Narration POV
A room. Inside said room are people and not just people but rather pro heroes and not just pro heroes but seasoned pro heroes who were also the teachers of the prestigious hero academia, U.A.
They were all staring at the same giant TV in front of them, it was divided into twenty four sections and each section monitored an area of the practical exam. The atmosphere in the faculty lounge was actually pretty relaxed, after all this wasn't the first time they had seen the practical exam and it most certainly wouldn't be the last.
"Hmm this new batch looks good," Midnight said, a proud smile on her face as she watched a black haired kid dodge a robot's attack and then seemingly welded it into a wall.
"I guess it's true what they say, every new generation is getting stronger and stronger," Cementoss said as he stared at a particular screen where a 15-year-old blonde boy with spiky hair had just blown a two-point robot to bits with explosive firepower.
"But, there are always some who are too big for their britches," Ectoplasm added, his multiple eyes focusing on different screens simultaneously. His gaze lingered on a particular green haired boy who just got saved by a blonde haired kid who shot a laser from his belly button. "Still you are right, this batch is strong. At this rate the average point for the hero course will be about 28, maybe more."
Present Mic leaned forward in his chair, his signature falling to the bridge of his nose. "Why isn't Nezu here? He never misses these, and there are only five more minutes before this ends?"
"He has his own setup in his office, he's probably watching from there," a man cocooned in a sleeping bag, Aizawa, muttered without moving his head.
"You think his protege is in there with him?" Midnight asked, genuine curiosity in her voice as she twisted a strand of her dark hair around her finger.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Aizawa answered, his gaze landing on a contestant who had just eaten what appeared to be a full pack of gummy bears in one go, his muscles expanding slightly with each chew.
The conversation took a more serious turn as Vlad King, his red eyes narrowing, spoke up. "I still can't believe we are letting him get into U.A. without an exam."
"I still can't believe we are letting a vigilante into U.A.," Ectoplasm added, he had argued vehemently against Nezu when the idea was first brought up, you could say he was a man of rules.
"Would you guys lighten up," Midnight said, still staring intently at the screen where she was now watching a boy with what appeared to be a tape quirk that came out of his elbows wrap a 1 pointer. "He's just a kid, and he's done good, maybe not the best way, but he's done good."
"You really think that?" Aizawa asked, finally lifting his head slightly to look at his colleague.
"I do."
"Then you're just as naive as the boy himself, maybe that's why you teach art?"
Midnight's expression shifted, a flash of irritation crossing her features. "What does naivety have to do with art? I'll have you know most art touches very deep and tragic themes, some as dark as you can imagine. Art is often born from the darkest corners of human experience."
"Everyone be quiet, the show's about to start," Snipe interrupted, his hand hovering over a control panel before him. His gloved fingers, pressing a giant red button that screamed, PRESS ME!
Across different zones, a rumbling sound echoed through the mock cities like thunder rolling across the landscape. Buildings across the practice areas shook and fell as if an earthquake had just hit them, and out of the rubble emerged massive green robots, each one standing several stories tall with glowing red eyes and arms capable of crushing concrete like paper.
The arena traps, the 0 pointers, had been activated.
BOOM
Koji Koda was a great many things. Timid for one. Quiet for another. Kind-hearted, gentle, and possessed of a deep love for all living creatures. Qualities which would have served him well that is, of course, unless your quirk had to do with you being heard by creatures as far away as your voice could carry.
And right now his timidness was being completely overwhelmed by another feeling... pure, unadulterated fear.
One of the arena trap gimmick robots had appeared just a few blocks in front of him. The massive mechanical giant cast a shadow that seemed to swallow entire streets, its red optical sensor, which looked like a giant red eye scanning the area, until it fell on little old him.
The robot raised one of its gigantic hands, fingers the size of cars, and Koji could see the hydraulics hissing as it prepared to bring destruction down upon the mock city.
His breath caught in his throat. The ground trembled beneath his feet as the robot took a step forward, and Koji realized with growing horror that running might not be enough.
BOOM
Run, run as fast as you can. Those were the thoughts racing through Mina Ashido's head right now, her pink skin glistening with sweat or acid, or maybe both as she moved through streets of the practical exam on a trail of her own acid.
There was no fighting the 0-pointer, that much had been made clear in the briefing. These massive robots were worth zero points and served only as obstacles to avoid. So she just had to skate away on her acid and find one and two-pointers to destroy before time ran out.
And yet, despite every logical thought in her head screaming at her to keep moving, she didn't skate away. Because through the mechanical whirring and grinding of gears, through the sound of distant explosions and shouting voices, she heard something that made her heart clench.
She heard a voice, a yell.. a plea.
"HELP!"
Her feet moved on their own, acid propelling her toward the sound as her hero instincts overrode her test-taking strategy.
She was skating through the rubble, dodging falling debris and scattered robot parts, following the voice.
There, trapped under a collapsed section of concrete and twisted metal that must have weighed several tons, was a boy with blue hair. His breathing was labored, and she could see that one of his legs was pinned beneath a particularly large chunk of debris.
"Please help!" he yelled again, his voice cracking with pain and fear. Mina moved quickly, her acid-skating coming to an abrupt halt as she arrived in front of the trapped student.
"T-try to cover yoursel-ff as much as y-you can," she instructed, her voice shaking, which probably didn't inspire the trapped exam taker but then again she didn't have much of a reason to be confident especially when she could hear the rumbling of the 0 pointer behind her.
The boy did as she said, using his free arm to pull at his jacket so as to shield his face and torso. Mina then pressed her palm against the farthest edge of the concrete debris, careful to position herself where she could control the acid's flow without endangering the trapped student.
Acid slowly began dripping from her palm.
She could have expelled more acid, created a torrent that would have dissolved the debris in seconds, but she didn't want to risk dehydration, not with the exam still ongoing.
More importantly, she didn't want to accidentally injure the other student with her corrosive quirk. So as her acid slowly but steadily ate through the concrete, she watched the boy's face for any sign that he was getting free.
The process felt agonizingly slow. Each second that passed was another second of exam time ticking away, another opportunity for points slipping through her fingers.
She had been hearing the giant rumble of the 0-pointer throughout the rescue, its mechanical roars echoing off the mock city's buildings like some prehistoric beast, but this time the sound seemed different.
Louder. Closer.
She looked up and felt her heart stop. The massive robot's foot was directly above them, blotting out the sky like a mechanical eclipse. In the shadow of that enormous metal appendage, she could see hydraulic systems preparing to bring tons of metal and circuitry crashing down upon them.
Time seemed to slow as realization dawned...
BOOM
"COME ON YOU TIN CAN!" Bakugo yelled at the 0-pointer that stood defiantly in his path, his crimson eyes blazing with competitive fire. "Let's see what you're made of!"
The massive robot seemed almost to regard him with its glowing optical sensor, as if it were genuinely considering his challenge. Steam rose from Bakugo's palms as his quirk activated, nitroglycerin-like sweat beginning to accumulate and ignite in controlled bursts.
With a feral grin, he dashed at the robot, his palms positioned behind him for maximum propulsion, the sweat on them ignited into deadly sparks that sent him flying through the air at incredible speed toward the metal giant he had dubbed a tin can.
But before his explosive assault could make contact with its target, something else reached the robot first.
Something golden.
Something impossibly fast.
Something he had seen once before.
BOOM
The teachers were all watching the television monitors with varying degrees of interest and concern. Some leaned forward in their chairs, completely absorbed by the unfolding drama of the practical exam. Others maintained a somewhat detached professionalism.
With just one minute and five seconds remaining on the clock, the atmosphere in the faculty lounge was tense. Points were being tallied, final assessments were being made, and the fate of hundreds of hopeful students hung in the balance.
Then, without warning one of the 0 pointers suddenly got blown to bits, by the unassuming green haired kid, leaving all the teachers astounded especially since they had seen the boy seemingly about to turn his back to the robot mere moments before.
The boy himself appeared to be falling from a great height, his arm twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly having sacrificed his body for whatever incredible attack had just demolished the giant robot.
"What the hell..." Present Mic started to say, but his words were cut off by something even more spectacular.
A brilliant golden light suddenly blazed across the exam areas like a shooting star, moving with such incredible speed that it was barely visible even on their high-speed cameras. In what seemed like the same instant, the remaining three 0-pointers began to disintegrate.
Not explode. Not fall apart. Disintegrate.
Each massive robot was methodically, precisely, impossibly cut apart. First in half, then quarters, then eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, and on and on until what had once been towering mechanical giants were nothing more than perfectly uniform metal dust settling gently to the ground.
The entire process took perhaps two seconds.
"What just happened?" Present Mic asked, his usually boisterous voice subdued to barely above a whisper.
"I think that was Nezu's protege," Sekijiro Kan, otherwise known as Vlad King, answered slowly, his red eyes staring intently at the screens.
"Holy hell that kid is strong," Midnight said in wonder, her previous casual demeanor completely abandoned. She turned from the TV to look at Aizawa, genuine sympathy in her expression. "Good luck, Shota. It looks like you're really gonna need it."
Aizawa nodded as if in gratitude, though his expression remained carefully neutral. His eyes landing on the destruction before them, no it couldn't even be called destruction as Arthur had left no remains of the 0 pointers.
There was no rubble, no twisted metal, no scattered debris that might fall and injure civilians. Just a fine metallic dust that would probably blow away in the next strong wind.
Arthur POV
"You fail."
A/N: Welp this is it for today also yeah I saw it, you guys reached the 10 reviews so I owe you another extra chapter, I honestly thought it would take longer, like a week at least, not a day and a half lol, I would sigh but none of you would hear me. Either way, tomorrow I'm going on a road trip and I'm driving for like seven hours straight. So I will try my best to release both the bonus and the normal chapter tomorrow but no promises since I'll be beat, then again writing relaxes me so who knows.
I've also decided to up the ante for the next bonus chapter, it's going to be 30 reviews or the top 70 powerstones for all dates next week. Ha let's see you do that.
On another note, Arthur has incurred his second loss in this story, although maybe you guys think that him losing in the argument against Nezu at the hospital shouldn't count as a loss but I count it lol.
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. That's all thx for reading. Author out.