Chapter 22:

A figure laid in a luxurious bed placed in the middle of the bedroom. Eyes squinting shut as the said figure curled up under the covers, cuddling two people closer.

Bright sun rays shining through the gaps in the curtains as she let out a groan. The figure started burying herself deeper into the covers in an attempt to hide from the sun.

As the sun fades, before the figure finished debating on whether or not to erase the sun, her eyes fluttered open.

Her gaze was hazy as she glanced around. With her quirk, she knew the alarm was about to go off and let it do so. She would rather the alarm wake the two adorable people sleeping next to her than do it herself and face some cute pouts for a few hours.

As the alarm woke the two sleeping beauties next to her, the figure shuffled around, pulling herself up into a sitting position. Mornings were not this silver-haired girl's forte. She would rather sleep forever and melt into the comfort of the blankets before even thinking of waking up.

She couldn't comprehend how anyone could possibly be a morning person. They must be a psychopath, or something similar, to happily wake up in the morning.

(Sakuya POV)

I let out one last yawn before standing up, raising my arms over my head; a satisfying pop resounded throughout the bedroom as I stretched. It sounded like bubble wrap was being popped over and over again.

'Oh god, I should really stretch more often.'

After shuffling my hair into a semi-presentable position, I moved over into my walk-in closet and grabbed all of our slippers.

I had ducky slippers, Momo had ladybug slippers, and Eri had unicorn slippers.

Yep, we have style.

I slipped my foot into the slippers and handed Momo her pair while I fitted Eri with hers. Eri was never a morning person and is the laziest person out of us all in the morning. After fitting her slippers on her tiny feet, I pulled her up into my arms,

"You can sleep all you want in the viewing room for the entrance exam Eri. I'm sure Fluffy-chan wouldn't mind being a plush toy for you to cuddle with either."

I walked to the door and waited for Momo to come over. Once she did, we pecked each other on the lips and set off to the kitchen, hand in hand.

We drank some tea and had our breakfast that consisted of pancakes, much to Eri's joy.

We did sit down and talk with one another during the entire meal, well apart from Eri, who was too busy eating to answer. Momo and I kept discussing what the recommended exam entailed, to which I told her all my knowledge of the said event.

"It starts with a written exam for an hour-long written exam. After, they split you into groups and have those groups race on a straight track. It is meant to determine the creativity of your quirk usage and the speed you can make it from one point to another. They don't want stupid or slow heroes, after all. After that, they will make a tournament where people fight each other, the top 10 then will go through a harsh interview process to cull the numbers to 4 students."

"That sounds… daunting."

"Yeah, It's going to be a hassle, but we can do it!"

"What do you mean 'we' can do it? Aren't you going to enter through the normal exam like everyone else?"

"Yeah, I am. Fluffy-chan even approved my decision. However, he said he wanted me to go to all the exam sites, including the recommendation one, and 'intimidate' them all with my quirk's power to gauge how they would do in the competitive climate of the hero world and its ranking system."

"Oh my, that sounds mean. What happens to the points you accumulate, though? Wouldn't you just be able to take all of the robots for yourself and leave them with no chance of passing at all?"

"Hm? I'm not too sure about it myself. I assume that I would only get points for a singular testing center. Whether it's my highest points or my lowest, I have no idea."

I took a sip of my choccy milk before continuing,

"I was told to focus on saving people during the test and healing any injuries, so I will just follow that. Maybe slip in a big show of might or something to 'intimidate' the test takers per site for the normal exam."

"Well, I suppose that's fine."

We continued chatting about other topics, mainly regarding the dorm situation for when we get accepted and whether or not to bring Eri along. It was still up in the air.

We all, eventually, got washed and dressed in our attire for the day. I was in a black tracksuit, white crop top, and a throwing knife belt across my thigh. The knives stocked were enchanted with sharpness V books from Minecraft, and plenty of Skyrim enchants.

Momo's quirk is the best a knife maniac like me could ask for.

Momo made her own clothes for today out of a material that functions as a one-way pathway for her creations. It was styled to look the same as my outfit. I guess she wanted to match with me today.

The only difference was the lack of a knife belt and the addition of a borderlands-style shield of her own creation. It was a version of the sham shield, but it had a 100% absorb chance for bullets, has an electrical shockwave effect for when depleted, along with some elemental immunities.

It was the single best support item money couldn't buy.

Eri's outfit is a white dress shirt with a frilled collar and a plain red pinafore with two large, golden buttons on either side of her chest. Under this, she wears gray tights and a large set of tan boots, and a small dark red messenger bag with the strap sitting over her right shoulder, and a little floral pattern decorating one of its sides. (A/N: her canon outfit.)

When we made it to the venue and made it to the observation room, I started generating clones for each testing center and the nurse's office while I stayed with Eri.

"Miss Izayoi, could you please be a dear and pry your child off of me?"

"No can do Fluffy-chan. I promised her that you would be her cuddle friend while she sleeps today."

"Alright… Can you at least undo the time loop you did on my teapot? I have grown bored of earl grey for now."

"Mhm, sure thing~!"

I erased the time loop from the teapot he pulled out of nowhere. I should learn that trick. Maybe my distance manipulation could do it.

He began brewing some chamomile tea. The aromatic scent flooded the small room.

We talked about our game plan for intimidating the students during the exam, to which I suggested a big show of power at the start of the event to discourage them. As we finished talking, the chimera threw another responsibility on me,

"Now, Miss Izayoi, I believe it's time for your opening speech for the exam, no?"

"Huh?! What are you talking about, Fluffy-chan? Speech? Me? Nah..."

"Oh no. Anyway, start making your way down to the auditorium."

Making my way out of the room, I began grumbling about some stupid plushies and stuff. I decided to take this new development in a good view after realizing I get to mess around with an audience filled with budding hero wannabes.

As I began walking to the stage, a serious expression on my face, whispers broke out.

"Who is that?"

"Are they the teacher?"

"What the fuck is Sakuya doing now?"

"Mina, do you know what she's doing on the stage?"

"Hell nah, I just hope she still gets accepted after whatever she does."

Tapping on the microphone, the screens behind me lighting up as I do so, I cleared my throat before speaking.

"Good Morning, hero hopefuls. My name is Sakuya Izayoi, the owner of UA.

I was asked to make a short message to you all and explain how the exam will go today. If you have any questions, keep them to yourself because I don't care, you aren't worth my time, and I doubt your questions will be.

If you look up at the screen and in the leaflets, you were handed out. You will see there are multiple things listed. That's all the information you need for today, and you had ten minutes to read up on it before I entered. For the people in the room that are either blind or illiterate, I will explain it.

You will participate in a ten-minute mock urban battle with various robotic opponents of varying points and sizes. Three types of robots earn you points out of the four listed. They are named the 1-pointer, 2-pointer, and 3-pointer. Creative, I know. The more points the robot is worth, the bigger and more dangerous it is. It is a high-risk, high-reward scenario.

Your goal is simple: compete against your peers to grab the most points possible within the time limit."

I could see Iida having his hand up. Deciding to humor him, I asked,

"Yes, the boy in glasses with his hand up?"

"Yes, Iida Tenya, Ma'am! You said the bigger the robotic opponent, the higher the reward. What about the 0-pointer? Surely such a huge obstacle should be worth many points in and of itself. I doubt that UA would have made such a blatant mistake in their printing to label it as such."

"Oh? You're curious about the 0-pointer, are you? It's more of an obstacle than anything. It's also there to show you that the hero world isn't always rewarding.

Because it isn't.

The world of heroics that you have been fed through the media your entire life is only the bright side of it. In reality, It is a dingy and gritty profession, not for the light of heart. You are here to become heroes, are you not? Then it's our job to teach you that not everything is fair, not everything will be worth it, and things won't go your way.

Do you wonder why my school, UA, is such a prestigious academy? It's because we teach you a harsh dose of reality and expect you to overcome it all at the end of your three years here. If you can't? Then you don't deserve to be a hero. If you do? You will become the best of the best.

To be honest with all 10,000+ of you, I barely see 100 people in this room worth teaching. The rest of you are faceless nobodies that I'm sure will fade into the nothingness of society in no time at all.

That aside, I wish you all luck in getting in and proving me wrong.

I'm sure some of you in this very room have mental-based quirks or quirks that don't work on robots. How many of you have this problem?"

A giant shout of agreements and declarations came out.

"There's a lot of you, but that's to be expected. However, here's another question. How many of you filled in your support gear forms that were available on the website you used to sign up for entering this school?"

The previous cacophony turned into a few hushed whispers. I continued after shaking my head.

"You are all morons. You have a quirk that needs enhanced mental capabilities to work, yet your brains are still so woefully stupid. I will have nobody complaining about a biased or unfair exam. You were all given ample time and opportunity to cover your potential weaknesses with support items, but you didn't. Pathetic."

Shouts and curses came from the stands, which I couldn't care about at all.

"Wow, I point out a mistake of yours, and you all start throwing expletives at me? The owner of the school? I see.

Well, If you can't take a single person mocking you, you didn't deserve to be a hero anyway.

Do you know how many hecklers heroes face every day? Too many.

Most heroes deal with hecklers positively and efficiently, yet you all blew your fuses. Your hero license would have had a strike on it, and a hefty fine would have been slapped on you by the commission if the civilian in question decided to press charges if you got physical like most of you want to get with me.

All of you look under your seats. You will find your testing center listed on the paper. Please head towards the appropriate bus outside and make your way to the battlefield. It has been a pleasure speaking to you today and making you all realize your faults.

I can only hope you use this opportunity to grow and rise to the challenge."

After dismissing the disgruntled attendees, I walked up to the viewing room. The sight I was greeted with was amusing.

Eri had Fluffy-chan in a chokehold while being completely asleep.

Mic and Midnight were gossiping over my entire speech and seriously wondering If I was their actual boss in the corner of the room.

Granny Chiyo was facepalming while her recently 'resurrected' daughter was laughing her ass off. Yes, you read that right. I decided to do a good thing for someone else. Shocking, I know.

I jumped back in time when she was dying, yoinked her through the time stream, and left her healed body in Chiyo's infirmary. Chiyo nearly had a heart attack the next day when unlocking the door.

Vlad King was just deadpanning at me.

Homeless-san gave me a thumbs up and his weird smile he always does. I don't think he knows how to properly smile without looking like a serial killer.

Ectoplasm was too busy elsewhere, driving people to the battle centers and dealing with the extras.

I have no idea where the rest are.

I walked over to Eri and pried her off of the principal as he was turning purple. It was visible through his fur too! She clung to my torso and began locking herself onto it immediately.

"What did you think of my speech? Personally, Fluffy-chan, I think you should thank me."

He took numerous deep breaths before finally speaking,

"Thank you for doing the speech, Miss Izayoi."

"Yeah, I'm great, aren't I? Anyway, what did you think?"

"You certainly were… Blunt.

You did communicate all the information that was needed of you, which was nice.

You also, in your own roundabout way, fired them up.

I do hope that you stop claiming to own the school and undermine my position, as fun as watching you do so is.

I appreciate that you also answered their concerns about quirks not working on robots and how they could have prepared better, as harsh as you were when doing so.

Overall? I think it was a great opening speech."

He did start maniacally laughing at the end. I don't know how one tiny thing could be so loud; then I remembered my phone's alarm. We watched through the screens as the exams were starting.

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(Testing center A clone POV)

I had a mask on, courtesy of my wife's lipids.

God, that sounds weird out of context.

Any~ways~ I am currently waiting for the signal to start before I get this show on the road. Soon after Present Mic's voice came through the loudspeakers,

"Okay, listeners! Welcome to the testing centers. As you can see, they are all miniature cities modeled after various neighborhoods in Japan. The test will be starting soon, so go-"

""PLUS ULTRA!""

I didn't join in on the shout as anyone with advanced hearing that may not have been deafened by that huge chant of the school's motto would have been able to recognize my voice.

The buzzer came right afterward, along with the opening of the gates. That was the signal.

I stopped time and used my distance manipulation to teleport me to the tallest building to get a vantage point. I was standing atop a scaled-down version of the Tokyo Tower. Looking around the city, I spot thirty or so robots in my line of sight.

Brandishing copies of the enchanted knives I made, I threw them into the air before duplicating them so they would be surrounding me in a circle and made them stutter in mid-air.

After making sure I didn't completely fuck it up, I accelerated the stuttering of said knives to the point they were becoming a blur.

I unfroze time and watched as the knives flew off in a blur towards their intended targets.

They all struck the 'eyes' of the robots and pierced right through them.

The explosions came soon after.

Typically the robots wouldn't explode due to any safety issues that might occur. Still, that entire safety mechanism only works if they can sense anybody nearby, whether thermally or any other means. So I, who was hundreds of meters away and killed them before they could fully calibrate themselves, wasn't able to be sensed.

It was glorious!

A bunch of the city turned to ruins. Buildings have collapsed, water pipes were spewing liquid everywhere, broken glass was littering the floor, among other debris.

I think I did my show of power just right.

I looked back to the crowd of participants. They were all rooted to the spot in both shock and awe. It was so bad that Present Mic had to remind them that they too had to compete for points.

After causing all of that chaos, I decided to lay back and focus on saving anyone from harm.

--------------------------

(Sakuya POV)

We all started watching the testing center screens as soon as Fluffy-chan pressed the buzzer before saying,

"Let's see what these children can do."

"I'm sure they'll be fi-"

'Ah, I guess they stopped time already. Why do they always have to do it when I'm talking?!'

I just waited for the time stop to end before finishing my sentence.

"-ne"

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

I was too busy watching the screen to notice the incredulous looks I was getting from the staff for causing so many explosions in such a short amount of time. After noting that nobody was hurt in the explosion I began speaking once more,

"See~? Everything's A-Okay"

"Yes, there were no casualties despite the numerous explosions."

"It was great, right?!"

"Yes, it was! Hah~ I haven't seen such chaos in quite a while. Everything is too peaceful nowadays."

"Um, Fluffy-chan?"

"Yes, Miss Izayoi, what's the matter?"

"Are you sure that you, the principal of the most prestigious hero academy in Japan, should be saying that you wish for more chaos and that things are too peaceful?"

"The things I do for my job take priority over my own pleasure-"

*Pfft*

"Something funny, Miss Izayoi?"

"Hehehe, you said pleasure."

"I forgot that despite your mature looks, you are indeed a child."

"Hmph! How rude of you, Fluffy-chan! I hope both sides of your pillow are warm tonight."

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(Recommended exam clone POV)

I was walking with Momo as we were in the same group for the race. We were currently discussing the test when a sudden boisterous man greeted us,

"Hello! I'm in your group for the race. Let's go PLUS ULTRA!!!"

He slammed his head into the concrete flooring, leaving a dent in it!

I swore that I knew this person from the show, but I was drawing blanks at the moment. I decided to greet the bald giant,

"Hello..."

"Inasa Yoarashi!"

"Hello, Yoarashi-san. It's nice to see someone so energetic instead of the serious faces everyone seems to be putting on at the minute. I hope that we both make it in and become good friends!"

He took my outstretched hand and shook it enthusiastically. I now knew who this giant in front of me was. The student that was put off by what I like to call Edgy-roki or Early-roki.

He has a wind quirk. If I remember correctly, it could be a great help in pretty much every encounter with the LOV 1-A have. He was also ridiculously strong, physically and quirk wise.

Momo decided to greet him next,

"I too wish that we could be good friends in the future, Yoarashi-san."

If Momo didn't chug that super-soldier serum, I would be worried about her arm being ripped off by how fast that Inasa was shaking it.

Soon after we exchanged pleasantries, the edgy ice cream man himself came over. Well, he wasn't so edgy as we have been working on something in the background throughout the years.

I found out that it was possible to make him accept his quirk without breaking every fucking bone I own on a nationally broadcasted event. Shocker.

Momo because she didn't know about Endeavor's situation, and Inasa finally had a comrade in arms. He and Yoarashi made quick friends when I told Inasa that Todoroki hates his father more than he ever could. It was a shock to both Momo and Inasa when I said that.

For the 100m dash, the times were for our group:

1st: Sakuya Izayoi - 0.001 seconds.

2nd: Momo Yaoyorozu - 5.603 seconds.

3rd: Inasa Yoarashi - 8.407 seconds.

4th: Shoto Todoroki - 8.514 seconds.

The only reason I didn't get faster was that it was the lowest the speedometer could read. Momo came through with her super-soldier serum boosted body and demolished it.

The same thing happened in canon with Inasa beating Shoto, but this time they're friends. He didn't use his fire this time either, probably to spite his father in a semi-public setting before he can move out.

Endeavor was having constipation if the look on his face meant anything or he was angry. The jury is still out on that one. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs about how his creation should be number one before realizing that calling your son a creation wouldn't go down well.

The tournament arc ended with:

1st: Sakuya Izayoi

2nd: Momo Yaoyorozu

3rd: Shoto Todoroki

4th: Inasa Yoarashi

5th: Setsuna Tokage

6th: Extra

7th: Juzo Honenuki

8th: Extra

9th: Extra

10th: Extra

Momo did manage to pull a fast one on me with a ring that negated the effects of time stop. Too bad that it didn't stop me from accelerating myself and kicking her into a nearby wall. She wasn't harmed because of the shield, but she was sent out of bounds. If she had more prep time, I would have been yeeted off by grenades and whatever other contraption she would concoct.

The other battles weren't really notable. Hell, even Inasa's and Shoto's match was them just having a dick/quirk measuring contest with cyclones and icebergs the entire time. Shoto did finally use his flames, and it caused a huge explosion that rattled the whole building and sent Inasa hurtling towards a wall. I guess he saw the outcome and didn't want to lose to Inasa a second time.

I just had tea with Fluffy-chan during my interview. He has already spent long enough getting to know me, so there was no need. Momo did pretty well, turns out etiquette training is a great thing to have as it prepares people for interviews and keeps them calm throughout. Inasa was shouting his answers to where I could hear them from three rooms over.

The results for the interviews took place a few minutes afterward. Presumably, so Fluffy-chan could go over all the tapes himself. The announced people that were officially being accepted were: Momo, Shoto, Inasa, and Setsuna. Fluffy-chan also revealed that I, the top scorer, was already in UA and was another obstacle.

Luckily, all the students that weren't accepted had a chance to do an exam like the regular applicants. Just that it was scaled down for the number of participants, and there were a few of UA's 1st-year hero course students competing with them. It was to make it closer to the actual exam.

We all parted ways soon after, wishing each other a safe journey.

Shoto did slip something into my pocket, but that's for another time.

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(Sakuya POV)

I was walking back from the cafeteria because Eri was hungry and wanted food. I may have wanted to put my choccy milk in the fridge to cool it down too.

Soon enough, my clone entered the room; they gave me something before erasing themself. I slipped it into my pocket and went back to sipping on my choccy milk with Eri.

Momo came in and told us, mainly Eri, the results. She was super happy about getting in. She may not have shown it outwardly, but she was terrified of the prospect of failing to get in even with all the training she's done. So the fact that she got in and beat some people she previously wouldn't have if not due to her awakening was gratifying.

A huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders, which was a great thing because her boobs were already weighing her down, and I was worried about her height being stunted.

We did talk about our experiences for today. It was mainly about me and a large number of explosions that were set off an hour prior. I regaled her with the magnificent tale of how I, the owner of UA, did a wonderful speech that boosted everyone's confidence and then proceeded to crush it with a huge light show from atop the replica of the Tokyo Tower.

My story greatly amused her before asking for the actual one.

I then told her the actual story on the way home about how I called them pathetic and that most of them will be forgotten by society soon. Of course, I spun it in the most self-effacing way possible.

She said she wasn't going to cuddle or hug me for the rest of the day as punishment. She forgot that I had the world's biggest cuddle machine sitting on my lap, so I played her game. I said I was only going to cuddle with Eri for today.

Eri got the hint and started hugging my waist, sticking a tongue out a Momo before hiding her face in my chest.

Yeah… Momo soon broke.

She tried to get in on the cuddle action, but we kept denying her access. I worded it in a way that sounded like I was helping her, which made her want to hug me more. We did cuddle again, only after I had a good teasing session, though.