Yuuga was terrified.

Not that it showed. He'd taken great pains to keep it from showing. He had fussed and fretted in the mirror until he was certain that his eyes shone sufficiently bright and his hair was styled in its usual perfect wave, then pulled on his freshly washed and pressed uniform, donned his silver backpack, and headed out with a cheery wave and a call of, "Adieu, maman!" He beamed at anyone that glanced his way as he all but skipped down the street, dancing and weaving past fellow commuters as he made his way to the metro.

But that didn't change the fact that Yuuga was completely and utterly terrified.

Today was the day: the day of the UA entrance exam, the day that he would have a chance to start his journey towards heroics and acceptance, despite his incompatibility with his own quirk.

He was ready.

Right?

UA was even bigger than he had imagined, and it twinkled at least as brightly as he did. He wasn't certain whether that was exciting or just… even more intimidating than he had already anticipated. There were easily hundreds of students pushing their way through the massive front gates, wearing all variety of colors or uniforms from all over the country (he even caught sight of one boy wearing plain gray sweats and a black jacket before he was lost in the crowd; maybe he'd been homeschooled before?).

People waved and ran up to friends, babbling with a nervous energy (and in some cases violent, as with one scruffy-looking blond boy when one of his friends, a boy with black hair, threw an arm over his shoulders and a girl with bright pink skin poked him in the side a few times. He didn't catch the full conversation, but he did hear the boy snapping something about, "Get offa me, Rocky! And quit snickering, Panda Eyes!"). Yuuga wished that he himself had someone like that, but he was the only person from his school applying. And even if he weren't, he doubted any of them would have wanted to chat.

(But why wouldn't they? He was an icon of beauty and grandeur! Anyone would be honored to talk to him! Right. Of course.)

The lecture hall everyone was ushered into was absolutely massive, easily large enough to contain the entire student body and then some if needed. He ended up squarely at the center of the hall, leaning primly against his folded hands as his violet eyes darted around the room, taking in as much as he could, just in case this was the last time he had the opportunity to gaze upon such hallowed halls.

(Not that it would be. He was flawless. Of course he would make it in.)

"GREETINGS, LITTLE LISTENERS! WELCOME TO MY SHOW TODAY!"

Yuuga jumped in his seat as a man with wild blond hair gelled up so it looked like une banane, une laid leather suit with a popped collar, and a heavy collar-like something around his neck stepped to the front of the stage, grinning broadly before shouting something in English that nobody seemed to understand, despite his expectant look.

The hero Present Mic, non? He had a unique sense of sparkle, Yuuga supposed, but it was hardly elegant.

The pro hero took the general lack of enthusiasm in stride, shrugging and continuing in a slightly more reasonable tone of voice, "What a refined response. Well, little listeners, it's my job to present to you the rundown of the exam today! First of all, you will all be taking the same written exam here in this auditorium! Afterwards, you'll be splitting into three different groups depending on which of the practical exams you'll be taking!" A low murmur echoed through the hall at that, with several other students hushing the talkers and creating even more noise in the process. The man on stage simply beamed.

"THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS! I'm sure that most of you have heard the rumors! This year we have a brand new test for all you little listeners that may be quirkless or have quirks unsuited to our other test! So now, I'm gonna give you all a brief rundown for how this'll work:

"First of all, after the written portion of the exam, all those here on recommendation are gonna head thataway, since you've already had your interviews and practical test. The rest of y'all should've gotten an exam ticket whe

n you came in with your examinee number and test location. All you little listeners that have been assigned to Battle Center H will be heading through those doors over there as soon as the exam time is over, where you will meet your proctor, and they will explain the new test to you! All the rest of you will stay right where you are, and I'll be back to give you the details of your practical! Now then, it's time for THE WRITTEN EXAM! You'll have two hours to complete this test! Goes without saying, but cheating is STRICTLY PROHIBITED, so keep your eyes to yourself! Until then, stay tuned! YEAH!"

Yuuga's heart leaped in his chest as what seemed to be a series of drones appeared from one of the doors that the announcer had indicated earlier, spreading out and passing out packets of papers to all of the different examinees. The moment that they were all given their exams, a clock appeared on the big screen on stage, showing two hours before it began counting down.

The written exam may well have been one of the hardest tests that Yuuga had ever taken in his entire life. Not that it mattered, because he was certain that he had passed. (Completely, absolutely certain, mmhm.) Before long, the drones had collected the tests once more, and around a third of the students in the auditorium had started filing through the respective doors to the locations that the announcer guy had directed them to before. Once that was done, the drones returned to pass out a single leaf of paper and Present Mic reappeared.

"WELCOME BACK, LITTLE LISTENERS!" he boomed, and Yuuga winced. The man needed a little more volume control. "Now, let me give you the rundown of the practical exam! You will essentially be conducting ten-minute urban mock-battles at seven different locations, marked on your examinee cards! You'll be allowed to take whatever support items you need, as well as have the chance to change into the workout clothes you should have all brought with you, OKAY?!"

Très bon…

"Aw man! None of us are in the same battle center!" a voice behind him pouted. Yuuga glanced over his shoulder to discover that trio of students he'd noticed earlier were seated behind him. The girl with the pink skin had obviously been the speaker, her expression reflecting her tone as she glowered at the card in her hand. The black-haired boy beside her shrugged, grinning ruefully. He had sharp teeth, like a shark's, but his expression was too warm for them to be intimidating.

"Idiots, they probably did that on purpose," the blond kid huffed. "They don't want us teaming up with our friends."

"Aw, are we friends, Blasty?" the pink girl beamed teasingly, to which the blonde simply rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath.

"There are three types of faux villains in each battle center!" the pro hero continued, recapturing Yuuga's attention as three silhouettes appeared on the screen, each labeled as 1p, 2p, and 3p respectively. "You earn points for each of them based on their level of difficulty! Your goal is to use your quirks to destroy these villains! But just remember to keep things heroic - no attacking other hopefuls, ya' dig?!"

Yuuga wouldn't deny that he felt an odd sense of relief at that, reaching down to lightly brush his hand against his support belt. Fighting robots meant that he wouldn't have to expend unnecessary energy attempting to control the output. He could just fire his laser as many times as possible before his stomach started giving out. And ten minutes? He could last for that amount of time.

Hopefully.

"May I ask a question?!"

Every eye in the room was drawn to a tall young man standing straight up, his hand ramrod-straight in the air. "GO FOR IT LITTLE LISTENER!" the announcer grinned, shooting finger guns in the student's direction.

"On the handout, there are four types of Villains shown!" the boy announced, emphatically waving the paper to demonstrate his point. "If that is a misprint, then UA, the most prestigious school in Japan, should be ashamed of its mistake!"

Yuuga almost choked, his violet eyes bulging. Mon dieu… Was this kid for real?! He wasn't the only one thinking along those lines either. A quick glance around showed that quite a number of people in the room were gaping at him. But the other boy continued, apparently oblivious to the stares. "We examinees are here because we wish to become the most exemplary of heroes, thus we expect the academy of our choice to take matters just as seriously!"

"Well, Examinee 7-1-1-1, thanks for calling in with your request!" the announcer grinned in turn, indicating a new silhouette that had appeared on the screen. "The final type of villain is worth zero points! It's just an obstacle we'll be throwin' in your way! There's one in every battle center, but I recommend my listeners try to avoid it and focus on the ones at the top of the charts!"

"I see. Thank you very much for your clarification, sir! Excuse my interruption!" the serious student bowed deeply, then sat back down.

"ALRIGHTY THEN that's all for me today, so if you're ready to get going, I'll close with a little present: our school motto! As General Napoleon Bonapart once laid down-" Yuuga perked up at the mention of his fellow frenchman "-'a true hero is one who overcomes life's misfortunes'-now that's a tasty soundbite for ya'! Now, are you ready to go beyond?! LET'S HEAR A PLUS ULTRA!"

The silence was positively deafening.

"GOOD LUCK!"

.oOo.

Si vulgaire! Yuuga thought in a huff as he stumbled through the massive double doors leading into the walled city-scape, Present Mic's voice echoing behind him as he ran.

"GO GO GO PEOPLE! DO YOU EXPECT A COUNTDOWN FOR EVERYTHING?! BECAUSE LEMME TELL YA', THAT'S NOT HOW THE REAL WORLD WORKS! YOU'RE WASTIN' AIR TIME HERE!"

Alright Yuuga, reste calme, he thought to himself, darting down an alley in order to split away from the crowd of students. He needed a chance to distinguish himself, after all. A chance to let his natural sparkle shine through to the prestigious faculty of UA high school. When the first robot, painted with a number two on one side, zipped around the corner, he forced himself to beam at it, rather than cringe as was his first instinct. With an elegant twirl, he released his quirk, letting the naval laser fly so that it smashed straight through the metal hull of the 'villain'.

And so he continued on. At one point, he had to save another student from a one point villain. The kid wore a tank top, shorts and an expression like he'd just looked the devil himself in the eye. Yuuga couldn't help but smirk at him as he cooed, a little mockingly, "Merci beacoup! We make a great team with you as my decoy! Although I doubt I'll be seeing much of you in the future! Adieu!" With that robot, he had twenty-eight points. When there was little more than two minutes remaining, he was up to thirty-five.

And then all hell broke loose.

The CRASH! and BOOM! of miniature explosions, shattering glass, and cracking concrete split the air of the combat arena. As the various applicants turned with mixed curiosity and fear towards the source of the chaos, a mounting sense of panic quickly overcame the group-and Yuuga was ashamed to admit that he was no exception. When the ten-story tall robot appeared, he stumbled backwards and fell flat upon his derrière. As some kind of animal instinct seized control, he found himself huddled against the wall, half-concealed by some of the debris that had come crashing to the pavement with the monster's appearance, utterly frozen by horror.

"Ow!" a voice cried, and something hard and cold dropped into the pit of Yuuga's stomach as he saw a fallen girl, trapped in the middle of the road under some of the rubble, directly in the robot's path. He… he should do something. Should run forward and help; should save her! But he couldn't move. He couldn't even scream. All he could do was sit and tremble and watch her-

"DIE!" a voice roared from outside his line of sight, accompanied by a heart-stopping BANG! and a blast of light and heat that he could feel from some one hundred meters away. A moment later, the scruffy looking blond boy from before quite literally exploded into view, landing hard a few meters away from the fallen girl and tumbling into a roll with the force of the impact. He managed to scramble to his feet alongside her, shoving his shoulder against the collapsed debris and using the entirety of his body strength to lift it up.

Distantly, Yuuga noticed the smoke rising from his palms and wrists and wondered if he wasn't using his hands because they were too badly injured from that last explosion.

Does he have incompatibility with his quirk, too?

"Move it, Round Cheeks!" the boy barked, his teeth gritted with the effort of keeping the slab of stone off of her. She quickly snapped her mouth closed, pulling her leg free and rolling out of the way so that he could let it drop. It crashed back to the ground a moment later as the boy pulled his fellow examinee roughly to her feet, him grimacing when their hands came into contact-so I was right about him being in pain. He started to pull her away from the zero pointer, but when she staggered with another cry of pain and almost fell, he stopped. Yuuga could see them talking, glancing back towards the robot as their mouths moved rapidly, but he couldn't hear either of them at this distance. He saw the girl pointing towards the crater he'd left behind in the middle of the road, then the boy shook his head, gesturing with his smoking hands.

The robot was less than five meters away.

Suddenly the girl wrapped her arms around him, pressing one hand to his back and the other to her own forearm, a faint pink glow visible even from this distance. "Then do it now!" the girl shouted, her eyes clenched shut. The boy grit his teeth, thrust his hands out and created another explosion with a bellow of pain. It wasn't anywhere near as powerful as the one from before, but somehow the force still sent them flying through the air at dangerous speeds, rapidly gaining distance between themselves and the monster.

But it wasn't fast enough. The beast had already retracted a fist for a punch; now, all it had to do was adjust its aim and throw it. Yuuga heard a sharp scream escape his own throat before he clapped a hand over his mouth, watching as though in slow motion as the massive limb rushed inexorably closer.

One meter away. A half a meter. A few inches.

And its arm exploded.

Yuuga flinched, gaping in shock as the metal of the robot's arm suddenly buckled all the way up to its shoulder, sharp bursts of electricity and flame consuming the limb in a rush. The impact threw up a cloud of dust to match the one when the giant first appeared, scattering already-fallen debris in all directions. The robot staggered backwards as well, thrown entirely off-balance by the sheer force of the blow-directly towards him.

The young frenchman squawked in terrified alarm, helplessly throwing his hands over his face in what he knew would be a fruitless attempt to defend himself. The robot's foot came down towards his head-

And bounced back inches away from it.

There was no other way for him to describe it. The robot simply hit some invisible barrier and toppled backwards, crashing to the ground. Bemused, Yuuga glanced around, trying to discover the source of his rescue. It couldn't have been the explosions boy or the girl-they were currently falling to earth some hundred meters or more away. But then… who?

He was only startled out of his search when he heard the matching grunts of pain as the boy and girl sent flying from the earlier explosion hit the pavement once again, skidding several feet and likely getting some major road burn. The pair lay still, panting for several moments, then the girl abruptly rolled to the side and vomited in a most inelegant fashion. Yuuga shuddered and turned away just as an alarm blared over the PA system, followed by the voice of Present Mic. "AND THAT'S A WRAP! TO ALL MY LISTENERS, THANK YOU AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!"

Slowly, Yuuga staggered to his feet, concentrating on breathing and fighting to get his trembling body back under control. He had to sparkle. He had to shine. He couldn't let anyone else see how terrified he'd truly been. Off to one side, the other examinees were starting to gather around where that explosion boy was shaking the shoulder of the girl he'd saved, his face twisted with a bizarre mixture of concern and indignant exasperation. "Oi, don't you dare give out on me now, Round Cheeks!" he yelled. "Come on, get up already!"

"Are… Are you guys okay?"

"Dude, how'd you do that?"

"You can create explosions that powerful?!"

"Freakin'-! Shut up, would you; I can't hear myself think! Oi, Round Cheeks!"

"Calm down, sonny! She'll be just fine!"

Everyone jumped in surprise as an elderly woman in what appeared to be a doctor-themed hero's costume walked onto the exam grounds, leaning on a cane shaped like a syringe. "Well done, everyone! You're heroes in my eyes, every one of you!" she continued brightly as she approached the scowling blonde and the unconscious girl next to him.

Yuuga tried for a confident smile as he recognized her. "That mademoiselle," he confided in one of the other, less-well-informed exam goers, "is the heart of UA. The Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl! Her quirk is a très magnifique boost of healing power. She can save anyone months of recovery time, and she's the only reason UA can get away with such reckless exams as these."

"Oh my," the school nurse sighed wearily as she knelt by the explosions boy. "You pushed yourself a bit hard there, didn't you sonny?"

"Get off my case, granny; it's not like I had a freakin' choice," he responded, glowering at the smoke still wafting from his arms.

Recovery Girl chuckled at that. "Well, as long as you know what you're doing. Frankly, after taking down that monstrosity, I'm surprised you aren't worse off."

"The hell are you talkin' about?" her patient frowned as she took one of his arms, letting her inspect them with a critical eye.

She frowned right back at him, as did everyone else in the battle center, Yuuga included. "That final explosion, of course," she replied. "The one that destroyed the robot's arm."

"I didn't do that."

"What?"

"My arms were already pretty ruined by the blast I used to get in close. Firing off another one would've left me seriously messed up. That's why Round Cheeks used her gravity quirk on the both of us, so one of my smaller explosions could still do the job of getting us clear. Didn't quite work, but it was the best we had in the moment."

"But then… who destroyed the zero pointer?" someone muttered. Yuuga glanced around the crowd, from the speaker to the serious boy that had asked such a blunt question in the exam hall to Recovery Girl and back to the explosions boy she'd just planted a kiss on-much to his apparent distaste-but no one seemed to have the answer. Unbidden, Yuuga's thoughts turned to the way the robot failed to hit him, when by all rights he should have been crushed. Could it be that whoever his mysterious savior was, they had saved all three of them?

Would he ever know for certain?

Outtake:

Shouta yawned widely on his way up to the observation room. The first of the new tests would be starting in a few minutes, and he and Nemuri were meant to be the primary judges for the new practical exam, considering that their own quirks would have placed them in it. He already had his eyes on a couple of them, namely that kid with indigo hair and a brainwashing quirk and the blue-eyed quirkless boy that had come to the test with a long wooden cane as a support item. There were a handful of other quirkless kids that had signed up for the test, but he was the only one that seemed to have any kind of potential.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Wha'd'ya mean? It's not like I'm breaking any rules or anything."

Shouta paused, glancing down the hallway to his left. There was a girl with bright pink skin and hair standing outside of the girls' locker room with her arms folded over her chest, practically radiating righteous fury as she stared down a boy that stood about as tall as her waist with spherical purple hair. Obviously it had something to do with his quirk. Other girls, already dressed in their workout gear, slipped out behind her, casting nervous glances towards the purple-haired punk.

Shouta didn't miss the way his eyes seemed to follow the chests of the girls walking past him.

"I don't give a damn if it's against the rules or not! Try to peep in the changing rooms again, and I will melt you into the ground!"

"What's the big deal? Jus' 'cause I have an appreciation for the bootifulness of a girl's body?"

"Problem here?" Shouta asked warningly, suppressing the urge to activate his quirk. The longer he maintained the image of being a scruffy hobo, the more effective his reveal would be when he taught his class not to judge a book by its cover. Still, the aura of exhausted irritation he gave off was usually enough to make kids this age nervous around him.

"This pervert tried to sneak into the girls' locker room!" the pink-skinned girl snapped the moment she had overcome her shock, pointing accusingly towards the purple-haired kid. Hobo or not, he was obviously some kind of faculty member, so it made sense.

"Seriously, just back off," the boy grumbled, pouting and turning back down the hall to slink away. "It's not like I actually saw anything."

Shouta glared after the boy, memorizing his appearance and attempt at a swagger (which honestly came across as more of a waddle, given his height). The brat could be trouble going forward. He'd have to keep an eye on him.

"Thanks for the help," the pink-skinned girl grinned with enough energy to rival Hizashi or Nemuri, bowing to him.

"It's my job, kid," Shouta shrugged back, hunching a little bit more and rubbing the back of his head as he yawned. "Anyway, get changed and be snappy about it. You'll be late for your exam."

"Yessir!" the girl grinned, saluting cheerfully before slipping inside the changing rooms herself. Shouta stood guard for a little while longer to make sure the pervert didn't come back, ignoring the curious glances of the examinees as they headed to their respective battle centers. But eventually, he couldn't wait any longer and so he wandered up to the observation room.

"Took you long enough, Shouta. What kept you?" Nemuri waved as he entered the room.

"Nothing exciting," he shrugged back, flopping into his own seat. "Anyone stand out to you?"

"I like the look of the invisible girl," Nemuri smirked up at the screen, twirling her hair around her finger. "She understands the importance of efficiency over shyness."

"Oh?" Shouta turned curiously towards the screen. Nemuri pointed to a figure that appeared to be in the process of removing their clothes. If not for her sports bra, Shouta wouldn't even have known for certain that she was a girl, considering that she was completely invisible from head to toe. "Mutation or emitter?"

"Mutation, according to her file. She's going second, so she's getting herself ready now."

"Hm. Sounds interesting," Shouta mused, settling in. "Well, let's get this over with."

Next chapter comes out on the 21st, featuring our favorite student insomniac! Feel free to send me your thoughts, theories, questions, comments, and snotty remarks. ;) I will do my best to respond to any of them! If you like what you're reading, remember to favorite and follow the story! Until next time! PLUS ULTRA!