When Izuku heard the cheer that Mina had made when the Written Examinations were over, he found himself smiling without meaning to. The second that talking, moving, and all other non-test related things were permitted again, she's leaped out of her chair and thrown her arms into the air, like she were calling upon the Gods themselves to join in with her celebrations. She looked like something had clicked within her head, like she'd figured out exactly what the teats questions had been going on about. Kamanari joined in with her when the two began to crowd their personal tutor, chanting her name like she had just saved the city.
So clearly, the cram sessions with Yaoyarozu had done wonders for her. That had made Izuku glad. When he'd gone with her to those sessions, she had, for the most part, focused and worked hard on what she was being taught. Occasionally, she would turn to Izuku to ask if he was able to understand what words were being thrown at them like an intellectual cannon. Izuku would then explain it to her as simply as he could, which seemed to help her figure things out. As he'd said for months, she wasn't an idiot by any stretch if the imagination. She just didn't learn things from books well, and needed a push-start to help her on her way.
And it had helped her, very clearly. She looked like she'd done well. She looked like she'd almost enjoyed it as well. Tests, as it turned out, were actually rather enjoyable when the person taking the test knew enough about the subjects to answer them. At least Mina looked like she thought so.
He himself, Izuku was calmly and quietly confident in his results. He'd studied a ridiculously large amount, and he hadn't struggled too hard with any questions that had been on the test, so he wasn't too worried. That said, he ended the written test with sweat running down his brow, having only just managed to finish his revised final answer within the time limit, seconds to spare. So it had been a tense time during the test, but now that it was over, he was fairly certain he'd done well.
Immediately after the written portion, the Hero course classes were granted an hours break, within which they were to get something to eat, though many opted not to in case they wound up throwing it back up, get into their Hero costumes, and gather at the assigned testing grounds for the Practical examination.
And still, they had no idea what they were supposed to expect. Though the fact that Aizawa had basically told them not to eat if they didn't enjoy throwing up didn't exactly make a lot of people feel better.
Though of pretty much anyone, Mina seemed to be more relaxed about the entire Practical.
"Hey, if it's robots, my Quirk's perfect for it!" She reasoned, smiling brightly. "I don't have to hold back at all!"
"It's kind of hard to see any of us failing a Practical test with robots." Tsuyu croaked, her head atypically rested in her arms. "We all passed the entrance exam, and if it's anything similar, then I don't think any of us really could fail."
It was a good point, and didn't seem to fit the level of difficulty that Yuuei operated at. For a school that prided itself on having the best Hero course in the world, which certainly did say miles for how difficult its course was going to be. Still, giving them robots seemed to be basically giving them a free pass. But it wasn't like Mina hadn't thought about that. Of course, there had been a lot of danger for them in the past few months, between the Villain attack at the USJ, and Izuku, Iida and Todoroki running into the Hero killer.
It was possible that they had decided that the students had been through more than enough. At least, that was the common conclusion by a lot of students now that they knew what the test would consist of.
Or hoped, at least. And even if it wasn't the case, if it was robots, it didn't matter. It would be fine. They could go all out either way.
Standing up, Mina stretched, her hands and arms reaching above and behind her head as she felt some of her joints click back into place. She stifled a yawn with her teeth, and glanced around her. Everyone was getting ready to attend the final exams, some eating very light foods that would give them energy over time, like carbohydrates. Some ate fruits like bananas to give them a small fill that wouldn't make them feel sick after getting the crap kicked out of them. A few were gathering their Hero costumes already, preparing to go and change and psych themselves up for the examinations.
Which was what Mina planned to do herself. She'd eaten before coming into school, having bought something that was small and satisfying and wasn't her mother's God awful cooking or some garbage sandwich of spinach and who knew what else.
With a smile making its way onto her lips after her yawn had passed, she caught Izuku in her sights, apparently planning to do the exact same thing she was. He'd already reached for and grabbed his silver suitcase which contained his simple, yet admittedly functional costume. He'd said it was symbolic to him, but hadn't mentioned how that was the case, though Mina didn't pry. He'd tell her if it ever came up, or if he wanted to explain why. No doubt it was something fairly simple and childish to a degree, but was important to him. Perhaps he was embarrassed by it just a bit. Either way, it probably explained why he hadn't have a flashy costume like most other people did.
After parting ways with her group of friends, Mina made her way over to the costume shelves, her eyes already fixed on her case. Izuku caught her attention by giving her a very small wave and smiling lightly. He actually seemed fairly relaxed. "You look like you did well." He commented, referring to the pleased look on her face, and her cheering not a short while ago.
"Yep!" Reported the pink girl with her trademark grin. Once she reached Izuku, she quickly rose onto her tiptoes, and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thanks!"
With a single action, Mina had broken Izuku's calm and neutral expression totally, leaving him with a sudden blush on his cheeks. It had been completely intentional, and she grinned in satisfaction that she'd managed to do her job so well. "Wh-What was that f-for?" He stammered, bringing his hand onto the location that had just been kissed.
"For all the help." Answered Mina simply, retrieving her Hero costume from the shelves. They were deceptively heavy in spite of their appearance, as she'd needed to use both her hands just to get it off the railings. Being made of metal, the main bulk of the weight wasn't from the costumes, but from the casing itself.
Having gotten used to her displays of affection by now, even if it was in public, Izuku had calmed down rather quickly. His blush was less prominent, and his stammering calmed down far faster. "I... I didn't do much though." He pointed out simply, looking over to the actual person who had helped her. "Yaoyarozu was the one who had a study session at her place and went over everything."
"And you explained everything that I didn't get. Which was... Nearly all of it." As she returned over to him, she lightly hit his shoulder with the back of her hand and muttered with a sly grin, "Plus, I don't think either of us particularly want me to thank Yamomo with a peck on the cheek. That one's exclusive to you, Izu-kun."
Izuku had managed to change into his Hero costume within five minutes. His costume was far simpler, much more basic and focused more on the design than it was on anything else. Because of the additions made by the support companies, his costume also now had a focus on durability, but it wasn't anything major. Nothing like Bakugou's gauntlets or a full-body armour set like Iida's. He didn't even have a helmet like Uraraka did, using a hood instead. The attachment that went around his neck was the only other thing of note, excluding his jumpsuit and utility belt, and those took no time at all to equip.
In short, once he'd figured out just how his costume worked, he could get it ready in next to no time at all. The vast majority of his time had actually been spent moving his costumes case out of the way, and putting his belongings into his locker.
It was because of all of these small, trivial tasks that took up to nearly no time whatsoever, that Izuku was ready much sooner than Mina was, leaving him waiting for her to change into her costume.
So he waited. Without the Written exam to worry about, he and Mina had managed to calm down a significant amount since the previous few nights. With the Physical right around the corner, regardless of if he was allowed to go on the class trip or not, Izuku would be glad to have this stress gone and done with. He already felt better, thinking that after this, there wouldn't be any more exams for a while.
They were still pretty early in the year, and had plenty to look forward to before their first year was even over. There was plenty to think about, Izuku remembered. So much he would have to contemplate, to relive in his memory before the first year was completed.
Of everything that happened at Yuuei specifically, unsurprisingly for Izuku, Mina was what he associated his first year, outside of actually getting accepted into the school. She was the one person he'd never expected to find in this place, someone so unexpected that made him feel so damn happy that he couldn't even begin to describe it. Trying to would be an insult to the feeling, as words wouldn't do it justice.
He'd expected a lot of things from Yuuei. The world's number one school for Heroes in training, he'd expected powerful Quirks, lots of hard training and tests, and he hadn't been disappointed once in those regards - At no point had he expected to fall in love though. Not while in high school.
Not with someone like Mina. But... He couldn't be happier that he had. The same point ran through his head over and over and over again, like it was on a loop. No matter how many times his brain repeated it too him, it never made it less true.
He was happy he fell in love with Mina.
She made him feel more motivated than ever before, her unrestricted energy and cheerful personality helped him feel at ease, like he didn't need to feel stressed over what the results of his labour brought him. He lived for the future, while she lived for the moment, which was something he'd never realised he'd needed. Born without a Quirk, all he could do was hope and dream and pray that these days would pass them by quickly. When he got to Yuuei, he hadn't slowed down for even a second, always working towards to future, knowing that while he was there, and that he loved being at this amazing school, that he only was there temporarily. He would eventually move on, leave the school to become a sidekick, and eventually a fully-fledged Hero in his own right. That was what he wanted to do his entire life, and with All Might passing the torch that was One For All, it felt like a duty just as much as a passion for Heroism.
But Mina was the same way. She knew the same things he did, and she tried her best, but fell flat sometimes. Her abilities with her Quirk directly opposed Izuku's, as did his intellectual capabilities with hers... But she didn't focus too much on it. She focused more on living for the moment, breathing in what was happening now, and letting her future self worry about what needed to be done then. Not once would she ever fear the futures failures unless they were imminent. She wasn't like Izuku in that respect, a person who thought about every possibility to the finest detail.
When she was with him... Izuku didn't think about those things either. For those moments, his dreams of becoming a Hero were put aside. He enjoyed being with Mina in those moments. The sound of her voice, the warmth of her skin, the taste of her lips...
How much she made him smile and laugh without even trying to. How she made him feel just by being near...
The urge he felt to kiss her and hold her close when they were alone, an impulse that he found himself fighting against more and more as the days went past.
She made him happy. That was all there really was to it. And he hoped he made her happy.
"Alright Izuku, I'm good to go!" His girlfriend suddenly announced from an already ajar door. When she stepped into sight, Izuku froze.
He'd seen her in her Hero costume plenty of times, many before they'd even spoken to one another, and just as many after they'd begun dating. It wasn't like what he was seeing was anything that he hadn't seen before... Yet for some reason, the sight of her now made him blush like a maniac. He'd not paid a lot of attention to her Hero costume before... But right now, his eyes were drawn, and his body refused to listen to a single command to tear away.
It was skin tight for starters, against every single inch of her body that it came into contact with. It was flexible and durable, so that Mina could make whatever physical movements that she needed to while wearing it. Despite the claim that she was ready, that wasn't entirely true yet. Her brown jacket, short, which went around her shoulders and clipped onto her leotard to keep it upright, wasn't actually on yet, still in her left hand. Said jacket was mostly there to ensure that the leotard kept her modest while she was running around the place and using her Quirk, but while she was walking, there wasn't much threat of it just falling down. This left Mina with nothing around her totally exposed neck, shoulders, and upper chest, the leotard preventing Izuku from seeing too much. Not to mention, her eye mask still wasn't on, wrapped around one of her horns for safekeeping.
In short, with what Mina had on, far more skin than Izuku had ever seen from her was visible, fleshy parts that he'd never seen before. Skin tight clothing just seemed to highlight it more. Almost enhancing these features, making them seem more prominent than usual. The sight alone made Izuku scarlet.
"M-Mina..." His brain wasn't working properly, and his face felt hot enough to boil tea on. He wasn't able to take his eyes away from her.
She looked... Really... Really good.
"Hmm? What's up?" For a second, the pink skinned girl was totally oblivious to what it was that Izuku was embarrassed about. Her jacket being off hadn't been in some sort of attempt to show off flesh, but rather to save some time, so she could throw it on while she was walking. She'd thought nothing of it. When she finally figured out what it was that had Izuku flustered...
She grinned to herself, and made a mental note to make sure to invite him to the beach or a water park at some point.
"What?" She questioned innocently, allowing her weight to shift onto one leg as she cocked her hip out to the side. Allowing her hand to rest on her jutted out hip, she made no effort at all to hide or cover up any skin. Her eyes locked with Izuku's a second later, and she softly asked, "Seeing something you like?"
The way her hip had just shot out made Izuku's heart suddenly throb, and his breath sharpen. He had no clue how to respond to any of this. She was... She was amazing. Everything he felt about Mina rushed to the front of his thoughts, unable to be surprised. She was so freaking cute. She was adorable and cute and incredible, and Izuku loved her to absolute death. She was so cute and funny and amazing and...
...And he was still staring at her. At this point, it couldn't even be thinly veiled as being subtle.
When he realised that he'd not torn himself away from her or the costume that, now that he'd seen it, would always look so ridiculously good on her, he felt steam rising from his forehead, and ricocheted off onto the nearest rock of some description. Desperate to hide his crimson blush, he threw his hook over his face. The material the costume was made of clearly wasn't designed for internal heat expulsion, as he quickly became hot and stuffy within his mask. Still, it was far better than letting Mina see just how flustered he had become.
Mina giggled to herself before walking over to him, humming a joyful tune momentarily as she did so, to which she couldn't even begin to remember to name of. Izuku had turned a full hundred-eighty degrees from her, so she didn't even need to look at him to gauge how embarrassed he was. Without a word, but a small, cute smile for in case he turned around, the Acid Quirk user pulled his hood down, exposing his burning flesh to the cool air. He didn't turn, nor did he attempt to stop her.
"You're so cute." She quietly said, before she suddenly latched onto his left arm. With absolute intention, she made sure her chest met against his arm, which clearly sparked a reaction from the nervous boy. Her head rested on his shoulder, and her cheek, along with her soft, good-smelling pink hair brushed against his cheek, like an affectionate cat. "You know you're allowed to look, right?"
"Wh-Wh-Huh?!"
"You're my boyfriend, Izuku. I don't mind you looking at me like that once in a while." She lightly teased, though her words were genuine. In truth, it did make her feel a bit relieved that he found her to be attractive in that particular regard. Not that this had been how she had planned any of this. She was just rolling with whatever was coming her way, and she was making sure to enjoy all of it. Plus, she wasn't the type of person to show off skin to impress people in any respect. She did possess dignity.
Though if it got Izuku flustered and blushing like a maniac like right now, she'd be happy to show off a bit of herself once in a while. This was too amusing to her. And she wasn't lying. She really didn't mind if Izuku looked at her like that.
"W-W-We s-should head over t-to the meeting place." The green haired flustered teenager responded, starting to walk out of the changing area. As he walked, Mina allowed his arms to slide out of her grasp. He didn't walk too quickly, so Mina could catch up to him once she'd finished teasing him.
His blush now felt more like a tattoo, permanently engraved into his face.
With a satisfied chuckle at her boyfriend's quirky behaviour, Mina followed him closely, sliding her arm through the corresponding hole on her Hero costume jacket. "Ah, I see, you saving that for the trip? Didn't know you were such a risk taker."
Humans.
They were fighting humans, not robots.
The second Mina heard that, the huge smile that had been etched onto her face had become still and stiff as the dread washed over her. They were fighting against actual people, which meant using her Quirk at full power was a no-go. At full power, she was going to end up killing someone, and she had a feeling that the goal of this test didn't involve putting someone in a hole in the ground.
But either way, this was bad. Very, very bad. Her entire strategy had been focused on her being free to unleash her powers as she desired, no restrictions to either her Quirk or what got in her way. That was how she'd even gotten into Yuuei in the first place!
And to make matters worse, they were being put into partner based teams, which was frankly, one of the worst bits of news she'd received. Not that she couldn't get along with people, but because that meant she had to be mindful of her teammate, or she risked dissolving them as much as she did against her opponent.
She looked at Izuku whom stood next to her, and he looked back at her, with the same expression in his eyes.
'Crap.' They both wordlessly said to one another. There wasn't anything else they really could say. This was as bad for Izuku as it was for her. He was just getting used to using his power, using it against a person was no doubt going to challenge him, and if he got it wrong...
Not to mention... Their opponents were the Yuuei faculty staff. They were horrifically outmatched. It didn't matter who they were out against, because they were actual Heroes. They had a far more experience, and knew how to push their Quirks to the brink. And they'd chosen all the teams themselves, all based on Quirk match ups, personalities, relationships, and who was friends with who.
Which basically eliminated any chance Mina and Izuku had to be paired up if the teachers knew. That was actually something Mina wasn't sure of, if their teachers were aware of their relationship, or if that would change the match ups.
In short though, the odds were heavily against the students here. They were going to have to work for this, no matter who they got put up against. And Mina's entire strategy had been thrown out the window...
All she could do was sigh and internally cry as Aizawa called up the first pair. "First up, we have Todoroki and Yaoyarozu, and you'll be up against me." Both the special recommendation students, Mina noticed. She wondered if there was a particular reason for that. Although internally, she counted herself lucky. Against Aizawa, she doubted she'd be much good. His Erasure Quirk was extremely powerful, and would have rendered her totally useless.
"Next up, we have Midoriya..." Mina crossed her fingers. On the off chance that she got paired with Izuku, she was confident that they'd be able to pass.
Not that it happened. Instead, the worst possible thing happened.
"...Is with Bakugou."
For a second, the entire class was dead silent, including those two, until it clicked that this wasn't a joke. The two of them looked at one another, Izuku with a look that showed anxiety, surprise and a mixture of other emotions that he couldn't even begin to process himself. Bakugou's was far easier to read - Total disgust. He didn't have conflicted feelings about this for even the briefest of seconds. He was totally sickened by his partner, and wanted nothing more than to switch with literally anyone else.
Outside the two of them, Mina instantly became extraordinarily concerned, looking between Izuku and Bakugou. Before she'd fallen in love with Izuku, she had admired Bakugou's tenacity and drive, even if he was as pleasant as a blood-frenzied Great White Shark. He wasn't someone to back down, and he was ferocious in achieving what he set out to. He was like a walking man of war, and his Quirk did nothing but support this case. Extremely versatile and adaptable to a huge range of situations. On the surface, excluding his absolute garbage personality, he was the personification of a Hero. But she knew what he was like now, what his real personality was like, from how Izuku had described him, all while essentially damning him with fine praise. Mina now had a far less complex, and far less flattering opinion regarding him.
Bakugou was a prick, plain and simple. She'd grown to dislike him after learning how he really was. She'd thought that his angry personality was a mask of some sort, that it was just his way. But no, that was him. He was just a scumbag. What people saw was what people got. If someone like Kirishama could get past that, then that was awesome for him. And admittedly, Mina probably could have gotten past it too.
But she knew how Bakugou treated Izuku when he was Quirkless. She knew how harsh and ruthless he was to him, even when he'd done nothing wrong. He'd been a bully. To an extent, he still was. And perhaps she was biased, but Mina knew for a fact that Izuku wouldn't ever do something that justified that sort of treatment. He was such a nice person, it was hard to ever seen him doing something to harm another person in any way.
She believed Izuku far, far, far more than she would ever believe Bakugou. Any day.
Uncaring for the thoughts that Mina was rocketing through, Aizawa continued reading through his list. "And you'll be up..."
"Against me." Normally, that voice was the ultimate sound of comfort, like a shield or blanket that would cover up people in danger. Mina knew that it sounded like an angel when she'd been in the USJ, and they'd been surrounded by Villains who had every intention of killing them.
When you were on the receiving end of All Might's thunderous voice, it felt very, very different, in every single respect. He sounded like death incarnate, and just speaking made Mina feel a bit sick, and she wasn't even the one being addressed. He towered over the two students to whom he'd been assigned, muscles casting shadows down on other parts of his body, and said muscles practically pulsing along with his heartbeat. His forearm alone looked thicker than Mina's thigh, which spoke volumes for the more refined parts of his muscular form.
Mina knew that was what this was. A form, not his natural posture. She was one of the only people who knew this, all because Izuku trusted her enough to ask his tutor to reveal his secret to her, and he'd accepted. Even so...
Her eyes shot open alongside Bakugou's and Izuku's. They had to go up against freaking All Might?! Was that even fair?! More than that, this couldn't be a worse set up for Izuku!
This felt - No, it was all done intentionally. She'd forgotten in surprise for the briefest of moments, but Izuku had been the one to inherit All Might's Quirk. That made him one of the best choices to assess how Izuku was progressing. Did that mean the other teachers knew?
"Ashido, you're with Kaminari." Class 1-A's homeroom teacher listed off, catching Mina's attention. "You'll be going against the Headmaster."
Kaminari? Mina would admit, that wasn't too bad. Aside from his garbage control over his own Quirk, Mina knew Kaminari fairly well, and they were on friendly terms, so they would be able to coordinate together decently. She could have gotten a worse option. Right now though, she was barely even concerned over that. That could wait.
"Izuku, are you alright?" Asked Mina, shaking his shoulder with her left hand to get him to pay attention to her.
He looked shaken, but he was still coherent. Though he looked like he'd just swallowed a wasp, he nodded towards Mina, and attempted the shakiest smile she'd ever seen in her life. "I-I'm alright. I - We knew that t-this was going to be a tough t-test."
"Bakugou... Why'd you have to get paired with Bakugou?..." As she muttered to herself quietly, she shot over a glance towards the Explosion Quirk user. He quickly reacted, looking back over at her, with an equal fierceness. His red eyes clashed with Mina's yellow and black ones. While they exchanged glances, the rest of the world, excluding her, him, and Izuku, seemed to fade into the black void.
Bakugou had to know now, about Mina's dislike for him. If he wasn't totally stupid, he had to know. Normally, he didn't give a crap about who liked him or not, but for some reason, he kept glaring towards Mina like she was a menace. Perhaps he felt betrayed to a certain extent that Mina had chosen to side with Izuku. He certainly had given Uraraka a hard time originally because she was friends with him. Perhaps it was because of their relationship? If he kept using his Quirk to try and blow Uraraka up during the sports festival like he had because she was friends with him, then what would he have done to someone dating Izuku?
Though he did respect Uraraka and her abilities... Mina had no idea what he thought about her. And frankly, she didn't care either. She was the one to break the glare, and the rest of the world snapped back into reality. "Are you gonna be okay?" She inquired again, refocusing her attention to her clearly nervous boyfriend.
"I-I don't really have much choice..." His answer was less than encouraging, but Mina could easily understand why he'd be so apprehensive. His situation was less than ideal for this very important exam, so his nerves were natural.
As it stood, though she didn't like to think too much of herself, or too little of others... Mina felt that she had a better chance to succeed than Izuku right now. And he had quickly reached the same conclusion. It was a natural and logical thing to come to. Izuku and Bakugou had next to no chemistry as mere acquaintances, never mind as teammates. A very real part of Mina wasn't going to be surprised if Izuku wound up getting assaulted by Bakugou during the examination. She really didn't put it past him anymore. And well...
Their opponent was freaking All Might. What was the Headmaster compared to a Hero like freaking All Might? Whatever the specifics of the examination, she should statistically have more of a chance against someone like Nedzu, right?
"...I'm not gonna go on the trip if you don't." She told Izuku.
"H-Huh?!" Response was virtually instant as the taller boy looked towards her face, totally deadpanned and serious.
"You heard. I don't wanna go if you're not gonna go."
"B-But Mina, you really wanted to go on the trip, didn't you? Thats why you went to all of Yaoyarozu's study sessions, isn't it?"
"Yeah... And I still really freakin' do wanna go on the trip... But be honest, who do you think is more likely to pass between us right now?"
Izuku blinked and nodded concedingly within just a few seconds, seeing the point Mina was making. "Well, you I guess, but... That doesn't mean you shouldn't go on the trip if you really want to if I fail."
"Right. And I do wanna go on the trip... But I only wanna go if you're gonna go too." They were her honest feelings. The trip... It sounded awesome, she wasn't going to lie. The images of the class all around a campfire with curry and telling scary stories and all manner of activities like that... For a social creature like Mina, that sounded like a paradise of hilarity and awesomeness. But... Spending that time with Izuku sounded like a perfect time.
If he wasn't there, then the trip wasn't going to be as fun. And well... Mina didn't want to be apart from Izuku for long. She'd grown so... Ridiculously fond of him it made her giggle.
"...I don't want to go on the trip without you either." Izuku smiled at her softly, this time far more stable a smile than previously.
"Guess we'll both had to just try our best so we can go, huh?"
"Yeah."