01/10/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 12 - A Different Point of View

Aizawa scowled at the dossier that was under his nose. It was the list of passing students from the hero test. Each name was accompanied by an action shot of them. Accompanying it, was the list of failing students, those who had failed the hero test but had gotten into the General Studies course based on their general exam mark.

Twenty for each class, which included the recommendation students, and, oh, only nine for failed into General Studies. After all, you couldn't get into General Studies if your regular exam result was poor.

However, the hero list displayed, as always, the blatant favouritism given to those with brash, flashy and frankly noisy quirks. There wasn't an ounce of subtlety in there and… The one student he'd noted as having at least some heroic tendencies, with enough destructive power in their quirk was in the failed batch. The others he'd noted with heroic tendencies just hadn't made it, which is exactly what he'd predicted. Though, since he'd checked their regular exam results, he was already aware that they weren't going to make it into General Studies. Not with scores like that.

The picture of the girl wasn't flattering. It showed her under the concrete which was actually quite discriminatory… He huffed softly. Typical but maybe he could do something about it. He'd rescored the exam himself, with his system and the results changed a bit. He could push for that, especially since… Yes, her regular exam results were far higher than some of the others who supposedly passed.

"Are we agreed on the passes and fails?" Nezu asked.

"No," Aizawa murmured amongst the chorus of 'yes'. It was loud enough for the rat to hear.

"Shouta?"

"If you want me to teach a class this year, you are going to have to give me something to work with," he grumbled.

That brought some laughs from those who knew him and who knew of his penchant for expelling students.

Nezu's little black eyes glittered. He loved a good argument. Internally Aizawa groaned, wondering if the rat had deliberately placed those he would have passed into the failing list just for the argument? That would be like him.

"Candidates 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8 on the fail list should be in the passes, and candidates 1, 18, 29, 36 and 38 on the pass should be in the fail list," Aizawa told the faculty before anyone asked. Candidate 1 on the pass list was Explody boy and rewatching the exam, he definitely should fail, no matter how many points he had, though Aizawa knew he'd lose that particular argument, dropping the position might get him one of the others into the hero course. It was all about negotiation.

Of course, Nezu knew that as well and knew that unless you really skewed the weighting on the points, then Explody boy passed, just on the sheer number of villain points he'd racked up. The villain points were called villain points and Aizawa had already lost the argument on that, long before he'd even started at UA.

"Aizawa, I know you want to change the scoring system but even if you halve the villain points and double the rescue points, Candidate 1 still passes," Vlad pointed out reasonably.

"And we honestly think it's a good idea to let someone who has no rescue points in?" Shouta snapped back. Sure, they told the kids the point was to destroy the robots but, shouldn't they be looking at their overall natures as well.

"Are you suggesting the kid's a villain?" Vlad asked.

Vlad knew better than that and Aizawa just glared, though the effect was lessened by the fact he was still in his sleeping bag. At least Vlad caught on though. "He's here, not out joining some gang, so at least he wants to be a hero," Vlad pointed out.

Aizawa looked disgusted. That was about the only point in the kid's favor and it wasn't a great one.

"Since you are so concerned about him, I'll put him in your class," Nezu said.

"What? No!" Shouta almost yelled.

"It's tradition," the rat reminded him. The top scoring people went into Class A, and Aizawa was in charge of Class A.

"Then Candidate 1 from the fail list also gets into my class," he growled.

"Shouta, she got stuck and needed rescuing," Hizashi pointed out. Aizawa knew what his friend was saying. The whole faculty did. One of the things he absolutely hated was a hero who needed rescuing themselves.

"She got enough points to pass," Aizawa retorted, "and has the most rescue points too," he added. They were only failing her because she'd gotten trapped. Points wise, she had done better than a lot of them. Most of them in fact, and her general exam results were high. He shook his head. "Candidate 38 is so far down on the general studies exam that they wouldn't get into UA on that result alone," he pointed out. And only had villain points as well but Aizawa knew better than to bring that up.

"I think we can trade Candidate 38 and 1 then," Nezu said, acting very reasonably.

"And the other Candidate 1?"

"He passed," several of his colleagues pointed out.

"He made absolutely no attempt to help anyone," Aizawa retorted. The type of heroes he hated the most were those who rushed in and got themselves needing rescuing but the one thing he could admit to was that at least they had been trying to help. Usually. If they weren't after the glory. And shouldn't heroes at least try to help people. This guy hadn't.

"Are you saying you want to deliberately modify the scores?" Midnight asked.

"It's already been done," he pointed out. They'd failed the girl despite her scores.

Midnight at least seemed to realise that and Shouta waited as the thought went around the room.

"We will not be modifying the scores," Nezu said firmly. It wasn't a matter of the candidates finding out. They were only told of one scoring system and while the prospective students could count how many points they got on that, UA didn't publish the full scoring system, though they did say who had come first.

"We won't be?" Shouta questioned. He didn't need to add on the 'because it sure as hell looks like we have' for the benefit of the rat. He heard. He also heard the question about how it looked to have someone who seemed to have no inclination to help people declared the winner. It wasn't like the prospective students were five. They were fifteen. Their personalities and values were almost fully formed.

"We won't be."

Aizawa gave the rat a look that said clearly if there weren't some changes, Explody would be out on his ass if put into his class.

The rat made a gesture and the lists appeared on the screen behind him. Explody was still in number one but the girl was clearly in the passing group, now placed third. He looked at the others he'd picked out as either passing or failing. Candidate 38 was in the fail group and had been dropped out of even General Studies and his Candidate 3 had taken 36's place as well so that was something. The others remained unchanged.

Shouta huffed already knowing it was the best he was going to get.

"What about the class breakdowns?" Vlad asked.

"Here," Nezu said and the listing changed.

Aizawa was surprised. Usually they got to discuss the breakdown before Nezu told them what it would be. The rat very rarely anticipated their discussion incorrectly. Explody boy was in his class, as were two of the passing recommendation students. He had the first two places from the exam and Vlad had debris girl and… only two recommendation students. There were usually five and they balanced the classes this way by giving 1-B three recommendation students. The passing females were also evenly split which would ensure the boys got exposure to appropriate behavior.

"Where's the other recommendation?" Vlad noticed the discrepancy as well.

"One of the recommended students has declined their invitation," the Principal reported.

That was not usual but not unheard of and there had supposedly been some heated words during the recommendation demonstration. Aizawa looked at the list of students. From the Practical Exam he had numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and so on while Vlad got the other numbers. The classes were probably balanced enough. The scores of the class would help them but in reality there were those who did better in industry through luck and hard work.

Even so, Shouta reminded himself to ask Nezu why he'd just presented the break up and why, if he already had the girl passing, he'd expected the argument.

"Now, to the other classes," Nezu announced.

Aizawa snuggled into his sleeping back further and closed his eyes. He'd ask later.

-ted-

"Shouta, wake up."

The voice was enough to have him jerk awake. That voice was enough to have anyone jerk awake. If you knew Nezu then… awake was the safest option for you. It wouldn't necessarily save you from the rat's schemes, but at least you had a chance to see them coming.

"Principal," he said, shifting around in his sleeping bag so he was sitting up. He'd get Hizashi for this. The loud hero was meant to wake him at the end of the staff meeting.

"Hizashi thought it best to let you sleep," Nezu answered the question he didn't ask.

Hizashi was a dead man walking.

"You did good," Nezu continued when Aizawa said nothing.

His expression must have changed.

"Your arguments," the rat said.

So he really had presented the first list just to hear arguments, Shouta realised. "Explody still deserves to fail," he said.

"We cannot blame the students for focusing on the obtaining of points from the method we tell them," Nezu countered.

"I can sure as hell blame that for giving me students who only focus on themselves," Aizawa countered. Most only saw the actions of heroism and he understood, heroes had to be capable but if they only thought of themselves, then you ended up with Endeavor. And while the public didn't decry the man… they certainly didn't revere him the way they did All Might.

For all Mr Number One's faults, and there were many, he was at least genuine in his desire to help people, and the public knew that. Shouta had the feeling that Explody was going to be like Endeavor, all about how things could benefit him.

"Even so, you argued well."

"Why did you bother with it though?" Aizawa asked.

The rat gave him a look. "A couple of reasons," he said finally. "You are too passive at times, Shouta. I was always going to let the girl in but there will be students worth fighting for in the future. If you want them, you are going to have to fight for them."

He just sighed. "That one was stupidly blatant."

"That was for All Might," Nezu replied.

Aizawa snorted. Mr Number One could not be that stupid. He just couldn't be.

"He's new to teaching," Nezu reminded him. "I wanted to show that staff can change things."

"I don't think that's what he got out of it," Aizawa said. "There is something else going on," he accused.

"There is," Nezu agreed without saying anything further.

"I doubt he took that from your example," Aizawa told the Principal. The rat shrugged in the way he did.

"While you don't have that girl in your class, there's something I think you might want to see," Nezu said instead.

Aizawa cocked his head slightly. He'd rewatched the exam, so what more was there to see.

"It's after the exam, but still on our cameras," he explained, tapping on a tablet to bring up the file.

Shouta almost groaned. More children. The camera was from outside the exam hall, and displayed a wide angled shot of the medical tent and the grounds surrounding it. He saw debris girl emerge from the medical tent and make her way over to a small group of students who were obviously waiting for her.

She appeared to be crying though there was no audio.

"All four of those students will be with us for the school year," Nezu said.

The three of them weren't in the hero course and the principal must have seen his look.

"The other girl is enrolled in support and the boys are enrolled in General Studies and Management," Nezu explained.

He was surprised at that. The courses usually didn't start mixing until late in their second year or early in their third year. The fact that at least one of the Hero students would already have friends in each of the courses would be an interesting dynamic. Suddenly he was a bit sorry she wasn't in his class. But if the Management student was any good, and he took his friend on as a client then…

Well, it could either end spectacularly badly or he might be looking at the early foundation of one of future great hero agency, one that may have an inhouse support specialist. Best Jeanist's Agency made it look like the Hero was in charge, but Aizawa knew he was actually only the fourth highest paid individual in his agency. The top paid member was the manager and the next two highest were the in house support lead and someone the agency just listed as a go between. It appeared to work.

This couldn't be what the rat wanted him to see though. "Audio?" he suggested?

Nezu gave him a grin and tapped his tablet. A grainy noise came through.

"I think I failed!" Debris girl said. Belatedly, Aizawa realised he should figure out what her name was. He looked at the print out and discovered her name was Ochaco Uraraka from Tsu, Mei.

"Why?" the blue haired boy asked. His hair was almost flame blue and he was dressed in the exact same uniform as the other boy. It made sense that they came from the same school if they were together.

"The test was robots," she said. "They were worth different points and we had to destroy them, competing against the others."

"So what happened?" He asked after he nodded.

"There was a huge robot that was worth no points," she said. "I got trapped. Some concrete fell from a building and I was trapped under it."

"You couldn't move it?" The purple haired boy asked.

"It was too heavy!"

The other boy didn't seem to buy that and pressed again for more information. "So what happened?"

"The robot almost squashed me but they stopped it just before it did."

"This is the bit I want you to see," Nezu interrupted.

The blue haired boy frowned. It was hard to see on the screen because the camera was wide angle but he could tell. He was used to picking up subtle signs in the dark.

"There were other students around right? You weren't tested alone?" The kid had to already know the answer.

Ochaco shook her head.

"So why didn't anyone help you?"

That was a good question. Aizawa glanced at Nezu at the question. The rat looked smug.

'They didn't," she said.

"They should have," the boy replied. "They were in a test to see how good they would be as a hero, so they should have helped you! Even if they couldn't lift the concrete, they should have at least tried! What type of heroes are they going to be if they can't even help one person?" He looked a little out of breath after his rant.

"Are you sure about that, Little Dragon, or is that your Dad's interpretation?"

What did she mean by that? Aizawa looked at Nezu who stopped the playback.

"That's Mitei Chui," Nezu identified the boy. "His dad was caught in the Toxic Chainsaw raid and still hasn't recovered."

That explained quite a bit. It said good things about Mitei's father that he was conscious of the way his attitude influenced his son and had apparently done his best to ensure his son knew it as well and could make his own choices.

Nezu pressed play on the tablet again.

"I might have failed but I can see what the test was for. The test does encourage people to think only about themselves, because you have to have the points to pass, but it also shows UA those people who can get enough points and those people who want to help - even if they don't get enough points."

"That's the problem," the boy almost growled. "Those who only think of themselves will get a lot of points, but are they the type of people you want as a hero? Those who want to help people are hobbled by the fact that they won't get enough points if they help, and so they are trained then, from this test, to think of themselves first."

"I like him," Aizawa said. The statement most likely came from his father but it was still a reasonable assessment.

Nezu gave him a grin in the way the rat did. "He's enrolled in the Management course," he gave the information.

"Or they are trained on how to reach both goals. This is a test, Little Dragon, not actual heroics, so it's going to be different. And… I would have helped me!"

She would have too. She had the highest rescue points of any candidate.

"Regardless of if I'm just parroting what dad would expect, that fact remains, Ochaco. No one helped you, and they should have. That bit is all me." He was very sure on the statements.

Aizawa wondered if the kid would keep his beliefs through school and then into industry. If he did then… if he went into management of heroes, it would be an interesting agency.

"There's still the transfer from General Studies."

Why was she talking about that? Oh… she didn't know she'd passed yet.

The other boy laughed. "You better pray you passed."

"If you really didn't pass, he's going to work you to the bone to make sure you whip their asses!" The boy continued. He appeared to be serious and from Ochaco's expression it appeared she believed him as well.

"Bring it on, Little Dragon. Bring it on!"

The boy gave her a grin and appeared to be holding something when he held out his hand. The others appeared to know what it was and they reached into their pockets as Ochaco pulled something from a chain on her neck.

"Deal."

Nezu cut the recording and gave him a significant look.

"All right, so some people are sensible," Aizawa said. "But that's now," he added. Nezu knew what he meant. Reality might not be nice to the kid. "I'm curious about the comments about his dad."

The rat nodded. "There are people who do not like heroes," he pointed out.

That was the obvious interpretation but Ochaco's comment said something else. Who really allowed their friends to challenge them on their beliefs? This Mitei apparently did. That led to a whole field of questions and he saw the way Nezu was looking at him.

"No," Aizawa said preemptively. He was not taking an interest in this kid.

The rat just smiled. "It's going to be an interesting year."

Shouta sighed. At least on that, he could agree but interesting… well… that usually translated to less sleep.

He wasn't sure he liked that.

-ted-

The first rule they drum into any first aider, is 'don't need rescuing yourself' and for any sense of realism for heroics, that should be the first rule drummed into heroes. Hence Ochaco did need rescuing, so in the eyes of the examiners, maybe she's not cut out for it. We don't fully know how the scoring system works. The villain system is very very simple, it's just the addition of how many robots you destroyed, we don't know how the rescue points system works because that's subjective. The teachers assign them. Izuku, in canon, gets into UA on the strength of one rescue, which required him to need rescuing then and I'm sure that had to cause some discussion and concern, even early on. But to me, since the rescue points are subjective, and exams and things like that are usually based on more than what you can count, consideration would have, or should have been given in canon to not accepting Izuku, and here, that applies to Ochaco, because she got herself into the situation where she needed a hero.

Sure, she's learning but that fact still remains and UA doesn't seem to think about the fact they are learning much :D So Ochaco, with the single act of getting trapped... that had to cause some concern for her enrolment. Or at least, it does here.

But she passed here. Just. (And yes, she had a enough points to pass here, with the most rescue points, which I believe is Kirishima in canon).

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out. It's a year old now! YAY!

-ted-

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