Explosive Touch [Bakugo Katsuki x OC] - Book 2

Chapter 20 - I Do, Don't I...?

For a brief moment, everything was enveloped in an opaque shade of white.

A targeted attack which was sure to leave its unsuspecting victim blinded and frantically trying to get a hold of their senses even after said white had long cleared from their vision.

For the attacker, however, it was but a short hindrance, one which could be easily avoided.

"Let's go, Ida-kun!!" With that, it was over. And the third pair had finally passed their practical exam.

To say that the news that the students were to fight their teachers in order to pass this final was a shock would be a colossal understatement. It was almost unfair – how up until now it had always been robots that were used by the school for the exam, only to suddenly switch to first-years facing off against professionals!!

In the end, things looked to be turning out better than expected. For some, that is.

When the pairings had been announced, Atsuhi had immediately realized they aren't quite as random as they normally should've been. She could only assume she had been paired up with Ida either because of the incident with a certain villain from a few weeks ago or, more likely than that, because they had both recently suffered some bad injuries that might've put them at a disadvantage otherwise. (She did not, however, dwell on that as she realized she might start feeling a little insulted at being underestimated like that.)

Some of the pairings she saw had immediately made sense, while others – not so much. One, however, stood out to her.

Not for its particularly clever combination of students, nor for its lack of reason.

Rather, because of its disastrous nature.

No one could just... pair those two up like that. Not if they wanted either of them to have a chance.

Because she had an inching suspicion Bakugo and Midoriya were not going to get along.

Well, one of them might make an attempt. But the other? No matter how long Atsuhi had spent with the ash blond or how many times she'd tried to casually suggest the two make up, Bakugo Katsuki was still on very, very bad terms with his childhood friend.

She wanted to stop and think about it. Try to talk some sense into him. Anything.

But it was an exam we were talking about here – and she had to pass it too.

Instead of wasting any more time thinking about it, she had shot Bakugo one last pleading look – her best attempt to communicate to him that he should at least try, before going off to discuss any strategy ideas with Ida.

Soon enough, she stopped worrying about the others. She completely forgot about them. Instead, her heart was thumping with anxiety purely at the thought of her own battle. What did they even know about Power Loader anyway? What were they supposed to do?

Before she knew it, she was in the middle of the exam and struggling to get any closer to the gate in fear of falling into one of her teacher's traps.

She was thankful about one thing though – her partner was someone she knew she could trust and fight beside. They had pulled through worse. So they were going to make it through this one too.

Finally, they had come to a decent conclusion. And with a time limit looming threateningly over them, decent was the best they could do.

Ida's Recipro Burst was enough to bypass the traps along the way to the gate, as he ran while carrying the female on his back – after all, you couldn't fall inside if you were moving fast enough.