Chapter 3.

What's the probability?

*Shori's POV*

I easily dodge a level one robot as it hits a pillar causing a part of the building I was just under to come crashing down on it. 'This isn't too hard just got to make sure none of them actually land a solid blow.' I then begin running to where the next most likely spot for a robot to smash is by following the percentages. As I run I see other various examinees beating their own robots and no one seems to be having that hard of a time. I even see the Quirkless girl blowing a few up with some gadgets that she brought with her. 'Huh if I knew we could bring tools along I would have asked for a few.' I round a corner to find a giant robot with 0% on robots being around there to earn points. So, I do a complete one eighty 'Nope no points that a way.' and start running off to find more points. I nearly run into the Quirkless girl, but I manage to spin out of the way before we collide. I grab her hand "Sorry, but we really need to run now." I say as I pull her the opposite direction of the zero pointer

She blushes a bit before hearing a loud crash behind her. She looks back to see the robot plow through a corner of one of the builds causing other examinees to run away from it. "Ok that is more than just some obstacle to ignore!"

I pull her away from the destruction behind us "Yeah, but don't worry about it no one's gotten hurt. But we just got to stay ahead of that thing." We run for a minute or two until I notice something that causes me to slow to a stop. "It's snowing." I let go of her hand as I hold it out to have one melt in my palm.

The Quirkless girl looks around and notices the light snowfall "Yeah it is, but it is probably just some weather quirk that someone's got." She reaches for me, but I back up a bit.

"No there is just one quirk that I know of that can affect the weather like this." I start to panic a bit because for something to drive Himeko to do this it would have to be major "I have to go." So, I dash for the exit hoping that she is okay.

*half an hour later*

I manage to find Himeko with a light dusting of snow on her next to Ginko just in front of one of the zero pointers. I look up at the robot to see if it is still dangerous and see an 80% so I quickly grab both of them and start pulling them as fast as I can away from the thing. Just in time too as the whole thing starts to crumble starting with the fingers and a large chunk of frozen debris lands right where they were passed out "Son of a bitch that was close." I say before falling back having exhausted myself just getting there. I take a minute before sitting back up and crawling over to Himeko and put my head on her chest to hear for a heartbeat, then her mouth to listen for breathing and even check her pulse through her neck and on her wrist. I sigh in relief as all of them check out and she is alive.

I then go to check Ginko and man is she banged up. Her arm is bent at an angle it ain't supposed to and head is bleeding so she could have a concussion. Thankfully though as soon as I touch her neck she groans. 'Well she is alive at least.'

Then I hear some sort alarm goes off, like the ones you hear for tornado warnings, and a voice come on over a loudspeaker "Well done examinees the test is now over. Now if you are injured our medical staff we have on hand will be with you shortly so please wait patiently as everyone is attended to."

'Well so much for the test.' I think as I flop down between my friends to relax as I wait for the medical staff. I simply wait while pulling all my anxiety inside trying not to jump up to my feet and pace about praying for the medical staff to hurry the fuck up. While lying there I hear a few of the other examinees around us whispering to each other about how it was amazing that Ginko froze the whole robot and even manage to affect the weather for a while. 'Idiots it's not like she can just use that power on call and it is hard for her to control.'

Then I hear some elderly woman's voice "Now, kiddies who is injured the most so we can heal them up first."

I immediately hop to my feet expecting there to be a group of people to go around helping the injured only to find some tiny old lady. Then I hear more chatter from one of the examinees "Woah man that's Recover Girl. She is the entire reason that the Academy can have crazy exams like this."

Honestly thought I was kind of expecting more, but if she can help my friends what do I care. "Miss Recover Girl over here i have two people that need your help immediately." I say while running up to her.

She smiles at me "Okay dearie show me where they are."

"This way." I say while running ahead of her a few feet before turning around realizing that she probably can't move that fast. I end up being right as usual as she has only move maybe half a foot 'Ugh we do not have time for this!' So, I run back and scoop her up to carry back to Himeko and Ginko.

Right as we get there and I set her down she promptly smacks me with her walker upside the head. "Now listen here! You shouldn't just go picking people up willy nilly like that!"

I grip my head where she hit me "Augh! There is no time to wait for you to slowly move to them they need your help now!"

She holds up her walker again like she is gonna smack me so I flinch away, but the attack never comes "I know you are worried about your friends, but to be honest there isn't really much I can do for them." moves over to Ginko. "This one luckily just has a slight concussion and a broken arm so I just need to heal her up a little bit and she will be fine." her lips extend and kiss Ginko on the cheek and her arm cracks a bit before being the way it is supposed to. She then gestures to Himeko "And she has just passed out from exhaustion so me healing her would put her in danger." I look down as robots roll up with a gurney to take them to the nurse's office to rest up. I then see a wrinkled hand with candy in it "Here dearie have candy." I look up to see her smiling "It is sweet that you are worried, but you don't have to worry if something was gonna happen a teacher would have stepped in."

I take the candy and put back on my neutral face. I turn to follow the gurneys to the nurse's office 'Yeah, but here I am useless as always.' I think as I remember an incident from when we were younger.

*flashback*

I wake up to find the villain and a good portion of the alley way has been frozen. I slowly sit up and see Himeko crying into some hero with a fin on his head. I rest myself against the wall I was thrown into earlier and feel a lot of pain 'I think I might have a broken rib.'

Then a hero kneels next to me "Wow kid you are lucky that you got a friend with such a powerful quirk." he then begins to give me some first aid as we wait for the paramedics.

As I sit there I just look at what Himeko is able to accomplish and she hasn't even tried to train it yet. I mean before she was only able to form a small snowball that wouldn't last for very long. But I guess when she really wants to push it she can cause the devastation in front of me 'Well I guess this means that her potential is just that much greater huh.' After the hero tends to me he starts helping a few of the other heroes with chipping away at the ice to dig the man out.

Himeko makes her way and sits next to me as we wait. She lightly elbows me in the shoulder "Hey, you okay?"

I wince a bit as I'm really sore all over "Yeah I'll be fine. Nothing rest won't be able to fix." she smiles as the paramedics come and put me on a stretcher to load me into the ambulance. Himeko hopped in too. Then a thought that I would never be able to shake forms in my mind as she tries to be all reassuring on the ride to the hospital 'Her power is perfect for fighting any non-heat user and those are few and far between. She also can perfectly immobilize almost all villains. And if this is what she is capable of without training than clearly, she will end up being the better hero. I mean hell, mine doesn't even give me a physical boost it just lets my dodge more hits than ones I get hit by.' I look over to my side and she is going on about something though I was too wrapped up in my own insecurity with the realization that my Quirk isn't really all that, but of course I don't want to worry her and hold her back so I just stuff that down. "Could you be quiet for like five minutes. It's bad enough to hear the siren all the way to the hospital, but do I have to hear you nonsensical rambling too." I try to tease her, but I think that maybe I laid it on a bit too hard because she was dead silent the rest of the way.

Once we are at the hospital we have to go to separate rooms because while my injuries were physical they wanted to make sure that the extreme exertion of her Quirk won't have any lasting effects. right before we part I try to put on my best smile "See ya later. Hope they don't give me cancer with the X-ray machines." I joke, but she gives me the cold shoulder 'Crap, I totally overstepped on the ride here.'

After they do some quick X-rays they find out that luckily, I only have a couple of ribs broken with some hairline fractures. Then after they put me in a splint so that they can heal correctly my aunt walks in. "Hey Aunt Mutsumi."

At first, she just stands there and I think she is about to give me the lecture of a lifetime, but instead she suddenly runs up to me with tears in her eyes "I was so worried about you!" I am then embraced as she sobs a little bit, but then she suddenly takes a step back and gives me a light whack over the head. "Do you know how much danger you were in!" Ah there it is. "Both of you are just in your second year of middle school! You could have gotten killed and and… and." she starts to tear up again and gives me another hug. "I'm just glad you are gonna be okay."

I reciprocate the hug "I'm sorry. I'll make sure we don't do something like that again."

She pulls back and squishes my face with her hands "You better not you hear me." I give her the best nod I can "Good." she then steps back and straightens her outfit "Well I got to talk to the Doctor to see how long you will have to be here so I'll be back a little later." she then leaves probably to see how much the bill will cost and argue about how overpriced it is.

So, I sit there and wait with nothing to do but flip through the channels of the hospitals old TV. Until I notice some movement out of the corner of my eye by the door and I don't even need to ask my quirk to guess who it is. "Himeko is that you."

"No.." she quietly mumbled whilst side stepping awkwardly into the room.

I roll my eyes at her antics "Right so the thing in front of me is just a figment of my imagination."

"Heh… yeah. So, what does the doctor have to say?" She nervously gave out an exasperated laugh, as she came close enough to see she's fidgeting it discomfort.

I feel bad as I think it is probably because of what I said on the way here. So I try to give her a smile "It's nothing too bad just some busted ribs I'm sure it will be fine. How about you."

"I'm fine. I saw your aunt earlier, so I'm thinking I should go. Just wanted to make sure my only friend was alive, y'know?" She shrugged, taking two steps back, it was obvious to hear the ill-concealed self-malice in her voice.

"Hey hold up." I say before she turns around to leave "Look I'm sorry about what I said on the ride here I didn't mean to sound so mean."

She stopped walking and is looking at the ground now, "why...?" She asked barely audible. "Why would you do that?"

"I just… I just wanted to tease you bit is all and it just came out meaner than i intended. I'm sorry." I do feel really bad about it, but usually when I go too far a simple and sincere apology is enough to at least smooth things over a little.

"Not that!" She shouted catching me quite off guard, "Not that… god damn it. Why would you get in the way?!" She bellowed, stomping her feet causing the floor to be lightly covered in frost that quickly melted away.

"Well you are my friend. What was I supposed to do let him hurt you?" I mean of course I would help her that's what friends do it's not rocket science or anything.

"I would have been fine! Ice quirk, remember? I can freeze myself! I could ha-. I could have lost my best friend… that man was huge. I blacked out after he hit you!" She sniffled, obviously trying to not cry. "I'm not gonna argue about this with you while you're supposed to be getting better." She took a deep breath and turned around quickly walking out of my room passing my Aunt at the door.

As Aunt Mutsumi walks in she watches Himeko go by before she looks to me "Everything okay?" she looked at me concerned.

Who knows maybe she could sense just how much those words stung me, how useless I felt I am, but I like to think that I managed to stuff those feelings deep enough that they don't show on my face "Everything is fine just a little argument. Nothing to worry about."

*present day nurse's office*

I am sitting next to Himeko's bed while think about that day because those feelings have never left me. I still feel as if my power is never gonna cut it in the end, but I'll be damned if I can't help in some way. Because there is no doubt in my mind that Himeko will end up as the number one with her powerful quirk where as I will probably just get to help in the background. Still I can be content with that, so long as I can help as much as I can.

*Himeko's POV*

I weakly open my eyes only to be blinded by the bright light above me. 'That dream again…huh?' I turn my head to see Sho-chan glaring out the window. I try to sit up and say "Morning grumpy face."

Sho turns to me with his expression going back to his regular neutral expression "Morning sleeping beauty."

I finish sitting up all the way to feel my whole-body ache "What happened." then I remember everything that happened "WAIT IS GIN-CHAN OKAY?!"

I try to get up out of the bed, but Sho pulls me back down "Relax she is perfectly fine." I try to calm down knowing that she is ok. "In fact, she already went home." He patted my head.

"That's good." I'm glad that she is fine and that I was able to help her. "So how do you think you did on the test." I say excited to hear how he did because I know I did awesome and he should have been able to do so too.

He lightly shakes his head a bit "Not that great I'm afraid. Like I did fine on the written it's just I didn't do that great on the practical."

To be honest that is a bit of a surprise for Sho-chan to fail in something... I'm actually shocked! "What do you mean, "it didn't go great"? we spared and practiced for months!"

He shrugs "I just wasn't able to get enough points in time."

That didn't really seem like the whole thing, but a man shorter than me walks in before I can press him and judging from his white coat I think he is a doctor. "Good evening kids. Sorry if you were expecting recovery girl, but since her quirk wasn't going to help you, she assigned me." he walks over to the side of my bed "My name is Kango Shuzenji." oh god this man just exudes this ridiculous warm aura that nearly blinds me with his pure smile. He pushes up his glasses as he picks up a clipboard and flips through the papers "So it looks like everything is in order." he puts down the board and opens his arms wide "So how about a little top off."

"A what?"

"Oh, it's my quirk I hug people and after a sec they feel like a million bucks!" he then starts to walk forward.

I put up my hands to try and keep him back "Wait wait wait wait if you touch me too long you could get frostbite!"

He keeps coming "Don't worry about it my body cancels all damage I receive so long as I'm hugging someone. Now get on in here doctor's orders." I weakly resist as he wraps his arms around me. God this is so embarrassing and I don't even have to see Shori to know he has a shit eating grin on his face. After another second, he steps back "There how do you feel."

"Okay, I guess."

He smiles warmly again and as he walks out he passes my Dad "Sweetheart I'm glad you are finally awake." he has a big smile as he tussles my hair, and gently kisses me on the forehead. "You're just like your mother, beautiful and strong. Let's go home, okay? You too, Shori." Dad said looking over to Shori.

He just gives a small nod "Sure just got to call my Aunt to let her know." he pulls out his phone as he walks out, probably for some privacy.

Dad turns back to me "So, how are you feeling."

"I'm okay now."

He gives me another pat on the head "Good. I was a bit worried when they told me what happened." he gives me a bit of a stern look "You know what happens when you overextend your quirk." then he softens "Still you did it to save someone. I'm just glad Shori was there otherwise it could have been worse." he stands and gives me another kiss on the head leaving me confused as he walks out "I'll go bring the car around so get dressed and we'll meet you down there."

What is confusing to me though is that Sho-chan wasn't even in the same testing area so how did he help me? So, after I got dressed and he was waiting down the hall I confront him about it. "Hey my Dad says that you came and helped me, but we had different testing areas."

He just nods "Ya right after the test was over I noticed it started to snow, so I ran over and found you and Ginko under a giant frozen robot. Then I pulled you guys out before it crushed you." I smiled thinking that we are gonna have an awesome four years just like we have been and glad that he is always gonna have my back, Sho-Chan and Himeko number one and two hero!

A few months later I got my letter from UA and excitedly I went over to Shori's, "SHO-CHAN!" I banged on his door. "Sho-Chan! It's me! WAKE UP!" I continued to scream until the door cracked open, showing his auntie.

"He said the probability of you coming today was high, but did it have to be so goddamn early." she grumbled and clearly from her hair is a mess, squinting eyes and holding of her head she drank heavily with some of her coworkers from her company. "Look you can come in just try to keep it down. My aspirin hasn't kicked in yet."

I carefully, but quickly move past her to Sho-chan's room and not even knocking I burst in "SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME-"

I start singing shocking Sho-chan but I stop when hear the high pitch voice from his recording "We are sorry to inform you that you will not be accepted into our hero program." he looks down and slowly turns back around toward the video.

I see a cute white animal thing in a suit, "What? What does he mean you're not in the program?!" I yell loudly from the threshold of his room.

"Hey! What did I say about being loud?!" I heard Sho-chan's auntie yell from the kitchen, completely disregarding her in the state of anger and disbelief that filled me.

The creature continues to speak "Now do not be discouraged! You will have a chance to transfer into the hero course right after the midterms if you can prove yourself!"

This angered me even further "Of course he did, what the hell is he talking about, Shori?!"

He doesn't turn around as the fuzzy creature continues "Now I am sure you know why as you seem to be quite the intelligent kid as you scored among the highest of your year. However, as you know if you leave the testing area and do not return before the test is over you will receive an automatic fail." his voice gets a bit somber as he continues "Which I find to be quite unfortunate as you left to do the most heroic act we saw during this round of testing." A little screen turns on next to him to show Sho-chan pulling me and Ginko out before the robot comes crashing down,

"Shori… why...?" I asked shock laced my voice as tears started to spill from my eyes.

The small creature continues," I find this to be a shame as if you had made it back to your testing area you would have been awarded Hero points for doing such a heroic action. However, we cannot make an exception to this because if a hero abandons his current area that is full of villains to go and rescue his friend that might be in trouble then he puts the people he just left in danger." he then quickly raises his paw-hand and his tone lightens "However, I am touched by this action so we will still accept you into the General ED course. Where I hope you will continue to develop your abilities and foster your heroic spirit till eventually you have a chance to prove yourself once again." he lowers his paw as he smiles "Well, again I am sorry that you did not get into your first choice of program, but I hope that you will further succeed and show us your Plus Ultra in the years to come. Good luck and see you on the first day of school."

The video goes dark and we just sit there for a what seems like a long time. Eventually Sho grabs the device before speaking "You know I don't really think I'll be that great of a hero anyways." I'm about to say something, but he holds up his hand "I've always known that, but now I just want to be there for my friend." he turns toward me with a sad look that i don't think I've seen before "What happened was my decision and mine alone." he turns back around and palms the device in his hand. "Anyways I already know that you got in so congrats and maybe I'll see you at school, but if you don't mind can I just be left alone for today. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow or something."

TO BE CONTINUED!