My Hero Academia - Under Pressure: Chapter 3 - Exams

Within Tonen's room, the alarm sounded. It was 7AM and he had to get up. Unlike a previous time, Tonen very calmly turned off the alarm and rose from his bed. His expression was emotionless, like a sheet of stone. As he got out from under the covers he took very deep breaths, but was sure not to unleash his Quirk. Upon thinking about that he looked at his left hand and noticed it shaking it rather intensely. He grimaced and used his other hand to stop it before recapturing his lost composure.

After being sure that he was ready, he rose from his bed and put on the special outfit that his Uncle Brazen had gotten him for his birthday. Tonen had put it through its paces and it worked better than even he could've hoped. Even his shoes weren't affected by an intense burst of air coming out of them, and yet the attacks were just as powerful upon the items he was striking.

As he made his way into the dining room he was a bit shocked by the lack of his parents, but he smiled and shook it off, "Probably got called it early again."

He put forth a little laugh before reaching the main table, when he did, a laptop was there and had a paper attached that said, "Play Me."

"What the...?

Tonen removed the paper and woke up the computer, on the main screen was a video icon that also read "Play Me". He double clicked on it and a video popped up that focused on not just his parents, but his Uncle Brazen.

They all waved at the camera before Soyuki spoke, "Hey Tonen, we're sorry for not being there for your big day. We figured this might happen so we made this video together to wish you luck!"

"We all know what you're going through, we hope you know that, TK," added his father with a smile and a thumbs up. "Just remember, you know your abilities, you know what you can do. So keep a clear head, don't overthink, and go do what you do best. Blow it out of the water...get it, dear?"

"Yes, I get it Shitaka, please stop."

A loud clearing of the throat made them both stop and both them and Tonen looked at Uncle Brazen, who for once looked very serious, "Nephew, remember my words from your birthday. This is just a test to show what you can do, everything else will come in time. Think not of the future, think of now. This is your time, the first step in your journey to being a hero. The hero that YOU want to be. So do well, dear nephew, we have all the faith in the world in you. Right?"

"Right!" joined in Soyuki and Shitaka happily.

With a smile to one another they reared up and flashed a "V" finger sign for victory in regards to Tonen, "Good luck! We look forward to hearing all about it!"

They held the smiles and pose until the video ended.

Tonen looked at the screen for a bit blankly, but then smiled brightly, "Thanks guys, I won't let you down."

As he took another deep breath, a question flashed through his mind, he pulled out his phone and looked at the time then did quick math in his mind.

"Ok, a little over two hours before the exam starts, let's get some breakfast, loosen up, go over my written test stuff...then head on over."

With a confident nod towards his plan he headed to the kitchen and made him a complete breakfast so that he would be 100% ready for the exam.

As he did each step of his plan, Tonen continued to work on keeping his mental focus, to not let the fear or doubt of what might not come next. His Uncle Brazen's words on 'thinking of now' continued to ring through his head.

After a while he again looked at his phone, it was 8:30, and that forced Tonen's expression into one of deep determination, "Time to go."

He picked up his bag and some loose items and headed out the door.

Tonen took a train to get to the academy. As he hung onto one of the railings, because he was so tall he let others sit down in the seats, he looked for signs of other kids his age who might be heading to UA. He was surprised when no "overt Quirks" could be spotted, but there were some kids he felt could be going his way. He didn't try and ask, he knew that would break his focus, and he definitely didn't want that.

Eventually he reached his stop and calmly walked to where he was going. The streets were busy as it was a work day, but there was something in the air that Tonen couldn't quite figure out. Was it excitement? Apprehension? A kind of focus like what he was trying to do? It was hard to put into words, but he could feel it, sense it, and it only grew as he reached the school.

As he reached the gate of the academy, he couldn't help but pause and look at it. The dual-towered building loomed large over the rest of the landscape. And yet, Tonen couldn't help but smile because it looked like a regular building from the front, especially in regards to the windows that were glistening in the sunlight.

"If you somehow couldn't guess, this is U.A. High School, aka UA Academy or UA High depending on who you talk to. This was the premiere hero academy in Japan. In terms of the hero charts, 4 of the top 5 heroes came from this academy. Including a certain "#1 Hero" that a lot of people like to gush on. It's said that UA really is the best because of the teachers they have, the budget they use to push students Quirks via challenges, and more. But because of that, it's the most strict school in terms of who gets in and who doesn't. They want the best in their classes, and though scores come in...only a handful get to stay for the Hero Courses. On that day, my chance to prove myself came. Though even I would be surprised by what would happen by the end of it."

Tonen continued to stare at UA until someone bumped into him, snapping him back to reality.

"Oh, sorry about that!" said a girl his age with yellow hair with pink stripes going through it as she passed him by, "You shouldn't stare into space like that! Don't want to miss registration! Right?"

"Right," he answered with a thankful smile and a nod.

He quickly looked around and saw more kids his age entering the gate. Some easily caught his eye, including one kid who had the body of a shark. But he quickly shook off his onlooking and focused once more.

"Right," he said again, but with more determination.

As he entered the academy he, alongside the other kids, were guided by attendants to a registration area. There he filled out the forms, got a card with a number, and then was guided to an auditorium area. The area was structured to focus on a large screen. Many potential students were already seated and talking amongst themselves.

Tonen looked around and saw an open seat at the end of a row. The seat next to him had a rather small and meek looking boy sitting in it. His eyes were closed and his face was clenched as if he was in pain.

He wasn't sure what to make of this so he tapped him on the shoulder, "Excuse me...?"

The tap jolted the kid from his stated and he quickly looked around before focusing on Tonen.

Tonen did his best not to laugh at the outburst before giving a calming smile and pointing to the seat, "Is anyone sitting here?"

Realizing the situation, the boy calmed down and shook his head, "No, you can seat here."

"Thank you."

With another smile he sat down and looked around a bit. When he focused back on the kid next to him he saw that the boy had already closed his eyes and was focusing really hard again."

"Are you ok?" Tonen asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied without looking at him. "It's my Quirk...I have to be careful with it in places like here else I get hurt."

"Oh wow, I'm sorry. I have a Quirk that can hurt me as well if I'm not careful, so I get it."

The boy was shocked by this revelation and looked at Tonen with curiosity. Tonen took this chance to extend a hand, "Tonen Keitomo, you can call me TK."

" Azujima Yakishi, no nickname, sorry." he replied as he shook the hand.

"Don't apologize, we might think of one later if we end up in the same class. Good luck, today, ok?"

Azujima was very much comforted by his words and for the first time smiled at him, "You too."

The two continued to smile at one another before again looking out at the room. It was more filled with potential students than before, and after a few minutes, a noise sounded.

"Please take your seats, your instructions for the exams will be explained soon," boomed a voice over the intercom.

The various kids murmured amongst themselves and did their best to contain their excitement.

A noise again boomed from the intercom and everyone went silent, "Boys and girls, please welcome esteemed Professor at UA High School, Professor Quo."

A door opened nearby and everyone was shocked at what they saw, a man sat in a floating chair and headed towards the podium. The floating chair wasn't what floored everyone though, it was that the man's brain was literally bursting out of his head and was not insignificant in size. In fact, they realized the chair was so that he could move around and not be crushed by the weight of his massive cortex.

"Hello students," he said in very monotone and unemotional voice, "I am Professor Quo, welcome to UA Academy's entrance exam."

"Igasato Quo, Pro-Hero and Teacher, hero name: Big Brain. Obviously. Quirk: Intelligence. That massive brain gives him literally the biggest IQ on the planet. Which he not only uses to teach, but have his own repository of information that he can access on a whim. In short, he basically knows everything, and can even predict what you'll do or say. Oh, and yes, his initials do spell 'IQ' and I'm going to make fun of him for that."

As if hearing that, Tonen was indeed trying to contain a laugh, "IQ...my gosh..."

"Today," continued Big Brain, "you will be taking two exams. The first will be a written exam to ensure that you have a basic understanding of things like Math, Science, History and so on. Because despite what many in the news would like you to believe, we don't just train your bodies, we train your minds. So if you fail that test, you will have a serious handicap going into the Practical Exam..."

A wave of noise came across the students at the mention of the practical exam. The professor cleared his voice loudly to get them to calm down.

"Do not interrupt me. As I was saying, you need to do well on BOTH the written and Practical Exam to be accepted here. In regards to the Practical Exam each of you was given a card. We'll divide up your numbers and put you in a walled off area nearby where you'll be tasked with using your Quirks and minds to defeat "villains". In this instance, you'll be fighting robots. Yes, this will put some of you at a disadvantage, but this is where you must use your minds to do well...or else...not join the school. Attendant, please bring up the scoring visual."

From behind the kids, a projector turned on and filled up the screen that Big Brain was in front of. It had four pictures on it with numbers ranging from 0-3 next to them in ascending order.

"As you can see, there are multiple kinds of robots you'll be meeting in the testing grounds. Each one has a point value. The point robots are the ones you should focus on as they're the ones that give you your score for the test. The one that is marked "0" is for interference. It'll try and box you in or pin you down. So thus, you need to make sure you don't focus on them. Especially since you only will have 10 minutes to complete the test..."

At the hearing of the time limit the students burst out in protest. Wondering why it was so short, whether there would be enough robots to go around and so on.

Big Brain's head twitched and he bared his teeth at them all before roaring, "DON'T. INTERRUPT!"

His voice got them all to go quiet, and once he was sure they would be quiet he reverted back to his emotionless and monotone state, "As I was saying, you have ten minutes to get as many robots destroyed before your time is up. I recommend you being of calm mind when you enter the Practical Exam, which is why you're doing the written one first to ensure that you're all...capable...of doing the second one. Attendants will come down and call out your number to take you to the classrooms in question. You are dismissed."

Without a goodbye or even a nod to acknowledge them Big Brain hovered away. Leaving the students very much stunned at his grim words.

"He's scary," noted Azujima. "I hope we don't have him as a homeroom teacher if we get in."

Tonen laughed nervously in response, "Yeah, that would suck. I wouldn't be able to look at anything but that brain. I wonder if-"

"Excuse me, everyone!" came another voice and they all turned to it.

At the entrance way, a bunch of attendants stood before them with clipboards in hand, "I'm going to call out some numbers. Please follow in an orderly fashion so that we can get this done efficiently. Ok first group..."

The students waited to see when their numbers were called. Azujima's number was called before Tonen's so they said goodbye and wished each other luck again before being split up.

Tonen's number was called in the last group, and he followed the remaining students to a classroom filled with desks.

Another attendant came in and gave them a brief rundown of the test and noted the one hour time limit. As he was handed his paper Tonen got nervous but again though of the words of his parents and Uncle and calmed down quickly and went to work.

Tonen looked over the questions and was slightly surprised by some of the advanced natures of them. Yes, this was a high school in point of fact, but something just felt off about it. Knowing that some of the other sections would take him more time he went to the History section and filled that out quickly. He had a knack for remembering history for some reason and he smiled as went through the questions with ease and confidence that he got the answers right.

When he got to the math questions he grimaced, math was his weak spot, though he knew that beforehand and prepared for it with his mom.

Days before, Soyuki sat down with Tonen at their family table and worked with him on math equations, "You carry that and you get the number. Understand?"

"I...think so?" said Tonen very unsure.

"It's ok if you don't get it right now, we'll work it until you do."

"It's just, math doesn't work in my head, mom. I can do history, literature, art no problem but numbers...they suck."

Soyuki let out a kind laugh at this, "Yeah, I know, I had trouble with math too. My parents taught me some wordplay tricks to help get me through the harder equations. I never got the chance to teach them to you, but now is as good a time as any!"

With another smile she wrote down some words on a paper and started teaching them to Tonen.

Back in the classroom, Tonen took a deep breath and started to wordlessly mouth the words to the lines his mom taught him. He had to say some over a few times to get the results he felt were correct but he kept pushing forward until he was done.

When it came to science, his dad popped into his mind.

"SCIENCE, TK!" he boasted loudly, almost knocking his son out of his chair. "I love it."

"Yeah, I got that dad, thanks," replied Tonen as he righted himself in his chair.

Shitaka snickered at his, "Sorry about that. But yeah, science. A lot of people think it's complicated because all the big words and formulas. But in truth, it's a lot like how my Quirk works..."

He held up his gauntlet so Tonen could see it.

"I see the parts, I see how they work together, the components that make every single thing go together in harmony and when it's perfectly assembled? It's done."

"Just like science?"

"Just like science, TK. You can break everything down in science, that's the whole point! You can go and make it big or small, and even molecular. It's beautiful! So if you're having a hard time with things like the periodic table or formulas for scientific calculations or how chemicals work together or what not...think small...then build your way up. Here, I'll give you some examples."

Shitaka guided Tonen through his processes and Tonen nodded slowly as he began to understand what his father meant.

Focusing on the test once again, he put his dads view on science to work and he had to restrain a laugh when it all started to work.

With the harder subjects out of the way, Tonen went from section to section under finally he was done. Well within the time limit. He handed in his test and was told to wait outside the classroom for instructions.

Other students were done ahead of him, but as he entered the hallway he was shocked that they all weren't talking. None were asking about the test they had taken or what they thought about it. Rather, he could tell that they were all in their separate worlds. Each of them mentally preparing for the practical exam to come.

After a quick glance at them, Tonen did the same. He closed his eyes, took the same deep breaths he had been doing all day, and made sure his Quirk was ready for action when the time came. Minutes passed, and eventually all the students finished the test before the limit was up.

The attendant in charge entered the hallway after a bit and looked at them all, "Good job on finishing, now it's time for the practical exam. There are more attendants waiting outside to escort you to a certain area based on your card number. Listen closely to where you need to go.

Tonen closely listened in and waited for his name to be called. He was to be in group 3, and after all were assigned he followed the fellow group 3 members to the attendant outside, who then led a massive group of potential students to a cityscape area.

As they approached it, many of them looked up and were in awe at the scale of it. It was a fully blown city with buildings, skyscrapers and more, all surrounded within a giant wall to ensure that nothing got out of it without serious help.

"Look at the size of this place," muttered one girl next to Tonen.

"The school can afford this and a bunch of robots? That's insane," noted a guy a few feet ahead of him.

Tonen did his best not to be awestruck, or to even worry about the ones around him. He knew that if he wanted to get in, he had to go and get as many points as possible. No excuses.

They were all brought before a gate and told to wait for a message before starting. A feeling came over Tonen and he looked around. After a bit he made a noise of disappointment because he didn't find what he was looking for.

"Darn," he said softly to himself, "I don't see Azujima, I would've helped him if I could, he seemed nice. Might be better this way, I need to focus on myself for once. Show my skills and be "shameless", right Uncle Brazen?"

With a small laugh he felt himself get into a better mood, yet one that was still very determined. He gave another cursory glance just to see if there were others who irradiated powers. Not to size them up, or worry about them, but rather, to make sure he didn't follow them as that might lead to them getting the robots taken care of before he did.

A tapping noise got all of their attention, and a familiar monotone voice came over the intercom, "The practical test is about to begin. Remember, you must destroy the "villainous robots" in order to get points. Remember which ones are the higher point ones as that'll matter later on. We'll alert you when there are 5 minutes remaining, and then one minute remaining. Take your marks if you would."

Each of them, including Tonen went and got into a battle ready position. A countdown noise began. It started slow, and then got faster, and faster. Until finally a horn rang out and...

"Begin."

The gate to the cityscape opened up and they all rushed in. An immediate problem was finding room to move when in a mob setting and getting to a place where you could attack robots on your own.

As the group dispersed in various directions, Tonen took a quick moment to see if there were any paths that didn't have immediate people in them. He noticed an open alleyway and rushed into that.

"I hope I'm right about this..." he said through clenched teeth.

As if to answer his hopes, a robot dropped out of the sky and landed right in front of him. It was one that had multiple legs and a tail that looked like a scorpion. Tonen's mind flashed back to the briefing and he smiled.

"Good, a 2-pointer. Great place to start. HAAAAAHHHH!"

He roared and a burst of air shot out of him and hit the robot head on, denting its metal and pushing it back up a few feet. Tonen rushed at it and threw punches with sharp exhales to shoot focuses air blasts at the robot. The robot tried to dodge but missed and eventually sparks sprang out of its head.

"Weak spot, time for an uppercut!"

With a final sharp exhale, he launched an upward punch and the robots head flew clean off, its body crumpled to the ground as a result.

Tonen didn't stop to appreciate his work though, he kept going down the alley at full speed, "That's one down, many more to go I hope."

As he went down another alley, line of three robots appeared before them. Each with dual arms and a big wheel base.

"Dang it, they're 1-pointers, need to get through them now!" bit Tonen angrily.

With a loud roar he sent an even bigger wall of air towards the robots. The first one got slammed the hardest and was sent flying into the other ones, knocking all three to the ground. Tonen took advantage of this and jumped over them and held his hands out before exhaling sharply once more. The directed blast smashed the robots further on top of each other and took them out of commission.

"5 points, not bad, can't stop now!"

As he raced out of the alley and onto a main street nearby, a camera was looking at him. Far away, a group of adults were watching on monitors.

"That move was impressive," said a man in heavy armor.

"I like how speedily he did it and with great efficiency," said a woman with wings.

"He'll be one to keep an eye on," added a silhouetted woman. "But there are many others to watch..."

The screen in front of them was cycling through other camera angles and other participants in the exam. One camera showed a boy and girl standing side by side as a group of robots approached them. They had very similar outfits, as well as looks and hairstyles aside from a few slight differences.

"I count an equal number of points, brother," said the girl.

"Excellent, sister, let's go to work!" said the brother.

They each went into combat poses as the robots barreled down on them. The boy's body glowed slightly before slowly becoming covered in metal. But not a metal coat, but rather, a suit of armor, robot armor. Fully transformed he launched himself into the air with rocket boosters, "Now, sister!"

The girl held out her arms, and her skin became covered with lines that made her arms resemble circuit boards. She gestured with them and half the robots went one direction to her, while the other went to her brother.

The brother used his mechanized body to rip through the robots like cardboard. Meanwhile the sister controlled them and made them either crash into each other, the ground, or nearby buildings.

Once they were all gone they powered down and smiled happily to one another and high-fived, "Success!"

In another part of the arena, a very petite teen, no taller than 4'5 was being lorded over by robots. She seemed scared as the robots raced towards her, and she closed her eyes as they reached her. A roar sounded and out from under the horde of bots came a behemoth of a woman, whose skin resembled bricks. She punched and kicked and tore holes through all the robots until they were all gone.

"You don't hurt me, I hurt you!" the brick woman roared before stomping off to another part of the arena.

Down a few paths from her, a boy with stylized glasses ran full throttle through the streets. A 3-point robot entered his view and prepared to fire its back mounted launchers.

"Hit me if you can!" teased the boy.

With a smirk he vanished from sight and appeared behind the robot and kept running. The robot didn't move, and then crumpled to the ground in pieces as if sliced into them.

Back with Tonen, he too faced down a 3-point robot and quickly took it down with some focused blasts. This time though he took a breath and then took stock.

"Ok, that's another 3 points, that puts me at...22. Why am I only finding the 1 and 2 pointers? That was my first 3! Can't stop...can't stop...get going...move!"

With renewed determination he raced away, and a few spots away he saw another 3-point robot lurking. He bounded to it and prepared to take it down. But just before he did a series of metal spheres raced right in front of him, missing him by inches. They pelted the robot repeatedly until it was down.

Tonen followed the spheres as they retreated and soon found there home, levitating above the hand of a silver-haired boy with a particularly smug look on his face, "Oh, I'm sorry, was that robot yours to kill?"

"Apparently not. Fair's fair and all that," Tonen admitted though not amused.

"Oh good, I was afraid you would've cried foul and I have no time for such...weak thoughts."

"You know, it's not wise to insult someone whose Quirk you don't know."

"And you know mine?"

"Yeah, your balls are showing."

The silver-haired lad took offense to this line until he realized Tonen was referring to the floating spheres, he laughed arrogantly, "That was almost clever."

His arrogance brought forth the anger in Tonen, "Are we going to have a problem? Because I have no problem with taking you down to keep-"

"Attention, participants," called out the familiar monotone voice of Big Brain, "there are five minutes remaining in the exam. Do not waste them."

Tonen and the silver-haired boy stared each other down before Tonen broke the silence, "Tell you what, I'll go this way, you go that way, and let's just hope we don't interact again."

"That sounds...lovely," noted the boy just as arrogantly before as he turned and walked down a pathway.

"Dick."

He spat at the ground and rushed towards another part of the cityscape he hadn't been at before. Nearby, the girl with the blonde hair and pink streaks was dueling with robots. From her hands came a very sticky pink substance. she pulled it into a whip shape and used it against the bots. Even at one point going and sticking it to one of them and then spinning it around to hit the rest and take them out of commission.

"Whew," she said once done, "6 points for me! Now where can I find-?"

Before she could finish that thought, a 3-point robot dropped down behind her and reared up to fire. She froze in place at this, starring down the barrel of defeat.

Just as the robot fired, Tonen got to her and knocked her out of the way. The blast created a crater in the street, but they were just far enough away to escape it unscathed. Tonen got up first and sent his air blasts at its appendages to open it up to a bigger blast.

"Down you GOOOO!" he roared as a wall of air tore right through the robots innards, immobilizing it for good.

Now done, he turned to the girl and offered a hand, "You alright?"

The girl was still stunned but took the hand eventually, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks."

"Good, then get moving. Test isn't over, don't want you staring out into space and missing the chance to get more points, right?"

He smiled to see if she would get it, and her mind clicked and realized who she was talking to. She smiled back and nodded, "Right. Thanks again."

With a wave, Tonen bounded into another area, the girl watched him for a few seconds before heading out into another direction herself.

Another minute passed and Tonen knew that he wasn't safe yet, his mind raced "I've got 25 points, but is that enough? It's hard to say, I should still have a few minutes to go..."

At the room of the adults, each of them watched the various screens. The silhouetted woman smiled as she looked at her watch, "A few minutes left, let's see now how they react under pressure. Release the rest."

"Yes ma'am," answered the armored man.

As Tonen raced down a wide open street a 3-point robot smashed through a nearby building to get the jump on him. Tonen exhaled sharply multiple times to release tactical strikes that cut through the robot and sent the remaining pieces to the ground.

Not wasting a second, Tonen kept going, "28, that's not bad...I'd love to get to 35...and I might just..."

Ahead of him, he saw a swarm of robots and a trio of people trying to take them down. One was a tall girl whose body shifted into water at points and doused the robots, short-circuiting them or blasting off their parts one by one. Another was a stout boy who seemed to have metal parts fused on his arms in a peculiar way. He attacked with the metal or brought them together to defend. The final was a regular looking girl who was doing more of a "keep away" strategy and getting the robots to interfere with one another rather than her attacking on her own.

While she was doing that a 2-pointer robot jumped up behind her and tried to strike her down.

Before she could react in full, Tonen rushed in to block it, "Not so fast!"

He roared lightly and a ball of air ripped through the robot.

Once it was down he turned to the girl, "Sorry about that, didn't know if you saw it and didn't want to risk it."

"It's fine. Thanks." she said simply.

"Ok then..."

The two looked at each other, Tonen not sure what was up, the girl just looking blankly at him. The sound of explosions got their attention and the two others around them took care of their robots.

Before any of them could speak, the ground started to shake. First softly, and then to a level in which they all started to stumble around.

"What in the world?" said the boy with metal on his arms.

"Is that someone's Quirk?" asked the aquatic girl.

"No, it's that!" Tonen pointed out.

From two nearby buildings a massive robot appeared as it blasted through them with ease. It was much taller than any other robot, or even the nearby buildings. It had robot arms that seemed very capable as they smashed through the nearby metal, and it was riding around via massive treads.

"That's huge..."

"It's the zero point robot," noted the girl from before.

"What?"

"If we fight that, we won't get any points."

"Then let's get out of here, we still have time left and that thing won't mess around! Go!"

Not arguing with the logic, the four ran away down the street, before they got too far though another building exploded next to them, and an equally massive robot barreled towards them.

"Oh come on!" shouted Tonen angrily as another pathway was cut off, "This way, down the alley!"

They turned to get away, but before that was even close to fruition another set of giant robots appeared, and then, a final giant robot blocked the other side of the road.

As the four looked around they saw that they were truly surrounded by five massive robots that stopped to stare them down, and there was no clear way out of their line of fire.

In the viewing room, the adults were somewhat surprised by this turn of events.

"I know we wanted more of those robots this year, but five in one area? Is that even fair, or safe?" asked the winged woman.

"Hmph, we all agreed that the last entrance exam was too easy, remember?" recalled the armored man. "These robots are the ultimate test of not just might, but mind and mettle. It was just dumb luck that those four got surrounded, but now is their ultimate opportunity to impress us. Can they either figure a way out? Or, will they work together to somehow take them down before time runs out and get back to the robots that count for points? It may seem harsh, but as we all know...so is the real world where villains have no problem ganging up on heroes they think are weak."

The winged woman looked back at the screens uncertainly, behind her, the silhouetted woman smiled as the situation unfolded.

Tonen looked around frantically to see if there were any ways out, but there wasn't. Keeping his focus he turned the others, "Quickly! We have to work together, what are your Quirks?"

The boy stepped up first, "My arms hold one half of a shield, I can use it to slice, or bring it together for a near unstoppable defense. But it won't help against their blows and slicing them isn't enough with their size."

Tonen quickly pointed to the plain-speaking girl from before, "My Quirk isn't physical, I can raise or lower the power of a Quirk near me."

"That's...really cool actually, ah, focus, dang it, you next!"

"Hmph, I can turn my body into water fully or partially and use it for various things like creating objects and such."

"What about you?" asked the shield boy, "Aren't you some kind of air cutter Quirk?"

"Close enough," laughed Tonen, "but I won't be able to take one out without leaving us open to the others, and if I go all out I'll kill you all unless you're...shielded."

An idea sparked in his mind and he made the connections in his head and smiled.

"That'll work."

A noise got their attention and the robots all started to converge on them, Tonen gritted his teeth as he turned to the others.

"Ok, we don't have much time, do exactly as I say. You, Up Down, raise Aquagirl's Quirk power-"

"That's not my name!" bit back the aquatic Quirk user.

"No time for name exchanges!" shouted Tonen, "Can you make an aqua barrier with your water to cover you three? Shape it like a dome?"

"...yes."

"Good, do that."

"What about me?" asked the shield Quirk user.

"You're right in front, Shield Hero, you're the extra layer of defense against my attack, protect them at all costs. Go! I gotta charge up."

With a nod, the shield boy put his arms together, forming a robust shield. He focused on it and the shield actually grew a bit, the bottom touched the ground and the top part was able to cover most of them even if standing up.

The Quirk adjusting girl grabbed the shoulder of the other girl, who was bitter about the situation, but when the one girl started to glow, the other could feel her power rising. She raised her arms, which turned into water, and she carefully formed a barrier around them.

The barrier complete, the boy shouted out to Tonen, "We're set! Let loose!"

"Working...on it..."said Tonen through clenched teeth.

Though they couldn't see it, Tonen was shaking heavily, his mind flashed back to the last time he let loose, but he knew this time would be different. This had to be bigger, stronger, or they would all get hurt and likely fail.

As he continued to charge up his uncle's words rang throughout his mind, "This is just a test to show what you can do..."

His body shaking violently, Tonen managed to make a smile, "What's that's phrase...? Oh yeah...time to...go...beyond!"

He took one last breath in, and then started to let out a yell, it was soft at first, and air started rippled out of him and hit the water barrier and even the robots. Who realized this and made moves to head to him as he was the attacker.

Tonen's yell got louder and the air pressure started to shoot out in all directions much more intensely. The ground started to crack, windows were shattering, and the robots were slowly getting stopped in their tracks.

As the volume got louder, the air continued to pour out of Tonen's body, and each octave amped up the power.

He saw he was making a difference and with his body shaking as violently as it ever did before, he amped up his yell to the highest level yet. It was a roar, one that made the others in the barrier think he was in pain, but he wasn't, he was just letting loose.

The columns of air hit the robots, the buildings and everything else. The arms of the robots trying to stop him but were slowly sheared until they were nothing but husks, leaving just the bodies. Tonen saw they were damaged but not put down yet, so he let out everything else he had in one final loud scream.

The air formed blade like gusts that cut through everything, the pressure was so enormous that gusts of it poured past the robots and into the various pathways. The gusts continued on until they reached other areas of the cityscape and destroyed robots that were nowhere near Tonen, or were even near other participants.

Many of them had to dodge to get out of the way of the attack, and once it was gone they questioned had just happened.

Eventually, Tonen's scream stopped and he fell to his knees and gasped for air. As he looked up to the giant robot that was just in front of him, it was unmoved. The robot head just starred at Tonen until a chunk fell off. Then another, and another. Soon, the whole body of the robot fell to pieces.

Slightly stunned, those in the barrier turned to the other robots and they too all fell apart before their very eyes.

As the aquatic girl lowered the barrier they all looked at Tonen in surprise. The shield maker was the first to react by going over to him, "Dude, you ok? That was...that was awesome."

"Yeah, glad you liked it," said Tonen weakly. "Can you get me to a safe wall to lay on? I need to rest..."

"Anything you need, man."

The boy lifted Tonen up and took him to a solid wall that wasn't overtly hurt by Tonen's blast.

Once situated, Tonen looked at the three, "You all alright?"

"I think so, man, how were you able to-"

A noise from an intercom got their attention, "Students, you have one minute left in the exam."

"No time, go!" ordered Tonen as he pointed down the street, "You might be able to get another robot kill or two, go!"

With a friendly salute the shield boy left, the aquatic Quirk girl followed without a word or motion to Tonen. The plain spoken girl stayed and bowed to him slightly, "Thank you."

"Go get'em, Up Down."

She gave another nod and ran off in a different direction from the other two. He watched them leave before resting his head against the wall.

"If you need me...I'll be taking a nap..."

Before he could get fully to sleep, the intercom sounded again, "Attention, the practical exam is now over. All robots have been shut down so destroying them won't add to your points. For those who are injured, stay where you are, a nurse will come to you. To those who don't require medical help, please proceed to the front of the building where you'll receive final word on what to expect."

Tonen didn't move from his spot, the power drain he underwent from the attack took a lot out of him. He hadn't done an attack like that in a very long time, and his whole body felt bruised as a result. A nurse eventually approached him and checked over him, he noted that he was just tired and sore and so she gave him some food to energize him. After a brief check-up he was escorted to the front of the academy and even given a ride home via taxi.

By the time he made it back home he was tired still but his body was better. It had only been a few hours since he left home so thus his parents were at their hero jobs still. Knowing this he went and fixed himself a small meal and rested once again on the coach.

More time passed and soon Soyuki and Shitaka arrived and immediately bombarded Tonen with questions as to what happened in the exams. He told them everything and even they were surprised by him having to go all out.

"You must be sore all over, TK" said his dad with a smile.

"Yes, dad, I am, thanks for rubbing it in," answered Tonen with a shake of the head.

"Enough you two," interjected Soyuki. "It sounds like you did all you could do, Tonen, we're proud of you going and helping those other kids. Take the rest of the day off. Go and draw in your room, I'm sure you want to. We'll fix a special meal for supper, sound good?"

"Thanks mom, appreciate it."

With a bow to them both he slowly got up and limped to his room. When his door closed his parents looked at each other and smiled.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, honey?" asked Soyuki.

"I think so, dear, I think so," replied Shitaka.

They smiled wider and contained a laugh before heading their opposite ways.

In his room, Tonen did as his mother posed and pulled out a book and started sketching those he had met. A content smile grew on his face, as he knew that everything now was in someone else's hands and not his own.

A week passed, and with each day that went by came more and more apprehension from Tonen. His parents did his best to let him know that it took time to process results due to all the students who attended the exams.

"Waiting sucks, you know? It's the one thing that everyone tells you that you HAVE to do for one reason or another...but when it comes right down to it? It sucks. But what's just as bad though is waiting on something you know that can change your life forever no matter what happens...and you're not sure what the better result is."

Tonen headed for the mailbox and saw that the mail had came. With a blank expression he opened it and saw a special letter on top. He quickly pulled it out and saw it was addressed to him. Tonen shook as he held it, but grabbed the rest of the mail and bolted into the house and after dropping off the rest of the mail rushed into his room.

As he sat on his bed, Tonen didn't know whether to open it or not, but he knew that he couldn't delay it forever. After a deep breath, he opened the envelope and a small device fell into his hand. He put it on the bed and as he did a display screen popped up.

On it was a background of UA, and a woman walked in front of it and bowed to the camera. She had a very official looking black suit on, but it was contrasted by her bright yellow shoulder-length hair. Her eyes were white, further adding to the unique look. Tonen could tell she held herself with both confidence and authority.

"Hello there, Tonen Keitomo. My name is Rinoda Ayatsune, I am the headmaster of U.A. High School."

Getting a message from the headmaster was not something Tonen expected, and he was very taken aback by this, but remained quiet as she spoke.

"We do apologize for the long wait, but we had a lot to consider in picking for the various courses, and the Practical Exams gave us a...lot to think about. Especially when it came to you."

Tonen swallowed in fear as he wondered if his attempt to save the others did more harm than good.

Rinoda raised her hand and a chart appeared, "As you can see, we have a chart to help monitor the points of the Practical Exam. I'm not going to show you your number yet because I wanted to point out some things you did. So first, let me show you this number, 30."

A massive "30" appeared above her hand.

"This was the number you had in points right before dealing with the interference robots. Believe it or not, this score would've let you get into UA as you were a high-scoring participant."

Tonen wasn't sure of what to make of that, her wording seemed positive, but he could tell there was more going on here.

"But here's the thing, we don't just look at how well you can destroy robots, in this exam, we looked at how you handled pressure and helped others that were in need. Such as these two instances..."

She again raised her hands and two camera feeds popped up. One was of the time Tonen saved the girl with the bubble gum abilities, and the other was by saving the Quirk adjuster.

"You see, instances like this are where we award...Rescue Points. I, alongside the teachers of the school, evaluated each rescue attempt and gave you points for it. So for these two rescue attempts we gave you...30 points total. Which gives us 60."

Tonen saw the 60 point number and yet wasn't calmed yet as something else was coming, he could feel it.

"You're confused, aren't you?" pondered the headmaster, "Don't, we're getting to the good part. Because now we look at your...well...let's call it your 'Overwhelming Power' feat where you destroyed those interference robots."

The footage of his doing his massive air attack and destroying the robots played on multiple screens in various angles.

"We hope you remembered that those were worth 0 points, but yet you destroyed them anyway to help your fellow exam takers. Very noble. But what you might not have known was..."

Other camera angles pour in and various robots were destroyed by his attacks.

"...you destroyed other robots that were blocks away from your position. So while you had a robot score of 30 going into that final fight, you actually got another 18 points from that last attack. Oh, and don't forget, you saved those other kids. Which is another set of rescue points. So add together your robot score of 48, plus your initial rescue points of 30 and you get 78. But then, you add in the rescue points you did for those three and we get a grand total of..."

She smiled and held out another hand, a number flashed up above it that made Tonen's mouth drop, "135. It would've been higher but one teacher deducted because of the somewhat reckless nature of the attack in regards to not knowing it would reach those other robots. But still, that's a high number. In fact...it's the highest Practical exam score we've had in years. So you know what that means, right?"

Tonen mouthed wordlessly at what was being implied, Rinoda straightened up and gave a proud look to the camera, "Tonen Keitomo, we happily will welcome you to the Hero Course of U.A High School. Welcome to our Academia. We look forward to seeing you at the school, and I personally look forward to seeing how you grow as a Pro-Hero. Congratulations."

A smile and laugh emanated from Tonen as he heard the words from the headmaster. He did it, he did things his way and he got into the school that was the best in the land. Relief and joy washed over him as he took it in.

"Oh, one more thing..."

He snapped to the screen as Rinoda wasn't done yet, "I don't know if you'll care, but the three you helped rescue from the giant robots? They got in too because of their actions in protecting each other. Just thought you'd like to know. See you at UA!"

With a wave, the video cut off. Tonen was scared at first because of her final line before its revelation, but eventually he went back to his laughing and smiling.

Consumed with the need to do something, Tonen went and drew in his book. But it wasn't the newly seen headmaster that he drew, rather, it was the UA High itself. Once he drew that he put someone in front of it flashing a "V For Victory" sign, it was himself.

"Yep, I made it, I got into U.A. High School. And there was just one more thing to do."

A short time later, Soyuki and Shitaka entered their home, but were surprised when they saw a somewhat glum Tonen sitting at the dining room table with the sketchbook.

Soyuki looked at him with concern, "Tonen, are you ok?"

"What's with the glum face, son?" asked Shitaka.

"Could you...look at this...please?" Tonen requested with a weak voice.

He pushed forward the sketchbook, maintaining his glum look as he did. His parents came and looked rather sad as they picked it up, until they saw the sketch of Tonen in front of UA. Their expressions shifted and looked up at Tonen who was now smiling and giving the same "V For Victory" pose.

"I got in."

At this reveal both his parents screamed in joy and gave him a big hug and sang his praises.

"As they would reveal to me, they knew about the rescue point system. But all past students are advised not to mention it as it might influence the test in a inauthentic way. They felt after my story that I would get in, but you never really know with these things. But yeah, they were thrilled their son was going to U.A. Academy, and so was I. My journey was about to truly begin, but I had no idea what was waiting for me on that journey...no one did..."

*credits*