Itsuka Kendo expected many things from the Practical Test. First, ease — mainly because of her quirk, Big Fist. After all, giant hands were perfect for smashing robots and delivering punches that could turn any machine into scrap metal in seconds. Second, some degree of difficulty, since with so many candidates fighting for the same targets, the chaos of quirks would be inevitable. And lastly, some kind of trick from U.A., which would never make things easy for them.
But what Itsuka definitely didn't expect — not even in her worst nightmares — was to find no robots at all to score points on!
She had already run through entire blocks, turned corners, peeked into alleys — everything — only to find nothing. No, 'nothing' wasn't exactly the right word. Itsuka had found dozens, maybe hundreds of robots. The problem was that they were already destroyed.
And it wasn't hard to figure out, judging by the same type of damage on all of them, that the one responsible for defeating them had been the work of a single person. Somehow, she'd had the terrible luck of ending up in the same group as someone absurdly strong — powerful enough to wipe out all those robots in just a few minutes.
She wanted to cry. Just a little, to let all the indignation out. But she wouldn't! A true heroine would never give up... not until time ran out, at least.
Letting out a long sigh, Itsuka leaned against the wall of a building and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand. 'Running this much… is really exhausting.' Pausing for a moment, she watched the street, noticing some candidates still running up and down in desperation, while others already seemed to have given up, sitting on the sidewalk.
'Come on, Itsuka. Think. There must be another way to score… right? U.A. wouldn't limit us only to the robo—'
BAAAAAAMMMM!!!
A deafening sound echoed, cutting off her entire line of thought. The ground beneath her feet trembled, and a thick cloud of dust rose high at the end of the street, hiding everything behind a gray veil.
Itsuka froze, staring wide-eyed at the scene. "What… just happened?" As if to answer her, a gigantic shadow began to emerge from within the smoke. And then, something appeared at the top — a colossal metallic head, with six glowing red visors.
It was the Zero Pointer.
************
'I really… should've stayed in bed.'
Kyouka coughed harshly, her throat burning as she tried to process how the hell she'd ended up face-first on the ground, her elbows stinging and surrounded by a thick cloud of dust that seemed to swallow everything.
A second ago, she had been catching her breath after spending the last few minutes desperately hunting down the villain bots. In fact, she had the impression she'd run through the entire damn Battle Center chasing them.
And for what? Ten points. Just ten miserable, insignificant points.
Well, she should've been at least a little happy to have gotten them, compared to the other candidates who were running in circles, not knowing where to go. It had all been thanks to her jacks, which picked up the robots' vibrations through the ground.
But then, in the blink of an eye, the impact of something had thrown her to the floor.
'What… happened?' Still dizzy, Kyouka pressed her palms to the ground and pushed herself up slowly, coughing again. She blinked several times, trying to focus her vision despite the sting in her eyes from the dust. 'Practical test… my ass… they're trying to kill us…'
Staggering a little, Kyouka began to walk. Her body felt heavy, and each step made her head throb harder. She didn't know exactly where she was going; she just wanted to get as far away from there as possible.
She took one, two, three steps. But before the fourth, she heard something.
"–lp!"
It was a weak, trembling sound, coming from somewhere to her left.
Kyouka stopped immediately, for a moment thinking it might be a hallucination. Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she thought?
"H–lp!"
It wasn't in her head. Someone needed help.
Without hesitation, she ran, forgetting the pain in her body. Kyouka moved quickly toward where the sound had come from, and even with the dust still hanging in the air, she managed to find a pile of debris. She knelt beside it and connected her jacks, confirming that the call for help had indeed come from there.
And that there were two people trapped inside.
'Damn it!' Disconnecting her jacks, Kyouka bit her lower lip, thinking about what to do. Her quirk wouldn't be useful, since any sound wave could make the situation worse for whoever was buried. 'I… uh...'
"H-HEY! I know you're in there! I'll get help and be right ba—"
THUM!
Kyouka froze as the ground vibrated again, the sound of something huge moving came from her left. 'W–what?' The dust was already thinning, revealing an enormous silhouette approaching them.
'Ah, shit.'
*****************
"Are you okay?"
"Y-yes, thank you."
"Alright, get out of here," Itsuka said, helping a boy in shock to his feet. He was trembling so much he could barely stand; his glassy eyes fixed on the giant robot at the end of the street. She gave him a gentle push on the back, gesturing for him to go the other way. "Go!"
The boy nodded, stumbling over his own feet as he ran.
The sudden appearance of the giant robot had caught everyone off guard, leaving some candidates paralyzed by fear and others injured by the debris that had been hurled around.
Itsuka knew she was doing exactly the opposite of what Present Mic had shouted during the test's explanation, heading toward the Zero Pointer instead of running away. But how could she leave knowing there were people who needed help?
That would be anything but heroic.
Kneeling beside a girl whose ankle was trapped under a metal plate, Itsuka expanded her hands and lifted the plate with ease, freeing her. "Can you run?" she asked, helping her up.
"I—I think so."
"Then go! Don't look back!"
The girl limped away while Itsuka straightened her posture, glancing around to see if anyone else needed help. The dust was beginning to settle, improving the visibility of the street. 'Was that everyone—?'
THUM... THUM... THUM...
A deep, metallic sound that made the ground tremble echoed once again.
Itsuka turned toward the noise and saw that the giant robot had begun to move, but something else caught her attention. A few meters ahead, in the Zero Pointer's path, a girl with purple hair was kneeling in the middle of the street, desperately trying to remove stones and concrete blocks from a heap of rubble.
'Someone's trapped there?' Itsuka guessed, starting to run without a second thought.
The ground trembled with every step of the Zero Pointer, and the air grew heavier with each passing second—but Itsuka didn't slow down. As she drew closer, she could see the desperation etched on the other candidate's face, her fingers scraped raw and her face streaked with dust.
"Hey!" Itsuka shouted, stopping beside her. "Is there someone under there?"
The girl turned her head, breathing heavily. "Y-yes! Two people!"
"Alright, leave it to me!"
Itsuka's hands grew again, expanding to their limit. She prepared to lift a large block of concrete, but before she could move it, the girl beside her stopped her.
"Wait! If you move that one, the rest will collapse!"
Itsuka froze mid-motion. The girl was right—the pile was unstable; one wrong move and the buried ones could be crushed. "Then what do we do?!"
The girl pointed to a gap in the debris. "There's a gap down here... if we move the smaller pieces, maybe we can pull them out—"
A massive shadow fell over them both.
The Zero Pointer had arrived.
They looked up in alarm and saw the robot's enormous hand descending toward them.
Fear took hold of them. Even so, something stronger burned in their chests.
Protect.
Save.
Defend.
Both braced themselves, muscles tensed, quirks ready to fight and shield the people trapped beneath—
FWOOOSH!!!
When something black, fast as lightning, passed above their heads.
BAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!
***************
Sitting on the edge of a building, Rei rested the side of his head on his hand, his elbow propped on his knee. The strong wind stirred his white hair as he watched the chaos the Zero Pointer left across the Battle Center.
He was... impressed.
Not by the robot's size—that was a toy compared to what he had already seen— but by the courage, or rather, the recklessness of U.A. in putting something like that against inexperienced teenagers.
Could someone die? Get seriously injured? Maybe lose a leg? He'd like to know. Not out of morbid pleasure. God, he despised sadists. But out of pure sociological curiosity.
How would public opinion react if someone walked out of there in pieces? Would parents storm U.A. with posters and tears, demanding the immediate shutdown of the institution? Would newspapers boil with headlines accusing negligence and turning the incident into a media circus for weeks? Or would society— that apathetic, resigned mass— simply shrug, saying something like, 'it's the price of seeking heroism', while switching channels?
"Ahh, so many questions. So few answers. And it's not even my first day..." Tapping his fingers rhythmically against his leg, Rei's attention was then caught by two girls who, unlike everyone else, weren't running from the Zero Pointer.
"Oh?"
One had orange hair and gigantic hands. The other was the girl he'd exchanged a few words with before the test… Kyoke Jere… something like that. Both stood before a pile of rubble, looking more concerned with the stones than with the giant robot seconds away from crushing them.
'Why are you— Ah.' Rei felt his stomach twist as he understood what was happening. It was obvious, really. A grimace of disgust warped his lips. 'So that's how heroes are born.'
Not through strength, nor through intelligence. But through a blind instinct to put themselves second, to risk their own skin for strangers, while the world watches and applauds the sacrifice as if it were virtue. A theater of altruism, where fear becomes an example and risk becomes a résumé.
'How pathetic.' Standing up, Rei adjusted his jacket before raising one hand, palm facing downward. He flexed his fingers, as if touching something invisible, and moved his arm smoothly upward.
Down below, the shadow of the building began to tremble and ripple, reacting to his gestures. Then, in an instant, as if it had come to life, it climbed up the side of the structure, slithering toward him. When the black stain reached his feet, Rei made another motion with his hand, causing the shadow to lift off the ground, gaining density and becoming both solid and pliable.
Rei moved his hand again, this time in circles, condensing the shadow into a black sphere. 'Let's earn those rescue points and get this over with.' Now bringing his other hand in front of his body, Rei assumed the stance of an archer as the black sphere stretched and sharpened at the tip, transforming into a large arrow.
He smiled, aiming at the Zero Pointer's head. 'Skadoosh.' Rei released.
The arrow shot forth in a blur, slicing the air with a sharp whistle, crossing the distance in a fraction of a second and striking the robot's metallic skull.
BAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!
********
[Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, images or songs featured in this fic. Additionally, I do not claim ownership of any products or properties mentioned in this novel. This work is entirely fanfic.]