Wings of Awakening

Part 41

As Class 1-A geared up for their first semester finals, the atmosphere was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. To prepare, several students gathered at Momo's massive home for a group study session, taking full advantage of her spacious living room and her generosity in offering snacks and a comfortable study environment.

Momo, Iida, and Izuku took charge of the session. They each tackled a different subject area, working together to help classmates with the material they found confusing. Bakugo, as usual, was absent, preferring to study alone rather than join the group. Todoroki was there but stayed mostly silent, contributing when asked questions but otherwise finding himself a bit awkward with all the lively conversation.

"Okay, so let's go over Newton's Laws again," Izuku said, flipping open his notes. He explained each law thoroughly, going over examples and encouraging questions, while Momo used her flashcards to test the others on various math problems.

"You're really good at this, Midoriya," Uraraka said, a pencil tucked behind her ear as she scribbled down notes. "You make everything seem so... approachable!"

Izuku blushed, scratching his head. "Thanks, Uraraka. I just figured a little practice is the key!"

As the days passed, they made good progress. Even Kaminari, who had been struggling in math, seemed to catch on thanks to Momo's patient explanations. As the sessions wrapped up, the students thanked Momo for her hospitality and headed home, their nerves soothed by the productive study session.

On the day of the final exam, the students gathered at the training grounds, buzzing with anticipation and nervous energy waiting for the practical exams to start. Many of them were still talking about what they'd heard from upperclassmen: that their final exam would involve fighting robots, like those in the entrance exams.

"This'll be a piece of cake if it's robots," Mina said, bouncing on her toes. "Just smash them up, and we're golden!"

"Don't jinx it, Mina," Hagakure whispered, shivering a little as she remembered Aizawa's notoriously unpredictable teaching methods. "Remember how our first day was supposed to be easy?"

Kaminari groaned. "Oh, yeah... Aizawa always has something twisted planned. That man lives to make us sweat."

Their chatter stopped when Jiro, who had her earphone jack plugged into the wall to detect footsteps, announced, "The teachers are coming."

The students turned to see not just Aizawa but several other teachers approaching the training ground. At the front was Aizawa himself, looking as casual and unamused as ever. But perched on his shoulder was none other than Principal Nezu.

Aizawa began, "I know you've all been asking around to learn the details of the exam."

"Robots, right?" Kaminari piped up, his eyes lighting up with hope.

To everyone's surprise, Nezu stepped forward. "Due to recent incidents involving your class, we've decided to change the exam format. Rather than fighting robots, you'll be facing U.A.'s teachers."

A ripple of shock spread through the students.

"Wait, what?" Sero exclaimed, his jaw dropping.

"You'll be fighting teachers?" Mineta whimpered, gripping his head. "Are they trying to kill us?"

Ignoring the growing murmur, Nezu continued, "The teachers will wear weights to limit their abilities, so it will be a fair match. Your objective is to either put cuffs on your assigned teacher or escape before the time limit is up."

The students' faces fell as they tried to process this twist.

"Oh, no," Izuku murmured, his mind racing. Fighting actual heroes was a far different scenario than battling training robots. "This doesn't look good."