"Are you sure about your plan?"
Yu's voice was tense against the background murmur of the observation deck. Dozens of giant monitors covered the wall, each displaying a different section of the U.A. exam arenas, where hundreds of applicants scrambled.
"The 'humble the arrogant one' plan?" she continued, giving Izuku a soft but insistent nudge with her elbow. "It sounds good in theory, but practice is another thing entirely. What if Ibara goes too far and gets disqualified for aggression? Or what if the kid literally explodes and hurts her? That guy is stubborn and arrogant. His only answer for everything is a bigger explosion than the last."
"She knows what she has to do," Izuku replied.
The calmness in his voice got on Yu's nerves. He stood with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the monitor following Ibara. There was no doubt in his posture, not a shadow of hesitation. It was the confidence of a coach who had prepared his athlete for every possible scenario.
"You have a lot of faith in her," Yu muttered, more to herself than to him.
"I have faith in her training," Izuku corrected in a low voice, not looking away from the screen. "And I trust her judgment."
Beside them, All Might tried to look serene, but the tension was obvious. His fingers gripped the armrest of his metal chair so tightly that the material was beginning to dent. His eyes were glued to a different screen, one tracking a blonde, athletic girl.
"Come on, young Melissa… focus… you can do this…" he murmured to himself, his voice a deep, barely audible rumble.
Mirko, sitting nearby, devoured a protein bar in a single bite and impatiently crumpled the wrapper. She leaned back in her chair, her legs crossed over a control console.
"Are they going to start or what? I've been waiting for ten minutes. Less talk, more explosions," she complained. "A minute has already passed and the plant girl hasn't even looked at a robot. She's wasting precious time."
"She's assessing, Rumi," Nemuri said with an amused smile, watching the two mentors who looked ready to jump out of their seats. She reclined elegantly, enjoying the show both on and off the screens. "She's a strategist, not a battering ram like you."
"Hey, my kicks are strategic," Mirko retorted, pointing at Nemuri with the crumpled wrapper. "The strategy is: kick the robot until it stops moving. It works every time."
Just then, a shrill alarm blared throughout the facility. The sound was sharp and piercing. On every monitor, the massive gates of the arenas burst open with a metallic roar.
The test had begun.
*****
The chaos was immediate. Hundreds of teenagers flooded the streets of the simulated cities. The cacophony of explosions, battle cries, and the shriek of twisting metal filled the air. It was the starting signal for a desperate race to achieve their dreams.
But Ibara Shiozaki moved through the madness with an unusual calm. She completely ignored the crowd of one-point robots swarming around her. Her advance was serene, almost ethereal. From her hair, tendrils of vines extended subtly. They crept along the ground and walls, becoming her eyes and ears to map the city, the position of each robot, and the location of the other competitors. Her vines provided her with constant information.
On an adjacent monitor, a massive explosion wiped three robots off the map at once. The signature of the aggression was unmistakable: Katsuki Bakugo.
Ibara's eyes narrowed for a split second.
"There he is," she thought with an icy calm. "The target of the divine mission. But the coach was clear: it must be a lesson, not a simple attack. Patience is a virtue. First, I will secure my place. The humiliation of the arrogant one will come in due time."
With that decision made, her attention focused completely on the task at hand. A two-point robot with circular saws for hands detected her and charged, its servomotors whirring aggressively.
Ibara didn't even break her stride. One of her vines, thicker and stronger than the reconnaissance ones, shot out with lightning speed. It wrapped around the robot's neck and, with a dry, metallic crunch, smashed its head against its torso. The robot fell to the ground, inert. She didn't miss a beat. Her hunt had begun.
On the observation deck, Yu let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Okay, that was… fast."
Izuku nodded slightly. "She doesn't waste energy. Every movement has a purpose. Now she's racking up points while still tracking Bakugo. She'll use him as a beacon to clear out the areas with the highest concentration of robots."
Meanwhile, in another arena, Melissa was approaching the test very differently. She was nervous. She could feel the cold sweat on her palms and her heart racing against her ribs.
"Control, young Melissa. It's not about the force you release, but the precision with which you apply it."
All Might's voice echoed in her head, a mantra she had repeated a thousand times during her training.
A two-point robot located her. It was a more agile model, with two arms ending in sharp, menacingly snapping pincers. It advanced toward her.
Melissa dodged its first attack with a nimble sidestep, her blue eyes scanning every joint, every wire, every access panel. She spun mid-run with a fluid, practiced motion. She raised her index finger, aimed, and fired with a sharp snap.
ZAP!
The small projectile of pressurized air, the finest and most controlled manifestation of one percent of One For All, hit a small, exposed joint on the robot's neck, right where the head connected to the torso. There was no explosion, not even a loud bang. The robot's head simply detached from the body with a clank and fell to the ground. The decapitated body stood motionless for a second before collapsing.
In the observation deck, All Might nearly choked on his own pride. He let out a booming laugh that made the glass vibrate.
"YES! PRECISION! THAT'S IT, MY GIRL! JUST LIKE WE PRACTICED!"
Izuku, who had shifted his attention to Melissa's monitor for a moment, muttered, genuinely impressed, "Wow… her control over that energy is incredible."
Hearing the open admiration in Izuku's voice, Yu shot him a sharp look.
"Yeah, yeah, she's perfect, we get it," she said with a hint of sarcasm. "Can we please get back to focusing on our student, the one who's about to get into a fight with a kid who explodes?"
Izuku ignored her, though a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
In the battle arena, Ochako Uraraka was reaching her limit. She had managed to accumulate a decent number of points, thirty-two to be exact. Her strategy was simple but effective: touch the robots, make them float, then release them to crash into the ground or each other. But the continued use of her Quirk was making her dizzy. Nausea began to take hold.
She had just dropped a two-point robot from a height of sixty feet when she found herself cornered. A much larger model, a three-pointer with multiple cannons mounted on its shoulders, blocked her in a dead-end alley.
"Oh, no…" she gasped, backing away instinctively until her back hit the brick wall. There was no escape.
The robot raised its weapons. The red lights of its sensors locked onto her. The ominous whir of the cannons charging was a bad sign.
From the roof of a nearby building, Ibara saw the situation. She was about to ignore it to continue with her plan, but then Izuku's final piece of advice echoed in her mind.
"The goal is points, Ibara. But the mission is to be a hero. Never forget that. A hero doesn't ignore someone in trouble just to score more points."
Bakugo's humiliation could wait. Her conscience, shaped by her beliefs and reinforced by her coach, wouldn't let her turn her back.
Without another moment of hesitation, she leaped from the roof. In mid-air, a dozen vines erupted from the ground and walls of the alley below with astonishing speed. They wrapped around the robot's legs and arms, immobilizing it just a second before it could fire. The robot's servomotors whined as they fought against the vegetative prison.
But the robot, though trapped, was not disabled. a hidden compartment opened on its shoulder, revealing a small missile launcher. The target was still locked on Ochako.
"Look out!" a new voice shouted.
Melissa appeared, running into the alley's entrance. She had seen the brown-haired girl's predicament from the main street and had changed course instantly. With total concentration, without stopping, she fired two "finger flicks" in rapid succession, her hand a blur of motion.
ZAP! ZAP!
The first projectile of compressed air destroyed the missile launcher, causing it to burst in a harmless shower of sparks. The second hit the robot's main optical sensor directly, shattering it.
The metal giant, now blind, immobilized, and partially disarmed, was rendered completely useless. Its systems emitted an error beep before shutting down.
The three girls gathered in the alley next to the defeated robot, their ragged breaths mingling in the air.
"Wow, you guys are incredible!" Ochako exclaimed, her face a mixture of relief and awe. The nausea receded, replaced by adrenaline. "Thank you! I really thought I was a goner! My name is Ochako Uraraka."
Ibara landed softly on the ground as her vines retracted into her hair. She gave a small, formal bow. "It is a sacred duty to help a comrade in distress. I am Ibara Shiozaki." She recognized Melissa from the brief encounter with Izuku and All Might before the exam.
Melissa gave her a kind smile. "Melissa Shield. A pleasure. Nice containment work, Shiozaki-san. Your timing was perfect." She also recognized Ibara; it was hard to forget the student of the very… interesting coach she had met.
"And your aim, Shield-san, is formidable," Ibara replied sincerely. "You neutralized the threat with great precision."
"Call me Melissa," she said, dropping the formality.
"And I'm Ochako," Uraraka added quickly.
Ibara nodded. "Ibara is fine."
In the shadow of the defeated robot, an unspoken alliance was formed.
"Hey," Ochako said, looking around. "There are a lot of robots in this area. And three heads are better than one, right? We could work together. Watch each other's backs."
Melissa nodded immediately. "I think that's a great idea. My Quirk is long-range and precise, but I'm not very good at close combat. Shiozaki-san, you have amazing control over the terrain. And Uraraka-san, you can incapacitate enemies without completely destroying them, which could be useful."
"Together we can gather more points more safely," Ibara concluded, seeing the logic in the proposal. "I accept."
"Great!" Ochako celebrated. "So, what's the plan?"
"Well, I think we should…"
*****
Ochako's words were drowned out by a tremor that shook the entire simulated city. The ground vibrated under their feet, and a grinding sound filled the air, drowning out all other noise.
The three instinctively looked toward the end of the street. Something much larger than a building was rising above the others, its colossal silhouette blocking the sun and casting the street into an ominous shadow.
The Zero-Pointer.
The panic was instantaneous. The applicants, who had been fighting until now, turned and fled. Cries of "It's impossible!" and "It's not worth any points, run!" echoed through the streets as a tide of terrified teenagers retreated.
The new trio was about to do the same. There was no logical reason to stay.
That's when they heard a scream.
About fifty yards ahead, in the direction of the mechanical monster, a student had tripped. His leg was trapped under a huge piece of concrete. The Zero-Pointer advanced toward him, slow and unstoppable. Every step made the asphalt tremble.
In the observation deck, the atmosphere shifted from excitement to terror.
"Run, you idiots! It's not worth any points!" Mirko shouted, banging her fist on the glass. "It's not your job! Get out of there!"
"It's too big. That will definitely be a challenge," Nemuri added, her playful tone gone, replaced by genuine concern.
But Izuku and All Might said nothing. They were silent, leaning forward, their eyes fixed on their respective protégées. They didn't see three scared applicants. They saw the exact moment an exam stops being a test and becomes a choice. The moment that defines a hero.
Down on the shadowed street, the three girls stopped in their tracks. Their survival instinct screamed at them to run.
But they couldn't.
They looked at the trapped student, his face a mask of absolute terror.
They looked at the steel giant approaching, indifferent to the life it was about to crush.
And then, they looked at each other.
There were no words. Just a silent, absolute understanding that passed between them in a fraction of a second.
The others were running from the danger.
They were running toward it.
"I'll get the rubble!" Ochako yelled without waiting for a reply, activating her Quirk on her hands and sprinting toward the injured student.
"I'll distract it!" Ibara exclaimed, her vines already sprouting from the ground around her, thicker and more robust than ever. "I'll delay it as long as I can!"
"I'll find a weak spot!" Melissa added, one percent of her power already crackling visibly around her, small sparks of green energy dancing on her skin. "It has to have one!"
They faced the giant robot. The scale was overwhelming. Melissa glanced at her index finger, knowing her precision attack wouldn't even scratch its armor. It was useless.
Ibara looked at the ground, feeling the vibration through her vines. She knew her plants might not be strong enough to stop something so massive.
Ochako looked at the rubble. The concrete slab was gigantic.
They exchanged one last look of desperate determination. There was no guarantee of success; in fact, failure was the most likely outcome. But none of them backed down.
The crackle of One For All was no longer contained in Melissa's finger but was beginning to spread throughout her entire arm. Veins stood out under her skin, illuminated by the power struggling to be released.
One percent isn't enough. Not even five percent will be. Uncle Might said I shouldn't try it, that my body wasn't ready yet… but there's no other choice. A hero saves people. Whatever it takes. Well… I guess it's time to ramp it up.