Mirio: Hey, it's the entrance exam.

Mirko: Well that took a while.

Tsukauchi: Considering Viridian had a lot of things happening long before the schoolyear compared to the other stories of course it took a while.

Denki looked at the huge building nervously. This was really it! He was really at UA! He was pretty sure that Izuku had been more nervous than he had been that morning, considering the insane number of good luck texts and last minute quirk tips that had ended up in his inbox overnight. He'd ended up sending an equal number of memes in response, which had actually done a pretty good job of calming both him and Izuku down, but now he was starting to feel that same anxiety again. What if he failed the written exam? Had he remembered to take his meds that morning? What if he accidently somehow went over his voltage limit halfway through the exam and ended up useless for the rest of it? What if the training he'd done with Izuku wasn't enough and he failed and disappointed his friend?!

Midoriya(panicking): Ah Kaminari calm down!

Denki was so distracted by his spiraling thoughts that he didn't notice the girl walking in front of him until he'd run into her and was falling backwards onto his butt. Or, well, he thought he was, but then the girl reached for his hand and all of a sudden he was floating, which freaked him out and he instinctively started sparking. What if he couldn't ground himself properly and his electricity went everywhere?!

Uraraka: Ah yikes sorry Kaminari!

Kaminari: No it's okay you just wanted to stop me from falling.

"Oh! I'm so sorry for using my quirk on you without permission!" The girl panicked. "I just didn't think it would be a good omen to fall on the first day! I'm sorry!"

Midoriya: That's pretty much the exact same thing you said...

The girl looked really worried, so Denki smiled to try and hide his mini-freakout, "It's no big deal, I just wasn't expecting it! So... you've got a floaty quirk?"

Denki smiled a little more genuinely when the girl giggled, "Anti-gravity, actually, but yeah. I make things float."

"Well, that explains why I feel like I'm on cloud nine since I met you!" Denki winked. "Um... can you let me down now?"

Midnight: Ooh, you're getting better with the one liners!

"Oh! Right!"

The girl pressed her hands together and Denki felt his gravity return. He was able to stick the landing thanks to all the training he'd done with Izuku and he sighed in relief now that he was back on solid ground, "Thanks for save!"

Kaminari: Yeah, thanks.

"No problem!" The girl grinned. "I'm Uraraka!"

"Kaminari!" Denki started walking toward the school. "You nervous?"

Uraraka: I think everyone was...

Bakugo: I wasn't.

Mitsuki: Obviously.

"So nervous." Uraraka looked as overwhelmed as Denki felt as they walked up the steps. "Everything feels so surreal, you know? Today's gonna determine the rest of our lives!"

"Yeah," Denki grimaced playfully, "no pressure or anything!"

Uraraka laughed again, "Yeah. Good luck, Kaminari! Who knows, maybe we'll be in the same class!"

Vlad: Yeah you definitely will be.

"I hope so, then I'll get to see your beautiful face everyday!" Kaminari grinned, then laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, I guess I flirt when I'm stressed. I can stop."

"I guess that's one way to cope! Don't worry about it!" Uraraka shook her head and looked out over the auditorium, completely lost, "Thanks for distracting me from test anxiety, though! Now, uh, do you know where we're supposed to sit?"

Kaminari: Oops.

Katsuki kept to himself and tried to ignore the empty seat beside him as he waited for the presentation to start. He'd half-hoped that Izuku would still show up despite everything, but apparently that was just one more thing he'd ruined by being a cruel idiot. Izuku's absence, however, gave him an extra push of determination. He was one of the main reasons why Izuku had given up on his dream of being a hero, so Katsuki owed it to him to be the hero that he couldn't be. He had to be the best and pass the exam for Izuku.

Inko: And you definitely will, Katsuki.

He also had to pass the exam so that Amplifier and the other heroes would let him help find Ogawa. These past couple weeks had been hell, wondering if there was anything else he could do and getting all his information through Dabi and he threw himself even harder into his training. All of that waiting would be worth it once he got into the hero course, though, because if the heroes thought they could back out of their deal, then they had another thing coming.

Katsuki glared at the stage as Present Mic explained the practical exam. Robots. A concrete enemy that he could explode and kill. No worries about being too cruel or causing them too much pain. Just disable a hunk of metal and call it a day.

Katsuki grinned. It was time to be a hero.

Mirko: Yeah, kick those robots blasty!

Robots. Of all the things the entrance exam could have been, it had to be robots. Hitoshi half-heartedly wondered if he should just accept defeat and go home now. Yeah, he'd known that the exam was biased toward physical and destructive quirks, but he hadn't been expecting to go into the exam practically quirkless!!!

Aizawa: Uh huh yep that's an issue we need to fix soon.

At least he wasn't completely useless. He'd been training his body for months now, ever since his run-in with that kid from Aldera. After that kid had saved him from getting beaten up, Hitoshi had started paying attention to the rumors about him. His name was Bakugo apparently, and he used to be a highly respected bully, but after that day in the alley, all the popular kids had started whispering about him going soft and getting involved with villains. Bakugo had only saved him one time, and it hadn't made things any better at school. Hitoshi was still getting beat up and silenced by both his teachers and his classmates, but every time they called him a villain, Hitoshi just repeated what Bakugo had said like a mantra in his head.

I've met real villains and you don't make the cut.

Monoma: Wow, Bakugo actually managed to inspire somebody somehow.

All Might: Like a true hero.

He'd started exercising more after that. Bakugo had been right. How was he supposed to ever be a hero if he couldn't even fight back against his own bullies? It felt weird to take advice from someone who openly admitted that they were normally the one beating people up, but honestly, Hitoshi wasn't in a position to reject any help.

Spinner: Yeah, definitely not.

A couple of months of lifting weights could only do so much, however. Hitoshi had put on quite a bit of muscle, but he didn't have the money to join a dojo or anything, so basically the second that Present Mic mentioned robots, he knew he was screwed.

At least he still had the sports festival.

Mei: Yeah, and maybe you'll make it into the hero course in that world too, extra-credit-kun!

Denki could see Uraraka getting herself ready as they all lined up at the gates of the test city, but didn't go over to distract her. Instead, he tried to push his way as gently as possible toward the front of the crowd, Izuku's advice to use every possible advantage echoing in his mind. Robots were a good fit for him and wouldn't be too hard to defeat even if he hadn't learned way too much about robotics during one of his wikipedia deep dives.

Mei: Oh you too?

Kaminari: Yeah...

He wasn't quite sure exactly when he had started hyperfixating on electricity, but the way that Izuku would listen to and encourage his rambling meant that he wasn't as ashamed of his special interest as he had always been in the past. His friends at school had always rolled their eyes when he talked about one topic too much and they didn't seem to have any problems convincing their brains to move onto another topic, so Denki would try to avoid whatever random thing he was obsessing about and get over the phase so that he didn't annoy people too much. Izuku, however, never thought it was weird when he spent an entire afternoon watching documentaries on tesla coils. If he thought Denki was getting too focused on one aspect of electricity, then he'd point his attention to something else that was related to it and open new doors for ideas and strategies that Denki would never have considered on his own.

Compress: There are documentaries on tesla coils?

Toga: Well you learn something new everyday.

For example, he never would have thought to study how electricity flowed in the body until Izuku suggested he learn how much electricity it would take to seriously injure or kill someone so that he could avoid that. The video he'd watched had mentioned that it was electrical impulses that made people's muscles move and carried pain signals to the brain. One thing led to another and Denki had somehow ended up reading research articles on electrostimulation therapy at three am on a school night until he had figured out more or less how to use small electric shocks to block those pain signals. And, well, if Denki had practiced that particular skill to a science because his muscles were so sore every time he came home from training with Izuku, no one except him needed to know that.

Kaminari(brain whirring): Wait... if I can do that... I'll be able to do that... and then I can-

Bakugo: Just learn later, the screen's going on without you.

"Go!"

Denki surged through the gates the moment he heard Present Mic's voice, immediately zeroing in on the nearest robot and panicking slightly as it zeroed in on him as well. He rolled to the side to avoid one of it's lasers and then ran as fast as he could to attack it before it could attack him again. He coated his hand with electricity right before he slapped the robot, careful not to overuse his electricity as he overloaded the robot's circuits. Within seconds, the robot was smoking and Denki grinned as he took his hand off the dead robot and raced to the next one. It was kinda weird that no one else had started fighting it yet...

Uraraka(red): Yeah we were kind of...

Midoriya: Not fast enough.

"What are you waiting for?!" Present Mic screamed. "Lightning boy has the right idea! There's no countdowns in real life!!!"

Denki winced. Had he gone too early? No, Present Mic said the other examinees were just slow, but Denki would never have been able to win in a fight with Izuku if he hesitated before jumping in. He shook his head and electrocuted his current opponent. He could worry about being insecure later, for now, he had an exam to pass.

Mineta: Go Kaminari!

Katsuki exploded the head off the robot right as it was about to laser off some girl's head, "Hey! Don't let them corner you like that! Show them you're in control!"

Jirou: Huh it's me.

"Thanks for the save!" The girl shoved what looked like earphone jacks into one of the other robots, which exploded after a few seconds. "I just freaked when three of them cornered me at once."

"Well get used to it." Katsuki yelled. "Villains don't fight fair."

Mic: No they definitely don't.

He exploded the third robot to smithereens and launched himself away. He'd be getting even more points if these stupid idiots could just pay attention. He'd already had to save three people from robots and four people from falling debris and they weren't even halfway through the exam! How were people this stupid?! He couldn't just let them get hurt, though, that wasn't the kind of hero he wanted to be, so he just had work twice as hard whenever he wasn't saving stupid idiots to make sure he got enough points to pass.

Gran Torino: And unbeknownst to him he's getting a lot more points from rescuing.

Recovery Girl: He really has matured.

Katsuki let loose another explosion and the one pointer he was fighting shattered into a pile of bolts and scrap metal, "Die!!!"

Snipe: Then again he hasn't changed entirely.

Shinso panted as he swung the pole he'd found into another robot's head. It wasn't the most effective weapon, but his bruised knuckles were more than enough of a testament that it was at least better than straight up punching the metal. He'd learned the hard way that this pole wasn't strong enough to take down the three pointers, though, so he was avoiding those, but that made it hard to keep up with everyone else. It seemed like every time he passed another examinee they were muttering point totals in the dozens or more while Hitoshi had only managed to take down three robots so far, two of which had only been worth one point.

It wasn't fair, but then again, neither was his life, and Hitoshi was used to it, so he just grit his teeth and took another swing. One more point.

Shinso(sighing): Still didn't make it that way.

Denki had lost count of how many points he'd gotten a while ago, but he'd found a good rhythm and he was actually having a lot of fun! He'd spent most of his time destroying robots, obviously, but whenever he saw someone that was looking really tired he'd give them a mild shock to either wake them up or reduce the soreness in their muscles. The look of shock and gratitude on their faces always made him smile, even if he didn't stick around long enough to let them thank him.

Momo: Oh that's really nice of him.

It didn't seem like any time had passed at all, but despite his attempts to ration his electricity output, Denki could still feel himself getting closer to his limit. He probably only had a couple thousand volts left before he started losing brain cells, but that also had to mean that the test was going to end soon, so he wasn't too worried... or at least he hadn't been until the ground started rumbling and something blocked out the sun.

Rin: Oh yeah the zero pointer.

"Is that the zero pointer?!"

"That's huge!"

"Annoying obstacle?! That thing's bigger than the buildings!!!"

Power Loader: Mm-hm.

Denki started running in the opposite direction. There was no way he could face that and there also wasn't any point if he wasn't going to get any points out of it. He only stopped when he heard someone crying for help. No one else seemed to have heard it, or else they were just ignoring it to save themselves, so Denki didn't have any choice but to go find whoever needed help.

Uraraka: Do I get trapped in every universe...?

Jana: Just in a lot of them.

It didn't take long until he spotted Uraraka trapped under a huge piece of rubble. He raced toward her, "Hey! Are you okay?"

Shigaraki: Does she look okay?

"It's too heavy!" Uraraka looked almost green. "I'm at my limit! I can't make it float!"

"Um..." Kaminari looked around helplessly. The zero pointer was lumbering steadily forward and he had no idea how long it would take to reach them. "Where in your body does your limit affect?"

Midoriya: Her stomach but that trick will either make it better or even worse!

Uraraka: Well better than not trying I guess!

"My..." Uraraka gagged and grimaced. "My stomach."

"Well, uh, I'm not sure if this trick will work on nausea or not but..." Denki coated his hand in a tiny bit of electricity and put his hand on her ribs. "This is either gonna make things a little better or a lot worse. Sorry."

Uraraka almost flinched away at the shock, but after a moment, took a shaky breath, "O-oh. Okay... um I'm still nauseous, but um, I think it's better enough that I can try to lift this?"

Uraraka and Kaminari: Oh phew.

Denki glanced back toward the zero pointer and his eyes widened as he realized how close the zero pointer was. Apparently he wasn't that great at judging distances, "Uh... you do that. I'm gonna try and stop the robot."

Mina: All on your own?!

Uraraka shouted something behind him, but he wasn't listening. All he could hear was his blood rushing in his ears as he ran toward the giant robot that was trying to kill them. He wasn't as good at parkour as Izuku was, but they'd gone over enough of the basics that Denki was able to use the surrounding buildings to make his way onto the robot, rather than beneath it. He looked toward Uraraka again, who was grimacing and gagging, but the rock that had been pinning her was floating a little, so that was a good sign. It still wouldn't be enough for them to get away, though. Denki needed to destroy the robot.

Kaminari: I'm going to short circuit aren't I?

Ectoplasm: Well the exam is almost over, so...

He placed his hand against the metal siding and pushed a little electricity into it. When nothing happened, he increased the voltage, but the robot just kept going. Denki hesitated briefly. He hadn't really gone all out since he'd started training with Izuku, even though he knew his limit had gone up a little through all the training. Now that he was focusing on being a close ranger fighter, he hadn't ever needed to go over his voltage limit all at once. Why would he when low voltage attacks were more than enough to take down most human targets? This guy, though? Taking him down was going to take every last ounce of electricity he had left.

Good thing the exam was almost over.

Denki grimaced and hoped UA wouldn't judge him too harshly for whatever he did while his brain was fried, "Indiscriminate charge 1.3 million volts!"

Endeavor: And of course it cuts off there.

Jana(going to the next chapter): Be patient, you barely have to wait that long until you can get back now anyway.