Trying my hand at third person omniscient. Or maybe it's still third person limited but just pov switching a lot. Who knows (certainly not me). I have obliterated writer's block for this chapter.

Koda is scared.

Koda is always apprehensive of everything and everyone. People scare him in every way possible and he doesn't understand how they work half the time. They're loud and really, really overwhelming when he even thinks about talking to them. Their personalities are so strong too, as the strength of an ant when scaled strong. Like what dogs will do for a good treat strong.

But Nendo is on a whole other level of both scary and strong.

Koda doesn't even know what his quirk is—but he's strong and scary and he wants to hide away with his rabbit and never be seen again. He can be a good hero just for animals, right? A vet sounds like a good career right now, especially with the incoming feeling that they may just lose this round. But then again, maybe not? What if he puts up a fight and his opponents are secretly strong and he gets his butt handed to him? But what if he's too weak and he gets his butt handed to him? Either way, he loses with nothing but the impending doom of failure hanging over his head. Oh no, he knew that he should've chosen another career path—

"Uhh . . . I don't know you." Koda nearly jumped out of his skin because he's even scarier up close. "Why are we standing in this room together with a rocket?"

He wanted to say how it isn't a rocket and it's a bomb and they're supposed to be villains and prevent people from touching the bomb but that long died before he could think to communicate with him. All thought about getting out of this practical alive left his mind. All the previous ones look so intense . . . and don't even get him started with the first two . . .

"Do we have to do the same thing buddy did?" Nendo asked himself as Koda contemplated what to use as a white flag as soon as it starts. Maybe just hide and have their opponents approach the bomb itself? The only things he knows about them would be that one is one has a quirk dealing with hearing and another with electricity. The odds are stacked up against them. Maybe just lie on the floor and hope for the best?

No Koji, he thought, slapping his cheeks. I promised myself I would do better now that I'm in UA.

Okay, first he has to assess the situation. No doubt his panic has taken away a good portion of time from the pair. They were only given a few minutes in advance and already he's screwing up!

"So buddy didn't fight them, he just . . . " Nendo continued to mutter under his breath. From an outside point of view, he looked downright terrifying. Koda was no exception. He trembled but stood his ground.

Okay, so they have to either arrest the villains or keep them from touching the villain. The villains are a force to be reckoned with. One with a quirk dealing with hearing meant stealth. Electricity is harder to deal with. He can't think of any animals to use against them. Even if he had, they make noise. He's useless against electricity. Even if he were to come up with something, then he had to come across that animal to ask for help. And as far as he could tell, there's nothing of the sort . . .

"Hey, I need you to keep watch."

Koda finally snapped from his introspection. He looked towards Nendo, who was talking to a hamster.

His pet hamster.

He set her on the ground right next to the bomb. She didn't seem scared by him as he crouched down and talked to her, "I'm counting on you, stay there." The hamster twitched her nose in response as if understanding what her owner was saying. However, she stayed where she was standing. She understood him. They obviously have a bond, the two of them trusted one another.

It also just saved him. He was hoping that a bird would fly by, but maybe he can ask for permission . . .

Nendo turns to look at him. "Eh? Why are you staring at me?" He made a face, but due to the general atmosphere he usually gives out, Koda jumped and turned away quickly.

. . . or maybe not.

They were doomed.

Bakugo knows a lot of things. He's just learning a lot of shit as well. He knows how little he knows and the thought alone has him itching to use his quirk on his fucking brain. He knows that—and it's hard to accept—that he's not the strongest in this class.

It's a . . . new feeling, not being on top of his class. Not being the best. Slowly realizing just how not perfect he is. This is only fucking temporary because he'll beat everyone's ass and be on top again! He'll be number one and everyone here are just bugs waiting to be squashed!

Except . . . the thought didn't bring him as much joy as it usually did. Maybe it was because he's no longer on top (and it pissed him off because he's deserved it and Deku was nothing but a liar who laughed behind his back for years while he took the quirkless label like a damn masochist) or maybe it's because he knows how much better he can do. He's not at his best. He can get better. He was never at his best.

He can always get better.

He was born with his quirk for a reason, not acid or frog or by having a black fucking entity inside of him—but explosion. And it's his fucking quirk and he won't allow it to go to waste by not using it to its full capacity.

He won't waste away like fucking Deku, who's with fucking Recovery Girl (he has two visits while he has zero—take that shitheads!) and do nothing because he lacks the damn initiative to get things done. He will be number one and crush as many people as he can along the way.

See?

Fucking simple.

And fuck everyone in his life who's trying to tell him Your damn ego is too big because you know fucking what? People are either all high and mighty over nothing or they're going to be fucking doormats over the smallest of things and he's not either of them. He likes to think that he's the best he can fucking be—

—and yet Deku defeated him.

The thought alone makes him want to saw his head off his neck and say he's out of order for the rest of the day. Okay. So this shithole of a class is stronger than he anticipated. Nothing to be wary of. He can just be better. Just do better.

Which brings him to his current, glaring problem.

Fucking Bubblegum.

He is a headache on his own. He's pissed at him for hiding his quirk—is he not powerful enough for them to show him their quirks?!—but something is different.

Bakugo is not someone to dance around a topic worth investigating. If there's something that needs to be done, then he will do it, nine times out of ten. However, this happened to be the tenth.

From the moment that extra walked into the classroom over a year ago, from his stance he knew he wasn't someone worth wasting time with (not like anyone was). Back then, he couldn't give less of a damn. He didn't even remember his name, nor did he put the effort into doing so. He was caught up with getting ready for the UA entrance exams and getting his body into shape. However, there was something at the back of his mind that slowly grew until it was demanding his attention.

That time is now.

Bubblegum is . . . someone to look into. He needs to defeat him—that's better. He needs to pummel his ass into the ground so hard he comes out in Greenland. He needs to beat his ass into last week so he can get this irritating feeling out of his mind. He's a threat, and all threats must be shoved into their place as a stepping stool for him to be number one. Bubblegum must know that he's far more powerful than he'll ever be.

Yeah, that's it.

Bubblegum must be defeated. Maybe then will this feeling of his will finally go away? Maybe then a part of his consciousness will throw up a fucking white flag and leave him to be number one. Maybe then he can shove his way to the top—all the way above All Might. Maybe then he can take a meterstick and shove it up Four Eye's asshole and how it is to have a stick shoved up their ass. Maybe then he can chuck Deku into the fucking sun and watch him explode into a million fucking little green pieces.

Maybe then, when Bubblegum and Half and Half are defeated, with Deku out the picture, and with him as the top student at UA, he can finally be at peace. He can be number one and fucking crush them all in the most satisfying way possible. It'll be a fucking dream to watch the death and destruction of everyone.

(Maybe then he can get over the crushing, almost overwhelming feeling taking residence in his chest, because he's not weak like during the Sludge Villains attack, nor is he dumb and stupid and naive. He's strong—he has to be.)

So with that in mind, Bakugo turned to look at the screen—

—only to choke on his fucking spit.

Sometimes Saiki has to wonder whether or not the life he's living is real. He just has to take a step or two back mentally to process what's going on so he won't short-circuit with smoke pouring out his ears. He just has to blink as if there's a loading screen behind his eyelids and by constantly checking up on it it'll somehow move faster and he can comprehend what's happening.

Nendo is like that all rolled up in one.

He's like one big loading screen because he can never tell what's going on in his mind. Other people usually have patterns and little clues from their personalities that eventually come together like puzzle pieces and make them up. Maybe it's just him, but people are kind of . . . predictable, at least in his eyes. However, Nendo doesn't fall anywhere. He's just . . . Nendo. He can't even explain it.

I don't even know if I want to figure out what goes on in his head.

Why is he saying this? Because Nendo just blew up half the building with his (false) boobs and All Might looks like he's going through a painful thought process of whether or not he should stop the practical. His class looks ready to either wither under what they just saw or crawl into a very elaborate, very deep hole underground and only emerge when humanity as a whole has evolved enough to advance past the need to have eyes and see. Even Bakugo choked on his spit and was currently holding his sides, trying not to die as his eyes watered. Very ungraceful, but understandable.

He needs coffee jelly after this. No wait, he needs coffee after this.

He looked at the monitors again.

I need caffeine to get through this, good grief.

I suppose I should explain what happened to allow us to get to this point.

Saiki reluctantly allowed the readers to read a flashback of what just happened. Whether it was so the readers can know what happened, or so the author can get a good number of words in to complete the chapter, it remains a mystery. That wasn't what was important.

Anyway, at the moment Saiki was watching the monitors. Call it what you wish, but Saiki was curious to see how Nendo would do. A part of him said he would lose, but all of him agreed that even if he loses, he wants to see it. He's not a sadist in any way (at least he likes to think of himself as not being a sadist) but he just wants to . . . to see. He doesn't know how he would feel if Nendo lost, but he doesn't know how he would feel if he won this either.

But Nendo in this practical? I have to know what's going to happen.

Without further preamble, the time for preparing was up and the exercise began. He had to look at another monitor, the entire class watching seemingly with bated breath (save for a few). As soon as it did the heroes—someone with mutated ears and another with bright yellow hair he didn't know the names of—entered. Immediately, the girl with the mutated ears stuck them into a wall, listening. She signaled for her partner to stop until she has something.

Given that it's Nendo and another boy, they didn't look like stealth would be their greatest strong suits. They looked quite clumsy if he were to comment on it. While one did look like they would be much quieter than the other, it didn't guarantee much. He looked over to the villain's team. He saw the shy boy quietly talking to . . . a hamster. From the fact that the hamster was in Nendo's hand, it was his hamster.

Saiki wisely chose not to comment on it. His classmates, however, chose to ask questions.

"They have a hamster," Tsuyu deadpanned. Saiki shrugged in response.

A spiky redhead scratched the back of his neck. "Uh . . . pets are allowed?"

"If it deals with one of their quirks, then maybe," a girl he's come to know as Yaoyorozu interjected, albeit with a hint of uncertainty. "It could come with one of their hero costumes."

"Even so, it's manly!" the spiky redhead responded. "I wonder which one has the animal-related quirk?"

Tsuyu and Saiki gave each other knowing looks. Before Tsuyu could say anything, however, someone else cut in.

"If you don't mind," a tall boy with glasses—Iida, he had to remind himself—started. "Please keep your voice down for the exercise. It's extremely disrespectful not only to our classmates, but to ourselves for depriving ourselves of seeing our comrades in action, and All Might himself because it's our first day with him and we should do our upmost best to—"

"Sorry man." The spiky redhead looked sheepish.

"Students!" All Might shouted enthusiastically (when is he not?), "Please refrain from discussing their performance until after the exercise is over. However, based on your conversation so far, you might be pleasantly surprised with the outcome!"

"Why? Do you know anything?" Ojiro asked.

"No!" All Might answered. "But I can see that they have a plan in mind! Pay attention closely!"

Saiki would never admit it out loud, but he was glad All Might dissolve the conversation. Everyone for some reason gathered around him to talk to one another like he's some sort of magnet for people. The horror.

Yare yare, but that's not important. The readers want to know how did Nendo win based on the current chapter title.

Looking back at the monitors, he can see the hero pair stop, listen, and climb up to the bomb. They seemed to have developed a pattern, using the girl's quirk to listen for opponents, and the boy was keeping an extra eye out. At times they would stop, pointing in different directions while whispering to one another until they came to a decision.

At one point, while the girl had her ear jacks in a wall, she flinched and ripped them away. Her fingers hovered over her ears in pain for a brief moment before they dropped to her sides and she turned to her partner. They soon separated.

That must have been Nendo. There was no way Saiki could imagine the boy's partner making that much noise, the monitors with or without sound. No doubt he probably dropped something or spoke too loudly. Does the villain team even have a plan?

. . . probably not.

Saiki still was invested in the outcome, however.

It turned out, the pair had something like a plan. The girl ran until she stopped, her hands ghosting over her ears again. She tried to plug in her ear jacks but she yanked them out just as quickly. He could see her building frustration.

"They're trying to render her quirk useless with a lot of noise," Tsuyu observed. Saiki nodded in agreement.

Well, at least the shy boy was. He had no idea what Nendo was doing. He was watching him from the monitors and even All Might look confused (yet optimistic) about his actions.

From where he was standing, Saiki can see Nendo walking around the building aimlessly, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He was humming a song, however, the beat was so lost that he would bet coffee jelly that no one would be able to tell what he's thinking about. In the light, you could see his false boobs that were shaking with every step.

"And they just . . . allowed Nendo to wear that for a hero costume?" a girl with brown hair questioned, her head tilting to the side.

Saiki stared at everyone's bewildered expressions. Where were they in chapter five? What about chapter six? Did no one seriously question it? Even All Might look confused. Good, everyone felt the same pain he does just by interacting with him. He looked at Bakugo, who was uncharacteristically silent. His head was tilted downwards, a weird expression on his face. No doubt he was contemplating something.

Saiki felt a shiver down his spine. Why did he suddenly feel slightly uneasy just by looking at him?

Tsuyu tapped his shoulder and pointed to a screen. "Look."

Saiki saw that the boy with the yellow hair has found Nendo. The latter looked confused while the former looked ready to secure his victory. He yelled something no one could hear and activated his quirk which was—oh.

It was electricity—or lightning?

While it's a strong quirk, Saiki wonders how he'll use it. It can be dangerous, and yet he has it all dancing at his fingertips. He could see yellow flashes of light and then—

Nendo took off one of his boobs. He was trying to say something while looking guilty but it went unheard if the determined expression on the one with yellow hair is to go by. Neither party must have thought nothing of it until something else happened.

He dropped his false boob. It fell to the floor and a few things rolled out of it.

"Geez, I never thought they would allow him to even wear that . . . " a classmate with black hair and bulky elbows commented.

"Lucky!" a short boy with the metal diaper hissed in envy.

"Shush!" Iida reprimanded. His arms were waving around in the air so wildly it was a wonder how they haven't hit anyone quite yet.

. . . the biggest thing that rolled out his boob was, indeed, a firecracker. Half the class gasped, even the heterochromatic boy had to blink twice. A boy with a bird's head muttered something about a dark prophecy while All Might tried to stop the exercise. Bakugo chose this moment to finally look up.

Too late.

Bakugo started choking on his spit. All Might stared at the screen as if he was contemplating his life choices, and the class wasn't much better. Even Saiki—for once—didn't have a thought in his mind to describe it.

See, the electricity, while the boy tried to reel it in at the last second, couldn't be stopped all the way. Even so, it did happen to light the tail end of the firecracker. Nendo only stared at it, confused before the firecracker was set off.

And then half the building was destroyed with it.

Including the bomb.

"S . . . shouldn't the exercise be called off?" the boy with six arms asked in a daze.

"Oh! Look!" Ashido pointed to the screen where Nendo was, miraculously, unharmed.

The other boy . . . not so much. He didn't look like he had a single brain cell left. He had both his thumbs thrown up, a line of drool rolling down his chin. Nendo didn't seem too put off by this demeanor, talking to him as if they had all the time in the world.

Meanwhile, the other two opponents had stopped what they were doing completely. They both froze and looked at each other for a long, painful moment as if sharing the sad sentiment that they have been paired with people who don't have . . . the highest IQs.

"The villain team