Today was February 26th, and the morning air carried that crisp bite that promised spring was still weeks away. I had been running across the rooftops of Kyoto when Nezu's call came through.
Yeah I had begun picking up his calls much more often, mainly since most of the time I was just running from one place that needed me to the next and it felt nice to be able to talk to someone.
Either way in our previous calls we had discussed how me going public as enrolling into U.A. would be done as late as possible since after that happens I'd have to stop all my vigilante activities.
"Arthur, I need you at U.A. within the hour," he had said, no preamble, no explanation.
"Is everything alright?" I had asked, already changing direction mid-leap, my body automatically adjusting trajectory toward Musutafu.
"Everything's fine. Consider this is... educational."
And now here I was, standing in Nezu's office, still catching my breath from the supersonic journey, well actually that was a lie, I didn't need to catch my breath ever, thanks Avalon.
"So may I repeat why did you call me back in?" I asked, watching Nezu meticulously organize what appeared to be student files. His small paws moved by themselves, which made sense, I mean he had been a principal for a decade at the least it would be kind of weird if he didn't have muscle memory for these kinds of things.
"I wanted to show you something," he finally said, aligning a fresh stack of papers with that muscle memory I had talked about earlier. "Think of this as your first lesson."
He grabbed a stapler from his desk, and brought it down with a sharp SNAP that echoed in the otherwise quiet office. To be honest, I kind of flinched back at the noise, I didn't expect it to be so loud.
After stashing the papers in one of his many drawers, Nezu's gaze finally met mine. Those small, dark button like eyes which made him look like a stuffed animal, not a cute one, more like the creepy one, that stares at you from a cupboard in the dead of night.
"What kind of lesson?" I pressed, though part of me already suspected I wouldn't like the answer.
Instead of responding immediately, Nezu reached under his desk and pressed what I assumed was a hidden button. The ceiling above us rumbled for a microsecond and a massive television descended from above. The screen was easily eight feet across, dominating the entire wall in front of Nezu's desk.
As the display flickered to life, it divided itself into twenty-four distinct sections, each showing a different aerial view of what looked like an urban environment.
"What am I looking at?" I asked, though recognition was already dawning.
"Mock City A," Nezu explained, his voice taking on the tone of a professor delivering a lecture. "One of our practical sites, this one is being used for today's practical exam."
Each section of the screen showed groups of teenagers, all roughly my age, lined up at various entry points, like zones or areas, to the simulated urban environment. They wore a mixture of athletic clothes and what appeared to be makeshift hero costumes. Some looked confident, others nervous. A few were stretching although I did recognize two, since I had saved them before.
One was the blonde spikey haired kid, who had been captured by the sludge villain, he had this wild grin on his face, it looked eerily similar to Mirko's when she tried to fight me, was this guy a battle maniac too?
Either way I didn't stay on those thoughts as in another area was the other person belonging to the sludge incident, a green haired teen who was nervous beyond belief, in fact he almost looked like he was shivering. I remember him since he tried to save the blonde one, although he did put himself in quite a lot of danger.
My recollections were brought to a foregone conclusion since Nezu's squeaky voice reached my ears.
"As you know," Nezu continued, settling back, probably to get comfy, "you'll be entering U.A. by recommendation. My recommendation, specifically, which means you won't have to take any of the entrance examinations."
I felt a familiar twist in my stomach. "Great, now I feel bad."
"Oh, don't you worry about that, lad," Nezu said, though his smile suggested he wasn't entirely sympathetic to my guilt. "You've done more than enough to garner a place in our school. Your record speaks for itself, you don't have to prove your worth as a hero to me or to any of the teachers at this school."
At that I felt a little better, I mean while I didn't help people because I wanted perks, it did feel kind of... nice to have them.
"Plus..." Nezu trailed off, his expression shifting to something that might have been amusement.
"Plus?" I prompted, though I was beginning to suspect I didn't want to hear the rest.
He sighed dramatically, the sound somehow both theatrical and genuine. "Plus, I think you wouldn't have made it past the written portion of the exam two weeks ago."
. "You don't?"
"I don't," he confirmed, and there was no malice in his voice, just matter-of-fact assessment. "Not because I think you're a buffoon or anything of the sort. In fact, you have quite a high emotional intelligence. But Arthur, you haven't attended a proper school in six years."
Six years. Yeah I forgot about that.
"I'm betting," Nezu continued gently, "that you don't actually know enough about mathematics, history, Japanese literature, or even, funnily enough, given your codename, English."
"I know English," I replied automatically, the defensiveness in my voice surprising even me.
"Oh, you do, do you?" Nezu's tone carried that slight humor once more.
"Yeah, my mom taught me. She was British," I said, feeling that familiar sad smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.
I felt Nezu's small paw pat my back in what was probably meant to be a comforting gesture. For such a small creature, his presence had a way of filling spaces much larger than himself.
"It's fine," I said, though we both knew it wasn't entirely true. Some wounds never fully healed; they just became part of who you were.
Shaking off the melancholy, I focused back on the screens in front of us. The students were getting into position now, and I could see the tension building in their body language. "So why did you pull these up?"
"I already told you," Nezu said, his attention returning to the monitors. "This is going to be your first lesson."
"And what lesson exactly am I going to learn?" I asked, though something in his tone was setting off warning bells in my head.
"Restraint," Nezu answered. His gaze remained fixed on the television, watching as the students made their final preparations.
"Restraint?" I repeated, not liking where this was heading.
"Restraint," he reiterated, nodding his head slowly. "No matter what happens in this exam, I don't want you to interfere. If you move from the spot you are currently standing on, then you fail."
I looked down at my feet, suddenly hyperaware of my position on Nezu's office carpet. It seemed simple enough, just stand still and watch. How hard could that be?
But even as I thought it, I knew Nezu wouldn't have made this a test if it was going to be easy. He was a hyper intelligent mouse after all.
"What do I get if I succeed?" I asked, mostly out of curiosity.
Nezu's smile widened, showing small buck like teeth that somehow managed to look both endearing and slightly menacing. "If you stay where you are, and I mean exactly where you are, not even a step in any direction, I'll design and make your official hero suit. Just to let you know, I'm pretty good with my hands. Well, more accurately, I'm exceptionally good with my brain, but the hands follow what the brain says, so I suppose what I said is still correct."
A custom hero suit designed by one of the most brilliant minds in Japan? The offer was tempting.
"Oh by the way, the scarf you have, that was also made by me, so that should give you a rough idea about the qualities of my work."
I grabbed the scarf hanging at my neck, smiled. Decision made.
"You're on," I replied, extending my hand toward him. His small paw met my hand, my palm covering his entire hand up to the wrist.
That eerie smile spread across his mouse face again, maybe I would actually never get used to it.
The television screens flickered, and suddenly a booming voice filled the office.
"AANNDD START!!!"
At that exact moment, the students rushed into the mock city like water breaking through a dam.
A/N: The bonus chapter for the 200 powerstones is here, I kept my promise. Now onto other things, the exam is already here, so I had to decide who wouldn't make it into class 1 A.
The first one that came to mind was the one you're probably all thinking off, Mineta (god I hate how that character acts most of the time, although his quirk is really cool), however I have a plan for Mineta so that rules him out.
Then I thought, to check the actual points everyone got, but i was only able to find the points for the top 10. Then I thought of something else, what characters have the least impact in the story, I came up with two, which you can vote on (pls vote on the paragraphs of the characters)
Koji Koda, anivoice, gives him the ability to command any creature in the animal kingdom by speaking to them. Whatever command he gives, the animal will carry it out. However, he cannot exert control if they cannot hear his command. The target must also be a real animal and not merely animal-like.
Rikido Sato, quirk sugar rush, allows him to increase his strength five-fold for three minutes. To activate his Quirk, he needs to consume 10 grams of sugar. When converting sugar into strength, his cognitive functions gradually drop, making him sleepy afterward. For every additional 10 grams of sugar he ingests, he extends the time of increased strength by another three minutes.
I myself am leaning towards Koji since, Rikido is the more interesting character imo. Expect the next chapter at the usual time. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thx for reading. Author out.