Life Travelling Through Fiction

Ahhh the day of the hero course admission test. Either my most or least favorite day of the year. So many interesting and promising young pupils. Seeing so many of them leave dejected with crushed dreams really is so sad. It's definitely the worst part of the day. But seeing all the incoming students trying to figure them out before they get admitted. Seeing whether or not they'll make a good hero, judging their actions in the test, disqualify people who might become troublesome. It's all like puzzle Christmas trying to determine motivation and personalities all from specs of information. Then using that information to plot their potential as a hero and determine should they pass and if they do where should they be assigned. All of this under time pressure. I don't know if the testing day is my favorite day, but it's certainly the most fun.

The staff and I only begin to monitor the applicants after they pass the written portion. We all gather in a large viewing room surrounded by monitors to observe the remaining participants. No reason to begin watching them when all their doing is taking a test that many won't even pass. Too many students are eliminated during the written portion to reliably watch any of the students who might actually be accepted.

As Present Mic is in the auditorium explaining the second portion of the exam, I begin to read through the remaining applicants. Their files appear on my tablet. The files are streamlined to show highlights for multiple applicants at once with more in-depth information available when selecting a single person. For most applicants, all I see is their quirk which means they are a standard applicant. Certain applicants' files will display awards, family connections, disciplinary history, or other stand out information. I find quirks to be the most useful piece of information. Not because of the actual quirk, but because of the quirk effect on personality. I'm always fascinated by how quirks affect their wielder. Either directly or as a by-product of societal pressures. That's why when I saw a file marked quirkless I had to do a double-take.

Not only was this kid quirkless he had every piece of added information. He is potentially homeless, quirkless, an orphan, expelled from an orphanage and a school due to violence. He was a walking red flag, buut he was also so interesting. He's in the .001% percentile both physically and mentally, but those red flags are going to be a real nuisance. I erase his quirk and the expulsions from his file. He's way too interesting to not even have a chance. If he actually does well I'll even have an excuse to meet with him.

As the test started and was going on the other examiners and I observed all the participants. There were still hundreds of hopefully, so it was a challenge to see everyone. That's why so many of my colleagues we're overlooking Hano Gin. Oh, they noticed him and his increasingly high score, but Hano wasn't flashy. So they didn't see anything beyond a talented kid with a physical enhancement quirk. They didn't know what I did, and If they did they would be as enthralled as I was. Every move he made was calculated for efficiency. He was never not disabling robots and always in the most efficient method. Ohh I watched other applicants, but my eyes always went back to Hano.

The boy continued under the radar until the Zero Pointer morality test/ wild card. UA will go years without a single student confronting the gargantuan machines, this year we got two. After the first, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw All Might's successor destroy the machine. That definitely gave me some hope for the future. The last thing we need is for his successor to be mediocre or amoral. For the second attack on a zero pointer, instead of relief I felt giddy.

"Where'd he come from?"

"What was he thinking?"

"So cool!"

"Now that's Plus Ultra!"

"Ugg I can already tell he's going to be a pain"

"Who was that Kid?"

"That's applicant 3679, Hano Gin" I tell them with a little bit of smugness etching its way into my voice for having picked him out so early. His admission to the hero course was unanimous. However, I did still have to meet with him to check in on the red flags. Also to make sure that he was actually quirkless, and not someone lying to sneak in for some reason. Although what spy would ever bring attention to themselves like that. Maybe a dumb spy? Ehh he's probably fine.

As the acceptance letters are going out I hijack his and instead replace it with an email requesting a meeting for the interview portion of the exam. Which we still do as part of the recommendation student test. I also pull a favor with a police associate with a useful quirk to make sure Hano is telling the truth.

When he was brought into my office the next day I was somewhat disappointed. He was so normal and stiff and professional. Maybe he's nervous. Or maybe because he's such an extreme example of quirklessness it's effecting his personality like a quirk and making him very normal. Ohh I need to look into that. Although he is very clever I have no idea how he guessed that there would be someone with a lie detector quirk observing us. All the other red flags were fine too, just some discriminatory practices and bullying. Huh, I guess I'll hold up on updating his file. I'll let him tell people at his own pace. His request for financial aid was a bit surprising I would have thought with as smart as he is he would have realized this is still a public school. I still go ahead and waive about 25,000 yen in administrative and uniform fees for him though.

He walks out of my office with a smile on his face and I'm still just excited to have a student like that attend UA. F.U.C.K! Did I just forget to ask him about him being a homeless orphan? Really let it get away from me there. Note to self make sure he's not homeless and is mentally coping with the death of his family. If not add therapy sessions with Watchdog. Also, that principal and orphanage director just became my pet project. The world has no place for behavior like that. If they're not squeaky clean they're going down hard.