Chapter Text
“Are you ready?” Kai’s uncle Katsuki chanted, jumping up and down as though he himself was about to take the recommendation exam.
“Hell yeah!” Kai exclaimed, in the middle of some strange combination of stretch and exercise, holding one leg up while hopping on the other. This was it, the day he’d spent nearly half the year training for. At this point, Kai felt as though he’d already written his acceptance letter in his own blood, sweat, and tears. He’d earned it, and nothing was getting in his way.
“ARE YOU GONNA KICK ASS?!” Katsuki shouted.
“HELL YEAH!!!” Kai roared at a volume somehow louder than his uncle’s.
“Yeah… I’m going out to skate if you guys are done with your bro sesh…” Nya sighed, rolling her eyes. “I believe in you and everything, Kai, but chill the fuck out.”
“Language!” Katsuki called just as she stepped out the door.
“It’s cool, uncle. She just doesn’t get it,” Kai huffed as he slid his shoes on. She was right of course; the fuss probably wasn’t warranted, but it made him feel better. Confident energy was infinitely better than nervous energy when it came to performance, and Kai couldn’t risk letting any nervous energy seep through. Not when he had the sinking feeling in his stomach that all his training will have been for nothing.
Before he could even finish that thought, his uncle had already swept him up into a tight hug.
“Kid, I’ve never been prouder of any man in my life. When I went into that exam for the first time, my mother told me to ‘make her proud’, but I want you to know that you already make me proud every single day,” Katsuki grinned. “Now get outta here and make those other kids eat shit,” he said as he tossed Kai his backpack.
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For what was supposedly the cream of the crop, UA’s recommendation exam was crowded. Kai wondered just how many people were taking the general entrance exam if this was supposed to be just a fraction of the number of students. It was rather overwhelming. He tried to find some people to speak with, but most of the kids there already seemed to have grouped up. He imagined that most of them were from private schools and already knew each other. He just plugged in his headphones to make the wait for instruction somewhat less awkward.
Eventually, a group of 10 or so instructors walked in through the large double doors at the front of the room. They sorted the applicants into 5 long lines in reverse alphabetical order. Kai was towards the back of the last line, fidgeting with a loose string on his jacket.
The line was so slow. It moved at varying speeds depending on what he assumed were the quirks of the people in front, but no one seemed to take less than 15 minutes. Being at the back of the line, that meant it’d taken him over an hour just to move up a few paces, and he’d probably have to wait about 2 more. He began to consider trying to talk to someone again to pass the time. The girls behind him appeared to be gossiping about something and only snickered when he turned around to say hi. He decided to turn to the guy just ahead of him instead.
Though he wasn’t making fun of Kai, like the girls behind him probably were, he was still kind of intimidating. He was only a few inches taller than Kai, but he was also just visibly bulkier with a closed off body language that seemed to say fuck off, and the RBF wasn’t helping. On the one hand, it’d be bad to start off the year without any friends, but on the other hand, it’d be way worse to start the year off with an enemy. But Kai was too bored to really consider either hand for very long. He’d do anything to avoid restarting his playlist again. Plus, something about this guy felt… intriguing.
“Hey,” Kai said with a polite smile. “You nervous?”
He turned to look at him, sweeping his dark hair to the side to remove an ear bud. “Hm? Uh… not really. It’s either this or dance school, so I kinda have to get in.” He responded, visibly frowning at the mention of said school. “Are you?”
“Pfft, me? Nervous? Never. I’m the Kai Bakugo, trained by pro-hero Dynamight. I’m a shoo-in,” he brushed the question off. It was strange though. Kai wondered how someone with something actually on the line could be so much more confident than he was. If he failed at this, the worst that would happen would be his uncle kicking up a fuss and sending him to Shiketsu. For some people, this was their only shot, but for Kai, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t really matter. And yet…
“So the sleeves are just a fashion choice?” his new acquaintance remarked with a tilt to his brow.
Kai looked down to see that, absentmindedly pulling at the loose thread on his jacket, he’d completely ruined the hem of his sleeve.
Kai felt his face grow hot. Impulsively, he found the same thread on the opposite sleeve and tugged. He easily ripped it away and retorted “Yep! Get with the trends, ballet man!”
After the initial impulse, Kai couldn’t help but internally cringe. Not only had he further ruined his jacket, but ballet man? He’d just called this random stranger-
“Ballet man?” the very man in question chuckled, eyebrows raised.
Kai put his head in his hands.
“Oh First Spinjitzu Master, don’t even listen to me. I’m going up here with these raggedy-ass sleeves, my uncle will have wasted $5,000 dollars renting a boat for nothing, and now I’ve embarrassed myself,” he spiraled. Maybe it would’ve been better if he hadn’t said anything at all. It wouldn’t have changed the first two things, but at the very least he wouldn’t have to have all the people next to him in line laughing at him.
Except… he wasn’t laughing at him.
“Hold on dude, breathe” he said, placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I didn’t think it was embarrassing. I thought it was kinda funny”. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand. “But I’m homeschooled, so perhaps that’s just my sense of humor now.”
Kai felt himself relax a little. The style of conversation all the sudden felt familiar, almost comfortable. And it felt oddly like that had been the intention of the man before him.
“Oh, no,” he gave a slight smile. “If the homeschooled kids think I’m funny, then I’m done for. Next thing y’know you’ll be making it your hero name.”
“Nah, actually, I was thinking more like Lord of the Dance: Ballet Hero,” he laughed, sweeping his hand through the air as if painting the name onto his future hero posters. “Ballet Man should obviously be my real name. Much better than Cole Brookstone.”
“I don’t know, I think Cole is a pretty cool name.” Kai chuckled, elbowing his new friend. “Almost as cool as just offhandedly mentioning you’ve been living it up in Brookstone manor while I’ve been complaining about a measly $5,000.”
Cole averted his gaze and smiled awkwardly. He had a slight furrow of his brow and a crinkle to his nose as he sighed, “Hey, $5,000 is still a lot to me. My father’s not exactly very ‘mi casa es tu casa’ about his money.”
He turned back, as though coming back from somewhere a little further off. Kai tried to hold his gaze, determined for an instant to find out from where, before being startled back into the conversation.
“Why’d your uncle spend need to rent a boat anyway?”
“What? Oh- the training boat. Long story,” he coughed, caught a bit off guard by the question.
Cole looked at the line ahead of them and looked back at Kai. “Well, it certainly looks like we’ve got time”.
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The time passed much more quickly as the two boys talked. It didn’t feel very long at all before they’d reached the front of the line.
At the front, Kai realized that not all of the adults in the front were instructors. Almost every instructor was paired with 1-2 volunteers. Volunteers that, after seeing Cole go, Kai realized were there for their quirks.
An old woman with a clipboard stood next to a tall gray-haired man wearing a bright red volunteer badge.
When Cole had gone up, the man introduced himself as Neuro and touched a hand to his temple, before both of them seemingly went blank. Aside from the fact that he was still standing, Cole had gone entirely slack. Kai would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little concerned.
Around 15 minutes later, Neuro calmly opened his eyes, and the light sprang back into Cole’s. He rubbed his eyes and held his head in one hand as he gasped, “Holy shit! That was- my brain feels- “, Neuro looked at him. “You’ll do great, Kai,” he finished as he walked off to the back of the room with everyone else that had gone.
“Kai Bakugo,” the old woman smiled. “You’re next!”
“I am Neuro,” stated the man next to her, in an eerily monotone voice. “Welcome to the first stage of assessment.” The second set of words didn’t seem to come from his mouth as much as somewhere deep within Kai’s own head.
With that, he pressed a finger to his temple once more and…
And… nothing.
Neuro stepped back.
“What?” Kai asked. “What happened to the assessment?”
“I’ve deemed you unworthy,” he said in that same flat tone.
Kai could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Wha- based on wh- “
“I’ve deemed you all unworthy”. For the first time Neuro’s tone shifted. He sounded dark, malicious even.
Suddenly, in his hands formed two pulsing blue orbs of energy. Kai’s first instinct was to dodge, until he realized that they weren’t aimed at him. The girls that had stood behind him were still talking- still laughing- and clearly didn’t notice Neuro.
In an instant, he blasted over, propelling himself with small jets of fire at his feet. He knocked the two girls down and rolled over onto the floor just past them. The orbs flew right overhead, each expanding into large waves of aerial distortion, nearly catching the tips of Kai’s hair. They crashed into the wall behind where the girls had been standing with a loud boom. In the aera where they had made contact, the wall looked almost as though it were a bad CGI, warping and clipping without respect for the laws of physics. At first it was silent, like no one had heard it at all before screams came from all around the room as the people panicked, running in all directions.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Kai shouted, whipping around to face the man. He started dashing towards him without waiting for an answer.
Neuro merely stood, relaxed. “None of you deserve to be heroes. I’m getting rid of the waste.”
Just as Kai got within arm’s reach, Neuro touched a hand to his temple. He flew up, 10 feet in the air, only to be slammed into the nearest wall, bouncing onto the floor.
He landed with an ache in his ribs. He could hardly breathe, let alone catch his breath fast enough to dodge the next few orbs. It took everything in him to roll himself out of the way in that moment. He needed a second to breathe, a second to figure this out. He needed to get the upper hand somehow.
His mind raced as he heard slow footsteps approaching him.
He looked up to see Neuro’s hand raising at his side.
Time seemed to slow down as he thought.
He keeps putting his hand to his head, he thought. Okay, maybe it’s a quirk requirement. I could try to grab his hands. He drafted a plan. He imagined how he would catch him off guard and slide over in time to catch both hands and restrain him until the cops arrived, but something didn’t sit quite right. His hand never went to his head to create those balls of energy he kept throwing.
A few feet away from him, Neuro’s hand finally reached his temple.
That was when it hit him. Kai had a plan.
Kai ripped off his jacket, setting the whole thing on fire before throwing it at the man. Neuro, caught off guard, sputtered, awkwardly catching it and tossing it like a hot potato.
While he fumbled with the jacket, Kai flung balls of fire at the both the lights and light switches. The room fell dark as he enacted the next phase of his plan. He ran around the room, searching at only the light of a small flame at his fingertips for the fallen clipboards of the instructors. He made sure to move erratically while doing so, just in case his understanding if his opponent’s quirk was off.
Once he’d gathered enough, he ripped all the papers off the clipboards and tore them apart into as many pieces as possible.
“You think the dark will help you?” Neuro asked, the slightest bit of concern betraying his monotone voice.
Kai remained silent as he dashed at the man.
Turning towards the sound, Neuro grinned. “I’ve got you now.”
Before he could attack, Kai lit up the papers, creating a shower of flaming confetti and stunning Neuro into a brief hesitation. Kai rammed the man like a football player and laid down a few good punches before getting up and dashing off into the dark like he did the first time.
Neuro coughed, wheezing as he began to stand up. The cough quickly turned into an eerie, hollow, almost maniacal laugh. “I bet you think you’ve got a little strategy don’t you. You think I can’t use my quirk if I can’t see you.” His tone finally showed recognizable frustration. “Well think again twerp.”
He started flinging energy orbs at random, hoping to get lucky enough to hit. Kai was just about to try to find somewhere to hide when he felt his foot hit a weight on the ground. Upon further inspection, it was a microphone. It was probably to congratulate the applicants at the end of the assessment, or maybe the room served some other function when they weren’t testing. That didn’t matter. What mattered was that Kai’s theory had just gotten a lot more testable.
He turned the volume and echo all the way up on the mic, before turning it on and waiting for the Bluetooth to hopefully connect to a usable speaker.
What Kai didn’t expect was for the little light on the microphone to be so bright.
He was instantly grabbed by what felt like thin air. Not just grabbed, squeezed. He felt a crushing weight all over, squeezing his insides and making it difficult to breathe. With a shaky wheeze he croaked, “I... I can’t- “
“Bluetooth connected”
He dropped the mic, the feedback loudly reverberating around them and bouncing off the walls. Instantly, he fell to the ground. He felt around for the microphone, grabbed it, and let out an animalistic scream.
At first it was just screaming. That was all he could do for those first few panicked seconds, his only focus rendering his opponents quirk useless.
Then he decided to have some fun with it.
“NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA- “
Neuro covered his ears.
Once he’d gathered himself enough to form coherent (non-rickrolling) sentences, he shouted into the mic, “I UNDERSTAND YOUR QUIRK JUST FINE, ‘TWERP’. IT WASN’T THAT YOU COULDN’T ATTACK ME BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T SEE ME. YOUR CONCENTRATION BASED QUIRK JUST DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO FOCUS ON.” The words were barely coherent given the echo and the way the words bounced off the surrounding walls.
Neuro shook his head, hands still at his ears. “What? How di-”
Kai wasn’t sure if he actually heard that part over his own shouting, or just imagined it. Nevertheless, he responded, ”YOUR HANDS, DUMBASS. MY SISTER DOES THE SAME THING WHENEVER SHE HAS TO USE HER QUIRK WITH A HEADACHE.”
“Goddammit-”
Suddenly, the world went dark.
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Kai opened his eyes, and he was back in front of Neuro, the old woman with the clipboard, and all of the other instructors and applicants in the room. The room was bright. The microphone was still lying on a table somewhere. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Kai’s head felt funny. His ears were almost muffled like he was getting over a cold. He rubbed his face as he tried to gather what happened.
“10 minutes! A record! Assuming he beat you that is…” the old woman beamed at a very pissed looking Neuro.
“The kid figured my quirk out,” he grumbled.
The old woman tilted her head and frowned. “And… no one told him…?”
“Not that I can tell.”
Kai was very confused. If he imagined everything, then he’d only stepped up a moment ago, but if he hadn’t, then it’d been much longer than 10 minutes…
Before he could phrase any sort of question on the topic, Neuro’s voice projected into his head.
It was a simulation, genius. Neuro thought at him sarcastically. To test your reaction to a villain.
“But- “
Think, don’t speak, idiot. There’re still kids testing after you.
But what’s so surprising about mine? Did I pass?
Unfortunately. Neuro frowned. And the surprising part is that even though I temporarily removed your association of mind quirks and obvious things like concentration and headaches, you still managed to figure out my quirk.
Ohhh, Kai grinned. So, I’m just like a super genius then.
I’ve been through your brain, kid. You’re no genius. Kai frowned this time. It’s just that the last person to do that was…
Who?
The Green Hero.