Chapter 10: Entrance Examinations (1)
Naruhata Municipal Hero University, Kanto Community Hero College, Sumida Technical University, and Katsushika Metropolitan University.
All four universities that Takumi applied for had reached out to him, each more than willing to hand him the full-ride scholarship he desired. Some offers came with conditions like placing a certain rank on the entrance exams, but to Takumi, a stipulation like that may as well not even exist.
Two paths to become a professional hero, one to work in quirk support gear development, and one to work in crisis and disaster relief management.
Three potential career prospects had opened their doors to him, if he was brazen enough to put his foot in the HPSC's door that number might have increased a count.
Most people would've spent a week or more carefully deliberating their options, but for someone with Takumi's thinking speed, he came to his decision in about 16.02 seconds after the fourth and final university had reached out to him.
He had settled on NMHU.
He had chosen to dive head-first onto the road of professional heroism. He had put his faith in Shunpei's beliefs about him, that Takumi's own will was superior to that of his quirk's. That his own innate good nature was far stronger than any dataset Battle Algorithm could spew out.
He prioritized the belief that the good he could do was meaningful enough to suppress the overwhelming prowess of his brain. A decision only a human with abundant, thriving emotions would ever gamble on. Not a machine that operated solely off ice-cold logical inputs and outputs.
Of course, before he could call himself a hero, he needed to successfully graduate from NMHU, and before he could do that, he needed to pass said institution's entrance examinations. Which as President Sakamori had told him, began two weeks after their meeting.
Aka—today.
The written section, which had just concluded, was a 'situational judgement test' designed to test an applicant's decision-making abilities under pressure, their moral judgement, and comprehend of a hero's responsibilities.
Alongside others, Takumi was sat in a room where he was shown a video simulation of urban emergencies a pro-hero typically responded to on a day-to-day basis. A robbery in progress, a blazing building with trapped civilians, a car chase through traffic, simultaneous small crimes within a densely packed area, just to name a few.
While all this was being shown, the applicants needed to write down the exact, detailed actions they would take for each individual situation, how they would prioritize which situations they respond to first with an in-depth explanation for their reasoning, and the risks involved with every scenario, whether it was on themselves as a hero or the innocents they needed to save.
It was a short written test, but an extremely pressuring one. If you weren't able to think both quickly and accurately on your feet, your answers would rapidly snowball into ruin. The simulation was only shown once after all.
Of course, such an exam was practically hand-tailored for Takumi's quirk.
Before the practical section began, everyone needed to head to the locker rooms to get changed into the school's sportswear, which consisted of a lightweight training suit with a bright orange base and yellow accents to make it easier for the cameras and grounded invigilators to track the students.
"You."
The moment Takumi closed his locker, a fellow applicant was standing before him. A young man around the same age as Takumi with dark brown hair, neatly swept back. His eyes were a distinct amber, the shade a bit darker than Reika's, and his build was clearly more athletic and physically built than Takumi's.
His expression carried the confidence one would expect from an honor student, his very presence projecting a clear sense of competence and authority.
'Target initiating challenge-oriented interaction. Hostility probability: low. Competitive intent probability: high.'
'Rapid eye detection noted. Subtle hesitation before speaking noted. Elevated cognitive focus noted. Conclusion: Target likely possesses analytical or predictive quirk. Estimated classification: intelligence-type quirk user.'
Takumi remembered what President Sakamori had told him in his office that day.
As it would seem, he had caught the attention of the only other intelligence quirk user taking this year's entrance exams with him.
The A-Tier.
"Hello." Takumi offered a flat greeting, his reaction to the applicant's presence displaying neither calm nor annoyance. Merely blank acknowledgement that he was indeed standing in front of him.
"I saw you during the written portion." His tone suggested he was choosing his words carefully. "You finished before me."
'Linguistic parsing analysis: target attempting information extraction without revealing intent. Behavioural indication: target actively controlling expression. Updated classification: high-likelihood intellectual competitor.'
'Optimal response: controlled ambiguity.'
"Speed does not equate to accuracy."
The amber eyes peering into Takumi's narrowed. "You did not carry yourself like someone relying on pure guesswork. True, I can't tell for certain whether your answers were accurate or not without seeing them for myself, but I highly doubt an intelligence-type quirk user's answers would rank poorly."
"That sounds like an assumption." He pushed his glasses upward. "Assumption's can be unreliable."
The A-tier murmured a thoughtful hum. "I believe the term 'educated guess' would be more apt."
'Interpretation: target engaging in analytical discourse, not confrontation. Target values intellectual dominance in a conversation.''
"A guess nonetheless," Takumi spoke with finality. "It's unwise to come to a conclusion when the available data is limited, such conclusions have a tendency to breed and sow uncertainty."
Having fitted himself into his temporary sports attire, Takumi took his leave, well-aware that the A-tier's eyes were carefully studying his back as he did so.
D-Tier, C-Tier, B-Tier, A-Tier, S-Tier. It didn't make a difference to him, wielding the same type of quirk as Takumi alone did not invoke any sense of connection or camaraderie within him. Battle Algorithm would disassemble them into numbers, equations, and formulas all the same.
He chose to become a hero to explore the 'human' aspects of life, not because he wanted to delve even further into its 'calculative' side.
Strangely enough, instead of being led somewhere else within the campus, the hopeful heroes were brought outside the institution, positioned around the road adjacent to the front gate, which for all intents and purposes, seemed a little dangerous. Naruhata's road traffic wasn't exactly tame by any stretch of the imagination.
"Don't worry, for the sake of the practical exam's first part, we've been given permission to ward off this district. There'll be no incoming traffic until we actually begin."
The staff member overseeing the section was a woman by the name of Kaede Ishimura, a retired pro hero like the institution's president, formerly known as "Rebound".
She had dark hair tied into a tight, combat-ready ponytail, and boasted an impressively sculpted build that could only be the product of a great many difficult years of combat work. She sported a pair of narrow, light-hazel eyes that constantly scanned her surroundings, hopping from one student to the other as if she were building a mental profile on them.
Her attire consisted of a dark-gray training uniform jacket, black tactical gloves, and snug-fitting combat boots. An ensemble befitting a military drill instructor.
"This district is filled with actors playing the part of both civilians and criminals, alongside a few of our instructors that will use their quirks to act the role of villains. You are expected to treat this portion of the exam as if you are a real pro-hero deployed in a Naruhata neighbourhood, you will not be told when and where incidents will occur, you will rely on purely on your own judgement to navigate your way through the district and solve the scenarios that arise before you."
A mildly annoying, audible buzzing noise started to pollute the air as drones shot out from an unknown area of the campus and hovered above the exam-takers.
"Fifty participants will take the exam at a time. Each group will have fifteen minutes to resolve as many incidents as they can, and each participant will have their actions individually monitored by one of the drones." She pulled out a clipboard with sectioned lists of names on it. "I will now call the first group, if you hear your name, come to the front and line up beside me."
As fate would have it, the name 'Takumi Kisaragi' happened to be among that group. Alongside the only other name that managed to catch his attention.
'Ren Arakawa'.
That was the name of the A-Tier.
Kaede reached into her coat and withdrew a flare gun. "You'll begin on my signal, and the drones will start beeping once your allotted time's up, doing anything other than immediately returning here once that happens will result in an automatic fail." She exhaled, evidently bored. "Any questions before you begin?"
"Ishimura-sensei," Ren spoke up. "You haven't mentioned a specific criteria for the exam. What determines whether or not we pass?"
Kaede breathed a tired sigh. "There is a criteria, and we haven't told you about it on purpose. You're supposed to figure it out on your own, if you can't, then you have no chance of becoming a pro hero in the first place." She scanned the group. "Does anyone else have something they want to pester me with?"
Silence followed.
"Excellent," she raised her flare gun up towards the sky. "Three, two, one—"
Pop!
The flare round imploded into a streak of crimson light above the district.
"Go!"
The practical exam had now begun, with fifteen minutes on the clock for its participants to make the most of.
The speed-type quirk users seized the advantage, rushing right down the center of the district where they presumed most of the action would be. The other examinees take a moment to stop and survey the scenery, attempting to pinpoint the most optimal route for them to progress through the area before proceeding. As much as they'd like to spend a little more time planning, they couldn't afford to wait with a time limit looming over their heads.
Only two participants seemed to possess mindsets that differed.
"Kisaragi-san," Ren addressed him. "I take it you've already realized the true purpose of this exam?" He paid the fact that the exam's overseer was standing right in front of him little heed.
If discussing the exam was prohibited, she should've said so before it began.
Takumi released a quiet breath. "You should really stop with those assumptions of yours, Arakawa-san." In a brisk stroll, Takumi began to move towards the western side of the mock neighbourhood. "Good luck."
Ren felt tempted to let out a cold snort.
"Good luck to you too."
///
.
Takumi was in no rush to start rounding up bad guys, nor did see any reason to increase his pace beyond that of a casual saunter.
The exam had nothing to do with seeing who could defeat the most villains or stop the most crime, if it was, they would've implemented some kind of point system to keep track of that metric.
It was a test of prioritization, the examiners wanted to see how an applicant decided what to do first. Or in other words, whether or not they understood what types of situations their quirks were most suited to.
After all, a real pro-hero on duty couldn't respond to everything, multiple emergencies occurred all over Japan, as grim as it sounded, a hero not only needed to pick and choose which calls they responded to, but know how to pick the right ones.
The examiners didn't care how many crimes Takumi handled, they only cared about how many crimes he handled well. They wanted to see efficiency. They wanted quality over quantity.
As the seconds ticked down, Takumi found himself amidst a narrow commercial street in the mock district, his quirk wasting no time running a full environmental scan of its wielder's surroundings.
'Noted observations: small convenience store, ramen shop, two-story apartment building, twelve parked cars, eight civilian actors.'
Takumi couldn't help but groan. He loathed crowded areas, the level of noise his quirk produced in such areas was all but straight-up torture.
Nonetheless, he had an exam to pass, so he steeled his mental fortitude and pushed on.
At first, nothing appeared unusual, until a blip appeared on his quirk's radar.
Battle Algorithm pinged one of the civilian actors, registering their body language as an indicator that they were about to take some form of aggressive action.
Lo and behold, said civilian plopped his backpack onto the ground and pulled out a blunt metal pipe, rushing towards the ramen shop and senselessly bashing in the windows with reckless abandon. No real apparent objective in sight than mindless disruption of civic order.
Instead of rushing to help, Takumi crossed his arms and nodded in approval, almost tempted to start clapping.
'Mhm. That's a true Naruhata'n criminal right there. Objectiveless and full of energy. Well done, President Sakamori.'
Authenticity deserved praise.
Since his quirk had already detected two applicants approaching the low-level criminal, including one whose audible pace suggested they had a speed-type quirk, Takumi didn't see any reason to get involved. As he had deduced, a pro-hero should know how to determine where they are and aren't useful.
At least, that was his initial assessment.
'Variables detected: faint hissing noise, strong odor near ramen shop, suggests damaged gas pipe behind structure.'
'Conclusion: gas leak present.'
Takumi clicked his tongue. A situation had arisen where he was the only one who had spotted an even greater danger behind the window-smashing thug. The gas leak in and of itself wasn't the issue, it was the fact that it was accompanied by broken shards of glass, and sparks present on the nearby electrical wiring.
'Explosion probability: 73% within 90 seconds.'
If gas ignition occurred, the ramen shop would implode, the nearby civilians would be seriously injured, and the apartment building adjacent to the shop projected a 94% of partial collapse.
In short, it would be a disaster.
Instantly, Takumi's quirk came up with a rapid action chain.
'1. Evacuate civilians from blast radius. 2. Prevent ignition source. 3. Contain criminal last.'
Takumi bolted towards the ramen shop, sprinting as fast as his untrained legs would allow him and picking up the fallen metal pipe near the window area.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Repeatedly, he smashed the object against the shop's exterior, using the noise to redirect all the surrounding attention from the criminal being apprehended to himself.
"All of you. Move down the alley, now. There's going to be an explosion here." His voice was calm and precise.
Yelling had a tendency to only incite further chaos, if you wanted people to listen, you needed to keep your tone both composed and authoritarian. You couldn't sound too overbearing or too mild-mannered, you need people to listen to your words without letting what you said startle them into panic.
"That's an order," he emphasised. The confidence in his voice urging the civilian actors to listen.
The speedster applicant glared at him. "Oi! What the hell are you talking about?! There's no explosion! I've got the villain right here—!"
Takumi didn't have the time nor patience to deal with anyone else. He rushed through the ramen shop and bolted straight into the kitchen, his quirk immediately processing the environmental variables. Air density changes, odor concentration gradients, ventilation flow, pipe layout along the wall, appliance heat signatures, all of it computed within a fraction of a second.
'Gas source: rear kitchen pipeline rupture.'
The leak had yet to reach a catastrophic level, but the gas was still steadily filling the building. Battle Algorithm wasted no time predicting how the gas would spread throughout the store.
'Processing factors: kitchen airflow from ceiling fan, open windows facing street, temperature difference between rooms. Resulting projection: gas concentration will reach flammable levels in front dining area within 52 seconds.'
That alone was dangerous, but the true terror was the risk of ignition. Ignition was the author of all the horror stories people heard about unnoticed gas leaks.
'Detected hazards: active stove burners, powered electrical appliances, outside electrical damage via exposed neon sign wiring.'
'Optimal sequence: 1. Extinguish stove flame. 2. Shut off main gas valve. 3. Cut power to electrical building.'
He walked across the kitchen in three efficient strides, calmly reaching for the stove knob and shutting it off. Not a shred of panic present on him, as if there was any reason for there to be, he was just following his quirk's inputs and sequential analyses like usual.
'Explosion probability risk updated: 54% within 64 seconds.'
Now it was time to locate the gas valve. Most people unfamiliar with industrial kitchens would waste precious seconds searching, but Takumi's quirk had already predicted the ramen shop's likely pipe layouts. The building was clearly of an older make, thus his quirk deduced the valve would be mounted near the rear service wall, probably beside the supply line and positioned slightly above waist height.
His quirk guided his sight before he could consciously search, his eyes spotting the red-handled valve almost instantly.
Takumi gripped the valve and rotated it clockwise, his hands feeling a slight vibration in the pipes as the pressure shifted, and his ears listening attentively as the hissing sound began to weaken.
Battle Algorithm confirmed that the growth of gas concentration in the building had slowed dramatically, but there was still a dangerous existing accumulation of gas in the room. No matter what, the chance of ignition mustdrop to 0%.
He moved to the partially-labeled breaker panel near the kitchen entrance, his quirk predicting which switch controlled the building's electrical circuits and motioning for Takumi to flip the main breaker.
Instantly, the lights shut off, the appliances lost all power, and the electrical spark risk vanished into nothingness.
'Explosion probability risk updated: 8% within 52 seconds.'
Because of the existing gas, there was no way for him to drop the probability any lower, but since he had already evacuated the civilians beforehand, the only damage that could possibly occur from this point onwards was structural. If the 8% chance of explosion even struck at all.
'Seriously, isn't a gas leak like this a little much for a dummy scenario?'
None of the chemicals in the buildings were fake.
Takumi had, without a doubt, stopped a real gas leak explosion from occurring.
///
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