The salty sea breeze carried the unmistakable stench of rotting trash and rusting metal across Dagobah Beach.
Standing near the bottom of the concrete staircase, Mineta took a deep breath, totally unfazed by the smell. Standing around him was a rather colorful assembly: Himiko, Toru, Nejire, and Mei.
Before anyone could say a word, the loud, throaty roar of a motorcycle engine cut through the sound of the crashing waves.
A sleek Kawasaki KZ6R tore down the coastal road, its custom black-and-pink paint job gleaming under the sun. It pulled to a sharp stop right in front of them, kickstand snapping down with a crisp metallic click.
Mineta's eyes instantly transformed into literal stars. 'A Kawasaki KZ6R?! The torque on that beauty must be insane!'
However, Toru, Nejire, and Himiko weren't looking at the bike. Their eyes were locked with equal brilliance on the rider as she swung a long leg over the frame and pulled off her helmet, letting a cascade of gorgeous blonde hair fall over her shoulders.
"Mt. Lady!" the three girls squeaked in unison, clutching each other's hands in excitement.
"The rising top-tier hero-in-training currently working under the Number 19 Hero, King Kong!" Toru practically squealed, her floating gloves clapping together rapidly.
Mei tilted her head, her crosshair eyes zooming in on the blonde hero. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Huh... Have I seen her somewhere before?"
Yu Takeyama almost lost her footing right then and there. She gripped her helmet, pointing an accusing finger at Mei while shouting, "You literally came to my house to pick up Mineta because of that whole jetpack incident! How could you already forget my face?!"
She let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through her hair. "And relax, guys. You can just call me Yu. I'm completely off the clock right now."
Mei slammed her fist into her open palm, a lightbulb virtually popping up above her head. "Oh! You're that blonde woman!"
A collective groan echoed across the sand as everyone nearly fell over at Mei's absurdly late realization.
Mineta just shook his head, rubbing his temples at Mei's antics. "You really live in your own world, don't you, Hatsume?"
Yu cleared her throat, regaining her composure as she gestured toward the girls. "Anyway, as agreed, I'm here to train these three in actual combat!"
'Mt. Lady is actually going to train us?!' Himiko, Toru, and Nejire all thought simultaneously, practically glowing with giddiness.
"Well, you girls are in good hands," Mineta said, turning toward the vast mountains of metal scrap scattered across the beach. "I'll leave you to it. I've got to get back to lifting garbage."
Yu paused, blinking in surprise as she looked down at him. "Wait... you're not going to train with me?"
Mineta blinked back. Was he hallucinating, or was Yu actually pouting at the thought of him skipping her training session?
"Well, my main goal right now is cleaning this entire beach to temper my body and build up my raw stamina," Mineta explained, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. "But hey... I wouldn't mind sparring with a pretty Onee-san like you at the end of the day."
Yu's subtle pout instantly vanished, replaced by a satisfied nod. "Hmph. Smart answer. Alright, let's get down to business."
She turned toward the shore, motioning for everyone to follow her onto the sandy terrain.
"Listen up," Yu began, stepping into instructor mode. "The U.A. Entrance Exam every year is divided into two main parts: a written exam and a practical exam. The written portion is entirely on you—you'll have to hit the books on your own time. But as for the practical... that's where I come in."
She held up two fingers.
"The practical exam is almost always centered around fighting simulated villain robots. They're divided into three different tiers, worth anywhere from one to three points based on their difficulty. You defeat a robot, you earn villain points."
She paused, her tone taking on a slightly more serious edge.
"Additionally, there's a hidden evaluation metric in the exam called Rescue Points. If you step up to save or assist fellow examinees who are in danger, the proctors award you points based on your heroism. The sum of your Villain Points and Rescue Points determines your final rank. Only the top forty applicants make it into the Hero Course."
Nejire leaned in, listening with absolute focus. Since she was going to take the U.A. exam at the end of her third year of middle school, every single detail was gold.
Himiko and Toru absorbed the information just as hungrily, knowing their time would come in the future as well.
Mineta, however, was quietly mulling it over in his head. 'Wait... why didn't she mention the Zero-Pointer? Was that giant mechanical disaster added only in the year Deku took the exam?'
"Now, I know what you're thinking," Yu continued, glancing toward Toru. "Combat Quirks have a massive advantage when it comes to smashing heavy metal. But for people with non-offensive Quirks—like invisibility—the proctors don't just leave you out to dry. Every robot is fitted with a physical off-switch hidden somewhere on its body."
She tapped the side of her own neck to demonstrate.
"If you don't have the raw firepower to crush them, your goal is to locate and press those hidden buttons to deactivate them. It's still incredibly risky, though. The robots aren't just going to stand still and let you waltz up to poke their switches."
The girls nodded in serious realization.
'Ah, so that's how people like Hagakure passed the practical in the original timeline,' Mineta realized internally. 'It actually makes a ton of sense.'
Yu turned her attention back to Mineta, folding her arms across her chest. "Speaking of robots... you mentioned on the phone that you had the 'perfect dummy' ready for these girls to practice on. Where is it?"
Mineta smirked, turning his head toward Mei. "Show 'em, Hatsume."
A terrifyingly wild grin spread across Mei's face. "Fuhahaha! Feast your eyes!"
She marched over to a massive pile of junk where a towering blue tarp was draped over something colossal. With a dramatic flourish, she yanked the cloth away.
"Meet my Robot Baby 3.0!" Mei proclaimed proudly.
Silence fell over the beach. Stunned, jaw-dropping silence.
Standing before them was a terrifying monstrosity roughly the size of a commercial refrigerator. Its legs were replaced by heavy-duty car tires wrapped in thick rubber treadmills. Its torso was literally an industrial fridge reinforced with scrap metal plates. One arm ended in a high-pressure water hose, while the other was a fully functioning grenade launcher.
To top it all off, its head was fashioned from a modified microwave, and mounted squarely on the center of the fridge door was a glowing, crimson-red Arc Reactor. Behind its back hung two loaded rocket pods, accompanied by four retracted, razor-sharp spider legs designed for wall-climbing.
Everyone stared at the walking weapon of mass destruction in absolute horror.
"Hatsume..." Mineta gasped, his jaw nearly hitting the sand. "How the hell did you manufacture an Arc Reactor so fast?!"
Mei blushed slightly, scratching her cheek in rare bashfulness. "Ah... well, it's actually a heavily downgraded version! I can't get my hands on real plutonium anywhere—government agencies monitor that stuff way too strictly! I'll only be able to make the full version once I get access to U.A.'s high-grade labs!"
She proudly tapped the red core on the machine's chest.
"This one is called the Mini-Arc! It provides whatever it's hooked up to with five solid hours of clean, uninterrupted energy! After that, I just have to pop out the internal energy stabilizer and swap it for a fresh one!"
Yu, Himiko, Toru, and Nejire all slowly rotated their heads away from the literal war machine to stare blankly at Mineta.
'What kind of unhinged, apocalyptic ideas has he been feeding into this girl's head?!' all four of them thought in collective panic.
If she was building rolling tanks with red Arc Reactors in middle school, they were genuinely terrified that she'd be building orbital strike cannons by the time she hit U.A.