MARI YOSHIZAWA WANTS TO PASS HER EXAM

Mari Yoshizawa is not the kind of person who'd bring a gun to a knife fight.

Not her own gun, at least. It's unlikely she'd ever think that far ahead.

No, it is far more likely that Mari Yoshizawa is the kind of person to steal someone else's gun and then bring it to a knife fight of her own.

And this distinction is one that could be the difference between life and death, especially when you're the kid with the gun she needs.

Knowing this, it isn't a surprise to anyone that Mari Yoshizawa takes the UA entrance exams with nary but the clothes on her back and the quirk in her body.

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She finds it funny how Bakugou Katsuki can pretend like he doesn't remember her. Knowing Bakugou (and unfortunately, she does) it is probably a matter of pride.

It is easier for egotistical pricks like Bakugou Katsuki to acknowledge her as nothing but a Shitty Extra than as a legitimate rival.

She can't help it, she outright laughs in his face when he turns to her on the train and asks, "What the hell are you looking at, you Shitty Extra!?"

It has been ten months since she has been subjected to the scowling visage of Bakugou Katsuki and she definitely has not missed it. It's also been ten months since her sort of 'run in' with Midoriya Izuku.

Now, she was stuck on the train with the very same Bakugou Katsuki while on the way to the UA Entrance Exams. The past ten months had been uneventful, as far as Mari was concerned.

She graduated from Aldera, but it wasn't as if she had any friends to celebrate that with (on top of that, Midoriya Izuku had seemed to regard her with even more apprehension after she spoke with him) so that passed without much fanfare. She spent most of the ten-month break training her quirk with her parents, though the results ended up being disappointing, anyway.

She sat the UA written exam two days ago (and with much confidence could say it was piss) but that wasn't anything exciting, either. Mari Yoshizawa was no genius, but it wasn't hard to maintain good grades when you had a curious mind and a lacking (read: non-existent) social life.

And that brought her to where she was now. And just for the record, she was not staring at Bakugou Katsuki as his ego has led him to believe – she was merely distastefully looking upon the All Might pin on the shoulder strap of his school bag.

"I'm looking at a nobody, Bakugou Katsuki." She murmurs, holding her gaze on the pin for a few more second before lazily glancing up at him.

"Hah!? What'd you say!?" Shouts the blonde, uncaring to the other passengers on the train. If you squint you are able to see tiny sparks on his fingertips – not enough to do any real damage but enough to let Mari know that Bakugou was pretty pissed off. And wasn't that quick, even for him? It seemed the always-confident Bakugou was on edge today.

Even the Gods of Aldera middle school got nervous for exams too, then?

"Lower your voice, Bakugou. I don't want to lose my hearing at 15." She says with a sigh as her tails listlessly moves back and forth behind her. Bakugou bristles like a disgruntled cat at her comment, but the tension in his shoulders does noticeably lessen, as if he was just realising where he was again.

"And while you're at it, don't act so surprised that I'm here. Even Villains need to catch public transport." Her tone is joking but Mari is anything but.

If Bakugou Katsuki were like Midoriya Izuku he might've have winced at such a self-depreciating comment. Maybe, even, if he were feeling particularly kind, would offer some kind words. But Bakugou is not Midoriya, so all he does is scoff at her.

"Where are the devil wings?" he asks mockingly.

Mari blows a puff of air through her nose in slight amusement. "Left them at home."

And with that comment their brief conversation dies. Or at least, that's what Mari thought (was hoping for) until Bakugou speaks again after a few moments.

"No matter what happens today," he begins. And somehow, Mari knows he won't finish with a line like 'we'll be friends, no matter what'. His unnervingly red eyes bore into her own dark ones, determined (or, perhaps, arrogant would be the more fitting word). "I will get into UA. And I'll be the only one from Aldera to do it."

With that brazen declaration Bakugou speed walks to the other side of the carriage. Of course, Mari already knew that was apart of Bakugou's plan to be a hero. He made it very clear as he shouted at Deku across the classroom for even thinking about applying to UA.

Mari got the same talk of course too. But hers wasn't with any of his lackeys, and Bakugou looked less intimidating as he did uncomfortable just from talking to her.

"Yoshizawa, you and Deku, you don't know what you're getting into… If you know what's good for you won't even show your faces at the exams."

And while Bakugou could threaten Mari until he was blue in the face, it ultimately wasn't that scary when he couldn't look her in the eyes while doing it.

As a small mercy she hadn't run into Bakugou or Midoriya at the UA written exams, but it seems as if her luck had run out for the practical ones.

Mari watches the blonde boy stomp away from her in a huff and all she can do is sigh.

If it were any school but UA, she would think it wasn't worth the trouble. But UA was where Heroes were made, and a hero Mari Yoshizawa would be.

Even if it was just to prove a point.

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Mari recognises the man who is screaming at her in broken English.

And technically he isn't screaming, per se, but he is still absurdly loud, unnecessarily loud for a man with a microphone.

Present Mic, the Voice Hero stands before a sea of nervous teens, all with varying levels of enthusiasm. There are students like Midoriya Izuku, who's incessant chattering she can both hear and recognise from over five seats above him.

And then there are students like herself, who is idly wondering if Present Mic's quirk had an off button.

She's surprised Deku made it this far, though. Mari had honestly expected him to cower out last minute and go to an unremarkable civie school. She wouldn't go so far to say she's proud of him, but she's definitely surprised.

The real challenge didn't begin until now, anyway. And if a quirkless kid manages to get into UA's hero course she would eat her own hat.

Present Mic is going on about a whole lot of nothing, until he finally introduces what they'll be doing, and Mari can hardly believe her ears.

Robots.

They were taking down Robots.

Mari Yoshizawa was not someone who panicked, but she was someone who could admit when she was fucked. And right now, Mari Yoshizawa was more fucked than a prostitute on a Saturday night.

There was one problem with Robots.

And that was that Robots didn't have minds you could possess - making her quirk ultimately useless. Now, normally, she'd overcome this by possessing someone else to fight them for her, or she'd outmanoeuvre them.

This was also a problem as Mari needed to take them down herself to earn any points, and she'd get nowhere by outsmarting them and running away.

Mari came to the UA exam expecting to throw around some 15-year olds like they were ragdolls. She needed a solution, fast.

Her solution is a seemingly still prepubescent 15-year-old with dimples and mousy brown hair.

Present Mic goes on to explain the rules, including one where he allows outside support weapons, but only if they were registered with UA before the exam. As he says this, the nondescript boy seated next to her begins excitedly whispering to his friend next to him.

"I'm so glad I bought this shock hammer, just in case!"

Mari was glad he brought it, too.

She stands from her seat, shooting her hand up. Her chair screeches against the floor as she shouts, "Present Mic!" not bothering to wait for him to call on her.

The loud blonde, seemingly in the middle of scolding Midoriya, looks up at her and blinks at her outburst. "Uh, yes, listener?"

I'm not your listener.

"You said we were allowed weapons, yes?"

He looks confused but nods anyway. "Sure, as long as they're approved beforehand."

"So, just to be clear, we can use any weapon that we have not brought from outside or has been cleared by UA?"

He looks a little annoyed now. "Yes, that's what I just said, Geez Louise," he says the last words in accented English, "Kids don't listen these days, do they?"

Mari grins at him. It's a little unnerving, from the perspective of Present Mic. Her tails swishes behind her, excited.

With this, it seems her problem had been solved.

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As soon as the students are released from the briefing, Mari makes a beeline for the brown-haired kid.

It is hard to find a face so forgettable amongst a sea of strangers, but she manages. His friend from before is nowhere to be seen as he waits in front of his testing block, doing some breathing exercises very nervously. Next to him, she can see the aforementioned shock hammer. It's not the coolest looking weapon Mari has ever seen, nor does it look all that high-tech, but it'll do the job.

He doesn't notice her as she approaches (laughable instincts, from the looks of it) and the jump he does when she places a firm hand on his shoulder almost reminds her of Midoriya.

"Um-" he begins but Mari cuts him off. It'd be much faster if she did this her way.

"You're a hero, right?" She asks.

He looks incredibly nervous. His eyes dart to the tail behind her to the red horns on her head but fail to meet her own eyes. "Well, I-"

"That's great to hear! I bet a strong hero like you would be willing to help a girl down-on-her-luck like me!"

He's still not looking at her, rather intensely focused on staring at the ground. He does twitch at the words 'strong hero' though, so it's very clear he too has a hero complex. It's almost uncanny, how all the boys in her life seem to have the same.

"W-w-what do you need?!" he's raised his head now and puffed out his chest a bit. It reminds Mari of how a blow fish puffs itself out. A hero full of air.

"Awesome! I need your weapon!"

"O-of course! W-wait, what?!

And sure, it was pretty villainous to steal another participant's weapon to do an exam, but Mari Yoshizawa figured she had to live up to her bad reputation in one way or another

aight, y'all, new chapter. I wrote this one in third person rather than first (like the last chapter) to see which ones suit the story more. if you have any opinions on which one you like more, please let me know!

this chapter was meant to be all of the exams but i got a bit carried away at the train scene. next chapter should wrap up the exams pretty quickly. thanks for the support so far!

also mari has been pretty tame in the story thus far, expect that to change soon lmao. she's trying her best tho guys!