Chapter 17:

One thing I noticed, is that the deaths weren't mentioned a lot. It was like they were swept under the rug, not to be remembered.

"Why?" I wondered. Maybe they wanted the people to think that with the raid everything was solved, or something like that, not wanting people to remember their giant failing. Which was fair, I would have done the same, but I expected more from UA, but I imagine that they want to milk this situation for all of it's worth, the recent change in the heroes' image thanks to All Might, and they don't want to ruin it by reminding us of the deceased.

It turned out that again, I was stupid to have thought that my classmates would be angry at me, it was long forgotten and they didn't appear to resent me, especially after seeing All for One's battle against All Might. It still amazed me just generally how "good" my classmates were as people.

It was in the evening that I went down to have dinner, when the girls approached everyone with the idea of having a contest around who has the best room. It was a decent waste of time, so I decided to participate, at least to satisfy my curiousity about the rooms of others'.

Mine was the first room to be judged, leaving behind a pretty lackluster impression. With it's pale yellow walls, the only things standing out where the whiteboard and the gaming PC, for which my barbarians of classmates held no appreciation.

We went through all the other rooms, everyone bringing what was expected of them, with no surprises along the way. Well, Sato surprised me with his cunning, when he used all his baked goods to manipulate the girls, but otherthan that, nothing exempliary.

After that, voting was done, which Sato won thanks to his cake. It irritated me that it wasn't about the design itself, it felt like he bribed the girls instead of winning thanks to his sense of internal decoration, which was what the competition was all about.

I always hated it when I competed without cheating, only for someone else to win for a ridiculous reason like this. It just felt like my work had gone to waste only because somebody didn't want to actually compete, so he came up with an alternative answer which was lazy most of the time, and just because it was funny or something it won over the others' works, even though those were better from a technical standpoint, which was the only thing that mattered in a fair competition. Hell, if I wanted to cheat, I could just go and get some drugs, get the smoke in the air, that would make people appreciate my room the most.

The first night in the dorm I couldn't sleep. I wasn't surprised, it was always a problem with me of not being able to sleep somewhere other than home. In the bed, I just kept turning around, not willing to turn on the computer, since I was sure that UA were monitoring us at least a bit, watching when were our computers turned on. Okay, they probably didn't, just my paranoia again, but still, I didn't want to play, then lose, and let out one of those really nice curses that I kept just for those times.

As a result of my lack of sleep, in the morning when it was time to brush teeth, I was pretty grumpy, and decided to play a little harmless prank on my classmates to cheer myself up.

We were in front of the mirrors, all of my fellow males brushing their teeth. I looked at my toothbrush, and acted like I just decided to not do it. I looked closely in the mirror, and out of nowhere, I hit myself in the face so hard that my entire head broke down. I rebuilt it, and in the mirror my new perfectly clean teeth could be seen. I looked around, and looked at the others' shocked faces like "What are you looking at?", I acted like what I did was completely normal. It was hilarious.

The breakfast was edible, I just ate everything without looking at any of it, I wasn't in the mood for "breakfast", since that included conversation with other people, so I just acted like a robot who was doing nothing else than getting in the daily nutrition.

In the class, Aizawa told us that we'll focus on getting our provisional licenses, and because the exam was very hard, we were required to make at least two ultimate moves, for which he invited three more teachers in order for everyone to have enough help, those three being Cementoss, Ectoplasm and Midnight. The process itself was to be done in Gym Gamma, after the introduction we changed into our hero clothes.

In the gym he gave us a speech about how heroes should know to do a lot of things, and we should be able to do them in any environment. With an ultimate move, we should have the advantage, that was their purpose. He added the part that we had 10 days in order to develop one, until the start of the next semester.

I already had an idea for mine. I remembered, and rewatched the footage of my fight with Shoto, and when I lost control I covered the entire arena in a layer of void, being able to restrain anyone there. This was a good one, that I called "Minefield". This move was hard, because it required me to create a lot of void, and control it from a distance greater than what I did ever before. I started in the shape of a circle, with a radius of 10 meters. Just creating it wasn't that difficult, however actually using it as a trap proved to be more challenging.

First off, I tried not actually looking at it, and using it as an enhancment of my senses. It proved hard, but it was manageable. Now, actually building spikes out of it was harder. I wanted it to be an almost automatic reaction, whenever I felt someone move in the Minefield spikes would spring up, and while I was training they were lethal, that problem was going to be fixed later.

By the end of the first day, I could create a circle with a maximum radius of 15 meters, for the people in it the void should feel like mud, and the spike response time was around 1 second. Overall, not bad.

This was by far my favorite part of it all. Designing ideas, creating prototypes. Sigh. Then came polish. Boring, repetitive, small improvements.

At the 5 day mark, I was able to create a circle with a radius of 50 meters, 60 if I really concentrated, and I decided that it was time to work on my second ultimate move.

As the first one, the second was also supposed to help me with my biggest problem: range. Until I was able to properly use the fear inducing attacks, all I had was shape manipulation.

Now previously during my internship, I designed a prototype in the shape of a harpoon, however it was way too big, so if I successfully landed it in somebody, I'm not sure they would be able to stand up, and as long as there are other people there I can't create corpses, I still didn't have any opportunity to use the invaluable skills Corrosive thaught me in that area.

And just when I wanted to start, Class B had to come, saying that it was their turn to use the training area, and developing my newest technique had to be delayed.

Before the day of the provisional hero license exam I remembered how much Corrosive's advice helped with the UA exams, so I called him again:

"Oi Corrosive!"

"Doppo, what do you need now?"

"Why do you instantly assume I need something? Can't I just have a quick chat with my favorite pro hero?"

"No you can't. Every time since the end of the internship, if you called it was for help."

"Even the time when the others wanted to go and defeat the villains alone?"
"Even then, since you asked for the help of authority. Now, I ask again, what do you need?"

"Tomorrow is the provisional hero license exam, some advice would be nice."

"Well, I imagine it would,and while it's different every year there's something that always happens: Due to revealing your quirks in the Sports Festival, UA students are targeted first most of the time by the other students, and also, never forget the old saying "If you want something done well, you have to do it yourself."Good luck."

"Thanks, I'll make sure not to leave corpses."

It was the day of the provisional hero license exam, with everyone being nervous after having gotten of the bus, standing in front of the building in which the exams will take place.

Outside, we met the Shiketsu High School students, the school they came from being the only one able to compete with UA.

There were four of them, 2 boys, 1 girl and one whose gender I couldn't confirm, but I was pretty sure he was a boy as well. The one who got the most attention was someone named Inasa Yoarashi, as Aizawa told us, last year he tried to enter UA, and he had the highest score through recommendations, but turned the acceptance down, so now he was doing his first year in Shiketsu. He appeared overenthusiastic, and even taller than Iida, however his physical qualities weren't eye-catching. Among the other three, the girl had long blond hair, the boy had short light purple hair, with one of his eyes being covered, while also having a mask on his face, visible on the right side. The last one was completely covered in fur, so I couldn't get any details about them. All of them wore the Shiketsu High School hat proudly.

We also met Ms. Joke, a pro hero who knew Eraser Head, along with the class she was teaching in Ketsubetsu Academy. They were much friendlier than the Shiketsu students, way too friendly if you ask me. Thankfully Aizawa quickly put a stop to it, and told us to go and change into our costumes.

All of us contenders were in a single giant room, in the front there was a man who looked like Aizawa with gray hair in a gray suit. He introduced himself as Mera from the Heroes Public Safety Comission (HPSC for short). He looked like he shared his sleep schedule with Aizawa, even mubled about it a bit, but after a couple sentences he was able to focus enough and actually start the speech he was supposed to give. He didn't stretch it out, he flat-out told us that it was basically a giant battle-royale.

He told us that in this modern world we had to be fast as heroes in order to resolve problems in time, so in the first test only the first 100 participants who finish will go to the next round.

He then told us about the exercise itself: All participants will have three targets on their bodies, on exposed spaces. Everyone also had six balls. If the targets were hit by the balls, they would light up, and if all three were shining you would be out. The person who lights up the third target gets you as their "kill", and to get into the next round you had to get two "kills".

I immediately began thinking about a strategy: I can just put them on my arms, then transform so they'll be swallowed along with my clothes. Then, trap people and with the balls in my arms touch the targets, since I had terrible aim in real life. Because they never said that you can only use a ball once, it meant that I could just integrate two into my arms, and keep using them.

When he finished, the whole auditorium just opened like a giant box, revealing that we were in a giant test arena with multiple artificial locations. After we got the balls and the targets, we were told that we had one minute until the next round started. I wanted to run to the forest area, since that was the perfect for the ambush I had in mind. It was like this exercise was custom-made for Minefield, which I modified to be able to create vines not just spikes.

However, then I thought about teams, and realized that most people would team up with their schoolmates, and target other school factions, with UA being in the worst spot thanks to revealing our quirks during the Sports Festival.

No matter how good I am, going into a 1v5 situation where I have to stay non-lethal would not have been smart, so I decided to stay with my classmates.

"We need to stay together, people will play in teams." I quickly took a leading role. "We should get to better cover quickly, to the factory area." Others followed, since multiple times before I proved the effectiveness of my plans.

We were almost there before the game started, but just as the announcer spoke, balls rained down on us, Ketsubetsu students thinking they already won. Oh how wrong they were, thanks to the intensive training, we blocked each and every one of them, I created two great shields from my arms, not yet using full transformation.

Their first attack failing, they tried using their measly quirks on us, unsuccessfully. Their leader however, actually had something up his sleeve, successfully creating a giant earthquake.

I quickly got out from under the rubble, only to see that we were split up. Well, plan B then, going solo and hiding the weak spots. I fully transformed, my clothes and everything else on me being sucked into the void that now made up my body. Instead of creating any animal-like shape however, I turned into my normal self, except I was from void. The perfect strategy, now I can't be hit at all.

It didn't take long for the Ketsubetsu students to find me, there must have been at least eight of them.

"Isn't that the one who won the sports festival?" I heard as they spotted me. I didn't waste time however, and using a grappling hook-like arm mode, I quickly got close to them, not caring about the balls that they were throwing at me.

As I landed right next to the first one, a boy with a black outfit along with long black hair, with a large red scarf to top it off. I just hit him with one of my balls in his stomach a couple of times, since he put all of the targets in the same place.

The others looked at me fearfully, realizing their situation, being in a disadvantage against me since they were not able to get through my "armor" in order to hit the targets. I wasn't going to let them go however, and using a quick Minefield I bound all of them, with strong vines around their necks they weren't able to oppose me as I knocked all of them out of the game.

A notification was sent, telling me to go to the waiting room, and so there I went.

When I entered, I saw that already a lot of people were there, a lot of whom about I didn't know much, but I spotted Shoto sitting on a chair and waiting like he was at the train station.

"Were you ambushed too?" I asked, trying to pass the time with a conversation.

"Yes." well that conversation was more deep than what phylosophy professors had at Oxford.

Nothing interesting happened for a while, I tried to scout the opposition but their costumes didn't give many hints most of the time. After a while, I saw the three man team of Momo, Shoji and Tsuyu arrive.

"Only you two passed?" asked Momo, while Tsuyu commented "I didn't expect any less."

Uraraka, Sero, Kaminari and Kirishma came almost at the same time, maybe they formed a team. Or not, as I later learned, since they were in two separate teams and only met near the entrance.

Just as the first phase ended, the last ones to go get into the second round were the rest of our classmates. Everyone cheered, well, everyone from UA at least.

In the waiting room, the announcer told us to watch the upcoming video carefully. So we did.

It looked like the arena was attacked by villains or something, as building blew up and began to crumble. They told us that the next phase will be the last one, where we'll have to perform rescue exercises in the newly created disaster site. They even put people in there, who specialized training in order to be optimal in-need-of-rescue operators. We will get rescue points assigned to us, and if we get more than what the benchmark requires then we'll pass. Simpe enough, now how should I do it?

The question was, if everyone was worth the same amount of points, or if it differed based on age, or difficulty of rescue. In the case of the latter, I could go and help people out from under the rubble, earning a lot more points, but otherwise I would just waste my time with them.

I didn't get any answers for that, but the test started, and not wasting time I began to run to the rescue site. This wasn't the same type of competition, teamwork was much more valuable here, so I began thinking about possible combinations. I remembered one of my earlier ideas, the same one that I told Iida and Ochaco during the Sports Festival, and not just them, but if I thought about the entire class then the possible combinations were endless:

"Everyone! I got an idea." I told my classmates, once we got farther from the main group. They listened, since my ideas were still great, despite the last one not working completely as intended, since that wasn't my fault.

"We should set up a main area where we treat the people temporarily, Yaoyorozu, you can create medical supplies, you're the temporary doctor.

We should create a couple of smaller teams, each with people with scouting abilities, along with people who have abilities that can get people out of under the rubble:

Team 1: Todoroki and Asui, you should go towards the river, thanks to the frog quirk you can help there a lot, plus with the fire heat up anyone who got small temperatures.

Team 2: Koda and Ashido, you should use animals to find people then get them out with acid.

Team 3: Iida and Uraraka, you go the farthest, Uraraka can make people light enough so Iida can quickly move between the camp and the rescue zone.

Team 4: Minoru and Sato, Minoru can look into small spaces from where Sato can rescue people.

Team 5: Kaminari and Kirishma, with lighting you can generate light to see people under the rubble, and Kirishma can get them out.

Team 6: Shoji and Ojiro, Shoji with your arms you can look for victims and try to hear them, Ojiro you can use your tail to support them.

Team 7: Fumikage and Sero, you are the support squad, giving more power wherever it's needed." I was really proud of myself for those team compositions, I just let my inner commander take over and handle things, and it turned out very well!

I was about to go and help Yaoyorozu set up a safe space, but before I could do it, I heard a giant explosion coming from one of the walls, with smoke already rising as I turned in that direction.

"There has been an unexpected terrorist attack!" I heard from the speakers, but I was already gliding towards the source in order to combat it.

As I landed, I saw that the one who came out was none other than Gang Orca, the No. 10 hero. I knew, that without losing control or preparing I didn't have a great chance at defeating him, but delaying him until reinforcements arrive was well within my reach. I took on the same bear-like form that I used against the muscle-villain in the forest, making myself even bigger, and my paw-blades even sharper.

As I was running towards him people were running towards me, but I swatted them away like they were nothing but insignificant flies.

I ran into Gang Orca, who wasn't caught unprepared, and returned my push with one that had similar strength. I realized that simple brute force wasn't going to cut it, so I switched to some of the martial-arts I learned during the internship.

I only got a couple hits in, before he pushed me very strongly, and used a wave attack at me, that I remembered had the purpose to paralyze his opponents. It didn't quite have the intended effect on me, lessening my control over my body, making it more liquid-y and free-moving. I still had control, but a couple of those wave attacks could easily make me go berserk, which would be a death-sentence in such a populated area.

I had to react swiftly however, I couldn't let him reach the civilians, so instead of spending a lot of time with gathering my thoughts I jumped in front of him again, trying to stab him in the stomach. He was surprised, but not enough to let the attack through, and caught my paws. The blades still cut into his hands however, so he didn't escape without injury.

It looked like he was angered by the wound, and with even more power he pushed me, along with another wave attack. I went back at least 5 meters, and it took me more than a second to gather myself together properly, trying to stabilize my control. Thankfully, Gang Orca wasn't able to attack me during that window of opportunity, since he was occupied by Shoto, who was continuously generating ice crystals, but they were continuously broken by the ultrasonic attack.

Suddenly, all the ice crystals broke, along with all of the minions losing their foothold, when a giant whirlwind appeared, being generated by that Yoarashi guy who turned down his UA acceptance letter.

Shoto switched to his fire, and attempted an attack with that, but it was blown away by Yoarashi's wind attack. They began arguing, just there, during combat, in front of the "villains". I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth however, and instead of going back as a bear I went into my puddle form, and turned myself into the Minefield, with which I was able to capture almost all of the minions, though sadly Gang Orca himself jumped away from me. I was able to properly immobilize the grunts however, cutting into their muscles with spikes just like how I did it with Eraser Head.

Seeing that my plan was found out, I reformed my body, this time I morphed into a lion, and began running towards him, while cancelling Minefield in the process, since it wasn't needed anymore. I was running towards him, he saw me no doubt, but I had a trick up my sleeve, my second ultimate move: Harpoon! I opened my mouth, and from the inside I shot a harpoon right at him, but his surprise wasn't enough to stop him from trying to block it with the ultrasonic attack, but this was reinforced void, the one I had been working on and the piece that was missing before. It was the technique that I first used during the cavalry battle, then later refined during pain tolerance training, being able to sharpen & harden the void much faster, so instead of losing cohesion from the attack it just lost the extra sharpness, and he got hit in his shoulder. It wasn't a deep cut, almost all the momentum has been lost, but this attack wasn't about killing in one hit. It was about infecting the target. Once I was connected to them, once I had an entrance to their body through wounds, void could be channeled inside like how I originally did it with the Nomu during the USJ incident. It wasn't a very pretty move, but it was effective. I pushed through more void, and the harpoon enlarged and came out the other part of his shoulder.

I didn't expect him to react that fast, but he was still a pro hero, so I shouldn't have been that surprised when he used his waves on the cable connecting the harpoon to me, and after it was destroyed the unconnected void that was in his shoulder lost cohesion.

He stood there, and unexpectedly, a giant inferno made out of wind and fire entrapped him, made by Shoto and Yoarashi, bot of whom were shot with the cement cannons that the minions carried. Somehow, they managed to work together, and create this impromptu combination attack.

Gang Orca wasn't the number 10 hero for nothing however and with a giant ultrasonic waves attack, he completely put out the flames along with stopping the wind that was powering it.

"Well?! What's next?!" he asked, like he was in a boxing arena. For him, this situation probably had the seriousness of that anyways.

I charged up another harpoon, and shot it before he could properly regain his footing, however he was prepared now and with a big burst made it lose cohesion.

Thankfully, at that point we heard the "BRRRR!" sound that signalled the end of the exam.

AN: I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter, the parts where Doppo comes up with different strategies are always the most fun to write.

I'm also very satisfied with the fight scene against Gang Orca, I feel like I managed to convey what I had in mind really well.

Also, with this chapter we broke the 50k barrier! Wohoo, we're halway to 100k, which is my eventual goal with this fic, and we still have the rest of the third season left, along with the fourth plus the manga after that, so there's plenty of material to write from.