Our training went by so fast that it was almost a blur in my mind. The day of the test had come, and my classmates and I rode UA buses together to Takoba National Stadium. Through sheer fate, Jirou and I were assigned to the same seat, so we shared music on our trip. Meanwhile, Momo, who sat a couple of rows in front of us, looked back at us a couple of times; I could only imagine what was going on in her mind. I couldn't help but feel crushed by the weight of guilt.
Takoba National Stadium was huge; it was at least double the size of the stadium at UA, and I used to think that place was massive. Dressed in uniform, we stepped off the bus and took in our surroundings. A bunch of students from other schools constantly glanced at us. Some of their eyes admired us while others looked at us with scorn.
Feeling all eyes on us, we decided to do a little chant to raise our spirits. In unison, we all shouted, "Plus Ultra!" However, we didn't expect a student from another school to join our little huddle. He was apparently a first-year like us, but he looked like a grown ass man. After his classmates scolded us for barging in on our huddle, he bowed so low that his forehead smashed into the concrete and started gushing blood. And I thought Iida was weird...
"Wait, don't you guys recognize those uniforms?" Jirou whispered. Now that she said it, I did. They were from Shiketsu, the second-best hero school in Japan. They were recognized by the black hats and uniforms they all wore.
Bloody forehead shouted about how he couldn't wait to go up against us; unfortunately, those feelings weren't mutual. As he and his class walked away, I could hear Aizawa mumble the kid's name. "Inasa Yoarashi. He had the highest score through recommendations, yet he declined UA's offer."
"What a weirdo," said a weirdo herself, Ashido.
What I didn't expect was a teacher to approach us, or rather, Mr. Aizawa. This beautiful woman with green hair, just absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, was practically begging Aizawa to take her on a date right in front of us all. Her name is Ms. Joke; her Quirk allows her to compel others to laugh until they collapse. The more she talked about going out with Aizawa, the more I thought that maybe the guy was gay or something. You're telling me this beautiful woman wants you, and you want nothing to do with her? It's not like he's married to my knowledge.
Maybe she just wasn't his type, I don't know.
After that, we put on our costumes and met up in the main hall with all the other one thousand and something students. It was so cramped, and everyone was so loud that I could hardly hear Mera, our proctor, mumbling at us through his microphone. The dude looked like he was about ready to collapse, his long blonde hair nearly covering his baggy eyes.
He explained that only one hundred of us were going to pass, causing an uproar among the students. Yeah, one hundred is far less than fifty percent of one thousand, five hundred; maybe they changed the way math works last time I checked.
For the first part of the test, we had to wear three targets on our bodies. Other entrants were tasked with using these small balls, similar to a tennis ball, to hit the targets on the other students' bodies.
As they passed out the targets and balls, the room opened up like a cardboard box, and we realized that we'd already been transported into the middle of the stadium. I was so lost in thought that I didn't even feel the room move... This fact reminded me to lock the fuck in.
Seeing it from the inside, it was at least triple the size of UA's stadium. There were multiple regions to complement all sorts of different types of Quirks. Rocky mountains, industrial factories, cityscapes, and open fields. For my Quirk, I knew that I'd have a better shot in the cityscape, using my webs to my advantage.
Midoriya wanted us all to stay together as a class, but I'm sure you can guess who immediately ran off. Bakugo, of course. Kirishima, his bestie, followed him, and then Kaminari was right behind them. Mr. Loner boy, I mean Todoroki, went off on his own as well since his Quirk is harder to use in a group.
As I placed two targets on my beltline and one on my back, I noticed Tsu looking at me with curious eyes. "Are you wondering why I'm putting one on my back, Tsu?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Wouldn't it be better to have your targets in places you can see them?"
"For everyone else, maybe," I looked around, making sure no other schools were around to listen in to my little secret. "It's bait. Someone's going to see that my back is open, so they'll attack me, revealing their position to me. Thanks to my Spider-Sense, I'll be able to see it coming."
"I forgot you have so many cool abilities thanks to your Quirk. I'm a bit jealous..." Tsu quipped.
"Your Quirk is cool too; I mean, we're pretty similar. We swing around, we have agility, and I heard you learned to camouflage, too. After we get our licenses, I think we'd actually make a pretty cool crime-fighting duo."
"You think so?' she seemed shocked at my unofficial offer, scratching her cheek with an awkward finger. "I wouldn't mind since you're pretty reliable, Miles."
"Same to you. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Let's win this thing first."
As a class, we ran someplace that wasn't too open, but also wasn't too cramped, so we didn't get overwhelmed by the other schools. Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, and I knew that the other schools were going to attack UA first, since they already knew all about us thanks to the Sports Festival. It's a good thing we've all leveled up since then.
The moment we heard the chime to commence the exam, every single school ganged up on us. The sky was blotted out by the hailstorm of balls being thrown at us. However, we wouldn't go down so easily. Using our Quirks, we swatted every last ball away from us, and the stragglers were blocked by Quirks like mine and Momo's, shielding our teammates.
One of the students threw their balls into the ground using their Quirk, and we could hear them hurling themselves toward us. Using my radar sense, I could track them coming right for us, and based on the way they were moving, they were tracking us.
"His Quirk allows him to lock onto targets, everyone, we-" Before I could finish, Jirou jumped in front of us. I was so focused on my own training that I didn't even notice that she, too, had a new special move. Her earlobes plugged into these special gauntlets she wore before she placed her fists on the ground.
"Sound Amplification: Amplifier Jack Heartbeat Distortion!" as she punched the ground, an intense vibration caused a tremor that caused the floor in front of us to rupture, thwarting the attack on our class.
Another class thought they were slick and tried to attack us from above, but Ashido's acid wall protected all of us from getting hit.
As if to one-up Jirou, another kid used his Quirk to cause an actual tremor, causing the entire area to collapse, separating UA from one another. Through the chaos, I only managed to find Momo, Jirou, and Tsu; all three of them just happened to be right next to me before the attack.
"We gotta get out of here and regroup," I told the three girls. We shared a silent four-way nod before fleeing the area. As we ran, over two hundred students were apparently knocked out by a single attack from one guy.
We eventually stumbled across a multi-leveled building, a good place to hide while the four of us came up with a plan; its top floors would also make for a good vantage point. Once inside, we all used our Quirks to try and find our friends and our enemies. Jirou used her earlobes to scan the building for any pursuers, as did I, using my radar sense. Tsu and Momo used a pair of binoculars to check out our surroundings through the massive wall of glass beside us.
An announcement that over half of the spots had been filled compelled us all to give up the search for our friends and focus on ourselves. It was then that Jirou and I both sensed others entering the building.
"There are four of them... I think," I muttered.
Jirou nodded. "Yeah, I sense four as well."
Momo grabbed at her chin, humming inquisitively. "That doesn't make sense. All of the other classes stayed in larger groups..."
"Maybe they got separated as we did and are looking for a hiding spot," Tsu added.
"That would make sense but..." I said, looking at Jirou, who must've figured out the same thing as me.
"They aren't stopping on the other floors. They're coming straight here," Jirou told them.
Suddenly, I heard Jirou screech. She reeled back, covering her ears and falling into my arms. "Are you okay? What happened?" I said, sitting her down against the wall.
"They're blasting music to counter my Quirk..." she told us.
"Of course. They know our Quirks, which means they followed us in here with a plan," I told the group. "Stay calm. We've changed since the festival; they can't know everything about us."
Meanwhile, I could feel the presence of someone hiding in the opposite building. My Spider-Sense started to blair, and I yelled, "Get down!" just as someone started attacking our building from the outside, breaking all of the windows. They didn't shatter completely, but the cracks obscured our vision of the outside world.
"It's a good thing this glass is tempered," Tsu said.
"No, this is part of their plan. They're stripping away all of our senses so they can trap us here. Unlucky for them, they don't know about my recently developed radar sense, so I can sense them all coming. There are about ten of them in the building now; they're just trying to funnel us into one place."
"What do we do, Momo?" Tsu asked. Momo hesitated, but before she could answer, Jirou gave her own answer.
"We fight!" she said, running forward with plans of destroying the building with her new ultimate move. However, before she could do that, one of our enemies sniped her gear, stopping her from being able to retaliate.
"Jirou!" I said, running to her aid. Her ear was bleeding from the attack; seeing her hurt like this made me want to smear the asshole who shot her into the concrete face-first.
"They must've been watching us from the start," Momo said. "They likely have a master strategist on their team."
"I was thinking the same thing. But so do we," I told her. Momo looked away nervously. I could see sweat dripping from her forehead; it's like she was melting from the pressure.
It was just one thing after another. The windows were completely covered by metal sheets, and cold air started coming in through the vents. Tsu, having the anatomy of a frog, collapsed and started hibernating due to the cold air. Momo made a blanket for her, and I used my Maxed Out form at about one percent to heat our bodies.
I started webbing the vents shut, but it would take a while before the room would warm back up.
"Damn it! That just leaves Momo and me, whose Quirks haven't been directly countered yet."
The door behind was being welded shut by one of our enemies, while the other ten were camping outside the main door. "There are ten of them out there. If I knew their Quirks, I could fight them, but that's probably what they're expecting from me since I have a combat-oriented Quirk. It's definitely a trap. The only one who can get us through this is you, Momo."
Momo grew tense, still sweating bullets. I could tell that her mind was going at a million miles per hour, so I just left her to think.
"I can't..." she said.
Jirou and I looked at her; Momo was barely able to hold in her tears. "They're just waiting for me to use my Quirk because they know there's a limit. I'm useless... I'm not good enough... I've never been good enough. For any of this."
The room was starting to warm up, and Tsu was slowly waking up. I lay her down next to Jirou and stood with Momo.
"Don't talk about yourself like that, Momo," I told her. "Do you remember what I told you back when you and I first became close? I told you that I admired you because of how smart you were; the way you're always one step ahead, your creative solutions to every problem, and the way you'd keep your cool even when things seem grim. You are good enough. You're the model student and the model hero. You are someone that everyone in Class 1-A strives to be, even if they don't say it out loud."
Her eyes, once narrow and glassy, widened as I approached her. "With my radar sense, I can hear your heart racing right now." I grabbed her hand and placed it atop my spider logo. "But mine isn't. I'm calm. Do you know why that is? It's because I have you here with me, Momo. I know that no matter what, Momo's got me. I can trust you. I can rely on you. You're Class 1-A's vice president for a reason, and if you ask me, you should've been the one to lead our class, not Iida. Though he does do an okay job."
Momo grinned a little, her hand still pressed against my insignia. "If I could pick anyone else in this world to trust right now, I'd still pick you over anyone else. I know this situation is nothing more than a glorified game of tag, but I trust you with my life, right now. That's because I know you're going to get us out of here. Now use that brilliant brain of yours to make something that even the best strategist couldn't have predicted."
My little speech must've gotten through to her. There was light in her eyes that I'd never seen before, determination gleaming like a shooting star.
She didn't speak for a moment. I watched her as she was lost in thought, ideas bouncing around in her skull. Still without words, she made headphones with her Quirk, followed by a massive amplifier speaker.
"Jirou, I need you to use this to fire a high-frequency sound through that door. Miles, I need you to power up the machine for us. With that much energy, they'll collapse within just a few seconds from the intensity of the sound."
Jirou and I followed her orders without even hesitating. I placed my palms on the battery while Jirou plugged herself in. Using her Quirk, Jirou sent sonic waves through the machine, which then amplified them to such a degree that the entire building was rumbling. Even with the noise-canceling headphones on, we could hardly stay on our feet. I kept checking back on Tsu, who was shivering in her blanket, wincing from the pain. Luckily, the headphones were doing a great job of protecting her.
After fifteen seconds, I could sense that everyone on the other side of the door had collapsed. "You can stop now!" I yelled through the noise. The machine stopped, and we kicked the door down; these girls in matching white military uniforms were all lying on the ground.
"Nice! We totally rocked these fools!" Jirou said.
"We did. Good job, everyone. Especially you, Momo. Now, let's-" I was about to say that we should hurry and hit their targets. However, before the thought could fully escape from my lips, my Spider-Sense went haywire. When I turned around, one of the students grabbed Momo from behind and dragged her into the room, locking the door behind them.
"The hell?" I said before I charged at the door, knocking it down in a single hit. She had Momo pinned down, but I yanked her backward with my webs and slammed her onto the ground. "Get off!"
Our silver-haired rival was dumbfounded. "But why?" she asked. "Why did you come back for her? Shouldn't you be worried about scoring for yourselves?"
"Maybe that's how things are done at your school, but not UA," Jirou told her.
"Yeah," Tsu added. "We'd never leave our friend behind."
"What kind of team abandons their captain?" I told her. "Wherever she goes, I go. Even if I had to chase her all the way to the ends of the Earth. The same goes for these two and everyone else in my class. Hell, I'd even do it for a stranger like you."
"Does that mean you'll spare me?" she asked me as I picked her ball up from the ground.
"Not this time. I don't think you're ready to be a hero yet. You abandoned your teammates. What kind of hero does that?"
The girl put her head down and accepted her fate. "You're right. I'm a failure."
Momo inched toward the girl. "Hey, no, you're not. It was you who planned all of this out, right?"
The girl nodded.
"You're brilliant. And one day, you will be a hero. I know it."
"Yeah," I chimed in. "Ten years from now, let's all look back on this day and laugh together, alright? We'll be waiting for you when that time comes."
The girl still wept as Momo eliminated her from the competition. As we started for the door, she had one more question for us.
"After all that I did to you, why show me any ounce of compassion?" she asked.
The four of us stopped, looked at each other, and then at her.
"It's what Spider-Man does," I told her.
"And Froppy."
"And Earphone Jack."
"And Creati."
"Good luck," I told her before we finally made our exit, moving on to the next phase of the competition.