Chapter 7: The Exam Begins
The U.A. High auditorium was now serving as the venue for the Hero Course exam briefing.
"To all you examinees, welcome to my live show!"
One person on the stage immediately drew everyone's attention—though he was the only one on stage. It was the Voice Hero: Present Mic!
True to his name, his style was straight out of the American rock scene. He was currently hyping himself up on stage.
"Now, I'm gonna give you a quick and simple rundown of the practical exam!" he shouted, completely lost in his own world. A few guitar riffs blasted from the speaker hanging around his neck. "ARE YOU READY?!"
No one responded.
Seemingly unfazed by the awkward silence, he yelled back at himself, "YEAH!"
He continued, "As it says in your application guide, you listeners will be participating in a 10-minute mock urban exercise! You can bring whatever you want with you. After this briefing, you'll each head to your designated test site!"
"Each site is filled with a large number of three types of faux villains! You'll get points based on the difficulty of the villains you defeat. Your goal is to use your Quirks to rack up points and earn a top spot!"
"Of course, any anti-heroic acts like attacking other examinees are strictly forbidden!"
Yoshikage Kira glanced at the information packet he'd been given. Although the proctor had said there were three types of faux villains, the paper clearly showed the silhouettes of four different figures. The details were faint, but the extra one had to be the hidden element of this exam.
Soon enough, a student shot his hand up to ask about that very thing. His hair was impeccably combed and he wore a pair of square glasses, giving him a very serious appearance.
He pointed a finger at the pamphlet and addressed Present Mic loudly. "On this guide, there are four types of faux villains listed! If this is a misprint, it would be a great shame for Japan's top hero academy, U.A.! We, the examinees, have come here seeking the highest standard of heroic guidance!"
Before Present Mic could answer, the student pointed to a spot a few rows behind him. "And another thing! You, with the curly hair! You've been muttering to yourself this whole time. If you're just here for a field trip, then you should leave U.A. at once!"
Isn't that the green-haired kid? Yoshikage saw that the glasses-wearing student was pointing directly at Midoriya, who immediately clapped a hand over his mouth in response.
Sitting right next to him was the spiky-haired boy named Bakugo. He was leaning his head on his hand, glaring down at his own exam ticket.
"Alright, alright, excellent question from that examinee! That fourth faux villain is worth zero points! In other words, it's an obstacle meant to interfere with your exam!"
Present Mic used the large screen to demonstrate. "Each testing site has one of these things rampaging around. It's not impossible to defeat, but there's no point in it. I recommend you all just try to avoid it."
I see. So it's a boss-type enemy that can be avoided.
The examinees began to murmur amongst themselves.
"So it's basically like a video game, right? Survive and get as many points as you can."
"Yeah, and our exam sites are all separate, so teaming up is probably not an option."
"Well then, all we can do is our best. Let's make sure we both get into U.A.!" "Right!"
"...And finally, I'll leave you all with our school's motto."
"The great Napoleon once said: 'A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes.'"
"Go beyond! PLUS ULTRA!"
Yoshikage looked down at his exam ticket. Next to a thoroughly uninspired photo of himself was his assigned test site.
"Area D, huh..."
It had to be said, U.A. was ridiculously wealthy. The area for a single exam site was the size of a small town, and there were several of them.
Although he'd done his research and knew that the school staff included support-type Pro Heroes like Cementoss, who could rapidly generate concrete, seeing this kind of scale in person made Yoshikage realize something: he had never truly understood the power of Quirks.
That's right. Quirks weren't just for combat. Many of them could be used for infrastructure, allowing a small number of people to complete an unimaginable amount of work quickly.
Now, all the examinees were gathered in front of the massive gate of the exam site, waiting for the test to begin.
Next to Yoshikage, a boy with what looked like tape dispensers on his elbows was constantly stretching and retracting the tape, seemingly warming up. A very cute girl with insect-like antennae was talking to another girl who had webbed hands and feet, instantly bringing a frog to mind. And... was that a pink rhinoceros?
The tall, shy boy from the movie theater was now squatting in a corner, using both his hands and feet to communicate with a group of small birds... Could he actually talk to animals?
What a strange bunch of people...
I imagine many of them have already figured out the key to this test, he thought. The only thing that matters is scoring more points than everyone else!
"HI, START!" Present Mic's voice boomed from a tall tower behind them. All the examinees looked up at him.
"What's wrong? Real battles don't have a countdown!" he yelled in a voice that was practically noise pollution. "Get running! The race has already begun!"
There was nothing to think about. Right now, the only thing he needed to focus on was how to snatch more points than anyone else here.
I figured it would be something like this when I saw the silhouettes, but as I thought, the faux villains are robots.
Yoshikage shifted the Hamon energy produced by his breathing, focusing it into his lower body. Using the momentum from a full sprint, he twisted his body and unleashed a whip kick with immense force toward a nearby robot.
CRASH!
In an instant, the joints of the human-sized robot were shattered. After a burst of sound effects, the robot, which looked like a large trash can with limbs, could no longer support its own weight. It crashed heavily to the ground, becoming a useless pile of scrap metal.
To be honest, while Hamon was highly versatile for healing, it wasn't actually that powerful in combat.
Hamon was, in essence, an energy that mimicked the sun. While it could be used for various applications and to strengthen the body, it ultimately relied on the user's physical prowess.
To put it another way, the "Quirks" of this world were like dangerous weapons; anyone who mastered their use could wield immense power. Hamon, on the other hand, was more like auxiliary magic. It could apply buffs to the body, but if the user's base stats weren't high, the power it could generate was still limited.
Fortunately, U.A. had likely considered the varying strengths of the students' Quirks. To give a fighting chance to those with more unusual abilities, the robots were not very durable.
"They have no countermeasures, just following their basic programming with simple, repetitive actions..." Yoshikage knelt on one knee, wiping away the fine beads of sweat from his exertion. "As I thought. This isn't the real test."
It was like a math exam. The easiest questions were at the beginning, allowing anyone who had studied to score points easily. The real purpose was simply to weed out those who were just trying to slide by.
The next questions... those would be the difficult and crucial ones.