The morning of the UA Recommendation Exam did not begin with the warmth of the sun. For Lucian Sanguine, it began with the cold, sterile hum of the medical-grade refrigerator in his private quarters and the familiar, metallic tang of his morning supplement.
He stood before his full-length mirror, adjusting the high, stiff collar of his charcoal-grey suit. The fabric was heavy, woven with microscopic lead fibers to help dampen the sensory input he received from the world's heartbeats. He looked less like a student and more like a gothic omen. His blackish-white hair was swept back, revealing the sharp, demonic contrast of his eyes—one a vivid crimson, the other a darker, fiery red.
A soft, frantic knock at the door preceded a whirlwind of silk.
"Lucian! Lucian! You're leaving without saying goodbye!"
Mia scrambled into the room, her eyes wide with a mix of sadness and pride. She held out a small, crumpled ribbon—a bright, cheerful yellow.
"Tie this to your wrist," she insisted, her small heart fluttering in a rhythm Lucian could only describe as 'sunshine.' "It's for luck. So you don't get too grumpy during the tests. And so you remember to come home to me."
Lucian looked at the yellow ribbon—a stark contrast to his aesthetic. He didn't hesitate. He took it and tied it firmly around his left wrist, tucking it just under his silk cuff.
"I'll keep it safe, Mia," he said, his voice losing its icy edge as he knelt to her level. "I promise."
In the grand hallway, his father, Alaric, was waiting. He looked at Lucian with a steady, prideful gaze.
"The car is waiting, Lucian," Alaric said. "Go out there and show them the weight of our name. Whether you end up in Class 1-A or 1-B, it doesn't matter to me. Just passing the recommendation threshold is enough to secure the Sanguine standing. 1-B is respectable, and 1-A is prestigious—either way, you've proven your worth. Good luck, son."
Lucian nodded. 1-B would be better, he thought privately. Less limelight. Less work.
The Fortress of Ambition
The drive to UA was a silent affair. Lucian sat in the back of the family's custom-built Rolls-Royce, the tinted windows shielding him from the morning glare. Outside, he saw the 'Standard' students trekking toward the main gates.
Through the glass, he could sense them. Their heartbeats were unrefined—messy rhythms of caffeine and anxiety. But the Recommendation Exam was different. It was an elite gathering of the future aristocracy. As the car pulled up to the specialized testing hall, Lucian stepped out, and the air immediately felt heavy. Here, the heartbeats weren't frantic; they were steady, powerful, and brimming with ego.
Inside the grand waiting hall, a familiar figure approached. Momo Yaoyorozu.
"It has been quite a while, Lucian," Momo said, her posture perfect.
"Yaoyorozu," Lucian acknowledged with a shallow bow. "You look as composed as ever."
"We've known each other since we were children, Lucian. There's no need for such formalities here," Momo said softly. "Please, call me Momo."
Lucian blinked, his crimson eyes softening for a brief second. "Very well, Momo. And you... you may call me Lucian. It seems we are both here to uphold legacies that are far older than we are."
"I suppose we are. Good luck today, Lucian," she said, her eyes flicking to the yellow ribbon on his wrist.
"Good luck to you as well, Momo," he replied.
The Tension: Ice and Wind
As the candidates gathered for the briefing, a sudden, explosive energy disrupted the room.
"HOTT!! THAT WAS SO HOT!! SO PASSIONATE!!"
A tall boy with a shaved head—Inasa Yoarashi—was bowing so hard his forehead cracked against the floor with a sickening thud. He stood up, blood trickling down his face, looking directly at Shoto Todoroki.
"You're Endeavor's son, aren't you?!" Inasa shouted, his voice booming with a manic intensity.
Todoroki didn't even turn his head. His eyes were cold, distant, and utterly dismissive. "Get out of my way," he muttered, walking past Inasa as if the boy didn't exist.
Lucian narrowed his eyes. Todoroki's heartbeat was strange—it was split. A cold, steady rhythm on one side and a boiling, turbulent engine on the other. But more than that, there was a jagged spike in Inasa's rhythm. The rejection had turned his "passion" into something sharper. Lucian looked away; the dissonance made his own blood itch.
The Written Exam: The Philosophy of Order
The written portion was designed to break the average mind, but for a Sanguine, it was a game of logic. Lucian's pen moved with effortless grace. When he reached the final question—"What does it mean to be a Hero?"—he thought of his father's branding and Mia's ribbon.
"A Hero is a biological stabilizer. The world is a system of chaotic rhythms—villainy, fear, and collapse. To be a hero is to possess the will to impose order upon that chaos. It is the cold necessity of being the predator that hunts the monsters, ensuring the safety of the herd through absolute dominance over the pulse of society.
The Written Exam Results: Measure of the Mind
The written examination concluded in silence, broken only by the soft hum of UA's grading system processing answers at inhuman speed. The candidates were gathered once more, eyes fixed on the digital board at the front of the hall.
Lucian stood calmly among them, posture relaxed, though his senses remained sharp. Heartbeats spiked across the room—anticipation, pride, fear. He ignored most of them.
The screen flickered.
Names appeared.
At the top:
Momo Yaoyorozu — 96 Points
A ripple of quiet admiration passed through the hall. Momo remained composed, though Lucian caught the subtle acceleration of her heartbeat—controlled satisfaction, earned rather than flaunted.
Next:
Lucian Sanguine — 95 Points
A few heads turned.
Lucian did not react. He had expected as much. His philosophy was precise, efficient, and unsettling—UA valued intellect that could justify power. Still, being one point behind Momo felt… acceptable.
Then came the next names:
Inasa Yoarashi — 90 PointsShoto Todoroki — 90 Points
The contrast between them was striking. Inasa grinned broadly, practically vibrating with energy, while Todoroki barely acknowledged the score, his expression unchanged, eyes distant.
Lucian exhaled slowly.
So the aristocracy of the mind is clear, he thought. Creation, control, passion, and division.
His gaze briefly shifted to Momo. She noticed, offering him a polite, almost imperceptible nod.
Ninety-six.
Ninety-five.
The margins were thin—but in this place, even a single point carried weight.
And the real test, Lucian knew, had yet to begin.
The Inventory of Power
Before the physical exam began, Lucian stood at the starting line, mentally cataloging his current state. He checked his watch; it was midday. Not great, he thought. If it were midnight, I'd be 1.5x stronger.
He ran through his toolkit:
Thermal Doping: He could thin his blood to move at superhuman speeds, but it was a ticking clock. 45 to 80 seconds before the Anemic Crash hit him with dizziness and black spots.
The Burst: He could snap his fingers to kill small pests for blood weapons, but humans were still off-limits.
Sensory: He could hear every heart in a 20-meter radius, and his Iron Haze could make anyone near him feel instant vertigo.
But the weaknesses weighed on him. The Photosensitivity was already draining his stamina faster under the bright UA sun. Worse, the sight of a support robot's blowtorch in the distance made him slightly nauseous—Pyrophobia was a biological shut-down he couldn't ignore.
The Physical: The Race of Rhythms
"On your marks... Get set..."
BANG!
Lucian triggered his Thermal Doping immediately.
Snap.
His skin turned a faint reddish-pink, and steam curled off his shoulders as his temperature spiked. He became a blur of grey and red.
He wasn't as fast as Inasa's wind or Todoroki's ice, but he was calculative. He didn't waste energy. When a giant robot swung a massive arm, he didn't dodge—he used Iron Haze on the student next to him just enough to make them stumble, using the distraction to slide through the robot's legs.
He monitored his heart. 60 seconds. 70 seconds. The finish line was in sight. He pushed to 78 seconds—dangerously close to the 80-second heart-stop limit. He crossed the line, his vision already blurring with black spots as the Anemic Crash began to set in. He was 4th.
The Hall of Results
In the quiet hall after the exam, students waited for the final tally. Lucian leaned against a wall, nursing a small iron supplement. Momo approached him.
"You seem exhausted, Lucian," she said softly.
"The price of the trick, Momo," he replied with a tired smirk. "But the performance is over."
The board flickered to life.
Inasa Yoarashi
Shoto Todoroki
Momo Yaoyorozu
Lucian Sanguine
Result: Lucian Sanguine – Class 1-B.
Lucian felt a wave of genuine relief. "Perfect," he murmured. 1-B meant less work, less spotlight, and more time for naps. His father would be happy he passed, and he could be the "King" of the quiet class.
But suddenly, the room erupted.
Inasa Yoarashi was walking toward the exit, his face a mask of resolve. "I'm withdrawing!" he announced. "I've decided I don't want to be here! Especially not with him!" He pointed at Todoroki. "Your eyes... they're just like Endeavor's! They're cold!"
The proctors scrambled. The vacancy had to be filled immediately by the next highest rank. The screen refreshed.
Shoto Todoroki
Momo Yaoyorozu
Lucian Sanguine
Result: Lucian Sanguine – Class 1-A.
Lucian stared at the screen, his fiery red eye twitching.
"No..." he whispered.
Class 1-A. The class that gets attacked by villains every Tuesday. The class that has Aizawa—the man who expelled an entire class once.
The sheer amount of work, Lucian thought, his head falling into his hands. The lack of sleep. The constant 'Doping' just to keep up with these monsters. I'm going to look like a literal corpse by midterms. Why couldn't that wind-idiot just have some passion for staying in school?!
He looked at Mia's yellow ribbon on his wrist.
"I'm going to be the coolest, Mia," he muttered to himself, "mostly because I'll be too tired to have any other facial expression."
Next Step: In Chapter 3, Lucian arrives for his first day and meets the rest of the Class 1-A students?