Chapter 8: Mina Ashido
"How lucky! A lone medium-sized robot. Let me just sneak up on it..." A girl with pink skin and antennae-like horns on her head crept along the trees lining the street, closing in on a robot that was standing motionless, seemingly without a target. She brought her hands together, a mischievous grin on her face as she took aim. "Get ready to eat my acid attack!"
"Hamon Overdrive!"
A figure suddenly dropped from a rooftop. After briefly using the tree above the girl to break his fall, he leaped again, slamming his foot into the head of the robot standing in the middle of the street. The girl could faintly see golden arcs of energy crackling around his leg.
"So cool! Wait a minute..." the girl suddenly realized. "That was my target!"
Forgetting her pose, she charged toward the figure in a huff. "Hey, you! I saw that one first!"
Yoshikage Kira turned around, the dismantled remains of the robot behind him. He replied in a good mood, "You saw it first, so it's yours? But I'm the one who already cashed in the points."
Kira had been weaving through the battlefield, launching sneak attacks just like this one. While it felt a bit dishonorable, the strategy was highly effective, and he had already eliminated numerous enemies. By his calculations, his current score should easily place him in the top three for this exam site.
Based on U.A. High's past admission numbers, he was likely in the group with the highest chance of being accepted.
More than half the time had already passed, and the ten-minute limit was fast approaching. There wasn't much to be gained from more kill-stealing, so Yoshikage didn't mind chatting with someone for a bit.
"You jerk... but there's no point in being angry, he already got the points..." the girl muttered to herself. She suddenly looked up at Yoshikage. "If I got ambushed, I guess others probably did too?"
Receiving a nod of confirmation from Yoshikage, her mood brightened instantly. Her eyes sparkling, she gestured excitedly. "That move you did, dropping down from the sky, was so awesome! Hey, my name's Mina Ashido! Can we be friends?"
But I stole your points... Yoshikage suddenly felt a pang of shame. His intention in talking to her had partly been to stall her and waste her time...
Yoshikage asked, "...Um, don't you need to go find more enemies? Do you have enough points?"
Mina Ashido laughed like a child. "Actually, I've used up almost all of my acid. I'm pretty much out of fighting power now. Even if I went looking, I might not find any robots, and even if I did, I might not be able to beat them..."
So this girl is the type to just go with the flow... Also, you just revealed your Quirk's limits to me. We're still competitors, you know?
Yoshikage kept a straight face, but his mind was racing with retorts. Just how was he supposed to interact with this girl?
Just as he was about to tell her to keep searching for enemies, the sound of collapsing buildings and the terrified screams of other examinees filled the air.
And then he saw it—a single-eyed robot, simply designed yet towering several stories high. A machine of pure, unadulterated violence, it crushed a sturdy-looking building with just one of its mechanical hands, the aftershock kicking up a cloud of dust that quickly enveloped half the test site.
"Are you kidding me?! How are we supposed to win against something like that!"
"We're not Pro Heroes! We can't do anything against that thing!"
"Run! We just have to run! That's the one we're supposed to avoid, right?!"
Like a monster from a tokusatsu film, the giant, zero-point robot could pulverize a building with a single stomp. It was an unstoppable disaster!
The examinees scattered throughout the test site, no matter how skilled they were with their Quirks, were still just junior high students at their core. They all panicked, abandoning their targets and scrambling to get away from the massive machine.
The part of the giant robot that served as its head swiveled, its gaze locking onto Yoshikage's position. As if it had found its prey, the indicator light on its head began to flash red.
"This is bad. It's set its sights on us."
No wonder the school had designated this faux villain as an obstacle to be avoided. Given its size, even if they could defeat it, they would have no energy left to take on any other enemies.
"In other words, this is a deliberate test of the examinees' ability to make a strategic retreat when facing an unbeatable foe..."
Without any hesitation, Yoshikage grabbed Mina Ashido's hand and broke into a run, heading for the town's main street where the other students were gathering, as it was the only way to the exit.
Mina didn't seem to fully grasp the situation, but she didn't resist being pulled along by Yoshikage. She just asked curiously, "Huh? Are we running away? Is that robot coming for us?"
This behemoth hadn't been released at the start. It had appeared suddenly when most students had already secured a good number of points. Besides testing their adaptability, it was likely meant to encourage cooperation and mutual aid, pushing students to abandon competition and work together to overcome the crisis.
But there was no need to explain all that to Mina. Yoshikage simply said, "We need to regroup with the others and share intel."
"Oh, okay." Mina seemed to half-understand, yet not understand at all. She looked at Yoshikage's back as he pulled her along, his hair flying in the wind, and suddenly started to laugh. "I'm so glad I ran into you! Anyone else would have probably just left a burden like me behind, right?"
Yoshikage didn't have time to ponder the meaning of her words. He was busy analyzing the behemoth's movement patterns in his head. "Isn't that what anyone would do?" he said dismissively.
Even if you weren't a hero, wouldn't any ordinary person help someone nearby when faced with a potential danger?
Although the town was large and Yoshikage had run to a more remote area while hunting for points, it seemed everyone in this world had enhanced physical abilities. It didn't take long for him to lead Mina to the area where the other students had gathered.
Since time wasn't up yet, they were all just staring in terror at the robot. But overall, they were relatively calm, with no one losing control out of fear. After all, these were the top students from their respective schools; they all had a certain amount of pride. They gathered together and began to discuss the situation.
"Can we really take that thing on? My Quirk isn't that strong," one student said to the person next to them.
He was met with an eye-roll. "Are you stupid? Present Mic said there are no points for beating that thing. Why would you do something so difficult for no reward?"
Someone else chimed in, "But I don't think I have enough points yet. I'm way behind everyone else..."
"So what do you want to do? Go around that thing and find lone robots somewhere else?"
That was completely impossible. This was U.A., after all. From Yoshikage's observations, the robot was either being controlled by someone or was programmed to automatically attack the nearest person. The branching paths to other streets were now blocked by the approaching giant, deliberately herding the examinees in one direction.
Whether it was because she was naturally friendly or just had no sense of danger, Mina had already excitedly started chatting with the other students. Although he hadn't expected much from her, seeing her act like this really made him wonder if she had what it takes to be a hero.
Yoshikage glanced at the time. There were less than three minutes left until the end of the exam. A bold idea began to form in his mind.