Chapter 3: August 23
In a forest near the Tsunotori property, the sounds of horns and turtle shells clashing could be heard.
A pair of horns slammed into my stomach, pushed by the force of a full-on charge. The blonde-haired bull that had hit me kept pushing, sending me through a tree. I roared and raised my arms up, bringing them back down.
The massive bull shrank in an instant, becoming Tauren. In her much more slim human form, she front-flipped just as my arms came down, easily dodging my attack. Still in the air, she transformed again, bashing her head into mine. She was growling, eye to eye with me, a challenge in her eyes.
"NICE!" I grinned in Cow Lady's face. "Pony!"
A small storm of pointed horns came shooting out of the woods, right at Cow Lady. The transformed hero, still face to face with me, wouldn't be able to escape, not while she was still in mid-air!
Yeah right. She was way too smart for that to work.
She shifted forms again, grabbing my head and using my body as a fulcrum to twist around my body, using me like a shield. Two of the horns curved around to follow her, but Cow Lady, still grabbing my head, did a judo throw while transforming, using the sudden shift in weight to send me onto my back, allowing the horns to hit me. As the horns shattered against me, she laughed.
"Nice try, kiddos!"
"Oh come on!" I wiggled on my back, breathing a bit of fire in frustration. My back spikes had stabbed into the ground!
I pulled my limbs and head into my shell. If I wanted to free myself…
I spun around on my back. The Shell Spin, one of Bowser's most famous moves, was one of a few of my goals for this whole training trip. It was tougher to do than you'd think… Like, INSANELY tougher. I was literally forcing my body to move in a high-speed twist without any sort of momentum. But the trick was all in how you used your muscles from the inside of the shell.
I thought so, at least. Because it was hit or miss so far.
So I spun and spun and spun, hearing the sound of grinding rock, Pony shouting and horns whistling through the air, while Cow Lady roared. Every once in a while. I would stop mid-spin. Goddamn it! What was the means of propulsion for my own body!
I finally stopped on my own, and poked my head out…
"Ah, crap!"
Well, I'd gotten my spikes unstuck. But I'd also dug a ten-foot hole.
I could hear laughing up top. Yeah, I didn't blame them.
I clambered out of the hole, driving my claws into the rock to create hand and footholds. As I climbed out, Tauren and Pony were smiling at me.
"Still getting the hang of that, eh sugah?" Tauren asked cheerily, still in her full bull form.
Wasn't that the truth. I could still remember the first time I'd managed to at least start spinning.
------
Two Weeks Ago
"I just don't get where yer even getting the idea you can do this, sugah," Tauren asked as I stretched, twisting my hips from side to side. Pony floated sat atop on one of her horns nearby, panting as she tried to keep herself over the floor while watching me.
"Is it from Gamera?" Pony asked me, face strained as she continued to float next to her mom.
"Kinda?" I said hesitantly, cracking my head to the side. "But I don't think I can control my spin by fire power. Pretty sure that way bigger turtle uses magic or something."
Ah, shit. I hoped Bowser didn't use magic as well… Well, nothing to it but to try.
"I'm going to start by just going for it, okay?" I told Tauren. "Just… please stop me in case I go bouncing out of control."
She nodded seriously. "Don't worry, sugah. Whole point of this is for ya to go wild. I'll stop it if I have ta."
Good enough. I took a deep breath.
"Ganbatte, Bowser-kun!" Pony called. Then she wavered, almost falling from the horn she was floating on. "Oop, oop, oop!" she caught her balance. "SAFE!"
I grinned at her. Adorable.
Then I got serious. Okay. Let's go.
I kneeled down, arms to my right. Then, in a single furious motion, I spun around, pulling my arms and legs into my shell!
And went bouncing along the ground haphazardly, rolling on the ground like a tossed coin before finally smashing into the wall of the quarry.
"..." I poked my head out of my shell sourly. "Well… this isn't going to work."
I exited my shell and ignored the sound of Tauren giggling. Try again.
I went for a run this time, leaping into the air, shoving myself back into my shell in mid-air as I spun around. It worked! I went spinning across the ground, skating at high-speed, zooming-!
'Wait, how do I stop?'
As that thought filled my mind, I smashed into a boulder, bouncing off, then into another, then the quarry wall, screaming while bounding like a damn pinball!
"Help me, for the love of god, I don't know how to stop!"
"Bowser!" Tauren shouted, turning into a bull and chasing after me as I bounced around, Pony falling to the ground in a panic.
"AHHHHH!"
------
Tauren continued to tease me as I thought on my first attempts at shell spin, a wide grin on her face. "Or were ya planning ta tunnel to the bottom of the earth as some kind of crazy strategy, sugah?"
"My plans are beyond your understanding," I said as fake wisely as I could. "So. Did we win?"
"Not this time!" Pony said happily. "Momma is strong…"
"Ah, yer gonna be way stronger than I am one day, dahling!" Tauren wrapped an arm around Pony, pulling her into a hug. "I wish I had a power half as useful as yours will be."
She wasn't wrong. Pony's quirk was insanely versatile in the right hands. It was comparable to Wing Hero: Hawk's power. Long range attacks that could also be controlled and moved around at will. That was pretty badass in the right hands. She could hit people from any angle, catch and save people, block attacks, and fly if she could control it well enough (though she had a lot of problems with the last part thus far).
As I was thinking about that, Tauren grabbed my hand, surprising me. "Come on, kiddos. Grocery shopping."
"What, now?" I asked, surprised. "I thought we could-"
"Keep training? No, us gals need a break," Tauren rolled her eyes at me. "Not all of us have more energy than a nuke."
"Ah…" She was right. Tauren and Pony we both sweating, and Pony, for all her cheer, did look exhausted. I was kinda feeling it too, but not quite as much. I wasn't sure why. I just kind of… loved fighting. It was sort of worrying, the amount of energy I felt in a battle.
"Well, before we go, I need to do something," I announced. "I keep forgetting to test it but… You said the closest neighbor was three miles away, right?"
"Yeah?" Tauren asked, confused.
"Okay… Cover your ears."
Pony and Tauren shared a look. Then they did like I asked.
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs until it felt like they were going to explode. I clenched my fist, flexed my chest, and-
"RrrraaaAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The roar I let loose exploded forth like a small explosion, echoing into the air, sending birds flying up out of the trees and silencing the animals of the forest. I stopped after a long moment. And smiled.
"Awesome."
"I am so glad you warned us," Pony said quietly. "That was loud."
"Probably useful if I do it right next to someone's ear," I said with a smile. "It's nothing like Present Mic," or Black Canary. "But I'll still scare the pants off people if I need to."
"Showoff," Tauren said with a sigh. "Come on, kiddos. We need to get some food."
"Yes ma'am," Pony and I said in unison.
As we walked out of that forest, I thought about the last four weeks or so I'd been spending with the Tsunotori family.
It was weird, in some ways. After so long being on my own, in a body and world I didn't understand, with a language I didn't understand, living with them was a breath of fresh air. There was room enough for me out in the outskirts of the cities to feel a little less like a freak of nature.
And Pony and Tauren were awesome. They didn't have to take me in, but they treated me like family.
I thought back to last night.
------
"Why does he always talk about his evil plans?" Tauren asked, sounding frustrated. "No actual bad guy does that!"
Pony giggled as on the screen in front of us, Greed continued to explain his powers
"Are you complaining that fictional heroes from ancient anime acted unrealistically?" I asked idly while lifting an ostrich drumstick to my lips and shoving it into my lips, pulling it out out as a clean bone.
"No, I just wish they did it more in real life," she sighed. "You know, half my work would be easier if bad guys would explain things like this. Take a lot of detective work out of my job."
"They have to do it in movies though," I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "If villains didn't explain how they managed to figure things out, how their plan makes sense, it would all seem way too magical to the audience. We'd be all, 'wait, he really managed to plan for the hero to act like this? How did he know the hero would be there?' So they have to explain it just so that we don't assume the guy is psychic."
"And it's fun!" Pony said. "When they talk all dramatic and evil, and you just know the good guy is going to win anyways!"
"I should do something like that," I chuckled. "Talk like an over the top wrestling heel in a fight when I become a hero."
"What, for publicity?" Tauren asked thoughtfully. "I think Gang Orca does something like that. Acts all big and tough for his image. Don't let that fool ya though," she gave me a smug grin. "He's a big ol' softie. Loves kids."
"Gang Orca?"
"Oh, he's the number 10 hero," Pony said. That triggered my memory. Dude was half-whale. And badass. "I haven't met him yet though."
"You think I should do that?" I asked Pony seriously. "I mean, I'd love to be a hero, but I don't think I'll be able to pull the classic hero thing like All Might does."
It had been on my mind for a bit. Because, well… I was Bowser.
When I first got to this world, I had two things I latched onto. A goal (to get to UA) and a, I don't know, a comparison? I couldn't exactly call the original Bowser an idol. A measuring stick, that was it.
But UA as a goal, and the hero course specifically, meant, well, becoming a hero. And the longer I spent here, the more I knew I couldn't quite be the kind of hero that others would be. A huge portion of heroism in this world was public perception. And I just was not the cuddly type. I think I've got a friendly personality.
But my new form just didn't fit the whole hero thing, especially when even I… well, I still felt like reeling back whenever I saw myself in the mirror when I didn't prepare.
And Bowser was a good hammy type of guy.
"As long as you stay a hero," Pony said seriously, though her eyes were glittering a bit. "No stealing from banks!"
"I'm more likely to have a bank steal from me," I snarked. Still… it was an interesting thought. Having a persona when I became a hero.
Still, something felt wrong.
------
Thinking back on that night led to that thought again. That something felt wrong. Like I'd missed something fundamental.
"Bowser-kun, come on!"
I looked up to see that Pony and Tauren had outsped me. I quickly rushed after them and brushed aside the thought for now.
------
We headed into town, a place called Theed. There was a port village of sorts that people of the surrounding farms used to get materials and sell their harvest, so we'd gone there a few times. I kinda liked the place. It was still fairly open and big, and had a very old school farm town feel. Hell, guys even rode horses around the place. Which was weird, considering some were dressed like cowboys. In Japan.
I think Cow Lady had an effect on the local fashion, because she was pretty popular out there. Where we walked a few people would wave, smile, and all around just be happy she was there. I never got a scared look, because I was following Pony and Tauren, and if they liked me, clearly I was good people.
We entered a marketplace and started roaming around, eventually separating from Tauren. It's the law of shopping with parents. You have a 70 percent higher chance to get separated while shopping with older family members, that's just science.
So Pony and I grabbed some ice cream, sent a text to her mom, and headed outside to wait. Across from the market was city hall, a nicely made marble building about as big as a large house, where tourists were visiting.
I took a bite of my ice cream sandwich as I watched people walk around. The place may not have been a busy burg like Tokyo, but there were a few dozen people living normal lives.
And on top of that, there was something I was used to now. People that looked weird. Hypocritical of me to say I'm sure, but it was true. Quirks led to a whole stream of odd appearances, most of them unique in some way. It was wild. And kinda wonderful.
"Thanks for inviting me out here, Pony," I looked down at my tiny blonde friend. "This was awesome."
"You're welcome! I'm really glad you came," Pony's wide crystal-blue eyes glittered with happiness. "It's good to have a friend who wants to be a hero like me."
"..." I took another bite, thinking quietly.
"What's wrong?" Pony asked after I was quiet for a while.
"Hm? Oh, well I…" I thought for a bit longer. "I'm sort of just worried about UA, to be honest."
"You're nervous about getting in?"
"Sort of, but that's not it. It's more that, on some level I think I'm worried about if I'm going for the right reasons," I finished my ice cream, one of my claws rubbing against my scaled lips. Claws and scales. "Pony… I went through something recently. Something life changing. In a way that I can barely understand."
I walked over to the wall of the market and sat in front of it, Pony walking over to me. Even while sitting, I still was able to meet her eyes. I avoided that. I was still staring at my own feet. Feet I still kept wanting to freak out over whenever I saw them.
"After everything that happened… UA is sort of all I could latch onto. All I could think of to try and find my way to something familiar. I think because of that, I'm sort of feeling like I'm, I don't know, like I'm trying to go for the wrong reasons."
I raised a clawed hand, clenching and unclenching it. "Being a hero is a wonderful goal. It's important. But I'm not going to UA to become a hero. I'm going there because I can't think of anything else. Now though, a huge part of me does want to become a hero."
I scratched my chin. "I'm kinda going through a lot. The last two months are making me think about how I'm going about this. Am I trying to be a hero because I actually want to help people, or because it's just the only thing I can think of doing-"
"Stop," Pony walked closer, raising a hand and placing it on top of my head. She smiled. "You big dummy."
"Um…"
She chuckled, shaking her head. "Does it matter?"
"Uh…" I stared at her.
"If you want to be a hero. Then go to school and learn," she rubbed my hair, fingers brushing through scarlet spikes. "The reason doesn't matter. You don't have to go for just one reason, ya know?"
I rubbed my cheek. "I guess. It's just… You and your mom. You both want to become heroes to help people. I'd love to help people, but the main reason is just-"
"I want to make my momma proud," Pony cut me off. "I want to be like the heroes I see in anime! I want to be on TV in America one day," she released my head and raised her hands. "There are soooo many reasons I want to be a hero! But as long as you keep the important one in mind, it's okay if some of them are selfish, right?" Pony held up a finger and giggled. "It's okay to help people. But it's okay if helping people means something good happens for us too, right? None of us are perfect, Bowser-kun. We're all just trying our best."
I stared at her. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, she was right. I may be going into UA because I was hoping to find something familiar I could tie myself to in this life I'd found. But as long as I did work to be a hero. As long as I really did want to help people, did it matter what else I got out of it?
Before I could say anything else, a loud scream from nearby. Pony and I looked over to somewhere down the street, where the pier could be seen. As were some running people.
And a huge amount of vines following them. The green leafery was speeding along the concrete, stretching out to grab people and lift them into the air, wrapping them in thin and thick vines alike.
"The hell is going on?" I asked as I rose to my feet.
"Bowser, Pony!" Tauren came rushing out of the store, her eyes hard. "A villain is attacking! Stay here, I'm going in!"
"We can help!" Pony and I said in unison, stepping forward, before Tauren snapped a hand to the side.
"No!" Tauren glared at us. "No. You guys will get your chance one day. But I can handle this. Just stay here."
She shifted into bull form, then ran forward, steam leaving her lips as she booked it towards the vines.
"Good luck, momma!" Pony called, worry in her eyes.
"Damn it," I grunted. Still. She was right. Legally, we couldn't fight unless we had a license to. Made sense. Can't have some random civilians trying to help cops in a shootout, no matter how well equipped. "I guess we should get to cover."
"Yeah," Pony said, still looking out at her mom, then turning to look around. "I guess we should… Oh no!"
She went running before I could say anything. Towards city hall.
"Pony!?" I looked at her, then at City Hall. Tourists were rushing into it, likely hoping for some sort of safety. And I saw what Pony had.
The vines had reached the building, and were digging into it. Plants, with time, can slice through concrete. Quirk-enhanced plants can do much more than that. And they were wrapping around the stone and marble of city hall, slicing through it and sending rubble down. But the people inside had yet to notice, since the plants were only now chopping through.
They were sitting in a building that was about to fall apart.
"Fuck!"
My feet started moving.
"Get out of there!" Pony shouted, two horns flying out as she booked it. She grabbed one of them, using it to accelerate her body into the air, while another moved ahead towards those inside. "Everyone, the building is going to fall!"
No one running inside could hear her. Not with everyone else also screaming and shouting as the sounds of explosions went off in the distance. They didn't notice a teenage girl trying to help...
I stopped running. I opened my mouth.
And I let loose.
RRRRUUUUUUAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
My voice echoed through the square. The whole place fell silent except for the roar of a dragon turtle.
"Get out of there!" Pony hadn't stopped moving, while those inside froze. She flew up into City Hall falling down just in front of the steps. "The vines are breaking the building! Come on!"
The people inside, dozens of them, started booking it out of there. Pony sent her horns inside, two of them pushing against the wheelchair of an eldery woman to get her out.
I got to the door with her and started yelling.
"Come on, come on! This damn thing is coming down!"
The whole building began to crack and shatter as vines ripped through the floor and ceiling. Tourists and City Hall employees ran for it.
"Get the fuck out, go damn you!" I roared as a chunk of building came down inside, smashing into a glass case holding a model of the town. "Come on!"
"Ahhhh!" a woman screamed as a horn carried her out to safety.
A vine reached down towards the entrance.
"Back off!" I joined those words with a blast of flame, wilting the vines. "Is everybody out!"
"I think so-" Pony began to say.
Then I saw her. A woman coming from deeper in the building. She was carrying a kid, both crying and covered in dust. She must have been visiting someone deeper inside. She had eyebrows and hair made of some kind of cloth. Her kid, a young boy, was crying.
An ominous crack filled the air. The roof began to fall. They were still running, but-
And I was inside.
The woman screamed. I reached out my claws as I got to the center of the room, my hands wrapping around the pair. Shadows fell across my body. I got the two under me, covering them as best as I could. And the whole building fell on top of us as the kid cried against my chest.
------
The sound of the world cracking filled the air as hundreds of tons of stone and marble shattered apart. Dust flew upwards, clouds of stone billowing outwards.
"Bowser!" Pony screamed as her friend disappeared. The last thing she saw before the building crashed was his spiked shell and grit fangs. Then she was forced back a step by the dust that exploded from the crashing building.
"Bowser!" she rushed back in, coughing on the stone dust, desperation in her voice. She felt tears fill her eyes. "Please! Are you okay!?"
"-oh no-"
"-he ran in-"
"-kid shouldn't have-"
"-get help!"
Pony ignored the people behind her, rushing forward. That's when a muffled voice came out of the building.
"...Hey! Can someone get this fucking building off of us!"
Pony fell to her knees, crying. "Bowser-kun..." she rubbed at her cheeks, smiling to herself. "You have to stop saying bad words."
Even as she said that though, she was grinning happily.
------
I looked at the rubble around me and groaned, looking at the people in my arms. The woman was staring at me, eyes wide. "You okay?"
"Y-Yes," she said, clutching her kid close.
"Good," I smirked. "Because I think we'll have to wait for a bit. I don't want to shift the rubble while we're like this. So we'll just sit here for a bit, okay?"
"Y-Yes," she said.
I continued to smirk. I had to. I didn't want her to know how precarious this really was. Because I was holding the building up. And if I moved, well, the rubble might crush the fragile folk beneath me.
So I sat there, on my knees, holding hundreds of tons on my back with a woman and kid under me, and waited.
"...Don't suppose you guys have motivational music?" I asked the woman. "On your phone?"
"N-No," she squeaked, while her kid stared up at me.
"Well, reach into my pocket please," I said with a smile. "Might as well make this fun, right?"
As she did what I asked and I continued to hold up all that weight, I winked at the kid. Waiting and keeping them distracted. Best I could do right then.
Glamorous life, this.
Chapter 4: August 23/UA Entrance Exam
I stayed like that, allowing all that weight to press down on me, as Queen, aka one of the best bands of all time, continued to play.
When I was kid, I'd watched the 2004 Punisher movie. In it, there was a scene where Punisher left a dude whose arm was trapped with his other arm outstretched, a small bomb in his hand, a wire tied taut to the detonator. If the dude's arm dropped, the bomb went off. A small bomb. Only about five pounds.
But enough weight, over enough time, without rest? Well…
I stayed like that, bent over the pair beneath me. All the weight of a marble building on top of me, with nothing but time and music around me.
The kid and woman were not the cheery sort. I don't know, something about the situation seemed to bum them out.
So I started talking, using my hopefully much better Japanese. "Hey," the mom looked up at me, while the kid continued to cry. "You both good? You get-" I tried to remember the correct word. "Hurt?"
"N-No," the lady said, looking down at her kid. "I'm okay. He's okay..." the last part was said with a deep and warm smile of relief as she brushed a hand through his hair.
"Kaa-san," the kid mumbled. "Is he a hero?"
She gave me a sad look. I got it. In a situation like this? Of course a kid would look for a hero.
"I'm not," I admitted slowly. The kid stared at me, his eyes wide. "But there's a hero out there. A friend. Cow Lady. She's fighting a villain right now, gonna save us all," I grinned at him. "I'm not a hero. But we've got some here."
From the looks of it, the kid seemed to take some solace in that. Good thing I'd made sure to learn how to pronounce Tauren's hero name correctly. Ushi, cow, and Oishii, tasty or delicious, sounded WAY too similar.
"Are you okay?" the mom asked me.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I adjusted myself a bit, allowing the immense pressure on my back to rest more on my shoulders. Fuck me, the shit was heavy. It felt like my spine was getting cooked slowly, my arms and legs cramping. I kept it up though. And I kept talking.
"So, you like heroes kid?"
"Yes!" the kid still looked scared, but he was a lot calmer now. "I like Fat Gum!"
Fat Gum? Well damn, I was really expecting All Might. Still…
"Fat Gum is pretty darn cool," I pushed up a bit, raising my arms up to grip the weight above me better, feeling like Atlas under the sky. "My favorite hero is…I like the old comic book ones, like Superman," I explained, saying the last part in English.
"S-Supaman?" The kid asked, while the mom's eyes widened in recognition. "Who is that?"
Ah. What a crying shame. The mom and I shared a look. "Superman… well, I guess you could say he's the hero in the old days. He was the All Might back then. One we looked up too, even if he wasn't real."
"He wasn't real?" the kid's smile dropped. "Then he doesn't matter."
"Of course he matters," I grinned. "All Might is real. Fat Gum is real. Even if they ain't here. They give you hope, teach you what's right, makes you do better, you know?"
I thought that maybe my weak Japanese and the kid's youth may have combined to weaken my point, but the kid was simply staring at me.
"Is that why you saved us, Mister?"
"Um…" I kinda chuckled as Queen's 'I Want To Break Free' played from my phone. "No. I just kind of ran in to be honest," the mom stared at me aghast. "But they are part of why I want to be a hero."
Wonder what the OG Bowser would have thought of that. Then again, he probably thought he was a hero, always getting cockblocked by Mario and his dastardly plans. Then again, you don't call yourself a Demon King without being a little self-aware...
"...What can Superman do?" the kid asked, tears now drying into tracks across his dusty face.
I grinned. "Well. Let me adjust the bi-ru on my back, and I'll-"
"Bi-ru?" the woman asked, surprised. Then she let out a little, 'ah' sound. "You mean building! Biru."
"...What did I say?"
She leaned over and whispered so the kid couldn't hear. "Beer."
Japanese is hard man.
I sighed, but continued. "Well. Superman. The story is old. And told often. But there is something that is always the same. Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope in the form of a rocket. Good parents. A man, with all the power in the universe. Who just wants to help people have a good life."
God. What a nerd I was. Sat under a building of pure stone, and I was telling the story of Superman to get my mind off it. Well, hopefully the kid would enjoy it. Based on the look in his eyes, he seemed to like it.
------
We were under there for around an hour or so. I was in the middle of explaining Superman fighting Braniac, after telling the story of him becoming friends with Krypto, when the weight atop me began to lessen.
"Get closer to me," I warned them as the rubble around us shifted, the sounds of people slowly digging towards us. The two pressed close to me. After a long moment of stone on stone and the sounds of a huge amount of people, one of the stones got shifted before light shone in on the three of us from the front. WAY too bright a light. What the heck?
"Hey, tone it back!" I barked, eyes closing as I stared out. I pulled my head back into my shell and glared out of my shell as I continued to hold up the rubble.
"Bowser!" Tauren was a dark shadow backlit by that bright-as-fuck light to my eyes. She climbed in and grabbed the mother and kid, handing them to a cop who was out there. "You okay?" she asked me.
"I need to find a chiropractor that works on shells," I grunted. "Am I okay to let this weight go?"
"Yeah, you're fine," Tauren told me, shifting to her minotaur-like bull form and pushing up on the rubble, pushing it safely off of me long enough to get me out of there.
God. Relief. You would not believe it. I stumbled forward, head popping out of my shell, the rubble collapsing behind me while Tauren caught my two-ton body and helped me. My arms and legs were cramped up, and I felt like my spine had shortened, like my muscles had been getting cooked.
"You did good, sugah," Tauren told me.
"That means the world to me," I told her honestly.
I looked out as we left. Cameras surrounded us. That was a surprise. Not just camera phones, but reporters standing there with their bright as fuck cameralights shining on us. "Wow, can you all tone down the-"
I was cut off by a blonde blur rushing forward to hug me around my waist. I felt two horns click against my face.
Pony. Her eyes were closed as she hugged me tightly. I wrapped an arm around her, while Tauren hugged her as well, the three of us ignoring the cameras around us.
------
Later on, a cop was talking to Pony and I. A medic had taken a look at me already, and decided I was okay except for exhaustion, though he recommended I see a specialist if my back continued to hurt, as I might need someone special considering the shell that was in the way.
The main cop who was speaking to me was interesting looking. He had a bee's stinger poking out of his chin and a pair of see through wings on his back, and looked exasperated, two of his friends watching. "You did a good thing, but you also took an enormous risk. If you messed up-"
"But he didn't," Tauren said nearby, looking annoyed. "Seriously, it's not like they did anything that crazy!"
"They don't have hero licenses and we have reports that your daughter and the young man used their quirks to either save people or fight off the vines," the police officer said calmly. "Horns to pick up those inside could have stabbed someone by accident. The fires he used to drive off the vines could have burned someone."
"We only wanted to help…" Pony said sadly.
I didn't say anything yet, only listening as he sighed and jumped back into the speech he was giving as the other two officers watched. Technically he was right, but I wasn't about to agree that I shouldn't have gone in. Maybe something could have gone wrong. But I wasn't going to regret my choice.
I looked over at Pony. She looked up at me, still looking down. That, more than anything, prompted me to speak.
"We had two choices," I said, cutting off the officer. "Get in trouble and save lives, or do nothing and watch the building fall on everyone."
"You didn't have to use your quirks to-" the officer began to say.
"Yes, we did," I growled. The cop stopped talking. I guess I was more intimidating than I expected, even to a cop. I continued.
"We didn't use our quirks for the hell of it. There were elderly people, children, and plant vines literally ripping the entrance way apart. We hadto use our quirks in the moment to help everyone we could. We'll be careful from now on," I looked at Pony for agreement, and she nodded emphatically. "We know why the law exists. We get it. And if we'd had the choice, we would have stood by and let the authorities handle it."
"But there wasn't anyone else to help," Pony said. "Momma was fighting the villain. I promise mister, we wouldn't have done it otherwise!"
"...Ugh," the cop rubbed his beesting chin, fingers running along the point with the edge of long habit. "Well… You understand why I'm worried."
"Yeah," I shrugged. "I get it. And we aren't the vigilante types. But we had to do it. If we had to pick, well… I'd do it again," I looked over at the crowd. The mom and kid were with an ambulance crew. The elderly couple Pony had saved were being hugged by their family. They kept looking over at us. The looks they gave Pony and me…
"Me too. It was worth it," Pony said softly.
The police officer, a helpless look on his face, looked over at Tauren, but she was grinning widely. He sighed, then turned and walked away, his fellow officers following. Tauren walked over to us as they left.
"Come on," she chuckled. "I need to yell at you guys myself."
"You're going to yell at us?" Pony yelped.
"Well, not really," Tauren joked. "I'm mostly happy you two are okay. So we'll really just go get some food and head home… I forgot the groceries!" Tauren said suddenly, clutching her face as she realized why we'd headed out in the first place.
As Pony laughed at her mom's antics, I saw the police cart away a dude who I took a double take at. He had a head shaped like a tomato and arms of green vines. He also looked bruised, beaten, and tired as hell.
"Was he a hard fight?" I asked Tauren as we walked away from the scene.
"Hell yeah he was," Tauren gave the guy a glare. "He was on trigger. The stuff makes any minor quirk a hell of fight," she sighed. "But it's over now. Let's get our food and go home, dahlings."
We went on our way.
That night, I would have a nightmare. Of the world, crushing on me, threatening to destroy things that were important.
Very nice brain. Couldn't be more symbolic? Had to just basically restate the day's events?
Good motivation though. Because I woke up that morning and immediately headed to the quarry. If I was ever going to be a hero, I'd have to keep getting stronger. I knew I could do it now. I had proof. I just had to keep it going.
And when I showed up at the quarry to see Pony balancing on her horns, a look of determination on her face, I knew I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
------
We spent the rest of our time off training like crazy. Then we went back to school in September. Our time there was mostly just normal trickling back into our lives again. Classes, teachers, and homework. I kept up my training as best as I could though. Pony became a minor celebrity after footage of her saving people hit the internet, which she was adorably bashful about. She deserved it though.
I got hit with a bit of that as well. Not as much as Pony, but there was this one video going around of me breathing fire and holding the rubble up while the Gamera theme song played. I mean… what the hell? Who put that kind of work into something like that?
Also, it turns out Bowser can blush. Well, I can at least.
My studies continued to be interesting as hell. The world of the future was full of very interesting history. Right up until just after 2030, things were pretty normal. The highlights, you know, Titanic, United Nations, Batman, Elon Musk, Twitter.
Then, Quirks. And chaos. I'd have thought, after all the comics we had warned us about the kinds of things a world of superpowers might lead to, we'd have been somewhat able to withstand those problems, but there goes me hoping people would listen to good ideas.
Nations that had already been at war lit aflame. Entire cities were wiped out. Huge portions of the society I once knew were now gone. Hell, even the internet was entirely different. Nowhere and nothing was safe. Technology did continue to advance, but at a much slower pace. And superheroes or supervillains took a while to become a thing. Super-soldiers were more of the norm. Men and women tied to nations, not ideals, not to what may have been right to do.
It was only recently that something close to peace had finally come. And that was built on a mountain of bodies.
Seriously. I'd thought the reason that I didn't see brand names in the season of the anime I watched was because of copyright issues. Turned out, most companies simply disappeared as time passed.
Except some like Pepsi and Coca-Cola. That was never ending.
So yeah. Interesting history. Bleak, sad, history, with heroes, bad guys, and some people just doing what they could to survive. But interesting.
All that aside, things in my life finally got into a routine of sorts. School, hanging with Pony, training, then school again. I practiced my shell spin and trained with Pony in basic combat, the two of us playing cops and robbers for keeps. I pushed myself to learn as much Japanese as I could, helping Pony along the way. And she would push me
I jogged a lot. Running around the town, trying to get my cardio up. And then, as time went by… Well.
I headed to the beach on my days off. I'd go out, see the sun shining over the ocean, the sands, people hanging out. And, well… I didn't go there for the view.
Somedays I would see them. Somedays, I would just miss them. I didn't go to talk to them, though I'd sometimes train nearby. It felt, I don't know, awkward, seeing them in the distance. I didn't know if I should even try to approach.
But they were there. A tiny green-haired kid, picking up trash on the beach. And a tall blonde-haired man, cheering him on. Deku and All Might, working their asses off to get him ready.
I left middle-school that year with Pony. My grades weren't perfect, but they were better than the last time I was in middle school. And in those final months before we would apply to UA, I started taking Pony with me to the beach. We'd go running a lot of the time, but we did some more unorthodox training as well.
Pony would go surfing whenever we would go to the beach, on my recommendation. She was still having trouble balancing on her horns, so surfing turned out to be a damn good way for her to practice it. She got really into it as well.
For me, I started swimming around with her, wearing my extra big swim trunks. Turns out, I was pretty damn fast at it. I'd zoom back and forth in the water, diving deep under the waves. That's how I found out my fire breath could temporarily work underwater, create waves of steam. That gave me an idea for some kind of steam move, but I had yet to figure out that whole thing.
We'd also keep practicing with our quirks as a whole, though that would only be something we could do in the quarry or at a designated training area. But we did it as much as we could.
Pony used her experience with surfing to get better flying on her horns and practiced her accuracy, tossing those horns without controlling them towards anything I could toss up for her.
For me, more shell spinning. I'd do my best to simply stay in one place, spinning as fast I could. Turned out, I needed to master the fine muscle control needed to keep myself going. I didn't get dizzy, since my body was built to do the move, but I would sometimes lose control and go skating into things if I wasn't careful. Good practice though. Eventually I could spin in place without worrying about keeping it going too much. Next would have to be actually moving around like that...
Then, came that day. On a day when we were supposed to be getting ready for the upcoming exam later that day, Pony and I were standing on the beach. The sky was still dark as we stood there in awe. He was pushing a car atop a massive pile. A goddamn car. Slowly, carefully, as the sun began to come up over the horizon. He got the top of the pile of trash we'd seen him cleaning up for the last ten months. Finally, he got up there and stood tall. As the sun finally rose, he let out a cry.
That sound echoed across the beach. Triumph. That's all I could think. If any sound could encapsulate that word, that would be it. Triumph. And a man, in the distance, yelled out in turn.
"OH MY GOODNESS!!!"
"He did it," Pony said softly, looking around with a finger to her lips as she watched the now clean beach. "I didn't believe it but… he really did it."
"Yeah…" I said softly, watching as he fell only for All Might to catch him before he could hit the floor. "He did."
I probably should have been more amazed. I mean, one of the most awesome moments from the anime, brought to life in front of me! But all I could think of it was what it really meant. That time was up. Really up.
"We better go," I told Pony, turning around.
"Bowser-kun?" she asked me, hopping over to me. "Are you okay?"
I smiled down at her. "No. I'm nervous as hell. But we're ready for the exam. Right?"
Pony smiled shakily, then nodded her head, fists clenched. "Yes! We can do this!"
I held out my fist, which she bumped with her own. Then we went off to get ready for UA.
------
I stood before the gates of the UA High School Entrance Exam Location by myself. Pony had gotten there before me, cheerfully telling me on the phone that she would see me there. That was fine. I was still feeling nervous, so a bit of time to myself would be nice.
God. After a full year, finally I was going to the exam. All my training, schooling, and work had been for this. If I failed, well. It was all for naught. I had to get in.
So, no pressure or anything.
I was still staring at the big yellow 'UA' sign when I saw a familiar blonde head of hair enter the gates. Katsuki Bakugo walked under the gates with an air about him like someone had shit in his cereal bowl, ignoring my gaze on the back of his head. That, more than anything, prompted me to finally walk in.
I stopped in the courtyard to watch as the blonde asshole teen barked at someone. Bakugo walked into the building, but I wasn't looking at him anymore. Instead, I saw Deku. The kid was in mid-fall when a friendly young girl stopped him with a tap on the shoulder. I started to feel kinda creepy as I watched Ochako Uraraka talk to a shocked Deku, but I couldn't help it.
I went over to him as Ochako gave him a friendly goodbye and walked away. I stopped next to the kid and gently bumped his shoulder as he was still freaking out over his first 'conversation' with a girl. I could relate.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Gaaaaaah!" he jumped, reeling back from me. Then he blinked at the sight of me. "Ah, you're the turtleman from the beach!"
Guess he'd seen me whenever I jogged past. I did tend to stand out after all.
"Yeah," I grinned at the kid. "And you're the trashman."
"T-Trashman?" he seemed to sink into a depression at that. "Ah. I guess I was picking up trash all that time…"
I couldn't help the chuckle that brought out of me. I bowed down politely. "I'm Koopa Bowser. Nice to meet you, fellow beachgoer."
"Ah," he was unprepared for that. But he recovered quickly, bowing as well. "M-Midoriya Izuku! It's nice to meet you too!" We rose up from our bow. Somehow, as I watched Izuku grin up at me, I felt just a bit less anxious. "Let's do our best!" he said nervously but enthusiastically.
"Yeah," I turned to look over at the UA building, Izuku turning to face it as well. "Let's do this."
Walking in side by side, I felt my fists tighten. Soon, we'd be in for it. But the hard part was first.
The written test.
Chapter 5: UA Entrance Exam
I wasn't kidding when I said the written exam was hard. Mostly because it was all in Japanese, so I had to keep doing that thing where every once in a while I would mentally translate words just to make sure I was understanding the context of the questions.
At one point I looked over at Pony. The students were separated out into their schools, so she was seated closer to me than I'd expected. She'd been biting her pen thoughtfully, eyes narrowed in thought, sometimes letting out little 'ah!' noises before scribbling things down. My eyes very briefly panned over the rest of the room.
With all the recognizable characters in the room, it felt like I was at an anime convention where all the cosplayers had been given an impossible budget. I could see Mina Ashido further down in front of me, her pink skin and hair super recognizable, yellow horns bobbing up and down as she wrote energetically. A black crow diligently and calmly writing his own answers had to be Tokoyami. I could recognize most everyone. I tried finding Kirishima. Back home, he'd been one of my favorites of the class 1-A crew. But for some reason I couldn't find his distinct head of red spiky hair. Weird.
I noticed Vlad King, one of the homeroom teachers, eyeing me as he walked down the steps that split up the students. I nodded seriously to him, then went back to my work. He kept an eye on me, but once he realized I wasn't looking around to cheat he seemed to drift away.
I got my paper done as I thought to myself about what was next. The practical. AKA, as I'd been calling it for the last few months, Operation: Let Loose the Dragon of War.
Somewhere inside me, I felt my blood almost boil. I'd get to fight. To really fight. To blaze in and feel my claws break something, feel something hit me. Fighting Tauren and Pony wasn't like that. Tauren was way too skilled for me to have any chance of beating her, and Pony was my sparring partner. We could never really try to hurt each other. And believe me, while I could hurt Pony, she could also do some real damage to me if she was smart about her powers.
But in the practical exam? We could actually just… BREAK shit.
Wonder what part of me was so excited for that? The Bowser part, or the sheer wonderful joy of breaking things without consequences?
------
After everyone was done with the test, it was time for the Presentation for the practical exam. So I got to see yet another pro hero in the flesh.
"For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today!" A man with a MASSIVE blonde hairdo and the sweetest shades this side of Kamina, grinned on stage as he snapped his arms out. "Everybody say HEY!"
He turned, holding a hand up to his ear excitedly.
"Hey!" I barked out with a wide grin of my own, ignoring the students giving Present Mic and myself aghast looks.
"Hoho, a lonely yet passionate response!" Present Mic pointed in my direction proudly before continuing. "Then it's time for the rundown on the practical exam! Are you ready!"
I made sure I said it at the same time as the Voice Hero. "YEAAAH!"
I could hear Pony giggling while the rest of the students seemed just as aghast at us as before. One kid in the corner groaned, placing his head in his hands.
Well, they were nervous. Understandable.
The rest of it went as it had in the anime, with Present Mic explaining the points system, using images of Link fighting Zelda villains and getting points. I listened with a half-ear. After so long waiting for this day, I'd replayed the exam's point system a thousand times over.
So I wasn't surprised when Tenya Ida got up and started telling off Present Mic for the Arena Trap being worth zero points. Nor was I surprised when he turned to lambast Izuku for the horrific crime of mumbling to himself. But I was surprised when he then turned his attention to me.
"And you," Ida's eyes narrowed at me.
"Me?" I asked, leaning forward curiously.
"Yelling like that is just as distracting as mumbling!" he said with the air of a man laying down the judgment of God. "If you have time to do something so-"
"I was responding to the presenter's call," I snapped, cutting him off. "And if you want to complain about being loud, then talk to a mirror, goggles. Or let the teacher answer your question instead of yelling at everyone around you."
"Wha-" Ida seemed aghast. "You rude-"
I tuned him out immediately. I liked Ida, I really did. But the man really needed to work on his self-awareness.
Present Mic cut in before Ida could continue his sputter of anger. "Well, there is an answer, listeners! Keep your ears open!"
The rest of it went as expected, with Present Mic explaining the Arena Traps being considered obstacles, rather than actual villains. The presentation ended in Present Mic's little
"The great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said... 'True heroism consists of being superior to the ills of life.' Plus Ultra!! Break a leg, everyone!!"
...Wait, was Napoleon technically a hero? Then again, that might have been my American perspective on history talking. Maybe a hero in the traditional sense of being one, where it meant just being a famous badass. Like Gilgamesh's smug ass...
Then we left that room and entered the buses to head out to the testing sites. And if my bus was leaning real heavily on the side I was sitting on, I was definitely not to blame...
------
We came to a stop in front of Battle Center B. And when I got out to see Izuku standing there nervously in his workout suit, it felt oddly like destiny. Then again, Pony had gone to Battle Center A, so more likely they were trying to break up the kids who went to the same schools.
I looked around. I didn't recognize most of the kids. Wow. Were so many kids really going to fail this exam? That was kinda crazy to realize in retrospect. Some of them looked like real badasses too.
While I was distracted, Hurricane Ida struck again. Izuku had started to walk forward, heading towards Ochaco, when Ida came forward and gripped his shoulder to stop him, startling the kid. I walked over to them.
"That girl appears to be trying to focus," Ida pointed out seriously. A good point, in his defense. Ochaco was fanning her face and taking deep breaths to calm herself. Then he jumped to conclusions. "What are you doing here? Are you taking the entrance exam to interfere with everyone else?"
"N-N-No, of course not!" Izuku jumped back, waving his arms frantically. That's how he bumped into my chest. He stopped, startled, and glanced up at me. "B-Bowsa-san?"
"Hey," I grinned down at the much smaller green-haired kid, then looked up at Ida, frowning. "Tenya Ida, right? You mind toning it back? He's nervous, not an asshole. Besides, who the fuck would take a whole entrance exam just to mess with people. Are you that lacking in self-awareness?"
"You again," Ida glared at me. "And such language. Are you really trying to be a hero?"
"Now more than ever," I said with a smirk, which only seemed to anger him. Weirdly, the fact he was so annoyed by me only made me like him more. Context, I suppose. "Oh, and we better run in now! Izuku, come on!"
"W-What?" Izuku gaped as I started running, booking it for the doors.
"H-Hey, we aren't done!"
"Out of the way you fucks!" I shouted as I rushed towards the group of kids, who had been watching Ida, Izuku, and I talk.
"Whoa, what're you-" one dude yelled, before a far louder voice echoed.
"OKAY, START!" Present Mic called.
I didn't hear the rest of the speech. I was already running my ass into the arena.
The place within looked like a city. Like a full city! It even had street signs and glass windows and shit. How much money did UA have?
A wall smashed to my right. A green machine came flying out in a spray of concrete and glass. On one panel was a big number '1'. It's red eyes glared at me as it reached for me menacingly. "Target Acquir-"
"YEEEESSS!" I roared, smashing into the robot with my claws. I felt steel bend and twist under my strength, wires snap, the entire thing breaking beneath my power! "YEESSSS!"
The robot was turned into scrap behind me as I continued running. Another robot, this time with a number three. "Target-"
"NOM!" I bit down into its head as my full bulk hit the guy like a damn truck. I slashed outward with my claws, ripping through the robot's chest, it's arms bouncing off my shell when it hit me back. I pulled my head up, my jaws ripping off the robot's head. Two robots with the number '2' rushed me.
I blasted one with fire, pouring on the flames, when the other got hit by a burst of motion. Ida, moving at lightning speed, his jet boosters blazing, kicked the other like a damn rocket in flight.
"Nice job!" I barked at him before he could say anything. "Good luck, okay!"
"E-eh?" he stopped, gaping at me. I ran forward to go for the next one, my blood boiling.
Finally! Finally, after all this time! I could let loose! I could really hit things, break them, feel them hit me back!
A 1 came zooming around a corner long enough for me to bash my head into it. I pushed it up into the air, then jumped up over it as it let out a keening screech sound. I brought my legs up as I began to fall.
"BOWSER BOMB!"
I dropped on top of the robot with every bit of my bulk, the robot turning to pieces. A three and two rushed me, smashing me as I was still recovering from my drop. I felt metal fists smash into my chin and chest. Then I pulled my arms and legs into my shell and started spinning, hearing robots smash to pieces!
Robots! I decided I loved villain robots. For the first time, I could really let loose and not worry about hurting anyone. Basically…
"I can be as hard core as I want and it'll still be PG!" I roared as I came out of my shell, literally and metaphorically.
A 3 fired missiles at me. Probably some low level ones, basically just paint bombs, but still. I unleashed a blast of flames, blowing them out of the air in a move I'd practiced with Pony (I briefly wondered how she was doing), then tackled into the robot, smashing into a building, then out the other side of it, concrete exploding around us.
"HAHAHA!" I laughed as I grabbed the missile pods on the 3 and lifted it up. "Yes!" I spun the robot around and smashed it into a 2. When the 3 responded by weakly smacking me in the chin, I ripped it in half. My claws dug into the sputtering pieces and I grinned around me, only to stop when I saw some kids staring at me in shock. "Oh. You guys want this spot?"
"Please," one kid said quietly.
"All right. Later!" I rushed off, still holding the halves of the robot. When a 2 approached me, I hit him with a right, using the piece of robot like a boxing glove, and following with a left hook to get it while it was dazed.
I went for the next, hitting a 3, then a 1. And a 1… And a 1? What the hell?
I got another 2, slashing through it, but I was beginning to have to hunt down the robots, rather than having plenty of them coming to me. We'd barely started!
Well. Desperate times.
I started smashing through the buildings, running for every loud sound I could hear. Sure I likely couldn't just kool-aid myself through whole buildings as an actual hero, but for now it helped knowing literally no one lived or worked in these things. I dropped down on 1s, tore through 2s and found myself forced to toss the pieces of some robots at others that were too far away for me to take down efficiently.
I got to 42 points or so when it showed up. The 0 pointer.
The city shook. And a giant fucking robot came out of nowhere.
I glared up at it as a hand clenched at a building, sending debris falling down. I noticed some debris beginning on a roof just above a shocked pair of kids and ran over to grab them, pulling them away just as that roof shattered to drop stones and mortar where they had been. I let the shrapnel bounce off my shell to protect the kids, nonchalantly glancing up at the robot.
Well, I say 'nonchalantly'. In truth, the thing was fucking impressive. Giant robots. Always impressive.
"You two okay?" I asked the kids. They were both young men, one with a light brown nose shaped like a rock.
"Y-Yeah!" the kid with the rock nose said shakily. The other, a normal looking dude with white hair, was just staring upwards before he finally spoke.
"What the hell is UA thinking!? This is so crazy!"
"So is hero work," I pointed out, helping them up and pushing them gently. "Go on, get some more points."
"T-Thanks, Turtle-san!" the rock-nosed one said as they ran off.
I slowly gazed up at the giant fucking robot as it slowly plodded forward, coming towards the students. They were all running away and okay, so no worries there. Then I looked to my right. Another 0-pointer was further away, but it was so tall it was easy to make it out. I ignored the one that was approaching, instead turning to run towards that one. This part. This part I wanted to see.
I saw Izuku running towards the robot. I saw Ochaco there, under the rubble. Then… the dust flew apart. He rocketed into the air. I felt chills across my scales, running along my spine beneath my shell.
"SMAAAAASH!"
The impact of Deku's fist on that robot made caved in its fucking face! And when that face was the size of a small building and set off several small explosions all along the 'spine' of the robot… I wouldn't want to be hit by it. I felt the gust of the impact from all the way from where I was standing.
Damn. Damn. Deku may not have been able to control his power without breaking a limb, but he might be able to knock even my invulnerable ass out with a hit like that.
He fell out of the sky, legs waving weakly in the wind before Ochaco smacked him in the face, stopping his fall. Seriously clutch.
I was there in time to see the round-cheeked young girl… er, well. Release the rainbow, as it were.
I got over to Deku- fuck me, I kept calling him that mentally. Izuku. I got over to IZUKU just as he was dragging himself along the ground, tears in his eyes. I heard him speak.
"If I can get just one point!" he sputtered. "Just-"
"Here," I kneeled down, grabbing his uninjured arm. He gaped up at me in surprise as I lifted him up. "I'll help you man. Let's see if we can find another one for you to-"
"Time's up!" Present Mic called out, shocking me. Izuku started up at the sky, tears still in his eyes as I held him with one arm. Alarms rang out through the city, echoing.
"...Fuck," I mumbled.
Izuku passed out in my arm, his broken limbs falling limply.
"..." I shook my head sadly. For the cameras.
Inside, I was chuckling. 60 points, well earned. It was funny to think of that.
I gently placed him on his back, and sat down to wait, looking over at Ochaco, who was still lying limply on the robot she had floated on to save our boy. "You okay?"
"Uuuunghhh," she said weakly.
A bunch of kids approached. "Are you all okay?" one brown haired kid with a green headband asked.
"Yeah, we're good. Just waiting for the medic," I noted a certain blonde kid standing nearby, a confident bounce to his flamboyant step. "Hey. You do okay, Laser Show?"
He seemed surprised to be addressed, but still winked. "Certainement, mine turtle ami!"
Aoyoma really was a classy as fuck dude.
"Man, that was a hell of hit," one of the other kids said in awe, staring at the remains of the destroyed giant robot. "Who would have thought a kid that timid could hit so hard?"
As the peanut gallery spoke, Iida walked over. The spectacled speedster looked like he was thinking heavily, and seemed ready to just standby.
"Oi, Ida-san!" I called out to him.
"E-eh?" he said. I waved him over. The tall (for a human teen) young man walked over, his blue hair glistening with a bit of sweat.
"How did you do?" I asked.
"Oh. I obtained 52 points," he said, though he didn't seem too proud of that. The kids around us, on the other hand, started whispering in shock. Couldn't blame them. That was pretty damn impressive.
"Nice job," I said honestly.
He gave me an odd look, then looked down at Izuku, then Ochaco before finally speaking. "You are… Bowsa-san, I think he called you?" Ida said awkwardly.
"Koopa Bowser," I bowed as best as I could while sitting. "My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself."
"Ah, I am from Somei Private Academy! My name is Tenya Ida," he bowed back, then took a deep breath as he rose. "I'm sorry," when I only blinked in confusion. "I assumed you-both of you," he glanced at Izuku. "Weren't taking this exam seriously. But I see now that you saw more to the exam than I did. I misjudged you! I'm sorry!"
Damnit Ida, stop being a lovable dork dude. I grinned at him. "Hey, you didn't misjudge me. I'm a big violent fuckhead who can't stop cussing and wants to be a hero. You nailed it on the head."
He shook his head seriously, but before he could say anything else, a diminutive older woman came over. As Recovery Girl began treating everyone's wounds (Which was super cool to see, even with the old woman cooties clearly involved in the process), he looked over at Izuku with a serious look in his eyes.
Ida really was way nicer once he started loosening the stick up his ass. Like Dek-IZUKU said. Not mean. Just earnest. And really lacking awareness of others emotions.
As for me? Well… I was happy.
Maybe I wouldn't get into Class 1-A. But I was sure I'd get into the school. And I'd done everything I could, pushing myself to the limit.
A full year of training and hard work. All over now.
Tomorrow I'd find out the results of my training. For right then, it was time to see how Pony did. Then, I'd prepare for what would follow.