Chapter 10: There Were Four I
A knock at the door echoed through the silent apartment; Peter's eyes lightly fluttered open as he awoke from his nap.
Man, that was the best nap he's taking in a month, and it's ruined.
Lucky him.
It's been one whole week since the entrance exam, and things have never been quieter.
Peter wasn't staying quiet as a good thing.
Hado had been too busy with some family stuff to hang out, and May probably wouldn't be able to visit from her apartment in Tokyo for at least another month.
So it's just been him.
Alone.
Doing nothing.
Man, he missed May.
Aside from continuing to clean the beach, the most exciting thing he had done so far had been finishing the design for the costume he had to submit when the school year started.
While there was still a chance he wouldn't get it, it was fun to just sketch up what he could do with a budget, you know?
Maybe he could get Aizawa to let him work on his own gear or something; it didn't feel right using something he didn't make himself.
Another knock at the door, Peter jumped as he had forgotten there was someone there.
As he began to get up from the couch, a white envelope slipped through the door's mail slot and hit the floor with a soft thud.
Pulling the envelope into his hands with a web line, he couldn't help but let his hazel eyes widen in surprise when seeing it.
On the envelope was stamped a red version of the UA logo.
His results.
Peter sat straight up on the couch as he used every ounce of that spider gave him, tearing the paper in half and letting a small metallic object fall to the ground with a small thud.
It was a shiny silver in color, with a couple of vents around the edges, and big enough to fit in his palm.
Was… was that normal?
He was pretty sure he never got sent a disc in the mail back in Queens.
Maybe it was a Japanese thing? Like bowing and stuff? He still didn't fully understand their culture.
Leaning away from the object from his seat on the couch, Peter nudged the disc slightly with his foot, nearly jumping up to the ceiling when it started to hum and whirl while emitting a soft glow.
Was this a bomb?! Did UA send him a bomb?!
Before Peter could leap away or web up the glowing device, a burst of light exploded from the disc, illuminated his dark living room, and made him shield his eyes.
"Hey, kid. Congrats on passing, I guess." The voice of Shouta Aizawa reached his ears; Peter stopped covering his arms only to see a hologram screen being projected from the disc.
In awe, Peter swiped a hand through the projection and chuckled at how it flickered in and out as his hand passed through.
Holograms.
So cool!
Wait, did they need this thing back? Maybe he could take it apart and use it for parts!
Wait! Results! Focus!
The hologram showed the image of Aizawa simply standing in front of a yellow wall with the UA logo painted on it; the man pushed his long and messy hair to reveal his tired eyes; his face held the same bored expression as always.
"You did fine in the written portion, got a 93% or something; I didn't really bother to look since All Might was supposed to be doing these, but that rat made me do yours." The hologram spoke; Aizawa shoved his hands in his pockets as the screen zoomed out.
Wait, All Might?
Why would he be reading these?
"Anyway, the written portion doesn't decide whether you get in or not, but you probably already know that. In the practical portion, you managed to get a respectable 31 combat points before you ended up passing out from holding an SUV specially designed to hold 12 people with extreme types of height and weight affecting mutations, some ranging to weighing 2,000 kilograms or being 5 meters tall on the lower end of the genetic spectrum."
A red number 31 appeared next to Aizawa; the word 'Combat' was under it.
"While that is just about enough to pass, we didn't just count combat points." The man on the screen gained a grin, one that Peter wished he would never see again.
Next to his combat points, a new green number 70 appeared with the words 'Rescue' underneath it.
What?
"A hero's job is to protect those around them at all costs; it would be the epitome of irrationality were we to ignore that type of stuff. Parker, you stopped a 12,000-kilogram vehicle from falling out of a building with your bare hands, going above and beyond to protect other exam takers from getting injured. That is what we're looking for in UA."
Suddenly, the screen changed to a video of Peter doing his best to pull the car back inside the building while people underneath him simply watched as if nothing was happening; the video fast-forwarded to him holding it while sticking out of the building before Amajiki moved the people out of the way.
Quickly, the screen flickered back to Aizawa, who was still wearing that scary grin. "101 points, earning yourself first place in the exam along with a seat in the hero course. You will be in my class Parker, make sure not to disappoint."
Peter simply watched the screen as a few tears welled up in his eyes.
All the things that brought him to where he is weren't for nothing.
Ben didn't die for anything; Peter could make it up to him now.
"Welcome to UA, the kid." Aizawa stretched out a hand with more enthusiasm than usual, a look of pure amusement and determination in his eyes as his grin transformed into a challenging smirk.
"To your Hero Academia."
With that, the screen turned black as small bits of confetti rained down on the screen, and the word congrats appeared in bold yellow letters.
The silence returned once more, leaving Peter to laugh and sob by himself.
He didn't let Ben down; that was all he could ask for.
...
"Can't believe they're making me wear a freaking tie…" Peter muttered in English as he walked the UA halls, desperately trying to tidy up the red neckwear before finally giving up and letting it stay loose.
Seriously, a tie?!
So stupid, he hated uniforms!
A dress shirt? A blazer? God, he looked so dumb before he changed up the outfit.
Instead of the regular shoes, he wore his self-made black sneakers with the soles that let him stick to things; His tie was loose around his neck, and his sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, showcasing the scars that were there.
He used to mind them a lot, but over time he just stopped being self-conscious about it, you know? No point in hiding them anymore, anyway.
A black one-strap backpack had a few pins and patches depicting tourist attractions back in New York and old movies to top it off.
Oh, and who could forget his web-shooters?
He had tweaked the design of the MK.1 models so that the trigger slid back into the part around his wrist and not be stuck on his palm, making them look like regular silver bracelets.
Super fashionable, if you asked him.
Peter wandered through the crowd of students wearing similar uniforms, finding solace in the fact that they looked just as or even more lost than him.
Seriously, the place was a damn maze!
The only thing he knew about where he was going was that it was on the first floor, but that didn't stop him from nearly crashing into at least seven different classrooms.
Eventually, Peter decided to stop walking and look at one of the maps on the wall that people were crowding around. Part of him forgot that this place was at least five times the size of Aldera.
His eyes scanned around the map; he quickly made a mental note about where the support department was until he finally found out how to get where he was going.
Class 1-A, one of the two hero department classes for 1st years.
Finally.
With a sigh, he walked off toward the direction of where the map pointed him to while rolling his wrist; his other hand unconsciously trailed the few scars around his forearm.
Maybe he wasn't entirely over them, huh?
He walked and walked around the halls; by the time he realized he had wandered onto the 2nd floor, he realized something.
Somehow, he got lost again.
Two minutes.
It took him two minutes to get lost again.
Damn it, how was it easier to swing around the city than to find out your way around a high school?
...
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