[Image: "Ayane Mizushima" by Raaor]

Ayane flinched the hardest when the roar echoed throughout the battle centers. She estimated that the sound came from battle center 'B' or somewhere in the vicinity, so she'd ask Katsumi later. She watched the people around her cover their ears, or at least stop and turn to the sound, but the powerful sound waves overwhelmed Ayane and echoed against the walls of her mind for much longer than they should have. She wouldn't let that stop her.

She could hear the buzz and clang of the robots' electronics, and when she came across them, she amplified those sounds until they were so powerful the robots were blown apart by vibrations—the sounds of their own mechanisms. In a similar way, humanoid targets will keel over or refuse to move if they can hear the sounds of their own organs squelching around within their bodies, a move she'd practiced for over a month in preparation for this exam. If anyone or anything managed to sneak up behind her, all it would take was a snap of her fingers to cause a sonic boom big enough to blow them away.

She was doing well, taking down every enemy she ran into, but it was overwhelming. She had dialed in on her hearing as much as she could so she could do her best taking down the faux villains, and she heard everything, but all her other senses were dull by comparison. The electric crackle and the high-pitched whine caused by the quirks of two boys behind her and to the left would be all but inaudible to anyone else, but Ayane heard them clear as day. She heard robots being crushed on the other side of the battleground, and bones breaking a block away.

She was getting a headache. She hadn't stopped humming since she entered the gates, creating sound waves to manipulate sound waves.

Her focus was beginning to slip. By her count she was up to eighteen points. Four minutes and twelve seconds elapsed. Twenty-one points. Where was that lute music coming from? Outside this city. Twenty-two points. Twenty-three points. Building collapse, four blocks over. Behind her. Twenty-six points. Four minutes and fifty-seven seconds elapsed. Five minutes elapsed. Water sloshing. Not water. Black. Ink. Snap. Boom. Eleven feet straight up. Right over the machine. twenty-seven points. Seven minutes and twenty-one seconds elapsed. What happened to the sixth minute? Why was her count suddenly up to Thirty-nine?

Screeching. Groaning. Moaning. Crashing. There was something new on the field. And it was big.

"There's something coming!" Ayane shouted. It was several seconds later that they all saw what she was talking about: a massive destructive robot. "Get out of their way!"

The exam was over before Ayane's brain had the chance to catch up. Ten minutes elapsed. She'd lost count of her points. She had no idea whether or not it was enough to pass. Even if she did, she had no intention of becoming a hero, especially if it was anything like the exam had been. There was too much input and she couldn't even think of what had happened afterwards. Too much input.

Ayane much preferred working on inventions in her garage. More interesting. Less input. Plus she could listen to music since she didn't have to be aware of her surroundings.

She made her way to the front of the school, to the place where she and Katsumi agreed to meet up when the test was over. Katsumi was there already when Ayane arrived.

"How'd you do?" Katsumi asked.

"I think I did okay, but I have no idea what the cutoff number of points is, what about you?"

"Zero points," Katsumi said. "I might have accidentally scored a couple at the end, but I'm pretty sure the robot stopped after the time ran out."

"Right . . . Um . . . Katsumi? Why are your legs covered in blood?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Man, I really need a shower. I'll tell you all about it on the walk home."

Name: Ayane Mizushima; Quirk: Soundsculpt—She can manipulate sound waves by countering them with sound waves of her own, usually emitted by humming

Three weeks later, the letters came from UA. The girls had taken both the Hero and Support course exams, and when the letters arrived, they met up at the Suzuki home to read them together.

"Okay, so we got two letters a piece, one from hero, one from support, which one do we want to open first?" Ayane asked.

"Definitely support," Katsumi said, clutching her two letters close to her chest, so tightly they were wrinkling under her fingers. "That's the one we we care about the most."

"Agreed." Ayane put down one envelope and held the other, the one from the support course, in front of her, Katsumi did the same. "On three. One . . . two . . . three!" They both tore open the letters and read them rapidly. "I got in, you?"

"I got in!" They jumped up and hugged each other excitedly. Katsumi pulled away after a few moments with a serious expression. "Wait. We should look at the hero ones too, because I'm pretty sure I failed, but I just want to be positive, so I can officially enroll in the support course."

"Right, let's open them." The next set of letters were peeled open less rapidly, and with considerably less excitement, but equal anticipation. Inside the envelopes were little medallions. The girls examined them closely and realized that they were tiny projectors. "Wow, this school puts way more effort into the hero course than the support course. Do they think hero students can't read?" Katsumi shrugged. "Do you want to do yours first?"

"Yes . . . no. You go first." Katsumi said, lips pressed together, worrying the butterfly charm on her necklace anxiously.

"Okay." Ayane placed her projector medallion on Katsumi's desk and a second later, it lit up, projecting a 2D holographic image of none other than UA's most famous teacher All Might, grinning like he always was.

"Greetings, young Miss Mizushima!" the image said cheerfully. "I am here, on behalf of UA High School, very pleased to tell you that you have been accepted into UA's illustrious hero course. Congratulations, future hero! I have no doubts that at our school you will go beyond! Plus Ultra!" The holographic All Might gave a thumbs-up, and then the image blinked out.

"Well, Mom will be pleased. Your turn Katsumi." Katsumi swallowed and reluctantly placed her own projector medallion on her desk. It beeped and projected an identical image of All Might.

"Greetings, young Miss Suzuki!" Katsumi smiled gratefully, but that smile quickly fell at the next words she heard, "I am here on behalf of UA High School, and very pleased to tell you that our school has accepted you into the hero program. You might have been worried because you didn't score any points from taking out faux villains during the entrance exam, but UA also awards rescue points for protecting other prospective students, and you scored those in great numbers. So congratulations, future hero! I look forward to meeting you when the semester begins. I am certain that you will go beyond! Plus Ultra!"

"Rescue points?" Katsumi muttered weakly. That had been what she was afraid of. The idea had occurred to her in the shower, when she got home after the exam and wondered why points were only given for fighting villains when she'd always thought a hero's real job was to serve others, which got her thinking about the possibility of another way to score. She thought if she were designing a test to determine whether someone could be a hero, she wouldn't base it on just combat ability, but also character. She was right.

"Oh, man . . . I'm sorry, Katsu-chan." Ayane placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. Katsumi had promised that if she qualified for the hero program, she would enroll in the hero program, that was why she'd tried to fail the test. But she had failed in her attempt to fail. And now, she was studying to be a hero, whether she wanted to or not.

[Next chapter will finally be their first day of school. I had to edit this chapter on my phone since WattPad was being buggy on my laptop, so sorry for any errors. I'll probably re-edit it later on. Love y'all.

<3 Raaor!]