Prohibeo - BnHA [BOOK 1]

Chapter 5: Too much Attention

Busses were lined up outside the school building, waiting to take us away to the Battle Centers. Upon checking my examination card, I read "Battle Center B."

Huh... I looked around to spot the right bus and made my way to the queue.
I wondered who else would be in the same group, but it didn't take me long to spot a familiar face - a freckled one, that is. For a brief moment, I wondered if he'd actually remember me, but he might as well not.

During the ride, I glanced vacantly through the glass window, letting my mind go blank for the time being. When the bus finally stopped, the stream of students slowly headed out to face what looked like a gigantic fake city.

They sure aren't doing half measures here, huh... I scrolled my eyes over the rigid walls surrounding the center. "Pretty cozy..." My gaze drifted away from the cold facades to skim over the other applicants. Most of them seemed rather self-confident about the whole thing until I laid eyes on a jittery, paled figure being scolded by the stiff and sturdy blue-haired bloke, who'd already snapped at him earlier during the assembly.
Man, I hate this kind of uptight character... Several others standing around them caught their averagely loud conversation. That's when I heard those braggadocios starting to spill their poison.
"That's the guy who almost bit it out front earlier!" One of them mocked. Another kept going, "He practically wet himself in the lecture hall. Dude, what a loser."
"But one less rival to worry about, I guess." Some chanted in accord.

The excessive arrogance coming from these ordinary kids made me cringe; worry about your own fortunes, conceited brats...You might end up surprised in more ways than one...

I paced up behind the green-haired guy, literally sensing his unease growing by the minute. I opened my mouth and spoke in an undertone, " Hey, don't worry about them...." He jerked his head to meet the voice that seemed strangely familiar, and the sight nearly made his eyes pop out of their orbits.

My own gaze was focusing on the entrance gate, but I continued, " You're going to be just fine... you already made it that far, right?"

He was standing beside me, jaw-dropped and stuttering out single-lettered words while still widening his eyes.

A high-pitched dong marked the beginning of the test, and the massive crowd rushed into the battlefield. I couldn't wait for him to be unflustered, and I swooshed off behind the others. He pulled himself together and ran inside just right after.

Looks like he remembered me after all... I concluded while gliding around, looking for my first targets. I shook my head to clear off my mind and pulled focus back to the actual examination. I had a whole tactic in place. Among other things, I had the exact numbers of competitors in mind, knew about the spots available per 1st-year class, analyzed how many applicants there were in each battle center. All that previously gathered data allowed me to calculate the points I needed to score to get through the exam with the bare minimum intentionally.

As the test progressed, I collected enough points to withdraw securely from the battlefield. In the process, I figured that there couldn't be just villain points but also rescue points. I flew up and kneeled on one of the roof edges, which provided a good vantage point to watch the others from above.

The examiners were monitoring all our actions in a special control room. Aizawa was standing in one of the room's corners, watching a particular screen. He didn't like what he saw. What on earth is she doing... why is she just sitting there... She has enough points to pass by now but... why isn't she doing more?

Suddenly, the earth rambled, and the infamous Zero-Pointer appeared and smashed down a considerable part of the building across the street. "Whoa. Big guy!" I drew in my breath, waiting for the actions. Unfortunately, the crumbling wall had hit some applicants who were semi-buried under the fallen rocks.

That's when I saw a bundle of green lighting fly up in the air and destroying that Zero-Pointer with one smash. The massive robot backlashed and threatened to crush the remaining kids behind it, who failed to crawl out from beneath the rocky debris.

Sensing the trouble ahead, my legs swiftly lifted me, and I reluctantly jumped towards them. "Greenie, you damn noob! Use your eyes and brains before acting next time! Ugh! I am going to screw up my score with that...."

I positioned myself just below the falling monstrosity and ignited my Telekinesis, shielding the applicants from the crumbling robot and trying to hold it back until they'd all free themselves. The lot was just staring at how I was obstructing the gigantic pieces. How long do they think I'd be able to retain this thing? I gave them a dirty glare and shouted my lungs out, "Move it, Xenomorphs! Now!!"

At the same time, a commotion started in the control room as the teachers were watching the events unfolding. Aizawa stepped forward, pushing his cold palms onto the table in front of him, tension building up in his weary eyes as he watched the scene.

I gritted my teeth and my forearms tensed in an ultimate effort to push back the robot until the last of those morons escaped. When I saw the last one running away, I finally pulled back, releasing the pieces to collapse-a dense cloud of dust released from the heavy fragments hitting the ground, creating a pretty realistic setting.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and couldn't help but exhaling in relief, and so did Aizawa, back in the control room. Good job, Kiddo... That's more like it. He shut his eyes and leaned back to the wall, relaxing his rigid shoulders at last.

Present Mic almost immediately announced the end of the practical exam after that. As I walked towards the entrance of the Battle Center, my head pivoted to the left, seeing a half-broken Greenie laying on the ground but also being the unfortunate witness of the not-so-cute-at-that-very-moment Brunette's barfing. Feeling their pain, I still resolved to keep walking towards the changing rooms.

The shower felt like a godsend. I sunk into deep thought while the hot water trickled down my face and body, loosening it up progressively. In fact, the previous incident hurtfully reminded me of some episode during the war against GEHENA, something I'd rather be keen to forget.

The written exam was a five-finger exercise, allowing me to ace my scheme effortlessly. At day's end, I dared say that my ranking would be somewhere between 20th and 25th out of 36 selected individuals. It was a tad worse than the initial ranking I aimed for, which was ranking between 30th and 36th. Thanks a bunch, Greenie, for screwing up part of my plan.

Because yeah, that was all part of the plan; Getting into that school, get my hero's license, avoiding unwanted attention as much as humanly possible, and go back to the Lycans, allowing them to become a legit crime-fighting group. Of course, one may wonder, why keep it low-key if you want to become legit?

Well, here's the catch; we would specialize in under-the-radar missions only, and for that, we'll need to remain unknown, unnoticed, and understated. So, we'd take a pass on the fame and glory part of present-day heroism.

Little did I know that keeping it low-key at that specific school would prove much more complex than expected because, as I would soon find out, U.A's second name very well could have been "Too Much Attention."