My League Of Villains - Chapter 4 Soul Crushing Exams 2

“It was an interesting conversation, thank you for your time candidate Midoriya.”

Albeit in a somewhat cold atmosphere, Izuku shook hands with all the five teachers. He was hesitant in the beginning, but as the interview proceeded he started to open up and answered all the questions with his true feelings and opinions. He didn’t care at all about how would they judge him, if they wanted to make it difficult for him, he might just as well say what he really thought.

When he came out, the teen girl who called him before peeked inside and closed the door in a hurry. She then looked at Midoriya and shook her head with a mortified expression.

“Is it that bad?” he said scratching his head.

“The worst. You know, my quirk is called Soul hearing. It’s similar to telepathy, but it’s not like I read thoughts. Just vague emotions. I can also manipulate them a bit. It doesn’t work well on a single person, but it’s quite effective on groups…”

The girl seemed quite proud of her quirk. He wondered why she told him. Maybe she wanted him to tell her about his. Not knowing what to do and not having a quirk he smiled awkwardly at her.

“S-so…?”

He bit his tongue down. That damn shaky voice. He thought he left it in his past, but it returned to hunt him. She ran a bit forward and turned to face him extending her hand. Her brown hair waved from under the peaked hat. It was kind of cute.

“My name is Fuyumi Arikawa. Nice to meet you!”

He shyly grabbed her hanging hand. “I’m Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you too.”

[Laaaaaame! That was so lame! What was that English textbook kind of greeting?!]

He suffocated those thoughts. Positive thinking. He had to think positive!

Fuyumi smiled and walked beside him with her hands behind her back.

“I never saw Yuuji-sensei that annoyed… What did you say?”

He glanced at his future senpai. Her big black eyes were begging for an answer.

“I only talked to them honestly.”

She was about to ask something else when they arrived in front of a door with a piece of paper attached to it with duct tape. On it, the words “Quirk testing and documentation” were written, probably with a dying marker, judging by the quality.

“Ah! It seems we have arrived. It was a fun talk, Izuku Midoriya. You are an interesting guy!”

With these words, she simply left, her long hair disappearing behind a corner leaving baffled. A warm feeling blossomed in his heart and a sense of accomplishment tingled through his body.

[I talked with a girl!]

Suddenly, the door opened and hit him right in the face. A voluptuous body barely hidden by a white lab coat came into his view, and a woman towered on him.

“What? There’s another one? Uff, I was going to have lunch”

Even while saying this in an irritated tone, she took him inside, put him in a chair, stopped the nose haemorrhage which just begun flowing and also stuck a piece of bandage on his nose. It was so fast and her movements so experienced the whole process only lasted two minutes.

“You have a bad cut. With this bandage, it will heal faster and the blood won’t gush out. It’s because of my quirk so don’t take it off.”

She was about to leave when she stopped in her tracks and pointed at him.

“Wait, what’s your quirk. Give me the documentation and make a quick demonstration!”

The weirdness of the situation made him wonder if she just forgot and remembered her duty in a matter of minutes. Anyway, he couldn’t help but think this teacher was a bit rash and too much of an airhead.

“I’m quirkless,” surprisingly enough saying those words wasn’t hard at all “I’ll get the documentation…” Izuku rummaged in his bag a took out a file.

The doctor watched him in a daze and slowly took it from his hands.

“You really are quirkless… Incredible, you are the seventh this year!”

“Is it that rare?”

“Yes! We usually have just two or three every year, and the admitted are even fewer!” as she realized what she just said, she shook her hands, almost making her glasses fall “I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sure you’ll do well! G-good luck and do your best!”

Midoriya didn’t take it to heart and politely said hello while going away. It was interesting that this year there were other six people like him attempting the Exams. In a way, it made him feel less alone, but also put him under more pressure. What if he was going to be the only one to fail? Wouldn’t the others think he was worse than even other quirkless people?

[NO! Stop! Think! Positive! There’s still the Practical Exam, I have to focus!]

Everyone was in the Main Hall, eating, chatting and making new friends. Izuku was standing near a window, admiring the garden and eating a slice of pizza. A few fuzzy taps came out of the speakers all over the place. An old guy wearing a bulletproof vest over his shirt and a flat cap was trying out the microphone. He cleared his voice with the classical *Hum-hum* coughing.

“Welcome, candidates, to the final and, in some people’s opinion, most important Exam: the Practical Exam!” a wave of applause briefly interrupted him “Hahaha! I see you’re all excited! Good! Well, open your ears! Right now, I’m going to explain the rules for this year’s test.” Everyone held their breath. The old guy knew how to hook a crowd. “Hostage Situation!”

Panicked silence spread. A Hostage Situation was a complicated and hard situation to deal with and, even if it was a simulation, expecting 15-year-old students to face such a test was wishful thinking. Saying only a handful of them partially had some of the knowledge and skills needed was already an exaggeration.

“Don’t be afraid, kids. Once you’ll hear the rules you’ll understand. Nothing is impossible!”

[Who’s going to believe you if you say it with that evil smile!]

“You will be divided into teams of 14 with one randomly chosen captain. Former classmates will be deployed in different teams and will conduct the exam at a different location. Teachers and other TMPA staff will be both Hostages and Referees. TMPA students who have successfully concluded their First Year, this year, will be Terrorists. You will be provided: a bulletproof vest like the one I’m wearing, a standard bulletproof helmet, two paintball handguns resembling an H&K USP in a set with 10 magazines containing 15 cartridges each, 1 marker resembling an M5 bayonet, 1 radio transceiver, 1 smoke grenade and 1 stun grenade. Your objective is either: A) save the Hostages; B) neutralize the Terrorists. Bonus points for the whole team will be assigned in case of achieving both. Being hit by blue paint bullets or being marked by blue paint fake bayonets will result in a penalty for the victim according to body part/s hit. Hands, feet (-2 points); arms, legs (-5 points); joints (-6 points); abdomen (-10 points); head, neck, chest (‘death’, end of the test). The test finishes after 25 minutes from the start or automatically if A and B are done. When one objective is completed, the captain, or the next in the line of command if he’s ‘dead’, can call an early end. ”

Midoriya carefully memorized everything he said, in cold sweats. He wondered what was the reassuring part.

“Failure in clearing the tasks or ‘death’ will not result in the failure of the test. A score will still be assigned at the discretion of the Examination Committee. If you chose to retire now you will be assigned a 0/100 score, but no penalty. You have 5 minutes.”

The buzz in the room grew of intensity as students discussed and left one after the other. Izuku could understand them. It was an intelligent move, for those who were sure of having done well in the other Exams. After all, performing poorly on this test could mean a severe blow to their overall score because of all those penalties. Zero was still better than a negative result. But he stayed. Not because he wasn’t sure of his previous tests’ grades, but because he wanted to take the challenge. Training and real experience were completely different, and he wanted to put to use what he learned for the past ten months. He wanted to test his limits. Most of all, he wanted to prove that he was indeed cut out for the job, and he wasn’t illuding himself again. 5 minutes passed. Less than 1000 people remained. The old man took out a tissue and wiped his forehead.

“Wow, almost a thousand… I didn’t expect you to have this kind of guts. Are you sure? I mean, giving up now is a better choice, strategically speaking…” said the man in a shaky voice. He looked at his phone. Who was he talking with, in the middle of the examinations?

“Should I give a bit more time…? No? Ah, ok.” as he adjusted his cap he grinned at the youngsters, “Well, orders from the top. We are going right now! Since we didn’t expect to still have these many candidates, I guess some of you will stay here until late…”

The place where he was sorted to was a rundown replica of an office. He thought this kind of simulations were conducted in brand new or at least renovated structures. [It must be because they really increased the difficulty this year]

The 996 remaining students were shared between ten different sites. Since they didn’t want to waste another 25 minutes for another team, 16 teams had one more member, reducing the time needed to 3 hours, for a total of seven rounds. Looking at the table, his was a normal team and they had to be ready in time for the third round. Izuku stared into the void while waiting in the locker room for the others. The reason why he was the first to arrive and he had all the information was only one: he was the captain!