Chương 76: The Same Gate

Midoriya Izuku had imagined fighting All Might too many times. That was the problem. He had imagined it as a child in front of a television, knees pressed into the carpet, notebook open, heart too large for his chest. He had imagined impossible rescues and impossible punches and the kind of smile that could lift a collapsing world simply by existing inside it. He had imagined standing beside him. Behind him. Beneath him. Becoming worthy of him. He had never imagined trying to run away from him.

The exam gate stood behind them. The exit gate stood ahead, somewhere beyond a mock city district built from concrete lanes, empty buildings, false storefronts, and streets wide enough for a Symbol to become weather. The rules were simple because U. A. liked simple rules when it planned to make everything else complicated. Pass by either escaping through the gate or restraining the examiner. The examiner was All Might. Midoriya's hands were shaking. He opened them. Closed them. Opened them again.

Bakugo stood beside him with his hands shoved into his pockets, jaw tight, eyes fixed forward. He had not spoken since they entered the starting zone. That was worse than yelling. Silence from Kacchan had never meant calm. It meant pressure sealed badly. All Might stood far down the street, enormous beneath the exam sunlight, weights attached to his limbs and smile nowhere near as warm as the one on magazine covers. This was not the person who had told Midoriya he could become a hero.

This was not the exhausted man who coughed blood into napkins and still tried to make praise sound whole. This was the wall. Midoriya swallowed.

"The goal is pass" Bakugo's eyes snapped toward him.

"I know that" Midoriya flinched. Then forced himself not to apologize. Progress. Maybe. He tried again.

"Akiyama said if one of us treats passing as saving the other and the other treats passing as beating the examiner, All Might wins before moving" Bakugo's lip curled.

"You quoting scar boy at me before a fight?"

"I am quoting useful information""Don't make that your tone""What tone?"

"The tone where you think saying it like a report makes it less annoying" Midoriya inhaled. All Might had not moved yet. That was worse too. Bakugo looked back at the street.

"The goal is pass" Midoriya nodded.

"Yes" Bakugo's hands came out of his pockets. Explosions snapped once, small and sharp.

"But if you drag me backward the whole time, I will blast you through the gate myself" Midoriya did not know if that counted as teamwork. Probably not. Maybe more than usual. The timer began. All Might moved. The street vanished. Not literally. It only felt that way because the Symbol of Peace crossing distance was less like running and more like the future arriving too early.

Even weighted, even constrained, even holding back enough that the exam remained an exam, All Might turned the space between them into a lesson about scale. Midoriya's body wanted to freeze. Bakugo did not. He blasted sideways and up, grabbing Midoriya by the back of his uniform hard enough to choke him for half a second.

"Move!" They hit the side street as All Might's fist struck the road where they had been. Concrete erupted. Dust swallowed the start line. Midoriya stumbled, recovered, and forced One For All low through his legs. Small. Not nothing. Not bone. Small. Bakugo released him with a shove.

"You can run on your own""I know""Then do it!" They ran. For eight seconds, they almost looked like a team. Bakugo blasted ahead in short angled bursts, cutting across the street to avoid direct lines. Midoriya followed at ground level, using low output to shift directions without tearing muscle. All Might did not rush them immediately. He walked through dust, each step heavy enough to make the street feel measured.

"Your objective is not behind you, young heroes" His voice filled the district. Midoriya's stomach twisted. Young heroes. From him, it should have felt like praise. Today, it felt like weight. Bakugo snapped "Shut up!" He fired a blast backward. All Might slapped the smoke aside with one hand. Not a punch. A dismissal. Bakugo's face changed. Midoriya saw it and hated that he understood. Bakugo did not want All Might to dismiss him.

He wanted force answered by force, proof answered by proof, a wall that acknowledged impact. All Might gave him nothing. Midoriya said "Kacchan, don't engage" Bakugo rounded on him mid-run.

"You think I don't know that?" All Might appeared at the end of the side street. How? Midoriya's breath vanished. Bakugo fired downward, changing direction instantly, but All Might's hand caught his gauntlet strap and threw him into a building façade hard enough to crater the outer wall.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya moved before thought. Green light flared. Too much. Pain sparked up his leg. Not fracture. Warning. Stop. No. Small control preserves future action. He cut the output and slid instead of launched, grabbing Bakugo's sleeve and pulling him away as All Might's follow-up strike demolished the wall above them. Debris rained down. Bakugo shoved him off.

"I didn't ask for rescue""I know""Then stop acting like it""I am not""You always are!" Midoriya froze. All Might advanced through dust. Bakugo's face was twisted with rage, but the rage was not clean. It never was. It was pride and fear and years of being told he was victory shaped like a boy. It was All Might at the end of the street. It was Midoriya standing beside him with borrowed lightning and a face that kept looking like apology. Bakugo snarled.

"You look at him and see someone to escape from. I look at him and see someone to beat" Midoriya's voice shook.

"That is why we have to decide what passing means""Passing means not running like cowards""No. Passing means getting through the gate or restraining him" Bakugo stepped closer.

"You think we can restrain All Might?" Midoriya did not answer. That was an answer. Bakugo's smile was sharp and awful.

"So you want to run""I want us to pass""You want me to run""I want you to live through the exam!" The words echoed. All Might stopped. Only for a fraction. Bakugo stared at Midoriya. Midoriya's chest heaved. There it was. Too much. Too honest. Too close to the wrong shape. He had made pass into save. The same way Ren had warned. Bakugo's eyes narrowed.

"Do not make me your civilian" Midoriya flinched like he had been hit. Bakugo continued, voice low and vicious because vulnerability in him always arrived armed.

"I am not the dummy under the beam. I am not the idiot in the red zone. I am not your chance to prove you can save someone without breaking yourself" Midoriya's hands shook.

"I know""No you don't" Bakugo's fists sparked.

"You keep looking at me like if I get hurt it means you failed" Midoriya's throat closed. Because yes. Because no. Because Kacchan had been the first person he could never reach and the first person he had wanted to catch anyway. All Might's shadow lengthened across the street.

"Discussion in combat is useful only if it changes action" If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Both boys turned. All Might's voice was not unkind. It was worse. It was clear. Midoriya breathed. Then said "He is right" Bakugo barked "Do not agree with him while he is trying to fail us!" Midoriya wiped dust from his mouth.

"You are not my civilian" Bakugo's eyes cut toward him. Midoriya continued "And I am not your obstacle" Bakugo's face tightened. All Might's stance changed. The next attack came low. Fast. Midoriya saw the shift only because All Might had taught him how heroes telegraphed safety in training and how villains did not. This was neither. This was a teacher attacking two students with the precision of a man who trusted Recovery Girl to punish him if he miscalculated.

"All Might coming low!" Midoriya shouted Bakugo reacted instantly. Not by fighting him head-on. By blasting a smoke wall into the street and diving left. Midoriya went right. All Might punched through the smoke, but the boys split at different heights. Bakugo fired at the ground behind All Might, not to damage him but to disrupt dust and vision. Midoriya used the moment to kick a loose signpost into the street as a moving obstacle. All Might ignored both. Of course.

He crossed through smoke and grabbed Midoriya by the backpack strap. Midoriya's world snapped sideways. He hit the pavement, rolled, and barely kept his arm from taking the fall badly. Pain flashed. Two. Maybe three. Not fracture. Good. All Might lifted one foot. Bakugo blasted into his side before the stomp landed. It did not move All Might far. It moved him enough. Midoriya rolled clear. Bakugo landed badly, teeth clenched. All Might turned toward him.

"You came back" Bakugo's eyes burned.

"Shut up""You could have continued toward the gate""Shut up!" All Might stepped forward. Bakugo fired a blast directly into his chest. All Might took it. Smoke cleared. His uniform was scorched. He was barely moved. Bakugo's face went white with fury. Midoriya saw the trap open. All Might had given Bakugo the answer he wanted and made it useless. Bakugo launched again.

"Kacchan, no!" Too late. All Might caught him by the face and drove him into the street. Not hard enough to break. Hard enough to end the argument. Midoriya moved. Too much green lit his legs. No. Small. No. Not enough. Kacchan was down. Damage is not tuition. A power you can use once is ammunition. Small control preserves future action. He forced the light down until it felt like trying to whisper through a storm.

Then he ran, not straight at All Might, but toward a side alley where a loose cable hung from a utility pole. He kicked the cable down, grabbed the end, and threw it around All Might's arm. Useless. Almost. Bakugo, pinned under All Might's hand, saw it. For one half second, their eyes met. Midoriya did not say help me. Bakugo did not need him to. Explosion. Small. Angled. The cable snapped tight around All Might's wrist as Bakugo's blast pushed the other end around a signpost.

Midoriya pulled with everything low-output could give without tearing himself open. All Might looked at the cable. Then at Midoriya. Then at Bakugo. His smile returned slightly.

"There" The cable broke. But All Might had stopped for one second. One second was information. Bakugo rolled out from under his hand, coughing dust, blood at the corner of his mouth. Midoriya scrambled back. They reached the alley together. For three seconds, All Might let them breathe. Teacher mercy. Exam cruelty. Bakugo wiped his mouth and glared at Midoriya.

"What the hell was that?"

"Improvised restraint""It broke""It stopped him""For one second""That is data" Bakugo looked physically pained.

"You sound like Akiyama""I know""Disgusting" Midoriya almost laughed. Wrong time. Right feeling. Bakugo looked toward the exit gate on the far side of the district. It was visible now between two buildings, maybe two hundred meters away. Too far in open street. Too close to ignore. All Might stood between them and the direct route. Bakugo's breathing was harsh. Midoriya's leg ached. All Might's voice came again.

"Young Bakugo. Young Midoriya. Time remains" Bakugo stared at the gate. Then at All Might. Then at Midoriya. His face twisted as if every available option insulted him personally.

"We cannot beat him" Midoriya's heart stuttered. Hearing Bakugo say it was like watching a mountain admit weather existed. Bakugo continued "Not here. Not with these damn weights. Not with you thinking every bruise is a moral event" Midoriya flinched. Bakugo pointed at him.

"And not with me trying to punch a wall because I hate that it is a wall" The silence after that was enormous. Midoriya swallowed.

"Then we pass" Bakugo's teeth clenched.

"Yeah" The word sounded like it had cost him bone. Midoriya nodded toward the gate.

"We need to move him off the center line""No. We need to move us off what he expects" Midoriya blinked. Bakugo was looking at the alley walls now. Windows. Fire escapes. Rooftop angle. Narrow streets. Smoke paths. The same mind that could turn explosions into flight was mapping shape, force, and annoyance.

"He expects you to run and me to fight. So we switch" Midoriya stared.

"What?" Bakugo smiled. Ugly. Real.

"You draw him""I draw All Might?"

"You are good at looking breakable""Kacchan" Bakugo grabbed the front of his uniform and pulled him close.

"Do it without breaking. That's your whole damn thing now, right?" Midoriya's breath caught. Without breaking. Not without fear. Not without pain. Without breaking. Bakugo released him.

"I hit from behind and make him turn. Then you go low. We do not stop unless the gate is in reach" Midoriya looked at the plan. It was reckless. It was not suicidal. For them, that was significant progress.

"What if he catches you?" Bakugo glared.

"Then you don't turn around unless it changes pass" Midoriya's stomach twisted. There it was. The red line. Different color. Same shape. Do not make me your civilian. Midoriya nodded.

"I will not turn unless it changes pass" Bakugo looked away.

"Good" The word, from him, was almost unrecognizable. Then they moved. Midoriya stepped into the open first. All Might turned.

"Young Midoriya" Midoriya ran left, low output flickering through his legs, not enough to outrun All Might, but enough to be worth chasing. He deliberately stumbled near a broken curb. Not fake enough to insult the examiner. Real enough because he was tired. All Might advanced. Midoriya changed direction at the last second, sliding under a half-collapsed awning. All Might reached for him. Bakugo came from above.

Explosion hammered down behind All Might's shoulder, not into him directly, but into the ground at an angle that blasted dust, shattered loose pavement, and forced the Symbol to shift his footing.

"All Might!" Bakugo roared All Might turned. Midoriya ran. Every instinct screamed to look back. He did not. Gate. Pass. Not save as private guilt. Pass. All Might moved faster than both of them. He appeared in front of Midoriya before the gate street opened. Midoriya's body wanted maximum. A single burst. Break leg. Reach gate. No. If an action requires medical intervention after success, it is not mastery. It is debt.

He cut right instead, hitting the wall with one foot, pushing off at low output, and throwing his backpack into All Might's face. Ridiculous. Effective for half a blink. All Might caught the backpack. Bakugo blasted through the smoke behind him, one hand extended. Not to strike. To grab Midoriya's wrist. Midoriya grabbed back. Bakugo's momentum yanked him sideways out of All Might's reach. They crashed through a false storefront window, rolled across the floor, and burst into a parallel street. Both hit the ground.

Both got up. Midoriya's wrist hurt. Bakugo's shoulder bled from glass scratches. Neither stopped. The gate was closer. All Might laughed. Not cruel. Proud. Terrifying.

"There you are!" The street behind them exploded with wind as he jumped. Midoriya looked up. All Might descended like the end of the exam. Bakugo shoved him.

"Scatter!" They split again. All Might landed between them and the gate, cracking the road. Shockwave. Midoriya hit the ground and slid. Bakugo slammed into a wall, caught himself, and shouted something incoherent. The gate stood twenty meters behind All Might. Twenty. Impossible. Possible. All Might stood between them, weights heavy, smile bright, eyes sharper than sunlight.

"The direct path is closed" Midoriya pushed himself up. Bakugo staggered to his feet. The direct path. Ren would have said primary route blocked. Identify alternate. Arai would have redesigned the map. Kenta would ask if the route could hold. Yaoyorozu would sequence. Uraraka would ask what the body could carry. Shinso would move before the perfect answer appeared. Iida would say route can be repaired one step at a time. Todoroki would say small is repeatable and hate it. Midoriya inhaled.

"Kacchan""What?"

"Not direct" Bakugo's eyes moved. Then sharpened. The false storefronts on either side of the gate had thin walls. Not structural. Exam materials. A side passage maybe. But All Might would stop a direct run. He was waiting for either of them to try. Bakugo saw it.

"You go right""You go left?"

"No" Bakugo grinned.

"You throw me" Midoriya stared.

"What?"

"Use that borrowed power for leverage, not martyrdom""Kacchan, that could""Low output, idiot!" All Might stepped forward. Time vanished. Midoriya moved. He ran toward Bakugo, not away from him. Bakugo blasted toward him at the same time. They collided in controlled chaos, Bakugo's hands catching Midoriya's shoulders, Midoriya dropping low and turning his whole body into a pivot instead of a punch. Small output through legs. Not breaking. Not launching alone. Redirecting.

Bakugo blasted at the exact moment Midoriya turned. Explosion and low-power leverage combined. Bakugo shot sideways through the false storefront wall, not at All Might, but past him, toward the gate's side frame. Midoriya fell from the recoil, pain flashing through his hip. All Might moved to intercept Bakugo. Of course. That left the center line open for half a second. Midoriya ran. Not enough. All Might could still catch both.

Bakugo hit the gate frame, grabbed it with one hand, and blasted backward with the other, not toward All Might, not toward the wall, but into the ground between them, throwing dust and debris upward in a tight curtain.

"All Might!" Bakugo shouted All Might turned toward the blast. Midoriya reached the gate. His fingers touched the threshold. He stopped. No. Not alone. Bakugo was outside the gate line, one hand gripping the side frame, body angled wrong, All Might closing. Midoriya's first instinct screamed. Run through. Pass. Save? No. Do not split success. The goal is pass. Both. He grabbed Bakugo's wrist. Bakugo's eyes widened.

"Deku!" Midoriya pulled. Not with everything. With enough. Bakugo blasted once more, propelling himself through Midoriya's pull. All Might's hand closed on empty air behind him. Both boys crashed through the gate together. The buzzer sounded. PASS For one second, neither moved. Midoriya was on his back, staring at the sky. Bakugo was half across him, one arm twisted under him, breathing like a wounded animal. The gate sensors chimed again. PASS CONFIRMED Bakugo shoved himself off.

"Get off me""You were on me""Shut up" Midoriya laughed. Not because it was funny. Because the alternative was crying and Recovery Girl had enough work. All Might stood outside the gate. He was smiling now. The real one. Tired underneath. Proud through the weight.

"Young Bakugo. Young Midoriya" Both boys looked up. All Might stepped to the gate but did not cross it. Exam boundary. Teacher boundary. Symbol boundary.

"You passed" Bakugo looked away.

"I heard the damn machine" Midoriya sat up.

"Thank you" Bakugo snapped "Do not thank him for beating us up" All Might's smile deepened.

"Your teamwork remained unstable" Midoriya's shoulders dropped.

"Yes""Your communication was late""Yes""Your emotional assumptions nearly failed you before my first serious attack" Bakugo's jaw tightened. All Might looked at him.

"You attempted to define victory alone" Bakugo did not answer. All Might looked at Midoriya.

"You attempted to define rescue as preventing your teammate from being harmed rather than passing with him" Midoriya nodded, throat tight.

"Yes" All Might looked at both.

"But you corrected. Not perfectly. Not comfortably. But in action. That is why you passed" Bakugo stared at the ground. His hands were shaking. Midoriya saw. He looked away before Bakugo noticed him noticing. Or before Bakugo decided noticing was a crime. All Might's voice softened.

"Winning and saving are not enemies. But if you make one of them private pride and the other private guilt, you will split yourself and your team apart" Midoriya's chest hurt. Bakugo's face twisted.

"Did Akiyama write that for you?" All Might blinked. Then laughed once.

"No" Bakugo glared.

"Sounds like him" All Might's expression changed. Perhaps because it did. Perhaps because several students had learned to speak in load-bearing sentences and now every adult was infected. Midoriya rubbed at his wrist.

"He warned us" All Might nodded.

"He did" Bakugo shoved himself upright.

"Don't make it a group therapy victory" All Might looked at him.

"No. Make it repeatable" Bakugo did not answer. But he did not reject it either. That counted. Medical review was immediate and humiliating. Recovery Girl inspected Midoriya's leg, wrist, shoulder, and face with increasing irritation.

"No fractures" Midoriya brightened. She smacked him lightly on the head with a clipboard.

"That is not applause. That is relief with a warning label""Yes ma'am" Bakugo had bruised ribs, shoulder strain, superficial cuts, and an expression that dared anyone to call him injured. Recovery Girl called him injured. He survived. Barely. All Might stayed in hero form until the formal exam room emptied. Then, in a secure staff corridor with Recovery Girl blocking one end and Aizawa standing like a warning sign at the other, the Symbol deflated into Toshinori. He coughed into a cloth. Not much blood. Enough.

Aizawa looked at him.

"You overdid the second street impact" Toshinori wiped his mouth.

"They needed pressure""They are fifteen""Sixteen for some" Aizawa stared. Toshinori sighed.

"I know" Recovery Girl walked over and jabbed his shin with the clipboard.

"You are also medically impossible and morally exhausting""Yes ma'am" Aizawa looked through the small observation window where Midoriya and Bakugo sat on opposite benches, not speaking and not leaving.

"They passed" Toshinori nodded.

"Yes""Barely""Yes""Useful barely" Toshinori smiled faintly.

"Competency threshold?" Aizawa's eyes narrowed.

"If you start using Kurose's language, I will resign""No you will not""I will consider it emotionally" From the other side of the hall, Kurose said "Denied" Aizawa closed his eyes. Toshinori laughed, then coughed again. But his gaze returned to the boys. Young Midoriya, who had reached the gate and refused to pass alone. Young Bakugo, who had admitted impossible and still moved. Not enough. Enough to continue. In the observation room, Ren received the approved result three minutes after the buzzer.

He was not given footage. Only the summary. MIDORIYA / BAKUGO — PASS MEDICAL: NO CRITICAL INJURY NOTES: TEAMWORK UNSTABLE BUT CORRECTED IN ACTION Ren read it twice. Shinso leaned over.

"They lived""Yes""Passed""Yes""No critical injury""Yes""Midoriya will call that improvement""It is""Disgusting" Ren looked at the line again. Teamwork unstable but corrected in action. That was probably the most honest exam result U. A. had ever written. Bakugo entered the observation room later, followed by Midoriya. Neither looked triumphant. Both looked like the exam had dragged something out of them and left it on the floor for staff to label. Bakugo saw Ren first.

"Don't" Ren lifted both hands.

"I said nothing""You were going to""I was not""You had the face" Ren looked at Shinso.

"Did I have the face?" Shinso considered.

"Yes" Ren betrayed no reaction. Midoriya sat down heavily.

"We passed" Ren nodded.

"I saw" Bakugo dropped onto a bench.

"Of course they told you" Kurose said from the doorway "Approved result summaries are shared within relevant cross-course debrief" Bakugo pointed at her without looking.

"See? Paperwork stalking" Sano, from another bench, whispered "He understands us now" Bakugo glared at him. Sano looked away immediately. Midoriya looked at Ren.

"You were right" Ren said "About?"

"The goal splitting" Bakugo made an annoyed sound. Midoriya continued anyway.

"I tried to make passing into saving him. He tried to make passing into beating All Might. Both almost failed" Ren looked at Bakugo. Bakugo looked away. Then said "Almost" Midoriya blinked. Ren did too. Bakugo's jaw flexed.

"We corrected" The word sounded dragged from him by force. But it came. Ren nodded.

"Good enough" Bakugo's eyes snapped to him.

"Do not use that phrase on me" Shinso said "Too late. It is an institutional parasite" Midoriya laughed quietly. Bakugo looked like he might explode. He did not. Useful correction. Later, when the practical day finally ended, the results were not celebrated in the way people expected from stories. No dramatic music. No one stood on desks. No one declared themselves ready for the next stage. The people who passed looked relieved, angry, tired, or confused.

The people who failed were taken aside by teachers before shame could become public architecture. The people who had not yet been tested looked at the passed students and realized survival did not make waiting easier. Ren stood near the gate with Shinso as evening settled over U. A. Hana and Daichi were not there yet. For once, he had five minutes where no one handed him food, a checklist, or a metaphor disguised as parental care. Shinso looked toward the Hero Course building.

"Midoriya and Bakugo passed""Yes""You passed""Yes""I passed""Yes""Why does it feel less like winning than like being allowed to carry heavier things?" Ren looked at him. That was the question. Pass-level. Threshold. Door. Camp. Evidence.

"Because it is" Shinso nodded slowly.

"Terrible""Yes" They stood in silence. Then Bakugo's voice came from behind them.

"You two always stand around like the end of a funeral?" Shinso turned.

"You always interrupt like a thrown brick?" Bakugo's grin flashed.

"Better than being a wet scarf with opinions" Shinso's eyebrows rose. Ren said "That was almost creative" Bakugo looked offended.

"It was creative""Pass-level" Shinso made a strangled sound. Bakugo took one step forward. Then stopped. Because Aizawa was visible in the doorway behind him. Not saying anything. Just there. Bakugo clicked his tongue.

"Whatever" He walked away. Ren watched him go. Shinso said "He is learning restraint in units too small for public measurement""Yes""Annoying""Useful""Worse" When Ren returned home, Hana did not ask whether Midoriya and Bakugo had passed until after food. This was either compassion or policy. Probably both. Daichi listened to the approved summary and nodded gravely.

"Same gate" Ren looked at him.

"What?"

"They passed together. Same gate" Ren blinked.

"Yes" Daichi seemed pleased with the phrase. Hana placed more food in Ren's bowl.

"Good. Gates should not eat children one at a time" Shinso, who had once again arrived for dinner because the route apparently carried him there, stared at her.

"That sentence is terrifying" Hana shrugged.

"True things can be" Ren wrote later under three-line conditions. Midoriya and Bakugo passed through the same gate. Then: Winning alone and saving alone both failed until they corrected in action. Then: A pass can be ugly and still be real. He stopped. The line felt true for them. For him. For all of them. Outside, practical exams continued to settle into records, bruises, reflections, and staff meetings. Somewhere, All Might was likely pretending he was fine badly enough that Recovery Girl had already caught him.

Somewhere, Bakugo was probably furious that passing had involved cooperation. Somewhere, Midoriya was probably writing less than he wanted under medical supervision and calling that growth with visible pain. Ren closed the notebook. The red line had held. The same gate had opened. Neither had felt like victory. Both had been evidence. For now, evidence was enough.