8 Exams Galore!

Momo and I seperated after Present Mic's presentation was over. We were taking our academic exams in different rooms, but I wasn't particularly worried by that. I transmigrated with an education base high enough to graduate high school on a whim and Momo was… Momo. Did anything else need to be said?

Math, science, japanese, english, and pretty much everything but the history section was offensively easy. Thus, I finished with more than half an hour to kill.

It was hell, having to lay down my head and count as the seconds ticked by on the clock face attached to the wall in front of the classroom. Luckily, the people taking the test with me were smart, seeing as we all finished fast enough to be released with a quarter of an hour remaining. Momo wasn't as lucky, seeing as she was nowhere to be found in the cafeteria.

Oh well…

I sat down and started to eat, until my eyes met those of a certain green-haired girl.

Welp, there went any shot of having a peaceful and calm lunch by myself as the girl immediately started walking my way with a smirk on her face. Had I been a weaker man, I probably wouldn't have been able to hold eye contact with her the whole way through.

"You don't mind if I sit here and eat, do you?" The girl spoke with the intonation of a question, yet she didn't even wait for me to confirm or deny before she sat right next to me; no doubt trying to psych me out.

Hmph, two can play that game.

"Not at all, Tokage-chan." I wouldn't have cared if she suddenly screamed "pervert" at me and fled with all her might; her reaction was just that good.

"D-do I know you?" Surprisingly, that was the extent of her verbal reaction; not as good as her expression, but still slightly amusing.

"No, but over the course of our next school year we can change that, can't we?"

"Why wait? I already find you plenty interesting, Mr. Mysterious."

"Izuku Midoriya," I indulged her for being a good sport.

"Well, Izuku—" She made sure to emphasize with a sultry tone, "—do you have a mind reading Quirk or something?"

"Well, I guess there are some aspects of my Quirk that can affect the mind, but I can't read your thoughts or memories if that's what you're asking."

"Then, how'd you know my surname?"

"I counted with my fingers, Setsuna."

Before Setsuna could respond, a tray of food smashing onto our table caused her to flinch.

"Oi Momo, I don't know what's got you so upset, but taking it out on your food isn't going to help anyone."

Momo moved to speak, when I suddenly added, "Wait! Don't tell me there was actually a question you didn't know the answer to in the exams?!"

Apparently that was incorrect as she glared at me almost as harshly as her father normally did.

"Hmph," she huffed and refused to talk for the remainder of our lunch time together.

Setsuna seemed to follow her lead, only instead of ignoring me, she opted to maintain a smug schadenfreudian smile directed at me as silence pervaded our table.

So, lunch came to pass and once more I was left by my lonesome as neither Setsuna nor Momo were selected to be interviewed by Midnight. Actually, it seemed like only guys would get that "priviledge," if one decided to take it as that.

To me it seemed like misfortune as examinees were leaving the interview room flustered, dropping like flies, every couple minutes.

Soon enough it would be my turn and I'll admit it was not my proudest moment, having flinched upon laying my eyes on Midnight's form. If anybody asks, I'm blaming my hormonal teenaged body. But hell if I was going to show any more weakness…

Steeling my eyes, I focused to maintain eye contact with Midnight who was unsurprisingly smiling at me with a look that put Setsuna's early attempts to shame.

Fuck, this was going to be hard.

"Let's see… You must be Izuku, right?" Midnight asked as she bit her lip.

"Yup."

"Well, Izuku, why don't we start this interview with you telling me more about yourself?"

"Sure. But what do you want to know?"

"What I want to know wouldn't be… appropriate to ask. But for the sake of professionalism, why don't you tell me about your personality? What do you think of yourself and who do you want to be?"

"I think… I'm a pretty normal guy. I mean, everyone—" I shot her a look, "—has some eccentricity to them, but I'd like to think I'm not letting my Quirk define me. As for what I want to be… Well, I guess the generic answer would be 'to become a hero,' but that doesn't quite fit me. What I want isn't to become a type of person, but to live up to an ideal; to make the most out of my life."

"I see you've put some thought into that," for once Midnight dropped the whole seductress act. "But, you say you don't want to become a hero?"

"Look, I don't have anything against the profession. It's just… No other job will just let me use my Quirk as freely. I'm also not going to sit here and pretend like the idea of getting famous and making money off helping people isn't appealing either."

"Hmm, I like honest boys like you," and the standard Midnight experience was back.

"Anyways, you mentioned your Quirk. Crystal Heart, right?"

"Right-O," I deadpanned.

"Well, I don't have much information written here about your Quirk, so can you tell me how you plan on using it to compete in the practical exam?"

"My Quirk lets me manipulate a personal kind of magical energy and with it I can make myself stronger, faster, and teleport."

"I guess that explains why you're with Group A," Midnight said as she scanned through the interview sheet before her.

"Crystal Heart sounds like a pretty versatile Quirk," Midnight said after looking up at me once more. "You could become any type of hero with it. Have you thought about what you want to specialize in if you end up becoming a hero?"

"I want to be a support type hero."

"Can you… elaborate?" Midnight asked with a quirked brow.

"I'm not looking to overwork myself or take on the reputation of "Symbol of Peace" or whatever. Remember, I just want the license to have the freedom to use my Quirk as I please. So, most of the time, I'll stick with doing the boring and tedious chores expected of everyday heroes; doing community service, helping with disaster relief, stuff like that.

I'll certainly work to stop any villains that I come across while on duty, but I'll only seek out the most dangerous of criminals; you know, the boogie men that even All Might has trouble fighting. So, don't expect me to deal with sting operations and raids."

"You have quite the interesting… outlook… But, I guess that's what makes you, well… you."

...

With the interview over and done with, I made my way outside of the building and waited by the bus labeled "A" for the rest of my group to arrive to take the practical exam.

I didn't have to wait long despite being one of the first ones through with the interview and soon I was being shuttled away to Obstacle Course A. Momo and Setsuna sat on either side of me on the bus, but seeing as they didn't want to start talking, I wasn't about to beg for their attention.

Not like I cared. Nope. No sir-ee. I was more interested in two of the boys that entered the bus after us.

For one of them, I wondered what kind of face he'd make after I left him ending in third place. As for the other…

"I HOPE WE CAN ALL BE FRIENDS NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!"

I… don't see much potential for antagonizing him. Maybe I'll convince him to stay at U.A. and hang around him for long enough to figure him out.

"You will be my greatest foe yet, Inasa..." Oops, I didn't mean to say that aloud.

"What?" Momo asked, understandably confused by my random bout of seriousness.

"N-nothing!"

"You're not making yourself seem any less suspicious," Setsuna added.

"The likes of you would never understand!"

As expected, my momentary display of insanity was enough to get the girls to back off. Hopefully, going forward, I'd never make another rookie mistake in voicing my thoughts. Unfortunately, it also meant a return to stark silence along with new judgemental eyes being cast upon me.

At least the bus ride was short lived and soon I could breath fresh air and stretch.

"Alright Group A listeners, let's get this show on the road. Line up at the start, and prepare yourselves as I go over the rules one more time," Present Mic's voice resounded omnidirectionally, making it nearly impossible to locate him, despite him using his natural voice.

I did as he suggested and switched Paradigms to become a Synergist, buffing myself with just about every spell I knew as Present Mic continued to say, "The name of the game is speed and mobility. It is a race after all, so try to complete it as fast as possible. That said, don't expect an easy time as there are obstacles integrated in every facet of the course.

"No matter what route you chose, be it the ground, through water or air, all your Quirks have been accounted for and thus all of you will be challenged in one way or another. Naturally, the use of your Quirks is not only allowed, but encouraged. Be warned, though, that doesn't give anyone the right to use their Quirks to sabotage other examinees; evidence to suggest as much will automatically disqualify any offending party.

"Lastly, as part of a new program our principal wants to try out for the upcoming school year, we might be accepting more than the usual four recommendation students. Moreover, anyone that can reach the end of the obstacle course in less than three minutes will automatically be accepted as a student of the hero course. That is all, and good luck."

"Oh? That's new," I muttered and couldn't help but think that part of this was my fault. Maybe Nezu made such a rule for the explicit purpose of allowing me to enter without ruining the chances of the other recommendation students. Then again, maybe I was just being overly narcissistic and arrogant to think as much.

"Commando," I finished my preparations by materializing what was becoming one of my favorite swords; the Airstep Sword.

"Ravager," I switched back just in time to hear the pop that indicated that the race had begun.

Of course, in the time it took most people to react and either activate their Quirk or begin running, I had teleported and found myself perched on the nearest roof, standing on my precious sword. I was part of the small minority that opted to stick to the airzone of the urban course.

It only took as long as I could react to retrieve my sword and warp to the next building and then another, and another, and…

Yeah, obstacles were kind of a joke to me when I was flickering through the obstacle course faster than most people could follow clearly. It might not have been like this without Mirio training me for more than half a year, but with my current abilities, even the range-bots that were programmed to shoot pellets at me were almost a whole second behind me at all times; and those were the most threatening obstacles to me as I coasted from rooftop to rooftop.

Sudden height differences between buildings didn't matter when I could teleport hundreds of meters if it was to a warp point, to say nothing of the various robots awaiting me and the other examinees on the rooftops.

Within the first minute of the race starting, I had already crossed through the length of the urban zone and found that I would need to pass through another zone to reach the end. Between the open field, pseudo swamp, and frozen tundra, the open field appealed to me the most. So, upon reaching the last building on the edge of the urban zone, without another warp point, I threw my sword and caught it mid air before throwing and catching it another five times, before hitting the ground.

I must have covered a full hundred meters with just that, and at least a third of the through the open field. But instead of celebrating early, I focused on keeping up my pace by literally hitting the ground running.

Poof!

"Sentinel..."

The open field was covered in fucking mines! Loud and obnoxious mines that blew up with confetti and pink dust. It's times like these that I curse myself for not anticipating the obvious. Of course there would be mines, seeing as the open field lacks any robots or other obstacles…

Welp, now that I was a Sentinel with the addition of already being under the effects of my Protect Spell, real mines might as well be as harmless as the toys being used as obstacles in my path, as I just steamroll past them; utterly unphased by the constant explosions.

A couple seconds later, I would cross the finish line in the most anticlimactic way possible, with no one even a hundred of meters behind me. It was almost depressing, feeling the ribbon I had torn at the end of the course slid down my chest and onto the floor.

I wasn't even winded.