Silence Destroyed (MHA)

Chapter 23- Problems With Partners

Naoko groaned as she pushed the paper away from her. The written finals had kicked her butt as she expected, and now all she wanted to do was pass out on top of her desk. Sure, things certainly could have gone worse, but that didn't mean they had gone well.

Of course, she would never admit that to Rei or Hasame, both of whom had been under the impression that she was doing fine in school...

Yeah, so maybe Naoko was back to keeping secrets from them, but it wasn't like these were life-threatening secrets this time so Naoko wasn't too terribly worried. So long as she didn't fail any of her classes, she would probably be fine... Probably.

Now all she had to worry about was the practical exam... Psh, all she had to worry about? All?!?!? Yeah right. She would be lucky to not die more than once today.

Midoriya had been rambling about the finals for the last week whenever he saw her, asking her opinion on his theories. From fighting robots to doing another obstacle course, his guesses were everywhere. Normally, Naoko would be irritated with how borderline clingy Midoriya was becoming with her, but she couldn't.

Ever since she had told them the abridged slice of her past, he had stepped up to act almost like her bodyguard, stepping in between her and whoever wanted to talk if she seemed uncomfortable... And he wasn't the only one.

Shinso had joined in for some reason, sitting with her at lunch and appreciating the silence that came with being close to her. Anyone who wanted to interrogate her, *cough* Bakugou *cough* had to go through him or Midoriya.

It was inspiring, to be honest. Naoko was floored when they stared this whole thing, but she was more grateful than anything. Iida was already pushy and some of their other classmates were becoming curious about her as well, mainly because of the attention she was given by Todoroki and Bakugou.

Todoroki was a whole different story. He obviously still had questions for her, but during the rare times where he was able to corner her without one of her bodyguards, he didn't ask a single thing. They would sit together in relative peace as he told her about Rei before his mother had been pushed past her limits and Naoko shared her stories of the three years they had known each other.

There was no pressure on her, so Naoko was quickly beginning to look forward to talking to him... Though, that had been interrupted by studying for the finals. It seemed as though he was feeling just as determined as everyone else had been.

Why she didn't feel that same urgency that everyone else did, she had no idea, but Naoko was willing to deal with that... Mainly by avoiding her problems, but that was still considered dealing with something.

It didn't take long before Aizawa came around to collect the tests (A real feat, considering the fact that he was still entirely wrapped up in his yellow sleeping bag) and the written exams were done.

A large portion of Naoko's mind wanted to jump up onto her desk and start cheering, but the majority of her mind was tired, there would be no jumping on anything... So what if she had spent a lot of time napping this week? She was allowed to be tired.

Her head dropped to the ground with a loud thunk, and Naoko let out a sigh, by the end of the day she would know how she did. Was it nerve-wracking? Yeah, definitely.  Did she care at the moment? Not even slightly.

The longer she thought about it (The only thing keeping her brain from falling into a comatose state), the more she had to admit to herself that the semester had been insane. Class 1-A had experienced everything from Aizawa's threats of expulsion to the League of Villains, and both of those happened before the first month was up.