Chapter 2: Entrance Exam

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Denki breathed in and out, in, out. He could do this. He had to.

He was standing at the foot of UA's grandiose gates, calming his nerves. In, out.

He could do this.

Denki steeled his expression and walked through the gates. His eyes kept flicking everywhere, looking at the unfamiliar faces. Everyone looked so confident and so sure of themselves that Denki's anxiety mounted, climbing higher and higher.

But, he was supposed to be a hero, so why was he so nervous? He studied for this exam for a long long time so he was sure to get in, right?

Kaminari just shook his head to get rid of his thoughts and continued forward, not really caring for the people he bumped into. He reached the actual school gates and looked around before spotting a large, tacky sign saying: "WRITTEN EXAM - HERO COURSE" which was written in large colourful letters. He just sighed and continued on into the exam hall.

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Denki stared at the test paper in front of him and tried to not freak out; he was never good at controlling his nerves to begin with. Plus, his father didn't really help so that made that problem even worse.

Denki looked around just to see everyone scribbling down furiously before eeping and writing his own name and personal information and starting the stupid test.

It was rather easy, surprisingly, and the only problem Kaminari had was with Japanese Literature but that was expected since he didn't really care for it. Denki was confident he was at least in the 95%'s but he was hoping for anything above 92% because well, the consequences would not be too good if he did worse.

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Denki found himself in a large auditorium surrounded by a copious amount of people, it was rather packed and not really comfortable. Up on the stage, Present Mic was enthusiastically shouting greetings at the assembled students which was met by complete and utter silence.

"Everybody say 'HEY'!" Silence. " Well, that's cool my examinee listeners! I'm here to present the guidelines for your practical exam! Are you ready?! Yeah!"

Present Mic's shouting was once again met by silence but that did not deter the voice hero in the slightest, in fact, he seemed to get even more energetic as a slide showing locations marked will letters showed up.

"This is how the test will go my listeners! You'll be experiencing ten-minutes-long mock "cityscape manoeuvres". Bring along whatever you want! After this presentation you each head to your assigned testing location." The giant TV screen then switched to a slide showing the silhouettes of the 'villains', who were just different Mario characters. "Each site is filled with three kinds of faux villains. Points are awarded for defeating each according to the respective difficulty levels! Use your quirks to disable these faux villains and earn points! That's all listeners! Of course, playing the anti-hero and attacking other examinees is prohibited!"

Just when the speech ended and blue-haired boy stood up and started blabbering about how it was 'unprofessional' of UA to only talk about three types of villains when the hand-out said that there were four. Then, the blue-haired boy turned his aristocratic ire towards a small green-head sitting at the back and verbally attacked him. What an uptight asshole, Denki thought to himself, slightly scowling at the blue-head.

Then Present Mic answered bluehead's question by saying that the fourth villain was literally useless and that it's only job was to cause havoc - and that it was also worth nothing.

"Now, that's all from me! I'll leave my listeners with our school motto. The great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said… "True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life." Plus Ultra! Break a leg, everyone!"

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Denki walked out of his group's bus to see a rather spectacular sight: a literal city with 10-15 meter walls surrounding it. Hell, he couldn't help but let out a whistle at such a display of wealth. Denki knew that there was no time to waste and quickly prepared himself, stretching a couple of times and then getting into a runners position. He tried to ignore the little voice whispering in his head: "How are you going to impress them? Hero, really? Coward! Idiot! Weak!"

"And begin!" Present Mic's voice shouted from the speakers as the gates opened and Kaminari was off with a few others.

As Denki ran he sent a small, almost negligible, spike of electricity to his brain and the effects were drastic - he now could focus more and take in every single detail happening around him and his brain was working in overdrive.

Crash.

Something landed in front of him, a two-pointer, and before Denki could barely register himself moving, he was diving forwards to it and pressing his hands against its metal and effectively frying it from the inside. He immediately felt better from that small, controlled, release of power and jumped off the robot, whooping.

He then spotted another robot and did the same thing, this time a three-pointer. He repeated that pattern again and again until he had a favourable 39 points. It was a rather exhilarating feeling, being allowed to use his quirk like this. He loved it, he loved it so much he didn't want it to stop, it was like a drug to him. All the electricity was gathering around him, making him feel slightly tingly and his fingers were beginning to feel numb but he didn't care, why would he?

Thump.

Something as powerful as an earthquake shook the ground. Denki turned around just to see a giant robot crash through the buildings towards them. At that moment, Denki felt frozen, he couldn't move but his instincts screamed at him - run! But another part of his brain also yelled at him to stay, to try to fight the robot, to impress the teachers watching, that father would be furious if he didn't get in. So he stayed. He fought down the fear and rushed forwards where he saw a couple of people trapped under the debris of the robot. He rushed past them, they were not important to him right now and jumped.

Denki used a technique he never thought he would use again. He called it Electromagnetic Propulsion and it allowed him to travel along magnetic ripples. He generated the better part of his electricity to his legs and pushed upwards, biting back a scream of pain. He closed his eyes and willed the pain away, or at least tried, there was no time for that now - he still had a school to impress.

Denki opened his eyes to come face to face with the robots chest plate and he instinctively knew what to do, he spread his arms out and banged them onto the plate and concentrated almost all of his electricity on frying the giant hunk of metal.

Denki felt himself start to lightly spasm and become numb, but he could do it! He had to! Father would not be pleased if he didn't get into the school!

Denki finally felt the robot give out and start to collapse backwards and he stopped pushing his electricity out. He willed himself to return to the ground and the next thing he knew he was hitting the pavement.

Crack.

And the world went black.

(15.9.2019)