Chapter 3: The Day of the Great Exam
The morning sun rose over the city, casting a bright, unforgiving light on Ryo's face. He was lying flat on his back on his bedroom floor, completely surrounded by a chaotic sea of flashcards, open textbooks, and crumpled pieces of paper. His mouth was slightly open, and he was breathing in a slow, exhausted rhythm. He had somehow survived. The last few months of his life had been an absolute academic nightmare. His family's emergency study plan had tested his physical and mental limits far more than any physical training ever could. His father had drilled mathematics into his skull until the numbers stopped looking like enemy combatants, and his mother had forced him to memorize historical events until he could recite them in his sleep. Kenji had ruthlessly tested his vocabulary during every single lunch break.
Ryo slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. His brain felt incredibly heavy, but as he looked at the calendar on his wall, a massive, foolish grin spread across his face. Today was the day. The U.A. High School entrance exam. He did not have to look at another textbook for at least a few hours.
An hour later, Ryo was standing before the massive, towering gates of U.A. High School. The sheer scale of the architecture was staggering. The main building was shaped like a gigantic "H," constructed from gleaming glass and pristine white metal that reflected the morning sunlight. It looked less like a school and more like a high-tech military fortress. Hundreds of aspiring students were pouring through the main entrance, all wearing their respective middle school uniforms, chattering nervously among themselves.
Ryo, however, stood out simply by how remarkably unremarkable he looked. While others wore pristine, heavily ironed uniforms to make a good impression, Ryo had opted for pure comfort. He wore a simple, unzipped dark blue jacket over a plain white t-shirt, paired with loose-fitting black athletic pants that allowed him maximum freedom of movement. His worn-out, bright yellow backpack hung loosely over one shoulder. His messy, charcoal-black hair spiked out in every direction, completely defying gravity and any attempt at combing. Beneath his messy bangs, his large, wide brown eyes stared at the massive building with the pure, unadulterated awe of a child visiting an amusement park for the very first time. His facial features were soft and boyish, completely masking the devastating physical power hidden beneath his skin.
"Whoa," Ryo whispered to himself, completely ignoring the nervous tension radiating from the crowd. "This place is huge. I bet their cafeteria is the size of a stadium."
With a happy spring in his step, he joined the flow of students heading inside. However, his lack of attention to detail immediately became a massive problem. The moment he crossed the threshold into the main corridors, he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of hallways, staircases, and glowing directional signs. Instead of reading the signs, Ryo simply followed his instincts, turning left down a quiet, empty corridor that smelled faintly of coffee.
He walked for a few minutes, humming a cheerful tune, until he reached a large, heavy wooden door at the end of the hall. He reached for the handle, assuming this was the lecture hall for the written exam.
"If you open that door, you are going to be expelled before you even enroll."
Ryo froze. He blinked, slowly turning his head to look over his shoulder. Standing a few feet behind him, leaning heavily against the wall, was a tall, incredibly disheveled man. The man had long, messy black hair that fell over his face, obscuring his eyes. He wore baggy black clothes and a thick, strange gray scarf wrapped around his neck. He looked completely exhausted, as if he had not slept in a week.
"Huh?" Ryo tilted his head, flashing a friendly, clueless smile. "Is this not the testing room?"
The tired man stared at Ryo for a long, silent moment. He looked at Ryo's messy hair, his simple clothes, and the completely blank, innocent expression on his face. The man let out a long, heavy sigh that sounded like it carried the weight of the entire world.
"This is the teachers' lounge," the man said, his voice flat and monotone. "Show me your examination card."
Ryo quickly dug into his yellow backpack, pulling out a slightly crumpled piece of paper with his ID number and a terrible, unsmiling photograph of himself. He handed it over.
The man glanced at the card, then pointed a lazy finger back down the hallway. "You are in the completely wrong wing. Go back the way you came, take the second right, go up two flights of stairs, and look for Hall B. And try to keep your eyes open. The signs are literally painted on the walls in bright blue."
"Oh! Thank you, tired mister!" Ryo bowed deeply, snatched his card back, and sprinted off down the hallway, completely missing the irritated twitch in the man's eyebrow. Aizawa watched the strange boy disappear around the corner, shaking his head slowly before reaching into his pocket for eye drops.
Ryo finally managed to find Hall B just minutes before the doors closed. The room was massive, arranged like a university lecture hall with rows of desks ascending in a steep curve. He found his assigned seat near the middle of the room, squeezing past several incredibly tense students who were rapidly flipping through study notes.
A proctor stepped up to the front podium, demanding absolute silence. The thick, terrifying test booklets were distributed facedown. When the signal to begin was given, hundreds of pages flipped simultaneously.
Ryo flipped his booklet over and stared at the very first page. It was advanced algebra.
He stared at the numbers. The numbers stared back. His mind went completely blank. However, as he moved to the second page, something miraculous happened. Question number twelve asked about a specific historical treaty. Ryo recognized it instantly. It was the exact same treaty his mother had forced him to write out fifty times while denying him dinner until he got it right.
"I know this!" Ryo thought, his eyes lighting up. He quickly filled in the correct bubble. He scanned the rest of the booklet. Out of the hundreds of complex questions, his intense, torturous study sessions had actually stuck for exactly five questions. He answered those five questions with immense pride, pressing his pencil down so hard he almost tore the paper.
As for the remaining ninety-five percent of the exam? Ryo had a brilliant, flawless strategy. He simply looked at the multiple-choice options and chose the letters that looked the most aesthetically pleasing to him.
"The letter B has two nice loops. Let's go with B here," he whispered internally. "The letter A looks like a little tent. I like tents. A it is."
Operating purely on this bizarre, rapid-fire logic, Ryo completely filled out his bubble sheet in exactly five minutes. He put his pencil down, let out a loud, completely satisfied sigh, crossed his arms on the desk, and rested his head on them. Within thirty seconds, he was fast asleep, a soft, rhythmic snore escaping his lips.
The students sitting around him slowly turned their heads. A boy with thick glasses sitting to Ryo's left felt a cold drop of sweat roll down his forehead. A girl sitting behind him gripped her pencil in pure panic.
"He... he finished already?" the boy with glasses thought, his heart pounding in his chest. "In five minutes?! That is physically impossible! Is he a genius? No, look at how peacefully he is sleeping. He is completely confident. He is trying to break our morale! What a terrifying psychological tactic!"
Completely oblivious to the aura of intense intimidation he was accidentally projecting, Ryo slept wonderfully until the final bell rang.
Later that morning, all the applicants were herded into a massive, darkened auditorium for the practical exam orientation. Ryo sat comfortably in the plush seats, rubbing his eyes as a tall, incredibly loud man with spiky blond hair stepped onto the stage. It was the Voice Hero, Present Mic.
"Welcome to my live show, everybody!" Present Mic yelled into the microphone, his voice echoing violently off the walls. "Are you ready to rock?!"
The audience remained dead silent. Ryo clapped his hands politely a few times, wondering when they would get to the punching part.
Present Mic enthusiastically explained the rules on a massive screen behind him. The practical exam took place in a massive faux city. The applicants had to destroy mechanical "villains" to earn points. There were three types of robots worth one, two, and three points respectively.
"But wait, there's a trick to this track!" Present Mic shouted, pointing dramatically at the screen as a massive, towering silhouette appeared. "There is a fourth type of robot! The Zero-Pointer! It's an obstacle! A massive hurdle! My advice? Avoid it! It's not worth the trouble!"
Ryo leaned forward, staring at the screen with absolute, unblinking focus. His brain, which had completely failed him during the written exam, was now running complex tactical calculations based entirely on a massive misunderstanding.
"A zero-point robot?" Ryo thought to himself, narrowing his eyes. "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Why would the school waste money building a robot that gives no points? It must be a trap to waste our time."
He looked down at his hands, clenching them into tight fists. "I am definitely going to score terrible marks on that written exam. My five smart answers won't save me. Which means I am starting this practical exam with a massive point deficit. I cannot afford to waste a single second. I have to completely ignore the zero-pointer and the one-pointers. The goal is efficiency. I must hunt down only the three-point robots to make up for my stupid brain."
An hour later, Ryo was standing in front of the massive, towering metal gates of Battle Center C. The fake city behind the walls looked incredibly realistic, complete with high-rise buildings, narrow alleyways, and paved roads. The crowd of applicants gathered at the gate was thick with nervous energy. Some students were stretching, others were whispering frantic strategies to themselves, and a few were simply staring at the gate in pure terror.
Ryo was standing with his hands in his pockets, staring blankly at the sky. His stomach let out a loud, demanding growl.
"I am so hungry," he muttered out loud. "I wonder if they serve massive beef bowls in the cafeteria. Or maybe fried chicken. Oh, a massive plate of fried chicken sounds amazing right now."
A few feet away, a boy with bright blond hair and a black lightning bolt streak in his bangs heard Ryo. Denki Kaminari looked over, completely baffled by the relaxed, goofy expression on Ryo's face.
"Is this guy for real?" Kaminari thought, sweating nervously. "We are about to fight for our futures and he is thinking about chicken? He must be insane, or incredibly weak."
Next to Kaminari, a boy with completely silver hair and jagged teeth was aggressively smacking his own cheeks with his metallic hands. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu was loudly hyping himself up. "Yeah! I am going to smash them all! I am going to break every single robot in there! Let's go!"
Ryo did not notice them. He did not know who they were, and they certainly did not know him. Ryo was entirely focused on managing his own energy.
Suddenly, a loud, booming voice echoed from the massive speakers positioned high above the city walls.
"Right, let's start!" Present Mic's voice roared. "Get moving! There are no countdowns in real battles! Run, run, run!"
The crowd of applicants froze for a split second, confused by the lack of a formal countdown. They slowly began to jog toward the opening gates, still trying to process the sudden instruction.
Ryo did not hesitate. The moment the word "start" hit his eardrums, the goofy, hungry teenager vanished, replaced entirely by a predator perfectly designed for combat.
A bright, wide, dangerous smile stretched across his face. He widened his stance slightly, driving his sneakers into the concrete. He took a sharp breath, mentally gripping his blood vessels and squeezing them tight, forcing his heart to pump with explosive, unnatural force.
Thump. Thump.
The sound was heavy and loud, like a massive engine turning over. Instantly, his skin flushed a deep, vibrant pinkish-red. The intense internal friction superheated his sweat, causing thick, hissing clouds of bright white steam to erupt violently from his neck, shoulders, and arms.
"Second Gear," Ryo whispered.
BOOM.
The concrete beneath Ryo's feet shattered completely, sending a shockwave of dust into the air. Before anyone could even blink, Ryo vanished. He did not run; he simply ceased to be there.
Kaminari let out a loud gasp, stumbling backward from the sheer force of the wind pressure left in Ryo's wake. Tetsutetsu stopped smacking his cheeks, his silver eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. They stared at the empty space where the dumb-looking boy had been standing just a fraction of a second ago.
Deep inside the fake city, a massive, heavily armored three-point robot rolled out from an alleyway, its red mechanical eyes scanning the street for targets.
It never even registered the threat.
A blur of red and white steam materialized directly in front of the machine's central chassis. Ryo was suspended in mid-air, his right arm pulled back, the muscles coiled incredibly tight. Time seemed to slow down dramatically. Ryo's eyes were sharp and intensely focused, but the wide, thrilling smile of pure excitement remained plastered on his face.
He threw the punch.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing. Ryo's fist slammed into the thick metal armor, completely ignoring the structural integrity of the machine. The sheer kinetic force of the blow ripped through the robot, caving in its chest plate and blowing out its internal circuitry in a massive shower of blue sparks and shattered steel.
The heavy machine flew backward, crashing violently into a nearby concrete wall before collapsing into a pile of smoking scrap metal.
Ryo landed smoothly on his feet, breathing out a small cloud of steam. He did not stop to admire his work. His ears picked up the mechanical whirring of another three-pointer two streets over. He crouched down and launched himself again, disappearing into another sonic boom.
Back at the entrance gate, the rest of the applicants finally broke out of their collective shock. The terrifying sound of the crushed robot echoing through the city streets snapped them back to reality.
They looked at each other, the same terrifying realization dawning in their eyes. The boy who had been casually complaining about his hunger was a monster. This was not a test of bravery. This was a race for points, and the fastest predator in the city was already eating their prey.
"Don't just stand there!" Tetsutetsu yelled, his skin turning completely to solid steel as he charged forward. "He is going to take all the points!"
The panicked stampede began, but deep down, everyone knew they were already falling behind. Ryo was not going to waste a single point.
.
.