On the day of the entrance exam I woke up in a nervous sweat. I checked what time it was and I still had another two hours before I needed to be up. Of course my own nerves would mess me up on such an important day. I tried going back to sleep but all I could do was toss and turn. I decided to go ahead and get out of bed, putting on my weighted suit and did my morning routine before anyone else was awake.

I went outside for my usual quick jog and it finally dawned on me as I left the house. If i get accepted into UA I'll have to dorm there, it's over fifty miles away and it'll be my first real time where I'll be 100% on my own. I had to stop worrying about these things, I didn't need them clouding my mind before or during the exam. After my morning routine I waited on my family and for breakfast to be made. My grandfather was the second one up after me and he never cooked anything, said it wasn't the patriarch's job to cook. So he made my dad cook breakfast instead when he woke up. I feel like my dad and I were finally about to reconnect after the incident with those robbers, but then grandpa moved in and I've been spending all my time with him and dad and I just went back to not talking to each other.

So breakfast went by as silent as ever. As soon as I finished my grandpa ordered for me to get out of my weighted gear and put some decent clothes on. I wore my typical buttoned up school uniform and matching pants, didn't really have anything else nice to wear, and I packed a purple tracksuit in my backpack to wear once the combat portion of the test would be underway. After that my grandpa and I wasted no time at all as we rushed out the day, I think I heard my little brother call out good luck but I didn't want to waste time to make sure I heard him right.

The drive was long and tedious, driving by town after town listening to my grandfather's weird taste in music. He didn't let me wear my headphones, " This music will help you get into the mood for an exam Ashitaka. So listen up and concentrate."

" How is concentrating to old pop rock going to help me with an exam Grandpa?"

" Try memorizing the beats and lyrics to test questions. It's how I got such good grades, you'll need to score on both exams remember that."

The rest of the ride went like that, he'd tell me some hint or talk about his stories from his time as a pro trying to fill me with confidence but nothing could shake my nerves. As we finally arrived at UA I wasted no time in getting out of the car and made my way for the UA main building. The school was massive, much larger than my junior high and larger than any high school I've seen. I think I admired its sight too long because some dude tapped on my shoulder, " Huh?"

The boy stood about a half foot shorter than me and had unkempt black hair and sharp animal like teeth. " Yo dude you okay? You seem to be zoning out? You stressed or something?"

" Oh, yeah I am actually. I'm here for the entrance exam...are you here for it too?"

He gave me a confident smile as he looked up at me and did a thumbs up, " Hell yeah I am. With my quirk I've got the combat exam in the bag." With the hand he had already up doing a thumbs up he suddenly hardened it as it appeared stone like.

" Woah, holy shit that's a pretty cool quirk. All I can do is react to things better than most people."

" Hey that sounds pretty cool too man don't sell yourself short. I can still get hit like anyone else and I'm not the fastest guy around, but if you have super fast reflexes you must never get hit right?"

"...Well, that's the idea I suppose. Oh! Where are my manners, I'm Ashitaka Akira." I said as I extended a hand out to shake.

He accepted my hand shake and pulled me in as he gripped on it hard, " Nice to meet ya Akira, I'm EiJiro Kirishima." I felt rather uncomfortable at how friendly he was acting toward me and I let go of the handshake.

" Well, nice to meet you Kirishima. I Suppose we should make our way for the main hall now." Kirishima nodded and walked beside me as we went on in. Honestly this was probably the most interaction I've had with someone my own age since I graduated Junior high. It felt nice to talk to someone for more than two minutes who wasn't my grandpa. Honestly it was all sorta weird to me in the moment.

" So...Kirishima, if you don't mind me asking why do you want to be a pro hero?"

He looked surprised by my question at first but quickly went back to his confident aesthetic, " I just want to be like my hero Crimson Riot. There's not a manlier guy on the planet. How about you Akira?"

" I just need to be able to protect and save people. I owe it to someone I guess." As we continued our small talk into the building and through the hallways, I felt overwhelmed by just how many kids were here for the entrance exam. I even saw a few pros walking around, teachers more than likely. The line just to get into the main hall was long as hell and it seemed like it took forever while we waited in line.

Kirishima and I kept going about our small talk, talking about where we're from, heroes we'd like to sidekick under, and my personal favorite subject we talked about was the weirdest quirks we've ever seen. I told him, " I knew an upperclassmen a few years ago who's quirk made his mouth a working blender, complete with spinning and everything."

Kirishima laughed picturing it, " That's pretty fucking weird but I can top it! I knew this girl who could shoot our her fingernails like projectiles, but they wouldn't grow back after she shot them and they'd only go like two feet in distance max."

Wow, with a quirk as useless as that I may have to reconsider how I've viewed my own quirk in the past. We finally were able to get into the main hall and we took our seats near the far left side of the hall, sitting right on the edge of a row. Everyone seemed so quiet as we waited for some official to come out and get us started. It was soon but not soon enough when a man with a crazy yellow hairdo wearing sunglasses and a black leather outfit reminiscent of an eighty's rocker came waltzing out onto the stage.

" How ya doing boys and girls can I get an awwwee yeah?!" He brought his hand up to his ear expecting us all to cheer like he asked, I think I may have heard one guy over in the middle let out a faint, " ye ". It was pretty embarrassing and the speaker knew it for sure.

After he tried to recompose himself he told us all we would need to know about the written and combat exams. We'd go ahead and take the written here in the main hall, and then depending on what card we got would determine which training ground we go to for our combat exam. As I looked at the card given to me it said I was in Combat zone A. Kirishima leaned in too close for my comfort and smiled, holding his hand up for a high five, " Alright we both got into zone A we can blast through the exam together!"

Before I could respond some kid with glasses stood up and cleared his throat, " Excuse me! But you are being extremely rude! We are trying to listen to the school's official and you're yelling back there!"

what crawled up his ass, I didn't like him talking to Kirishima like that. I may have just me the guy but he was the only person I knew here so I guess I just reacted on my own, " Well aren't you being just as rude by yelling too?" The glasses wearing boy just glared at me, he held his hands straight out and then pointed to the teacher and then back to me as he went on rambling, " This is a prestigious school and you are making a mockery of our teacher by speaking over-"

As he kept on going another kid behind him threw a wad of paper at his head. " Oh shut the hell up and sit down already. The more you all talk the longer we gotta wait to take the exam!" The glasses wearing kid then straightened his outfit and sat back down keeping a calm and stoic demeanor. Kirishima sighed as it appeared all the blame had been shifted away from him.

The school official, who i later learned was named Present Mic, began explaining how much each enemy was worth, how even if we fail one of the tests we can still get into the school if we do well enough in another test. But the catch was to get into the hero program you had to score high enough during the combat exam, otherwise you won't qualify for the hero program at all and will have to settle for general studies, support or business as your main study program.

The written exam was relatively hard but I had confidence that I passed it with a high enough score. I was never worried about the written exam, but the combat exam I still had my worries and doubts over. As soon as we all finished the written exam Present Mic ordered for us to leave our papers where we were and to go to the locker rooms so we can change into what we brought for the combat exam. Next thing I knew Kirishima and I were standing at the gates of training ground A.

It looked like it was a massive city beyond the gates. How could a school, even one like UA afford something this insane? I looked around to see how all was taking the exam in this zone with me. Of course there was Kirishima who was busy doing some stretches next to me. I noticed a girl who appeared to have vines instead of hair, she was pretty and seemed kind. I wonder why someone who comes off like that would bother taking this exam. I kept looking around hoping to get a good assessment on who I need to avoid during the exam so I could get the most possible points, I wouldn't want to get stuck with someone far more powerful than me and have them destroy all the robots before I can.

The boy who threw the paper wad at the kid with glasses was here too. He was actually smiling, and not a smile of confidence like Kirishima had, no his smile told me he was looking forward to destruction. His smile was one of a man who craved and loved violence. Hell he was already showing off his quirk as everyone wormed up, making little explosions in his hands, insisting that he can make blasts several times larger with no effort. I'd have to avoid him for sure.

I kept looking around trying to see how else could be a threat to my score, the only other person that stood out was a girl who appeared to have headphone jacks coming down from her ear lobes. She must have a weak quirk, I'll just stay near her to make sure no one can take my points. I cleared my throat and nudged Kirishima, " Hey, Kirishima. I was thinking I'd stay near the purple haired girl over there. My quirk isn't destructive at all so I need to stay away from the people with stronger quirks like that guy with the happy murder face over there. You should do the same to make sure you get a good score."

Kirishima crosseed his arms and blew out some air, returning me his same confident look, " Look don't worry about me man. Besides it'd be unmanly of me to not go all in. If I happen to come across mister splodey or someone else strong I'll just show em up and take first place no matter what!"

His persistence of being manly was admirable but it wouldn't get him far as strategies go. Before I could offer some advice Present Mic appeared in a tower overlooking us, " Alright ya soon to be heroes, get on in there and rock N roll! Yeeeaaah!" The gates for the training zone opened quickly and I moved as close as I could to the purple haired girl with earphone jacks and ran along side her as we all charged in.

It was immediately after we all were inside the training grounds that we split off looking for robots to thrash. I noticed Kirishima simply ran down the main road with the angry explosion kid to fight the nearest batch of robots. Everyone else ran down intersecting roads and streets to find some. Earphone girl I made sure to pay attention to, my best chance of getting kills would be to stay near someone weak and she seemed to fit the part. She stopped running and I stopped as well, waiting to see what she was doing, she placed one of her jacks into the road itself, waited a few seconds and then ran down an alleyway. I followed after her hoping I made the right choice. Sure enough in the alleyway were two of each robots waiting for people to come and find them it seemed.

Before I could rush at them and secure my points the purple haired girl extended her earjacks and penetrated one of the two point bots, after that I felt and heard an incredibly loud noise as the robot blew to smithereens. Well, awesome she wasn't weak after all. So much for staying near weak people. I ran out of the alleyway though another exit which lead me to a new street. I looked to and fro and saw a few people struggling with the bots here. As I looked about my body quickly jumped to the side as I dodged a charging one point robot. I tried to land a kick to it after it charged but it did nothing. Of course it wouldn't, I lack any serious power for this sort of destruction.

I looked around for something I could use to help me out, my eyes wandered all over as I let my body take over and moved away and dodged every attack of the robot. My eyes finally stopped on a separated arm shield of one of the two point bots. I grabbed it as I rolled away from another attack of the bot and stood ready now with a way to kill these things. I stood ready for it to make its predictable move, big shocker it charged with its arms sticking out with little intelligence, I side stepped out of its way and plunged the pointier end of the shield into the exposed lower part of the robot, causing it to fall to the ground. I was swift as I dug my makeshift weapon out and stood over the bot as I forced all my weight onto the shield and brought it down heavily into the robot's neck, decapitating it and earning myself my first point.

I looked around and noticed most of the other bots in this area were still standing. Until the crazy kid came running down the road exploding every bot in his path as he made contact with them. He was insane, he would even create his explosions near the other kids, i saw several of them get knocked down from the mere shock waves of his explosions or even hold their ears in pain from being too close to one of them. No matter what I knew I couldn't get the points I needed if I was around him, I had to keep to my plan of staying near the weaker fighters, although that plan was failing miserably now.

As I was about to run for another road, my body quickly ducked as pieces of shrapnel flew over me. I turned back around to see only the same angry kid next to a freshly blown up bot, he smiled at me but his eyes were filled with rage, " What are you looking at loser?! Scarred of me?! Well you should be! I'm gonna take all the points I can and leave nothing for the weaklings like you!"

"What a fucking asshole holy shit" I heard come from down the alley I was in moments ago as the purple haired girl came walking back out surveying the situation. It was a good thing mister explodey didn't hear her, I don't wanna know what he'd do if he was insulted like that. I looked around more, maybe it was best to go off on my own and pick off the robots hiding alone if there were any.

Before I could do any of that my body began moving again, the psycho was back to blowing the robots up without a care and shrapnel and parts went everywhere. I had to dodge as a large chunk of robot head flew past me. I noticed a few of the kids were hit directly by the flying parts and were down on the pavement either groaning in pain or knocked out completely. Fuck, if I just get out of this road I'll be fine and I can get more points.

I began running down the road hoping to find some more, as soon as I saw a group of them I rose the shield I had been carrying up as they launched their projectiles at me all at once. The shield was weak and started to actually fall to pieces after a while. I waited until their firing stopped and then tossed the shield off of me and tried to think up a way to beat these things. I did a quick count of the group, nine in total, five one pointers, three two pointers and one three pointer. Destroying all of these would for sure get me close to placing in the top of the results. Only I had no way to kill them, directly anyway.

I charged at one of the two pointers, I made sure to get its attention fast as I yelled at it and made myself open. It began to charge for me as it prepped its tail to smack into me. I ran away from the scorpion like bot and ran straight for the only three pointer. The three pointer started locking on all these red dots on me, perfect. I got only a few feet away from it and stood still, letting it lock onto me as it stayed still to aim, the two pointer behind me. I let my body take control as I focused on what to do next, I jumped and rolled to the side as I faced the three pointer, it stayed locked onto me and was oblivious as the two pointer's tail struck into it's core and caused it to be out of commission. As a bonus it looked like the two pointer took some damage as well from penetrating the three point bot.

My body began moving again as I side stepped one of the one point bots as it rushed past me, it swirled around on its wheels and came back around for me just as the two pointer charged for me too. I did my best to avoid best of the bots, ducking, jumping back and side to side. All my training was paying off but I still couldn't keep this up forever and I wasn't ready for what was next.

The psycho explosion master came roaring back in my direction, " I TOLD YOU I WAS KILLING ALL OF THESE THINGS LOSER!" I was still busy dodging the attacks and wasn't fast enough for what happened next. Not even four feet away from me he collided with the one pointer bot, smacking his palm against it and then igniting his explosion. The force alone was enough to knock me back, but it was the shrapnel that came flying out of it and so close from me that sealed the deal. Thankfully my arms reacted fast enough to block the metal from piercing my torso and stomach. Only problem is now I had bits of sharp jagged metal stuck in my arms.

The pain was worse than anything I had ever felt, I've never been stabbed like this before. I bit my lip in pain trying to hold back my screams but I couldn't do it, " FUUUUCK!" I yelled out as blood dripped out of my arms. The psycho didn't even care that he had caused me so much pain, he just continued to blow up the reamining robots I had hoped would land me my spot in the top scores.

I finally managed to stay still after the initial shock wore off, more and more robots had come around to this area, I noticed the purple haired girl and Kirishima were here too with some of the other kids. More and more robots started appearing as it looked like the test would end soon. There was no way I could pass the test now. Not when every movement of my arms caused more blood to spill out of me and worsen the most painful injury I've ever taken. Getting electrocuted all those months ago didn't even hurt half as much as this. I groaned more in pain and some tears even escaped my eyes.

Kirishima destroyed another robot and then came over to me, shocked to see my state of being, " Woah hell dude! What happened?"

" That...fucking explosion psycho being careless is what happened...this is from the shrapnel of a robot he blew up right in my face...I could have died if my arms didn't take all the damage." I said as I tried not to cry in front of the guy I had met only hours ago. Kirishima and I both looked back toward the latest explosion sound as sure enough he was still careless of what happened when he blew up these robots so close to others. Kids were on the ground screaming in pain, holding their bloody wounds filled with metal or were unconscious. " This guy wants to be a fucking hero?!" I said to Kirishima.

Kirishima groaned and shrugged, " He sure has the quirk for it, but he seriously needs to work on his attitude and game plans." My body then reacted on its own again as chunks from another robot came flying for us, only somehow I knew more were coming for Kirishima and he wasn't all stonned up to protect himself in the moment. I instinctively used my weight to sort of jump onto him so he would dodge the incoming storm of metal, and in the process a blunt chunk of it hit me right in my ribs. I fell to the ground with him as I landed on the guy. He pushed me off sadly which only caused me to yell out, " SHIT!" as he happened to shove me on my ribs which I feared were now broken.

" Woah dude! What was that for are you crazy?!" He asked angrily as he stood up.

I tried to get up, but i couldn't force any weight on my arms, the pain was already bad enough, I used my legs to get up and got up slowly. I hunched over as I stood up, the pain in my ribs was severe and I could barely speak, " I...saved you dumbass...metal was coming...right for your ass and you weren't hard." I felt a liquid run down out of my mouth that I knew wasn't spit after I spoke.

Kirishima seemed to take notice of this and had an apologetic look to him, " Oh..fuck I'm sorry to have snapped at you like that man I'm sorry. Are you alright? You're bleeding from your mouth now man! You need to call it quits!"

I didn't want to hear that, I wasn't calling it quits after I worked so hard. I knew my injuries weren't bad enough to kill me just yet. Although it hurt more than anything else I've ever gone through. " I'm not quitting." I said out to him weakly, " Maybe if we work together we can each get half points for destroying the robots? I can distract them and you kill em!"

He seemed to think it over, I don't think he would have gone along with it, but since I saved him he nodded his head. " Alright just promise you won't get hurt anymore than you already have!"

I nodded and slowly made my way over to one of the three pointers, yelling weakly at in hopes it would notice me, " Hey! Ass muncher look here! An easy target ready for the pickings!" It locked onto me and slowly began to roll towards me, before it could get close enough Kirishima came in from the side and stuck his hardened arm right into the robot, deactivating it instantly. Please god, please let me get half points for doing this.

We kept this up for another two minutes, killing five more bots in the process, all of them two pointers. I huffed and breathed heavily as I stood there in pain after our latest kill, I was doing the easier part but it sure didn't feel like it. I was constantly uttering curses under my breath as a way to try and alleviate the pain I suppose although I'm positive it wasn't helping. Kirishima gave me a thumbs up after he killed another bot, I didn't even know one was near me honestly, I think my quirk was wearing down with how tired and hurt I was. Thankfully I wasn't dizzy yet, which means my quirk would still work if I was in any real danger.

But speaking of real danger, the ground began shaking oddly. " Oh fuck don't tell me it's an earthquake!" I said to Kirishima, He simply pointed up as a giant shadow engulfed the entire street. I looked up with him and my jaw dropped as I saw an ginormous robot that stood taller than the buildings. I remember Present Mic mentioning a zero point robot I think, but I thought it would be a harmless little thing not a monster.

Everyone began retreating from it, Kirishima looked at me and sighed, " We can't get points from that thing so let's split!" he said as he started taking off. I started to walk after him as fast as I could, but then I heard more explosions behind me. I turned back around and sure enough the crazy kid was still destroying any robots there. My arms were hanging at my side lazily as any movement caused too much pain for me to bare and I simple ducked out of the way of some shrapnel, which didn't help my broken ribs at all. As I gasped for air, raising my head up I was about to turn tail and flee like everyone else. But then I noticed the purple haired girl from earlier, she was down on the pavement, a robot's head was laying next to her own head.

" Oh fuck...don't tell me she's dead." I looked over to the explosion quirk user and sure enough it had to have come from his quirk as I noticed some parts of the robots were in tact as he blew them up, and there weren't any dead bots around the girl, the head must have flown off after its body blew up and hit her in the back of the head as she ran off with the others. I ran over with my arms still noodle like at my sides and my ribs seemingly screaming in pain. I stood over her and nudged her with my foot, " Hey...wake up come on!" I placed my foot on her back and sighed relief as I felt her moving as she breathed. I looked around for anyone who could help, the giant was coming closer and crushing everything in its path, all the kids who had been knocked out or were hurt already had all either woken up and quit the exam and left, or ran tail at the sight of the giant. It was just me, the girl, the giant robot of doom and a psycho who kept destroying all the smaller bots.

This was going to hurt like hell I thought to myself as I kneelled down. I began moving my arms and grunted in pain, cringing my face as I turned her over so I could grab her easier. I placed one arm under her legs and let out more profanities as more blood came out of my wounds as a result. I placed my other arm under her back and lifted her up with my remaining strength. She wasn't heavy at all, she was small honestly but in the moment she felt like a thousand pounds. I turned back behind me and the giant was getting closer and closer, I looked back ahead of me and started going as fast as I could with the girl in my arms.

By the time I made it a block away the robot was able to have caught up with me, it would have for sure stepped on her if I hadn't done anything. Her earphone jacks bounced off herself and me as I kept pushing myself to keep her safe, my injuries weren't even my main concern anymore. I didn't want to let someone else die.

I felt myself slowing down and could hear that the robot was coming closer and closer, but I kept going as hard as I could. I made it a whole three more city blocks before I felt my body give out and I fell onto the pavement on top of the girl. I couldn't breathe and looked over my shoulder as the robot brought it's hand down to grab us. I braced myself and told the girl I was sorry as the hand came mere inches from us. Then suddenly it stopped.

I looked at the giant hand in fear, was I in some sort of before death trance? Then I heard over some speakers, " Thank you all for participating! The combat exam is now over!"

I tried to get up but my legs failed on me and I stayed laying there over the girl. I rolled off of her and made sure she wasn't hurt anymore from me falling on her, she seemed fine and her breathing was normal. I was now laying on my back against the pavement with the robot blocking the sun out of my eyes. Then Kirishima was standing over me, " Damn dude! I thought you were behind me the whole time Akira! I looked back to see if you were still with me a few minutes ago and you were gone! I came running back as soon as I could..." He then glanced over at the girl, then back to me, I'm sure he noticed now how much blood stained my track suit from my little rescue attempt. " Holy hell what happened?"

I couldn't say anything back to him, it hurt too much. I laid there and made sure he didn't touch me, he tried to help me up and all I did was scream in pain as he tried. Everything felt like it was on fire now and all I wanted to do was lay there and wait for real medical help. Finally a short old lady with an odd visor came to us. " My my you certainly ended up much worse than the others in this zone didn't you? But you were very brave young man!" she extended her lips in a creepy manner and placed them on my forehead, leaving them there for a few seconds. I felt my ribs pain vanish, the weakness of my legs fade away and the shrapnel lodged in me fell out as my skin and muscles grew back and pushed them out. I rose up and felt fine, newer than ever honestly.

" Holy shit...thank you ma'am!" I said as I stood up, exhilarated to no longer be in such pain. she smiled back at me and then did the same healing kiss to the girl. The girl opened her eyes suddenly and rose up, confused.

" Why am I over here?" She looked at the giant robot that was over her and seemed more than confused, " What the hell did I miss?! What happened?!"

Kirishima then grabbed me by the shoulders, " My buddy here saved your life! You were knocked out and he carried you to safety away from that giant death machine! Like a real man!"

I felt embarrassed as he praised me and the girl looked at me concerned, " Wait, weren't you all beaten up and bloody a few minutes ago? What did you do to help me?"

I cleared my throat and my face felt like it was burning up as I looked down at my feet like I usually did when a girl talked to me, " Yeah...I was bleeding from my arms and my ribs were broken, but you got knocked out from a flying robot head and I picked you up and carried you all the way over here." I looked back up at her to see her response and she seemed genuinely shocked.

" Oh, well thanks. I normally don't like people having to help me like that, but I guess I couldn't help myself in that situation, and you really went out of your way to help me. So yeah...thanks." She said as she twirled her ear phone jacks around her finger.

" No problem honestly." Is all I could say back. Then I remembered something, " Um excuse me miss nurse? What about the kid who stayed behind fighting the robots? Is he alright?"

" Oh mister Bakugo? He's fine. When the giant came closer to him he simply made his own path through some alleyway and ended up on another side of the city and kept fighting more robots."

I sighed, disappointed that the giant robot didn't hinder his progress at all. The nurse motioned for us to follow her, " Now come on then you three, the exam is over its time for you all to collect your things and go on home."

She marched off down the road and we al three followed after. Kirishima told me all about what he did while we were separated and how he actually lost count of how many bots he killed, " I'm sure if they do that half point thing you mentioned you'll have plenty of points to pass the exam!" he assured me, " We killed a lot of em together after all man!"

The purple haired girl sighed as she walked with us, " I don't want to burst anyone's bubble but I don't think it works like that. I think whoever killed it gets all the points."

Ouch, that statement hit me harder than anything did in the exam. She seemed sorry to say it and tried to make me feel better, " But maybe they noticed how you helped me out! And maybe there's bonus points for helping other students!...Bonus points they didn't tell us about..." she went back to twirling her ear phone jack ear lobes as I let out a sigh of defeat.

" it's...It's fine I guess. There's other schools...none of them are as good as UA and won't have anywhere near as good training. But what really matters is that your safe...um, you."
" Kyoka. I'm Kyoka Jirou." She said as we kept walking.

" Hm, I'm Ashitaka Akira. And maybe I scored enough on the written exam to help out my over all score. I know I scored at least four points in this exam...so maybe if I did well enough on the written I can get in with my total score." the two of them seemed to agree with me, but it seemed forced, I knew they were aware I was just saying things to make it seem like I was alright. There was no way I was getting into the hero program. Looks like it'll be general studies, business or support courses for me in my first year.

The three of us chatted some more as we all waited for our rides to come and get us. kirishima and I exchanged our numbers and Kyoka said she'll look me up on FaceUltra and send me a request. I was the last one to be picked up and was stuck listening to this Bakugo kid go on and on about how he for sure got the highest score. He wasn't even talking to anyone specifically, he was just talking to anyone who was around and gloating about how great he was. Damn psycho, I wanted so badly to go off on him but couldn't bring myself to do it.

By the time my grandpa finally picked me up I was ready to just collapse in the car and sleep. But of course I had to explain the everything that happened to my grandpa and he seemed indifferent to everything I told him. As if me risking possibly bleeding out or who knows what else to save a stranger or tanking a hit for a guy I had just met wasn't impressive to him. He probably just felt disappointed that I wouldn't make it into UA with my measly score of four in the combat test.

When we finally got home I didn't even feel like eating. I just went to bed and slept, hoping I had enough time to make it into some other school's hero program. I was at least hoping I'd hear back from UA soon, but twelve days went by and not even a phone call or an email. I had accepted that they wouldn't let me in and began looking for other schools I could enroll in, if any would take me this late anyway.

I spent my days trying to keep my head clear, trying to stay positive. I kept up my training and even started talking to Kirishim and Jirou online or via text. They were good people and I got along with them. They really helped me take my mind off UA as Kirishima and I talked about action movies and show and Jirou and I talked about rock, punk and metal music. After my morning jog one day, over two weeks after the entrance exam. I went to check the mail and saw what i had been waiting for, a letter from UA addressed to me. I ran inside as fast as I could and back into my room. I plopped onto my bed and opened the letter as fast as I could.

Inside was an odd disk, as I removed it from the envelope it flashed a projection out of itself. In the projection was All Might himself. " Holy shit." I said to myself as I placed the projector on my bed and just starred at the world's greatest hero.

" HAHA! I am here! As a projection! Mister Akira!" Wow they seriously even got him to say my name? What was going on here did I actually get in? No...they must have gotten a big name like him so he could tell all the losers some phony inspiration speech about not giving up. " You did very well on your written exam young man! Scoring an eighty eight you did better than most of the others but failed to place in the top ten percent for the written course." Well that was an extra bummer I didn't need to know, thanks All Might...

" And when it came to the combat exam you scored only four points, the second lowest score of the entire exam." There it was, the confirmation that I failed, but second lowest? I at least thought a few more kids would score less than me but only one? " However! Destroying the robots was not the only factor! You and a few other students made plenty more points in the secret bonus category of rescue points!" Rescue points? " By saving young Kirishima you earned ten rescue points! And for carrying young Jirou over six city blocks while with broken ribs and heavily damaged arms, you earned forty more rescue points! bringing your total to fifty four points for the combat exam! Giving you the eleventh highest score of the combat exam!"

No way, this couldn't be real. Is he actually saying I placed in the top twenty of the exam? " Ashitaka Akira, welcome to the hero program for UA High!"
I did it! I jumped out of bed in my excitement and ran out of my room yelling for everyone to get up and to come into the living room. My little brother came out first as he dragged his blanket with him, my sister was after him and my father and grandpa came in at the same time. My dad groaned as he looked at me upset, " This had better be good Ashitaka, I'm not supposed to be up for another half hour."

I didn't say anything for them and simply replayed the recording for them. They all had smiles and looks of pride on their faces as All Might himself said I was accepted into the hero program. My sister hugged me tight, " Oh my god my little brother is going into UA" My brother clapped for me, my father gave me an honest man's handshake and smiled with a look of joy I hadn't seen in him for years. And my grandpa simply gave me a nod of approval, " I told you all my training would get you in didn't I?"

They all took me out to a nice dinner that night to celebrate. It was the first time we had all been out together as a family since before mom died. I let Kirishima and Jirou know as soon as I could and turns out they both got accepted as well. I'm honestly still in shock, I'm going into the hero program in the best high school in the world and I'll actually have two friends there with me. What could go wrong from here?

Author's notes
Well I'm pretty sure that was the longest chapter yet. But it was a blast writing it and finally having some of the characters appear and interact with Ashitaka. Leave any comments you please about what you thought about this chapter and express any thoughts you feel like. Your continued reading of this story means a lot to me thank you.