My Hero Academia: Son of Justice

by Jayme F. Midorikawa

The son of the disgraced former greatest Hero of The Soviet Union is extended a chance at a new life by the Symbol of Peace, All Might. After having lived so long resenting Heroes and Villains, and being scared to death of his own Quirk, will he be able to step forward and become the Hero he once dreamed of, and will he be able to find new purpose through friendship, or even love?

5. New Life Arc Part 2 - The Entrance Exam

Well everyone, I'm glad to see so many people have been giving my story the time of day to read it through, and I'm happy to hear so many people have been enjoying it so far. I'm loving writing this story, and I want to keep it going no matter what, so please, keep leaving reviews expressing your thoughts as you read. I want to make sure this is the best story it can be while still doing the best I can to respect the established manga canon throughout. From here, we will now be entering familiar territory, so i'm just letting you all know that ahead of time, in case anyone out there feels the need to point out the familiar scenarios we're going to be witnessing as time goes on.

Anyway, with that all being said, I hope you all enjoy the new chapter, and be sure to leave reviews if you want, letting me know what you think, what you like, or whatever you think could use improvement. Any feedback (besides outright trolling) is greatly appreciated regardless.

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. The only thing I own is my OC's, and the original events surrounding them, and whatever alterations occur as a result of their presence in this universe. Of course, I will not lie, if I were to get lucky enough to even be noticed by Horikoshi-sensei, and he were to canonize my character like he did with Bubble Girl, that would be pretty damn sweet!

A/N: [[]] denotes that characters are contextually speaking Russian.

Chapter 4

The Entrance Exam

(Вступительный Экзамен)

The last three months were, without question, one of the longest stretches of time Nikolay had experienced in memory. When Oleg had promised he was going to train his son to the fullest extent he could, he meant every word. From the start of their very second day in Japan, they had started their mutual training with absolutely no holds barred. Even despite the numerous times Nikolay had been reduced to a crying mess of pulled muscles or aching joints, Oleg never relented, never let the boy give up. And to his credit, once his tears had been shed, each time he got back to his feet and kept going forward with it, much to his father's delight.

The martial fighting training had proven to be the easiest portion of their daily training regimen. While Oleg was especially fast for a man his age and size, Nikolay's skinny smaller size always granted him a natural advantage at avoiding getting grabbed. While at first his attempts at trying to grapple his father and, more specifically, throw him to the ground were laughable at best and pathetic at worst; the boy ultimately learned how best to use their size and weight difference to his advantage, and by the end of their first month, had managed to get a number of such strategies down to memory; being able to topple Oleg over like an oak tree without the larger man even having to pretend to go down.

Several days out of the week were dedicated to improving Nikolay's cardio and stamina, and this took the form of jogging everywhere they went outside the house, primarily up and down the beach from end to end, multiple times. This proved cumbersome at first, due to one end of the beach being surprisingly cluttered with metal refuse, but as each day went by, it gradually cleared up. Each time they noticed this, Nikolay could always catch just a distant glimpse of the same curly green-haired boy he had seen the very first day, hauling this debris away.

In between all the martial and cardio training, father and son had also dedicated each evening to poring over the multiple different Japanese translation textbooks Nikolay had gone to the trouble to get. For him, the beginning came very easy, as it was primarily refreshing the conversational basics he already had learned. For Oleg, however, it might as well have been like trying to learn Aramaic, especially since Japanese as a language had a much more rigid structure, as opposed to Russian's much more forgiving grammatical freeform structure.

Nevertheless, after three months of laborious studying, half of which ended in all-nighters for the older man, his Japanese skills had miraculously managed to be built up to where he could actually conduct an entire class session, much to both their astonishment after the rocky start they had gone through. However, as good as their communication, reading and writing skills had become, neither of them had anywhere near as much confidence when it came to the bane of their multilingual existence that was kanji.

But through it all, through three grueling months of training, studying, birthdays and holidays spent for the first time in a new land, and silent anticipation for the arrival of the entrance exams, the day had now finally, finally come. As the morning sun shone brilliantly upon another gorgeous springtime day in Musutafu City, Oleg and Nikolay were eagerly making their way to Yuuei Academy at last, jogging the whole way, in keeping with the former Russian Heroes' training regimen.

The now fifteen-year-old Nikolay had since managed to build up his stamina and steady his breathing enough to consistently keep pace with his now fifty-two-year-old father, who still managed to display the physical endurance and speed of a peak-fitness thirty-year-old, but that never made jogging continuously uphill any easier. Still, the day he had been preparing three whole months for was finally here, and he was not about to let his own accumulated exhaustion spoil his father's silent excitement.

Nikolay himself had been feeling his own kind of anticipation for this day, but now that it was finally here, he couldn't lie to himself and say that he wasn't feeling a considerably strong sense of nervousness in the pit of his stomach. He honestly had no idea what to expect once they got to the school, or how many other people he would be having to take the exam alongside, and especially what kind of Quirks they would have. Despite all the training, it was still solely he and his father, and the idea of being among crowds intimidated the boy no less than it did for the last eleven years.

Despite all of this, he never let that anxiety show when his father looked at him. The older man had been looking to this day with practically baited breath, since it would essentially be the first day of the rest of both their lives, and Nikolay didn't want to let his own shortcomings drag Oleg down as well. That's why the boy consistently kept his mouth shut as they continued jogging through the forested portion of the road; Oleg looking back to his son every several yards to make sure he was managing to keep pace.

[[Very good, Kolya. We're already halfway there, and you haven't fallen behind more than half a meter.]] Oleg called back excitedly, while Nikolay only gave him a nod of agreement in order to keep his breathing pace steady. The next few times Oleg looked back to check, however, the boy noticed a contemplative look in his blue eyes. [[The tracksuit's a little baggy on you, but it doesn't hide your shape that much; so I just don't understand why you haven't managed to bulk up even a little bit these last few months.]]

This wasn't the first time Oleg had brought up this concern of his, and just like all those times before, Nikolay didn't have an answer now. Frankly, it didn't make any sense to him, either. Ever since Oleg had cleared out the majority of the exercise equipment from their basement to convert it into a personal dojo, he had been putting Nikolay through the physical wringer. Training him in the basics of Sambo, Systema and even some basic judo and brawling aside, he had also been putting him through weight lifting, weighted push-ups, weighted pull-ups, weighed down running across the beach and jogging; and yet after three months of that same regimen almost every single day, nothing had visibly changed.

There was absolutely no denying on either of their parts that Nikolay had definitely gotten physically stronger, and yet to look at him without the tracksuit, he was still the same skinny boy he had always been. If all of that accumulated strength had decided to focus itself somewhere on his body, neither of them knew where, because they just weren't seeing it.

[[Well, at least you've been adapting to that better than the Quirk training.]] Oleg relented, while also taking the chance to bring up the biggest hurdle in their training routine. Nikolay silently cursed to himself that they were going to have this conversation again, today of all days. 'Oh, come on, how can you blame him for that? It's finally entrance exam day, and you've only barely managed to get something resembling a handle on your Quirk.'

In all honesty, they actually had managed to clear the biggest hurdle when it came to Quirk training, and that was managing to get a start on it in the first place. When the training routine had initially begun, the idea of actively using his Quirk in order to try and become more adept at it scared Nikolay more than anything else his father laid out in front of him. Practically speaking, the idea of continuously firing his concussive blasts in the basement and risking bringing the house down on their heads came to mind; but it was the idea of using his father as a practice opponent that left Nikolay the most resistant.

However, once Oleg had vehemently proven he could handle it, the training had finally been able to begin. And in the last three months, the most progress that had been made was that Nikolay could now at least fire from each of his hands individually, rather than the massive double-handed bursts he had inadvertently used in the past; even if each time had required extensive coaxing on Oleg's part.

[[How is your back feeling right now?]] Oleg asked as they began to round another bend in the road, snapping Nikolay out of his reminiscing. [[Well, the soreness is considerably better than it was yesterday. Right now it just feels as if I slept wrong.]] While it was technically the truth, thinking back on their previous training yesterday did bring the pain back to mind; and with it, the single biggest obstacle in trying to train him in his Quirk.

[[Well, I'm sure that will be all better by the time we get there, Kolya. Let's just be grateful I found that umpire body vest and that helmet when I did, otherwise you'd probably be bedridden right now. I just wish we could find out how to keep it from happening at all.]] Nikolay grimaced in frustration right alongside Oleg as he kept thinking back on all those sessions. [[Me, too.]]

If Nikolay's constant reluctance to let his Quirk out wasn't the issue, then it was the kickback. Just like if a primary school student fired a pump-action shotgun, the kickback from his concussive blasts always proved enough to not only knock Nikolay off his feet, but even propel him backwards through the air and straight into the wall. That was the one insurmountable hurdle in his entire training routine, and he had the bruises on his back, and a Nikolay-sized dent in the basement wall, to prove it.

The rest of their jog went by in uncomfortable silence, only ever punctuated by the sound of their footsteps. As much as he could feel Oleg's disappointment, Nikolay felt even more so towards himself. When he had promised his father he was going to try his best to make this new life work, he did mean it. He didn't intend for this one aspect of training to be so difficult. He just wished he knew how to describe the constant conflict brewing in his head to Oleg, see if there was perhaps some much-needed perspective he could give his son. Every day, no matter how much physically stronger he got, Nikolay always found himself balancing on that precarious razors' edge between his desire to live up to his father's expectations, and the constant fear of Quirks that had been hammered into his head over the years. He could at least hope that was the only reason his Quirk training had been turning out the way it had. That not fully knowing was easily the worst part of it all.

[[Ah, there it is. We're just in time.]] Oleg's excited announcement stirred Nikolay from his own head, and even as he kept pace, he couldn't help but feel awestruck at the sight of the towers of Yuuei Academy piercing over the tree line as they rounded the final bend; the mirror-like structures clearly reflecting the morning sunlight like a couple blinding, towering beacons.

The two finally brought their jog to an end as they reached the steps; Nikolay hunching over as his chest burned from the exertion, trying to regain his breath while Oleg simply stretched like it was not even any noteworthy effort coming all the way up here by foot. As Nikolay took in this new setting for the first time, he immediately noticed the sheer number of fellow teenagers flocking into the school, all reflecting anticipation, excitement, and determination from what he could see. There was no denying that the sight and thought of his participating among so many other people left Nikolay feeling more than a little shaken.

[[Do you see, Kolya? All these youths, they've all come here for the same reason. You're all driven here by the same unspoken goal. You should take comfort in that fact. You're not going in there truly alone. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that from this moment going forward, you'll never truly be alone again.]] Nikolay could appreciate what Oleg was trying to do, but his unspoken anxiety would not stop creeping right back into mind as he found his feet growing unbearably heavy where he stood.

[[How…how many people did you say usually pass this exam?]] Oleg was momentarily surprised his son would ask this now of all times, but when he saw the nervousness in Nikolay's eyes, it all made sense again. [[On average, one out of every three hundred entrants manages to pass. Yuuei Academy is the premier Hero school in this country, perhaps even the entire world, so it would make sense that their qualifications for entry would be so high.]] Nikolay silently calculated the numbers in his head, and swallowed a resultant lump in his throat. [[And these exams are supposed to single out enough students to fill each class each year, so if one out of every three hundred manages to pass…there could be tens of thousands of other participants in there right now?]]

Oleg could clearly see how overwhelming this was threatening to be, as Nikolay's already fair face looked like it was about to go white as a sheet, and his knees were beginning to tremble underneath. However, the larger man was quick to swoop in and grab his son's shoulders, giving him no choice but to look his father in the eye. [[Kolya, none of that matters right now. When you go in there, don't worry yourself about all the other people in there. This is all about you proving yourself in that exam, proving that you're worthy of being their student. When you go in there, just focus on what you need to do, what you're going to do, and nothing else. Understand?]]

Oleg had unintentionally come across as overly intense, but it still got him the result he needed, as Nikolay hurriedly nodded in understanding, taking another deep breath to steady his nerves and stop his trembling. [[What…what exactly is the entrance exam made up of, one more time?]] Oleg got back to his feet as he thought back to what his fellow teachers had described to him over the last few times he had spoken to them the last three months. [[From what they told me, the first portion of the exam is a practicality test. You and the other participants are going to be put into a live training exercise to display your Quirks, and how you carry yourselves out on the field. The second portion is a much simpler written exam to get a better idea of your understanding of the logistics and philosophies of Heroism.]]

Everything else Oleg had described went right over Nikolay's head after the description of the practical portion. [[Are you serious? We were just talking about how my Quirk training has hit a brick wall, and you're still sending me in there to use it in front of tons of people? Dad, what if I'm not able to use it when I'm in there, or what if I end up hurting myself and looking like a total failure? I-I don't think this is going to work-[[Kolya!]]

Oleg's booming voice shut Nikolay up instantly as he reluctantly looked up to meet his father's gaze. The light of the sun shining behind his head obscured Oleg's face, but Nikolay could still see the fatherly compassion reflected in his blue eyes. [[It can work, and it will. There is a world of difference between using your Quirk on command when in training, and using it when you're in the field of duty. Things change in you when you find yourself in that kind of situation. You find that there's no room for doubt, and things that once seemed insurmountable become nonexistent. I know. You may have doubts in your capabilities now, but I know that you'll be able to do what you know you need to when you're out there. I believe in you, Kolya; you just need to believe in yourself, too.]]

There was no denying the sincerity in Oleg's words or tone as Nikolay bowed his head in both thought and shame. Even after three months of determination on both their ends, he was still instinctively trying to find ways out of using his Quirk and, by extension, making this whole thing work for them both. 'Damn it all, you need to stick to your word, Nikolay Olegovich. You promised Dad you would try, and this is just as much a part of that as everything else so far. Swallow that fear, pick your head up and keep going. He's counting on you to do that.'

When Nikolay finally lifted his head and looked back to the entrance of Yuuei, Oleg felt a swelling of pride deep in his chest, to see the fierce glint of determination reflected in his son's eyes. Without another word, the boy kept marching forward, past a row of ornate busts of previous Top Heroes; never once looking back as Oleg called back to him: [[We'll be watching all of you every step of the way through the practical exam, Kolya! Don't worry, even if you get into any kind of trouble, you won't be alone!]]

Oleg remained rooted where he stood, even after Nikolay had since vanished from sight through the entrance. For him, it was like watching a baby bird finally take its first flight from the nest. Just the thought of it all couldn't help but bring a tear of raw sentimentality to his eyes.

"Tunguska, I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it. You're cutting it quite close, you know." The, by now, all-too familiar voice of All Might shook Oleg from his fatherly state of mind as he quickly turned to face his forever smiling fellow Hero, who had seemingly swooped in right beside him from out of nowhere.

"Yes, I apologize for that. I didn't want to break Kolya's training routine just because it's exam day, so we had to jog all the way here." All Might's inspiring yet stoic expression didn't change, even as he gave an amused chuckle in response. "I can appreciate that. This exam won't pull any punches, and Bezpalov-shonen needs to be at his best if he's going to pass."

Oleg couldn't help but let out a wry chuckle of amusement as he and his compatriot watched the seemingly endlessly flow of hopeful future students come rushing through Yuuei's doors, like a couple of aged, vigilant guardians. "Do you actively choose to keep referring to young people like that, or is it just habit for you at this point?" Rather than humor the older Russian with mutual laughter, All Might instead began to proceed to the entrance himself, forcing Oleg to quickly follow suit.

"A little bit of both. Now, come with me. The practical exam is going to be starting soon, and…I think you'll find there will be a lot for us to observe from these participants today."

---

The size and layout of Yuuei was so different from what Nikolay had managed to grow accustomed to with regular schools, he would have been hopelessly lost within these halls, were it not for the reliable foot traffic of his fellow exam participants. The young Russian was not even able to take the time to admire the sheer grandeur and scope of this place, as he did not want to fall behind. Instead, the one thing he could focus on was the participants themselves.

So many of them had such outlandish features, from their hair, to the shapes of their heads, to sheer physical abnormalities. Walking among them with intent like this felt so different from simply observing them during regular walks out on the streets in public. Here, there was no further denying that he was technically one of them, and to be up close to so, so many other youths with Quirks, even after all the reassuring pep talks and reminders from his father, left Nikolay with an uncontrollable trembling in the pit of his stomach, even as his legs kept carrying him forward.

'Just look at them all. I don't know what I was expecting, but I honestly didn't think there would be so many.' Nikolay's mind was awhirl with constant panicked thought as there were more and more people around him everywhere he looked, all silently driven by the same purpose, almost like a hive mind. He couldn't help but begin to feel short of breath, surrounded by so many kids with potentially world-shaking abilities he could scarcely begin to imagine.

'You don't belong here, and you know it. Every single other kid here; they've had years of practice, years of experience in learning how to master their Quirks. You're not even like a baby compared to them, you're less than that. You've only really started training for barely a quarter of a year, and you hit a complete roadblock with that. How can you possibly hope to compare to them? How can you think you have any hope of passing this exam, and making it in this school? How do you know you even want to come here? Don't think about doing what Dad wants; think about what you want. Do you seriously want to just forget what happened and act like the danger you all pose isn't real?'

This brought Nikolay to a halt, the rest of the crowd continuing on their way around him, like the flow of water over a rock. This concern had come to him in the dead of night more than a few times, but he had somehow always found a way to push it back into the more obscure corners of his mind in order to focus on getting himself ready. Now that the moment of truth was finally here, his eleven-year-old fear had decided to rear its ugly head again, and with enough of his other anxieties to work off of so he could not simply ignore it anymore.

'Don't fool yourself into thinking that just because society has adapted to Quirks, Heroes and Villains, that the concept of another war is just a fantasy. Mankind always finds another excuse to fight each other. Remember what the news back home always said: if the rest of the world continues to worship those with Quirks, then who will stand up if they eventually decide to turn their intentions on the last land standing up to the threat they pose?

'Mother Russia continues to guard herself against those that nearly destroyed her, while the rest of the world keeps bringing in new threats through the advent of Quirks. If another war were to be declared, and the Motherland was caught in the crossfire, who's to say any one of these kids around you wouldn't be on the first boat ride to the eastern shoreline, ready to deliver the wrath of gods upon the people? You know it's possible. The threat, the danger, is real, and you are just as much a part of it as they are.'

The crowd was finally beginning to thin, as Nikolay remained frozen where he stood, a frigid sweat beginning to bead upon his brow. His heart rate was beginning to rise as he felt his stomach twist and turn. Why? Why did all this old resentment, this old fear, decide to come and hit him so hard, now of all times? Was this the universe displaying some sick sense of comedic timing on what was supposed to be the most important day of his life? Was this that same sense of cowardice he had just fought his way through, deciding to make one last stand to divert him from the path he was still trying to convince himself he needed to go down? There were so many theories abuzz in his head, and the worst part was that the answer didn't matter.

"Hey! I thought I saw someone familiar in that crowd," a bright, cheerful female voice suddenly exclaimed, right before Nikolay was snapped back to reality with a single hearty hand slapping him on the back; forcing him to stand straight and rigid. He immediately turned to address whoever had just decided to exacerbate his lingering soreness, only to be met with a sight he had not expected.

Standing before him was that same girl with pink skin, pink hair, horns, and black-gold eyes; the cellphone girl from three months ago, the last face he had ever expected to run into again. Nikolay himself looked utterly shocked, while she had the biggest, most excited smile on her face. Her unique eyes were practically sparkling with what he could only guess was anticipation or eagerness as she suddenly grabbed the sleeve of his tracksuit, leading him further down the hall.

"Oh, how cool is this? Last time, I thought you might've just been a regular guy going around, but instead you're here, too! Isn't this awesome? We could both be studying to be Heroes here soon!" The excitement in her voice was as clear as a bell, but Nikolay was still in visible shock. This was the last person he ever expected to see again, and yet she was now here, guiding him by the sleeve and talking as if they were old friends reunited again. He tried to find the words to meet her beaming attitude in kind, but instead, all that came out was the most basic, inconsequential question anyone could have asked in these circumstances: "Y-you actually remember me? After barely two minutes of talking over three months ago?"

The pink girl came to a sudden stop as they rounded another corner, momentarily looking back at him in confusion, before just as suddenly breaking into a short bit of good-natured, amused laughter. "Of course I remember you. You don't really see a lot of foreigners around here." Nikolay had to momentarily concede her point. In all the times he had actually gone out into town, it was still primarily he and his father as the only Europeans around.

As he became embroiled in his own thoughts once more, the girl momentarily observed his deep expression, before forming a very amused smirk. "Plus, even for how intense you always seem to look, there's no way I could forget somebody with such a cute face like yours." That immediately reeled Nikolay back, as he had to take a moment to confirm he'd just heard her right, and his naturally pale face immediately turned red with embarrassment, causing her to burst out laughing again.

"Oh my god, is that seriously the first time anyone's ever told you that? But your face looks so soft and delicate." Anyone else would have been able to tell she was simply teasing him in good fun, but Nikolay's eyes were cemented to the floor, barely able to let out the slightest whimper in protest, begging her to please stop. "Oh, wow, your face is so red! It's so cute, I can't stand it!"

As she was practically bouncing on her heels where she stood, still keeping her grip on his sleeve, Nikolay's whole head felt like it was on fire with embarrassment. 'For God's sake, man, say something, anything; drive the conversation away from this! This girl's going to kill you with embarrassment before the exam even starts!' Memory suddenly kicked in as Nikolay's blush thankfully receded and his expression lit up.

"Oh, I almost forgot: did you ever end up getting your cellphone back?" His question caught the pink girl by surprise as her bright smile gave way to confusion. However, her expression likewise lit up almost instantly, her eyes going wide with surprise, which made her golden irises just seem that much smaller. "Oh, wow, so I was right! It was you that gave it to the police! Yeah, I realized I'd dropped it right before we got on the train! Good thing, too, I would've been as good as grounded if my parents found out I'd lost it so soon.

"I assumed if anyone found it, they would've given it to the police, so that was the first place I checked. They told me a foreign boy had given it to them, and that he described it belonged to someone that looks like…well, me. They also said he took off just a few minutes before I showed up. Now I'm wishing you could've stayed put." The almost cosmic level of coincidence in her story also blew Nikolay away. To think their paths would have ended up crossing again had he only waited a minute or two longer. But what did that matter? He had done a good thing for her and that was it.

"Well, now that I know for sure it was you, I'm definitely gonna have to think of some way to return the favor. Seriously, thank you so much. You have no idea just how much trouble you saved me from getting into," the girl went on to sincerely thank the Russian boy in her grip; bowing her head in gratitude while he could only look about in embarrassment, once again being the unwitting center of attention. However, before he could ask her to not worry about anything further, the hall was suddenly filled with a loud yet inviting chime.

The pink girl's head instantly shot right back up, her expression now that of shock and desperation as she immediately began taking off in a mad sprint with Nikolay in hand again. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, don't be late, don't be late, don't be late," she kept repeating primarily to herself as she kept running, while Nikolay had to put all his effort to keeping in step so he didn't end up literally getting dragged behind her.

Finally, they ended up racing through another pair of double doors and found themselves in a large lecture hall, the ascending rows all filled with aspiring examinees, who were all clearly too focused on the exam to come, to pay the two of them any mind. Letting out a sigh of great relief, the energetic pink girl finally let go of Nikolay's sleeve. The young boy tried to catch his breath before she suddenly laid a firm yet friendly hand on his shoulder, giving him a confident wink and a thumbs up. "Thanks again for your help, and good luck out there. I know we'll both do great today."

She took off up the steps for the first vacant seat she could find, leaving Nikolay silent, alone, yet flushed in the face once more. This was the very first time anyone who wasn't his father had not only wished him well, but actually expressed faith and confidence in his capabilities, even though she had no idea what he could do. There was no doubt in his mind that it was simply a formality on her part, but still…it felt oddly nice for someone who was pretty much still a complete stranger to actually encourage him like that.

When he had finally found himself an open spot among the countless other hopefuls, he couldn't help but take the chance to look upon his potential fellow students once again. So many different faces; even with their most outstanding physical attributes from their Quirks, Nikolay knew it would have been impossible for him to memorize every single one. However, at one point his gaze fell upon a most familiar sight just a bit further down his own row. Just a few seats away, taking in the scenery as well with an almost palpable air of excitement, was that same boy with the curly green hair he had seen at the beach so often. 'Such a big world, and yet at the same time, so small.' The notion actually brought out the slightest chuckle from within Nikolay's throat.

Just as the silence in the lecture hall was starting to feel overbearing, it was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a single man on the podium below. His look, his style, the very energy with which he moved; it all looked so outlandish to Nikolay, it almost made him laugh. From the giant plume of blonde hair, the sunglasses, the blinding smile and the all-leather ensemble he wore, he looked like the prototypical image of a rock-and-roll star. With his visible enthusiasm and energy, he probably thought he might as well have been on the world stage.

"WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, TO MY LIVE SHOW! EVERYBODY SAY 'HEEEEY'!" This man's voice was so freakishly loud coming from the stereo seemingly growing from his neck; it easily bounced off the walls multiple times. And yet, once it had died out and the man held his hand to his ear for the expected call back from the crowd, all he was met with was dead silence. Nikolay even had to look around to make sure nobody was humoring the man, or better yet, if he himself was supposed to or not.

After a few moments, the man in leather immediately got back to it, visibly undeterred. "I'VE GOT SHIVERS DOWN MY SPINE, TOO, LISTENERS! ALL RIGHT, EXAMINEES, I'M GONNA GIVE YOU THE LOW-DOWN ON HOW THIS'LL GO DOWN! ARE YOU READY?! YEAHH!" Once again, despite his clearly trying to hype everyone up with his own exclamations, everybody was still as silent as the grave. At this point, Nikolay couldn't deny he thought it was oddly humorous.

"NOW PAY CLOSE ATTENTION, LISTENERS! WE'LL BE TESTING YOUR METTLE BY RUNNING A TEN-MINUTE PRACTICE RUN AT OUR REPLICA-CITY DISTRICT! YOU CAN TAKE WHATEVER YOU LIKE! EVERYBODY GATHER AT THE DESIGNATED MEETING AREA AFTER THE PRESENTATION, YA DIG?! OK?!" The hall was now abuzz with the collective chatter of the examinees talking amongst themselves, either in anticipation or worry; it was hard to tell one from the other. On the screen behind the loudmouthed presenter, looked to be a listing of the first six letters of the Roman alphabet surrounding what looked like a replica of a city. If that meant what Nikolay assumed it did, that at least alleviated some of his concern. If this entire map was being sectioned away for a certain number of participants per letter, then perhaps that meant he wouldn't be completely swallowed up in a total free-for-all like he'd feared.

Soon, the screen now displayed the same city graphic, but now with three different shaped 8-bit figures with different numbers assigned. "WE'LL BE SPRINKLING A LARGE NUMBER OF 'VILLAINS' OVER THE BATTLEFIELD, AND THEY'LL APPEAR IN THREE DIFFERENT VARIETIES, WITH POINT VALUES SCALED ACCORDING TO DIFFICULTY! USING EACH OF YOUR INDIVIDUAL QUIRKS, DISPATCH AS MANY 'VILLAINS' AS YOU CAN! YOUR GOAL, LISTENERS, IS TO RACK UP A HIGH SCORE! AND DON'T THINK ABOUT DIRECTLY ATTACKING ANY OTHER COMPETITORS OR ANY OF THAT NASTY ANTI-HERO STUFF, BECAUSE THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES, CAPISCE?!"

Once again, Nikolay felt another of his more persistent worries wane. If they were indeed being pitted against something that wasn't another living, breathing Quirk-user, then perhaps this exam wasn't going to be as deathly dangerous as he had feared. Regardless, though, even if he was going to be facing off against something that didn't have the reflexes and skills of an experienced Quirk-user (he assumed), that still didn't make up for his lack of progress with his own. Such a reminder made the young Russian boy instinctively swallow another nervous lump in his throat.

"Excuse me, may I ask a question?!" A strong, authoritative voice suddenly spoke up from within the crowd, drawing nearly everyone's attention at once. Standing amid the rest was a young man who, even from where Nikolay was sitting, he could tell was exceptionally tall and visibly muscular under the proper-looking three-piece suit he was wearing. He had short dark blue hair combed to the side, and even behind the pair of intellectual rectangular glasses he was wearing, he had a very distinct sharp look in his eyes that could be felt even across the hall from anyone who dared to look that closely.

Like a lawyer about to slam the book shut on an elusive case, he held up a piece of paper in his hand like it was the very word of God itself. "On the handout, there are clearly four types of Villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for a top-tier national academy of Yuuei's caliber! The reason we are seated here today is because we seek guidance on the path to becoming model Heroes!" Nikolay's embarrassed realization that he had forgotten to grab his own copy of the exam form and his serial number was immediately erased by the awe he felt from the sheer conviction in this boy's voice. It seemed like it could have given the presenter a worthwhile challenge. Either way, Nikolay could just feel the passion radiating out of him. If he weren't aiming to become a Hero, this boy would have easily been able to shoot to the very top of the politics world.

"Moreover, what's with you? Yeah, you, curly-haired kid!" That booming voice suddenly calling out again made Nikolay instinctively flinch, only to realize there was no way that glasses boy was talking to him. He always made a point of keeping his hair cut to keep the curls from coming back. 'Is he actually talking to that boy from the beach?' he wondered to himself, suddenly unable to find the boy in question among the thickness of the crowd.

"Can't you sit still for a second…you're distracting! If you think Yuuei is some pleasure jaunt, then leave this place at once!" There was no audible answer to be heard amid the stillness of the crowd, but if that boy was the person in question, he had definitely gotten the message; any sane person would have, after a reprimand like that.

"OKAY, OOOKAY! THANKS FOR THE SEGUE, MUCH APPRECIATED, EXAMINEE 7111! THE FOURTH TYPE OF VILLAIN YOU'LL ENCOUNTER IS WORTH ZERO POINTS! LET'S CALL THEM 'ARENA TRAPS'! HAVE ANY OF YOU EVER PLAYED 'SUPER MARIO BROTHERS' BEFORE?! YOU REMEMBER THOSE THINGS THAT'D GO THWOMP ON YOU?! THERE'S A THING LIKE THAT IN EACH AREA! THEIR 'GIMMICK' IS THAT THEY RAMPAGE WHEN CROWDED!"

"Thank you very much! I apologize for being rude," the glasses boy swiftly apologized with an intense bow, and the rest of the crowd began mumbling in realization amongst themselves after the presenters' analogy. For Nikolay, though, it might as well have been gibberish. He'd heard the name of the game before, but he had never had the chance, or really the interest, in videogames before. Now all he could think was how much he wished he had, because at least then he would have some idea what to expect.

"WELL, THAT'S ENOUGH FROM ME! I'LL LEAVE YOU ALL WITH A PRESENTATION ON THE 'SCHOOL PRECEPTS' OF THIS ACADEMY OF MINE! AS A CERTAIN 'HERO' BY THE NAME OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ONCE SAID: 'A TRUE HERO NEVER STOPS OVERCOMING THE MISFORTUNES IN LIFE.'" Nikolay could just feel the potential tension in the air if his father had been in this hall to hear that.

"NOW LET'S MOVE TO THE MAIN EVENT! PLUS ULTRA! AND MAY YOU ALL SUFFER GLADLY THE TRIALS TO COME!"

---

Oleg stood in awe upon reaching the observation theater, with a domed ceiling displaying a number of screens overlooking the four massive replica cities that were to serve as the participants' training grounds. The old Hero academies back at the Union and their facilities were nothing to scoff at, but this was something on an entirely different level. They were less like replicas, and more like actual life-sized cities, all almost identical to Musutafu in microcosm. Even if it weren't for the fact his son was going to be out there proving himself, Oleg would have been plenty excited enough just to see what kind of challenges Yuuei had in store for these Heroes-in-the-making.

"Oleg, the exam is about to start. Take your seat." All Might instructed, spurring the larger man to move. "Because the participants are only given ten minutes to take out as many 'Villains' as possible, they find it more efficient to separate the training grounds into several smaller city replicas, and relegate set numbers of participants to those areas. Don't worry, you'll find out which one Bezpalov-shonen is in before things actually kick off."

Oleg was already looking over each section vigilantly like a hawk, just looking for the first sign of Nikolay. "I wouldn't start getting my hopes up too soon if I were you, Tunguska." Oleg felt his skin prickle at the sound of Aizawa's voice speaking from the row just behind his own. The black-clad teacher was sitting there, bored, with his arms and legs crossed, just looking at the training grounds on screen, like they were all pieces of his Memory Lane.

"Make no mistake, this portion of the exam is what truly separates the real potential students from the wannabes. Compared to this, the written portion might as well be child's play. If your boy is going to have even the slightest hope of making it into this school, this is his one chance to make it count." Oleg could just imagine what kind of mind game Aizawa was trying to play, but by now he had learned not to let his reactions show, no matter how good the long-haired man was at detecting them with just a look.

"The exam still hasn't begun yet, Aizawa-san, so let's not jump to conclusions just yet. I think you'll both find there's going to be a lot of potential on display from many of the kids here today." All Might was quick to once more try and diffuse the tension, to which Aizawa gave the slightest hint of a scoff, and Oleg took another deep breath to steady himself. It was then that he began to see the first signs of movement on the screens. The participants were finally forming up in their respective training grounds.

---

Nikolay's heart was hammering away at his ribs as he followed the exodus of examinees on the way to the buses that would take them to the replica cities. As they proceeded, more and more began being funneled down different hallways, doubtless to entirely different training grounds. Watching the numbers progressively getting thinned out left Nikolay feeling notably tense, but he just tried to keep his eyes focused forward; all the while silently wishing this portion of the exam would already be over with.

Soon enough, their bus had pulled up in front of the massive iron gate to their ground of choice, and he and the rest of the participants in his group were already looking in awe around them. This place felt just like Musutafu City itself, just without any of the civilians or traffic. It was honestly kind of unsettling, as if they were the last living people in the entire city. Right now, as everyone else continued muttering their own thoughts to themselves and each other, the only thing he could think to do was try to find some semblance of a familiar person among his peers, even though he could just tell that was the biggest waste of time.

"AAAAND START!" The presenter's voice echoed through the sky, and everyone looked among themselves in confusion. There hadn't been an alarm, a countdown or anything. "WHAT'S THE MATTER?! THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A COUNTDOWN IN A REAL BATTLE! RUN! RUUUN! CONSIDER THE BATON TOSSED!"

That insistence collectively lit a fire under everyone's tails, and before Nikolay even knew it, every single one of his peers had taken off in a mad dash in every possible direction. The clock was now officially ticking. With that realization, the young Russian practically leaped off his feet into a desperate sprint down the first street he could find, ignoring the wind in his eyes as he tried desperately to find the first Villain, the first point he could get.

The once silent training grounds were soon filled with the sounds of distant destruction and explosions. This only spurred Nikolay to run even faster, silently begging for something to show up so he wouldn't get left behind.

At that moment he rounded a corner, and his shoes nearly produced a literal screech as he came to a grinding halt, faced with a fierce-looking robot the size of his house. Worst of all, it had him right in its sights, as it positioned itself, ready for attack. 'Oh, crap, how many points is this one supposed to be? Dammit, why didn't I grab a stupid exam sheet to look over?'

As the ground shook beneath his feet with each lumbering step the robot took, Nikolay felt his determination drain, and become replaced with fear. 'This thing is massive! What good are my blasts going to do against something like that? All that martial training, what was it all for? Oh, God, what was I thinking?'

In his mind, the only word that registered was 'run'. And that was exactly what he did, as Nikolay turned on his heels and ran like mad as the robot began to give chase after him. He didn't even dare to look back to see if it was gaining, the worsening rumbles from its footsteps were proof enough. His sheer panic blinded him, though, as he didn't even register the one other participant who had just rounded a corner up ahead, standing in the middle of the street and looking in Nikolay's direction.

BKOOOM!

The air suddenly turned into a deafening explosion right behind Nikolay, leaving his head ringing and pounding as an immense burst of pressure and heat erupted behind his back, sending him flying forward, barely managing to land on his feet and stop himself from tumbling over. Once his ears had stopped ringing, he instinctively looked back to find the robot chasing him had been reduced to a pile of flaming twisted metal.

Looking back to his front, Nikolay saw a boy with a head of spiky platinum blonde hair and exceptionally muscular arms was quickly approaching him. However, the next thing he noticed was that this boy had, without a doubt, the angriest red eyes and snarling expression he had ever seen.

Nikolay didn't know why he bothered to open his mouth to thank this kid for the quick save, but the moment he started, he found himself being shoulder checked in the ribs hard enough to take him off his feet and to the ground, hard. Even as he was stunned, Nikolay could clearly see the look of complete and utter contempt in that boys' eyes, looking down on the Russian boy, as if he was about to spit in his face from total disgust. "Stay the hell out of my way, you goddamned coward!" With that, he took off, leaving Nikolay flat on the asphalt.

---

Back in the observation theater, Oleg was gritting his teeth looking at his son splayed out on the ground like that, with not a single point to his name. He didn't even want to imagine whatever expression Aizawa must have been wearing to see such a pathetic display. However, in reality, the long-haired stoic teacher had neither anger or smug glee on his face. Instead, his eyes only reflected something far worse: disappointment in that his own prediction was coming to pass.

As Oleg kept silently praying for Nikolay to get back up, he momentarily caught a glimpse of All Might looking especially rigid and tense as his obscured eyes watched the screens. The only difference was that he was not observing Nikolay's run. Instead he was focused on the display from one of the other training grounds, specifically whichever was showing a young boy with curly green hair, desperately running this way and that in search of a Villain to dispatch.

Oleg was admittedly curious why this had All Might looking so intense, but all he could focus on was mentally willing his boy to get back up and fight.

---

Nikolay struggled to get back up, the harsh words of that boy who shoulder-checked him still echoing in his head. 'A goddamn coward. That's right. He's right, that's exactly what I'm being right now. Come on, Nikolay Olegovich; is this really what you want? After everything, is this how you're going to repay those three months, on top of everything else? Dad put his trust in you, and you promised to try and put trust in yourself when this all started. Trying your best to get through this is how you try to make things work! Now get back up, get out there, and show that you're not afraid!'

"EIGHT MINUTES LEFT!" The announcement made Nikolay's hair stand on end as he realized just what time he was wasting. He practically leapt back up onto his feet from the ground and just started sprinting like a madman further into the training grounds, following the nearest explosions he could hear. The adrenaline pumping through his veins left him with an alien feeling of anticipation and a song blaring in his heart. This was where that new life his father wanted for him would finally begin, and he needed to cross that starting line at full speed.

[Alexandrov Ensemble – My Krasnye Kavaleristy (We Are the Red Cavalry)]

The deeper into the training ground he went, the more Nikolay could finally observe the Quirks on display from his fellow participants as everything just seemed to erupt all around him. He had stepped straight into the heat of battle. At one end of the street was a blonde boy in a leather jacket shooting actual lightning from his hands point blank into a smaller robot charging at him; and just across from that was a black-haired boy who moved like a blur as he actually swung from what looked like scotch tape from his arms, using it to wrap around an even larger robot and pull it straight down to the ground.

Nikolay furiously shook his head, reminding himself to concentrate on finding one of his own, before he suddenly heard a foreboding mechanical whirring right beside him. Reluctantly looking down a nearby alleyway, he was met with a single red light staring at him from the shadows, and from the sounds of it, it was about ready to pounce on him like an animal.

However, just as it began to make its move, and just as Nikolay thought to bring his hands up to fire; the robot was suddenly and mercilessly plowed straight up into the air from behind, further in the darkness of the alley. Nikolay's gaze instinctively followed it, before a large angular streak of what he could only describe as pure shadow, launched straight up after it and nearly impaled the metal body, before proceeding to smash it into a thousand pieces where it hung.

The being of shadow quickly descended back into the alley once all was said and done, and before long, Nikolay found himself face-to-face with what he could only assume was a boy, exiting out of the shadows with an indescribably fierce glare in his eyes. Of course, this paled in comparison to the fact that this boy had the head of a giant crow on his shoulders instead of that of a human.

He didn't even seem to be paying Nikolay any attention as he just as quickly and silently took off further down the road, leaving Nikolay momentarily shaken. "SIX MINUTES, TWO SECONDS LEFT!" Nikolay, on reflex, slapped himself hard across the face before proceeding back down into the alley where the crow boy had just come from. 'Dammit, why didn't they tell us how many of these things there are? There's gotta be one I can fight, somewhere!'

As soon as he exited out the other side of the alley, a fierce mechanical whirring drew his gaze, and he found himself witnessing a much larger robot currently facing off against another boy; this one with a bowl cut of black hair and what looked like sharpened teeth. The robot facing him reeled a large metal arm back, as if to bring a hammer strike down on the boys' head, but instead of trying to get out of the way or fight back, the boy instead crossed his arms in front of him, and before Nikolay's eyes, his skin seemed to take on the appearance of an almost crystallized version of itself.

The robot's arm came down swift and hard, producing a deafening blast and shockwave that Nikolay had to lower his center of gravity in order to resist, but as soon as the dust cleared, he found himself slack-jawed to see the robot's hand had been totaled, and the boy was standing in the middle of the impact crater, visibly no worse for wear, as if that blow had done nothing against him.

The young Russian boy almost wanted to comment on such a spectacle, but before either he or the seemingly indestructible other boy could react, the robot's other arm suddenly came sweeping around from down low, snatching the boy in its grasp. Its whole arm reeled itself back like before, and with a powerful swing, threw the now helpless boy like a rag doll straight through the third-story window of a nearby building.

All of Nikolay's instincts upon witnessing this, told him neither to fight nor run. Instead all it could tell him was that that boy needed help, and he was the only one who could provide it. It went against every survival instinct he had come to recognize, but this feeling just completely overwhelmed all that he considered to be common sense. While the robot seemed distracted, he broke into yet another mad dash past it and through the entrance to that same building the other boy had been thrown into.

Nikolay took the stairwell nearly three steps at a time before he finally reached the third floor, throwing the door open with his shoulder. As he sprinted down the only hall, it didn't take long before he found the devastating hole through the wall, and the once indestructible sharp-toothed boy embedded in a dent in the opposite wall, looking relatively stunned by what had just happened. Nikolay wasted no time taking his hands and pulling him free from his impromptu predicament.

"Are you all right?" he asked as soon as the boy was free and back on his feet, shaking his head to get out of his dazed state. "Y-yeah. I don't know why I didn't think that thing could grab, as well as hit. Still, thanks for the help—uh-oh." The sharp-toothed boy cut off his own thanks as his red eyes were focused directly behind the young Russian boy.

Nikolay immediately followed his gaze, and the two were now met with the same robot from outside staring directly at them through the hole it had made. With no hesitation, it reared its one remaining arm back like a piston, ready to launch it straight into the building for both of them. Its movements were so fast for its size, but as soon as its huge green placeholder for a fist began to move in, Nikolay's reflexes kicked into high gear. His hands both came up, as if being pulled by invisible strings, and he could feel the collective force of the vibrations inside his body, simultaneously rush down his arms to his hands, reaching its peak by the time the boys' hands were fully extended forward towards the robot's fist.

BWOOOM!

The hallway was instantly filled with the most powerful bass rumbling, the very air becoming thick with the sheer kinetic power. The robots' fist crumpled into itself as soon as Nikolay's hands erupted with the blast, quickly followed by the rest of its arm practically imploding backwards like a soda can in a compress. The rest of the room its arm occupied likewise exploded outward as the air blasted back like a shockwave from an explosion.

The outer wall of the third floor of the building exploded, raining debris all over the street, as the robot was blown backwards off its feet, much like a boxer going down from the perfectly placed and timed uppercut to the jaw. Its whole front, armor plating and all, imploded in on itself from this unexpected show of incredible power as it met the ground below with a deafening impact, soon producing numerous devastating explosions from all over inside itself.

The sound of the blast had been the closest thing to deafening the sharp-toothed boy had ever heard, to the point he had instinctively curled himself into a ball with his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out as much of that harsh noise as possible. Once the dust had finally settled and he felt it was safe again, he raised his head to look in astonishment at the sudden scope of the power that foreign kids' one attack had unleashed. The only question was, where was he?

That question was thankfully soon answered, as when he looked down the hall the boy had come from, he found him, embedded in a wall of his own, as if he'd been thrown back by his own Quirk attack. Nevertheless, he knew that boy had just saved both their hides, resulting in him forming a smile of genuine appreciation as he rushed in to help.

---

Nikolay wasn't sure what had happened after he'd reflexively used his Quirk at last. He had felt his feet leave the ground, the sensation of flying backwards for what felt like quite a while, and then blackness. His head had been ringing for a while afterwards, but even in his possibly concussion-induced delirium, he could feel someone pulling him free from the wall; possibly that boy he had rushed in to help.

He was trying to say something, but it came out as nothing but underwater noise in Nikolay's spinning head. It felt like he was trying to help him up some steps, it was hard to tell. At one point, time seemed to just become meaningless as Nikolay's consciousness was simply left drifting in and out. He had no idea just how much time had passed before consciousness finally came back completely, with him taking in a sharp gasp for air as his body jerked in reflex.

The afternoon sun beat down on him and nearly blinded him where he lay when he finally opened his eyes, but he was quick to roll over, trying to regain his bearings. 'Okay, I'm outside again, but not on the street. A rooftop? Did that guy seriously help me all the way up here?' when his vision finally cleared up, he was quick to get back on his feet, looking around to see just what was going on. From the numerous explosions and sounds of crunching metal, it seemed the exam was still going on, so he could at least let out a sigh of relief for that. The sharp-toothed boy from before was nowhere to be seen, no doubt trying to keep up with everybody else.

"THREE MINUTES LEFT!" Nevermind. Only three minutes, and he had only taken out one robot, and who knew how many were left, and where they were? Nikolay rushed for the edge of the roof, trying to find some sign of a robot he could go after. The smaller ones would be a waste of effort. They would be too small to spot from the roof, and they could literally have been anywhere. 'All right, don't panic. The presenter said they would have different point values based on difficulty. That first one was pretty big, no way that was just a 1-point Villain. I need to find a big one, something that can net me as many as possible…in less than three minutes. Dammit.'

His green eyes kept scouting the training ground. There were a handful of robots big enough to loom over some of the smaller buildings, but they were definitely bigger than the last one. 'Perfect. Those have to be three-pointers, easy. But they're too far away. There's literally only one I can get to…unless I were to take some kind of…shortcut.'

Nikolay focused his eyes on the one biggest robot that was actually within distance. From that, he looked to the edge of the roof he stood upon, and then finally to his hands. He could still feel a good amount of that power just churning around within his palms, just waiting to be unleashed again. With that came memories of the conversation between him and Oleg earlier: the issue with his Quirk handling in training. Upon reflection, the beginnings of (frankly) an insane idea began brewing in his mind.

'If my blasts keep propelling me the opposite direction of where I'm aiming, then…' Common sense was screaming for him to reconsider, but a flare of actual confidence within his heart was assuring him this idea could work. Where that confidence suddenly came from, he himself wanted to know, but the clock was ticking, and there was no time left to waste asking questions. Backing himself away from the edge to gain the momentum he needed, Nikolay took several deep breaths, trying to ignore his heart pounding away at his ribs like a hammer trying to break free.

After closing his eyes and listening solely to his heartbeat in an attempt to psyche himself up, Nikolay kicked forward from where he stood, one foot in front of the other, in the most insane, desperate sprint he had ever done in his life. In his mind he was simply counting down to zero, hoping to God this would actually work.

As soon as he felt the very edge of the roof against the soles of his feet, he flipped his hands so that his palms were facing behind and below him, and silently willed for the blast to come.

BWOOOM!

The friction of the air against his face as he felt his body launch up and forward into the air, was for once the most wonderful sensation he could hope to experience in this moment. It actually worked. He actually was able to get his blast to come at his willing, and it was able to send him farther and faster than his feet ever would have.

However, the excitement quickly gave way to fear, when he saw the next roof quickly ascending, as he was about to crash land. He began to scream in panic just as he was a second away from impact, only to aim his hands once more and mentally beg for something to come.

BWOOOM!

'Oh, thank God!' This was incredible, was this sensation Nikolay actually gaining something resembling control over his Quirk? If so, it felt incredible. He could not recall ever feeling so exhilarated, so confident before in his life. He couldn't even describe to himself what it felt like to see the buildings shrink down and ascend below his feet while he practically flew over it all like a bird.

The sight of the nearest robot snapped him out of his childlike excitement as he remembered just what was at stake with each passing second. Thankfully the roof just next to the robot wasn't too far below, and he instinctively positioned his body so he could meet the surface with a landing roll. It still hurt something fierce, but he would gladly take that over two broken legs.

Once he got back up, he rushed to the railing lining the rooftop to observe what he was getting into. The robot, thankfully, didn't seem to have noticed him, instead focusing its imposing red sensor on something else, something below.

He couldn't resist curiosity as he followed the metal behemoth's line of sight, and to his shock, he found that same pink girl from before, fighting on the street against several much smaller robots that looked to be ganging up on her. However, even from up here, he could not see any actual fear or desperation in her moves. In fact, she looked to be practically sliding around them like an ice skater, with some kind of viscous liquid seemingly emanating from her bare feet.

Every time one of those smaller robots tried to lunge for her, she just expertly jumped, swerved, ducked and spun past them like it was nothing. Again, outside of Olympic-level figure skaters and Balshoy Theater ballerinas, he had never seen anyone move with such grace, and above all else, confidence. Once several of the attacking robots had gotten clustered together, she suddenly came to a stop, reeled both her hands back as if she were getting ready to throw something that wasn't there, and before Nikolay's eyes, and to his astonishment, she swung her arms forward, sending several globs of a cloudy liquid right at the metal fiends. It looked as though the stuff just came right out of her hands.

As soon as the liquid projectiles struck, the robots almost all instantly began disintegrating into steaming piles of melted steel. "Neveroyatniy (Incredible)," he muttered on impulse to himself. Of all the things Nikolay could have imagined were that friendly pink girls' Quirk, acid was the very last thing he expected.

However, several of the smaller robots remained, and her attention was clearly fixed on those, as a massive sound of grinding metal and mechanical whirring brought Nikolay's attention back where it needed to be. That giant robot was reeling one of its arms back for another hammer-like strike on her. Nikolay felt his entire body tense up as he prepared for one last desperate move. Taking several steps back once more, he began silently praying to whatever cosmic force out there would listen, that this would actually work.

He made another dash forward, practically screaming internally as the guardrail came closer and closer, the final step; the moment of truth. His momentum launched him forward as his feet met the railing, and bending his legs for what was to come, he kicked himself even further off the rail, watching the giant metal Villain before him lower what passed for its head at just the right moment, as Nikolay's trajectory was already bringing him down on top of it.

Nikolay shut his eyes tight as he followed through on his insane plan and brought his palms down flat upon the steel surface of its chassis. As though he had just pressed the mother of all big red buttons, the impact was immediately followed by an incredible surge of that collected internal force coursing through every fiber of Nikolay's body directly into his hands, and he could feel the air itself push back against him as he released the largest blast he had yet, point blank directly into it.

He could feel the air grow colder as his body propelled helplessly higher into the air. Even the deafening sound of the robot dismantling and exploding from the inside out from the collected vibrations tearing through its interior, barely registered in Nikolay's ears, as he almost blacked out from the exertion he had just put himself through in that moment.

Nikolay thankfully managed to retain his consciousness as the ascension quickly gave way to an ever hastening descent to the cold, unforgiving ground below. As he saw the rooftops and streets grow below him, one last semblance of an idea came to him. If his blasts were able to help him leap from rooftop to rooftop, then who was to say it couldn't also help break his momentum; at the very least make the fall not as devastating.

Once he was able to time the movements of his freefalling body to when he was facing the street, he brought his hands back up and forward, ready to fire another blast directly into the ground, maybe break his speed in half at the very best. With each passing second, he focused every bit of his willpower into his hands, begging for one last hurrah to sound forth.

Nothing.

He'd been spent. No matter how much he silently willed for something to emanate from the holes in his hands, nothing came. Even if he couldn't physically bring himself to do it, inside, Nikolay Bezpalov was laughing bitterly to himself. 'Well, I guess it was exciting while it lasted. Scary as hell…but exciting.' With this thought in mind, he closed his eyes, just bracing himself for the lifelong paralyzing, or death, that was very soon to follow.

KRRRRRRIK!

'Is that a door opening, or a tree falling?' The sudden sound of straining, snapping wood penetrated through the silence Nikolay had begun to immerse his mind in, and before he could ponder on it further, his freefall was finally stopped, not by the devastating splattering against the pavement he had been expecting, but rather by the much less harsh cushioning of foliage meeting his body instead.

It took a few moments for his brain to catch up with what had just happened, but the still considerable impact had left Nikolay's head spinning as he lay confused amid numerous leaves and snapped tree branches. He could hear the sound of someone else digging through the branches above him, and the momentarily blinding light of the sun was quickly obscured by his anonymous rescuer looming over his prone form.

A pair of hands hurriedly reached in, grabbed him by his tracksuit, and hastily pulled him free from the foliage. It was mostly physical instinct and reflex that gave Nikolay the wherewithal to actually stay on his feet, rather than just face plant on the asphalt from the exhaustion and shock he had just put himself through. However, whoever had just intervened quickly brought him back to earth, as he felt that same pair of hands grab his shoulders and then very gently hold his face, trying to get him to look at them.

"Oh, wow, that was way too close. I was just about ready to try and catch you in the air if those trees hadn't been there. Are you okay?" 'That voice…no way.' But indeed, it was. As Nikolay's eyesight once again went from incomprehensible blurs and back to normal, he found himself stunned to once more be looking into a now very familiar pair of black and gold eyes; as that dependable pink, horned girl stood dutifully before him, looking him over with crystal clear worry in her eyes. As she did so, Nikolay could only look around at what had just actually happened, being met with the sight of two fallen trees lying on their sides as a collected cushion where he fell. Looking further, he could see the stumps where they had originally stood, now steaming and looking unmistakably melted.

'Oh my god…she…she actually saved me.' Before he could reflect on that any further, the girl stepped in to look in his eyes, as though she were trying to make sure he didn't have some kind of head injury; forcing Nikolay to get his head back in the game. "Y-yeah, I'm okay, really. What about you? It looked like those other robots were giving you trouble while that big one was coming up." The girl gave him a reassuring smile, although she couldn't hide the embarrassment in her eyes looking back the way she came. "Yeah, it was no trouble. Like I said, I'm really good on my feet. I just tend to get distracted pretty easily. But hey, you took care of it, after all. Thank you for that, by the way. That's twice now you've really saved my butt, and once I've saved yours. I'm gonna have to come up with something useful to make us even soon."

As she chuckled in amusement to herself, Nikolay could not rightly tell if she was being sincere, or just trying to ease the tension of his recent close call. Either way, her implication still left him feeling far too in the spotlight for his liking. "Please, you don't have to worry about that. I was just trying to—

BOOOOM!

A deafening blast rippled through the air, rendering Nikolay and his pink savior silent with surprise. From the sheer volume of it, there was no way it could have come from their training ground. If it had come from the others, the sheer power of whatever had caused it had to be nigh unimaginable. It honestly left them both rather wishing they could have had a chance to see just what it was.

"Whoa…you think somebody's Quirk might have done that?" the pink girl asked as she and Nikolay instinctively ran for the first street that faced the direction the sound had come from. Nikolay could feel a trembling go all the way up his body as he even tried to imagine a Quirk that powerful. "If it was…thank God whoever has it is looking to be a Hero, and not…something else."

---

Everyone in the observation theater was deathly silent after what they had just witnessed. For the duration of the practical exam in one of the training grounds, there had been one boy with curly green hair who had been left in the dust by all his other fellow participants, and while they just kept racking up points, he had no luck whatsoever. Every minute spent watching him try to catch up with everyone else, Oleg could see All Might visibly tensing up. Something about this boy in particular really had his attention, and the older Russian Hero could not fathom why.

And yet, after one of the observers had seen fit to unleash one of the Arena Trap Villain types on that ground, while everyone else tried to run, that same unremarkable boy instead ran in to save one of the others that had gotten pinned down. And as if that weren't remarkable enough, before the eyes of everyone in that room and on that ground, that boy's arm had begun to emit a red lightning, and with a single punch of indescribable power and deafening noise, he single handedly destroyed that metal monolith as though it were practically nothing.

As much as Oleg had felt nothing but pride when he had earlier seen Nikolay go running into the thick of battle to help two of his fellows, this was a spectacle on a whole other level. If that boy was just an example of the kind of future Heroes he was going to be having a part in teaching, then there was no denying the sheer levels of unspoken excitement building up in his chest.

---

"ATTENTION, LISTENERS! THERE ARE ONLY TWENTY SECONDS OF THE PRACTICAL EXAM LEFT! IF YOU'RE FALLING BEHIND, SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER AND GIVE EVERY REMAINING VILLAIN YOU CAN FIND SOMETHING TO REMEMBER YOU BY! GET HUSTLING, HUSTLERS!" A rhythmic siren echoing across the training grounds with each passing second, punctuated the presenter's final announcement. Nikolay and the pink girl beside him felt the fires light under them as they began searching their immediate surroundings for any last second robots to fight. Nikolay especially felt his face awash in nervous, frigid sweat. No matter what he had done up to this point, there was no way he had gotten anywhere close to a high score.

"Oh, man; even if I went sliding at full speed, there's no way I'd find one in time, nevermind if I carried you, too. Aww, what do we do?" She was growing increasingly desperate as the siren kept sounding. However, in the space of silence between, Nikolay's ears perked at the sound of familiar mechanical whirring. Turning his head on a swivel, he spotted one of the smaller robots lining itself up to pounce on both of them, while he and his impromptu partner had their backs turned.

Everything seemed to slow down, the alarm now announcing each passing second in countdown, as the robot reeled back and sprung forward with frightening speed. However, never taking his eyes off it, Nikolay felt every one of his senses calm, and turn their collective focus to this one moment, this one target; this one action.

As the robot rapidly closed distance with that one jump, Nikolay turned the rest of his body to face the same direction as his head, his left arm raising on its own as he planted his feet firmly to the ground, legs spread at shoulder length. By now, the girl had likewise noticed their last attacker's presence and was beginning to turn around with an attack of her own. However, he had just that one split second head start just as his arm fully extended, and his palm was raised forward. This time, the collective force inside his body all coalesced into his hand through his muscles with the smoothness of silk.

BWOOOM!

"TWO! ONE! THAT'S IT! THE PRACTICAL EXAM IS OFFICIALLY FINITO, LISTENERS! I HOPE YOU ALL GOT YOUR FILL, BECAUSE YOUR SCORES HERE ARE GOING TO BE THE BIG DO-OR-DIE DECIDING FACTOR ALONGSIDE YOUR WRITTEN EXAM SCORES!"

The finishing alarm rang for a good several seconds as Nikolay and the pink acid girl stood in mutual dumbfounded silence at the scattered debris that just seconds ago was the robot lunging for them. From what she could describe, a shockwave had erupted from the boy's extended hand, she could feel the air pressure where she stood, and the next moment, the robot practically exploded backwards into thousands of pieces, as if it had been plowed into by an invisible wrecking ball.

Once everything had gone silent again, she brought her shocked gaze back to the boy himself, who was still staring at the scene like he himself couldn't believe it. Finally, her surprise gave way to excitement, as another bright and cheerful smile spread across her lips and she grabbed onto his sleeve, happily bouncing up and down where she stood. "Holy crap, that was AWESOME! I was wondering what you did to that big one, but wow! Seeing that up close was something else!"

The girls' energetic rapid-fire speech was falling on deaf ears, as Nikolay could not take his eyes off his extended hand, and more importantly, the aftermath of what had just happened. Not only did his Quirk come out without him even having to mentally coerce it, but for the first time ever, he could feel his feet were still firmly planted where he had put them. For the first time, he had managed to focus all the power of this one final blast exactly where it was meant to go, and he didn't get thrown right on his ass as a result.

If he could ever be able to pull something like that off again, he had no idea. Nevertheless, it left him with the warmest feeling of legitimate accomplishment in his chest. Had he seen Oleg at this moment, watching the proceedings as well, he would've seen the giant of a man with the biggest awestruck eyes, clutching his own fists with so much excitement, he would have almost been puncturing his own palms.

Nikolay was shaken free from his stupor as his enthusiastic pink compatriot was anxiously tugging at his sleeve, pointing out the distant shapes of their fellow participants filing back the way they came for the exam hall. "Come on, we don't wanna get left behind! You did amazing back there, by the way! Thanks for the third save, too!" She was already taking off as she hurriedly shouted back the last of her thanks, while Nikolay realized he needed to hustle as well.

As he rejoined the rest of his group in their return to the lecture hall, all he could think of was just what an overwhelming experience those last ten minutes were. It was hardly any time at all in the long run, and yet it felt like time just dragged for hours. He had read old testimonials from war veterans describing such a phenomenon, but he had honestly grown skeptical to such a thing. Not anymore.

There was no denying just why all his fellow Quirk-users would find something like that exam so exciting; hell, he even felt a touch of that himself at one point. However, there was also no denying just how scary it was to be caught in the middle of all that chaos, knowing that one false move at any moment could have been the difference between life and death. The more he thought about it, the more that nagging voice of fear and doubt made itself known to him. 'That was just the exam for weeding out the students worthy of this place. Who knows what else they have in store if you actually get accepted? Is every single day going to be like that? Is it going to be even worse? God, it's going to be like that every day even after you graduate? Is this what Dad was dealing with all the time before? Is this what it is to actually be a Hero?'

Nobody else around him noticed this, nor did Nikolay himself for that matter, but partway through this period of silent dreading and self fear-mongering, Nikolay's once relaxed hands had begun to uncontrollably tremble at his sides.

Once everyone had returned to the lecture hall and taken the first empty spots they could find, they found each of the seats had the same identical pile of papers sitting at the ready. Nikolay's stomach was twisting in knots inside as he saw all the kanji written all over it. 'Oh, God, maybe I could try piecing together what the questions are based on the hiragana and katakana…or not. Okay, calm down. This is what all those nights studying with Dad were for. You know you can do this. You just have to—wait.'

Nikolay's eyes went wide as his hands instinctively reached into his pockets to find…nothing. His heartbeat began pounding against his eardrums in panic as he kept fruitlessly searching all over himself for a pencil. And each and every time, he was met with the same cold, unforgiving bunch of nothing. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to scream in disbelief as he saw everyone else around him had theirs at the ready, just waiting for the teacher in charge to show up.

'Are you kidding me?! After all that preparation, all that work, nearly killing myself fighting robots; you're telling me I'm about to blow everything because I forgot to grab a damn pencil before I left the house?!' Nikolay was about one twitch away from beginning to pull his hair out, barely managing to support himself against the desk with his elbows; before he suddenly felt a pronounced poking against the back of his head.

He tried to ignore it, but every few seconds it would persist, until finally his anxiety on top of his annoyance coalesced and he was about ready to shoot up from his chair and demand whomever it was to stop. At least, that was the plan until he finally turned himself and his chair around, only to find none other than his smiling pink companion in the seat directly behind his one row up; practically leaning over the desk just to be able to reach the back of his head, pencil in hand.

She could easily read the momentary confusion on the cute foreign boys' face, as she more insistently wiggled the pencil in her hand, motioning for him to take it. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for him to finally take the hint. The look of practically miraculous relief in his eyes as he took it was just too precious for words; he was almost like a lost puppy in that moment.

"You can keep it, if you want. I can obviously be pretty forgetful, so my parents always remind me to keep several with me, just in case. Also, I know you said not to worry about making anything up for you helping me out, but how about with that, we call things even?" Nikolay eagerly nodded in acceptance to that idea, which made the pink girls' smile that much happier. There was something about the boy that she found herself inexplicably interested in, something that made her really want to get to know him better, and the last thing she wanted was for some kind of feeling of being indebted to hang over their heads.

She could just feel that time was running out before the next instructor for the exam would come in, so she cautiously leaned in again to whisper to Nikolay: "Hey, one last thing, really quick: I know you're nervous about the rest of the exam. Believe me, so am I. So, if it makes you feel any better, I just wanted to say that no matter how either of our exams turns out, whether one of us ends up being accepted, or we both do, or neither of us gets in; I'd like to maybe exchange cellphone numbers with you when this is all over. For someone who acts so high-strung all the time, you seem like a nice person, and I'd like it if we could at least still be able to talk to each other after our results are posted. I mean; you don't have to say yes, of course."

Nikolay was speechless after she had finished voicing her last suggestion. It seemed unreal that anyone could be this forward, or perhaps the more appropriate word was 'open', towards someone they barely knew after having really only been around them three times. He wasn't sure whether to call her foolishly naïve, or admirably trusting and altruistic; it was impossible to pick. Either way, the fact that this girl was really suggesting exchanging numbers so they could actually talk one-on-one any time of the day, like they were already good friends, left his face glowing red hot, as any possible words turned to dirt in his mouth. All he could think to do was turn back to the exam on his desk and practically plant his face in it, if for no other reason than to keep her from seeing how deeply red his face was blushing.

At the end of the day, after being surrounded by more Quirk users than he ever had been before, after facing deadly robots in open combat, and after nearly becoming a grease stain on the pavement as a result of his own foolish attempt at a strategy; it was the fact that he had never been properly prepared on how to talk or interact with girls his age that left Nikolay a completely broken and nervous mess, as he silently kept begging for the instructor to get in here so he could get through the rest of the exam that much sooner, before he'd potentially make an even bigger fool of himself.

---

After the practical exam had ended and the rest of the faculty had filed out of the observation theater, Oleg and All Might were among the last to leave. Especially after what had happened with the Arena Trap Villain, Oleg had noticed a crystal clear change in All Might's demeanor. Where before he had been visibly tense, now he was somehow managing to shine even brighter than he usually did.

"That exam was really something, wasn't it?" Oleg asked in astonishment once the two of them were alone. "Indeed it was. I told you there would be quite a lot to witness from the young hopefuls this year. I trust you and everyone else has been left more than satisfied." He wasn't about to speak for everyone else (least of all the ever silent and unreadable Aizawa), but Oleg could still feel that pumping excitement in his heart from watching both Nikolay and that curly-haired boy pull through so astonishingly.

"I'll admit, at the beginning I was getting really worried, seeing Kolya run away like that…but everything after, especially with those other two kids…dammit, I promised myself I wasn't going to cry today." Oleg was trying so hard to maintain his stoic demeanor, but All Might could only give another powerful boasting laugh of empathy. "Any proud parent would shed tears of joy to see their children come so far. There is no shame in that. Those children have all shown us something today to be proud of."

Wiping the beginnings of tears from his eyes, Oleg decided to try and steer the conversation to his next favorite standout of the morning: "Yes, they have. I couldn't even begin to pick which ones would be more appropriate for this school; they all performed so well, especially that freckled curly-haired boy. I honestly wasn't sure what was going to happen with him, but…my God, I'd never seen someone deliver a punch that powerful since…well, since you, back in the old days."

All Might's signature smile beamed with genuine pride; catching Oleg's curiosity, which he finally had decided to address. "In fact, I couldn't help but notice you were particularly focused on that boy more than anyone else. I know you're not the type to let the brunt of your emotions out for everyone to see, but I saw how tense you were getting when he was struggling to catch up with the others." All Might then stopped in his tracks, before finally turning to look Oleg in the eye, easily able to tell the point the Russian Hero was trying to get to.

"I really do appreciate you voicing your confidence and support for Kolya, but it's clear that much more of your investment was on that boy. So tell me, who exactly is he? Your son?" All was deathly silent in the hall as Oleg's guess hung in the air, before All Might erupted in a powerful laugh of great amusement, his booming voice almost approaching the verge of cracking near the end, he was laughing so hard. "I could understand why you would think that, Tunguska, but no. Remember, I was pushing my Hero duties nearly twenty-four hours a day before my injury; I had no time for a girlfriend, let alone a wife and family. No, that boy is someone whom I've decided to take under my wing, a disciple if you will."

Oleg's interest was visibly piqued, his blue eyes wide with anticipation, at this sudden news. "Well, I must admit, I did not expect you would still be in the business of taking on a new sidekick this late in the game, given your…*ahem* condition. I would have thought you'd mention having one much earlier. Where exactly did you find him?" At this question, All Might, just for a moment, displayed an air of unease, briefly glancing this way and that to make sure they were truly alone; confusing Oleg. "Well, actually, that's the thing. Do you remember the story I told you, when I first approached you in Vladivostok?"

Oleg's confusion only grew as he thought back on that story. "Yes, the two boys and the Sludge Villain. You said one of them got captured or taken over. Is that who that boy is? You're taking him in, in order to make him stronger?" All Might did not answer, and yet his silence, ultimately, made Oleg understand everything. His eyes grew wide with disbelief as he realized which of those two boys they had just witnessed display godlike super strength a minute ago.

"No. No, no, th-that's not possible. In all my years studying about Heroes, Villains, hell, Quirks in general, I have never once heard of someone born without a Quirk suddenly gaining one after the average age of four." All Might understood Oleg's skepticism quite well. Had the roles been reversed, he too would not have believed such a claim. And yet, here they now were, and he knew that if he was going to keep Oleg on the same page, he was going to have to lay another very personal truth out for him. "That's because Midoriya Izuku-shonen did not just suddenly develop that Quirk. I passed it down to him."

Now, Oleg looked at the Symbol of Peace like he was spouting crazy talk. All Might knew it would not be easy to help him understand this, but there was no going back anymore. "There's something you need to understand right now, Tunguska, and know that you are only one of a very select few that knows this. The truth is that…I was not born with my Quirk, One For All. It has been passed down from great Heroes to those they felt worthy of taking up their mantle for generations. As of this moment, I am currently the eighth inheritor of it, and I have chosen Midoriya-shonen as its ninth."

Oleg felt like the entire world as he understood it had just been flipped upside down, as he struggled to try and grasp this: All Might, the world's Number One Hero, the Symbol of Peace, had simply been given his Quirk by someone else? And this trait had apparently existed for at least seven previous generations, and nobody else knew about it? How many other great Heroes around the world could attest to having gained their Quirks in such a way, if any? This was information on a game-changing level.

Eventually, he was able to calm his racing mind and stifle down the countless questions brewing in his head as he finally worked up the will to look All Might in the eye again, who had simply been waiting patiently for his compatriot to collect himself. How could anyone not feel overwhelmed knowing such a thing as he now did? "All right…so, if you…'passed down' One For All to this boy, Midoriya…then how is it you're able to stand in front of me looking like you do now? You told me that whole thing was part and parcel of your Quirk, so how are you still able to switch forms like this, on top of the rest of the things I've seen you do before?"

All Might sighed heavily as his gaze drifted up to the brilliant blue sky outside the windows. "Like I said, it's only temporary these days, and each day I can feel the power of One For All waning inside me. Yes, it's only in tiny increments, but it all is ultimately adding up. I'm not fool enough to think that I can maintain the smoldering ember of my Quirk that still resides within me forever. I know that, inevitably, the day will come when I will no longer be able to use One For All ever again, and I will be stuck in the emaciated form you've seen me in for the rest of my life. It's been hard, genuinely painful, in fact…but I have made my peace with it, for what it's worth.

"My time is slowly but surely coming to an end, as it must one day come for all us Heroes of times past, but in the likes of Bezpalov-shonen and Midoriya-shonen, I see the very same kind of fire, the spark of righteousness that my mentor once saw, that made her see fit to bestow One For All onto me. Your boy already has the opportunity and capability to become a Hero worthy of your real reputation, but I couldn't let someone with the heart and drive that Midoriya-shonen possesses, simply fade away just because he had no Quirk. That's why I not only passed it on to him, but that's why until the day my ember finally dies out, I'm going to do everything in my power to train him, and prepare him for the responsibility such power places upon him, as all Heroes must learn. I'm going to see to it Midoriya-shonen is truly ready before my time comes to an end."

Oleg was genuinely speechless hearing all this, but not for the same reasons as before. All Might never sleepwalked through his numerous speeches; he always exuded confidence and passion in everything he said. But this was different; this was something on a whole new level of personal for the Symbol of Peace. This was a man admitting to his own mortality, but also finally giving voice to a long-sought-after purpose to his life that reinvigorated his spirit like nothing ever could. It was honestly nothing short of inspiring.

"But, with that all being said, I know that I can't give him the training and the education he needs; not all of it. That's why I want to ask you to help me in that goal, Tunguska." All Might's request came so suddenly, Oleg felt completely blindsided. This wasn't the same as working as a teacher, this was taking on the role of a full-on mentor. Even with his past status as an icon of the entire Soviet Union, he had never taken up such a task. However, All Might's resolve did not wane. "Midoriya-shonen needs all the guidance and training he can get from all the Pro Heroes he can, and that includes you, my friend. To be honest, this was one of the unspoken reasons I had first approached you back then."

He could see the accusatory look beginning to form in Oleg's eyes, but he was already one step ahead as he interjected: "Make no mistake, everything I said about this being a chance for your son to start over, I meant every word of that, and I still do. Your boy proved himself today, no matter what. However, I can't lie to you and say that I don't need your help with other things, because I do. You know the entirety of the truth now, don't you? Surely that must mean something." As much as Oleg greatly disliked the idea of having had a portion of All Might's truth concealed from him, after he had specifically asked for all of it, he could not deny that the Symbol of Peace was making up for it now.

"All right…so you want me to try and do my part in training Midoriya; but isn't that what I'm technically already going to be doing as a teacher to these children?" All Might let out another heavy sigh as he began to proceed further down the hall in contemplation of his own words. "It's not going to be the same as all that, Tunguska. You are not simply acting as a teacher, either to Midoriya-shonen, your son, or the kids that have all come here to prove themselves today.

"Midoriya-shonen; he is inheriting my Quirk, and ultimately my title as the new Symbol of Peace; and the innocent need that symbol if our world is to truly shine and prosper in the years to come. Bezpalov-shonen; he is learning to break out of his own shell in order to take the first step forward in his new life, and achieve his rightful place as the next Sun of Justice. And every other youth that steps into these hallowed walls…every year this school takes in bright-eyed hopeful future Heroes who want to bring justice and hope to the people they care about, to the world at large.

"That is the responsibility we as Heroes naturally accept when we are given our place in life. Just as much as Midoriya-shonen, as Bezpalov-shonen, they all carry the potential to be the brightest beacons of hope the world has ever seen, and Heroes like you and me need to give everything we have to help them understand their inherent responsibility, and everything they need in order to be the Top Heroes they were born to be. I'm not asking you to prioritize one over the other, but I am asking you to stand with me, and give your all to helping them all become the very best Heroes they can be."

Oleg was shaken by the sheer conviction in what All Might was saying, and he agreed with every word of it. It was pretty much the same as every speech his own father and grandfather had given him when he was training to take their place as the Soviet Union's greatest Hero. It was the responsibility of the past to pass on everything it had for the future to inherit and build off of. After years of thinking such a thing would never come to pass, he had now taken his rightful place in that timeless cycle, and he was going to not only help his son, but countless other future Heroes become the force for good that the world so increasingly needed.

Oleg Bezpalov, Tunguska's heart was resolute with newfound purpose as he actually grabbed All Might's shoulder and forced the Top Pro Hero to look in his eyes, visibly surprised by the likewise determination now reflected in them. "I understand…and I accept. You have my word, All Might, that I, Tunguska, the Sun of Justice, shall stand with you and give everything that is in my power to give, in order to help my son, malenkii (little) Midoriya and every last student in this school become the greatest Heroes the world has ever seen."

At first, All Might had a glimmer of what almost looked like sentimentality somewhere within those obscured eyes, before he suddenly burst into another booming fit of boisterous laughter. "'Malenkii Midoriya'? Is that supposed to be your equivalent of my 'Midoriya-shonen'?" By now, even Oleg couldn't help but laugh right alongside him. "Well, if I keep getting compared to you as a great Pro Hero, I might as well take what works for you."

---

A whole week had passed since the entrance exam, and each day brought Nikolay a whole new wave of stress. He had honestly felt terrible since that written exam had ended, since his shyness and nervousness together had boiled over to the point that he took off before he and that friendly pink girl could exchange phone numbers like she'd wanted to. At least once every hour he was mentally chastising himself for not even having the decency to give her his name, or better yet, even ask hers. Now, no matter how the exam results turned out, how the hell were they going to contact each other? She was literally the only person he now had anything of a rapport with, and he'd completely blown it in every conceivable way.

That was one of the main reasons he found himself more open to Quirk training with Oleg in the basement since then: it provided a good enough distraction from his guilt for a few hours. Unfortunately, that was where all the benefits ended.

BWOOOM! SMASH!

[[Come on, Kolya, what is going on? You were able to fire and not get moved an inch at the exam! What did you do differently then?]] Oleg had long since stopped trying to hide his frustration, as he once more had to help yank Nikolay free from the progressively deeper dent in the basement wall he kept getting himself lodged into.

[[I don't know, Dad. Trust me, if I did, I'd be doing it. I take a few more hits like that, and I'm going to be rupturing a water line. Can we please stop for today?]] The umpire armor and the helmet were barely managing to hold up each time he got himself thrown back into the wall, but the soreness was nothing compared to his own frustration at himself. The fact he'd managed to one time perfectly control his Quirk was also a constant subject on his mind, and the fact that for the past week, he had not been able to replicate that success once, left him feeling worse than anything else.

Oleg let out a defeated grumble as he motioned for his son to remove the protective gear. [[I just don't understand why you aren't able to do it again. The new school year is going to be starting soon, and I need to have my entire curriculum ready, and that's on top of the linguistics practice in order to study for a Pro Hero license so I can actually take you or another student under my wing for an internship. I can't be spending all the time trying to reel you back into the proper place for controlling your Quirk. You think the entrance exam was intense enough, but I guarantee you it's only going to get more demanding from here on out, and I need to know for certain you can handle your own power.]]

Knock, knock, knock

The resolute pounding at the front door brought father and sons' grievances to an end as Oleg and Nikolay hurried up the steps. Upon opening the door, they were met with a wide, flat box, and a pristine-looking envelope sitting atop it. As he picked it up, Oleg felt a surge of excitement as he saw the envelope with Nikolay's name stenciled upon it, while the box was adorned with his own. 'Oh my God…this is it. I didn't think they would be able to refurbish my old Hero suit so soon, especially if they were trying to keep it to the original materials and parameters.'

All the while, Nikolay's eyes went wide when he saw the envelope with his name, silently plucking it from atop the box and holding it in his trembling hands like it was the most sacred of ancient texts. Oleg could feel the maelstrom of emotions dwelling in his sons' head as he hesitated to open it.

[[What's the matter, Kolya? This is what you've been waiting for all week, isn't it?]] Oleg asked as he set his box aside, far more occupied with this strange spell of hesitation on Nikolay's part, especially after he had pushed himself so hard through the exam. The boy had seemed so down in the days since then, he would have thought it natural he would be chomping at the bit to finally find out how he did.

[[It is, Dad, it is. It's just that…no matter what result, I can't help but start feeling nervous again. If I was good enough, and they accepted me, then I'm still going to be surrounded by nothing but Quirk users, all of them definitely a lot stronger and more skilled than me. And not just that, but…I know they'll be counting on me, too; and I just can't stop thinking about this. The only reason I did anywhere as good as I did in the practical exam was because I knew what was at stake, and that was just a test. If we're learning how to be Heroes and put our lives in danger, and I keep choking when I try to get my Quirk to come out…I'm going to be putting other peoples' lives in danger, and I-I don't know if I can handle the thought of someone dying because of me.]]

Nikolay was beginning to get choked up with tears, before Oleg pulled him into a strong yet fatherly hug, all too understanding of his sons' concerns. He, more than anyone Nikolay could think of, understood that fear far too well, and why Nikolay would hold himself back from his own future because of it. [[I promise you, Kolya, that that's not going to happen. You'll have me, and so many other Heroes there to help guide you down the right path, to help you learn everything you need to in order to not only master your Quirk, but be able to handle any situation that comes your way in order to protect all those around you, like the true Hero I know you can be.]]

Nikolay's heart was definitely steadied by the calming air of confidence in Oleg's words, but Nikolay still could not shake the other side of his fears away. [[But…on the other hand, what will I do if I wasn't good enough? If Yuuei doesn't accept me, what will I do?]] Oleg had feared this question above many others, but thankfully All might and many of his other fellow faculty members had taken care to inform him of the number of alternative options that would still be open to his son. [[If that happens, it's not the end of the world, Kolya. Japan has plenty of reputable Hero schools available to those that want to learn. If you didn't make the cut here, I'll just keep training you until you're ready to take one of their entrance exams next year. By then, I know you'll be ten times the aspiring Hero you already are.]]

Nikolay could appreciate what his father was trying to say, even if the more pragmatic side of his brain could not dispel the impracticality of a then sixteen-year-old applying to be a first-year student. However, after everything that had been said, with his eyes once more falling upon the envelope in his hands, he swallowed a nervous lump and accepted that there was no delaying the inevitable any longer.

His breath hitched in his throat as he tore the rim of he envelope and pulled what looked like a plain piece of paper. As soon as he unfolded it, however, a blinding light emanated, forming a holographic screen to reveal, of all things, a bipedal white mouse with a scar, dressed in slacks, a dress shirt and a sweater vest; sitting at a respectable oak desk and looking professionally into the camera.

"Greetings and salutations, Nikolay Olegovich Bezpalov. I am Nezu, headmaster of Yuuei Academy. This video letter is to inform you of your final results in this years' entrance exam. Now, the final decision as to whether you have passed or not, is based on the final score you achieved between the practical exam, and the written exam. Now, I am pleased to inform you that, due to your visibly lacking grasp of written Japanese grammatical rules, primarily in kanji, you did well enough to obtain an overall score of 30 on the written exam."

Nikolay actually felt a sparking of what felt like excitement begin to form in the pit of his stomach; his grip on the paper turning his knuckles white beneath his gloves.

"However, I have the unfortunate duty of informing you that your total score on the practical exam, between the three Villains you were actually able to dispatch in the allotted time, only amounted to six points, which, I regret to say, is not enough, even with your written exam score, to grant you acceptance into Yuuei Academy."

Nikolay and Oleg both felt a frigid block of ice drop and shatter in the pits of their stomachs at this announcement. Oleg had half a mind to explode into a shouting frenzy, while Nikolay felt every last word he could have said turn to ash in his throat. 'So, this is it. This is what it all was for.' He could not even summon the strength for tears, even despite the worries he had just expressed. To know that, even for how far he had actually managed to push himself, it was all for nothing; that feeling was somehow worse than anything else.

"However, this had been the uneasy verdict we had to make, prior to the intervention of two of your fellow exam participants." Nezu's continued announcement brought Nikolay and Oleg right back as they continued watching with bated breath and curiosity.

The video feed suddenly switched to the sharp-toothed boy with the black bowl cut, standing nervously in a large auditorium-looking room. "I understand you have a request you would like to make regarding the total entrance exam score for Examinee 1945, Nikolay Bezpalov. Is that correct, Examinee 1349, Kirishima Eijirou?" Nezu's voice asked from off screen, as the boy straightened himself up, looking awkwardly up past the camera.

"Y-yes, that's right. I, uh…I understand I scored pretty well between the practical and written exams, mostly the practical. So I-I wanted to see if it was possible to maybe share some of those points with him. You know, to help him out. N-not enough to where I don't make the cut, you understand." Nikolay couldn't believe what he was actually hearing. Was this for real?

"I see. And, may I ask why exactly it is you would want to subtract any of your points to go towards a fellow examinee after the scores had already been finalized?" The boy named Eijirou fumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head nervously as he looked away from the camera in thought. "Well, you see…even though my Quirk pretty much keeps me from getting hurt by most things, h-he still went in to see if I was okay. In that kind of test with a time limit, you don't really see a lot of people do that kind of thing.

"And when that robot I was fighting attacked, he didn't even hesitate; h-he actually fought back against it to protect us both, even though I'm sure he p-probably knew what it would do to him. If somebody's Quirk has an-ah, what's the word…adverse? Y-yeah, if someone's Quirk has an adverse effect, they don't go using it that recklessly. But he did, for somebody he didn't even know. Someone who does something m-manly like that, they deserve as much of a shot as the rest of us."

Nikolay's eyes were beginning to sting with the beginnings of tears; tears that finally began to run down his pale, delicate-looking face, when the video suddenly cut to the image of a girl with pink skin, fluffy pink hair, little yellow horns, and eyes of black and gold, reflecting a glimmer of determination as she stood confidently in the same place.

"I understand you have a request you would like to make regarding the total entrance exam score for Examinee 1945, Nikolay Bezpalov. Is that correct, Examinee 1917, Ashido Mina?" She didn't even hesitate or stutter with her words like Eijirou did, never once taking her eyes off where the judges were. "That's right. I know I didn't score that well on the written exam, but I also know I scored within the top three of my group in the practical exam. That's why I want to share however many of my points I need to, to help him make it in."

There was so much confidence in what she was asking, that it was frankly unbelievable. Even Nezu's voice displayed an air of disbelief at how easily she was asking to have her points donated, after all the hard work she had put in. "I-I see. Your score on the practical exam was most impressive, but are you quite certain you wish to donate as many points as would be needed for him to pass? He did score quite low, you see."

Despite the headmasters' warning, the girl, Mina, did not look the least bit shaken. In fact, that question only seemed to make the determined look on her face become even more so.

"I know that. I saw the final scores out by the entrance, that's why I wanted to ask you to do this. I know I have a lot of points, and I want to help him get in." As the video kept playing, Oleg's eyes slowly shifted to look at his son, who looked utterly astounded at just what was unfolding before him.

"I see. And, if you don't mind my asking, why exactly is it that you wish to subtract any of your points to help a fellow examinee after the final scores have been placed?" For a few tense moments, Mina looked to be deep in thought as to what exactly she wanted to say. However, in the end, her once determined face had softened to one of genuine compassion.

"At first, I wanted to say it was because he went out of his way to save me during the practical exam, twice, even; but that…that wouldn't be the whole truth. Honestly, I know he could come across as nervous or high-strung…scared, even. I know that's not what anyone thinks of when they think of a Hero. But, despite all of that, even when he was clearly scared about everything, he still went out of his way to fight and help, even when he could have easily run away.

"I think that, even though he might be scared about a lot of things on the outside, he still wants to help people and do the right thing, no matter what that looks like. Someone like that, they deserve a shot at Yuuei just as much as anyone else. That's why."

On the other side of the camera, the judges remained deathly silent for what felt like a very long time, while Mina just remained where she stood, just barely showing a sign of anxiousness for their response. Finally, the sound of footsteps echoed from behind.

"I have to say, Ashido-san; have you always been this verbose and passionate when pleading your case on someone else's behalf? Because if so, I can scarcely understand how it was you barely managed to squeeze out a score of 15 on your written exam." At this, Mina's once confident demeanor instantly changed to one of total embarrassment as she looked away from the camera, chuckling in humiliation to herself.

Before it could go any further, the video finally returned to Nezu sitting attentively behind his desk. "With the testimonies of these two fellow examinees of yours, Bezpalov-san, I believe it is time I parted unto you a lesson I feel you should take to heart. You see: the big difference these days between true Heroes and other Quirk-users is that Heroes do more than simply fight Villains. Heroes fight for something more than their own image, and they fight from more than just their own impulsive emotions.

"No, true Heroes act with their minds and their hearts, and they fight for the safety and well-being of others, helping those that cannot help themselves, no matter what deed such action entails. In the case of the practical exam, these deeds are rewarded through a little secret tally we refer to as 'Rescue Points', which your deeds today have managed to earn you quite a bit.

"Those traits of honor and selflessness are exactly what we here at Yuuei strive to impart upon the bright-eyed hopefuls that come through our doors. Bezpalov-san, you have displayed such honorable traits through your experience in the exam, just as your two fellow examinees displayed such selflessness in their own ways as well.

"That is why I am proud to say that not only will their requested point values be added unto yours through the Rescue Point tally, but as Headmaster, I shall do so without having to actually deduct from their actual scores as well." Nezu began to break into a momentary fit of almost hysterical laughter before Nikolay or Oleg could try to work out the skewed logic of that declaration, but the white mouse just as quickly regained his composure and returned to facing the camera.

"Yes, well, with that all having been said; Nikolay Olegovich Bezpalov-san, I am happy to say that in light of this recent reevaluation, taking in your sum total of Rescue Points, your total entrance exam score has been raised from its original 36 points, to a new official total of 66 points. And with that, I extend unto you my sincerest congratulations, and welcome you as a new official student of Yuuei Academy; your new Hero Academia!"

With that, the holographic video feed ended, and Nikolay and Oleg were left in dumbstruck silence. Oleg was on the verge of crying out in ecstatic jubilation, only barely managing to restrain the impulse as he pulled the shell-shocked Nikolay into the father of all bear hugs.

As this was going on, Nikolay couldn't figure out what to feel; incomparable excitement and a feeling of belonging…or a deep and foreboding sensation of fear and apprehension in his guts. The only physical sign of either of these reactions he was showing in that moment, was that the projection paper would not stop trembling uncontrollably in the vice grip his hands had on it.

Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter. Be sure to leave any reviews if you like, and as I said before, you'll be receiving the next chapter next week on 01/30! So until then, stay safe, and have a great day!