Chapter 13
No talking was allowed during the exam, so Izuku and Tanya had to settle for writing down all of their ideas and observations of the brown-haired girl's quirk. They would compare them afterwards and enter the revised analysis into their latest journal, number forty-nine. They both spent most of their time working on their hobby, because the exam questions were a breeze, even the moral ones that required written paragraphs and not short answers.
When the time was up and a buzzer sounded, a brief wind picked up and every exam paper was collected and deposited onto the hero's desk at the front of the auditorium. Nearly everyone was confused about what happened, except for a few students.
Tanya and Izuku, who were sitting several seats away from each other, smirked and nodded. They had both seen and felt the passing of the super-speed runner. The young woman wasn't wearing a costume, which was odd. Her clothing should have burned up from the air friction alone, unless her quirk covered her body in a small aura.
Tanya leaned forward and looked at Izuku. “Her hair was in a tight weave on the back of her head.”
“Then it was an aura.” Izuku said and she nodded in agreement.
“What are you two talking about?” A guy wearing glasses asked, confused, then he shook his head. “Nevertheless, you're disturbing the other students that are waiting for the next announcement!”
“You're the one that's nearly shouting.” Tanya said and leaned back in her seat. “Arrogant much?”
Izuku chuckled and ignored the glare from the guy. He had better glares from his previous best friend and Bakugo used to be a massive bully and used to hate him.
“Well done, everyone! Even those of you that believe you failed.” The hero names Present Mic said and didn't point to the girl that was bawling her eyes out at the side of the room. “There will be a lunch break and then the practical portion of the exam will begin. You will be shipped in buses to the sites marked on the card under your assigned seats.”
“B.” Tanya said and showed her best friend.
“I'm at B, too.” Izuku said and grinned. “We are going to wreck the place!”
“Damn right we are.” Tanya said and stood. “Come on, you're buying me a milkshake.”
“Okay.” Izuku said and took her hand a they walked over to the end of the row of seats.
“Hey! I'm not done speaking yet!” Present Mic said, quite loudly.
“Are you going to say anything besides the robots we need to fight?” Tanya asked as she and Izuku walked up the aisle towards the exit.
Present Mic looked surprised and shook his head.
“Then we'll see you this afternoon.” Tanya said and waved as Izuku opened the door for her and they left.
“You're so bad.” Izuku said with a chuckle.
“It's not my fault they repeat the same exam after every third year on a set schedule.” Tanya responded with a grin. “Each year they change it so that none of the students in the other two years can tell the incoming students what's coming. It's a good idea... if they had made everyone that graduated from UA stop posting online what they did to get in.”
Izuku nodded. “I think we need to rein in our... ah... penchant for displaying idiocy in others.”
“Especially authority figures, right?” Tanya asked with a soft laugh. “All right. I'll try.”
Izuku gave her a stern look and she laughed again.
“I said try! I can't promise the impossible, you know!”
Izuku had to laugh at that. “That's good enough for me.”
They walked over to the cafeteria to grab some food and to wait for the afternoon practical exam.
*
Most of the students stood around to wait after changing into their chosen outfits for the practical exam. Conspicuously absent were two particular students that everyone was curious about. They had made a little scene at the auditorium and made the announcer look foolish, which wasn't something that anyone in their right minds would do.
The door to the changing room opened and they all turned to look, only to goggle at the pretty young woman that was dressed in a form-fitting greenish colored military-like uniform. The pants fit her like a glove and her thin blazer had a double breast closure that was completely closed. It made a rectangle shape over her front and it had eight buttons, four on each side of her stomach and a hidden clasp at the shoulder.
The fabric was thin enough that they could all see she was fairly athletically muscular and her budding chest was only slightly concealed. She also seemed to have a bunch of military markings and combat medals on her left breast with really odd ranking symbols on her shoulders. That wasn't the shocking part of her outfit, however.
The other students were all shocked by the fairly large rifle that was slung across her back and the four pistol holsters that she had strapped onto her person. Two of them were on her hips and two hung under her armpits, all four set for quick draws. A few of the students were visibly afraid at having someone with that much firepower among them.
“Hey! You can't bring live firearms into a school exam!” The guy with glasses from the exam said as he stalked over to the pretty blonde girl, his arm waving in a chopping motion. “You're not even allowed to own them, let alone carry them around so blatantly!”
“Take one more step towards me in that threatening manner and I'll flatten you to the ground and you'll fail this exam.” The blonde girl said with a voice so cold that the guy froze in his steps. “Are you really that stupid to think that the examiners, that have had my hero costume for a week to examine it and ensure that it's all safe, would ever allow me to bring real guns into this place?”
That got everyone talking, quite loudly, too.
“If you must know, the rifle and the pistols are modified air guns and shoot pewter pellets.” The blonde girl said and glared at him. “Now back off before you make me angry and I do something that only you will regret.”
The guy was still frozen in terror as the door to the change room opened again and another student came out.
“Oh, my god! Look at that!” One of the girls exclaimed and everyone turned to look.
The tall young man calmly walked over towards where the blonde girl and the guy with glasses stood nearby. He wore a formfitting spandex outfit made of a kevlar weave that showed off his muscular legs and arms. It had a foot wide thick strip of dark green down the front that went from his neck to his feet with a thin white strip on either side. The rest of the spandex was a light green to show off his muscle definition.
His chest seemed a lot wider than it had when he wore a loose shirt, which seemed odd to the guys and pleased some of the girls, who actually drooled a little. He also wore knee high dark green boots with thick soles and dark green gloves that went up to his elbows. On his face he wore a dark green visor that went from ear to ear and across his eyes to protect them.
Not surprisingly, his outfit was made of the same material as the blonde's uniform. They had commissioned the same support company and submitted their designs for what they wanted, which most of the other students seemed to think was unfair.
“IZUKU! TANYA! You already have your hero costumes?!?” The brown-haired girl named Uraraka asked as she essentially hopped over to them in her excitement. “That's awesome!”
“Thanks.” Izuku said and motioned to Tanya. “It was her idea to debut like this.”
“Yes, and look at everyone's envious faces!” Tanya said and showed a bit of her manic grin.
Izuku chuckled and touched her shoulder briefly. “Not everyone has their own business and can pay for things like this.”
“I know! Isn't it great?” Tanya said with a wicked smile. “They can't submit their designs to the UA support company until after they get accepted!”
“At least we've saved them some time and hard work.” Izuku said and looked out at the fake city. “It looks like your guess was right. They're intentionally limiting ranged combatants.”
“They believe they are, yes.” Tanya said and her wicked grin went manic once more. “We're going to show them the truth, aren't we?”
Izuku pat the nearly invisible belt around his waist. “I think I brought enough for today.”
“Don't you dare skimp on them! If you have to throw more than one at a time, you do it! You can worry about it after you run out.” Tanya said. “They are literally a dime a dozen and are easily replaced.”
Izuku nodded. “I won't worry about keeping them intact before I throw them. How's that?”
“That's my smart Izuku.” Tanya said and then realized what she said and blushed slightly. “I mean... squish some and increase their surface area. They can potentially cause more damage that way.”
“WELCOME TO THE PRACTICAL EXAM FOR ENTRANCE INTO UA!” Present Mic's voice reverberated through the waiting area.
“Drop the echo and reduce the gain!” An angry voice said over the same loudspeakers. “You don't want to make them deaf, do you?”
“SORRY! I DIDn't realize I didn't adjust for the compound sound of the PA system.” Present Mic said. “Well, now that's settled, there's only 40 spots available for the main hero course and there are a lot of you testing today. Do your best and show us all what you can do!”
Izuku and Tanya knew a 'go' signal when they heard it and grinned at each other. The air around Tanya swirled slightly and little shots of green lightning flowed over Izuku's body for only a second before they both launched into the air towards the city. Tanya flew at a leisurely pace and Izuku had jumped. They had agreed that Tanya had no need to go to supersonic speeds in such a limited space.
“HEY! You can't go yet!” The glasses guy shouted after them.
“They didn't tell us to start, did they?” Uraraka asked.
“What are you all standing around for? The real world doesn't tell you when to start!” Present Mic said over the speakers, then he sighed at the confused looks on the students. “Go! Go! Run! The timer's already started!”
A collected shout of surprise came from the students and they all ran towards the city to start earning the points they needed to get into the hero academy.
*
Izuku crushed another ball bearing and threw it as hard as he could at the head of the three point robot. The head disintegrated and he smiled at Tanya's suggestion.
“On your three, less ten degrees forward.” Tanya's voice said in his ear and Izuku didn't even look as he lunged in that direction with his fist out. The sound of crunching metal was music to his ears.
“How's the hunting going?” Izuku asked.
“I've already got enough points to pass and now I'm helping you.” Tanya said.
Izuku barked a laugh. “I know you better than that. You're sniping to help the others, too.”
Tanya was silent for a moment. “How do you know that?”
“You would have taken the shot and not told me where to punch.” Izuku said, wisely.
“Smart ass.” Tanya whispered, which made him laugh again.
Izuku turned around and looked way, way up. The zoom function on his visor showed him the uniformed figure darting around as she aimed through her rifle scope and let several shots go.
“I wonder how they'll score you helping like that.” Izuku said as he heard metal on pavement not far away. He cancelled the zoom and ran down the street to see three people surrounded by a dozen one point robots. “Hey, guys! Coming through!”
Tanya paused to look down where her best friend was. She laughed as he slammed through and wrecked half of the robots that had three students caught in a crossfire.
“I think they're going to have trouble scoring the both of us.” Tanya said and went back to observing the others. She took pot shots at select targets using only the Door-buster spells on her normal ammo. It crushed the heads easily and disabled the robots when only the chests were available to be hit.
*
“Who the hell is she?” The pro hero named Midnight asked as she looked at the monitor that was focused on the uniformed girl floating above the city. Said girl was devastating their carefully planned out robot assault on the students.
“That is the girl that lost her recommended spot.” The mouse-like being known as Nezu said.
“WHAT?” Several of the judges yelled.
“It's true. The government pulled her scholarship as well.” Nezu said and all of the heroes in the room stared at him except for one.
“It's true.” All Might said and their gazes shifted to him He waited a moment before he spoke. “Her name... is Tanya Degraff.”
Midnight gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. “How... how did she lose...”
“We can't tell you what happened.” Nezu said and looked at Aizawa Shouta. “You are not to investigate it, either. Not even on your own time.”
Aizawa grumbled and turned his head away. “Fine.”
The other heroes looked uncomfortable, now that they knew the daughter of the last hero killed in the Hero Massacre was there.
“If you're wondering, she's already passed.” Nezu said and checked the display for the villain points list.
“You can't say that. We still have to review her tactics and support capabilities.” Present Mic said.
All Might barked a laugh. “You're just upset that she caused a little scene this morning.”
“It was disrespectful!” Present Mic said.
“You did say the exam was over.” Aizawa offered, unable to pass up a dig at the obnoxious hero.
“That's enough.” Nezu said and everyone settled down. “What do you think of the rest of the candidates?”
“Mid-range to poor.” Aizawa said with a shrug.
“You do realize they are teenagers and don't have a lot of training.” Midnight commented.
“I wouldn't say that about all of them.” Nezu said and changed one of the monitors to show a green-clad student that was currently crushing a three pointer's head with his gloved hands. The student jumped slightly and drop-kicked the robot's chest and it shot away like a cannonball and plowed through three other robots, making them all scrap.
“Hello, handsome!” Midnight said and let out a purr. “Where have you been hiding, you tasty morsel?”
A few of the other heroes chuckled at her being so easily turned on.
“His name is Izuku Midoria and he has been a constant companion to Miss Degraff since they were ten.” Nezu said, which surprised everyone except for All Might.
“Why were they not separated into different groups?” Aizawa asked. “We usually split students from the same middle school.”
“Precisely for that reason. Their fighting styles and differences almost exclude each other. One ranged and one close combat.” Nezu said. “As you can clearly see, Midoria has learned a lot about fighting, proper application of appropriate force, and how to turn a disadvantage to an advantage.”
“What do you mean?” All Might asked, curious.
“He's mostly a close combat fighter, which limits what he can do.” Nezu said and All Might nodded. “So, he added a ranged option.”
They all watched a quick replay of Izuku taking steel ball bearings out of the nearly invisible belt at his waist and throwing them at robots that were too far away for him to punch or kick. Most of the shots damaged the robots or disoriented them enough for him to run over and tackle them.
“That's actually a sound strategy, even if he can't follow it up.” Aizawa commented. “If he used a single one, he could do a much better...” His words cut off as a clip showed Izuku crushing a ball bearing with his fingers to flatten it and then throwing it to decapitate a robot that had been trying to snipe at him from the top of a nearby building. “Never mind.”
All Might turned away and tried to cover his laugh with a cough. He hadn't known that Izuku had made that adaption to his fighting style and it was a pleasant surprise. He was also pleased to see the boy had grown in both height and musculature to better handle his quirk.
“He has also passed, as I suspect he knows, because he is now only assisting other students.” Nezu said and changed the main monitor back to a live feed. “All Might? It's time.”
“AH! Of course, Nezu. Thank you for letting me have the honor.” All Might said and hopped to his feet to walk over to the main console. He grinned like a little kid and whacked his large hand down onto the big red button.