, pulling the handcuffs out of his pocket and getting into position. While Mineta's orbs were uncertainties at this moment in time, Midoriya's quirk was very much known with the teenager having had to see Recovery Girl after yesterday's exercise. Incredible strength, terrible feedback.

Yaoyorozu watched patiently from the entranceway, wondering just how Midoriya would act in the situation before him. It seemed as if the boy was so far incapable of controlling his immensely powerful quirk, one which could likely turn the tide of any battle in an instant but it had to come with some horrible outcomes. Knowing that in order to throw a full blown punch, one which would provide victory in almost any given situation at the almost guaranteed result of injuring himself to such a degree that he could no longer compete. Momo had to give credit where credit was due, the fact that he wished to become a hero while his own body was incapable of dealing with the self sustaining damage was incredible and took incredible determination.

The creaking of floorboards next to her was all the warning Yaoyorozu received before she felt her body begin to fall, having been pushed to the side by seemingly nothing. The answer to her current predicament was quick to come to her, there having been one other member of Team E hiding in the room. Hagakure was invisible, that was her quirk and nobody had considered the possibility that she would go completely nude and hide near the entrance to the room. They had merely thought that the purple balls scattered around were the only traps in waiting.

Knowing how her dilemma came about however didn't prevent Momo from falling. Twisting her head, she saw that she was heading towards a slathering of the purple balls. Reacting on quick thinking, a wooden rod formed out of her palm, landing in a gap between the spheres. It wasn't pretty, but it kept her out of trouble for the moment. She didn't want to know just what those balls did just yet.

"Look out!"

The call from her teammates alerted her to oncoming danger, looking up to see three balls soaring through the air at her. Her predicament was a simple one, avoid the spheres at all costs while remembering that there was an invisible opponent somewhere nearby that could interfere with her efforts at any given moment.

Simple.

She began her work, preparing herself to avoid all oncoming assaults, both visible and not. It would be difficult and all of her focus would be required to successfully return to the fight at hand.

"Tokoyami has been eliminated from the test," boomed All Might's voice over the speaker system.

And there went her concentration. Yaoyorozu avoided the first ball but both the second and third connected with both her shoulder and torso, her elaborate movements flailing as she fell towards the floor, still unsure what the balls currently attached to her body did. When she did land awkwardly atop a number of them, she suddenly discovered her predicament as she found herself unable to move.

Try as she might, and she did try quite vigorously, she could do nothing bit flail with little success of getting anywhere more than where she remained.

It seemed as if she had discovered just what the balls that grew on top of Mineta's head did, as did her teammates who now found themselves glued together.

While they could fight on for a handful of seconds longer, Kaminari couldn't activate his quirk without taking out Sato and the strong man would be unable to utilize his strength to his fullest without risk of injuring Kaminari. She meanwhile could do nothing from her position. Sure she could utilize her quirk to craft items for her teammates to use but Momo could tell from her place on the ground that the result was clear.

She was incapacitated, her partners were being approached from three sides with their opponents all wielding their handcuffs and preparing to finish the battle.

They had lost.

She had lost.

She had lost without even having seen Shirou. She had been taken out by the three students who occupied the lowest places in her class. It was humiliating, beyond humiliating! Unfortunately that left her with one very terrible thought on her mind.

Where did that leave her?

The general studies class couldn't help but find themselves in a situation they hadn't even remotely considered at the start of the day. Their teacher had decided that it would be good for them to watch and analyse the aspiring heroes. It was very possible that some of them would become well known journalists or even be a part of a hero agency in an administrative role. Those were only a couple of the examples that the teacher had come up with but the students were in agreement that it would be a good lesson.

"Do you think that Sato's quirk would be perfect as an advertisement for a children's cereal brand?"

"What kind of exercise do you think Jiro does to keep in shape?"

"Do you think it was morally wrong for Hagakure to go completely nude, I mean, I know we can't see her but still..."

These were a few of the conversations currently surrounding Rin, the world traveller barely paying attention to the rabble of the masses. Her eyes were solely locked on a single student, but to call him on the same level of those around him would be an insult.

What she was watching though was his actions, small mannerisms that only she would notice. She had seen them all before and she was on the lookout for the more worrying ones. With that being said, Shirou did look oddly relaxed.

Considering the task that he had just accomplished, it seemed as if he was having a touch of entertainment predicting and countering the plans that the other team had made.

If Shirou really was enjoying this, even just that tiny amount, Rin could call the exercise a success, regardless of the inevitable result.

"That was awesome!" shouted Mineta, high fiving

Midoriya as the two of them met up with the rest of their team. He then followed up by trying to give Shirou a clap of the hands only for the weapon crafter to cross his arms. Seemingly getting the hint, Mineta retracted his arm and went very still.

"How'd you defeat Tokoyami Shirou?" asked

Hagakure.

"I didn't, Jiro did," said Shirou.

"Really?" said Midoriya in astonishment. "How'd you do it?"

Jiro, a touch embarrassed by all of the attention that had originally been directed at Shirou being thrust upon her, found herself playing with her jacks, twirling one around her finger. "Well, since his quirk centred around the whole dark being kind of thing, I made the room lighter to see if that would work against it."

"Made the room lighter?" repeated Mineta.

"She collapsed one of the walls," clarified Shirou.

"Wait, didn't you think about that doing that would risk the roof caving in?" asked Midoriya. The silence that followed along with Jiro sheepishly looking to the side answered his question more than words would have. "Then how did..."

Before anything else could be said, All Might's voice resounded over the speaker system once more. "Due to the damages that have been sustained to the current facility, another location will be used for the next battle where Team C will be the team invading the villain headquarters.

Those headquarters will be occupied by...Team E!"

"Team E…..us?" exclaimed Mineta. "That's not fair, we're meant to fight again so soon!"

"Why would they make us fight again?" questioned

Hagakure.

"Think about the team layouts," said Midoriya, his mouth covered by his hand as his mind went into overdrive. "Every other team have evenly spaced out teams, making them well rounded while ours consists of the highest and the four lowest ranking students. This might well be a secondary test to show that individual skill will does not necessarily mean that there is an advantage over the number of opposition."

"No, I think it's much more simple than that," stated Shirou.

"What do you mean?" asked Mineta.

"It's to punish us."

"Punish us!" repeated Mineta in shock.

"Aizawa threatened to expel the lowest student yesterday," said Shirou. "The standard rules of teaching don't have to be applied in this class. The four of you were the lowest of the pack yesterday in a school which is meant to produce stellar hero after stellar hero. Any hero that comes out of this academy and fails is a blemish on the school itself."

"So what, they want to make us give up?" asked Hagakure.

"That may have been the original idea," murmured Midoriya. "They may have been counting on us all to be wiped out, trounced by students that scored higher than us to either motivate us to get better or get out. One in three hundred applicants get through to the hero course every year so they want to make sure that those who got in are determined to see it out to the end."

"How do you think the other students feel now?"

"What?" asked Jiro, curious about what Shirou had said.

"It may be as you say," said Shirou. "Were we to be badly beaten, our place in the school may have been in jeopardy. Now though that we came out of that fight and the other team failed to capture a single one of us, how do you think that makes them feel? They came in with confidence only to get beaten by the four of you, the four of you who placed at the bottom of the ladder. So I ask again, how do you think they feel?"

Silence reigned after his words, the pleasure they had felt from their victory hollow after Shirou's speech. With them having achieved perfect victory, it also meant that the other team had suffered a total defeat. Students whom they were to share the rest of their schooling with, any potential bond of friendship that may have been formed possibly shattered before it had even begun.

Thankfully their shared sense of uncomfortability was shattered with All Might announcing over the speaker system that the next location had been selected and that they had ten minutes to prepare.

Shirou watched as his team marched forward, their spirits dampened from what he had said.

Pausing mid step, Shirou allowed a sigh to escape his lips before he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Stop."

Shirou's command resulted in a very quick response by the four other students. They turned around to see Shirou with his arms crossed.

"What, you're going to give us a pep talk now?" said Jiro, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Try and boost our morale perhaps."

"Hardly," said Shirou. "I'm going to tell the lot of you that you should quit if something like this gets you down."

"What!" Hagakure screamed out, fists clenched and shaking up and down.

"In your own time, you can worry about whatever it is that is dragging you down and kill those thoughts with movies, ice cream, long walks or anything that helps get your mind off things.

However you deal with it, is how you will deal with it after we come out of this victorious."

"Victorious? You reckon we will win again?" asked Mineta. "I reckon we should just call it quits during this one and prevent ourselves from having to fight again."

"Then get out and be known as the guy who just walked out on the second day of school, all because he was scared of getting hurt in a school for people who want to put their lives on the line everyday." Mineta stiffened at Shirou's words as he continued. "We will get hurt, time and time again.

Physically and mentally. Then we will get up time and time again. We will recover, get hurt and be stronger to tackle the next challenge each and every time a new problem comes our way. Right now is another task that we will overcome, even if we then have to fight the rest of the class one after the other. Now, I'm going to go prepare myself for the fact I believe lida is going to hunt me down like a rabid dog on some weird revenge thing. Sero will try to use the tape his quirk allows him to create to pull people off balance, count on that. Mineta, since you're the distance fighter he will try to target you to reduce our overall range. Count on that. Hagakure will stand in front and get drawn in in your place. The momentary shock should give you enough time to strike with the two of you double teaming to take him down. Midoriya, you'll need to combat Koda. His quirk allows him to communicate with animals, so he won't be able to do much in the current situation unless perhaps for some spiders or insects, no need to use your quirk, just put him down with natural strength. He will likely be the one holding onto the handcuffs and be ready to eliminate whoever Sero or Kirishima puts down. On the note of Kirishima, Jiro, you're going to keep him at bay. The shockwaves you produce may be the only way to slow him down, perhaps even stop him completely but you'll have to get through the armour. Aim for the joints, behind the kneecaps, armpits, elbows, find the chinks in his armour. Kirishima or lida will be their leader, whether they chose to go with speed or strength. They will be the hardest to take down though. Reduce their numbers and collaborate on Kirishima while I teach lida a lesson.

If you have complaints on the plan you are more than welcome to voice them afterwards. Now, let's go."

Shirou marched forward, his teammates parting for him as they tried to comprehend the whole thing before awkwardly jogging to catch up with him, not wanting to walk behind. "So much for the whole no pep talk thing," Jiro whispered to Hagakure who couldn't help but giggle.