Chapter 1: Entrance Exam (Part 1)

—CREATE—

Yaoyorozu Momo wasn't sure, at first, why her and the other recommendation students had been allowed to watch the entrance exam. There were four of them, young prospective heroes whose exam scores, whose pedigree, whose powers were so undeniable that U.A. had seen fit to allow them to bypass the regular exam altogether. Why let them watch the exam though?

The reason was becoming clear.

To warn them. To humble them. To let them know that they weren't so special in the end.

Because as Momo snapped her gaze between the various screens, she saw a level of skill and power that made her feel more than a little uncomfortable. Was she really so remarkable that a place here could be set aside for her? When every person on the screens before her was far beyond her.

The other recommendation students sat with her had mixed reactions. In her periphery Momo could see the son of Endeavour staring icily at the screens, his expression blank, but a strange emotion in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher. She was about to lean just a little bit forward to gauge the reaction of Shirakabe, the strange boy who sat on the other side of him, when she heard the girl at her left hiss and lean in to one screen. Flicking her attention back to the displays, Momo saw the exam arena that had drawn the other girl's attention.

"Did you see that?! Makes me glad I'm not running this exam; I'd be worried I wouldn't make the cut!" The sharp toothed Tokage gushed, jabbing a finger at the screen they were all now zeroed in on.

With a nervous gulp at the chaos on screen, Momo nodded. "I can't help but agree."

—CHAOS—

On the starting line, wind whistling through the abandoned replica city in front of them, Mãgarin 'Butters' Batã was about to pee his pants. The nerves were running so high, everyone around him was wearing serious, super determined expressions, and no one was talking. A couple of people were even muttering under their breath, repeating self-styled mantras to themselves, little chants to pump them up.

It would begin soon, which meant that among other things, he had to start powering up his quirk. No doubt there would be chaos enough once they all charged ahead. Even so, everyone was so set that it seemed inevitable that despite how many of them there were, they'd all know what they were doing. There would probably be little uncertainty at the beginning. He couldn't afford to start at a disadvantage.

Butter's roving eyes were drawn to two people standing next to him. He'd gotten the girls name, Asui Tsuyu, but the boy had been a lot quieter than even the placid metamorph. They'd sat near each other on the bus over, basically walked here together. The only thing stopping them from having a proper conversation and getting to know each other was the sheer pressure of the day. Nerves could really hamper a person's ability to socialise, though it was something butters had rarely had an issue with. His nerves only tended to play up when his parents or authority figures were involved.

If Asui didn't clearly have a metamorphic frog quirk, Butters would've said the two other examinees were siblings. Both had similarly dark green hair, and both were even of a similar height. Though that was more to do with the boy being short than Asui particularly tall.

A few yards away, Present Mic, their battle ground coordinator and the pro-hero who had given their orientation speech, wandered through the crowd. Butters could see his tall, spiked hair cutting through the mass of other hairstyles, like a punk shark. Sensing the exam would begin soon, Butters turned to his neighbours and gave a wide, toothy smile. "Hey!" He chirped.

The boy, one of the muttering ones, looked like he'd had several thousand volts applied to his spine. While Asui simply retracted her tongue, which had been idling around her chin, and looked at him blankly.

"I think you're both really pretty!"

"What are you waiting for?! Heroes don't get countdowns!" Present Mic's shout set everyone else off, and Butters waved at the two suitably confused examinees behind him as he joined them. The boy had stumbled back and started reddening immediately, whereas the girl's face showed the barest hint of reaction in a widening of the eyes and slight chuckle.

With his quirk control more finely honed then it had been in his younger years, Butters felt their confusion wrap into him, the energy it brought out of him coursing up his body and into his arms. White-blue light sparked and crackled around his neck and shoulders, as he let out a crazed yell. Before any of the other students could reach the smattering of one-pointers ahead of them, Butters had thrown his arms forward and speared a column of crackling chaos down the street. Several robots clanked and sparked as they hit the ground.

If the cry of excitement and panic that went up from the crowd was anything to go by, Butters had certainly lit a fire under them. As the initial burst of confusion rattled around inside his arms, he heard someone pass him, followed by a croaky voice. "Thanks, kero kero."

The frog girl sprang off into the exam grounds, as the other green haired examinee sprinted past on his other side. He didn't give butters any words of thanks, not that they were required, but the blonde-haired font of chaos could hear him muttering. "Got to make it." Over and over again.

Running after him, Butters charged into the city with an eye on the larger robot that had just emerged into the main street a few blocks down. Out of range for most people, who were quickly becoming occupied with the increasing number of one-pointers arriving on the scene. Apart from anything else, Butters didn't want to be stealing anyone's points, so he made a beeline for the three-pointer in the distance. Stopping only briefly to tap a spiky-haired redhead on the shoulder. The boy, who seemed to have ridged stony skin, turned his head to catch Butters eye. Before he could ask what, he wanted however, the chaotic blonde had already shouted in his face something designed to confuse and perplex. "I'm a bad bear!"

The redhead squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, as if determining whether Butters was really there and really saying actual words. But in the time he took to do that, Butters had powered up on his confusion and was running down the street, hopping and skipping as the energy inside him bounced around like a pinball. The power from one person wasn't massive, but it was enough to damage the three-pointer irrevocably.

The line of lightning-like energy took off the left-side legs of the robot and toppled it to the ground. Teetering to the side as the energy discharge rocked his balance, Butters heard a shout from a little way behind him. "Dude, what the hell?!"

Butters turned to see the redhead, with one stony arm punched through the torso of a one-pointer, staring at him with such abject incomprehension, that the opportunity was just too much to pass up. With a twirl, Butters called out to his fellow examinee. "I'm a very bad bear!" Before barrelling off down a side street in search of more big robots.

He soon came upon two one-pointers, wheels skidding across tarmac as they bore down on him. This time exerting more control over how much power he emitted, Butters lashed out with a fist, coils of energy shooting out towards the right-side robot. The smaller blast scorched the robot but did no lasting damage, only causing it to teeter slightly.

As he readjusted how much power would be needed, the other machine came trundling in on his flank. A hefty metal arm swung at him, mercifully slow and therefore easy to back pedal away from. Not confident in his physical prowess that much however, Butters let loose a too-powerful blast of pent-up chaos which took the one-pointer's head off and sent it crashing to the floor.

Drawing on the little puddles of confusion that had been left behind by his earlier attacks, the blonde blaster still had enough energy to take the other robot out. He still measured his blasts however, making use of smaller bolts to unbalance the thing, before rushing in to push it over and tear out some of the exposed wires.

Reasoning that if he spent half his time confusing people to gain fuel, he wouldn't earn nearly as many points, Butters continued this rationing tactic for a while. Occasionally a student would zoom past in the distance, or even close enough that he could see a glimpse of bouncing purple balls and even hear a plaintive scream. Never close or coherent enough that he could begin to harness more chaos though.

Further away from the crush of examinees, Butters had been free to roam. Distant though it was, as the minutes ticked by, he could feel the chaos and confusion growing back at the starting area, his quirk jabbing at him insistently to go and find it, an unsynchronised drumbeat pulsing in his chest. Almost empty of energy, and with his brain feeling somewhat mushy, Butters drew upon his flickering lucidity to skip back to the main thoroughfare.

"Loo loo loo I've got some robots, loo loo loo you've got some too!" His sing-song voice joined the chorus of grunts and metallic whirs as Butters bounded into a circle of machines. At the centre two students were stood back-to-back, the red-haired stone boy from earlier, and a dark-skinned short haired guy, whose arms were currently not attached to his torso. In fact, those arms were nowhere to be seen. Ending his chaotic jaunt next to them, he sang loudly and almost drunkenly. "Loo loo loo I've got some zip-zap, loo loo loo zap zap boom boom!"

Already harnessing the confusion his entrance had stoked, Butters further amplified the two boys' proximal perplexity to power up a fearsome blast. The three of them not being alone in the street, Butters could feel his song sparking little motes of chaos, like bits of pocket lint gathering in an old pair of jeans. Then there was the ambient chaos, the disorder that this combat had become, and that was truly terrifying. It was more than he had bargained for.

"Oh hamburgers!" He cried out, eyes going wide and wild as energy stormed unbidden down his arms. He became an incandescent coil of white and blue.

Behind him the armless boy shoulder checked the seemingly exhausted redhead away from the epicentre, both tumbling a short distance as Butters let loose. Arms pinwheeling, energy discharging in untamed arcs, he sent the circling two-pointers around them spiralling away in pieces. But the chaos wasn't done.

The earth shook, and a screeching alarm blared across the battleground. A shadow emerged onto the street before the thing itself appeared. At first its grip - calling it a hand was too meek - grabbed onto the corner of a building, chunks of rubble cascading down several storeys as the metal mitt alone broke stone. Then the towering robot heaved itself into full view.

Not too distantly from them, the monolith of steel came lumbering. The arrival of this Zero-Pointer had been foreshadowed during the orientation, but that didn't stop its sheer mass from causing panic and confusion among the assembled students. With his newly built-up energy still bubbling within him, not fully expelled, Butters felt an uncontrollable amount of power flood into his being.

"Oh crap! Grab him, quick!" A voice from behind him shouted. Then sturdy stone arms locked around Butters torso, directing him away from the gathered crowd and narrowing down his area of effect. The blonde wannabe hero tried to call out a thanks to the two boys who had helped him, but all that came out was a warbling yodel of madness. With it came a beam of concentrated chaos so blinding that it swept all shadows away. Its trajectory sent the spiralling lightning force into the chest of the giant zero-pointer robot where the energy seared a hole through its middle, turning metal to slag in a terrifying instant.

As the titan fell, Butters lulling eyelids could make out two people directly in the path of its crushing bulk. No doubt they would die because of his lack of control. Oh dear.

The stony arms around him slowly lowered his body to the road, and looking up, Butters could just about make out the two faces of the boys he'd barged in on. "Am I grounded?" He asked, mind addled by the energy still jolting through him.

Through swimming colours, he could see the spiky haired one whack a palm to his temple. "Yo, dude! You are one manly maniac!"

"You going to be okay?" The other silhouette asked, leaning down, his armless frame thinly crouched over Butters, as the sun shone on his back.

With the energy coursing through his brain, finding new pathways that even his nervous system didn't know about, Butters saw the face of his father further warp into view. "Aw, I'm sorry O-tösan, I didn't mean to ruin you and okäsan's anniversary."

"I think he's out of it?" The redhead said quite flatly.

"Yeah." The other replied, standing up and looking around. "We should wait with him until first aid gets here."

The redhead nodded. "Totally." Unfortunately, it didn't answer why his father's face was on these two strangers. Or why Butters could taste sunlight and smell seaweed.

"I didn't mean to catch you like that." Butters slurred, trying to appease his father's anger.

Satisfied that the blonde blaster wasn't in any immediate medical danger, the dark-skinned boy gestured over to the left. A full body motion given his lack of arms. "Would you mind grabbing my arms from over there? I'd warp them back but… I'm pretty beat."

"Sure thing, bro!" The redhead cheered, at first bouncing and then after reconsideration stumbling away.

When spiky red dad returned within his sight, Butters could see his redheaded father hand his limbless father two clear plastic boxes. For some reason both these boxes had two arms sticking out of them. Butters didn't think to question that, it made perfect sense to him right now. "Thanks." His now armful dad said.

"No problem," With a tired looking double thumbs up, red dad jostled and asked with a beaming smile. "Dude, you're strong as hell! What's your workout?"

Oh, now he could taste seaweed too, seaweed and sunlight were one hell of a combo, a kind of spicy lettuce that filled you up like soup. "Burp." He said, enunciating the word, before actually hiccupping.

The two dads gave him a smile, before his arm-dad, currently stretching both limbs back and forth, said. "Nothing special, I don't do as much core work as you do though, my quirk uses my limbs a lot."

Wow, the sun had his mother's face, and her eyes were also his mother. Should he be looking at the sun? Or tasting it for that matter? Regardless of how lucid he was, the two examinees watching over him continued to chat. "I feel you there! The way you were throwing your containers around and then just popping fists up out of them was mad as hell!"

"Thanks!" Also why was arm-dad black? Wasn't Butters himself completely Asian? Did it even matter? Good for arm-dad, good for all the little duckies swimming through the air too. "It wouldn't have been half as effective without you watching my back though."

Butters tuned the rest out, his head swimming with old memories and strange little dancing birds. It took him some time before he remembered where he was and had enough of his wits to stand. By that time though, most people had gone home, and he was sitting up in the U.A. nurse's office.

As the memories of the exam flooded back into clarity, Butters replayed the final burst of chaos in his mind, saw the two people that might have been crushed. And all the regret and paranoia and panic crept up on him. He immediately slumped back in the hospital bed and said to the ceiling.

"Ah shit."

—PUNCH—

Eventually the bus bound for battle centre 4 set off, the final examinees in her group having taken their seats. Itsuka could just about make out their exam coordinator in the driver's seat. She knew every teacher at UA would be a pro-hero, but despite craning her neck she couldn't quite identify who it was. All she could make out from here was a head so large it had to be metamorphic.

Turning to look out the window, Kendo saw the main building of UA start to grow distant. Idly bringing a hand up to clutch at her side-ponytail she couldn't help but overhear a bored voice from behind her.

"Robots… this blows."

Eager to distract herself from any building nerves, Itsuka pushed herself to kneeling and looked to the pair of seats behind her. The two boys she saw there were as different in immediate impressions as you might be able to get, within reason. The one who had spoken was flat faced and bored looking, any hair obscured by a yellow puffball hat. The guy next to him was blonde, with hair so wild and untamed it might have been quirk related. His expressive face was also in seemingly constant motion, twitching and jumping in obvious anxiety. What Kendo noted but didn't comment on was that they were both holding hands.

"What's wrong with robots?" She asked, a friendly and what she hoped was approachable smile on her face.

The plain boy flipped her the middle finger without even blinking.

"It's a quirk thing! Inanimate objects are about the only - argh! - thing less expressive than Koraigu-kun!" The twitchy boy answered for him, not paying attention to the middle finger either it seemed.

"Performance anxiety?" Kendo answered back with a raised eyebrow. She might have reacted more immediately to the insult if either of them was acting like this Koraigu had done anything.

"Nope." Koraigu said, just staring at her.

An awkward silence hung between the three of them, only punctuated by the other boys quiet yelping.

Because it felt like the honourable thing to do, and not because she wanted to prove to this guy that he wasn't the only one who could be rude, Kendo raised her hand. Her three times as big, giant middle finger staring Koraigu right in the face.

More silence. Then finally, a nod and a tiny smile.

"If I had hands that big, I would be so happy." His eyes travelled to look out the window briefly, before returning to her. "I'm Ginza Koraigu, this is my boyfriend Kohî Kohei."

"Hi!" Kohî yelped, and if that name wasn't the most on the nose thing ever, Kendo couldn't blame him. Being a martial artist family named Kendo had long ago assured Itsuka that nominative determinism was definitely a thing.

"I'm Kendo Itsuka!" She replied, shrinking her hand back down to normal size and retracting the little birdie. "Is your quirk not suited for the test then? I thought they might take that sort of thing into account." She pondered mildly.

"It's not his quirk - ah! - It's him!" Kohî supplied, jerking his head at the bird flipper.

"My quirk is based on emotions. It works better against people, against robots… I don't know if I can do anything, and if it does…" In lieu of finishing his sentence Ginza just sighed, a world weary and exhausted sigh.

"Then he'll have to show some emotion for it to have an effect - eek!" Kohî finished for his boyfriend.

"We've only just met… but that seems like it'd be a problem." Itsuka added, a sympathetic smile coming over her. It was easy for her to squash nerves, as long as she distracted herself long enough to get to the exam. By then the fighting spirit was surging through her, and there were mercilessly few things a giant-sized punch couldn't at least dent. Having a more cerebral quirk, if she was right in her assumptions, sounded like it would cause some stress. Especially if that quirk ran counter to your natural personality.

"Attention students, please remain in your seats with your seatbelts on, m'kay?" The droning voice that carried down the bus aisle came from the coordinator. The man had briefly turned his giant head to look back at them and his equally large round eyes were mainly looking at her. "Safety is important, m'kay. If you don't stay safe, you'll get hurt, and, and that's bad. M'kay."

With a sheepish look, kendo did her best seated bow and returned to sitting facing forwards. Not before giving a good luck thumbs up to the boys behind her though.

Sat there, her brow creased in concentration as she tried to recall where she'd seen that enlarged face before. It was barely a second before she recognised their exam coordinator. "Ha! Awesome." She exclaimed, a childish little joy she allowed herself.

"Huh?" The questioning sound came from right next to her, and that's when Kendo remembers she had a seat neighbour as well. The girl by her side was short, with neat, cropped hair of an ash-green colour. Her slightly red eyes gave her an intense first impression, but the gentle and genuine smile on her face prevented any of that intensity from feeling aggressive or pointed. Like the rest of the examinees, and like kendo herself, this girl had dressed in her middle school gym uniform for the practical exam.

"Oh." Itsuka smiled abashedly, admitting. "I just realised who our exam coordinator is."

Her neighbour stifled a chuckle, no sound emerging from her, but her eyes briefly closing in a withheld laugh. "Are you a fan?"

In response Kendo shrugged and averted her eyes. "Not really, but when I was a kid, I was. What little kid isn't though!" She spread her hands demonstratively as she turned her gaze back to the girl. "Mr. Blimp is like, one of the best rescue heroes around. Seeing him floating over disaster areas with a bunch of people clinging onto him, his head the size of a helicopter."

"Yeah, he's pretty great." The girl replied, shaking with another little silent laugh. Her eyes twinkled in amusement as she added. "Did your elementary school ever watch those Mr. Blimp specials? Like, in social studies?"

Eyes widening and a giggle bubbling up, dozens of lessons where the class had sat watching a projection of Mr. Blimp came to mind. "The ones where he'd teach little kids about the dangers of drugs, and road safety and stuff. Those videos?"

"Yeah!" The girl slapped her knees excitedly. "Those were always really corny, right?!"

A particular memory coming to mind, Itsuka asked with a mischievous grin. "Remember the one about swearing?"

"Ha!" The girl let out one single laugh, but then covered her mouth and looked suddenly a little worried. But with a quick look around, she seemed to calm down and returned to say. "Swearing's bad with Mr. Blimp?"

Not wanting to make things awkward by bringing any attention to the strange response, Itsuka continued. "Yes, hilarious! My whole class wouldn't stop swearing for like, a whole semester." A wide smile on her face, she introduced herself. "I'm Kendo Itsuka, by the way, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you to, I'm Aizawa Heidi." Before Itsuka could continue, Heidi brushed aside any sense of formality, a light flapping of her hands almost literally performing the act. "Call me Heidi!"

"Okay!" Happy to have met someone that she quite quickly got along with, Itsuka smiled brightly. "Call me Itsuka then." Continuing their conversation in another direction, Kendo leaned forward conspiratorially and asked. "How are you feeling about the exam?"

With all the nervous kids who had previously packed the written examination, Kendo was a little surprised by the answer. "Great! I'm not too worried, I've been training for this all my life basically."

"Wow, really?" Kendo said, slight amazement tingeing her voice. It seemed the two of them had even more in common.

Heidi shrugged, before adding a little embarrassedly. "Yeah, both my parents are heroes so…"

"That's awesome, my dad was a hero too." Kendo put forward, the warm feeling in her chest growing at having found someone with such a similar situation to her. "I've, uh, I've also been training like… since I was small."

Heidi seemed to let a weight slip from her shoulders. "Honestly, that's a relief. I was afraid to say anything because I feel like I'm…" She searched for the right words for a few moments, fingers twisting the cuffs of her jacket sleeves. "I mean… Everyone else seems so nervous and I'm just… ready? You know?"

Itsuka nodded, sitting back in her seat, and casting her mind around to judge how worried she was. Sure, there had been nerves for weeks leading up to this, in the exam, waiting in the lobby of the main building. But once she'd gotten on the bus, those anxious little worries had silenced themselves. The written exam was so close now, but Kendo didn't shake, or fidget, or freak out. She just felt like she was as prepared as she could be, so why worry now? Why add extra stress to what was already going to be a very intense exam. "I think so. I know that when the exam starts there'll be no time to worry."

"Exactly." Heidi nodded resolutely, Kendo's certainty seeming to help scatter any lingering doubts the other girl had, even despite her own apparent confidence. Then again, Itsuka wasn't a mind-reader or anything, her expertise was in punching faces, not reading them. Heidi could have just been hiding her own doubts.

Out of curiosity, and to move the conversation away from any potential anxieties, Kendo asked. "What's your quirk?"

Heidi nodded and smiled as she explained. "It's called Laugh it Off. When I laugh, or I get other people to laugh, stuff stops working and people forget things, like how to use their quirks, or where they are. It's…" A slightly glum look came over the previously bubbly girl then, as she finished worriedly. "Kind of hard to explain and even harder to control."

"Yeah, that's sounds really complex." Itsuka admitted, not for the first time on this bus ride feeling thankful for her own quirk's relative simplicity. "I'm glad my quirk just lets me make my hands bigger." To demonstrate, and maybe distract her new friend with a little showing off, Kendo raised both her hands and activated her quirk, hands growing to the size of dinner plates in a short span of moments. "Less to worry about." Following that she reduced them back down.

For her part, the other girl looked impressed. Enthusiastically Heidi gave her an honest smile, saying. "Itsuka-chan, with such a strong quirk I'm certain you'll pass."

"You too, Heidi-chan!" Itsuka gushed in return. "I'll be sure to give you a big thumbs up once we both make it into UA."

With a pleased clap of her normal sized hands, Heidi exclaimed. "Yay!"

"We're here everyone! If you all could line up along the painted line, m'kay? We'll begin shortly." With the words of Mr. Blimp, the two new friends noticed that they had arrived at the more distant battle ground four. It was almost time, and despite what she had told herself and Heidi, Itsuka was still a little nervous.

After a short time filing out of the bus, Kendo found herself standing alongside Heidi, with Koraigu and Kohï having wound up on her other side. She felt the warm sun heating her back, a fresh breeze whispering through the open air, it was a beautiful day. Heidi was bouncing on her toes, bobbing from side to side with nervous energy. Koraigu meanwhile was stood stock still. Even having relinquished Kohï's hand in favour of clenching and unclenching his fists. The jittering blonde was also preoccupied however, having taken two thermos flasks out of somewhere, he was currently chugging what smelt like coffee at a delirious rate.

Ahead of the assembled examinees, battle ground four spread itself out, the replica urban landscape clearly having been modelled off of an industrial dockyard. Large mazes of shipping containers, with tall factory and warehouse buildings making up the main dominating features. More infrequently Kendo could see tall cranes in the centre, along with broad squat office buildings. She felt more than a little daunted since she'd never been into such a place in her life. How much effect could the layout have in reality though?

Before she could turn to wish the others good luck, her attention was drawn behind her, along with every other examinee. A rushing of wind blasted past them, sending her ponytail flipping back. Floating in the air a little distance behind the crowd of children, Mr. Blimp was casting his eyes over them all. With his head roughly the size of a small truck, Kendo couldn't help but let her mouth fall open in surprise. Seeing such a cartoonish sight in the flesh was more impactful than she had given the child-friendly hero credit for.

"Begin!" His voice boomed out, several times louder and with considerably more bass than it had at its regular larger than life size. The suddenness of the announcement shocked them all into a moment of hesitation. That confusion evaporated with Blimp's next stern command. "Don't waste time!"

The seriousness of the situation hit her like a brick, and in an instant kendo had pivoted and sprinted off into the exam grounds. Mr. Blimp's voice boomed out one last thing before everyone else shifted fully into gear. "Wasting time's bad, m'kay."

The feeling of her hands growing wasn't worth commenting on for Itsuka, no matter how big her hands were they always felt normal. What didn't feel normal however was the sensation of backhanding a robot across a concrete plaza. She had used her quirk before, more than probably most people taking the exam, but never like this.

As she flattened another one-pointer with a palm the size of a hatchback car, Kendo felt a feeling she had only experienced before in the dojo. Growing up under the martial arts tutelage of her father, and later her mother and grandfather, Kendo Itsuka had always felt an immaculate rush when fighting. Short spars, practice bouts, and even tournaments always brought upon her a feeling of solidity. There were few other ways she could put it, it felt like she was secure, clear, right. It imbued her with a sense of confidence so infectious that she smiled her way through most of the time limit without even realising, racking up points left, right and centre with nothing but her bare, albeit super-sized, hands

It was many minutes and many robots into the exam that this feeling took a turn. It started within her from a purely physical place, a sensation permeating her hands that soon made its way to her mind. Her hands felt like they were made of lead, her knuckles and joints were starting to feel very stiff, like rusted iron.

Backpedalling away from a two-pointer she had been trying to find an opening to attack, Kendo let her hands shrink back down to normal size. Then she felt it far more acutely, they were sore, tender, stiff. At first it didn't make sense, her hands when enlarged never seemed to be damaged that badly. Sure, she'd gotten a few scrapes and bruises as a kid, but when using them to spar she'd never so much as come away with a sore thumb.

Because it was easy to swat aside one-pointers, Kendo had been doing that for the current extent of the test. A tactic which had left her unprepared for just how fast the two-pointers could be. As it bore down on her all of a sudden, she was forced to grow her hands once again, blocking the spinning drills that stabbed for her. Her hands did not sustain any wounds in particular, but holy crap did it hurt. Like a red-hot poker was being twisted between her tendons. The pain was so bad that she was forced to return her hands to normal again, just in time to see another attack striking in from the machine. With the pain making it hard to focus, her dodge was lazy, the drill was about to make contact, to tear open her skin and do real damage.

A blur of tomato red and sunflower yellow energy streak by, the directional vortex of light scooping her up and taking her on a whirlwind journey to the other side of the yard. It had all happened so suddenly, that Kendo could hardly answer when that beam of red-yellow light glowed and resolved into the form of an examinee.

The guy was standing right next to where he had set her down, leaning on a pair of crutches, and looking at her with a lop-sided expression. His messy hair stuck up at a few different angles. Luckily his way of speaking let her gather her scattered wits about her.

"Are you o-… are you o-o-…. O-o-o-o-…. Are you…"

"Watch out!" She yelled, suddenly becoming aware of the machine bearing down on them. In the time he had spent trying to get his words out, the robot had skittered across the space and was about to strike the boy through his back. With a yell of pain Kendo enlarged one hand and swung it down in a textbook karate chop. Pushing past the boy, she struck the two-pointer right down the middle, crushing its central chassis and sending it to the ground, inert and decommissioned.

"Are you okay?" The speedster finally said, before turning around to see the destroyed robot. "Oh wow. Looks like it was really you who saved my b-b-b-… bacon."

"I'm alright, and hey, we saved each other, don't worry about it." Cradling her hands Kendo essayed a smile that she couldn't quite pull off given the sharp sensations running up her wrists.

"A-are…. Are you s-sure? I don't want to leave you in a bind." He asked, meeting her eyes with a concerned look.

"I'm fine, don't let me hold you back." She insisted, taking a step back to demonstrate.

"If you're sure." He finished with a nod, before looking for a long second at an exit to the yard. Just as Kendo was about to ask if he himself was okay, the boy jostled forward on his crutches. Instead of hobbling on however, the boy disappeared in a flash of light, turning into a blur of that yellow and red incandescence which sped off at a considerable speed, vanishing around the corner.

Alone in the industrial yard, Kendo sank back against a cold concrete wall, gingerly holding her hands up in front of her face. They had grown red, and in the right hand even moving a single finger sent sandpaper twitches up her forearm. The right was the one she'd just used to defend herself and the speedster, and when doing so she'd even felt something in her hand snap, like it had tensed beyond breaking point. Experimentally and with extreme care, Kendo tried to enlarge the hand just a little. Immediately she regretted it, as a spasm rocked her entire arm. She tried the same with the left, and thankfully was able to grow and shrink it back down. Though the size she grew it to was nothing like what she had been displaying up until now.

She was nonplussed, this had never happened before. Given her family dojo Kendo had gotten more chances than most kids her age to truly let loose with her quirk. What was different here?

A klaxon sounded across the battle centre. Instantly her mind put several facts together, locking the logical puzzle into place. If the zero-pointer was being launched into the fray, then that meant there was only one minute left in the exam. So, she'd been using her quirk for around nine minutes. At the full extent of its power as she knew it. She had been going all out, she had to. Punching stone, metal, growing and shrinking her hands to giant size. Kendo had never used her quirk so thoroughly before, never for this long, continuously. Even in the family dojo more emphasis had been placed on training her martial skills, not her quirk. She had never gotten the chance to truly cut loose with it before.

Despite her and Heidi's talk on the bus, Itsuka hadn't realised just how much she had in common with the rest of the examinees here. Sure, she had the family legacy, of heroism and martial arts. Yes, she'd had more time to use her quirk. But did that really set her apart from the crowd?

Before she could dwell too much further, an ear-splitting crash rocked the yard. Rubble and brick rained down from a distance, as one wall of the boxed lot she'd been recollecting herself in was smashed down. Scrambling to her feet, one hand pressed against her chest, Kendo began to run. Behind her the enormous foot of the zero-pointer crushed the debris to dust.

Bursting out onto the adjoining replica road, Kendo took in the situation she had unknowingly stepped in to. Red-faced and bruised, Aizawa Heidi was hobbling along the street, one arm supporting an even worse for wear looking Kohei Kohï. The twitchy blonde was uncharacteristically still, his eyes wide open and fixed on the ground. From his nearly limp body waves of sparks were rolling off him, dashing to the floor and behaving more like water than actual electricity.

Before she could think more about self-preservation than anything else, Itsuka was rushing over to Kohï's other side, saying through her own pain. "What's the matter?"

"He overstressed his quirk, I think. I found him like this!" Heidi responded, giving Kendo a thankful smile as the redhead took up some of the boy's weight. Not considerable, but more than the diminutive Heidi could manage alone.

Even with the extra support, it didn't seem like they would make it out of the exam unscathed. Behind them the path of the zero-pointer took it through buildings and sent heaps of concrete shattering to the earth. Itsuka hissing in pain as further shards flecked her back, and then the gigantic robot emerged out into the street behind them. The thing was so huge all they could make out from their position was its lower leg, anything else was obscured by dust, sunlight, and the sheer bulk of this monstrosity.

A horrific metallic shriek ripped through the air, and before Kendo knew it their path ahead had been blocked. The arm of a crane had come crashing down in the middle of the road, and with the massive foot stomping ever closer, they were trapped.

"What do we do?!" Heidi's voice was high with panic, and when Kendo looked over, she could see the girls' eyes trembling with fear. Dust coated her face and turned her already light green hair to completely ashen grey. The little smiley face hairpin she wore was also grimy and indistinct.

"I've got an idea." Itsuka said through gritted teeth, even as she warred with herself about whether this was a good idea or not.

Scratch that. It was a terrible idea, but right now it was all she had.

"Climb on!" She shouted, as she used her remaining good hand to create a large flat surface. Putting up no argument, Heidi clambered aboard, dragging the sparking blonde along with her.

Palm flat on the ground, Itsuka used the enhanced strength her quirk granted her and levered the two up in a sudden flick. While her overall strength was enhanced enough to where she could maybe have thrown the two, the boost her quirk granted her generally paled in comparison to how much it increased the strength that consolidated in her hand alone.

With that, it was easily enough to fling the other two far up and over the crane ahead of them. As they flew out of sight, breaking free of the dust cloud, Kendo could hear Heidi shout out. "Someone catch us!"

As tarmac cracked behind her, and the thundering footstep of the zero-pointer vibrated through her whole body, Kendo pressed on. Her hand had reflexively shrunken back down, and the pain she felt coursing through her wrists and arms was unbearable. With a dead sprint she stumbled and fell into the collapsed crane ahead of her, catching herself with her hands on the metal criss-cross of girders. Instantly she let out a scream of pain, relinquishing her grip and falling over into the toppled carcass of the machine. Still unwilling to give up, she rolled to her side and used her legs to push her body up and around the metal spurs of the crane.

With a few wasted desperate seconds of agonised movement, Kendo broke through the other side and saw the road ahead. In the distance, through the thinner haze of brick smoke, she could see some gathered examinees, all looking in her direction. Among them she could make out Heidi and Kohï, currently entangled in a giant nest of green vines that seemed to be connected to another person. The others were hazy from the distance and the debris cloud.

Kendo willed herself to move on, but this time her legs would not obey. Her hands and arms had given way under the strain of her quirk overuse, and now, with the exertion and the pain her other limbs gave out. She fell to a knee, her hands coming out to catch her, but only causing more pain.

Was this it? Would UA allow this, for a potential student to be so badly injured. For them to maybe... perhaps even… if worse came to worse, would they let her…

"Need a hand?"

In the moment her eyes had fallen to gaze at the ground and contemplate the unthinkable, another person had appeared in the dust by her side. As she looked up into the lop-sided face of the speedster from earlier, she couldn't help but let out a laugh of relief.

"Wow, what a terrific audience."

And with a tug on her arm, Kendo was suddenly moving at breakneck speed down the road and towards the other examinees.

-AUTHOR'S NOTE—

Stuck with splitting the whole mess of words up into two chapters. Might even work on a third that deals with the direc aftermath of the exams. But I hope you enjoyed the first part! Some name stuff in here that's quite fun (for me anyway). Kohï is just Coffee, which was rather unimaginative of me until I realised that Kohei is one letter off and sounds very similar. Thus I can double up on my wordplay as a Horikoshi nod and a Tweek flavoured coffee theme! Craig's family name comes from the South Park episode Good Times with Weapons, where some of the boys give themselves ninja names, so expect more of those as we meet some more familiar faces next chapter! Excited to hear what people think about some of the little crumbs I'm sprinkling in these early parts, as always I'd love if you left a review, and thank you for reading!

- Faff.