Chapter 19: USJ Test

Joey

The days after Joey and Eri had become official felt…surreal. Some things remained the same; they still had schoolwork to do, they still worked together for school, and they still hung out with Jougo and Rukia; and Sakura since she and Jougo started dating. And yet, some things were very different, very different. Joey noticed how sweet Eri smelled; like cherry blossoms and apples and his heart would beat faster whenever she was nearby. They kissed a lot now, made out too when they had time. Eri wasn't as shy as he thought she would be once they were a couple and yesterday, she had pressed her small but athletic body close to him whenever she could. Unfortunately, life is not like a lovey-dovey shoujo manga.

Eri never forgot that she wanted to be a Hero, and still trained with Kasai. Every blow he landed on her made Joey wince, knowing that Eri would hate him if he tried to stop her. She was determined to become a stronger fighter so she wouldn't need to rely on others when it mattered. The only thing that made watching her spar against the fire-weapon wielding boy bearable was being able to see how quickly she was improving; Joey watched as Eri managed to dodge a kick from Kasai and then landed a kick to his side. Kasai smiled at Eri, "Good job, Eri-chan, you finally landed a hit on me."

Eri smiled, and then Kasai went at her faster than she could react and landed a hard hit to her stomach. "Don't let your guard down, Eri-chan," he said as she crumbled to the ground with the wind knocked out of her. "Un…der…stood…" Eri managed to gasp out as Joey helped her stand up. "I'd say we're done today," Kasai said, "Good work. Keep it up, Eri-chan." The small boy walked away, and Joey asked Eri, "Are you alright? Do you want to go to the Nurses?" Eri took a second to catch her breath and told him, "No, I'm alright, it's not that serious." Eri had a fiery look in her eyes, it reminded him of his older sister and he nodded. Eri took his hand, and they walked back to the dorms together, and Joey's heart started beating a mile a minute. Her hand was so small in his, but she squeezed it with a strength and confidence that let him know that she didn't want him to protect her; she had to be a Hero on her own merits, her own strength.

"I hate that you have to do this," Joey told her as they walked to her room. "I know. I don't like how hard Kasai is, but I need this, Joey. You'd never be this hard on me, that's why I wanted him to teach me. The only way I can get stronger is if I go Further Beyond. There's a reason our school's motto is 'Plus Ultra', you have to push yourself past your limits to be a great Hero," Eri said and reassuringly squeezed his hand. They reached her room, and Eri gave him a kiss goodbye before shutting the door. Joey headed back to the boy's dorms, and his happy thoughts ended when he caught Kurosawa Toshiro standing in front of his door.

"This is not a good time, Kurosawa," Joey said. "I don't care," the skinny boy said, "We need to talk about you and Sakkie." Joey snorted and said, "There's nothing to talk about. She kissed me a few times, and tried to do more, but I decided she wasn't for me. That's all." Kurosawa looked at Joey as if he forgot how to talk. "Th-then I…what abou…I thought…" Kurosawa couldn't think of what to say and Joey couldn't stop himself from smirking, "Not so smart now, huh?" The skinny teen blushed at this and angrily started walking away, "Just you wait, Freeman. Today we're going to the USJ, and I'm going to beat you just like I did at the Heroes vs. Villains exercise." And then to emphasize the statement, a portal opened underneath Joey and dropped him at the entrance of the dorms.

"That jerk," Joey muttered as he headed back to his room again.

Unfortunately, Kurosawa was right. Once everyone was in the classroom, Shinso-sensei announced that they were doing rescue mission exercises and told everyone to get in their costumes. Joey got dressed and everyone took busses to the site of the USJ Training Simulation Room. Inside they found Thirteen-sensei and Midnight waiting for them. "Welcome first years to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint," Thirteen-sensei announced, "Here we have a variety of environments and situations which you'll have to tackle in order to teach you how to deal with nearly any situation you might face as Heroes." Midnight then spoke up, "Today you will be working in teams of two, competing against other teams in order to learn how to work with others as well as facing competition with other Heroes. Although in the modern era competition is not as important as it used to be, think of this to motivate you. The teams that lose will be put through even tougher training for the rest of the week, supervised by me." Joey really did not like the sadistic aura coming off of his adoptive mother and felt extra motivation to win.

There were 3 boxes in front of the teachers, two red and one blue, and inside the red boxes were balls with numbers on them inside the boxes. One by one everyone took a ball and paired up, Joey ended up teaming with Asui Satsuki, Eri got teamed up with Jougo this time, while Rukia teamed up with Sakura Pellegrini. Kurosawa got paired up with Daiji Bankei, Jorogumo Yuto was paired with Gomu Keiko while Hikari Aoi was teamed up with Awata Kenji. Kasai was teamed up with Takota Chiaki, Kuroda Sadako got Nekoto Goro and Toyota Akira was paired with Izumi Kota. The last to pair up were Mori Haru and Mine Sakkie.

Once everyone was paired up Midnight announced, "Alright then, one person from each team step up to the blue box and pull out a card with the name of the Disaster Zone you will be assigned to! The assignment is: to rescue a distressed civilian robot while battling against other villain robots that will try to stop you! Along the way, you'll be completing against other teams to see who completes the assignment first!" Joey walked forward when his turn came and pulled out a card from the blue box. The card said, "Blizzard Zone." Asui Satsuki looked at Joey when he gave her the card and said, "This will be a problem. I'm really sensitive to cold because of my Quirk, so when I get too cold, I go into hibernation like certain species of frogs."

"We'll think of something, Asui-chan," Joey assured his teammate, and then Kurosawa walked over to him. Joey couldn't see his smirk because of his mask, but it was apparent in the portal user's voice when he said, "We're going to win this easy. Just give up now, Freeman." Joey's yellow eyes started to glow as he transformed into his wolfman form and told him, "Kurosawa, after I beat you, I'm going to win this thing." Kurosawa glared back at Joey, and the two boys looked like they were ready to come to blows before Midnight's whip cracked between them. "That. Is. Enough," Joey's adopted mother said, glaring at both of them, but Joey felt like she had a stronger, more disappointed look for him alone.

"Alright then," Thirteen-sensei declared once the two boys were separated, "The team of Ribby and Silverwolf will be competing against the team of Warp and Asura in the Blizzard Zone. The team of Onihime and Paladin will be competing against the team of Arachnid and Rubber Girl in the Flood Zone. The team of Miss Clay and Minerva will be competing against the team of Blaster and Bubble Boy in the Conflagration Zone. The team of Archangel and Octogal will be competing against the team of Onryo and Feline in the Landslide Zone. And finally, the team of Wheeler and Water Hose will be competing against the team of Green Man and Ms. Succubus in the Ruins Zone.

"This will NOT be like the Battle Trials, you are not actively fighting each other, you are competing. There will be a robot acting as a civilian in need of rescuing along with robotic Villains like what you faced in the Entrance Exam. Rescue the civilian and evacuate them out of the Disaster Zone with as little damage as possible to them and you win. Now then, the robot busses will take you all to your assigned Zones. Good luck to everyone," Thirteen-sensei concluded her speech, and they all took their assigned busses. "Good luck, Eri, Jougo, Rukia," Joey man aged to say before they separated. "Good luck, Joey," they all said, and Eri gave him a kiss on his cheek before they headed to their respective zones.

"This won't go too good for me," Satsuki, aka Ribby, told Joey during the ride. They were far enough from Kurosawa and Bankei that they couldn't hear them, and she was speaking quietly. "I got an idea," Joey said, then he thought about his idea and felt his cheeks warm up. I really hope this doesn't make Eri jealous, he thought, then plunged ahead. "You'll ride on my back, piggy-back. My body's a lot warmer when I'm transformed, I'm sure my fur will keep us both warm," he told her. Satsuki blushed a little and started twiddling her thumbs, "Isn't that…too intimate. Especially since you have a girlfriend and all." Joey said with more confidence than he felt, "Eri will understand that I'm helping out a teammate." I hope.

They were taken to the Blizzard Zone and looked up. Joey focused his hearing and heard a robotic voice saying, "Please help me. I'm injured. Please help me. I'm injured. Please help me…" over and over again. Joey whispered to Satsuki, "I know which way to go. Get ready." The robot driver told the Heroes-in-Training, "Please wait until Thirteen gives the signal to start." Joey looked over at Bankei and Kurosawa talking to each other and motioning to Joey, and he had an idea of what they would do. They're planning on following me, then taking the credit for the rescue since their own Quirks won't help them find the 'civilian'. Well then, I guess I'll just give them the runaround. Unless Kurosawa's stronger than I thought, he needs to know where his portals go to use them. He needs to have been there or see where he's sending the portals. I'll just race ahead on the wrong way, and once they're distracted, I'll head for the 'civilian'.

After two minutes, the voice of Midnight sounded over the loudspeakers, "HEROES! BEGIN!" Once she said this, Warp and Asura aka Kurosawa and Bankei started moving. Joey bent down and told Satsuki, "Hop on, Ribby." The girl was blushing as she grabbed on to Joey's neck with her arms and wrapped her legs around his torso. Joey swallowed, Okay…Satsuki has a very…nice body… FOCUS FREEMAN! Stupid hormones! Joey growled to focus on his objective and ran into the snowy area. After five minutes he sniffed the air and smelled Warp and Asura ahead of him, they were heading in the right direction!? "The Hell?! How can they know where to go!?" Joey said out loud. "What's wrong?" Ribby asked him.

"I can hear the civilian robot we need to rescue, and I can smell the competition. They're heading the right way, but I don't know how since their Quirks can't help them find it. It might be luck, but we need to get ahead of them. Hold on tight," Joey told her. He immediately started running on all fours through the snowy Blizzard Zone. Ribby held on tightly to him, and Joey had to focus to not get distracted by certain…soft things pressing against his back. The snow was blowing and around, but Joey was led more by smell and sound than by sight, and quickly started catching up with Warp and Asura.

Joey turned and moved away from them to make sure they couldn't see him, and soon got ahead of them. "Ribby, you got anything that can let us keep track of the other guys?" Ribby went, "Kero, I got goggles with a magnifying function." She was slower than usual, but still talking at least as she looked back over her shoulder. "Warp and Asura are behind us, and they look lost," she said, then did a sweep of the area, "We got company coming from two o'clock, half a click away and closing in." Joey grunted, and then made sure of the civilian robot's location. The Villain robots were practically right on top of the civilian robot. Joey snarled and charged in that direction. "Silverwolf, I'm going to jump off you when the fighting starts to help. If we end this quick then I shouldn't go into hibernation," his partner said, and Joey growled in agreement.

Joey aka Silverwolf soon heard the Villain robots and Ribby jumped off him and used her camouflage ability to avoid being seen. Silverwolf grabbed the first robot and tossed it into a second one, destroying them. Ribby jumped one and used her tongue to grab another and pull it into the one she was on, destroying both of them too. She jumped back onto Silverwolf's back and clung to him tightly, her body shivering from the cold. Joey saw two more robots coming and grabbed some debris from the other four robots. With perfect accuracy he nailed the last two Villain robots, and then listened for the civilian robot.

He heard her and started digging. Ribby looked back and said, "Warp is closing in on us!" The next second a portal opened up under Joey and he sidestepped it. Kurosawa and Bankei emerged from the portal. Bankei used his Quirk to start moving snow, and Joey growled, "Get ready Ribby." Kurosawa looked at Joey and said, "Just give up, Silverwolf. We can't fight here. We outsmarted you. No matter what your connections, talent and brains always win in the end."

"I don't know what you think you know about me, Kurosawa, but if you think I made it this far because of 'connections', then you are dead wrong," Joey growled at him, and ran forward. Warp opened a portal, and Joey narrowly sidestepped it and kept on coming. Warp formed another portal, and Joey again sidestepped it. Joey kicked snow in his direction and Warp hesitated, allowing Joey to make a final leap and run past him. Joey saw Bankei telekinetically lift up the civilian robot from the snow, and then jumped in and grabbed it. "NOW RIBBY!"

His partner had remained camouflaged the entire time, and had moved her position to his front, holding on by his vest. Once he called her, Ribby jumped, lifting herself, Joey, and the robot through the air and far away, obscured by the artificial blizzard of the Disaster Zone. Ribby climbed down and got back on his back, and Joey held the civilian robot in his arms princess style as he ran all the way back down the mountain, to see robots waiting for them. "The team of Silverwolf and Ribby win," the robots announced. Joey returned to his normal form and put the civilian robot down gently. Five minutes later, a portal opened up and the losing team emerged. Kurosawa glared daggers at Joey and Joey gave him a giant shit-eating grin in response. Victory felt good.

Joey was smiling the entire time they headed back to the entrance of the USJ, and saw Eri, Rukia, and Jougo all had similar smiles on their faces, they had all passed this test. Once everyone was there, Thirteen-sensei said, "Good job everyone. You all did your best and are earning your way to become Heroes. Now, we will review your performances, and talk to each of you tomorrow. For now, go and rest up, kids."

"We won!" Eri yelled in excitement, and the rest of their friends and their teammates joined her. "That was so close though," Jougo said. "Who cares, you guys still did it," Joey said with a friendly pat on his back. Joey wrapped his other arm around Eri, and together they headed back to the bus, this had been a good day for Joey.

Later, after school was over, Joey headed for Aizawa-sensei's office. He had butterflies in his stomach, but he knew he had to do this. He knocked on the door to the older Hero's office and Aizawa-sensei said, "Come in." Joey swallowed and went inside. Aizawa-sensei was nursing a cup of coffee and finishing typing something on his computer. "Joey," he said as a greeting. Joey took a deep breath and said, "Aizawa-sensei, can I speak to you, about Eri." Aizawa looked up at Joey and his glare was piercing, more intimidating than any look Joey had received from the older man. "May I…take your daughter on a date this Saturday?" Joey said, and then bowed in proper Japanese style.