"I will pass," Momo shouted before paying attention to the battle she had willingly participated in.
'Should I quit now or not? My tank is still above 90 per cent...' She thought, making a decision.
Meanwhile, Shigure was having the time of his life.
"I QUIT!" Jiro shouted in horror, throwing her number plate while diving towards the side.
Kazu fired the gun in his hand on the ground. A concentrated beam of air was released from it, the recoil killing most of his momentum.
He fired it again, this time close to the ground. The recoil threw him a few metres into the air.
"Safe." He sighed in relief. He looked at the gun and pressed the trigger.
Nothing happened.
"Guess it was 2 times use only." He muttered, throwing away the gun.
He didn't have to worry about fines related to trash, as he was on private property.
"32." He picked up the number plate. He glanced at Jiro, who was standing now, her face back to normal.
"I thought for a second that I would die." She sighed in relief.
Shigure shrugged. "Even if she had not given me this gun, you would have been fine."
Jiro raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Guess you didn't talk much about your quirk. I wonder what gives you the confidence."
"It's not my quirk. Didn't you already jump out of the trajectory?" Shigure shook his head.
"...Right."
'Should I give her the number plate back or not?' Shigure pondered. The logical part was not to do it and keep as much Canon as much as it could be.
At least, that was his thought when he knocked out Monoma.
"Do you want this back?" Shigure lifted the number plate.
Jiro deadpanned at him, "Obviously. Why won't I want it? Don't tell me you attacked a bomb or something?" Her expression turned cautious. She took a step back.
"Nah. That's not my quirk. Though be aware of that girl, she did something similar to me." Shigure pointed his finger at the sky without looking.
'Nah. I might get complacent. I have reached a point where Canon has changed. Just living in the mindset that some things might not change is very dangerous. Living in the middle would make me regret it in the future.' Shigure sighed. He tossed the number plate back to her.
"Huh?"
"Take it. I changed my mind. See you at U.A." With that, Shigure left.
He looked at his watch.
Seven minutes left.
'I need to find Monoma real quick. It would be nice to have stronger allies.' Shigure used his quirk to move quickly.
Another 20 per cent of his reserves were burned. "Found you."
Monoma turned around, his eyes lighting up. "That should be my line. And why were you finding me?" He looked at him in suspicion.
"I just think it would be a waste to eliminate you here." Shigure shrugged, tossing him the number plate.
Normally, Monoma would have been cautious enough not to catch it, but time was not on his side.
With just 15 seconds left, he had no choice but to take it.
"Guess, you recognised my greatness. Not bad. Not bad." Monoma nodded, internally relieved that nothing suspicious happened in the next 15 seconds.
"ROUND ONE IS OVER. In 5 minutes, a list of candidates who have passed the first round will be shown. Those who have passed need to follow the instructors who will be sent to the entrance." An announcement marked the end of all the battles.
It didn't repeat.
'Guess, I need to borrow some energy from Momo.' Shigure made his way towards the entrance alongside Monoma, ignoring most of the latter's words.
"So, what's your upper limit for your quirk? Seeing how you reacted to me, it must be at least above 25 times?"
"I am not going to give you an exact number, but it's not that much higher than that." Seeing that he was not yapping, Shigure decided to answer him.
"Must be nice to have such a good quirk. A heroic quirk." Monoma smirked.
Shigure rolled his eyes. "You do know that physics still applies to me. My punches or kicks won't be 20 times harder. They would be the same without using my quirk."
Monoma paused. "Right. Even then..." They reached the gate, and Shigure spotted Momo.
"Well, I will continue the conversation sometime later. We will probably meet again. Make sure to take the next exams seriously, 'coz you would definitely have a lot of points cut due to your number plate being stolen." Shigure waved his hand before walking off.
He put his hands on her shoulder, "Yo. I am out of energy."
Momo turned back. "I already told you to conserve your energy. How much?" She deadpanned.
"Less than 20. What about you?"
"Around 60." She shrugged.
"Liar." Shigure deadpanned.
"Tch. I am only giving you 10 per cent."
"Give me all till you are left with 60."
"No. That would be all my 30 per cent." She shook her head.
"You freaking have 90 percent still left?" Shigure gawked.
"15 per cent." Momo deflected.
"20 per cent," Shigure said in finality.
"Deal." Momo agreed. A chocolate formed in her hand. She handed it to Shigure, who devoured it in seconds.
His reserves increased from 20 to 30 per cent.
"I am quite envious of your energy reserves. Mine haven't been increasing for a while now." He threw the wrapper in a nearby dustbin.
"You should be thankful that your energy needs haven't increased recently." Momo shook her head in exasperation.
Her energy reserves are now huge compared to her usage. On the other hand, Shigure, despite having twice as much as her, has usage needs very high, which makes his reserves feel small.
The screen lit up, showing the participants who passed.
'Let's see... Jiro passed, so did Monoma... Juzo too.' He scanned the list for other Canon characters.
'She's here too. Went under my radar. Lida didn't make it... Out of 8 Canon characters present in these exams, 7 passed.' Shigure observed.
They were then escorted to the next place where the next round would take place.
---
"So, a rescue operation while villains are present," Shigure muttered. 'Like Canon. Then don't tell me, some big shot like Gang Orca will come too?'
"Everyone can cooperate. How hard would it be?" Momo shrugged.
"You just raised a flag." Shigure looked at her in horror.
"Fuck."
This time, people can voluntarily choose which zone they want to go to.
"So, we just need to rescue a bunch of people, right?" Momo asked.
"Yeah." She and Shigure were heading in one direction.
Before long, they reached a building wreck. Several people could be seen trapped in various positions.
"You take care of the ones I won't be able to rescue," Shigure commented before activating his quirk and rushing. Time was crucial.
"Hey kid, why are you crying?" He asked the kid, while using his capture weapon, to lift a large wall that had fallen on a man.
There was a lot of debris that he wouldn't be able to remove on his own, so he left that to Momo, who was very versatile.
"My dad—Dad." The boy hugged the man who had just been rescued.
"Just huddle up here for now. If you know how to use this, then start doing it; otherwise, wait." Shigure said while analysing the clearing.
'That U.A simulation is finally coming to use. I could finally show off my prioritisation skills.' He instantly recognised who to rescue next.
"Kid, are you even confident in what you're doing? I don't feel reassured." A bald old man said, pointing his broken cane at him.
THUMP
Shigure used his metal staff to hit a certain rock. After a few strikes, the rock broke. He then used his capture weapon to lift the wall slightly, before the lady down there escaped.
"Don't worry, old man. I am a prodigy myself. I have done this countless times." Shigure smiled before going to address the survivors who were gathered here.
Momo had rescued those who were either trapped in difficult positions—like inside a wrecked building.
"Those who could still move, please start helping disinfect and bandage others. Help will soon arrive, so you need to hold on for not long." Shigure decided to make the people who were abled to help others.
However, this was a mock trial, so everyone here was a hired actor. "How can you tell us to do—"
"You see, we are limited here. Do you want your fellow citizens to die just 'coz of your ego?" Shigure sharply spoke.
"But—"
"You not only wasted a few seconds of my time, which could have been used to save one more person. It seems you clearly have malicious intentions."
Everyone there realised what was happening.
Psychological attack.
In a normal case, everyone would have ganged up on the man, at least verbally. However, due to being actors, they could easily see through what Shigure did.
However, all of them acted like a real crowd would react.
"Tch." The man who had antagonised stood with a defeated expression.
"Hey! The villains are finally active." Momo informed Shigure.
"I should have brought my visor or at least my glasses." He muttered before asking, "Any notable faces?"
"Well... The one who is leading them is none other than Edgeshot."
"... It's all your fault." Shigure gave her a 'told you' expression.
***
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