Hikaru rubbed his hands against one another as he walked into the exam hall. Hatsume, in typical Hatsume fashion, had already gone ahead by herself without waiting for him.
The building was intimidating, to say the very least. Nearly cubic, with barely any windows, it stood proudly separated from any other building. It had been exclusively built for the purpose of taking exams and Hikaru was certain it was fully loaded with cameras and invigilators.
Despite the upcoming challenge, Hikaru felt a surge of excitement course through him.
Alright you beautiful genius, time to score full marks and impress every smart girl in the vicinity.
Cracking the joints in his neck, Hikaru walked into the building chuckling to himself.
The interior was no less impressive than the exterior. The walls were painted startling white, and neat rows of seats were filled with students. The range of emotions in the room was enough to make an empath burst into tears. Panic, excitement, worry, tension, and acceptance all hung in the air, intertwining.
Taking a seat himself, Hikaru waited for the exam to start.
This and then the practical test. After that, I'll finally begin my path to glory.
The test itself was difficult when looked at from the perspective of an average twelve year old. Hell, it was difficult even from Hikaru's perspective. Regardless, with every question solved, Hikaru's grin grew wider.
I'm definitely acing this.
Walking out of the exam hall, Hikaru whistled to himself softly. Hands in his pocket and eyes narrowed into slits, he looked to be any other aspiring UA student.
That was until he started talking to himself.
"Hikaru you dog!" he said to himself. "Leave some marks for the rest of us!"
He turned to look in another direction and shrugged helplessly. "I just can't help it man. Victory is a basic bodily function for me."
He once again turned to the direction he was previously facing. "OMG he's so nonchalant!"
Before he could continue with his little performance, he felt something slam into his back.
"Hikaru stop talking to yourself! You're weirding everyone else out!" Hatsume slapped his back excitedly. "How did your exam go? Mine went excellently! At this rate UA will be a breeze!"
Hikaru turned his head upwards arrogantly. "Who do you think I am?"
Hatsume rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair. "Ah how could I forget! Mr. Genius himself."
"You know it!" He chose to match the eye roll with a smirk of his own. "Now come on, we need to get home so we can rest up for the practical."
Hatsume let him go and started swiftly walking in the direction of the train station taking us home.
"If you're in such a hurry, why aren't you showing it? Keep up or I'll leave you behind!"
Hikaru, to his credit, chose to ignore the obvious taunt from the girl and instead maintained some semblance of self-respect by walking towards her at a casual pace.
By his estimate, the results should be out in a few hours and he was confident he had scored well if not perfectly. That being said, he didn't intend to practice his quirk at all today. Upon reaching home, he was going to spend all day relaxing his body so he could be in peak condition tomorrow.
Unlike Deku, Hikaru had no intention of being a nervous tired wreck whilst giving the practical exam.
Opening the door to his home, he was immediately tackled by his mother.
"How did the exam go? Are you passing? Did you do well? You're not worried are you? I hope you didn't forget anything."
Hikaru blinked at the barrage of questions. Despite living with her for twelve years now, he was still dumbfounded by the sheer amount of fussing his mother could do.
"Mom who do you think your son is?" He answered her while pulling her and himself off the floor. "I'm definitely going to rank no.1!"
Her son's declaration made Akari groan internally. Her son, as much as she loved him, was definitely a tad bit arrogant.
Hikaru's arrogant smile turned into something more sincere. "In all seriousness mom, I'm confident I did well. Hatsume did well do if you were curious."
Akari smiled coyly at that.
"She did, did she?" She said twirling her hair. "I bet you paid a lot of attention to her after the exam didn't you?"
Hikaru did NOT like his mother's tone.
"I refuse to acknowledge what you're implying you conniving dictator."
Before his mother could answer him with a light scolding, Hikaru rushed towards the stairs attempting to get to his room.
"The exam really tuckered me out mom!" He said as he raced up the stairs. "I'm going to get some shuteye to prep for tomorrow alright?"
Slamming his door shut, he threw himself onto bed.
Next up, practical exam.
Hikaru's morning was rather calm for someone who was going to give the most important exam of his life. The night before sleeping, he had checked the results and had found himself to be ranked no. 1 just as he had predicted.
What he hadn't predicted was someone tying with him.
Momo Yaoyorozu. The name seemed vaguely familiar to him. She was probably one of Deku's – Hikaru's future classmates. Always nice to have some healthy competition
Hatsume had also performed admirably, with a percentage of 89%.
Quickly going through his morning stretches, Hikaru put on sports wear and psyched himself up for the upcoming exam.
After wishing his parents goodbye, he briskly walked towards the train station.
I'm finally going to get to be in the UA campus. It better live up to all the hype.
The campus did, in fact, live up to all the hype. Upon arriving at the location for the practical exam, Hikaru still failed to grasp the sheer size of it.
Greetings new home away from home.
"Out of my way you extras!" A sharp voice broke through my contemplation. "Get out of my fucking way before I make you."
I turned to see a boy with spikey blonde hair and a menacing expression pushing aside the legs of kids hindering his way to his seat. By the looks of it, he was soon going to bump into Hikaru.
"Hey shitface! Move your legs." The boy attempted to push Hikaru aside.
Hikaru returned Katsuki Bakugo's glare with a smirk. "Oh? Why don't you make me, you fucking side character."
The answer was apparently shocking to the boy.
"The hell did you say to me?" He growled, his hands sparking with miniature explosions.
Hikaru's smirk grew wider. "Calm yourself down there, boomboy. I would hate for you to get disqualified before the exam even starts."
"Boomboy?" He said incredulously. "The moment this exam is over I'm going to punch your face in."
The brown boy blew him a kiss. "Try it and I'll shove a mirror up your ass."
"Really?" Bakugo raged, bending forward to make his face mere centimeters away from him.
"Really." Hikaru stated, moving his face closer too.
Before we could take it any further, a loud voice broke interrupted us.
"Welcome to today's live performance!" A man with even spikier blonde hair than Katsuki declared. He had a speaker attached to his face, which was made even more obvious by the sheer volume of his voice. "Everybody say 'HEYYY'"
Complete silence filled the hall.
Hikaru took a deep breath.
"HEYYYYYYY" He roared at the top of his lungs, his hands making a "V".
The roar from the lone boy pleased Present Mic greatly.
"That's the spirit!" He shouted, replying even louder.
"This is how the test will go, my listeners!"
"You'll be experiencing a ten-minute-long mock cityscape maneuvers exam!"
"Bring along whatever you want! After the presentation, you'll each head to your assigned testing location!"
The man's voice was so loud even Hikaru was beginning to feel his ears burn. He was already aware of what the exam entailed and so began tuning out the hero's speech.
Bakugo was still standing in front of him, scowling at Present Mic.
"I'll crush 'em all…" He muttered to himself ominously.
The moment the speech ended, a rather tall boy stood up from his seat. He had neat hair, nerdy glasses, and a wide frame.
"May I ask a question?" He said, his voice commanding. His hands moved somewhat robotically as he went on with his question. "There appear to be no fewer than FOUR varieties of faux villains on this handout! Such a blatant error, if it is one, is HIGHLY unbecoming for UA! Japan's top academy."
"Great. Another loudmouth." Bakugo and Hikaru muttered at the same time, prompting them to glare one another.
Before the host could even answer the question, the straight-laced boy speaking turned his attention to the crowd.
"And you! With the curly hair! You've been muttering this whole time! It's distracting." He declared as if he owned the place. "If this is some sort of game to you then please leave immediately."
He then turned to look at Hikaru and Bakugo.
"And you! Spiky blonde hair! You haven't even found your seat. If this is the behavior you intend to show for the rest of the year, I suggest you leave as well!"
Bakugo's mood, which had improved upon seeing Deku publicly shamed, immediately tanked.
"The fuck did you say to me?" he raged. "I'm going to use those glasses of yours to poke your eyes out!"
Hikaru couldn't help but giggle at the scene occurring before him.
"Alright, alright!" Present Mic cut in. "Everyone calm down now! Anyways, nice catch examinee 7111! The fourth faux…"
Hikaru once again began to tune everything out. Man when is this shit going to start?
Arriving at the location, Hikaru was once again surprised by how big it was.
"Hey shitface!" he heard Bakugo's angry voice call him out. "You better back up that attitude of yours in this exam or I'll fucking kill you."
Hikaru looked at him with a matching scowl. "Same goes to you, Boomboy."
"AND.. BEGIN!" A voice cut us off. "What's wrong? The test has begun! You all better start running!"
Immediately, both boys reacted by activating their respective quirks and rushing towards the gates.
Hikaru could see fellow participants stare at him in awe as he glided into the cityscape on his mirror.
Yes! Look at me more! Burn my sight into your eyes because one day I'm going to be all you see on TV!
Summoning fourteen more mirrors, Hikaru immediately began systematically eliminating robots. Beams shot from his mirrors, piercing through the poor robots like they were nothing more than the trees that had previously suffered the same fate.
Bakugo, to his credit, was performing just as admirably. He moved with an almost impossible agility, exploding robot after robot. Turning his face to glance at me, he shot me a feral grin.
Oh it is ON.
Hikaru sped himself up to match Bakugo's pace.
Rescue points can go to shit for all I care! No way in HELL am I losing to this punk.
With an almost animalistic passion, Bakugo and Hikaru competed for kills, sometimes barely managing to snatch a point before the other could.
Hikaru grinned as the competition went on. This was so FUN. By his count, they only had around two minutes left. Man what a bummer! I want this to go on forever!
Glancing at Bakugo, he could tell the boy felt the same. His face was twisted into an animalistic grin as his body moved with only the goal of blowing as many killer robots up as physically possible.
BOOM.
A thundering explosion caused Hikaru to shift his attention.
What stood in the direction of the sound was the zero pointer.
Proudly standing at a height that could match large buildings, it marched undisturbed by the happenings around it.
Hikaru's heart thumped at the sight of it.
Now that was a CHALLENGE.
Hikaru noticed quite a few candidates were struggling to get away from it.
Perfect. I can face that monster AND still get some points.
Sending two of his mirrors to aid trapped examinees, Hikaru glided towards the giant robot.
"Hiya Zero!" He said in an almost flirtatious tone. "Try and stand up to THIS."
Ten mirrors spread out in front of Hikaru, with the remaining one angled towards the robot.
"Alright then!" Hikaru roared. "Let's see the damage I can do with this!"
The ten mirrors all released condensed light, but instead of sending it towards the monster, they shot straight at Hikaru.
Fortunately, the final mirror stood in the path of the beams coming Hikaru's way.
A triumphant smile covered the boy's face as the beams merged onto the final mirror, before reflecting straight towards the zero pointer.
Silence filled the cityscape.
Then all hell broke loose.
The zero pointer was left with a massive hole going straight through it. Unable to function any longer, it simply collapsed resulting in a Mini earthquake. Debris floated in the air and multiple coughs could be heard as examinees distanced them self from the wreckage.
"Allright contestants! Time is officially up!" A voice declared the end of the practical.
Hikaru raised his fist skyward.
See that chalk face? This was just the trailer! Watch me climb my way to the top of the world!