Chapter 12
.:. Attack of the 50-Meter Robot .:.
All at once everyone was alert, eyes trained on the monitor as they watched the beast-like boy crash through a wall. Two walls, actually, thanks to being thrown at a building's corner at a diagonal angle by the robot. It managed to take out the whole corner, leaving him limp on the pavement as.
"What the hell, they're still fighting the kids?" Midnight snapped. Even as she spoke Nedzu turned to the console and typed away, ears twitching.
"They're not responding to the console, either," he called, voice slightly more urgent than usual, and everyone's stomachs sank. The robot charged through the hole after the fallen boy, but fortunately didn't make it before getting intercepted by a street lamp. The light fixture came courtesy of another applicant whose body had bulked up with muscles, who swung it lamp with a furious shout and successfully crushed its head. Another person, a boy with a second set of scaled arms, ran over to help lift the fallen boy, who thankfully seemed to be dazed rather than unconscious.
There was some relief at the rescue, but not much. Other applicants were still being attacked by other robots on other screens, fending off the vicious assaults with varying degrees of success. "I'm heading over to Site C!" Recovery Girl barked, leaping off her chair and racing for the door. "Someone call the bus drivers and tell them to be ready!" Mic didn't waste a second obliging, pulling out his phone to make the call while the others spoke rapidly.
"The robots are all officially rogue, and their behavior is more hostile than usual," Aizawa said sharply. "I've never seen them attack kids with that much force."
"I suspect that the interference switched their protocols to the ones we normally reserve for third years and graduates," Nedzu surmised grimly. "That, or the locked protocols for intruders, which have seen much less testing in comparison. Either way, this is dangerous."
"Who's at Site C?" Midnight demanded, leaning over to stare up at the screens.
"Cementoss and Hound Dog were assigned there," Nedzu replied, tapping away at the console. "However, I can't reach them. The interference must have also shut off the communications with their radios. I don't think they'd know the connections are down since we don't usually speak over the radios outside of emergencies."
"Shit," Aizawa breathed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache start to form. "And since both of them can handle themselves individually, they won't be using their remotes except in clear emergencies, so they probably don't realize the robots are rogue either. Ectoplasm, are either of them near one of your clones? Can you get a message to them?"
"I only have three clones remaining—two," he corrected with a wince. "Damn, a one-pointer just destroyed one. Two clones left in Site C."
"I'm sorry, did you say a one-pointer destroyed your clone?" Mic yelped, having just hung up with the bus driver.
"Yes I did," Ectoplasm confirmed gravely. "It barrelled into the clone with its full body."
"I know your clones are less durable overall than the average human, but one-pointers are supposed to be the weakest," Thirteen murmured, the eyes on their helmet growing wide. "If one managed to destroy your clone, then the students..."
They trailed off, not needing to finish that thought, and the tension in the room reached peak levels as the gravity of the situation fully set in. "I'm sending my remaining clones to alert the others," Ectoplasm said briskly. "Hound Dog is close to one of them, but Cementoss..." He glanced up at the screens, where Cementoss could be seen still fending off some kid who was trying to deliver a flurry of blows at him.
"That's on the total opposite side of the site," Mic realized in horror. "At this point you might be better off asking kids to just—just basically play telephone and scream 'the robots are rogue' until it reaches him!"
"That's assuming none of the two-point robots attack him," Nedzu said ominously. "After observing their activity so far, I believe the one- and three-point robots have the third-year and graduate protocol active. The two-point robots, however, most definitely have the intruder protocol. Specifically, the Level 3 variant."
"And what does that entail, exactly?" Aizawa asked, already dreading the answer.
"They'll begin with non-lethal attacks towards identified threats, the same as the other high-level protocols. However, they will also escalate force as other drones on the network are destroyed, focusing their efforts on targets doing the most damage until they're incapacitated by any means necessary. They'll ignore or protect non-combatants, but right now, every one of those students attacking the drones are marking themselves as a combatant."
Midnight suddenly made a choking sound, eyes going wide and face even paler than it already was. "Nedzu," she said slowly, voice high-pitched and tinged with hysteria. "Is the zero-pointer in Site C responding to you at all?"
The silence following that question was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Shinsou Hitoshi was having a rough day.
He came to UA fully expecting the entrance exam to suck. The written part was fine, he had absolutely zero concerns about that part. He'd studied his butt off for the entire year leading up to this moment. No, what made him absolutely dread today was the practical portion.
See, Hitoshi had absolutely nothing to help him against robots. He completely lacked any sort of physical Quirk, and while he'd done some exercise to prepare for the exam, it still didn't do anything against—again—robots. He hadn't even known he would be fighting robots today, but he'd learned long ago not to expect things to go his way. Most of the graduates from UA had much flashier and combat-oriented Quirks than him, after all.
Present Mic revealing the cooperation points and the fact that teachers would be there had been his only hope spot. Teachers were human. Humans were susceptible to brainwashing, unlike the robots (which he did try to use his Quirk on, just to be sure, and no dice). And ten points was nothing to scoff at.
Hitoshi couldn't face a teacher alone though. He knew his limits, and if they didn't respond to his taunts, questions, or anything else and just attacked him, he'd be screwed.
The thing is, he didn't know if he'd be able to find someone to work with him. He wasn't exactly the most social guy, and he didn't want to brainwash someone and force them to work with him. So far he'd netted five points through the cooperation point system, but that had been by using himself as a distraction for the robots when stumbling on fights. The other kids hadn't stuck around long after a quick "thanks" so it's not like he had a chance to ask them about teaming up.
And now the robots apparently switched into high gear.
He cursed as he ducked into a building to evade a rampaging robot duking it out with another applicant, his heart pounding furiously. "What the fuck," he hissed under his breath. The robots had become way more vicious suddenly. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear one had tried to lop off someone's head just now! The kid did have a body that transformed into smoke, so maybe they were programmed to know the applicants' Quirks?
The thought made him snort derisively and roll his eyes. "Wouldn't even need anything on me," he grumbled as he walked through the building, glancing out the windows. He could see at least two ongoing battles from just this one wall, one on the street directly outside, and another on a neighboring street visible through a gap between two buildings facing this one.
The battles were vicious and frenzied, the applicants' faces screwed with determination. A boy with blades on his arms sliced through one while another threw purple orbs at its feet to hold the robot in place. Hitoshi's stomach churned with envy as he looked away and turned down a hallway leading to the opposite end of the building, lips pulling into a scowl.
He wouldn't be any help there, or against any of these robots. He didn't even feel comfortable acting as bait anymore, not with how hostile they had become. Present Mic hadn't mentioned a "phase two" or anything like that to suggest a difficulty increase, but it must have been a hidden portion of the exam to help weed out weaker applicants.
Applicants like him.
"Quirk discrimination strikes again," he scoffed, peering out a window near a doorway leading outside. Another fight was happening not too far away, so he turned away and went to seek another exit.
The next doorway he found had no windows nearby to check but led to an alleyway, and when he glanced out he saw no fights nearby. He darted to the neighboring building and stuck close to the wall, cautiously peering around the corner. Empty street, though he could hear shouting in the distance. He took a chance and bolted, racing as fast as his legs could carry him while looking for suitable shelter.
A mechanical whir and sharp yell sounded too close for his liking, so he diverted into one of the buildings. Most of them lacked doors thankfully, just empty shells meant to simulate a city. As far as he could tell, the last one didn't even have stairs leading to the second floor. They at least had hallways and rooms though, which is what really mattered.
One of those inner rooms in this one had a light in it, making him freeze and tense warily. None of the buildings seemed to have electricity because again, empty shell and all that. None of the robots had lights either though, and more importantly, he could hear voices, so he proceeded carefully and peered inside.
To his surprise Hitoshi found a small group of four teens huddled in the room, their quiet chatter cutting off as he appeared. One, a girl with "hair" that looked like a jellyfish, gave off a warm glow that illuminated the room. It made everyone else's eyes glint in an almost eerie way when they turned to look at him. For a moment no one spoke, just staring at him awkwardly.
Finally a boy with spiky ridges along the sides of his neck and his arms sighed and waved at him. "Don't just stand there, get in here," he said, and Hitoshi quickly scrambled inside.
"You guys hiding out too?" he drawled, and got a series of nods.
"Yeah," said a girl with tiger-like stripes in her hair and twitching ears to match. "The robots just got way too tough, y'know? I've got claws, but they're not tough enough to cut through metal."
"We were working together," added another boy who looked considerably plainer than the rest, gesturing to the jellyfish girl, "But I saw one send someone through a wall and couldn't take it anymore. Most of us don't really have super-physical Quirks, so the robots are too strong."
"I hear that," Hitoshi sighed, sitting down against one of the walls and running a hand through his hair. "This is too much."
He was done. Tapping out. Call him a quitter, but he wasn't suicidal. He knew his limits, and these robots were just too savage for him to fight against. One hit from those things and he'd snap like a twig. He'd applied to Gen Ed as a backup for a reason. He'd rather take his chances with the Sports Festival.
Outside they could hear fighting, the noise only slightly muffled by the distance. It still felt too close for his liking, and apparently the others agreed because Jellyfish spoke up. "Um, how many points did you get before—uh, you know?" she asked, giving an awkward shrug. "We were just talking about that when you came in."
"Five," Hitoshi said dryly, and got some sympathetic hisses.
"Damn, and I thought my seven was bad," the boy who'd waved him in muttered. That really didn't help Hitoshi's nerves.
"I'm definitely not making it in," Tiger groaned, letting her head thump against the wall behind her. "I only got twelve, and I think I did pretty bad on the written part too. I mean I'm not dumb, but it was just—nerves, y'know?" That got some commiserating groans.
"Written exams put an unfair amount of pressure on us kids sometimes," plain guy declared with a scowl. "Adults seem to totally forget how friggin' stressful it can be! My one teacher always says, 'Don't let it consume your life' one sentence and then tells us 'this test will be fifty percent of your grade' the next!"
"Fifty percent?" Hitoshi repeated, and the boy scoffed.
"You know what I mean!"
"I do," Jellyfish sighed. "I didn't even want to take this stupid exam, I want to be a marine biologist. But my mom thinks my stingers could be 'so good' for hero work. She signed me up for exams at a bunch of hero schools." That had a bunch of sympathetic winces from the rest.
"And yet you helped someone anyway," Tiger remarked, gesturing to the plain guy, and the girl's face literally glowed pink, as did her jellyfish hair.
"Hiro and I go to the same school! Of course I'd help him! I was planning to ask the teachers after the exam to just mark me as a fail if I did get enough points to pass!" Tiger had a definite smirk on her face, mischief visible in her golden eyes.
"Oh, so you two are on a first-name basis?" she purred, and the pink glow grew more intense.
"Th-that's not! We're not—" Whatever she was about to say was cut off by a loud chorus of screams, making everyone freeze and a chill run down Hitoshi's spine. Those weren't the same shouts they'd been hearing as examinees clashed with the robots with all their might. No, this was something more frantic, more desperate. Those were screams of absolute terror, and the thought made his blood curdle.
A heavy hush blanketed the room, everyone tense and on edge. The pink glow had given way to blue again, the jellyfish girl scooting closer to the plain guy. Even with the tint to the light, Hitoshi could tell everyone's faces had drained of color. "What... what was that?" the guy with the ridges on his body whispered.
"I don't know," plain guy whispered, and for a moment everyone was still. Hitoshi's eyes narrowed as he slowly got to his feet, drawing everyone's attention. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to check it out," he murmured back, and saw some of them recoil.
"Seriously?" Tiger hissed. "You heard those screams! That's not just fighting!"
"Yeah, and that's why I'm going to take a look," Hitoshi retorted sharply. "If something's really wrong, we need to get the hell out of dodge. And we won't know if no one looks." The others had no counter for that, and Hitoshi turned and slunk out of the room alone. He circled the halls and peered through the windows, finding all the nearest streets to be empty. So it wasn't nearby at least.
After a moment's hesitation, he slipped outside and started down the street towards the direction he thought the screams came from. The ground in that direction was uneven and broken, and he was pretty sure it hadn't been damaged before. When he turned a corner the destruction became more apparent, the ground chunky and uneven with the devastation stretching down almost an entire block. One of the buildings even had part of the wall was missing.
More importantly though, he could hear loud whimpering and some sobs that way, making him pick up his pace slightly. He stuck close to the buildings since the ground was more even there, and when he reached the last one he peered around the corner cautiously. The area looked like how he imagined the epicenter of an earthquake, the ground broken up in a ripple-like pattern. Several teenagers were curled up on the ground, hands on their heads or hugging their torsos as they quietly cried and sobbed.
Only one kid wasn't actively curled in the fetal position, a pink-skinned guy with a rock-shaped head. He leaned over another person in the epicenter of the ripples, tears streaming down his face, and when Hitoshi looked at the other person he felt his eyes widen in recognition at the blocky gray figure. He wasn't overly attentive to Pro Heroes like some people, but Cementoss was pretty recognizable. The man hunched on the ground shaking like a leaf, murmuring something Hitoshi couldn't hear.
Worse yet: there was a robot about to attack one of the kids.
Hitoshi's eyes blew wide open as a two-pointer raced towards a fallen girl, the scorpion stinger-like "tail" rearing up ready to strike. "Move blue-hair!" he shouted, and the girl jolted and raised her head with wide eyes as she finally noticed the robot. She rolled away just as the stinger came swinging down and crumpled the ground where she'd just been, making her shriek with terror.
The robot's stinger got stuck in the pavement, and Hitoshi took advantage of it to charge forward and grab the girl's arm, yanking her to her feet and dragging her towards Cementoss. She stumbled after him while sobbing, babbling almost nonsensically. "Make it stop, make it stop, wanna go home, don't wanna do this anymore..." Hitoshi ignored her rambling, attention focused purely on the Pro Hero.
The rock-headed teen looked up as they approached, tear tracks visible on his face. Cementoss however remained on the ground and didn't even look at them, murmuring under his breath. "Too much, too much, not again, I can't do this anymore..."
"What's going on?" Hitoshi demanded. The other boy inhaled sharply, the frill-like appendages on the back of his head twitching briefly.
"I'm sorry," he whimpered. "I-I'm so sorry...! I d-didn't... d-d-didn't...!" He trailed off into indecipherable whines and whimpers, and Hitoshi felt his stomach sink. He still didn't know what was going on, but clearly something happened to Cementoss that was making him like... this, and he didn't seem like he'd be recovering anytime soon.
Hitoshi heard a crash and glanced back at the two-pointer, heart sinking as he saw it had freed its stinger from the ground. Worse yet, it now turned to face them, the red glass glinting ominously as it caught the sunlight.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, SHIT. Hitoshi whirled around to see the other boy's face had become five shades paler. "Please tell me you have a Quirk that can take out that thing," Hitoshi pleaded, but the boy rapidly shook his head and Hitoshi mentally cursed again. Shit, this was bad. Clearly the girl was no help, and none of the other teens in the area seemed likely to recover from this whatever in the next five seconds either, and brainwashing wouldn't work on robots either.
It didn't work on robots, but it did work on people.
Hitoshi whirled around to stare at Cementoss, the man still mumbling to himself and shaking like a leaf. "Cementoss!" he barked. "Sir, you need to get up! We can't fight that thing!"
"I can't," the man choked out, squeezing his eyes shut. "I—" All at once his face went slack, eyes opening to reveal a familiar glazed look. Hitoshi felt the familiar tug of his Quirk at work, letting him know he'd taken control of the hero.
"Use your Quirk to destroy that robot," he ordered. Cementoss lumbered to his feet in silence, turning to face the robot. The rock-headed boy jumped back with a look of alarm as the hero slammed his palms on the ground, the already-fractured pavement erupting into a jagged cement wall that shot out towards the robot. It ripped straight through the center of the charging robot, sparks flying everywhere as it was torn in half.
Relief flooded Hitoshi as the two halves fell to the ground, shoulders slumping as he heaved a giant sigh. Then he heard a high-pitched breath from the girl that bordered on a sob, making his blood run cold. She was staring nearby with an even paler face, and when he looked over he saw two more robots circling around the corner of a nearby building, heading straight for one of the fallen teens.
Oh crap. Hitoshi's stomach sank as he spun to face Cementoss. "Destroy those robots, too!" he shouted, pointing to them. "And be careful not to hit the guy on the ground!" The hero did as told in absolute silence, another wall shooting towards the approaching robots.
As he watched the cement wall impale one of the robots, it occurred to Hitoshi that using a Pro Hero to destroy the robots might be an unheroic act. Cementoss had been weirdly unresponsive, sure, but that might have changed now that Hitoshi brainwashed him. It could have jarred his mind from the effects of whatever Quirk made him act like that, because it had to be a Quirk.
Okay, he decided. I'll release him after this and see if he's in his right mind. If not, I'll just have the rock-headed guy help me move people to safety. He seemed to be more in control of himself than anyone else here, even if he was crying and whimpering, so Hitoshi felt it a safe bet that he'd be able to help.
Before he could do that though there was a sudden, distant boom, the earth shaking hard enough to make them all fall. Cementoss managed to keep his balance while Hitoshi landed on his rear hard. "What was that?" he grumbled, feeling sore, but when he glanced at the other applicants he saw them both staring in the distance looking the palest they'd been yet.
A cold dread washed over him, and when he slowly turned his head he physically recoiled at what he saw. A giant monolith of a robot towered over the artificial skyline, the beady red "eyes" glowing ominously on its blocky face as it faced their direction.
"Holy shit," he choked out, feeling himself start to shake. That thing. That was the zero pointer? That wasn't a villain, that was a freaking walking disaster!
It took a single step, head bobbing briefly as it moved forward, and the ground shook again. That was all it took to jar Hitoshi out of his stunned stupor. He scrambled to his feet without ever taking his eyes off it, feeling nothing but horror. "Run," he whispered shakily, and took a deep breath. "Everyone, RUN!"
They didn't need to be told twice. The rock-headed boy grabbed the girl's hand and dragged her away. Hitoshi tore his gaze away from the monstrous robot long enough to see that a few other examinees had appeared, helping to drag some of the fallen teens to their feet and away from the devastation. Hitoshi didn't follow, quickly turning to Cementoss who still had the glazed look in his eye of being under Hitoshi's control. He had turned to follow the crowd, and panic welled in the teen.
"Stay!" he barked, voice choked with fear, and the hero immediately halted and turned back. Screams echoed loudly all around them as people fled, coming from all over the arena. Hitoshi inhaled sharply as he turned back to the robot. It wasn't heading directly towards them, but it was still coming in this general direction.
Screw it. "Cementoss," he called, hands clenching at his sides. "Use your Quirk to protect everyone and trap that thing."
The sight of giant cement walls suddenly erupting around the Zero Pointer could be seen even beyond the walls surrounding Site C. The sight flooded everyone with relief, some of the examinees actually collapsing and crying that they wouldn't have to deal with it on top of the other robots.
For his part, Hitoshi just felt numb. He sat on the ground breathing heavily, head held in his hands and his body shaking. Beside him Cementoss stood gazing upon his work, almost eerily calm compared to his earlier countenance. "I won't lie, I didn't expect someone to use me to stop the Zero Pointer," he remarked almost idly. The effects of whatever Quirk had hit him had worn off when Hitoshi released his control thankfully, but that left the teen feeling anxious instead.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. Now that the adrenaline had worn off he realized just how stupid he'd been, to use his Quirk on a teacher to take out that thing. The Zero Pointer was just that—zero points. It was an obstacle to avoid, not something to be defeated. His adrenaline had just been so high after seeing that girl nearly get crushed by a two-pointer's tail, all he could think was how that thing could kill someone by just stepping on them.
But obstacles didn't attack people. Attacking it had been pointless.
"You certainly won't score any combat points from that. It's not even an assist, really," Cementoss mused, echoing Hitoshi's thoughts and making him cringe. "You should probably get some from the other ones you had me destroy though." That had Hitoshi looking up, mildly surprised.
"But—why?" he asked in disbelief. "I wasn't—that wasn't..." He trailed off uselessly, searching for words. "That was your Quirk, not mine. I didn't do anything." It felt like he had acid on his tongue as he admitted it. While he'd planned to brainwash a teacher if he got the chance, he wanted to use it to subdue them, not destroy robots. Using someone else to destroy robots without their direct consent didn't feel right, made him feel like he didn't earn those points.
Cementoss however seemed to disagree. "Before you arrived, a robot attacked another kid," he said, catching Hitoshi's attention. "He must have had an empathy Quirk of some sort, because suddenly we were all on the ground and it felt like I was paralyzed with fear. I could tell something was wrong, and could hear you shouting when that one robot attacked that girl. If I had been in control of myself I would have intervened, but I couldn't do anything."
He glanced over at Hitoshi, expression serene and steady. "You used your Quirk to protect yourself and others when I couldn't. You earned any points you'd get from those robots if you'd destroyed them with your own hands."
Hitoshi could only stare at him wide-eyed, stunned by the praise. For so long others had been wary of his Brainwashing Quirk, and even after he got a second one from the Quirk Boom that caution remained. To have a stranger—and a Pro Hero, no less—outright praise him for using it, was... was... He didn't even know.
As he struggled to come up with response the sound of footsteps rushed towards them, and they turned to see one of the clones of that guy in a trenchcoat. Ectoplasm, if Hitoshi remembered right. "Cementoss, is everything alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine. I'm sorry if trapping the Zero Pointer disrupted the exam at all, though." Hitoshi winced guiltily, and Ectoplasm seemed to freeze at that.
"You... You don't know?" he asked after a moment, and Cementoss frowned, immediately looking alert and on edge.
"Did something happen?"
"One of the examinees had some sort of electronic interference Quirk. They used it around the halfway mark and it completely severed the control over the robots and reset their active protocol. The one- and three-pointers had third year and graduate protocols active, while the two-pointers had the Level 3 intruder protocol." A chill ran down Hitoshi's spine. He didn't know what the last one meant, but he could at least tell that third years and graduates would probably call for a more serious level of difficulty than middle school students.
Judging from the way Cementoss froze at that, he was probably right. "What? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"The Quirk took out the communications, too, and my remaining clones were on the opposite ends of the site. It seems that a quarter of the robots were unaffected because they were outside the range of the initial pulse, but the rest went rogue. Two of my clones were destroyed by them."
"And the Zero Pointer?" Cementoss asked grimly, and Hitoshi felt his breath catch. Fuck. He didn't even think of that.
"We don't know yet," Ectoplasm replied. "It didn't respond to the remote commands, but we don't know if the protocol got reset to something else." He glanced at the cement walls encasing the robot, adding, "Since it hasn't tried to break free, hopefully it was set to one of the passive settings to just walk around. Power Loader's heading over to check it out now to be sure. But if it hadn't been stopped, and it was set to something more hostile..."
He trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. Hitoshi just felt like the world had frozen, unable to help the growing horror as the gravity of the situation sank in. If he hadn't ordered Cementoss to stop it—if that thing had been left loose to stomp around... If someone had been in its path, injured or unable to move...
A sickly taste filled his mouth, and he doubled over and spewed his lunch on the ground.
Izuku was mildly terrified of his new friends.
Were they friends? He didn't know for sure, but they seemed to think so and he was scared to try to contradict them. While he'd dive-bombed several robots and racked up an impressive score for himself, Uraraka and Tsuburaba had quickly found their own vicious groove. The ground was littered with craters from Uraraka dropping robots into each other, and Tsuburaba had dumped his own fair share of debris on them too.
(Have you ever seen a piece of rebar drop from three stories to stab through a robot? Izuku had, and it was terrifying.)
Their collaboration had climaxed with them successfully managing to apprehend Snipe. The man had been attracted by all the crashes from their general direction, and Izuku had played distraction while Uraraka and Tsubaraba went higher and higher. When they spiked a piece of cement hard enough to create a small crater right behind him, Izuku had taken advantage of his stumble to tackle him to the ground. After that, Uraraka had gleefully floated the man up until they plopped him onto an air platform five stories up in the air, and he called "Uncle".
Again: his new friends were terrifying.
The exam had finally ended and the trio headed back, the others happily chattering about their point totals. "I think I got 54!" Uraraka declared cheerfully.
"I got 51," Tsubaraba boasted with a proud grin. "Midoriya, what'd you get?"
"I lost count around 40." That had been when he'd crashed into two robots at once, and the debris from them had skewered a third robot not too far away. He wasn't sure how that one would be counted, since it hadn't been intentional and someone else was fighting it at the time. "That one was before we took down Snipe though, so I guess I at least have 50?"
"Think we all got enough?" Tsubaraba asked, and Izuku shrugged.
"Probably? They don't really release the results to the public, so I don't know what the usual minimum score would be. But I mean, I feel like fifty is pretty high since the robot with the highest value was three points, and teachers are worth ten, so..."
"I think we have a really good chance!" Uraraka declared with a grin. "We took down so many robots, guys! We're an awesome team!"
"Heck yeah we are!" She and Tsuburaba high-fived and Izuku smiled, feeling some of his post-exam tension drain. He'd come into the exam feeling so anxious and worried about getting enough points, but now he felt more confident than he ever would have predicted. He'd found some new (terrifying) friends, had racked up an impressive number of points, and had even helped take down a Pro Hero! At this point he thought he might be surprised if he didn't make it into UA.
Unless his ego was just getting too big.
That depressing thought haunted him as they went to the first aid tents to get checked out. To his disappointment Recovery Girl wasn't there, but he didn't dwell on it long as the medical staff checked them over and gave them all a clean bill of health. Once they left and passed through the gates, the exhilaration and adrenaline from the exam wore off, and Izuku realized just how tired he was. Running around for twenty minutes straight and attacking robots had taken a lot out of him.
Clearly he wasn't the only one who felt that way. "I'm beat!" Uraraka declared. "I'm probably gonna just crash on the train home."
"I would too, but I'd probably miss my stop," Izuku commented.
"Yeah, well, I'm gonna pass out in my hotel room," Tsuburaba said, surprising them both into stopping.
"Wait, hotel?" Izuku asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah. I came here from Kagawa Prefecture, so it was either spend like six hours going home after the exam or get a hotel room." The information had Izuku jolting and his eyes going wide. Kagawa Prefecture was on Shikoku, a completely different island from Honshu. He knew students came from all over Japan for the entrance exam, but he didn't really realize just how literal that was until now.
"Lucky!" Uraraka said. "I live over in Okayama Prefecture, so we decided to just get a train ticket home." Okayama Prefecture was certainly closer than Kagawa and still on Honshu, but it was still in another region entirely than Shizuoka, which housed Musutafu and UA.
"Wow," Izuku breathed. "I got really lucky being born here, huh?"
"Oh, you're local?" Uraraka perked up at that. "Then if we all get in, you have to show us all the sights around here, Deku!"
"Yeah, you're the official tour guide!" Tsuburaba grinned, and Izuku felt flustered.
"Uh, s-sure, but there's not that much to see," he rambled anxiously, scratching the back of his neck. "Musutafu doesn't really have many super-unique sights or anything, I mean besides UA and the local hero agencies of course. Oh, but there's a couple museums I guess, so..."
"We're not talking about that!" Tsuburaba cut in. "I'm talking places to eat, places to train, the works!"
"Yeah! I want to know all the places only locals know about since I'd have to move here anyway!" Uraraka bobbed her head eagerly, grinning at him. "I'm counting you to show us all the best thrift shops if we get in!"
"Yeah, of course," Izuku agreed with a small smile, and felt the butterflies in his stomach settle a bit. He really hoped they all got in. It'd be nice to have some friends.
Not visible to Shinsou from a distance: Mineta's absolutely panicked expression.
Starting off 2021 the best way possible: a giant robot attack. Happy New Year! (Also if it's not obvious: Shinsou absolutely passed. Kid prevented a potential massacre and actually saved people's lives. No one got hurt more seriously than Izuku did in canon, which is why UA isn't getting sued into the ground.)