The second test had just started for the Provisional License Exam. Just like the first test, the examinees were thrust into a sudden situation. But now instead of competing against each other, they were going to have to do their best to save as many lives as possible in a mock rescue.
Daiki kept the words of Daisuke, the person giving them announcements, fresh in her mind. 'They mentioned points, but they didn't say exactly how we would be scored. In that case, all we can do is rely on our training and hope for the best.' She looked at the rest of her classmates as they ran. "Let's start by going to the closest urban area. We're going to need to work as a team as much as possible."
Nobody had any arguments so they followed Sarah's lead. But all of them couldn't help feeling how real this destructive scenery felt. "Even for a mock disaster, this is pretty crazy." Alicia said.
As they ran, Hikari's ears twitched. "Hang on guys. I think I hear someone." she told them. She pointed over towards a collapsed building. "That way!"
The class ran together in the direction Hikari pointed towards. As they got closer to the ruined building, others among them began to hear what sounded like cries for help too. When they finally arrived, they saw what appeared to be a small child crying.
"Help! My grandpa! He's been crushed!"
"Oh no!" Jill exclaimed as they came up to the kid. "He looks hurt! Where's your grandpa?!"
In an instant, the child's expression took a complete 180 turn as he looked at Jill with a disapproving expression. "What the hell was that?! Minus points!"
"... Wait what?" Fiona questioned, equally stunned like the rest of her class.
The "child" continued to criticize them. "First of all, you need to check if I can walk! On top of that, my breathing was weird too, wasn't it?! And do you not see the blood coming from my head?! Those with provisional licenses need to be able to take in the condition of their victims right away and be able to act!"
The reality of the situation quickly dawned on Class 1-C. 'The members of the HUC are going to be the ones scoring us?!'
"This exercise will show just how much you've trained!" he told them. "You need to look all around you and pay attention!"
Sakura looked at her classmates. "He's right. We need to treat this like a real disaster. In a situation like this, until the police and firefighters arrive, heroes are the ones that need to assume authority and get a handle on the situation."
"And that's not all." the HUC member added. "In a disaster like this, we the victims will be scared out of our minds. You need to take that into consideration. If you don't deal with the victims in a clam and reassuring manner, then it's only going to make them panic more."
The classmates all looked to each other and shared a collective nod. They had to get their act together if they planned on passing.
"I'll carry him out of here." Fujino said, lifting the boy up into her arms. "My Quirk isn't going to be of much use in rescuing. Besides, I've had the least training here."
None of them wanted to be rude and say it outright, but Fujino was right. They were going to need to divide and conquer into what they each would be best suited for.
"Fiona and I will go towards the lake area." Dan said. "We'll be able to get people out from there quickly."
"I'll go too." Shiro suggested.
"No, your strength may come in handy here if we need to move fallen debris and wreckage." Sarah said.
The class began to split into groups as they each headed where they could help the most. From the stands, Yamagori watched things unfold.
'In an exercise like this, experience is what counts the most. Those kids are going to be at a disadvantage compared to the second and third years that have had way more time learning about this stuff.'
As they moved around, Alicia, Sarah, Shiro, and Kenta came up to another building where they heard cries for help. This time, it was an old man trapped deep in the building with a lot of debris around him.
"Looks like I'm up. I'll move the stuff around him right away." Shiro said.
"Wait a second Shiro." Sarah told him as they came to a halt. "Look around. There's a lot of debris around him. If we move it carelessly, it could cause the whole thing to collapse."
Shiro widened his eyes. "Crap, you're right."
Sarah looked towards the ninja hero with them. "Kenta, can you dive into the shadows and move around in there to give us an idea of his situation?"
Kenta silently nodded his head and did just that. Alicia got herself ready to help as well. "Once he's done, I'll use my Quirk to illuminate the area and make it easier to see."
"Can you really do that?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah. I'm able to charge up sunlight around my hands to make more powerful blasts to fire off. But as long as I just keep it clustered and don't shoot it out, it should basically act as a flashlight."
"That's perfect." Sarah told her. "Once Kenta surveys the area inside and Shiro moves the debris safely, I'll count on you to give me light to teleport in and reach him."
"Got it."
Elsewhere, in the lake zone, Dan and Fiona arrived and saw a few people floating on debris in the water. The two dove in and began swimming to the victims. Although Fiona was the only one between the both of them that had no trouble breathing underwater, Dan was able to get around that issue by using his Quirk to make a bubble around his head.
After taking a quick assessment of their victims' condition, the two students began moving them back to dry land. Seconds after they got there, a few other students showed up.
"How are things here?" one of them asked.
"We're still searching for any more possible people that need to be rescued, but for now if you could help these ones while we look that would be great." Dan told them.
"I have a fire quirk. I can burn up some wood to warm them up." one of the students said.
"We'll go gather the wood then. There's plenty of trees around here." another one told him.
Near the edge of the field, students were already starting to make an evacuation area and first aid shelter. By the time Fujino arrived with the boy she was carrying, things were already well underway. A triage had been set up and examinees were already taking a look at victims that had been brought already.
'They're acting like they've been doing this their whole lives. It goes to show just how much of a difference experience can make.'
Fujino hurried over to the makeshift first aid shelter. One of the examinees there came to her as she neared the area. "Let me see that boy."
"Right." Fujino said as she nodded and handed the victim over. "He seems to have hurt his head, but overall it's nothing too serious. He responds clearly to questions too."
"Understood. I'll take him from here."
With the victim delivered, Fujino began hurrying back into the disaster area. If she couldn't help with freeing the victims, then she had to do everything she could to make up for that.
It was true that she was the underdog here. The one with the least experience. But she had something pushing her forward that the rest of the examinees didn't. As Yamagori had told her, Paradise would likely go after her again in the near future. Of course she wanted to be able to protect herself and fight back when that time came. But if it was true that Paradise had her mother, then she needed her provisional license all the more to allow her to fight back.
If Paradise came for her, then she'd make them regret everything they had done to her and her mother.
As Fujino ran back to the city, she passed by Marcus, who was carrying another one of the victims himself.
"Hey. Where're the others?" Fujino asked.
"They headed that way." Marcus said, pointing towards the distance. "Hurry on over there. I'll catch up after I bring this one to the first aid station."
"Got it."
With that short exchange, the two classmates continued running and split up for now. Marcus brought the HUC member he had been carrying to the first aid station and gave a brief run down of the victim's condition.
Just as Marcus began heading back out to save more people however, a sudden blast came from the wall of the field, not far away from the first aid and evacuation stations. Everyone turned towards the wall of the field, wondering what was happening. More explosions occurred throughout the field, causing the ground to shake. All of the examinees began wondering what was going on. But for those at the shelters, they got their answer in the worst way possible.
Emerging from the new hole in the wall at the edge of the field was the pro hero Ryukyu. And a large number of people at her side with similar black bodysuits and odd blaster-type weapons on their right arms.
An announcement sounded over the intercom. "What a shocking twist! Villains have appeared and started their pursuit! Hero candidates at the scene are expected to continue rescue efforts while also suppressing the villains! Can they handle the challenge?!"
Marcus and the others widened their eyes. Not only did they have to search around for the victims of the terrorist attack, they now had to fight off villains while doing so. And to top it all off, their opponent was Ryukyu, one of the top heroes in the entire country.
Up in the stands, Yamagori tensed up as she watched the situation unfold. 'Even for a pro, a situation like this would be difficult. Going this far for the provisional license… the committee must be really serious about improving the quality of pro heroes.'
Ryukyu wasted no time in transforming into her dragon form. "Now, what will you do heroes?! Can you hold us back before we destroy your precious rescue shelter?!"
Marcus quickly activated his Quirk and brought out his talons. "Hurry and move the shelters away from here! I'll buy you some time!"
Despite his claim, Marcus wasn't entirely sure just how much time he could buy. Not only was he vastly outnumbered, but at the head of the group was Ryukyu, a hero with overwhelming strength that he knew of first hand. Against an enemy like this, could he really hold them off long enough for the others to get away?
The mock villain group all moved towards the makeshift triage that the examinees had set up. As the distance between them and Marcus closed, they took the weapons on them and fired off some kind of liquid blast. Marcus dodged the first wave of them, noticing that once the projectiles hit the ground they quickly hardened.
'This stuff is like concrete. If I get hit by that, it'll completely immobilize me.'
Marcus sped to the soldiers and shoved his fist into the gut of the first one he got to. He continued to dodge the barrage of blasts, taking them down one by one. But it was taking almost everything he had just to avoid getting hit by the blasts.
As Marcus knocked out another mock villain, he was blindsided by a large tail that slammed into him out of nowhere. The hit knocked him to the side wall. Marcus grit his teeth, seeing that the one who had hit him just now was Ryukyu herself.
"Go and destroy the shelter. I will handle this one." Ryukyu said.
"Understood!" the others said as they charged to the shelter.
"Wait!" Marcus shouted, but his words fell on deaf ears as he barely managed to dodge the attack that came from Ryukyu's claw. His path to the shelter was now blocked by the pro hero.
"If I were you, I'd worry about yourself right now more than worrying about them."
Marcus knew he was in trouble now. Since this was just a provisional license exam, Ryukyu was likely holding back a bit. But even with that handicap, Marcus wasn't sure he could handle an opponent like this alone.
'My only chance is to transform fully. But I still haven't been able to control it yet. Can I really risk what will happen if I fail to hang onto my sanity in this situation?'
"You seem pretty absent minded, hero!" Ryukyu said as she slammed her claw down on Marcus, who jumped away to avoid being crushed just in time. "If you can't stop me, I'll join my comrades and wreck your precious shelter."
As Marcus struggled to come up with a decision, he heard explosions occurring in the distance. At first he feared it was the villains destroying the shelter, but glancing past Ryukyu, he saw that wasn't the case. Rather than an enemy, the explosions were the work of an ally.
"Hell yeah! Finally something my Quirk can help with!" Fujino shouted enthusiastically.
"Get her!" one of the soldiers shouted, firing his weapon.
Fujino dodged the blast and kept her eyes fixated on the position of the blaster. "Those things are annoying. Guess I better deal with them. Mini Burst!"
In an instant, a small distortion appeared in the center of the blaster. A second later, a tiny explosion detonated. It was enough to destroy the weapon, while also small enough to avoid any serious damage to the arm it was attached to.
Fujino smirked that her training had paid off. In addition to being able to create multiple explosions simultaneously, she could now control the size of the explosions to a much finer degree. She still lacked the mental control to be able to use both techniques simultaneously, but being able to create smaller and less damaging explosions was proving to have its uses.
'Alright, I just need to deal with them one by one. I can do this.' Just as Fujino thought this, a blast of the strange liquid passed by her and just barely missed. 'Or maybe not.'
"Need some help?"
Out of nowhere, strings of silk came flying out and wrapped up several soldiers. Fujino glanced back to see a female student with white hair wearing a black jacket. Small holes in her palms seemed to be the source of the silk just now.
"You're one of the Shiketsu students…" Fujino realized.
"Indeed. My name is Charlotte, second year at Shiketsu High." the girl said. "But it seems conversations will have to wait for now."
[Charlotte Bew. Quirk: Silk. She can shoot out sticky silk from the holes in her palms. The silk is also extremely hard to break.]
"Right." Fujino nodded as she brought her attention back to the fight. "Try and immobilize them as much as you can. If they can't move, then I can destroy their weapons much easier."
"Consider it done."
Seeing the situation with the grunt villains gradually being dealt with, Marcus showed a relieved grin. He could leave things to the two girls over there while he bought time keeping Ryukyu busy.
The teen swapped out his talons for wings and dodged another attack from the giant dragon before him. He continued to dodge each of Ryukyu's attacks, albeit barely.
"Is scurrying around all you can do?! That's rather sad for a hero!" Ryukyu said.
A sideways swipe of Ryukyu's claw came for Marcus. He acted quickly and leaped into the air to dodge, but he wasn't able to maneuver quickly enough to evade the attack from Ryukyu's tail that came next. It slammed into him and forced him to crash back onto the ground. Before Marcus could get back up, Ryukyu's claw came down and pressed on him, pinning him to the ground.
'Damnit. I'm completely outmatched here.' Marcus thought to himself as he struggled to free himself. But the pressure from Ryukyu was too great. He was stuck.
He lacked the physical strength in his current state. But perhaps his fully transformed state would grant him the power he needed. The risks involved still scared him though.
"I thought you claimed you would be able to protect the shelter from us." Ryuku told him. "What a joke. You can't protect anything if this is all you've got."
'She's right.' Marcus thought as he grit his teeth. 'If I keep making excuses… then I'll never be able to pull it off.' He closed his eyes and focussed. 'It's now or never! I refuse to fall behind the others! I'm going… to become a hero!'
Suddenly, Ryukyu felt the force pushing against her claw growing. She tried to keep Marcus pinned, but this sudden burst of strength was fighting back with impressive vigor.
"Don't… underestimate me!" Marcus shouted as he finally pushed Ryukyu off him.
The large dragon woman stumbled back a couple steps and widened her eyes at what she was now witnessing. Unlike before, Marcus now had all the characteristics of his wyvern form. His talons. His wings. Even his face had transformed to become more dragon-like. And his entire body was covered in tough scales.
"Ultimate move: Full Wyvern!"
Looking at Marcus now, Ryukyu couldn't help but see a younger version of Viserion in Marcus's image right now. 'Well done, Marcus. You've finally taken another step further.' she silently thought. 'But the fact remains that this is still an exam. I shall come at you with everything I've got.'
Marcus breathed heavily. Just like before, his fully transformed state was tearing away at his mind. Primal instincts were trying to take over him. But he managed to keep his cool. 'Stay calm. I can do this.' After taking a deep breath, he took a fighting stance.
"Let's go, Ryukyu! You won't take another step towards the rescue shelter!"
"Bold words! Let's see if you can back them up!"
Ryukyu attacked once again, but this time Marcus dodged. It wasn't just his power. His speed was on another level in this new form as well. Marcus wasted no time in rushing forward and counter-attacking as he kicked off the ground and slammed into Ryukyu's gut.
'I can feel my stamina dropping by the second. I can keep up this form for probably a minute at best.'
Knowing he didn't have much time to end the fight at hand. Marcus pressed the attack on the stumbling Ryukyu. He flew up and headbutted her lower jaw, knocking the large dragon off her feet and onto her back.
Having a brief second of respite, Marcus looked towards the shelter. Fujino and another student from Shiketsu seemed to be holding their own against the foot soldiers. Meanwhile, the rescue shelter was successfully being moved further away to make it harder for the villains to reach it. Other combat-oriented examinees would also likely be on their way to provide backup soon.
And that meant he was free to keep all of his attention on Ryukyu.
"Ngh… not bad, hero." Ryukyu grunted as she got back up. "But I'm far from finished yet!"
Marcus readied himself for the fight to continue. But just as he kicked off the ground, he heard a buzzer go off that made him stop.
"AND THAT'S ALL FOLKS!" the voice of Daisuke spoke through the loudspeaker. "AS OF THIS MOMENT, ALL OF THE HUC RESCUE VICTIMS HAS BEEN SAVED! THAT MEANS THE SECOND AND FINAL TEST IS NOW OVER! WOO!"
Hearing that the exam was now over caused Marcus's tense muscles to relax. He calmed down and his boldly slowly transformed back to normal. "We're done?"
"AFTER WE TALLY THE SCORES, WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS RIGHT HERE! SO PLEASE CHANGE AND STANDBY! THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE INJURED, THE INFIRMARY AWAITS!"
Marcus let out a sigh. There was nothing more he could do now. All he could do was wait for the results and hope that he would pass. He began to walk towards the changing rooms when Ryukyu called out to him.
"Marcus."
The teen turned around to Ryukyu, who had now changed back to her regular form as well. The woman showed him a proud smile.
"Well done. You've come a long way since I last saw you."
Marcus cracked a small grin from being praised by a hero he idolized so much. "Thanks."
A full thirty minutes passed by as the examinees changed out of their costumes. Classmates talked amongst each other about the exam and how they were glad it was finally over. Nearly every single one of them were still nervous about the results though. Would any among them fail? After all of the hard work they had put in, hearing that they failed would be heartbreaking to any of them. There were a couple that had minor injuries like Marcus, but there were multiple people on staff in the infirmary with healing Quirks to heal them.
The one hundred students stood together out on the field where a podium had been set up with a large monitor. Daisuke stood at the podium as he addressed the students.
"Time to announce the results!" Daisuke told them all. "Before that though, allow me to explain the scoring system we used. Every examinee started off with 100 points. Those of us at the Hero Public Safety Commission and the HUC used a two-fold demerit system when scoring you. When you messed up, or did something inadequately, you lost points. Put simply, we were grading on how few mistakes you made. If your end score was above a 50, you passed. The names of those who passed will now be displayed in syllabary order."
Just like that, a series of names were displayed on the monitor. Everyone quickly began scanning the screen for their name. The students of Class C were especially nervous as they looked for their names. One by one however, they each saw their own names. Afterwards, they glanced around for the names of their other classmates. A surprising revelation struck the class as they looked.
All twenty-one students of Class 1-C had passed.
"Woohoo!" Jill exclaimed. "We did it!" She jumped for joy as she put her arm around Fujino. "Isn't this awesome, Fujino?!"
"Y-Yeah…" Fujino nodded. "To be honest, I'm still having trouble believing it."
"Well you better believe it! Cause we're awesome!"
"Scores will be handed out to everyone in a moment. They'll detail your score and the amount of points you lost for certain actions." Daisuke explained. "For those of you that passed, from now on, in emergency situations only, you may exercise the same authority as pro heroes. This includes fighting villains, saving people from criminal acts or accidents, etc. You may act on your own judgement without the direction of a hero. However keep in mind that this carries with it a great responsibility towards society. With the Symbol of Peace All Might gone, society will stir and get restless. People who seek to take advantage of that will certainly appear. It will be up to all of you one day to suppress that crime and become exemplary heroes. I want you all to think of yourselves as fledglings and work hard to study at your respective schools so that you can each one day enter the world of heroes and help bring peace to the world."
Daisuke had lost the eager and excited tone he had earlier. His voice was dead serious. That went to show just how important his words to the students were.
They had all taken the next step towards becoming heroes.
Genjiro Mastsuhari recalled a few months ago when he would spend his days in his office in a towering skyscraper. He was the president of one of the biggest Quirk-related companies that had ever existed, on top of secretly being the head of an underground mercenary organization. Paradise. A company whose name was dragged through the mud not too long ago.
It had all come crumbling down. All because of a single girl named Fujino Hatsu.
Now instead of his large fancy office, he was working in a small room in an underground facility that belonged to Paradise but was off the records. It was one of the few places he was safe now that he was one of the most wanted men in the nation, if not the world. A large majority of the soldiers Paradise had were also in the underground facility. Genjiro had luckily managed to get all of them into hiding with him before the police could track them down.
A knock came at the door to his "office". The voice on the other end was that of Emiri, his secretary and closest aide. "Mr. Mastsuhari, intelligence has brought news from the outside."
"Come in."
Emiri opened the door and walked inside. She wasted no time in delivering her report. "Fujino Hatsu is still under close protection from U.A. High School. However, it seems her training there has been going rather smoothly. Intelligence reports that she's received a provisional hero license."
"Is that so?" Genjiro asked. "I must say, I'm rather surprised by her rapid growth since U.A took that girl in. It's a shame that's what it took for her to finally gain some control over her Quirk."
"Indeed, sir. Her rebellious nature is what caused us such a setback."
"Quite so. And it infuriates me how much that girl has taken from me." Genjiro said as he leaned back. "But now that she seems to be able to use her Quirk without issue, she may just be ripe enough to use."
"Agreed. But how will we go about it? U.A is still keeping a watchful eye over her, and it'll be even harder to get to her now that she and the other students are living directly on campus."
"Oh that much is quite simple." Genjiro said with a smirk.
Pressing a button, Genjiro's computer screen showed him a video feed of another room in the facility they were in. One housing the very woman that had brought Fujino Hatsu to the doorsteps of Paradise more than three years ago. And the same woman that would help bring Fujino back to Paradise.
"In any game, the best way to get your opponent to play into your hand is to provide the right bait."
A/N: And with that, the Provisional License Exam Arc is over. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'm sure most of you are probably able to tell what the next arc will deal with. So stay tuned for the upcoming War on Paradise Arc.
Also, due to my current schedule, I'm going to be going back to a monthly update for this fic to allow me to keep up work on my other fics. So next chapter will come at the start of next month rather than the middle of this one.
