VOLUME 2: ACADEMY ARC
The gates of UA High School were massive.
Like, unnecessarily massive. Rei stood there with hundreds of other examinees, craning his neck to look up at the entrance that screamed "we have money and we're not afraid to show it."
'Subtle,' he thought with dry amusement. 'Real subtle, UA.'
Around him, nervous energy buzzed through the crowd. Kids fidgeting with their clothes, muttering prayers, psyching themselves up. Some looked confident, cocky even. Others looked like they were about to puke.
Rei felt... calm.
Not the fake calm of someone pretending they weren't scared. Real calm. The kind that came from preparation and experience.
'One month of training,' he reminded himself. 'Smart training. I'm ready for this.'
He adjusted his black tracksuit—the same one he'd been using for patrols, freshly washed—and scanned the crowd with his enhanced senses.
'Time to see who the competition is.'
Immediately, his eyes found the obvious ones.
Bakugo was impossible to miss. Spiky blond hair, permanent scowl, radiating "I'm better than everyone here" energy so hard it was almost visible. He was surrounded by a small group of kids trying to talk to him, which he was aggressively ignoring.
'Main character energy,' Rei thought. 'Except he's the rival, not the hero. Still built different though.'
Then he spotted Midoriya.
The green-haired kid stood off to the side, muttering to himself while staring at the UA building with stars in his eyes. His notebook was out—of course it was—and he was scribbling something frantically.
'And there's the actual main character,' Rei observed. 'Looking nervous as hell but ready to prove everyone wrong.'
Rei didn't approach either of them. No point. He'd see them inside soon enough.
Instead, he kept scanning.
A tall guy with engines in his legs, chopping his arms like a robot while lecturing someone about proper exam etiquette. 'That's Iida. Stickler for rules but good guy. Fast as hell too.'
A girl with brown hair and pink cheeks talking animatedly to anyone who'd listen. 'Uraraka. Gravity Quirk. Gonna be clutch in the rescue portion.'
A kid with half-white, half-red hair standing completely alone, expression cold and detached. 'Todoroki. Ice and fire. Probably the strongest person here besides... well, besides me potentially. But he doesn't know that yet.'
'So many future heroes in one place,' Rei thought. 'And I know all their stories. Their struggles. Their growth.'
It was surreal. Like watching a movie he'd seen before, except now he was in it.
'Advantage: me,' he decided. 'I know the game. I know the test. I know who to watch out for.'
But knowing wasn't enough. He still had to perform.
"ALRIGHT, EXAMINEES!" A voice boomed from speakers mounted on the gates. "PROCEED TO THE AUDITORIUM FOR YOUR ORIENTATION! MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!"
The crowd started moving as one, funneling through the massive gates into UA's campus.
Rei walked with the flow, hands in his pockets, looking casual while his mind was already strategizing.
'The test is mock battles against robots. Three types: 1-pointers, 2-pointers, and 3-pointers. Plus the secret 0-pointer that's actually a rescue test. Most people will focus on destroying robots for points. Smart people will save civilians too.'
He knew all of this because he'd watched the anime. But he couldn't act like he knew. Had to play it natural.
'Just another examinee,' Rei reminded himself. 'Don't stand out too much. Do well, but don't be suspicious about it.'
The auditorium was huge—because of course it was, this was UA—with stadium seating that could fit thousands. Examinees filed in and found seats, the nervous energy intensifying.
Rei picked a seat in the middle section. Not front row eager, not back row slacker. Perfectly average position.
The lights dimmed.
And then, with an explosion of spotlights and unnecessarily dramatic music, Present Mic appeared on stage.
"HEYYYYYYY, EXAMINEES! WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE! EVERYBODY SAY HEYYY!"
Silence.
Nobody said hey.
Present Mic didn't seem bothered. "TOUGH CROWD! ALRIGHT, LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS! I'M GONNA TELL YOU LISTENERS HOW THIS PRACTICAL EXAM'S GONNA GO DOWN! ARE YOU READY?!"
More silence.
'This is painful to watch,' Rei thought, but he couldn't help the small smile. Present Mic's energy was infectious even when nobody matched it.
Present Mic launched into the explanation. Mock battle centers. Villain robots. Point values. Ten-minute time limit. Use your Quirks to destroy robots and rack up points.
Everything Rei already knew.
But then Present Mic said something that made Rei's attention sharpen.
"YOU'LL BE ASSIGNED TO DIFFERENT BATTLE CENTERS! CHECK YOUR APPLICANT CARDS FOR YOUR DESIGNATION! AND ONE MORE THING—"
A massive hologram appeared, showing four types of robots.
"THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF FAUX VILLAINS IN EVERY BATTLE CENTER! THE LAST ONE, THE ZERO-POINTER, IS WORTH ZERO POINTS! IT'S JUST AN OBSTACLE! I RECOMMEND RUNNING AWAY IF YOU SEE IT!"
'And that's the trap,' Rei thought. 'Everyone will avoid it because it's "worth nothing." But rescuing people from it is worth everything in the hidden scoring.'
A hand shot up in the audience—predictably, it was Iida.
"EXCUSE ME, SIR! ON THE HANDOUT, THERE ARE CLEARLY FOUR VARIETIES OF VILLAIN, BUT YOU ONLY MENTIONED THREE! IF THIS IS A MISTAKE, IT'S SHAMEFUL FOR UA! ALSO—"
Iida pointed at Midoriya, who was sitting a few rows ahead.
"YOU, WITH THE CURLY HAIR! YOU'VE BEEN MUTTERING THIS ENTIRE TIME! IT'S DISTRACTING! IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, THEN LEAVE!"
The entire auditorium turned to look at Midoriya, who immediately turned red and sank into his seat.
'Oof,' Rei thought. 'Poor guy. Iida doesn't know Midoriya's gonna be his best friend yet.'
Present Mic handled the question, explained the zero-pointer, and continued with the presentation.
Rei tuned most of it out. He'd already heard this before. Instead, he pulled out his applicant card and checked his battle center assignment.
**Battle Center: C**
'Not the same as Midoriya's,' Rei confirmed. In the original story, Midoriya was in Battle Center B. Different centers meant they wouldn't cross paths during the exam.
'Good,' Rei decided. 'Less temptation to interfere with his story. I'll do my thing, he'll do his, and we'll both end up at UA.'
Probably.
Hopefully.
'No, definitely,' Rei corrected himself. 'He's got One For All. He's passing no matter what. And I've got my Quirk and a month of intense training. I'm passing too.'
The presentation ended with Present Mic's usual explosive energy. Examinees were directed to locker rooms to change and prepare, then to their assigned battle centers.
Rei followed the flow to the locker rooms, changed into his battle gear—the same black tracksuit he'd trained in, broken in and comfortable—and headed toward Battle Center C.
The walk there was quiet. Most examinees were too nervous to talk. Some were stretching, warming up. Others looked like they were praying.
Rei just walked, calm and focused.
'Alright,' he thought as Battle Center C came into view—a massive mock city block with buildings, streets, and alleyways. 'Here's the plan.'
'Step one: Don't go too hard at the start. Let others rush in first. Assess the field.'
'Step two: Target 2 and 3-pointers. More efficient than wasting time on 1-pointers.'
'Step three: When the zero-pointer shows up, that's my cue. Save whoever needs saving, rack up rescue points.'
'Step four: Pass with a solid score. Good enough to get into UA, not so high that I'm suddenly famous.'
It was a good plan. Balanced. Smart.
'Let him cook,' Rei thought with a mental grin, using one of his favorite Earth phrases. 'Time to show UA what a spider can do.'
The examinees gathered at the entrance to Battle Center C. There were maybe forty or fifty people, all looking at the mock city with varying degrees of confidence and fear.
Rei spotted a few interesting Quirks in the crowd. A girl with vines growing from her hair. A guy whose arms were literally cannons. Someone who looked like they could turn invisible based on how their clothes were floating weirdly.
'Lots of talent,' Rei observed. 'But talent without strategy is just wasted potential.'
He hung back, staying near the middle of the pack. Not front, not back. Unremarkable.
Present Mic's voice boomed from speakers around the battle center.
"ALRIGHT, EXAMINEES! HERE'S HOW IT WORKS! THE MOMENT I SAY GO, YOU'VE GOT TEN MINUTES TO SCORE AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE! USE YOUR QUIRKS, DESTROY VILLAINS, RACK UP THAT SCORE! AND REMEMBER—"
Rei tensed, ready to move.
"IN A REAL BATTLE, THERE IS NO COUNTDOWN! GO! GO! GO!"
For a split second, everyone froze.
Then chaos.
Half the examinees sprinted forward immediately, Quirks activating, screaming battle cries like this was a war.
The other half hesitated, caught off guard by the sudden start.
'And that's the first test,' Rei thought. 'Adaptability. Can you react when things don't go as expected?'
He waited three seconds—just long enough for the first wave to disappear into the city—then moved.
Rei didn't sprint. He didn't need to. Instead, he fired a web line at a nearby building and pulled himself up, landing on the rooftop in one smooth motion.
From up here, he could see everything. The mock city spread out below, examinees running through streets, and in the distance, the first robots activating.
Large mechanical things, clanking and stomping, designed to look threatening.
'1-pointers are small and fast. 2-pointers are medium and tougher. 3-pointers are big and heavily armored,' Rei recalled from his meta knowledge. 'Gotta be smart about target selection.'
He spotted a cluster of three 2-pointers two blocks away, currently being engaged by a group of examinees who were struggling.
'Perfect.'
Rei web-swung across the gap, building momentum, and landed on the side of a building overlooking the fight.
Below, five examinees were trying to take down the robots with various Quirks—fire blasts, strength punches, some kind of sticky substance. They were doing okay, but it was slow. Inefficient.
'Let me show you how it's done.'
Rei dropped from the building, firing webbing at the first robot's legs mid-fall. The web wrapped tight, and when Rei hit the ground, he yanked hard.
The robot toppled, crashing face-first into the pavement.
Before it could recover, Rei was on it. He grabbed an exposed panel on its back, ripped it open with enhanced strength, and punched through the wiring inside.
The robot sparked, then went dark.
One down.
The other examinees stared at him, shocked.
Rei didn't acknowledge them. He was already moving to the second robot.
This one saw him coming and raised an arm cannon—because apparently these things had weapons, which felt unfair but whatever.
Rei's spider-sense tingled a split second before it fired.
He dodged left, the energy blast missing him by centimeters, then webbed the cannon's barrel and yanked it downward. The robot's next shot hit its own foot.
While it was off-balance, Rei jumped, planted both feet on its chest, and kicked off with enhanced strength. The robot stumbled backward into a wall, denting the metal exterior.
Rei landed, spun, and webbed the robot's head to the wall, immobilizing it.
Then he casually walked up and punched through its chest panel.
Two down.
The third robot tried to run—which was actually smart AI programming—but Rei was faster.
He web-zipped to its back, tore open a panel, and disabled it in three seconds flat.
Three robots. Maybe twenty seconds total.
Rei straightened up and dusted off his hands.
The five examinees who'd been struggling with these robots just stared at him like he was some kind of monster.
"Uh," one of them said. "Thanks?"
Rei nodded once and web-swung away before they could ask questions.
'Six points,' he calculated. 'Three 2-pointers. Good start. Need about forty more to be safe.'
He swung through the mock city, enhanced senses tracking robot locations. Every time he spotted one, he took it down fast and efficient. No wasted movement. No showing off.
Just results.
Web the legs, topple it, disable it. Move on.
Or web the head, blind it, tear out the wiring. Move on.
Or if it was a 3-pointer with heavy armor, web its joints, immobilize it, then take apart the weak points.
Rei fell into a rhythm. Swing, fight, disable, swing. His body moved on pure instinct, muscle memory from a month of training clicking into place.
'This is what proper preparation feels like,' he thought as he took down his tenth robot. 'Not luck. Not raw power. Just skill and strategy.'
Around him, other examinees were fighting hard. Some were doing well—he saw a guy with tape Quirk using similar tactics to Rei's webbing. Someone else was freezing robots solid then shattering them.
Others were struggling. A kid with a mutation Quirk that made him look like a rock was tanking hits but couldn't damage the robots. A girl with a sound-based Quirk kept stunning robots but didn't have the strength to finish them off.
'Not everyone's built for combat,' Rei observed. 'Some of these Quirks are support-type. They're gonna struggle with villain points but crush rescue points.'
Speaking of which...
Rei checked an invisible timer in his head. He'd been fighting for maybe seven minutes. Which meant the zero-pointer was coming soon.
'Need to position myself,' he decided. 'Somewhere central. Somewhere I can see when it shows up.'
He web-swung to the tallest building in the area and perched on top, scanning the battlefield.
The mock city was chaos now. Robots fighting examinees. Explosions. Quirks flashing. People shouting.
And his point total? Rei had lost count, but it was probably around forty-something. More than enough to pass.
'Now I just wait for—'
The ground shook.
A massive rumble, like an earthquake, rolled through the mock city.
Examinees stopped fighting and looked around, confused.
Then it appeared.
The zero-pointer.
A robot so massive it made the others look like toys. Easily twenty meters tall, designed to look like a villain from a tokusatsu show, with glowing eyes and heavy armor.
It stomped forward, each step shaking the ground, crushing everything in its path.
Examinees screamed and ran.
Just like Present Mic said—it's worth zero points, so why fight it?
But Rei's enhanced hearing picked up something the others missed.
Crying.
A kid, somewhere near the zero-pointer, crying in pain.
'There it is,' Rei thought. 'The rescue portion. Someone's stuck. Someone needs help.'
He scanned the area and spotted her—a girl with brown hair and pink cheeks, Uraraka from his earlier observation, trapped under rubble with the zero-pointer stomping toward her.
'That's not how it went in the original,' Rei realized. 'Midoriya saved her in Battle Center B. But she's here in C? Did I mess up the timeline? Or was she always split between centers?'
Didn't matter. Someone needed help.
Rei didn't hesitate.
He fired a web line and launched himself off the building, swinging down toward the zero-pointer at full speed.
Other examinees had the same idea—the tape guy was trying to pull Uraraka out, but the rubble was too heavy.
'Move,' Rei thought as he landed beside them.
"I got her," Rei said to tape guy. "Clear the path."
Tape guy looked at Rei, recognized the confidence, and nodded. "Got it!"
Rei webbed the largest piece of rubble and pulled with everything he had. Enhanced strength screamed through his muscles. The concrete chunk shifted, just barely.
Uraraka gasped as pressure lifted off her leg.
"Can you move?" Rei asked.
"I—I think so!" She tried to stand, winced, but managed it with tape guy's help.
The zero-pointer was ten meters away now. Stomping closer.
'Not enough time,' Rei calculated. 'Need to slow it down.'
He looked up at the massive robot and grinned.
'Alright. Time to cook.'
Rei sprinted toward the zero-pointer, web-swinging to build momentum, and launched himself at its face.
Mid-air, he fired web after web, covering the robot's glowing eyes in thick strands.
The zero-pointer stopped, confused, trying to clear its vision.
Rei landed on its head, found a maintenance hatch, and ripped it open.
Inside was a mess of wiring and circuitry. Way too complex to disable quickly.
'Don't need to disable it,' Rei thought. 'Just need to slow it down.'
He webbed the internal mechanisms, gumming up the works, then jumped off as the zero-pointer started swinging its arms wildly.
He hit the ground rolling, spotted Uraraka and tape guy retreating to safety, and web-swung away just as the zero-pointer's fist cratered the street where he'd been standing.
'Close,' Rei thought. 'Too close.'
Present Mic's voice boomed across the battle center.
"AAAAND TIME'S UP! THE EXAM IS OVER! ROBOTS POWERING DOWN! GREAT WORK, EXAMINEES!"
The zero-pointer froze mid-step, then slowly powered down with a mechanical whine.
Rei landed on a rooftop and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
'Did I do enough?' he wondered. 'Villain points plus rescue points... should be enough. Right?'
Around the mock city, examinees collapsed from exhaustion. Some were celebrating. Others looked devastated, thinking they'd failed.
Rei just sat there, watching the chaos, and felt... good.
Not the empty satisfaction of a completed contract.
Real satisfaction. The kind that came from helping people.
'I passed,' he thought. 'I know I passed. Now I just wait for results.'
He looked at his hands—still steady, no shaking—and smiled.
'One month ago, I was a mess. Burning out. Pushing too hard.'
'But I learned. Adapted. Got better.'
'And now?'
Rei stood up and web-swung toward the exit where examinees were gathering.
'Now I'm ready for whatever UA throws at me.'
The exam was over.
But his journey was just beginning.
--
Author's Note:-
Volume 2 Academy Arc begins 🥀
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