28 U. A. Entrance Exams (1)
"Wake up, Chocomint. Did you forget what today is?"
A childish, feminine voice that belonged to no one other than Mito, roared in the huge room. The other kids pulled blanket over their heads and continued snoring.
"Five more minutes."
I, too, refused to open my eyes.
"Nee-chan, you can go ahead now. I already tried."
'Oi, what was with that ominous manner of speaking? Who the hell is this Nee-chan?'
At that moment, all my senses suddenly screamed.
- Stab!
Only a slight tilt of the head was enough to dodge the knife that dug into the pillow.
"Oh~ You're awake, Masato-kun? Good morning."
Through my narrowed eye-slits, I glanced at Himiko and then at the knife in her hands.
"... If I didn't react properly, it would have been 'good night forever'. What do you mean 'good morning'!?"
One could only feel sad about this unjust situation.
"Toady is U.A.'s entrance exams. So no matter the means, I had to wake you up."
That shouldn't include killing. But it was hard to say that to her smiling, kind face.
"Are you still sleepy?"
She raised the knife menacingly.
"I'm up! I'm up, damn it!"
Jumping away from the bed, I threw the sheets at the two girls, tangling them in it.
"Ah! Chocomint's trying to kill us!!"
"This stinks!"
Perhaps that was a bad move.
- Sniff!
'Mmh? I guess working out doesn't do any good for body odor.'
But what could a man do? Shake his head and take a bath, that's what.
"I will be right back."
- Clink!
That was the sound of locking the black, metal bracelets. The bed can't handle 160 kg and so they had to be removed before sleeping.
Soon, the two of us were ready to leave.
"Best of luck, Chocomint!"
Hitoshi saw us off.
It was only 7 in the morning so most of the kids were probably asleep. Especially since they were too excited yesterday. Somehow, my entrance exams make them nervous.
"You're not fazed by it, huh?"
"Fazed by what?"
"The exam pressure."
Himiko clarified herself as she skipped forward.
'I don't think someone who skips on her way to school is pressured by it either.'
"It's confidence. Pure confidence."
Himiko tilted her head at that strange answer.
"You really think you can enter the most prestigious hero school in Japan? Because of your strength?"
Though Himiko didn't know what the entrance exam would entail, she realized that it would include battle simulations.
"No, I have full confidence in the fact that they will take me in."
Can you imagine them letting go of someone with a dangerous quirk?
If they declined the entrance of an [Atom Bomb] quirk holder and then that guy blew up the school in retaliation? Or became a villain?
That would be bad for them and the world. So the entrance exams had a fight in it. To calculate the destructiveness of everyone's quirk.
Even in the end, it all falls on the quirk.
"Do you have what I wanted?"
At that question, I took out a vial of crimson blood.
"Yes, Mistress. It was freshly extracted from the 'Masato Farm' this morning."
"Jeez, what's with that way fo speaking?! Haha!"
Himiko smiled through her crescent eyes and took the vial. With that, her entrance in the school was fixed.
Yes, it was a vial of my blood. Though Himiko's [Transform] didn't evolve as it was supposed to. She could still use the basic stats of the body she transformed into.
And my basic stats could rival a few pros in the industry.
"Let's hurry up."
She skipped all the way to school while I embarrassedly followed her.
Imagine seeing a school girl skip to high school. It was really shameful for the parent.
Thankfully, we came across another girl who was skipping to school.
"Good morning, Mina!"
"Ah~ Himiko! Oh! Anzai-kun, good morning."
'Oi, why is it that Himiko is given an 'Ah~' and I'm given a 'Oh!'!?'
Playing the cool, aloof guy, I couldn't say my thoughts.
"Ou!"
So I simply acknowledged the greeting.
Honestly, that small sound that I make was a mistake of my youth. It wasn't as cool as I had initially thought it was but I couldn't stop now since that would break my character.
"Are you ready for today?"
Her cheery spirit rivalled Himiko's. Or was it the pink spirit?
"Hehe! I just hope that Masato-kun and I don't get the same groups."
Yeah, that would make the exam confusing. Imagine having two look-alikes fighting at the same time.
That would hard to grade.
"Oh~ Are you still mad at him for what he did?"
That wasn't funny. Tsuzuru almost killed me for hurting her. And I couldn't fight back since only villains fight their mothers.
Heroes respectfully take the beating and slyly say, 'Your fists don't hurt me any-AH! Ow! Ow! Damn, that hurts!'.
After all, even death hates those who disrespect their mothers.
"Not anymore~ He begged me to forgive him and I gladly forgot all his bad deeds."
'Begged? That never happened.'
Himiko lied through her gleeful smile.
"I guess he's a bit of a push-over, isn't he?"
'Woah, they do know that I'm next to them, right?'
"He's so playful. It always causes me to worry about him."
'Mom, is that you? Sorry for making you worry.'
No one knew how their conversation turned into a middle-aged mother's gossip.
Thankfully, their discussion ended when we met up with Hamada. She's joining U.A. too but not the hero course.
She's aiming for the general course.
"Ou!"
"Ou!"
'Did she just copy my greeting?'
That was a good thing. Since others were using that, it wasn't out of style yet.
Before the three of them started to rip me a new one, we reached U.A. High.
"We're here."
"At the beginning of our youth."
"Youth!?"
I was terrified when Mina said that. Probably because something shook deep within me. A burly man screaming for more 'YOUTH!'.
"What's wrong?"
"N-nothing. Just-nothing."
Youth is a scary thing. Hopefully, that guy doesn't cross over the multiverse, just to teach me the ways of 'Youth'.
"Weirdo."
Everybody could hear Hamada but no one interjected. And that was really hurtful.
- Slap!
When a slapping sound attracted our attention, we noticed a boy being slapped by a girl. The boy had green hair with slight freckles on his face while the girl had brown, bobbed hair and seemed to be happy.
Even the boy was glad to be slapped(?).
"Perverts."
For once, I agreed with Hamada, who still had a bored expression.
"Mah~ Mah~ He only has a unique taste. You can't blame him for that."
Mina tried to calm her friend, not that she was any less offensive in her words, while Himiko didn't care about them, strangely interested in the school.
'Hu~ Now that I have reached here, I feel a bit scared.'
She was starting to get cold feet. Various thoughts started to circulate in her mind.
Can I be a hero? Does anyone even need me? Am I not too weird to be a hero? Will people accept me? Can I actually save anyone?
"What are you thinking about, Vamp? Is it blood? Hemoglobin? The lifeforce of all humans?"
Those were all just different words for blood.
"... Sometimes, I want to hit you and at others, I only want to stab you."
What exactly was the difference between them?
Himiko seemed a little less anxious after saying and took a step forward. Her smile was contagious as both Mina and Hamada smiled slightly, dragging her towards the exam hall.
.....
"Pssh~ What's the answer for question 17?"
Some unknown dude was asking for answers.
"Option C."
So I gave him the wrong one.
Truly heinous.
The boy happily wrote down the answers. May Death bless him and his paper.
"Five minuntes remaining!"
Everybody was wearing a watch but the examiner tried to apply more pressure on the kids by screaming at the top of his lungs.
Thankfully, this class was more peaceful. The class next door had Present Mic, or Yamada Hizashi. And that guy never spoke words, he only screeched things.
"Time up!"
Vlad King screamed and started collecting the papers. It marked the end of the theoretical part.
Soon, it was time for the practicals. We dressed up in track suits and were dropped in a far away place with a bus. There were huge walls surrounding the city, along with equally giant gates.
It was the arena for pratical exams. And there were a few more areas like this, where the other kids were sent.
There were all kinds of people around the gate. People with wild vines for hair, people with... sticky, purple balls for hair. That was an exception. Some of them had only an extra limb, like tails while others had 4-6 arms.
"Cool quirk."
I spoke to the one with 4-6 arms.
"Thanks. I'm Shoji Mezo."
His voice was really awkward and coarse.
"Anzai Masato. Best of luck."
"Same to you."
He seemed to be a real nice guy. Quiet and all. Hopefully, he doesn't carry an AK-47 around. Then again, this wasn't America.
{Listen here! The exam is about to begin so give it your all!! Go Beyond! GO PLUS ULTRA!!}
'What does 'Plus Ultra' even mean?'
- Honk!
Sadly, that thought had to be put on hold as the gates opened up.
- Ding!
'I was waiting for you arrival, O' Esteemed System!'
The red arrows decorated the sky. Not one but hundreds of them were present.
[The Very Best]
Somehow, I could guess the quest this time.
- Click!
"Hey, system, is this an emergency?"
Unlocking the bracelets, I questioned the system.
[..... Only the first gate is allowed!]
[Gate of Opening] increased the users Physique and Agility by 5 times. The next two gates increased the Stamina, that's how it goes.
'Just the first gate feels like cheating. Then again, I'm a cheater on his second life. Let's cheat with pride, shall we?'
"Gate of Opening, Open!"
- Boom!
Since everyone had already left, no one noticed the loud noise caused by the dropping of my bracelets and the moment when I vanished from my spot, disappearing into the city with a blur.
__________________________
Host: Anzai Masato
Age: 16
Condition: Healthy
⟨Attributes⟩
- Physique: 77 -> 390 (78*5)
- Agility: 41 (81) -> 405 (81*5) (A/N: He just removed the weights and unlocked the first gate)
- Stamina: 92
- Senses: 62 -> 64
Note: Average attribute of an adult is 10.
⌈Skills⌋: ⟪Hachimon Tonkou(5/8); Rank S⟫ ; ⟪Taekwondo; Rank B (Growth)⟫ ; ⟪Blood Recovery; Rank C⟫
⌈Items⌋: ⟬Personalized Training Module⟭ ; ⟬Elixir⟭ ; ⟬Pure Protein Powder⟭ ; ⟬Quirk Inhibitor⟭
⌈Quests(2)⌋
_______________________________
