Chapter 2
The dorm I shared with six younger boys was cramped and noisy. Most of them would be adopted long before fourteen — I was the leftover. My few possessions fit into a trunk at the foot of my bed.
I pulled out my blue tracksuit that had white stripes on the side and a pair of old battered white running shoes that were donated to the orphanage on Christmas last year. I haven't been treating it kindly recently as I've been running daily and fighting monsters along the way..
"So how did it go?" An old woman croaked behind me. It was sister Mary
"Nothing happened."
" Don't play me now, I know it was a bad fight. You don't want to tell me about it because you think of me as the villain."
"I never said that."
" You never said it but I know you're thinking it."
"Honestly Mary, is there no limit to your imagination? I'm not a child anymore, I understand there are twenty other kids for you to take care of."
" Then you will tell me the honest truth about what happened."
"I got detention."
"That's it? From the way the headmaster spoke, I thought it would be a suspension at least. He said something about you tearing up the entire class."
"Well I can be very persuasive sometimes"
"Really now?"
"I am going for a run."
"You really shouldn't be exercising when you are this injured." She might have been right, my body and hands were covered in blisters and half the hair on my left eyebrow was burned off. I was in all sorts of pain."
"There is no such thing as rest days in training."
"Try not to get into any fights this time."
"I don't go looking for them, Mary."
I did my usual hundred squats, hundred sit ups, hundred push ups and began my 10km run on the lookout for any monsters that might be in the area.
About five kilometers into the run, the pain caused by the blisters inflicted by Bakugo was overwhelmed by the burning pain of lactic acid in my legs. The pavement began to fly past me as I entered a trance like state, known as the runner's high.
The sole of my right shoe fell away. The shoe was threatening to fall apart for some time now, so I was prepared. I took off my shoes and carried them as I continued running barefoot.
I heard screams in the distance and ran towards the source of the noise.
I saw a mob of frantic civilians fleeing from a danger that was still unseen.
A man tried to stop me from going towards the action but I sidestepped him and headed towards the cause of the commotion.
I turned a corner and found the source of the terror. A bird as tall as an elephant with a curved black beak, white feathers and long black talons on its scaly yellow feet. Its wings were long and strong, meant for flying. There was a dead child in its right foot which it dragged across the floor as it moved, smearing blood across the asphalt.
I still see the mangled corpse of that child sometimes, it was a painful reminder that I needed to become stronger.
The big bird's attention was focused on a man who was scrambling backwards from the monster while dragging his ass on the ground. He was wearing a green sweater with blue jeans and had clearly pissed his pants.
I threw my ripped up shoe at the bird to get its attention. It turned slowly and its big basketball sized eyes stared at me. I hadn't thought of what to do beyond that point.
The bird let go of the corpse it was clinging to and leapt/flew at me with incredible speed. I dove behind a parked car. The bird landed on it causing the tires to skid as the car moved from the impact. It flipped the car over effortlessly. It tried to peck at me with an open beak. I threw my good shoe into its gullet which surprised it somewhat.
It took a step back to regurgitate what must have been the most foul thing it had ever eaten.
Somehow I knew that this time, I was way too outmatched to come out ahead unless a proper hero arrived in time to save me.
The bird coughed up the shoe along with bits of meat.
I opened up a manhole cover prepared to jump into the sewer to make my getaway. The bird reached me talon first before I escaped. The pain hit me half a second after the talons did. Then everything went white. Somehow, I still managed to think.
Don't ask me about how being stabbed felt like.
It feels different depending on the point of entry, type of weapon and whether the weapon was smeared in poison. The talons felt more like giant round spikes than anything else, if you know what I mean.
Just as I prepared to throw the manhole cover at one of its basketball sized eyes a man's voice yelled "hey!"
It was the guy who'd pissed his pants earlier. I wondered why the hell he was still in the area after I risked my life to save him.
The bird left me to bleed on the ground and began to circle around him, it seemed unsure whether or not it wanted to engage. I guessed the man did look scary, but the man was clearly terrified of the bird as well.
I got up and sped towards the bird and slammed the manhole cover onto its right foot, I think I broke at least a bone or two.
It screeched like a banshee and flapped its wings to pummel me. The force of the blow was so hard that it sent me through the brick wall of a nearby building.
"Hey, have you never heard of me you dumb bird?" It was the same man in the green sweater. I was getting confused, "what difference would the bird knowing you make?" The bird turned its attention to the man again, but it did not charge... It seemed afraid?
I picked up a brick and threw it at its gigantic eye. The brick broke its retina and the bird screamed in pain. The bird had taken enough. It grabbed the corpse and flew off.
I ran after it "come back here!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Thank you, you saved my life." I turned around to face the man in the green sweater and found that my eyes barely came up to his chest level. He was two metres tall with blond hair, blue irises and three gnarly scars over his left eye. The man smelled like piss but other than that he seemed perfectly fine.
"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my job." I said waving my hand dismissively before continuing my run.
"Wait! You can't run in that condition!" I can hear his boots as he chased after me.
"Don't worry old man! I'll be good as new after some sleep!"
"Your quirk helps you recover?"
"I don't have a quirk!"
"Then you really shouldn't be running!"
As my body realized I was no longer in danger and the adrenaline rush subsided, I realized that the guy was right. My sense of pain returned with a vengeance letting me know that "Hey dumbass! You ARE fatally wounded!"
My vision blurred and faded to black as I collapsed on the floor.
I woke up at the hospital and shot up in my bed.
"Wow you're up already!" a man in a lab coat and a surgical mask sounded mildly impressed.
"Don't push yourself too hard now. You need to recover for at least another week before you will be back to normal." That's not good, if I skip school now Bakugo and the whole class will think my fight with him was the reason for my hospitalization.
"How long have I been here for?"
You were just admitted half an hour ago by the hero King who saved you from a giant bird monster.
"That doesn't sound right."who is King? "So when can I leave?"
"You'll have to stay here for two days at least, we need to stitch up your wounds and take MRI scans to see the level of damage the concussion did or if there's any internal bleeding, and you will need a blood transfusion for the blood loss."
"I don't have the money to pay for that!"
Don't worry your medical bill will be taken up by your caretaker from the orphanage.
Pardon me I thought it would be obvious the 14 year old would not be the one paying the bills. If Mary had payed the fee for surgery we would have been eating beans and spinach for a month.
"I just told you we can't afford this." I stood up to show the guy that I was fine.
"Hey! I told you, you need to rest to get better."
"But I'm completely fine, see."
"That's only because the paramedics did a very good job bandaging you up when they brought you here in the ambulance, once we open those up you'll be bleeding all over the place again. They told me you're lucky to still be alive. They've never seen someone survive that kind of damage before in their entire lives."
"If I almost died, why are you so casual about your work?"
Your vitals have stabilized, but that's only because of the bandages. We still need to stitch you up but as long as you don't strain yourself and open up your wounds some more, there is no need to rush. Which is why it's very important that you get back in this bed right now."
"We have visitors for Saitama!" A nurse said opening the doors of the ICU.
Sister Mary and the tall man who pissed himself in the fight earlier entered the room.
"Oh thank goodness you're all right!"
She looked over all the places I was bandaged
"This is going to cost us a fortune. I told you not to go running today. If Mr. King wasn't there to save you, who knows what would have happened!" She said that with a hand on the tall guy's back.
"I didn't actually do anything."
My jaw dropped when I finally put together that this King they were talking about was actually the guy who pissed his pants.
" But I was the one who saved him."
"Dear God, the concussion has left him delirious." The doctor said in a panic.
" No no no, he's the only one thinking clearly." King came closer to me as he said that.
" Do you remember the incident exactly as how it happened?" King asked me.
Before I could reply Mary started speaking.
"I think King is using his healing spell to help my ward recover!"
"That's definitely what is happening." The doctor began to open my bandages
"What no! I don't have any powers! This kid might die if you open his bandages like this!"
"Don't worry old man! I just need some sleep and exercise to get better." I told him.
"Are you out of your mind! You don't have a quirk!"
The doctor opened the bandage to reveal that the 3 stab wounds on my chest and the one on my back were covered in scabs, the bleeding had stopped completely.
King looked at his hands, "maybe my powers have finally awakened."
"Don't be an idiot now. This is just an example of what the well trained human body can do even without a quirk." I said patting myself on my rock solid abs.
"You know, I really don't believe you." King replied.
"The proof is in the results and that's what I train for, I don't train to look good or to get big muscles like other people, I train to fight and I have been training every day for the past 3 months"
"Is that so... I guess you want to become a hero or something."
"I already am a hero."
"I know that but you want to get a professional license in the future right? "
"I guess that would be nice."
"I can help you get a seat at a good hero academy."
"Why would you do that?"
"Think of it as my way to thank you for saving me…"
"Besides, it won't be that difficult to get a seat for someone with exemplary morals and bravery such as yourself."
"Give me your number, I'll call you when you get your place for the entrance exam."
"Ok" I replied
Chapter 3
After that day, Bakugo was complaining about how he wouldn't have been drowning in goop man if he hadn't fought with me.
I thought the boy was full of excuses, definitely not hero material.
Other than that Bakugo seemed a lot calmer than usual. He didn't want to cause any more trouble and get expelled.
King called me a few weeks later and told me he wanted to talk to me in person. We went to a sushi restaurant after I served detention with Bakugo.
"Saitama I don't know how to tell you this but, I couldn't get you a placement in any top hero academy." His hands flared out in exasperation as he spoke.
"Why not?"
"Maybe because of the 4 expulsions in your record that you never told me about. All of them due to fighting, I couldn't say anything to defend you because I was not prepared. I need you to tell me why you fought because I believe you are a hero and that you had a good reason to fight. For all I know the kids in those schools will grow up to be villains in the future. If I can just explain it to the top Hero schools, they will let you take the entrance exams."
"That's none of your business. I do not need the approval of these people to become a hero anyway. A hero is defined by their actions, not some piece of paper."
"Saitama, why won't you just tell the truth to someone who wants to help you? Do you not trust me? Well...I don't know what pain this world puts you through. I can only imagine how it felt for you with the potential to become a hero to be looked down upon simply because you didn't have a quirk in your birth certificate.
Well this is not an issue I'm qualified to deal with. " King thought for a second
"I know! If you go for professional counseling for your anger management issues over the next 3 months, and get a tutor to pull up your marks to an average of let's say, 70 then I can get you to the UA entrance exam."
"We can't afford it."
"Not an issue. I can pay for it."
"Huh! why would you do that?"
"You saved my life twice already, no amount of money is too much."
"Twice? When was the first time?"
"You saved me from an octopus monster 2 months ago. So what do you think of the plan?"
"If I go to counseling and come back as a well rounded man, what if I don't want to be a hero anymore? I mean, no normal person would run towards danger like I do."
"Saitama, there are many good reasons to become a hero, if your own reasons are self-destructive, it's good that you lose these tendencies. Maybe you find a new reason to become a hero, maybe you don't, but if I can save the man who saved me, then we would be even and I won't feel indebted to you anymore."
"You don't need to feel indebted, I didn't save you expecting a reward."
"Why don't you, Saitama, you have to be compensated for your hard work after all."
"If I need money I just take them from the villains I beat up."
King's jaw dropped.
"Listen here Saitama, you can't take the villain's money,"
I furrowed my eyebrows and shrugged dismissively.
"Why not, it's not like they can use it in prison."
"If the prosecutor cannot prove in court that the villain is guilty of any crime he will be released and can file a police report saying that you mugged him."
"How will they not be charged in court? I only get into fights when the guy is in the act of committing a crime or is a monster."
"Saitama, you are far too naive, you have no idea how this world works. You have to know more about the legal system if you want to be a hero in the future. Then again I'm not qualified to teach you on this matter either. I'll need to arrange a tutor for this too, we'll take it one step at a time, maybe we'll wait until after you get into a hero academy to handle the legal matters."
"Sounds like you're going to take all the fun out of my hobby." I said with a sigh.
"Listen here Saitama, I am not here to tell you that you're the best, I am not going to tell you that I'm your fan or that you can do nothing wrong because you're still a child who doesn't know how the world works.
I am here to help you become a hero because you helped me survive.
Maybe you won't like what I have to say, but anything I say is honestly what I believe will benefit you in the future if you choose to continue down this path.
If you think you don't like what I tell you, maybe becoming a hero isn't what you should focus your ambitions on.
If you want to change career paths, I'll help you too."
Changing career? Maybe in my next life. If I spend the rest of my life in front of a computer screen in a cubicle, or working in a factory somewhere like some ant I might as well be dead.
"I'm tired of people looking down on me." I said. "I am going to become a hero and I am willing to do whatever it takes."
***
Since that day my schedule has been packed. I go to school in the morning. Do 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats during recess. Run to my tutor in the afternoon and run to my counselor in the evening.
I can't say they were thrilled that I kept showing up to my appointments in my tracksuit covered in sweat but, in my opinion, they should be glad I'm able to show up on time at all.
City Z is the sort of place you can't go a week without encountering a monster.
If I had to fight them, there was no way that I could have kept to my schedule but luckily the monsters from city Z seemingly vanished since my fight with the giant bird.
It was boring.
I missed the excitement of a good fight. I briefly played with the idea of running to another town in search of a fight but I restrained myself. Getting a seat in a hero academy entrance exam is far more important.
One day, I took a detour through the beach. The usual running path was starting to get a little repetitive, especially now that there were no monsters to fight.
The route through the beach was a little longer but I had gotten a lot faster, so I assumed that I would arrive at the counsellor's office on time.
On the way there as I passed by the garbage dump on the beach, I saw a gigantic muscular guy who was as tall as King and four times as wide, forcing A kid to drag a fridge across the beach.
I decided then and there that I did not care how big he was or what his quirk may be, I was going to beat the crap outta him.
"Hey Blondie! Just because you're a big fat lump of meat, doesn't mean you get to treat others like a slave!"
The boy looked towards me as I approached, pulling up the sleeves of my tracksuit. To my surprise I recognized him.
It was Midoriya.
"Saitama!? What are you doing here? You're not shouting at All Might are you? Don't you know who he is?" Midoriya was a shivering wreck. The bastard had him scared senseless.
"I don't care who you are! I can't watch you torment this helpless bastard." I issued my challenge and dropped my sweat stained bag onto the floor.
The blond giant laughed atop his perch on the fridge.
That pissed me off even more.
I picked up the fridge with him still perched atop and, with a heaving effort, threw it towards the rest of the garbage. The man jumped off and managed to land on his feet.
Midoriya went to his knees and pounded the sand.
"I took all evening to drag it this far!" He cried.
The poor poor thing. He was being tortured all evening.
"Now I have to drag it back all over again! DAMN IT!"
" Don't worry when I'm done with him he won't be able to make you do anything anymore." I said dryly.
I stepped towards the giant.
CONSECUTIVE NORMAL PUNCHES.
Pop Pop
First my left, then my right went out flying in two wide arcs.
I must have punched twice in a single second but the big man managed to dodge both strikes somehow.
Enraged, I wound up to throw my hardest and fastest punch. Putting my muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones on the line.
Full Max: Genocide Punch!
If the punch had landed I would have, without a doubt, broken every bone in my hand and arm.
My muscles were firing at max, my tendons and ligaments were stressed to the verge of snapping.
My fist whipped through empty air in a wide arc as the man casually evaded me, a big plastic smile still plastered on his face.
The force threw me off balance. I spun and fell to the sandy floor, gasping for air. The entire right side of my body was aching badly.
But then I saw that fake smile and rage took over me.
The adrenaline kicked in and I sprang onto my feet, ready to punch him again.
I decided that since I can't use one big blow to knock him out, I'll have to attack constantly to wear him down. He moved fast, but he can't keep moving that way forever. Eventually he'll slow down and I could finally hit him.
As I charged forth Midoriya stepped in between the big man and myself.
I almost hit Midoriya with an arcing right hand but the smiling freak of nature used his hand to block my fist.
I made contact with a loud smack, my wrist nearly buckled under the pressure.
The giant showed no signs of pain.
"All might, don't be mad, Saitama is not a bad guy, he was just trying to help me." Midoriya said helplessly, quivering.
"Stop trying to protect me you quirkless bastard, I can handle him myself." I said.
The giant man laughed,.
"Honestly I'm mostly hurt that he doesn't seem to know who I am. Come now child. You have yet to show me what your quirk can do." The giant said.
"Trust me, you don't want to find out, it's quite fatal." I lied.
"Hahaha, is that so?"
"No, he doesn't have a quirk!" I could not believe that spineless snitch Midoriya ratted on me!
"Don't tell him that you brat!" I hissed.
The smile on the man faded.
"You shouldn't be running into fights without a quirk young man." He said, his voice dripping with concern.
"You don't tell me how to live my life. I will fight and I will become a pro hero that teaches bullies like you a lesson." I replied.
The giant got down to one knee to look me in the eye.
"Quirkless people can't become heroes kid." He said. I would have understood pity, but the man expressed something different.
He empathized with me?
I threw a punch aimed at his face.
To my surprise it landed square on his nose.
The blow blow didn't seem to affect him much, but a second later, he started coughing up blood.
"Dude gross," I said as I jumped back. The blood had splattered all over my track suit.
Midoriya rushed over to check if the giant man was ok.
A classic case of Stockholm syndrome.
"I need to go now." The giant man wheezed and jumped high into the air disappearing into the distance.
"What was that about?" I asked Midoriya.
"He's sick," Midoriya answered.
"Why was he tormenting you?"
"It's training for the entrance exam."
I know what training looks like, what Midoriya was doing did not fit my definition.
"What entrance exam?" I ask confused.
Midoriya sighed before responding. "The entrance exam for UA academy."
"Why will he train you but tell me that quirkless people can't become heroes."
Midoriya became flustered and distracted himself by pulling on his index finger while thinking of an answer.
"Oh tha- that..." his eyes darted this way and that, "--er that's because I er- ... lied." He finished.
"You lied to him that you have a quirk?"
"Yes..." Midoriya seemed to give up about something "I mean no, I mean I lied... in school."
"About what?"
"About being quirkless"
An amused hrumpf escaped my breath. "Really? Then what's your quirk?"
"I can't show you. And you can't tell anyone in class, it has to be a secret."
"Ok." I replied.
"So... you're not mad that I lied to you?" I felt betrayed.
"I won't tell anyone it's none of my business. I guess this entire time I didn't need to defend you. You choose to be this way."
"Saitama, I appreciate everything you did for me."
"I almost got expelled for you." The anger was starting to surface despite myself.
"Just because I thought you were a kid like me."
"Saitama--" Midoriya called after me as I turned away.
"See you in school brat."
I grabbed my bag and ran off to my counselor before Midoriya could say another word.
***
The cold air from the Aircon buffeteted me as I opened the door to the office. The air was perfumed with the smell of sandalwood.
"Hi miss Katerine."
"Saitama, you're covered in blood."
"Some guy coughed at me."
"Is that so? So you never got into a fight on your way here?"
I sighed, there was no point trying to hide the truth from her, it's part of her quirk.
"I did have a fight with the guy before he coughed blood on me, but I only attacked because I thought he was bullying someone I knew."
"You thought he was bullying someone." Katherine said raising her eyebrows
"Yes, turns out he was just training the bastard."
"So you beat up an innocent man, does that seem heroic to you?"
I know I was brash and impulsive but this lady didn't need to rub it in my face
"Hey, I didn't know..."
"When you are a hero, you can't hide behind excuses, Saitama. You can't just say that you don't know, you can't just walk around picking fights with random people. That's not a hero, that's a hooligan. A villain even."
Damn it she was right and I absolutely hated her for it
"I understand."
"Saitama, this is why you need to control your anger.
I know that when you see something unjust, you feel the need to step in and be the hero and there is nothing wrong with that. A lot of people will call you noble."
I looked up.
"But before you jump into action, you need to look at the situation and really see if you need to fight or if you can resolve the issue with just your words. "
"So," she said, softer now, "what does it mean to you to be a hero?"
For the first time in weeks I didn't know how to answer. The question sat in my chest like a pebble.
***
The next 3 months changed me. I kept my fights to zero. Monsters didn't show their faces, which I still found suspicious, but the quiet let me study and train the way King wanted. I learned to make appointments, to sit and actually listen during counseling, to wrestle with why I ran toward danger in the first place.
"King kept his promise. He found tutors, signed the checks, and pushed my name wherever he could. In the end, he got me a slot to sit the UA entrance exam.
It felt unreal. I looked at the acceptance letter like it could be a trick, but King's grin when he handed it to me was as honest as anything I'd seen in a long while.
"Think of it as my way to thank you," he said.
I thought about that — about debt and gratitude and what I wanted to be when I grew up. Then I tucked the letter into my trunk, laced my running shoes, and went for a run.
Chapter 4
There was a new boy waiting for me in the front yard when I returned to the orphanage .
Mary made a special effort to introduce me now that I was the pride of the Care home. Getting off the streets and turning my life around with the pro hero, King, as a sponsor.
It was strange how the tables had turned. Only a few months ago, I was her biggest pain in the ass.
"My boy Genos," Mary said. For a moment a twinge of jealousy came over me but I let it slide.
"This is your oldest brother, Saitama."
I looked at the boy and the boy looked at me, golden eyes brimming with disappointment.
"He looks like there's nothing going on in his head," there were several thoughts that went through my mind as I heard the small boy speak.
I thought of all the ways my past selves would have reacted to the half baked squirt.
My depressed self, would have accepted his remarks as true and shrugged his shoulders.
My violently rebellious self would have punted the kid across the street and left it up to Mary to try and stop me.
The me in that moment mustered all the wisdom his 15 year old self had, and came up with a few choice words for the brat.
"You don't have a lot going on under your hips either—" the kid began to screech. Half raging, half crying.
It was petty. Going after that pityful, armless, legless, half- burnt and recently orphaned kid.
But don't dish out what you can't take right?
No?
Yeah, I realized it half a second after saying it.
Generally I hated kids who threw tantrums, this time the kid's outburst just oozed hatred.
Too much hatred for any kid to have.
Mary put an arm on the kid's shoulder.
"Saitama—" she began, but her reprimand was cut short by the kid screaming.
It was as if he was trying to summon a Zenkai boost. Trying to will his own body to grow new limbs.
To walk over to me, defiant of reality, and sock me in the jaw.
I felt a subtle pang at the back of my throat and something wet dripped down the side of my cheek.
To my dismay, only fire answered the boy's calls.
It came surging forth from the missing limbs of the boy. Bright and hot, furnace hot.
Mary yelped as she jumped back.
The brat's flames reached for me.
I stepped aside and let the fire pass.
It was a different heat than the one made by Bakugo; less bang and more cremation.
Through the flames, I saw Mary raise her hand. I've seen her hand raised in that manner half a hundred times.
She was ready to smack the kid upside the head.
I darted in through the superheated pyrojets. Ever so heedless of my own safety. My body lit up with pain.
And then it went numb.
The boy blinked as the flames died out.
I stood before him, shirt reduced to ash, myself burnt and crisped in half a dozen places. My right had wrapped tight around Mary's wrist.
That unnatural hatred that took hold of the boy's face was replaced with the deepest signs of remorse.
His face wrinkled uglily and a painful sob escaped his lips.
His charred seat crumbled as he went to the floor.
I couldn't leave him there wriggling on the floor like a worm. So I picked him up and cradled him like a baby.
The boy couldn't look at me.
"Sorry," the boy said between sobs.
Mary had her hands clasped in prayer. She was crying tears enough to account for the both of us.
"Sorry, sorry." And that's all the boy said for the rest of the day.
It was February 26, the day of the practical portion of the test. I had run all the way to the facility wearing a new blue tracksuit and running shoes.
The courtyard outside the facility was abuzz with commotion.
Students were talking to one another excitedly about their chances of getting enrolled into UA.
I began to realize that I was the only one not in school uniform and wondered if I had to change into school attire before entering the building.
Turns out I did not have to, people were changing into work out attire before entering the facility anyway.
The test facility itself was the biggest structure I had ever seen. The entrance was sandwiched between two glass skyscrapers and that dwarfed the trees that grew along each side of the pathway that led to the briefing room. The walk was also populated by marble busts of former heroes.
"Move aside Deku!!" Bakugo barked.
This jackass.
"Kacchan!" Midoriya would have been pitiable if he wasn't such a damned liar.
" Get out of my way or you're dead."
As Bakugo came next to me we didn't speak to each other but we made no attempt to hide our animosity.
We were like rabid dogs held back by leashes.
***
In the auditorium a guy with speakers around his neck was addressing the avid crowd of future heroes.
The seating plan was organized according to their former schools. Which meant I had to sit in between Deku and Bakugo.
My two most favorite people, great.
Midoriya was incredibly excited though, Bakugo's hatred could not dampen his mood.
"It's the voice hero Present Mic WOW!" he said in a reverent whisper.
"Shuddup!" Bakugo retorted.
I swear to god I am uncertain how I managed to stop myself from throttling them both just then and there.
I found out that the test involves a ten minute trial run at a test district.
Three classes of enemies would be released — low, medium, and high threat — worth 1, 2, and 3 points if you beat them.
Dummy civilians were scattered through the zone; each rescued civilian earned a point.
Bakugo, Deku and I would be split up and sent to three different testing facilities.
This was done to prevent people from the same school from teaming up against others. Though Bakugo was more upset at losing his opportunity to kill us.
I was sent to testing site Z.
I met my fellow competitors at the starting line.
Among them was a tall girl with dark green hair, a street punk with a baseball bat, a guy in cycling gear and confusingly, a small child who seemed to be even younger than Genos.
I approached the kid and asked him if he was lost.
"Yeah ," he replied.
"I should be an S class hero already, but my parents want me to waste my time."
"Ok." I said before walking away. Never mess with a child at chess tournament and never mess with a child at a hero qualification test were two rules I lived by.
"You there," it was the tall girl with emerald eyes.
She had a bossy voice.
"My name is Fubuki, I think we should team up." She started.
"No thanks," I replied. "I don't have a quirk, if we work together, the evaluators will just attribute everything I do to your abilities."
"What? You don't have a quirk? That's all the more reason to team up. What is your plan? Running around aimlessly for 10 minutes?"
Will she shut up? I nearly lost my cool. I could feel a vein pulse in my forehead.
"Teaming up with me is the best decision you could make, so how about it?. " she finished.
"No can do," I said as I walked away, waving dismissively.
"And start!" Present Mic's voice boomed and without any warning the test had begun.
We charged into the district.
There was the roar of a sonic boom to my left and a trail of dust heading to the test site.
Back then that seemed incredible.
The rest were not as fast as the sonic guy but many were faster than me and had unique ways to travel.
There was one guy bouncing on purple balls that he plucked from his head.
Another guy was just cycling into the district.
To my right two contestants managed to work together and take down a mech.
I turned a corner and —
Boom
Something huge and heavy landed before me.
I was nearly crushed by a mech that leapt down from the building nearby.
It had a camera for a head and a big cuboid body with the number 1 painted on it. Its hands had no digits and instead were built like iron clubs.
Its entire body was covered in purple painted steel.
I wasn't intimidated.
This wasn't my first mechanical monstrosity. I had fought a sentient car once, that time I managed to open the fuel cap and light the petrol on fire.
This battlebot however did not have such an obvious weakness. I just had to hang in there until I found a chink in it's armor.
Thwack!
A metal hand shot forward and hit me in the solar plexus, sending me flying backwards.
I bounced twice and rolled before grinding to a halt face down to the floor.
A rib started to protest my breathing and the right side of my face was scraped.
I rolled over with my back to the floor and kept my eye on the Mech as it approached.
When it reached its optimal striking distance it took up position.
There it paused, prepared to attack at any given moment.
It was apparent that the machine had no real intent to kill. It's job was to just ensure that the students stayed down.
I was going to break it down eventually.
Chapter 5
The starting horn blared, and within seconds Fubuki was staring down a one-point mech in a replica shopping district.
She froze.
Her heart pounded so loud it drowned out the whirring of the mechs engines.
She had to stop it. She had to prove she wasn't just the weaker sister.
Fubuki grew up amongst monsters, her sister was a god amongst mortals, the pride of their family and her father, Mob Psycho, was a personal trainer who worked as a pro hero part time.
She flung Rocks at the thing and watched them bounce off its metal armor.
Damn it she realized she did not have enough fire power in her telekinesis to damage the thing.
The annoyed mech lunged at her with club-like appendages and she narrowly avoided getting bashed.
She surged forward as the mech reset to tap it and felt her field of control engulf its body.
She lifted it into the air with telekinesis. The metal legs of the thing flailed uselessly off the ground.
Invisible tendrils of controls spread from her body, wrapping around objects, stone, coffee mugs, and sand.
Anything she could lift that was in her vicinity.
She brought them to her, an unimpressive gathering of stones and paper weights, baubles and toys.
She began breathing the way her father thought her. Sucking in deep breaths, holding it in for a moment, before releasing it.
Her psychic exertion had the same effect on her body as going for a run.
If gathering the objects was akin to a jog, this next part could be compared with a sprint.
The objects began to orbit around her, each revolution adding speed to the things in her control.
She was at the eye of the storm.
The eerie stillness surrounded by a whirlwind of destruction.
As Fubuki's lungs clawed for oxygen and sweat began beading; she unleashed the gathering tempest as a rain of debris on her target.
When the cloud of dust and dirt from her attack cleared, she could see the mech still flailing in the air. Unharmed.
Too weak, still too weak.
Gasping for air, Fubuki left the area.
There were other ways to score.
She wasn't going to waste the whole exam on a single metal brick. If she couldn't fight, she could save.
She came across a casualty dummy.
It was a humanoid Mannequin that played the recorded audio of someone screaming "help me," every five seconds.
Lifting them required effort but once done, keeping them at a constant relative position was easy.
Slowly, she gathered them — five, six — they trailed in the air behind her.
She should deposit them for points before something went awry—
A one point mech blocked her way to the safe-zone.
Would the dummies do enough damage as projectiles?
Well using them as weapons would certainly get her disqualified.
Why was she worried? Just lift the mech, and run past it.
As she prepared to attack, a gunshot cracked the air.
Bang!
The mech collapsed, a smoking hole in its chest.
The shooter — a boy in cycling gear on a bicycle — lowered a revolver-shotgun and looked at her calmly.
For a moment neither spoke. Then the ground shook.
A massive three-point mech barreled toward them, targeting the floating civilians. Two were obliterated in an instant.
"Come with me if you want to live," he said." Let's get out of here."
She listened to him, Fubuki knows she can't outrun that monster. She hopped on aluminum foot rests that jutted out of either side of the rear wheel's axle.
It chases them for a while before being stopped by a punk looking dude with a baseball bat.
"What do you think about teaming up?" Fubuki asked the cyclist.
Why?" he asked without looking back.
"I'm too weak to fight them, and too slow to run. But with your bike and my telekinesis, we can rescue civilians faster. I'll split the points — half for you."
"Half? Deal." He said.
As they sped through the city, they ran into a guy in a blue tracksuit having an all out slugfest with a small one point Mech.
Fubuki recognized him, he was the black haired quirkless boy who rejected her alliance earlier.
He was badly beaten.
Blue suit stained with blood.
Serves him right for turning her down.
Fubuki watched as the Mech struck at him.
He managed to step aside before the blow landed and kick its leg at the joint.
Her jaw dropped as the steel limb separated from the body with a metallic thunk.
He jumped on the Mech as it toppled over and grabbed onto mechanical mandibles; twisting them until the cables and bolts that attached the head to the body snapped and, with a primal roar, ripped the head off its hinges.
The cyclist whistled. "Remind me not to get in his way."
"Damned liar," Fubuki muttered under her breath.
"What? " the cyclist asked.
"Nothing," she responds.
Further ahead, a two-point mech cut them off — and was promptly crushed when the tracksuit boy rammed it using the immobile remains of the one he destroyed earlier.
"Seven minutes left," the cyclist said. "I saw a spot with a bunch of civilians. We'll go there next."
"Can you keep up if I go full speed?" he added.
"My telekinesis attaches invisible energy lines to the objects I'm controlling. Which means they will maintain a constant relative position to me no matter what speed I'm at."
"Perfect."
They tailed the path cleared by the tracksuit boy — the streets littered with mangled mech bodies, one impaled on another.
Quirkless my ass. Fubuki thought.
Yet it was strange that she sensed no power emanating from him.
Following his destruction made travel easy.
Eventually they had to go their own way and left the boy in the tracksuit to do his own thing.
They shot past street after street, avoiding Mechs as much as they could.
At a replica stadium, dozens of dummies screamed for help. Fubuki focused, pushing herself past her limits.
She took a moment to take in a few deep breaths before reaching out into her surroundings and engulfing her targets with her telekinetic essence.
Fifty figures lifted into the air, bobbing like balloons above her.
"That is as much as I can handle." Fubuki said between gritted teeth.
"Then hold on," Satoru said as Fubuki got on top of the rear wheel axle of his cycle, and steered like a man who knew the map by heart.
Fubuki felt the bodies tug at her as she moved, but she overpowered their influence with immense effort, both physical and mental.
They zigzagged through the maze of streets, avoiding ambushes. A scorpion-mech lunged from an alley — she yanked a straggling civilian out of the way.
Another examinee arrived just in time to save them.
Later, a 3 point spider-mech chased them until the blood-soaked tracksuit boy crashed into its legs with a 2 point mech's severed head.
The attack broke two of its legs instantly and immobilized the thing. He then used the Mech skull to stab the larger one in the head.
"I think the safe zone is nearby,"the cyclist said.
Good, Fubuki was about to collapse from exhaustion.
A minute after leaving the stadium, they reached the safe house.
"Here, I will give you half to deposit."
"No there is no time, I trust the system, we have to get back out there we need to get more points."
Fubuki was worried. What if the evaluators gave her all the points?
But she put it out of her thoughts, there was no point in dwelling on things she could not control.
" I saw another place full of civilians."
"Give me a second," Fubuki said panting for air.
They went as fast as they could, there was only three minutes left.
They reached a replica hospital. The beds were full of civilians. Fubuki reached out .
She tried for 50 but the 46th dummy completely dispelled her telekinesis.
Thud
thud
thud.
45 bodies dropped to the ground.
In real life that might mean a couple dozen law suits.
Was this grounds for immediate failure here?
Who knows?
She took in deep breaths and paced back and forth to regain composure.
Fubuki flexed her biceps and stomped on the floor. Trying to pump herself up for her next lift.
She clapped once and focused.
Reaching out across the building, filtering out every else; until she was only left with the dummy civilians.
42,
43.
Fubuki stopped there, better not test her limits again.
"let's go," she said as she hopped on the cycle.
As they made their way back to the safehouse a massive mech emerged from the middle of the Test District.
Buildings were shattering all around them and Fubuki realized that the monster was heading in their direction.
A large chunk of rubble flew towards them and knocked away the cycle from under them.
Fubuki got up, she was still fine but the cyclist's right leg was bloody and mangled. A jagged shard of bone stuck out of his shin.
She tapped his arm and picked him up with telekinesis as she got to her feet.
The cyclist bit his tongue to stifle a scream as he rose.
The earth shook violently as the monster headed her way.
She began to run with the cyclist joining the trail of dummies that followed.
Rubble rained around her and a shadow fell over the entire street.
She turned around to find an enormous metal foot over them.
These mechs were supposed to be non-fatal but if it did not sense them, what stopped it from killing them by accident?
She tugged at the tendril connected to the cyclist and whipped it around rapidly.
The cyclist screamed as he flew over her.
As the buildings around her burst apart under the weight of the machine and the shadow of the colossus grew darker; she hoped the cyclist landed somewhere he could remain safe.
Fubuki closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
Fubuki felt something hard, like steel, wrap itself firmly around her waist. It swiftly, but smoothly, lifted her off her feet.
She felt a sudden lurch of inertia whip the wet sweaty hair off her face and her limbs were thrown backwards against the sudden rush of speed.
Her legs hit something solid in that moment. the same steel thing that held her tightly.
Fubuki opened her eyes fully expecting to see a machine but, what greeted her gaze; was a blood streaked blue track suit and a head of black hair. It was the Quirkless boy in the tracksuit.
It was painful to be belly down on that iron shoulder as he ran.
Each time his foot struck the ground, the air was driven from her lungs but, Fubuki was not complaining.
She held on as tightly as she could.
Fubuki saw a great metal foot land and flatten everything beneath it. Her eyes teared up now.
The boy in tracksuit came to a sudden halt and squatted.
For a moment, as her feet found the floor, she thought he was about to put her down, but he didn't.
Instead, he cradled the cyclist under his right arm.
There was a moment of stillness before the runner bolted to full speed.
The cyclist cried horrifically as his broken leg flailed in the motion of the runner's gait.
Fubuki reached out, with hand and also with her telekinesis.
She wrapped his broken leg with her mind then made it still. Held it in place like a splint and bandage.
The screaming cries paused.
Fubuki reached out and grabbed as many civilians as she could. About half were already crushed but she managed to pick up 20 before the rest were out of reach.
The tracksuit boy ran fast. Jumping over and ducking and dodging rubble as he went.
He ran either as fast as or faster than the cyclist could cycle. Fubuki couldn't decide.
The mechanical foot landed again.
It seemed to be closer than before.
Was it getting faster every second?
"Turn left!" The cyclist shouted giving the other boy directions as another massive leg slammed down destroying a building nearby and showering them in debris.
Fubuki watched the monstrous mech pass by as they were no longer in it's way. It crashes through a building.
Showering rubble far from them.
The boy in the blue tracksuit followed the cyclist's directions until they reached a safe house.
If the cyclist was correct and the evaluators divided points evenly, she should get 6 for this delivery, and added with the 25 from before would give her a total of 31.
When they reached the safe-zone, track suit boy set them down and ran off to find another Mech to fight. The safe zone was crowded with examinees who had given up or were too injured to continue. She turned to the cyclist.
"What's your name?" She asked him.
"Satoru" he replied.
"Then... thank you, Satoru," she said quietly. "And thank him, too."