After being herded out of the testing ground and being given a new shirt (which also ripped) I didn’t immediately go home, I was instead directed toward the main building and brought into a little room… with Nezu and another woman I didn’t know.

“Yes! Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? My real identity is… The principal!” Nezu proudly proclaimed his classic line while waving hello with one hand and motioning for me to sit with the other.

I nervously waved back and sat on the couch- *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick* *shick*- er, I hope I don’t have to pay for this…

Nezu simply ignored me pincushioning the couch and kept talking- “So young man, would you mind introducing yourself?”.

“Oh! Yeah hey, I’m Alex, I like tinkering with machines and I wanna become a proper hero… nice to meet you Nezu and?-” I introduced myself while trying to see who the woman was.

“Makoto” she responded while smirking. “-Makoto… Did I do something wrong?” I hesitantly asked.

This seemed bad! I hope this is just about me messing up a question on the exam and not about my origins. My hopes were quickly dashed when Nezu next spoke-

“You’re not in trouble per se but there are a few things I’d like to check. Miss Makoto here has the ability to tell if a person is lying when she’s in contact with them. This isn’t mandatory of course and even if you refuse you’ll still likely be accepted… but, it would make it a lot easier for me to help you”.

I stayed silent for a bit, was it worth trusting him? If my previous life was discovered I’d be in a whole mess of trouble… and not answering a question once it started may as well count as a yes to whatever is asked!

“Can I say something and get her to confirm whether it’s the truth before we start?” If I wasn’t allowed this then I’d flat out refuse the interrogation.

“Sure!” Nezu readily agreed and I reached out my hand to her. Taking my hand she momentarily frowned before looking me in the eyes- “You have a weird internal makeup kid, I’m honestly not sure how you’re even alive!”.

She looked back at Nezu and continued- “Seriously, you might wanna have a medic on standby since it feels like they’re constantly melting from the inside and their heart is pumping way slower than a regular person… I’d think they were calm but it's way too slow for that”.

Nezu listened before looking at me and tilting his head slightly. “I’m fine, really. My body’s just way different than normal, the melting you feel is probably due to my fire breathing ability and the heart one is probably due to my heart being way bigger and stronger than normal”.

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Nezu looked to Makoto who nodded but nonetheless had recovery girl nearby. Time for the big reveal- “.......I really do want to be a hero… partially for the fame and popularity, partially to be able to help people and be able to live without being looked upon like a monster… but mainly to make my sister proud. You no doubt know about me not being from Japan… but I’ve spent most of the life I’ve been given here, it really is my home and I’m afraid of being sent somewhere else simply because I was born there. I’ll be honest, you scare me- you’re in the perfect position to dictate my future, whether I gain or lose everything. Even if with my origins I can’t become a hero… please don’t make me lose my home.”

Makoto took back her hand, she looked back at Nezu- “It's the truth… all of it”

“Ah, I see… then thank you Makoto, that will be all!” Said Nezu while dismissing her. She grabbed her handbag, hopped up and made her way to the door, with a small wave to me she then left.

Huh?

Nezu addressed me- “Sorry if you got a bit frightened back there Alex, but you answered everything I was curious about already so there was no reason to continue the interview”

“I, I did? Seriously? I was having a heart attack over here! Fuuuuuu” I calmed down quite a bit and slumped further into the now very broken chair.

“Alex, I don’t care whether you were born in Japan or not, I don’t care about how you look, I’d care more about your age but you’ve proven to be far more mature than your age would suggest. The only thing that matters is if you have the heart of a hero… and from what I’ve seen so far I believe that's exactly what you possess! It won’t surprise you to know you’ve passed, just wait for the letter to arrive… then I’ll look forward to seeing your progress at U.A!” Nezu said while hopping up and patting my knee.

“There is only one thing left to sort out then-” I perked back up as he continued speaking- “You don’t have any legal documents, I pulled some strings to get you into the exam since Mirko asked me but you’ll need to fulfill a few criteria- first you’ll need a legal guardian to adopt you, I’m assuming this would be Mirko since if your abilities are broadcasted you could very easily be taken advantage of, second is a believable backstory… I assume you wouldn’t mind if we use an altered version of what Mirko told me?”

“What did she tell you?” I started sweating bullets thinking she may have told him about the Korean incident.

“She told me your first memory was being in the woods next to the grave of your mother and the body of your father… I’m sorry if this is a tough subject but we were going to use an altered version where your mother died during childbirth and you father assumed you had also died and thus committed suicide… all of this of course would have taken place deep in the mountains away from any major settlements” Nezu solemnly answered.

I thought about that for a bit, it’d give me a solid reason to be in Japan- just another lost child, it happened from time to time… “Who will be my deceased ‘parents’?”

“There are several couples who live far from cities and have died as time goes on, we’ll say you simply don’t know and can’t remember them or where they were buried… This will give you many possible ‘parents’ and with your unique physiology it will be practically impossible to trace which one is the correct one” hearing Nezu’s explanation was good enough for me but- “I want to add a single detail if that’s alright?”

He tilted his head but motioned for me to speak, “I do remember one major detail about my father that I want to make part of this… he didn’t die from suicide, he literally worked himself raw making our graves and died due to exhaustion… even if this isn’t supposed to be my real father I don’t want to lie about his effort…” I still remember that even when the rest of his body was gaunt and rotting… his hands were already down to the bone.

“That can be done… and Alex, I’m sorry about having such a dark talk with you… nobody should have to deal with a situation like yours, I may not be able to understand but others who can will be available if you need them” Nezu warmly responded.

I looked at him for a moment and realized I’d started giving off a depressing atmosphere… “Thank you Nezu… A mouse, a bear or a dog? You’re the principal and now I can see why. I’ll take you up on that offer, I’ve got some demons to get rid of and I can’t do it by ignoring them”

Nezu and I smiled at one another and my real exam came to an end.