Chapter Text
It only took one glowing baby to begin a new era throughout the entire world.
The first quirk recorded manifested in a luminescent baby. Since then, quirks have diversified into endless power beyond being a living flashlight. Now, 80% of the population has a quirk.
Some people's abilities are minor, like the ability to make small objects float. Others were capable of extreme levels of strength.
With that amount of power available to anybody, it is no surprise that such power is given to the wrong people. In other words, villains.
Luckily, as villains appear, so do heroes.
Quirks manifest in young children by the age of 4. Some kids unlock their abilities earlier, but if they cannot conjure any power by 4, they are officially quirkless and without any powers.
Jomei Bushimata is one of the lucky ones. Her quirk first appeared when she was only 3 days old, during a sneezing fit.
“Ahhhhhhh… CHOO!” Young Jomei sneezed, changing her hair from her usual highlighted dark brown hair to solar flares.
Quirks are typically inherited from one or both parents. Jomei’s was a combination of her birth parents, creating her sun personification.
In other words, Jomei had the power of the sun at her submission. Her hair and eyes glowed when activated and could send concentrated beams of nuclear power from her hands.
Naturally, Jomei chose to use her power for good. Jomei decided to be a hero.
She could do anything she wanted, sure. Jomei certainly had the grades and the will to do whatever her heart desired. Typical academics would be easy and undoubtedly successful for her future. Jomei always pursued a challenge, though.
By the time she started middle school, Jomei knew she would help those in need and help people not feel powerless.
At this point, with most of the population having quirks and some also seeking to pursue heroism, schools offering hero courses were established to train and educate the world’s protectors.
U.A. High School is the most prestigious school with hero courses in Japan. Jomei never had any doubts about whether she would attend U.A. It was the best, so that’s where she would learn.
Jomei was lucky to have parents who encouraged her goals despite being quirkless. Jomei’s parents adopted her when she was 4 years old, knowing the power she held. But that didn't bother Jomei or her parents at all. They always viewed Jomei as a blessing and a gift to their world, meant to be shared and celebrated.
Now 15 years old, Jomei has completed as much training and preparation on her own for her attendance at U.A. Everything from getting better with her quirk, strength training, and hitting the books for the written portion. She even took the practice exam 3 times, acing it every time.
Today was the entrance exam for U.A. Having already done the written portion, Jomei was sitting in an auditorium with the other prospective students. Present Mic explained the rules and procedures for the exam's practical portion to showcase their quirks.
“You have 10 minutes to score as many points as you can by defeating faux villains. Each villain is assigned point values based on its difficulty. Watch out, though. We've also set out mega robots as arena traps. They're worth 0 points.”
Taking out robots, yeah? Psh, easy.
Jomei wasn't worried a bit. The written portion was a piece of cake for Jomei. The practical portion was the exciting part. After the task was revealed, half the kids were excited, and the other half seemed to be shaking in their seats—especially the green-haired one a few rows ahead.
“Well, he’s gonna freeze up,” Jomei said aside to the girl she met just today, Ochaco Uraraka.
“Oh! I met him earlier! He almost fell, and I saved his fall.” She pointed at the broccoli-headed one. “Anyway, the whole test is a bit nerve-racking. I'm not all that confident in myself,” Uraraka said with a blush.
“Hey, you're gonna be fine. I can feel it in my bones.” Jomei reassured her. “We just have to get out there, remain calm, and kick ass.”
Once everyone arrived at their assigned field for the exam, all hell broke loose.
The robots were coming from all directions. Some kids ran, some stood in fear. The rest fought. Jomei included, of course.
Jomei’s quirk was pretty badass if she could say so herself. Her power has grown significantly from a sneeze.
Using her quirk against these robots was pretty straightforward: She blinded and blasted them with a nuclear beam. Although Jomei had practiced and gained some control of her quirk, she knew that she hadn’t reached her full potential, and in moments where her power went wild…well, it wasn’t good for anyone around.
Jomei watched some panicked kids run from one-point robots across the field. Some people aren't built for this heroic stuff.
Just as she completed her thought and was about to take down another robot, a major explosion blasted through her target. This was followed by an ash-blonde boy emerging from the hole in the three-point robot's chest.
“DIE!!!” He was screaming as he jumped down.
As soon as Katsuki got on the field, he took down every single robot that he set eyes on. He took down almost eight robots a minute. His quirk was made for this. In this exam, these robots and the side characters didn’t stand a chance against his abilities.
Katsuki’s next target was another two-point robot. A girl beat him to it, though. She had glowing hair and eyes. She used blasts from her hands like Katsuki, but they had no smoke like the explosions he created. They were clean energy.
What the fuck?
She was as fast as he was—maybe faster. She was powerful, too. She went through the robots with precision. The mystery girl started on a three-point robot but got distracted by something in the distance. Katsuki was wasting time watching her, so he took care of the villain.
“DIE!!!” he screamed as he blasted the bot and jumped through the hole he made in its chest.
The mystery girl looked up at him. She must have deactivated her quirk because her hair and eyes were dark. She shouted at him, “Hey, you're welcome, freak! I did most of the work on that villain before you came along!”
Who the hell is she calling a freak? “Shut it, toots, you were taking too long!” Katsuki shouted back.
Katsuki didn’t look back as he moved along and continued with the time he had left. He focused on defeating as many robots as possible. He never wavered and never showed mercy. He didn’t think about Deku, who obviously would be hopeless in this exam without a quirk. And he certainly didn’t think about the glowing girl who talked back.
Toots? Although Jomei would have loved to continue to set that asshole in his place, she had a job to do. Finish this test and ace it.
“3 minutes left, kiddos! Make it count!” Present Mic announced.
“Time for a finale, Jo,” she breathed to herself, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her arm.
Another robot approached. This one was way bigger than the others Jomei had defeated today. It smashed through the city field, not caring about the surrounding buildings or the kids on the ground.
“Oh shit,” Jomei said with wide eyes. They’re not worth any points anyway. I gotta find at least one more to take down. She rolled up her sleeves and began to run, looking for another target.
“Ugh, mmmmh, ow, ow, nooo,” Jomei heard a small voice in the rubble.
Turning toward the rubble, Jomei saw just the head of a blue-haired girl.
“Hold on, I’m coming, don’t move.” Once Jomei approached the girl, she found the girl's leg stuck beneath a large piece of concrete. “You okay? Imma get you outta here.”
“I’m okay. Just please help get this off of me.”
“I got you.” Jomei flipped the heavy piece of concrete off the girl's leg. “There you go. Hopefully, your leg isn’t too rough.” Jomei turned to leave again.
“God, I suck,” the girl said softly. Jomei stopped. “I only got a single one-point robot down. Then I got myself stuck here the rest of the time. I’m such a failure.” She started to cry.
“Hey, coming out here is half of the battle,” Jomei turned back to say. “I watched probably 20 kids run right back inside as soon as they saw the robots. So be proud of yourself. You showed up. That’s what matters. And you got one down! That’s awesome!”
“I bet I got last place.”
“Nah, I saw several kids run away at the beginning, and during the presentation, one kid was shaking and crying while listening to the instructions,” Jomei chuckled.
BUZZER
“Timmmmeee’s Up! Great job, everyone. Return to the gate so we can round you guys up, and you can head home! You will receive your results in one week’s time!” Present Mic Boomed.
Damn, out of time. It's a good thing I got a good amount of bots. Jomei turned to the blue-haired girl. “Are you gonna be ok? Do you need help getting to the gate?”
“Yeah, I think I’m fine. Thanks for your help.”
“No problem. Take it easy on yourself.”
“It’s fine. I know with heroes like you, we’ll be okay.” The girl said as she started to limp away.
Jomei sighed as she watched the girl head towards the gate.
Jomei waited to catch up with Uraraka after the exam.
“Bushimata!” Uraraka called.
“Hey, Uraraka! What took you so long? The exam was over a while ago.”
“Sorry, I talked to some teachers about the exam.”
“What about? You did well, I’m sure.” The girls started to walk.
“I think so! But– that green-haired kid didn’t, he didn’t get any points, but… he saved me.”
“What do you mean? He seemed pretty ill-prepared for this whole thing. I can’t imagine him saving you or anyone.”
“But he did! I tripped and fell when the jumbo bot came around. Then he jumped up and knocked it out before it trampled me!”
“He what?!” Jomei said in shock, stopping in her tracks.
“It was amazing! But as soon as he left the ground, his legs were broken, and after he punched it, his arm looked seriously messed up! I helped him get down safely with my quirk, but once the buzzer rang, he fell asleep.”
So he does have a strong quirk, but he can’t use it at all, really. “Well, you saved his ass then. I’m just surprised he’s capable of something like that. It looked like he was having a breakdown all day.”
“It was surprising but so impressive,” Uraraka said faintly.
“Well, I’m glad you’re ok. Don’t worry about him, Uraraka. The exam was fair. It’s not your fault if he didn’t size up.”
“Thanks, Bushimata.” They continued walking back. “How did you do?”
“Ahh, I got a few. I got caught up with this manic asshole, then a blue-haired girl was stuck, too. Nothing to do but wait and see.”
“A week seems like a long time to know, though. I’ll be anxious the whole time.” Uraraka chuckled.
“I bet you did fantastic, don’t worry too much.”
Jomei didn’t want to brag in front of her new friend, but at the end of the test, Jomei estimated she had accrued just under 50 points worth of robots taken down.
One week later, Jomei finally received a letter from U.A. “Let’s see how we did, Jo," she said, opening the envelope.
Inside was a projection disc. Jomei pressed the button on it and opened a projected video of All Might, the number 1 hero, in a gold suit and colorful background.
“Congratulations, Jomei Bushimata!”
“All Might? What the hell is he doing in this?!”
“You have been accepted into U.A.’s Hero Course!”
Obviously.
“You may not be surprised by these results, as you aced the written test and defeated 46 points worth of villains in the practical!”
“Nice, my math wasn’t that far off after all. Certainly more than most kids.” She smirked.
“Additionally...”
“Hm?”
“Your heroic actions saving a fellow student during the test, when you could have continued accruing villain points, gave you 30 rescue points added to your score!”
The video cut to clips of Jomei fighting, then to her moments with the blue-haired girl in the rubble.
“Your heroic initiative put your total score at 76 points! Second place in the whole exam!”
Oh. Wow. Pretty good, Jo! “But wait, I got 76 points and only got second place?! How many did the first-place kid get?!”
The screen showed a list of the top 10 marks. And there was Jomei’s name, second place with 46 villain points and 30 rescue points. Then, one space above, someone named Katsuki Bakugo had 77 villain points and 0 rescue points.
“I lost by one measly point?! And he didn’t even get any rescue points?!”
“Just one point separated you and young Bakugo. Practically equals in your heroic abilities! You two interacted in the exam as well!”
They played the clip of who Jomei only now knew as Bakugo blasting away the 3-point robot she was supposed to take down.
“You and Bakugo will have plenty of time to get to know each other and certainly make for an excellent team! Amazing job to both of you. See you at U.A.!”
The video stopped, and Jomei was left staring at the split screen: All Might with his thumb up, and the image of her and Bakugo during the exam.
“That ass hat took those points from me and, consequently, the first-place standing from me.” She said blankly and unmoved from her seat. Jomei looked closer at the screen at Bakugo. Jomei spoke with a bitter smile, “Just like All Might said, we will have a looottt of time to get to know each other. Let’s see what you’re made of, Bakugo.”
Katsuki finally got his results from the U.A. entrance exam. He turned on the projection disc and watched.
“Congratulations, Katsuki Bakugo! You have been accepted into U.A. High School’s Hero Course!” It was All Might—the number one hero. The one Katsuki looked up to the most, the one he swore he would surpass.
Seeing a personalized video from his idol was exciting, and he smiled. Although the theatrics of it all were a little annoying, Katsuki would savor this moment, just for himself.
“You did well in the written portion, Bakugo, although that was not the end of your performance that day. The practical exam was no feat to your power.”
Clips from the practical exam were played. Katsuki didn’t even notice the cameras at the time. Seeing himself in action was awesome; his determination was palpable as he took down every robot.
“Because of your hard work, you finished in first place with 77 points. Amazing job!”
Of course, I got first.
“Although the exam was not about ranking entirely, it was still a close race.”
“The hell do you mean a close race?!” Katsuki grew angry. I dominated that exam. There’s no way anyone got anywhere close to me.
Katsuki’s screen now showed the image of the final leaderboard from the practical exam. As expected, Katsuki was at the top: 77 villain points and 0 rescue points.
What the fuck is a rescue point?
Below his name was Jomei Bushimata, with 46 villain points and 30 rescue points.
The video cut back to All Might, “As you can see, Miss Bushimata tailed you with a total of 76 points. Incidentally, you two met during the match.” Now, instead of clips of just Katsuki fighting, it was the moment he defeated a three-point villain before that random girl.
“THAT chick? SHE’S the one who almost beat me? There’s no fucking way.”
All Might returned on screen, “Obviously, the two of you are gifted with immense power. U.A. looks forward to your collaborations and growth as students and, eventually, heroes! Incredible job! See you at U.A.!”
The video stopped, and Katsuki pounded his desk. Frustrated, he huffed, “I am going to destroy that little brat.”