Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Vlad King's Green Bean
Chapter twenty-three: The provisional licence exams, part one
The remaining days of training came and went for the 1-A and 1-B students of UA. Soon enough, the day of the provisional licence exams had come. This saw the combined forty first hear hero course students from UA arrive at Takoba National Stadium. "...Wow," Izuku said as he looked in the direction of the stadium after getting off of the bus, "It's amazing."
Nirengeki nodded in agreement. "...This is where all of us will take the next step towards our dreams of becoming pro heroes."
Juzo looked around, surprised by the sheer number of students from various hero academies from all over Japan. "...Wow, look at all of these people. It's like they had come for a major anime convention like the ones Pony likes going to."
"The goal that everyone has here is far more important that an anime convention, Juzo," Itsuka spoke up as she walked up to the boys, "Everyone here came for the same goal, that being to earn their provisional hero licences." Folding her arms over her chest, Itsuka said in a mildly scolding tone, "You could take this more seriously, you know."
"I am taking this seriously," Juzo retorted, a hint of irritation in his tone, "I was just making a comparison relating to the sheer number of people here."
As the boys and Itsuka talked, they were met up by the other girls in 1-B. "Hey Itsuka," Reiko said, "Kinoko wants us to wish Class 1-A luck on the exams, given that we're all from UA."
"It's to show solidarity with our fellow schoolmates," Kinoko remarked.
Setsuna, with a knowing, toothy grin, slyly asked, "You sure it's not because you wanna wish Dynamite Boy's red-haired friend luck, Kinoko?"
As Kinoko lit up out of embarrassment, Izuku said, "Actually girls, wishing Class 1-A the best of luck on the exams is actually a good idea. Provided that Kan-sensei has no problem with it, I say the whole of our class do it." As it turned out, the Blood Hero had no issue with the show of solidarity between his students and Aizawa's, so he gave them the okay to do it. As such, Izuku and Itsuka led the rest of 1-B over to greet 1-A and wish them luck in the provisional licence exams.
...
By the time 1-B found 1-A, they saw an excitable looking male student from Shiketsu High School, another hero academy comparable to UA, leave with his classmates as 1-A looked on, many of which looked mildly weirded out and or confused. Seeing their chance, Izuku and Itsuka led their class over to see 1-A. "...Umm, what was that all about?" Izuku asked, getting 1-A's attention.
Tokoyami jerked his head in the direction of the departing Shiketsu students. "A fellow named Inasa gave the most confusing challenge to us that I've ever seen," said Tokoyami, "...At least I think that he was challenging us. I... wasn't quite sure what he was trying to do, to be honest."
"He's probably looking to strike up some fierce yet healthy competition," Itsuka remarked, "I've dealt with his kind before." Turning to fully face 1-A, Itsuka said, "While we're here, I'd like to say that we of Class 1-B wish you guys of Class 1-A the best of luck in the exams. We're from the same school after all, so it would be prudent to wish to see our fellow schoolmates do well."
Yaoyorozu smiled a bit in an appreciative manner. "Thanks, Kendo. Same from our class to yours."
Kinoko nodded once to the 1-A students. "I hope you all do well as well." The mushroom themed girl fidgeted a little bit as she blushed with embarrassment. "...Umm, especially you, Eijiro."
"Who are you talking about, Komori?" Jiro said, a confused look on her face, "There's no one in our class named Eijiro."
"Uhh, Jiro," Kaminari spoke up, "Eijiro is Kirishima's first name." Shrugging a little bit, Kaminari went on, "Even I knew that."
As Jiro blushed with embarrassment over flubbing like that, a mildly embarrassed Kirishima said to Kinoko, "Heh, thanks for the vote of confidence."
"You all are very good," Pony said to the 1-A students, "I'm confident you'll-"
"What are you all doing here?" Pony was cut off when she and everyone else heard Aizawa speak up. Sure enough, the underground hero came walking up to the scene, followed by Hizashi and a female pro hero who Izuku was able to identify as Ms. Joke. Aizawa gave the 1-B students a serious look. "Now's not exactly the time for you kids to exchange pleasantries," Aizawa said coolly to Sekijiro's students.
Gesturing to 1-A, Izuku said, "We were only trying to wish 1-A luck on the exams. You know, build solidarity between our classes since we're all from the same school."
"You kids under Sekijiro ought to be more worried about yourselves," Aizawa replied, his cool tone never changing, "My students are more than capable of handling themselves without well wishes from outside." Izuku's overall opinion of the underground hero took another dive, given that he's just shown that he doesn't want students from UA, the same school as his students, showing any concern for said students. There's nothing wrong with students under the same banner, regardless of what class they're in, showing support for one another, but Eraserhead seems to be of the opinion that his students don't need so much as a word of encouragement from anyone outside of their own class.
Thankfully, Hizashi and Ms. Joke were on Izuku's side on this. "Sho, there's really no harm in Sekijiro's students wishing good luck to your students. Green Bean there has a point on how they're all students of UA, so they all ought to try working on getting along well."
"There's no need to be a grumpy-frump, Shouta," Ms. Joke said, "Come on, they're all friends, aren't they?"
"...True," Aizawa admitted, "But my students can't always be relying on outside help. They need to learn to stand on their own." Aizawa then moved to lead 1-A towards Takoba National Stadium, with Hizashi and Ms. Joke following along.
As the group proceeded to move, Izuku and his classmates saw it that, surprisingly enough, Bakugo was hanging near the back, looking like he wanted to remain behind to say one last thing to 1-B. Izuku, knowing of the less than optimal history between him and Bakugo, was expecting the explosive teen to try tearing into him, to talk down to him and try to break what confidence he may have. However, Bakugo to Izuku's surprise didn't do anything like that. He didn't even do anything that would qualify as bullying in any capacity. All he said was one thing.
"...Sorry that my teacher interrupted you, Tsunotori."
Without another word, and without giving any of 1-B a chance to say anything, Bakugo quickly turned and left to go follow after the rest of his class. "...I was actually expecting him to try verbally tearing into you, dude," Juzo said to Izuku, "But instead all he did was apologize to Pony for how Aizawa-sensei had cut her off. That was... actually rather polite of him, all things considered."
Izuku nodded in agreement. Was Bakugo finally settling down from his vulgar, violent youth prior to high school and into a calmer, more mature young man now that he was at the high school level? Izuku hoped so, especially since it could very well be the bridge that finally will let Izuku become friends with Bakugo again. Izuku was also surprised that Bakugo was seemingly developing as a person under the unbearable, oppressive ass that was Aizawa, a man who basically told 1-B to take their well wishes towards 1-A and shove 'em.
The green-haired boy now had an even stronger than ever desire to stick it to the underground hero in any way.
Later, everyone had gathered inside of Takoba National Stadium. Izuku knew that things were going to be crowded since he got it that nearly five-thousand hero course students from the many hero academies all over Japan would all be there, but even so the green haired boy was surprised to find himself with barely any wiggle room as he stood in a variable sea of prospective heroes in training. Everyone soon turned their attention to the front of the large room they were all in as a tired looking man took to the podium that was on the stage in the large room with them.
The man opened his mouth as if to speak, but before he got one word out, he let out a tired yawn that lasted a few seconds. "...Sorry, I've been sleep deprived since the Hero Public Safety Commission has been working in overdrive following the incident in Kamino Ward," the man said, "But that's not important. Hello, students from Japan's many prestigious hero academies. I'm Yokumiru Mera, from the Hero Public Safety Commission. I'm here to explain to you all how the provisional licence exams will be working out. So pay attention, as you'll need to know all of this if you all want to get your provisional licences."
Holding up a strange looking ball, Mera began, "First off, you all will compete in a preliminary exam that is designed to whittle down the number of competing students. There's forty-eight hundred of you, and the preliminary exam is set so that only three-hundred of you will move on to the next part, which is the actual exam. As for said actual exam, that's where these balls come in." Holding up a small target, Mera went on, "Each of you will recieve six balls and three targets. You'll put the targets on yourselves in places that can be seen, so no covering targets up."
As all of the students listened, some frustrated that they were going to have to compete just to get to the actual exam, Mera continued, "The goal is to use the balls to hit targets on one another. A target will light up if hit by a ball, and if all three of your targets are lit up, then you're disqualified from the exams. The person who takes out your last target will get credit for taking you down. You need to take down two other students in order to progress to the next round." After that explanation, the balls and targets were handed out to all forty-eight hundred competing students.
...
After the long and lengthy process of allocating three targets and six balls each to the forty-eight hundred competing students, Mera took out a remote and pressed a button on it, causing the walls and even the roof to fall back, revealing that the room everyone was in was already in Takoba National Stadium's large and expansive arena, with varied terrains all over. As Mera and the others who were running the exam all got out of there before giving the competing students the okay to proceed, the teachers up in the stadium's bleachers were looking down to watch.
"...Normally," Ms. Joke began, getting Aizawa and Hizashi to turn to regard her, "There's something of a tradition at the provisional licence exams called 'The crushing of UA', where students from all of the other competing schools more or less gang up on students from UA, taking advantage of how the UA students showed off what they can do during the UA Sports Festival."
"But there was no UA Sports Festival this year," Aizawa pointed out, "Nezu canceled it due to the security breech made apparent by the attack on the USJ which resulted in the death of me and Hizashi's colleague Thirteen, as well as the deaths of five of my students. How will this 'Crushing of UA' work out, Emi?"
Ms. Joke, her proper name now revealed to be Emi, replied, "It won't. The students from the other schools are going in blind about what UA's brood this year can do, and vice-versa. As such, it'll more or less be every school for themselves."
The underground hero looked down into the arena, scanning like a hawk to find the UA students. Sure, it'll be convenient to not have literally every other school on UA's ass, but Aizawa still believed that his students can get through this on their own, without the help of Sekijiro's students. What's more is that they need to learn to stand on their own. Aizawa knew what was best, how to get the best possible results out of his students. They would be tested hard, both by the provisional licence exams, and by what all awaited them after that.
Once Mera and the others running the exam were cleared, the first step for the competing students to go on to become official pro heroes began in earnest.
In the stadium's arena, the competing students began going at it, trying to eliminate one another. Izuku, who was backed by Itsuka, quickly took charge and led 1-B around while they occasionally took out a few competing students from other schools. According to Itsuka, she heard rumor that these exams usually saw the other hero schools team up on UA to eliminate them, but even with the near five-thousand competing students, hardly anyone even focused on 1-B; same applied to 1-A when Pony saw it that 1-A was hardly being bothered by any of the other competing hero schools.
Some of the 1-B students even were able to score enough to pass to the next round; Togaru, Setsuna, and Jurota. Only Yui out of all of 1-B got hit on a target thus far, and only one target was lit up on her. It was thanks to Izuku's keen observational skills and ability to avoid trouble that allowed him and his fellow classmates to avoid as much danger as they had thus far. The fact that none of the other competing hero academies were focusing on eliminating UA despite the rumors that Itsuka had heard was also a rather considerable help to the effort 1-B was putting in to try to pass.
As 1-B was passing to a safe enough location, Izuku saw the Inasa guy from earlier on top of a building in the arena. Seeing him take aim at loads of students on the ground below him, the green haired boy figured that he was getting ready to use some mass AOE attack with his quirk. Additionally, nearby Izuku saw all of Class 1-A in a group. An idea began formulating in Izuku's mind as he began to put the pieces together. "...Kendo," Izuku said, "It looks like 1-A is going to run into some trouble if they aren't warned about it. I'm going to go rush on over and try leading them away."
Itsuka smirked a bit in amusement. "...It'll put a real bee in Aizawa-sensei's bonnet when he sees it that his students avoided trouble that they would have otherwise head right into because someone from out class warned them."
"...Yeah." Activating Full Cowling, Izuku said before rushing over, "...Eraserhead would prefer it that Class 1-A fends for themselves." The green haired boy then took off like a streak of green lightning, aiming right towards Class 1-A.
...
Over where Class 1-A was running around, trying to protect themselves from getting hit, Sero called out, "This is crazy! It's like a frenzied free for all down here!"
Bakugo threw a ball at a student from a different school, scoring a hit on one of their targets. "It's every school for themselves here!" Bakugo called back, "We ought to be worried about-"
"Hey, Class 1-A!"
Bakugo stopped short when he heard Izuku call out; he and the rest of his class turned to see it as Izuku sped up to them, small arcs of green lightning sparking off of him as lines of red glowed all over his form. "The hell you want, Deku?" Bakugo barked.
Izuku decided to ignore the taunting words from his childhood friend turned childhood bully for the time being; the green haired boy was more concerned with dealing with someone that he knew full well was a far larger jerk. "If you guys keep going straight, you'll run into a huge mess of students from other schools," Izuku said, "You'll be risking your targets if you keep going straight. I know a path that'll lead you all from danger, I saw it on the way here."
Kaminari smiled warmly at Izuku. "Wow, thanks for the heads up and the save!"
"You're a real bro, umm..." Kirishima said, then trailed off a bit, a bit of an embarrassed look on his face. "...What's your name again?"
"Izuku Midoriya," replied Izuku.
Kirishima then gave an amused smirk. "Imma call you Midori-bro." Izuku nodded in thanks to the red haired boy of 1-A for the warm feelings, warm feelings that he seldom was ever shown prior to UA.
Warm feelings that made him regret what he was about to do.
Without saying another word, Izuku turned around and then gestured for 1-A to follow him. The whole of 1-A proceeded to follow after Izuku. Even Bakugo trusted his favorite victim to lead him and the rest of 1-A to safety, trusting the green haired boy because he always knew him to be good. Only Shinso had any inkling of suspicion towards Izuku, suspicion sowed by how Aizawa-sensei seemed so untrusting of Izuku. Even so, Shinso had to agree with the notion that Izuku wouldn't knowingly, willingly, lead 1-A right into some manner of trap.
Izuku rounded a corner as Class 1-A followed him. He jumped straight up the side of the building they were going around, using as much of One For All as he can safely use via Full Cowling to speed up. After Class 1-A rounded the corner, they saw to their confusion that Izuku had disappeared. "Hey, where did Midoriya go?" Tokoyami asked, looking around in confusion as he had Dark Shadow out who was doing the same.
"...Damn nerd," Bakugo scoffed, "He probably sped off, forgetting that not all of us can move that fast to-"
*WOOOOOSH*
Bakugo was cut off when he and the rest of 1-A got caught up in a massive gust of wind, like a tornado sort of, that also caught up many of the other competing students from other schools. They were all thrown for a wild ride, and looking around some of the 1-A students saw that balls from everyone caught up in the massive gust of wind were also flying about in the tornado. A student from one of the other competing schools swore loudly as the balls caught up in the large gust of wind began to fly around and hit a lot of the caught up students in the large gust of wind.
...
Outside of the large tornado gust of wind, Inasa from Shiketsu stood on the building in front of the wind-whipped chaos. Inasa himself was responsible for said chaos, using his quirk to catch up as many students from competing schools as possible. "Ah ha ha!" Inasa laughed, "Yes! This is how it ought to be! This is true competition! This is-"
Inasa was cut off when he sensed someone rush up the side of the bulding he stood on to his left. Turning his head, Inasa saw Izuku, who had none of his targets lit up, crackling with green electricity sparks and lines of red glowing power all over his body, as he took aim at Inasa with some of his balls. Due to controlling a massive gust of wind, Inasa wasn't able to exactly move to avoid taking hits, so he was a sitting duck as the green haired boy quickly threw some of his balls at Inasa, throwing them out quickly and with the skill of an adept ninja throwing some ninja stars.
*Thoom* *Thoom* *Thoom*
With perfect accuracy, Izuku hit all three of Inasa's targets while his tornado was still up, meaning the judges couldn't tell how many of the competing students within might have gotten all of their targets struck. Inasa, realizing that he had just been eliminated, sunk to his knees, a look of dawning despair forming on his face. "And it looks like Inasa Yoarashi of Shiketsu has been eliminated!" a commentator sitting next to Mera in a commentator's booth called out, "A darn shame too, because Inasa's big gust move looks like it might have taken out some other students. We can't count those since we couldn't accurately read things with all of the wind going on, but the wind's settling down now, so let's see how well Inasa would have- Oh my goodness! Inasa had eliminated one-hundred and forty-two other students!"
Indeed, down in the arena, a mass number of students from various hero academies laid on the ground, all of their targets having been lit up thus eliminating all of them from the provisional licence exams. Even though it can't be counted for credit since Inasa was eliminated before an accurate reading could have been obtained, there was still no denying that Inasa's feat of single-handedly eliminating one-hundred and forty-two other competing students (something that Mera had noted was an all-time record) with just one move was nothing short of impressive. However, the one-hundred and forty-two students that Inasa had eliminated probably wouldn't agree with that sentiment.
Especially all of UA's Class 1-A, which were among that count of one-hundred and forty-two.
Over in the bleachers, Aizawa, Hizashi, and Emi all looked surprised to see all of Aizawa's students getting eliminated all at once. "...Yeesh," Hizashi said, "Umm, sorry about all twenty of your students getting disqualified from the provisional licence exams, Sho."
"Ooh, that's gotta sting," Emi said, sounding sympathetic about the serious blow that Aizawa had just suffered. Turning her attention to the underground hero himself, Emi said, "I hope that-"
"...That ornery little bastard."
Emi, as well as Hizashi, were confused by Aizawa's comment, so they followed his line of sight. Eventually, the saw Izuku looking directly right at them. Or rather, looking that way at Aizawa. They saw the green haired boy looking at them for barely a second before he turned and hopped off the roof, speeding down it with his quirk and disappearing out of sight. But they still got the general idea; Izuku was clearly trying to spite Aizawa somehow, and might have even deliberately played a hand in the disqualification of all of Class 1-A.
...Well, if Izuku was trying to spite the underground hero, it was clearly working. "...He did it on purpose," Aizawa growled, "He got all of my students eliminated from the provisional licence exams on purpose."
"...Well to be fair, Sho," Hizashi began, "You have kind of been giving Sekijiro's students free pass to piss on your shoes. Hell, I'm sort of getting the vibe from some of your own students that they'd similarly like to do something to spite you."
Aizawa steamed as, in spite of the sheer number of competing students, things were close to winding down to the three-hundred needed to move on to the next round. Further to Aizawa's annoyance, all of Sekijiro's students had passed; Aizawa had no doubt that the Blood Hero was going to want to rub it in his face that all of his students made it past round one while none of 1-A did. "...The fact that Midoriya would willingly do something like that," Aizawa droned, "Makes him all the more suspect that he might be-"
"Might be what, Eraserhead?"
Aizawa, as well as Hizashi and Emi, all jumped in surprise when they heard a male voice none of them were familiar with speak up from behind where the three of them sat. They jumped up out of their seats and turned, shocked to see that they had been snuck up on by three members of the League of Villains; Spinner who had spoken up, Magne, and Gentle Criminal. The lizardman villain stood in a stance for battle, aiming his katana's tip right at Aizawa's face.
"The League of Villains!" Aizawa exclaimed, then suddenly he and the others heard some panicked shouting. Down in the arena, all of the exits leading out of the arena were being sealed off one by one, and the mass number of competing students from the various hero academies all across Japan, regardless if they had been taken out of the exams or not, were behind held up by a rapidly growing swarm of Twice clones. The underground hero turned to look back at the three villains confronting him, Emi, and Hizashi. "So, you guys came to attack one of the stadiums set up for the provisional licence exams," Aizawa said dryly in a bemused tone as he, Emi, and Hizashi all got ready to fight, "I guess that the HPSC's ploy to try to distract you guys failed because you guys had made a lucky guess on Takoba National Stadium."
"Actually Eraserhead," Magne spoke up, "Our sources told us that the other two venues were set up as decoys to try to force Dabi to divvy up what little forces we have. We knew in advance that Takoba National Stadium was the place to be."
Hizashi took a step forward. "So that random idea that I had about there being a spy in UA, an idea that I'm being honest here I had more or less pulled out of my ass, is actually true."
Shrugging, Gentle said, "Maybe, maybe not. But that's besides the point."
"What are you here for, villains?" Emi demanded.
"Simple," Spinner said, "To kill as many of the people here who are members of the HPSC as possible. That will send the message that not even the red tape-snorting gods who lord over hero society in Japan are safe from the League of Villains." Spinner inched his stance forward a bit. "It's an important job according to Dabi, hence why all of the League of Villains is getting in on it. Even Dabi himself, even Nagant who stated a personal interest in taking some HPSC heads. I think she's going to want to take aim at the head of that Mera fellow, he's the highest ranking HPSC member here."
Aizawa, Hizashi, and Emi were in a tight spot. The League of Villains were attacking Takoba National Stadium to interrupt the provisional licence exams. They also said that they knew ahead of time that only Takoba would be hosting actual exams, that the other two venues were decoys meant to try to force Dabi to divvy up their forces; that confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was indeed a spy in UA. But that was a point that could be explored later, as the villains were now in the middle of attacking a stadium full of hero academy students, with some forces even confronting all of the hero academy staff members in the bleachers, as Aizawa and his companions saw when they spotted more Twice clones confronting the others in the bleachers.
Spinner had said that the whole of the League of Villains was here; that included Dabi, the leader of the League of Villains. Spinner had also mentioned Lady Nagant, the ex-hero who was sprung from Tartarus and is now working under Dabi. A former hero now villain like Nagant was a serious boon to Dabi's villainous efforts, especially as she apparently has a stated personal vested interest in shooting the heads of any HPSC member that she came across; she had killed one in the act that had signified her defecting from hero society, so it wasn't a surprise that Nagant would be gunning for more HPSC heads. As he prepared to fight the villains before him with Hizashi and Emi, Aizawa thought that there was no way that the attack on Takoba National Stadium could possibly get any worse.
A loud and monstrous inhuman roar sounded out in the distance, being heard by all in Takoba National Stadium.
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Author's notes;
This chapter sees everyone arrive at Takoba National Stadium for the provisional licence exams. After Aizawa more or less tells Class 1-B off for trying to be friendly towards Class 1-A, he gives Izuku more reason than ever to want to spite him. Which he did by, to his regret, leading Class 1-A into a trap that got them knocked out of the exams by Inasa. As Aizawa, Hizashi, and Emi see that, they're suddenly confronted by Spinner, Gentle, and Magne of the League of Villains, who knew ahead of time that Takoba was the venue to strike.
After they had more or less confirmed the 'spy in UA' theory, the League of Villains' attack began in earnest, with many Twice clones pestering the people in the bleachers, and everyone down in the arena being confronted by more Twice clones as the exits begin sealing up one by one. And then the roar of Dabi's bodyguard sounds out, setting new fear into the hearts of the pro heroes at the stadium. They can't be blamed for that, given that there's potential for a cataclysmic attack that will make even the results from the Battle of Kamino Ward look tame.