My Mistborn Academia
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Mistborn or MHA.
Preliminary Tests
Beta'd by: Stormgate
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Vin couldn't tell what she felt as she got changed the next morning. As she pulled on a jacket that hid a small makeshift-dagger in its sleeve, her stomach was uneasy. It was as if all the ash she had inhaled from her old world had come alive.
She felt nervous and anxious.
Excited.
"Do you understand why you are taking the entrance exams?" Asked Aizawa, who stood near the doorway in all black clothing.
Vin nods, "credibility. It needs to seem that I was able to get in on my own merit so that others do not question my past."
"Good," the pro-hero responds. "Have you memorized the answer sheet we gave you."
She nods again.
"We gave you enough correct answers so that you would make it into my class, but not so much that you would be seen as a prodigy or even special."
Normal. That's what they wish me to be.
"And what about the other test?"
Aizawa smiles mischievously, "consider that a chance to show off what you can do."
Vin raises an eyebrow.
"It's getting close to 9:40," he states, glancings at the clock on the wall. "Make sure you aren't late. Some students are already arriving."
Vin nods once more as Aizawa turns to leave. "Aizawa?"
The pro hero turns back to the young Mistborn, "hm?"
"Is it possible for a Quirk to be… shared? Transferred?"
Aizawa's body stiffens for a moment, "why?"
"Isn't this a school?" Vin asks. "Am I not supposed to ask questions?"
Grumbling, Aizawa scratches around his ear. "There are as many Quirks in the world as stars in the sky, I know of a few that involve 'borrowing power', but not that can be given."
Vin sighs, another dead theory.
Since last night, Vin had been struggling to understand what she had seen. All Might, the world's symbol of peace and hope, had offered a Quirkless boy a hair. A hair. It made no sense. Vin had thought that maybe the hero was givING a fraction of power to Midoriya, but that would mean All Might had multiple quirks. One for his tremendous strength, and another to share his power.
And every piece of information she found all said the same thing. One Quirk, per user.
"Again, why?" Aizawa asked, his voice sharp.
Vin recognized the threat and the darkness in his eyes, but Vin wasn't one to kneel before words of harm.
And the darkness in her eyes could swallow his whole.
As Vin stepped outside of the entranceway, she took a moment to breathe in the fresh air.
What a nice day, Vin thought. The sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the sun was yellow. If it wasn't so jarring from her old life, Vin might have ignored it. But she recognized the beauty of the day more than anyone would understand.
"Outta my way, Deku!"
And, it's ruined. Vin looked around and saw the annoying boy from last night passing by Midoriya. Vin reached into her sleeve, gripping the knife she had made from a metal rod she found under her bed.
But the boy, she remembered Midoriya calling him 'Kacchan', an obvious nickname, did nothing to harm him.
In fact, Kacchan walked right past Midoriya, yelling, "don't stand in front of me. I'll kill you."
Even Midoriya expected some sort of harassment, raising his hands and shaking them defensively and stuttering loudly.
As the bully saunters past Midoriya, he passes a small group of would-be students. Even without tin, she could hear them easily from this distance.
"Hey isn't that Bakugo?" One notices.
"The one with the sludge villain?" Another asks.
The first commenter nods, "oh, he's the real thing!"
Bakugo stomps past the two, glaring at them. Both of them freeze under his glare and rush inside, pushing past Vin.
Vin glares at Bakugo, who stops in front of her.
"Move," he orders, not bothering to look her in the eye.
Vin doesn't, staring at him intently. His head snaps upwards, red eyes glaring into hers.
"Move."
This time, Vin does, knowing she won this battle. Bakugo grumbles as he marches inside.
Before she could turn, Vin hears a small dinging reverb in her mind. A bronze pulsation, she recognizes. She looks around and notices that Midoriya had fallen over but strangely enough, he was floating in the air half-crookedly.
Next to him, a young girl stood with her hand raised. The pulsations Vin felt with her bronze indicated she had used her Quirk to keep Midoriya from falling onto his face.
Vin gave a small sigh of relief that the innocent boy she met earlier was unharmed. There was something so… earnest about him. She started walking towards them, listening in to their conversation.
"Are you all right?" The young woman asks.
Midoriya freaked out, waving his arms and legs around in a panic. She grabs Midoriya's shoulder and pulls him back onto the ground.
"It's my Quirk. Sorry for using it without asking first," she apologizes, placing her hands together. Mentally, Vin feels the pulsations stop and Midoriya's gravity returns. "But it'd be bad luck if you fell, right?"
All Midoriya does is blush and stare at the girl who saved him from pain and humiliation.
She smiles, "Aren't you nervous?"
Midoriya waves his hands and mumbles.
"Let's do our best," she continues, turning to the entrance. "See ya!" The girl gives a small wave.
The blushing boy watches as she runs off, snapping out of his stupor only when Vin steps in front of him.
"Oh, h-h-hi V-v-vin." Midoriya stutters.
Vin turns and looks at the girl who just helped him out. "Who is she?"
"Umm. I d-d-don't know. But did you see her Quirk?! She canceled out the gravity around me, almost like a stasis field. I wonder if she could-"
Elend would have liked you, Vin realized. She could almost imagine the two sitting at a table, arguing over the sciences of Quirks and Allomacy.
"Vin?"
This time, Vin shook out of her stupor. "What?" She snapped.
Midoriya flinched, "I-I-I was wondering what c-c-c-class you were trying to get into?"
Vin nodded to one of the three doors, "Hero."
"Oh... That's c-c-cool."
"You?" Vin asks, looking at Midoriya
"Her-r-r-ro too," he stutters.
Vin raises an eyebrow, "aren't you Quirkless?"
Midoriya blushes and begins to shake his head, but stops suddenly. "N-n-n-no. It j-j-just didn't w-w-w-work until recentl-l-l-y."
Vin frowns, remembering that most Quirk users usually gain their Quirks by the time they are a child, and definitely not at Midoriya's age.
Did All Might help Midoriya unlock it? She wonders. "What is it?" Vin asks.
Suddenly the bell rang, making both of them flinch.
"That's the bell! We need to go!" Midoriya then grabs the straps on his backpack and rushes forward.
Vin follows slowly behind, still wondering how someone without a Quirk now claims he has one. And how does All Might fit into it?
The written exam was easy enough. The paperwork she was given matched the one she had practiced with. It was still strange to her that even this simple action had marvels from what she was used to. The paper was of a higher caliber than any she had known, and even the writing utensils were something she never imagined.
After the test, the examinees were taken to a large, dark room that had rows of seats facing a stage. As they filed in, Vin made sure to stay close to the one person she actually knew, Midoriya.
The dark room slowly filled with light, revealing a strange man with blonde hair on the center stage. Vin recognized him as Hizashi Yamada, the hero known as Present Mic. Vin never liked him, he was loud and crude, never letting Vin enjoy the peace and quiet for long.
"For all of you examinee listeners tuning in," he begins, posing slightly, "welcome to my show today!"
Vin hears a few people murmuring, asking what he was talking about.
Yamada waves his hands across his front, "everybody say 'hey'!" He turns around and holds up a hand to his ear, expecting a reaction.
Silence was all the pro-hero was given.
"What a refined response," Yamada continues, twitching slightly. He holds up a finger and continues, "then I'll quickly present to you the rundown on the practical exam! Are you ready?!"
Once again, silence. Next to her, Midoriya gushes and holds his hands to his mouth.
"It's the voice hero, Present Mic! Wow!" Vin swears his eyes sparkle in the darkness. "I listen to him every week on the radio. I'm so moved! All the teachers at UA High are pro-heroes!"
"Shut up," Bakugo orders on the other side of Midoriya.
Yamada lifts his arms into the air, "As it says on the application requirements, you listeners will be conducting ten-minute mock urban trials after this!" Behind him, the screen shows the main center they are at now pointing to different buildings labeled A through G.
"You can bring whatever you want with you. After the presentation, you'll head to the specified battle center, okay?"
The only encouragement the Radio-host got was the shuffling of papers as everyone pulled out their location cards.
"Okay?!" Yamada asks, hoping for a reply.
"In other words," Bakugo summarizes, "they won't let you work with your friends, huh?"
Vin nods, an obvious way to prevent people from cheating the system.
Looking between his own card and Bakugo's, Midoriya agrees. "Y-you're right. Even though our examinee numbers are consecutive, we're assigned different battle centers."
Vin easily reads Midoriya's in group B, and Bakugo in A. Her own card, however, reads E.
"Don't look. I'll kill you," Bakugo comments, catching Midoriya's gaze. Midoriya flinches and Bakugo frowns. "Damn, now I can't crush you."
Vin glares at the bully, personally upset she couldn't have been in his group. She would have enjoyed slamming his head into the ground.
"Three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle station," Yamada interrupts, pulling everyone's attention back to his podium. On the screen, three shadowed images of mechanical beasts are shown. "You earn points for each of them based on their level of difficulty." The screen behind him changes again, this time showing a very rigid and pixelated avatar of Yamada walking up to one of the faux villains. This villain is labeled '1P' and Yamda's avatar kicks it, causing it to disappear. As it is destroyed, a small icon near the top changes from zero to one.
"Your goal, dear listeners, is to use your Quirks to earn points by immobilizing the faux villains." The screen continued to show Yamada's character kicking another villain, this one labeled '2P'. And, just like before, the numbers went up, jumping to three. Turning a corner, the avatar attacked again at object 3P, pushing his score to six.
"Of course," Yamada continues with a flourish, "attacking other examinees and any other unheroic actions are prohibited!"
Unheroic actions? Vin thought, but what about heroic actions?
A student a few rows down stands up and raises a hand, "May I ask a question?"
"Okay!" Came the pro-hero's response.
Somewhere from the ceiling, a light shines down on the speaker. The student raises one of the pamphlets the school had available to grab as they came in, pointing to it. "On the printout, there are four types of villains. If this is a misprint, then UA, the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake."
Who messed with his alloys? Vin thinks, raising an eyebrow.
The interrupting speaker sets the paper back down and places his hand across his chest. "We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be molded into exemplary heroes." He then spins around and points in Midoriya's direction. "In addition, you over there with the curly hair."
Midoriya points to himself in confusion.
"You've been muttering this whole time," the speaker calls out, "it's distracting. If you're here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately!"
Midoriya covers his mouth and mumbles an apology. Vin glares at the boy and debates if attacking him would be an 'unheroic action'.
Back on stage, Yamada waves his hands, trying to calm everyone down. "Okay, okay, examinee number 7111. Thanks for the great message," he punctuates this with a thumbs up. Behind him, another image of a villain appears. "The fourth type of villain is worth zero points. That guy's an obstacle, so to speak. There's only one in every battle center, an obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces."
The screen depicts the avatar walking up to the fourth villain, then turning and running away. "It's not impossible to defeat, but there's no reason to defeat it either. I recommend that you listeners try to avoid it."
Examinee number 7111 bowed, having stayed standing throughout the entire explanation. "Thank you very much!" He offers when his question/accusation is answered upon. "Please excuse the interruption." As he sits, the spotlight around him dims and fades.
Vin hears students muttering about the fourth villain. "I see," one person states, "it's like the obstacles you avoid in video games, huh?"
"The whole thing is like a video game," someone responds.
What's a video game? Vin wonders, barely understanding the term 'game' but completely lost when trying to figure out what a 'video' is.
"That's all from me!" Yamada finishes. "Finally, I shall give you listeners a present, our school motto! The hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said 'a true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes. Go beyond."
"Plus Ultra!" He exclaims as the words flash behind him. "Now, everyone, good luck suffering!"
Vin stood out in front of a large wall and a set of doors. After taking a large vehicle, something that Vin was sure she wouldn't get used to, Vin found herself at battle center E. During the transition period, she got changed into a tight exercise outfit that UA had given her. Unlike the others they had, this one had no markings and was a simple grey color.
The only other thing she had on was a small belt that wrapped around her waist. This belt, which Vin recovered from her old outfit, contained a dozen vials of metal shavings in liquid. Vin quickly swallowed the contents of one, preferring to do so now than in the midst of a battle.
It was comforting to feel the dull burn of metals in her stomach. The strength of pewter, the protection of copper, the awareness of bronze, and the steel/iron lines that helped Vin notice things without the help of tin.
And there it was again… Excitement. Such a strange feeling for someone like her.
But yet, Vin couldn't wait to begin the test.
I know, I know, it's kinda small… and… yeah. That's about it.
I started this chapter early and enjoyed writing it, but I couldn't really get into Vin's head as much as I usually could.
I also didn't want to jam in half of episode 3 and all of 4 into one episode, so here you just got the final half of three. Don't worry, I'll try to make up for it with a completely awesome Vin dominating the test scene next chapter (or will she? Mwahahahahahaha!).
School is back again so my attention is also elsewhere. As of now, this story isn't going to be as lengthy as my other two simply because I'm not in the MHA mindset currently since I am stuffing my brain full with BUS and CIS textbook notations.
No comments this time… Huh. That's sad.
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Pa tre on . co m
(slash)
readerwarrior