POV: Issei Hyoudou
"There is no way in hell I'm passing."
That thought had been playing on repeat in my mind since the test ended. It seems U.A. truly did deserve its reputation, cause that hands down had to be the hardest test I've ever taken in my life.
And let's be clear, I tried everything to pass that test. Pulled out all the little tricks I've learned throughout my life. I attempted to look around the room for clues, but was met with blank walls and an annoyed proctor. Next, I tried to look at future questions to see if any of the answers were hidden in the text. Only to find out that each and every question was independent of the other. Clearly, whoever chose the questions knew what they were doing.
With no other options, I was left with my final trump card.
Gut instincts and sheer dumb luck.
That method didn't work either, since about five minutes into using it, I had circled the letter D six times in a row.
It was clear that I had underestimated my opponent. And as a result, I led myself to my doom.
After the test. Me and the other applicants were led into a huge room with a screen and a desk in the center. The rest of the room was filled with rows upon rows of seats, filled with other applicants.
Finding my seat quickly, I spent no time resting my head on the table in front of me. If I'm gonna fail a test, I'm going to at least moan about it for a little bit.
"Like your application said, today you rockin' boys and girls will be out there conducting 10-minute mock battles in super hip urban settings!"
My moping was cut off by a very loud voice coming from the center of the room. Raising my head from the desk, I spotted a man doing exaggerated poses and hand gestures in front of the large screen that was now displaying images related to the practical portion.
He sounded familiar, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember where I heard him.
"Well, no point in moping around when I still have a whole other section of the exam to get through."
With my terrible performance somewhat forgotten, I sat straighter in my seat and began paying attention to what the man was saying.
"Scourge your loins, my friends. After I drop the mic here, you'll head to your specified battle center. Sound good?"
Glancing at my ID shows that I'm assigned to Battle Center D.
"Okay, okay, let's check out your targets. There are three types of foe villains in every battle center". On the screen, the silhouettes of what looked to be robots appeared, along with a number displayed above their head."You'll learn points based on their level of difficulty, so better choose wisely. Your goal in this trial is to use your quirk to raise your score by shredding these faux villains like a mid-song guitar solo!"
"Seems simple enough, so as long as I dont pick fights with anyone stronger than me, and I should be fine."
"But check it! Make sure you're keeping things heroic! Attacking other examinees is a UA no-no ya deg!"
After that, a student stood up from the crowd and began to make a big deal about how the school had apparently forgotten to mention a fourth villain type. I started to doze off around the point where he began criticizing another student, for as he put it, "Muttering this entire time."
I couldn't see who he was talking about since the area I was sitting in would have required me to turn around and crane my head upwards. And in all honesty, I wasn't in the mood to see two kids fighting in public. After the student stopped talking, the speaker quickly explained that the fourth villain was a type of obstacle meant to make our lives harder during the practical. And to basically avoid fighting it at all costs.
He spent a few more minutes explaining minor rules before asking the applicants to head over to the changing rooms. Changing took only a few minutes, thankfully, over the past ten months, Inko was kind enough to get a tracksuit that actually fit me. Once we got into more active wear, we were brought to a row of buses. We were divided into groups based on the battle center we were assigned.
The bus ride was peaceful, with me mainly enjoying seeing other parts of the campus too far from the front gate to be seen. It was silent throughout the entire ride, guessing everyone else was either full of nerves or didn't feel all that talkative. My mind was also on the proctor from earlier.
"His voice sounded so familiar, I swear I heard it somewhere before. It's practically on the tip of my tongue."
We quickly reached a large concrete box. Getting off the bus, we were brought face-to-face with a gigantic door; the thing had to be at least ten stories tall. Taking my eyes off the ridiculous door, I took what little time I had left to scope out my competition. And judging by the looks I was also receiving, I wasn't the only one who thought that way.
Most applicants were wearing standard tracksuits like me. But there were a handful of them that seemed to have special outfits and items. Normally, I probably would have been a little annoyed that these guys seemed to have an advantage over the rest of us. But I can't tell whether they needed that gear for their quirk to function properly. Or if they were just trying to show off to the rest of us. I decided to just let it go and focus on getting some quick stretches in.
"Right. Let's start!"
Suddenly, the proctor's voice from before rang out from a nearby intercom. Thinking that he was trying to grab are attention so he could begin counting down. Everyone stopped what they were doing and waited for the signal. When the intercom remained silent, people were starting to get confused.
"Get moving! There are no countdowns in real battles! Run, run, run, listeners!"
"You're wasting air time here!"
"Wait? Air time...Oh shit, he's present mic. Me and Izuku listen to him all the time."
Finally scratching that itch, I turn back to the door. Only to find it wide open and the other applicants gone.
"Oh, you assholes."
Sprinting past the door, I was met with the sight of a complete one-to-one scale replica of a city.
"Guess they weren't kidding about it being an "Urban" setting"
My late start was already proving to be a disadvantage. It seems the other applicants have some pretty strong quirks, cause all I was seeing was broken robots littered along the main road. If I looked even further down the road, I could actually see some applicants fighting the leftover robots.
If things continued like this, I was gonna rack up zero points. While running along an empty street, I ran past an alley. And I would've continued to run past if it wasn't for the robotic arm that slapped the shit out of me.
Spinning around with my now swollen cheek, I spot the jerk who decided to get in a free shot. The bot was roughly the same size as me, covered in military green paint, with the sole exception being its joints. The thing had two miniguns strapped onto both arms, not sure how any government allowed that. But on the bright side, it wasn't shooting them at me.
Its only means of mobility was a singular wheel covered in more metal parts. The final piece to this jerk's design was the golf ball-sized lens installed into its coffin-shaped head.
It swung its right arm, aiming to blind side me once again. I dodged the punch, with the edges of its reinforced armor grazing the back of my tracksuit. The punch dented the nearby railing.
Seeing the damage, I quickly get an idea.
The robot was now completely outside the alley, and my assumptions on the thing's height were thrown out the window. Now the robot towered over me.
Giving the red lens a more intimidating feeling now.
It wasted no time, moving quickly into punching distance.
Ducking and dodging the wide punches weren't easy. I only had a few seconds before the seemingly still robot sprang into motion. I tried making a break for the dented railing before feeling hard steel connecting into my left side. The blow launched me into a nearby trash can, causing it to spill everywhere.
And in case you wanted to know, it was actual garbage. The smell and slimy feeling couldn't be replicated, at least not to this level.
"Wh..why would they even feel the need to copy the trash?"
Catching something moving from the corner of my eye, I knew I had to act before I got pummeled. Grabbing a handful of whatever I was covered in, I threw it in the direction of I last saw movement.
Wiping off the trash blocking my vision. I got ready to capitalize on the little moment of rest I hopefully bought for myself.
"UGH, What the hell, man, why did you throw trash on me!"
Instead of a trash-covered robot. I actually saw another applicant covered in trash trying desperately to shake it off. They appeared to be a guy based on their voice, but the rest was covered in trash, so I couldn't really make anything out clearly.
I can only see that the person was small, like only able to reach my knee caps small. He also seemed to have what looked like a bunch of balls on top of his head.
"This stuff stinks! What's your problem, man! The teacher literally said we weren't supposed to atta"
The robot's left arm connected with the guy's cheek. He was sent flying across the street before roughly connecting with a concrete wall.
He didn't get back up.
I stared at the guy's unmoving body; the only reason I'm sure I'm not looking at a corpse was because of the faint rise and fall of his chest. I felt my throat tighten and cold sweat drip down my back.
I swung my head in the direction I last saw the robot, only to see it bringing down its fist above my head. Jumping out of the way of the impact, I make a run for the railing. I can hear the bot's fist impacting the ground behind me. I waste no time and activate my quirk.
My enhanced strength easily snapped the already dented metal. Giving me a pointy metal stick, or depending on how I'm hoping to use it. A makeshift spear. Turning around, I see the bot already closing in.
"Don't really have time to aim. So as long as it makes contact, I should be good."
Throwing the spear was rather easy. With my quirk activated. The piece of metal in my hand felt as light as a plastic tube. Still had some weight to it, but not as much as it was supposed to.
The spear flew through the air before sinking into the chest of the robot. And like a puppet with its strings cut, the robot instantly fell to the ground. Twitching and sparking before shutting down entirely.
Breathing a sign of relief at my victory over this metal menace, I head over to check on the knocked-out applicant. Rolling him over on his back, I check his injuries and wipe off the trash I threw at him. Besides being unconscious and having a swollen cheek, he looked fine.
Don't know how U.A. plans on dealing with injured applicants. So I chose to leave him in an empty building near the edge of the battle center. I didn't like the idea of just leaving him behind, especially since I was the one who got him injured in the first place. But I think he would much rather be left inside a building where it's safe, than be brought along to fight big robots while knocked out.
And as mean as it sounds, he would just slow me down.
Walking back to the downed robot, I spot a number painted along its right arm.
"One?" Thinking back to Present mic explaining the rules, I remember the meaning behind the number.
"Wait, that means this robot was only worth one point!"
With that in mind, I start running down the alley where the robot came from. I spent too long fighting for only one measly point. If I dont pick up the pace now, I won't have any time to make any more points.
"Eight minutes remaining."
Present Mic's voice ran out from somewhere in the battle center. I'm sure if Izuku were here, he would be gushing over the fact that it was Present Mic conducting the exam. But since I was on a time limit, I just ran faster in hopes of finding another robot to destroy.
The next couple of minutes were a blur of motion and violence. I found more one pointers patrolling the back alleys and side roads. Once it looked like I had cleared all the scavengers, I made my way towards the direction I heard the most noise. That also meant I ran into other people, and most of the time, they were very hostile towards me and anyone else they deemed competition.
That didn't stop me and others from stealing points by taking out robots that were already on the verge of shutting down. That earned me some very deadly stares and remarks from the people already fighting them. But as long as I was getting points and not harming anybody, then I couldn't care less about how many dirty tricks I had to pull.
It was when the four-minute reminder sounded off that I realized I had forgotten to keep track of how many points I had. If I had to give an estimate, it would have to be somewhere around fifteen to twenty-nine points. No idea if that's good or not, since Present mic never said how many we need to pass.
I was just finishing up a larger three-pointer when the ground started shaking.
I was clued in to the fact that something was wrong when the screams started. I could see people running in the streets, some even abandoning downed robots in order to run from whatever they saw.
I didn't want to waste the free points, so I gave most of them quick jabs to their heads to finish the job. I felt the shaking ground become more violent the closer I got to the main street. So, feeling a little curious about what made everyone so scared, I decided to take a peek.
I instantly understand why the others left behind free points.
Anyone would be scared of a robot that made the surrounding buildings look small.
The thing was a hulking mass of metal and pure terror, with eight glowing red lenses. Its fist crushed cars like bugs and tore apart buildings like wet cardboard. It moved on treads so wide it couldn't even fit down most roads. Which was proably the reason it stuck to the main road. It was the only one wide enough for it to move properly.
It was the Zero pointer. The fourth villain type they told us to avoid, instead of fighting.
"So that's why they told us to run if we saw it."
I dont really think we needed to be told that. Anyone stupid enough to fight that thing in general deserves to lose. Luckily, it seems its attention was firmly on one of the applicants, who was too slow to get away before it saw him. And while it didn't move all that fast, it made up for it with its size. So, even with the guy running as fast as he could, the robot quickly made short work of any space made in between them.
The poor guy was in bad shape. He looked like a man on the verge of collapse, sweating and panting with each step. He couldn't even hide in any of the buildings or lose it in the alleys; the robot would just bulldoze straight through the building as if it weren't even there.
The last thing I saw before I lost sight of them, was the robot chasing him to one of the edges of the battle center. It was clear the guy was done for; even if he managed to lose the robot now, he would be too exhausted to get any more points. And while it suck for that guy, I wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. I fact, I should work even harder to get points before that giant of a robot gets bored with him and comes back around.
"Sucks to be him. The road he's headed down only leads to the wall surrounding the battle center."
The only reason I knew that was because I had used that road earlier. After dealing with that smaller robot in the alley, I spent a couple of minutes going up and down that one in order to take down a couple of three-pointers. They seemed to have a tough time with smaller spaces, so I made sure to use that to my advantage.
"Two Minutes remaining."
"Welp, looks like that's it."
Can't see any more robots nearby, and any that are still around are probably getting destroyed by someone else. I sit down on one of the fallen two-pointers I had dealt with earlier. I have been running around and smashing robots nonstop since this exam started.
Personally, I think I did ok. I took down a decent number of robots and even managed to avoid the huge zero-pointer. Besides accidentally throwing trash on a guy and then watching him get knocked out. I'd say I did pretty good.
Good enough to make up for bombing the first half of the entrance exam? Only time will tell. But until then, I'm going to take a little breather. I rest the back of my head on what used to be the robot's right arm. The only thing there now was warped metal, which also made for a pretty good headrest.
"Now that I think about it. How does U.A. deal with injured applicants? Do I have to tell somebody where I put him, or did they already grab him while we were busy dealing with the rest of the robots?"
"Wait? Where did I put him again?"
Sitting up from my metal bed, I scan the ruined city to see if I can spot the building where I dumped that guy's body.
"God, the more I talk about it, the more I feel like I'm no longer talking about something legal."
I kept scanning. until my eyes landed on the trail of ruined buildings caused by the zero pointers chase. More buildings had collapsed in the little time it took for me to be distracted. With nothing blocking my vision, I was able to clearly see the applicant still running and the zero pointer still hot on his trail.
And while that still sucks for him, the part that I was concerned about was the very familiar building that was standing in front of the applicant and directly in the path of the zero pointer.
"Oh, no"
It was the very same building that had a defenseless bystander, who just happened to be currently lying unconscious.
I suddenly feel like my decision to leave him behind was definitely the wrong choice. Not only was I the reason he's unconscious, but I was also the one who put him in that very building.
I activated my quirk and began running. My quirk didn't only enhance my strength, but my speed as well. And if I wanted to reach the zero pointer before it flattened the building, I needed a little boost.
Unfortunately, it seems I needed more than just a "Little" boost. While the zero-pointer was playing its friendly little game of tag. It damaged several buildings in the process, causing a large amount of rubble to build up on the roads, making it hard to even move around.
I need to think fast. If I can't run fast enough to reach it, I just need to think of another plan to keep it away from the building.
And a plan was exactly what I came up with. While moving around another patch of rubble, my pant leg got caught on a smaller piece. As I was pulling myself free, I was suddenly reminded of a similar situation.
"If I can't run fast enough to stop the zero pointer from reaching the building. I just need to get the zero pointer moving in a different direction."
I picked up the biggest piece of rubble I could carry and flung it in the direction of the zero pointer.
It made contact with the back of its treads. The rubble was so small in comparison, I wasn't sure if the zero pointer would even realize something had hit it. My worries were instantly forgotten as the Zero pointer came to a complete stop.
A fact the guy running away from it didn't even realize, as he chose to keep running instead of questioning why the large robot was no longer chasing him.
I, on the other hand, knew exactly why the Zero pointer stopped. And as it turns out, the zero pointer also knew. Since the big robot snapped its head in my direction so fast, I thought it was gonna snap clean off.
You know. I just now realized I never came up with a way to get rid of the zero pointer after I got its attention.
For a few moments me and a robot the size of a skyscraper were locked in a staring contest, neither of us moving.
"One Minute remaining."
Like a gunshot to signal the start of a race, the zero pointer sprang into motion.
But instead of moving towards me, it chose to crash its left arm into a nearby building. I'm not sure what that meant, but I wasn't going to be stupid enough to stand around and find out.
Running in the opposite direction, I chance a glance over my shoulder to see if the zero pointer was chasing.
What I saw made my stomach drop.
The zero pointer was still in the exact same spot. The only difference being its rotated upper body and tensed left arm, which had been placed suspiciously behind its own head. They somehow programmed their robots to imitate the textbook example of a throwing stance.
"Is this robot really paying me back for throwing a piece of rubble at it!"
The answer was a resounding yes.
The zero pointer unleashed the giant chunks of concrete as easily as someone throwing a handful of pebbles. I jumped towards the nearest building, and was blown straight into a wall by the force of something landing directly where I was standing mere seconds ago.
Getting up, I look back at the door I used to get inside. All I saw was a pile of rubble. It's scary how I could've been under that pile if I had only moved half a second slower. I was jolted out of my dark thoughts by the violent shaking of everything around me growing stronger.
The zero pointer was headed in my direction, so I had better hurry up and get the hell out of this building. Looking around, I see that the room I find myself in has no windows. This not only made my escape routes even more limited, but it also made the room very dark.
So up the stairs I went.
"I just need to make it to a floor with actual windows and jump out of one of them. After I get outside, I can lose it down a cramped alley."
The plans full proof, and hey. I even thought of a way to escape.
The only problem was the giant green metallic hand that came crashing through the wall, destroying the rest of the stairs and blocking my way out. Looking out of the D.I.Y window, I spot the red lenses of an annoyed zero-pointer staring back at me.
Before I could react, I found myself being held firmly in its hand. I wasn't given a second to think as I felt myself being dragged through the air before stopping right in front of its face. I was now hundreds of feet up in the air, while also slowly being squeezed to death by the one enemy I was warned not to fight.
"Turns out I'm the idiot stupid enough to fight it"
I grunted in pain as I felt it tighten its grip around me. I tried to use my quirk to wiggle out of its grasp, but no matter how hard I pushed, my body wouldn't move. It seemed I had no way out of this.
"God, I hope Izuku is doing better than me right now. Cause it would really suck if we both got our ass beat by some robots"
"Time's up!"
After a few more seconds of having my body used as a stress toy. The exam finally came to an end. The robot immediately loosened its hold on me. It gently lowered me to the ground before letting me go.
Then, as if the power had been cut, the zero pointer promptly turned off.
I decided to do the same. Lying down on the ground was uncomfortable, seeing as there were pieces of rubble and other hard, jagged rocks everywhere. But I didn't really care; instead, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment.
Author's Notes:
I said that I'd come through with a chapter, so here I am now ready to deliver. Took me a little bit to finish the second half due to all the fight scenes I needed to write. Also, turns out I'm not very good at writing fight scenes, so if they seem lackluster, that's probably why. Now I have another thing on my list of skills I need to improve upon.
But my writing skills aside, let's get into the chapter. First things first, yes, that was Mineta who got knocked out. I'm sure you all easily guessed that, and I would like to make one thing clear about my reason for doing him dirty like that. I chose to get rid of the Mineta from the plot due to the fact that both he and Issei are too similar a character for me to want to keep both. Since both of them are the perverted characters in their stories, I thought keeping both would annoy some readers. And I personally don't want to write multiple sentences dedicated to women's breasts for the sake of keeping true to the character's personality.
Secondarily. I want to address the way time seemed to go in slow motion during the practical exam. The reason is simple: Anime logic. Everyone knows time flows differently in anime, so don't question it.
That's it for today. I thank everyone for reading my story so far. If you have any complaints about what I've written so far, please feel free to leave a comment, and I'll work to improve.