Naoko sat in the testing hall, bored out of her mind as she waited for the announcer guy to start explaining the physical part of the exam, she had finished her test easily, except for the history section... that part kicked her butt, and now all she had to do was hype herself up enough that her crappy stamina would get her a good score in whatever was waiting for her.
As she waited, she glanced around the room at the random assortment of kids that were gathered, it was impressive to see the talent that radiated from all of them, but she knew that only a small handful could get into the hero course, let alone the coveted class 1-A. Unconsciously, her hand moved to her other wrist, running her fingers over the sweatband that covered the sensitive skin; she was competing against these kids for her parents and her aunt, there was no way she would let any of them keep her from her goal.
Suddenly, the air around her started vibrating at crazy speeds and Naoko's attention shot to the front where the announcer was yelling a welcome that she struggled to read. Because of her situation, the teachers agreed to sit her in front so that she could read what people of importance were saying (Telling the staff about her hearing was a battle in and of itself, it seemed like several of the teachers wanted to turn her away, but the sweet mouse of a principle had insisted that they do whatever was needed to help Naoko get the information she needed); but the way he was speaking was so different than what she dealt with usually. She had the hardest time reading one or two words out of every sentence he spoke.
Thankfully, they had given her a pamphlet, and she turned to it, smiling as she saw that all she needed to do was beat up some robots. Considering her quirk, this would be a piece of cake; just liquify them or cause them to sink into quick cement, and she would be good to go.
Hopefully, the principle honored her request to not tell the judges about her hearing, she wanted them to let her in because they were impressed with her skills, not because of how she handled her disadvantages. Her being deaf was no different than if she had bad eyesight, it was just something to be lived with, and she would prove that fact to the world.
Judging Room
The judges watched their monitors as the children fought the robots during their practical exam, "There are many promising quirks in the mix, aren't there?" One man commented, making a note on the evaluation sheet.
"Indeed," A woman replied, "Though several seem to be far more skilled than others." At her words, everyone looked towards the screen of whatever child grabbed their interest.
Some looked towards a screen that showed a boy with a raven's head taking out every robot he saw with the shadow beast coming from him; other's gazes were immediately drawn to the screen of a girl who was taking out robots quickly and efficiently by lifting them in the air, and then dropping them to the ground. Though the screen that commanded the most attention by far was the one that held a spikey blond-haired boy who was going through robots like they were nothing; his explosive quirk was perfect for this test, though it did seem that he was having a little too much fun blowing the robots up...
Right as he was about to punch through another, his target suddenly stopped moving and melted into a puddle on the ground, causing a round of gasps to echo through the room.
"Did anyone see who was responsible for that?" Someone said, excitement lacing his tone, "That was amazing!"
A chorus of confused 'no's responded as everyone began to search for the culprit.
In the back of the room, the principal was watching the third monitor to the right in amusement while drinking his tea, "I see she lived up to her promise." He said lightly, causing the dark-haired man, who looked like he was half asleep, to glance sideways at him.
"What do you mean?" He murmured quietly, not wanting to draw any attention to the conversation.
"Aizawa, do you remember the girl who came into my office a week ago asking about the test?" The man nodded, knowing the principal could see his response, "She told me that she wanted to be the best without anyone knowing about the things she couldn't do. Have you spotted the impact she's made?"
Aizawa nodded again, "Yeah, the puddle that robot melted into looked exactly like about twenty other random puddles that I've seen. If you're suggesting that the girl is behind it, then I would say she has incredible control over her quirk."
The principal nodded, and his mousy features twisted up into something that looked like a satisfied smirk, "Indeed, at least, she has control when she's using it. Something tells me that there's far more than what meets the eye here. Oh look, they're sending out the zero pointers!"
Naoko
'That boy has serious anger issues...' Naoko thought to herself as she walked away from the robot she liquified. After she stole his kill, he immediately let off an explosion and started yelling; she didn't have to read his lips to know that it was probably threats to whoever took his points. 'Sorry dude, but I don't give a crap about your wounded ego.'
She took out two or three more robots before she was stopped in her tracks, a fierce vibration was traveling through the ground, almost knocking her off her feet. She ran through some alleyways, heading towards the vibration when she saw the first person running.
Normally, that wouldn't be very surprising, seeing as how this was a timed test, but the look of fear on the kid's face told a completely different story. About a second after she got into the main roads, she saw exactly what that look of fear was about; standing taller than most of the buildings around her, robots were coming down the street slowly, the gigantic light on their heads swiveling around, looking for targets.
Naoko stared at them in disbelief, 'where in heaven's name does UA get funding for stuff like this?' She marveled and then shook her head, now was not the time for getting lost in thought... That would come later.
As intimidating as these new enemies were, she couldn't help but be slightly disappointed by them, they were slow and highly restricted machines, not useful for much more than creating tons of damage and looking pretty. She was pretty sure that these were the zero pointers that had been mentioned on the announcer guy's power point, so, obviously, these were meant more to be a hindrance than an actual threat.
She was about to turn around and go find more robots for her to take on when something stopped her; a boy was standing in the middle of the road, trapped between two three-pointers and one of the incoming zero pointers. He looked pretty beat up, and as she watched, he discharged what looked to be an electrical pulse.
That would have been good and all, but his discharge not only disabled the three-pointers, but also the zero pointer that was bending down to grab at him. Because he caught the giant robot off balance, it slowly began to tip forward and fall.
Time slowed down for Naoko as she stared in horror at what was happening; the boy had more than enough time to run, but for some reason, he was walking around with two thumbs up. At that moment, Naoko was three years younger, watching her family shop get blown away
"Naoko, sweetie, could you grab me another bolt of the forest green cotton from the back?"
"Yes, Mom!"
"Come on kid... Move." She mumbled as her feet began to move forward without her permission.
"I've heard several people say that All Might was in the area fighting! Isn't that amazing Hodori?"
"Careful, Reo, your inner fanboy is showing! Keep this up and you might scare off the customers!"
"Oh hush, Hodori; let a man have his moment, would ya!"
The robot was falling faster, yet only she seemed to notice the boy walking around in the impact zone. By now, Naoko was running as fast as she could, but it didn't feel like enough. Would she make it in time?
"Did you hear that, Hodori? The explosion sounded pretty close to here, this doesn't sound good."
"Yeah, that's odd, All Might usually doesn't make this big of a mess... I wonder if there's a different hero out there now."
"Naoko, could you grab the boards from the back? We should close up now, just in case."
She was almost there, just a few more steps! She had to make it to him!
"Naoko, forget the boards! We have to leave now!"
"What's going on Reo?"
"A building across the street just collapsed! We need to get out of here before our building collapses as well!"
"NO!!!"
.
.
.
"MOM! DAD!"
Judges Room
Silence filled the room as everyone watched the screen in horror; the screen that captured their attention showed nothing but dust, and they all waited for it to clear. It was obvious that there was a boy in the path of the robot when it fell, and just before it landed, a girl ran from an alleyway and joined the boy. Both were now likely dead.
"How... How could this happen?" A lady whispered, fear evident in her voice.
"Unless one of them has a quirk that hardens their body, they couldn't have survived that... But I don't think they do." Another said before standing up and walking out of the room.
Even the teachers had been affected, well, all of them but two. "Wait just a moment, everyone," The principal said evenly, "I don't believe this is done yet." The people in the room seemed to grab on the principal's words like a lifeline, and everyone watched the screens intently, praying that the children would be okay.
As if in answer to their prayers, smoke started billowing from the robot and the cameras were obscured again. Still, no one said a word, as if that would help the situation turn out fine. Almost a minute passed before the camera was able to see through the situation, and when it did, gasps were heard around the room.
The robot was completely gone, and in its place was a crater that took up most of the street's width, and about the same in length. In the middle of the surprisingly deep crater was the blue-haired girl, curled around the blond boy she had saved though neither of them seemed to be conscious.
A cheer rose from a random person in the room, and that seemed to act like a release for everyone else, because suddenly everyone was sighing happily or marveling over what had just happened. Well, everyone except for the principle and the sleep-deprived teacher next to him.
"Controlling an object's state of matter, right?" Aizawa asked the principle, who hummed in response.
"That would be correct," The mouse took a sip of tea, as though nothing especially exciting had happened, "It seems that Miss Fujimura possesses quite a lot of potential, does it not?"
Aizawa nodded and stared at the two teenagers, who were still unconscious, "You know Nezu," He said quietly, "I think this will be an interesting year."