To Sus or Not to Sus

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…

After a long walk through the whole school, both Arata and Suzaku managed to arrive at the auditorium thanks to the indications of the teachers stationed along the way to help students not get lost.

Once there, both of them began looking for their seats. However, it didn't prove to be much of a challenge.

They had seats assigned by letters and numbers, so by just following the row of seats with the same letter, they ended up arriving rather quickly at theirs. Which ended up being on the lower rows of the auditorium, right in front of the scenery.

Once there, both teenagers saw a teacher with a—Uh, really particular appearance—go up the scenery and announce to the crowd of present examinees that, in order to wait for those examinees that had yet to arrive, the explanations for the practical exam would begin in 20 more minutes.

Which meant that both of them would have to wait a little more, again.

"Ugh, really?!"

Hearing the announcement, Arata groaned loudly while grabbing his hair in dismay.

He was already nervous enough... But they suddenly declared that he would need to keep being nervous for the next 20 minutes to come?

He wanted to die.

Suzaku, on the other hand, simply let out a sigh once he heard that before looking around unbothered as if he had expected it to a certain extent.

Even in the cinema, he had to wait for the trailers to pass before the movie began, so there wasn't much of a difference here.

As such, he lifted his gaze and began glancing at the numerous teenagers seated across the auditorium with curiosity.

'Man, this looks like a convention of freaks…'

One thing that surprised him was the amount of mutation-type Quirk users that were there. Of course, he had seen his fair share of them during his time at school, but maybe because this was the top hero school in Japan, their bizarreness seemed to be at a higher level than he expected.

In his school, it was normal to see a few guys with the appearance of animals or mutated parts in their bodies. However, here in the auditorium, he could see people with full-body mutations that simply didn't seem to resemble any particular animal or living being.

He didn't exactly know how to describe them, but if he were to pick a word to do that, then he would use "extreme".

Nothing that caused him to say "What the fuck?", but still enough to make him say "Huh…?"

Nevertheless, Suzaku didn't feel very threatened by them.

His attention was instead on the seemingly normal-looking examinees with nothing noteworthy at first glance.

After all, according to Suzaku's learnings over the years, those guys were usually amongst the ones he had to be the most cautious around.

As for why?

Because with mutation-type Quirks he could easily infer the Quirk's uses by using the holder's appearance as a guideline. Like, for example, a guy with a bull's head, most likely had the strength of a bull and well… the ability to do whatever a bull is supposedly capable of.

With Quirks that also caused small mutations like antennas, horns, or weird-shaped limbs, he could also infer to some extent the holder's abilities. However, it was better to still be cautious around them as sometimes the mutations didn't really have anything to do with the power that the Quirk bestowed.

However, people with no apparent mutations were the most dangerous on Suzaku's danger scale, as one could expect anything to come from them.

From being Quirkless to being capable of blowing up an entire city with a swing of their hand.

Aight, maybe he was exaggerating a tiny bit. But his point still stood.

He had no way of knowing what they were capable of, and as such, they had the element of surprise in their favor.

Of course, that was only until they revealed their skills on their own, or until he managed to get his hand on prior information about their Quirks to know what he was facing.

That may sound a bit sneaky or cowardly, and he had thought so too when he began learning the art of clapping the cheeks of powerful Quirk users. However, through the years of training under Tatsuo, he came to learn that if he wanted to fight against powerful Quirk users with nothing but his body, information was crucial in closing the gaps in power.

That was the way Tatsuo's martial art against Quirks worked, and he was unashamed of it.

How did it work exactly, you ask? Suzaku would gladly explain it to you.

He had nothing else to do for the time being, after all.

The old man's martial arts against Quirks consisted of performing three important steps before fighting.

First, gather information about the opponent. Be it by either forcing them to draw out their Quirk or by getting the information out of their own mouth after making them speak unintentionally. In this way, one could know what to expect before the fight begins.

Then came identifying and analyzing the adversary's Quirk. Spotting possible weaknesses or advantages that they may have over him that may make the power gap too big, or that may prove fatal without caution.

And finally, choosing what type of combat or strategy he should adopt to overcome the gap in strength.

This final step made use of all the stuff that the old man Tatsuo had taught him.

From learning parkour, acrobatics, and athletics to possess great agility and speed in case of needing it; almost all kinds of armed combat in case he needs a higher output of damage than what his fist and legs can muster; handling guns, long-ranged weapons, and how to throw stuff in the case that he is overpowered in close-quarters and needs to fight from afar; what points of the human body are the most vulnerable or useful to strike during a fight; holds that can incapacitate dangerous opponents without the need to lengthen the fight by damaging each other; to using every single thing in his surroundings to his advantage or as a weapon.

He had literally learned a lot of everything so that he could respond to any possible Quirk in the most optimal way.

Tatsuo had deemed Quirks as chaotic and with endless possibilities. As such, he created a martial art that was just as chaotic and with endless possibilities.

That was all that Tatsuo's Ultimate Anti-Quirk Martial Arts was about. Fighting chaos with chaos.

Because of it, while the examinees without anything weird about them were on the top ranks of Suzaku's list of being cautious against, that didn't mean he was hopeless against them.

Not to mention that, in a way, Suzaku was one of them as well.

Aside from his red hair, he was just a dude with glasses on his face. And while he was fit, so were a lot of the teenagers that had attended this exam.

There was nothing that screamed huge strength, or extreme lethal capabilities about him.

Which meant that he also had the surprise element by his side.

… At least a little bit.

"Hey, Suzaku, stop daydreaming and pay attention, the exam is about to start" Suddenly, Arata shook him. Startling him, and causing him to look around in surprise.

"H-Huh? Oh, what the heck, I dissociated for a second there…" Suzaku grabbed his head.

"A second? Dude, you were literally staring at the air blankly for 20 minutes while muttering "Hehehe… The magnanimous Suzaku will gladly explain it to you…" or something like that" Arata said, staring at Suzaku with an indescribable expression.

"You must be imagining things" Suzaku sneered before he crossed his arms and stared at the scenery. Waiting for the exam to begin.

"I am not—"

"Shhh, dude, the exam is about to start, stop yapping" Suzaku shushed Arata, causing his friend to grit his teeth in anger and even pop up a vein on his forehead.

"I swear I'm gonna punch you one of these days"

"Sure you will do, my slowski friend"

"You—...!"

{"For all of you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today…!"}

Suddenly, as Arata was about to try his luck once again with hitting Suzaku, a loud voice startled both of them and made them turn towards the scenery in surprise.

There, they saw a blonde guy with a… very particular hairstyle, dressed in what seemed to be Rock-star-like fashion.

Upon seeing him, Suzaku raised an eyebrow, while on the other hand, Arata gaped and mumbled with a trembling voice "It's the motherfucking Present Mic!"

"Who?" Suzaku asked.

Hearing him, Arata was about to start yapping again, angry that he was oblivious to the great individual standing in front of them.

But Suzaku fortunately shut him up with a "Shhh" before he could begin explaining.

"I swear one of these days—"

{"Everybody say hey!"} Arata was about to swing his fist at Suzaku, but before he could do so, the loud voice of Present Mic stopped him and made him turn to look at the hero with a weird look.

And not only him. The whole Auditorium shot him the same look, not even considering going along with the… Exotic performance of the hero.

…

Well, except for one guy, who was coincidentally sitting next to Arata.

"Hey!" Out of nowhere, Suzaku yelled unenthusiastically as he raised his fist in the air. Gathering the attention of the entire auditorium, who looked at him weirdly.

"..."

After that, an awkward silence permeated the air for a few seconds, with no one saying anything. 

Fortunately, that silence was quickly interrupted by Present Mic. Who yelled enthusiastically as if he had been waiting for that "hey" throughout his whole life.

{"That's the response I wanted to hear! Now, are you guys ready to begin with the practical exam?!"} 

"Yeah!" Again, the only voice that rose up from the public was that of a certain red-haired guy.

{"Then, I'll quickly present to you the rundown on the Practical Exam!"} Present Mic yelled before he began explaining in detail how the practical exam would go.

While that went down, Suzaku noticed Arata hanging his head low while covering his face with both of his hands.

"What's up pal?" Curious, he asked him while nudging him a little. However, Arata slapped his elbow away as he cried in a little voice. "Why are you like this Suzaku…?"

To which the red-haired teenager chuckled, saying with a big grin "You simply can't handle the Suzaku style", before turning to look back at the the hero with both of his arms crossed. Ignoring any further suffering cries from his friend.

And like that, both youths began to listen deeply to the explanation of the professional hero. Thus, eventually understanding that they would have to fight against robots fabricated by the school, and stack up lots of points by defeating them if they wanted to enroll.

During the explanation, there was also a bit of a ruckus in some seats above them. Apparently, some guy was complaining about stuff in the printout they were handed that detailed some parts of the exam, and about another guy who had been making too much noise. However, Suzaku didn't really pay them much attention. He was thinking of much more important stuff at that moment.

Thus, after the explanation ended, both youths began readying their minds for what was to come, thinking of complex strategies to rank among the best in the exam.

'I'll just hit those robots until they malfunction… Heh, sounds like a plan'

Well, not so complex.

"Alright!" Suddenly, as if making up his mind, Suzaku stood up from his seat and prepared to follow the group of examinees that moved toward the battle center assigned to him.

However, just as he was about to start walking away, Arata grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him.

"Wait a second Suzaku. I've got something for you"

"...?" Hearing that, Suzaku turned to look at his friend and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. After all, Arata wasn't exactly the type to give presents.

However, his surprise only increased when he saw Arata take out of nowhere a pair of black gloves out from his pockets, before handing them to him.

"Remember a year ago when you told me you would use your fists to fight in this exam? Well, I've been working on these gloves for the past year. In summary, they lessen the backlash you receive on your hands whenever you punch something" Arata scratched the back of his head.

Then, as Suzaku began to put them on, he continued explaining. "They work pretty much like boxing gloves do, but without the weakening of your punches that comes as a side effect of that type of gloves, and they are even better at reducing the backlash than them... Ahem. And well, since this doesn't increase your strength, I thought that it shouldn't be a problem for you to use it in the exxam" Arata finalized, glancing with anticipation as Suzaku opened and closed his hands after putting on the invention.

Then, as Arata was about to ask him what he thought, Suzaku slammed both of his fists against each other. Causing a loud Bang to echo across the entire auditorium. Attracting a few curious and surprised glances in the process.

"This is great" Was all Suzaku said. 

That, however, was enough for Arata.

"Well, consider it a thank you for helping me train for the past month" The kid said, before showing his fist to Suzaku. Offering a fist bump.

Suzaku, however, slapped his fist away, before shooting him a deadpan.

"Hey, I feel like we have been doing too many fist bumps lately"

"Really?" Arata tilted his head.

"Or am I just imagining it?" Seeing his friend not know what he was talking about, Suzaku couldn't help but squint his eyes slightly.

Nevertheless, he didn't mind it too much.

"Well, let's do a handshake" Suzaku offered his hand.

"Sure" Nodding, Arata grabbed it, before proceeding to shake it.

The hold didn't last very long though.

"Yeah, this is weird"

"Yup"

…

"... Well, whatever. I'll see you later. Good luck" In the end, Suzaku turned around and bid farewell to Arata. Something that the latter just answered with a nod, before standing up and going on his way.

…

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|A few minutes later, Battle Center D…|

…

'So I'm finally here, huh?' Suzaku thought, glancing at the enormous metal door that kept the group of examinees outside of the battle center, where the practical test was about to take place.

It had taken him 15 long years… Well, 9 years since that's when he set his mind to becoming a hero.

It was a long wait.

A lot of things happened during that time.

He prepared way more than he had anticipated when he started.

He was way stronger than he thought he would be by this point.

He went through a traumatic event and came out as a super powerful Impostor human.

He saved up a lot of money after fighting in the arena.

And all for this moment.

Today was the day he became a hero… Or at least, one in training.

And no matter how broken the Quirks of his peers standing right next to him were, he would make sure that he would enroll, no matter what.

The legend of Suzaku begins today!

…

Or well, considering that it would take a bit for the results of both exams to come out…

Ahem.

—The legend of Suzaku begins… In a few days from now on.

Now though, let the exam begin!

…

-To be Continued-

(A/N: And thus, the metal smacking test begins...)

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