My Hero Academia – Under Pressure – Season 3 – Episode 20 – Raining Results
As the second part of the Provisional License Exam went on, the students were in shock and horror as they witnessed a massive meteor shower raining toward the test area.
If they were in a different place, at a different time, they would've enjoyed seeing entities such as these streaking across the sky. But the difference is that they would've been at a safe spot, and knowing that the meteors weren't hurdling toward them at incredible speed.
It also didn't help that this situation wasn't natural, but caused by a Pro-Hero who was part of the test.
Snapped out of their funk by various leaders, they proceeded to cover where they felt the meteors wouldn't hit.
Up above, a Pro-Hero continued to wave her hands around and guided the projectiles at the test area, a smile on her face as she did, "Come now, dear students, haven't you ever wanted to see one of these impact the ground? Hahaha!"
Within Class 1-B, Tonen got the others to safety not too long before everything hit. The explosion of heat and sound rocked them all, but they were able to endure it thanks to some clever protection from Sanda, Fenella, and Chuya.
"Nice job, everyone," Tonen said to his classmates, "Azu, where are those meteors coming from?"
Azujima carefully poked his head out and used his helmet to adjust his eyesight to see into the sky. Sure enough, he found the dress-wearing woman up above as she began to summon more meteors, "There's someone up there! I think it's a Pro-Hero…"
Fenella made a loud sound of disgust, "What kind of Pro-Hero would do this during a licensing exam?"
"I'll answer that. Meteora. No. 9 Pro-Hero. Quirk…what do you think her Quirk is? She's raining fiery balls of death from above! Pay attention, people!"
Tonen and the others watched as the second wave of meteor showers came down and hit the area. Through this, both Chuya and Azujima realized the same thing.
"They're being guided down," they said at the same time.
"What?" wondered Anno.
Chuya pointed up, "No test would risk us getting seriously injured by something like that. But if they were guided to hit certain spots? Areas where students and 'victims' weren't at? That would be worthy of a test."
Azujima adjusted his helmet to read various things from their area, "What Chuya said, and based on everything I'm seeing, the meteors are hitting clear areas, not ones with people. So it's intimidating, but it's controlled."
"Oh, I feel so much better hearing that," scoffed Fenella.
"Enough," overrode Tonen. "This is clearly part of the test. They said it was a natural disaster that caused this destruction, and clearly that disaster wasn't over when we got here. How we react will determine our scores in part, no doubt."
"So what do we do, TK?" asked Ebirima, still clearly nervous about the changing situation.
"We'll split up. Rune, Bubble Gum, go check on the civilians we saved and ensure they're protected from the meteor impacts. If you meet up with Goya, tell him I said to do the same and move everyone if things get hairy. The rest of us will continue to search for people as the test hasn't been called off yet. Move!"
With that, they split up and went to work.
Over in another part of the test, Kuroda was getting a similar assessment from Ryo and her drones.
Despite the reassuring information, even Kuroda was taken aback by this, "Man, they really know how to make us earn these licenses."
"Which means how we act from here on out is important," noted Eri.
"Agreed, Oshibu, go and check on the civilians. Make sure they're alright. If you need to move them to another safe zone? Do it. If you need help? Come and get one of us."
"On it," replied Oshibu before he blitzed away.
"The rest of us have to keep working on rescuing people. Ryu and Ueno, you're on meteor duty in case our Pro-Hero decides to get cheeky and launch something at us. Destroy it or move it before it gets anywhere close."
Ryu armored up and nodded, "No problem."
Ueno shrugged while his head wobbled, "Eh, why not?"
"Love the attitude, boys, now let's go!" she ordered as they went on to do their test.
All over the test area, the other students pieced together the same message and tried to manage the new challenge the best they could. Up above, Meteora kept raining down new projectiles every once in a while. She gave them some breathing room between strikes, as these kinds of storms would be rare on the best of days, but she did keep up the pressure to ensure they didn't get lax.
Sure enough, one of those "pressure moments" came when Meteora decided to launch a decent-sized meteor or two at some groups of students to see how they reacted.
One of the meteors went near Kuroda's group, and Ueno stepped up immediately, "Go away now, please."
With a small tilt of his head, he exerted his Quirk on the meteor. Its size meant it didn't move right away, so for the first time in a long time, Ueno had to put more effort into it. Thankfully for him, his Quirk pulled through, and the meteor redirected to a clearing nearby where no one would be affected.
"Ow, that hurt."
Doza patted him on the back after this in support, "Nice job, Ueno. Now come on, we got more to do!"
"Yeah, sure."
Another volley sent a larger meteor near Tonen's group. He ordered the others away to get to safety, save for Iha.
He held out his hand to his friend, "Up Down, mind giving me a boost?"
Iha smirked, "Not at all."
She held his hand, and Tonen could instantly feel the power surging through him as his Quirk was boosted. With his own smile, he moved his chest piece so it would turn into a turbine.
"Air Cyclone!"
He roared, and an impressive torrent of air surged forth and hit the meteor head on. Like with Ueno, the attack didn't have an effect instantly. But as both Tonen and Iha poured on their Quirks, the meteor showed its damage.
In this case, it slowly broke apart and shattered. The remaining pieces fell to the ground, where they were diminished further by Sanda and Chuya catching or further extinguishing the rocks so they couldn't do more damage than desired.
Obstacles out of the way, they went back to helping civilians.
In both groups, they used whatever they could to get people to safety. In one case, Hana merged with the ground to get into a blocked building and secure the people before Kanagita opened a way for them to get out.
Likewise, Wasuke used the sharper ends of his blades to do precise strikes on obstacles to break them down or weaken them in a way that the others could capitalize on to ensure the rescue attempt worked.
But as the minutes went on after the meteor shower started, Eri grew suspicious. To her, something felt off, "This can't be all they're throwing at us…"
Sure enough, as she looked around, something caught her eye briefly, but it vanished from sight before she could get a full look at it.
When another such glimpse met her gaze, she knew something was wrong.
Eri went over to The Twins and asked Ryo, "Have your drones picked up anything new?"
Ryo talked with one of her drones before shaking her head, "No, nothing meaningful."
"What do they define as meaningful?"
"Well, there's more people here than before, but they're not doing anything like that Pro-Hero is above…"
"Have one of your drones focus on those new people, I think we're getting another test thrown our way."
Ryo did so and Ryu pointed upward, "Want a lift to see if you're right?"
"Sure," Eri replied with a nod, "follow my instructions if I see anything, got it?"
"Got it."
"Kuroda! I think there's a new threat on the battlefield! We're going to check it out!"
Kuroda gave her a signal to approve the action, "Let me know what you find!"
As Ryu took Eri above, she did her best to see if her hunch was right. As if to answer this, a person dodged down one of the side streets they were near. They were dressed in all black, and that reeked of suspicion to Eri.
She pointed to them out and Ryu blasted toward thee person with his mech jetpack. When they were closer to the person, Eri leapt off of Ryu and landed right in front of the mystery person.
To her surprise, the person in question looked as regular as could be. Their attire was all black as she noticed before, and they had a balaclava to hide their face.
It was seeing that which triggered the light bulb in her mind, "Ah, you're a looter."
The person chuckled and then darted away.
Eri didn't let that stand and ran upon the nearby wall and got in front of them. A few martial arts moves later, and they were down.
Ryu landed next to her after she was done, "That was cool. But who is he?"
"When a natural disaster happens, there are always opportunistic people who try and raid abandoned homes and buildings to see what valuables they can get. Sometimes, the risk is worth the reward, and they aren't afraid to get violent to showcase that desire. Carry him as we go back to Kuroda, we need to let her know we're not alone anymore."
"Hop on…and let's fly!"
Eri and Ryu blasted off and quickly rejoined the others. After conferring with Ryo, they got further confirmation that these "looters" were all over the battlefield and attempting to get to certain spots.
"I don't get it, though," noted Kanagita with clear confusion, "doesn't that seem rather…petty, compared to what we're dealing with already?"
Hana shook her head, "I think that's the point. Dealing with looters might seem 'small time' when you're dealing with a disaster scenario. But to the people who might have to return to their homes and salvage what they can? The last thing they want is another punch to the gut knowing that someone stole their stuff."
"I'd hate it if people stole my stuff period," put out Ikaim.
"So what's the plan, Kuroda?" asked Doza.
"We split further," she answered. "Eri, take Ikaim and Ryu and stop as many of those looters as you can. We'll focus on the rescue parts still. Sound good?"
Eri nodded, "Sounds good, let's go, boys!""
Ryu got his passengers on his back and blasted off. Kuroda didn't waste time and got the others focused, "We're not done until the test is official over, so no dawdling! Let's move!"
Ryo gave the position of another victim and they rushed to them.
Over with Tonen's team, Anno and Sanda worked together to move a massive chunk of rubble to help get some victims to safety.
"You're safe, now," Tonen said with a smile to them and motioned over Iha, "My friend will take you to a safe place. Iha, see if you can find Rune and Bubble Gum, I want to make sure they're ok."
"What about Goya?" she asked.
"Eh, I guess him too, now go!"
She nodded and helped get the people to safety. Azujima then pointed to another place they could go and they did so.
But as they went to the area, Tonen paused as he thought he saw someone go into a building, "That didn't look like a student…"
He motioned the others ahead and decided to check it out on his own in case it was nothing.
As he entered, he didn't see anyone, not at first, at least. Tonen didn't call out, as he felt that something wasn't quite right.
Sure enough, as he turned into a room a knife came whirling by him and he barely dodged in time. As he took cover, another knife came whirling by him, and then redirected itself in mid air to rush right at his head. Once more, Tonen had to dodge, and took cover in another spot.
"Seriously? A so-called hero is focusing on me versus getting people to safety? How sad," called out the knife thrower.
"Oh, yeah, because you're such a harmless person that I can leave you to do whatever you wanted!" retorted Tonen while keeping an eye out for any projectiles.
"Come now, in this world, you got to take the opportunities when they come your way! So I'm stealing, who cares, the people who lived here likely won't come back!"
"It's still a crime, and given how you used your Quirk on me, you're not afraid to kill to keep your ill-gotten gains. So don't try and play nice!"
The looter laughed, "Fair enough, guess we'll do this the hard way then."
Things went silent, but Tonen could sense what was about to happen and groaned, "Oh crap…"
No sooner had the words gotten out of his mouth than another set of knives came whirling around and launched themselves near where he was. Tonen rolled out of the way, but one of the knives cut his suit and sliced his arm a bit.
"Sounds like I made contact! Want to give up now?"
"Not really. My turn!"
Tonen popped up into the doorway and shouted, releasing a massive wall of air that went through the room the looter was in and slammed him into the wall.
The looter reached for his knives, but Tonen blasted him again with his air. After a few more bursts, the guy was down.
Another noise got his ears, and Tonen whirled around to see if another enemy was about to strike. To his surprise, it was Chuya, who threw up her hands to show she wasn't a threat, "Stand down! It's just me."
Tonen stayed tense for a second but soon relaxed, "Sorry about that. This guy caught me by surprise."
"Who's he supposed to be?"
"A looter. I have a bad feeling that they're scattered around the test area now. Let's get to the others and let them know. Can you carry this one with your water arms until we can find something to bind him in?"
"I can. Now let's go, we can't waste a single second in this test."
"Right."
Chuya wrapped up the looter and followed Tonen out. They raced back to the others and informed them of the new threat. They tied up the looter they found and then proceeded to both take out the looting parties while also saving the civilians that were still in need.
It was at this moment that the students realized that things were far more complicated than they had anticipated.
Yet, to some, they knew that this was what the real world would be like when they were Pro-Heroes. While there may have been days when it was just stopping a villain, or saving someone from harm, there would be plenty of days when the number of things that needed doing would be high.
Pro-Heroes needed to be on top of their game every single time they went out into the field, and know how to handle whatever situations they were thrown, no matter how intricate and complex they sometimes appeared to be.
This was the point of the Provisional License Exam, and Class 1-B felt more compelled than ever to rise up to the task and show that they were the true next generation of Pro-Heroes.
With plenty of tasks to go around, both Tonen and Kuroda did their best to utilize their entire squads to get each task done. The priority was still rescuing the people, as it wouldn't matter what was looted if the people weren't there to reclaim it, but they diverted some of their forces to take care of these bandits.
For Tonen, his group was bolstered when Goya, Fenella and Ebirima came back. He sent the two ladies on looter patrol as they could defeat them and then contain them with ease. And thanks to Oshibu coming back to Kuroda's crew, they were able to get work done faster.
Everyone stepped up to answer the call of the test and it showed. Class 1-B blazed through the final minutes of the test with flawless efficiency. They rescued people, got them to safe zones, and took out any looters that they found.
Even Goya was participating in meaningful ways, though he wouldn't admit what he really felt about such acts out loud.
Both Azujima and Ryo found the remaining victims of the "disaster," and the teams let Tonen and Kuroda get the final saves. The two victims were high on top of buildings, and the two used their Quirks in unique ways to get to them, and then get back down.
Once rescued, they proceeded one last time to the safe zones and laid the victims safely down.
The moment they did that, a siren blasted across the intercoms. All the students paused as they knew what would come next.
Sure enough, Iseshiba Gobei's voice rang out, "Congratulations, students. The second half of the exam has now ended. As some of you may have noticed, there wasn't really a time limit here, but merely a requirement of saving everyone from the Help Us Company. The notion of a time limit was going to affect your reactions, and we wanted to see how you would respond."
"Does he have to sound like such a jerk when he points those things out?" Ikaim asked aloud.
Kuroda smacked him across the head, "Quiet!"
Gobei continued, "You may now return to the rest area from before. There you may change into your casual garb and get treated for any injuries you have. Refreshments have also been provided as you're likely very tired from your exams…"
"Hungry like a shark!" shouted Anno before getting a slap from Kuroda.
"The judges will go over the footage and the results will be displayed soon. You'll see them on the screens within the room in about thirty minutes. You're dismissed."
Collectively, the massive group of 120 students sighed in relief. If nothing else, the test was over. There was nothing else they could do to affect the scores. All they could do…was wait and hope and pray it was enough.
"Class 1-B!" called out Kuroda, a tired smile on her face, "Let's go rest up and eat."
The rest of the class answered in various ways and followed their class rep to the rest area. The area had somehow been expanded from before to include changing areas, a nurses station, and had multiple tables full of food and drinks for them to enjoy.
The majority of students either rushed to the changing rooms to get out of their gear first, or headed to the buffet to fill their stomachs. A set did go for healing as they needed to be patched up after the grueling tests.
Tonen didn't do any of these, as he went to the first open bench he found and almost collapsed on it.
The irony for him was that he technically wasn't physically tired, as he had done more taxing things before, like with the obstacle course at the summer camp, or the Sports Festival trials. Instead, this was more of an emotional drainage.
The two parts of the exam taxed him as a leader, because he knew that those under his "command" were counting on him to keep them safe and help them pass the exam. He did the first part, but he wasn't sure about the second part yet.
"You look beat, big brother," came the familiar voice of Kuroda, who happily, and exhaustingly, sat next to him.
"You look pretty beat yourself, big sister," Tonen joked back.
"Long day."
"Very long day."
"Think we did good?"
"I think we'll find out soon enough."
"Yeah…yeah…"
As she trailed off, Tonen looked at her, and saw a very familiar weight upon Kuroda's face. It didn't take a genius to realize what she was thinking about.
Or in this case, who she was thinking about.
Tonen nudged her, "Hey, he doesn't belong in your thoughts right now, or ever again. No matter what those test results show, you know you did your best and gave all that you had, right?"
Kuroda looked at him sadly, and then shook her whole body to try and get life back into it before popping back on a smile, "Yeah, and no one can take that from me."
"Nor should they try. I'll beat them up if they do."
The two smiled at one another. Their bond meant a great deal to the other, and they were glad to have such a supportive "sibling" to help during these rough times.
The clearing of a throat got their attention, and the two turned to see Azujima, Iha, Kanagita and Eri in front of them, each with extra food and drinks in their hands.
"Sorry to break up this moment," started Eri before she lifted up a plate of food, "but you both should probably eat."
"And drink!" added Azujima as he lifted up a hand with a soda in it.
"You deserve it," stated Iha with kind bluntness.
"In more ways than one," finished Kanagita with a bright smile, "we wouldn't be here without you two."
"Don't sell yourselves short," pointed out Tonen as he tapped Kanagita on the head, "we may have led, but you all did incredible things to help us survive too."
Kuroda nodded in agreement, "Definitely. But since you have all that stuff…hand it over! I'm starving!"
The two got their meals from the others and chowed down for a bit. The others were happy to see the two relax and focus on something as basic as getting recharged.
After pausing from their eating, Kuroda and Tonen talked with the others, which eventually lured the other members of Class 1-B over and they talked about all manner of things about the exam.
The members eventually dove out for a bit to change their clothes or get healed if they hadn't already. They soon were all back in civilian attire and talked the time away until it was time to see if they had passed.
At the thirty-minute mark, on the dot, Iseshiba Gobei appeared in person to address everyone, "Students, the time has come to see your results. But before you see them, you need to understand what you're about to see."
"He's stressing us on purpose, let me at'em!" fumed Fennella as she tried to get in closer to the exec.
Ebirima held her best friend back with all her might, "Don't you dare! You'll get flunked for sure!"
"I'll take my chances, lass! This putz has earned a whipping!"
Some of the others came in to calm down Fenella. Gobei didn't notice this and motioned to nearby screens, "You'll see your results here momentarily. Each of you started with a score of 100, a perfect score. To be clear, no one got a perfect score, few ever do."
"Why did he sound so bitter when he said that?" wondered Doza.
"Adults always put too much pressure on kids," noted Hana with sadness, "especially in this world."
Gobei straightened up, expression stern, "For each mistake that you made, which was factored into a pre-determined list of errors that could be made, points were taken off. Lesser mistakes had fewer deductions, while major mistakes had more. You were graded for your use of Quirk, teamwork if applicable, ability to adapt to changes, focusing on priorities and a few other metrics."
"Was this a test, or a dissection of Pro-Hero society?" whispered Azujima.
"Possibly both," mused Chuya, her body stiff as she awaited her fate, "it's not unlike what the military does to train officers at times."
After a glance at the students, Gobei motioned back to the screens, "If you had a score of 75 or higher, you passed and will get your licenses. If you got a 74 or lower, you will have a chance to take remedial classes to prove yourself worthy of the licenses. Your teachers will explain those remedial courses to you should you fall into them. Without further ado, here are the test results."
A restless energy fell across the student body, and many of them had their eyes glued to the screens. One by one, the TV screens went alight with results. What the students soon realized was that they were ranked by the top-performing student all the way down to the lowest-performing one.
A mad dash occurred within the mass of students as they all tried to find the screen where they were all featured.
Kuroda kept 1-B as calm as possible and then slowly dispersed them to see where they all ranked.
As they went to nearby screens, they could hear the screams of joy and the cries of sorrow as other students from the other students found out their fates. The sounds only made the class more nervous.
Suddenly, Kanagita spoke out, "Kuroda, look!"
She pointed to a nearby screen, and on it was the highest-ranking members of the student body. Kuroda was second ranked with 96 points. Even she was surprised by this, "Wow, I did good."
The others congratulated her on this, and then Azujima pointed to another screen, "Hey, I see TK and Eri!"
Sure enough, on the very next screen was Eri and TK. Eri had a score of 92, while TK had an 90.
He playfully nudged her at this, "There you go, you finally beat me."
While usually rather stoic, she happily nudged him back, "First time for everything."
One after another, the Class 1-B students found themselves on the charts. To their joy, they were not only very close together on the charts, but they soon realized that nearly all passed with rather high scores.
Even Azujima and Iha, who had been deemed "lesser Quirk users" during the Sports Festival had each scored 81 on the exam, which thrilled the two so much they hugged one another. They then broke apart just as quickly as they realized what they "had done."
In fact, the vast majority of 1-B had scored between 80-89 points. The exceptions were TK, Eri and Kuroda on the high end…and Goya at the low end.
When they didn't see Goya, they went from screen to screen until they got to the screen with the mid-70s scores. Sure enough, Goya was there with a score of 76.
To say he was furious was an understatement. Goya's whole body shook, and the class could feel his Quirk was about to explode.
Tonen and Kuroda quickly motioned to Iha, who diminished his Quirk before he did anything.
When he tried to speak about it, Tonen shut him down quick, "Hey, remember what I said before? Everyone wins or everyone loses. You passed! The score is just a number. So take the win and calm the heck down, you dig?"
Goya was ready to burst, but managed to settle down just enough to muster out, "I…dig..."
"Only you would be such a dick at a happy moment like this, Goya. We all just got our Provisional Licenses! Rejoice!"
He shook his head in frustration and then turned to the others. It was then that he saw their expressions, and noticed how all of them were slowly reacting to what he just offhandedly said.
"We just…got our Provisional Licenses…" began Ryu.
"We're basically Pro-Heroes now…" finished Ryo.
"We did it…" said Hana with baited breath.
They slowly turned to each other, and then with smiles on their faces they let out a roar of joy. Class 1-B was going to enter the Pro-Hero world for real, and they did it all on their own.
The class danced and hugged and celebrated in whatever way felt appropriate. Eventually, they were calmed down by Angel Wings, who reappeared after their celebration and motioned for them to follower her. She kept rather mum about things, and didn't speak until they were back on the bus.
Once they were, and they had left the facility, she looked upon them all with tears in her eyes, "My darling students, I'm so proud of you all. I've only had one class in my entire tenure that has passed together like this, and that was a special group! But I honestly think you top them. You did things the right way, and now, you're ready to take the next step in your Pro-Hero journeys!"
The class let out another shout of joy as they celebrated their victory, only quieted down when their teacher wanted to speak once again.
"You have every right to want to celebrate, and I'm happy to say that Principal Ayatsune feels the same. Tomorrow, you will have the day off, and then you'll return to classes afterward. So live it up, you guys, you deserve it."
"Class 1-B!" roared Anno in his fully shark form.
"Class 1-B!" shouted The Twins in unison.
The rest of the class, even Goya, joined in on the chant. This was their moment, and it was something they'd remember forever.
"That was definitely one of the many highlights I had at U.A. High. Sure, we beat up bad guys, but that was standard for Pro-Heroes, even ones in training. But this? This was going up against the odds and coming together like never before to get ourselves the recognition we deserved. Our whole class had licenses to truly save people when they needed us. And we would be using them sooner rather than later."
*credits*