"…"

"This is way too big…!"

Shoyu stood in the middle of a crowd that was facing a large, brown door, now having changed into black athletic shorts, his usual sneakers, and a blue training hoodie, sleeves rolled up. The gate itself was several times his height and the city inside was almost a one-to-one replica of a famous shopping and entertainment district, complete with fake restaurants, nightclubs, and even large towers that were virtually indistinguishable from the real deal.

"There'll be multiple robots scattered around the site," Shoyu said, surmising a plan. "I'll only pursue the three-pointers, but if I run into some one or two-pointers then I'll take them out as quickly as possible."

And then, a realization crept its way through Shoyu's subconscious.

"The robots don't have Quirks," he muttered. "They're not eligible for analysis."

Was Countervision useless for the test that would make or break Shoyu's future? Would he be limited to his physical strength and speed? He had known it would be vital for his performance, but he was supposed to leverage every facet of his biology to perform at his peak. He looked down at the ground while his fist shook.

"Calm down, Kanagi…" he said to himself. "I'll work something out."

Everyone gathered closer and closer to the gate in anticipation of the test's beginning, while Shoyu hung back pondering the best possible course he could take to perform well in the entrance exam. As he stood there muttering to himself with his finger on his chin, a loud siren pierced through the air as the heavy doors swung open.

"WHAT'S WRONG? THE TEST'S STARTED! RUN! RUN!" screamed a voice atop the tower where all the paths of the battle centers intersected.

Shoyu looked to see the source of the sound and the voice. It was Present Mic speaking at a deafening volume without any assistance. Even despite his eccentric personality, it was an undeniable fact that he was strong. And because the weak follow the strong, all the potential students of U.A. rushed towards the urban city simulation, including Shoyu.

"THE DIE IS CAST!"

Shoyu was one of the last contestants to enter the gate and strayed from the path that everyone else took, taking a hard right as soon as he entered the battle center and running close to the entrance gate that encircled the fake city.

"If everyone's going that way," Shoyu noted as he ran through the buildings. "There'll be none left for me. I'll take the path where no one else has gone to maximize the amount of robots on my tail."

With his plan succeeding, Shoyu's trajectory crossed with a green, militaristic android with a single, red eye and the number "1" painted on it, both parties coming to a stop. "A one-pointer… unlucky."

Shoyu remained still, his knees bent and shoulders square. Focusing his vision onto the villain bot, Shoyu's eyes transformed; his sclera, pupil, and iris all being overtaken by an ocean-blue as the radar emblem gleaned every bit of possible information from the robot, causing his vision to become more focused, clear, and precise, as all kinds of statistics flooded his brain. Invalid.

"I was right," Shoyu said to himself. "This thing is artificial. There's no Quirk Factor."

Shoyu's eyes returned to their usual white as he braced his muscles, digging his feet into the ground and propelling into a sprint towards the villain bot, to which it responded by reciprocating his intentions and accelerating towards him. It raised an armored forelimb, revealing the shocking object that was found under its ironclad appendage as it prepared for a vertical chop.

"A machine gun?!" Shoyu sputtered.

He focused his sights on the robot's weak points and dived towards the machine gun, using it to swing and position itself onto its back in an impromptu wrestling maneuver, preventing its gunned arm from moving as he grappled it. Shoyu wrapped his arm around the robot's arm as it swung itself around, trying to throw Shoyu off of it.

"I-It doesn't look like the gun works, maybe it's an intimidation factor," Shoyu said, between grunts as he continued to balance himself. "Then I don't need to worry about it."

Veins bulge through the skin of Shoyu's forearms as he straightens his legs and bends his spine back, pulling on the machine gun, and consequently, the villain bot's arm. Alert sirens and incomprehensible, mechanical screams were being emitted from the robot as sparks were released and wires were being ripped. With a hearty shout from Shoyu, the robotic arm was fully ripped off of the robot's body which he used to brutally impale its head, shutting down its systems and earning him one point.

"That…" Shoyu said in between labored breaths. "Took too long."

"But…"

He stood victorious on the robot's corpse as he witnessed numerous demonic orbs in the shadows of the alleyways in front of him. Mechanical whirs slowly became louder and louder as he obtained a clear view of his opponents. Multiple one and two-pointers, as well as a single three-pointer.

"Those sirens were to lure them here, huh?" Shoyu asked, kicking the head of the robot he just defeated. "These things are clever. But…"

Shoyu had a nervous smile on his face as he bent his knees and kept his hands at a distance from his hips, facing all of the robots. Although he felt nervous at the sight of all of them, there was also another peculiar feeling brewing.

"This is a little fun."

"There are those who can assess the situation in an instant," a voice said. "Intelligence gatherers."

"Those who'll never be late to the party. Mobility experts."

"Those who can cope with any given situation. Decision makers."

"And then there are the natural-born warriors… Such a wide battlefield and limited time… brings out the best in them."

It was a dark room with screens, keyboards, and diligent workers in suits that had cameras on every battle site. Numerous individuals were taking notes on every examinee and their performance, noting those who were talented and those who were wasting their time because they wouldn't be getting in.

"L-Look at this!" a masculine voice said, springing up out of his chair and pointing at a screen. It displayed a black-haired, lean teenager wearing a blue hoodie and shorts, atop a building looking over the city, as well as multiple robot corpses scattered behind him.

"Intelligence gatherer, mobility expert, decision maker, natural-born warrior… this kid is all of them!" he emphasized with a shaky voice. "He has 18 points right now, which is a little low, but he's taken care of eleven robots without using his Quirk at all!"

Other individuals were making themselves known in the room. "Hey, isn't that the kid that was excused from the mock exam?" a voice asked.

The room seemed to focus its sights on a peculiar, white-colored bear. "...What can I say? U.A. attracts talent."

A small group of people gathered around the screen. The foremost observer smirked and brushed it off. "This year's quite the bumper crop, but there's no way to know yet."

He walked over to a separate table, flipping open a glass panel to reveal a big, red button labeled Yaruki Switch. Without hesitation, he pressed the button which sounded an alarm across all battlefields. "It begins now!"

Atop the building, Shoyu perched over a ledge, looking for any other robots. The test was soon to end, so he assumed that every other robot was taken care of, a thought that disappointed him. "I only have 18 points. I overheard some other examinees saying they have more than 20."

He sighed, nervous that the now-scarce amount of villain bots and insufficient time would leave him rejected from U.A. He noticed that now, everyone was gathered near the exit, waiting for the test time to finish. As he lamented, alarms around the city began to sound, much to the examinee's confusion. Shoyu backed away from the ledge of the tall building and looked around as the battle center began to rumble.

"Hey, that must be another batch of robots!" a naive voice yelled, running towards the source of the rumbling.

"Idiot… must just be some building falling. We did a number on this site," another voice replied that Shoyu assumed to be his friend. "But, it wouldn't hurt to check."

Shoyu looked at a small portion of the crowd, around four people, running towards the rumbling. Thanks to his tall vantage point, he could look over to the city center and there, he saw a disproportionately colossal robotic monster that was hidden from view of the other contestants due to the buildings.

"The zero-pointer…" he said.

His breath became ragged and panicked as he saw the students absentmindedly running towards a genuine threat. He stepped closer to the ledge and projected his voice as loud as he could.

"DON'T GO THERE!" he shouted, causing them to look towards the building. "IT'S DANGEROUS!"

The four students laughed at Shoyu and brushed him off. "He must be trying to get the points all for himself," they said as they continued running.

Shoyu's panic was exacerbated by their naivety. They continued running towards the source of the rumbling, to which he was now caught at a crossroads.

"They don't see the giant villain-bot. If I go to the exit, I might be able to get off safely… but they don't know what they're running into."

He gripped his head, trying to think. Midoriya's words echoed in his mind again. And then his parent's words.

"You've always been our hero."

He had almost forgotten his promise already. He was going to become a hero to atone for the crimes that the Akuzoma Crime Family committed. That was the promise he made to the people he had loved dearly his whole life. But being a hero for just two people was not being a hero at all.

"Hey, who's that?"

The contestants that stayed back at the exit bore witness to a blue-clad figure soaring through the air. Shoyu had once again summoned the strength of his ancestors to leap at the site of the zero-pointer, hopping off every building that he came into contact with to get closer and closer to the students. He fell into an alleyway where the examinees would now lose sight of him.

"You think we can get that batch of robots before time runs out? There's around three minutes left," one of them asked, fully convinced that they were out of harm's way.

"Maybe," replied another student. "If all goes well."

"WAIT!" cried a voice, causing the four to look back.

Shoyu came to a full stop as he came within a reasonable distance of them. He was panting, hands on his knees and generally looking insane as he tried to plead with them. "That's… the zero pointer," he said between breaths. "It's taller than some of these buildings. It hasn't noticed us, we have to go to the exit."

The students looked at him, recognizing him before bursting out into a chuckle. "Like we'll believe you. You'll just steal the points when we go b-"

Their conversation was short-lived as Shoyu witnessed the building behind them get ripped off of its foundation, courtesy of the final villain bot, the zero-point Executor. The rumbling caused the students, except for Shoyu, to stumble backward as the numerous red dots of the robot's flat face stared back at them.

"W-What the hell…?!" one student shouted. "THAT'S zero points?!"

"Damn it," Shoyu said to himself, looking back at the students who were now paralyzed with fear. "I need to get them out of here. They don't even look like they can walk anymore."

The zero-pointer prepared to send a lunging right hook at the ground, causing Shoyu to act. He was completely aware and accepting of the fact that he had no chance against this robot right now, especially when his only possible support was currently petrified to the ground. He turned and sprinted toward the two students who were on the floor, maneuvering his arms under their armpits and carrying them on either side of his body, their legs flailing from behind him. He passed the other two students who still had their feet on the floor. "Follow me."

His voice was now strict and commanding, not unlike his father. Even when carrying two grown students with one hand each, he still seemed to outpace the other two students who were following suit behind him. Perhaps it was their terror that affected their pace, but he always believed that it would do the opposite. Fear fuels power.

"LESS THAN TWO MINUTES REMAINING!" the sirens announced.

The robot calmly followed the students as they weaved through alleyways, swiping at the foundation of the buildings they were running through causing the scenery to be completely flat and empty as the rubble crashed around them. The debris knocked the students out of Shoyu's hands as well as caused all of them to lose their center of balance, leaving them at the mercy of the zero-pointer.

"Shit…! Need to keep moving…-"

Shoyu placed his foot back on the ground, preparing to grab the students to run once again. But a painful burning introduced itself into his right ankle as the socks he was wearing became noticeably damp. It's a bad omen to trip and fall.

"Blood…"

A piece of the rubble from the villain bot's attacks flew into the position of Shoyu's ankle, restricting his range of motion by an exceptionally large margin. The pain was nothing like ever before; the physical pain from the injury had not bothered him at all, but the pain that he couldn't do anything in the situation laid out before him squeezed his heart. And with merely eighteen points, Shoyu wouldn't even be compensated with an invitation to U.A.

"It's all over…!"

Closing his eyes, he accepted his fate.

When there's nothing to be gained, those who rise to the challenge at those times are the mark of a true hero.

"Pressure Washer. Class: Emitter. Allows the user to release a high-pressure jet of water from their palms. Weakness: Blowback and water deficiency."

"D-Damn it, stay back..!"

Shoyu opened his eyes to where the terrain was indescribably clear to him. He witnessed one student swallow their fear and try to defend themselves by spraying the robot with a pressure washer-like Quirk, which only washed away the paint of the robot's tank-like wheels at most. He had activated Countervision on reflex, to where he would witness this very Quirk operating as a revelation forced itself into his subconscious.

"Counter-Quirk…"

Shoyu quickly repositioned himself to a more comfortable stance that lightened the pressure on his injured foot. As the data concerning the student's Quirk was fully obtained, Shoyu's mind and body transitioned into a state that was prime for assault as his eyes adopted a grim blood-red hue. The fiery passion burning inside of Shoyu focused itself near the soles of his feet as he disappeared in a burst of speed.

"Flamethrower."

It was as if a moment of reality was deleted. The four students, desperately making their escape or trying to defend themself from the villain bot disappeared instantly after Shoyu did. The cameras almost weren't able to capture it. Soaring once again in the sky, there was Shoyu Kanagi, his frame single-handedly holding on to four students in each of his arms, narrowly escaping the hands of Executor.

"A Counter-Quirk can only be used as long as the threat remains a threat," Shoyu thought. "But nothing is stopping me from using a Counter-Quirk for a different purpose. It should've been obvious."

They soon came to the exit with Shoyu attempting to make a safe stop, dropping the students haphazardly onto the ground as the fire emitting from his feet slowly sputtered out and his red eyes returned to white. He collapsed onto the ground along with the students as the crowd was stuck in shock at witnessing their bout with the zero-pointer and Shoyu's solo rescue. As the alarms buzzed signaling the end of the exam, the crowd couldn't even cheer. That's how anomalous Shoyu's arrival was.

That self-sacrificing spirit.