“You’re late.” the Ectoplasm clone stated.
“Getting into my new boots!” I replied, adjusting the straps a bit as I approached. “Hatsume stopped me earlier to explain the design.”
He disappeared of the platform, forming up again along side a few slabs of concrete sticking out of the ground, roughly half a meter squares 10cm thick.
“Give them a shot, you might need to adapt your moves depending on their strength.”
I obliged, walking up to the first slab and preparing a kick before stepping back instead to check something. Even though it was explained to me rather clearly, I still wanted to be sure it worked how I thought it did. Pulling on the pins, the steel toe shot out just a centimetre or so.
I guess that was more in line with my request, the extra targeted power to do some real damage over having a little extra range. There was a good chance I’d have missed my first kick as I kinda expected it to shoot out further...
Whatever. I threw a quick kick against the slab, what would have only chipped or cracked it normally, and engaged the extra hit from the boot at roughly 50% power.
My timing must have been off as the toe shot out and pushed my leg back with almost as much force as it sent against the slab. The timing seemed quite tight, as for the maximum damage the steel toe had to shoot out the same moment my foot initially collides.
Another kick, and I was too early, hitting with no extra force.
A third broke the slab, but it wasn’t clear how much the boots had helped with that.
By the fourth slab, I was a lot more confidant, timing accurately three out of four times. Bumping up my output to 100% for the fifth and final slab of the set and hitting the timing just right blew the slab apart on the very first hit.
That was more like it. Though I got Cementoss to make a sixth, twice as thick, because I was kicking from a standstill up until now, and my kicks would be a lot more powerful if I dashed up first.
Momentum and all that.
After thoroughly destroying that slab and knowing that the boots were working perfectly, Ectoplasm got me to attack while he would defend.
We had been doing it all week, and while I managed to get a few hits on him here and there, that was all I managed with my move set. Hopefully these new boots and the yet unnamed move from yesterday would change that.
Replicating the move wasn’t all that hard, it was more the mental aspect of using it well while on the move or in battle that was holding me back. The only requirements to use the move were at least about a metre of open air below my feet to compress for the next jump, and at my current strength, roughly a quarter of my core’s power, or whatever it was that thing thought it was doing.
I’ll have to update the registry about that actually.
They keep track of all Quirks and their details whenever there’s a big change to them. Mine would have to be ‘Expend Quirks energy to manipulate personal gravity field on any targeted matter, Quirks energy can be stored, sensitivity to gravity.’.
The specific details such as the exact fall off before relying on vision, or how much I could manipulate my ‘gravity field’ were not important, just the overview of government logistics.
“Start on 3.” the clone announced.
“Understood”
“1”
“2”
I readied up for quite the obvious leap forwards, but with Ecto’s skill as a Pro, even if only on the defensive, trying to go for some complicated bait and switch was beyond me.
Speed was key, so I planned 3 jumps, one to get behind, one to go over his head when he turns around, and a last to reach the ground for an attack.
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“3”
I dashed forwards, keeping low to the ground.
In any other circumstance this wouldn’t work, but again, he wouldn’t attack. Sliding a bit to stop just behind him I leapt up overhead as planned, using that unnamed move to bounce off the air back down to the ground as he started to turn back around.
I aimed my kick in the centre of his chest which he hastily blocked, but these new boots worked their magic and the Ectoplasm clone exploded in, well... ectoplasm, before a new one was sent up by the main Ectoplasm.
“First win! Yes!!” I celebrated as the clones were able to take some force between unconscious and almost dead before they failed. Beating one meant a move was at least viable.
“Killer on the knees though.”
“As you have beaten a clone I will now fight actively.”
“1...”
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“You’re late.” Aizawa mentioned when I stepped into the training area.
“Yeah, sorry. That new move of mine strains my legs more than I thought.” I replied.
“Hmph. Has it been named yet?”
“Still working on it, I wanna see how good it really is before I commit to it.”
“Well... times almost up, and you’re going to need something for the Provisional license exam.” he commented.
“Haa... yeah.”
“Doesn’t help that Midoriya switched styles to use his legs instead. He’s hopping around destroying concrete like it’s nothing, and frankly, I don’t like my chances against how fast he’s growing with that Quirk of his.” I jokingly complain.
“I’ve got the air superiority though!”
Aizawa had things to attend to, so I made my way back to my platform. Instead of taking the steps up, I gave my Quirk a stretch by jumping up the side.
The new move was showing it’s usefulness, and while I had become pretty proficient with it these last two days, until I was able to string together a couple air jumps in a row I wasn’t going to call the training complete. Like anything, it would require pushing it past it’s limit to see the best growth, and that’s exactly what I planned to do with the last day and a half left for this training.
The main issue seemed to be a mix of concentration and however my core worked.
Concentration could be overcome by muscle memory which I’d hammer out before we’re done here. However the hell my core could store energy/gravity or whatever it was didn’t work well with this move. Normally I could kinda charge it up, basically getting it spinning and all that, but I need to practice charging it while on the move or using moves.
Get that sorted, and I’ll be bouncing around any Villains and attacking just as unpredictably.
The last day passed in no time, and we were all on our way to the exam.
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The Provisional License Exam was taking place in one of the Exam Arenas in Takoba.
Before even making it into the stadium, some student that had passed up a recommendation with UA caused a slight scene.
Apparently, he was supposed to be even stronger than Todoroki.
The kid Yoarashi Inasa seemed to hold a great love for UA, which makes giving up a placement even stranger. Though with the incredible numbers showing up, one student shouldn’t be much of an issue overall.
One of Aizawa’s old colleagues, a Pro Hero called Miss Joke, had stopped for a chat before we all suited up and headed into a packed room full of other contestants.
“Ehem… Right, so, yes, let’s begin the Provisional license thing.” A dishevelled man said from a podium at one end of the room.
“Uhmm… Hello, my name is Mera, with the Public Safety in Heroics Committee, and my favourite kind of sleep is non-rem sleep. It’s a pleasure. I’ve been so busy with work that I can’t catch a nap…! Not enough personnel…! And now that I have espoused our principles, I shall humbly explain how the exam will be conducted.”
“Gathered in attendance are precisely 1540 examinees. You’ll be vying for victory all at once. In the present age, in our so-named ‘Hero-saturated’ society. There has been no shortage of voices raising doubt over the state of Heroics since Stain’s apprehension.”
“But, well… if you ask me… regardless of their actual motives, telling people who’re risking their lives lives out there to save people not to want anything in return… it’s hard not to think that’d be a bit merciless, given the realities of the modern world… in any case… no matter whether it was for material gain or for the valour of it, at the end of the day they applied themselves diligently to rescue operations and Villain clean-up.”
“The time that elapses between a case materialising and it’s resolution, has become very swift indeed. When you obtain your provisional licenses, you throw yourselves into that raging torrent. To be blunt, it will be very harsh on those who can’t keep the pace.”
“As such, it’s your speed that will be tested! Only the first 100 to clear the terms of the exam will make the cut.”
“Wait wait wait, there’s 1540 of us, ain’t there!? That ain’t a 50/50 pass rate!!”
“Well, a fair bit’s happened in the world… so, those are the breaks, do as you do.”
“so… the terms of the exam, are in these.” He said, holding up a small ball and a circular plate.
“Each examinee will receive three targets. You may place them on any part of your body, so long as they’re always open and visible. So no soles of the feat or armpits.”
“In addition, you’ll carry six balls on your person. The targets are built to respond only to contact with the balls. If you’re hit in all three places, you’re out. If you hit somebody’s third target, you have defeated him or her. Victory is attained upon defeating two other contestants. And those are the rules.”
So it’s a free for all.
“All right… we’ll distribute the targets and balls after that happens. The exam will commence one minute after everyone’s spread out.”
The room folded outwards to reveal a huge arena with many different locations.
“I believe you all have terrain you like and dislike. Please do your best to capitalise on your skills. All this work out of consideration to open up the terrain like this… but it was ultimately pointless; I lost so much sleep over it…”
Most all of us UA students stayed close together in the central rocky mountain terrain area, some choosing to break off like Bakugo and Todoroki.
“I really don’t think it’s a good idea to go around by yourself.” Midoriya comments. “Think about it! Everyone knows about us already!”
“I bets it’s going to become a battle of the different schools... In which case, it naturally becomes a matter of which school to to target.”
Right...
And we’re the most famous class from the most famous school...
This is gonna be a bit tougher than I thought.
START!!
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