Birds of a Feather

Let's see...

         "Raven." Bakugo grinned as he cracked his knuckles.
"She's probably not on her own." Todoroki said, holding his hand out to keep him back from attacking her. "She could be a decoy to draw us in, so we need to proceed with caution." He watched her carefully. I have to think of her as an enemy right now. "I'll just restrain her with my ice," He stepped forward and touched the wall.
Karasu hadn't made a move since she stepped around the corner, which was odd for her. "If you can," she said with a slight smile as she leapt into the air to avoid being caught by the ice. Todoroki quickly threw another curve of ice towards her as she kicked off the opposite wall. She glided sideways through the air like she had in the Hassaikai raid, there was more room for her to spread her wings out between the floor and ceiling, sliding between Todoroki and Bakugo to land on the other side of them.
They jumped around just as quickly, determined not to let her get the drop on them. There were two of them and one of her, after all.
Karasu didn't land, she just let herself hover in place as she watched them. She had a slightly proud expression at the look of annoyance on Bakugo's face. She kept her eyes squarely on the two of them, as wary of them as she was- they were clearly wary of her. Because they hadn't actually seen around the corner, they still didn't know if she was alone.
Turning away from her would give her a chance to attack one of them one-on-one, or however many of her teammates were with her to attack the ones who went around the corner. It took one surprise to take one, or both, of them out and pin them to the wall. She also knew that the reverse was also true- and three on one, especially these three, wouldn't go well for her even if Shoto would be reluctant to actually land a blow on her. Her solo act was up.
Karasu kicked herself into the air and shouted "ready!" as she dove towards the trio to try and push them back.
Dark Shadow snapped around the corner, grabbing Todoroki's arms quickly.
"Hey!" He let out a shout of surprise, throwing a stream of fire at Dark Shadow to make him recede and drop him to the ground again. The limited space also served to limit the range of Todoroki's fire- overusing it could turn this exam into an actual life or death emergency it wasn't meant to be, or that neither the students or the Aizawa and the rest of the faculty were prepared for.
"I knew she wasn't alone." Bakugo grumbled, letting out explosions in either direction. "Who else is with you?!" he demanded.
"It's just them, Kacchan!" Todoroki's voice came around the corner.
"Good! Then that's-" and suddenly his eyes went white.
"He didn't even need a signal for that." Karasu remarked with a smile.
Shinso leapt around the corner and slapped one of the magnets on Bakugo's arm, and before he was even awake again he was attached to the wall. Todoroki threw one of his own disks the second he saw Shinso, managing to stick it around Shinso's thigh. He hit the back wall with a shout of frustration.
"Tsukuyomi!" Karasu called out to her teammate, she gestured to a fork in the path for him to take the left path and zipped off after closing her staff and snapping it back to her wrist. If they could get ahead of Todoroki, she had the beginnings of a plan. She glanced back and saw Tokoyami rushing after her. She shook her wrist at him and pointed the opposite direction down another fork in the path as they flew down the opposite one. Thankfully he understood her message and threw one of his cuffs down the hallway at the ground. It wouldn't buy them much time, if any, but it was a chance. She pointed to the ceiling- it was about a thirty foot ceiling, and they could hide up against it. Karasu used her wings to stick herself in the corner between the wall and the ceiling, Tokoyami just using Dark Shadow to keep him floating beside her.
She dropped her voice to a whisper, again barely audible. "It won't be long until Shoto catches up with us, if we keep fleeing and turning random corners we risk finding more people or exhausting ourselves before Shoto manages to find us. I think that you should go ahead the first chance you have once he does. That way I can keep him from pursuing you, and if he manages to pin me to a wall it won't be as big a blow to the team's defence as losing you and Dark Shadow would be."
Tokoyami nodded in agreement with her plan. "We should stay silent until Shoto arrives, and then I'll go as soon as you start facing him."
Karasu nodded in response, palming her staff carefully as they waited. Fenced in combat like this was extremely difficult for her- if she stood dead centre in the halls of this maze, she could unfurl her wings completely to either side, but so much as a foot in either direction and that would be untrue. It limited not only her speed in a fight, but her mobility. She had to play it carefully or she'd be down for the count just as quickly as Bakugo and Shinso had been.
Below them they could hear footsteps approaching. Both the students readied themselves- and then Iida and Midoriya came around the corner.
          Karasu and Tokoyami dropped to the ground and both sighed in relief.
"Deku." Karasu nodded to each of them. "Ingenium."
"Where's Koe?" Midoriya looked between the two of them.
"Pinned to a wall." Karasu admitted. "We ran into Shoto and Dynamight, Koe pinned Dynamight but Shoto got Koe immediately after. We decided to run to regroup and avoid the risk of Shoto pinning another one of us before we could pin him."
"Sounds like a wise decision." Iida agreed.
"Shoto will probably be on his way here, our plan was for me to keep him stalled and try to pin him while Tsukuyomi continues on." She continued. "His defensive abilities will be better suited for defending the exit than mine would be, so we thought it was a good plan."
"I'll leave Deku with you, while Tsukuyomi and I continue through the maze." Iida nodded in agreement. "Best of luck to you both."
Karasu nodded, flicking her staff open. "Tsukuyomi and I were hiding in the ceiling, for an ambush. I don't know that you could do that..."
"Yeah, I don't think I could stick to the ceiling very well." Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck. "Are you prepared to fight Shoto, though?"
"Of course I am. I've been trying to get him to spar with me for over a year." Karasu smiled at her classmates, spinning her staff. "I'm looking forward to it."
           "You two are suspiciously loud for people in a maze of stealth." Todoroki said from the end of the hallway, fire illuminating him from his left hand.
"Were we?" Karasu took a defensive stance, stretching her wings upwards.
"Makes me think you were waiting for me." Todoroki looked between the two of them. "Where's Tsukuyomi?"
"Not here." Midoriya said, raising his hands as green lightning flickered around him. He leapt forward, striking out to kick Todoroki but their classmate ducked under his leg and slid on a small path of ice to slide in between the two of them.
Karasu took the opportunity to strike at her boyfriend, hitting him in the side with her staff.
Todoroki hit the wall and kicked off of his quickly, tossing a blast of fire at her. His girlfriend used one of her wings to cover herself from the blast. He used her inability to see him to jump forward and under her wing, grabbed his wrist. He quickly attached one of the magnetic disks to her staff. Karasu's eye widened and she jerked her hand over her head, taking Todoroki with it. He hit the ground as he tossed a blast of ice and frosted over one of her wings. She extended her wings upwards, breaking the frost off.
Karasu jumped back, glancing at her staff on the wall. Maybe I can get it free if I close it- she didn't have time to focus on that as Todoroki jumped up again to his feet, throwing ice at her again. He was definitely trying to get her held still to pin her with one of those magnetic disks. She kicked him and flew back to Mirodiya, landing just behind him. "Any time now, Deku," she said quickly. "I think I can get my staff back if you can hold him off for a moment."
"I was trying to get an aim on him. Both of you were moving too quickly." Midoriya said as he leapt forward, landing another kick on Todoroki and sending him to the opposite end of the hall.
          Karasu rushed to her staff, tapping the small button that closed it. As expected, the staff slid out of the metal band that had come out of the magnetic disk. "Perfect," she flicked it back open and turned around. "Deku!" She gasped as she turned just in time to see Todoroki brave a kick from Midoriya and hit her teammate's leg with another of his disks, which sent Miroiya flying back to the wall as the disk locked the metal band around his leg. "Shit-" she took a step back to observe the situation in front of her
"Try to regroup with Ingenium, Raven!" Midoriya called to her.
That's obviously my best option, I'm no good at combat in such a tight space... but Iida and Tokoyami also went in the direction Shoto is blocking. She watched her boyfriend carefully, and he watched her right back. Karasu knew that right now, in this space, they were not evenly matched. He knew that too. He had the drastic upper hand.
Todoroki lashed forward with a string of fire, slashing through the air. He was trying to get her into a corner so she'd be an easier target and he'd be able to move on. Karasu kicked off the ground and leapt up and around the stream of fire, tossing her staff at him in a spinning motion. She had used the extremely bright light of the fire against the dim light from the overhead lights to keep him from noticing she'd done that. Her staff hit him in the shoulder, the pain of it interrupting his stream of fire. As he recoiled slightly, she lunged forward, folding her wings back to streamline herself with her hand reached out and forward. She pressed her hand flat against his chest and shoved him into the wall.
He grabbed her arm at the wrist and forearm, twisting her sideways to put her on the ground. This exam didn't lend itself to being one handed- if she was fighting with her hand, she couldn't use it to pin someone with a metal disk. She beat her wings once in a large motion, sending her up and over him. If I can use my legs to get him on the ground, then I can get a disk out of my pouch. She used her left knee to knock into his wrist and get his hand off her wrist. Once she had succeeded in that, she jerked her arm upward and out of his remaining hand. She brought both feet up and kicked him in the chest, flipping herself back. She landed crouched on the ground and pulled one of the disks out of her pouch. "Okay, Shoto. Time to end this." She leapt up again and grabbed his wrist with the disk in her hand, just as he did the same thing except around the centre of her forearm. They both found themselves dragged to the wall by the activated magnetic force and stuck there, facing each other.
"Well that wasn't what we were planning." Midoriya sighed from where he was pinned.
"Us, either." Todoroki sighed in frustration, glancing at his girlfriend. "You were trying to get past me, right?"
"Of course I was." Karasu said, tapping the wall. The worst part of the way they had pinned each other was that they were almost holding hands- which given this scenario was more than slightly embarrassing. "Hopefully each of us did enough to earn something of a decent grade."
"Aizawa did say that the goal wasn't necessarily to reach the end- meaning it was probably just for us to show how far we've come with our fighting skills. At least with the three of us, I certainly think we did." Todoroki looked from her to Midoriya.
"At least I hope so." Midoriya said.
カラス
          "It wasn't even that bad, Shoto. If I had both arms I wouldn't have even bothered getting it healed by Recovery Girl." Karasu assured her boyfriend as he walked back with her from Recovery Girl's office. "Don't beat yourself up about it, seriously."
"I didn't realise how much residual heat was in my hand when I grabbed your arm." Todoroki said, rubbing the back of his neck. As they had waited out the hour pinned, a burn in the shape of his handprint around her elbow where he'd had a hold of her with his left hand directly after using his fire.
"Even if you had, it was a match. Beating me was literally the task you were supposed to perform." She shrugged and slid her hand into his. "If you really feel bad, you can always make it up to me," she said coyly to him.
He smiled slightly and pulled her into a kiss.
"I didn't mean here!" She said with a laugh, but let him kiss her again. "Shoto, we're in school! We'll be caught by another teacher and get into even more trouble!"
"Then we'll stop if we hear footsteps," he responded as he lifted her chin and kissed her jaw. "If you really don't want to, we can stop."
Karasu kissed him deeply, putting her hand against the back of his head. "You're so evil sometimes, you know that?"
Todoroki smiled slightly and kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her. He had never understood her desire to feel like a normal teenager before- it was never something he had experienced, normalcy. He'd always been the son of the number two hero.
But she hadn't always been Hawks' sister, in a way. She hadn't grown up in normalcy by any means, though. She'd grown up in secrecy she hadn't understood for years and years, until she did. Then the secrecy had gotten worse. Then she'd been adopted by Hawks.
After that war had happened, Todoroki now understood why she was constantly seeking out moments to be normal. It was safety. It was sanity. For him, it was her. She was his anchor in all of this- he knew that probably wasn't the best of decisions, but he also could't find another. Obviously not his father. He still didn't really even know his siblings. As much as he had forgiven his mother and understood what had driven her to that stage... he hadn't known her enough either for her to fill that role in his life. Karasu, though. They'd known each other for four years, but the year and a half they'd been in school together- she had always chosen him. She actively made room for him in her life, and he had made sure there was more than enough room for her in his as well. He pulled her arm away from his head and slid his fingers through hers, pushing her back against the wall.
"Okay, we should get back to the dorms," she whispered against his lips. "I really don't want to get suspended for making out with you."
Todoroki stepped back and slid one arm around her waist. "It'd be worse if Iida caught us, anyway."
"Ugh, I can't even imagine the lectures." Karasu pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head with a laugh.
          "Oh, Kuroiro was talking to me the other day at our get together with 2-B," Todoroki said as they walked downstairs, "he wanted advice on how to ask one of his classmates out."
"Komori, right? I saw him staring at her." Karasu smiled, sliding her hand into his free one and lacing her fingers through his.
"He pulled me aside before class this morning- apparently it went well and they've got a date planned. I mentioned to him you'd be interested in a double date sometime." He pushed the door open for them before returning his hand to hers and pressed a kiss to the side of her face.
"Did he like the idea?" She asked excitedly.
"He did." Todoroki smiled at her excitement. "Apparently there's a festival coming up to celebrate how everything has calmed down so much in Mustafa and we're being allowed to go. He said that would probably be a good place for it. I told him I'd have to check with you but you'd most likely be happy with it."
"As long as we aren't on duty, I would love to." Karasu nodded and kissed him quickly as they reached their dorm building. "I should get in there. I promised Mina I'd help her study tonight."
Todoroki nodded and kissed her back. "Want to meet for breakfast on the roof tomorrow?"
"I would very much love to, yes." Karasu kissed him one more time and walked ahead of him into the dorm building.
Todoroki let out a content sigh and smiled as he watched her go.
          "Kara! There you are!" Mina jumped to her feet when she walked in. Yayurozu and Uraraka were both already sitting around the coffee table with her. "I'm so lost!"
"We've tried to explain it," Yayurozu said as Karasu joined her classmates and sat on a pillow on the ground.
"What're we studying?" She asked, peering at Uraraka's notes. "Oh, okay. History. The reign of Empress Suiko. Let's see..."