"And the Recipient of this next Degree... has been chosen to give a speech." A reasonably dressed man said from a podium on a stage. The outdoor ceremony holding place was filled to the brim with Scholars and to be Doctors. "It is my Privilege to call upon, Omura Rei." He announced.
A round of applause rang out, as Rei got up from his seat and began making his way to the stage. He was Fourteen years of age now, and was receiving his PhD from one of the Best Universities in current Japan.
His Third PhD,
This one was for Contributions to research regarding the nature of the Quirk Singularity, which was now named, the Quar, or the Quirk Particle.
A 'Singularity' approximately five times smaller than an electron which was relatively stable and was the most abundant matter in the entire universe, but when exposed to certain sequences of Higgs-Field Collisions, it would morph into a strange and exotic state of matter, capable of doing miraculous things.
The particle was not to be confused with Quarks, which were a different set of Fundamental Particles entirely.
The other two were diplomas on starkly contrasting fields of science entirely.
His second PhD was for several breakthroughs in Robotics and Engineering. Things like Synthetic Artificial Muscles, and Micro-Robotics.
And his first was for providing a new interest in the investigations about the nature of Sentience and Intelligence in Human beings.
All of these contributions warranted him to receive a perfect GPA score on all three.
But disregarding all that for now; now he was lightly jogging across a neat red carpet, passing rows where his fellow scholars sat before he ran past the seat of his professors at the front.
He reached the stairs and went up to the stage, being greeted by his Headmaster with a respectful bow.
"Congratulations... again, Rei." The Headmaster said to him as he handed him his certificate.
"Thank you..." Rei said as he received the award while they shook their hands. Turning to the crowd, he saw how many they were really, maybe about a three hundred and fifty people had come to see him and his classmates receive their honours.
A smile tugged on the edges of his lips as the headmaster clapped loudly, laughing heartily to the crowd.
He gestured for Rei to take the podium, where a small and slender microphone waited for him.
Seeing that the stage was now his, he cleared his throat and walked forth. He hadn't prepared a speech, opting that he improvises on the spot. And while he may not deliver on the most profound of words, the crowd was eager.
He stood at the podium as the celebration and claps halted, the crowd fell into a silence. His fellow graduates, who were mostly ten to eleven years his senior, were waiting with baited breaths for a speech from their 'Golden Boy'.
"Oh, it feels delightful to be greeted with a standing ovation," He began softly with a smile and paused, "As you all may well know by now, my name is Omura Rei."
"First things come first, why did I come here? Well, it was because of a dream. A dream I had held to this day ever since I was a little boy."
"Some of you may know what that dream is..." He smiled as he gave some close friends a nod, "But in essence, it is the same as everyone else's. It is what gives us the drive to strive for a better future, for us, for everyone."
Some people lightly applauded as they nod. Showing their agreement with his statement.
"I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with such Brilliance." He said with a laugh, tapping his head with a finger. "But I want everyone to know that it does not make me in any way, superior to you all."
Hushed whispers came from the audience.
"I have done nothing yet, that makes me deserving of such blessings and praise, and awards. I know that now. Everyone around me has worked so hard to achieve the same status as I do." He gestured to everyone around.
"You, are the more deserving of my own validation and praise. Which is exactly why I will try my all to live up to the expectations you've no doubt placed upon me. I owe it to whoever isn't standing beside me, to try..."
He then paused for a moment, seemingly for dramatic effect.
"I want to thank my classmates for having me. You have treated me no more and no less than as your colleague. And I am grateful for it." He then pointed to the cobblestone and metal fence that ensnared the campus, towards a large double door gate.
"When we walk through that, and we have all gone our separate ways. Just know that I wish you well in all your endeavours, as you all wish for me in mine." He finished.
"Thank you for having me..."
His audience then calmly applauded him as they stood up from their seats.
He turned and shook hands with the Principal once more before joining the other graduates behind for a photo.
"So, that was a nice speech, as always..." Hitoshi commented from the driver seat.
Rei sunk into the backseat of the car, seemingly drained from having to pose for more photos than he would have liked, "Thanks, dad..." He drawled out while he looked outwards at the buildings zooming past.
"You know... You're technically a Doctor now, again." His father uttered in realization.
"Hmm..." Rei hummed and looked towards the ground in thought, "Dr Omura... No, I think it still sounds pretentious." He brushed it off, looking back to the city.
"Really?" Hitoshi asked, sounding confused while he gave his son a look from the rearview mirror, "I think it suits you, Doctor Rei." He teased with a snort slipping out.
Rei just rolled his eyes at his father, but he couldn't help but smile a bit.
A ding coming from his pocket and he turned towards it, looking slightly surprised at first.
He took out his phone and saw that it was Melissa who was trying to make a video call. He tapped the answer prompt with his mouth curving downwards, unsure of what to expect.
She appeared on the screen, taking short breaths as she appeared to be running through the hallway to her room.
"Rei! So sorry I couldn't attend your graduation," She arrived at her door, and made her way inside, all the while she had a guilt-ridden expression on her face.
"Uh, it's not really-."
"No really, I was so caught up in one of my projects that I completely forgot about it." She tapped a couple of buttons on her workbench frantically, each making a beep. She was not even looking at her keyboard, fixated on her phone where she could face Rei.
"Melissa... it's-"
"The least I could do was watch it live, but I even forgot about that too!" She looked to the side and hissed out of stress in her head, bringing up her hand to hold it softly.
"... While I'm greatly flattered that you're so considerate, but, are you done, Melissa?" Rei asked with an amused expression and a small laugh.
"... Hmm, Yes..." She sounded all apologetic, and she refused to meet Rei in the eye.
"It's all fine, really, don't worry about it. You already attended my first graduation, so I didn't expect you to attend any more of them." He explained with a chuckle out of amusement before he turned to the side for a moment,
"But-"
"Now about that project. Care to tell me about it?" He interrupted, quickly turning back towards her,
Melissa's mouth hung open for a moment, unsure of what to do at first. Deciding to let it go, she closed her mouth and brought up a projection of the device on her workstation.
"... It's a Shock Absorbing device." She explained. On the table was a band that was strapped around the palm of a human hand. It then transformed to cover the arm from the fist up to the elbow. "I call it the Full Gauntlet. I made it for-"
"All Might?"
Melissa stared wide-eyed on the phone screen for a moment before shaking her head. "How did you know?"
"My lucky guess." Rei said with his hand coming to cover his mouth, "How much force can it take before its function stops?"
"Theoretically. About three of his best hits, give or take a few." She said while bobbing her head from side to side in calculation.
"I'm guessing this thing exploits the Higgs Field?" Rei asked as he placed his hand on his chin. His pose whenever he was in thought.
"Yeah, got an idea on how to improve it?" She asked, Melissa was never shy from improvements to her designs it seemed.
"No, not yet..." Rei answered her truthfully. "I'll think about it when I get home."
"Great!" She said with a joyful giggle. "Oh and, congratulations again, Doctor Rei." She teased as well before ending the call.
"I like her..." Hitoshi cheerfully budded in from the front of the car.
Rei just groaned, but couldn't help but smile as he laid his head on the back seat's cushions.
"And passing this year's semester with perfect grades..." The principal of Zorro Junior High began on a stage. Behind him was a collective of students, all garbed in charcoal coloured robes with a hat that looked like a fez of the same colour, with a large flat surface situated on top,
"Now, some of you may find this surprising..." He said sarcastically, and paused while he lifted up a finger dramatically,
"From the Third Years, it's Omura Rei!" He announced grandiosely, holding out his arms to the crowd of students and staff.
The middle school students applauded as Rei jogged across from his seat way behind the rows of graduates.
"Good job, kid." The principal said while shaking his hand, and patting him on the back with the hand that held the mic, causing the speakers to drum out the sounds loudly.
This time, Rei was not expected to give a speech as many of the attendees had already heard about the one he gave at his graduation at Minamoto.
Finally nodding to the principal, he took the formal diploma with his right hand and went to join the rest of the honour students for a photo.
"Aw man, if only I could have a brain like yours," One boy on his left commented after the first photo was taken, and Rei turned to him. Catching sight of the boy's giggly face, he realized that he was just playing with him, so he decided to laugh as well.
"Ahhhh... I'm very beat up..." Rei exhaled as he sunk into their living room couch.
"Hey, that speech you gave was pretty good..." Takashi commented with a voice full of pride and an apple in his mouth. As he took a seat on a couch next to his brother, he reached to the remote on the coffee table and turned the T.V on.
The news channel came up first, blasting their ears immediately to loud and unpleasant sounds. This garnered both their attentions, and the brothers focused on the scene that played out, Takashi sitting up straight, while Rei listened with his eyes closed.
"Reporting live from the Downtown Market Place. A boy from Aldera Junior High has been taken hostage by a villain with a powerful quirk. The Pro Heroes at the scene are not sure what to do." The reporter on the scene narrated the story.
Rei's eyes snapped open and turned to look at the T.V immediately as well in alarm,
"Due to the Boy's struggles, the surrounding environment has suffered great damages and has caught fire." She continued. "As you can see- huh, Hey kid! Stop! Someone stop him!" She started yelling as a boy in the same school uniform as the one the villain took as a hostage, broke through the crowd, and began running frantically towards them.
"Oh my god..." Takashi exclaimed as he looked at the screen with horror.
Rei couldn't help but wonder if All Might would intervene. What if he had done something to alter such an important event? Would things proceed normally as they did in the story? Or will this poor boy...
The boy then threw his backpack at the villain. One of the books hitting it in the eye out of luck, incapacitating the villain for a moment as he closed the distance. He then began making vain attempts to get the boy, who Takashi assumed to be his best friend since he was risking his life for him, out of the sludge villain.
The villain then looked like he recovered, turning back to face the boy before glaring.
"Oh no, please don't die..." Takashi made to cover his eyes should something happen to the poor boy. Looking on with horror at the scene that was unfolding. "Do something!" He yelled mainly to the pro heroes.
"Cut! Cut! Cut- huh? Oh, thank goodness!" The reporter breathed out a massive sigh of relief when she saw none other than the Symbol of Peace, All Might; holding back one of the green tendrils.
"... Whew!" Takashi breathed out a big sigh and smiled when he saw him too.
He then pulled both the boy trapped inside the monster and the other out of harm's way, while at the same time unleashing one of his signatures Smash attacks, completely unmaking the villain's body which scattered around the area in small puddles.
The punch was so powerful that it somehow generated a tornado that pulled in a bunch of clouds overseeing the general area.
They soon started to rain down water, which quickly escalated to a full-on downpour,
"Holy crap..." Takashi uttered as he watched on with a disbelieving expression,
"He changed the weather..." Death Arms' voice could be heard, echoing the disbelief the pedestrians held of All Might's feat of incredible power
"As you can see- All Might has just neutralized the villain and saved the two boys possibly from an Untimely Death." She sounded beyond relieved as she covered herself with her jacket from the rain as it poured down, putting out any remnants of flames that All Might's Smash failed to do initially.
"He's really the Symbol of Peace, isn't he?" Takashi said with a relieved chuckle before he took another bite from his apple as he relaxed in his seat, sinking into it way deeper than he did before.
He turned to Rei, and was greeted with a somewhat odd sight, "Are you okay?" He asked as his face morphed into a confused frown.
Rei was looking at the T.V, with an entirely content smile on his face.
"Yup," He cheerfully answered, and bounced up from his seat and marched over to the door that led into the living room, no doubt to go upstairs to his room.
"Good news Rei!" Hitoshi exclaimed as he entered Rei's bedroom, which had seen worse days of Rei's Experimentation with his tech.
Tiny delicate constructs of metal were alive in all; inside his bedroom.
Butterflies who had thinly veiled strips of metal fibres of Titanium and Aluminium, numbering around twenty-five in total flew around gently in the air of the room's empty confines.
They were about the size of monarchs and went from one surface to another, leaving their faint traces in the small gusts they made.
"Uh-huh?" Rei turned to regard his father with a brief look before he turned back forward on what he was currently busy with,
His hands were filled with small and tiny tools he had specially designed to tamper with his things.
Using his quirk was ideal in most situations regarding machines, but everything in his room, his personal projects and robotics; they were delicate pieces of what the family considered to be novel artworks. They required a more... personal touch, unlike the sombre and harsh machines he usually worked on.
Besides, this way brought its fair share of fun for him that he just couldn't resist tampering with them manually.
With his tools in hand, he was tinkering with a circular, drill shaped fan he took inspiration straight from Da Vinci's original works; the Air-Screw. It was deemed impossible to fly by most of the scientific community, so he decided to make one that could, just for fun.
With one final adjustment, the thing began spinning and much to his delight, it remained stationary in the air, hovering. So he nodded approvingly and went back towards his workbench while securing his tiny tools into a small punch.
On his way back to his workbench, one metal butterfly perched on his head a bit to the left side, and decided to stay there.
He turned to his father again, and saw him grinning wildly,
"What's... up?" He asked with a bit of unsureness with his voice slightly trembling.
A bump from his hand that was placed on the table caught his attention so he turned to it, and saw that it was his little silver mini-train, and onboard; was a flash drive delivered from his computer to be received and plugged into his workbench.
Hitoshi made his way inside as he closed the door behind him, he then turned to the confused look his son was giving him. He chuckled a little loudly as he spread his arms widely in the air, closing his eyes as he announced proudly; "I managed to write you a recommendation letter to UA. They say they'll be privileged to have you,"
He then opened his eyes to see that Rei had an almost horrified expression, "Is something wrong?" He asked with concern.
"Uh... no, no..." He shook his head. His father had no way of knowing so it was understandable. "It's just, I was planning on taking the Entrance exams personally." He explained.
"Hmm, why would you-"
"I want to take the Entrance exams personally." He interrupted firmly, further reinforcing his decision.
"Oh, well I was afraid that you wouldn't-"
"Dad, I'll be fine," He reassured his father as he flashed him a smile with a laugh, "They're gonna use robots, there's no opponent better than that for me." He added.
"Oh yeah..." His father said unceremoniously, looking to the ceiling in thought with his mouth hanging open, as though he was contemplating how he hadn't thought up that little detail, "And-, you're sure you don't want to get in through recommendations?" He asked him for the final time.
"Without a doubt," He maintained with a firm nod.
"Oh, alright... I'll request for the letter to be pulled back. Hopefully, they'll understand..." He said unsurely and turned, and headed out the door. Closing it behind him with a small laugh. "Hopefully..."
As soon as he did. Rei breathed out a massive sigh of relief.
"Oh my god, almost messed up there. It's a good thing he told me right away..." He said while laughing a joyous and scared laugh.
He knew that U.A. only accepted four recommendations each term. And from what his father had said, they had already accepted him as they likely heard about his Achievements in the Academic fields.
Which meant that there was a chance that two, very important people would not attend. One being the Abused son of the no.2 Hero, critical to the story he was familiar with...
And the other being more important in the personal sense. He wanted her unique ability to create literally anything for Research purposes.
Without those two, things would go spiralling down really fast.
"A good thing he decided to tell me right away..." He repeated as he got back into his laptop.
Speaking of his laptop. He had designed several different types of machines to aid him in the entrance exam. He had not even bothered to study for the Written test as he was pretty confident in that regard.
In the practical, he also held an edge as he knew of the existence of Rescue points. That is unless he had done something for them to not be included, but he doubted it.
"Those people aren't gonna know what hit them." He said with a grin.
Until the entrance exams arrived, he had all the free time in the world.
"Rei, where are you heading out to?" Saki called out as she saw him walking to the front door. She had been making her way from the kitchen to the immediate living room to relax for the moment when she saw him come out of his room, running down the stairs.
"I'm going to the beach. I needed a few scrap metal for a test." He explained, picking up the black and neon green, striped track jacked from the rack beside the front door.
"The junkyard?" Saki questioned while she looked up from the towel in her hands, Rei had gone there many times during the past few years to gather whatever he could for his independent projects.
Hitoshi had always insisted that he could bring Rei some quality equipment home from his lab if he liked. But Rei had always declined, claiming that the junkyard was a lot richer than he would like to believe.
She heard the sound of the door lock click, and the boy stepped out,
"Don't take too long, okay?" She advised as Rei stopped for a moment, taking in the fresh salty sea air.
"I won't," He responded as he zipped up his neon green jacket and broke into a light jog, running down from the porch, he ran across the gravely driveway and onto the asphalt road that led to their house,
With all the training he had done with his brother throughout the past five years, not counting all the days he skipped, his body had finally built up to allow him to run from their house to the beach with a minimal tire, now the trip only bore a slight inconvenience to him.
As Rei paced down the paved two-lane road by himself, turning a corner where the road ran around a small rocky cliff, he couldn't help but wonder to himself if he would meet those two at the beach...
"And, there they are..." He said with a chuckle to himself.
The two people that he was referring to were an interesting pair. One stood on top of the refrigerator. His blond hair combed back with two protruding tendrils sticking up proudly, Rei could tell that this man was massive in stature even though he was crouching.
The other, much more frail and small, with messy green hair. Who despite his size, was the one pulling the fridge that the other stood on.
Due to the distance. Rei couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could tell that the big man was laughing as he took pictures of the little boy who laid flat on his belly out of exhaustion.
He made his way down the stairs and into the large pile of garbage, that would soon disappear through the course of the year.
"-It is the fullest physical ability of many people gathered into one." Came the deep, almost flamboyant voice of the large blond man.
"An unprepared body cannot inherit it fully."
"The limbs will come off and the body will explode." He announced.
"The limbs will do what?!" The boy exclaimed in fear. He then shook his head as he hugged his body, looking around at the garbage he was surrounded by. "Then... I'm picking up trash to train my body...?" He asked turning around, piecing together why he was doing this.
"Yes!" The man confirmed as he turned around. "But that is not all." He began as he walked up to the refrigerator. "After some research on the internet yesterday, I discovered that this beach park's coast has been like this for many years." He stated as he pecked the top of the fridge, leaving a dent.
"Yeah... For some reason, because of the currents, objects wash up here a lot." He said as he looked around. "And people take advantage of that to hide their illegal dumping..."
"The local residents don't come near here either."
"Heroes these days are all after the showy stuff." He said as he placed his hand on top of the refrigerator. "Originally, being a hero meant doing volunteer service." He said as he somehow began crushing the fridge by bringing his palm down, even though he was able to sit on top of it before.
"Even if people call that boring or whatever. You can't weaver from those roots!" He finished as he completely crushed the appliance. Generating so much force that it lifted the pile of trash behind him into the air. Revealing the setting sun behind him. Unknown to All Might, a certain blond boy was staying behind that spot of junk.
"You will restore the horizon for this whole section." He looked up. "That, is your first step to becoming a hero!" He declared as he locked eyes with his successor. But when he saw that he was not looking at him, but rather at something behind him, he turned to look as well.
"Don't mind me, just here to get something for a project." A blond, fairly tall boy called out to them.
All Might then immediately turned back to Midoriya, looking at him with an unsure expression. What was the boy doing here? He said that he needed something for a project, but couldn't he get it anywhere other than a junkyard?
Midoriya was also looking at him, unsure of what to do. He then made to take control of the situation by calming down Midoriya with a hand gesture and turned around to walk up to the boy.
"Excuse me young man, but can I have your name?" He asked as he got his attention.
"Omura, Omura Rei." He answered as he tugged at something that seemed to be stuck under a pile.
All Might's eyes then widened in recognition. The blonde hair, green eyes... this was who Nezu had told him about, the Golden Boy. The prodigy; who had Three Ph. D.s under his name. The boy that David had so affectionately spoken about.
"Do you mind?" Rei asked as he turned to him, indicating that he wanted the thing to be pulled out by him.
"Oh, not at all." He shook his head as he reached inside and pulled out, what he assumed to be the thing.
Rei took it from his hand as he held it out to him. "Thanks." He said to him before leaning sideways to look at the boy behind him.
"Hello, Midoriya!" He called to him, waving his arms about. He then beckoned him to come over.
"Hmm?" All Might was surprised by this. Were these two acquainted with each other?
"You know me?" Midoriya asked as he walked up to them.
"Of course I know you. I met you at the Quirk Clinic, don't you remember?" He explained.
"N-no- I remember-!" Midoriya flapped his limbs about in an attempt to stop Omura from making such assumptions. He held his arms up but saw that Omura was looking at him with a small smile.
"An- And you do, too...?" He muttered after a bit of thought, looking genuinely happy as a smile broke across his face.
Midoriya took a breath as he stood up straight, body squared facing Omura before he made a respectful bow.
"You- you see, after our meeting, I started following your life. Not in a creepy way, but because I thought you were cool. I heard about your awards, your achievements, and how people started calling you the 'Golden Boy'. Your inventions and research were brought so many benefits to society as a whole. I was so amazed by it that I thought you wouldn't remember our meeting. But I guess you're just that awesome, huh?" His signature mutter was in full effect.
And when he caught himself at the last moment, he took to apologize but when Midoriya looked up to face Rei, he saw that he did not look annoyed, but rather amused. Appeared like he was smiling even,
"What are you doing out here my boy?" All Might got their attention by a cough.
"Oh me? Like I said I-"
"I mean, can't you get better equipment and resources at your father's laboratory?" He corrected.
"Yeah..." Midoriya said as he looked at him as well. "Can't you do that?"
"Well, this junkyard's a treasure trove if you know what to look for," he meant the statement in more ways than one, "Besides, it's exciting like this." He said with a laugh.
All Might and Midoriya were left confused, that didn't sound like a good reason for his decision, but they both ultimately decided to not push any further.
"I gotta bounce. I'll see you at U.A.!" He said as he began making his leave. Leaving All Might and Midoriya standing there, unsure as to how he knew about Midoriya's goal.
"Did you... did you tell him about it when you met him?" He asked as he looked down.
"I don't think I did, or maybe I just don't remember..." Izuku said with a shrug, looking on towards Omura as well.
All Might turned back at the strange boy as he made his way up the beach's stairway. He had his Recommendation letter revoked by his father, opting instead to take the entrance exams personally for no good reason, as far as he could tell.
What a curious boy,
It was Ten Months thereafter, when Rei and Takashi were seen travelling up the road that led up to the Hero School,
"Did you really have to wake me up?" Rei asked Takashi, standing up on two rods attached to the back of Takashi's bicycle.
"A hero should always arrive early!" Takashi declared as he pedalled on a special bicycle that was given to him by Melissa on his birthday. Specially designed for him that he may not have trouble riding it with one hand.
"True, but not this early..." Rei said in irritation as he rubbed his eyes. It was just a quarter past five in the morning when his brother had woken him up. The day of the UA entrance exam had arrived, and he insisted that he take Rei on his bike.
"Here we are," Takashi said as he applied the breaks of the bike. Rei lightly bumped his head on Takashi's back as they grind to a halt.
"Thanks, anyway." Rei couldn't help but appreciate how supportive his brother was of him.
"You're welcome." He said with a nod, "By the way, I put the, uh-"
"I know," Rei stopped him with a gesture and a nod.
"And I also put the-"
"I know," Rei stopped him again, his voice heightening a bit in pitch this time, speaking in an almost teasing manner.
They stood there in silence for a while as Takashi watched his brother tidy himself up,
"Rei...?"
"Yes?"
"Do your best, alright?" He flashed him a smile, as well as a thumbs up.
Rei looked at his brother with a smile as well. "I'll do better than my best."
"Plus ultra, I like it!" Takashi cheered on as he turned the bike around and began pedalling away.
Rei looked at his brother until he disappeared down the slope of the road that led up to the hill.
He then turned around and released a sigh,
There it was, UA.
He laughed at how they already had their lights on at this time of day. They really expected someone like him to arrive first thing in the... morning?
Rei looked eastward and noticed that the sun's top had not even peeped above the horizon yet.
'I suppose it's still morning...' He shrugged and began making his way to the building.
He walked through the gate. It was a slow stroll across the small paved road. Several face sculptures of important Heroes were erected. He inspected them carefully. They were a lot more detailed than he could have imagined.
He then reached up and touched them.
"Huh, what do you know..." He mumbled idly, they were made from titanium.
He then patted the sculpture of the Equip Hero on the head a few times.
"Wish me luck," He said to it like it could hear him, before walking away towards the building.
But, unknown to the surveillance crew that was monitoring the arrival of the first participant for the day, the gesture he made to the sculpture was a distraction. He had placed his own camera in the head, replacing its left eyeball.
He had done this as he had always been curious about something.
"Welcome to UA, young man!" A man with ludicrously stylish blond hair exclaimed in English as he saw a fairly tall boy approaching from the building's entrance. He was perfectly capable of speaking the foreign language, it was just that he spoke it with a very thick Japanese accent.
He had been tasked to remain at the building should any participants decide to arrive super early. He maintained that no one would even have the will to come at a time like this, but turns out he couldn't be more wrong.
He was in the main hallway and not at his office because he decided to stretch his legs. Thus resulting in him meeting up with this boy out of coincidence.
"Good morning sir," The boy greeted, deciding to be respectful to the Pro Hero.
"Ah, drop the formalities. Call me Mic, Present Mic." He stated, flamboyant as ever.
"Okay, Mic. Could you tell me where we are supposed to take the written test?"
"Don't bother. We still have about three hours until the rest of the examinees arrive." He waved off his concerns. "Say, how about a walk around campus? I'm curious as to what my future students are gonna be like."
"I'd... rather not. My legs are kind of stiff you see..." Rei attempted to excuse himself.
"Then allow me to help you!" Mic yelled in slightly rough English, as he bent down and activated his quirk. Blasting Rei's legs with a relatively light attack of his Sonic Waves.
Rei felt like those vibrating massage machine things were all over his legs, trying to shake whatever stiff muscles loose. When he was done, Mic straightened his back and glanced at Rei again. "Better?"
The truth was that his legs didn't feel any different as he lied about them being stiff as he didn't want to take him up on his offer.
"No..." technically it was not a lie.
"No? Well, then you have to see Recovery Girl then. Sounds serious if I can't fix it, and we do need you to be in tip-top shape for the exam!"
"I'll be fine." Rei amusingly said as he turned around and walked up to one of the benches. He sat down and opened up his laptop to do some last-minute checks.
"You're sure?" Mic sounded genuinely concerned.
"Yup." Rei gave him a reassuring nod.
"Well if you're really okay, say 'hey'." Mic requested as he pointed a finger at Rei while striking an uncanny pose.
"... Hey..."
After a while of convincing, the pro hero eventually decided to leave him alone.
Rei breathed out a sigh of relief. "Now, how about..."
Rei was just sitting there, revamping the designs of his robotics on his laptop. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching him, he looked up to see that it was a boy in a black school uniform. He had short orange hair styled into a literal bowl cut.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" He asked to which Rei shook his head. "Thanks." He said as he took a seat behind him.
"Oh, I thought you were doing some last-minute revisions." He said in surprise as he caught sight of Rei's laptop. He then took out a water bottle as he began to down it.
"I'm pretty confident in that regard," Rei explained. He then turned to face him. "Omura Rei." He held out his hand for him to shake.
"Steven Sky." The boy said as he shook his hand.
"Steven?" Rei asked with his brow raised
"Yeah. My parents came to Japan because of their work about... Fifteen Years Ago,"
"Huh, well nice to meet you, Steven." He said as he went back to his device.
As the Sun rose higher into the sky, more and more aspiring students arrived to attempt to tackle the entrance exam.
Rei would occasionally raise his eye to look at whoever came in, attempting to see faces he could recognize.
"All Examinees. Please head to Hall number one, two, and three to take the written exam. All Examinees, head to Hall number one, two, and three to take the written exam." A calming female voice announced from a speaker.
"That's the queue." He said as he got up. Packing his laptop inside his backpack. He set it on the bench he was sitting at, hoping that it would not somehow get lost, as he made his way to where Hall number one was.
As he was walking with the crowd of teens, he noticed that he was a stood at a fairly good height among the bunch. Standing a full head taller than most of them.
Rei nodded to himself with an impressed look. He had reached a height of about 180 cm, which was tall, 1 cm higher than Iida would have been by this time. Though he expected to be taller, considering the giants in his family.
"Isn't that Omura?" One boy asked in a hushed tone to his friend.
"The Golden Boy?" asked another.
"Yeah."
"I think it is."
"Woah..."
"Heard he's got like, Three PhDs."
"Really?"
Rei was a bit taken by surprise by how many people recognized him.
"Omura..." A deep, gravelly voice called out to him.
Rei turned back and sighed almost delightedly in recognition, "Ah..." He said with a smile when he saw who it was.
The boy had spiky, bleach-blond hair and wore a black formal Japanese school uniform with a white scarf draped around his neck.
"Hey, I think I've seen that guy somewhere before..."
"You don't know? That's the kid that was held hostage by the villain. Remember the Sludge Monster?"
"Oh..."
The students talked among themselves in a hushed tone, unwilling to upset the seemingly more volatile smaller Blonde.
Bakugou smacked his tongue at their remarks. He then turned to the taller boy in front of him with a deep glare. "What are you doing here?"
"Me?" Rei tilted his head in mild confusion,
"You had your Recommendation letter approved, so why did you have it recalled? What? Do you think that you're so amazing you don't need it?" He asked with a glare, looking him up and down, squaring up the so-called 'Golden Boy'.
"Well, interestingly I-"
"Then allow me to give you a lesson in Humility smart-ass, cos' I'm gonna crush you and everyone in this hallway, you hear!?" He said as he attempted to walk through him. But due to the fairly drastic size difference, it yielded less than favourable results for the Blond Bomber.
But it didn't matter, it got the point across.
"He's explosive as ever..." Rei remarked with a smile as he dusted himself off, getting rid of the dirt that had somehow appeared on his chest. "And he really does smell like a candy shop." He added with a disbelieving giggle.
But his face adorned a look of seriousness very suddenly, 'Looking at him like this, he doesn't give off the general vibe you'd associate with a hero.' He said in thought, 'But I suppose appearances can be deceiving...'
He nodded and resumed his stride to the examination hall.
"So that's the Golden Boy?" Ectoplasm asked with interest.
"He had his Recommendation Letter revoked by his father..." Snipe chimed in with his remark being a bit disapproving in nature.
"He's taller than I thought he would be..." Midnight commented in a thirsty, sultry voice.
"He looks like he's confident. Let's see if that's well-founded..." Thirteen said in interest as well.
"Met him this morning, good kid." Mic commented.
"So that's Omura..." Nezu muttered and turned to Toshinori. "Can you tell me anything about him?"
"Our meeting at the beach was very brief, so I don't know much about him yet," Toshinori said to the principal.
"A Puzzle? Oh, I love those..." The mouse proclaimed in delight as he turned back with a smile.
"Hmm... didn't expect this," Rei said in disappointment, as well as shock. "I genuinely thought it would be- never mind." He stammered under his breath.
The Written test they were assigned was a lot easier than he had anticipated. Though, already being exposed to the highest levels of Education. He didn't know what he expected.
He looked around in pity at how many examinees were clicking their tongues and scratching their heads in frustration.
His heart really did go out to them all.
"Times up!" The man Rei had met that morning called out flamboyantly in English, signalling the end of the written test time with his hands held up high, and his finger pointing at the ceiling.
Rei got up first, walking up the submit his work without the slightest trace of hesitation.
"Suppose that's to be expected..." He heard someone mutter under their breath in envy.
"For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today!" Mic began to build up. "Everybody say 'hey!'" He cupped his ears to listen to his audience.
He was met mostly with silence. Save for the weak and unenthusiastic "...hey..." coming from the boy that he met that morning.
"Now that's what I call an audience!" He lightly celebrated. "Well then, I'll quickly present to you the rundown of the Practical exam."
"Are you ready!" He held up his hands, emulating the pose of a rapper dropping his mic after dishing a smouldering bar. "Yeah!"
This time, however, he was met with complete silence.
Rei could begin to hear the hushed mutter of a person sitting fairly far away behind him. He turned around and saw a lump of dark green hair, sitting next to a collection of Blond spiky ones.
"As it says in the application requirements, you listeners will be conducting a ten-minute mock battle in an urban environment." He stated as he seemingly got over the poor reception he was receiving. "You can bring whatever you want with you. After this presentation, you'll head to your specified Battle Center, okay?" He didn't get a response.
"Okay?!"
Rei looked down at his card. "Battle Center G..." he said idly. He then turned his head up and began surveying around the room, looking again for any faces he could recognize. Briefly, he caught sight of a brooding boy with the head of a bird, a girl with a brown bob haircut, one with messy pinks ones, and a boy with a giant tail.
He smiled as he set his gaze on them one by one.
"Three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle centre. You earn points for each of them based on their level of difficulty." He laid out.
"Your goal, dear listeners, is to use your quirks to earn points by immobilizing the faux villains." He turned around and pointed at his audience. "Of course, attacking other examinees and doing any unheroic actions are prohibited!"
"May I ask a question?" A guy from the row Rei was at asked as he stood up with a raised hand.
"Okay!"
"On the printout, there are four types of villains. If this is a misprint, then U.A., the most prominent Hero School in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake." He placed the printout down and held his right hand to his chest. "We examinees are here in this place, because we wish to be moulded into exemplary Heroes." He turned around and pointed.
"In addition, you over there with the unkempt green hair. You've been muttering this whole time it's distracting! If you're here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately!" He firmly scolded as he turned back to face a boy with messy green hair.
"I'm sorry..." The boy apologized as some people around him began to laugh.
"Okay, okay, Examinee Number 7111." He held up his thumb towards him. "Thanks for the great message."
A silhouette of the Zero pointer appeared on the screen. "The fourth type of villain is worth zero points. That guy's an obstacle, so the speak."
"There's one in every battle centre. An obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces. It's not impossible to defeat, but there's no reason to defeat it, either." He explained and turned around into a pose. "I recommend that you listeners, try to avoid it."
"That's going to be interesting..." Rei said under his breath. There was no way he possessed enough raw power to obliterate the robot, like Midoriya did, he would have to be smart.
"Thank you very much!" The boy said with a bow. "Please excuse the interruption." He said as he sat back down.
Rei heard the people around give their own take on the premise of the test, comparing it to various platforms of entertainment they were familiar with.
"That's all from me! Finally, I'll give you listeners a present- our school motto."
"The great general Napoleon Bonaparte once said: "A true hero, is one who overcomes live's misfortunes.". He stopped and bent down for dramatic effect.
"Go beyond." He looked back up with his arms held to his side. "Plus Ultra!" Sadly, he was just not cool enough to incite the spirit of the children.
"Now, everyone, good luck suffering!"
Rei was now sitting in a bus, engrossed in his laptop again, hitching a ride to Battle Center G.
"Hey." A boy called out to him. Rei looked up and saw that it was a boy with red spiky hair and an unnaturally sharp set of teeth. "I just wanted to say good luck!" He flashed Rei a thumb before sitting back down on his seat in front of him.
"Yeah, good luck to you too." 'He really does seem like a nice guy.' He thought idly.
A speaker on the Bus dinged, signalling their arrival at their destination. All the students began picking up their things as they headed out.
Rei was still sitting down on his seat by the window, waiting for everyone to leave first.
"I'll try that..." He said with a smirk an idea of neutralising the biggest threat in there surfaced to his head.
He then got up and took something out of his bag.
It was the Lithium-Polymer Super-capacitor he had bought from a friend. He strapped it to a device that was in his lower back. As soon as he did, he began to feel more and more alive.
"Now to find out if this thing really is... Combat Grade."
These recent chapters are like the Spanish Inquisition.
At least I hope they are.
As you could probably tell, the spree of new chapters this past few days were a sort of Christmas Gift to you guys so;
Merry Christmas!
But unfortunately, this just exhausted my loaded chapter supply, so you'll have to wait until next Saturday for the next one.
Until then, I hope these didn't disappoint.