Chapter Two: Anger (Also Rage, Fury, and Wrath)
The U.A. entrance exam, the day Katsuki would blow the competition out of the water and show this school he was the next number one hero, should have been his moment of triumph. Instead, he fumed silently as Deku gawked in wonder at the campus and the extras wandering in.
Katsuki could hardly deny it now. He was crazy. Touched in the head. Completely cuckoo, lost his marbles, one foot inside a padded cell and the other on a greasy banana peel. Despite that, Katsuki was damned if he'd let something stupid like that keep him from being the number one hero. He'd made it this far without letting slip his insanity. He could make it through U.A.
"Ooh, are those jacks on her earlobes?" Izuku asked, gawking at a girl's ears. "Maybe an electric-based Quirk? I wonder if she can interface with electrical equipment, there has to be support gear she could work with."
So distracted by Deku's rambling, Katsuki didn't notice the bump in the sidewalk in front of him. The tip of his foot caught the crack, and he pitched forward. As he caught himself, someone slapped a hand on his back, and gravity disappeared.
Whirling in midair, Katsuki glared at the girl that had used her Quirk on him. She gave him a bright smile and said, "Sorry for using my Quirk on you, but it would be bad luck to fall before an exam, right? My name's Uraraka Ochako, what's yours?"
"Like I care," Katsuki snapped. "I didn't need your help. Turn your stupid Quirk off so I can crush this exam."
Round Cheeks glared at him and pressed her hands together. An instinctive burst from his palms kept Katsuki from falling on his ass. She looked disappointed that he had handled his landing so well.
"Fine, sorry I bothered."
As she walked away, Deku muttered to himself. "Five-point gravity nullification. Does it last until she presses her hands together, or is there a time limit as well? Weight limit? Or maybe it's by volume. Does she have to press her hands together, or could she deactivate it mentally?"
Katsuki grit his teeth and strangled the urge to yell at him. He hadn't broken yet, and he'd be damned if he broke the day of the entrance exam.
The written exam put into perspective exactly how much of a half-assed, low-budget scam of an educational system Aldera was. The teachers there had barely gotten through algebra, with a splash of geometry to sell the idea they had any ability to teach. Having seen the practice exams on U.A.'s website, Katsuki studied calculus and trigonometric proofs with the desperation of a starving man.
He breezed through the first half of the exam. Mathematics, science, language and history, with a healthy dose of hero law, enough of a challenge that Katsuki grinned maniacally as he tore into them. Then he turned the page and felt his blood run cold.
Not even halfway through the exam, questions dredged up from the depths of hell stared back at him, mocking him with foreign symbols and convoluted diagrams. His fumbling grasp of entry-level calculus cowered before a question demanding he calculate the time it would take a reservoir to empty based on its height, volume, and the diameter of the spigot. Even supplied with enthalpy and entropy of state changes, he couldn't calculate the boiling point of methanol at any pressure, let alone the one the test demanded.
As he ground his teeth over an obscure history question, Deku said, "They're talking about Maverick, a pro in the top fifty back when the hero leaderboard was first made. They imposed flight regulations for heroes because of her."
Katsuki's pencil twitched, halfway through the first letter of Deku's words. Growling to himself, Katsuki erased it and flipped through the last page of the test.
As he handed his exam in, Katsuki looked around at the extras, hoping to gauge his success against theirs. Haunted gazes stared down at their exams. Katsuki grinned at them all as he went to the other auditorium.
When the other extras filed in, it irritated him to no end that no one took the seats around them. They all took one look at his sour expression and searched for another place to sit, leaving him alone with Deku. As Present Mic talked about the practical exam, Deku mumbled noisily about radio shows and the acoustics of his Quirk. Katsuki felt his anger reaching a boiling point as he waited for the lecture to end.
"And you, spiky hair down in front! I can hear you grinding your teeth from here! It is very distracting and I ask, if not for everyone else's sake, then for your sake and your dentist's that you stop!"
Katsuki turned to glare at the guy yelling at him and popped some sweat in his hands. "You say something, Four-Eyes?"
"Why, yes, I did! Do I need to repeat myself so you can hear what I asked?"
"I heard you the first time, dumb-ass. Shut up and sit down so I can kick some robot ass."
He didn't bother watching for a reaction. He could imagine the pretentious twat's gob-smacked expression well enough without engraving it in his memory. Deku shouted up, "I'm sorry, I don't think he meant to distract you." Katsuki's teeth-grinding noises intensified. He hoped Four-Eyes choked on his powdered enamel.
Katsuki stood at the front of the pack, sweat trickling down his hands as he stretched. He gave the extras one glare as they tried to press closer, and they backed off with worried expressions. Cowards, all of them. A real hero wouldn't back off because someone looked at them funny.
Deku leaned through the massive doors and said, "Oh wow, it really is a huge city back there! How do they have the budget for something like this? Or do they use a Quirk to make all this?"
The doors creaked open, startling Deku. Knowing an invitation when he saw one, Katsuki leapt in sideways, just squeezing through. An extra shouted, "Hey, cheater! They didn't say to start yet!"
Katsuki rolled his eyes, but the teacher beat him to the punch. "There are no starts in real life!" Present Mic shouted at them. "Get going!"
That kicked off a stampede, but Katsuki had already blasted off through the city. Robots milling about the streets stopped and turned towards him when they sensed his explosions. Katsuki grinned and blasted himself at the nearest one. Its chest caved in beneath his boots. As another lunged at him, he leapt off and blasted it in the back of the head. He noticed a big red shut-off button and scoffed. Villains wouldn't shut down because you tapped them on the head. Why indulge the extras too weak to break a stupid robot?
As Katsuki blasted his way through the city, he felt the knots and tension in his shoulders loosen. He stopped looking over his shoulder for the specter of his dead friend. With explosions going off all around him, he couldn't hear Deku mutter about Quirks and heroes, couldn't see him watching with a forlorn expression, couldn't feel his tingling touch when he tried holding his hand. Setting into a rhythm of destruction and mayhem, Katsuki could almost forget for a moment that he had lost his mind.
A thunderous crash snapped Katsuki out of his rampage. Looking up, he saw the zero-pointer loom over the tops of buildings. He guffawed at the sight and said, "Wow, U.A. doesn't mess around! Wish they made it worth some points."
"Are you insane?" one extra asked him. "That thing could crush you flat!"
A blast from his palms sent the extra scurrying back. "Like hell it would. You think some oversized tin can could take me on, huh? I've half a mind to take it on just to prove you wrong."
"Go ahead," the extra sneered. "It'd serve you right."
Katsuki considered taking it on, just to rub it in the kid's face, but another thought struck him as he saw all the extras making a beeline for the entrance. With everyone else clearing out, any robots they missed would be easy pickings. So long as he stayed out of the zero pointer's path, he could pad his score with even more points.
"Why bother? I have a better idea."
The extra scoffed at him and said, "Whatever. I'm out of here."
When Katsuki set out towards an untouched stretch of the faux city, a shout echoed through the empty streets. He looked towards the zero pointer and saw Round Cheeks, her legs buried under a mountain of rubble, frantically clawing at the rocks pinning her in place. The zero-pointer stomped steadily towards her, paying the struggling student no mind as it toppled the buildings around it. Her eyes met his, and she sent a pleading look at him.
Katsuki scoffed at the sight. Heroes didn't need saving. If she needed him to bail her ass out, she clearly wasn't cut out for the job.
As he turned away, Deku shouted at him. "Kacchan, what are you doing? She's trapped! If you don't get her out, she's going to be crushed!"
As if, Katsuki scoffed, not stopping to look back at Deku. It's an exam. They're not going to let someone die, they'd get their asses sued into the ground.
Just as he had hoped, more robots lingered in the furthest corners of the city. In the few minutes he had left, Katsuki trashed as many as he could get his hands on. Once time ran out, the robots stopped in their tracks and slumped forward. Katsuki held back from destroying another one and shouted at the school, "Is that it? That was barely a warm up! Turn them back on, and I'll show you the next number one hero!"
Over the intercom, an exhausted voice said, "The test is over. Go home, so we can get your exams graded. You will receive your results in a week."
Katsuki sneered in the direction of the intercom and let out one last blast at an immobile robot on his way out. At the entrance, Round Cheeks sat on a stretcher carried by two robots. An old hag poked at her ankle and gave it a kiss.
Round Cheeks scowled at him. "You're an asshole, you know that? What if I died?"
"Oh please, it's a test. Not my fault you're too weak to be a hero."
Tears welled up in Round Cheeks' eyes, and Recovery Girl shot him a glare. She looked him up and down, verifying he hadn't hurt himself, and went back to comforting the girl.
On his way home, Katsuki felt Deku's stare on the back of his neck, judging him. Right before they parted ways, Deku said, "I thought you were going to be a great hero. Now, I don't know anymore."
Anger boiled inside him like molten lead. He forced an impassive expression on his face as he stomped inside his house. Only when he was alone in his room did he let loose his rage. Even from the grave, Deku looked down at him, taunted him, mocked him.
What the fuck does he know? Katsuki told himself. He died. He was too weak to be a hero. You'll show him how the number one does things. He'll see.
A week later, U.A.'s envelope came in the mail. Giddiness swelled in his chest as he rushed the envelope into his room. With a swift yank, he tore it open. A small, metallic disc tumbled onto his bed. It clicked on, and a hologram of an unkempt, scarf-wearing man stared at him.
"Bakugo Katsuki. As far as your written exam goes, you were within the top percent of all test-takers, well enough to pass. You clearly put effort into the impossible half of the quiz, but rest assured, it was a logical ruse. Anyone getting those right would have been screened for cheating."
Katsuki growled at the hologram. The past week of frantically studying all those impossible problems had apparently been for nothing.
"On the practical exam, you destroyed more robots than anyone else, earning a total of seventy-seven points. If that were the only part of the exam that mattered, you would have came in first place."
Katsuki stopped mid-celebration. His stomach sank as the unknown hero scowled at him.
"What we didn't tell you was we graded you not simply on how well you could break some robots, but also how you conducted yourself. Helping out those around you, making sure no one's caught in the cross-fire of your attacks, and teaming up, a panel of teachers judges everything you do and scores you based on how heroic we believe your behavior to be. Multiple students were caught in your explosions, which did cost you points, but seeing as none of those incidents appear intentional, you weren't disqualified for your actions."
Katsuki let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. It's all bullshit, but it's not like they're going to kick me out. I'm better than the rest of them.
"What really caught our attention, however, was this little scene." The hologram played back the moment he turned away from Round Cheeks. "The others that ran away are at least excused by their ignorance of her danger. You, on the other hand, made clear eye contact, evaluated the situation, and left to hunt down more villains. In a real combat situation, you would have left a fellow hero to die, and quite frankly, that is unacceptable."
Katsuki felt his chest being strangled. No. They can't, it's not fair, they can't kick me out over some stupid extra. She's the dumbass that got herself trapped under there, kick her out!
"The only reason we aren't rejecting you entirely is because it would appear that you acknowledged that, as this was a test, she wasn't in real danger."
Katsuki nearly wept at those words, but his relief was short-lived. The teacher droned on, "However, we decided that a penalty is in order for your unheroic behavior. You will be the first person to ever receive negative points on the exam. Negative thirty-eight, to be exact, which, when combined with your combat score, leaves you in thirty-sixth place."
In a deadpan that made Katsuki seethe with rage, the teacher said, "Congratulations. You made it in. Disappoint me again, and I will have you expelled."
With an inarticulate howl of fury, Katsuki threw the hologram projector at the wall, where it shattered into a hundred pieces.
A/N: once again, Merry Christmas!