Within a few minutes, the examinees were funneled into their assigned groups and led outside. Just as with the written exam, Renji and Hagakure were separated, pushed toward different zones without much ceremony.
The crowd of students swelled down the pathways toward the mock battlefields. Rows of concrete, scattered rubble, and steel towers were arranged in a way that was just convincing enough to pass as a disaster site.
Renji scanned the area as they walked, noting the embedded cameras lining the streets.
Most of the students in his group were restless, bouncing on their heels or whispering to themselves. Renji, by contrast, kept his expression neutral. He'd seen too many people fall because they let their nervousness cloud their judgement.
The gates to the city groaned open, sunlight spilling over the cracked pavement beyond. Somewhere ahead, the starting signal would come.
Renji rolled his shoulders once and filed the details away. It was time for his debut.
Before the silence could stretch any further, Present Mic's voice exploded from loudspeakers mounted on the gate.
"ALRIGHT, LISTENERS! THIS IS IT! YOU'VE GOT TEN MINUTES TO SHOW US WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF! THE VILLAINS ARE WAITING, SO GET OUT THERE AND CRUSH 'EM!"
The massive gates shuddered as gears whirred, revealing the labyrinth of the mock city inside.
The moment a crack large enough to fit in appeared, Renji bolted past the crowd and through the gate, leaving the rest of the students in the dust.
Present Mic's voice cracked through the speakers overhead, loud enough to rattle the pavement.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? THIS ISN'T A GAME WITH A STARTING GUN! THE TEST HAS ALREADY BEGUN!"
Hearing Present Mic yell at them and watching Renji rush into the battlefield, the rest of the crowd shook themselves awake and quickly followed.
—
Renji skillfully vaulted over a broken wall, landing light against the concrete as he cut through the city ruins.
Every step was measured, flowing from one motion to the next like he'd mapped the course long before the exam began.
Sliding into an open street, he came to a halt.
Two scorpion-like robots stood waiting, their segmented bodies shifting with an unnatural clatter of metal. Hydraulic tails arched high above them, tipped with glowing stingers that hummed with stored energy. Their lenses flickered red as they locked onto him.
Renji's lips tugged into the faintest smirk. "Finally."
The first one lunged, tail whipping down with a hiss. Renji darted sideways, the strike smashing into the pavement where he'd been standing a heartbeat earlier.
Shards of asphalt scattered across the street, but he was already moving, circling low, eyes analyzing every joint and seam in the machines' frames.
The second scorpion clicked forward, pincers snapping. Renji crouched, fingers brushing the ground before he launched himself up the side of a nearby wall. He pushed off, twisting midair as the stinger lashed beneath him, and came down hard on the robot's armored back.
The scorpion bucked beneath him, its tail jerking wildly to shake him off. Renji kicked away before it could snap back, landing in a crouch a few meters out. The second bot's stinger came down in the same instant straight into its partner's carapace.
A screech of tearing steel filled the street. The two machines were tangled together, gears grinding as they struggled to separate. Their tails jerked against each other and their pincers flailed without aim.
Renji didn't waste the opportunity. In one smooth motion, he drew the familiar, compact coilgun from inside his jacket's pocket. The weapon gave a low hum as its chamber charged, a faint blue shimmer building along the barrel.
His sights locked on the glowing red lenses. One squeeze.
The round slammed against the red lens and bored into the first bot's eye.
A hiss of static followed, the payload unraveling like a nest of metallic snakes inside its body.
A second shot slammed it's way into the second robot's eye. Its legs spasmed as the round shredded through its internals and thrashed its motor systems.
Both machines convulsed, locked together in a sparking heap before collapsing to the ground, smoke curling up from their shells.
Renji holstered the weapon without a word, his gaze already sweeping the street ahead. More whirs echoed through the city, the sound of heavy frames hinting at his next target.
Haha! This is actually pretty fun!
—
—Surveillance Room—
In a concealed room tucked deep in the heart of U.A's campus, multiple screens flashed on the wall as a few heroes watched in deep thought.
"This year's looking pretty promising." Midnight said, pointing out a few students.
"That's right!" Nezu squeaked, explaining the situation. "The examinees have not been informed of the number of villains or their locations. Whether their skills lie in pure firepower, extreme speed, or information gathering, they'll all be put to the test."
Aizawa sat with his arms folded, eyes narrowing as he followed one particular feed. "Most of them are wasting time looking for the easy targets. Only a handful are thinking ahead. The rest will burn out fast."
Snipe tapped the brim of his hat. "Ain't that always the case? Even then, we got a couple who stand out.
That explosive kid's got fire in his belly, though if he doesn't learn restraint, he'll crash hard."
Nezu chuckled, tail flicking with amusement. "That's the beauty of it! We're not only testing strength, but adaptability. The battlefield rewards creativity and not just raw power."
Midnight flipped her hair, her tone playful but sharp. "Mmm, I wonder how they'll handle cooperation. Most of these kids think they can go about it alone."
The room grew quiet for a moment, the only sound the hum of the monitors. Dozens of aspiring heroes sprinted across the fake cityscape, each clash and tactic a story unfolding in real time.
Suddenly, Midnight pointed out one of the camera feeds. "That kid is racking up points pretty fast."
The rest of the heroes turned to see what she was talking about.
While the camera feeds were mainly focused on the students using hidden cameras around the testing zone, there was also the option to view the action through the point of view of the robots themselves.
Of course, it wouldn't make sense to put all the cameras on this setting, since it would take away from the ideal viewing experience.
However, the few cameras that did use the robots' lens all pointed at the same student, Kanzaki Renji.
The heroes barely had a second to look at the camera feed before their eyes grew wide in response to the high powered bullet penetrating the lens of the robots. The last thing they saw was a flash of a grin and a worm like bot emerging from the bullet, scrambling the system.
Static swallowed the screen as the robot's feed went dark, the last image frozen mid-scramble. For a few seconds, the control room was silent except for the faint hum of the monitors.
Snipe gave an appreciative whistle and leaned back in his chair. "That was no stray shot. It's almost like the kid was aiming for us instead of the bot."
Midnight tilted her head, one finger tracing her chin as a playful smile tugged at her lips. "Hmm. I'm not imagining this, right? He's the one who was allowed to bring in his own gear?"
All eyes shifted toward Nezu. The principal sat perched in his chair, paws folded neatly and his expression unreadable except for the glimmer in his eyes.
"Correct," Nezu said, his high voice carrying a note of amusement. "That is Kanzaki Renji. While he was still at Shinkou Academy, his design caught international attention. In fact…"
He tapped his claws together lightly, "the United States was preparing to extend sponsorship for his work. Naturally, I couldn't allow such promising talent to be spirited away overseas. So, I stepped in before they could."
Midnight arched a brow. "You outbid the U.S. for a high schooler?"
"Not outbid," Nezu corrected, tone lilting, "outmaneuvered. I offered something more valuable than money, opportunity. Resources, connections, and the safest environment to refine his tool without interference. Besides—"
His eyes gleamed in excitement, tail curling around the armrest. "It would be troublesome if one of our brightest minds ended up serving another country's interests, wouldn't you agree?"
Snipe scratched the back of his neck beneath his hat. "Can't argue with that. Still, if the U.S. wanted it bad enough, that means we're looking at something beyond flashy weaponry."
Aizawa, finally spoke up, his tone dry but edged with curiosity. "So you've dragged a kid into our program who already has foreign powers sniffing around his tech. And you gave him clearance to bring it into our exam." His eyes fixed on the blank monitor. "What exactly does this 'tool' of his do exactly?"
Nezu's smile widened, as if he'd been waiting for the question.
"That," he said, voice calm and deliberate, "is precisely what we're here to find out. The exam is designed to measure power, adaptability, and creativity. Renji will show us how far his invention can go in all three categories. Whether it is truly a 'tool' at all remains to be seen. I had to pay quite the price for his materials, you know."
Midnight let out a low laugh, her tone almost teasing. "You sound like you're less interested in him becoming a hero and more interested in dissecting that toy of his."
"On the contrary," Nezu replied cheerfully, though the gleam in his eye said otherwise. "The two are not mutually exclusive. If he can use his creation to embody the ideals of a hero, then we'll have nurtured both innovation and virtue. If not, we'll know soon enough."
The other screens burst with action. Bakugo tearing through a cluster of robots, Iida sprinting like a blur, Ochaco narrowly dodging falling debris, but the absence of Renji's left an unmistakable weight in the room.
Aizawa's gaze lingered on the blank screen. "Whatever else he is, he's already figured out how to blind the people evaluating him. He's not playing the same game as the others."
Midnight tilted her head, amused but thoughtful. "Well, if we can't see him on the feed, we might as well get a closer look another way. Pull up his file."
One of the assistants at the back tapped across a console, and in a moment, Renji's profile filled the central display. A school ID photo from Shinkou Academy sat at the top corner, messy brown hair and a neutral stare that was just short of bored.
Below it, his academic record scrolled, neat rows of consistent grades, followed by recommendation notes and transfer approval forms stamped with Nezu's own signature.
"Pretty impressive," Aizawa said begrudgingly, his eyes narrowing as he scooched closer to the monitor. "Pull up the quirk registry."
The assistant keyed in a few strokes, and the file expanded, scrolling down past Renji's school records until a new section filled the screen. At the top sat the bolded header: QUIRK REGISTRY ENTRY.
Lines of text began to populate the screen with information that detailed Renji's quirk, provided directly from the HPSC.
After staying silent for the duration of the watch party, Cementoss finally spoke gruffly. "What in the world am I looking at?"
QUIRK REGISTRY ENTRY
Name: Kanzaki Renji
Quirk: Dimensional Matrix
Classification: Emitter [?]
First Manifestation: 10 Years Old
Description:
Subject reports an ability that allows him to "step away" from events, entering what he describes only as a "free space." Terminology provided by the subject is inconsistent, and no standardized vocabulary exists for this phenomenon.
Attempts at structured testing have produced no reproducible results. Observers have not recorded any physical manifestation, measurable output, or observable change during reported activation. Subject states that actions taken within this "free space" do not carry over into material reality, but this has not been able to be confirmed.
Limitations/Weaknesses:
No measurable physical output.
Subject cannot alter environment or interact with others while ability is active.
Long-term effects, if any, are unknown.
Supplementary Notes:
Initial registry entry was taken when subject was at the age 10. Terminology was imprecise.
No subsequent interviews or trials are documented in HPSC archives.
Application potential currently listed as "uncertain."
Cementoss frowned, his stone-grey features tightening as he stared intently at the display. "This reads less like a quirk registry and more like someone's half-finished draft."
Leaning forward, Midnight crossed one leg over the other as she tapped her finger against her chin. "You're right, Ishiyama. Usually they test a quirk half to death if it doesn't fit neatly into a category, but here it just stops."
Snipe eyes darkened as he folded his arms. "Could be they're grooming him for something. You know, watching how he develops without letting anyone else know what he's really capable of."
Nezu's ears twitched, tone light as ever. "You make it sound so sinister. Surely the Commission had its reasons. Perhaps they saw no immediate danger and simply let the matter rest."
"Or," Midnight pressed, her tone honeyed but her eyes keen, "someone realized what they had and decided it was better off buried until the right opportunity came along."
"All this says to me is we don't actually know what he can do. That's not a comforting thought when he's already tearing through our exam bots like they're made of paper." Cementoss noted.
A eerie silence fell on the group of heroes as they studied the profile while trying to keep focus on the other examinees.
Nezu finally broke the silence with a soft chuckle. "Well, isn't that the point of an exam? To uncover what can't be hidden forever?" He let out a little giggle as he folded his paws. "One way or another, Mr. Kanzaki's truth will reveal itself. The question is only whether we are clever enough to recognize it."
Then, without breaking his smile, he reached for a control on the console and pressed a red button larger than the rest.
"This," Nezu said, voice light but edged with anticipation, "is where the real fun begins."