Chapter Five: Legendary
Toshinori entered the darkened room in his muscled form, trying to be as stealthy as possible to avoid diverting his colleagues' attention from the examinees.
"You are late," said a man in a white scarf accusingly.
So it was possible that his stealth needed some work.
"A-ah, well…" stammered Toshinori, deflating into his true form. "You see-"
"Don't even," sighed Shouta Aizawa. The man was just as cutting and straightforward in his manner as he had been when Toshinori had first met him. It unnerved him, and throughout his tenure as Number One, very few things ever managed to unnerve Toshinori. In fact, the only other person who discombobulated him as much as the Erasure Hero was his old mentor, Gran Torino. Aizawa was that intimidating. Present Mic aimed a look at the black-haired man, but as his eyes were hidden behind his orange sunglasses, Toshinori wasn't able to determine the nature of it.
"No matter," said a kindly voice that only could belong to Nedzu, the principal. "You haven't missed all that much, All Might. Take a seat and we'll fill you in on the important bits."
Sending a silent prayer of thanks to the anthropomorphic teacher, Toshinori sat down, making sure to position himself as far away from Aizawa as possible. Perhaps he wasn't being fair to the Erasure Hero, but Aizawa was scary, sue him. "Have any students caught your eye just yet?" asked the blond man, surreptitiously wiping away a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth using a handkerchief in his shirt pocket.
Nedzu nodded. "Quite a few applicants show great promise this year, even if the majority of their focus remains on destroying as many robots as possible instead of anything else." He pointed with a furry paw to screen 401, where a spiky-haired blond with fierce red eyes was decimating a two-pointer with an explosion from his palm. Toshinori noted his perfect stance and aim, though he narrowed his eyes at how gleeful the boy seemed at destroying his opposition. "You're looking at Examinee #7112, Katsuki Bakugou. He has the most villain points until now, which happens to be an impressive figure of fifty-six; more than twice the score of the current second place. Moreover, that's not counting the robots he has maimed but not completely destroyed. His combat sense is amazing and the use of his Quirk is phenomenal; he could even quit now and still be able to pass. I've also taken a look at his written papers, and he has received perfect grades on every one of them. There's no doubt that we're looking at a future star student."
"But that doesn't excuse his complete lack of rescue points," interrupted a large man with white hair, a pronounced underbite, and a red costume. The Blood Hero, Vlad King, was Aizawa's exact opposite in that he was infinitely more laid-back, but like his fellow homeroom teacher, his words were brutal in their honesty. "He's brash and rude, and he doesn't seem to care about stealing kills from other people. Tenacity is fine only if it is pointed in the right direction, and after you look past his aptitude for combat, you'll see he has no social skills nor the necessary charisma of a hero."
Right on cue, Bakugou blasted the head of a two-pointer to bits, sending shrapnel flying over to a grey-haired youth. Had the boy's skin not metamorphosed into solid steel just in time, he would have been gravely and possibly fatally injured. As he shouted angrily at Bakugou, the only response he earned for his efforts was a middle finger. Brash and rude clearly didn't even begin to cover it.
Toshinori did not fail to remember how one day, his protégé had turned up to training with a burn on his arm and had refused to explain it, no matter how much he had subtly prodded the green-haired boy. Kirihara had been similarly reticent as to the details of the injury, politely citing it as Midoriya's business and no one else's. In the end, it had been Uraraka who had finally pulled him aside to privately explain how Midoriya was being bullied regularly by a boy with an explosion Quirk, who happened to be shooting for U.A just like the three of them. It hardly seemed a coincidence that this Bakugou fellow had an explosion Quirk as well, or that he went to Aldera Junior High, just like Midoriya, Kirihara, and Uraraka did.
Narrowing his eyes, he resolved to keep a close eye on the boy and separate him from Midoriya as much as possible. U.A did not tolerate bullies, and neither did he.
"On the other end of the spectrum is Izuku Midoriya," continued Nedzu. Toshinori's heart gave an anxious, excited lurch at hearing his student's name being called as another screen showed the green-haired boy pushing an examinee aside to save them from a one-pointer aiming to punch them over the head. "He has a Quirk called 'Super Power' which he describes as a wellspring of strength he can draw upon to enhance his physical aptitude. That being said, he doesn't have any of the finesse that Bakugou is exhibiting and has only managed to amass fifteen villain points. With a Quirk like that, he should have been able to gather far more than that."
Toshinori made sure to keep a poker face even as he felt Nedzu's beady eyes upon him. He wasn't surprised that Midoriya was still having problems using One for All properly; he himself had been a prodigy who had trained for several years before receiving it. In contrast, Midoriya had only been training with it for three months. That he had managed to get as many as fifteen villain points with a Quirk he had only had for that long- and that too without suffering any kickback- was extremely impressive.
"However, he has foregone going after robots and has committed himself to help out his fellow examinees when he can," explained Nedzu, now sounding uncharacteristically excited. Toshinori sat up at this and watched the mouse/bear/dog in interest. "This is already the seventh person he has saved from a robot instead of destroying the robot itself. We're still debating as to how many rescue points we should assign him, but he could easily equal Bakugou if he keeps this up."
"He has the spirit of a hero," murmured Aizawa. "But he is clumsy and nervous. He moves slowly and only uses his Quirk when it's to destroy a robot. He could easily use it to enhance his speed, but he isn't doing so. He has some good technique, but he hasn't learned how to compensate for his added strength. This makes me think that he's only learned how to use his Quirk in this manner very recently, nor does he know how to fight with it. We'll need to work with him on that."
Toshinori nodded, even as he felt a little overwhelmed by the teachers' sharp observations. Times like these reminded him that he still had a long way to go when it came to teaching. For crying out loud, it had taken him almost a quarter of an hour just to explain his own Quirk to Midoriya properly! However, he was impressed by his protégé's attitude. The cry-baby fanboy was made of sterner stuff than he'd assumed if he could give up on villain points and go for saving his fellows instead. It was so very heroic of him.
Toshinori was glad that he had met the boy.
"Hurry up and get to the good part, principal," admonished a svelte woman with lush navy hair, blue eyes framed with wide red glasses, clad in a skintight white bodysuit, black corset, red belt, and lilac stockings. This was the 18+ Only Hero, Midnight, and her unusually impatient exclamation managed to pique Toshinori's interest, though he had an inkling of what she was talking about. "What good part?" he asked anyway.
In answer, Nedzu pointed at another screen, which showed a giant eyeless dog-like creature with prominent white fangs, spiny orange fur, massive black claws, and curious slits along its neck. It gave a roar as it bit through a two-pointer's flexible neck, putting it out of action instantly. Even stranger was the fact that it had a small green symbol on its left forelimb that resembled an hourglass amidst a black background. It did not appear even remotely human, nor like any other living organism on Earth for that matter. Instead of surprise, however, Toshinori gave a small, secret smile as Nedzu opened his mouth to explain...
X-X-X
Approximately five minutes before All Might's ill-fated entry to the private viewing room, Fasttrack had already successfully sped past every single examinee in his group. Furrowing his brow in concentration, he carefully veered to the left before coming across the first roundabout in his chosen path, at which point he slowed down and managed to come to a stop just before his ankles would have shattered against the hard stone of the centerpiece. Unlike most heroes with speed-type Quirks, Fasttrack had yet to get used to perceiving his surroundings while running or make sharp turns effectively. On the other hand, he was already much quicker than most Pros and was deceptively strong for his rangy physique.
In order to test out the alien's abilities properly, Takeo had managed to temporarily reserve a treadmill specially developed for individuals with speed Quirks at a gym near his workplace, which offered much equipment tailored for various different Quirks and was consequently tremendously popular among his colleagues. Takeo himself had the Eighth Level of Hell, which sufficed for drilling his own Quirk (and Uraraka's), but for this particular occasion, he had agreed to pay the fees necessary to let Kyosuke exercise his new powers to the fullest. That had included letting Fasttrack loose on the aforementioned treadmill.
The results of about fifteen minutes' effort had been frankly astronomical- at his fastest, the feline creature was capable of nearly breaking the sound barrier, at the cost of not being able to stop running easily if he went too quickly. From those results, Takeo had hypothesized that Fasttrack had relatively dense fast-twitch muscles that contributed towards this great speed and explained his impressive strength despite his lean frame, though his stamina and fine control left much to be desired.
Spotting a one-pointer coming his way, Fasttrack did not hesitate. He slapped the hourglass symbol on his chest and transformed in the blink of an eye, surrounded by green light as his body turned quadruped, with massive forelimbs and giant black claws to match. His fur turned orange and became rough and spiny; his eyes disappeared, and a set of strange black gills that contributed to his tremendous senses of smell and hearing opened up along his neck. His jaw grew larger as he gave a monstrous roar, showing off a set of giant ivory canines that would have sent even the most vicious predator running.
Not intimidated in the least, the robot lunged forwards on its spherical wheel, its singular red eye glowing- not that the dog-like alien could see it. He operated entirely on smell and hearing, though these senses were so accomplished that he was able to detect the sentient body of metal with ease. "Target acquired. PREPARE TO DIE!"
With agility that even the most acrobatic of heroes would have been hard-pressed to emulate, Wildmutt sprang up and swung a heavy paw on the one-pointer's head, tearing through the metal with ease and putting the robot out of commission instantly. As he landed, he heard some movement behind him, and managing to identify the distinct odor and sound of rumbling steel once more, Wildmutt narrowly avoided a strike from another, rather faster two-pointer and came up to sink his fangs into its head, biting down until it stopped moving. That made three points.
Growling in satisfaction, Wildmutt roared once more as he bore down on a conglomerate of faux villains, moving fluidly from one robot to another as he tore, bit, and clawed each and every one of them apart. He couldn't see, of course, but he didn't let that stop his rampage. A few minutes passed in this fashion; after dispatching yet another faux villain by tearing it apart at the waist, he finally heard the distinctive footsteps of his fellow examinees.
Using a paw to tap the Omnitrix symbol on his shoulder, Wildmutt disappeared in a flash of green light, and Kyosuke took his place, blinking as his eyes readjusted to their resumed existence. What greeted him was a ruined heap of what had previously been almost seven robots in total. Smiling in satisfaction even as part of him bemoaned the loss of his incredible hearing and smell, the white-haired boy activated the Omnitrix once more, noting how his peers were still being kept relatively busy by the burgeoning multitude of faux villains- this meant that his lead would probably soon disappear if it hadn't already. This, of course, was because he wasn't sure how many points he had gotten, considering Wildmutt wasn't able to see, and he didn't have the luxury of moving back to count.
With a press of the watch, his body changed once more, growing smooth and metallic as his shoulders morphed into curves of steel and his neck vanished, head compressing into a small metal sphere with oval green eyes which floated between his new shoulders. He had nothing he could rightly call skin, but his body was yellow and black at the center, and his hands and feet had two phalanges each to grasp with.
"Lodestar!" he called as an afterthought before holding up his hand, a powerful magnetic pulse emanating from it. The organometallic being's powers had been among the most difficult and finicky to control of all his transformations, though after Midoriya had achieved the insight that Lodestar's power was magnetic field manipulation and not metal manipulation as they had initially hypothesized, it had become marginally easier to exert his strengths. He ceased attempting to bend the metal to his will; instead, he merely acted as a guide for it to move where he wanted it to. With this ideology in mind, it was only with minimal difficulty that Lodestar could generate a field to invert a passing three-pointer's missiles so that they hit the ponderous robot itself instead of him.
However, just when he would have continued in this vein, he noticed an event that successfully distracted him. A short blond girl with disproportionately large horns was cowering as two one-pointers converged on her. One of them raised a giant arm, ready to club her over the head as the girl gave a yell and threw up an arm in an attempt to ward off the attack.
Completely forgetting about the two-pointer ahead of him, Lodestar ran forward, a cone of invisible magnetic energy jettisoning out from his arms and holding the two one-pointers in place, though not forcefully enough to destroy them. The girl's fear quickly shifted to confusion as she eyed this strange metallic humanoid- who resembled the robots they were taking down more than anything else- prioritizing her safety over his own ambitions.
"Take the kill!" urged Lodestar, and the girl nodded shakily as her horns flew out from her head to impale one robot, then the other. Their eyes went dark before they even finished falling down. Lodestar ceased his efforts the instant they did so and ran off, not waiting for the girl to react properly to his saving her.
Another minute.
The examinees had now been divided into two parts. One part was the smarter ones among the rabble who had gone to the central spots of the replica city and allowed the bots to come to them, just as Kyosuke had. The rest of the examinees remained in the narrow paths and one-way alleys of the area and were boxed in together as a result. They were soon overwhelmed by the lack of breathing room and had resorted to blindly firing off their Quirks, which injured just as many of them as it did the robots, which consequently got them either disqualified or too badly hurt to continue.
It seemed that even though the examinees were doing a pretty good job overall of eliminating the faux villains, more and more kept coming. And as a result, this multitude of untrained high-schoolers was starting to get more careless about whom they hit with their Quirks. Earlier, they had previously displayed some level of control in this regard. Now, driven as they were by the heated competition and their own frantic desperation, they had thrown caution entirely to the wind in favor of acquiring as many points as possible. No one could have blamed them for it, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
"Oi!" yelled Lodestar angrily as he hastily used his powers to divert the head of a two-pointer before it would have decapitated him. He didn't have a neck, certainly, but removing his head from his body would have disoriented him greatly anyway. "Be careful, bakatare! You could have hurt someone!"
The boy, the one with long black hair he had spotted at the entrance, winced as the strange angular carapace on his hand disappeared. "Sorry, bro! Won't happen again!"
"It had better not," murmured Lodestar under his breath as the boy ran off. Catching sight of a three-pointer aiming its missiles at him, the alien merely raised a hand in preparation, only to let out an involuntary curse as he realized the robot wasn't actually gunning for him. It was aiming at an unsuspecting girl, who happened to be the same one from the entrance gate with the white kung fu uniform and orange side-ponytail, again. She was pummelling another robot into scrap metal with fists the size of her torso and had her back to the rogue three-pointer, breathing like a racehorse. Had Lodestar had a functional jaw, he would have likely been picking it up off the floor, but that was neither here nor there.
'I can't reach it!' he realized in horror. The missiles were unlikely to do any serious damage, but letting another person get hurt was not his way, and it would never be. There was only one thing to do- he hit the symbol on his chest and changed once more. The metallic humanoid's sleek body condensed into hard planes of crystal as he shot up in height. His stony muscles grew rough and crenelated as they glowed with ethereal light.
Chromastone wasted no time. He sprinted forward without a word, and just before the three-pointer fired, he let loose a powerful laser from his arm that intercepted the missiles just in time. Much to his consternation, the resulting explosion decommissioned the three-pointer as well. That had not been his intention. He had meant to let the orange-haired girl take the points instead. Indeed, she was now looking over, surprise writ large on her face as he put a hand to his head in frustration and self-recrimination.
"Crap...I'm sorry," he apologized through gritted teeth. He hated making mistakes, and he hated how those mistakes resulted in consequences he could not ignore. "I wasn't- that was an accident. I meant to let you have the points-"
A melodic giggle interrupted his errant grumbling and made him look up in surprise. Rather than appearing as unhappy with him as he himself was, the girl was laughing as her hands returned to normal size. "You're fine!" she assured him, rubbing her wrists. She was breathing hard and her face was a little red, which could easily be attributed to her exerting herself. "In fact, I think...I think I should be thanking you- that robot would've shot me had you not been there, right?"
"Well- yes," mumbled a flummoxed Chromastone. "But- actually, I'll talk to you later!" The exam was still ongoing, and there was no more time to waste. He thought he heard another light giggle behind him as he sped away but firmly elected to ignore it.
Another minute passed. Right on cue, Present Mic's voice blared out from somewhere above them. "ONLY TWO MINUTES LEFT! GET A MOVE ON, LITTLE LISTENERS!"
Chromastone gave an impassioned cry at the reminder, rainbow light bleeding from his fists as he let them loose, destroying two robots one after the other. He was becoming a hero, no matter what obstacles stood in his way- even if he failed today, he would still become a hero. He would never give up, no matter what the world threw at him- even if fate and God themselves conspired against him, he would never falter, never cease; he would become a hero, no matter what.
X-X-X
"...and it seems that watch of his is a medium for his Quirk to activate and let him transform into these creatures," relayed Nedzu, eyes never leaving the screen as the pink-and-purple crystalline humanoid punched through two one-pointers in quick succession. "What surprises me is that he has never been recorded displaying these forms until now. In fact, his Quirk isn't stated to be anything close to this in his middle school records. He only changed it about eleven months ago- he hasn't even named it yet."
"That is surprising," admitted Aizawa, narrowing his eyes at the shapeshifter. "One would think that such a powerful Quirk would have gotten him some immediate and extensive attention- that is, unless he's been trying to hide it, for whatever reason."
It was then that Toshinori caught Nedzu's eye. The anthropomorphic principal regarded him pensively, his eyes like little blackberries amidst his immaculate white fur. "All Might," he began quietly, stroking what would have been his chin, had he had a human face, "do you think...this young man is connected to...him?"
Toshinori tensed. It was hardly possible for him not to know who Nedzu was talking about, and none of the other teachers failed to pick up on it either. "No, I don't think this boy has any connection to All for One," he rasped solemnly, holding Nedzu's gaze and trying to convey without words exactly why he held this belief, and how he knew it to be true. He had trained Kirihara himself alongside Midoriya and Uraraka; for all intents and purposes, the boy had remained a perfectly normal teenager even after he had received the Omnitrix. There was no reason to disbelieve his story about Paradox. That said, for appearance's sake, he would continue to pretend his transformations were the result of a Quirk and not the device. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check, though," he added to placate the other teachers. It seemed to work, too- Aizawa returned to gazing at the screens, while Vlad King swiveled about in his chair to do the same. Only Nedzu held his gaze for a while longer before giving a nod so slight that he almost missed it.
Managing to suppress a triumphant smile, Toshinori wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth and continued to watch as Midoriya pulled yet another examinee out of harm's way- this being a tall, thin boy with skin the color of charcoal who had narrowly avoided a painful introduction to a three-pointer's missiles. "Now. Let us see how these eggs react to a real threat," declared Nedzu, clapping his paws together. "Yamada-kun, send in the zero-pointers."
"OH, YEAH!"
X-X-X
"Are you hurt?" inquired Chromastone, his single eye quirking in concern as he appraised the boy he had just saved from a one-pointer by firing a laser at its arm before letting the former take the kill. The boy nodded in confirmation with a thankful smile as the gyrating extensions on his arm ceased moving. "Thanks, man! You really saved my hide, there."
"Don't mention it," demurred Chromastone, watching as he ran off before changing back to his human form and wincing in pain. A side-effect of the Omnitrix was that it occasionally hurt when he transformed back to his normal shape, especially if he had gone through a multitude of aliens before doing so. It wore off quickly, however, and Kyosuke was able to observe his surroundings properly once more, absently massaging his neck. He could no longer see anything more of the robots beyond remnants of scrap metal that his merciless peers had left behind. None of them seemed to be functional, and he had reached the end of his chosen path near the end of the cityscape. He wasn't sure how many points he had earned, but he felt confident of his chances of success.
There was one thing that was nagging at him, however. Where was the zero-pointer? He had yet to see a single robot shaped like its distinctive silhouette, nor had any of them been marked with a zero. Granted, he had been blind for a noteworthy portion of the exam, but the point still stood- if it had been meant to act as an obstacle, it was doing a fairly poor job of it.
But that made no sense- U.A had an astronomical budget, certainly, but that didn't mean it would invest the time in fashioning an entire class of robots and not use a single one of them during the exam. That was just plainly illogical. Kyosuke frowned in confusion as he looked around fruitlessly- not a single type of robot was observably moving about, let alone an errant zero-pointer. What did manage to get his attention, however, was the orange-haired girl from before; she was trudging up the path slowly, a red flush on her cheeks. Her breathing was labored in a way that instantly sharpened his concern- this was the kind of exercise-induced exhaustion he had seen so many times in Midoriya and Uraraka and the kind he had experienced himself at a not-inconsiderable frequency.
"Hey," he called, running up to her as she continued to suck in as much air as she could into her lungs. As she looked up at him, her eyebrows twitched slightly in what he hoped was recognition. "How do you feel?" he asked her urgently. If she collapsed, it could be the beginning of something infinitely more serious unless she received adequate hydration as soon as possible. He briefly entertained the idea of asking his fellow examinees if they had water to give her by way of, say, a Quirk, but she spoke up before that. "I'm fine, thank you...it's just..." she paused, breathing heavily. "I'm just a little...a little tired." She punctuated this statement with a wide yawn, and Kyosuke could not help but feel that was apropos.
It was then that he was struck with the revelation that, for the first time in almost four years, he was talking to a person his own age that wasn't Midoriya or Uraraka- and furthermore, this was someone who should have by all rights been a rival. They were both pursuing a spot in U.A and competing against each other for it, and yet here he was, attempting to acquire some help for her when he should have rightly used it to his advantage in some way.
Just as the thought entered his mind, Kyosuke viciously eradicated it. That was not who he was- he was better than that. He had sworn to become a hero to make sure at least a few more people in the world would feel hope and joy when they would have otherwise been lost, hurt, and afraid; to beat back injustice and maintain peace however he could. To even think of doing something this underhanded was a direct violation of everything he stood for.
Besides, 'a little tired' didn't even begin to cover it. This girl was a few minutes away from falling unconscious entirely, and they both knew it. Her white jacket was coming loose, showing a black undershirt beneath it. Kyosuke successfully ignored this, however, and gently led her into the shade of a nearby building by the shoulder. "You need to stay awake," he instructed her, feeling a little foolish for doing so, considering it should have been blatantly obvious anyway. The girl grinned faintly as she fought to do that very thing. "Baka," she whispered. "I'm not going...to f-fall asleep on you-"
~RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE~
Kyosuke peered up to the skies in horrified astonishment as a gargantuan robot with '0P' inscribed on it in grey paint revealed itself, giving a roar as it towered over all of them. It was easily over twenty meters tall and needed to actually lean on the buildings near it to stand up straight. In its wake came a multitude of panicking examinees, each screaming their heads off. That was the zero-pointer?
"Move! Get out of my way dammit! MOVE!"
"I ain't fighting that thing, man!"
"Oh my god, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
The white-haired boy rolled his eyes at that last remark. This was an exam, not a warzone, and U.A wouldn't let any test-taker actually lose their lives from something as simple as this. Or so he hoped, anyway. Unlike its relatively fragile brethren, the zero-pointer was frankly indomitable. It could easily crush an unfortunate student beneath its feet or severely injure anyone crazy enough to fight it. The orange-haired girl beside him was gaping, cognition returning to her features as she stared up at the metallic colossus, her exhaustion seemingly fizzling away as her pupils dilated with what he could recognize was adrenaline. "Isn't it a little...big?" she offered uneasily, and Kyosuke let out a brief laugh. That was a contender for the understatement of the century.
The zero-pointer made its way over to them at a sedate but constant pace, which was when he remembered that they needed to escape too. "Can you run?" he asked the girl, who brushed some sweat off her brow and nodded determinedly. "Don't wait for me," she murmured, which he chose to take as genuine assurance that she would be right behind him. Not bothering to use the Omnitrix, he began to jog away from the enormous robot, with the girl following closely behind him. She was actually fairly fast despite her adrenaline rush, considering she still had to be immensely tired.
"ONLY THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!"
Kyosuke gave a small, triumphant smile even as he looked behind him to check if his new companion was keeping up. If there were only thirty seconds left in the exam, then there was really nothing to fear as long as they managed to keep away from the titanic robot. There were no more of its brethren left standing anyway- he and his fellow test-takers had done all they could. He wasn't sure how many points he had gotten, but he could only hope they would be enough.
That was what he was thinking when he turned a corner and found himself staring at a two-pointer.
Time slowed down, and ice flooded his veins. He had assumed that all the robots had been destroyed. He was wrong.
Kyosuke froze in horror as the (fast, far too fast) robot lunged out at him, a sharp claw ready to take his head off. Instinctively, he moved so that he was positioned between the robot and the girl- at the very least, she wouldn't have to contend with it-
An orange blur sped past him from the corner of his eye with such blinding alacrity that he could only stare, fascinated and terrified, as the girl met the two-pointer's charge head-on, giving a roar as her fist multiplied in size before she punched out, intercepting the robot's claw and crumpling it like tinfoil. However, her face whitened immediately after as her wrist swelled, her teeth gritting together in silent agony as the still-functional robot swept out once more with its other claw.
Kyosuke didn't think.
"CHROMASTONE!"
A barrage of rainbow lasers blazed out like a conglomerate of meteors, tearing into the robot with such brutal efficiency that it was down before he had even gotten the opportunity to finish hitting his target. The girl had stumbled to the ground, crying out in pain as she cradled her wrist, her eyes red-rimmed and fatigued as she leaned away from the fallen robot.
Chromastone looked at her.
She looked at Chromastone.
"Thank you," they said simultaneously.
Just then a familiar beeping began to issue from the symbol on the alien's chest, which was flashing red in time with the sound. Recognizing what was happening immediately, Chromastone clenched his jaw just before he reverted back to his human form, grimacing as a fresh wave of pain accompanied the change. The girl gave a brief, embarrassed laugh as she stood up, gingerly holding her swollen wrist. "What...sort of a Quirk is that?"
"How about I tell you when you aren't looking like microwaved death," snarked Kyosuke, the shock of the situation racing through his blood and awakening a brand of sarcasm he usually only ever used with his father, Midoriya, and Uraraka. He paused, suddenly unsure, but she only laughed once more, blinking her eyes hard as she struggled to stay conscious.
"TIIIIME'S UP!" yelled Present Mic from above them.
This was the cue for the enormous zero-pointer- which, embarrassedly, Kyosuke had completely forgotten about- to abruptly cease moving, the glow in its six eyes dying out as it stood perfectly still. His adrenaline slowly draining away and leaving him strangely tired, the white-haired boy looked up at it, noticing how some other examinees were standing about, seemingly at a loss for what to do now. However, they soon noticed a set of drones roll up towards them whilst bearing stretchers, which answered that question quite succinctly.
Kyosuke turned towards the girl and raised an eyebrow. Thankfully, she took the hint and very good-humoredly sat down on the little mattress, gently cradling her wrist as she did so. "You know, I never got your name," she mentioned with an inquisitive smile, which for some reason made Kyosuke smile back at her. "No, I guess you didn't," he muttered a little self-consciously. "I'm Kirihara. Kyosuke Kirihara."
"And I'm...I'm Kendou. Itsuka Kendou." She mimicked his style of introduction, wrinkling her nose in amusement. "I hope you make it in, Kirihara-kun..." Whatever she had to say next was lost as one of the drones made her lie down with a firm application of its metallic hands to her shoulders, grumbling something about how humans were weak and broke so easily that putting them back together was an exercise in patience just as much as it was an exercise in care. Mildly freaked out, Kyosuke watched the now-prone girl- Kendou- be carted off for maintenance.
"I hope you make it in, too," he called after her in a rather belated fashion, but if the giant thumbs-up she flashed him was any indication, she'd heard him and acknowledged his well-wishes. Only then did he notice how the other students were following another robot back to the bus and hastily joined them before they departed.
That had been far from how he'd thought the exam would go, but all things considered, it could have been far worse.
X-X-X
"Spill," demanded Uraraka, immediately before sipping at a hot cup of tea. She had thankfully remembered to wear the special gloves Kyosuke had gotten her for her birthday- the ones that were fingerless except for the ring and pinky fingers, so she wouldn't be able to accidentally activate her Quirk on the cup and drench herself in boiling hot sencha. Midoriya looked oddly pensive as he cradled his own cup, not making any moves to drink from it. Kyosuke was the dark horse in that he was drinking coffee, not tea, and indeed doing so quite appreciatively. Inko's brewing, much like her cooking, left little to be desired, even though she used the same brand of Arabica that he did.
They had all, as they had previously agreed, congregated at the Midoriya household to share their respective experiences with the exam. However, Midoriya had had to be treated for a broken knuckle from where he'd punched a robot a little too hard, and Uraraka had had to be kept under observation for overusing her Quirk and puking her guts out immediately after the exam had ended. Being the only unhurt one amongst the three, Kyosuke had returned home immediately, regaled his father with the same tale he was now regaling to his two best friends, and lastly placed some calls towards Terumi and Inko to assure them that yes, the practical had gone quite well, and no, he was not hurt, and neither would Midoriya and Uraraka be, for that matter. He had also used this time to self-score his written exam, with the happy result that he had done well enough to pass with distinction in every subject, with perfect scores in math and science.
The next morning, after receiving a text from the green-haired boy in confirmation that yes, he and Uraraka were both okay, and yes, he could come over, why the heck was he even asking, Ochako-chan just invaded without even saying anything, Kyosuke had done so without wasting any more time. The fact that he would be turning up at nine in the morning on a Saturday had been completely disregarded. The white-haired boy had been the subject of Inko's hospitality so many times that he had started thinking of her as a sort of surrogate mother, just as she thought of him as a second son.
All Might had been strangely uncommunicative over the past evening, a fact which nagged at Kyosuke too much for him to feel relaxed despite it. How did it make any sense for the Number One Hero to take away from his precious time to train three teenagers for almost a year for the hardest entrance exam for any hero school in Japan, only to remain persona non grata the very evening after said exam's conclusion? However, he eventually put his troubled mind to rest with the reassurance that All Might was probably just busy and would contact them soon enough. He was still the Symbol of Peace after all.
In the meantime, he had results to worry about and friends to do it with.
"...and after they carted Kendou off, I just left," narrated Kyosuke. "I hope she's okay, though," he added as an afterthought. "She was pretty nice."
Uraraka grinned as she set aside her empty cup, it going without saying that she was going next. Midoriya seemed too out of it to take the initiative of speaking about his own practical, anyway. "That was definitely more eventful than mine, Kyo-chan," she began. "I didn't make a plan or anything like you did- which I probably should have, haha..." She rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, which at least got Midoriya to look up fondly at her.
"I did have to pull a couple of examinees from some pretty heavy rubble, though- that was how I hit my limit in the first place," revealed Uraraka, and Kyosuke could not help but shudder at that image. "Some boy from my area had a sort of strength Quirk that activated when he ate sugar, but he became seriously dumb when he ate too much of it, I think. He ended up accidentally punching a building instead of the two-pointer he was aiming at, and part of it collapsed. No one was really badly hurt, somehow, but that boy was disqualified pretty much immediately after the exam was over."
"Unfortunate, but probably necessary," stated Kyosuke with certainty, taking a short sip of his coffee.
"I still ended up getting forty-two points, though," she declared triumphantly, and...yeah. That was a vastly impressive achievement, and Kyosuke and Midoriya both saw fit to applaud it, with Inko joining them from the kitchen. "I mostly just used my Quirk to float up the robots and make them crash down. I didn't even use much of the training we've been doing with Takeo-sensei for so long. Now I'll just have to hope it's enough."
"There's time enough for using your martial arts training if you get into U.A, Ochako-chan," consoled Inko, smiling as she refilled her cup. "Takeo is hardly going to be disappointed- not if you've posted such a high score!"
"That's definitely true," added Kyosuke, and that managed to placate the brunette. He suspected that his father wouldn't care in the least as long as she'd done her best, actually, but that was neither here nor there. Forty-two points was an excellent score, and that wouldn't change whether or not it would be enough for U.A to accept her.
Now, it was finally Midoriya's turn.
It had been apparent to Kyosuke from the moment he had left his shoes on the genkan that his green-haired friend was not as satisfied with his performance as he and Uraraka were with theirs, and as he began to speak, the white-haired boy was finally able to comprehend why. "You know how the exam began with no warning, right?" he asked, and the two of them nodded. Inko, who had clearly already heard this story, was busying herself with pouring out some more sencha. "I was...uh...you remember that boy with the glasses from the auditorium, right? He...he was in my cityscape."
Midoriya didn't need to say anything more. "Ah."
Uraraka remained silent, though her stormy expression made Kyosuke almost feel sorry for that boy. Almost being the operative word.
"I...I was distracted, and I fell behind until I used One for All to catch up. I managed to get twenty-seven points by taking down the robots, but most of the time I was just pulling people out of harm's way. The people in my group weren't being all that careful with their Quirks, so I ended up doing that a lot.
"Then the zero-pointer arrived, and I'd been about to run when I noticed that the same boy from earlier had injured his leg and wasn't able to escape in time, so I went over and picked him up before running for it. He...he wasn't pleased, but I wasn't ready to let him try and escape the zero-pointer on his own. Somehow, I managed to escape the robot in time for the exam to conclude, but that left me with no chance to try and up my score, so..." He looked a little ashamed of himself, and Kyosuke simply could not let that stand.
But Uraraka talked first. "Deku-kun, every time I think you can't get more amazing, you just go and blow past my expectations!" Her shining adulation left Midoriya steaming red, but she wasn't finished, leaning forward and gripping his hand in both of hers. Kyosuke could only feel amused at the way the green-haired boy seemed to freeze up at her touch like he was going to spontaneously combust. "Saving other people instead of trying to increase your own score is the single most heroic thing I've ever heard anyone do!"
Midoriya sputtered incoherently, but Kyosuke tided over his protests with his own contribution. "Midoriya. If U.A doesn't see the inherent heroism in your actions- helping other people and placing them above yourself- then it really doesn't deserve to be called the best hero school in the country." At that, Uraraka gave him a proud, happy smile, and Midoriya went even redder. "Maybe that guy would've come to no harm at the zero-pointer's hands, but we know you; had you left him behind, you would have never forgiven yourself. You are altruistic and heroic to your core, and that won't change no matter what your results are."
Midoriya lifted his hands to wipe the tears that had emerged during his little speech, and Uraraka sat next to him, wrapping her arms around his taller frame and hugging him tightly, not caring about the droplets and snot landing on her shirt. Kyosuke waited until his friend had calmed down before starting up once more. "Anyway, don't you remember the promise we made so long ago? We're becoming heroes together, no matter what. Getting into U.A would be nice, certainly, but if one of us doesn't, then we'll just go somewhere else. Shiketsu, Ketsubutsu, Isamu; we're spoiled for choice, frankly. Right, Uraraka?"
"Yeah!" declared the brunette decisively, thrusting a fist up in the air. "We become heroes together or not at all! Got that, Deku-kun?"
Midoriya was still too choked up to respond properly, which didn't surprise either of his friends. "Now come on!" insisted the brunette, tugging Midoriya and Kyosuke up from their seats. "We've got a whole week to kill and nothing to do! Let's go to the mall! Come on!"
"Yes, dear," advised Inko. "There's no point in worrying about the results now that you've all done your best. Go with Kyosuke-kun and Ochako-chan; just be back by dinnertime, I'll make you your favorite katsudon."
"But that's not in the American Dream Plan..." complained Midoriya, getting up nevertheless and smoothing out his shirt. Completely ignoring his protests, Uraraka shepherded him out of the house while Kyosuke trailed behind them in amusement, waving a quick goodbye to Inko before shutting the door behind them.
Now that all of their exams were over until they started their high school career, the trio found themselves in the peculiar situation of having literally nothing to do except train, and even that only took up about three hours a day if they pushed themselves to their limit. All Might desisted from contacting them throughout, which further puzzled Kyosuke the longer it progressed. On the other hand, their parents allowed them a surprising degree of freedom to do whatever they wanted while they awaited their results. When Kyosuke questioned his father about it, Takeo only told him quite frankly that he would likely never get this sort of autonomy again, considering he would start his hero career immediately after high school, so he should enjoy it while he could. Recognizing the sense in the silver-haired man's words, Kyosuke invested all his time in either training or hanging out with his friends, making sure to keep his mind off the results and All Might's uncharacteristic silence as much as he could.
At exactly five in the evening the next Friday, Kyosuke put his hand in their apartment's mailbox and drew out a fine, crisp envelope with a golden pin affixing it closed. He didn't have to be a genius to figure out where it had come from. Without a word, he signaled his father and shrugged on a jacket before calling both of his friends to confirm that they had also received their letters- which they had.
Both Kirihara males made their way to the Midoriya household as they had agreed beforehand. Uraraka and her parents joined them just as they departed the building, clutching her own envelope with an expression that put Kyosuke in mind of someone struggling not to puke. Casting aside his usual antipathy for initiating physical contact, Kyosuke put a light arm around her waist in the train as Daiki and Terumi watched silently.
"Come in, come in," welcomed Inko anxiously as she opened the door to admit them all into the living room. Midoriya was sitting on the sofa, his own letter in hand. He wore an expression eerily similar to Uraraka's, which just prompted Kyosuke to pull him up. Without wasting any time, the white-haired boy caught his father's eye and gestured soundlessly to Midoriya's room. Takeo nodded in acknowledgment, and the trio made their way inside the small area, which was bedecked with all manner of All Might merchandise that reminded Kyosuke, once more, of how the man had not contacted them throughout the week.
The three of them laid their decision letters on Midoriya's table, side-by-side, before stepping back. Midoriya sat down on the chair, and Uraraka sank down on the bed. Only Kyosuke remained standing, contemplatively eyeing the three crisp envelopes with his arms folded. They- as envelopes were wont to do- did not eye him back.
"I can hear Inko-san pacing just outside the door," mentioned Uraraka with slight, nervous amusement, and indeed, Kyosuke could also pick up on the light, anxious footsteps that the short woman was making on the woodblock floor. Faintly, he could also hear his father tapping his foot on the carpet, a sign that gave away his anxiety. "I guess...rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first?"
"A-Actually, I don't mind going first," declared Midoriya suddenly, and before the other two could do anything about it, he had seized his envelope and ripped it in two with a violence that was highly uncharacteristic of him. What came out along with the expected bundle of paper was a holographic disk, which gave a few blinks before powering on, a blue light filling the room to reveal-
"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!" roared the Number One Hero.
"WHAT?" yelled Midoriya, genuinely taken aback; Uraraka and Kyosuke both joined his cry, each of them just as stunned as their green-haired friend. "All Might?" spluttered the latter. "What the hell is All Might doing here?"
"Surprised to see me, are you?" questioned the Number One Hero, and Kyosuke almost replied in the affirmative before remembering that this message had been pre-recorded, and the Number One wouldn't actually be able to hear him. "I'm sorry I did not contact you or your friends throughout the week, Young Midoriya- the reason for that is the same reason why you are seeing me instead of one of U.A's esteemed faculty! That's right- I, All Might, shall be teaching at U.A from now on until however long the principal sees fit to employ me!"
"That's insane!" guffawed Uraraka in disbelief, and Kyosuke was inclined to agree. All Might was teaching at U.A? It seemed almost too fantastical to be true- the Number One Hero, the Symbol of Peace, was teaching at U.A!
"But now, to your results!" All Might struck a pose, before dropping it and focusing intently on the camera. "Young Midoriya, you achieved an excellent score on the written exam- one of the best we've ever had, actually! However," and here his voice grew somber, and Kyosuke's heart turned to ice, "your score of twenty-seven points, even combined with your perfect grades in the written exam, is simply not enough to warrant a pass to U.A."
As the words sunk into them, Midoriya hung his head, defeated tears trailing down his cheeks, as Uraraka's face contorted in sorrow and sympathy. A vein throbbed in Kyosuke's neck as he clenched his fists, cold rage creeping through his veins.
"I knew it wasn't enough..." sobbed Midoriya as Uraraka embraced him, looking close to tears herself. "I knew, I knew right from the start, so why, why does it hurt so much...?"
"Yes, that's not enough to pass...which makes it all the happier that those weren't the only points you earned!"
"Wait, what?" asked the green-haired boy, instantly stopping his crying as he looked up at the screen in bewilderment. Whatever consolation Kyosuke had been about to offer him died on his lips as he stared at the projection with similar confusion.
"You probably thought you were being counterproductive by paying attention to your peers and pulling them out of harm's way when they struggled, didn't you? However, you were instead showing us all how a real student of U.A is supposed to act, and that a true hero isn't afraid to sacrifice his own gains for doing what he thinks is right! Indeed, in order to test your moral character, the strength of your soul, the qualities in you that make you fit to be a hero, we had designed another aspect of the exam and kept it secret from you! RESCUE POINTS!"
Kyosuke gaped before a slow grin began to form on his face as the true meaning of All Might's words began to dawn on him. The corners of Uraraka's lips were rising as she gave a sudden laugh. Midoriya was crying once more, but the tears were of joy this time as his total point value began to increase, bit by bit until-
"Izuku Midoriya, you have earned a score of fifty Rescue Points, which is the highest Rescue Score amongst all of your peers! And combined with your Villain Point score of twenty-seven, that takes you to a total score of seventy-seven! Not only is that more than enough to warrant a pass to U.A, but it is also one of the highest scores in the practical! Indeed, you have reached second place, tying with Katsuki Bakugou!"
"Second place...it's too much..." sobbed Midoriya.
"So come! Young Midoriya..." All Might held up a beckoning hand, his smile a beacon of light. "This is...YOUR HERO ACADEMIA!"
"ALL RIGHT!" screamed Uraraka, lifting Midoriya bodily into the air in celebration. "Deku-kun! DEKU-KUN!"
"Ochako-chan!" wailed Midoriya, still crying, and that managed to set off Uraraka too; in the end, Kyosuke had to come over and help the two of them through their tearful paroxysms, feeling incredibly jubilant and somewhat emotional himself, though he was able to control himself much better than his two friends, who were outright bawling as they clung to each other. They pulled him in as well a few seconds later. It was a miracle Inko did not hear them outside the door, so loudly his two friends were crying.
When all three of them had finally calmed down, Kyosuke finally registered what All Might had said fully. "Second place is amazing, Midoriya!" he praised, and his green-haired friend went red as he dried his tears. Uraraka laughed wetly, blowing her nose on a tissue that she had taken from Midoriya's desk. "A bit of a shame that you're sharing it with Bakugou, certainly, but it's still a phenomenal score."
Midoriya beamed happily, before reaching for Uraraka's envelope and handing it to her while raising an eyebrow. Nodding in affirmation, Uraraka took her envelope from him and opened it- far more gently than the green-haired boy had- and started up her own holographic projection.
Much like with Midoriya, Uraraka's message started with All Might greeting her with his signature catchphrase, before assuring her that she had passed with distinction in the written exam portion- not as well as Midoriya, but still well beyond the minimum passing mark. Then, he had gone on about how her forty-two points would have been enough to scrape a pass to U.A, but because of her courage and pluck in saving her fellow test-takers instead of gaining more points, she had earned an impressive thirty-four Rescue Points, bringing up her total score to seventy-six, just below Midoriya and Bakugou in third- or technically fourth- place.
"Ochako-chan!" cried Midoriya, sweeping her up in a hug while she thrust her fists up in a roar of delighted triumph. Grinning, Kyosuke put his arms around the two of them once more and embraced them tightly. He was so proud of them- so, so proud that they had passed with such flying colors. To get into U.A at all was a tremendous achievement, but to pass with such high scores was simply outstanding.
Now it was his turn. He knew all too well already that he had not earned as many Villain Points as Uraraka or as many Rescue Points as Midoriya, but he was still fairly confident that he would get through. With slightly shaky fingers, he peeled open his own envelope and started the holographic projection. He zoned out slightly while All Might assured him that he had passed extremely well in the written exam, with perfect scores in the Math and Science sections that made up for his relatively lower but still very satisfactory score in the Social Studies paper. As for his practical...
"You, my boy, earned a fairly good score of thirty-nine Villain Points, and that along with your great written exam score would have warranted admission to U.A by themselves, though it would have been by the skin of your teeth. However...those weren't the only points you earned!"
As they had already heard about the secret Rescue Points, Kyosuke only raised a slight eyebrow as All Might went on about how the way he had committed to helping out his fellow examinees had earned him another thirty-nine points by way of the hidden aspect of the exam, Rescue Points...
'Hang on a second.'
Kyosuke frowned slightly as he absorbed what All Might had just said. He had gotten thirty-nine Villain Points, but by way of aiding his peers and keeping them from coming to harm, he had earned another thirty-nine Rescue Points. But that brought up his total points to...seventy-eight if his math was correct, and it usually was...
Midoriya and Bakugou had gotten second place...with...seventy-seven...points...
The white-haired boy's jaw dropped as he finally understood, like the sun breaking over the horizon-
"You, Kyosuke Kirihara, by earning a total of seventy-eight points, have not only passed with flying colors, but you have also earned FIRST PLACE! Congratulations, my boy; even if it was only by one point, you have risen to the top, and you are therefore the current Player Representative for the first-year Hero Course! So come, Young Kirihara! This is... YOUR HERO ACADEMIA!"
"What." The delivery was flatter than an airport runway, and Kyosuke was willing not to blame himself for it this time. "What."
"First...place..." whimpered Midoriya, sounding very much like a cat choking on a hairball.
"Kyo-chan..." Uraraka's voice became progressively higher. "First place...first place...FIRST PLACE!"
"Kyosuke-kun!" screamed Midoriya, seizing the shell-shocked white-haired boy around the torso and spinning him around in a display of such uncharacteristic ebullience that it finally got him to snap out of his deadpan astonishment. Uraraka was crying openly as she embraced him, and that successfully toppled the three of them over in a massive heap on the floor. "First place!" she repeated as if she was unable to believe it, and Kyosuke could not blame her.
"Not what I'd expected, certainly..." the white-haired boy wheezed, a helpless smile breaking out on his face. "But this is not unwelcome in the least."
They were all finally on the road to achieving their dreams, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
X-X-X
U.A ENTRANCE EXAM: TOP TEN RESULTS
Number One: Kyosuke Kirihara
Villain Points: 39
Rescue Points: 39
Total Score: 78
Number Two: Katsuki Bakugou
Villain Points: 77
Rescue Points: 0
Total Score: 77
Number Two: Izuku Midoriya
Villain Points: 27
Rescue Points: 50
Total Score: 77
Number Four: Ochako Uraraka
Villain Points: 42
Rescue Points: 34
Total Score: 76
Number Five: Eijirou Kirishima
Villain Points: 41
Rescue Points: 33
Total Score: 75
Number Six: Itsuka Kendou
Villain Points: 34
Rescue Points: 40
Total Score: 74
Number Seven: Ibara Shiozaki
Villain Points: 32
Rescue Points: 41
Total Score: 73
Number Eight: Tenya Iida
Villain Points: 52
Rescue Points: 9
Total Score: 61
Number Nine: Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Villain Points: 49
Rescue Points: 11
Total Score: 60
Number Ten: Fumikage Tokoyami
Villain Points: 47
Rescue Points: 10
Total Score: 57
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A/N: And thus is finished the Entrance Exam Arc. What a conclusion! Sorry it took so long; I obsessed over this chapter for quite a while. I knew I wanted one of our main trio taking first place and the other two in second and third, but I wasn't sure whom to put where. I soon decided on Midoriya equaling Bakugou, but Uraraka and Kirihara took me more time. In the end, I gave the win to Kirihara, but go ahead and analyze the point spread I've laid out here. You might notice something interesting! (Of course, no pressure. The thing I'm talking about will be revealed in a later chapter.)
I hope you enjoyed Chapter Five just as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. If you liked my work, want to leave some constructive criticism, and/or any reason you like, drop a review! I love all the reviews I've gotten so far, you guys are awesome.
Anyway, see you soon, and stay tuned!
