"Boom!!!"
"Boom!!!"
"Boom!!!"
In venue A, amid fire and smoke, Bakugo Katsuki unleashed his Quirks recklessly, turning the area into a battlefield of scattered rubble.
His points skyrocketed, breaking through the fifty mark in the blink of an eye.
By contrast, Madara's score remained at thirty-two.
"It seems I'll need to pick up the pace," Madara murmured. Although he didn't particularly care about competing with Bakugo Katsuki, that didn't mean he intended to lose.
Whoosh!
Boom!!!
...
"Hey, hey—those two have already taken out all the imaginary enemies. What are we even supposed to fight for now?"
In the venue, the other candidates were nearly wailing in frustration.
Madara and Bakugo Katsuki were moving like reapers, knocking out enemies one after another at terrifying speed.
"This isn't fair!"
More and more candidates started complaining. Thanks to those two, many hadn't even broken into double digits.
Boom!
Not far away, Bakugo Katsuki blasted apart yet another dummy, then turned to glare at Madara.
"Pink-eye!"
"What?" Madara calmly crushed another imaginary enemy without bothering to look back.
"What the hell are your Quirks?" Bakugo growled. He'd been stewing over this since that day ten months ago. Everyone said Madara's Quirk was Hypnosis, but Hypnosis shouldn't let you punch an imaginary enemy into spare parts.
There had to be something more.
"Guess," Madara replied indifferently. His fist smashed through the next dummy's core joint, sending it collapsing in a heap of broken pieces.
Unlike Bakugo Katsuki's explosive approach, Madara always struck the vital points precisely. So from the start of the test until now, his uniform was still spotless, his breathing steady, completely different from Bakugo's dust-covered, ragged state.
"Guess you!"
Bakugo's palms flashed with explosive heat. The air pressure burst outward in a gust, flinging dust everywhere and forcing the nearby candidates to shield their eyes.
At that moment, Bakugo's frustration had reached the point where every imaginary enemy became a stand-in for Madara—someone to obliterate in a single blast.
———
"Huh…"
At last, the last enemy in his immediate area was blown apart in a spray of shrapnel. Bakugo stood there, chest heaving, his entire body marked with grime and scuffs.
He'd thrown everything into this.
And yet Madara still looked as if he'd merely taken a casual stroll.
It only deepened his irritation.
"Look—what is that…?"
Beside Madara, a group of candidates were staring at something in front of them, their faces pale.
"Huh?"
Bakugo turned toward them, confused. He hadn't noticed the gigantic mechanical silhouette looming behind the ruined buildings.
"It's the fourth type of dummy—just an obstacle unit used to interfere with us," Madara explained as he took a few steps closer. "Even if you destroy it, you don't get any points."
"But this thing is enormous," one candidate whispered, voice shaking.
Towering over the rooftops, the machine was at least thirty meters tall—maybe more.
Boom…
A single step from it crushed several nearby structures to powder, debris raining down in a deafening crash.
"We can't beat that!"
"Run!"
"Ahhh—someone help!"
The moment the first candidate bolted, the rest followed in a panicked stampede. Within seconds, they'd all vanished from sight.
"Tch."
Bakugo spat on the ground, crouching lower into a ready stance.
"A bunch of cowards."
Then he snapped his gaze back to Madara, raising a finger.
"Pink-eye! Watch closely—this is how I'll crush everything about you!"
With that, Bakugo launched himself high into the air, hands flaring with explosive force.
Boom!
His fist came slamming down on the giant's armor—only to rebound harmlessly, not even scratching the metal.
"What—?"
He twisted midair into a backflip and landed, but as he looked up, he saw a massive fist already descending toward him.
Not far away, Madara's scarlet eyes narrowed slightly, the three tomoe spinning slowly.
And then he vanished.
Whoosh!
Bang!!!
Bakugo felt the world lurch. When he blinked, the colossal fist was already buried in the ground where he'd just stood—and he was several meters away in safety.
Jingle bell—
"Alright, candidates—the exam is over."
A slightly lazy voice came from the speakers. At the same time, the gigantic machine stopped moving, standing silent.
"The results of the practical test will be announced within a week. Now, please proceed to the classrooms for the written exam."
"…It's over?"
Bakugo stared blankly, then snapped his head around—only to find a pair of scarlet eyes meeting his.
"You—?!"
He stumbled back two steps to put space between them, glaring furiously.
"Who asked you to do that?"
"Don't be dramatic," Madara said, bruMadarag dust from his sleeve. "Did you want to get flattened into paste?"
He turned without waiting for a reply.
"I'm leaving. We'll know our scores in a week."
"…"
Bakugo watched Madara's back retreating across the broken street. For a long moment, he didn't say a word.
Finally, he lowered his eyes to where he'd just been standing, clenched his fists tight, and whispered,
"That pink-eyed bastard… There's no way his Quirk is just Hypnosis. I swear I'll crush him."
---
A/N: Please Leave a Comment or Drop a Powerstone; It'll mean a lot to me...