callmeruki

[callmeruki]

AN: Hello everyone, here’s the second chapter of the story, but first some author’s notes.

As most of you already guessed, the anime I based Luciel’s quirk off is ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, although it was brought to my attention that said quirk already exists in the latest movie ‘You’re Next’. That isn’t a problem since I wasn’t planning on adding that movie into this fanfic, since I haven’t watched it yet, and probably won’t until this story is complete.

DISCLAIMER

I do not own My hero academia or any other elements from existing anime, the pain is real. TwT

 

“Talking”

‘thinking’

Screaming (aka bakugo) xD

Special attacks, moves and Skills

 

Chapter 2 : Entrance exams

(3 days before the exam)

It was dinner time, Luciel, Shinso, Karma and Grayfia were sitting at the table after a hard day of training. The two boys were sporting very little injuries compared to the beginning of their training. It goes to show how far they came in little less than 10 months.

Luciel didn’t change much, he already had a muscular frame. One with power but built more for agility, fast movements and flexibility.

Shinso however was the one who changed the most. The once scrawny but athletic boy was now quite the muscular one, even more muscular than his silver haired friend. While Luciel’s frame is for agility, Shinso’s is for power and durability, able to take hits and dishing them out in kind.

�� The entrance exams for UA are in 2 days. ” - Grayfia commented idly, staring at the two boys. “ Are you confident in your chances? ”

The two boys stopped in their eating and glanced at each other.

“ Pretty confident, Ms. Akabane. ” – Shinso answered politely.

“ Oh please, I already told you before, just call me Grayfia, you’re pretty much part of the family with how much you come here and how close of a friendship you and Luciel have. ” – Grayfia insisted. “ Not to mention that starting school you and your parents will be moving to our territory, since our house is significantly closer to UA than your parents house, that’s why we had that new house built. ”

Shinso nodded shyly and Grayfia turned her attention towards her son.

“ How about you sweetie, how confident is my baby boy? ” – Grayfia cooed.

“ moooom ” – Luciel tried not to whine but failed spectacularly, causing his mother to giggle and his father to chuckle.

“ I’m confident in my chances, I have no doubt I’ll be able to enter UA’s hero course, what I’m not confident about is if I’ll be in Eraser Head’s class or not. ” – Luciel explained. “ I highly doubt anything UA throws at us will be worse than dad’s training. ”

A shiver went down Shinso’s spine remembering Mr. Karma’s training.

The man was indeed a sadist. The more time he trained with the man, the harder he pushed the indigo haired boy, by the sixth month sometimes Shinso wondered if Mr. Karma was trying to kill him.

“ Speaking of… ” – Karma spoke up, catching Luciel and Shinso’s attention. “ Today was the last day of training, it would do you both no good to exert your bodies before the exams. ”

“ So we’re going to rest for the next two days? ” – Luciel asked, not entirely convinced that that’s what his father had planned but not showing it.

“ Not entirely. ” – Karma answered, catching the dubiousness behind his son’s words. “ Tomorrow we’ll spend the whole day going through possible tactics and strategies you two can use during the exam. There are a lot of variables that you need to take in consideration. ”

Luciel nodded, seeing the logic in his father’s words but Shinso was the one to raise a question.

“ What variables?” – Shinso asked, curious on what variables could be important.

Spending nearly 10 months with Luciel and his dad, he got to hear several stories about Mr. Karma’s time abroad in his missions. The most common lesson in those stories was the power and value of information. Many missions that should have been incredibly hard became surprisingly easy with the right information. Information about their enemies, their quirks, their personalities, their posts, the terrain of the hideout and who amongst the enemy should be taken down first to disorganize their ranks were amongst the most important.

“I’m glad you asked.” – Karma said, but shaking his head in the negative. “But not today, you’re both tired and need rest. Your brains retain better information if they’re properly rested.”

Luciel gave his father his signature look. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Giving us half the information so we don’t stop thinking about it…” – Luciel spoke with an annoyed tone.

Karma just innocently smiled, seemingly immune to his son’s look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Shinso just watched in amusement, the father and son’s antic’s were always entertaining to watch.

“Now go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow. You may not get physically tired tomorrow but you will mentally.” – Karma spoke to the two boys.

Said boys decided it was best not to argue and went to sleep. They were indeed tired.

 

(The next day)

Luciel and Shinso were sitting in front of Karma in his office, each with a cup of coffee in hand ready for a long day of strategizing.

Shinso wasn’t a big fan of coffee, unlike his silver haired friend but having to wake up with the sun everyday, he needed the caffeinated beverage to slap his mind awake, eventually he grew to like it.

Luciel on the other hand loved coffee, infact he could barely function in the morning without drinking one. It was highly amusing to see the silver haired boy stumble like a zombie around the house towards the kitchen.

“So dad, what were the variables you were talking about last night?” – Luciel asked, straight to the point in a monotone. Clearly the coffee hadn’t taken effect yet.

Karma could barely contain a chuckle, Luciel looked and sounded incredibly funny. He was hunched over, head barely able to stand upright with eyes half closed and unfocused. His usually pristine silver hair was loose and messy. Clearly it still hasn’t been brushed.

“How about you wake up first, then we’ll talk.” – Karma couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice. Luckily his son was too out of it to notice. Shinso on the other hand wasn’t, and had no qualms about laughing at his friend state.

It took nearly 10 minutes for Luciel’s mind to wake up fully, after a full cup of coffee and some light banter between the two boys.

“Listen up boys” – Karma said with a serious voice, catching both boys attention. “What we’re about to do here is something I want you two to apply to everything you do, not just for the exam, but every situation.”

“Analysing the situation, figuring out the possible variables, strategizing, predicting possible outcomes of each actions and choosing them through process of elimination to figure out which one is the more likely.” – Karma’s tone was serious, any kind of mirth was gone. Right now it wasn’t Karma speaking, it was the Captain of the Black Reapers, Payload.”

“There are several things you need to take into consideration. Where is the exam being held? we know you’ll be fighting robots, but what kind of robots will you be facing? will it be open field or close quarters? since you’re training to be heroes are you expected to rescue civilian’s? will it be single combat or battle royal? will collateral damage be taken into consideration? will you be the only one there or will there be other examinees with you?” – Karma listed off some of the most important variables that could determine the parameters of the exams.

Shinso and Luciel were amazed, they are the ones taking the exams and yet not even a quarter of thoses questions ever passed through their heads.

‘So this is the kind of foresight that you need to have in order to be a captain of a squad.’ – Both boys thought in amazement, wondering if that’s the mindset you need to have if you want to reach the top of the hero world.

“Unfortunately for us, most of the important questions will only have an  answer on the day of the exam.” – Karma spoke with a sigh, he hated coming up with plans without the proper information, something he picked up from his job. Lack of information meant there would be holes in the plans, and holes in a plan meant probability of casualties increased.

“What we can do is build a basic strategy for each of the main possibilities of the exam. Those being if it’s open field or if it’s close quarters.” – Karma listed off.

Both boys listened attentively, giving Karma their full attention. Not only was this important information for the exam, but it was also a great experience to learn tactics from someone who had a lot of experience fighting villains. Although Karma shared several stories with the two boys about his missions, he never went into detail on how they planned for said missions.

“For each main possiblity, we’ll have to make several different plans depending on the possible parameters of the exam.” Karma explained, seeing the two boys confusion he elaborated. “In my missions, we had several plans beforehand. Each base plan was a different entry point in the enemies stronghold. And each base plan had several plans they could branch out to. Those different plans were selected depending on the enemies reaction. Once we started the raid, it would be on plan Alfa, but if the enemies reaction wasn’t suitable for that plan, we’d go for the plan fitting the enemies reaction, wether it’d be plan beta, charlie or delta. That way we’d always be prepared. That’s why information is so important, it allows us to make the best plans possible and eliminate as much risk as possible.”

The two boys nodded, it made sense, but with the lack of information they had it would be tricky to create good plans.

“We’ll create a plan for open area battle, and we’ll make three different ones, one for if you have hostages to save, one for if  there are other examinees with you  and one if you two can work together. We’ll make the same for the close quarters plans. We’ll make the plans malleable enough that you can change it in the day of the exam when they give you more information.” – Karma said his intentions for them for that day, as expected there was no complaints on the boys part, as always they were more than eager to learn.

For the rest of the day the trio stayed in the office planning for the exams, only leaving for lunch and dinner. No one wanted to face an angry Grayfia.

 

(Later that night, after dinner)

Luciel and Shinso were on their way to their respective rooms getting ready to sleep. Karma’s words from last night rang true, they weren’t physically tired but they were completely mentally exhausted.

“ugh…. My brain feels like mush.” – Shinso groaned tiredly. It seems Mr. Karma’s sadism doesn’t only extend to physical torture, or as he calls it, training. “Can you even remember clearly half of what we planned today or is it just me?”

Luciel just gave shinso his patented look.

Shinso was too tired to even feel embarrassed about being on the receiving end of  ‘the look’. “Right… Eidetic memory, I nearly forgot…” – Shinso remarked tiredly.

“Just give it some time, right now we’re too mentally taxed to process the information properly. Tomorrow you’ll be able to think more clearly. You’ll have an easier time remembering everything.” – Luciel explained calmly, but with a note of tiredness in his voice.

“yeah… You’re probably right…” a pause. “Don’t say it…” – Shinso started but was interrupted by a smug Luciel.

“I’m always right!” – Luciel said with a smirk, annoying the tired Shinso.

Shinso groaned annoyed while Luciel laughed.

 

 

The next day the two friends spent the whole day resting, tomorrow was the big day and both boys wanted to be in perfect condition. They prepared all they could, now they just needed to apply all they learnt throughout these 10 months to pass the UA’s entrance exam.

 

 

(The day of the entrance exam)

 

Luciel and shinso just reached UA’s gate. The written portion of the entrance exam was about to start in 20 minutes and the two boys were walking calmly towards the classroom where the exam was to be held.

“Y’know, now that we’re here I’m starting to feel a bit anxious.” – Shinsos said to his best friend. There was no point in hiding it from the silver haired boy, Luciel always had the uncanny ability to read people’s emotional state, most likely something he learnt to do from his father. The whole way to UA Luciel has been keeping an eye on him, as if knowing something was bothering him.

“You’re gonna do fine Shinso, the written exam is going to be a piece of cake for you, I have no doubt about it.” – Luciel tried to reassure his friend. “And we’ve spent the better part of 10 months training for the practical exam.”

“As long as you remain calm and don’t forget everything you’ve learnt so far you’re going to do great.” – Luciel said honestly to the indigo haired boy, but then added as in an afterthought. “Besides, anything UA throws at us can’t be worse than what my dad put us through… They are after all legally bound not to kill us.”

That made Shinsos laugh, brightening the mood.

“Seriously Shinso, don’t worry.” – Luciel said, stopping right in front of the room of the exam, holding out a fist towards Shinso. “We’re gonna make it in together.”

The two boys fist bumped and entered the room, a new confidence in Shinso’s steps, knowing that no matter what happened Luciel would always have his back.

 

 

(After the written exam, in the school auditorium)

 

There were hundreds of student hopefuls in the auditorium, students from every school in town plus a good number of neighboring towns, luciel could even see some uniforms from middle schools that were several cities away.

Luciel and Shinso were sitting next to each other, the two boys arrived a few minutes ago, having been given a paper sheet with their assigned seats and how to get there. A good thing they had the map, the auditorium was so massive that finding their seats would take a long time. When the two boys got to their seats they found their names on the desk, along with a paper pamphlet with what looked like 4 robots and some text with what looked like instructions to the practical exam.

“Looks like we’re finally getting the missing information.” – Luciel said, examining the pamphlet. Shinso nodding idly examining his own.

“Hm… apparently it’ll be open area combat on a city scale, several participants inside the same area. I’m guessing these robots are our villains in this scenario.” – Shinso commented on the pamphlet’s contents. “I wonder how big the robots are… Hopefully not too big, beating them without a quirk will be tricky if they’re any taller than the average adult.”

“They’ll probably have a way to deactivate them for people with quirks ineffective against machinery.” – Luciel answered, cupping his chin in thought. “At least you always have your Bo Staff, steel should be strong enough to deal with the robots. Specially if it’s an overhead strike, since it’s weight will amplify it’s damage.”

“Yeah… that’s true.” – Shinso said, looking towards his Bo Staff, now in it’s three section staff form strapped in his belt. “I’m guessing, since you’re wearing your gloves you’ll be taking them down with flame alchemy?”

Luciel gave his friend a smirk. “Imma make robots go BOOM!” – He said with a glint in his eyes. This would be the perfect opportunity to experiment with his new alchemy attack.

Shinso sweat dropped. His friend could be scary when he got that glint. “Just don’t go all out and add methane gas to your attacks, we don’t want a repeat of that day in training.” – Shinso said, a shiver running through his spine remembering that day and how scary Ms. Grayfia was.

“Yeah…” – Luciel chuckled awkwardly while scratching his cheek. “Definitely won’t, that attack is too destructive. Collateral damage might be taken into account for the final results of the exam. Heroes shouldn’t go around destroying the city for no reason.”

They were stopped mid conversation by the lights going out and a spotlight opening on the stage.

“What’s up my UA candidates? Thanks for toning up to me, your school DJ. COME ON LET ME HEAR YA!!!” – A man with long blonde hair spiked backwards and wearing triangular orange shades yelled to the crowd of students.

The man was wearing a black leather jacket with what it seemed to be a small loud speaker around his neck and black leather pants.

“Hey Luci, isn’t that the pro hero Present Mic? – Shinso asked in awe, seeing the pro hero in person for the first time.

“Yeah, I think it is.” – Luciel replied to his indigo haired friend, but then deadpanned. “Although he looks kinda goofy.”

Shinso snorted at that.

The auditorium remained silent, no one answered the pro hero.

“Keeping it mellow huh… That’s alright, I’ll skip straight to the main show then.” Present Mic said, seemingly not caring for the crowd’s lack of reaction.

“He’s as eccentric as Mr. Ukitake.” Luciel said in dumbfounded amazement.

Shinso snorted again, Luciel was on a roll.

‘At least he’s laughing now, he was too anxious about the practical exam, he’s overthinking it, he’s more than prepared for it.’ – Luciel thought in worry for his friend.

“Let’s talk about how this practical exam is gonna go down.” – Present Mic continued. “ARE YOU READY? YEAH!!!”

The auditorium remained silent again.

Luciel just sweat dropped and Shinso snickered.

“Like your pamphlet sais, today you rocking boys and girls will be out there conducting mock battles in super hip urban settings!”

The screen behind Present Mic activated, showing 7 letters from A to G.

“Get ready boys and girls for after I drop the mic here you’ll head off to your assigned battle centers! Sound good?” – Present Mic asked the still silent crowd, but yet again had no response.

“I see, so this is what this letter in our pamphlets are. I was starting to wonder.” – Luciel commented in realization. “I’m on site B. How about you?”

“I’m on site A. Guess we won’t be able to work together.” Shinso answered, a bit downcast.

“Yeah, it appears so. Don’t worry, you’ll do fine Shin, you trained 10 months for this with me and my dad.” Luciel reassured his friend.

“Ok Ok let’s check out your targets.” Present Mic began again, both boys focussing back on the stage. “There are 3 types of faugh villains in every battle center, you’ll earn points on their level of difficulty, so choose wisely.”

“Oh, so that explains the number on the robots.” – Luciel said in understanding. “I’m guessing our final results will be our number of points instead of our number of takedowns .”

“Yeah, I was starting to realize that too.” – Shinso commented.

“But check it, keep things heroic, attacking other examinees is a big no no for UA candidates.” – Present Mic said while wagging his finger at the students.

A blue haired boy rose up, interrupting Present Mic.

“Excuse me sir, but I have a question.” – Said blue haired boy spoke with his arm raised. “On the printout you listed 4 types of villains, not 3.”

Luciel facepalmed. “Is this guy an idiot… I’m sure Present Mic was about to talk about that robot before he was interrupted.” – Luciel groaned.

Shinso could barely contain his laughter this time.

“With all due respect, if this is an error on official UA material, it is shameful. We are exemplary students, we expect the best from Japan’s most notable school. A mistake such as this won’t do.”

Then the blue haired boy turned around and pointed to a messy green haired boy. “Additionally, you with the unkempt hair.” Said green haired boy just pointed at himself confused. “You’ve been muttering this entire time, stop that. If you can’t bother to take this seriously then leave, you’re distracting the rest of us.”

The whole auditorium started snickering at the green haired boy as he covered his mouth in embarrassment.

“Damn… that guy’s got a stick on him doesn’t he… heck I didn’t even notice the green one mutter.” – Luciel said while sporting his signature look. This time Shinso couldn’t hold his laughter. Luckily it was drowned out by all the snickering.

“Alright, alright examinee number 7111, thanks for calling in with your request.” – Present Mic spoke, interrupting all the snickering.

Behind him the screen switched again focusing only on the robot with the number 0.

“The fourth villain type is worth 0 points, that guy is just an obstacle we’ll be throwing in your way. There is one in every battle center, just think of it as something you should try to avoid. It’s not that it can’t be beat, there just isn’t any point.”

“That’s all I got for you today, I’ll sign off with a little present, a sample of our school motto.”

Luciel toned out Present Mic as he thought. ‘That’s odd, why would a school that teaches heroes only focus on beating villains… I know fighting villains is a big part of being a hero, but it isn’t everything… Something is missing… Could there be something I didn’t catch.’

Then something that Present Mic said came to the forefront of his mind. ‘But check it, keep things heroic, attacking other examinees is a big no no for UA candidates.’

��Attacking other examinees might reduce our points, does that mean that saving examinees or preforming heroic acts will increase them… yes that’s it, no hero school will only take students who can fight, otherwise there would be no heroes with healing quirks.’ – Luciel thought, eyes widening in realization.

‘The principal of UA is truly a genius, it’s a masterful plan. The information online only relates to the fighting portion of the exam, so does the information on the pamphlet, only Present Mic’s words talk about something else than fighting and that too is disguised as a part of fighting. Only by reading between the lines and understanding what heroes truly do can you get the full scope of the exam.’ – Luciel thought, with a look of awe rarely displayed.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What’s with that look?” – Shinso asked, noticing his friend look of awe.

“Tell me Shinso, doesn’t something seem strange about the exam?” – Luciel asked his friend, trying to see if Shinso can come to the same realization as him without directly telling him.

“Strange? Not really, you beat robots to gain points, the more points you have the higher your score is, it’s pretty straightforward.” – Shinso said, a bit confused on what his silver haired friend was trying to get at.

“Tell me, what do heroes do?” – Luciel probed, it was obvious Shinso didn’t understand the whole exam, the nerves are probably clouding his judgement. Perhaps another part of UA’s principle plan.

“Heroes beat villains…” – Shinso said confused.

“And?” – Luciel probed again, it was best Shinso came to the conclusion on his own.

“And they save people, rescue them from disasters or protect them from villains… What are you trying to get at Luci?” – Shinso asked, it was obvious Luciel figured something out, but wanted Shinso to figure it out himself, only giving hints or questions to make Shinso realize it, probably to train his deductive reasoning again.

“Then why aren’t any of those very important aspects of a heroes duty apparent in the exam?” – Luciel asked  Shinso, studying his friends reaction.

Shinso’s face turned from confusion to thoughtful as he pondered on Luciel’s words. It was true, there was no part of the exam that asked them to protect or rescue civilian’s. Not even fake pedestrians we have to protect from the robots…

“I don’t see how they could implement rescues in the exam… The only ones within the area are the robots and the examin….” – Shinso trailed off mid sentence, his mind screeching into a halt.

Luciel watched in amusement as Shinso’s face went from confusion to thoughtful to then shock, realization and awe.

“Unless the ones we have to protect and possibly save are the other examinees.” – Shinso whispered in realization, then turning towards his friend. “How the hell did you figure that out? I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion if you hadn’t pushed me into it.”

“It was well hidden but all the hints were there. Present Mic’s words about not attacking other students, the hyper focus on combat despite the true duty of a hero, the fact that if only combat oriented heroes were selected then there would be no healing heroes graduating from UA, if that was the case then Recovery Girl would have never entered in UA, let alone graduated.”

“I think that if we save or help other examinees we might get some additional points to our final score, because based on what Present mic said we might lose point or downright disqualification if we attack other examinees.” – Luciel pointed out his thoughts on the scoring system.

“When you put it like that it seems pretty obvious… hindsight’s 20/20 as they say.” – Shinso said, feeling a bit sheepish not having noticed it.

“PLUS ULTRA” – Present Mic yelled at the top of his lungs to the UA hopefuls.

“I think we’ve missed his entire speech.” – Luciel commented with a sheepish sweat drop.

As everyone started to get up and leave, the two friends wished each other good luck and went to their respective battle sites.

 

 

(A few moments earlier, in a room filled with monitors)

 

A part mouse, part bear, part dog being was sitting in the room surrounded by pro heroes, the teachers at UA. He was staring at the monitors, his quirk ‘high speck’ allowing him to process all the information shown in all monitors with relative ease. Said being was the Principal of UA High, Nezu.

“Ohhh…” – The being said in surprised delight.

“What’s wrong principal Nezu?” – One of the teachers, a muscular man with white spikey hair wearing a red skintight costume asked the now named Nezu.

“It seems this year we have one if not two very promising students.” – Nezu answered the pro hero, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“What makes you say that?” – This time it was another pro hero to ask, he was a tall man with shaggy black hair and bags under his eyes, he was wearing all black with a very long light gray scarf around his neck.

Nezu just pointed at a screen, more specifically at two boys, a indigo haired boy and a silver haired boy talking with each other while Present Mic gave his speech.

“What makes you think they’re very promising? They just seem to be talking while Hizashi is giving a speech, which is highly illogical, they could be missing vital information.” – The Black haired man grunted, already mentally marking them as failures in his hero standards.

“Normally I would agree with you Aizawa.” – Nezu said, the use of the word ‘normally’ not going unnoticed by every pro hero in the room, catching their attention. “It’s what they’re talking about that makes them very promising.”

“And what would that be?” – This time it was an old and feminine voice that spoke. It was a short old lady, wearing a doctor’s coat and a giant syringe as a cane.

“The young man with silver hair seems to have figured out the hidden rescue points system.” – Nezu announced, shocking all the pro Heroes in the room.

It was the first time anyone has figured out the secret rescue points of the exam.

“And what’s more, he was helping the indigo haired boy figure it out.” Nezu continued.

“Are you sure he figured it out Nezu?” – The white haired man asked, getting a nod he asked. “How did he even figure it out?”

“Judging by what he said, he figured it out through a combination of several facts. By the end of Hizashi’s explanation of the exam rules he found it odd that the exam only focused on combatting villains, by what he said, a big part of being a hero isn’t just fighting and beating villains, but the protection of the people, it was strange to him that there was no scoring system to one of the most important aspects of being a hero.” – Nezu started, it made sence the boy’s thought process, many heroes thinking along those lines.

“Also when Hizashi said attacking other examinees was a bad conduct, he concluded that there would be a penalty by at least removal of points, going by that logic he also concluded that saving examinees would give an addition of points. And lastly he used Recovery Girl as a reference.” – Nezu concluded, amazing the pros on the boy’s reasoning and understanding on what it is to be a hero.

‘If I hadn’t found my successor already, you’d make an incredible option to give One For All to.’ – An extremely skinny blond haired man with vibrant blue eyes thought.

Most hero hopefuls only focus on the villain part so never question the lack of rescue points in the exam. However the last statement confused them.

“What do you mean he used me as a reference.” – The old lady, now identified as Recovery Girl asked intrigued.

“His exact words were. ‘if only combat oriented heroes were selected then there would be no healing heroes graduating from UA, if that was the case then Recovery Girl would have never entered in UA, let alone graduated.’.”

“Quite amazing that young man. I can see why you say he’s promising. Not many people have that much of an analytical mind, specially at such a young age.” – Recovery Girl said, amazed at the young man’s mind.

“Earlier you said help, not tell. What do you mean by that?” – Aizawa asked what was on his mind. He’d have to change his view on the silver haired boy, he was on his standards after all, if not beyond them, that level of insight and analysis is exactly what heroes nowadays need in his opinion, specially with as little information as he had.

“That boy seems to understand that someone retains better the information if they come to the conclusion themselves, instead of having it told to them. He was helping the other boy come to the conclusion by asking the right questions in the right order. Quite ingineous.” – Nezu praised.

“Indeed” – Agreed Aizawa, he then asked. “What information do we have on them?”

A woman with spikey dark blue hair and wearing a risque costume shuffled through some papers.

“Let’s see, The indigo haired boy is called Hitoshi Shinso, age 15, Quirk ‘Brainwashing’, when he asks someone a question and they answer he is able to control people by brainwashing them. His parents are Hajime and Mihoko Shinso, Hajime Shinso owns a Auto Repair Shop while Mihoko is a stay at home mother, she was formerly a kindergarten teacher.” – The blue haired woman read off the file.

“What about the other boy Nemuri?” – Nezu asked.

The now named Nemuri picked up the second file. “The silver haired cutie.”-Nemuri was hit by an end of Aizawa’s scarf, but she remained unaffected-“Is called Luciel Akabane, age 15, Quirk ‘Alchemy’, by using a transmutation circle, either the ones on the palm of his hands, a drawn or etched one he can alter any and all objects on the atomic level, either destroy them, reshape them or turning it into something else as long as he follows the laws of equivalent exchange. His parents are Karma and Grayfia Akabane. Grayfia Akabane is a stay at home mother, she was formerly a college chemistry professor. Karma Akabane is a retired member of the army… Oh there’s also a side note here saying Luciel has eidetic memory.”

“Quite the impressive quirks those two have, I have no doubt young Shinso’s quirk would be invaluable in hostage situations, and young Luciel, his versatile quirk coupled with eidetic memory and his incredible mind would be a force to be reckoned with.” – The blond haired man said, a note of awe in his voice.

“You’re quite right Toshinori, those two have quite the remarkable quirks. They would make great heroes.” – Nezu agreed.

“If they manage to pass the practical exam I want them on my class.” – Aizawa said, those two have great potential and judging by their interactions also great synergy.

“If they pass, we’ll see.” Nezu replied to Aizawa’s request.

They all watch as the students leave the auditorium, Nezu and Aizawa noting the interaction of the two boys, how Luciel seem to reassure and motivate Shinso into giving it his all.

 

(Back with Luciel, entrance to testing site B)

 

Luciel toned out all the examinees milling about, focusing on steadying his nerves. He needed to be focused and precise, he may be calm outward but inside he was anxious and without Shinso here he didn’t need to hide it, seeing Luciel anxious would only worsen Shinso’s own nerves.

‘Gloves with oxygen transmutation circle, check. Right hand with transmutation circle for concrete, check. Left hand with transmutation circle for metal, check. Focus your breathing, steady your nerves, sharpen your resolve. Remember your training and your plans.’ – Luciel thought, trying to quell his nerves by checking his equipment.

As the gates open Luciel didn’t hesitate, he ran inside, ignoring all the examinees who seemed to be surrounding the muttering green haired boy and the blue haired boy who called him out in the auditorium.

As soon as Luciel turned the first corner of a street he saw his first opponents, 1 one pointer and 3 two pointers. Luciel smirked, it seemed the robots were only slightly taller than the average adult.

One of the two pointers was in the front while the single one pointer and the other 2 two pointers were in the back. The one pointer was a slim robot with a single large wheel as it’s legs, it had bulky arms with mini guns as hands, it seemed to only fight long range.

On the other hand the two pointers were robots with 4 legs, 2 arms with a spike and a tail with a Lazer on its end, it almost resembled a scorpion. It seemed to fight both in range and melee.

The robots seemed to still be locking in on him, seeing the opportunity luciel acted, using his gloves luciel transmuted the oxygen in front of him to create a dome of highly concentrated oxygen around the two pointer in the front and snapped his fingers.

The reaction was instant, the air around the robot ignited in a strong explosion, destroying all the fragile inner workings of the robot and only leaving the metal husk inoperable.

Taking advantage of the distraction, hidden from sight due to the smoke and heat sight due to the residual heat, Luciel ran towards the now beaten robot, placing his left hand on the robot he created 4 light but very resistant steel swords.

The first sword he threw towards the one pointers head, it was the one with the highest mobility, so it’d be the one taken out first. Before the first sword even hit the robot the other two swords were flying straight to the remaining robots. All swords hit their mark, deactivating all remaining robots.

The whole planning and subsequent fight lasted less than 1 minute, all robots were destroyed even before the smoke dissipated.

“That makes 7 points.” – Luciel commented to himself, the fight ended faster than he expected. – “Best not get overconfident, you’ll never know what’ll happen.”

Still gripping his remaining sword, Luciel ran in search of his next targets.

Present Mic could be heard screaming at the top of his lungs. “HEY THERE IS NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL BATTLE, GO GO GO, TAKE THAT GUY’S EXAMPLE.”

It seemed the other examinees were still at the entrance. ‘No matter, I got to focus on my own score’ – Luciel thought, ignoring the other examinees for the time being.

As luciel kept running he encountered only lone robots, those in a safe distance he destroyed with his flame alchemy, while those who got too close he took down with the sword still in his grip, destroying a total of 5 one pointer and 3 two pointers, making his score a total of 18 points.

As luciel stopped in an intersection he saw the green haired boy from the entrance exam backing away from 2 3 pointers looking nervous. He waited to see if the boy would act.

The robots had the lower body of a tank, 2 bulky and big arms and rocket launchers in their shoulders. While the one and two pointers seemed some what fragile these ones we’re built to be more resistant and with more fire power.

When the robots went on the attack and the boy didn’t react Luciel acted, placing his right hand on the ground he transmuted a stone wall in front of the boy and the ground under the robots into spikes, destroying them instantly while protecting the green haired boy from the subsequent explosion.

The boy seemed confused by the sudden appearance of the wall but flinched at the sound of the explosion.

“Hey kid, are you alright? What even happened back there for you to freeze up?” – Luciel asked the green haired boy while extending a hand to him.

The boy watched the extended hand but slowly grabbed it to get up. “I-I was c-caught by surprise a-and couldn’t react.” – The boy said timidly with a hint of shame in his voice.

“Why didn’t you at least try to use your quirk to defend yourself then?” – Luciel asked the clearly shy boy.

Said boy seemed to shrink at Luciel’s cold and indifferent tone, luciel inwardly sighed. ‘This kid is way too timid for a hero, maybe he’ll grow out of it in time.’

“M-My quirk is h-hard for me t-to control.” – The boy stuttered a response.

This time Luciel sighed, seemingly making the boy shrink even more into himself.

“Fine, here.” – Luciel said with a sigh, giving the boy his sword. “Just use this, but try not to cut yourself.”

“No-no I couldn’t, i-its your sword, y-you’d need permission to use that.” – The boy said, stuttering but with a note of gratitude in his voice.

“It’s fine, I made it with my quirk, I’ll just make another one.” - Luciel waved of the boy’s concerns. “Just don’t hurt yourself with it, it’s really sharp, it’ll cut right through the robots so it’s even more dangerous to people.”

The boy seemed to pale at that but nodded slowly, adjusting his grip on the sword.

“I’ll see you around.” – Luciel said, turning around and waving to the green haired boy.

“O-ok th-thank you!” – The boy replied but Luciel was already running off.

‘That makes a total of 24 points’ – Luciel thought, tallying his score so far. ‘ I should search for a tall building to scope out the area’

As Luciel searched for a good building he kept destroying any robots within his sight and assisting anyone who seemed to need help, destroying a total of 6 one pointers, 5 two pointers and 4 three pointers, making his total points 52 points.

Most of the examinees that needed assistance just needed a wall behind them to shield them from an attack from their blindspot, Luciel never stuck around to get any credit, he just kept running.

He soon found a good building to scope out the area, It was a tall building with a lot of room on top. He took out the 2 three pointers near the building using concrete spikes and got to the base of the building. Placing his right hand on the ground he created a concrete pillar, raising it and him to the top of the building.

Stepping on the building he sighed. ‘Perhaps this might not have been a good idea…’ – Luciel thought, seeing if it might be best to leave the building.

For on top of the spacious building was a good number of robots. 8 one pointers, 5 two pointers and 3 three pointers.

‘No, if I try to leave they might just shoot me down mid-transmutation, I have to take them out before I leave.’ – Luciel thought in resignation.

‘I need a plan, I can take out all the one pointers grouped together in the front using flame alchemy but the recoil might throw me off the building, I need to create a wall to shield me from it. I shouldn’t use the same tactic I used against the group in the beginning, the AI might have the ability to learn and adapt to the examinees tactics. I’ll create a decoy towards the left, hopefully they will focus on that, allowing me to create spikes under the two pointers, destroying them and leaving only the remaining group of three pointers who I can take out by transmuting parts of the wall into swords to throw at them. Thanks to their bigger size and lower mobility I can easily aim for their heads and not worry about missing. Yes that would do it.’ – Luciel’s thought process only took a few seconds.

With a plan in mind he took action, quickly crouching he placed his right hand on the ground, as the wall began to rise he transmuted the oxygen surrounding the group of one pointers and snapped his fingers, the subsequent explosion destroying the robots and creating a smokescreen. Quickly taking out his jacket he caught it on fire and threw it to the left on the path of the group of two pointers, as expected the greater heat was located by their heat vision, as they begin to fire their lasers at the burning jacket, luciel transmuted the ground under them destroying them entirely, however, as one of the robots was destroyed it’s tail ended up pointing at the 3 three pointers destroying them as well.

As Luciel jumps out of the smoke, swords in hand he freezes with his arm pulled back ready for a throw, noticing the destroyed group of three pointers.

“I guess that works too.” – Luciel said with a flat tone and a deadpan.

Somewhere in the school, in a room filled with monitors, several teachers and a principal can be found laughing hysterically at the silver haired boys reaction while a single teacher with a helmet shaped like a robot cries about his now destroyed babies.

“That makes a total of 85 points, along with any I might win with the rescues I did. This should be plenty enough.” – Luciel said as he made his way back to the pillar, transmuting it down to how it was before.

Luciel once again took to the streets but this time with a relaxed walk instead of a run.

 

(A few moments earlier, with Nezu and the rest of the UA staff, monitor room.)

 

“It appears this year we have several promising aspiring heroes with great quirks attempting to join UA High.” – The Man with white hair and skintight costume said aloud to his boss and coworkers.

“That we do Sekijiro, we have quite the batch this year, they might still make fine heroes.” Nezu replied to the now named Sekijiro.

“And yet, you don’t sound that impressed.” – Aizawa noted, although he had an inkling as to why.

“Some students use speed to cover more ground, others use overwhelming strength and skill to easily overpowered their enemies, others use reconnaissance to locate enemies they can easily beat to gather as many points as possible and lastly others use strategies and tactics to easily defeat a physically superior opponent, those are the examinees that have the highest score so far.” – Nezu began, while he talked, the center screen switched to a boy with blue hair and glasses, traveling at incredible speed, then to a boy with spikey blond hair surrounded by defeated robots, to then a boy on top of a building scouting the area with his quirk to find foes to beat, and lastly it showed a boy with spikey indigo gravity defying hair luring several enemies and beating one strategically with his Bo Staff to make them all trip to easily defeat them all as they were immobile.

Nezu continued. “However, the truly remarkable students use a combination of all those aspects to gather a great number of points as fast and efficiently as possible.” The screen switched to a silver haired boy, rushing towards two robots on a base of a building and quickly defeating them, then using his quirk to reach the top of the building only to be ambushed, only to pause for a few seconds to strategize then proceed to defeat the robots with apparent ease. However, the plan in the end didn’t go as expected, making the boy pause in a very comical scene making several of the teachers laugh uphoriously.

“But the unfortunate part is that most of the students are only looking out for themselves, some going so far as to use others as bait or decoy as they take out the robot.” – Nezu continued as the screen switched again to a boy with blond hair firing a naval lazer to a robot after waiting for it to target a green haired boy.

“Only two boys seem to be helping the other examinees, however since they know about the hidden rescue system it is hard to tell if they’re helping for the sake of helping their fellow students or for the points.” – Nezu said, honestly stumped on this predicament.

“Does it matter?” – Aizawa asked honestly, garnering the attention of all those in the room. – “A hero’s duty is to help those in need, while most heroes nowadays do it for fame, doing it for extra points is pretty much the same as that. In the end they do their duty and do it well.”

“Yes that is true, however I think they are doing it for the right reasons.” – Toshinori said, looking closely at the screen as it played the Silver haired boy, Luciel he reminded himself, saving his successor and giving him a weapon to defend himself with after learning he couldn’t properly control his quirk. – “When he saved the young boy with green hair he could have just moved on like he did the other times, but instead he stayed to learn why he didn’t defend himself and went as far as to give him a tool to aid him.”

“Yes, you’re quite right, both of you.” – Nezu concluded. “But a person’s true character is shown when faced with insurmountable odds. I think it’s about time we let it out, there are only 2 minutes remaining of the exam.”

As Nezu went to press the button to release a 0 pointer in each testing site he thought, a glint of danger and curiosity in his eyes. ‘I wonder what you two will show us, young Hitoshi and Luciel.’

 

(Back with Luciel in testing site B)

 

As Luciel was walking towards the center of the battle site, robot parts were scattered all over the place. Robots missing all their limbs, torn in half, smashed to pieces or just their parts with the body missing.

‘Is this really how the exam is supposed to go? They’re meant to be stand-ins for villains, if any human is attacked with this kind of force he’ll die, if not instantly then rather quickly.�� – Luciel thought as he watched the carnage. ‘This looks more like soldier drills or underground hero tryouts’

However Luciel’s thoughts were interrupted when the ground started shaking violently, making the buildings shake and loose stone to fall down. The sound of screeching metal could be heard as all the examinees stopped and looked panicked while looking around.

“Is this an earthquake?!” “Why does there have to be an earthquake at a time like this!?” “I have to take cover!” – Examinees were yelling in panic looking around at the shaking buildings, inching away from the falling debree.

‘No, this doesn’t sound like a earthquake, or at least a normal earthquake. It almost feels localized. Plus there’s that sound of shrieking metal, like a hatch opening and something massive made of metal moving.’ – Luciel thought as he surveyed his surroundings.

A looming shadow stretches over everyone and everything as a ominous silence settles upon everyone, making all the present examinees look up at the source, only to find a gigantic robot looking down at them. It was the 0 pointer.

“What the… You’ve got to be kidding, that thing is massive… There’s no way any of us has the fire power to take that thing out, no wonder it’s na obstacle we have to avoid… Although that’s a bit overboard UA…” – Luciel said to himself astounded UA would pull off something this dangerous.

As the examinees were frozen in fear the metal monster grabbed to top of the buildings to steady itself, making chunks of the buildings fall onto the frozen examinees.

‘Crap, they’re petrified, this is bad’ – Luciel thought as he tried to find a way to get everyone out of this situation, all thoughts of the exam leaving his mind. ‘Concrete is too weak to stop that rubble, I have to transmute a ceiling made of steel with strong pillars supporting it.’

Luciel crouched, placing both hands the ground, creating the ceiling directly in steel would take too long, instead Luciel first created the structure with concrete, then transmuted it into steel. It was done so fast it looked like it was directly made with steel.

‘This way takes more stamina but there isn’t any other way to prevent casualties otherwise’ – Luciel thought with a grimace, feeling a big chuck of his stamina draining due to the cheer size of the structure along with the transmutation into steel.

All examinees looked in awe around them at the sudden appearance of the protective structure on top of them, some falling to their knees in despair thinking they were about to die.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GET MOVING OUT OF HERE, THIS WON’T HOLD OUT FOREVER.” – Luciel shouted at the still frozen examinees, still crouching, most examinees seeing he was the origin of the structure. This made their motor functions reboot as the metal monstrosity began moving.

All examinees began running back, except the green haired boy Luciel saved before. Said boy had a terrified face as he looked at the 0 pointer.

Luciel started to run towards the boy to shake him out of his state but once Luciel got near him the boy began to turn. Only for both Luciel and the boy to freeze as they heard a desperate call for help.

“Help, my ankle is stuck, I can’t get out.” – A brunette girl was shouting for help as the 0 pointer started to get dangerously close.

Both boys moved at the same time, running towards the stuck girl. On the way they passed the blue haired boy that interrupted Present mic in the auditorium.

Said boy only looked at them in disbelief as they ran towards the metal monstrosity, but continued running away.

Luciel was faster than the boy, when he got to the girl the boy was only half way across.

“It’s ok, we got you. You’re gonna be ok.” – Luciel said, trying to reassure the girl best he could, succeeding despite his monotone voice.

“Talk about keeping calm in dangerous situations, you’re as cool as a cucumber.” – The girl said in a scared yet joking tone, trying to lighten her nerves.

“Panicking will only make things worse, a calm and steady mind is needed to minimize risk while facing danger.” – Luciel said, as he placed his hand on the rubble on top of the girl, ready to destroy it by stopping the transmutation on step 2.

As Luciel focuses on the transmutation he notices the green haired boy slowing down and bracing himself for a jump. “What is he…” – Luciel starts saying, catching the girls attention, only to be cut off by a sudden gust of strong wind created by the boy’s jump.

“Holy shit!” – Luciel bursts out in surprise, eyes widening as the boy jumps straight towards the metal monstrosity’s head. ‘Is this really the same kid that couldn’t even protect himself 5 minutes ago?’

As Luciel finishes destroying the rubble on top of the girl they both watch the boy pull his arm back.

“He’s not going to… is he?” – Luciel asked no one in particular.

“Maybe his quirk allows him to punch it without hurting himself.” – The girl said hopefully.

“I’m not so sure… Look at his legs.” – Luciel pointed out.

“What about them?” – The girl asks, steadying herself by wrapping her arm around luciel shoulder to take the weight off her bad ankle.

“They’re broken. When I saved him a few minutes ago he said he couldn’t control his quirk properly. I take it this is what he meant. His power output is too big, his bones can’t handle the backlash and break.” – Luciel explained in a matter of fact tone.

“Oh….” – The girl said, feeling bad for forcing the boy to use his quirk for her.

A massive shockwave passes through the testing sight as the metal monstrosity is flung back, head caved in by a single punch from the green haired boy.

Luciel smiled, making the girl do a double take. “That level of self sacrifice for someone else’s sake, he’ll make a great hero.” But then he deadpanned. ‘But a really illogical one, if he doesn’t get a handle on his quirk he’ll end up becoming a liability for any hero that teams up with him, having to rely on them to save him every time he uses his quirk.’

As the boy starts falling down Luciel notices he starts pulling his arm back again.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I don’t know your name but can you take me to that broken 3 pointer? If I can reach that I’ll be able to make it float with my quirk, I can make it go high enough to be able to make the boy float before he can go splat on the ground.” – The girl said to luciel, not being able to get there on her own.

“Sure.” – Luciel answered, picking the girl up and placing her on top of the husk of the 3 pointer.

What followed was one of the funniest scenes Luciel has ever seen. As the boy was falling fast, readying for a punch to create enough wind pressure to stop his descent, it would be an ingeniou idea, if not for the fact that it would leave the boy with all his arms and legs broken.

Fortunately that wasn’t necessary, for the girl managed to stop the boys descent with her quirk, unfortunately for the boy, the way she used her quirk was with one of the biggest slaps luciel has ever bore witness to, no doubt amplified by the boy’s momentum. Luciel was pretty sure the boy was knocked out by the slap.

As the girl releases the green haired boy from her quirk to let him fall from now a significantly lower height she starts to vomit.

Luciel sweat drops ‘Must be the strain of overusing her quirk’ – Luciel thinks as he pats her back comfortingly.

“AND THAT IS TIME, THE EXAM IS OVER FOLKS!” – Present mic could he heard throughout all the testing sites, the remaining robots stopping in sync.

Luciel feels his body relaxing, just now noticing how strained it was. The exam was finally over, they could all relax now.

 

 

AN: And that is the end of this chapter, this was my first time writing anything like a fight scene so I’m quite nervous on how this came out.

I’m sorry for the long period of wait between chapters but my job and private life have been kicking my ass seven ways to Sunday, I’ll try not making this a habit but I make no promises, all I ask is for some patience, I have no intentions of abandoning this story, I’ll always post but some chapters may take some time.

I know last chapter I said this one would have both the exam and the waiting period between said exam and classes but my muse decided to hit me upside the head giving me a great idea for this story along with the following stories.

You’ll unfortunately have to wait to see what that idea is, I have big plans not only for this story but this whole account as a whole.

If you have any questions just leave them in a review, I’ll do my best to answer them as long as they aren’t a spoiler.

So what did you think about this chapter, let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read them.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As always, please leave a review, it is the fuel that keeps us aspiring authors going strong.

Much love, Ruki out.

[callmeruki]

You can read this fanfiction in Fanfiction net, Wattpad and soon AO3

This will be a “My Hero Academia” story but will have a minor crossover. I say minor because only the power system of another anime will be crossed over to MHA as a Quirk, no other elements from that anime will appear in this fanfiction. Said anime will remain a secret for now but it will be obvious once you see it.

There are references to 3 different anime within this chapter, see if you can figure them all out, it’s pretty easy tho.   Good luck ;)

Enough said. I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

DISCLAIMER

I do not own My hero academia or any other elements from existing anime, the pain is real. TwT

 ____________________________________________

 “Talking”

‘thinking’

Screaming (aka bakugo) xD

Special attacks, moves and skills

_____________________________________________

 Chapter 1 – Beginnings and preparations for UA

 The classroom was in a buzz, being the last day of middle school everyone was excited, specially with the teacher still not in class yet.

The classroom was full of groups of friends huddled together babbling about what highschool they want to go to, what they plan on doing during the break and many other topics.

It was no different with a pair of friends on the back near a window.

“I’m telling you, we gotta beef up our training man! We couldn’t focus a lot on the physical aspect of our training because of the exams so now we gotta make up for it Shinso.” - A boy with amethyst eyes and silver hair caught in a ponytail exclaimed to his friend. He was tall for his age, being 15 years old and standing at 5’11’’.

“Really? Can’t we just keep doing what we used to do before the exams? We already trained every day Luci.” – The now named Shinso asked his exasperated friend. Shinso was a boy with spiky indigo gravity defying hair and purple eyes, like his friend he was tall for his age, being 15 years old and standing at 5’9’’, just 2’’ shorter.

Luci just gave Shinso what Shinso likes to call the ‘making you feel stupid with a look’ look, a deadpan expression with an eyebrow slowly arching up. “Shin, buddy, we’re aiming for UA high, not your run of the mill highschool, it has less than 5% acceptance rate for the heroics course. We can’t go in half-assed.”

Shinso lightly blushed in embarrassment at being on the receiving end of that look coupled with the rational observation. “Yea… I guess you’re right...”

“I’m always right!” Luci quipped in jest while holding a finger up with a smirk.

“Smartass” Shinso glares but the image is ruined by the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. It’s a running joke between them, thanks to Luci’ eidetic memory more often than not he tends to be right.

“Our quirks might be useful in combat but they are not in all situations. While your quirk ‘Brainwashing’ might be perfect for fighting against other people, it is terrible for fighting inanimate objects while mine will only be useful if I’m fighting inorganic objects, like robots or something alike. That’s why we gotta train our bodies to compensate.”  ‘Well that’s not entirely true… I could use my quirk on people but the reaction wouldn’t be pretty, nor would the consequences of those  be. I’d be lucky if all they did was lock me up in Tartarus’ – A shiver went down Luci’ spine at that thought. ‘I’d never see the light of day, let alone be a hero.’

“Fine, fine” – Shinso relented tiredly already dreading Luci’s hellish training, although he couldn’t complain. Ever since Luci came into his life everything changed dramatically for the better. Not only did Luci become his first and best friend since his quirk awoke but now he no longer lamented on how his quirk was seen as villainous and had no applications on heroics. He thought back to their first interaction fondly as Luci went on a tangent about training.

_________FLASHBACK_________

(Beginning of the second semester of the second year of middle school)

“ Alright class, settle down.” – The teacher spoke with a tone that demanded attention. When all was quiet he continued. – “Today we have a new transfer student joining us from Shibuya. I want you all to be civil and help him acclamate to our school.”

While the teacher spoke, light chatter could be heard throughout the classroom.

“Ohhh it’s a boy, I wonder if he’s cute” – One of the more popular girl asked her friends.  “I wonder what his quirk is, do you think it’s a powerful one” - A boy asked to no one in particular, but several commenting and speculating on it.

Shinso lightly tskd ‘if it is, he’s probably like all the rest with powerful quirks, arrogant and unappreciative of being born blessed with a powerful heroic quirk’

“You can come in now” – The teacher said while turning to the door.

The door slid open and a boy with silver hair that reached the middle of his back caught in a pony tail walked in.

When the boy reached the teacher he turn to the students. Everyone could now see the boy clearly. He had deep amethyst eyes and fair skin, he was slim and muscular but not bulky like the jocks. He had almost an androgynous look to him.

Mumbling could be heard throughout the whole classroom, most predominantly from the female students who most were sporting generous blushes. “oh my god he is gorgeous!” – one girl said almost awestruck  - “He is so cute!” – one girl quietly squealed to herself.

The boy didn’t react to any comment of the girls, either he didn’t hear them or he was downright ignoring them, ‘probably with practiced ease’ were the thoughts of many of the boys in the class.

The boy was almost perfect in the girls opinion… Almost.

“Yes he’s pretty hot but… he looks more apathetic than Shinso” – one girl commented to her friend.

For all the boys looks, the one thing that stuck out the most was the apathetic look the boy had. He was standing tall, looking straight to nowhere in particular showing no emotion on his face or eyes.

“Yes but with those looks it makes him seem more cool than antisocial unlike Shinso” – The girls friend commented back to her friend.

Shinsos eyebrows twitched at that comment.

“Alright you can introduce yourself to the class.” – The teacher spoke to the boy, wanting to get the class started.

The boy turned to the chalkboard and wrote his name than returned his attention to the class.

“My name is Akabane Luciel, it is a pleasure to meet you all.” – The boy spoke politely while bowing with a smile. While he was polite and his smile seemed genuine, his voice seemed almost cold, making many question if his smile was actually genuine.

‘No surprise, he just transferred here, he wouldn’t be chummy with everyone right away. Either that or he thinks he’s better than everyone here.’ – Shinso thought, first in understanding that than turned to annoyance.

“Alright then, you can sit… ah, there’s a free seat there in the back next to Hitoshi Shinso.”

The now named Luciel nodded to his teacher and went to sit down. On his way to his seat he crossed eyes with Shinso and gave a small nod in greeting. Said act seemed to surprise the indigo haired boy.

‘Huh… guess he just doesn’t talk much instead of thinking he’s better than us.’ – Shinso thought, having his opinion of Luciel raised a few notches.

With everyone seated class began.

 ____________________________________________

(Some time later after class, during lunch)

Nearing the end of the class Luciel was contemplating whether he’d risk trying to find the cafeteria alone or ask someone to show him around. Having decided to ask for help he chose to ask his desk neighbor Hitoshi Shinso. Out of everyone in the class he was the only one that wasn’t commenting about him as if he wasn’t here.

Luciel got up and stood next to Shinso’s desk. “Hey, Hitoshi-san right?” – Luciel asked with a friendly yet neutral tone. It amazed Shinso how one can sound friendly yet neutral.

“Yes, can I help you Akabane-san?” – Shinso asked, curious what the new kid wanted.

“I was wondering if you could show me around, at least to the cafeteria for lunch, as a thank you I’ll pay for your lunch.” – Luciel added seeing no bento or any kind of food with Shinso, guessing he’ll also go to the cafeteria.

“Yeah, I don’t mi…” Shinso was answering the silver haired boy when they were rudely interrupted.

“Hey, new guy, a friendly advice.” – A brunette girl and two black haired boys walked smuggly twords them “Be careful around Shinso, or he’ll mess with your mind with his villainous quirk.” – The girl crossed her arms when she reached them and gave a confident smirk “You should come and hang out with us instead.”

Luciel raised an enquiring eyebrow looking between Shinso and the new arrivals. “Villainous quirk?”

Shinso said nothing but had a resigned and frustrated look. That seemed to emboldened the girl as she continued. “Yes, his quirk allows him to brainwash people when they answer one of his questions, then they obey any and all commands he gives them, worse yet, those brainwashed don’t have any memories of what they did or ever being brainwashed in the first place.”

Luciel cupped his chin “hm… Interesting” Luciel murmured so quietly that no one heard him.

“Hey Hitoshi-san” – Luciel asked with the same  tone as the beginning of the conversation.

Shinso looked up, expecting the usual ‘you wouldn’t use your quirk on me’ or declaring it a villainous quirk or even just the silver haired boy not wanting anything to do with him. What Luciel actually said completely befuddled not only Shinso but also the trio who started this topic.

“Can you use your quirk through a phone or a radio?” – Luciel asked in complete seriousness, not noticing or just ignoring everyones perplexed looks. Most likely the latter.

“I can use it through the phone but I can only affect one person at a time, if I want to effect various people I have to do it one by one. Visual contact with who I want to target helps me focus but it’s not mandatory.” – Shinso answered honestly, too confused with the suddenness of the question to even think about saying anything but the truth.

“hm… very interesting…” - this time they all heard him, but Luciel continued unbothered. “Quite an impressive quirk, and with a lot of potential, could be used in many different ways in heroics, actually probably one of the best quirks I ever seen for a hero.” – Luciel commented, actual amazement dripping into his voice, the first emotion any of the four have heard from him since they know him, albeit they just met the silver haired boy today.

However no one was more shocked to hear those words than Shinso himself, he couldn’t even hide his shock. All his life he was told by his classmates that his quirk was a quirk of a villain, now someone says the complete opposite.

The girl was the first one to find her voice. “What do you mean the best quirk for a hero?! That quirk is clearly one for a villain! He can control people with it, against their will!”

All she got from Luciel was him giving her a deadpan expression with an eyebrow slowly arching up. This was the first of many times Shinso would see that expression on the silver haired boy.

The girl started to fidget under that stare and eventually asked – “What?”

“Are you pulling my leg or are you actually serious?” – Luciel asked honestly. Seeing her serious expression he sighed and mumble to himself while lightly shaking his head“When has common sense become rarer than quirklessness”

“Imagine there’s a bank robbery, there are civilians inside being held hostage by a villain. With me so far?” – Luciel asked, getting a nod in affirmation he continued “All it would take is Hitoshi-san here to ask ‘What are your demands?’ through the phone for the villain to be caught under his quirk, making it possible to free the hostages and apprehend the villain with near to 0% risk to both the hostages and the officers.”

“A similar plan can be used to apprehend rampaging villains, regardless of their quirks or physical strength. All he needs to do is find a way for the villain to answer him, either by asking a simple question or irritating them enough for them to answer him. With enough knowledge on human psychology he can be one of the best heroes for capturing villains.” – Luciel answered honestly, surprised he even had to point out something that should have been obvious.

Everyone was speechless, the trio looked like their whole world just shattered. But Shinso was the most surprised of all.

‘I… I never thought of that… I never even considered what my quirk could do as a hero… why did I never think about ways I could use my quirk, was I always so cought up on what people said about my quirk that I didn’t bother to think for myself?’

Before, Shinso’s opinion of Luciel raised a few notches, now his opinion of the silver haired boy was better than anyone he’d ever met before. Not only did he stood up for him without even knowing him, if it was his intention or not is irrelevant, but he also changed his opinion about his own quirk. His once jealousy for people with powerful and heroic quirks turned to gratefulness for having a not only a powerful quirk in his own right, but one that can make his dream of being a hero not only feasible but very likely based of what Luciel said.

‘Now that I think about it, the uses were pretty obvious’ – Shinso chastised himself in his mind for missing something so seemingly obvious ‘I guess hindsight really is 20/20’

Luciel seeing that would be the end of the conversation turned back to Shinso. “So Hitoshi-san, you still up for showing me to the cafeteria?” – Luciel asked casually as if he hadn’t just shattered the world view of 4 people.

Being snapped out of his own thoughts Shinso stuttered. “Y…yes, let’s go before lunch break ends.”

When they were in the school halls Shinso looked at Luciel while they walked. “Shinso.”

“Pardon?” – Luciel asked, a bit confused.

“You can just call me Shinso, no need for Hitoshi-san or Shinso-san” – Shinso replied to the silver haired boy with a friendly smile.

Luciel gave a nod and a smile “ Then you can just call me Luciel” – luciel replied with a warmer voice than Shinso has ever heard from the silver haired boy.

They walked towards the cafeteria in a compatible silence, not yet realizing that this was the beginning of a friendship that would last until the very end.

______FLASHBACK END______

Shinso was pulled out of memory lane by the annoyed silver haired boy in front of him.

“Hey! Are you even listening to me?!” – Luci asked with an annoyed tone and eyebrow violently twitching.

“Yes, yes, I heard you. We have to train our bodies to compensate for the limitations of our quirks.” – Shinso answered, but inwardly sweating bullets not wanting to tell his already incredibly annoyed silver haired friend that he didn’t hear a single word.

Luciel just offered Shinso a deadpan look. “Y’know, I’m not sure if you actually listened to me or if we had this conversation so many times that you can already guess what to answer…”

But further musing were promptly stopped, along with every chatter and babble going around the classroom by the arrival of the homeroom teacher.

“Alright, settled down class. Just because today is the last day of your stay in middle school doesn’t mean you can turn my classroom into a children’s playground.”

“Now that you’re about to enter Highschool you should try to behave more accordingly to your age, it’s time to stop playing around and get serious with your studies. Your next choices will be very important for your lives going forward. The school you choose, what subjects you focus on, what path you follow in your careers, these are all important choices you will have to make in the near future.”

Everyone for once sat quietly and listened to the lecture with wrapped attention. Despite some words could be considered jabs at the students maturity, all of them could hear the fondness they held. Mr. Ukitake truly cared about his students and wanted the best for them.

“I know I could say to strive for higher and higher, to make sure you go for the best of the best, but instead I’ll say this. Make sure you live your lives with no regrets, chase your dreams and fight for them, nothing in this world is given for free, you have to work for what you want. But most importantly, make sure that what ever happenes, you always strive to be better than you were yesterday. Don’t just look in front of you on how far you still have to go, remember to sometimes look back on how far you came, how much you’ve achieved, how much you’ve grown and be proud of yourselfs. Because I’m proud of you all.”

A few sniffles could be heard throughout the classroom as the teacher spoke, his lecture truly shows how much he cares for his students. He really is the best teacher any student could ever ask for.

“Now, with my peace about your futures said, it’s time for us to check who has applied to what school.” – Mr.Ukitake talked as if he were a host to a great game show.

Giggles could be heard throughout the classroom stopping any remaining sniffling from the previous lecture.

Mr.Ukitake started to call out students and their school choices. This whole exercise was to get the students to be honest about their reasons to want to go to said school and any possible advice or recommendations he could give his students.

Nearing the end of the list Mr.Ukitake paused. “UA High’s hero course… Hitoshi Shinso and Akabane Luciel.”

The classroom was dead silent, everyone knew how hard it was to enter into UA High, even into General education, let alone heroic course.

With everyone’s eyes on them Shinso started to slightly fidget, fortunately not as bad as it would’ve been 2 years ago, while Luciel maintained his neutral face.

Luciel just slowly gave his homeroom teacher his patented ‘Making you feel stupid with a look’ look.

‘How does he do that so well…’ Mr.Ukitake sweat dropped ‘He makes you feel uncomfortably awkward with a single look’

Mr.Ukitake coughed to hide his awkwardness “You boys are planning to go to UA High? Those entrance exams can be rather brutal… But I know you two will be able to get in, you have the makings of great heroes” – He gave them a kind smile.

Shinso gave his teacher a big smile at the reassurance while Luciel dropped his look but gave a small smile.

“May I ask why that school in particular?” – Mr.Ukitake enquired.

Shinso was the first one to answer. “I want to be the best hero I can be, and UA High has the best results in the whole country.” – Shinso replied honestly.

With their teachers gaze now on him, Luciel answered. “My favorite hero not only went to UA but he’s currently a teacher there, I want to go there and follow in his footsteps.”

This was a new piece of information about the silver haired boy that none of them new, except for Shinso. Luciel has always been a very reserved person, no one even knows what his quirk is, despite several times trying to guess or coerce it out of the silver haired boy. The only ones who know what his quirk is are the teachers, who have read it off his file, and Shinso who he told and showed several times during their training and sparing.

Mr.Ukitake was now intrigued “And who is your favorite hero young Akabane?”

“My favourite hero is The Erasure hero : Eraser Head.” – Luciel replied honestly

All we’re confused by the name, no one’s heard of that hero before.

Luciel seeing the confusion thought to himself  ‘of course you wouldn’t have heard of him, he’s an underground hero after all’

“I see, fine reasons indeed” – Mr.Ukitake said while nodding and smiling softly.

As the class continued it was soon coming to an end, and with it the end of their time in middle school.

_____________________________________________

(Some time later)

Luciel and Shinso were walking towards the train station.

“You’ve been on your phone for a while, anything up?” – Shinso asked Luciel, who still had his eyes glued to the phone.

“Yeah, kinda. I’ve been doing some research throughout the internet and it seems that the entrance exam of UA is comprised of 2 parts.” Luciel replied, still on his phone.

Now that caught Shinso’s attention.

“The first part is a written exam rumoured to be incredibly hard, but that isn’t much of a problem. My eidetic memory makes almost all tests incredibly easy and your test scores are incredibly high.” He wasn’t bragging but just stating facts, fair or not, his memory is a tool he’d exploit whenever necessary, and Shinso’s scores were always near 95%.

Shinso nodded even though his friend wasn’t looking at him.

“The second part is what’s going to be tricky, at least for you.” That got Shinso nervous

“It doesn’t say exactly how the exam works but it mentions a lot battle and robots.” Now Shinso understood why Luciel said it would be tricky for him, his quirk doesn’t work on robots, he’d be participating in the exam pretty much quirkless. “There is no more information anywhere about the exam, apparently when you enter UA you have to sign a contract of confidentiality that forbids you from talking about the exam, maybe that’s how they managed to keep the same exam for almost a decade and still maintain less than 5% acceptance rate.” – Luciel pondered while pocketing his phone.

Shinso was digesting this new information, his great mind working 200% trying to figure out how to get past this massive hurdle even before starting the exam.

“Eraser head was in the same situation as me and yet, he still passed. His quirk only works on other people, in fact, he’s even more limited than me since he can only cancel quirks while I can create a fully in sync team with just a few words, but using people like that isn’t what a hero should do.” – Shinso said idly saying his thoughts aloud.

Luciel just waited for his friend to come to his own conclusion. He’d comment if Shinso needed it.

“Meaning either there are other parameters to the exam besides just defeating robots and/or we can use tools to help us defeat the robots for people who’s quirks aren’t suitable for combat against machinery.” – Shinso concluded.

Luciel smiled “Yes, you can use any tools you like as long as you register with the school at least a week prior to the exam.” – he confirmed for Shinso.

Shinso wasn’t annoyed that his silver haired friend neglected to mention that detail, he long since learnt that when Luciel does this, it is to train his deductive reasoning, something Luciel’s father taught him the same way. The faster you can deduce, the faster you can solve problems or find an enemies weakness.

“I have to figure out a weapon to use in the exam, and train with it, preferably something not lethal… At least we have 10 months to train and prepare for the exam” – Shinso commented on the current situation.

“We can figure it out with my dad, being ex-military he has a better grasp on those kinds of things than us at the moment.” – Luciel assured his friend, there’s no need to go through countless weapons and waste time when someone could direct them to the best weapons to complement their physique and fighting style.

“Wow… You’re dad is going to help us train?” – Shinso asked Luciel in awe and slight fear. While he met Luciel’s parents several times, he only trained with Luciel and his father a handful of times. Akabane Karma may be a brilliant teacher and trainer but he is also a huge slave driver. Coupled with Luciel’s stories of how brutal his father’s more serious training was, he’d won a generous amount of fear and respect for the man.

Luciel’s father, Akabane Karma, was a tall man with a slim and muscular frame, he had red hair with pale and sharp mercury eyes. He is a kind and caring person to those he calls friends and family, however to those who he doesn’t know he usually acts cold and dismissive. Many calling him apathetic.

Despite being reasonably young, being only 39 years old, he is retired from the military after having stayed for several years and completed successful missions in a special taskforce designed to go to Japan’s allied countries to help in any raids on big criminal organizations.

Now he stays at home, reading, spending time with his friends and family and training his son to become a hero.

His quirk, explosive touch, allows him to transfer a portion of his energy through his hands into an object, turning the object into a bomb as powerful as a C4 charge that he can detonate on command from any distance. This quirk, along with his tactical mind made him exceptionally effective and dangerous in the military, quickly rising in the ranks until he became captain of the taskforce.

Unlike Luciel’s father, his mother, Grayfia Akabane is a very caring person, she’s incredibly kind to everyone and always has a smile on her face. People jokingly say she is the heart of the household while her husband is the mind.

Grayfia Akabane is a 40 year old beautiful woman with an amazing figure, with fair skin, light violet eyes and long silver hair.

She is incredibly smart, having been a college chemistry professor but later leaving her job when Luciel was born, wanting to be a stay at home mother so she could raise her baby boy due to her husband’s job keeping him out of the country for long stretches of time.

She is very fond of embarrassing Luciel by calling him cute baby names while in public or whenever a friend comes to visit, which is always Shinso.

While Luciel may have inherited most of his personality from his father Karma, no one can deny that All of his looks were inherited from his mother Grayfia.

He didn’t understand how Luciel wasn’t afraid of his dad when he was mad, but was downright terrified of his mother when she got angry. Grayfia Akabane was a sweet woman.

 ____________________________________________

 

As the months went by Luciel and Shinso fell into a routine. Approved by both boys parents, Shinso would spend 5 days of the week in Luciel’s house to train under Luciel’s father.

Shinso would train in his chosen weapon, it was a Bo Staff that when twisted in a certain way it would break off into a Three-section staff, physical conditioning, marshal arts for if he ever was disarmed, resistance training, pain resistance and combat, either facing Luciel, facing Luciel’s father alone, or both Shinso and Luciel facing Mr.Karma to practice teamwork.

It was hell, in fact, Shinso was sure Mr.Akabane was a sadist, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t productive.

The other 2 days would be spent in his house, one for studying, and the second for resting.

By the end of the first day, all Shinso could do is fall face first into his bed while groaning loudly. Causing Luciel to burst out laughing at his friends misfortune.

“I swear…” – Shinso groaned tiredly with a hint of irritation. “You and your dad are sadists.”

Luciel just laughed harder.

As for Luciel’s training, this time his father didn’t hold back. His training got cranked up to 11 and he had the bruises to show for it.

Since Luciel was in a better physical shape than Shinso. While Shinso was working on his physical conditioning, Luciel was working on his quirk.

Luciel’s quirk, called alchemy, is a very interesting and complex quirk. It is the manipulation and alteration of matter by using his bodies energy, mostly his stamina.

The process is divided into 3 steps.

Step 1 is the understanding of the inherent structure and properties of the atomic and molecular makeup of a particular material to be transmuted, including the flow and balance of potential kinetic energy within.

Step 2 is the deconstruction by using his bodies energy to break down the physical structure of the identified material into a more malleable state so as to be easily reshaped into a new form.

Step 3 is reconstruction, continuing the flow of energy so as to reform the material into a new shape.

But if Luciel so wishes, he can interrupt the process at step 2, this way, as long as Luciel understands the atomic and molecular structure of the object, he can destroy anything he wishes regardless of how durable it may be. A truly terrifying ability, able to bypass any and all types of physical defence.

This quirk is powerful but extremely hard to use, unless you have eidetic memory like Luciel. What would normally take someone years to memorize the atomic components of all objects you can find in a city, it only takes Luciel a quick read.

Alchemy is a quirk based off science and chemistry, as such is subject to certain law and limitations, of all all which fall under the concept of equivalent exchange. In order to gain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed.

Equivalent exchange is separated into 2 parts.

Part 1 is the law of conservation of mass. Energy and matter can neither be created from nothing, nor be destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence.

Part 2 is The law of natural providence, an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material.

When Luciel’s quirk awoke, he gained markings in the palm of his hands that can be changed at will into a transmutation circle. There was also a shift in Luciel’s brain, giving him an innate understanding on how each circle needs to be to manipulate the matter, akin to a 6th sense.

Alchemy can only be used with a transmutation circle, whether it be the circles in his palms, a drawn circle in the moment or an etched circle for a permanent use.

Luciel’s training with his quirk revolves around training the speed of the transmutations, his understanding of his quirk so as to be able to transmute matter into the atomic level instead of just molecular, hence turning one element into another, for example transmuting the ground into steel or iron instead of dirt, or turning air into methane gas.

Along with finding new attacks using alchemy.

His latest idea for the exam is using cloth and steel to create ignition cloth gloves, then transmuting the oxygen in front of him to create pathways highly rich in oxygen and methane gas, with a snap of his fingers with the ignition cloth gloves he can ignite the air and create fire attacks capable of destroying robots with one hit.

Needless to say, Shinso was amazed and slightly nervous on how destructive his attack was.

At the end of that day Luciel had to face a very angry Ms.Grayfia, and Shinso understood why Luciel and Mr.Karma were so terrified of her…

Ms.Grayfia is a very sweet woman, but also a very terrifying one.

_____________________________________________

NA: This is the ending of chapter 1, next chapter will be the entrance exam and the period of waiting before the results.

This chapter changed characters perspective quite often, hopping from Luciel to Shinso several time, this will not be the case in the future, it was just in this chapter because it was an important one for both characters.

Now to address some questions that may come up.

Do not worry about flashbacks being as big as this one was in the future, this one ended up being this big because i wanted to show what prompted Shinso’s change, how he and Luciel became friends and to show Luciel’s true personality to people who he hasn’t befriended.

This is a slightly AU, although most characters will be present, I have taken some liberties in changing some elements from the story that I always felt could’ve been more fleshed out. Most will be addressed in future chapters.

The addition of the confidentiality contract is to keep the exam always the same, this is not due to laziness, this is purely intentional on Nezu’s part. Although students can’t give the specifics of the parameters to pass the exams, they can give a general idea to what’s happening, hence battle and robots in plural. This is Nezu’s way to give an incentive to hopeful students to do research and use deduction to figure out what’s happening in the exams. The rescue points are just common sense, although that seems to be lacking in the MHA universe.

Are you surprised with Luciel’s quirk? If you are familiar with alchemy from FMA then you probably noticed that there are several differences between the original and the one found in this fic. Those were intentional. I wanted alchemy to be a quirk and not just a power that anyone with the right know-how could use, hence several changes needed to be made to facilitate it’s integration.

What did you think about this chapter, did you like it? Did you find all the references I mentioned in the NA at the start. Tell me your thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

Much love! see you next chapter!