[Gore warning]

Stretching before the fitness exam, Kiyoshi scans all the participants.

Some of them have average physiques while there are those who trained their bodies for months or years for this special day to come, even spotting some others with an abnormal body like a person with 4 arms or ones with red skin, hell he sees a few cybernetics in here.

Everyone was asked to bring their own clothing for the fitness exam, so he see tracksuits or shorts, Kiyoshi only had a single pair of sweats and a long sleeve shirt.

He was prepared for this day, during his youth he always heard that the school turned nobody into somebody important, he wanted to be somebody so he trained extensively, day and night while reading up on books to further his education as the slums didn't have schools.

He spotted a rather tall bulky man in the school's iconic white and red tracksuit

"Hello everyone, welcome to the fitness exam, I'm head coach Kenzo K Okumura, and I'm here to supervise and make sure you're following the rules, since there are hundred and forty participants we will split you into groups of seven and each will partake in seven fitness test".

Kenzo went for a tablet next to him and was reading what was on it,

" Ok for this to be much easier we will ask everyone to approach any of my assistants and grab a piece of paper from the box they are holding, whatever number you get will be on the screens above to show which team you are on"

After grabbing the paper he unfolded it and saw it was number five, group number 5

He looked around and spotted an assistant with a card with the number five, approaching he spots others who made it before him.

Joining the group, he can't stop but notice that one of the girls was someone he recognized. While reading about powers and how to manage them he learned about the two famous married heroes, the impenetrable dia-man and his wife the quick wisp. They were always open with their lives and when they had their daughter they, of course, showed her off to the public for attention.

Her name was Mitsuki Bushida and she was staring right back and Kiyoshi after noticing he was looking at her for quite a while, she said nothing but glared in response until they broke eye contact.

He finished the first test, which was testing your grip strength he went to the next one which was lifting but was interrupted by a certain someone.

"You were staring at me for quite a while, are you trying to pull something?" turning around he spots her, Mitsuki with an annoyed look

"Oh sorry, I just recognized you from your famous parents, I didn't mean to startle you"

She twitched after hearing that response, she brushed back her dark purple hair

" Is that so, hmm I see, well that was my bad" she gets closer " but what I don't like is that I'm only recognized by the likes of you"

She grabs a hold of his shirt, " look at you I can tell you're a slum rat by your appearance"

She backs off and covers her nose " and that smell, do you live in sewers like damn learn how to steal some body wash if you want to attend this school"

"lay off him you uptight bitch" she turns around and was dwarfed after looking up at a tall man, it was a dude in a tracksuit, his golden undercut and eyes look down at her with a serious expression, his most noting feature was the scars on his face, one across his nose and one straight down his left eye

She doesn't back off, instead defiantly asking "who are you to speak to me like that"

"He's with me" Behind him was a girl, if recalling correctly she was the daughter of the CEO of MedEx the top medical company in Eclipse

" You know Mitsuki, harassing participants isn't a good look for your reputation" She criticizes

She stomps off while throwing one last insult "piss off Sayuri"

"She really has an attitude problem, sorry for that, name Sayuri and the gentleman right next to me is my bodyguard Yu who is also attending the Exam"

The dude then drops the serious attitude and smiles

" what's up, nice to meet you" he extends his arm for a handshake

Hesitating, as this is quite foreign to him but he shakes his hand and notices the weights he has on. Noticing the stare he explains

" These things, I like to have them on as to challenge myself even further, I have several of them on me"

Sayuri whispers to Kiyoshi

"he's a bit of a weirdo, he does a bunch of extreme stunts for the thrill but he's cool"

" I should get back to my group" Kiyoshi mutters and he walks off

"huh, well see ya later," says Yu as he walks off with Sayuri to their group

the fitness exam goes by without much issue

with that finished, Kiyoshi was escorted to a separate room with his group, "hello, I'm here to supervise this group as you take your intelligence exam"

Kiyoshi was handed a test booklet as well as everyone else

"the booklet you receive has basic questions but it's not the same as the lessons you learned at high school, it will consist of law questions and moral questions"

The assistant looks at the tablet in hand and looks up

" You are welcome to leave the exam but if you do then you will be excluded from all other tests and would fail immediately, but if you've finished the test you will be escorted to the next exam alone"

Taking a look through the booklet consisted of a few questions about laws and protocols for heroes or law enforcement to follow

Knowing this shouldn't take too much effort for Kiyoshi, he starts on it after the time starts

During his test, he has seen a couple of participants leave, and a few just stopped entirely, probably because of the overwhelming stress that looms over them.

He gets up after an hour and hands in his work while at the same Mitsuki also finished and leaves

They both were greeted by two faculty members, " hello, we are here to escort you to the third test"

They were brought down the hallway and were in front of the many different doors without any windows

"This hallway is different from the rest of the building, it was made to help prepare students and participants for the harsh world that lies out there, so for your well-being, we are asked to let you know that you could walk out if you aren't ready but if you do then you are excluded and immediately failed the exam"

Kiyoshi nodded " I decided to continue with the exam"

"I also will continue" Mitsuki added

" I see, well please enter"

Kiyoshi entered a separate room that was darker, he could tell there was a screen on the wall, and in front of it was a chair. Trying to look around the room he was barely able to make out that the room was sound padded

He sat down, the chair was small and made his knees uncomfortable, the room reeked as if something died in there, and the screen returned to life, blinding the only participant with white light

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The first video he was watching was a police body cam footage, the camera was focused on another officer, they both were outside a door with their guns out. The officer looked towards him and nodded and slammed open the door with guns out, instead of finding a criminal they instead were met with a bloodbath

The room was painted with blood and you would be mistaken if you thought it was painted, guts were strewn around like it was decoration with glass shards from picture frames around the room.

" Jesus" mutters one of the officers

They took a few steps into the apartment, their boots made squelching noises each time they took a step, "who would've done this sick thing" an officer commented

They made it into the kitchen and it was still the same, blood covers the floor and ceiling, and one of them spots something in the sink

"Hey, isn't this the suspect?" he points at the decapitated head in the sink

"Yeah that's him alright, but if he didn't do this then who did?" with that they stood still and kept quiet

A muffled noise creeps out of the door that's at the end of the apartment

"Is that a victim?"

"Let's go, but be careful, it could be the one who caused all of this"

They walked through the apartment and stopped in front of the door, grabbing the knob and opening it quietly

they opened the door halfway through and stopped at the sight of a tall gaunt man in a well dressed ragged suit, his pale malnourished body and his thinning strands of hair were all they could see from the back of him

His appearance wasn't the reason they stopped, it was what he was doing that put a sickening chill down their spines, that man was eating of what seemed to be a teenage boy but couldn't clearly tell because of the state of the body was in.

The thing ripped out a piece with his long fingers and cracked nails, it consumed and ate slowly like it was savoring it

Both officers looked at each other and nodded, they knew that they were fucked if they disturbed it and slowly closed the door

they were lucky that it was too preoccupied with its eating that it didn't hear the noise from earlier, they both walked down to the front door and sighed as the officer decided to lay his hands down on the counter without looking

"mmph" a painful grunt comes from the officer as he retracts his hand which has some glass shards sticking in it

"damn, it's only a little blood, I'll get it stitched up after we call for some heroes"

They suddenly heard the door open, the tall man slowly walks out he has to bend down a little as the ceiling too small for him

they got a good look at his face, his eyes were sunken, his gums were exposed his lips were chewed off showing off his rack of sharp teeth

He grins when spotting the officers and dashes towards them, with his teeth baring down on the other officer's neck, and sticking both his hands into the officer's chest and rips him in half with ease, turning around and staring towards us, he pounces with his mouth wide open with the screams of the other officer before the video cuts out

grimacing he tries to hold his composure after watching that

he looks at the screen as captions appear police 911 recordings number 17403

he stayed in that room listening up to ten recordings under thirty minutes but to him it felt like hours, hearing the final moments, or people being raped or screaming bloody mary as they were being murdered, the final one even had a kid asking for help as a man broke into his house, while the last seconds were the kid screaming before it was cut off

Kiyoshi keeps true to his composure, his experience of living in the slums has desensitized him but seeing that has rattled him a bit.

the room then suddenly starts emitting piercing noise, as audio cuts in and out while its pitch goes up and suddenly down, while the lights started to flicker from red to black.

His eyes and ears were starting to hurt, he wants to leave, he want to stop but he knows he can't, he can't because of that incident.

Slowly he endures the torture, and his stress goes down slowly, yet it's a grueling experience.

After half an hour he grows numb to it, after an hour it stops the room returns to its normal lighting. The door opens and the assistant congratulates Kiyoshi for completing the third test.

He leaves the room and was provided some time to recover and took a seat, at the same time Mitsuki was let outside. She doesn't look well, she survived it the same as him but seemed to be more shaken.

"Congratulations on completing the-"

"FUCK OFF"

She then takes a seat next to him and put covers her face

He wonders how much actually got through the exam. It reminds him of the blood-curdling screams he listened to throughout the night

His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the muffled cries next to him, he looks at her and she was trembling as it clearly had an effect on her. Instead of feeling pity, he felt a sort of impressed as she clearly went fought through it instead of giving up.

An assistant politely informs them that they were expected at the 4th test

They both were escorted outside the building and into a separate building called the training facility.

The building was huge, it looked like a massive warehouse outside but inside had multiple rooms with safety glass showing what was inside. Each room had metal walls with clay ground, entering inside Kiyoshi proceeded to stretch in preparation for the test. A built-in speaker then crackles to life

"Hello, Kiyoshi, you are being given three tasks in this test, the first one is to demonstrate perfect control of your power, secondly is to use your power under stress, and the third of all is to perform your powers in a digitalized world, you may start when you hear a bell"

Two doors slide out of the back and comes out ten robots with targets painted on their torso, they stand still in the middle of the room.

*Ding*

Kiyoshi breathes in and activates his ability, his eyes slowly glows white, and around him surrounds a white aura. Extending his arm forward and aims it at a robot and fires a connected beam towards the robot which forms a hand and grabs a hold of it and uses it to smash against the other targets.

After demolishing all of the robots he deactivates his power which kills his energy arm construct

"Interesting, your power is energy manipulation according to your file, you use your energy from your body and use it as a physical construct and mold it into anything your mind can imagine but it has to stay connected or it will dissipate"

Many slots open on the walls revealing cannons, robots then come out but they look much bulkier

"These robots are much more threatening as they are tasked to incapacitate you as well as the cannons to shoot out balls of rubber to keep you at your toes, you may start when the bell rings"

Quickly scanning and analyzing his targets Kiyoshi prepares and activates his power

He waits for the bell but instead was met with a ball to the back of his head, he was caught off guard as he expected the bell but the test had already started. He was knocked to the ground from the sudden impact of the ball, he looks up and sees one of the robots approaching, but he wasn't ready as his power was deactivated due to the sudden loss of concentration

He got up and dodged the robot as it punches the ground with such force that it cracks the ground, he thought that it was supposed to incapacitate him not try to kill him. He activates his power and surrounds his right arm with energy and releases a devastating right hook on the robot's head which decapitates it.

"Wait, something is wrong it's not supposed to malfunction like that, let me get some security here to deal with the robots"

Jumping back to avoid a ball he then creates a barrier around himself, he then concentrates and releases multiple arms from his back and strikes multiple robots hitting through the torso and head which results in multiple explosions which creates a dust storm.

With the smoke settling he takes in the carnage he created as mangled parts of robots lay spread across the room, the cannons then deactivate sensing the robots were offline.

The door behind him opens and multiple security personnel rushes in, they then noticed the scene that was in hand and relax, one of them approaches Kiyoshi and congratulates him.

"Nice one kid, we heard what happened and got here as quick as we can but it seems that you took care of it" he then slaps Kiyoshi on the back in approval

"Alright with that incident out of the way we can finally move on with the third test"

Around him a digitalized world appeared, everything was so life-like, the building that towers above him, the blue sky, and birds flying above, he was in a city district, cars moved through the street and people walked around. His amazement was cut off when across the street a woman was getting robbed by a taller man in a mask, he then stabs her and runs off into an alley.

He then snaps, activated his power and surrounds energy around his leg, and leaps across the vehicles and pedestrians below him, he runs past the bleeding woman and chases the man down. The energy that still surrounds his leg gave him a boost in momentum and he then gets in front of him and forms a blade and slices across the man's neck. The blade went through him and the world then stops existing returning to the normal room he was in.

"The two tests you did well on, showed clear control of your powers but the third one was the problem, you used your powers without consideration as when you suddenly jumped it injured two bystanders from the shockwave on the ground and you ignored the bleeding victim and pursued the criminal when you could've waited for a fellow hero or law enforcement to capture him and you instead of holding him down you instead went for a fatal move that killed the man which a hero wasn't supposed to do, so in shorter words, you failed the third test"

A moment of dread goes down his back when he heard those words

"But you showed great aptitude when those robots malfunctioned and showed great skill in dealing with them, and we can teach you more about how to be a hero later if you succeed in the fifth test so I'll give you a third point for that which means you can pursue the final test"

He sighed in relief and was escorted out of the room by the assistant and was led to the second largest building right after the college which was the arena, they have professional tournaments for the students and are a good place for scouting out potential apprentices for pros.

He entered the waiting room and around him was a handful of participants, many of them has gone down by at least half. The head coach then approaches, Kiyoshi who saw him from afar then gets a good look and never noticed the few scales he has on his face a few of them are close to his blond hair, they are similar to a lizard so his power must be related to some sort of reptile he assumes.

"Hello, I'm here to supervise your final test, the way it goes is to either incapacitate your opponent or have them forfeit, there is no boundary in the arena and we are here to see your limits and see if you are worthy of becoming a hero if you lost to a person that means you fail the test and fail the registration exam"

He directs us to a screen on the wall and on it shows the participants

" The first match is between Yu Bushida and Fuji Sasaki, may both of you enter the arena, while the others can follow my assistant to the stands"

Yu and Fuji were led by the coach while the others headed in another direction, they were led down a corridor and entered the massive stands.

The arena was designed with metal platings and some platforms to give a higher position, and around the top has a barrier to protect the audience from attacks from the fight. on one side was Yu and on the other was Fuji, both were staring each other down, and both powers were a mystery to each other.

In the middle was the coach he looks at both of them and informs them

"You may start when I say start, I will be watching from the sidelines, and don't worry I won't get hurt so unleash all you have without worry"

He walks to the side and crosses his arm together

"Start!"