Their Guardian
6. U.A. Entrance Exam – Battle Begin
Disclaimer: I do not own Boko no Hero Academia.
Warning: Their will be course language and elements of blood as the story progresses.
It's a slow ride in the bus towards the battle center. Jason sits in the back of the bus, head craned to the side as he stares at the window, watching the scenery pass him by. In his hand holds a small bent sheet of paper that held a more rough outline of the exam that wasn't added during the presentation.
'The presentation…' Jason thinks as he remembers what transpired just half an hour ago.
30 minutes ago…
Jason gives a small wave to Izuku as they split up to look for their seats. "Now, where are you?" He mutters as he looks down the myriad of seats, trying to find his seating place. "Ah, here we go." He comments as he finds his assigned seat. He sits down and grab his paper with his information on it. The seat to his right is empty but not the one to his left, however the person sitting there doesn't seem to be interested in introductions, which is just fine with Jason.
Jason stares down at the paper in his hand, as he sees his examinee number. "2-7-3-6, okay." He mutters as places it back down. He has some time to think as he watches more and more people enter the auditorium and begin filling the place up. 'Okay… the written exam went well enough so hopefully the practical will be as easy.' He lets out a scoff as he locks his fingers together in front of him as he closes his eyes. 'Who am I kidding. The written portion we were able to memorize and study it enough, but the practical, where we have to actually fight and showcase our skills in battle… that's not going to be easy. They can't make it easy. Its one thing to memorize the rules, procedures and such but its another to actually put your skills to the test in combat. This is the best hero school in Japan, pretty much the best in the world. They don't take half-assed heroes-in-training when they'll eventually fail, they take the best that they know will make best heroes ev—'
*Poke*
He blinks his eyes several times as he feels someone poke him, knocking him from his thoughts. He cranes his head to the right to be met with a sight he was not exactly expecting.
Someone did fill in the empty seat next to him. "You know, it's probably not a good idea to sleep during the presentation." The girl next to him says with a cute grinning smile. The girl definitely has a mutation Quirk from what Jason can tell. She has light pink skin, fluffy pink hair, two tan horns on her head that resemble almost like antennae, and her eyes… her irises are yellow but it's the fact that her sclera's are black that gives him pause. "Hey, you okay?" She asks curiously as she pokes him in the shoulder this time as he doesn't make any other moves besides looking at her.
"Uh!" He flinches and straightens himself out as he turns his head away from her, avoiding her seeing the blush that forms for having frozen like that. "Yeah yeah! I'm fine. I'm fine. Just… thinking about this whole thing and what we're going to face." Mentally he's berating himself. 'Haven't hung out with a lot of people besides Izuku on a regular basis. Come on, man. You should have known you'd meet other people in a place like this.'
"I know right! Isn't it exciting?" She whisper yells to him, showing her giddiness at the whole situation. Just her energy alone is surprising to Jason, having not met anyone who is so… happy. "I know its just a mock battle we're going to be thrown in without actual villains, but the fact that we'll be able to use our Quirks on targets is going to be so killer." She gushes before letting out a relieved sigh. "And I really need to blow off some steam after that test. I felt like my brain was going to melt." She exaggerates as she lays the top half of herself on the table, arms splayed out and her head laying on the table on its side staring at him.
He gives a small smile and a head shake at her attitude. 'Well at least she's nice. Glad I'm not next to a jerk.' He smiles turns to a frown as he looks towards the middle section of seats. 'Although I'm pretty sure Bakugo is sitting next to Izuku. Oh Izu.' He lets out a tired sigh for his friend.
Just then the lights dim down and their presenter begins the introduction to what they need to do for the practical. "It's starting." He quietly tells the girl next to him.
She perks up and they all begin listening to the information. When it comes to them learning that the villains are basically going to be robots, that gets the pink haired girl next to him excited. "Robots? Yes! This exam's going to be a cinch with my Quirk." She triumphantly whispers with a small arm pump.
"Tck." Jason scoffs at the mention of Quirks from the presenter as he tries to listen for anymore information that could help.
"What about you?"
He opens his mouth in confusion as to what she means.
"Excuse me, sir, but I have a question." Jason looks back to the middle row to see a boy with dark blue hair, square glasses and a tan suit jacket and pants with a blue and light blue striped tie stand up and raise his hand to ask his question.
"Hit me!"
"On the printout, you've listed four types of villains. Not three." A light shine on the boy as he points out the difference on the sheet of paper and from the presentation. "With all respect, if this is an error on the official U.A. materials, it is shameful. We are exemplary students. We expect the best from Japan's most notable school. A mistake such as this won't do." He states with a bit of authority in his voice and slight annoyance at how things are going. Jason looks oddly at the guy on just how serious he is about all this. "Additionally, you with the unkempt hair." He turns right around and calls out someone. When Jason leans over, he sees who it is that's been called out and he's not happy with what he sees. "You've been muttering this entire time. Stop that. If you can't bother to take this seriously, leave. You're distracting the rest of us."
"HEY!" Jason suddenly stands and leans over the table, surprising others around him, especially the girl next to him at his loud voice so suddenly. "Seems to me you're the one distracting us the most right now buddy! We're here to listen about the exam, not you criticizing other students! Park it… now!" With that final statement given, he sits back down and crosses his arms, a scowl on his face. People stare at him as he sits there and he almost regrets making a scene like that. Almost.
"Whoa, what was that about?" He glances at the girl again.
He grumbles but still remains his angered state. "I don't like it when someone messes with my friends."
"Oh." She nods at the answer as she stares back to the front, resuming their listening to the presentation and just a bit more information about the fourth mock villain. "… Can we be friends?" After a moment she asks out of the blue.
Jason looks completely surprised by the out of nowhere question from someone he just met. "Wha- But- we just barely met. You don't even know anything about me." He states in a slightly annoyed tone, still not understanding her reason.
"Well, I know your someone who protects his friends. If we're going to go into U.A. together I wouldn't mind a person like that being my friend." She answers plain as day with a smile.
Jason can't really refute that bit of logic as he stares at her. He's about to decline until they are all signaled to head for the buses to take them to their respective battle centers. "Ugh fine! Whatever." He throws out before getting up and heading for the doors through the crowd, not seeing the annoyed pout the girl gives at his quick brush off before it turns to a smile. She gets up and heads off too.
"Nervous?"
A question gets Jason's attention. He turns from the window to see the person sitting next to him asking the question. 'Why do I keep meeting people with crazy Quirks?' He comments to himself as he stares at the tall man, head of white hair, a blue mask cover his mouth, wearing light blue pants, a white shirt and dark blue cloth wrappings around his waist. What gets Jason's attention is the fact his seatmate has what's pretty much a total of six arms, three connected to each of his shoulders with all the arms connected together with a bit of webbing between them. Jason shrugs as his sits up straight. "A little. We may be getting simply robot mock villains to attack, but something tells me that theirs going to be something just a bit more to this."
"What makes you say that?" The multiarmed examinee says with one of his hands turning to a mouth and speaking to him.
Jason keeps himself from flinching at the odd way of speaking but gets a thoughtful look. "Considering we're trying to get into the school with the lowest acceptance rate than any other hero school out there, either they got something else planned, or these robots are going to be a lot more than we first thought." He surmises as best he can.
"Hm, your most likely right. Not to mention there might be only so many robots for us to take down, which means its probably going to be first come first served when it comes to the points." His seatmate adds onto the explanation. "Shoji Mezo." The guy offers a hand to Jason.
Jason nods and shakes his hand, his own hand just a little dwarfed by the much bigger person. "Takeda Jason."
"Jason? Isn't that an American name?" Shoji asks curiously.
"Yeah, half on my fathers side." Normally Jason wouldn't really by so forth coming with his family's info but he's had enough awkwardness with the really talkative girl at the auditorium. 'Or maybe her Quirk infected me with her openness. I don't know.'
"So, your half American half Japanese?" He nods at the question. "Okay. Sorry but I thought you looked a little like a foreigner. I wasn't sure but I didn't want to say anything to be rude."
Jason nods at the man. "Don't worry. I get what you mean." He turns back to staring out the window when he notices they're coming up on the battle center. He inherited most of his fathers looks with the main thing he got from his mother being her eyes so it wasn't surprising for people to confuse him as non-Japanese. "Oh hey, we're here." He states. The comes to a halt in front of the massive entrance of the battle center they are going to be in and everyone begins to stand up and heading off the bus with the front row first and then so on.
"Hey." Jason looks at his acquaintance. "Good luck on the test. Hope I see you at U.A."
Jason smiles and nods back at Shoji. "Back at you." Shoji is the last one that walks down the center of the bus with Jason just trailing behind slowly. He takes a few deep breaths, mentally preparing himself for the fight that's going to go in and thanking the information he learned. 'That's good to know since I don't have a Quirk.' He gazes down at his civilian attire, the same one he had on in the morning now going to be his combat clothes for the practical exam. His moments of preparation come to an abrupt end however because as soon as he steps off the bus he sighs in frustration.
Meanwhile Izuku is shaking like a leaf, having wanted to simply go and thank the girl for keeping him from falling earlier today. Now though he can only stare in shock as the boy from earlier who called him out placing a hand on his shoulder, keeping him from walking forward and staring harshly at Izuku. This time now he shed his tan suit and changed into a tight blue and black body suit, leaving his forearms free and his calves open, which everyone can now see what look to be engines in his legs. He notices the girl that Izuku was heading towards.
"She looks like she's trying to focus on the trials ahead." He states to Izuku. "What are you going to do? Distract her and ruin her chances to succeed?"
"Uh-no, no! Uh-!"
"Hold it buddy."
"Arh!" Before Izuku can try to muster the reason for why he was going to her, his long time best friend and protector his whole life grabs the glasses wearing boys hand and pulls it off his shoulder, twisting it harshly with one hand, making glasses grunt from the odd angle his wrist is twisted while Jason glares at him.
"I think you already did enough at the auditorium. Lay off now if you know what's good for you."
"Hmph!" The boy jerks his hand from the grip and grimaces as he rotates his wrist to alleviate the pain. Before sternly looking at him. "Threatening another examinee, are you sure you want to be a hero?" He questions as he glares at Jason.
Jason isn't put off as he gives the same glare back. "Harassing another examinee, are you sure you want to be a hero?"
The blue-haired boy gives a slight look of surprise at the question sent back at him but doesn't say anything. He grumbles angrily to himself before stepping away, preferring to focus on the test at hand than the other examinees.
"Geez, that guy." Jason groans as he rubs his head, trying to stave off the headache at how everything is going already. He looks at the group of people nearby. They all avert their eyes and focus back on the door.
"Really, Jakkun?"
"C'mon. At this point that guy had it out for you. You don't need the distraction for this man."
"Still…" Izuku sighs and glances at the massive doors before turning back to his friend. "But, what are you doing here?"
Jason looks at his friend confused. "What do you mean? I was assigned to Battle Center B." He pulls out his examinee paper and shows it to Izuku. His friend takes it and examines the paper before pulling out his own. They both stare and compare to the two pieces to indeed note that they both are assigned to the same Battle Center.
"Huh, that's weird. Maybe we were wrong…"
"Wait, what do you mean?" Jason asks as he takes back his paper.
"Kacchan and I compared our examinee cards and noted we both didn't get sent to this Battle Center. He's actually over at A. We figured the reason being was so people from the same school don't team-up. But… you're here…"
"Maybe it was a fluke?" Jason surmises. Izuku is about to retort over the fact of the best hero school in Japan making a simple error like this may be improbable, Jason holds his hand up to stop him from interrupting. "Regardless, what's done is done. We're here now and we make the best of it." He then gets a thoughtful look as he stares at the large doors and the walls of the mock city they are going to be fighting in, then to the rest of the examinees. His final glance takes him to the cameras mounted at the entrance of the city. He gives off a low grimace before turning back to his friend. "Alright, here's what we're going to do: as soon as we go past those doors, we separate, go in different directions from each other. Stay away from each other as best we can." His grimace disappears as he stares at him. "If you're right and we weren't meant to be in the same Battle Center together, then lets limit as much exposure to each other as we can during the test. Not give the instructors, judges, whoever the chance to question our skills, okay?"
Izuku looks a little uneasy at the suggestion, secretly happy and relieved that his friend is there to back him up, but he soon sees the wisdom in the strategy. The reason for them to take this practical mock battle to begin with is to showcase each individual persons ability and skill in fighting potential villains. If one of them accidentally overshadows the other and gets more points, even if they work together to take down the same target, might call into question their individual skills. Izuku gives a nod at his suggestion. "You're right. We split up when the doors open and focus on our own targets."
"Good, good." Jason nods back relieved he took the suggestion. Jason would be kicking himself for a long long time if it was because of him that Izuku didn't get to achieve his dream. "But I think I can at least give you a bit of advice." Jason leans in closer to Izuku, who also leans in so they can speak quietly without anyone hearing them. "I was talking to one of the other examinees and we think there's only so many robots inside city. So it's probably for the best to get away from the pack. Use alleyways, side streets, make sure you get away from the others so you can focus on your targets rather than the other examinees, and limit the possibility of someone stealing your kill." As Jason glances to the other people, he can tell that theirs more than a few of them who are cocky and seem very gung-ho about the whole thing.
"Right."
"Also," Jason pulls out the paper that contained additional information about the test. "I took a closer look at this info and it says here that theirs supposed to be a red kill switch on each of the bots, so that way people without combat oriented Quirks can still have a chance to take down the mock villains. It doesn't mention where exactly they are on the different pointers, which is fair, but if you can get in close enough without getting hit, you can deactivate them without trouble."
Izuku's eyes widen at the news as Jason pulls him closer to the entrance. "That's so good! Thank you so much Jakkun! I was so stressed about the battle that I didn't think to look for this stuff."
Jason smiles and pats his friends shoulder. "No problem. Glad I could—"
"RIGHT, LET'S START!"
The smile leaves Jason's face, a cold calculating look of focused determination replaces it, like a switch that gets flipped inside him, he turns on his feet and sprints through the barely opening doors, making himself the first one to enter the mock city. Izuku stares at where his friend just took off.
"SHAKE A LEG IZU! MOVE IT!"
"Aah! Right!" Izuku snaps out of it at his friends yell back to him before running as well through the doors.
The rest of the examinees stare dumbly at the two and look around confused.
"GET MOVING! THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL BATTLES! FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE AND GET A MOVE ON! RUN, RUN, RUN LISTENERS!" Present Mic's additional words snaps everyone else out of it realizes that the test did in fact start.
And they all just got left in the dust by two people, one of them they all immediately written off as a failure.
"Okay, I was able to slip away from everyone else. Izu went in a different direction. Now I just have to focus on the villains." Jason mutters to himself as he comes running out of an alleyway. He hears the other examinees going off in other parts of the city but mostly cloistered around the entrance area. "Further I go, the more points I can get without being interrupted. Now where's—"
"Target Acquired." A robotic monotone voice interrupts Jason as he spots a large green robot coming out of another nearby alleyway, spotting him and heading right for him.
'One-pointer, okay!' As it speeds towards him he takes a quick note of the machine, seeing it heading right for him on one large wheel and large plated claws outstretched towards him with a long this neck holding up it head, where a single red optic stares at him. 'Find the kill switch! C'mon!' He yells to himself as his eyes roam over its body, trying to see anything that resembles a red switch but doesn't see anything at first. "Crap!" He shouts and jumps out of the way. The machine slams its arms straight into where he just was, breaking the street and kicking up chunks of cement all around. Jason rolls on the ground in a huff before getting to his feet and sprinting behind the machine and continuing his search. "No switch, no switch… where's the switch?!"
Before he can get a closer look the one-pointer wrenches its arms out of the ground and brings them high up before bringing them back down right behind it. "Damn!" Jason shouts as he jumps back, barely getting out of the way of getting crushed. "I don't see a damn switch on that thing. Where could it—?!"
"Target Reacquired."
Jason's eyes widen as an idea forms in his mind. 'Well, worth a shot.' He stands tall and waves the machine closer to him. "C'mon you bucket of bolts! Show me what U.A.'s got!" He goads the machine into a challenge. The machine takes it and charges at him. He stands his ground until it gets right next to him and goes for a horizontal hit. Jason leans back and dodges the attack. "Got to do better than that." He gloats and backs up some more as the machine tries to crush him. It isn't until his back hits the side of a large stone column that he smiles. The machine charges straight at him with its left arm pulled back. He waits for the right moment, and moves.
In a small shower of dust and dirt with bits of cement flying all over, the arm crashes into the wall behind Jason, right where his chest would have been if he didn't juke to the side. With it being right in front of him, he thrusts his right pal forward and slams it into the large red optic of the machine. It doesn't break as he hits it, but instead feels it depress in his hands. He waits for a few seconds as the machine freezes up, then slumps over. He quickly moves out of the way in case it decides to land on top of him. He breathes a sigh of relief as it leans forward, the red optic powering down and the machine no longer operating. "Phew. Alright. One point. Not much, but progress." He smiles at that before getting a serious look as he tries to come up with a faster solution. 'This is just a one-pointer. Of course the kill switch is going to be easy for this, but I can't just keeping jumping around or else I'll tire myself out too quickly. I need something to help me—' His eyes widen as he barely manages to jump out of the way. He lands harshly onto the sidewalk as a large crashing sound can be heard before rolling onto his hands and knees. He groans before looking up and seeing what nearly just crushed him.
A two-pointer now has its sights set on him. Unlike the previous one, who is now turned into a complete mangled mess, wire, metal and plating from the new arrival completely crushing it, this one is bulkier, with having two legs instead of a wheel and a more squarish head shape with a thicker neck piece. The face only has a few small circles of red optics, not like the big red optic before. It lifts its arms out from the mess and turns to Jason. He quickly gets up to his feet as he lays his hand on another stone column. A quick glance to it, he follows it straight up and notices they are standing under a large stone balcony. He ducks back down as the machines arm crashes right into the second pillar. Without the support of both columns, he hears the telltale sounds of cement and stone cracking without any supports to hold it up. As the machine reels back again for another hit, Jason slams his foot backwards into the wooden double doors behind him, snapping the woodframe open before throwing himself inside.
*CRUSH*
He barely covers his head as he hears the sounds of the stone crashing into the ground outside, along with the twisting and tearing of metal to go along with it. Once it settles down, he looks up and marvels at the sight. The doors and a good chunk of the front section of the building is torn down with a single arm from the robot sticking out and weakly moving about. Jason lets out a sigh before clambering expertly over the rubble to see the damage. The two-pointer is feebly trying to get itself free, its legs and other arm crushed and rendered inoperable and can only weakly flail a bit with its face free. Jason remains staring at the machine before looking around. He notices a broken piece of rebar sticking out of the broken column that was destroyed. He looks to the previously shut down one-pointer and notices its arm sticking out of the rubble. He walks over to the first robot and grabs the armor plating before tearing it off. He smirks as he sees handholds he can use to hold it up. As he holds it in his left arm, the plate is a thick armor plate that was one the machines arm plating, still in good condition and is a few inches wider than his forearm. When he holds it up to his chest level, it goes from his neck down to his hips. After getting a feel for the weight in his arm, he walks over to the rebar.
*CRUNG*
A metal snap can be heard as he slams the edge of his new shield into the rebar stuck in the column. The already cracked part of the rebar breaks off with a metallic snap and allows him to hold it up. The rebar is a three feet long piece of metal with the end just a little jagged from where the metal bent and snapped. He examines both of his new equipment before staring at the still struggling two-pointer. He smirks as he walks over to, standing atop the rubble and planting his right next to the head. With a fierce 'crack' he slams the edge of his shield into the already cracked face of the machine, shattering the faceplate and exposing the innerworkings. "Hrah!" With a fierce cry, he stabs the end of his rebar into the head. Sparks fly out as the machine seizes up before completely falling still. With his target finished up, Jason steps back off the pile and smiles at the takedown.
"EIGHT MINUTES FOLKS!"
He turns down the length of the street as the announcer calls out the time. A few more robots can be seen milling about down the way, with another examinee further down crushing another bot. Tightening his grip on both pieces of makeshift equipment, he cracks his neck a couple times before taking a deep close eyed breath of air… then exhaling slowly.
His eyes open up, a hard look forming as he zeroes in on the closest target. 'Three points… let's do this.' He takes off down the road, right arm pulled back with his shield up as the first target spots him.
Elsewhere in the battle center, several more examinees continue to break apart and garner points left and right. Unfortunately a large number of them cloistered around the general entrance area or at least close to it, because theirs massive piles of scrap metal and robot parts littering the various streets and buildings, with at least more than a few of the examinees angry with one another. Many of them constantly throwing accusations and insults about stealing their kills and whatnot while they are wasting valuable time to get more points.
A select few broke away from the pack to get their points without dealing with other people. Kendo Itsuka being one of them as she crushes a one-pointer with her giant fist. She has medium length ginger hair tied up in a ponytail on her left side and having teal eyes. Her outfit consists of a light blue top, tight fitting black pants with teal laced up shoes. She lets out a breath of air at the takedown before shrinking her fist back to normal size. Her Fist Enlargement Quirk allows her to enlarge the size of her fists, giving her ample mass to destroy the mock villains of the test. Another one-pointer comes up and tries to crush her but she dodges back out of the hit. She quickly retaliates with a wide ranged horizontal karate chop as her hand enlarges, cleaving one approaching one-pointer in half and sending the one that attacked her soaring through the air and crashing into the ground, chunks of metal tearing off as it rolls and carves grooves into the street. Completely inoperable and out of commission.
"Lots of small fries. Gonna need to go bigger to ensure my place." As she says this, she spots two two-pointers stalking down the street towards her. "That's more like it." She smiles and enlarges both her hands, ready to attack.
"KEN! LIFT!"
Her eyes widen at the phrase. A phrase she hasn't heard for years now, and oh so familiar despite being so long. From reflexes she honed in the past, she crouches low to the ground, both her hands overlapping and laying flat atop her head. She hears rapid footsteps run up from behind her before she feels a foot land on her hands. That's the signal as she pushes her hands up towards the mock villains, using her hands as a sort of springboard for the person, sending them arcing high into the air. The trick works as both two-pointers crane their heads upwards as they see the individual sent upwards.
This proves to be both of their folly as a giant fist comes towards the right most bot, sending it flying backwards and crashing into the building, embedding itself into the side of the structure, turning it into a mangled mess. At the same time, a sharp piece of metal flies down from the sky and stabs straight into the machines chest, making it short-circuit and convulse. The person who threw it comes down and slams both his feet right into the piece of metal he threw, lodging it further in and forcing the machine backwards onto its back. The piece of metal sticks back out as its forced against the ground but the deed is done as the machine is destroyed.
A small silence delves between the two examinees, besides the distant sounds of combat from the other examinees. Itsuka breathes heavily, taking the moment to gain her breathing back after the fight but soon finds herself staring at the figure standing atop the robots corpse. He leans down and wrenches the piece of rebar out of the machine, holding it tightly in hand before turning around, making her eyes widen and a grin break out on her face.
"Hey, Itsuka. Good to see you." Jason states as he steps off the machine and lands with barely a grunt on the street. He readjusts his grip on his rebar and his makeshift shield as he walks up to her.
"Jason…" She smiles as she steps up to him and pulls him into a hug. He smiles and can barely return the hug what with the gear he has on himself. They disengage and step back from each other, look at each other. "I can't believe you're here!" She excitedly tells him.
He chuckles and nods back. "I can believe you're here. You said you wanted to be a hero and here you are."
"Yeah but you never really mentioned you wanted to be a hero. I always thought you found them annoying." She tilts her head in confusion.
"I only found SOME of them annoying. Theirs a few good ones, but circumstances compel me to try my hand at being a hero too." He replies with a smirk.
"Well that's good. If any Quirkless I know who can go at it being a hero, its you of all people. How's sensei been doing?" She asks curiously.
"Same old same old. Turns out when you take his advanced classes he really gets into beating the lessons into your head without remorse. I also did good enough to earn his gift." Itsuka looks a little surprised at that bit of info, having been forced to move away so long ago when her parents got better jobs elsewhere in the city but too far away for her to hangout with her friend or take anymore lessons at the dojo they attended. Jason cocks his head to the side as he hears an explosion go off before grimacing and giving her a serious stare. "I'd love to stay and catch up, but right now we're on a time constraint. I think we both can agree we need to get moving." She gets the serious look on her face as well as she cracks her knuckles and nods.
"You're right. We need to split up and—" She begins to say until the both of them widen their eyes. Itsuka enlarges her fist and sends it flying towards Jason. He in turn throws his rebar towards his friend.
The rebar spins as it passes right next to Itsuka's head. She doesn't flinch or blink at the close proximity of the thrown weapon, nor does Jason as her fist passes to the left of his head. Both of their attacks impact both two-pointers that were sneaking up on the both of them while they were deep in conversation. Itsuka's fist collides into the robot, sending it skidding back in a daze while Jason's rebar club lodges itself into the faceplate of the bots head. They brush past each other and finish off their targets. Itsuka takes the opportunity from the dazed machine before grabbing onto both its arms with both of her enlarged fists, tearing the appendages off at the shoulders before slamming them back onto the machine with a massive 'clap.' Jason dashes forward and slams the flat of his shield against the rebar, shoving it further in and taking down the machine once more. Itsuka rubs her hands to alleviate the pins and needles from crushing bare metal with her hands while Jason tears his weapon out from the back of the two-pointers head.
They both turn around and smile at one another happy to see themselves saving each other like that. "I better see you at U.A.!" Itsuka calls out as she begins backing away to go look for more targets.
"Right back at you, Ken! Good luck!" Jason begins to slowly jog away before running.
"Good luck, J- You know I hate it when you call me that!" She shouts back to him in slight anger and annoyance. 'Even after all this time he still messes with me.' She thinks as the only reply she gets from her old friend is him laughing in the distance. She shakes her head before turning around and steeling herself. "Alright Itsuka. Time to get some more points already." With her short declaration, she sprints forward and heads off, intent on finding some more mock villains to take down.
Outside of the Battle Center sits a darkened surveillance room with several individuals all standing around except one at the console, all their eyes glancing and moving from the different monitors that showcases all the examinees as they take down robot after robot.
"Clearly, the examinees have no idea how many villains are present, or their locations." A diminutive figure, smaller than the other people in the room, says as he sits at the front. "They have limited time, must cover a vast area, and hunt down every last target. Some use information-gathering abilities to plan out strategies." Shoji can be seen on a monitor, using multiple ears on his arms to listen for more villains to take down. "While others rely on speed to pull ahead of their peers." The blue haired glasses boy is seen speeding and sliding along the streets to find more targets by chance. "Of course, remaining calm under pressure can be a huge advantage." A blonde purple eyed white frilly shirt and blue pants wearing boy blasts a robot with a beam of laser from his stomach. "As can pure power and combat ability." Bakugo is standing amidst a pile of smoking wrecks, breathing heavily with a devilish smile at his kills. "The most successful students use a combination of all these tactics. They're the ones who rack up the highest scores. Although strategy and ones reflexes also play into it as well." A monitor shows Jason sliding under an attack from a one-pointer before turning around and slamming his rebar baton into the kill switch on the bots face.
"What's that one doing? What's he using?" A female almost sultry voice asks, pointing out Jason, garnering some attention from the other teachers.
"That looks like a piece of one of the robots. And is that…? That's some rebar I used in making the city." A male voice belonging to a man resembling a block of cinder comments.
"Why isn't he using his Quirk? Why's he using those makeshift weapons?" A much gruffer male voice asks even though his mouth doesn't move on his mask.
"Let's see here…" The principal of the school says as he pulls up the examinees file. "Oh! So this is him. I say he's making good work of those mock villains." He watches as Jason climbs up the back of a three-pointer and uses his rebar to jam it into a gap in the back of the machines head, popping off the plate and tearing out the wiring before jumping off.
"Who is he?"
"My fellow faculty, you are looking at what might possibly be the first Quirkless student at U.A."
"Quirkless?!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot we rescinded that rule. Although I wasn't expecting anyone to actually try to get in."
"Will he make it? Not having a Quirk is already putting him at a disadvantage."
"I don't know." The principal states with a smile on his face, making the other teachers sweat drop as he continues. "But he didn't hesitate to run in as soon as Mister Yamada suddenly announced the exams start. He also broke off from everyone else and went to find some villains to fight far from everyone else, therefore not being caught up by the crowd." He gestures to another monitor showing a couple students going at it in heated argument over who took down who. "He's already got 18 villain points." Some of the teachers look a little surprised at the amount of points he got despite being Quirkless, to some of them at least.
"Although it looks like he might be biting off more than he can chew." Another voice comments as they see two more mock villains move up on him, a one-pointer to his left and a two-pointer on the right as they come to him side-by-side. He glares at the two of them before rushing forward and meeting them. The one-pointer brings both its arms up and prepares to slam them down right on Jason. The boy though sidesteps to the right, dodging the attack but putting him right in the path of the two-pointers wide swinging fist. Jason grunts as he barely manages to duck under the attack, using his shield to deflect it before swinging towards the neck joint of the two-pointer with his rebar. It cracks and he finishes it off with slamming the edge of his shield right into the cracked piece, shattering the joint and tearing apart wires and circuits, rendering the central processor in its head defunct as it slumps over deactivated. With a heavy breath Jason turns to the one-pointer as it rears itself back up and attempts to come back down on him again. Without much effort, he simply steps to the side again before moving in and depressing the optic with the end of his rebar. Just like the previous one, this one slumps over defeated.
Some of the teachers nod on impressed. "Well, make that 21 points."
"He needs to be more mindful." A tired man states as now a three-pointer has taken interest in the Quirkless examinee, this machine much larger and bigger than the other mock villains.
Jason doesn't seem to notice the hulking machine as it stomps towards him as it rears back its right arm and gets ready to slam it down onto Jason, attempting to crush him. He continues to stand there as it brings its arm down. The principal gets ready to hit the kill switch for the robot but he doesn't have to. Jason twirls around to the left, expertly dodging the hit before bring his rebar in a wide ark, his spinning just adding a little more force to his attack as he slams it into the joint of its right leg. This destabilizes the pressure on the leg, making it fold on itself as the machine attempts to hold itself up with its right arm.
Jason follows up with a shield strike to the joint of the right arm as well, making it further collapse itself onto its shoulder, bringing its head on closer to Jason. The left arm attempts to grab him, he ducks under it, dropping his shield and spins until he slides right under the machines head before thrusting his rebar up into the bottom of its head. Violent spasms, wires and circuits short out as he twists, pushes and pulls this way and that, wrenching its head in all manner of directions.
*CRINK*
With one last twist, the machines head turns 90 degrees to the side before falling still. Jason tears his weapon out and steps away from the defunct machine as it collapses onto the ground.
Almost all the teachers stare in wide-eyed surprised at the display.
"Make that 24 villain points." The principal comments with a smile. "But lets start to shake things up for all the examinees now should we."
A glass cover is flipped up and a big red button is pressed.
Izuku runs through the streets, desperately trying to find anymore villains he can try to takeout. He tried to follow his friends advice in splitting off from the others examinees but in the direction he went off in, they spread out farther than he thought, making him very rarely find any mock villains.
Suddenly, everything begins to shake. Izuku stops at the noise and movement just as everyone else does. Both he and everyone else stop to look in the direction they hear and feel all of this as what sounds looks massive moving tank tracks gets closer and closer. It soon shoes itself to everyone, revealing the zero-pointer mentioned in the presentation, easily taller than all the builds as it stares down at all the examinees, one of its hands easily crushing the building its using for support like it was nothing.
'Isn't this a little extreme?!' He screams in his head and squeaks out loud at the sheer absurdity of the massive machine. The zero-pointer proceeds to pull its fist back before slamming it into the ground in front of everyone, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and making everyone scream. Izuku can only let out weak gasps as he falls backwards, barely holding himself up on his hands as he shakes like a leaf. All the Examinees run past him, including the glasses wearing blue-haired boy from earlier running past him but only gives Izuku a glance before continuing running.
"This is a disaster. I've gotta run and find some smaller villains." Izuku turns and begins crawling away. Almost in tears as hears the announcement that theirs only two minutes remaining. "WHAT?! Two minutes?!" His scrambling becomes more frantic as he makes himself to move more. 'Everything all Might did for me, all that training…' Memories of his brutal training with his idol, doing everything he can to mold Izuku into being the hero he always wanted himself to be. 'All of his encouragement, our declaration…' Now memories of his smiling friend Jason, telling him how he could be a hero, how they were going to go to U.A. together, 'IT'll BE WASTED!'
"Ow!"
A cry of pain. The current holder of One For All freezes and slowly cranes his head backwards. As he looks, he sees someone. A girl trapped under some cement rubble and unable to move.
The memories of just hours ago, when it was before nine, when he was just about to hit the ground after carelessly tripping over his own foot. She was there, that brunette with the permanent blush on her cheeks who used her Quirk to help him, now trapped as the zero-pointer heads right for them.
"Hold on. I got you." Someone comes running out from an alleyway and immediately gets to work in trying to free her. Izuku's scared expression turns to concern as he sees the person.
He weakly mutters, "Jakkun?"
Earlier…
"Holy… holy crap… that took a bit more than I thought." Jason breathes heavily, hunched over on his knees as he takes deep breaths of air. 'To be fair, using metal to break other pieces of metal really tires one out, or sends vibrations through your arms they start to hurt.' Jason hisses as he lays his rebar down and clenches and unclenches his fists, followed by massaging them with each other as well as shaking his arms in an effort to get rid of the soreness. 'Still, I'd be in a very worse state of things if I hadn't taken my training as serious as I did. All those moves, the cardio training, scaling buildings left and right with parkour, I would probably be dead from exhaustion right now otherwise.' He takes a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds before exhaling, calming his breathing and regaining just a bit of himself. He grabs his rebar and stands up. "But I can't rest. I only have maybe a couple minutes left. Keep going." He reaches down and picks up his shield, noting the cracked structure and broken sides. "Keep going." Despite that he moves and takes off into a nearby alleyway.
*Rumble*
Suddenly he feels the entire ground begin to shake violently, as well as the buildings. "What the—?!" He questions as he presses himself against the wall to keep himself from falling. "What was that? A Quirk?" He asks himself, possibly attributing the mini earthquake to some sort of seismic Quirk. But when he keeps feeling it happening again, this time even lourder as dust swirls about, flooding the alleyway and making Jason grunt as he covers himself from the debris cloud. He shakes himself of the dust as the cloud dies down. "No, something else." He shakes his head at the idea continues forward. "Have to get out of here first. Have to get my bearings and find out what's going on." His curiosity as he begins to hear other signs of screaming from the other examinees and the stomping of a horde of people, like they're running. "What is going on?" He questions quietly.
"Ow!" He stops as he hears the sound of someone in pain. Just a head of him, he notices someone in front laying in the street while other people run away. The reason he sees her stuck on the ground is the fact that her leg seems to be trapped under some rubble. It barely takes him a second to recognize her as the one who helped his friend in the morning.
"Damn." He curses with a grunt and sprints to her. 'Whatever's making that rumbling is close, or just really really big. I can't just leave her since it appears everyone else doesn't care. Some heroes.' Jason sprints out of the alleyway and slide right next to the girl. 'Besides, she helped him. She helped Izuku, even if it was for something small like falling.' "Hold on. I got you."
"Wha- Hey, its you." The girl says.
"Yeah its me." He replies and jams his rebar between the rubble and he ground right next to her trapped leg before angling his shield to shove it in. "Now let me just… Just…" Jason trails off as he stares at the giant looming shadow overhead.
A robot villain. A very giant humongous mock villain towering over all the entire buildings in the battle center… and looming right at the two of them.
"Oh SHI—!" He cuts himself off and with all his might he pushes up on the rebar, barely budging the rubble.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" The girl asks in concern at his now frantic and strained state, as well as him stopping mid-sentence.
"No time!" He shouts and shoves his shield into the crevice, now using both the rebar and his shield to lift the rubble off her but his already fatigued muscles are already screaming at him as he barely moves the piece. "Move! Move! Move damn you!" He yells as he pushes himself, gritting his teeth and pushing to the point he almost feels like he cracks his teeth from the strain.
Suddenly a massive gust of wind blows against the two of them, giving Jason just enough momentum to push open the space needed for the girl to free her leg. "I'm out!" She shouts, allowing him to relax and drop it, crushing his makeshift gear under it as he takes deep lungfuls of breath. While he does that, they both turn around and stare up at the giant machine.
Jason's eyes widen as he spots a familiar green object sailing right for its face. "Izu?" He wonders in confusion at what he's seeing. He pushes himself to his feet and looks down at the girl. "Get out of here. I have to make sure my friend is okay." He replies before heading for a nearby three-story building.
"Wait!"
He doesn't stop to turn around, instead he heads for a large three story stone building that has a drainage gutter running the height of the building. He quickly grasps at it and begins climbing it up, silently thanking himself for the parkour training. Just as he makes it to the top though, he hears a massive noise akin to a mix of a sonic boom, and the ripping, tearing and crushing of metal. When he looks up, he stares in awe at seeing the terrifying machine that paralyzed and made nearly all the examinees flee topple backwards with a completely caved in head.
A look of astonishment forms on his face at the sheer power and destruction his friend just caused. His friend, who he always wanted to protect because of his weak stature… just decked a several stories tall robot machine with one punch.
"YEEEEESSSS IZU! YEEEESSSS! YOU WILL BECOME A HERRRRROOOO!" Jason can't help but shout to the heavens, tears threatening to leak from his eyes at seeing the fruits of his friends hard work come to fruition as he jumps up and down in a cheer, his heart soaring at what he just saw. It soon starts to die down though as he watches his friend begin to fall like a sack of rocks. "I-… Izu…?" He weakly mutters as watches his friend fall, eyes widening in horror and his breathing begins to accelerate and his feet move on their own.
'Oh no. I can't land properly. My arm… my legs… their completely broken.' Izuku's thoughts begin to fluctuate as he tries to keep himself from screaming from the pain he has in both his shattered arm and shattered legs as they flap uselessly in the air. His races with everything that's happened up until that point, from all the training that he did to get there, what he and Jason did to prove to All Might they were worthy of becoming heroes, to him activating his new Quirk and unleashing such power with such massive backlash that he's shattered the bones in three of his limbs.
And now he's falling uselessly to the ground, to his imminent demise.
'NO! This isn't over.' He yells defiantly in his head as he tries to come up with an idea. 'There's gotta be something I can do. A Detroit Smash!' A memory of All Might attacking the sludge villain pops up. 'It's the only chance I've got to survive. My legs and my right arm are broke, so I've got just one option. I can do this. But if my timings off, then I'm toast. Even if I live, I've got five points! That's not enough. And if I break my left arm too, there's no way I'm gonna pass the exam.' His mind goes to through several conundrums, trying to reason different ways that are better than the last to save his hide and keep him going. But he's only got one option he can see.
He reels his arm back and prepares.
"I got you!" Izuku's view of the oncoming ground is covered as something covers him rapidly holding onto him and pulling him close.
"Wha…?" Izuku mutters confused, barely peaking up from the chest he's pushed up against to see his friend Jason holding him, arms wrapped around tightly as he has his eyes closed tightly in preparation.
"Don't worry, I got you Izu." He answers in a calm tone, preparing himself for the impact.
It just takes barely a second for Izuku's eyes to widen at the realization of what his friend just did and is going to do.
Jason leaped off the building he was on, catching Izuku in mid-air, reorienting himself around so now its Jason heading for the ground instead of Izuku, intent on cushioning the fall for him. "W-wait! Jakkun don't!"
Izuku's cries fall on deaf ears as Jason just continues to plummet, waiting for the rough solid ground to impact him.
When he gets a slap instead to his side and the sudden weightless feeling as he no longer heads for the ground, he opens his eyes. He feels himself floating in the air for a second, staring up at the sky before looking down at his also confused friend.
"Nnn, and… release." A girls voice says from nearby. Soon after, the weightless feeling is gone and Jason lets out a loud grunt as he hits the ground. His arms relax as he lets go of his friend, who rolls off him onto the ground. Jason grunts as tries to sit up, finding that his leg is hurting from landing on it wrong probably and hearing the sounds of retching. A glance to the side shows the girl they both saved laying on top of a broken piece of the zero-pointer and almost ready to pass out.
Jason smirks at her before relaxing a little. "Well, I guess she saved us, huh? That's twice then." He comments jokingly. When he doesn't hear anything from his friend, he turns over to see the struggling form of Izuku, worry immediately taking over for Jason as he gets close to him. "Hey, Izu? What was that?" He asks when he heard the barest sound of his friend speaking but wasn't close enough to hear.
"I… I only…" Jason leans in close to his friend as Izuku tries to tell him. "Got… five points."
His eyes widen. 'F-five?! That's… that's not enough! He needs… I don't know who much he needs but five is not it.' Jason's thoughts come to a screeching halt as he goes to grab his friend by his unbroken arm, intent on carrying him despite his injured leg. "Dammit. I won't let… I'll carry you if I have to." Jason tells his friend.
"Jakkun…" Izuku weakly says, staring up at his friend with tears almost falling from them. Jason gives his friend his best form of a comforting smile, telling him its going to be okay.
At least until Izuku's eyes widen and forms a horrified look. Jason lets go as he hears the sounds of a tire screeching behind him. It only takes him less than a second to whip around and come face to face with a one-pointer right on top of them, right arm pulled back and heading straight for him.
His instincts tell him to dodge. He can in fact dodge it, but then the hit will miss him and go for his injured friend. He doesn't have his weapons anymore so he can't defend himself with it. He only has one option.
His arm.
*CRACK*
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Jason screams as he pulls his left forearm up, using it to block the punch and stand his ground against it. The attack is as strong as he thought it was going to be because he can instantly feel the bone in his forearm break in two. He goes to the ground, holding his arm close to his chest as he screams, except the scream of pain turns to screams of anger. He shouts at the top of his lungs, pushing himself to yell to drown out the flaring of pain hitting his arm and the rest of his body from exhaustion as he reaches down. Another lone piece of rebar is on the ground from the destruction the zero-pointer caused, this time this one has a large chunk of concrete still stuck to the end of it. He uses the momentum and swings it back up towards his opponent.
With the added sound of metal crumpling and a small dust of concrete appearing, he hits the bottom part of the one-pointers head, sending its head craning upwards at a sudden shifted angle where it was not supposed to move, the chunk of concrete attached to his weapon shattering about. The machine only spasms for a few seconds before its head is repeatedly bashed in. Jason swings wildly, hitting it over and over again until its head falls over from the neck, where he hits it one last time in the chest to make it falls backwards onto its back without any other movement.
Izuku and the girl, along with the rest of the examinees, can only stare in shock at what they just witnessed. The other examinees first saw to their amazement and shock someone take down the massive zero-pointer with only a single punch, then watched as another broke his own arm in order to protect another examinee before flying into a rage and beating the machine to a pulp.
Besides the sounds of the dust settling, they can only hear the ragged angry breaths belonging to Jason. He can't even try to calm himself down, adrenaline fueling his system and his whole body shaking as he tries to stay standing. Slowly he turns around, slowly stepping towards his friend, intent on continuing to help him get more points. "… Izu…"
"TIMES UP!"
*Clang*
Jason and Izuku's eyes widen at the announcement as Jason drops the rebar.
'It's… over?' They both say in their own heads.
The adrenaline leaves Jason's body, the pain making itself known as he no longer needs to keep going. He collapses onto his knees, barely holding himself up as his friend calls out to him in worry. 'I can't… move. My arms… my leg…' One arm is broken, the other is very sore from the assault he just did on the robot, and feels an even more increased pain hitting his right leg worse than his left. "I… I pulled… something… broken… hurt…" He can only speak in single words as he does what he can to keep himself conscious.
"Jakkun…" With his one good arm, Izuku tries to pull himself towards where his friend almost collapsed.
"Oh my, you two really did a number on yourselves didn't you?"
The sound of a sweet old woman's voice can be heard near them, followed by the sound and feeling of someone kissing them on their foreheads. Its kind of a blur for the two of them, as well as to the confusion of the other examinees of what they saw, but after seeing the green glow emanate from the injuries they sustained and seeing their limbs contort back into shape shows the old womans powerful healing Quirk.
The massive bouts of pain that the two of them feel disappears from both their body's making them widen their eyes at the sudden healing done on their bodies.
"Oh wow. That's amazing. The pains all gone." Izuku happily states as he stands up, happy that his broken limbs are no longer present on him. He mood changes though as he slumps a little. "But I'm really tired all of a sudden."
"So tired…" Jason mumbles, barely pushing himself up with his hands and knees, not as spry as his friend is with having his injuries fixed.
"My Quirk helps speed up the healing process your body can do, but it comes with the added risk of making the person much more tired afterwards." She explains before turning to Jason specifically. "I wasn't able to heal everything completely, just the more serious injuries such as your broken arm and the torn muscles in your leg. The rest you're going to have to let heal naturally." She informs Jason.
"Okay." He barely replies, not willing to argue or complain due to his tired state and the fact the pain has been severely mitigated compared to earlier.
"Here. Have some gummies you two." She places a handful of gummy candies between the two of them in their hands. "Their packed with plenty of nutrients to help get you both back on your feet. Head over to the entrance and the medical staff will be there to start bandaging you both up. Now who else is injured?" She asks the last part out loud as she goes to find more injured examinees and heal.
Izuku and Jason waste no time in eating the gummies they were given, the effects of the candied treats perking them up almost instantly once they finish eating them. They both are still tired, or for Jason practically feeling like he ran a marathon, but they can at least stand up and start moving out of the battle center. "Nhn." Jason grunts as he takes one step and feel he's unable to walk normally on his formerly injured leg.
"Hold on. I got you." Izuku is there right next to him, holding him up on his right side. Jason smiles at his friend as Izuku returns it before pulling Jason's arm around his shoulder and helping him walk. Izuku wasn't nearly as tired as Jason was when they were healed so most of his injuries were almost completely healed, leaving him mostly tired while Jason was significantly tired, only allowing him to be healed the worst set of his injures but leaving the rest.
They both move in silence, passing by the other examinees as they head for the entrance. Jason even gives a sideways smirk to the blue haired glasses boy from earlier. "I'm sorry Jakkun." Izuku says to his friend once they are away from the others. "I guess I'm not going to U.A." The sadness and depression can be heard in his voice, almost trying to laugh it off but failing.
"WE… are not going to U.A." Izuku looks up at his friend as he says this. Jason turns his head a little to glance down at his friend before smirking. "Either you go, or neither of us go. That's the plan." He says with a firmness in his voice. Izuku can only give his friend a tired smirk before they eventually make it to the entrance.
One week.
That's how long they've been waiting.
After the conclusion of the practical exam for them as well as everyone else, and after being checked out by the nurse and subsequent medical staff that they were fit to leave, everyone of the examinees headed out back to their homes to rest up, relax, and wait for their results to see if they managed to get in or not.
While one week may seem like a short amount of time in comparison to a lot of things, it can be said for most that it was the most agonizing week of their lives, including for two specific boys.
Midoriya Izuku and Takeda Jason have been mostly going through the motions in their daily lives as they waited, still keeping up with their training and all, although now at a more relaxed pace now that they aren't on a time crunch anymore. When they made it home on the day of the exam, they went their separate ways, Jason trying his best to let his friend know that he was more than okay at making it to his home on his own than for Izuku to walk him there then double back to his own apartment. So with a small limp in his step, Jason made his way home to relax after a harrowing day while Izuku did the same.
As soon as Izuku made it home, covered in only a small amount of bandages since most of his injuries were healed, his mother no less let loose a flood of tears at seeing the state her baby boy was in, her son doing what he can to make sure his mother didn't flood the apartment.
For Jason though, it wasn't exactly a pretty sight for him to walk into his house, bandages covering a good portion of his body, his leg bandaged up and walking with a noticeable limp, as well as his arm bandaged up and being held up in a sling to help alleviate the tender bones in his formerly broken arm. His mother immediately started worrying and fawning over the boy, with his father staring in disbelief at the state his son is in before they got to work in making him more comfortable, preparing a hot meal for him to eat.
Which due to his tired hungry state he ravished in less than a minute, much to the horrified looks his parents gave him before he asked for more, which they obliged, although his father warned his wife not to linger to close less she lose a finger.
Despite that, both parents of both boys asked their kids if they think they did good enough to make it into U.A. They both gave simple answers to that:
"Not sure."
None of them wanted their kids to elaborate further on what might have happened seeing the downtrodden looks they had now that the test was over and done with.
It was agony for them as they simply waited day after day, eagerly or dreading the arrival of their acceptance, or decline, letters. They didn't even bother talking to one another, not wanting to compare notes about the practical to hear just how good or bad they did in the test. Even if they got perfect scores in the written portion, if they didn't get a somewhat decent score in the practical then all their work is for nothing. They were good with the idea of passing the written portion, but coupled without much standing in the practical portion makes them worried about getting in. With Izuku's meager score, they both were feeling worried whether he was going to get in or not. As Jason said to Izuku, either Izuku and they both go, or neither of them go. Jason may have gotten a little confident in making it with his points, but its all or nothing with Izuku for him.
All they could do is hope.
When the letters came for them though, the news was interesting and uplifting to say the least for them both, but none more so than Izuku as he stays staring at his desk where the now defunct projector on his desk, a smile on his face as tears stream down his face.
'I did it… I did it… I got in… I got into U.A. I made it.' His thoughts repeat the results of what he was told on the projector, that he did in fact get into U.A. High School. His tears stream just a little bit harder as he remembers the small video clip of both the girl he saved and his friend vouching for him. 'Jakkun… thank you… both of you.' He feels a little bad that he never got the girls names but if she does get into U.A. as well he can thank her properly. He wipes his eyes with his sleeve before his thoughts turn to his friend. 'I wonder how Jakkun did?'
"I am here as a projector!"
"What in the—?!" Jason flinches as the Number One hero shouts on the projector screen, blindsiding Jason as he was not expecting him to be giving the results of the exam, nor how he is giving it to him in a projector recording.
"I know you must be surprised seeing me here! Truth be told I'm actually going to be a teacher at U.A."
"A teacher?" Jason mutters in confusion, not really seeing All Might of all people as a teacher, nor in the yellow suit he's wearing.
"I would go into it a bit more but my editors tell me I have to keep things short since I have to make a ton of these videos." A hand pokes out from off-screen, rolling for All Might to speed it up. "I know I have to keep going. Don't remind me of how many I have to record." He's depressed for only a second before he perks up and stares straight at the screen, at Jason. "Now, onto the real reason as to why I'm here: your test results." Jason gulps as he hears that but stays seated with rapt attention. "When you were given information on the practical exam, you were only told about the villain points that you were to earn in order to make it in huh?" All Might says as a question while looking somewhere off-screen, stroking his chin as he does. His smile seems to get a little bit wider as he turns back to Jason. "Kind of ironic for a school meant for 'Heroes' is it not?" Jason's eyes widen at this piece of news before All Might brandishes a remote. "Check this out." He clicks the button.
Another screen behind him turns on, showing a recording of the say of the exam, only this time Jason watches as the same brunette with blush cheeks walks into a room, fidgeting a little as he walks up to Present Mic. "It's her?" Jason remembers the girl he and his friend tried to save.
"Um, do you have a sec? Sorry to interrupt." The girl asks as she steps into a room. It doesn't look like she realizes she's being recorded.
"She showed up when the exam was done to talk about a couple special young boys. Let's find out who she's talking about."
"Their were a couple boys, one with really messy green hair and a bunch of freckles. Can't really describe his face, he looked kind of plain-looking and wasn't really standing out or anything."
"She's talking about Izuku." Jason comments under his breath.
"And then there was the second boy, which he really stood out. He was carrying this really weird shield thing that kind of looks like it came from one of the robots, and a piece of metal he was using as a bat. He had black hair and was wearing a jacket with a shield on the back."
"That's… me?" Jason mutters in confusion, surprised that the girl was mentioning him at all, or that he stood out to begin with.
"I was wondering, would it be possible to give them some of the points I earned in the exam?" Jason's eyes widen in surprise at the request the girl gives to the instructor. "For the green haired boy, I heard him mentioning something about how he only got just five points, which seems crazy to think he got so few. How could someone who took down that huge villain all by himself not have enough points to pass by the end? He would've had a better score if he hadn't stopped to help me. And the other boy with the shield," Jason stares in awe at the girl is starting to speak with such conviction and loudness about his friend, but he perks up when she begins to mention him, "He ran in to save me too. I saw how much he was struggling to lift that huge rock off of me. I was sure he injured his leg doing it too. And then he went to save the other boy toy, even try to help him to get more points!" She closes her eyes as she begins to yell just a bit louder. "They both saved me! I don't know how many points the second boy got but I owe them. I have to make it up to them both! Please sir! Can't you just… give them my points!" Jason sits back in his chair stunned, completely taken back by seeing a complete stranger talk with such… conviction and emotion about him and his friend. Having been loners from a lot of other people for a long time, hearing this from someone else brings a smile to Jason's face.
"Both you and your friend Izuku went above and beyond to save this girl. Seeing her speak like this about the two of you… shows just how much your actions inspired her." All Might comments before giving a sly look at Jason. "Ahh, but let's not forget your own words now should we?" It takes Jason a second to remember something about this video that he is seeing.
"Hey! Excuse me?" Jason flinches at the sound of his own voice. Both the girl and the teacher turn to see Jason running down the hall, fighting through the limp he has before making it to the two of them, some bandages covering his form but none more so than the sling his arm is in. He breathes heavily in the video before straightening up and looking fiercely at Present Mic. "Listen, my friend Midoriya Izuku, the green curly haired boy who broke both his legs and his arm… give him all my points." Present Jason can't help bust smirk at the slight surprised expressions on the two of them. "Izuku… he's going to be a great hero one day, I know it, he just needs the training in order to do it and I know U.A. can do it. I want to go to U.A. too to become a hero but I also want to go in order to help support my friend most of all. If theirs anyone I know who has the heart, the will and the drive to become a hero through anything, its him. I don't want to go to U.A. if he doesn't get the opportunity to go too. If giving him all my points ensures he gets to go to this school, then I'm willing to do it." Past Jason glances to the girl next to him before turning back and side nodding towards her. "Give some of my points to her as well."
"Wha—?" She yelps in surprise at the demand from the boy she was just saying she wanted to give some of her points to.
Past Jason turns to her and gives a firm look that doesn't hold room for debate. "I owe you for saving my friend. For saving me. I intend to repay it." He turns back to the adult. "Please, give my friend my points so he can get into U.A." He finishes speaking with a finality in his voice. Present Jason smiles at the memory of what happened, smiling a little at seeing himself stand up for his best friend like that.
"Settle down now bro." Present Mic waves his hands down to indicate for Jason to calm down. "No need to worry you two. The kid's chartin' well on his own. No need for the two of you to give him your points." At the time, Jason can only look on in confusion as to what the man means by that.
"How can such fine and outstanding acts of bravery and heroism go without any form of recognition?" All Might says with a clenched fist as he stares upwards off to the side before rounding back on Jason. "With the 25 villain points you obtained, that would just barely, just barely, with your score from the written exam, net you the required points you needed in order to make it into U.A."
"Just barely?!" Jason shouts in surprise and worry as he remembers his friend. 'But… Izuku only got five. If I just barely got in, then… would that mean…'
"However, what else you did… guaranteed your place in U.A. without a doubt!" Jason perks up at the loud happy tone in All Might's voice. The man himself clicks on the remote again. "What we didn't tell all you examinees was that there was another form of scoring going on as you took part in the practical exam!" The screen from before now begins to show a compilation of Jason and his efforts. "Rescue points! A panel of judges were keeping a careful and watchful eye on the examinees as they went about the exam, grading them not on their combat prowess against the mock villain robots, but on their acts of heroism." One clip shows Jason attacking the robot that was about to ambush Kendo from behind. Another shows him going over to the brunette and lifting the rubble off of her, then him jumping off the roof to catch Izuku, he doesn't really remember moving at that part and was just ready to take the impact for his friend; and finally when he took the full on blow from the robot that broke his arm in defense of Izuku and the girl before beating it to a pulp. "Your friend Izuku, for jumping in and saving the both of you from the zero pointer, despite knowing he would get no points from the machine… finished with only 5 villain points, and won 60 rescue points!" Jason almost jumps out of his seat at the mention of the points his friend won in the end. "Uraraka Ochaco… 45 rescue points." The picture shows the girl they rescued. "And you young Takeda… despite being Quirkless, managed to blow everyone of the judges expectations out of the water with your 25 villain points… and earned a whopping 50 rescue points!"
Jason slumps in his seat at the loud declaration from All Might, his hands shake as he slowly brings his hands up to his face, holding his face in his hands as he stares at the screen, the feeling of tears threatening to spill from his eyes becoming ever present as he listens to the man continue.
"Congratulations Jason… you passed." A tear rolls down Jason's cheek as All Might extends his hand in a closed fist, palm up. "You came in second in the practical exam… but you are the first Quirkless to attend U.A. High School." Another tear rolls down his other cheek. "You have made history today my boy. Now come…"
His hand opens up, a gesture for Jason to take it if he were there.
"Welcome… to your Hero Academia."
The projector powers down, leaving Jason's room in darkness save for this desk lamp on. He leans back in his chair, hands still on his face as he cranes his head back, staring up at the ceiling before he closes his eyes.
It was always a long shot for Jason to think he could actually make it, knowing how cruel the world can be to the Quirkless having lived it his whole life… but to actually hear that he has in fact made it into the best hero school in the country…
He smiles and takes his hands away, wiping his eyes as he does so before standing up. He continues to smile as he walks out of his room, down the hallway and into the living room. His parents sit there on the couch before whipping around when they hear him enter the room. They both look at him with expectant looks. He smirks and gives a single nod.
The smirk his father gives and the cry of joy his mother gives before she rushes him into a hug is music to his ears.
*Ding*
When his mother finally lets him go and drags her husband to help make a celebratory meal for them, Jason checks his phone for the message he got. He smiles again as he sees it's from Izuku.
Izu – I GOT IN!
He nods back before typing his reply.
Me – So did I. We made it Izu. We did it. Together.
Izu – Together.
With a final sigh, Jason pockets his phone.
You know… I wasn't really expecting to make this chapter as long as it did. I thought as I was planning it it was going to be shorter, but as I started typing, more words kept coming up and more detail started to flow forth into the fight scenes and the rest of the practical exam. While it took me a bit of time to get this done at the time I was writing it, I did surprise myself at the speed at which I was able to crank this chapter out.
I wanted to do what I can to really showcase Jason's new found skills and training during the exam and I think I did alright with it all. If anyone's wondering why both Jason and Izuku were put into the same battle center, there's a reason for that that will be revealed later on. While originally Izuku earned zero villain points, Jason's little info he gave to Izuku just barely got him anything at all. Not enough to actually pass but that's what his efforts with the rescue points were for. Small change now but more will happen later on.
Fanalis1995: Thanks. I've heard of that manga but never read it myself before I started watching the show or even started writing this story. Currently reading it now in my off-time and its good stuff. I wanted to make Jason a childhood friend for Izuku when I made him and make him skilled enough to hold back Bakugo, not enough to completely trounce the explosion Quirk user for obvious reason but just enough where Bakugo will feel just a little bit annoyed at the resistance he gives off. For sure, Bakugo has always been annoyed with people being better with him and he's going to go ballistic with the idea of Jason going to the same school as him, and Jason is going to enjoy making him angry like that.
Pyrojack25: You and everyone else will just have to wait and see the classes makeup with Jason's inclusion, as well as who he might get together with. Slowly making progress in the other chapters but I'm glad to at least have some sort of concise upload schedule when my previous chapter uploads on my other stories were always completely all over the place. Don't know how long I can keep this up but I'll do what I can for the time being.
Thanks again for the reviews and those of you who've favorited and followed my story to this point. I hope this action packed chapter was enough to get at least some of you to hit those buttons, and for those who didn't… well I just better keep working now shouldn't I.
Thank you everyone and who you all have a pleasant day. Thank you for reading to this point and hope that the rest of my work will continue to interest you all as it progresses. Take care everyone, have fun reading, and most of all have great day to all of you.