Chapter 5 - Debrief

Strolling up the hill were our favourite partners on a bright spring day. They were all alone, left to mingle between themselves about whatever was on each other's minds. Although that had to be done within each other's minds with Zangetsu in his pocket as they weren't the only ones treading the same path.

On this important day he only wore a black and white striped tracksuit, refusing to wear his school's uniform. He didn't believe he needed to change into anything else as his transformation would take care of that.

'''It's our big day Kouki. You feeling the nerves yet?'''

'Of course not. We've both been working hard under the teachings of mom, I'd be surprised if we weren't ready. We'll be just fine.' He casually reassured him.

'''Yeah I already know that, I just wanted to break the ice. You got a little quiet on me there.''' He genuinely felt worried for his partner. After all, they had spent 6 months tied to each other, so he knew when he wasn't feeling his best.

'It would have been nice if mom drove us there, but she said she had to go to work today.' He kind of wished for her to see him off before his big moment, but he supposed it felt like she was confident enough in him.

Looking up from the ground he witnessed a trail of people walking up the hill, taking the same route as him. He immediately knew he was heading to the right place.

After a long walk he had made it to the top and there it was: U.A., the hero school most people would dream of attending. This is mostly because their alumni include the likes of Endeavour the number two hero, Best Jeanist at number four and most importantly, All Might the number one hero.

It certainly stood out as a unique building. The main building consisted of four buildings each connected together by a pathway. Protecting the building was a large security gate and walls encasing everything inside. Large trees littered the area too.

He admired the school, almost too much. Before his dream was crushed by the reality of not having a quirk, he wholeheartedly wished he could come here.

'''We should probably hurry inside before we're late. We don't want to leave a bad first impression.'''

'Alright then let's go.' Taking a quick breath he then took his first step onto UA soil, surely it wouldn't be the last.

#

The first task had been successfully completed. The written exam was pretty easy, of course there were some questions which may have stumped him, but Kouki believed his performance in the upcoming battle exam would make up for it.

Before the next exam could take place they had been guided to a large dimly lit room for a presentation. Debriefing the goals and expectations of the examinees.

Kouki took a seat near the top right so he could be as far away from Present Mic as possible. He's known for being obnoxiously loud.

It was only a couple of minutes before the presentation when an upbeat boy stood over him. "Hey there! Sorry to bother you, but is this seat free?" The boy had yellow-blond hair with a black lightning streak on the front left of his hair and yellow eyes. He only wore the average black school uniform.

He didn't seem too bad of a guy, so he didn't mind. "Sure, go ahead."

He half expected the blond boy to remain quiet after sitting down, but that wasn't the case. "Sheesh, that written exam totally messed with my head. If the exam was only based on that… I'd have no hope of passing!"

"Yeah, same here. Hopefully we'll be able to make up for it in this battle exam. I wish you good luck." The blond boy seemed to have his spirits raised quite a bit from being wished good luck.

"Ah thanks, you seem like a cool guy. My name's Denki Kaminari by the way, what's yours?" He smiled.

"Nice to meet you Kaminari, my name is Kouki Yoshikawa." They both nodded at each other in acknowledgment. Kaminari then looked at both of their examinee cards, smiling with satisfaction.

"From the looks of things we'll be in the same area, maybe we can help each other out?" Kouki nodded in response, but before they could talk any longer, a boisterous man walked onto the stage.

His blond hair was stuck up almost like a cockatoo's feathers, which you could say makes sense. He wore a black jacket and pants with a red belt. The black jacket had red elbow pads and beige shoulder pads. For his accessories he wore a pair of grey headphones, tinted yellow glasses and black fingerless gloves.

"Welcome to today's live performance!! Everybody say hey!!" He lifted his hand to his ear searching for a response, but silence was all that he got. "Well, that's cool, my examinee listeners!! I'm here to present the guidelines of your practical!! Are you ready?! YEAH!!"

'''I didn't know anyone could be that loud. I'm glad I don't have eardrums.''' Zangetsu quickly commented which Kouki did agree with.

Still he had received no sort of reaction, only silence. That was when a few people started to mumble between each other.

After the mumbling stopped he continued his shouting explanation. In quick succession he had explained the rules of the examination. They had 10 minutes in the mock city to defeat as many of the three types of faux villains as they could. The three types were all worth 1 point, 2 points and 3 points depending on the type.

If someone were to attack another examinee there would be severe repercussions, but most people wouldn't pull off something like that, right?

His explanation was interrupted by a rich looking blue-black haired boy with glasses in a proper suit and tie. He seemed like the type to follow whatever orders were asked of him. He didn't seem happy and he was content with showing that to everyone.

"There appears to be no fewer than FOUR types of villains on this handout! Such a blatant error, IF it is one, is highly unbecoming for U.A., Japan's Top Academy!" Everyone looked down at the handout and noticed the blunder.

'I had that same question, I'm just glad it was him and not me.' He thanked the rich boy for taking the shot.

When everyone thought it was over, he had another thing to complain about. He twisted behind him and pointed at some poor boy in the crowd. "And you, with the curly hair! You've been muttering this whole time… It's distracting! If this is some sort of game to you, then leave immediately!"

The crowd laughed at the interaction. Kaminari turned towards him with a smile on his face, "Yeah that kid is one hell of a mutterer, I could hear him from all the way over here."

"Yeah… I'm just glad I'm not in his position."

"Alright, Alright. Examinee 7111, thanks for the catch! The fourth faux villain variety gets you zero points! Each battle center has one! He's more of an obstacle you examinees will have to run from!" Present Mic had fixed the miscommunication which prompted the glasses kid to apologise for his interruption.

"That's all from me!! I'll leave all you listeners with our school's motto. Like the great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said: A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes. Go beyond… PLUS ULTRA!!"

The entire audience felt uplifted from their worries. They all felt like they could take on this test.

"Good luck suffering everyone!!" He of course, had to ruin it.

#

The bus ride to battle center C only took about ten to fifteen minutes. Kouki had decided to sit next to Kaminari again as he didn't mind being in his company. 10 minutes had already passed.

"So… Yoshikawa-san! What's your favourite food?" Of all the questions to ask to break the ice he chose food. However, he was always used to the same question over and over again: what is your quirk? So it was indeed a change of pace.

"You can drop the honorific, we'll be seeing each other again." Kouki was certain they would both be passing.

"Ahh.. uhh sorry about that Yoshikawa."

"It's fine. But… My favourite food? Ehh, probably chocolate, especially the high quality stuff." Kouki always had a sweet tooth for chocolate, he could eat any type.

"Oh nice choice! But I'm more of a hamburger guy myself." Hearing Kaminari's comment made Zangetsu become more active.

''' I remember when I last ate a hamburger, hah… I really miss those days.'''

'When the hell did that happen, you've been in that badge for a long time right?'

'''It was before, you idiot. My life as a human was filled with my delectable treats… and food.''' He didn't want to think about what he had just said, so he moved back to his conversation with Kaminari. It was the perfect timing as their battle center was up ahead.

"It looks like we won't be able to talk for much longer. Our battle center is right here." They both looked out at the fake city and marvelled in its presence.

The bus had stopped right outside the front gate. Everyone vacated the bus and admired the large gate and walls in front of them. They all gathered near the door, waiting for the exam to start.

"Woah! I can't believe I'm actually doing this!… I'm a little nervous though." Kaminari echoed the feelings of the others around them.

"You'll be fine. As long as you run as fast as you can when it starts. You'll want to find as many robots as you can." It was obvious to Kouki and most others that in order to succeed they needed to get to each robot the fastest.

"Roger that!" He casually saluted.

'''Do you really think you should have said that out loud to everyone? Now everyone will be alert.'''

'It's fine. Most of them would have known that anyway, it just means more of a challenge right?'

'''Heh, I suppose you're right.'''

"…AND, BEGIN!" The roar of Present Mic reached the battle center. Possibly due to nerves everyone froze, but not Kouki.

"Wo-Woah!" He grabbed hold of Kaminari's yellow jacket and dragged him into the city as quickly as he could. He quickly regained his balance, he looked ahead at Kouki who was sprinting ahead looking back at him.

"Let's split up here. Next time we meet, we'll both be U.A. students. Cya." His last message warmed him up and a confident smile was now plastered on his face. His pace began to increase.

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

'Let's become heroes.'