Entrance Exam I

This, Aozaki Hotaru scowled to herself slightly, is ridiculous.

She'd wondered what they had meant when they had said that their placement would be randomized. This wasn't a video game of some kind where they could just spawn on the field. The simulation joint was a dome, and they all had to walk in by themselves to their starting position somehow. It would make the most sense logically for them to all start in the same place, at a starting line of some sort, but it was clear that this school wasn't about to do that. Even if they led them inside to a starting position, some of them would be able to memorize the route they take and scout out the area ahead of time, and it would take far too long. So that begged the question of how they were going to randomize the starting position…

…and out of all of the possible answers she had come up with, via sky gondola had not been one of them.

She thinned her lips, eyeing at the large gondola sitting in front of her with thinly veiled disgust. It was a large carriage-like box made of steel, the windows darkened likely to prevent them from looking outside. Her four…teammates had already climbed inside eagerly, and it was clear that there was more than enough room inside for all five of them. Still, she glanced warily at the top of the gondola, where it was hooked through what she assumed was the sky rail, and then followed the rail to where it ended. It barely snaked its way over to the cliffside and then abruptly stopped, and although she wasn't a mechanic by any means, she knew that wasn't safe.

"Don't worry!" Aina's voice popped out of nowhere, and she startled before glancing down at her wrist, where the smartwatch was looped firmly. The cybergirl was even smaller on the digital screen of the watch as she gave Hotaru a reassuring smile. "The tracks will install themselves after you have all boarded!" She shifted to the side, and Hotaru watched impassively as a video played, showcasing the gondola door sliding shut before the ceiling of the dome opened up and various tracks dropped down, hooking themselves to one another and the gondola in a complex pattern. The gondola then slid safely across the rails, and the video was gone in the next second, replaced by the close-up of Aina's face. "This way students can't attempt to predict their landing spot and it's fair for everyone! I will be running the controls, so don't worry, you won't fall—you won't even feel a thing, I promise!"

Well, there was no getting around it, she supposed. Still skeptical, she climbed inside and seated herself right next to the door, which closed the moment she had settled.

The school was alarmingly trusting of its security and safety. While she had initially appreciated the state-of-the-art technology, she was starting to have some doubts. Even technology was known to malfunction, and yet the school had yet to acknowledge them. They may have had an AI on their side, but in the end, an AI was only data, and the lack of human control made it even riskier. While she was more than aware of Shinraikai's sponsor Anzen'naie's reputation in all things tech-related, including having won an award several times for having the best cybersecurity forces, they still were not invincible, and she'd have preferred that they acknowledge the fact openly instead of denying it.

"Oh, we're moving! Whoa, this is so cool! I've never been on a sky gondola before, I wish I could see outside~ But well, it wouldn't be fair I guess. Ooh, this is smoother than I expected!"

Her teammate's loud, cheerful voice drew Hotaru's attention then, and she put the safety issue out of her mind and decided to focus on the task at hand instead. She had gotten the chance to speak with her teammates briefly before, but she took the time they had to analyze them again briefly.

If she was going to have to work with them, it would be best to gather as much information on them as she could before they started. They had done introductions earlier, but still, it wouldn't hurt to put her observation skills to further use.

She looked first at the silver-haired girl sitting directly to her right. She had introduced herself earlier as Tatsumi Mikita, and she held herself with a cold indifference similar to Hotaru's own aura. Her delicate figure didn't give away any clues as to her Quirk, but there was a certain glint to her grey eyes that told Hotaru she would be able to hold her own just fine in a battle. Those same eyes met hers right then and glared for staring too long, but Hotaru only returned the glare calmly before sliding her gaze to the left next.

To her left, on the other side of the door, was a boy with bright pink hair, his hands clasped in front of him and his eyes closed in some kind of prayer. He was named Tamotsu Karma (she had scoffed internally a bit at the sheer ridicule of the name upon hearing it), and there was something about him that consistently rubbed her the wrong way. She remembered the way that he had opened up the strategy meeting by offering them all a piece of strawberry candy, and the way that he'd maintained his optimistic smile when she'd given him her best stare of utter disappointment. The way he carried himself differed drastically from his muscular build. As if sensing her gaze on him, Karma opened his eyes right then, and then gave her that same, kind smile and a small but cheerful wave. (She didn't so much as acknowledge it, obviously).

Then, lounging in one corner of the gondola casually, was Kazama Haru, his posture lax and his face clad with ridiculous sunglasses. He was smirking to himself and humming a random tune pitchily, his finger tapping against the metal bench steadily and not at all in line with his humming. Truthfully, Hotaru's expectations for the boy weren't high, but there was an aura of confidence about him that allowed her space to be wrong.

And then…

With a hint of reluctance, Hotaru turned her attention to their final team member, and likely the one that she disapproved of most. Riri, full name undisclosed (having simply introduced herself with a peppy "I'm Riri! Nice to meet you!"), sat swinging her legs childishly as her bright eyes roamed around the gondola curiously. She was dressed far too cutely for what she was here for, even if they were athletic clothes. Additionally, this was the girl that had basically strong-armed the five of them into becoming a team, approaching them unhesitatingly with a cheerful beam fitting for that of a social butterfly as she appeared to be, and promptly announcing that the reason she had sought them out was due to gut instinct. While Hotaru could acknowledge that the girl clearly had some hidden strength to her deceptively fragile form—she hadn't missed the extra bounce to her step that clearly had to do with her Quirk or the way she had habitually slid into a defensive martial art stance more than once—but that didn't mean she had to like the girl.

Hotaru wasn't here to make friends, after all.

The door cracked open right then, startling her, and she realized as she climbed out that Aina had been right, as loathe as she was to admit it—she'd barely felt a thing.

Her foot came down on soft grass, and she took one look at her surroundings and immediately frowned distastefully.

"We're here!" Riri cheered as she immediately took off in a hyper series of bounces around the grassy clearing surrounded by forestry.

"…you."

Riri turned at her call curiously, and Hotaru's gut twisted uneasily at how quickly the girl's magenta eyes lit up with realization before she said casually, "It's all right, take your time! My full name's Miyabishi Ririka, so you can refer to me however you're comfortable with!"

There was a faint noise behind her as Mikita echoed faintly, "Miyabishi?"

"Yep! That same one!"

Hotaru assumed they were referring to the famous Miyabishi Law Firm. She briefly wondered what the daughter of the two who were possibly the most famous lawyers was doing applying to a hero school, but she discarded the thought as quickly as it came because it wasn't important. They had to focus.

"Miyabishi," She interjected. "Kindly refrain from messing around. The exam has started, and we should move forward as swiftly as possible lest there are no more points to be found."

"Hm…all right, I guess you're right! I'll do some scouting then, so we can get started!"

Hotaru had barely processed the words before the blond was taking off in a running start straight at them, no hesitation in her step and a mischievous glint to her eye. It was a reflex that had Hotaru stepping out of the way to let her pass by, and she noticed that their other teammates had all moved aside too, Haru included.

Riri swiftly took advantage of the newly opened area between them and threw herself in the air, completing three kangaroo hops that increased in height with every jump. Hotaru noticed the way the grassy floor caved at her feet, providing her with an elastic platform that propelled her upward. Her final jump had her shooting through the air, and she reached out with a perfect gymnastics form to grab the tiny bottom ledge on the door of the rising gondola, which was now level with the tops of the trees. She swung herself forward without hesitation, throwing herself under the gondola in a circular arc and using the momentum to flip onto the roof.

It was only a few seconds later that she seemed to have finished her perimeter scan and, despite being about a story high by then, leaped off fearlessly, even turning a flip midair. The ground appeared to catch her as she fell again, pooling perfectly around her feet and allowing her to turn a perfect backflip and land with a tiny bounce, having successfully broken her fall and secured her landing.

"You have an elasticity Quirk then," Hotaru noted.

Riri spun around to face them again with a cheerful grin and a chipper "Yep, basically! Or a trampoline Quirk, as I like to call it!"

Miyabishi Ririka!

Quirk: "Trampoline Park!" This ability allows her to turn the surfaces in her immediate vicinity into an elastic trampoline-like substance! The smaller the zone of change, the longer the transformation time!

Hm, Hotaru thought. Not too flashy and not all that powerful overall, but it's clear that she knows how to use it. The flips were highly unnecessary though.

"If we cut through the trees this way—" Riri started, pointing to a cluster of trees to their right, but she was interrupted by a loud crackling noise that had them all turning their attention upward.

"It seems like everyone has safely landed~" Aina's voice chirped across the speakers. "You have thirty minutes—starting…NOW! Good luck everyone!"

Thirty minutes to do what? Kunitaro Tooka thought to herself irritably. And where the hell has this ridiculous mechanic death trap escorted me to?

Unfazed by the complete darkness, she stepped forward unhesitatingly, wanting to gauge her surroundings as best as she could. They were underground, she knew. The downward staircase had helped determine that much, at least. Beyond that, she didn't know. The moment they had arrived at a square room that looked straight out of a sci-fi film, complete with marble flooring and white walls that glittered colorfully in thin horizontal strips every so often, giving it a very digitalized appearance. There had been a large TV embedded in the wall at the front, where the AI had been waiting for them cheerfully. She had instructed them to line up in two rows at the front of the room, in accordance with the square tiles of the floor. The moment they had, the entire room had gone pitch black, followed by an instant trembling to the floor before she had been moving. She'd tried to keep track of which way they were turning, but the constantly vibrating floor had thrown any of her directional senses entirely out of whack.

And now she was standing in the middle of who-knew-where, with no light to—

As if to spite her, the dim blue lights in the corners of the ceilings flicked on again. She groaned in complaint, covering her eyes with her hands to give them time to readjust.

She squinted at her now visible surroundings skeptically. It was the same sci-fi worthy environment, complete with digitalized white walls and marble flooring, but this time it was a hallway instead of a room. She turned around and saw a dead-end behind her, and she scowled slightly. This entire place must be run electronically. And from the way we were dropped off…It's a digitally created labyrinth, I assume.

There was nowhere to go except forward, and so she set off unhesitatingly. She wasn't afraid. Regardless of what happened, it was impossible for it to be worse than what she had suffered through already.

Click.

Her instincts took over and she leaped back. Then, in the most cliche fashion imaginable, an arrow whistled through the air right in front of her, from one wall to the next. Ah, she thought with a mild eye roll, that's how it's going to be, huh.

Well, if they were going to be elementary, then she wasn't going to waste her time here.

She closed her eyes and released her breath, honing her other senses carefully like she had many times before. Then she took off, not an ounce of hesitation to her step.

Swish. Under another series of arrows.

Thud. Around the giant hammer (that had to weigh at least a ton) swinging down from the ceiling.

Click. Across the walls to avoid the small spike pit.

Just as Tooka was internally scoffing at the low quality of the traps, there was a sudden rumbling noise behind her. She risked a brief glance backward—and immediately broke out into colorful curses at the sight of the floor collapsing section by section. With a new speed set, she tore through the hallway at lightning speed, easily avoiding and deflecting the various movie-worthy traps that sprang up. It was barely a few meters later that she spotted a giant pitfall coming up, strategically placed right before a dead-end. She grimaced but continued her speed, not slowing in the slightest. Thankfully, it wasn't as big as it had appeared from a distance, and she easily cleared it with a single running leap. There was a small ledge before what she had previously thought was a dead-end but turned out to be a connector to a perpendicular hallway, and thankfully, the floor did not give out under her feet.

There was a rumbling noise then, and she barely caught sight of a flash of metal before something was shooting at her. Letting her instincts take over, she swiftly activated her Quirk and threw out a fountain of a blacksilver, crystallizing the metallic liquid into spears and impaling her assailant within seconds. She had only just processed the identity of the four-legged robot when she saw the spark.

Tooka recalled her Quirk quickly and rounded the corner of the hallway to put distance between her and the exploding robot.

Kunitaro Tooka!

Quirk: "Blacksilver!" A unique metal that exists in a liquid state similar to Mercury, whose name it's own is derived from, is capable of being produced by the user's body and expelled through their pores! She can manipulate its movement and condense it into defined shapes! Not to mention, it's extremely combustible!

The path before her was dark. She felt forward with her hands but didn't slow her pace, and a few moments later, the walls in front of her slid apart, shining light directly in her face. She winced, waiting for her eyes to readjust patiently.

The door had opened up to a room in front of her, she realized. It was a large circular room that was probably big enough to be a noble's ballroom, and it was completely white and empty of all objects, as the entire sci-fi-esque area had been.

She stepped into the room cautiously. It was empty, but she refused to let down her guard. Regardless, nothing seemed to happen even as she made her way to the middle, aside from the entrance closing behind her and leaving her trapped inside. She thinned her lips and gave the room a critical once-over. Am I supposed to wait for something to happen…? But if it was going to be a surprise attack, it would've been more effective if they'd triggered it the moment I stepped in the room. That means…don't tell me…

The wall slid open again just as the thought struck her, and it took all of her restraint to stop herself from attacking the figure standing behind it. That didn't stop the boy standing behind it from flinching back horribly, his hands coming up to protect his face in a practiced reflex. Tooka felt her heart skip a beat at the way he looked so familiar in that instant—with the messy mop of black hair, that meek figure, the way his entire being just screamed something fragile—but she mercilessly squashed the feeling in the next minute—because no, this wasn't Obi—Obi was dead and he wasn't coming back.

Tooka's throat was dry when she swallowed again. Still, she took a step back and held up both her hands to show that she meant no harm. It took the boy a few more moments to lower his arms, fearful gold eyes peeking out from behind his fringe, and he studied her warily for a second before murmuring a quiet "excuse me" and hesitantly stepping into the room. The walls slid shut behind him, startling him again.

Thinking clearly now, Tooka recognized him from their short debriefing in the living room. It took her a moment because he had curled up in the far corner away from everyone else and she'd barely spared him a glance, but looking at him more closely now, she had to admit that she had no idea why such a kid would be here, in a reform program of all places. He looked far too skittish to have committed such a big crime that would have warranted prison time. Even now, she watched as his gaze traveled uneasily across the large open space of the room, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

Deciding that just standing there would be boring, Tooka called out a rough but gentle, "Hey."

Tooka frowned upon watching him flinch again upon being addressed and thought absently, Wow, this is one traumatized kid. What did they do to him?

"O-Oh, um, hello…" The boy murmured at a volume that was barely audible.

"Is it alright if I come closer?" Tooka asked cautiously, and she waited until she received the nod of approval before moving, making sure to still put plenty of space between them. She didn't miss the way the boy tensed with every step she took. "It seems like we're going to be working together, as much as I hate it. I assume we'll be getting a third, too, at least, since there were fifteen of us…well, whatever. We should probably do introductions while we wait. Not like there's anything better to do. I'm Kunitaro Tooka. And you?"

The boy's gaze flickered up at her nervously and then back down to the floor again as he answered, "Mitsuki…just…Mitsuki is fine…"

"Okay," Tooka acquiesced easily. "You can call me Tooka then, too." A moment of awkward silence passed before him, and she realized that the tiny nod was all she was going to get from the other boy. She let out a long-suffering sigh as she realized she was going to have to steer this conversation if she wanted it to happen.

"S-Sorry," Mitsuki shifted at her sigh. "I mean…it's…um, it's nice to meet you…Tooka…san?"

"There you go," Tooka encouraged with a slightly teasing smile. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"I…I guess…?" Mitsuki mumbled and went silent again.

Forcing him to speak again when he was clearly so uncomfortable just seemed cruel, so Tooka opted to let a slightly awkward silence settle over them instead. She eyed the kid with a mild frown—he really looked so frail, she genuinely wasn't even sure how he'd cleared the booby trapped corridor so quickly and without a single scratch, but there was still something about him that set her on a slight edge. Mitsuki seemed to cringe under her gaze, however, so she reluctantly turned her attention to the empty room instead, suppressing the sigh that threatened to escape.

The silence persisted for another minute or so, and Tooka was just starting to get annoyed when the walls slid open again. She gave the blue-haired boy standing behind them a critical once-over, and she could tell that he was doing the same to her.

He was…similar, in some ways. He carried himself with an aura that strongly reminded her of her own: with a powerful presence and a clear confidence that made people second guess crossing them. It was something that often came with growing up in the streets or in other places of questionable safety, she'd found. There was something dark lingering in the boy's emerald eyes—a hungry, lingering look of someone who had fought to survive.

But then he opened his mouth, and any sympathy Tooka had felt immediately went out the window.

"Oh. Are we working as a team then?" The boy asked casually, heading towards her with his hand outstretched. The door closed behind him, but neither of them paid any attention to it. "I'm Ketsu Hisoka—"

Tooka slapped his hand aside with an annoyed eye roll. "You can drop the facade, it's not helping your first impression." The boy gave her a look of mild confusion mixed with a dash of irritation, and she scoffed. "Don't act so surprised. I've met enough fake people in my life to tell them apart."

"Tsk," Hisoka clicked his tongue in a clear sound of irritation. "Well excuse me for actually trying."

"You're not trying because you actually care, you're trying because you think it'll make you look better in the exam," Tooka retorted.

"Fuck off, you don't know shit," Hisoka scowled. "Who the fuck are you, anyway? You already know my name—"

"Not that I asked," Tooka muttered, but since they probably had to work together anyway, she reluctantly continued, "Fine, whatever. Kunitaro Tooka. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but well."

"What's your fucking problem?" Hisoka spat out, a clear flare of anger lighting up his eyes. His body was tense, and he was clenching a fist like he was going to attack her, and honestly, all she could think was 'good luck with that.'

"With you? Nothing personal," Tooka said sarcastically. "I've just seen too much trash in my life to further indulge Barbies made of cheap plastic."

"You—"

Crunch. Hisoka stepped forward with a slight tremble of fury to his fist now, and there was just the slightest hint of a red glow around him. The ground cracked ominously under his foot, likely leaving a perfect footprint in the marble flooring. Tooka briefly wondered if he had some kind of strength augmenting Quirk, but she was unable to dwell on the thought for long, instead watching cautiously for any signs of violence—

There was a slight tug on the back of her shirt, and she abruptly remembered that they weren't alone.

Hisoka stopped as well, eyes catching on the figure hiding behind her and lip curling in a sneer. "And who are you?"

There was a familiar protective instinct rising within Tooka, and she reached back to pat Mitsuki on the head without taking her eyes off of Hisoka. (Mitsuki's flinch did not go unnoticed, unfortunately). Before she could say whatever scathing remark came to mind first, Mitsuki spoke for himself. "S-Sorry, um…I'm Mitsuki…"

If he had anything more to say, he was cut off by Hisoka's loud scoff. "You look like a fucking kitten, why are you here?"

"I, um…" Mitsuki looked at the floor, moving to hide behind Tooka just a little more. "It was an accident…"

Both Hisoka and Tooka frowned in confusion at that, because "what kind of accident would have a kid like you ending up here—" but they were cut off by a shrill scream.

Tooka immediately tensed, her gaze spinning in the direction of the noise just in time to see the walls slide open again, providing them with an exit. The blood-curling, pained screaming didn't stop, and Tooka could feel goosebumps cropping up on her arms.

"I guess we go that way then," Tooka muttered. Not wanting to stay put any longer, she swiftly set out in that direction. "Let's just get this over with."

After entering the corridor, she impulsively turned to check that Mitsuki was following, since she could still feel Hisoka's glare on the back of her head but had no signs from the skittish boy. Sure enough, Mitsuki's gold eyes blinked back up at her from right behind her, and she felt like she was with her beloved baby brother again as she reached out to pat his head reassuringly. Her eyes met Hisoka's as she started to turn back, and she rolled his eyes at the anger still clearly flaming in his eyes. Not wanting to blow things up between them again but also still feeling spectacularly salty, she couldn't resist the temptation to flip him the middle finger, and she almost laughed at the speed that he returned it with two.

All in all, she could've had a worse team, she figured.

Dokei Daigutso (better known to his friends as Doki) wasn't sure what it was that he did to deserve to be surrounded by absolute morons, but it must have been something absolutely atrocious.

"Is this a fucking joke?"

The white-haired albino on his team, Wamizaki Reiden, looked startled at the accusation. "What? No, why would I joke—"

"How could she get fucking lost?" Doki snarled. "Is she fucking five or something? Do we need to keep her on a damned baby leash? It's barely been five minutes—I didn't sign up to fucking babysit, I'm here to take an exam. If Pinky can't even so much as stick with the damned group then she might as well fail. We're already falling behind as it is, as if we can spend any more time doing something as fucking stupid as going to look for her."

There was a frustrated glint to Reiden's eye, but he tried to keep his voice calm as he argued, "Saionji mentioned earlier that she had a bad spatial awareness. It's not her fault—"

"Oh? Isn't it?" Doki sneered. "If she's fucking aware of it, then she shouldn't have run off like that to begin with. She's already dragging us behind as it is—she can't even fucking fight. I'm not going to fall behind in this exam because of a deadweight—"

"We're not behind, we're doing well. We still have lots of time, we can pass this exam without—"

"Passing it isn't enough!" Doki exploded, shooting to his feet and storming forward. The albino backed away under his fierce glare. "You might be willing to settle for mediocrity, but that's not why I'm fucking here. I'm here to prove a point, and I'm not going to let you useless buffoons drag me down with you in the name of teamwork when I could probably get first in this entire exam by myself."

"Dokei, listen—"

"No, you listen, you bleached shithead! I'm not going to fucking lose—"

"It's not a competition!" Reiden insisted, his tone far too patronizing for Doki's rising anger.

"Everything is a fucking competition, and this most of all." Doki growled, a low sound of fury in the back of his throat, and then finally spun around and began to storm off. "Fine, what the fuck ever, I'm not wasting my time here. You all can do whatever the fuck you want, I've got better things to do like actually pass this shitty exam—with the highest marks."

"Dokei, wait—"

"You all can stop being dramatic now, I think she's back."

It was with a hint of reluctance that Doki stopped, whirling around to turn his glare at his other teammate, Shishikawa Jin. The boy merely gave him a nervous smile and pointed to his left. Doki shifted his gaze just in time to see a short pink-haired figure rushing towards them, a clear look of panic, relief, and guilt on her face.

"I-I'm so sorry," Saionji Ayana panted. She pulled to a stop next to them and bent over, clearly out of breath. "I…I swear I didn't…I…there was…a villain point…and I wasn't looking…where I was going…and I kinda just…"

"Got lost?" Jin finished for her wryly when her voice died. She could only nod in response, fanning herself with her hand as she tried to recover her breath.

"Don't worry about it; what's done is done," Reiden said with a reassuring smile. "But you should be more careful next time."

"Yeah," Ayana nodded, guilt still plastered all over her face. "I'm…I'm sorry. I won't do that again."

Reiden nodded, satisfied. "Then that's fine. We should keep moving now…as a team, if that's alright with you, Dokei?"

All of the anger fizzed out of Doki in an instant, and he merely clicked his tongue with an absent glance to the side. "Yeah, okay. Let's go then."

Then, eager to keep moving, he turned and started off without another moment to waste. He glanced at the watch on his wrist and scowled again at the number displayed. It may have been a decent amount when compared to the amount of time that had passed, but decent wasn't good enough.

No, he didn't come here just to pass, and he certainly hadn't come here to be decent. This many points was nowhere near enough—not if he wanted to beat his sister. Which he definitely would.

He'd promised himself as much already, after all. He was going to be the best of them all—his sister and every single one of the students in the testing arena included. There was no way he'd lose to anyone.

With a newly kindled flame of determination, Doki powered on.

There could not have been a worse location for the exam to take place at. The labyrinth was cramped, dry, and underground, and Fujimori Sekoia hated every inch of it.

The robots only made it worse. Like, she understood that it was the whole sci-fi aesthetic and everything that they had going on, but it was really so bland. But really, would it kill them to include a bit of natural life? She wasn't asking for much—not even as many as she had currently collected in her new room!—but even just having a spider plant here and there would've made her feel a lot better.

"Yeah, you've said that more times than I care to keep track of now. I don't know what you expect me to say—yeah, sure, let's all go become interior designers instead because forget this exam and forget the whole rehab thing, right?"

Sekoia could feel the large leaf on her head twitching.

And that would be her teammates. Well, that was only more fuel to her misery, she supposed.

She let out a sigh to make her annoyance clear and reluctantly turned to face their current obstacle. To her dismay, there were seven in the initial ambush, and there were still six now. Only the particularly gross-looking four-legged robot lay off to the side, smoking and sparking intermittently. The other robots all looked more like a shoddy attempt at a mini bulldozer, with wheels of various sizes and a single glowing red eye somewhere on the mechanical device.

Her teammates were both fighting, although one was notably more effective than the other. The annoying snarky girl named Hikara Nozomi was nimble but clearly not a heavy fighter. However, she took advantage of the narrow space of the corridor, weaving expertly in between the bulky pieces of heavy machinery, goading but not attacking. She was clearly doing something right, as one of the robots had a very misshapen back that appeared to have been smashed by something heavy, presumably one of the other robots.

On the hand, her other teammate Mahou Sagi was much more of a heavy fighter than she would have guessed from his obnoxiously gaudy dressing style (seriously, where did he even get that suit and why was he wearing it in combat?). Strangely, his right arm was entirely metallic, almost looking like it had come straight out of the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. He definitely hadn't had that when she had first met him, and it seemed to be made out of the same metal that the robots were, so it had to be his Quirk.

"Well if you needed help, you could've asked nicely," Sekoia scoffed as she stepped forward.

Nozomi paused to shoot her an incredulous look, a move that nearly resulted in her head being taken off. "Excuse you—"

"Teamwork is overrated," Sekoia announced as she pulled her arms over her head in a brief stretch. "I can do it myself."

Nozomi was now looking at her with a sharp glint of irritation in her gaze, clearly ready to snap, but that was still better than the indulging, tooth fairy worthy smile that Sagi was giving her. Ignoring them both, Sekoia detached one of the canisters of Super Plant Growth that she had thankfully taken with her from her overalls and sprayed it on the leaf on her head. The effect was immediate, as giant green vines lashed out at perfectly calculated angles in every direction, covering almost every inch of the crowded corridor. She narrowly avoided the spaces that her teammates were occupying, directing the vines along the walls and ceilings and even through the floor to reach where the robots were, taking them all out within an instant. A few sharp vines penetrated straight through the robots, while other vines wrapped neatly around other robots and essentially squeezed them to death.

Fujimori Sekoia. Quirk: "Sprout!"

She's essentially photosynthetic, as the leaf on her head absorbs sunlight and uses it to boost her physical capabilities, including strength, speed, and regeneration! Additionally, with the right amount of sunlight, water, and Super Plant Growth, she can grow and control any kind of plant that she wants! However, she can't move while it's growing!

Sekoia smirked to herself as she recalled the vines, the leaf bouncing back into shape on her head. Sagi whistled sharply from behind her, but she instead zeroed in on Nozomi's clear frown and, well, they might as well get this over with. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her overalls and challenged brazenly, "What? You have something to say?"

"Yes," Nozomi answered bluntly, "what the fuck is your problem."

Sekoia raised an eyebrow, pleasantly surprised at the other girl's aggressiveness. "A lot of things. That's why we all ended up here, right? You'll have to be more specific than that."

Nozomi rolled her eyes and pitched her voice a tone higher in a clearly mocking imitation, "'Teamwork is overrated, I can do it myself.' Would it kill you to be at least a little cooperative?"

"I've done more than you have," Sekoia felt the need to point out.

"You also nearly impaled us while you were at it."

"I didn't, so what's your point?"

Nozomi's gold eyes flashed, and Sekoia was just preparing for the possibility of a fight when someone cut between them.

"Now, now, let's not fight amongst each other," Sagi interrupted cheerily. He moved to rest a hand on either girl's shoulder in a placating manner, but as a result of their height difference, his hand instead landed on Sekoia's head, barely missing her leaf. (His hand, thankfully, was back to normal). She twitched and ducked out from under him, giving him a flat look. Sagi met her gaze and simply winked at her, making her frown deepen. Undeterred, he pressed on, "If you look at it this way, they technically never directly told us that teamwork was a necessity, so we can use as much or little of it as we like. I, for one, think the three of us could make a great team, but it's not something we need to fight about, is it? More importantly, we should keep moving before we get ambushed here again. We can let the resolution to the teamwork/no teamwork debate happen naturally as we keep going, sound good?"

Sekoia hated his placating tone and his maintained attempt at a charming smile, and she hated his solution even more. She'd much rather they just go ahead and just get all this nonsense out of the way now—clearly she and Nozomi both had more things to say, why hold back?

In the end, her decision was forcibly made for her when another earsplitting shriek echoed in the corridor, signaling for them to hurry up. She released a huffing noise before pushing past them with a muttered "whatever."

She might as well get this over with fast, then. It certainly didn't seem like it was going to be a difficult exam at all.

The exam was far easier than Kazama Haru had been expecting it to be, especially considering how dramatic they made everything else to be: from the design of the school building to the sheer ridiculousness of the exam site to the existence of an entire AI.

No, for all the dramatics, the villain points and the rescue points were both alarmingly cliche—

"Don't come any closer or I'll shoot! I'm warning you!"

Insert high pitched girly scream that was really rather creepy coming out of the mouth of the widely smiling teru teru bozu being suspended in the air.

—and incredibly easy to read.

Haru moved quickly, using the element of surprise to his advantage. The moment the villain started to turn, swinging the gun in its hand at an imaginary crowd with a violent desperation, Haru had closed the space between them with a single lunge. He forced the villain to maintain its momentum with a practiced shove against its arm and then delivered a sharp uppercut straight to the chin. In the next moment, the villain was gone in a burst of small glowing purple orbs. Haru sighed, watching boredly as the counter on his watch clicked up by one. He'd only encountered one-pointers thus far, and he was really rather disappointed by the quality. He hoped that he'd run into something stronger soon—something actually worth fighting. With any luck, he might even run into the Puppet Master they talked about.

But first…

Haru looked up at the still shrieking puppet dangling from the second story window of a building. The windows were too far apart to climb, unfortunately, so he hoisted himself up the nearest tree instead. The window right in front of it was open, so it was easy for him to crawl into the building from there. The window that the puppet was at was thankfully in the same room, and it only took a few moments for him to untie the restraining ropes. The puppet disappeared into the same purple orbs as earlier the moment the ropes came undone, and the resulting silence was a blessing to Haru's ears. Not wanting to waste his time figuring out the layout of the building, he climbed back down from the same tree he'd climbed up on.

"Now then—" He said to himself, already scanning his perimeters for his next target.

There was a noise from behind him, and he whirled around with one fist already clenched, a grin slowly appearing on his face as he spotted the purple aura. It was already charging at him, so he waited patiently, mentally calculating the way the puppet drew its arm back for a punch, revealing an opening right—

Bam!

His silver-haired teammate suddenly rounded the corner and stabbed her elbow roughly into the puppet's head, throwing it down to the ground before stomping harshly on its back, letting it dissipate at her feet. Haru scowled at her and couldn't help but bite out, "I had that one."

Mikita's expression was unreadable as she nodded, "I know."

Should've let me handle it then, Haru thought, but he didn't say it because he knew that the girl hadn't been trying to undermine him or anything. He was just sour because he was restless.

His displeasure must have shown on his face, however, as there was a chuckle before another voice added, "We're a team, we've got your back."

Haru glanced over to see Karma walking over to them, and from another angle a little further away, Hotaru as well. Realization dawned on him and he asked, "Has it been five minutes already?"

"Yes," Hotaru said simply as she approached them. "It seems splitting up temporarily was rather effective, we've gathered a lot of points. I don't see why we can't fight individually and each contribute points to the team that way…"

"It was boring though," Haru complained, "I only ever ran into one-pointers. What about you guys, did you see anything interesting?"

He'd expected the series of head shakes.

Karma frowned then, turning to look around as he asked, "Where's Miyabishi? Is she not—"

"I'm here, sorry! I lost track of time—"

Haru looked up just in time to see the blur of pink leap off from the roof of a five-story building, landing with a bounce that sent her flying back up so high that she turned an easy flip right over their heads before landing in the open spot between Karma and Mikita, balanced with both feet on hard floor, Quirk dormant. Riri grinned at them, not even the slightest bit out of breath.

Showoff, Haru thought, which was immediately followed by, That looks fun, I wish I could try that.

"We got a lot of points in these first ten minutes!" Riri cheered. "I think if we keep it going we can—"

"We should split up," Hotaru interjected. "Staying together to fight villains of such low ability will only hinder us, and we know that we are allowed to split up and still contribute points to our total individually now, so I don't see any reason not to utilize it."

Riri's smile faltered. "But—"

"I agree," Haru spoke up. He liked his teammates in general, but it felt a lot more efficient and satisfying to fight on his own overall.

Riri seemed to think about it for a moment, biting her lip nervously, but then, to Haru's surprise, she simply nodded. "If that's what everyone thinks is best, then we can do that—"

That was when the rumbling started.

Haru yelped as he suddenly lost his footing, the shaking of the ground beneath him so tremulous that he could feel the vibrations in his brain. He tried to stand but found that he couldn't, his sense of balance entirely thrown off by the sudden earthquake that he could barely even tell up from down. His teammates were all in the same state, from what he could see—and then he couldn't see, because a sudden fog was wafting between them, so thick that he couldn't even see his own fingers.

What is going on? He somehow managed to stumble to his feet, but he was only thrown harshly onto his back with the next heavy tremor. Was it an earthquake? Now? But why is there fog—

As suddenly as it had started, the tremors stopped. Haru took a few moments to readjust from the horrible disorientation that was swimming across his brain and then pulled himself to his feet just as the fog was thinning as well. There was a strange noise echoing in his ears, and he looked at the road beneath his feet, half expecting it to start shaking out of nowhere again. It remained still, as if nothing had happened. Utterly bewildered, he looked around to study the equally perplexed expressions of his teammates and—

He froze.

"What…"

The other side of the road, which had once been filled with buildings of residence lined in front of a parking lot, had been entirely caved out. Instead, on the other side of the yellow dash line painted into the asphalt, was a cliff, with what appeared to be a river area several stories down. He realized now that the sound he was hearing was the sound of rushing water, and a step closer revealed to him the giant waterfall that was spitting water from the cliffside right beneath his feet. He was standing in literally the middle of a city street—right on top of an actual waterfall.

"How…?" Riri gaped, equally stunned by the sudden view. "Where…?"

"Ah, ahem~" Aina's voice rang out across the speakers again, drawing their attention upward. "Ten minutes have passed since the start of the exam, and the transition into Phase 2 has just been completed! If you have been separated from your teammates, it's unfortunate, but I'm afraid that that qualifies as a failed team play and you are out~ I said this earlier, but teamwork is important, everyone!"

Haru could feel his heart pounding at those words, and he swallowed roughly. Talk about close…if that's a rule, they should have told us beforehand…!

"With that being said, let Phase 2 commence~! It's a new day, with more people to rescue and stronger villains to fight! The temperature today is 20 degrees Celsius, with a wind speed of 30 miles per hour, so everyone please be careful and do your best to stay on your feet, okay~?"

The thought of With a wind speed of what had barely crossed his mind before there was a clicking noise followed by the loud whirring of fans—and in the next moment, wind was tearing through the dome, nearly yanking trees from their roots and very nearly shoving Haru right off the cliffside and down the waterfall.

[END ENTRANCE EXAM I]

Updated Quirks: Riri, Tooka, Hisoka, Sekoia, Sagi

Shout out to A.J. Aviary who has also recently started a new BnHA SYOC, and it's really cool so y'all should go check it out~

A/N: Welcome to what is about to be the most mild but dramatic entrance exam in SYOC history, probably~ As this story is more along the lines of canon in terms of intensity (at least for now), I didn't want to make it too much haha. Although to be fair, this chapter is a lot more about showing character personalities and the conflicts within teams more than anything else, and to show how the entrance exams are set up, and show off some Quirks that will be important—anyway, not much action in this one~ (Hope that didn't make it boring hahaha—) Either way, it is a lot harder to trudge through as a result, and entrance exam arcs are hell enough as it is…Honestly, writing this chapter was like pulling teeth, ugh, I hate the flow of it but balancing both exams is really difficult and I wanted to cry so I'm just gonna get this out of the way and over with haha I hope it wasn't horrible at least UwU

So I'm not super interested in drawing this out very much, meaning don't expect this arc to be huge XD I imagine two or three chapters at most? But I can never say these things for sure because words get away from me too often so we'll just have to see~

Oh also, I'm trying not to spam you guys with Quirk descriptions? And I'm being very particular about how and where I'm putting them because otherwise it disrupts my flow too much, meaning I might have some shots where I make it very (or somewhat) obvious what the character's Quirk is and then go and fill in their Quirk name on my profile but not provide a description until later haha, like I did with Sagi and Hisoka here! I'll let you know if I do that (as you can see from my Updated Quirks tag) so you can take a look! :3

Anyway enough rambling from me, I hope you enjoyed the chapter~ (It took me under a month! Is proud. Hope I can keep this pace up!) As usual, thank you for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts! If your character was in this chapter, I'd love if you could drop me a review and tell me how I did~ But otherwise that's all from me this time around, thanks to everyone for your support~ See you all next time!

Chi