Chapter 88: Provisional Hero License Exam (II)

"This is the first elimination round of the provisional license exam!! It's ball-chucking mayhem on this multifaceted field!! All examinees have placed three targets on their bodies, and they each get six balls to use!! If all three targets are hit, then you're outta there! The first hundred examinees to knock two participants out get to move on!"

An examiner announced loudly, such that everybody seated in the audience seats could hear him. The teachers weren't given any information beforehand for obvious reasons - to not let any students have the information advantage. Thus, the teachers could only find out after the test has started.

"The whole 'first hundred examinees' thing makes you think this is all about actively attacking, but...maybe not...am I right?" Emi spoke with unsureness in her voice.

[A/N: Joke-sensei's name is Emi Fukukado. I'm going to use "Emi" instead of "Joke" from now on in normal circumstances.]

"Unity, cooperation, and intel gathering are the real keys here. Those lured in by the first-to-the-finish-line rule will start to panic.." Shido replied before Aizawa could open his mouth, "...and get beaten at their own game."

Shido observed his students repelling most of the attacks with pride. Even with his enhanced senses as a spirit, he could not clearly see what was going on a few kilometers away and could only roughly know what happened.

After a moment of pause, he saw that the ground suddenly started to shake, and all of a sudden, the rocks and earth were unlifted.

"Uh...the event's at a stalemate...not a single examinee has passed yet..." A sleepy voice announced as he groaned with tiredness evident in his tone, "Oh, right. Just letting you all know that I'll be making play-by-play announcements from the broadcast booth."

"Despite being a kid, you sure talk like you're above it all, Shido. Kids hoping to be heroes are a dime a dozen, you know." Emi looked at Shido and said, "And how far their determination will take them has nothing to do with how famous they are."

Turning her attention back to the test site, she smiled continued, "Pretending you're the stars of the show and looking down on others is a good way...to get your just desserts."

Shido looked towards where she was looking at and was surprised. The entire nearby area suddenly shook before the earth and rocks started crashing down on to the students.

"Come on...get with the program. Does anyone actually feel like passing the test today?" The commentator yawned and asked.

As soon as the commentator was heard, Shido suddenly noticed that the wind direction suddenly changed and looked towards its source.

"Inasa?" Shido wondered since the only powerful quirk he knew could make such a strong mini-tornado was Inasa's quirk: Whirlwind.

"Finally. Looks like somebody's passing this thing..." The commentator's sleepy voice arrived before he exclaimed in shock, all his sleepiness flying away, "Whoa?! One hundred and twenty examinees are out!! All taken down by a single fighter!!"

"Nothing beats a surprise like that to wake a guy up. Keep up the pace, ladies and gentlemen!"

After appreciating a mini tornado's sudden appearance, he soon turned his attention back to All Might's successor, Izuku.

Due to the intense earthquake, the entire class 1-A got separated, leaving Izuku alone with another girl from Shiketsu High School.

"Shido, I feel something wrong." Yoshinon suddenly spoke up.

[A/N: Finally, Yoshinon makes an appearance, almost forgotten about him again...poor Yoshinon.]

"Oh? You too?"

"What are you guys talking about?"

"That girl who is fighting against Izuku. What is her quirk?"

Aizawa looked at where Shido was pointing towards and managed to get a glimpse of her wearing Shiketsu's famous hat before turning back to Shido and replying in an annoyed manner, "And how would I know that?"

"You can see Izuku rapidly turning his head around as if he's searching for someone. Yet, we can obviously see the girl just hiding in plain sight." Shido turned towards both teachers and lectured, "That, Aizawa-sensei, is what we call 'hiding our presence'. It allows us to sneak onto someone without the target noticing."

"And what about it? Most of the underground heroes would also know how to do that. Even both of us could do that." Aizawa instantly replied.

"Yes, I agree with you. But is that girl an underground pro hero? Does her quirk allow her to do that? Because from what I know, the only quirk related to presence-hiding in Shiketsu High is in his first year, and I don't think Shiketsu taught anything about hiding their presence."

"What are you trying to say?" Aizawa narrowed his eyes and asked.

"Well, it's just a suspicion at this point. If that girl uses her quirk, then my speculations would be wrong."

"And I'm assuming you know what's her quirk?"

"Of course! They don't call me the info-gatherer for no reason!" Shido showed a very confident smile as he placed his right hand on his waist while Yoshinon just copied his actions.

"Pft...but no one called you that." Emi laughed at their adorable, synchronising actions while Aizawa just looked away.

For the next few minutes, no other sound could be heard apart from Emi's constant laughter for no reason before Shido finally spotted a change in the girl.

"Oh. That girl got naked, or at least her uniform got destroyed since I can't really see anything from here." Shido muttered as he looked at Izuku being pinned down by the girl.

"What is Izuku doing? Does he like getting pinned down by girls?" Shido wondered while Yoshinon nodded his head in agreement, "Maybe he just likes getting pinned down in general. Remember how he would always be below Sebastian's foot when he was training under him?"

"I see..." Shido thought for a while and approved of Yoshinon's theory, "He's a masochist."

The two other teachers just looked at him in shock before Emi shook his shoulders back and forth violently.

"Hey! Where did a kid like you learn such a thing?! You shouldn't be touching those things until you're at least 18!" She screamed at Shido while he just ignored her.

'I will learn whatever I want, whenever I want, and however I want. Even if I had to experience it myself, I would still learn it.'

"Noooo! Where is my innocent kid?!"

Aizawa just smirked at Shido before instantly returning back to his gloomy face. It was only for an instant, but Shido noticed it.

'I'll take away all the cats from your apartment later after this and give them to Eri to play.' Shido thought in his mind when he saw Aizawa enjoying his suffering.

Aizawa felt a shiver go down his spine but didn't think much about it. As an underground hero, he gets shivers like this all the time.

"Well, it seems like I'm right."

Emi stopped shaking Shido and looked towards him, urging him to continue whatever he was going to say.

"Her name is Camie Utsushim, a second-year student at Shiketsu High School. Her quirk is 'Glamour', and it allows her to emit a smoke-like substance from her mouth, which can form visual and auditory illusions over a large area, though the illusions themselves only last a short time."

"But she took off her shirt or melted it off, which is something that she wouldn't be able to do." Taking out and putting on a detective cap that he borrowed from Tsukauchi, he declared, "Thus, she is an imposter!"

"So, do we go arrest her now?" Aizawa was already prepared to stand up and immediately make an arrest.

"Of course not. Wait until the test is over before confirming the girl's actions. After all, we can't see anything clearly, so it might just be our mistake." Shido looked at him like he was an idiot, "Besides, it might just cause unnecessary panic between the students if we take action now."

"Gr..." Aizawa growled when he noticed Shido's look before sitting back down and faced the floor.

"Want some gum?" Emi interrupted and asked Aizawa, who was feeling down.

"The prank kind that traps your fingers? No thanks. So frustrating that we can't see who's passed and who's failed." Aizawa replied without lifting up his head.

"And Shindo made it worse with that ground splitter. Wait. Don't tell me!!" Emi took out a piece of gum and started chewing as she turned to face him, "Are you worried about them?!"

"..." Aizawa gave her a deadpanned expression and explained, "When it comes to class A, one thing becomes evident after watching them long enough. They probably haven't realised it themselves yet, but the class revolves around a particular pair.

It's not that they bring everyone together or serve as pillars or anything like that. In fact, these two don't get along. But at one point or another, they infected the rest of the class with their passion and zeal.

It's off, but at least one of them is sure to be at the heart of every storm, only this time, Shido isn't there to help them out. Still, Joke, I'm not worried. I'm expecting big things.

The very presence of those two raises the bar for the entire class."

"If you love them so much, why don't you marry them? Gross!" Emi looked blankly at the stage while blowing a bubble.

Shido looked towards where Katsuki was. Or at least he tried to since he couldn't precisely find such a small dot in the middle of so many fights. However, he knew one thing that separates Katsuki from the others.

BOOM!

It wasn't deafening, but Shido could immediately spot the explosion on a bridge near the opposite side of the arena.

Shido hurriedly sent out a clone to fly above the scene, and with the ninth bullet, Tet, he was able to see through the clone's eyes and watch the show.

He saw many lumps of meat littered by the floor and was instantly grossed out. Not that he wasn't used to it, but it was still pretty sickening seeing a human transform into a meatball.

The fight soon progressed while Kirishima got into contact with a meatball piece and instantly turned into one. All of his struggles were to no avail as he eventually turned into a ball of meatball.

Katsuki, seeing this, obviously turned angry and blaster him. After a quick fight and a sneaky attack by the Shiketsu student, Katsuki turned into a meatball as well.

Although he felt a little agitated seeing Katsuki turned into a meatball, Shido didn't interfere and chose to believe in them. Soon enough, Kaminari managed to change the tide after fair use of his equipment.

"Now that these three have passed, let's move on to the others." Shido muttered softly and floated around the entire area.

It was then when a sudden laser beam appeared in the middle of the battlefield. Like all the other contestants, he was attracted to it and floated towards it.

Havoc soon appeared around the laser beam, but Shido felt proud of his students. None of them decided to ditch one another and had chosen to work together despite Aoyoma's desire to 'sacrifice' for the others.

"Two more! Eight left now!!" The announcement was heard after he noticed Ojiro and Toru get to their targets.

"Seven left!" Mina jumped past a wolf and planted a ball on his head.

"Five left!" Tokoyami and Mineta managed to get their targets as well.

"One after the other! UA is totally dominating these final moments! Securing their wins with vicious combo moves!"

"It's over!" The announcer was very happy that it was over, "One hundred have successfully passed!! We're done! Finished! Hahaha! On a less uplifting note, could all those who failed please proceed to the exit?""

"Why are you so happy?" Aizawa asked Shido, who was smiling brightly, "Did you see anything?"

"Yep. If I'm not wrong, all of the students managed to pass the first round."

"I-"

But before Aizawa could reply, the arena suddenly exploded.

BA-DOOOOM!

Every building collapsed, even the mountain and waterfall wasn't spared from the explosion.

"H-How rich..." Shido muttered as sadness took over him. He had worked so hard to perform concerts everywhere, but he still couldn't afford to detonate an entire city just like that. It didn't help that the 'Rank 0' title was nothing more than a label.

He didn't get paid for it!

"Yes...imagine how many cats you would be able to save with the money used to explode." Aizawa agreed with Shido as he started mumbling as well.

"And apples..." Yoshinon wasn't spared and started mumbling as well.

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A/N: Sorry for the late chapter! I won't be able to post anything until Sunday, and for that, I apologize.

If you want to support me or/and want 14+ chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere