My Hero Academia: Overcoming Fear

The Beginning of Final Exams

Hikari

I went home that night and trained some more with Aku. The end of first term was coming, and we were all dreading final exams. 

A few normal days at U.A passed, and everyone was getting more nervous by the day. If you failed the final exam, you wouldn't be able to go to the summer training camp that came afterwards, and from what we had heard, the summer camp was tons of fun.

During that time, we studied, trained, and strengthened our friendships with each other. I now knew all of the girls very well and I was comfortable with calling them by their first names. We all sat by each other during lunch and talked and laughed.

Then, the dreaded day came. The finals were finally here.

Over the time I had been training with Aku, I had also trained my body so it could more easily handle the pain in my ribs. I made sure to take my painkillers every day by putting them in my school bag, so that even if I was in a rush, I would still be able to take them. 

The written exam took three days to complete, and when we finished, everyone seemed to relax a little bit. The hard part wasn't over, but at least we didn't have to worry about the writing exam anymore. 

During lunch, I was sitting by Ochaco and Tsuyu, and across from us were Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki. We were talking about the practical exam that was coming up tomorrow. 

"I wonder what's going to happen in the practicals," Midoriya was saying. "I've been worrying about it all week, and it's driving me crazy."

Suddenly, a boy from class 1-B passed our table and bumped Midoriya in the arm with his elbow. "Oops," he said, stopping. "Your head is so big it's hard to miss."

I frowned. I remembered this guy. His name was Monoma, and his quirk was Copy, which meant he would copy anyone's quirk and use it as his own. He was also a huge jerk, and he picked on our class all the time. 

"I heard you guys stumbled across the hero killer," he said, looking down at us. 

I slowly chewed my food and swallowed. Uh oh. Who knew where this was going to go?

"Just like in the Sports Festival, Class 1-A isn't happy unless they're the center of attention. But you do realize you're not in the spotlight because people think you're good heroes, right? It's just that you keep getting into so much trouble. Here's some thought: Some day the rest of us might get caught up in your mess, and we'll all become unwilling victims as well. What kind of horrible villains will you bring down upon us, what demon-"

He got cut off by a girl in is class named Kendo. She hit him in the neck, caught his tray of food, and grabbed onto his collar. 

"That's not funny, Monoma," she said. "You heard what happened to Kazenikura and Iida. Chill out."

"Kendo..." Iida started, and she glanced back at us with a smile. 

"I apologize for him," she said. "I'm pretty sure there's a hole where his heart should be."

She tapped the side of her head. "So, I was listening. I know you're all worried about what's going to be on the big final practical? I heard it's going to be combat against robots like the entrance exam."

"What? Really?" Midoriya asked. "How do you know that?"

"One of my friends who's a few grades up filled me in," she said, pointing at herself. "I know, cheating, but oh well."

"No, I don't think so," Midoriya said, and he started muttering about how gathering information before the exam is part of the test, blah, blah, blah, you know. Midoriya stuff.