A/N:
This one is a little shorter, folks. Sorry about that, but it just felt right to end it where I did. I think y'all are gonna enjoy this one, though. Got some nice moments and a little taste of quirks in combat.
Please enjoy!
Ch 5: Practicality
Dax was in awe. She was actually here. The lonely one-armed girl from Tokyo had finally, truly made it to the top… UA University. She looked up at the archway, eyes wide as she saw the towering, interconnected buildings beyond. She slowly walked inside, gazing about at the world famous campus, tuning out the din of her fellow student hopefuls. Then she bumped into something short and amphibious.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I wasn't paying atten- Tsu?" Dax paused mid-apology, offering her metallic hand to the shorter woman that she had just inadvertently knocked over while in her trance. The green-haired woman accepted it and pulled herself up with a soft "kero".
"It's alright, Malcor-chan." Tsu smiled, cocking her head toward the building behind her. "It's really impressive, kero. I hope we both get in. You're here for your practical too, right?"
Dax gave a nod and grinned widely. "I'm sure you'll get in, Tsu. That tongue of yours is amazing. Not to mention how you can basically climb any wall… I'm kinda jealous, really. My quirk isn't really helpful in combat or mobility at all…" Dax then realized she was still holding her amphibious friend's hand and blushed lightly. She tried to let go, but Tsuyu kept the contact going just a few moments longer, her large, observant eyes looking up at her and clearly making note of the blush on Dax's cheeks before she was finally freed.
Dax reached up, twirling the end of her braid between her fingers with a nervous chuckle before dashing off toward the building. "W-well don't wanna be late, right? Come on, Tsu!"
Tsuyu smiled and hopped along behind her blushing friend. "She is cute when she blushes, kero."
The student hopefuls all packed into the assembly hall, chatting amongst themselves until the lights began to dim. Dax had managed to seat herself beside Tsu and was bouncing her leg nervously as a spiky-haired blonde hero stepped on to the stage. She had seen him on TV a few times and heard him on the radio far more often. Present Mic.
He launched into a dramatic, radio DJ style introduction that was met with… silence. Deafening silence. She wanted to whoop or holler or give him something, but she was too busy trying to keep her nervous bouncing from launching her into the stratosphere. Dax was idly playing with one of the link cables that extended from her metallic arm when a familiar, large hand gently came to rest on her knee. The bouncing stopped and she looked over at Tsu, seeing a big, friendly smile staring back at her. She gave a nod of thanks and rested her organic hand over the one on her knee, taking strength from the contact as they all listened to Mic's explanation of the exam.
Then she heard a familiar sound from a couple rows behind her. She turned to see an irritated looking blonde seated beside none other than the mutter king himself, Midoriya Izuku. She tried waving her hand at him to get him to be quiet, but it was no use. About then a tall guy with dark blue hair and glasses stood, interrupting Mic's speech. In addition to bringing up a fourth kind of robot listed on the pamphlet for them to fight, he made a point of drawing the attention of the entire hall to Izuku.
Dax felt bad for the green-haired hopeful, shaking her head. "Poor guy just can't help but mutter when he gets really into something… I've never seen someone talk as fast as he does…"
Apparently, in addition to one, two, and three point robot combatants, there was a zero point one that would act as more of an obstacle. Dax froze as she finally processed what she had been hearing the entire time. "Robot combatants."
Oh, this was going to be far more her style than she ever thought possible.
In order to prevent team-ups among the students, they had all been separated, nobody from the same highschool was going to be working together during the practical. This, however, didn't take people like Dax and Tsuyu into account. The pair grinned at each other as they boarded the bus that would take them to exam area D. They knew they both had to get a good score if they wanted to be accepted, but at least they'd be able to look out for each other if things got dicey.
Soon they arrived at what appeared to be a miniature, walled-off city located deep within the university grounds. It was awe-inspiring the lengths that UA went to just to train the next generation of heroes. The group shuffled off the bus and started congregating just beyond the gate. Tsuyu and Dax were each sporting tracksuits, Tsuyu's being a lime green and Dax's being jet black. They did some stretches together and even did some practice with Dax letting Tsuyu toss her in the air with her tongue and catch her again as she fell. Soon though, the face of Present Mic appeared on a large screen near the entry gate and everyone turned, giving it their full attention.
"Alright listeners! It is time to start the exam!" He paused seeing none of them moved and mimed checking a non-existent watch. "Get moving! You've got ten minutes and you've already wasted about ten seconds of it!"
The entire herd of students rushed in like they were being chased by bulls after that. Dax quickly lost sight of Tsuyu, but figured the girl could do well on her own. She'd been training for this just as Dax had.
The young hopeful rounded a corner and bounded down an alley, breaking from the main group. She soon found herself face to optical sensor with a three pointer. SHe recoiled when she identified the two large pods on the thing's back. "Missile batteries? You have got to be shitting me!"
The brunette quickly jumped into action, running at the closest wall and jumping at it, kicking off of it to propel herself just high enough to grab the rungs of a nearby fire escape. The robot tracked her movements and she could see the batteries moving, preparing to fire. She swung a couple times before launching herself in the air and landing fist-first on top of the robot, punching a hole in the plating with her metallic right hand. Then she reached inside and sunk her arm into the robot, her tracksuit sleeve riding up her arm as it disappeared inside the metal beast.
In a matter of moments, she had bypassed the flimsy security protocols and taken full control over her new mount, digging her right hand into the metal housing and bracing herself as she overclocked the robot's locomotion rotors. She zipped off in search of prey, unable to hold in a near-villainous cackle.
Meanwhile across the small city-scape, a green blur could be seen hopping and, at times, tongue swinging her way through the streets. She was prioritizing the lower point mechs and pulling fellow examinees out of tight spots. She knew her style wasn't terribly suited to close-quarters combat, but she was still able to do a lot of damage.
She rounded a corner and spotted two fellow students engaged with a trio of three pointers. Hurrying to join them, she watched as one of the students, a young man with some sort of rocky looking mutation quirk, jumped up and smashed through the middle of the robots, dashing off and leaving the other student behind.
It was a pink skinned girl with wild hair and short, yellow horns. She seemed to be spraying some sort of liquid on one of the robots, likely acid considering the way the outer shell was melting away. The other robot, though, was quickly closing the gap, aiming its missile batteries at the hero hopeful. Tsu hopped to the top of a light pole and flicked her tongue out, smacking it on the three-pointer's head to distract it.
It gave chase and she hopped away, glancing over her shoulder to see the pink girl giving her a thumbs up as she finished off her own robot and moved on.
While she was glad to help the pinkette, Tsuyu also had no idea how she was going to deal with the three pointer that was now chasing her down.
Until a crazy idea came to her.
She found a large parking lot and posed on top of another pole, flashing the robot a V with her fingers. When it fired its rockets, she dropped, clinging to the pole for dear life as she shot out her tongue, grappling one of the flying missiles and acting as a fulcrum as the thing tugged on her tongue, eventually swinging back around. She let it go and watched with glee as it obliterated the very robot that had fired it.
She let out a relieved "kero" as she hopped off to find more lower pointers.
Back on the other side of the city, Dax had lost track of her points some time ago. Every robot she encountered was easily dispatched by the rockets of her mount. She even managed to save a couple fellow examinees who got backed into corners, so that was a plus. She was always careful to aim only for her targets. Splash damage was something no real hero wanted. Just looking at the difference in styles between All Might and Endeavor told her everything she needed to know.
All Might could easily level a city block with a single punch, but always kept collateral to a minimum. Endeavor on the other hand… "Was responsible for burning an orphanage to the ground a few months ago." She shook her head, refocusing as her mount alerted her that its reserve of rockets had been depleted. She sighed, powering down the mech and giving it an affectionate pat on the head as she hopped off.
Then, the earth began to tremble. She thought it was an earthquake at first, then the ground beneath her opened up and she fell down into the darkness.
She landed face first on something cold, green, and truly colossal. She could also feel the air rushing downward around her as she was lifted higher and higher into the sky. When she came to her senses and crawled to the edge of the platform she was on, she nearly vomited. She was on top of a zero pointer, the massive robot towering over all of the nearby buildings like a tall tree surrounded by short shrubs. Her immediate instinct was to phase her hand through the plating, but found she couldn't reach far enough to actually get to the electronics. She couldn't take control from up here.
She considered running, but realized she had nowhere to run to. She was stuck up here unless she found a way down.
Then Dax noticed the small access hatch near the rear of the thing's massive head and made her way over to it, prying it open with her metallic hand and climbing inside.
She found herself in a vacant cockpit. Clearly the mech was designed to operate with AI but have an optional manual override. She plopped down in the chair and extended the cables from her right arm, connecting to a few input ports within the cockpit. The AI tried to fight her, but it was nothing compared to the daily challenge she faced from Harold at Mei's shop.
Soon she had wrested control away and an array of optical sensors and cameras came into her mental view, surrounding her in a ball of information. The robot had been about to crush a short guy with what appeared to be purple balls for hair, but she halted the motion, watching as the guy screamed and ran away. She couldn't help but chuckle as she discovered the powerful PA system built into the robot.
"Oh I am so gonna have fun with this new toy."
Tsuyu rounded a corner, heading toward what she thought was the source of the massive quake, wanting to make sure nobody had been hurt when she stopped dead in her tracks at the titanic mech before her. She was paralyzed for a second at the sheer size of the thing, her large eyes growing yet larger as she took it all in.
Then it started to talk.
"Are you tired of having your computer network hacked into? Is your arm in need of a serious refit or rebuild? Do your giant, towering war machines get taken over by mere students too easily? Then visit Hatsume Labs today to get the best security and equipment upgrades money can buy! Founded not two years ago right here in Musutafu, Hatsume Labs is an up and coming technology firm that you should keep your eye on! Please visit our new location coming this spring; The Support Department Workshop!"
In the control room, the small gathering of UA teachers and staff was… stunned. They had never seen a student take over a zero pointer before. Take one down, yes. But take control of it? Then use it as advertising for…
Nezu, a small rodent-bear-thing who happened to also be the president of UA turned an inquisitive eye toward Power Loader, who was sitting in the corner with his hands on his helmet.
"Maijima-san… Is Hatsume not the name of the student you recommended to me this year?... The 'brilliant robotic genius' who is 'ahead of her time'?"
The support hero nodded, remaining silent as he watched his giant mech in the hands of a mere student. Eventually though he spoke with a sigh.
"And if I'm not mistaken… I think the one in the cockpit right now is the other student who helped design that arm I showed you…"
Back inside the mech, Dax was beside herself laughing, tears coming to her eyes as she tried to recover from her own joke. She had always promised to help show off Mei's babies at UA, she just didn't expect to start this early.
"God I hope I can get a recording of this to show Mei Mei..."
Dax couldn't resist the urge to play a little bit with her toy, but knew that even moving the thing would cause massive destruction to the city. Once she had finished her laughing spree, she looked back at the cameras and spotted Tsuyu standing below her.
There was her exit strategy.
Dax started doing some basic programming, focusing hard as she calculated the best way to disarm the robot. She quickly ascertained that all the real control systems resided with her here, in the head. So the best thing to do was to remove the head. Kill the head, kill the beast. She punched in a set of time-delay orders and disconnected, quickly scrambling up the ladder and back to the surface of the mech.
Just as she reached the top, the program executed and the mech reached up, gripping its own head and lifting. Dax took a running jump and flung herself free of the giant mechanical monster, flying through the air toward where she had seen Tsuyu before as the mech ripped off its own head behind her, disabling itself.
What she realized, to her horror, was that Tsuyu was no longer in that spot. She had hopped away, leaving Dax plummeting to the earth with growing speed and no way of slowing herself down. The woman began to panic, her mind racing and using every bit of processing power her arm could give her as she tried to think of a solution.
The arm had shock absorbers, but not enough to survive this kind of fall. She could try to land on a building, but she'd still be going too fast. She could try bouncing off a light pole, but that might hurt even worse…
Then she saw the green blur in the corner of her eye. She turned her head in time to see a pink rope lashing out and snatching her from her freefall, pulling her over toward a nearby rooftop. She slowed down enough that by the time she got there, Tsuyu was able to set her down gently beside her with no trouble.
Dax couldn't speak, the adrenalin still coursing through her as she pulled her friend into a tight hug, both arms wrapped around her like she was a life preserver and Dax had been lost at sea. The amphibious girl returned the embrace, her large hands softly rubbing Dax's back as the brunette began to cry, overwhelmed by the sudden rush.
Finally Dax broke their mutual silence, speaking between sobs. "T-Tsu… I- I jumped b-because I saw you a-and I knew you'd save me but then. Then you weren't there and- I thought I was- I thought-"
Tsuyu let out a soft "kero", patting the back of Dax's head. "I got you, Malcor-chan. You're safe, kero." She held the brunette for a minute longer until they both heard the buzzer sound signaling the end of the exam. When they parted, Dax smiled down at her savior, wiping her eyes with her organic hand.
"Thank you Tsu… And… Please just call me Dax."
After they had changed back into their everyday clothing, Tsuyu and Dax had left together, deciding to go back to Hatsume's shop to tell the pinkette how the exam went. It was actually the first time Dax had gotten to hang out with Tsu outside work and would be the first time the amphibious girl would be meeting the young mechanic.
As the shop came into view, Dax let out a sigh, rolling up her sleeves and standing in front of the optical sensor defiantly. Harold spoke up moments later, making the frog girl accompanying her hop in surprise.
"Welcome back, Malcor Dax. Mother said you get a 'free pass' today. You may enter."
With that the door rolled open and she gave the optical sensor on the wall an appreciative bow. She and Tsuyu strode inside and the door rolled shut behind them
once more. Instead of her usual spot tinkering away at the workbench, Mei was seated on the bed holding a tablet close to her face, watching some sort of video. Dax knew she had impeccable eyesight, so she must have been trying to get some minute detail out of whatever she was watching that the normal eye would miss if she was holding it that close.
When she noticed Dax, Mei hopped up and tossed the tablet on to the bed, jumping at the taller woman and knocking her to the floor beside Tsuyu. She laid there on top of her, hugging her as her irises spun, focusing on the brunette's face. Dax wasn't sure if the look in Mei's eyes meant she was going to kill her or kiss her. Either could have been the case in that moment.
"What the hell were you thinking?!"
Well that was not what she was expecting. "H-huh? What are you talking about?" Mei's eye narrowed and she repeated herself, more forcefully this time.
"I said. What. The hell. Were you. Thinking?!"
Without further explanation, Mei stood up and retrieved her tablet, giving Dax the chance to pull herself into a sitting position before the pinkette returned, turning the tablet around and hitting play on the video.
It was the entrance exam Dax and Tsuyu had just come from. The video covered everything from Dax's impromptu advertisement to her suicidal jump and subsequent rescue by Tsuyu.
The brunette gulped, twirling her braid between her fingers as she tried to come up with some explanation… Then the verbal assault came.
"I can't believe you'd do something that reckless! Where would I be if I lost my best client! Not to mention my best friend! I mean I do appreciate the free advertising, and Power Loader-sensei said he was really impressed by your work, but still! You could have gotten yourself killed! If it weren't for that frog girl, you'd be dead right now! You're allowed to lose some more limbs, hell maybe an organ or two. I can replace those! But not all of you!"
About then the aforementioned 'frog girl' let out a soft "kero", crouching down beside dax and putting a protective hand on top of her head. Mei's attention moved from her best friend to the green haired woman she hadn't even noticed before as the amphibian spoke.
"We had it all planned out, kero. Dax was able to take out the giant mech and I was the exit plan. That's why she jumped like that and why I hopped up to the rooftop." She turned her head toward Dax, offering a wink and soft smile. "Right Dax, kero?"
Dax nodded dumbly, infinitely thankful for Tsu covering her like that. She processed for a moment before speaking up. "Y-yeah! That's right, Mei Mei! T-Tsu and I had it all planned out! It all went perfectly too! Not a single hitch!"
Mei tilted her head, her irises spinning as she looked back and forth between the two for any sign of deception before a smile broke out over her face. "Oh! In that case, great job! And thanks for the advertisement! It was glorious! I might need to keep that recording to enjoy all the time! OH maybe it can be your new ringtone on my phone!"
Dax let out a relieved sigh as she stood, grinning sheepishly. "I-it was nothing… Tsu here did all the heavy lifting… Oh uh, Mei Mei, this is Asui Tsuyu, I worked at her family's store during highschool, remember? Tsu, this is Hatsume Mei, the most brilliant engineer in the country. She's the one who made my new arm!" For emphasis, she held up the white, glossy appendage, eliciting a prideful grin from the pinkette.
Tsuyu gave a small smile and bowed, glancing around the shop a bit more. "I like your place. Lots of neat things in here, kero. Oh and please call me Tsu."
The letters came a week later. Dax was in her apartment for once when there was a knock at her door. She knew it had to be Tsuyu. She had invited both her and Mei over for dinner when Tsuyu and Dax received their results in the mail. She wasn't much of a cook, so she had ordered a catered meal of all their favorites. A jelly sandwich spread for Tsuyu, a chocolate fondue setup for Hatsume, and, a special treat from the small italian place that opened nearby, spaghetti for Dax.
She finished putting out the plates and hurried over to the door, opening it and letting Hatsume and Tsuyu inside. She had originally planned on reserving the opening of the letters for after the meal, but the way Tsuyu was cradling hers made it clear that wouldn't fly.
"Alright… Tsu, open yours first. I can't bear to open mine." The frog girl nodded, opening hers as all three of them gathered on one side of the dining table. She set the hologram projector down and it started playing automatically.
The very first frame of the video was a close-up of a pair of large, full breasts clad in a skintight white fabric and separated by what appeared to be a strip of studded leather. The camera quickly zoomed out to reveal none other than the (in)famous R18 heroine Midnight.
"Hello darling! It is my absolute pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted into the hero course of our prestigious and highly selective university! Watching you rescuing students and smashing those baddies to bits was positively exhilarating! I can't wait to see how far you'll go, my little tadpole! See you soon!"
The video ended with midnight blowing a kiss that seemed perfectly aimed right for where Tsuyu was sitting. All three friends wore similar blushes, Tsuyu's perhaps being the worst of all. "T-tadpole... kero?"
Dax cleared her throat, fanning her face to try to dispel the blush that had built up on her cheeks as she reached for her letter. Mei, meanwhile, decided that rather than deal with the warm feeling spreading inside her, she'd get started on her fondue.
Dax opened her letter hesitantly, setting down her hologram projector and toying with her braid as the video began. Thankfully this time it didn't lead off with a cleavage shot.
No, not even close to a cleavage shot. In fact, she wasn't sure what she was looking at was human. It looked like some sort of giant caterpillar. There was a pause and then a cough could be heard off-screen and the caterpillar… unzipped, revealing the face of a man who looked like he had not slept in the last fifteen years. He brought a squeeze juice pack to his mouth and took a drink before speaking, his greasy, black hair threatening to slip into his mouth.
"You were reckless and damn near suicidal during the entrance exam. You also minimized potential civilian casualties and property damage. You used a villain as an advertising opportunity and then had it kill itself…"
The pause before he spoke again felt like it lasted an eternity. Dax was certain he was going to tell her she hadn't made it due to her recklessness. She'd screwed up. There was no way she-
"Welcome to UA. See you in class, problem child."
The video cut out and the projector powered down.
"I- I actually… I…" She looked over at Tsuyu, a smile spreading on her lips. "Tsu! We're going to UA!" Dax let out what could only be described as a squeal, pulling her amphibious friend into a tight embrace. Soon she had pulled Mei into the mix as well, the trio laughing and practically squirming in excitement.
This was it. The start of their Hero Academia.
A/N:
Like I said, it just felt right to end it here. We'll start of the next chapter with Aizawa's "logical ruse" but I have a little surprise in store for y'all when we get to it. I think you're gonna love it!
Anyway please tell me what you thought! I reply to comments as best I can!
See ya next time!
