MHA Demons tale

Chapter 2: Push it to the Limit!

Kira sat in his room, nervously staring at the training regime his father had written up for him. It looked intense, but he knew it had to be done. He had to be in shape by the time the Entrance Exam came around, in ten months' time. Now was not the time to be doubting himself.

He closed his door and pressed 'play' on his music to pump him up. He picked up the lightest set of weights Kai had ordered for him, and began to lift them. "My life might be, no. My life will be better because of this," he said to himself determinedly. "I'll get away from there, and my life will be better."

Slowly but surely, there was a difference in Kira that his parents noticed. As well as Kai's intense training regime, Fey had come up with an even more intense (Kai referred to it as 'gruelling') study regime which Kira happily did, due to his memory it was much easier than the training. Kira was not shutting himself away as much, preferring to study downstairs as sometimes he needed to pick his parents' brains for information. Hoshi was also at his side whenever he studied, although Kai suspected that was because of the fact that Kira always had a snack with him.

Everything did not always go so swimmingly when it came to the training and studying, however. All of Kira's training and studying had to be done alongside his regular schoolwork, which sadly involved his regular torment at the hands of Mira Sasaki. This meant that he had days where he felt so low he did not get as much done, and on some days nothing at all. On top of everything else, it was exhausting doing extra studying, intense training and keeping it all a big secret from the world. Kira knew that the second he let anything slip, he was done for and all his work would be for nothing.

Kai and Fey caught onto his burnout very quickly, and both made adjustments to their regimes to allow Kira some respite as their original schedules were both made in excitement and had not accounted for this. After a few days of resting more, they noticed great improvement in Kira which invigorated their excitement all over again, but they both kept themselves from getting caught up in it and exhausting Kira again.

All too soon, the week before the Entrance Exam was upon them. However, this did not mean Kira was taking anything lightly and nor were his parents letting him, a fact reminded to him as he was doing one of his runs while pushing Kai in his wheelchair for what felt like the thousandth time, and he was currently at his least favourite part of it: hills.

He hated it for two reasons: the primary being that it was exhausting, but the close runner-up was his father's annoying commentary as he was doing it. "He's close to the top, ladies and gentlemen! But will he get his poor old dad up the hill? Stay tuned and find out!" Kai exclaimed in a jokey game show host voice

Kira growled in annoyance behind him. "If I keep having to listen to you, don't count on it, old man!" he snapped. It was something he had been putting up with for too long, and couldn't wait to see the back of it.

"Oh no, folks! Will Kira lose the will and let his crippled father roll down the hill to his death?" Kai gasped jokily, turning to look at his increasingly annoyed son.

Kira's hands tightened around the chair's handles. "Don't tempt me!" he warned his father, shooting him daggers.

"Come on Kira, you know I'm only kidding. I'm so proud of how far you've come," Kai told him sincerely. "When we started, you couldn't even get me up this hill. Now look at you, we're almost at the top. I haven't been saying this enough, but I am proud of you."

"Thanks," Kira replied. "But I know exactly why you haven't been saying it enough: you've been spending so much time coming up with stupid commentary, and playing training music from the 'Rocky' movies!"

Kai gasped in mock offence. "Kira! Everyone knows the 'Rocky' soundtrack is the best training music in the world!"

Kira rolled his eyes. "If I have to hear 'Eye of the Tiger' one more time, I'm pushing you into moving traffic!" he warned, but he couldn't stop a smile from spreading over his face. This was something that had been happening more often: he was smiling, and he continued to do so as he reached the top of the hill.

Once upon a time, Kira would have been gasping for breath after a feat like that, but both father and son were pleased to see that Kira was barely breaking a sweat as they came to a halt. Kai smiled at Kira, who had paused to drink from his water bottle.

"I know you can do this, Kira," Kai told his son, who flashed him a glance as he gulped his water down. "You're going to prove everyone wrong and come out on top, I know you will."

Kira lowered his bottle and smiled at his father again, a sight which Kai wasn't very used to seeing, but he didn't complain about it in the slightest. "Thanks, Dad. I really want things to be different for me," he replied, running a hand through his long black hair, lightly brushing his horn as he did so. "I'm hoping this is the start of it."

"It is the start of it. Don't you worry, son. You'll be a great hero, probably even greater than me or your mother." Kai paused, making a dramatic thinking face, even stroking his chin which looked rather ridiculous as the man possessed no facial hair. "But you certainly won't be as good as me when it comes to being witty, Kira."

Kira rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "What, annoying the villains into submission?" he asked mockingly, taking the handles of his father's wheelchair to begin pushing him back home.

"Hey, it worked!" Kai defended with a laugh. "Don't knock it till you try it!"

"I'll pass, old man," said Kira, shaking his head at his father, although he couldn't help laughing along with him.

"'Old'? How disrespectful!" Kai laughed, as Kira continued to laugh with him as they began to traipse back down the hill.

The walk through Musutafu was quiet for the most part, until something at an electronics store caught Kai's eye, and he signalled to Kira to stop for a moment.

Kira followed his father's gaze and found he was looking at a television in the store. It appeared to be playing a concert at the Zeffo Lounge, the camera panning over a screaming audience. "You know who that is, don't you?" Kai asked, motioning towards the television, where a young pink-haired girl around Kira's age was performing. Her pretty face was covered in glittery make-up and she wore a gold sequin dress which shone under the stage lights, a cropped red jacket over her shoulders and black cowgirl boots with swirls of silver glitter adorned her feet. A microphone was hooked over her ear, which she appeared to be singing her heart out into.

Kira knew exactly who she was, as this was not the first time this particular pop star had been pointed out to him. "I'm well aware, Dad," he said, slightly exasperated as he watched the singer practically skip around the stage, holding her hand out to brush against her fans' eagerly outstretched ones as she passed. "I've heard her music, she's not really my taste."

Kai simply shrugged as they continued walking. "I hear she's good live in concert," he commented. "A real little showgirl, they say. And she's only your age, as well."

"That's just an image, Dad," Kira replied, rolling his eyes. "Underneath all that glitter, I bet you she's nothing but a diva. All pop stars are like that, hence why I don't like pop. My music on the other hand, the bands are all down to earth. They're legit."

Kai shrugged again. This wasn't the first time Kira dismissed what seemed to be popular. He was insistent on being different, even right down to the music he listened to.

"Very well then, let's head on home," Kai said, defeated as it was clear as day to him that he wouldn't get through to Kira on this subject, no matter how hard he tried.

The days would carry on like this for Kira and his family, with the only change being Fey gave Kira some basic fighting training on top of what he was already learning. Days would turn into weeks, weeks would turn into months and before he knew it, the day of the entrance exam was upon him.

Kira could feel his stomach churning with nerves as he got out of his mother's car, seeing U.A. High looming above him and all the other potential students walking past him also trying to get one of the forty places available on the hero course. His body felt as though it was on autopilot as he bade his mother goodbye and began to walk forwards towards the tall building, mingling with the rest of the candidates.

As Kira was walking forward, he caught sight of a curly green haired boy about to fall over his own feet and was about to rush over to make sure he was okay, but stopped when he saw a brunette girl help him with her Quirk. Sensing any help he may have offered wasn't required, Kira made his way inside the school building.

One inside Kira, with all the other potential applicants, were guided to the hall where they took their written exams. This was a piece of cake for Kira and his eidetic memory having remembered everything he had studied for this exam. Eventually after that was done, all the applicants were addressed by a man with large blond hair and a loud voice that Kira found somewhat obnoxious who was known as Present Mic.

Present Mic went through how the practical exam would work. They would be fighting against villain robots that would award them one, two or three points upon their destruction and based on how many points you got you'd get a total score. As it was being explained however, another applicant stood up and pointed out on their explanation packets there was one more robot worth zero points but Present Mic explained it to be something that should one hundred percent be avoided and it was just an obstacle of sorts.

It was also informed that there was a limited number of villain robots available so the applicants would have to compete for points with the others. This made Kira worry a bit as he still wasn't the best fighter and he was worried about being judged for his Quirk. As much as he wanted to try and push those thoughts out of his head they were like a bad rash he couldn't kick lurking in the back of his mind.

Even as he was assigned and went to his exam area, he couldn't push these thoughts to the back of his head. Even if they weren't in reality, it wasn't something he could shake the idea that they were all staring at him like he was a freak, which he had been conditioned to believe. So when it came to waiting around, Kira chose to isolate himself from everyone else by standing a bit away from the back of the group.

At the time it seemed like the best thing for him to do, but as soon as Present Mic let everyone know that the exam started from his tower, Kira soon realised that was actually a horrible idea as he was soon behind everyone else, in running to the exam area which turned out to be a 1:1 scale city replica that U.A used to train it's hero students. As soon as he got there, he saw that the rest of the examinees had all split up in different directions to fight for points ahead of him.

Kira cursed his dark thoughts and shyness as he sprinted to catch back up. He didn't want the past 10 months to go to waste so easily because he was scared of what people thought of him, nor did he want to disappoint his parents. He held out hope that he could easily catch up to the others if he tried… until he arrived at one of the main streets and saw the carnage that had unfolded there. It was a battle ground that was filled with robots that were either attacking the examinees or had been turned into various piles of scrap.

It was very loud as well, with the shouting from examinees fighting over points and explosions from the robots' destruction. It was very overwhelming for him, going at a pace far faster than he ever would have expected and his body didn't know how to react at that moment. His flight or flight instincts were going wild and making him freeze in place uselessly.

That was until he saw it in the corner of his eye. Another examinee, a red haired girl with two giant hands that were just crushing a robot, hadn't seen the second one come up behind her and was about to hit her with its shield-like arm as it said, "TARGET ACQUIRED! I WILL KILL YOU!" Kira saw that she was looking around in shock as she didn't have enough time to react to stop it.

In that moment where everything seemed to slow down for him Kira didn't think anymore. He didn't let the noise or explosion distract or get to him. He just felt an instinct inside of him to do something right there and then to help this girl. He just held up one of his arms, aimed at the robot and from his hand burst a steam of viscous purple fire that engulfed the robot and pushed it into a nearby wall until it exploded.

It took a couple of seconds for him to realise what had truly happened. Not only had he gotten a point but he inadvertently saved a fellow examinee from harm.

"Thanks!" he heard a female's voice say gratefully. "That one was way too quick for me, but you fried it like it was nothing!" Kira blinked, realising the redhead was talking to him. She winked while she spoke, holding a thumbs up before she dashed off to the next robot.

Kira couldn't explain why but after doing that and hearing those words, he felt something inside of him well up and motivate him. Anything that had happened to him before in his past didn't matter because right then, he lived for that moment and that feeling helped carry him through.

Immediately after that, Kira ran off to go find other robots to blast apart with his flames. Some came to him while others were ones he caught attacking people who were caught off guard much like the girl earlier. In fact, that ended up being the case for over half the robots he took down. He was raring and rushing to get more and more points, no longer caring what people thought of his flames. Before he knew it however, the blaring alarm sounded and Present Mic announced the Exam was over.

As soon as that had happened and on his way home from the exam, Kira was left wondering one thing the whole time, "Did I do enough to pass?"

These thoughts lingered for the next week, which both Kai and Fey could see as they watched him around the house, and sometimes caught him muttering to himself trying to figure out if he had passed. Kira had been doing the maths over and over in his head. He had worked out that he had gotten a passing grade in the written exam thanks to his memory, but it was the practical where he was unsure if he had gotten in. During it he had noticed all the robots had numbers written on them to signify how many points they were worth.

His memory let him recall exactly how many of each type he took down give or take. By his estimate he had taken down 6 of the one point robots, 5 of the two point robots and 3 of the three point robots and had gotten 25 points in total. He had wondered if this would have been enough to pass or if it needed to be more. He knew standing away from the group he was in and his hesitation when he had caught up had certainly cost him points, though he wasn't sure how many. He also knew that once the giant skyscraper zero point robot showed up and wrecked havoc on the place, throwing him and many others out of the fighting flow they had gotten in he lost even more points.

However the only crumb of hope he had when it came to this, was nobody knew what the passing level for point was when it came to the practical exam so he, like many hundreds of others were left in the dark like he was, sitting around aimlessly wondering what would happen next. Well Kira was until his faithful hound, Hoshi started his usual barking at the door because the mailman had come, breaking him from his thoughts.

Kira sighed as he got up to go and tame his dog. "Hoshi, give it a rest! It's just the mailman at the… door… In the middle of the night?" Kira paused as this realisation came to not just him but his parents as well, making them all rush to the door in panic and scare the life out of their poor dog.

When they got there it was all what they were hoping for. A letter with a wax seal with the U.A logo stamped into it. The letter they had been waiting for a total of seven days.

"All right, nobody panic! We've been expecting this for some time now so we just need to sit down an-" Fey was trying to calm the atmosphere, but was practically bouncing off the walls as her wings fluttered in excitement.

It took Kai reaching up and putting his hand on her shoulders and saying, "Maybe start with yourself first honey before you get us to calm down."

Kira on the other hand was just holding the letter, staring at it for what seemed like eternity but was only seconds. He was broken out of his trance once again by Hoshi coming up and licking his free hand. Kira looked down at the caring animal's eyes and could see the concern in them for him, clearly sensing his anxiety and doubt for what lay inside.

After some encouragement, Kira was ushered by his parents into their living room to open the letter but once he sat down for a few minutes, they all just sat there silently staring at the letter as everyone could sense the anxiety in Kira at that moment. Eventually it took Kai being himself to break the silence.

"Come on kid you've just gotta do it quick and fast like a bandaid! Just rip it off and then scream at the top of your lungs in a high pitched girly voice!" he said giggling to himself.

The only thing this achieved in the end was incurring the wrath of Fey, who quickly smacked him round the head with a look of anger on her face.

"CAN YOU NOT RIGHT NOW! YOUR SON DOESN'T NEED YOU RUINING HIS MOMENT WITH YOUR POORLY TIMED JOKES!"

This led to a back and forth between them that Kira had heard a million times before, his mother belittling his father who was trying to save face by acting like a lovable idiot. He just sighed and decided that while his mother was trying to pull his fathers cheeks off his face, he might as well open the letter and get it over with, because at the very least it would snap his parents' attention away from each other.

As soon as he opened the envelope to get at the letter inside he saw a small metal disk fall out onto their living room table, which caught the attention of his parents ending their bickering prematurely, especially when as soon as it settled it emitted a holographic projection of a large muscular man with blond hair that had two parts sticking up at the front, wearing a mustard coloured suit that was struggling to hold his physique in.

"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!" the man in the recording yelled out, making them all jump as they immediately recognised who it was but were shocked to see him.

"ALL MIGHT!?" all three yelled out in unison, as they had no idea what was going on as well as scaring Hoshi away by accident. Kira could hear his claws scratching the floor as he scrambled for a hiding spot.

"Greeting young Takahashi! You're probably wondering why I, of all people, are here to tell you of your exam results?" The whole Takahashi nodded in response, acting like All Might could also see them.

"Well you're looking at the newest UA faculty member!" That explanation made all of their jaws practically hit the floor. They had heard since last year that All Might had been spotted around Musutafu more recently, but none of them knew why until that very moment.

"But enough about me! We're here to talk about you and your results!" The mere mention of that made Kira clench his hands tightly as his anxiety went through the roof, causing a small sweat to form on his forehead.

"You passed the written exam with flying colours fortunately! You probably have your mother's memory that was passed onto you to thank for that." Despite hearing this it didn't do much to help how Kira was feeling.

"However, for your practical exam you scored only twenty five combat points. While a good score overall this isn't quite enough to pass the practical exam…" Kira just felt his head drop and tears begin to form. He felt like he had let everyone down with that one statement and the past year had been a total waste of time.

Even when his mother ran over and wrapped her arms and wings around and his dad wheeled himself to the other side to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him it was going to be okay in an attempt to comfort him, it did little to get rid of the heavy feeling in his chest eating away at him. It seemed to him like nothing would get rid of this feeling, until he heard All Might speak up again.

"... IF that's all there was to it!" Take a look at this screen." All their heads shot back up as they looked at the projection and Kira's eyes went wide as he recognised what he saw. It was the moment where he got his first point by saving the girl with red hair from the robot, and then all the other times he saved people from getting hurt.

"You see, the practical exam was not graded on combat alone. How could a hero course reject someone who was committed to saving others no matter the consequences to himself? After all that is what makes a hero. And that's what my Alma mater is all about. Training those who would risk their lives for the greater good." The screen then showed a scoreboard of all the applicants, and Kira saw his name and the amount of villain points he got.

But his eyes were fixated on the part that was right next to them and what it said. "So we have Rescue Points! A panel of judges watched and they award points for heroic acts beyond just fighting villains. " Kira then saw the number of rescue points he had gotten. "Kira Takahashi! 30 rescue points!" All Might exclaimed.

Kira felt the heavy feeling in his chest melt away and his tears turn from ones of sorrow to ones of joy as All Might exclaimed one more thing.

"You passed your exam young Takahashi! Welcome… To your Hero Academia."

Kira couldn't help but cry more tears of joy and neither could his parents, as they both hugged him tightly and proudly.

"My baby boy is going to U.A.! I can't believe it!" Fey cried out

"I'm so proud of you Kira! You worked hard and earned this! You finally get to follow in our footsteps like you always dreamed of!" Kai exclaimed as he ruffled his son's long hair.

Little did Kira know that his life was going to change forever, in moments he never could have imagined after that day as he new story just began.