The U.A. entrance exam was today.
And of course, Jiro had to wake up early just to drag Tsutsumi out of bed so he wouldn't miss it.
"Today's the day," she muttered with growing annoyance. "How do you manage to oversleep today of all days?"
"It's fine. I won't be late." Tsutsumi let out a yawn. Last night, he was busy turning his photo film into actual photos; the girl he found in that world last night looked almost identical to his mother when she was young.
Still, he wants to look for his mother in this world, not his mother in other worlds.
Together, the two headed into the massive U.A. building and began the exam.
The first part was written. The second was the practical exam.
The written portion came easily to Tsutsumi. He filled in the answers he knew and used fragments from his dreams to handle the hero-related questions. Once done, he handed it in and walked out of the room with little fanfare.
Being a hero meant that they had to fight against a villain.
Even if they wanted to focus on the rescue or evacuation, without a doubt, as a hero, it was impossible for them to escape from a battle.
The practical exam was all about showing one's mastery over one "Quirk."
After the first test, he found a seat beside Jiro as Present Mic launched into a loud and overly enthusiastic explanation of the practical exam.
From what he could understand.
During the practical exam, candidates conduct mock battles in a replica urban setting. Examinees are given ten minutes to use their Quirks to immobilize robotic villains in order to score points depending on the individual robot's point value. The more points one examinee earns, the higher their chance of getting accepted into U.A. High.
Candidates are not allowed to fight other candidates. Doing so results in disqualification. Students hailing from the same middle school are placed in different testing areas to avoid potential cooperation.
Still, since this is a hero school, heroism also plays an important part, meaning heroic acts should also be counted.
There are four villain robots, and each of them is worth different points.
1 Point - Easy; 2 Points - Moderate; 3 Points - Tough; and 0 Points - Arena Traps, best avoided.
"Excuse me, may I ask a question?"
Everyone's eyes were attracted to the boy with glasses.
Heads turned toward a boy with glasses, hand raised.
Tsutsumi followed the stares. The boy stood stiff and proper, his tone serious as he asked why the 0-point trap bots weren't mentioned more clearly on the display. He assumed U.A. had made a mistake.
Tsutsumi felt this guy needed to be flexible for a bit since being all straight meant that he would be broken easily.
"Also, what's with you? That's a curly boy over there!" The boy with glasses pointed his finger at the muttering boy, which startled him.
"Eh?"
Tsutsumi recognized that this boy was Midoriya, someone whom he had met from another world, but he didn't pay much attention to him.
"Can you still sit for a second? You're distracting us! If you think "U.A. High School" is a pleasure jaunt, then leave this place at once!"
"Sorry..." Midoriya apologized quietly, which caused Tsutsumi to frown.
It seems that in multiple worlds, this guy is still as spineless as always.
Present Mic continued. The 0-point robot was just a trap and a waste of time. Defeating it earned nothing.
"Well, that's enough for me!! As a certain "hero" once said, "A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life! Now, let's move to the main event!! PLUS ULTRA!!"
"Got all that?" Jiro leaned in and asked.
"Yeah," Tsutsumi replied. "In simple terms, we have to fight the villain, and probably rescue people when needed, since this is a hero school after all."
Jiro nodded, intrigued by his conclusion on the rescue parts that weren't mentioned.
"Well then," she said with a small smirk, "catch you later."
Since they came from the same middle school, the system automatically separated them into different testing zones to prevent cooperation.
"See you," Tsutsumi replied. Then added with a teasing grin, "Don't accidentally kill anyone."
Jiro rolled her eyes, barely resisting the urge to kick him. "Go to hell."
Tsutsumi chuckled.
They walked out together and headed toward their assigned districts: Tsutsumi to B-district, Jiro to C-district.
Before the exam began, the examinees were given ten minutes to observe the district they were assigned to.
While waiting, Tsutsumi noticed Midoriya being scolded again by that same glasses-wearing boy, still uptight, still loud.
Something about distracting others?
Tsutsumi raised an eyebrow. Who's really doing the distracting here?
He dismissed the thought. It wasn't his problem, nor did he care.
While the students were about to start with their practical exam, the teachers also gathered in the monitoring room to see the students who would become candidates for heroes.
Then the gate to the district opened... but there was no announcement.
Tsutsumi noticed the lack of a signal. But that was fine, villains never waited for a hero to get ready... unless they are doing a five-person team transformation to perform the righteous gang-up.
Without hesitation, Tsutsumi pulled out a card and slid it into his belt.
Attack Ride: Vertical Maneuvering Gear
The vertical maneuvering gear appeared on his body. Wasting no time, he charged forward through the open gate, ignoring the shout from those behind him. A hook fired, and his body launched into the air.
"W-Wait! The test hasn't started yet!"
"He's cheating!"
The other students shouted in confusion.
Up in the control room, Present Mic just laughed, spinning his arm with theatrical flair.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? THERE'S NO COUNTDOWN IN A REAL FIGHT!" he bellowed. "THAT KID'S GOT THE RIGHT IDEA! GO, GO, GO!"
Urged into action, the rest of the students surged through the gate after him.
Inside the district, Tsutsumi was already a blur of motion.
The gas booster launched him further as he was about to come in contact with a robot. Tsutsumi connected his control handle to the blades on his blade holder, turning the two empty handles into twin blades.
Using his momentum, Tsutsumi spun mid-air, slicing through the robot's neck. Sparks burst out as its head dropped, rolling across the concrete.
Another hook fired. He zipped away before the wreckage hit the ground.
He continued to move through the building, jumping off their edges before launching another hook and swinging toward another robot. Cutting off its head before swinging away in a blur.
Attack Ride: Thunder Spear
Two rocket-shaped projectiles materialized on either side of his arms. With a swift throw, he launched them toward a larger bot in the distance. They stabbed into the robot, and with a pull, he activated the trigger, causing them to explode, leaving smoke and scrap metal where the robot's head used to be.
Attack Ride: Vertical Maneuvering Gear
Switching back to his blades to avoid accidentally launching any Thunder Spear while swinging, Tsutsumi continued his blitz. Heading from building to building, slashing and cutting down any robots that got in his way, while sparing some time to save a few candidates who were running away from a few robots.
...
While the students battled fiercely against the villain robots, the teachers gathered around the monitors, observing each candidate with sharp eyes.
"Oh, that kid with the explosion-type Quirk is impressive!" one teacher remarked.
"True, but look at this one, he's on a completely different level."
All eyes turned to one screen showing the B-District. Tsutsumi's performance was undeniable. His movement from building to building surpassed that of many professional heroes. He soared through the air with sharp precision, eliminating robot after robot with ruthless efficiency.
"Who is that kid?" one of the teachers asked, leaning in.
"Let's find out," said the bear-like figure in a suit, Principal Nezu. He tapped a few keys, bringing up a profile on the screen.
Exam ID: 4531
Name: Tsutsumi Ryoko
Gender: Male
Quirk: Belt
Everyone: "..."
"...'Belt'?" several teachers echoed at once, their faces blank.
Midnight turned back toward the monitor, watching Tsutsumi swing effortlessly across rooftops.
"That movement… it's more refined than what you'd expect from a student. Looks professionally trained," Aizawa commented, voice calm but focused. Dressed in his usual black with a white scarf, his tired eyes narrowed on the screen.
"Aizawa's right," added the muscular teacher beside him. "His agility and reaction time are insane, even I'd have trouble keeping up."
"And those blades…" Aizawa continued. "He handles them like he was trained to kill."
Nezu stared at the screen, his usually cheerful expression unreadable. "So... he is her child."
Midnight blinked. "Principal Nezu, who are you talking about?"
"It's better if you don't know, Midnight," Nezu said quietly. "Her case is... unique."
He closed the profile with a click. "Aizawa, keep a close eye on Tsutsumi once he joins U.A. With abilities like his, if he doesn't become a hero... he could very well turn vigilante, or worse, a villain."
The room fell silent. No one disagreed.
"To clarify... his Quirk is 'Belt'? It can do all of that?" another teacher asked, trying to change the tone.
"There's nothing in the report suggesting 'Belt' can manifest equipment like that," Nezu said.
"What's your take, Toshinori?" Nezu turned to the thin, gaunt blonde man in the corner, All Might in his deflated form. Who looked more like a walking skeleton than anything.
Toshinori studied the screen, then answered slowly, "I believe that... his quirk either evolved or he somehow found out about a function of his quirk that was previously undiscovered."
This conclusion was magnanimously agreed on by the other teachers.
...
Three minutes remained before the exam ended.Tsutsumi had slowed to a crawl, eventually settling on the edge of a nearby rooftop, camera in hand, snapping idle pictures out of sheer boredom.
Then the ground rumbled.
His gaze sharpened in the direction of the tremor. A glint of intrigue lit up his otherwise dull eyes.
A massive 0-point robot, larger than the surrounding buildings, emerged from where he didn't quite catch.
Without even looking through the lens, Tsutsumi casually raised his camera and took a shot.
Panic erupted below as students scattered, screaming. The towering machine advanced, each footstep crushing concrete.
Attack Ride: Vertical Maneuvering Gear
Without hesitation, Tsutsumi bolted into action. A metallic hook launched forward, latching onto a distant point. The gear yanked him skyward, propelling him toward the mechanical giant. The robot noticed and swung its arm, trying to swat him like a bug.
Firing another hook into its chassis, Tsutsumi swung out of reach, gas boosters flaring behind him. He soared upward, circling behind the robot like a wasp targeting a weak spot.
His target was the robot neck, similar to how one would deal with Titan; his target is the neck, aiming for decapitation and cutting off its head.
Without it, the body wouldn't be able to continue.
Attack Ride: Thunder Spear
He launched the spear into the back of the robot's neck and triggered the ignition. Smoke and metal debris burst outward. He reloaded and then fired another one. Each one exploded on impact, peeling away steel armor to expose circuits and thick, cable-like wiring.
At the center of it all, a massive spinal cable connected the robot's head to its body.
Tsutsumi grinned.
Attack Ride: Vertical Maneuvering Gear
Another hook fired, this time aimed directly at that thick cable. He rocketed toward it, blade in hand, ready to cut off its head.
"SMMAAASH!"
Tsutsumi: Nani!!
A blur of green punched the robot's head backward with terrifying force. The massive head of the robot was flung back, and its large metallic surface crashed into Tsutsumi.. Due to him already pulling himself toward it, he couldn't move out of the way in time, as the robot's massive body fell backward.
A chain of explosions tore through the metal husk. Down below, examinees froze in place, staring in awe. A green-haired boy had taken down the 0-point robot with a single punch.
Medical personnel had already begun moving toward Battle City B.
While the examinees were in awe seeing the green-haired kid taking out the massive robot, the other teacher who was monitoring the examinee saw the one caught in it.
Toshinori's face grew paler by the second, while the expression of the other teachers in the room grew darker.
Many of them have acknowledged that Tsutsumi's method of decapitating the robot is a bit... extreme and lethal, but they still approve of it. To them, he is powerful and shows a lot of potential; his method might be lethal, but it's still something they could help smooth out.
Tsutsumi was about to take out the 0-points robot, that is, until Midoriya jumped up and destroyed the robot with one punch. This causes its body to fall back and explode, leading to Tsutsumi, the one who is about to defeat it, getting caught in the collateral damage.
From the smoldering heap of rubble, something stirred. A blade pierced through metal and sliced downward, carving open the remains before a sharp kick sent it flying.
"Tch! Where is the bastard who did that!?" Tsutsumi, who emerged from the rubble, looking bloody and injured, was pissed that he was nearly killed in the explosion.
His simple white shirt now has a few holes and is dyed red with his blood.
When it first exploded, metal shards and shrapnel flew toward him, and then came the explosion; it nearly killed him. Fortunately, he was able to use the Aurora Curtain to travel away as more explosions followed before it fell down completely.
Only then did he reappear inside the rubble using his Aurora Curtain and finally make his exit.
The Aurora Curtain is one of the abilities that Tsutsumi decides to hide, since it has nothing to do with his quirk, and revealing it might only cause him more trouble than it is worth.
"Young man, please calm down, or your injuries might worsen."
He turned to see a short old woman approaching, using a comically oversized syringe as a cane and another tiny one in her hair like a pin. Besides the glasses and visor around her ears, she looks no different from a regular old nurse.
Although annoyed and still somewhat pissed, Tsutsumi still knew that this was no excuse to redirect his anger on others who had nothing to do with it. Exhaling, he calmed himself down and let the old nurse use her quirk to heal him.
...
Later…
"What happened? You accidentally kill someone?" Jiro teased, eyeing the blood-soaked state of his white shirt.
"I wish it were." He muttered, dryly.
She rolled her eyes, letting the subject drop.
"How'd you do on the exam?"
"Probably passable. You?" He glanced sideways, giving her a tired shrug.
"I did okay." Her voice carried a flicker of uncertainty as the two walked out through U.A.'s towering gate.