[Season 1] Ep. 2 - Entrance Exam: Starting Line
Here we are at last! U.A. High School, the greatest superhero school in the world! We felt so small in front of such a gigantic glass building U-shaped, preceded by a long inner courtyard delimited by large arches in grey and blue stones, leading to 3 gigantic doors numbered from 1 to 3 and separated by columns in a style reminiscent of the pantheon of Ancient Greece.
There we were, all 3 of us, ready to become real heroes and, clutching our bags and taking a deep breath of courage, we walked into this courtyard where great heroes like Ultra Bright must have passed before us.
Once through the gigantic doors, we found ourselves in the reception area of the building where, after having given our administrative papers, we were given a seat number to go to the amphitheater where we would be presented with the examination rules.
As I separated myself from Genzō and Moe to get to my seat towards the center of the 4th tier, I couldn't help looking at all the candidates for the exam.
There were so many of us, so different and the number of places in U.A. was so low... I couldn't hide my stress as I felt the pressure on my shoulders and biting my nails, I started to frantically shake my leg, staring blankly at the big stage. Suddenly, a sweet voice worthy of an angel's, came to get me out of my little panic attack:
- "It's really impressive to see so many people here ... I really hope I can pass the exam despite all these people... Don't you find this waiting stressful?".
I then turned slowly towards the beautiful voice that was questioning me. She was a beautiful young girl with blue eyes and hair, with a face so fine and soft that she didn't seem real, so beautiful despite the ram's horns coming out of her head and adding to this unreal and fairy-tale appearance. Looking at her stupidly without answering her, she turned her head, a little embarrassed, and retorted:
- "Oops sorry, I...I didn't want to disturb you in your thoughts."
Wanting to clear up the misunderstanding quickly, I started stuttering and replied:
- "No! No! It's not that, it's just that..."
- "Shut up! Be quiet! It's about to start!" interrupted a young blond man, with green eyes and muscles strangely swollen only on his arms and legs, from the bench just below.
The light then suddenly went out and the microphone of what must have been the presenter came on and shouted:
- "Hello youth! Are you ready to go beyond! Plus Ultra!" and gigantic green letters writing the words "Plus Ultra" seemed to come out of his glasses. That's when the bleacher spotlights came on and I recognized the pro hero, Light Up. This flashy, dashing, and charismatic hero was, according to the school flyer, the English teacher from U.A.
Light Up, whose real name was Akihiko Mitsunushi, was a black man in his thirties, brown with green eyes, who had a quirk, called Light Projection, which allowed him to project solid green light from his eyes or fingertips and whose shape he could change at will. His costume consisted of a black cap that he wore backward with a green visor and the logo writing Light Up on the front, he also wore a black t-shirt with the same green logo on the front, a green leather jacket with his logo in white on the back, black baggy jeans with a silver chain on the side and low black leather shoes with green soles. He also had rings, a necklace with the letters L and U interlaced and silver earrings, and green sunglasses.
The extravagant hero enjoyed a bit of general applause from the audience before going into the explanations of the exam thanks to the giant screen behind him.
He explained that the exam consisted of destroying robots worth 1 to 3 points in an environment like a city and that our goal would be to get as many points as possible to be received.
But there was a small particularity, among the different robots in the test, there was one, unique and gigantic, which did not score any points and will only be there to hamper us in our test.
Then the explanations of the examination ended, and we were directed via our numbers towards the different test grounds.
When I arrived at the front of the field for my test, I couldn't help but wonder about the exam:
- "The rules are too simple. There's something wrong... A hidden rule perhaps..." but, coming out of my reflection, a soft hand came to rest on my shoulder to ask me:
- "Hi! We meet again, it seems. I didn't have the time to introduce myself earlier, I'm Masako Nuriki, I hope you're going to make it, good luck!" she said smiling before moving towards the entrance as soon as it opened, letting me answer from afar like a big fool:
- "G-Good luck as well! I'm Raiji! Raiji Fugiri" and she turned around briefly to smile at me before entering the field. Having no time to think further about my questions, I quickly came to my senses and went to the field.
The others had already started fighting and destroying a lot of robots while I was floating around in my thoughts like an idiot. I saw, for example, the blond guy from earlier, sucking air through the inner-tube muscle of his arm, to throw a powerful punch on one of the robots, ejecting the air absorbed by his arm.
On the other side, I saw another boy with blue eyes and light brown hair using flying eyes to distract a robot and directly attack its weak points with his hand and smiled as if nothing had happened, winked at me, and moved on to another. There's no way I'm going to stand there and do nothing!
I then walked towards a big 3-point robot and, using my attraction zones on my hands, I jumped on his back, dodging the attack he threw at me with his right arm, I climbed up to his head, which I ripped off by exerting a strong attraction zone on my right hand, to easily tear off the joints connecting his head to his neck. Then, while jumping from the exploding robot, I threw the head hooked to my right hand towards a small robot at 1 point below my fall.
Once on the ground, a two-point robot came after me, sending me waltzing against a wall with a sweep of his big arms. As he came towards me to attack me again, he was quickly destroyed by the green-eyed blond from the bleachers. Posted on the robot's corpse, he looked down on me with disdain, retorting:
- "Pff, you again..." before leaving, propelling himself forward with his air-laden legs.
Unable to contain my anger against this disrespectful and proud behavior, my hair and eyes turned blue and, possessed by Nega's spirit of revenge, my body charged after that impertinent blondie.
Using his repulsion quirk to pounce on his target before he reached it, Nega taunted his rival while destroying the 2-point robot he was targeting with a hammer kick boosted with a repulsion zone, sending the disdainful blondie flying into a waltz that injured his eye with debris.
Ignoring Nega, blowing with weariness, he moved towards another robot, and instantly Nega went to intercept him. I couldn't stand that he was acting like that with my body, so I begged Nega to stop, claiming it wasn't the attitude of a hero, but he totally ignored me.
Suddenly, as he was about to start again, the gigantic 0-point robot appeared at the other end of the field, destroying everything in its path.
Ready to fight to show that he was the strongest, Nega concentrated to create a large zone of repulsion under his feet, Nega crouched down, activated the repulsion, threw himself in the air to the level of the final robot boss's head and, wearing a sly smile, armed his fist surrounded by his most powerful repulsion zone to wound him directly in the head.
But the robot was big but fast, and the robot moved his head at the last moment, before trying to catch Nega, who broke free thanks to a repulsion zone placed on the left side of his body before the impact, sending him to the roof of a nearby building.
As Nega was preparing to return to the attack, he saw that a building near the blue-haired girl was about to collapse on her after the attack by the giant robot, and, regaining some control of my mind, I forced Nega to fly to her rescue.
He then propelled himself to her height and, as the building fell, created a gigantic repulsion zone around him, projecting the dangerous debris far away, saving Masako in the process.
Then, my hair and eyes turned red again, before my body crashed with fatigue to the ground, in front of the giant robot that was coming.
Then Masako activated her quirk and, her horns began to shine brightly, and the girl threw her fist with all her might at the robot screaming and, astounding everyone, she managed to push it away, destroying its leg in the process, causing it to fall.
But Masako, still in a state of rage provoked by the activation of her quirk, threw herself again on the robot and hit it like a wild beast, again and again, until she destroyed it just before her quirk was deactivated, her horns being totally retracted in her skull.
Light Up then announced the end of the test and a team of robot nurses and the school medic, Healing Butler, came to pick up the wounded and directed them all to the infirmary, including me and Masako.