After getting changed into your costume, you rushed to find the rest of the class, who were already waiting in the session room for the information session to begin.
"[L/N], you're finally here," Asui said upon spotting you. "What held you up?"
"I actually wanna talk about that," you said. "Is everyone here?"
"Uh," Kaminari looked around. "Mineta is missing."
"Eh, we don't need him," you waved off the information. "Everyone in the hallway now."
"What? The session is gonna start in a few minutes," Momo said.
"It will be quick," you assured. "Everyone in the hallway. Go."
The class slipped out of the crowded and noisy room and into the quiet hallway. You closed the door and made sure no strangers were lingering before turning to your classmates.
"Aizawa and I had a talk," you began. "Me and Bakugo were right. Shindo's act was bullshit. Everyone's was. Aizawa confirmed that. All of the other schools know we're top dogs, so they're going to do everything they can to beat us. They were being so nice to keep us from suspecting anything."
"So?..." Uraraka trailed off, seemingly not following.
"So it's not everyone verse everyone," you continued. "It's fifteen hundred examinees against us. They're not focused on beating just anyone. They're all gonna come for us, so we have to work together or else one of us might be stuck fighting two dozen people at once. We should all at least stick with one other person just to be safe."
"We're gonna get jumped!" Kaminari exclaimed.
Bakugo rolled his eyes, not as shocked as everyone else as he was already on the same page as you beforehand.
"We should go back in before we miss anything," Iida stated.
As your classmates quickly re-entered the session room, Bakugo snaked and arm around your waist and tugged you against him as he walked.
"You're with me if we're doin' this whole pair thing," he stated. "Try not to get lost."
"Try not to stare at me too much," you countered. "You might get that pretty little face of yours wrecked if you don't pay attention."
"Don't get smart with me," he said while pinching your hip lightly.
"Alright," a voice boomed, silencing the chatter.
There was a tired looking man standing on the stage at the front of the room. He flipped through some papers in front of him as he mumbled incoherent words.
"Right, you're here for the Provisional License Exam..." he muttered. "I'm Mera. I'm with the Heroes Public Safety Commission. My favorite type of sleep is non-rem sleep. Nice to meet you. Work is so busy that I get barely any sleep. We're also very short staffed. Anyway, with that out of the way, let me explain the exam."
You snuck a glance at Bakugo, who was still holding you against him as he listened to the host. You couldn't help but notice the lingering eyes of your competitors.
"All one thousand five hundred and forty examinees present will be competing in one massive free-for-all exercise," Mera explained, "and we'll be testing you on speed. Only the first hundred examinees to meet the requirements will pass."
'That's one thousand four hundred and forty fails,' you thought, your eyes widening. Bakugo squeezed your hip.
"Going onto the passing requirements," Mera continued. "They involve these," he held up some sort of circular patches. "Each examinee will get three targets. You can place them wherever you want on your body as long as they are exposed. That means no soles of the feet or armpits or on the back of your neck if you have long hair that can hide it. Those with three illuminated targets are considered defeated. To pass, you must defeat two other competitors. That's all for the rules. We'll be handing out the targets after this place opens up."
"Opens up?..." you muttered curiously before the entire stadium began the shake.
The ceilings and walls collapsed and slowly slid down until they were mere lines on the ground. The sky was now revealed and the air was cool. There were several different hand-built environments scattered throughout the arena.
"The exam will being exactly one minute after all of the examinees are equipped," Mera stated. "With every type of landscape available, you should be able to find a part of the arena that suits you. Make the best use of your talents."
Two similarly dressed men began to walk around and hand out the targets, and, as soon as you had yours, you began to think of where to place them.
People usually aim at the upper body while fighting. It's a natural instinct, which meant your targets were more likely to be hit if they were somewhere up top. However, some people thought they were smart by having a strategy where they purposefully always aimed for the feet or shins. Your best bet was to place your targets in the middle of your body.
You placed one in the center of your stomach, the second on the inside of your left thigh, and the third right above your right hip.
"Your one minute count down begins now," Mera stated. "Good luck. I'm going to sleep now."
Everyone immediately began breaking off into pairs and small groups as they prepared to either attack as soon as the timer hit zero or hide.
Bakugo turned to you as he finished placing his targets. He fiddled with the six orange balls he had been given, which everyone else had as well.
"Where're we headed?" he questioned.
"Oh, am I making the plan?" you asked with a small grin as you tucked five of your own balls into your pockets. You kept one in your hand.
"I never said that," he replied with a shake of his head. "I'm asking what environment you want to go to." You hummed while looking around.
There were several different environments such as a flood zone, an iceberg, a forest, and cliffs, but you already knew what place you'd shine in.
"The city," you stated. "It's got poles, lights, things I can swing from."
"Well, we've been talking for thirty seconds, so we better get the hell over there before time's up," Bakugo said.
"And who started the conversation?" you questioned before grabbing his wrist. "Come on, Poppy."
You proceeded to pull Bakugo along as you began running, but the two of you only reached the flood zone before the clock hit zero, which was two terrains away from the city.
"START!"
"Plan B?" you wondered as dozens of competitors appeared seemingly out of no one. Some jumped out from around corners, and other hopped over obstacles just to get to you.
"Shit," Bakugo cursed. "Back to back."
You spun around and pressed your back to Bakugo's as you observed your competitors. They were all from different schools. You recognized a few from Shiketsu and some from Ketsubutsu, but you knew none of their names.
"It's U.A's power couple," A Ketsubutsu student stated blandly. He wore a black shirt with elbow-length sleeves and black capris. Black sneakers housed his feet, and there was a wide, red scarf around his neck that covered his chin. You recognized him as a friend of Shindo.
"How lovely," a student from an unknown school claimed. "It'll be rewarding to take down two of U.A's best students first, the Underdog and Katsuki Bakugo."
"Who you callin' Underdog, Plant Head!" you shouted, using his spiked up green hair as an insult. "I have a name."
"Your name doesn't matter," another examinee stated. "All that matters is the Crushing of U.A."
"You are at a disadvantage," the same Ketsubutsu student from before stated. "We know both of your quirks inside and out since you decided to show off and be famous. You know nothing about us."
"That doesn't mean jack shit," you replied. "This guy won't stop pummeling until you're immobile, and you can't do anything about my quirk if you can't see it."
"That may be so," the Ketsubutsu boy said, "but your quirk is useless if it can't stop mine."
The boy chucked one of his balls, but, before it could reach you, it disappeared, seemingly being yanked somewhere else. You looked around, trying to figure out where it went.
You heard a 'swooshing' sound to your right, and, out of the corner of your eye. You saw a flash of orange as the boy's ball flew toward one of Bakugo's targets.
You threw yourself back as you looped your arms through Bakugo's, which forced him to lean down as you flipped yourself over his back and caught the ball in your mouth.
You flipped yourself the rest of the way over and landed on your feet, which finally allowed Bakugo to stand up.
You tossed the ball in the air, wrapped a string around it, and swung it around a few times before throwing it toward an unsuspecting examinee.
The ball slammed into the target on her right shoulder, giving her one strike and getting you one step closer to passing.
"Nice try, Emo," you stated while turning toward the Ketsubutsu boy. "You're gonna have to try harder than that."
You didn't know his quirk, but you knew enough from observing to know he had some type of ability to control or manipulate projectiles.
"We have our first pass. One person eliminated one hundred and twenty people!"
'A hundred and twenty?' you thought. 'Show off.'
"City," you nodded at Bakugo before you took off running. You trusted him to follow and catch up as the examinees surrounding you began to chase you.
The both of you dodged soaring balls, and Bakugo ended of throwing three of his and hitting two targets.
"Looks like we got ourselves in some trouble, eh?" Bakugo joked.
"Eh," you mocked while shrugging your shoulders. "I like trouble."
Two competitors appeared above your head, most likely having jumped from a high surface, and craned their arms back to throw their balls at you.
"I'll give ya a boost," Bakugo nodded at you before crouching mid-run and using his explosions to propel himself off the ground.
You grabbed into his arm before he could get too far and pulled yourself up to stand on his shoulders, which you used to give yourself a boost as you jumped into the air, wrapped two strings around the two incoming balls, and swung them back at the two examinees.
They both hit the two remaining targets of one the examinees, who was the same girl from before whose first target you had hit. Since she already had one target illuminated, that meant you gained your first defeat.
"One down for me!" you yelled down to Bakugo as you began to fall.
You shot out a string and attached it to one of Bakugo's gauntlets, which you used as leverage to pull yourself to him.
"Always gotta show me up, huh?" he teased as the two of you continued running.
"Gotta keep your ego in check," you replied.
"You can brag about how much better you are later," he rolled his eyes. "Right now, focus on passing."
"Did you just admit that I'm better than you?" you asked with an exaggerated gasp.
"Focus now. Flaunt later!" Bakugo unnecessarily shouted. "Let's win this."
'Winning,' you thought smugly. 'I think I'm pretty used to that.'
[EDITED]