Chapter 14: Final Exam (2)
"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Six," Nezu thanked me as the two of us sat in his office. "I had a few worries that I'm sure you can alleviate."
"What's the problem?" I asked as I sipped the tea he gave me.
"As you know, the current state of affairs is becoming increasingly unstable," Nezu started.
"An understatement," I told him.
"Well, I'll get right to the point," Nezu stated, seeing that I didn't care for the pleasantries of talking. "Villains have been disappearing and grouping together more frequently. I fear that someone is behind this phenomenon."
"You fear that it may be an old villain or the Legon be at the center of it all," I stated, narrowing it down in seconds.
"While I haven't faced the Legon before, there have been a few cases of villains that escaped capture wearing Romain-like outfits," Nezu told me.
"Let's just hope they're just pretend Legon members." I sighed as I finished off my tea.
"I'm afraid not," Nezu had to go and burst my hope, "The ones that were captured, died to Cazador Poison Capsules after muttering Latin."
"Shit," I muttered.
"Language."
.
x-x-x-x-x
.
Today was the day of the final exams for the students. I stood in front of the class as I watched them take their written exam, playing with a knife as they wrote.
My job was simple, catch any obvious cheaters. So far not a single one of them were even trying to cheat on the test. I sighed and looked at the rules that were written on the board. Literally, the 'get' in Don't Get Caught Cheating was underlined.
A big fucking clue if there was one.
Yet, not even one of them even noticed. Even after all the trouble I went through to convince Nezu of this addition, it hasn't been noticed. It kind of pains me to say this, but they are too pure for this kind of life.
Yet, as I thought this, I noticed an ever-so-slight shift in one of the students. I smiled, looks like one isn't so naive. I then frowned when I saw who it was.
Taking the knife I was playing with, I slowly stalked up to the cheater without them knowing. Since who it was, I wasn't planning to let it go. Even if they were the first person to do it.
.
"Mineta," I shouted, scaring the shit out of the entire class. "While I applaud you for trying, you'll do well to do better in hiding it," I said as I took the answer card from his shirt.
"I-I'm sorry?" He stammered when I pulled the card from him.
"Good try though," I commented as I walked back to the front with the card in my hand.
.
I could feel the stares as I walked. While a lot were aimed at Mineta, a few were aimed at me. I could feel the question emanating from their stares. I smiled, it seemed a few were catching on to why I didn't outright take his test and give him a zero. Aizawa would probably do that, but I wanted to see the kids start to think.
With them thinking outside the box and realizing what was at stake, they would be the top heroes. But that was still a long way from now. Right now, they were still kids that didn't know how the world worked truly.
.
"Alright! Pencils down!" I shouted about an hour later. "Pass your test to the person in front of you," I ordered as I stored away the knife. "You did well, all of you."
"But Mineta cheated!"
"And?" I asked them. "This was a practical test. He did what he was supposed to."
"How?" Mina asked with a raised hand. "Mineta was caught, wouldn't that disqualify him?"
"Not if you look at the rules," I commented. "Peculiarly the one that says, 'Don't get caught cheating'. If this was a real situation, information is the most important thing."
"How?" Asked Kaminari.
"Simple," I said before giving an example. "Say two people are fighting. Who do you arrest?"
"Neither, you break it up and arrest the one who used their quirk for villainy," Shoto said as if it was obvious.
"But one is a wanted villain and the other is a person defending themself and their family," I added and suddenly there was an outroar of protest.
"You never said that!"
"That's why information is so important," I chuckled and told them as I took off my armor and lifted my shirt, showing them a few of my many scars. "Without proper information, you get times where you'll regret not knowing ahead of time. Mineta, while almost getting away with it, was the first person I saw even trying it. You can't always rely on the information you know at hand."
"But that's not fair!" Several students shouted.
"Life is not fair!" I shouted back as I dropped my shirt and redonned my armor. "If it was fair, not a single person would be quirkless or a villain," That shut them up. I sighed, "I'll tell you all this, I'm older than I look and I've seen it all. War. Death. Murder. Some things never change. And one of them is information."
.
They were silent. A few were able to connect the scars they saw. Those that didn't remain clueless. I could care less, but I was their teacher now. It was my job to prepare them for the world at large.
.
"Anyway," I spoke up, getting them out of their stupor. "Get your costumes and get to the training field. NOW!"
.
x-x-x-x-x
.
"The test exercise will begin shortly," Aizawa stated as he, I, and the rest of the Hero Course teachers stood in a line. "Obviously, you can fail this test too. So if you want to head to the Forest Lodge for the summer, we'd better not see any pitiful blunders from you."
"Why so many teachers?" A few muttered while others were already starting to realize what was going to happen.
"I have no doubt you all learned about the test beforehand," Aizawa continued. "So I think you already hold a vague notion of what you are to do."
"It will just be like the entrance exams!" Karminari shouted with Mina nodding her head.
"Fireworks, curry, the dare sessions!" Mina fantasized, I just chuckled darkly.
"I'm afraid not!" Nezu appeared from Aizawa's scarf and surprised them. "Due to various reasons, we are changing the contents of the test, starting today!"
"Shit."
"You have no idea," I chuckled and spoke up, scaring a few of them.
"What do you mean?" Momo asked
"Simple," I spoke up, getting a nod from Nezu. "For the longest time, UA focused on making the brightest of heroes. Now, we making the smartest, brightest, and strongest of them."
"From now on, we'll focus our tests more on Person-to-person battle activities," Nezu explained. "Emphasizing a teaching environment closer to that of a real battle!"
"Basically," I chuckled while pulling my revolver and cocking it. "You'll be facing us in real combat. Though, for your handicap, we'll be weighed down with restraints."
"And it will be with one of these educators!" Nezu said as he cackled like a madman.
"With our senseis?" Ochaco muttered in disbelief.
"Yep, and instead of 1-versus-2 like it was gonna be, it's gonna be all of you against us." I told them as I raise my gun high. "You have thirty seconds to run, starting now!" I shouted as I fired my gun.
.
A few stuttered but they all ran for their lives into the mock city that was next to them. I was getting pumped as I could get a good run for my caps. I sighed, knowing that I had to make due with less-than-lethal rounds.
.
"Are you sure about this?" 13 asked. "They don't know their win conditions or how they are graded."
"That's the thing with a real battle, you don't know." Aizawa defended me. "They'll either grow or fall short."
"Besides, a few of them already managed to figure out what to do." I told them as I holstered my gun. "Momo, Shoto, and Midoryia should have already figured out one condition. If not them, then they all have."
"I still think this is a bit overkill..." Allmight sighed as he began walking to where he was gonna be stationed along with the rest.
"Hon, I'll be the first one to say it." Midnight said as she walked up to me. "You are way too sadistic. And that's coming from me." She spoke her mind before sauntering off.
"Well," I sighed before walking off myself, "Time to have some fun~"
"He really is sadistic," Mic muttered but I heard him.
.
x-x-x-x-x
{With Midoriya}
"Guys, I think we've ran far enough," Izuku shouted as he heaved heavy breaths.
"What are we supposed to do!?" Mina shouted as the rest of those that stayed in the group nodded their heads.
"We're scattered, we have no way of telling where the teachers are or if they're hunting us, and we have no way of going against them," Momo stated the obvious.
"That's the thing, they want us to figure it out," Izuku said as it dawned on him. "Think about it, they wouldn't give us a test where there was no answer."
"Are you forgetting about Six?" Mineta cried. "That cold bastard would do that in a heartbeat!"
.
Midoriya started to think fast. He knew that the principle wouldn't make the test impossible. Plus, there were far too many factors to account for. That's when Midoryia figured it out.
.
"It's survival!" He shouted to the group, making them look at him. "The goal of this test is to survive!"
"How can you be sure?" Jiro asked as she leaned against a building, her ear jacks into the wall. "It could be to take out all the teachers for all we know."
"I concur!" Ida said as he made weird hand gestures. "We don't know that for sure. It would be unbecoming of a hero to just assume!"
"Think about it!" Midoriya shouted. "We're up against nine teachers, we don't stand a chance against any of them in a group-versus-group fight. Our main goal is to survive." He reasoned.
"If that's the main goal, what are we missing?" Ochaco asked a question they were all thinking about.
.
As they talked, they started to notice that there were robots milling around the streets. Getting an idea, Midoryia walked up to one and started to talk to it. The others were worried that he might have lost it until Ochaco realized what he was doing. She then walked up to a different one and began to have a conversation with it. After about five minutes, the two thanked their respective robots and walked back to the group.
.
"Are you two okay?" Momo asked with worry.
"Yea, but I think we just figure out the objectives of the test," Midoriya said with dread.
"You did?"
"They're not as simple as just surviving," Ochaco said as she began to list what she was told. "According to what I got, there have been five 'villains' that have been giving the Heroes a hard time. The gunman villain. A rat villain. An erotic villain. A villain that can duplicate. And a bucket-headed villain."
"So that means we know about six of the nine teachers that are out and about," Momo spoke up. "That means the Principle, Midnight, Ectoplasm, and Power Loader. With the last one being either Snipe or Six." She said worryingly.
"Either mean guns and marksmanship," Midoriya said before beginning to think out loud. "But out of those six, they're the easiest to deal with our numbers."
"I just notice something," Kaminari said, getting everyone's attention. "We're missing people!"
.
Out of everyone that was gathered, which was only eight, the rest weren't there. Only Midoryia, Ochaco, Ida, Kaminari, Jiro, Sero, Toru, and Momo were there. The rest were scattered when they ran. Midoriya became distraught. He knew that even with the teachers handicapped, it would be almost impossible to fight them one-on-one.
The only thing Midoriya didn't realize, it was Six and Nezu leading the teachers.