JISHAKU JISAKARU

Today is the day of the UA Practical Exam. It had been ten months since I and Zogaikotsu were congratulated for wanting to do the Hero Course. Before my parents even considered for me to go to the Hero Course, I had been working out casually at a local gym, so I already had the physical strength part covered. I wouldn't say I'm jacked or anything like that, I just look relatively fit. I studied very hard for the written exam, by the time I got to it, it had been what I could describe as a slugfest, being pretty hard but passable. It was done at this basic building and not within UA High grounds.

I walked to the UA Entrance Practical Exam Hall....wow there were not that many people here. I counted just 49 people walking to the exam hall. Of course, I studied for this exam. And from what I heard, this exam has metallic robots going after you or something like that. Should be easy for my case. Honestly, I'm gonna be meeting new people soon. One thing's for sure, I'm gonna miss that silverhaired doogooder-

Zogaikotsu: Yo! Jisakaru Chan! What's poppin?

He shouted as he slid right in front of me. Oh my god, even though I just said I missed him, I feel like I want to punch him for making me sound stupid but chances are he'll just detach his head from his neck to dodge it. OF COURSE! Of course the Deku supporter would go to the same school as the guy himself. I'm such a fool.

Jisakaru: Well well well, if it isn't Tori Zogaikotsu..

Zogaikotsu: Mhm, Ain't this great! You and I going to UA! We're going to be heroes! Like Deku!

Jisakaru: You really admire Deku huh?

Zogaikotsu: Mhm! His story is such an inspiration. How he started off as quirkless, only for the Legendary All Might to give him his ability for being such a good sport. He went from zero to hero!

Jisakaru: I know. I have heard the story multiple times.

Zogaikotsu: Oh right! Sorry, sorry, it's just I'm so excited.

Jisakaru: That's great for you! Now then I'll be in the orientation room inside.

Zogaikotsu: Yes yes! See you there!

He said as I walked away, him waving me goodbye. I admit, I still find him ever so slightly annoying, but I still enjoy his prescence.

I entered the UA Hero Course Exam Orientation room. The Exam Hall itself was pretty prestige. It was the most clean place I'd ever seen. If this was the exam hall, imagine the actual school. It was dimly lit. I sat at a chair, waiting for this whole thing to start. I noticed at least 20 people in the room. Meaning that it was probably early. I just took out my phone and started watching some cat videos. I really love cats, they are the cutest thing to ever grace the Earth.

Then suddenly, as I was watching a meowmeow run away ridiculously from a person dressed like a dog, I noticed at the corner of my eye a strange looking girl proceeding to sit next to me. She had this....strange hair. The best way I could describe it is the back of a CD. It looked as though it was moving, and changing colour wherever I looked. Her eyes were very vibrant and full of life, her outfit seemed a bit regal and her hair was long and had a yellow hairband around it. I guess I looked too long, because she noticed.

The Girl: Hm? What's wrong?

TALKING MODE! ACTIVATED! IT'S TIME TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH A STRANGER!

Jisakaru: Your hair...

The Girl: Oh no I get that a lot! Isn't it unique? I was born with this condition. It makes my hair this green and reddish colour that looks crystallised. Neat huh?

She seemed rather social. Totally an extrovert.

Jisakaru: It...IS neat.

The Girl: I am pretty proud of it. It certainly is better than any other hairstyle, especially yours, haha!

Aw what? How dare she mock my brown hair! I comb this every morning! Although her tone of voice made it seem like playful teasing...so I'll just go along with it.

Jisakaru: Haha, yeah, my hair's pretty boring. Maybe I'll dye it one day

The Girl: Maybe you should! Haha! I'm just kidding it's very unique in shape.

Is this how humans interact? Is this a normal interaction? I only talk to a super crazy person so I don't know.

I looked back at the stage, oh darn, someone's there. They had a black leather jacket and wore brown pants. They had a reddish shirt on the inside of the jacket. The shirt looked...oddly torn? Was that intentional? As soon as the lights turned on, it was very noticeable that the teacher had tomboyish short dark blue hair and a very familiar skin string on her ear (Eugh, Skin strings.) The other ear had a more metallic skin string, must've been a battle scar from the war, and they had a guitar on the back. Either way, I could totally guess who this was.

This was Hearing Hero, Earphone Jack.

I am not a big fan or anything, I just respect a fellow tomboy in the wild. The girl next to me was a different story. Girl was straight up crying over this.

The Girl: Omaga- Earphone Jack, I've listened to every one of her songs. I can't believe I'm in the same room as her.

I just gave her a tissue from my pocket, her proceeding to blow her nose into it. Earphone Jack tapped the microphone twice, before speaking up.

Jack: Hello everyone! Welcome to the UA Hero Course Examination!

She had such a confident and commanding voice. Seriously, I got chills.

Jack: I see a lot of promising candidates for the hero course here!

There were literally only 49 people here.

Jack: Aw man, I remember my practical exam, the teacher was ever so slightly more bombastic than me. In any case, to all you rockstars out there, I'll give you a quick rundown of the practical exam.

The TV screen behind her started to show a virtual video of a cityJack: As you all may know from your applications. You will participate in a ten minute mock battle in this city. Bring anything! As long as it's not too dangerous to those around you. After this rundown is over, head to the assigned practise center. What? You think we'd all actually put you all in a city? Course not!

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At once, all 49 of us checked our cards on our desks. Looks as though I got Center C. Nice. The girl next to me got Center A. I wondered what Zogaikotsu got...

Zogaikotsu: I GOT CENTER C! WOOO!

He said before people started shushing him. Fate works in mysterious ways.

Jack: Haha...don't be too excited now, the show's hasn't even gotten to the main song yet. Within each practise center, there will be three types of artificial machine villains. For each one, you earn points depending on their level, which will be inscribed on them. Use your individual quirks to defeat the villains and earn points. Remember! You wouldn't wanna go hurtin' your fellow students. Competition is great but too much can be a bit of a downer, yeah? There is actually a fourth villain however. However! It is best to avoid it! As it's worth absolutely nothing. Think of it like lightin' up bracelets in a concert. They ain't needed, just there for a gimmick. That's about it really, finally, I haveta bestow upon you our school motto. From the words of Napoleon Bonparte, "True Heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life."

Jack: Over and Beyond....

Plus Ultra!

There was like...two people clapping.

Jack: Alrighty then rockstars, All the best, hope you all become great heroes!

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Y'know. I knew the arenas were gonna be big, but jeez were they big. A door towered over this group of people. Like seriously, reminds me of Attack on Giant. There was only 9 people here. The others had 8 people, but this group was just oh so special so there were 9. This is because dividing 49 people has a remainder. There was a lot of talking. Ranging from discussions as to how many villains there were to just dog-riding UA. I practised a few months for this. I'm fairly confident. To help myself out, I had dad make me this cool circular metallic shield that I could throw and have it come back to me. Like the comic book character, Canadian Captain.

Rando: Huh, I wonder how the bots are gonna be?

Rando2: They're like...probably 4 metres tall.

Rando3: Ow!

Zogaikotsu: Outta the way! Heyyyy! Jisakaru Chan! We're in the same center! Ain't that crazy!?

Jisakaru: Yes Zogaikotsu, that is crazy.

Zogaikotsu: So like- We gonna work together or what?

Jisakaru: Sorry buddy, I'm doing this on my own.

Zogaikotsu: Aw what?!

He had a sad almost pouty face.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Earphone Jack on top of the wall. I wonder what she's doing..

Jack: Alright rockstars! On the count of one, I will be starting the exam! Alrighty then.....Thr- ONE! GO GO GO!

It was so sudden, but the door opened fast and everyone ran in even faster. I kept running. This went on for a while before a giant green robot crashed through one of the buildings in front of me. It had one red eye almost looking down upon me. I noticed that there were mock guns attached to it's arms. It had one wheel for legs.

The Robot: Target Located. I'll kill you!

As soon as it said that, I armed myself with the shield. Of course I wasn't going to pull something so big to myself just yet. I needed to see it's weaknesses that I could exploit. After that it's even easier to digest than a piece of cake.

It charged at me, going in for a supercharged punch, but I rolled to the right, throwing the shield at it. The shield hit the machine, but it wasn't enough. I pulled the shield back toward me to recalculate my next move. I decided to go for my signature move which was to purposefully miss in order to backstab the enemy. It's just a dumb robot after all.

The Robot: Die!

I started running to the robot's right, throwing the shield and missing. Then I stood next to a lamp post.

The Robot: I'll kill you!

Jisakaru: Man you're annoying!

I pulled the shield in midair back to me. It successfully cut through the robot like butter. I got one point. Yayyyyyyyyyy. Instead of moving onto other targets, I decided to quickly research my opponent here to find their weak spots. It appears that their arms are connected my a very easily breakable bolt. Seems easy. There is also an off switch at the back, wow. How convenient. They also have a metallic core in the middle. I could easily pull it out with Magnetism. With all this said and done, I have no doubt in my mind the rest of this will be a cakewake.

Wait....is it....cakewalk or cakewake? Nevermind. I am just really hungry for cake right now. After my assessment, I ran to another area, 4 students were beating up some robots and completely destroying them, I decided to run to another location. There were three robots there, nobody went there yet as far as I'm concerned.

The Robots: Target found, I'll kill you!

Jisakaru: Is that the only voiceline they have?

I simply raised my hand up and closed my eyes, focusing greatly. My hand glowed a blueish light. As expected, their cores ripped out of their chests and were pulled toward me. There were two onepointers and one twopointer. That makes my points 4 now, yay! Over the course of this exam, I just rinsed and repeated. It was almost boring how easy this was. If only I knew what was about to befall me.

I was on 63 points, definitely passing at this point. So I just walked around seeing what the other people were doing. I went to the most densely populated area here of 7 people. I looked at the other possible future classmates of mine. I looked closely at all of them.

There was this one guy who was flicking the robots away with wind. Huh, neat. There was some dude who was playing actual music and sneaking behind the robots to the off switch. The music was coming from his back? Some camera headed dude flashed at a robot and somehow froze it in place, how useful. Overall, I see cool and competent people.

Then suddenly I heard a loud metallic thud. It sounded like a footstep. I heard a couple more, getting louder each time. I had no choice but to look back, I wish I didn't because all I saw were two evil glowing red eyes staring down on me.It was a ginormous robot glaring at me, the 0 pointer, the trap. My fight or flight response kicked in and I picked the latter. I quickly leaped off the building I was on and used the shield to brace my impact. I ran out of there, and everyone else was too....except one. As I was running I noticed this one jet black haired fellow standing and stared at the robot. He looked rather calm in that situation. I couldn't help but notice something...his left arm....was a strange motorbike-like contraption. It had a wheel for the shoulder, pipes for the elbow that could bend from what I could tell and a bigger wheel as his arm. The arm was so big that the wheel reached down to his feet.

Jisakaru: Hey! Dude, run!

Suddenly, he pulled out from his pocket a grey headband. He slowly and dramatically put it on and took a deep breath. I noticed the robot coming closer so I ran away, trying to pull him along by tugging his tank top, only for him to brush off. I noticed a sinister smile carve on his face before he started to shout.

The Guy: Alright then, DO YOUR WORST!

His screechy voice echoed across the city, the giant robot raising it's arm to mosquito slap him. I was about to use his arm to pull him with magnetism, only for the robot to smash him down. I thought we had a civilian casualty before school even started, but then I saw him managing to push the at least 10 ton robot arm back.

I think even the machine was shocked. He then put his arm on the ground, driving himself toward the robot, then as soon as he made contact with the robot, he drove UPWARD onto the robot. He seemed to be going for its eyes. You know, I'm a Physics fan, I gotta say, this was extremely confusing. I mean- the robot's leg's surface was full of too many parts and layers to truly go up smoothly, where's the friction?!

The robot tried as it might to not get killed by a motorbike maniac, but the guy drove into its eyes and crashed into it. I heard some loud strange noises within, only for him to crash out of it, the robot falling down and crashing, causing a devastating crater to impact the middle of the city.

The Guy: HAHA! WORTHLESS!

He landed very dramatically and slowly. He slowed down, hit the brakes, breathed in and out deeply and took off his headband, looking at it as if it were some ancient artefact. Then he noticed me, looking at him awkwardly. It was a staredown between people who have never seen each other prior. Who was going to look away? Not me! I'm too scared to look away though he looked like he was sweating a lot during this spiritual battle.

He raised up his index finger before speaking up.

The Guy: ...R-righ-

Jisakaru: ...What?

Now the guy was sweating even more and sported a panicked expression on his face.

The Guy: Uh- UHm- Ah- Rival!

Bro what?

Jisakaru: Bro what?

I was utterly flabbergasted.

The Guy: Yes! You are- are my rival now! Goodbye!

He said as he awkwardly drove off. I noticed something with his wheel, he had managed to balance himself and drove using his arm. How does that work? AND WHY AM I HIS RIVAL?!