The day finally arrived. After days of training themselves to the brink of exhaustion, costume changes whether they were minor or major, and hours dedicated to creating their ultimate moves: Class 1-A was about to take their Provisional Hero License exam.
"Alright so I'm just going to make this quick. If you can pass this test and get your provisional licenses, all of you will hatch out of your shells. All of you are going to become semi-pros once you get your licenses. Do your best." Aizawa said turning to his class who nodded at him as buses bringing several other students from other Hero Courses to the testing location arrived.
"At least that hell is over." Hayato said stretching his arms next to Izuku who nodded as he rubbed his currently sore shoulder.
"Did you ever get the hang of THAT move?" Izuku asked making his best friend nod. The two grinned as they knew it was almost time for them to take yet another step towards becoming heroes.
"Shiketsu's here." Katsuki noted seeing a group of students, all of which were wearing a hat with a golden emblem with an S on it, walking off a bus and towards them. "U.A in the east, Shiketsu in the west...this is gonna be just fucking great." Katsuki growled jamming his hands into his pockets.
"Uh oh, the gang leader just saw the rivals." Eijiro chuckled seeing his closest friend glaring at the group of students before turning to see Mina who was excitedly talking to Tsuyu and Toru. 'I've really been chickening out about this...'
"Keep an eye on them." Aizawa said as he kept his focus on a tall boy with extremely short hair from Shiketsu High's group.
"Why Mr. Aizawa?" Kyoka asked making their teacher sigh and cross his arms.
"Besides being our rival school, that tall kid is Inasa Yoarashi. He was the top recommended student for U.A. last year but he turned down his acceptance to our school, no one knows why. But that doesn't mean he won't be one of your biggest hurdles during this exam." Aizawa explained before hearing a woman's voice call out to him.
"Eraser? It's you, isn't it, Eraser?!" The class watched in a mix of pure shock and horror as their normally stoic teacher for once looked as if he had seen a ghost. They watched as a woman with sea green hair wearing a dark blue shirt and puffed shorts with smiley-face pins around her waist walked up to them with a hand raised towards the man. "I saw you on the news and during the Sports Festival, but's been a while since we've seen each other face to face!"
"Hm? Hey isn't she that joke hero?" Hayato asked placing his hands behind his head making his best friend nod. But before Izuku could say anything, Hayato simply covered his mouth and shook his head. "Not in public."
"Let's get married." The woman said pointing to herself and Aizawa making the Class 1-A teacher shake his head.
"Not on your life."
"Wow! Good one!" The woman yelled bursting into laughter.
"You're hard to talk to, Joke. But then again that's always the case with you." Aizawa sighed as he felt his eye begin to twitch.
"You guys know who she is?" Kyoka asked turning to Hayato who kept his hand on Izuku's mouth.
"She's the Smile Hero: Ms. Joke. She's got this Quirk that can make people around her laugh uncontrollably. Whenever she's in action it's a mix of funny and borderline disturbing." Hayato said as Ms. Joke's laughter began to send a chill down his back. "Didn't someone make a bad guy like that?"
"If we get married, we can make a happy family with never-ending laughter!" Ms. Joke said giving the man a thumbs up, only for him to shake his head again.
"That sounds more like torture."
"You two seem pretty close." Tsuyu noted placing a finger on her chin.
"Our agencies used to be close to each other! In our cycle of helping and being helped, our mutual love for each other bloomed-" Ms. Joke said now making a vein pop out from Aizawa's forehead.
"Stop making shit up." Aizawa growled rolling his eyes at the woman.
"You've got some fast comebacks! It's so fun to tease you!" Ms. Joke yelled placing her hands on her hips while Aizawa closed his eyes and shook his head again.
"If you're here then that means..."
"Yup! Come say hi to U.A. everyone!" Ms. Joke called out to a group of students wearing gray polo shirts behind her making them walk up to them.
"Wow, it's really them!" A boy with shaggy black hair said making Hayato and Ochaco quickly look back and forth from him and Izuku, their eyes widening at the close resemblance they shared.
"I've seen them all on TV! Talk about amazing!" A girl with ash-blond hair and pointed teeth yelled as she patted the boy's back while Mina and Denki quickly looked back and forth between her and both Eijiro and Katsuki.
"Keep fucking doing that and your damn heads are gonna roll." Katsuki growled making the two stop.
"These are Ketsubutsu Academy's second year students, Class 2! They're my class, so be nice. Shindo, Tatami, feel free to start taking everyone to go get changed." Ms. Joke said placing her hands on her hips before looking at the group of U.A. students. "Did you ever tell them?" She was answered by Aizawa turning around and beginning to walk away towards the testing location.
"Let's go! Stop wasting time and get changed!"
"Yes sir!"
'I'll take that as a no.'
"So many people..." Izuku gulped as he stood with his class among hundreds of other hero course students in a large room for their exam orientation.
"Yup...where's Momo and Ochaco?" Hayato said noticing their girlfriends were nowhere to be seen with their orientation ready to begin any moment.
"Right here." The two turned around hearing Ochaco's voice and their eyes widened as they saw the two standing behind them, and they began to blush as they took in the costume changes the two had made. Ochaco had changed her gauntlets so that they now had three holes on each one, all of which could shoot a wire with a small grappling hook on the end of it, with rings sticking out on the side of each one, and the pink visor she once had over her face was now removed as well. As for Momo, she had changed the way her leotard covered her chest: covering her breasts more while keeping her cleavage and abdomen open, as well as a pair of red fingerless gloves that kept the palms of her hands uncovered. "It was hard spotting the class in this big crowd." Ochaco admitted rubbing the back of her head.
"You two seem raring to go." Momo said crossing her arms and smiling as they noticed Izuku's new gloves that now had small orange sights on his knuckles for him to use his long range attacks more effective and Hayato's new white respirator hanging around his neck similar to the way Izuku had his.
"Ready as we'll ever be." Izuku said before they heard a voice come from the speakers and they all turned to look at the podium at the very front of the room.
"Um...let's get started with this provisional license thing..." Everybody in the room watched as an exhausted beige haired man struggle to stay awake as he began to talk into a microphone. "I'm Mera from the Heroes Public Safety Commission. The kind of sleep I like is non-REM sleep...nice to meet you..." Mera said introducing himself to the students before feeling himself ready to collapse from exhaustion. "I've been so busy that I haven't gotten much sleep...we're too understaffed...I'm so sleepy!" The majority of the students couldn't help but cringe at the sight in front of them as the man struggled to stay awake. "With that conviction, I will give you the orientation."
"And this is why I never wanted that kind of job..." Hayato said earning a nod from the three next to him.
"Ditto."
"About the content of the provisional license thing...frankly, all 1,540 examinees here will have to win through a free-for-all exercise." Mera said leaning over as most of the heroes gulped nervously. "Our society is currently said to be saturated with heroes, and there are people who doubt the state of the currently heroes. The loss of the Symbol of Peace has people doubting whether anyone can ever fill his shoes and whether anyone can ever be as selfless or as courageous as he was, or even solve a crime as quickly or efficiently as he did. Well, as a private citizen, whatever kind of hero you are: right now, the time from when an incident begins to when it resolves is so short that you'll feel sick. You all are about to receive your provisional licenses and throw yourselves into the fray as well. Those who can't keep up with that will have it pretty tough. As such, you'll all be tested on speed. The first hundred to fulfill the requirements will pass."
"But there are a total of 1,540 people taking the exam! Didn't they say half would pass?!" Momo yelled instinctively grabbing Hayato's hand as she felt herself grow even more nervous.
"This means that less than 10 percent actually pass..." Tsuyu said making Kyoka begin to nervously rub the sides of her head.
"I'm getting even more nervous now!"
"Well, a lot's happened in the world, so good luck and all that stuff. So anyway, here are the requirements." Mera said as he stood up and took out an orange ball and a silver pad from under the podium and placing them together. "The examinee will put three of these targets on his or her body. They can go anywhere as long as it's an exposed area. You can't put them on the soles of your feet or in your armpits. You're also gonna get six of these balls. The targets are made to only light up if they're hit by these balls, and if all three of your targets light up: you're out. The person who lights up your third target will have it count as their defeat. You get through this round by defeating two people. That's it for the rules."
"Well that's pretty confusing." Hayato said crossing his arms and catching Izuku's attention.
"How so?"
"I mean...for one, you can steal someone else's kill easily with this scenario. If a person has two targets hit already then you can get the third and it counts for you."
"Good point. It's pretty similar to our entrance exam at that, except with other students it's going to be a lot more difficult than just robots."
"But at the same time: how are they gonna know that the ball that hit is ours? Are they just linked to our targets or how the hell does that work?"
"I wouldn't think much of it, you're gonna fry your brain before we even start."
"Once we open, we're going to start passing out the balls and targets. And once we've gotten to everyone: we'll start after one minute."
"Open?" Shoto asked himself before suddenly the ceiling began to open, and all four walls followed until the large crowd of students saw that they were in the middle of a large stadium with a makeshift factory, mountain, waterfall, and city around them.
"I believe you all have terrain that you like and dislike. Use your Quirks well and do your best."
"This is where they were last seen...where did you go, Shigaraki?" Sorahiko asked as he and a group of S.W.A.T. officers walked into an abandoned building after getting a tip from local heroes and police that they had seen some of the League's members enter the building. They continued walking and the old man shuddered as he felt the temperature drop the further they explored the building. "Something's not right. Fall ba-" Sorahiko turned around as his eyes widened seeing that the officers that had walked in with him were now gone. He gritted his teeth as he knew returning was a bad idea...but he knew if he kept walking he could suffer the same fate. So he began walking with his Quirk ready to go and what he found was shocking. Out of six S.W.A.T officers, he had found five frozen to the wall or ground, their faces twisted with fear as whatever body parts weren't covered in ice were completely blue and frozen. Once he returned to the exit: he found the last officer frozen in a pillar of ice, and a large spike made of ice as well was through his chest and had nearly torn his body in two. "Who could've done this...?"
"Hello." He jumped into the air feeling the temperature drop even more and looked down to see Yuki Onna standing under him with her lips blue and her hair covered in frost.
"You...you're that girl we didn't recognize with the League of Villains that night!" Sorahiko yelled as he took in her appearance and remembered seeing her the day Toshinori fought All For One.
"Yuki Onna's the name."
"I would've had some sort of leniency towards someone so young and lost, but you brutally murdered six officers of the law in cold blood!" Sorahiko yelled jumping from the ceiling to the wall farthest from the girl as the area around her began to freeze.
"It's what I do."
"This isn't going to end well for you, kid! I'm gonna take you in and make you give up Shigaraki's whereabouts!" Sorahiko yelled as he shot towards the girl with his foot extended.
"Chill out." Yuki said raising her hand to catch his foot and it began to freeze in her grip.
"What?!"
"The colder the human body gets: the slower its movements become. And an old man like you is even slower than the average person too." Yuki said letting go of Sorahiko's foot and the old man fell to the ground as he couldn't use his Jet Quirk to free his leg from the ice. "Don't bother. I'm the only person who can stop a Speedster in their tracks like nothing. My Quirk, Blizzard, let's me take the heat away from everything close to me and I can even use freeze the moisture in the air to create ice. I'm just a bad match for you...but not a bad match for my darling!"
"Darling?" Sorahiko asked himself before Yuki froze his other leg and lifted him up by his cape. "Whoever your darling is, they'll bring him and you in for this!"
"I don't see why, my darling is an upcoming hero at U.A. and he's such a handsome speedster! Of course I still need to officially meet him, but I just want to see my darling so badly!" Yuki cooed as the image of Hayato appeared in her mind, and Sorahiko's eyes widening as he knew there were only two people she could be thinking about. "But enough about him, you're coming with me." Yuki said flipping her attitude around and beginning to walk away with the older hero being dragged behind her.
"Test 1, start!" Class 1-A stood together hearing the call for their exam to begin before suddenly Katsuki began to walk away.
"Kacchan, we'll be better off if we all stick together!" Izuku called out making the Explosion hero turn around and glare at him.
"This isn't the time for jokes, Deku. I'm gonna pass all by myself." Katsuki said walking away only to be followed by Eijiro and Denki.
"Wait!"
"Come on dude! What the hell?!"
"I can't use my powers to the fullest here, sorry." Shoto said as he ran away as well making Hayato nod, understanding why he had to leave.
"Izuku we need to move, if we stand here worrying about them then we're sitting ducks. Same goes for everyone: stick together and watch each other's backs!" Hayato said making the green haired boy nod and the two of them began to run forward with their remaining classmates behind them. But they all stopped seeing a large crowd of heroes jumping towards them. "Well, the welcoming committee's here!"
"We all saw your Quirks during the festival, so we know exactly what to expect from you guys!" The black haired boy from Ketsubutsu yelled leading the charge as they all threw their balls towards the large class group.
"Hayato." Izuku said taking a step forward and activating his One for All.
"You don't need to tell me twice." Hayato chuckled activating his One for All as well, and the two of them jumped into the air towards the volley of balls headed towards them.
'One for All: Full Cowling! 20 percent!'
'One for All: Mach Two! 15 percent!'
"Everybody get down!" Momo and Ochaco yelled ducking with their classmates watching the green energy spark off Izuku and a new white energy spark off Hayato as well. They all braced themselves as Izuku and Hayato both kicked the air, creating a powerful gust of wind that stopped the balls in their tracks before sending them flying backwards.
"We've got more behind us!" Tenya yelled turning around and seeing another large group appear behind their class making Mina and Fumikage run forward.
"We've got this!" Mina yelled as she fired streams of acid from her hands, melting as many as possible while Dark Shadow appeared over Fumikage's body, his arms extending forward and grabbing what was left and throwing them back.
"We all can't stick together like this. It's going to hinder a lot of our abilities." Fumikage said as Izuku and Hayato landed and ran back to their class.
"But-"
"He's got a point." Hayato said stopping Izuku's objection and the two of them looked at their class who nodded at them. "Split up into groups that you know you can use your powers as best you can in."
"Everybody take care of each other and don't let your nerves or any rival schools stop all of us from passing." Izuku said as he got ready in case another assault happened.
"We're Class 1-A of U.A. High School's hero course! We've put in so much work since we started, we won't let Mr. Aizawa, or any of the faculty who's been guiding us since our first day, down!" Tenya yelled raising his fist making his classmates do the same. "It's time for all of us to go beyond!"
"Plus Ultra!"
"That's touching, but not all of you are going to pass this exam." Shindo yelled handing four balls to his blue rock-like classmate who began to knead them in his hands. "They're even tougher than I expected, right Makabe?"
"It was pretty clear something like that wasn't gonna take U.A. down, but this plan ought to work. Heads up Toteki." Makabe said tossing the now balls, now stiffened and harder than rocks, to his long black-haired classmate who caught them and made them begin to glow purple.
"I got it. But I might just end up finishing ahead of you all. I hope you let it pass because it means you have less people to go up against. Target Lock-On...Boomerang: Crescent Moon Trajectory." Toteki said as he closed on eye and kept his focus on Hayato, Ochaco, Izuku, and Fumikage. He then threw the balls and they flew into the ground, quickly tearing through the ground under them as they looked at it worriedly.
"Where'd they go?" Izuku asked before Kyoka suddenly ran up in front of them.
"Get back! I'll handle this!" Kyoka yelled as her Earphone jacks extended into a pair of speakers she now had on the back of her gloves. "Sound Amplification: Heartbeat Distortion!" The ground in front of them quickly broke open and the four balls quickly shot out of the ground and into the air. But instead of falling to the ground, the balls still kept flying towards Hayato who smirked and began to vibrate.
"Maximum Viscosity and solubility...Acid Veil!" Mina yelled as she jumped over Hayato and created a curtain of acid that destroyed the balls headed towards the speedster.
"Ashido?"
"You've gotta save your energy, Kiryuu! And I needed a chance to show off my new defensive move too." Mina said giving the white haired boy a peace sign making him chuckle and nod.
"You've got a point. But I'm going to cover us so we can finish splitting up! Jiro, Shinso, I hope you don't mind but I'd like you guys to stick with me." Hayato said as he pulled his cowl over his head and cracked his neck. Kyoka blushed and nodded while Hitoshi scoffed and raised a black mask to cover his mouth. 'Alright One for All...don't fail me now.' Hayato closed his eyes and began to vibrate rapidly before moving around and standing around his class faster than the eye can see, until all of a sudden it looked like there was a wall of Hayatos surrounding Class 1-A.
"That guy can multiply?!" Tatami yelled as she jumped next to Shindo who looked surprised at what the boy was currently doing.
"But he's fast...or is he moving so fast that it just looks like he's multiplying?" Shindo asked himself before kneeling down and placing his hands on the ground. "Their defenses look pretty strong, so I'm gonna take it down! Maximum Force! Tremoring Earth!" Shindo yelled as the ground began to violently quake and tear apart until it reached the U.A. students.
"Watch yourselves!" Tenya yelled before the "copies" of Hayato turned around and placed their hands on each one of them, making them all vibrate and phase through the ground shooting up towards them until the quaking stopped.
"A Speed Mirage plus Multi-Phase. Pretty exhausting but I'm glad I pulled it off." Hayato said as the copies of him vanished until it was just him standing next to Izuku.
"You planned this?" Hanta asked noticing the cloud of dust and broken and raised ground providing their class cover.
"I didn't expect him to do something on this scale, but I wanted to bait one of them into attacking me so I can use it as some kind of cover. I'm gonna take a long nap after this exam, I'm telling you guys now." Hayato chuckled before taking off his cowl. "It's time to split up. We'll meet back up in the Resting area once we all pass. Good luck everyone." Hayato said before running off with Hitoshi and Kyoka behind him towards the fake city.
"Ochaco, Sero, I can use your help too. This is a pretty tough situation but I'm feeling pretty excited. Can I count on you guys?" Izuku said turning to Hanta and Ochaco who nodded and raised their fists.
"Of course, Deku."
"I've got your back, man!" Hanta said before the three of them ran off further into the mountainous area leaving Momo and Tenya to lead the rest of the class.
"Let's break the ten of us that are left into two. If you feel like you should separate again, stay with at least another person to take care of one another." Tenya said standing up with Yuga, Fumikage, Koji, and Toru before all of them ran off towards the waterfall area, leaving Momo with Tsuyu, Mina, Mezo, and Mashirao.
"Everyone's clear on the plan?" Momo asked earning a nod from her group before Mina tugged the back of her costume. "Ashido?"
"I'm curious, Midoriya took Ochaco with him but Kiryuu didn't ask you to go with him. Is there a reason for that, Yao-Momo?" Mina asked making Momo smile and look in the direction Hayato had left.
"I might not know what he's always thinking, but I know he's confident in what I can do without him around. But let's not worry about that right now and focus on the task at hand." Momo said making the four nod and they ran off towards the fake city as well.
"I found an old rat that walked into our trap." Yuki said as she walked into an abandoned warehouse, throwing Sorahiko forward towards the sitting Tomura and League of Villains.
"He's the old guy that took out Dabi." Toga said recognizing the old man while Tomura stood up and walked over to him.
"Gran Torino...you might be a fun toy to play with." Tomura said taking off his mask to reveal his sadistic grin at the helpless old man with his bottom half now frozen.
'Toshinori...Midoriya...Hayato...please find me soon.' Sorahiko thought as he closed his eyes and pictured Hayato and Mira one last time before losing consciousness from the cold.