Chapter 17: Exam Day
The day had finally come. It was time for the UA entrance exam. Izuku and Hitoshi woke up early in preparation, much to William's annoyance. He thought yesterday was enough to relax them more. To appease the moody man, Izuku ate plenty of toast and packed a couple thermoses of coffee.
"You ready," Hitoshi asked as he ran his hand through his hair—a habit he picked up from William and Izuku.
"Yeah," Izuku grumbled. "I'm ready to get this over with!"
Hitoshi chuckled in understanding. The stress was killing all four of them.
"So I guess it's time to head out," the purple haired boy asked.
Izuku nodded and they picked up their bags.
"Boys, wait," Inko said running up to them.
Both boys looked at each other, and then turned around.
"Yes, mom," Izuku asked as his mother stopped in front of him.
She immediately wrapped her two...well, four boys up in a hug.
"Good luck, you four," she said with tears in her eyes. "I know you will do great! Now, protect each other! And, remember, no matter what, I'm proud of you!"
"Thank you, mom," Izuku said for the three of them.
"Thank you, Inko," Hitoshi said.
Both boys hugged her one last time and headed to UA.
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Once they reached UA's gates, they stopped and stared at the school. Lumps were in their throats. Today was the day where their hero careers could begin.
"Can you believe it, Zuku," Hitoshi whispered. "We're here. Did you ever think we'd actually make it?"
"No," Izuku admitted. "At least, not before William."
Hitoshi nodded in agreement and said, "Me either."
"Together," Izuku asked, and Hitoshi nodded—determination shining in his eyes.
"Together," he said.
He started to step forward, but Izuku grabbed his arm.
"All of us," Izuku said, and Hitoshi smirked.
Izuku took a deep breath and his eyes turned a pale electric blue, red streaks joined the purple in his hair, and his teeth sharpened into fangs.
"Ready," he said, his voice almost resembling an echo, and all four boys walked onto the campus, together.
By the time they reached the front steps, Izuku was back to normal, but William and Spring were paying close attention. This helped to calm Izuku, and his courage grounded Hitoshi. At least, it did until he managed to trip on an uneven tile.
Izuku immediately went to steady him. But, before he did, they both felt a tap on their arms—startling them enough that they spun around, only to find that they were floating.
"I'm sorry to use my quirk on you without permission," a bubbly brunette girl with pink cheeks said. "But, it would be back luck to fall on the first day!"
"While we appreciate your help," Hitoshi started.
"Please don't touch us without permission," Izuku finished.
The girl immediately turned forlorn.
"I'm sorry" she said with a small frown. "I was just trying to help!"
"Don't be rude," a blue haired boy said as he marched up to them. "That's not behavior benefiting hero students!"
"We weren't trying to be rude," Hitoshi said with a huff. "We did say we appreciated her help."
"We just don't like being touched without our consent," Izuku said with a hard look at the boy. "Anyways, we need to get to the exam room."
Hitoshi nodded in agreement, and they both left to find the classroom.
To their immense relief, the written test was a breeze. They figured it probably would be, but it was amazing how over-preparedWilliam actually had them. Even Hitoshi, who unlike Izuku who was already doing college level work during high school, found it too easy. They both finished way above the time limit, even after checking over their work.
The proctors gave them surprised looks when they went to hand in their tests papers and told them that they had plenty of time to go and check their work. However, when the two teens told the proctors they had already did go over their work, they relented and took their tests.
So, the two boys were lead to a separate classroom so they wouldn't distract the other students taking their tests, or attempt to cheat on the next exam. To help themselves relax, they talked about Izuku's animatronic and Hitoshi's future robotics lessons. Hitoshi couldn't wait to start on his own project. And, Izuku was excited for the completion of his own project. With all the training, it was hard finding time to actually work on it.
It wasn't too long until they were herded into the auditorium, and much to their disappointment, they were assignment different seats. However, to Izuku's surprise, he was assigned a seat next to Katsuki. It has been awhile since he's seen the blonde.
"Katsuki," he whispered, politely, in greeting.
"Nerd," the blonde said back. "Wasn't sure if you'd actually come."
"Wouldn't miss it," Izuku said with a smirk. "Good luck. Though, I doubt you'd actually need it."
The blonde seemed slightly taken aback by his statement, but he ended up huffing and said, "You too, nerd."
Izuku was surprised, but he smiled at the blonde and thanked him.
"Welcome, listeners, to your next exam," Present Mic called out as he stepped onto the stage. "Are you ready?!"
The pro waited for a moment, but no one responded to him.
"Okay, keeping it mellow, huh, I get it, so let's get right to the show," Present Mic said as a screen appeared behind him. "Like your paper handouts say, you'll be conducting ten minute mock battle in a hip urban setting!"
The screen switched, showing the battle areas, labeled A-G.
"After I drop the mic, you'll head to your assigned battle grounds," the voice hero announced. "Can I get an okay?!"
And, once again, there was silence as each of the students studied their cards. Izuku glanced at Bakugou's and noticed that they had different battle centers.
"I guess it's so classmates can't work together," Izuku thought. "I wonder if Hitoshi and I will get assigned the same arena?"
"Okay, listeners," Present Mic said calling for their attention. "Listen up! Let's take a look at your charts! There are three types of faux villains in every battle center! You'll earn points based on their level of difficulty! You better choose wisely!"
This time, the screen displayed the robots they'd be fighting and a short video demonstrating a battle scenario.
"Your goal in this exam is to use your quirks to raise your score by taking apart these faux villains like the rock stars you are," Mic screamed. "But, make sure to keep your show heroic! Attacking other examines will send you packing, ya dig?"
The blue haired boy from earlier then stood up with his hand raised, yelling, "Excuse me, sir! I have a question!"
"Hit me," Present Mic shouted with finger guns.
A spot light descended upon the teen as he pointed to their battle card.
"On the printout you gave us, it lists four types of villains, not three," the teen said as he pushed up his glasses. "With all due respect, if this is an error on official UA materials, it's shameful! And, you with the purple hair, and the one with green and purple hair! You both have been muttering this entire time! If you can't this exam seriously, then leave! You're distracting the rest of us!"
Izuku's eyes flashed blue as William's annoyance with the annoying boy merged with his own. He pushed himself out of his seat and glared at the boy.
"The only one distracting us here is you," he said with a hard edge to his voice. "If you were more patient, you would have seen that Present Mic-sensei was about to explain it! And, for your information some of us actually like to develop plans before we storm into situations."
Then Izuku turned to Present Mic and said, "I'm sorry, sensei, for interrupting your presentation."
"It's okay, little listener," the voice hero said waving away his apology with a grin. "Thanks for explaining! Now, the fourth villain is worth a grand total of zero points! It's really just an obstacle we threw in your way! There is one stationed in every battle center. Think of it as a hurdle to avoid! Not that it can't be beaten...there's just no point in doing so. That's all I've got for you today! Are you ready to go beyond? Let's here a 'Plus Ultra'!"
For the third time, no one responded, and Present Mic frowned a little.
"Good luck," he said, shaking his disappointment off. "I hope you've practiced hitting more than just books!"
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Izuku stood at the back of the crowd in front of the battle center. He shifted his weight to his heels and crossed his arms. Plans were already starts to form in his head. Izuku ideally looked through the crowd to judge the competition. He sighed when he noticed that most of these kids weren't prepared for the hero course.
"Zuku," a familiar voice called out, and Izuku turned around with a smirk.
"Toshi," he said with a bored drawl.
"Not much much competition is there," the purple haired boy said. "And here I was worried about not having a more physical quirk would put me at a disadvantage."
Before Izuku could answer, the blue haired boy walked up to them.
"Are you two trying to distract everyone," he demanded.
"Have we offended you in some way," Izuku asked pointedly. "You must have noticed that we're not the only people who're talking."
The teen stuttered, not being having a response.
Then, a loud horn was rung, and Izuku and Hitoshi burst into action. It didn't take them long to get near the center of the arena and find a group of robots to fight. Hitoshi and Izuku moved to cover each others' backs.
Izuku changed into his animatronic form while Hitoshi grabbed a metal pole that one of the robots must have broke. Izuku stood as tall as seven feet. His body was metal and a light olive in color, and unlike the animatronic of the past—and more in resemblance to the style that Henry built to replace his daughter—Izuku had fine metal strands. His hair was colored dark leaf green at the roots—along with his rabbit ears—and it faded to a lime green near the ends. One red highlight framed his freckled face.
One of the robots swung it's arm at them and the two teens sprung into action. Despite Izuku's size, he was extremely swift and nimble. He ducked and weaved through the robots raking his claws through their armored plated and punching holes through their glass eyes. Hitoshi, however, used used Izuku's brutal attacks as distractions as he used the metal pole he picked up to flip off their on switches and speared random shrapnel through their control boxes. Thankfully, there was so much shrapnel form their fights that he never lacked a weapon.
By the time they wracked up 50 points between them, Present Mic had finished chastising the other examines for not following their example and starting without a countdown. The other examines then immediately jumped into gear. However, neither boy payed them any attention—unless they got in above their heads; they were to in sync with each other to really care about the others yelling their scores.
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Up in the teacher's box, the teachers were studying the monitors showing the many different fights and battle centers while they discussed the prospective students. Currently they were watching Izuku and Hitoshi taking down a group of two and three pointers.
"I thought we split up the students from the same schools," Midnight said as Izuku yanked Hitoshi away from a falling robot.
"We did," Nezu said grinning as he watched the two. "They're from different school from the opposite side of town. It seems like they must have meet somewhere else."
"Aren't they the same two students who finished the written exam an hour early,"
Snipe asked, and Allmight choked on a glob of blood.
"It seems William over-prepared them both," he thought with a wince. "Talk about going 'Plus Ultra'."
Aizawa decided to stop pretending to be asleep and show that he was awake by saying, "I want them in my class."
"Hey now, Shota," Vlad King protested annoyed. "You can't just go claiming students like that!"
"Hmph," Aizawa scoffed. "I don't see why not. Plus, I happened to meet one of them. He has more potential than my whole class last year. And, it seems like his friend may have similar potential."
The teachers, except for Allmight—which Aizawa found suspicious—looked at him in amazement at his high praise.
Nezu gave the underground hero a manic grin—which had Allmight wincing in fear with how much it actually reminded him of William's—and he said, "Okay, Aizawa. You'll get your wish then. But, in return, I want to meet them."
To everyone's surprise, Aizawa and Allmight both paled at this deceleration which caused shivers to race down everyone's spines and Nezu to laugh. What have they gotten themselves into?
"Now, let's see how your new students deal with this," Nezu said laughing maniacally as he hit a giant red button.
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Izuku and Hitoshi were taking a small breather as they surveyed the area. They had lost count of how many robots they had taken out at this point. However, they were confident that they had enough points to pass the exam.
"Remind me to thank William and Spring for all the training," Hitoshi said with a groan as he strached his back. "Now that I'm actually here, I can see that I would have failed without it."
"Don't worry," Izuku said. "He says that we can expect more later."
The two boys groaned from the expected pain.
At that moment, they both heard a large explosion and they spun in it's direction. Their jaws dropped at the sight of the huge robot.
"They're trying to kill us," Hitoshi said with a gasp.
"Well, no time to dawdle," Izuku said with an impatient huff. "We need to get the other examines away from it."
Hitoshi nodded. Between the four of them, they knew the most about robots and their programming than perhaps anyone else at the school. Even with all the precautions the pros set up, they knew that the robot might not stop in time if there was an accident. It didn't have advanced programming, and the size was to large for precise movements.
"Alright," Hitoshi said. "Good thing we already got our points."
Izuku nodded in agreement, and they set off towards the commotion.
The two boys quickly made it to where the examines were fleeing. Hitoshi immediately used his quirk to get the more stubborn students wanting to fight robots out of danger while Izuku focused on getting students out from under debris. They ignored all attempts from students telling them to run as they moved closer to the zero pointer looking for more students in danger.
"Hey, what are you two doing," the blue haired boy from earlier yelled at them.
The two boys held in a groan of annoyance.
"We're making sure everyone gets away," Hitoshi yelled back.
"Have you seen anyone else," Izuku asked.
"Help," a familiar female voice yelled.
It was the girl who tried to catch Hitoshi earlier. She was stuck under a large piece of rubble, and the zero was moving towards her. If she didn't get away soon, it would be on top of her.
"Hell," the two muttered.
"Toshi," Izuku ordered. "You get the girl, I got the robot."
"You can't be serious," the blue haired boy yelled at them. "You need to get out of here! The pros won't let anyone get hurt!"
"You want to leave her here," Izuku growled his eyes glowing an unnatural yellow in his anger.
The blue haired boy stopped short in surprise and unease at the teen's anger.
"If you're that worried about us, help Toshi," Izuku snapped at the boy. "Or stay out of our way!"
At that, the raced towards the zero pointer. Hitoshi immediately stopped in front of the pink cheeked girl.
"Help," she cried in pain. "I can't use my quirk!"
"Don't worry," the purple haired boy said as he struggled to lift the heavy piece of rubble trapping her. "Zuku and I got you. He'll make sure the robot doesn't touch us, and I'll get this thing off of you."
Courage seemed to fill her eyes at his words, and she nodded as she tried to help him move the slab of concrete.
Meanwhile, Izuku kept speeding for the robot.
"William, I don't have time to study it," Izuku mentally called. "Where is it's weak point?"
William glance over the giant robot and zeroed in on the chest plate.
"Chest plate, beneath the neck," William said. "The power core should be right underneath it. Be sure to hit there or the robot might continue to move for a few more minutes."
Izuku cursed.
Why was it in such a horrible place to get to?!
"Alright," the teen muttered to himself. "Here goes nothing!"
