Chapter 7
Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9
The other kids and I went out of the auditorium, and we boarded a bus going to the area. I was the last one on, so I took a seat by the door. The bus driver, an older man in his fifties wearing a blue uniform, pulled the door close, put the bus into drive, and we were on our way!
The bus was quiet, except for a few other kids chattering with each other. I looked at them to see what kind of competition I would be facing; Some were about fourteen years old, other fifteen, some sixteen. Some were pretty tough looking, while some looked passive. Some had quirks you could see, as they altered their appearance. However, some had quirks that kept them looking normal, which kept me guessing.
After a few minutes of driving, we arrived at Area C. It looked like a city, and was behind a large wall, with the largest gate I had ever seen! The bus drove us near the gate, and then stopped and opened its door.
"Everybody out!" the bus driver yelled.
We all piled out of the bus, with me going first. After the last kid got off, the bus closed its door, turned around, and drove away. Everything was dead quiet as we watched the bus go out of sight.
"So… now what?" one boy asked. He was fourteen years old, of Japanese descent, and was tall, muscular, and had several 'X' shaped scars all over his arms. He also had cropped black hair, fair skin, and brown eyes. The clothing he wore was a black shirt with no sleeves, dark blue sweatpants with two white stripes on each side, and red and black running shoes.
After a few more seconds of silence, the gate to the city began to open. Suddenly, robots of all shapes and sizes appeared! The robots were colored a dark green, and some were small, some were medium sized, and some were large. The small had one wheel to move around with and two arms, the medium looked similar to scorpions, and the large looked similar to a tank. Each of the robots also had numbers on them, probably detailing how many points each was if you destroyed them.
We all charged into the city, as the robots began attacking by shooting lasers at us and using melee attacks! I let out a yell and channeled it into my legs, causing me to fly! I then put my left arm out, grabbed my wrist with my right hand, and aimed at robot worth one point!
"BANG!" I yelled as loud as I could, channeling the sound into my arm. The sound fired, hitting the robot and causing it to explode into a million pieces.
"That's one point…" I said to myself as I landed. "Now I need to get some more!"
I then saw a three-point robot fighting against the boy who had scars on his arms. The boy with the scars, who had a quirk that give him super strength, was dodging its attacks while attacking with fierce punches and kicks. Suddenly, behind him, a two-point robot was coming forward, ready to blast him with his laser stinger!
"LOOK OUT!" I yelled, aiming my hand and channeling the sound into my arm. The sound fired, hitting the two-point robot and causing the three-point to fall over. Scar boy turned to look at me with an angry expression.
"Why did you-" he was about to yell angry, but then saw the destroyed two-point robot. He then finished without an angry tone, "Save my life?"
"I want you to be alive to see me in Class 1-A!" I yelled back with a grin.
"We'll see about that!" Scar boy replied with a smirk, before jumping off to continue attacking the three-point robot he was attacking before.
After making sure no robots were near, I yelled as loud as I could, and channeled the sound into my legs, sending myself flying into the air! I looked down, and saw a three-point robot, and then I yelled again, channeling the sound into my legs again and sending me flying towards it like a missile!
"KA-BOOM!" I yelled again as loud as I could, channeling the sound into my arm. However, the three-point robot was a little bit tougher, and didn't explode from my voice. I knew then I would have to get up close and personal with it to destroy it, so I got close to it, wound up my voice, and just let loose with a loud scream!
The force from the scream was enough, and the robot exploded into a shower of metal and circuits! I dodged out of the way of its falling metal body, making sure not to get crushed by it! Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge robot with tank treads for feet appeared! Shuriken was right; The robot was as tall as a building!
"Holy cow!" I said aloud, as the giant robot came rolling in, crushing buildings and smaller robots in its wake.
I yelled again and channeled the sound into my legs, sending me flying away from the giant robot. Suddenly, I turned around and saw a girl with her legs pinned by the remains of a three-point robot! To make matters even worse, the giant robot was rolling its way towards her!
"Oh crap…" I said to myself. I then let out a yell and channeled the sound into my legs, sending me flying towards the girl.
When I landed, I said to the girl, "Cover your ears!"
The girl obeyed, and I wound up my voice and yelled as loud as I could, sending the debris flying away from the girl. I then took her in my arms, let out a yell, channeled it into my legs, and sent myself flying! And just in time too; the place where we stood was crushed by the giant robot!
"You okay?" I asked, when we landed.
"Yeah, I'm okay." the girl replied. "Thank you for saving me."
"No problem." I replied, placing her down on her feet.
As I placed her down, I got a good look at her. She was fourteen years old, of Japanese descent, and had neon blue hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Her clothing consisted of a black shirt with blue designs and no sleeves, sweatpants with blue designs, and black running shoes.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get trapped?" I asked.
"I used my quirk to destroy that robot, but then it fell forward instead of backwards. It was a dumb mistake, honestly."
"Hey, we all make them; The important thing to do is just keep going."
"I will. And thank you again!" said the girl.
"You're welcome!" I yelled again, using my voice to propel myself, back into the fray of the battle.
For the next thirty minutes, I attacked several robots at random, while avoiding the giant robots roaming around. One-point robots were pretty easy, two-point robots were harder, and three-point robots were extremely hard. I knew I had destroyed a one-point robot, a two-point robot, and a three-point robot, so I knew I had six points. However, I didn't know how many points I was going to need to get into U.A, so I just attacked different robots at random. After my sixth or seventh robot, I had lost count of how many robots I had destroyed. So, I just decided to attack any robot that I saw.
After I had destroyed another three-point robot and then a one-point robot, I heard what sounded like a siren. I looked to where the siren was coming from, and it was coming from a loudspeaker on a pole in the middle of the street.
"Attention participants!" Present Mic's voice spoke from the speaker when the siren ended. "The tryouts for U.A are officially over! Please report back to the gate and get back on the bus! We will send you the information for whether you passed or not! Thank you for trying out!"
After that was said, the pole with the loudspeaker lowered into the ground and disappeared. I paused when I heard that, and watched as the robots with numbers on them started shutting down. After I made sure none were attacking anymore, I calmed down. I then sprinted over to the group of kids, and joined them as they were making their way back to the gate. When we got to the gate, we waited for the bus to come.
After a few minutes, the bus came. I got on first and sat in the back. Then, the girl I saved and the boy with the scars got and came over to sit with me.
"Hey, good job out there!" the girl said brightly as she sat down next to me. "You were pretty good!"
"Thank you." I replied, bowing my head somewhat shyly.
"Aw look at him; he's so cute." The boy with the scars said sarcastically, but not in a mean way.
"Very funny. I see you came out without a scratch!" I shot back at him.
Scar boy laughed and said, "Yep; Because I already have the scars on me!"
We all laughed at that. And then I asked, "You two know each other?"
"Yep." Blue girl replied. "We went to school together. I'm Emiko Suraimu," she pointed at herself. "And this is Naoko Kizuato." She pointed at the boy with the scars.
"Nice to meet you." I said, shaking hands with both of them. "I'm Joshua Rourke, from America."
"Cool." Emiko said. "What's your quirk?"
"I have a hypersonic voice." I replied. "My voice is really powerful. I can also channel sound through different parts of my body, such as my hands and feet. This allows me to shoot my voice and to fly!"
"Yeah; you use that to save me from the robot."
"Yep. How about you, Emiko. What's your quirk?"
"My quirk, is that I can shoot slime from spinnerets in my wrists." She replied, showing her wrists, which had little holes in them. "I was born with them, and the color of the slime I shoot is blue, hence the reason for my clothing and hair."
"Ah, clever." I replied. I then looked at Naoko and asked, "How about you, Naoko?"
"I have super strength." Naoko replied. "I know it's a generic quirk, but I'm proud of it. The reason I have these scars, if you're wondering, is from the training I took to perfect my strength. It was pretty hard, but I was able to power through it, and now, I can lift things half my size, and take damage normal human beings couldn't be able to sustain."
"That's pretty cool!" I said, amazed at his perseverance. "You do you, man!"
"Thank you!" Naoko replied.
After he said that, the three of us talked about our lives prior to the tryouts. I learned that Emiko was originally from Tokyo, while Naoko was originally from Osaka, and that the two of them met in the 8th grade when they moved here. I told them where I was originally from and, of course, made sure not to tell them about my father.
More talking followed, about what we hoped to get out of going to U.A. Naoko honestly didn't care what class he would get into, as long as he got into U.A, while Emiko was hoping that she would be able to get into Class 1-A, as it was the best.
The bus then stopped, and all of us got out and went back into the auditorium, where we would be reunited with our friends and/or families.
I was walking and talking with Emiko and Naoko, when I saw Mr. Tetsuo waiting with the other five. I then turned to Emiko and Naoko and said, "There are my other friends; I better get going. Hopefully, I will see you both in a few days, right?"
"Of course!" Naoko replied, shaking hands with me. His grip was pretty tight, almost like getting your hand caught in a drawer.
"See you around, Joshua." Emiko said, as I shook hands with her. Luckily, her grip wasn't as tight as Naoko.
I then left the two and made my way over to Mr. Tetsuo and the others. Upon arriving, Mr. Tetsuo said, "Welcome back. How did you do?"
"Good, I guess." I said with a shrug. "I lost count of how many robots I destroyed."
"Yeah." Mr. Tetsuo replied. "Apparently, these tryouts were a lot different than last year's tryouts. Last year, everybody went to 'Battle Center B' instead of these new areas they set up. I guess they did this in order to avoid having people worked together."
"Don't worry about me; All I did was save people." I replied. I then turned to my friends and said, "Speaking of saving people, I'm sorry that I didn't go with Maddox."
"Its alright." Zilo replied. "Maddox told us that you two got split up, so no big deal. Actually, we heard that Maddox did pretty well; saved a lot of people from getting attacked by robots."
I looked at Maddox, who was hiding behind Sunshine, and said, "Well, I guess my advice paid off then."
"What advice?" Sunshine asked.
"I'll explain to you guys later." I replied. I then stretched and said, "Right now, I want to get home and get some sleep."
"Now that you mention it…" Larry spoke up. "I could use a nap after all that!"
"Alright then, we'll go have lunch to celebrate the tryouts, and then we'll head home to rest." said Mr. Tetsuo. "Let's go!"
We then began walking out of the auditorium. As we walked out, I caught of glimpse of Shuriken watching me. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up, and I nodded a reply towards him. Hopefully, I did good enough to get into Class 1-A.