My Monster Academia

by jevm.mita

A Pro Hero, a skilled doctor, a relentless lawyer, a clothing brand owner, and a movie star were but four of Japan's famous 'Lucky Bastard', Kimihito Kurusu's, seven wives. But this isn't their story, but that of two Kurusu daughters who decide that U.A. is the school they will attend. What could go wrong with a Divine Centaur and an Arachne as members of the first year students?

3. Chapter 3

If someone had to choose a word to describe how Izuku felt at this exact moment, nervous wouldn't even be coming close to it. After Present Mic had finished his presentation (and how cool was it for Izuku to see Present Mic in person?), all of the students had been led to changing booths to change into clothing more suited for a combat situation, rather than fighting in their uniforms. Following that, they had been sorted into groups of who was assigned to what testing ground and herded onto buses that would drive them to their testing site. The fact that U.A. required buses to travel from the main campus to the hero sites was simply astonishing to Izuku. He now truly understood why so many people these days were calling for the U.A. Campus to be registered as its own prefecture, simply based on the amount of land the high school took up.

Izuku stood before the walls of the fake city area, trembling with nerves, excitement and fear in equal parts. It was an intimidating sight, with the many replica office buildings standing above the ten metre high walls. Emblazoned on the wall of the testing site was the Greek letter Beta. The fact that there were twenty-three other training grounds this size was almost too much for Izuku to comprehend.

Looking around, he took in the sight of the other four hundred and forty-nine applicants who were assigned to the same testing grounds.

'Why's everyone so confident?! Aren't they nervous?!' Izuku yelled in his mind, not understanding why he alone seemed to be rife with nerves. 'Ah, they've even got equipment to match their quirks…'

As Izuku continued to look over the crowd of students, hoping that he'd see someone who looked as nervous as he did, his eyes caught the sight of a girl with short, brown hair.

'It's her, the girl from the school entrance! We're at the same test site,' he thought to himself, watching as she performed some sort of breathing and clapping exercise. 'I've gotta thank her for earlier. Even if she wasn't the one to save me, she did try to. Yeah, I'll wish her luck as well.'

But as Izuku stiffly walked over to her, doing his best to maintain the courage to initiate a conversation with a girl, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"That girl seems to be doing some kind of meditation."

Izuku jerkily turned his head around, coming face to face with the student who had scolded him in the auditorium. He had dark blue hair that was parted on the side of his head, and wore rectangular glasses over his eyes. The arm that he held Izuku's shoulder with was muscular and defined, much more so than the amount of muscle mass that Izuku had managed to gain in the ten months of training All Might had put him through. He wore a blue shirt and matching pants, both with black lines bordered in white. But most frightening of all was the stern, near angry expression he had on his face.

"Eep, him too!" Izuku flinched, accidentally speaking aloud.

"Why are you here?" the tall student asked, keeping his grip on Izuku's shoulder, preventing him from fleeing. "Hoping to interfere and distract her like you did in the auditorium?"

"No no, I swear!" Izuku said in a panicky voice, fear of the student causing his voice to raise an octave.

The bluenet seemed to want to say more before he paused, his eyes narrowing before he let out a sigh, taking his hand off Izuku's shoulder.

"You're clearly afraid of me, and I can understand why after what I said," he explained, crossing his arms over his chest, his expression still stern, but now no longer angry. "But know that I said what I did not simply because your incessant mumbling was irritating me, though that was a part of it."

Izuku flinched once more, reminded of his habit.

"The reason why I called you out was because of my classmate. She has enhanced hearing, meaning that your mumbling was distracting her through the entirety of Present Mic's presentation. As one of her closest friends and rivals, I simply couldn't let your distracting behaviour slide. She has put in too much time and effort into her training and preparation for this day simply to fail because someone couldn't stop their mumbling."

Izuku pulled his shoulders in, doing his best to ignore and tune out the snickers and remarks being made about him from the students that were nearby.

"AND BEGIN!"

All of the students, Izuku included, simply didn't understand what had been said. The voice of Present Mic came from a tower that was attached to the outside of the wall surrounding the test site. Izuku and the others simply stared blankly at the Pro Hero as he leaned over the edge of the tower, his quirk amplifying his voice.

"GO GO GO!" he yelled down to them, swinging his arms. "REAL BATTLES DON'T HAVE A COUNTDOWN! THE DIE HAS BEEN CAST, TIME'S A WASTING!"

"Huh?" Izuku asked, confused by what the Pro had meant, but as he turned around and saw the other applicants rushing off into the cityscape, it all clicked in his mind.

'I'm already behind!' Izuku realised, making a mad dash after the other students to try and keep up. 'Calm down, calm down. It's fine. I'm fine. I can do this! I'm meant to do this! Meant to be a hero!'

'After all,' Izuku reasoned to himself, rounding a corner as the other students ahead of him split up, each searching for their own prey, 'All Might is backing me up!'

Dashing round the corner of a street, Izuku had barely a moment to think before the wall of a building next to him exploded outwards. Crashing out of the rubble, Izuku gasped as a One-pointer villain bot fixed its cyclopsian gaze on him. It had a boxy head, with a single, glowing red eye centred in the front of its head. Its arms were covered in a shield, each with the number '1' painted white, denoting its value and threat level. Underneath its head and body was the housing for the wheels that caused it to zip around the testing field. It was made out of metal and painted green, and Izuku was its newest target.

"Target locked!" it said in a synthetic voice, turning towards Izuku and accelerating. "Prepare for termination!"

'Here it comes!' Izuku said, his attention zeroing in onto the machine racing towards him. 'One-pointer. Quick, but fragile. I can do this.'

Time seemed to slow as adrenaline pumped through Izuku's brain.

'Exposed wires and joints. Any competent villain would cover those up, but the school wants students to beat these machines. And this is the easiest of the lot. Just got to analyse its movements and react. Use my analysis skill, just like Cavalry told me to. I can do this!'

The machine raced towards him, getting ever closer. As it neared, the One-pointer raised an arm, not even bothering to hide its telegraphed actions.

"Now!" Izuku yelled to himself. He threw himself to the side, causing the villain bot's shield-like arm to slam into the concrete where Izuku had once stood. While still in midair, Izuku decided to take a chance, grabbing one of the exposed wires that ran along the outside of the machine's arm, pulling hard. The wire easily gave out, causing the machine to stutter and halt.

Before Izuku could celebrate, however, a blue, dazzling laser burst through the machine's chest, turning into scrap metal.

'A laser?' Izuku thought, turning his head towards the direction the beam had come from. Standing further down the street stood a student, his blond hair spiking to the side of his head. He wore black pants, and on his chest was a white tracksuit with a frilled collar and zipper. On his waist he wore a belt with a gem-like surface in the middle that glowed a pale blue, with a mist-like substance leaking from it into the air, dissipating as it got further away.

"Merci," he called out to Izuku as he ran past the stunned greenet, his Japanese carrying a noticeable French accent. "I appreciate the assist. We make a wonderful team, but I doubt we'll meet again."

He gave Izuku a wink as he passed, sprinting down the street and rounding a corner, disappearing from sight.

"Adieu!"

"Won't meet again?" Izuku asked no one, wondering what the French student had meant.

"Six minutes, two seconds remaining!" Present Mic's voice alerted, the noise reaching all over the testing site.

"Oh no," Izuku cried, realising how little time he had left. Glancing around, he saw the ongoing battles that students were having with the villain bots. Across the plaza he had found himself at, the ruined, damaged remains of various One-pointer, Two-pointer and Three-pointer robots lay scattered about.

Movement to his right caught Izuku's attention. He looked over, seeing the brown haired girl from the entrance placing her fingers on some disabled, but still active, villain bots. Despite what the laws of reality would claim, these machines started to float into the air, some of the more active ones flailing about, trying to find some sort of surface to grip to. They never had the chance, because the girl placed all ten of her fingers together, causing the weightlessness of the machines to end, gravity causing them to smash into the pavement.

"Twenty-eight points," she sighed with exhaustion.

"Forty-five points," another voice said, accompanied by a crash. Izuku turned to see the blue haired boy from before crashing feet first into a Two-pointer villain bot, smoke and explosions bursting from the machine.

'Crap, this is really bad,' Izuku said, his eyes darting about, trying to find anything that could help him pass. 'I only have one point, I need more to pass.'

As he frantically searched over the area, Izuku spotted his solution. Lying on the ground was the shield-like arm of a One-pointer, with some of the wires that connected it to the body still attached. Next to it was a shard of metal, the broken remains of a Two-pointer's tail. Only part of it remained, one of the flat sides of the machine's tail, and a rod of metal stuck out, still attached to the scrap metal.

'That's it, this is my chance,' Izuku cheered, picking both pieces of scrap metal. Izuku lifted the piece of the Two-pointer in his right hand, and wrapped the wires attached to the piece of the One-pointer around his left, both pieces acting as a rudimentary sword and shield.

'This is how I'll do it,' Izuku decided, rushing off to find another villain bot to fight. 'I'll win with a tribute to the two heroes who helped me on my journey; the weapons of Cavalry, and the muscles All Might helped train into me.'

His running was cut short as the ground beneath him began to tremble. Stray pieces of rubble and concrete started to clatter on the ground, becoming more and more erratic, until the entire city seemed to be shaking.

Izuku, the blue haired boy, the brown haired girl, and every other student within Testing Grounds Beta stared in shock at the sight they beheld. Emerging from within a building was an enormous villain bot, completely dwarfing every other type of machine that had come before it. It had a flat, elongated rectangular head, with eight glowing red eyes placed on its face. Each of its mechanical fingers were bigger than a person, and as it loomed over the students frozen in fear, it raised to its full height, giving off a reverberating noise, declaring its presence to the mortals at its feet.

It was this noise that snapped the students out of their stupor, causing all of them to flee in terror.

'T-that's the Zero-pointer?' Izuku trembled, his makeshift sword falling out of his limp right hand, hitting the ground with a clatter. His shield remained in his grip, but only because of the wires that he had tied around his hand and wrist. 'That's way too big.'

The Zero-pointer rumbled forwards, its large size catching the corner of a building, causing the concrete to crack and fall, tumbling onto the street below.

"It's not a gimmick," Izuku murmured, stunned by the size, slowly backing up as his mind realised the fear that was coursing through his veins. "It's completely overwhelming!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hiya!"

Sarah let out a battle cry, slamming her makeshift weapons into the metalic body of another villain bot, this time a Three-pointer. Taking a second to catch her breath, she swept her gaze around the forest, not finding any enemies within sight. Deciding to go a step further, she focused her hearing, and while the sounds of her fellow students doing battle were a constant noise, she didn't hear the telltale signs of branches being snapped, grass trampled, and the hum of an engine. For the moment, she was alone.

Taking a once over look at the weapons she held on her arms, Sarah winced at the damage they had taken. Made out of the shield arms of a One-pointer, Sarah had ripped them off of the first one she had encountered in the woods of Testing Grounds Omega, where she and over four hundred of her fellow students had been placed. While they had served her well, there was only so much damage they could take before becoming useless.

"Oh well," Sarah muttered to herself, "might as well get rid of these."

Using her incredible strength granted to her as a Centaur, Sarah pried apart the metal she had bent around her forearms to keep her weapons in place, tossing them aside onto the ground, holding her arms over her head as she stretched out her tired limbs. While as a Centaur she was gifted with enhanced stamina, her makeshift weapons were anything but light.

"I'm more annoyed that those gatling guns were simply for show," she huffed, looking critically at the multi barreled replicas attached to the underside of the One-pointer shields. While Sarah was more proficient with melee weapons, her mother had insisted that she have a baseline ability to wield any weapon, all so she would never be without options.

"Mother wasn't exaggerating about U.A. tests," Sarah said, taking a short mouthful from her water bottle. Placing it back in its holster that she wore on her waist, movement from above her caught her eye. Flying through the air was a bird, a common sight within the forested testing grounds. What was strange was that the bird, as well as many others, were all flying to and from the same location.

Sarah glanced back at the smoking, sparking wreck of the villain bot, considering her options.

"This is a test, and I shouldn't get distracted," she admitted out loud, circling the ruined machine, her index finger and thumb holding her chin in thought. "However, I have accumulated many points, and there were no instructions on the test forms against teaming up."

Deciding to loot her latest victim before leaving (she could use the missiles of the Three-pointer as spears), Sarah headed off in the direction the birds were flying, moving slower in an effort to stop her explosive spears from being disturbed too much. Swerving around tree trunks and avoiding exposed roots, Sarah noticed that the birds were moving, their flight path simultaneously changing. Up in the trees, she saw squirrels hopping from tree branch to tree branch, some heading in the same direction as her, while others came from it.

Emerging into a clearing, Sarah slowed her pace, walking into an open section of the forest. All manner of birds and mammals were gathered, and at the centre of this was a student. He was sat on a destroyed Two-pointer, its legs splayed out underneath it and its elongated head ripped off of its body. The student had a rocky head, uneven and pointed upwards, a square jaw, and his broad, muscular build filled out his yellow gym uniform. Perched on his shoulders, head, and outstretched hand were many birds and squirrels, and the boy seemed to be whispering things to them, with the animals answering him in tweets and chirps.

"Hello," Sarah called out, waving a hand as she walked over.

The boy spun his head over to Sarah, and giving out a small eep, quickly hid behind the wreck of the Two-pointer. His head and eyes poked over the top of the cover, trembling gently.

"Don't worry," Sarah said, holding her hands in front of her and stopping in her tracks, "I didn't mean to scare you. So you're the one the birds are flying to?"

The boy hesitated before nodding his head, his head rising from behind the Two-pointer ever so slightly.

Sarah heard a chirp to her side, and looking down she saw a squirrel looking up at her, perched on its hindlegs. It had a dark body with a pale belly, and its tail was thin yet poofy.

Bending her knees to get lower to the ground, Sarah slowly reached out her hand, presenting her closed fist to the inquisitive rodent. The squirrel moved closer, giving her hand a sniff, before surprising Sarah by climbing onto her hand, swiftly making its way up her arm. Making its way onto her shoulder, the squirrel looked at Sarah, before nuzzling into the crook of her neck.

Noticing her fellow student's look of awe, Sarah reached a hand up to her neck, gently stroking the back of the squirrel.

"I love animals," she explained, slowly making her way over to the shy student. "When I was a child, I would spend most of my afternoons watching the animals that lived on my family's estate. Whenever my brothers and sisters joined me, I would point out all of the animals that I could identify by feature, the ones I had seen time and time again. I had learnt their mannerisms, their unique looks, I even named them. I would spend my evenings researching what foods they ate, then ask my parents and aunts for help preparing it."

Gently scooping the squirrel up in her palm, Sarah, now having walked around the ruined Two-pointer, held out the squirrel to the shy student. The squirrel looked back at Sarah, giving her a small squeak, before leaping out of her hands, quickly being caught by the student.

"Let's start over," Sarah said, holding out her hand to the rocky student who crouched before her. "My name is Sarah Kurusu, nice to meet you."

The boy timidly stood up, reaching out his hand and gently holding Sarah's. When she shook his hand, she noticed that his grip was gentle, as if he was afraid to hurt her. The boy pulled his hand back after two shakes, and grabbing a stick off the ground he began to scratch characters into the ground.

"Koji, Koda?" Sarah asked, testing verbally how the name sounded. "Koji Koda, is that your name?"

The boy nodded.

"Well, nice to meet you, Koda. How many points do you have so far?"

Koda hesitated, his head lowered as he twirled his index fingers. Taking a breath, he looked Sarah in the eyes, splaying out all ten fingers, closing his hands, opening them wide once more, then closing his hands, with only two fingers held out.

"Twenty-two?" Sarah asked, tilting her head to the side.

Koda nodded, then pointed a finger at her.

"Me?" Sarah asked, receiving a nod from Koda. "I have forty-six points."

Koda's eyes widened at her answer before hanging his head.

"Hey, twenty-two isn't a bad score," Sarah said, gently placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "I have a quirk that's suited for physical activities, so if your quirk allows you to talk to animals, your score is more impressive than mine."

Koda hadn't expected that praise, simply responding by rubbing a foot into the dirt in embarrassment from the praise, a small smile on his face.

"The teachers never said we couldn't work together," Sarah started, causing Koda to look up. "How about you and I join forces? Heroes routinely team up on missions."

Koda opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the blare of a horn sounded out through the forest. Sarah and Koda turned to the noise, both students' eyes widening at the sight they saw. Emerging from the trees, a machine rose up. Sarah recognised the appearance of the villain bot, it was the Zero-pointer. While she had expected them to be an obstacle for students to avoid, she hadn't thought that it would be the size of a small office building.

The Zero-pointer let out a mechanical roar, causing many birds nearby to fly up in terror. It raised a giant, robotic fist, and slammed it into the ground, creating a cloud of dirt and dust to shoot up into the air. The force of the blow was so great that some trees were uprooted, sent flying into the air, before crashing back down to earth.

With her advanced hearing, Sarah was able to hear the screams and shouts from her fellow students. While many of them were fleeing in terror, what she heard caused her blood to run cold.

"Help us!"

Please, don't leave me!"

"Argh, my leg, it's stuck."

"Come on, come on, burn, damn you."

The trees that the Zero-pointer had launched into the air with its slam, as well as trees it had uprooted simply by moving through the forest, had caused many students to become trapped beneath their weight.

Sarah spun towards her fellow student, adrenaline causing her heart to race. "Koda, can you use your animal friends to scout out the forest? There are some students who are trapped underneath fallen trees. We can't just leave them there!"

Koda nodded, turning to the birds who hadn't flown away. Even though he spoke quietly, Sarah could just manage to hear him with her enhanced senses.

"Quickly, my friends, scout out the forest and find those who are trapped underneath the trees. Hurry, we must save them."

Sarah was surprised to hear such a soft, high pitched voice from such a broad, muscular student, but she shook away her surprise as the birds around Koda flew off into the air, each of them heading towards the Zero-pointer, fanning outwards in their search.

"We should follow after them," Sarah said, her eyes following the flight path of the birds. "Can they find you again if you move to another location?"

Koda hesitated, before grabbing his stick once more and writing in the dirt.

"They won't know where I am, but if you make a loud enough noise, they will likely investigate."

"Alright," Sarah nodded, "then we need to move quickly. There is no further point in stealth, we'll simply avoid any villain bots that we encounter."

Deciding that speed was the utmost priority, Sarah surprised Koda by picking him up in one of her arms. Seating him in the crook of her arm, Sarah set off, with Koda yelling out in shock.

"Sorry, Koda, just hold onto my neck. I'm more worried about you falling off than me dropping you."

The terrified boy did as she told him to, wrapping both arms around the back of her neck and squeezing his eyes closed, terrified of the speed they were travelling at. Having abandoned all pretence of stealth, Sarah ran as fast as she safely could through the forest, leaping over logs and roots, swerving around trees when they blocked her path. Hearing the sound of wing beats, Sarah slowed to a canter, and out of the trees flew a sparrow. It flew alongside Sarah and Koda, making chirps and tweets to the quiet boy. Nodding his head in understanding, Koda pointed in a direction through the woods.

"Is that where your friend found someone?" Sarah asked, though she had already changed directions.

Koda gave a nod, and the sparrow flew ahead of them, leading the way. They soon arrived on a site of destruction, where an uprooted tree had landed, unfortunately trapping two unlucky students.

"Please, help us!" one of the students, a male with round glasses, cried out, his companion a female with blue hair.

"Don't worry, my friend and I came to help," Sarah reassured, placing Koda down on the ground. "Koda, I want you to get on the other side of these two, we'll lift on three. Got it?"

Koda nodded, quickly crouching down and hooking his hands underneath the tree trunk. Sarah did the same, with the two trapped students laying in between them.

"Ready? One, two, three, lift!"

Sarah and Koda both pulled on the fallen tree with all of their might, their teeth and muscles straining under the weight. But centimetre by centimetre, the tree lifted off the ground, until both student's legs were clear.

"You're free, go now!" Sarah yelled, her voice straining.

The two students scrambled free, their legs intact, if mildly bruised. With the two out of danger, Sarah and Koda let go, the tree falling to the ground with a thud.

"Thank you," the girl said, helping her friend off the ground. "Come on, the exit is this way."

"Go, Koda and I still have people to find," Sarah said, picking Koda up in her arm as he spoke to another bird that had found them.

Dashing away before the students could say a word, Sarah and Koda, directed by the birds of the forest, went from student to student, helping each and everyone that they found. Even though many of them were rattled and in shock by the events, none were seriously injured, the worst case that they encountered was a student with a broken arm. Even as the practical exam ended, Sarah and Koda weren't finished, rescuing the final person who had been trapped. With no more students to help, Sarah, Koda, and the final student they helped, a pink haired Small Breeds Arachne, a subspecies of Arachne who were smaller, yet faster and more energetic than typical Arachne, walked together to the exit of the testing grounds. But before they arrived at the gate, someone crossed their path.

"Ah, there you are," a rough voice said. Emerging from the forest ahead of them, Sarah, Koda and the Arachne student's eyes widened at the sight of Hound Dog, a Pro Hero and staff member of U.A. He was large, muscular, and taller than Sarah, who herself often stood head and shoulders above a crowd at 190 cm (6'2"). Hound Dog was dressed in his hero costume, consisting of a jacket with a thick fur lining, as well as a black muzzle over his elongated snout, due to him being a Kobold heteromorph.

"Mr Hound Dog," Sarah greeted, a smile growing on her face from meeting the hero, "why are you here?" Call it personal bias, but Sarah loved collecting posters and merchandise of heteromorphic heroes, such as Miruko, Gang Orca, Selkie, and Hound Dog.

"We did a head count at the gate, you three were missing. When we asked around, a few of the students mentioned two students who had gone around, helping those trapped by the Zero-pointer," Hound Dog explained. "Your records matched their description to a T."

The Kobold hero turned his gaze to the Arachne student, who was hiding behind Sarah and Koda. "As for you, you must be the final missing student. Off you go, the written portion of the exam starts in half an hour, don't be late."

The pink haired student bowed to Sarah and Koda in thanks before heading to the exit, her arachnid legs propelling her through the woods.

Seeing her leave, Hound Dog turned his gaze back to Sarah and Koda, the latter of whom started to tremble at the attention he was receiving, such was his shyness.

"As for you two," Hound Dog said with a growl, "you really are something."

Sarah and Koda both tensed, fearing what the Pro had to say next. What they didn't expect was for Hound Dog to place his hands on each of their shoulders.

"Every student was monitored by our panel of judges," he explained, "and you were graded based on your performance; for every villain bot you defeated, you gained Villain Points. What we didn't tell you was that there was a secret grading system in place; Rescue Points. These could be awarded for two reasons: working with your fellow examinees, or rescuing your fellow examinees. When the Zero-pointer emerged, you both worked together to locate and rescue your fellow students. You ignored the stray villain bots that crossed your path, instead prioritising the safety of your fellows. Simply put, you both acted like real heroes."

Through the mask, Sarah and Koda could see the proud, genuine smile of the Pro Hero.

"I don't know what rank the two of you will receive, but rest assured that you two passed the practical with flying colours. Principle Nezu would be a fool to deny the two of you a place in the Hero Course, and I know he is anything but."

Sarah gasped, realising what had just happened. Koda was equally shocked, a small smile on his face, ever so surely growing each second.

"Right, enough standing around," Hound Dog said, a growl entering his voice once more. "You both still need to pass the written portion of the exam. Get to the entrance, the bus is waiting for you two."

"Yes sir," Sarah beamed, Koda by her simply nodding vigorously, before the both set off towards the exit. With the knowledge they had passed the practical portion of the exam, as well as the direct praise from Hound Dog, the two students seemed to have an extra spring in their step. After all, they were now that much closer to achieving their dreams of attending U.A.

XXXXXXXXXX

Katsuki stood triumphant over his latest monument of greatness. A duo of Three-pointer villain bots and a Two-pointer villain bot had attacked him, probably thinking that with numbers they could take him down. Fat chance. All of that arrogance in their programming led to where they were now, scorched and broken underneath him.

Taking in deep breaths, Katsuki let a feral grin cross his face. His hands were twitching from the effort he had put in, and he had worked up quite a sweat during the three-on-one brawl. That was the stupid machines' first mistake. By getting him worked up, causing his sweat glands to work overtime, they had simply added fuel to the fire, his explosions now larger and more powerful. That had been the nail in their coffin, and they couldn't even realise it until it was already over.

"Seventy-one," Katsuki grinned, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow and shaking out his hands. "I doubt even All Might got that high of a score when he was my age."

He swept his gaze over the area around him. According to his handout, Testing Grounds Alpha was a unique testing ground. Whereas the standard testing grounds were replicas of office building blocks, Alpha was more of an urban area, one that was reminiscent of where Katsuki lived.

Not that it mattered. As the future Number One Pro Hero, Katsuki had to be the best in almost all environments. Not even he would deny that there were some areas that he simply would fall behind in, such as snowy areas or underwater, but everywhere else, he had to excel.

'And how fitting is it,' Katsuki smirked as he drank from his water bottle. Because his quirk required him to sweat a lot, he also had to drink an equal amount of fluids. 'The future No. One takes the Entrance Exam for U.A., the Number One Hero Academy, in Testing Grounds Alpha, named after the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Reality really is amusing sometimes.'

Katsuki was snapped out of his humour as a siren blared throughout the testing grounds, as the ground and the mechanical corpses that he stood atop began to shake and tremble. Some extras happened to be in the same general area, and seeing them pointing at something behind him, Katsuki turned around. What he saw was a building sized villain bot, almost as large as Mt. Lady. It was ridiculously huge, easily crushing a house underneath its grasp as it stood to full height.

'That must be the Zero-pointer,' Katsuki thought to himself, ignoring the extras who were screaming, panicking, running, and generally living up to their status as an extra. 'While the extras are distracted, I'll snatch up some extra points before the exam ends.'

"Hey, Firecracker!"

"Huh?" Katsuki growled, knowing that whichever extra had called that out had directed it to him. It wasn't even an original nickname.

Walking over to him was a female Arachne, her six eyes and spider lower half dead giveaways. Rather than panicking like the other extras, she had a cocky grin on her face, and carried over her shoulder was a round net of silk, inside of which appeared to be various parts of the villain bots.

"What do you want, you damn extra?" Katsuki growled, hoping the brave extra would take the hint.

"Just wanted to check something," she responded, resting a hand covered in a black exoskeleton on her hips. "How many points ya got? I've seen you rampaging all over the place, so how about it, Firecracker? Gotten a good haul so far?"

"Seventy-one, so what?!" Katsuki yelled.

The Arachne simply smiled, using her free hand to brush aside her lavender hair out of her face. "Seventy-one, not bad. I'm sitting at a lovely sixty-nine."

That made Katsuki pause. 'Sixty-nine, to get that high of a score, she'd had to have defeated at least twenty-three Three-pointers.'

Katsuki sighed, giving the Arachne a proper once over. Her clothing was tight and form fitting, allowing for maximum movement without any drag or obstruction. He couldn't say the same for the clothing he had seen on some particularly stupid extras. She was covered in soot and oil, with her clawed hands particularly coated. Add to that the large haul of parts she had scavenged from the villain bots, and she was certainly no slouch.

'Guess she isn't an extra after all,' Katsuki sighed to himself, his gaze focusing on the still rampaging Zero-pointer. "What do you want, Silks?"

"Silks, huh?" Silks said aloud, questioning the nickname Katsuki had given her. "Eh, I've definitely heard worse names thrown at me."

That comment caused Katsuki's hands to twitch, subconsciously wanting to form into fists. He should have figured that she'd had a past with discriminatory shitheads. The idea of it alone made him angry. Why look down on someone simply because they have a powerful quirk? It was a mindset that the weak and jealous had, one Katsuki couldn't understand or support.

"I have a plan, and I need your help to pull it off," Silks said, snapping Katsuki out of his brooding. He turned his attention back to her, raising a single eyebrow.

"Why would I help you?" he asked. "We're all competing for the top spot."

"I agree," Silks said, "and against anything else, I wouldn't need your help. I got my points by hunting on my own, solitary, like a real spider. Thing is, that," she said, gesturing at the Zero-pointer, "I can't beat on my own. You and me, however, I reckon we can bring it down."

"Why the hell would I do that?" Katsuki growled. "Didn't you pay attention to Present Mic? That Zero-pointer is called a Zero-pointer for a damn good reason, it isn't worth any points."

"Sure, officially," Silks said, tilting her head and smirking at Katsuki, which for some reason irritated him to no end. "However, this is the best hero school in Japan. You really think they won't award people for taking that hunk of junk down?"

Katsuki wasn't convinced. It wasn't worth the time wasted trying to kill it with no guaranteed rewards, when instead he could be killing other villain bots, which would get him more points. His doubt clearly showed on his face, because Silks continued.

"Look," she sighed, "when a big, nasty villain shows up in town, you expect the heroes to take care of it before anyone is hurt. That Zero-pointer, that's a real nasty villain. So who are you going to be, Firecracker? Are you going to be All Might, Endeavor, one of the top Pros who swoop in and save the day, or are you going to be like the local heroes who stand back, claiming their quirks aren't suited for the fight?"

Her words caused Katsuki to relive flashes of that day, ten months ago. The Sludge Villain finding him, forcing its disgusting, slimy body into Katsuki. The sense of powerlessness at being controlled, the sense of humiliation at his quirk being used by the villain for evil. But most of all, the hate and rage he felt to those damn extra Pros who stood there, not doing a damn thing. It didn't matter that his life was in danger, or that stupid Deku had rushed out in some idiotic attempt to save him. It didn't matter that people could have been hurt if the Sludge bastard was allowed to continue its rampage. No, all they were focusing on was the fact that their quirks weren't ideal. Rather than even trying, they simply stood there, useless. That, more than anything, made Katsuki angry. They didn't even try.

"I ain't no shitty extra," Katsuki growled quietly, speaking more to himself than to Silks. Refocusing his attention back on the Zero-pointer, who had started to come their way, Katsuki glanced to the side, looking at Silks from the corner of his right eye. "What do you need me to do?"

"Seriously?" Silks asked, apparently surprised. "You want to hear my plan? No offence, but you give off a Lone Wolf, do it my own way, type vibe."

"You came up with a plan, so I'm willing to hear it," Katsuki explained, rolling his eyes. "You aren't some extra, I'll give you that, so whatever you say isn't guaranteed to be completely useless."

"Okay then," Silks said, and Katsuki could hear her smirk in her voice. "How long can you stall it for?"

"How long do you need?"

Silks paused, turning her head to look at Katsuki. Confused at her response, he looked back, only for her to give a toothy grin, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

"Keep it busy for as long as you can," she answered, leaping up onto a nearby replica house. "Lead it down the main road, I'll get a warm welcome prepared for it."

"Tch," Katsuki scoffed, "that's a dumb plan."

"You have a better idea?" Silks challenged, shooting a line of silk from spinnerets on her wrists between houses on the main road.

"I said it was dumb, not stupid," Katsuki clarified, before igniting the sweat on his palms, rocketing him into the air. Using controlled explosions, Katsuki flew up to the head of the Zero-pointer, the large machine having noticed his presence. Using one of its large hands, it tried to swat Katsuki out of the air, but with how slow it was moving, it was too easy to avoid.

"DIE!" Katsuki yelled, thrusting a palm of exploding nitroglycerine outwards at the villain bot's head. The explosion smashed into the green metal of the machine, causing its head to recoil slightly. Landing on the head with a crouch, Katsuki looked around at the damage he had caused. Or rather, lack thereof. Sure, the top of the machine has scorch marks all over, but it was all minor damage. His explosions hadn't yet pierced through the thick armour, but it was only a matter of time. With a continuous string of yelling and swearing, Katsuki fired explosion after explosion into the Zero-pointer, the metal underneath his feet starting to glow red.

Out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki saw movement. Turning his head, his eyes widened as one of the Zero-pointers large hands was moving downwards, trying to swat him off of its head.

"Shit!" Katsuki swore, aiming his hands in front of him. Firing off simultaneous blasts from his hands, the force of the explosion threw him back, just in the nick of time as the Zero-pointer's hand slammed down hard in front of him. The force of the impact caused the machine to sway, and the movement gave Katsuki an idea.

"Let's see you try and swat me without hands, you dumbass machine," Katsuki grinned. Racing over to where the fingers of the Zero-pointer lay, he placed his hands at one of the joints, his grin turning feral.

"DIE!"

Another powerful explosion rocked the machine, but this time taking effect. While the head of the Zero-pointer was covered in thick armour, the same couldn't be said for the exposed, vulnerable joints that allowed its fingers to move.

The Zero-pointer gave off a synthetic roar, and Katsuki reckoned it was one of pain, if it was capable of such feeling. Its second hand raised up, trying in another desperate attempt to remove the source of the damage from its head, but Katsuki simply dodged it, using another burst of explosions to leap out of the way. Firing off more blasts at the joints in its hands, Katsuki started to notice the effect it was having. The machine was having difficulty moving its hands; where before it was slow yet dextrous, now it was struggling, more often than not slamming its hand down on its head, causing more damage to itself than to Katsuki. The Zero-pointer turned on its treads, trying desperately to grab him. Even though Katsuki's grin had never left his face, the sensation of toying with such a large villain being incredible, he was starting to feel the strain his explosions were having on his wrists.

'Shit,' he thought to himself, opting to throw himself out of the way rather than use his quirk, 'how long does Silks need? She'd better be close to finishing, or this will all have been for nothing.'

"Hey, Firecracker!" Katsuki heard from nearby. Chancing a look, Katsuki saw Silks standing on top of a roof behind the Zero-pointer, waving at him. She had clearly made the most of the time Katsuki had bought her, as the entire main road of Testing Grounds Alpha had been crisscrossed with lines of silk, so thick that it seemed as if a large white blanket had been draped over the road and houses.

"Ignite this at the front of the machine's head!" Silks yelled up to him. Holding the round net of silk by a string, she started to twirl it, demonstrating her innate strength to not only lift the large ball of metal, but also to spin it at a rapid pace. She let it go at just the right moment, causing it to sail through the air, right at Katsuki.

He just managed to grab it, air being forced out of his chest from the impact. Grabbing it and running, Katsuki booked it over the head of the Zero-pointer, making a mad dash for the front of the head. Even though the machine tried to squish him, its hands were damaged, many of the joints sparking or warped from the power and heat of Katsuki's explosions.

Reaching the edge, Katsuki leaped off, spinning in the air to face the Zero-pointer's face. Its red eyes seemed to track his movement, its hands moving to grab him.

"Too late!" Katsuki grinned, tossing forward the orb of parts. "For the last time, DIE!"

His explosions burst forward, the exertion and adrenaline forcing his palm's sweat glands to work overtime, creating the largest explosion he had created during the entire Entrance Exam. The recoil sent him flying back, and he created a few smaller explosions for good measure. He had seen what was inside Silks' gift, and he knew he needed to make some distance. After all, she had handed him a large collection of Three-pointer missiles.

KABOOM!

The missiles ignited, engulfing the Zero-pointer's head in flames, and the recoil throwing it back as if it had been decked in the face by All Might. Thrown off balance, the Zero-pointer started to tip backwards, right towards the threads that Silks had prepared.

But as Katsuki flew alongside the falling Zero-pointer, he saw something that caused his blood to run cold. Two extras, for reasons that eluded him, had wandered into the main street, completely oblivious to the falling Zero-pointer.

"Oi, extras!" Katsuki called out, rocketing forward. "Get the hell out of the way, now!"

The two extras looked behind them, revealing two girls, one with short, red hair and the other with long, black hair, who froze as they took in the sight of the Zero-pointer's back falling towards them. They let out a scream, rushing off down a side street, out of the way.

If there was one thing that Katsuki found useful about extras, it was the fact that they were often too scared to get in his way.

However, because Katsuki's attention was focused on the oblivious extras, he failed to notice the Zero-pointer's desperate last attempt at revenge. He saw it in the corner of his eye, and by the time he realised what it was, there was only a window to fire off a blast at the sweeping hand, trying to slow it down.

The robotic hand connected, swatting Katsuki out of the air, the force slamming into his left shoulder.

"Fuck!" he swore, blinking tears out of his eyes from the pain that spiked through his left arm. Using his good arm as an emergency brake, he fired explosion after explosion out of his right arm, doing his best to stabilise his movement and slow his fall. But despite the painful explosions he fired, he knew he was in for a rough landing.

'This is going to hurt like a bitch,' he thought, closing his eyes and bracing himself. Instead of feeling the jolting pain of him colliding with the asphalt, likely breaking multiple bones in his body, he felt someone catch him, holding him tight to their body.

"God damn, Firecracker," Silks said, landing softly on a nearby rooftop, "you really made me worry for a second."

Katsuki opened his eyes, seeing that the Arachne girl had caught him in a bridal carry. Gently placing him back on the ground, Silks gave him a look of worry when tried to take a step, grasping his shoulder and hissing through his teeth.

"Crap, that Zero-pointer got you good," she said in a worried tone. Walking over, she started to spin silk from her wrists, wrapping up his broken arm in a compression sleeve, trapping it and preventing its movement.

"Yeah, but I would have been fine if those damn extras hadn't gotten in the way," Katsuki grimaced, trying to ignore the pain from his shoulder.

"Okay, that should do for now," Silks said, stepping back from her craft. "It should hold for a few days, but we should get you to a doctor. I'm sure U.A. has medical staff on site."

Katsuki merely grunted. As he looked up at Silks (and he hated the fact she was more than 20 cm taller than him), he saw her grinning at something behind him.

"Would you look at that," she said, sounding proud, "our plan worked."

Looking over his shoulder, Katsuki saw the Zero-pointer still falling. Many of the lines of thread that Silks had placed had already snapped, but they had served the purpose of slowing the villain bot's fall. Lines of silk further down were loose, having plenty of slack between the buildings. Their purpose was shown as the Zero-pointer fell onto these, the lines bending and stretching, eventually stopping the machine's fall, coming to a rest suspended over the main road. Katsuki got a good look at the damage they had caused to it. Most of its face was destroyed, and in some areas the armour plating had been stripped away entirely, exposing the wiring and machinery within. Only two of its eyes remained, the bottom two, with the rest either cracked or destroyed out right. The lights in its eyes dimmed, slowly turning black, as the seemingly unbeatable machine shut down to the sound of Present Mic's voice.

"IT'S ALL OVER!"

Katsuki sagged, the adrenaline of the fight wearing off. Before he could fall to the ground, Silks caught him, one hand on his back and the other on his good shoulder. She gently lowered him to the ground, before sitting down herself, her arachnid legs splayed out underneath her. It was only as Katsuki got a good look at her face that he realised how pale she was. While she was pale when he first met her, he figured it was just her usual skin tone, but now her skin seemed to be bordering on blue. Sweat covered her face, and she was taking deep breaths.

"Hey, what happened?" Katsuki asked, confused why she had such a reaction.

"Sorry, spinning all of those threads took a lot out of me," she answered, using the hem of her shirt to wipe her face, causing Katsuki to quickly look away as she exposed her toned midriff. "I honestly didn't know if I had made enough to catch it. For a moment I thought I had simply done enough to slow down its fall, reducing the property damage, that sort of thing."

Silks looked back at the face of the Zero-pointer, giving a low whistle of approval.

"You're no Firecracker, that's for sure." She turned her face back to Katsuki, giving him a smirk. "We make one hell of a team, Dynamite."

Katsuki simply grunted, laying his back on the tiled roof. All of the exhaustion seemed to be catching up with him. He and Silks had murdered that Zero-pointer, so he reckoned he could afford a few minutes of rest.

'If we don't get any points for killing that thing,' he thought to himself as darkness encroached on his vision, 'I'm going to be so pissed.'

XXXXXXXXXX

When Sarah and Kórinis' siblings arrived home from school, they all wanted to hear how the exam went, even the older ones. Having a captive audience at the dinner table, the two sisters recounted their experiences in their respective testing grounds. The younger children oohed and aahed as they listened, enthralled in the story.

But life carried on, and Somei Private Academy still had a few weeks left of school. Sarah, Kórinis and Tenya all became pseudo-celebrities overnight, all of their classmates wanting to hear how they did. Even the upperclassmen, those who were enrolled in Somei's high school course, were keen to hear how their juniors were doing.

Of course, Bapi, Duibhe, Fíóri and Fíos were all nervous about their older sisters' results. Each day, both before and after school, they checked the mail, hoping to find a set of letters addressed from U.A. Each day that the letters hadn't arrived caused them to become more and more nervous. However, it all came to an end a week after the Entrance Exam.

"It's here!" Duibhe yelled, running through the house, followed closely by Fíóri and Fíos, with Bapi flying close behind. "Sarah, Kórinis, it's really here!"

The four children burst into the living room, finding Sarah sitting on the ground on top of a mattress, her legs tucked underneath her as she read, while Kórinis lazed about in a hammock that she and her mother often used, designed for their Arachne bodies, with the younger Arachne scrolling on her phone.

""""Come on, open it, open it,"""" the four children chorused, each of them bouncing (or in the case of Fíóri and Fíos, wriggling) with excitement.

"Hold on, you four, let Sarah and Kórinis decide how they want to do this," their father said, walking into the living room and taking the letter from Duibhe's hands. Turning to his elder daughters, he gave them a questioning look as he held out the letter. "Do you want to do it with all of us, or take it up to your room and tell us after?"

The two sisters looked at each other, communicating without having to say a word.

"We'll watch it in our room," Kórinis said, sliding off of her hammock and taking the letter from her father. "I'm pretty sure we know the answer already, but we'll do it privately."

Sarah and Kórinis' siblings complained and groaned as they left the room, soon fading into the background as the two sisters went upstairs to their shared room. Closing and locking the door, for you never knew what lengths younger siblings would go to, the two sisters looked at the letter.

"Well, this is the real thing," Kórinis muttered. "Addressed to Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, from U.A. High School."

"It is addressed to us together, so we will open it together," Sarah said, taking hold of one end of the letter. "Ready?"

Kórinis smiled, taking a firm grip on her own end of the letter with her gloves. "One."

"Two."

""Three,"" they said, pulling at the letter. The paper ripped, and dropping out of the letter was a small disk. It spun like a coin, before falling on one side and emitting a projection. Light illuminated the room, and the warm, booming laugh of All Might filled the air, as the blond, muscular hero announced his presence.

"I am here as a projection!" the Number One hero proclaimed, leaning into the camera.

"All Might?!" Kórinis gasped, "I thought this letter was from U.A."

"Shhh!" Sarah hushed. "He'll probably explain it."

"I'm going to assume that both of the Kurusu sisters are present, but if one of them isn't, this projection can be paused by pressing the top." All Might paused for a second, his signature grin remaining in place. "Right, now I'll assume you both are here, and I'll begin. To start with, I want to congratulate the two of you. You both passed with flying colours, in both the Practical as well as Written Exams. Even though the Practical is weighed more heavily for those in the Hero Course, you both did well. Good job!"

"Now, on to your individual reviews," All Might said, holding out a remote and pressing a button, causing a screen behind him to light up. On it were details of Kórinis' application, as well as still images of her during her Practical Exam. "Kórinis Kurusu, you were assigned to Testing Grounds Alpha, one of our specialised Testing Grounds based off of a suburban environment. Throughout the ten minutes you had, you managed to gain a total of sixty-nine villain points, well done!"

Kórinis grinned at the display as the numbers flashed up on the screen, thinking that was all. Her expression however grew confused as All Might continued.

"While that certainly would have been enough on its own for you to pass, that's not all! There was also a secret category that our panel of judges gave you points for: Rescue Points! Awarded for heroic acts and deeds, these were a secret ranking that were designed to reward those who prioritised doing the right thing over basic combat. And look at this!"

All Might pressed another button on his remote, showing images of Kórinis creating the massive mass of webs that slowed down the Zero-pointer.

"You took down a Zero-pointer?" Sarah said, her expression stunned as she looked at her younger sister in shock.

"Eh he, with a little help," Kórinis admitted, rubbing the back of her head.

"Not only did you prevent the Zero-pointer from causing any more collateral damage after you and your teammate defeated it, but the judges also awarded points on what you said earlier."

The screen changed again, this time a video taken from a camera that had recorded Kórinis' conversation with a male student, who had spikey, ash blond hair.

"'Look, when a big, nasty villain shows up in town, you expect the heroes to take care of it before anyone is hurt. That Zero-pointer, that's a real nasty villain. So who are you going to be, Firecracker? Are you going to be All Might, Endeavor, one of the top Pros who swoop in and save the day, or are you going to be like the local heroes who stand back, claiming their quirks aren't suited for the fight?'"

The video paused, and the camera focused back onto All Might. "Thanks to my morning routine of moisturisation, I keep my young looks," All Might joked, but his voice slowly became more serious. "However, the fact remains that I am growing old. I'm no longer as powerful as I once was, and one day I will have to retire. Unfortunately, too many Pros have become reliant on the chart toppers to save the day. Many are calling it Bystander Syndrome, and it threatens to bring down hero society as a whole. But to hear such conviction coming from you, such bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, fills me with confidence, young Kurusu."

"As such," All Might said, pointing to the screen where Kórinis' sixty-nine villain points showed, "our judges gave you an additional thirty-five Rescue Points, bringing your grand total to a whopping one hundred and four points, and placing you in third place in the practical exam!"

Sarah and Kórinis both screamed for joy, quickly embracing each other in celebration.

"Now," All Might continued, causing the sisters to quieten down, "onto young Sarah Kurusu, the eldest child of the Kurusu family. Sarah Kurusu, you were placed in Testing Grounds Omega, another of our specialised testing grounds, this time a forest environment. During your allocated ten minutes, you gained a total of forty-six villain points."

"Not bad," Kórinis chuckled, both glad Sarah did as well as she had, but privately happy that she had done better than her older sister.

"However, as I mentioned, Rescue Points were also taken into consideration. So take a look at this!"

The screen changed to short clips of Sarah and a rocky headed boy racing through the woods of Testing Grounds Omega. It showed them finding various students who were trapped underneath fallen trees, rescuing each and everyone one of them.

"Even after the Practical Exam ended, you and young Koda continued your rescues, going above and beyond the call of duty. And it's not just me saying that."

Once more, the screen changed, now showing clips of students that Sarah and Koda had rescued, each of them either informing the teachers present about two students who had saved them, as well as those who wanted to pass on their thanks.

"How could our school not reward such selfless actions? That's why, young Kurusu, not only did you receive forty-six villain points-"

-The screen brought up Sarah's combat points-

"-but both you and young Koda received sixty rescue points, the maximum we can award!"

Sarah had her mouth wide open in shock, while Kórinis was counting in her head what her sister's score was, her eyes widening.

"Wait a minute," Kórinis said, turning to her sister and grabbing her by the shoulders, a smile rapidly growing on her face. "That means-"

"That means, young Kurusu, that you have achieved an incredible total of one hundred and six points, placing you in second place!"

Kórinis cheered, pulling her sister into a hug. Sarah was unresponsive for a moment, stunned by her score, before snapping out of it and pulling Kórinis into a tight hug, gently crying into her younger sister's shoulder.

"As a side note," All Might added, leaning into the camera with a hand by his mouth, as if whispering a fact only meant for them, "your score, young Sarah Kurusu, was only four points shy of tying with my record back in the day, one hundred and ten. Well done, well done indeed."

"Oh my God," Kórinis whispered, "you almost beat All Might's Entrance Exam score. All Mights!"

"Mhm," Sarah nodded, not trusting her voice as tears continued to stream down her face.

"Now, one final thing," All Might concluded. "You must both be wondering, 'Why is All Might presenting our results?' Well, young ladies, that's because you are looking at U.A.'s latest teacher of their Heroics Program."

All Might leaned towards the camera, extending out his hands, almost as if he were reaching through the hologram himself.

"Welcome, young Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, to your new Hero Academy. I look forward to seeing the both of you in class. Plus Ultra!"

The hologram ended, removing the light from the room. Sarah and Kórinis simply sat there, both still holding onto each other for support. They remained there for several minutes, only being taken out of their trance when they heard a knock at the door.

"Sarah, Kórinis?" they heard Centorea ask from outside their room. "Do you want to come out now?"

Both sisters got up, Sarah in particular wiping her tears from her eyes and face, and blowing into a tissue that Kórinis offered up. Grabbing the door handle together, the two sisters stepped out of their room, greeted to the sight of their entire family; their father, each of their respective mothers, their five aunts, and ten siblings.

"Well, what's the answer?" Rachnera asked, her arms draped over their father's shoulders.

The two sisters looked at each other, smiles appearing on their faces, before turning back to their family.

""We're in.""

Suffice to say, the Kurusu household had quite a celebration that night.

XXXXXXXXXX

Katsuki sat at his desk, the light from a lap being the only source of illumination in his room. The letter from U.A. had arrived in the mail after dinner, and Katsuki took it up to his room, the Old Hag surprisingly silent about the whole thing. She hadn't insisted that Katsuki play it in the lounge, instead she had simply given him a nod, showing she had no issues with him watching it alone.

'She can be surprisingly considerate,' Katsuki thought to himself, his gaze never leaving the unopened letter. 'Well, whenever she isn't yelling her head off.'

What caused Katsuki's hesitation over opening the letter wasn't whether or not he had passed, he was certain he had. No, the issue causing him to hesitate was whether or not he had come first. Had he wasted his time with the Zero-pointer, or had Silks been right?

He opened the letter, and out dropped a small, metallic disk. The top of it lit up, creating a projection of a large, smiling figure that Katsuki immediately recognised.

"All Might?" he wondered aloud.

"Ha ha ha," All Might said, giving his signature laugh, "I am here as a projection."

"Young Bakugo," the No. 1 began, "congratulations on your Entrance Exam. It shouldn't go as any surprise, but you have passed, and secured one of the thirty-six slots available for the U.A. Hero Course."

Katsuki held his breath. He knew he had passed, now all he needed to know if he had made the right choice.

"To start with, you performed incredibly well on the written portion for the Entrance Exam," All Might explained. "You certainly haven't skipped out on your academic training to focus on your quirk training, that's for sure."

"Now, in terms of your points," All Might said, pointing a remote at a screen behind him. The screen displayed images of Katsuki's battles throughout the Entrance Exam. "You were assigned to Testing Grounds Alpha, and scored a very impressive seventy-one villain points."

Katsuki's eyes widened, and he took a deep breath.

"Unfortunately, the Zero-pointer wasn't a deception; it really was worth zero villain points," All Might explained, his voice serious and empathetic, even as his perpetual smile remained.

Katsuki gripped his pants, his teeth biting down on his lower lip to stop it from trembling. So this was it. All of that effort for nothing. The shitty Zero-pointer wasn't worth a damn thing.

"However," All Might said, snapping Katsuki out of his thoughts, "while the Zero-pointer was worth zero VILLAIN points, that wasn't to say it was worth nothing."

He pressed the button again, showing Katsuki fighting against the Zero-pointer, the image perfectly capturing the sheer difference in size between the organic and synthetic fighters.

"A hero's job is to fight against the odds, no matter the circumstances. Even if the villain is much bigger than us, we fight them to protect the people, even if it puts us in harm's way."

All Might changed the screen again, stepping to the side. This time it showed the two extras who had gotten in the Zero-pointer's way.

"Additionally," he began, "these two came to the staff after the Written Exams. Let's have a listen to what they had to say, hmm?"

"Excuse me?" one of the extras said, the one with the red hair. "We were in Testing Grounds Alpha, and there was a boy there who was working with another student to take down the Zero-pointer. He was injured because of us, if he hadn't had to warn us to move, that villain bot wouldn't have hit him. Is there any way we can help him?"

Her black haired friend spoke up. "Even if we have to give him our points, he saved our lives. We just wandered into a dangerous area, not thinking about where we were going."

The video paused, and All Might sidestepped back into the centre frame.

"There we have it, two students who saw you as a hero, and you haven't even had your first day of class yet," he laughed. "Fortunately, U.A.'s Entrance Exam had a hidden grading system, Rescue Points! Given to students who acted in a heroic, selfless manner.

"And you, young Bakugo," All Might said, turning once more the screen, "earned forty rescue points, bringing your grand total to one hundred and eleven points!"

Katsuki was stunned, so much so he could barely breathe. This was the moment, he knew it, what came out of All Might's mouth next was what he had been waiting for.

"Your score, an astonishing number, has placed you firmly in first place. Well done, young Bakugo, for being first amongst your peers."

Katsuki didn't roar in victory, nor did he smirk in self assured success. He grasped his chest, trying to hold his heart, which seemed to be beating a thousand beats a second. He had done it, he was first. He and Silks' plan had worked.

"Now, there are two points left I want to mention," All Might stated, pointing a thumb at himself. "You've probably wondered by now why I, All Might, Number One Pro Hero in Japan, are telling you your results for U.A. Well, that's because you're looking at U.A.'s newest Heroics teacher."

Katsuki's jaw dropped. All Might. THE All Might. Was going to be his teacher at U.A.

"And one last thing," All Might added, his grin seeming to grow to a painful width with how wide it was. "It is my great pleasure to announce that you, Katsuki Bakugo, have set a new record for U.A.'s Practical portion of the Entrance Exam."

Katsuki didn't move, he didn't blink, he didn't even dare to breathe.

'Does that mean-'

"You, Katsuki Bakugo, with a score of one hundred and eleven total points, have bested my own score of one hundred and ten. A score that held the record for forty years, only now being beaten. Well done, young Bakugo."

Katsuki felt tears well up in his eyes, but this time he didn't try to stop them. These ones he'd allow.

All Might leaned towards the camera, holding out his hand to Katsuki. "Welcome, young Bakugo, to your new Hero Academy. I look forward to teaching such a promising young pupil."

The hologram video ended, the small metal disk shutting off. Katsuki didn't move from his seat, simply sitting there, crying tears of joy and relief. He stayed there for a while, only after he had calmed down did he venture downstairs. After all, his mother wouldn't let him hear the end of it if she found out he had been bawling out his eyes because he passed. But maybe he'll tell her about beating All Might's record. That should give her a shock.

---

And that's a wrap, my largest chapter EVER finally finished. 11,000 words, crazy to think this is after I cut it in half, and published the first half as its own chapter, which by itself was 6,000 words. I was joking to my brother that at the rate I was writing, I was going to have a chapter double the size of the first one. Not going to lie, I got close to that joke no longer being a joke.

So, we just completed the Entrance Exam. Izuku had a slightly better time of it (and by slightly better, I mean by one point.) In fact, here are the top ten scorers for the Practical Portion of the Entrance Exam:

Katsuki Bakugo

Villain Points: 71

Rescue Points: 40

Total Points: 111

Rank: 1st

Sarah Kurusu

Villain Points: 46

Rescue Points: 60

Total: 106

Rank: 2nd

Kórinis Kurusu

Villain Points: 69

Rescue Points: 35

Total Points: 104

Rank: 3rd

Koji Koda

Villain Points: 22

Rescue Points: 60

Total Points: 82

Rank: 4th

Eijiro Kirishima

Villain Points: 39

Rescue Points: 35

Total Points: 74

Rank: 5th

Ochaco Uraraka

Villain Points: 28

Rescue Points: 45

Total Points: 73

Rank: 6th

Ibara Shiozaki

Villain Points: 36

Rescue Points: 32

Total Points: 68

Rank: 7th

Itsuka Kendo

Villain Points: 25

Rescue Points: 40

Total Points: 65

Rank: 8th

Tenya Ida

Villain Points: 52

Rescue Points: 10

Total Points: 62

Rank: 9th

Izuku Midoriya

Villain Points: 1

Rescue Points: 60

Total Points: 61

Rank: 10th

Yeah, so there were a few changes. First of all, because Izuku took out a One-pointer in this version (not a lot, but every point counts) he gained 61 points instead of 60 that he gets in canon. Fun fact as well, with just one point, he and Tenya would be tied. This is because in canon Tenya gets a total of 61 points; 52 villain points and 9 rescue points. Now, in this version of canon, I decided to give Tenya an extra rescue point, and there are two reasons: First, he has Sarah as a best friend and rival. I believe that the daughter of everyone's favourite Centaur would help Tenya be a true hero, just like his brother Ingenium. In case anyone missed it, Ingenium, a.k.a. Tensei Ida, is the former work study and sidekick of Cavalry, a.k.a. Centorea. Timeline wise, Tensei was in his first year when Sarah was born, so my canon is that Centorea took him on as a work study after the Sports Festival, she then paused her hero career because she gave birth to Sarah, as well as the fact there are six other infants in the household (Kimihito, you mad lad). After Tensei graduates, or perhaps in his final year, Centorea once again offers him the position of a work study, and later a sidekick. This is my way of explaining why Tensei is such a nice guy in canon, as he had Centorea, who comes from a centuries long line of noble warriors, teaching him how to be a hero. This also cements the bond between Sarah and Tenya, as they were both born around the same time.

Second, I simply didn't want Tenya and Izuku to be tied. I really liked the fact that my changes resulted in Izuku being placed tenth rather than seventh as he is in canon, so I wanted to keep it that way. Don't know why I like it, just feels better.

Now, Koji. Koji in canon is strong, really strong. Dude's built like a house. My reasoning is that he gets some villain points, enough to pass. However, Sarah being there causes him to help her, because while he is shy, he does want to be a hero; he's simply a nice boy. Rescue points are also O.P., so those rescue points jump him all the way from below tenth place to fourth place. Sarah and Kórinis are self explanatory, but Katsuki is something I want to mention. Let's think about this, Katsuki came first in the canon Entrance Exams, with ZERO rescue points. This version of him had Kórinis saying just the right words to get him to help, inadvertently causing him to gain rescue points. I also wanted him to break All Might's record to highlight the fact that if Katsuki was a little nicer from the start, he would be a damn good hero. This is because-

MAJOR SERIES FINALE SPOILERS!

-at the end of the series we hear how Katsuki and Shoto are constantly jostling for first place as heroes in Japan. Will this event make him nice from the start? Nope. But it's just that, a start.

Review time!

Foodmoon, thanks for your correction and review. I'll address both of them here.

First, hot damn, I completely forgot about Toru! Guess that's fitting what with her being invisible. Thanks for pointing it out, nothing changes really, but I can spoil that Toru will have more screen time. Fun fact, the Arachne heteromorph species are able to see in the Ultraviolet spectrum, specifically from Ultraviolet to Green in the colour spectrum, just like most spiders in real life. My headcanon is that because of this, Kórinis and her mother, along with most of the Arachne species and subspecies have protanopia, which is red-blind deficiency. This means she can see in the ultraviolet, see through the colour spectrum up until green perfectly fine, and then anything past that is iffy. This is an issue that most species of spiders have in real life, the notable exception being jumping spiders, with the heteromorph equivalent being the Small Breed Arachne subspecies, that conveniently debuted this chapter. The more you know…

Secondly, thanks for the praise. Yes, Tenya is going to be a bit more chill in this timeline, having some friends in his life likely affected him in a positive way. We never hear Tenya mentioning his friends or past at Somei, so my take is that due to his family being generational Pro Heroes, it likely created a barrier around him, even at an Elite Private Academy. Sarah and Kórinis don't have that issue, due to Centorea being a fellow generational Pro Hero AND being Tensei's mentor, and Kórinis being Sarah's sister and best friend. The Idas in this version would be close to the Kurusus through Centorea, so Tenya would have had friends from the start. Obviously he will still have his physical ticks (his hands chops are simply too cute to get rid of), but he will be more considerate than in canon.

Anyway, that's all from me. Remember, this is your last chance to guess who is being kicked out of 1-A. It probably is obvious by now, but whoever guesses both characters correctly gets an O.C.

See you next time…

- Jevm