Chapter 12

Chapter 12

U.A. High School Entrance Exam Venue.

The weather in March was still a bit cold, so Kirisame hesitated for a while before finally putting on a thermal undershirt under her hoodie...

The hoodie with milk-yellow cat ears on the hood was a New Year's gift from Mirio-senpai. Kirisame usually didn't have strong preferences for clothing, but this one somehow struck a soft spot in Aizawa-sensei. She still remembered the look of emotion in her black-haired guardian's eyes at that moment...

He even uncharacteristically reached out to ruffle her head, which was still adorned with the cat whiskers Mirio had drawn on her hood.

Kirisame swore on her highest perception stat that his eyes were actually red-rimmed.

???

Suddenly receiving her second head-pat since her injury, Kirisame was baffled.

She bumped into Midoriya at the entrance.

For some reason, he looked like he was about to throw up.

...Was he that nervous?

Midoriya's eyes lit up when he saw a familiar face.

"Kirisame, you're here for the exam too?" No sooner had the words left his mouth than he wanted to slap himself.

[God, what kind of question is that...]

The little girl's cheeks were half-covered by the soft fuzz of her hood, making her look incredibly soft. She narrowed her eyes into a small smile, revealing a hint of sharp canines. "Yeah."

[C-Cute! Mom, she's so cute!!!]

Just as Midoriya's face was bright red and he didn't know where to put his hands, a hoarse, rude voice came from behind him.

"Move it, Deku!"

A boy with light blonde hair and red eyes walked over, squinting. His hands were shoved into his pockets, looking cool, but his face was written with displeasure.

To be honest, his expression at that moment made Kirisame feel like she was a piece of bird poop he'd seen on his window glass that morning.

"Get in my way and I'll kill you!!" He threatened Midoriya, the angel.

Then Midoriya, the angel, reflexively jumped aside to let him pass.

[You two are way too used to this...]

Katsuki Bakugo walked past him without a sideways glance.

But as he passed Kirisame, he paused in disbelief. The delinquent boy's voice was low and hoarse, as if forcibly squeezed out from his throat with suppressed anger.

"You too."

At that moment, the beautiful malice in his eyes reminded her of the Blood Clan she'd encountered before. Kirisame silently shuddered, a bit bewildered.

The two stood there in silence until Midoriya's childhood friend had walked away.

"Did... did I do something to piss him off before?" Kirisame, having completely forgotten the collision incident, asked Midoriya.

Midoriya was also puzzled. "Normally, Katsu is only that nasty toward me... Is it because you saved him last time? That shouldn't be it..."

Kirisame: "..."

"Then, good luck on the exam!"

"Yeah! You too, Kirisame!"

Kirisame was in Exam Site A, so she completely missed Midoriya and the round-faced, brown-haired girl she'd just met at the venue.

Katsuki Bakugo stood at the entrance of the exam site, spotting Kirisame in the crowd at a glance.

This girl stood out like a sore thumb—while everyone else was concentrating, psyching themselves up for the test, she was tilting her head, looking dazed and lost in thought.

—Exactly like the first two times. That arrogant, detached look that made him furious.

Katsuki Bakugo desperately wanted to blow something up.

But even so, his expression didn't change at all. However, the fierce aura emanating from him, like a volcano simmering beneath a calm exterior, created a five-meter radius of empty space around him.

Even if he couldn't crush Deku, being in the same test site as this girl seemed like it might be... pretty fun, huh?

The boy thought this, flashing a dangerous grin.

Kirisame felt a chill run down her spine.

Shota Aizawa leaned against the wall, his face reflected on the huge blue screen showing the exam projections. The U.A. teachers sat in a neat row in front.

Principal Nezu sat in the middle seat, looking tiny and completely lost in his chair. Watching the figure of the black-haired girl in the A-site projection, he spoke with a hint of laughter in his voice:

"Aizawa-sensei, didn't you tell your kid that she's already been given a special recommendation?"

The black-haired homeroom teacher didn't turn around.

"The school's decision wasn't very rational. Letting her pass without cramming would only make her fall behind even if she got in," Shota Aizawa said, putting eye drops into his eyes. "It's better to make her face reality now than to have to expel her later for failing."

All Might let out a dry laugh at this merciless statement, remembering how the child had looked barely conscious and utterly drained from studying during the few times he'd seen her a month ago.

[Sorry, young Kirisame, I can only support you in my heart!]

"But that kid was so scared of failing the written exam that she couldn't sleep the night before. She's probably going all out for the practical. Let's see what she can do."

[...Are you a demon, Aizawa?!]

All Might and Midnight-sensei exclaimed simultaneously.

"Not necessarily..." the mouse-like principal said, taking a leisurely sip of his tea, noncommittal.

These harsh demands from Aizawa-sensei... rather than knowledge or skill, what you really want to see is the child's "resolve," right?

"It's starting." The ghostly teacher's low voice rang out.

The girl on the screen seemed to sense something, suddenly lowering her body.

Ten minutes.

...Charging.

"Time starts!!"

GO!

The black shadow whipped past with incredible speed, the wind it kicked up stung the ears of the examinees it passed.

“Accelerating from a standstill to this speed is possible?!” someone in the crowd gasped.

Exam Site A was a circular building complex centered on a single point. While most examinees spent the first minute getting used to the venue, Kirisame had already completed a full lap around the perimeter.

Buildings ahead crashed into her field of view and flashed past. The black flame burning at her blade tip was drawn into a thin line by the fierce wind. The Aizen Kunitsuna in her left hand grew slightly warm.

Good. The haul from the perimeter was decent too.

All Might had been watching Midoriya, but now he stared wide-eyed at the black cyclone encircling the entire venue.

No other reason—it wasn’t just because of this girl’s speed, but because she was—

Running on the vertical outer walls of buildings, about two to three meters off the ground, her body nearly parallel to the surface.

The short sword Imagin let her walk on surfaces at any angle as if on flat ground.

The entire venue felt like a three-dimensional obstacle course to Kirisame. Now that her speed was up, she could temporarily sheathe Aizen. At this height and angle, she didn’t have to worry about being attacked. She just needed to slash horizontally with the long tachi in her left hand whenever she spotted an enemy, cutting the robots clean in half.

As her blade swept past, only the sound of machines crashing to the ground remained. The steel split open with smooth, clean cuts. Not a single part flew off; everything was neatly severed in two.

In the images transmitted back by the dynamic monitor, the girl’s bangs were blown high, revealing her unblemished forehead and cold golden eyes that looked vacant, betraying no emotion.

This silent, sharp posture made one completely overlook her soft, fluffy coat and instead feel as if she herself were a blade.

“…Are you sure she’s not your daughter?” The teachers in the meeting room turned in unison to stare at Aizawa.

Aizawa: “…”

Thirty points.

Eight minutes.

Tokoyami stepped into the shadows as soon as he entered the exam site, realizing that the enemies on the outermost ring were already nearly gone. Aside from the distant roar of robots collapsing, there was almost no sound. The wreckage on the ground was eerily neat—except for a thin slit in the middle, the robots looked almost intact. Only the jagged trenches running across the floor retained the brutal aura of the blade that had passed through.

After running a bit further, he finally spotted a “live” one. The boy stood in the shadow of a building, his black cloak spread wide. Dark Shadow lunged out almost instantly.

But someone moved faster. At that moment, Tokoyami felt a soft, fuzzy brush against his face—a fleeting touch of a girl’s sweet scent.

A silhouette flashed by, and the robot was torn to pieces right in front of Dark Shadow.

Startled, Dark Shadow’s form wavered for a second. It brought a newly formed hand to its cheek, striking a classic “hand-on-cheek cheering” pose: “Cool—”

Then it snapped back to reality and protested angrily: “Hey! That was my prey!”

Tokoyami: “…”

Recalling the girl’s path, the boy suddenly realized something. Abandoning the idea of fighting as he walked, he plunged straight toward the heart of the venue.

The monitors clearly showed Kirisame’s path: from the outer edge inward in a spiral, like an old-style electric mosquito coil.

“Remarkably clear personal style,” the principal pointed out bluntly. “She gave up the central area with higher enemy density in exchange for continuity in power activation and an advantage in total count.”

“This year’s examinees are all quite something. Aside from her, that boy relying on explosions from his hands is also very strong. The enemies in the center are mostly drawn in by the noise of his Quirk. These two are almost monopolizing the exam’s dummy enemies,” commented Blood Hero Bradkin, also watching Site A.

“Now, to score, there are only two directions: try to grab points from Aizawa’s incredibly fast girl on the perimeter,” Midnight pointed to another screen, “or head straight into the center and see who’s faster—that explosive, fire-spitting little darling in the middle.”

“There are still quite a few smart ones,” Shota Aizawa said, watching the crow-headed boy and frog girl on the screen.

Seventy points.

Four minutes.

The girl’s figure leaped high between buildings, swinging like a pendulum over the arm of a third dummy enemy machine. That arm came crashing down with a thud.

Just as she guessed: since they provided such a large venue, they wouldn’t concentrate all the points in the center. Impatient with the scrum in the crowd, Kirisame gave herself a mental thumbs-up.

After six minutes of super speed running, she caught her breath. As she made a sharp turn, she raised her slightly trembling arm and threw the katana in her hand with force.

Oshigiri Hasebe spun through the air, decapitating two robots before returning to Kirisame’s hand. The gray-haired, violet-eyed Tsukumogami phantom figure smiled high in the sky.

Not a bad haul.

Kirisame blinked with satisfaction and closed the net.

Ninety points.

Two minutes.

Though Kirisame and Bao Hao’s relationship was a mess, they were similar in some ways. Both had adopted this sweeping, kill-everything approach—Kirisame from the outside in, Bao Hao from the inside out.

And then they finally met.

The afro boy felt the person who had stolen his kill brush past his face. He forcibly suppressed the urge to blast her in the face and sped up his harvesting of dummy enemies.

Damnit!! At least I can’t lose to her in points!

Just about done. Kirisame sheathed Imagin and crouched on a pile of machine wreckage Bao Hao had blown up, catching her breath.

Bao Hao looked up and found his opponent, whom he had just determined to suppress his impulses to defeat, crouching not far away with her hands cupping her face, watching him at her leisure.

Bao Hao: “…”

That teacher with the weird hair’s grating voice seemed to echo in his ears.

[No harming others]

[No harming others]

[No harming others]

To hell with no harming others!!!

Boom——!!!!

A steel robot as tall as a building, smashing through two floors, poked its head out. The welding seams on its metal casing curved and twisted, as if giving a mocking smile to the trembling examinees on the street.

“Tch.” Bao Hao retracted the sparks from his hand and turned away.

The enormous shadow of the zero-point robot moved slowly across the ground. Every step forward was accompanied by a rain of debris.

Even though they were mentally prepared for the appearance of zero-pointers, some students were so startled they forgot to earn points and darted away.

Others simply felt it was a waste of time to fight an unpointed machine; they might as well seize the chance to do something meaningful.

Like Bao Hao, like Asui.

But there were also those staring at the zero-pointer, itching to have a go.

For example, Aizawa Kirisame, who had just rested for twenty seconds and felt like she'd come back to life.

Kirisame stared dumbfounded at the robot that was like a small mountain, and for a moment felt she was back in the old days when she wandered the HL streets every day bullying giant heteromorphs.

Moreover, this shell looked really hard, and if she broke it during the exam she wouldn't have to pay for it—perfect for testing her new techniques...

Estimating the remaining time and the score she had already obtained, Kirisame decided she could go for it.

"Hey hey, no way, what's that girl going to do?!" Neito Monoma exclaimed from a safe spot.

In Katsuki Bakugo's wide red eyes, the figure of the girl, almost wrapped in black flames, was running up the outer wall of a building at incredible speed, ignoring gravity, and in the blink of an eye she was already at the rooftop.

Estimating the distance between herself and the robot, Kirisame gripped Imagin tightly, pushed off diagonally upward from the ground, and side-threw herself into the air parallel to the ground.

Present Mic in the monitor room was also shocked: "Aizawa, what the hell is your kid up to?! That sword of hers is about the size of a toothpick in front of a robot of that size!!"

Having already foreseen what Kirisame was up to, Shota Aizawa covered his face in exasperation: "Idiot, messing around like that, she'll break her bones..."

Aizen Kunitsuna's acceleration effect was not limited to straight lines; it also applied to angular velocity. Fighting back a wave of nausea, Kirisame's flip, which had been at a normal speed, suddenly accelerated, making her look like a sideways spinning top.

Only the nearby students and the monitors could clearly see that the girl was accelerating while switching swords.

In less than two seconds, she went from a tanto to a wakizashi to a tachi, the blade in her hand gradually lengthening and growing heavier.

Like a human boomerang spinning at high speed in the air, the dark spinning blade lengthened a little with each sweep.

Finally she let go of Aizen, and Tarou Tachi suddenly extended and grew large in her hand, growing to a terrifying size, capable of splitting the robot, to the horror of the onlookers.

Kirisame grabbed it with both hands, and at the highest point, taking advantage of the downward speed, she straightened her body and swung down!

Tokoyami swore on his Dark Shadow that he seemed to see huge blood-red characters appear in the air.

[Blood Combat Art]

[Blade God]

[Blade Body 23]

[Spiral Flame————]

"SINGLE SLASH!!!!!"

The recoil from the swing flung her body backward. Kirisame held tightly to the hilt. The sudden increase in gravity combined with the extreme rotational speed created a massive short-term impact, which she brought down heavily on the robot, which had no time to dodge.

Split in two.

Accompanied by the roar of the machine falling and clouds of smoke, Kirisame landed back on the ground.

"TIME'S UP!!!!"

One hundred and three points.

Under the stares of her distant classmates, who looked at her as if she were a monster, the little girl grimaced in pain and clutched her right arm.

"I-I think my bone's cracked..."