I waited until everyone rushed through those gates to start walking into that entrance exam. As I walked, I noticed the guy, who had explained everything, standing there. He looked at me as if I was crazy for not getting a head start, but I didn't react to it. If I did, then everyone would know I was throwing away my shot at getting into U.A.
It might seem a bit odd for someone to throw away their shot in getting into a school to become the next top hero. I mean, being a hero is something everyone wants to be, especially my little brother, Ollie. The thing was I didn't want to be a hero. While a simple answer would be to not apply to this school, I had a lot of pressure from my family to do this. After all, the last thing I needed was my mom to lecture me about not trying my hardest. I had to get straight A's in school. Anything less than perfect wasn't acceptable. While I knew U.A. would send the results to my family, I could always make the excuse that the others were just too powerful, that my Quirk just wasn't good enough.
For right now, I just needed to play that role.
It was not a surprise that this was what the inside of the entrance exam looked like. It was an exact replica of Mustafu, Japan. Buildings towered over me while the streets had occasional cars parked on the curb. I kept to the side of a sidewalk, looking around at this stimulation.
U.A. promised that it would become the school for the best of the best. They wanted people to experience what it was like to be a hero before they were thrown in the field. I mean, they weren't wrong. That was how it should be for every job.
All I had to do was walk around and run away from all these "villains". If I would run, people wouldn't see me as a threat.
That was one thing the man who explained the rules told us. We could do anything to get these villains down, whether that was using our Quirks, teaming up with other participants, or even tearing others down. There were no rules when it came to how we could tear down these "villains." All we had to do was stop them.
So many things could go wrong with this no rules on taking down these "villains."
I turned down one of the streets, finding a good number of two and three point "villains" standing there. Those were "villains" that were harder to take down, but all they really were were gigantic chunks of green metal with four limbs that helped them moved. There were small cameras that were attached that looked like eyes. They even glowed red when they looked at someone.
There was no doubt in my mind that the people grading us were watching us through those "villains." If I wanted to avoid any questions, I would just need to keep dodging them. Luckily, there was a good group of people fighting them to the best of their abilities. Whether it was a kid sprouting wings from his back to give him an aerial view to kick a "villain" down or a girl shooting fire from her hands to melt the "villains" into crisp, they were all doing their best to gain as many points as they could.
While they did, I ran the other way.
That was how things went. I ran down different streets, dodging every "villain" that I could. That would be my excuse for not gaining any points. If anyone would ask, I would just lie and say that I couldn't find any and when I did, they were already taken down. That excuse would even work with the kind of Quirk I had.
My Quirk isn't anything special either, at least, not for this kind of simulation. It's not like I could've flown around to see overhead where these "villains" were coming from, nor did I have super speed to dart to the closest one. My Quirk wasn't meant to be combative, but I still found it more useful than those kinds of Quirks.
"Five more minutes!" a voice boomed overhead.
I smiled. We were about halfway done. We only had ten minutes to take down as many "villains" as we could. Seeing that I made it this far without having to worry about them, I would be fine.
At least I was until I heard something slam into the ground. I turned my head to find two boys standing there with a three-point "villain" lying down in front of them. They were the same two boys from before.
The taller one—the one whom I didn't get a name to when tried to help me get away from the orange-haired boy—turned around to look at Kaito, the orange-haired boy. His face turned red as he gritted his teeth.
"You bastard! That was mine!" he screamed.
I froze at the mention of that word. My hairs stood up on my neck as I watched the scene unfold. The people here weren't hesitant to use profanity, but that didn't mean I was used to it. In fact, hearing it more often just made me tense up even more.
"Hey now, take it easy. Remember, just take down those robots, gather as many points as possible, and all is good," Kaito said. "The guy said nothing about taking other people's targets or anything for that matter."
That didn't make things any better. By the looks of things, it made the problem a whole lot worse. The boy with the dark hair clenched his hands into fists and as he did, his already building muscles grew twice in size.
I was right in thinking his Quirk was Ultra Strength, but seeing it in action made me realize why he looked so familiar. His Quirk was the exact same Quirk as Power Girl. She was one of the heroes my brother looked up to as she used her Ultra Strength to take down villains and carry multiple people out of danger.
But seeing this guy use the exact same Quirk wasn't what truly shocked me. What shocked me was seeing how similar he looked to her. They shared the exact same facial features, hair, eye color, even muscular build. I tried wracking my brain to remember her name—that is, hoping she released her name to the public—when I finally remembered: Hatsuko Yamamoto. It was more than likely that he shared the surname as her too. I just couldn't believe I didn't see it before when I first met him.
If the young Yamamoto had any ounce of strength that his sister had, then Kaito was in for a massive beatdown.
"Thanks for reminding me, you little bastard," Yamamoto growled as he brought his arm back to punch.
No!
I felt my body growing, knowing Kaito's fate if he stood there doing nothing. My feet started to react before my mind could process what I was doing. In a blink of an eye, I felt myself pushing Kaito down to the ground. Once he was down, I turned around, seeing Yamamoto's fist one second before it rammed right into my eye.
"Tami-tan!"
I flew back until my body slammed into the wall. It didn't hurt as much as it could've. If I was in my normal body, I would've blacked out right there. Instead, I remained conscious, but my head started spinning.
Despite the fact that Yamamoto was multiplying into three different people and fading into one before repeating, I could see his eyes widened. There were many reasons why he could've been shocked. For one, his attack should've landed onto Kaito. It didn't. If it wasn't for Kaito calling my name, he would've thought he landed an attack on himself, or, at least, a mere copy of himself.
That was my Quirk: Biochange. I had the ability to look like any person I saw as long as I could remember what they looked like. Yamamoto stood right in front of me. It was easy for me to change to look exactly like him. I just couldn't use his Quirk.
"Tami?" Yamamoto gasped, before looking utterly pissed once again. He snapped his head to look over to Kaito. "I can't believe you'd let some girl take your place, you bastard!"
"St-st-stop c-c-calling him that," I demanded as I struggled to stand up.
I stood on my own two feet and clenched my fists. Even with no Quirk, I could feel the amount of muscle Yamamoto had. He had worked out to make his Quirk more useful. I could use his normal strength to my advantage, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough.
"After all he's done to you, and you stand up for him?" Yamamoto questioned.
I slowly turned my head to see Kaito sitting there, slowly trying to inch away. His chest was rising and falling at a fast rate. While he could've run away, he could barely move.
"Y-y-you c-called him s-something he-he's not," I told Yamamoto as I looked back at him.
Yamamoto shook his head. "Fine. I'll put both of you out of commission, so I can take out these piles of junk myself."
He ran towards me, bringing his fist back. I kept up his form, knowing my own body wouldn't stand a chance against another hit. Although, I don't think his body could stand another hit when he'd use his Quirk. At least, not when I've barely used my Quirk for violence like this. That would take time. Even then, I wouldn't want to train it in that kind of way.
I wasn't a hero. I would never be a hero. All I was doing was getting those two to concentrate on the task at hand. They should be more worried about the "villains" than picking a fight with each other.
Before he could after at me, I dodged, snaking around him in time to see Yamamoto slamming his fist into a wall. I let out a breath of relief, realizing I'd be okay for now.
"Tami-tan, behind you!"
I turned around, my eyes widening as I saw what was right in front of me. It was a one-point "villain". Whatever Kaito's Quirk was, he must've needed a cool down for it or had overused it, otherwise he would've gotten it himself. As for Yamamoto, just from the corner of my eyes, I could tell he wasn't going to be able to use his Quirk. At least, not when he was clutching his arm as it slowly went down in muscle.
That meant the only person who could destroy this thing was me.
The "villain" that stood in front of me was huge. I mean, I've been dodging them this entire time, but actually facing it was a whole other story. There were two metal arms that came out from the side as it's one red glowing eye locked onto me. Thankfully, it didn't have legs, but the downside to that fact was that this thing had a huge base to keep it from tipping over.
My eyes widened, keeping up Yamamoto's form. I'd have to keep up his form. There wasn't anything else I could do unless I wanted to ended up hurt and unable to walk.
I watched as the "villain" swung one of its arms towards me. Either I got hurt once again from another attack, or I fought this thing head on. While I'd be okay taking another hit as the pain would eventually fade away, but would Kaito and Yamamoto be okay taking down another villain?
The answer: not if they were hurt.
Once again, my feet reacted before I could even realize what was going on. I sprinted towards the green robot and jumped on top of its single wheel. My arms wrapped around it as the thing stopped and tried turning around to locate where I was. While it was distracted, I started to climb up the machine, using all of Yamamoto's normal strength that I could until I made it to the top of the robot.
"Tami-tan, be careful!" I heard Kaito scream.
My hands held onto the machinery as I tried to recall what my mom once told me after work. She had found the best job she could being Quirkless and that was working on machinery. Every time she'd come home from work, my little brother would ask as many questions as he could about them. It could be from anywhere from the model that she was working on to the mechanics.
If memory served me correctly, the memory system and camera were all connected together. That would be the red eye. I could feel my heart pounding as I realized what that would be. I could try and outlast it, but how long could I do that? It wasn't something I wanted to find out. Taking a deep breath, I did what I had to do.
My right arm wrapped around the side of the bot until I could grab a part of the inside of the head. With my left hand, I reached inside it's red eye and yanked out the circuits as hard as I could.
"Time!"
I froze. Time? That quick? Maybe luck was on my side after all as they surely wouldn't count that.
As the thought came into my head, I regretted it. I had just torn out the circuit. Once a bot of any kind was destroyed it only meant one thing. My body started tilt forward as the "villain" started to fall forward.
I tried to jerk my right arm out of the side of the "villain's" side, but it was no use. Something from the inside caught onto my wrist and wouldn't let go. Even as I felt my body shift back to its normal form, my hand couldn't get out.
My body flipped off the "villain", but my arm was still stuck in there. There was nothing I could do as my back crashed into the ground. Pain shot all the way through by body. I could feel the pebbles poking into my skin, only my skin felt as if it was burning. That was if I was lucky. In places that I didn't feel pebbles running across a burn, it was digging into an open wound, digging deeper as I couldn't move a muscle.
"Tami-tan!" Kaito screamed.
Without having to open my eyes, I could already tell I was in a tough situation. My right arm twisted behind me in a way that an arm shouldn't be twisted. It was still stuck inside that thing's head too. Tears stung my eyes as I laid there, unable to move.
"Tami-tan, Tami-tan!" Kaito continued to scream as if he could do something about my pain.
"Shut-up, there's nothing you can do until the medics come," Yamamoto's harsh voice hissed.
I peeled my eyes opened, regretting it as I saw the two guys standing over me. Well, Yamamoto was standing to my left with his arms crossed and narrowed his eyes on me. As for Kaito, he knelt beside me, holding his hand over my forehead.
"You were amazing," Kaito said as he gave a small smile. "You're going to be an awesome hero someday!"
"Don't call me a hero," I told him as I shut my eyes once more. "You would've done the same."
There was silence as my words took both Kaito and Yamamoto off guard. It didn't matter though. Soon the medics would come over and get me out of the situation I was in. They'd heal my body so that I wouldn't be in so much pain.
All I was counting on was for that bot to be destroyed after the buzzer went off. If I did, then everything would be good.
Author's Note:
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
Question: Based on the Quirk you've given in the last chapter, what would your hero name be? Or, if you didn't give a Quirk, what do you think a cool hero name would be?
Character Spotlight: Tami Smith
Quirk: Biochange
Likes: Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets
Shoutout to flaafyvulpix and sd1229 for helping me find this pic and editing it a smiggen. Y'all are amazing!
Also, quick shoutout to ImberLapis who created the cover you now see on the front of the book and is featured below. I really appreciate her for doing this as it's absolutely gorgeous!!
Okay, that's all I have for you. I'll see y'all in 2020 with the next update. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, (whatever you celebrate during this time of year) and take care!
Song: Iron Battle from BNHA