Holy fuck, was this chapter such a chore to write. I don't know 'bout the rest of you, but I had half a mind to just summarize and use exposition all the way up to the practical, but you know, muh pacing.

Special thanks to Writermakeshift for beta-reading.


IX. My Trial, Part I

Like just about the rest of the modern world, Japan had a system of mandatory education for children starting from around the age of five or six, which continued as they got older. However, it was also different in that it was only legally required up until high school, which then became optional. Which was why entrance exams needed to be taken to actually get into the school, unlike a majority of western countries.

U.A. High School was no exception. Back when Subaru was still riding the high of being a 'child genius', he wondered just why it was still a thing when most people chose to go past middle school anyway. But after finding out about hero schools (and especially seeing the school's interior with his own eyes), he realized something—how else were you supposed to prove yourself?

(He would have been extremely against the government sanctioning this sort of thing, once upon a time, but his twenty-first century mindset didn't exactly last long in the face of trying to pass himself off as a normal kid without twenty years of baggage.)

There was obviously the vigilante option, but seeing as society these days considered them persona non grata (not to mention that they almost always had to fend for themselves if anything ever went wrong), that door was closed to him before he ever actually got a chance to look at it.

"You just gonna keep staring at it?"

Subaru blinked, and clicked his tongue at Katsuki causing him to lose his train of thought. "Never mind," he murmured, pocketing what he had been looking at.

After arriving at U.A., he, Katsuki, and Uraraka followed the directions shown on the various posters and floor signs beyond the school's entrance, eventually making their way to a large auditorium, only stopping to get exam tickets containing their pictures and exam locations from the people manning the white folding tables outside, before they finally went inside and sat down.

The next several minutes passed in relative silence as each seat was filled, and before long, the lights in the roomed were dimmed, and a woman wearing what looked like a dominatrix getup over white spandex came in from the side door, walking up to the podium in the center, lit up by a spotlight.

"Welcome to U.A. High School," the pro hero Midnight said, lightly bowing. "As I'm sure you all know, you'll first be taking a written entrance exam, and another one later today for anyone applying to a specialized course." She raised her arm, and the large screen behind her came to life, displaying a photo of the school's entrance with the words 'U.A. High School Entrance Exam' written in bold kanji at the top of the screen.

After a moment, the screen then changed to an overhead map view of the school, where Midnight then proceeded to talk about how the written exam would go: after the orientation was over, each student only needed to follow one of the signs outside that matched the letters at the end of the ID numbers on their tickets, with the actual room numbers displayed on said signs.

After that, Midnight then briefly went over the test-taking process, as well as going through each rule and guideline they were expected to follow.

The general process itself was a lot more hands-on (and way more strict) than what Subaru had already been through, but considering just how high-profile the school was, he couldn't exactly blame them—having to maintain reputation aside, if you didn't even take the exams seriously, then what did that say about you if you managed to become a pro hero?

"If at any moment you're found to be cheating or have cheated," Midnight continued. "Then you will be either escorted out or have your test packet destroyed, and then potentially blacklisted from other hero schools in the country. Are there any questions?"

Subaru's eyebrows raised at the last thing she mentioned, and as expected, there was nothing but silence throughout the whole auditorium as everyone processed what she said.

Midnight nodded. "Then all I have left to say now is: good luck." With that, she bowed again, and she walked back out the side of the room, with the lights slowly coming back on and the projector above being turned off.

"Well," Subaru began, when the three of them were finally back outside. "No pressure or anything, am I right?"

Katsuki snorted. "It's not like we've been studying for almost a whole year, or anything like that."

Even though they logically had nothing to worry about, his statement caused Subaru to entertain the intrusive thought of all three of them failing for only a moment, before he immediately forced it down, clearing his throat.

"Um..." Turning to his side, Subaru saw Uraraka open her mouth to say something, before she paused and slightly shook her head. "Let's all do our best!"

Subaru nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Let's." He readjusted his grip on his backpack, and with a fist bump to both of his friends, he walked away to his testing area. "I'll see you guys in two hours."


"You may begin...now."

Right as the last word left the overseer's mouth, Ochako turned over the test packet and took a moment to look through it, making note of which questions seemed easier for her to answer. But where she and probably most of the other students were calmly going through through the test, she did manage to catch the sound of loud rustling more than a few times, as if a few people were already starting to give up, or were trying to get through it as fast as possible like it was some kind of race.

Okay, focus, Ochako, she told herself, slightly shaking her head. No one else matters right now.

She wasn't taking a regular high school exam—this was probably the most important part of her life, right now, and she needed to give this everything she had if she had any hope of standing beside Midoriya-kun and Bakugō-kun in the hero course.

It was honestly an immense stroke of luck that Midoriya-kun had helped her study for this for so long like he did. And not just that, but getting help from All Might, of all people, to help her with training her Quirk. She owed it to them, her parents, and everyone else who helped her to pass this and the practical exam.

But for now, she really should get to answering these questions. Picking up her mechanical pencil, Ochako pushed down on the eraser, and started writing out the characters of her name.


As it turned it out, they had actually ended up over-prepared for this.

Or at least, Subaru and his friends were, based on the quick glances he took at the faces of other students around him. Even though it had only been about twenty minutes since they started, he was already almost halfway done with the first section, and decided to take it easy for a bit, taking a moment to look through the rest of the first test.

He had to give these guys some credit, at least—the questions he was looking at right now were quite a bit higher than the level he expected, but he could quickly make short work of them.

At least this part's a walk in the park for us, he mused, faintly smiling at the thought.

When he met All Might, he really wasn't lying when he said that he didn't plan on becoming a pro hero. Sure, it would've been nice to actually be the hero Rem saw him as, but he had to face the reality that there was only so much he would've been able to do with just his Authorities—they just couldn't get any more powerful no matter what he did, compared to what he had with One for All.

Still, he thought, idly staring at a random empty spot in the room. I miss being able to use magic. If his broken gate didn't carry over, he liked to think that he could've gotten by with just what he had from Lugunica, in an ideal world, at least.

(In an even more ideal world, he wouldn't be back in Japan in the first place, but that was besides the point.)

"You have twenty minutes left," said the overseer, forcing Subaru away from his thoughts. His eyes snapped to the clock on the wall at the front of the classroom, and he blanched when he saw that he wasted so much time daydreaming.

Whoops. Better get back to it. Now, where was he?


The written exam had three individual tests in total, consisting of Japanese, English, and Mathematics. And because there were three tests, everyone was given two fifteen-minute breaks in between, before they had to go back inside their assigned classrooms. Once they were finally done with the last test, Subaru met up with Katsuki and Uraraka in the cafeteria for lunch, before they followed the directions to the orientation for the hero course exam.

"Welcome to the hero course exam, my dear listeners! Let me hear you say 'hey'!"

Among the awkward silence that resonated throughout the auditorium, Subaru's eyebrows raised at the sight of Present Mic being the one to give them the orientation for the practical exam. Was the entire staff here made up of pro heroes? Probably, yeah. U.A. seemed like the type of school to be able to afford that.

"Now, let me just give you a quick look on what you'll see in the practical, and you'll be all set to go. You guys ready?" After yet another bout of absolute silence from the audience, Subaru felt a bit of pity for the guy and even thought about actually responding, but quickly changed his mind on how potentially embarrassing it would be.

"Geez, tough crowd, huh?" Present Mic remarked, before he lit back up with his signature smile. "Eh, you guys are just nervous. Anyway—" He snapped towards the three large screens behind him, which were now showing .

Just like in the written exam, everyone taking the practical was going to be split up based on what was on their exam tickets, and then sent off to entire replicas of urban areas (at this point, he refused to believe that it was only the government funding this place), where they had ten minutes to go around and gain as many points as they could trying to destroy three different types of robots.

...yeah, he really was never going to make it in without One for All, was he?

The entire practical seemed tailored for only people with flashy Quirks that relied on brute force, but with anyone who had anything related to fighting actual people being left out in the dust. Katsuki or Uraraka not being in the same area with him meant no possibility of Cor Leonis, not to mention the whole 'not being any stronger than his own arm' thing going on with Invisible Providence.

"And while I don't think I need to say this, I'll just go ahead and remind you—using your Quirks or any other acts of violence on your fellow test-takers is strictly not. Cool. It goes against what heroes do, so if you're caught doing it, then you're immediately disqualified and kicked out." For several moments, silence permeated throughout the room when he said this, before it was filled by another voice.

"Excuse me! I would like to say something!"

"Go ahead!" Present Mic pointed at the direction the voice came from, and after a moment, a spotlight now shone on the speaker, and Subaru watched as a boy with black hair and wearing glasses stood up.

"On the print-out we were given," he continued, holding up a sheet of paper. "You mentioned there being three villain robots, but here, I'm seeing not three, but four! If there truly is not a fourth villain type, then it is highly shameful of an esteemed institution such as U.A. High School to have committed such a mistake!"

Dude, it's literally just a sheet of paper. Calm the fuck down.

He heard Katsuki snort next to him, and Subaru realized that he must've said that out loud.

"We did not come here to join such an esteemed hero academy only to be met with a misprint that could have been easily prevented!"

"How long you think the stick up his ass is?" Katsuki whispered, leaning in. Subaru immediately forced down the laugh that almost made its way out his throat, but he also heard Uraraka's low giggle next to him.

"That's not very nice, Bakugō-kun," Uraraka said, as Present Mic was explaining the concept behind the Zero-Pointer—a single robot that he strongly encouraged avoiding. If it wasn't worth anything, then it was probably meant to slow down anyone who was having an easy time.

"And the guy could've just waited instead of getting worked up like that," Katsuki retorted.

But before Uraraka could reply, Present Mic was already done with his explanation. "I see," the stranger replied. "Thank you very much, and I apologize for the intrusion!" He bowed and sat back down, and with that, Present Mic continued with his presentation, going a bit over the rules of the practical, and eventually ending it off with a loud 'PLUS ULTRA!'

After he left, the lights came back on in the auditorium, and once they were back outside, Subaru took the opportunity to pull his friends aside.

"Okay, pep talk time," he said, rubbing his hands together. "It might look pretty hard, but we've been training for this for eight months, and I seriously think we're all gonna ace this thing. So if for some reason you don't believe in yourself, then believe me when I say I believe in you, got it?"

"Got it!"

"Sure."

Subaru put his hand out, palm faced down, with Uraraka putting her own on top with an expression of fierce determination on her face and Katsuki following with an amused smile.

"Osu on three. One, two...osu!"

"Osu!"

"Osu."


In spite of having just done the whole 'put your hands together' thing, it still took quite a bit of time for Subaru, Katsuki, and Uraraka to get to the locker rooms to change into their workout clothes, and then make their way to the parking lot at the back of the school. When they finally got there, they were met with the sight of seven buses, each displaying the names of the testing zones they were headed to on the sides in bold English.

After a quick exchange of 'good luck' between the three of them, Subaru then made his way onto the bus labeled Battle Center B, where he saw that there were already quite a few people sitting inside. After finding a comfortable spot near the back, he sat down, and after several moments of boredom, promptly started staring out the window and daydreaming to pass the time.

Throughout what felt like the next several minutes, more and more people started coming into the bus and filled up the seats, and the relatively calm silence was quickly replaced by the excited chatter of the other test-takers.

"Um...is it okay if I sit here?"

Subaru looked to his left to see a short boy with what looked to be purple balls in the pattern of a mohawk covering his head. "Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks," the other boy replied with a grateful smile, moving to sit next to him.

Eventually, every seat was finally filled, and the bus was now its way to the testing zone, and when the silence started to get grating, Subaru finally broke the ice and got to know a little about his seatmate Mineta Minoru, whose Quirk, Pop Off, was having detachable (and re-growable) balls on his head that was then able to stick to any surface, such as the window next to him.

"So is that your plan, then?" Subaru asked, eyeing the purple ball. "Try to use as many of these as you can on the robots?"

"Well, if I could get close enough," Mineta replied sheepishly. "The guy who was telling us about them never said anything about actually destroying them, right?"

...huh. Come to think of it, that actually made a lot of sense. With all the variety when it came to Quirks, then surely U.A. would've accounted for that for the practical. So by that logic...

"What do you think the chances are of the robots having a kill switch on them?" Subaru could almost see the metaphorical gears turning in the other boy's head from his question, before he finally lit up and was now staring at him with something akin to awe.

"Midoriya, you might just be onto something," he said. "But it can't be that easy, right? It seems too good to be true."

"Eh, you never know," Subaru replied, now back to staring out of the window. At some point in their conversation, he managed to catch a glimpse of white hair near the front of the bus, causing his heart to skip a beat as his mind was filled with certain thoughts of a half-elf and a blue-haired maid.

Imagine that. If Rem and Emilia-tan had somehow gotten reincarnated with him, would he have spent these years with them instead of Katsuki and Uraraka? Would they have still thought of him as the Subaru they once knew?

Would all three of them have tried for U.A. together, trying to keep the memories of everyone they lost alive?

About another minute later, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye as the bus made another turn, and nudged Mineta when he saw the absolutely colossal wall surrounding the testing zone. When the bus finally slowed to a stop and its doors opened, Subaru and Mineta waited as everyone in front of them filed out, before they stood up and walked out themselves.

"Oh yeah, by the way, Midoriya—" Mineta began, once they were with everyone else gathered outside of the massive door that led to Battle Center B. "—you never did say what your Quirk was."

"Oh, I didn't? Sorry about that." Subaru turned to face him, and with just a thought, a lukewarm heat started to spread throughout his entire being, as his body soon covered with the familiar sight of green lightning dancing across his—

"And...START!"


Osu (おす) - physically (or figuratively) push or press down. In the context of this chapter, it's used as an affirmative response, mainly used in martial arts. Also used as a masculine casual greeting.

While I'm about 80% sure both exams take place on the same day, I couldn't exactly make heads or tails of whether or not the written one functioned almost exactly like the practical did, so I just combined what I've seen in anime, my own research on Japanese entrance exams, and my own experiences of doing big tests like the SAT.