The scene was chaotic already when Takeo had finally entered the city-sized exam site, jogging after his fellow examinees. Many of them scattered in different directions, but some grouped up nearby and seemed frozen in place.
As Takeo arrived, he looked over the small crowd and saw a few crazy looking robots down the street. They were each as tall as Takeo, which was pretty big compared to most of the other kids there, and sported gleaming green-metal bodies with powerful appendages and even some visible weapons on a few.
Wow.. U.A really is rich!Takeo watched one of the examinees from the group finally charge forward. He let out a battle cry and made his right hand explode into sparkling energy— But as he grew close to one of the robots, another one came spiraling in and smacked him away.
This startled the few gathered students, who gasped as the kid landed on the ground out cold, his face heavily bruised.
Whoa… They're really forreal!The robots then trained their sights on the students and began to rev their tires for a moment, before zooming towards them with a loud squeal.
"Ah forget this—!"
Three of the group ran back towards the gate they had come through. Takeo stood with two others, the both of them looking back and noticing Takeo there for the first time, shocked.
"Hey," spat a slender guy with curly black hair, "Are you like… stupid or something?"
Takeo looked down at the boy, confused as to why he was insulting him.
"Hey, uh, look out?" Takeo pointed, and the boy flinched at the movement, taking a step back just in time to get swatted aside by one of the robots that was upon them.
The other examinee near Takeo was a burly girl with long silvery hair. She opened her arms in a very familiar wide-stance that Takeo had done many times himself when practicing his Judo.
Oh!Takeo happily watched as she managed to move to the side and grab one of the oncoming robot's arms, turning as if to hurl it to the ground— However, she didn't seem quite strong enough to do so, so the robot spun its entire torso suddenly to send her flying across the road.
She didn't properly counter its weight with her own— Takeo thought, judging her action, seemingly oblivious as the robots turned to him. Oh, right…
Before Takeo could act, a laser beam suddenly shot in from down the street, tearing through two of the robots and taking the arm off another. As they fell into scrap piles, Takeo looked to the source.
"Salut~ Perhaps you should run instead of standing around like an easy target?"
The cheeky blonde-haired boy winked, a light at his navel area starting to subside.
Wow, having a Quirk sure is nice, was all Takeo could think.
The armless robot suddenly swung at Takeo, who quickly stook up a firm stance, grabbing its arm from below and sweeping his leg forward. He then let out a noise like a "HEEYUHH—" and brought the robot up over his head, slamming it down onto the ground over his shoulder with a loud CRACK!
As the robot stuttered and then seemed to die out, Takeo looked at the robot arm in his hand, which had been ripped off from the force of his throw.
I hope we don't have to pay for any damage.. Nah, no way. That'd be too much.He held the robot arm over his shoulder, unintentionally looking cool to the two downed examinees nearby who were looking at him in awe, still dazed.
Something suddenly zoomed past Takeo as he was lost in thought. He watched as the bespectacled boy with the strange metal pieces coming out the back of his legs came in and delivered a powerfully swift kick at a robot that was slowly approaching Takeo's blindspot.
As the boy landed on his feet near Takeo, he shot him a stern look and pushed up on his glasses.
"Please clear the road if you're just going to stand there," the boy stated firmly. "Or you'll get in the way."
Takeo lifted the robotic arm in the air with one hand. "Hey, I'm doing things. See?"
Glasses looked at the arm, then turned away, seemingly ready to take off once more.
This guy… Takeo huffed exasperatedly. He walked up next to the boy and also took up a position, readying to run.
This earned him a curious glance, before the boy suddenly shot off with a loud booming noise that seemed to come from his legs. He ran quickly, heading for the street corner to scout out for more targets—
"Hey, you're pretty fast."
Iida Tenya looked to his right to see Takeo there running beside him. He slid to a halt across a long distance, nearly stumbling and falling before he finally stopped. The boy, if one could call Takeo a boy, who had somehow caught up with him also stopped his run with little grace and looked over at Iida.
"Oh, you got tired that quick? Are you alright?"
Speechless, Iida glanced Takeo over a bit, questioning just what he was all about. Takeo simply rubbed the back of his head, confused by the look that Iida was giving him.
"You— Well…" Iida pushed up on his glasses and looked away. "Maybe I've underestimated you. But please let me continue the exam in peace."
Without giving a heads up, Iida shot off— However, he was too distracted to notice when another of the robots suddenly shot out from the shadows of an alleyway. Because he was going too fast, Iida could only try his best to maneuver out of the way, but its metal claw was going to hit him hard—
CLANG! SLAAAAAM!A fire hydrant came barreling in, slamming into the side of the robot's head and sending it staggering out of the way into the nearby wall. Surprised by this, Iida took a moment before he managed to kick off of a nearby wall and come in for a powerful strike, finishing the robot by knocking off its indented head.
He stood for a second and looked down at the decapitated robot. Takeo jogged on by, giving a small wave to Iida.
"Good luck!"
Iida watched Takeo go, and for a moment, had to simply question everything.
"Seven Minutes Left!"
Takeo felt like the time was dwindling fast. He swung around a street corner and came across a boy wearing a martial arts gi delivering a powerful attack with his strong-looking tail to finish off a robot.
As Takeo came up to the scene, he stood at attention and politely bowed to the blonde-haired boy, figuring that his uniform must mean he was part of some sort of martial arts.
"Hey.. You're.. Gouda, right? Takeo Gouda?!"
Takeo raised his head, surprised as the boy approached him, seemingly elated. He returned the bow, his tail flicking behind him a bit.
"I'm Mashirao Ojiro— I've seen you compete at lots of Judo tournaments.. You're amazing!"
Takeo smirked and blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his head. "O-Oh, nah.. I'm just doing my best."
Ojiro shook his head. "No way. With your size and willpower you're totally unstoppable!"
Feeling a bit embarrassed by the praise, Takeo looked away from Ojiro— And that's when he saw something crashing through buildings and coming their way.
Takeo quickly pushed Ojiro out of the way as a huge robot that nearly resembled a tank with two missile launchers on top, burst through a building and slammed into Takeo, going with him into another building.
"G-Gouda!" Ojiro ran towards the robot, whose torso spun and it swung an arm at him. He expertly dodged and managed to sever the arm with his tail, but the robot's missile launchers turned and fired two (apparently duds for the test) missiles that slammed into him and sent him tumbling backwards.
Ojiro slowly got up, winded, and looked worriedly at the robot— Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Takeo there, covered in dust with some small pieces of rubble in his hair.
"Gouda!"
"U.A really is something… These robots are the real deal!"
Ojiro chuckled before coughing, though Takeo didn't think he's made a joke. The tank-like robot, noticing Takeo had escaped it, turned towards them and fired a volley of its dud rockets their way.
"We gotta.. Move…… Huh?"
Ojiro watched as Takeo set down the severed robot arm that was still in his hand, and took a wide stance, his arms outstretched to either side of him.
"I've always been the best at being the goalie in soccer," Takeo explained, a serious look on his face. "Stay behind me."
"T-This is completely different," Ojiro exclaimed, trying to get ready to help him.
There was no need, of course. As the missiles came in, Takeo moved side to side in a blur, nearly invisible between his movements. His hands came forward and smacked each and every one of the oncoming missiles away, some even going DINK as he headbutted them away. Eventually, one last one was upon him, and Takeo grabbed it and threw it back at the tank, hitting it in the head— Followed by an explosion that surprised him and Ojiro, the missiles only designed to go off when used against the robots, not that they would be able to know that.
"Why'd it explode then?!"
Takeo scratched his head, unsure himself. "Did I get lucky…?"
Ojiro was in disbelief at how outmatched he was to the legendary Takeo, but he still smiled and gave a friendly punch to the huge boy's arm. Takeo rubbed it sheepishly.
"I hope that I can become as great as you someday. You'll make a great Hero," Ojiro said.
Takeo got flustered again. "I-I'll do my best!"
The two shared a respectful bow, before splitting up to continue their test. Takeo picked up the severed robot arm and continued on his way.
"Four Minutes Left!" The voice of Present Mic boomed across the city. Takeo picked up the pace of his jog.
A loud crashing sound alerted Takeo to a point of interest— However, when he got there, there were lots of robots already smashed to pieces by various students there, who were all taking it easy as if they already knew they would pass.
"Hmm…" Takeo looked around, unsure of where to go next. That is, until the earth began to shake beneath their feet.
The Sun above was blocked out as an absolute monstrous robot loomed over the square they were in. It was taller than any of the buildings in the city, and looked very much like the smaller robots, just incredibly huge.
"What the hell…"
"It's the zero point! Run!"
The examinees scattered. The giant robot brought its huge hand down, attempting to smush them. One girl managed to roll out of the way at the last second, but the robot then began to swing its large hand across the plaza in a sweeping motion towards her alarmingly quick.
She let out a yell, expecting to be hit, but suddenly, the hulking figure of Takeo had come between her and the giant hand. He held his ground firmly, managing to almost completely stop the assault, though he was slowly being inched backwards ever few moments.
"Ah.. T-Thank you.." The blonde girl gazed up at the large savior, blushing slightly.
Takeo took a moment, struggling against the force of his opponent, before he finally turned and gave a very… heavy expression towards the girl, intending for it to be really cool.
"I got this… Don't worry… You should go," he spoke with a grin.
The girl simply stood up with her hands held meekly in the air, as if surrendering, her cutesie expression for her savior long gone now.
"...Kay."
As she headed off, Takeo huffed proudly at himself, figuring he'd scored some coolness points there— However, the robot's hand suddenly began to close its large fingers around him.
"Now you're just cheating… HYUGHHH!" With a battle yell, Takeo pulled himself up and over the large enclosing hand, landing atop its wrist. He raised the robot arm he still had in his possession, and slammed it down, piercing the metal into the wrist of the large robot. Then, with all his might, he pryed like with a crowbar—
And soon enough, the giant hand was torn from the robot's arm, falling limp to the ground with sparks jutting from it.
Takeo fell from the robot's arm as it retracted it, but he quickly got up, smirking and wiping sweat from his brow.
"Hey, I'm not done with you yet—"
CRAAASHHH!!!An incredibly loud sound of metal being destroyed echoed around the plaza from somewhere nearby, not knowing that a certain green-haired boy had just destroyed his own body to defeat one of the large zero-point robots. Takeo looked around, a bit confused, before he heard the dreaded words:
"TIMES UPPPP!"
"Crap…" Takeo fell on his butt, letting out a sigh. He was going to try and take out the giant robot, believing it must be one of the higher point ones, but alas, he was coming out of the test with only three KOs under his belt.
Wait…He remembered the guy with glasses kicking the head off of the robot after Takeo had hurled a fire hydrant at it. Takeo stood up, steaming with frustration.
"Nooo! He definitely took one of my three points!"
As Takeo yelled to the sky, some onlooking examinees were murmuring to themselves about how scary Takeo was, and questioning if he was even the right age to be there.
Takeo looked very defeated as he walked home with Suna at his side, the boy looking very calm and collected as usual, quite the contrast from the incredibly dusty and dirty Takeo beside him.
"I'll take it it didn't go well?"
"No way, I totally bombed," Takeo said solemnly. "What about you?"
"I think I did decently."
Takeo clutched a fist tightly, his eyes tearing up. If Suna only did decent, there's no hope for me!
"When do we get our scores?"
Suna shot him a look. "They told us during orientation—"
"That's not an answer," Takeo retorted, making a puffy-lipped angered expression with his nostrils flaring. which made Suna turn away to conceal his laughter.
As the two reached the train station, they stopped as they saw a familiar person awaiting them.
Yamato stood with a small pink bag in her hands. The orange afternoon sunlight illuminated her strawberry-blonde hair, making angels ring in Takeo's ears as he spotted her, his expression shocked. As she noticed them, she waved shyly, looking a little weary from what Takeo assumed was a draining day of exams like their own.
"H-Hello…"
Soon the three were sitting on a park bench near the station. Yamato had insisted, having brought some snacks for them to repay them for earlier that day. She sat between them and watched as Takeo picked something out from the treats she had brought.
As soon as Takeo had taken a bite of one of the pastries, which were tiny in comparison to his hand, he made a face of pure delight, his eyebrows furled and mouth open.
"Ohhh—- This is really good!"
As he looked to Yamato, she blushed and looked down.
"I-I'm glad you like it," she said, smiling slightly.
"When did you have time to make these," Suna questioned as he took a bite.
Seemingly flustered, Yamato said quickly, "W-Well, my exam was over a while ago, so, uh, I went home and made them and came back—"
"You went all the way home just for us?"
Yamato nodded shyly.
Suna eyed her for a moment. "...They're good."
Takeo noticed Suna's look, and knew what he must be thinking. He's judging her to see if she's just trying to flirt with him! Stupid Suna, don't make Yamato cry!
Determined to not ruin anything that might happen between them, Takeo shot up and bowed respectfully to Yamato.
"U-Um, thank you very much for the treats," he said intensely. "But I'm very dirty, so I think I should go ahead and go home—"
Suna stood up. "No, I think I should get going too."
No! Suna! You're blowing it!"No no, you should—"
Suna started to push Takeo along, turning to look at Yamato, who was a bit confused.
"Thanks for the treats."
She smiled politely and nodded. Takeo scowled at Suna a bit, and then looked at Yamato as well. He blushed as she met his gaze, and she, too, flushed a bit pink.
"T-Thank you.."
"Y-You're welcome, Gouda-kun…"
Yamato's smile lit up his world, and Takeo felt like he was melting the entire way home.
To Be Continued: My Quirk