Chapter 3- The Road Ahead: Part 1
Throughout the bustling streets of Tokyo, tens of thousands of vehicles took their occupants to whatever destination they desired, and amongst these vehicles was a convoy of large buses. Each of these buses carried students from the hundreds of schools that existed in Tokyo and indeed all throughout Japan, the students that sat in the buses were as varied a selection of young people that could be found, the only commonality between every student in every bus was a single desire.
Each and every student was headed for UA to try and claim a spot on the Hero Course.
One of these buses held a pair of students that were in the midst of a discussion about the practical exam that they were set to undergo, only a few days after the gruelling series of written exams. Yosetsu Awase and Sen Kaibara sat beside each other on the bus to UA, quietly discussing whatever trail awaited them at UA.
Well, Kaibara was quietly talking, Awase couldn't quite contain his anticipation.
"Damn am I glad we won't have to do another exam." Awase chuckled as he cracked his knuckles, feeling some need to keep moving lest he lose the energy to fight "I couldn't stand sitting through another one of those."
"You're applying to the best school in the country and expecting to avoid exams?" Kaibara dryly fired back, raising an eyebrow in a display of scepticism "It's strange since I know you're not stupid, but I do question that sometimes."
Awase laughed again at his friend's sarcastic jabs, thankful for the banter with him to ease the tension that they were both surely feeling, even though they were both doing their best to conceal it. Awase made himself loud and boisterous in order to put on a brave face, whereas Kaibara enhanced his usual calm façade to an almost impressive level of apathy. They were both subconsciously aware of what they were doing and that they could both see through each other's façades, but it was a force of habit to try and keep their mind off of the coming trial.
"Seriously though." Awase sighed, looking at his closest friend as he felt a wave of concern hit him when he saw UA's main building appear in the distance "How good do you think our chances are?"
"To be honest we have to face the reality that our chances aren't good by definition." Kaibara crossed his arms as he recalled all of the statistics he had researched about UA "The acceptance rate always hovers around 1 in 300, and there are only 36 places up for grabs in the Hero Course each year."
"36? Aren't there two classes of 20 in each year?" Awase cut into Kaibara's speech, wondering if his ever-diligent friend has misspoken.
"Two students in each class are brought in by special recommendation, and they don't have to take these exams." Kaibara replied in an instant, shutting down Awase's hope of improving their chances "So unless you have a top-ten Hero as a long-lost cousin I wouldn't count on it."
"Damn it." Awase chuckled to cover his disappointment "And then even if we do get through we're gonna have to deal with a pair of uppity rich kids strutting through the class."
"But to answer your question, we've spent our lives preparing for this and the last two years have been about as intense as we can reasonably manage." Kaibara turned to his friend, and Awase could see a rare sign of his determination shine through "We practise combat drills everyday and we've trained our Quirks as much as we can legally manage."
"We've practised against each other and as a pair as well, so we should be prepared for whatever format this exam takes." Awase picked up the train of thought, recalling every early morning and late night they had spent in brutal training sessions "And we've studied Heroes and Villains with similar Quirks to us to see if they have any tricks that we could use for ourselves."
"Exactly, so given all of that…" Kaibara couldn't stop the grin of anticipation that came to his face, an action that was mirrored by Awase "I think our odds are pretty good."
The pair fist-bumped as the bus came to a stop outside the gates of UA, both were determined to put everything they had into the exam that awaited them in the school of their dreams.
A bus only a few dozen metres from the one that carried Awase and Kaibara had just come to a stop outside of UA, the doors opening and disgorging the few dozen students that made up a tiny part of the thousands of students that would try to enter the Hero Course. Amongst this group of students were Itsuka Kendo and Neito Monoma, another pair of friends who had been preparing for this exam for over a year, though they were somewhat less confident than Awase and Kaibara.
"Hell of a sight, isn't it?" Monoma looked towards the enormous building that contained UA's main campus and classrooms, the imposing sight before him briefly stripping away his usual caustic attitude.
"Yeah, it's crazy to think we're actually here." Kendo replied, also unable to maintain her usual calm in the face of her dream school being right in front of her "It all seemed so far away whenever we spoke about it, almost like it was another world… does that make sense?"
"I get what you mean." Monoma nodded in agreement, and noticing how reserved his usually bold friend was he felt an obligation to try and lift her spirits "But I don't think we're going to impress the examiners much if we spend all day out here… shall we?"
With a hand outstretched towards UA, Monoma and Kendo finally crossed the gates into the school they had been dreaming about and training for for years, as ready as they could ever be for the coming challenge. The pair walked in silence for a time as they joined the surging crowd of students that were being herded by some of the Pro Heroes that made up UA's faculty, though the more famous members of the faculty weren't visible to either Monoma or Kendo, likely being kept away from crowds so that their presence wouldn't cause any disruption. The pair paused for a moment when they saw a loud confrontation between two male students wearing identical black uniforms, though calling it a confrontation was likely incorrect since it seemed to consist of the blonde-haired student screaming obscenities at a green-haired student who looked like he wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground to avoid his fellows wrath. Monoma saw the first student push past the second and stalk off into UA itself, glaring at anyone who even thought of standing in his path.
"So that's the kind of person that tries to get into UA then." Monoma tutted as he watched the student vanish through the door "I can't stand dealing with arrogant morons like that."
Kendo looked at her friend with some masked concern on her features, even though she was fairly sure that Monoma would be able to read her expression in an instant. She knew that her friend had lots of run ins and confrontations with bullies and other people that tried to give him a hard time over his Quirk, and that had resulted in him developing both a mistrusting attitude towards others and a penchant for vicious sarcastic remarks that get directed at anyone who annoys him. Kendo could only be thankful that she had been close to Monoma before this change in his personality had taken hold, as she knew that he wouldn't let anyone he didn't already know be friendly with him. Kendo was constantly concerned for her friend, and she knew that if she didn't stick with him then Monoma would likely be content to avoid interactions with any of his classmates altogether, and she couldn't just sit back and let that happen.
Whether Monoma liked it or not, Heroes had to work in teams frequently with people they might have never met before, and UA would surely make team fights and other group work one of the focuses of their training. These facts meant that Kendo would have to drag Monoma kicking and screaming, maybe literally given how stubborn he could be, into working with their classmates if- when they both got into UA. Kendo knew that Monoma was capable beyond what he believed, Copy could be incredibly powerful in the right circumstances, given that he could effectively double up any Quirk from a fellow Hero or even copy the powerful Quirk of a Villain in order to take them down with their own power. Monoma was strong and capable, and he had an intelligence to match his power, she just had to help him to see that.
"I know you do." Kendo finally replied, clearing her thoughts about the future to focus on the present "But don't let that get to you, we're here for us, not anyone else."
"Right." Kendo could hear some of the venom leave Monoma's voice as his posture relaxed again "Let's get going, wouldn't want to miss the main event."
Monoma flashed Kendo a grin and walked ahead, and she could only be surprised for a second at his drastic change in moon before jogging to catch up with him.
Once they entered through the doors of UA the pair followed the stream of students through a series of rooms and hallways that had been specially marked for the Hero Course applicants, Monoma couldn't help but notice that there weren't any UA students visible as they moved through the halls of UA, and he could only assume that they had been kept out of the way for the sake of efficiency. The winding trail eventually ended when the path led into an enormous auditorium that was already mostly filled with students, Monoma and Kendo used the information cards they had been given to find the seats that they had been allocated, being the only two students from their small rural school to apply to UA at all.
Once the auditorium was full to the brim with students, it was briefly lifted into a clamour of excitement when the popular Hero Present Mic entered and began to explain the details of the practical exam to the assembled applicants. The exam was physical in nature, and would pit students against large robots in a false cityscape, with the destruction of each robot awarding points to the student responsible. The exam was largely a free-for-all, with the only rules of note being the timed nature of the exam and the fact that students were forbidden from attacking each other under threat of disqualification, all of that was simple enough in the grand scheme of things.
It was only when the students were dismissed to their various exam areas that a problem presented itself.
"Well, let's get started." Monoma grinned and rolled his shoulders "I think area B is over that way."
"Damn it…" Kendo muttered, feeling a drop in her stomach as soon as Monoma had spoken, she held up her own card to show him what was causing her concern "I'm in area C."
Quickly listening to other groups of students near them revealed that they were all having the same problem, and everything clicked into place for Monoma in an instant.
"I should have guessed something like this would happen." Monoma spoke through gritted teeth "They're splitting people from the same school up so we can't help each other."
It was a problem that seemed so obvious in hindsight, though they had both failed to consider it until this precise moment. Their entire plan had hinged on them teaming up and using Kendo's Quirk to totally crush any opposition that came their way, Monoma was more practised with Big Fist than any other Quirk by miles, and their combined training in martial arts meant that the exam should have been manageable for the pair of them.
"Well good luck Kendo." Monoma gave a humourless chuckle, and Kendo could tell that he had already given up on himself "I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines…"
Monoma turned to walk away to either his exam area or more likely the exit of UA, only to be stopped when Kendo's hand firmly gripped his shoulder.
"Don't be stupid Monoma, this isn't worth giving up over." Kendo made her voice as firm as she could manage, turning her friend back to face her "So what if things haven't gone exactly to plan? We've been preparing for this for far too long to walk away at the first sign of trouble."
"Kendo, I…" Monoma's face twisted for a moment, showing his struggle over how to respond, "Without Big Fist I don't have much of a chance, you know what people are like where we live, I haven't exactly had a chance to practise with other Quirks."
"Then find one that doesn't need practise to be powerful." Kendo grinned as an idea came to mind, one that she knew would appeal to Monoma's more devious side "Find the most arrogant looking and powerful person in your group and copy their Quirk right as the exam starts. Copy gives you all the information you need to use the Quirk, so get the best power you can and clean house with it."
Kendo watched as some of the colour returned to Monoma's face, and his expression changed from hopeless resignation to some kind of determination as he considered the plan Kendo had put before him.
"Alright, I'll try it." Monoma grinned again, and while it was a little forced there was at least some enthusiasm behind it "I guess I'll see you on the other side then?"
"Of course, and we'll celebrate when we both get through." Kendo turned to walk away, only to stop herself after a few steps "And Monoma, if you back out I'll punch you into next week."
Monoma just smiled at the hopefully empty threat that his friend had thrown his way, and the two parted ways for the moment, joining the large groups of students that were headed for the exam areas.
Soon the exam would begin, and every student would have to fight for their place at UA.
Yosetsu Awase faced down a robot that had been stomping through the streets, having already scared away a few students would were clearly unsuited for taking on the exam. The robot charged towards Awase in an attempt to scare him away, but Awase was made of sterner stuff than the other examinees, and he charged towards the robot in return. The briefing had told the students that they were able to defeat the robots by restraining them, a perfect situation for Awase. As the robot moved closer, Awase ducked under the machines swinging limbs and pushed his hands downwards, making contact with the robots legs. As soon as Awase made contact, he unleashed the power of his Quirk, a slight hissing and a flash of orange light the only indication that his power had activated. Awase's Quirk allowed him to instantly bond two objects together at the atomic level, organic or not, and these bonds were basically unbreakable and could only be removed by Awase himself. Fortunately for Awase, the information leaflet that had been handed to all of the students taking the exam informed him that the robots would be counted as 'defeated' if they were destroyed or immobilised to the point that they were unable to continue fighting. This stipulation in the exam rules gave a better chance to students like Awase that possessed more utility-based powers that didn't have the raw strength to simply tear robots apart with their Quirks. Awase's Weld gave him incredible potential in trapping and immobilising opponents, as well as keeping enemies from using their Quirk against him, which meant that conceivably Awase could restrain almost anybody, as long as they didn't have some kind of body-manipulation Quirk that would let them slip away. Awase thought over the uses of his Quirk as he watched the subdued robot's central lights blink out as the construct went limp, marking its defeat.
Sen Kaibara ran through the streets of the fake city, adrenaline keeping him moving at a relentless pace as he looked for another foe to take down and add to his score. A robot rounded the corner and faced down Kaibara, and the student in question ran forwards in turn, ready to engage with another adversary. Kaibara used a quick burst of his Quirk in his legs to launch himself upwards in a flipping motion, the acrobatic manoeuvre speaking to many months of practise. The robot looked upwards at Kaibara as he activated his Quirk in his leg again, bringing his limb down in a powerful arc to strike the robot right on the metal-encased head in an arc of spinning force. Kaibara's Gyrate Quirk let him inflict incredible damage on the robotic enemy due to the immense amount of spinning force that his Quirk projected through his limbs, and this spinning was akin to a high-speed drill cleaving through metal with ease. As soon as Kaibara's spinning leg made contact with the robot's head it tore apart the metal casing in a storm of sparks and the sound of tearing metal as the head collapsed under the force of Kaibara's Quirk. Kaibara's leg wasn't slowed at all by making impact with the robot, and the swinging limb continued its arc until it emerged through the other side of the robots head, another burst of sparks heralding that Kaibara's attack had been devastatingly successful. Kaibara landed with little flourish as he watched the robot waver on its feet for a second before falling to the ground in a heap of mangled metal, utterly destroyed by Kaibara's attack. The student in question regarded the defeated foe for a second, examining any other weak points he had noticed before turning away in search of new enemies.
Togaru Kamakiri stood perfectly still as a pair of robots ran towards him, his calm posture betraying nothing of his skill or intent. Kamakiri only made a move once the robots were within a few metres of him, and he sprang into action in a blur of motion, blades springing from his arms as he leapt forwards. Kamakiri's blades flashed with practised motions, showing the fruits of his training as he moved with a ferocious grace that displayed the lethality of his movements. The first robot was cleanly beheaded by a single swipe from Kamakiri, his blades removing the robots head with barely a hint of resistance, cleaving through metal and wires like a hot knife through butter. The second robot got a little closer, but that only gave Kamakiri more options for attacking, and Kamakiri tore into the robot in a blur of cutting motion, dozens of strikes and slashes forming into a blur of motion as Kamakiri lashed out with impressive speed. Each and every strike was perfectly placed to deal the greatest amount of damage to Kamakiri's mechanical adversary, cleaving apart the robot in a storm of flashing steel. Kamakiri relished the opportunity to go all out against his opponents, and due to the lethal nature of his Quirk this was only really possible when facing false opponents. Once he was satisfied that he had inflicted a sufficient level of damage onto his opponent, Kamakiri ceased his wild swings and watched as the robot collapsed into a pile of scrap metal, utterly torn apart by a storm of blades. Kamakiri sheathed his blades with a single motion, contempt written on his insectoid features as he turned from his destroyed adversary, ready to begin the fight again as soon as he could locate another robot to test his Quirk against.
A robot strode through the empty streets of the false city, searching the streets for another student to engage. A blur of motion passed by the edge of the robots vision, and the simulated adversary turned to see what it had detected, though there was nothing but empty streets on all sides. Another blur passed by, and yet again the robot was unable to detect anything that might be a threat. A nearby black car shifted and distorted, out of sight from the robot, and a humanoid shape coalesced from the vehicle, a grinning face framed by silver hair came into view first. Shihai Kuroiro leapt towards the robot, a piece of discarded rebar clutched in his hand in readiness. Kuroiro landed on the back of the robot and drove the rebar hard in the robots head, doing enough damage to disable the machine. Kuroiro leapt back into the nearest shadow and vanished, noticing that another machine had just rounded a corner and noticed the destruction of the first robot. From what Kuroiro was able to discern, the robots reacted to the destruction of their fellow machines and would seek out the student responsible in a simulated version of gang behaviour that was common amongst various villain groups. As the machine cautiously strode forwards, Kuroiro kept his position within the shadow, waiting for the robot's own shadow to cross the patch of darkness that he was hidden in. As soon as the shadows crossed, Kuroiro instantly jumped into the new shadow, and slowly emerged behind the robot to avoid being seen. Kuroiro didn't give the robot time to notice his presence, and he drove the rebar he was still clutching straight upwards into the weakened underbelly of the robot, and his efforts were rewarded by a burst of sparks and the sight of the robot collapsing to the ground. Kuroiro grinned again at the sight of the mischief that he had wrought so far, and he melted back into the shadows to find another target to ambush.
Itsuka Kendo was stuck in combat with a pair of robots, they had ambushed her as a pair, and she had been unable to do anything to decisively win the confrontation with the synthetic enemies. Kendo thought back to a manoeuvre that Monoma had taught her a few months ago, an idea he had thought of when the pair were practising new techniques. Kendo place her hands on the ground and activated Big Fist, her hands expanding threefold in size, ready to attack the enemies that faced her down. The sudden expansion sent Kendo into the air, and she readied both of her hands to bring down both of her empowered limbs onto one of the robots that had her cornered just a moment ago, but now Kendo held the advantage. As soon as she struck the robot with her strengthened limbs the robot crumpled under the sheer force of her blows, leaving little more than a pile of crushed metal and plastic where the robot stood just a moment ago. The other robot didn't pause at the sight of another machine's defeat, and it swung out with a mechanical limb to try and knock Kendo out before she could react. But Kendo had spent months training with Monoma and the pair had gone over every kind of combat technique they could think of, Kendo thought of her training with her childhood friend as she ducked under the robotic limb just before it struck her. The robot was too slow to make another attack in time, so Kendo lunged towards it and threw the strongest blow she could muster straight at the robots head; the force of the blow was enough to instantly decapitate the robot, and it fell to the ground in defeat. Kendo relaxed for a moment and returned her hands to their normal size, and she thought about how Monoma was doing for a moment before returning to her own battle.
Yui Kodai walked through the empty streets of the city with her usual calm stoicism, her expression utterly unreadable as she looked around for more robots to defeat. As expected, a robot appeared and faced Kodai down before moving forwards to attack the young student, though she barely even seemed phased by the charging two-tonne machine that was speeding towards her. At the last second, Kodai ducked to the side and placed a single hand on the robots chassis, pushing the power of her Quirk outwards and into the robot. Kodai's Quirk took affect and rapidly began to shrink the robot, turning the machine into a miniature version of itself within a few seconds. Without ever shifting her expression, Kodai brought her foot down on the tiny machine, crushing it in an instant. Kodai pushed her hands together and released her Quirk, idly observing the pile of scrap metal grow back to normal size as she left to find more enemies. Unexpectedly, her wish was fulfilled rather quickly, as a pair of one-pointer robots rounded the street corner and started speeding towards Kodai as soon as they caught sight of her. Kodai watched the pair of robots rolling towards her with only mild interest, though her attention was largely captured by several pieces of concrete that littered the street in a simulation of a damaged city. Kodai noticed that the one-pointer robots were moving towards her at such a speed that they would likely be unable to stop if they were presented with a sudden obstacle, and an idea came to Kodai's mind. She waited until the robots were too close to turn away from her, and as soon as they were close enough she placed her hands onto two pieces of concrete that were nearby, and growing them to many times their original size. The sudden wall of concrete appeared in front of the robots, and when the robots collided with the barrier their metal frames collapsed under the stress of their high speed collision. Kodai released her Quirk and watched the concrete shrink again, turning away as she searched for more opponents.
Kinoko Komori paced nervously through the streets, the sounds of combat echoing through the otherwise silent streets of the fake city. Komori was certainly nervous about the combat that seemed to rage all around her, but she was confident enough in her Quirk that she kept pressing forwards, and she had come too far to consider turning away now. Komori was surprised by just how soon UA had thrown its prospective students into a combat scenario, she was expecting some kind of training scenario where she could display her talents and show the power of her Quirk to UA. Well what she expected didn't matter now anyway, she just had to make the most of the situation and perform to the best of her abilities. Komori knew that she had to be careful not to hinder or hurt any of her fellow competitors in this competition, as it was easy for her Quirk to go astray if she wasn't careful enough in controlling the vast amount of spores that she was able to produce with her Quirk, and if she wasn't careful she could easily get disqualified from the exam and lose the chance to join the school of her dreams. But Komori was confident in her ability to deal with the mechanical threat that UA had put before the students, as even though her Quirk was arguably at its best when fighting against other people, fungi was just as capable of growing on metal as any other surface. Komori had already disabled several robots by clogging their circuit boards and mechanisms with one of her favourite species of mushroom, Ganoderma Colossus, which had a tough texture perfect for clogging up gears and pistons as quickly as possible, making it easy enough for her to disable the robots. Komori sighted another robot at the end of the street, and her eye briefly lit up beneath her fringe before she closed in, already readying the spores needed for her next attack.
Ibara Shiozaki calmly recited the words to one of her favourite psalms as she walked through the street, using the repetition and rhythm of the words to keep her focused and avoid any panic if and when she was attacked again. The trial had thus far been a rather simple affair, though no less difficult for it, and Shiozaki was thankful that the sun shone so strongly upon her today, enhancing her powers with the light of nature. The vines that formed Shiozaki's hair and Quirk were maintained and strengthened by water and sunlight, and while it was easy enough to stay hydrated, the sun was something she had little control over. Shiozaki paused in her musings as she saw a large robot bearing down on her from an alleyway on her left, and after only a brief moment of shock she stood her ground and planted her vines in the ground beneath her. Shiozaki could guide her vines with a good level of precision, though moving them underground was harder due to the resistance of the concrete they moved through, but the size of her target would make things easier. The vines burst from the ground around the robots feet and begin to ensnare its mechanical form, stopping the machine's charge at Shiozaki in an instant. The robot struggled against the binding vines as they climbed further until the entire being was ensnared, and only then did Shiozaki begin to increase the pressure her vines were exerting, focusing herself on her Quirk. The robot shook with the pressure for a few seconds, and then metal plates began to buckle as the vines wound around the machine, probing for week points and growing in number as they enveloped the robot. With a final groan of twisting metal, the robot collapsed from the pressure in a pile of scrap metal, and Shiozaki's vines retracted as she turned in search of another target.
Author's Note
I have to apologise about leaving this story in the dark for a while, I'm not totally sure what happened but I can only assume that it fell into the back of my mind as other things came forward. Leaving a work without any new Chapters for over a year really is a shame and all I can do is try to do better and keep things going now. But the time for apologies and excuses has to pass, and I'm intent on stopping any further delays, at this point I've got tonnes of ideas for character moments and fights, it just comes to forcing myself to actually form these ideas into coherent Chapters.
This Chapter holds the first half of the Entrance Exams, giving each student a moment to shine in combat and showing off their Quirks. This is only really a brief overview of each student due to the nature of the Exams, so there will be more in depth Character stuff once Class 1B is fully pulled together. It's nice to be able to show off each student using their Quirks to get through the exam, and I think it gives a nice teaser for how each student will perform in the future.
I can't say I have too much to add for this Chapter, but I hope that it was entertaining anyway. I find writing the students of 1B to be really enjoyable, and I took the opportunity to write in a few more character moments.
On the advice of a reviewer as well as my own thoughts, I've decided to merge the universes of this fic and Mind Over Matter (my fic about Shinso in call 1A). As Raven Mordrake has pointed out, the stories won't interfere with each other too much, and it could be interesting to see how the stories interact with each other. I already had plans for Shinso to interact with Class 1B to some limited degree, and this new merger means that these interactions will likely be far more frequent.
Now you might be wondering how much this merger will affect you if you only follow this story, and the answer is that it will likely not change very much at all. The only notable change from the perspective of this fic is the fact that Shinso will show up from time to time as a member of Class 1A, but it shouldn't be too distracting from the main plot here. Underdogs will continue on as planned, and the way I am planning on approaching this merger means that either story will still be enjoyable and without gaps without reading the other. Hopefully all of this makes sense, and I hope that you will enjoy this story going forwards.
On a side note I have been thinking of Hero Costumes for Class 1B, and while I like some of the canon designs, I imagine I will make a few tweaks and design changes here and there, so if you have any suggestions please let me know. I'm thinking of going for a more grounded/practical theme for the costumes, rather than the overly colourful hero costumes worn by All Might and others. Some costumes are more to my liking than others, in particular I like Monoma's, Kendo's and Awase's, so I don't imagine those ones will change too much.
I have a Discord server now, and it would be great to see some more people there for conversation, the link is on my profile page.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you on soon for the next chapter.
And to answer a review:
Raven Mordrake: You're right to say that The New Heroes should probably be kept separate, I'm aware that OC-heavy fics aren't for everybody and it would probably be pretty jarring to see the characters from that fic in this one. On the subject of connecting Underdogs and Mind Over Matter you can probably see above that I've gone ahead with your idea and decided to merge the two fics together into one larger universe. I think there will be a lot of interesting new opportunities to come from this merger, and I thank you for the idea.