Chapter 88: Spark of a Hero

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, Sip, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Scenes of the turmoil going on in the familiar training area could be heard throughout the entire UA facility as wreckage seemed to be piling up by the second.

The familiar, small, weak Principal Nezu, as said by Kaminari, was currently seated upon a chair, sipping a cup of tea and enjoying his day.

The sights would be novel if it weren't for the fact that the 'chair' he sat upon was the one operating a crane.

And in between sips of his tea, the twisted principal sent the wrecking ball attached to the crane, made specifically not to break, through his metal-piped city, crashing into buildings, pipes, and the like, causing mass damage.

"YOU CAN'T RUN FOREVER."

The words spoken to the two contestants through the speaker system of the crane did nothing but put them on even more edge.

'What else does he have up there?' they collectively thought.

Their questions were answered when, with the press of a button, not that they could see too focused on trying to escape with their lives, the big round wrecking ball threatening their safety grew spikes on all sides of it.

"Great," the blond boy said, standing still for what felt like the first time in forever, having fully given up on these exams.

He spread his arms out wide as if imitating the famous statue in Brazil, accepting his inevitable fate.

SMACK

Unfortunately for his devout self, a slap on both sides of his face, squishing his cheeks, and Mina bringing her face eerily close to his own brought him out of his reverie.

"COME ON!" the girl shouted, not accepting defeat even though she was sure only a few months ago she'd have been joining Kaminari.

'Now's not the time for THAT!'

She focused ahead, looking around for any clear entrances before spotting an open door to one of the hollow insides of one of the HUGE metal pipes.

'THERE!'

The determined girl pulled Kaminari's hands, dragging the resigned boy with her as they tried to keep a fast pace to avoid the ball of death.

Unfortunately, Lady Luck dealt them a bad hand, as the second they were meters from the entrance, they were nearly STRUCK!

CRASH

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" they heard the maniacal laughter from up above.

Still quickly adjusting to the lack of sight due to her being used to this by now, Mina noticed the dust and smoke screen the attack brought and instantly had a determined glint in her eyes.

She wouldn't waste this chance!

"~Come on," a hushed but insistent voice said.

So the girl brought Kaminari to the edge of one of the metal containers next to the one with the open door.

She noted the dust screen was clearing up as Nezu's laughter was dying down, a sign that she needed to hurry up!

The girl placed her palms on the door, activating her quirk, secreting the palms of her hands with corroding acid that made quick work of the outside metal.

Mina's goal? To create a human-sized door.

The girl brought her palms from above her head out wide enough so that she could squeeze in there before bringing them down to the ground.

Once finished, with a light push, the makeshift door went tumbling down, the noise no less quiet than the whirring from the huge mechanical machine.

Mina then quickly ushered Kaminari inside, pushing the 'door' back so that it leaned against the wall, not leaving people-sized holes in the outside wall.

"Huh, they escaped? It's impossible; they're probably hiding. Great, they're doing much better than I expected. Maybe I should have taken Vlad up on that betting offer with his class and Aizawa's."

The small voice was clear as the machine of death slowly gained distance, searching for their inevitable bodies that were simply hiding in plain sight.

PHEW

Mina exhaled as she sat on the dark ground, ignoring Kaminari's small arcs of electricity that ran from his hair and his blank, scared, and reluctant look.

Instead, she chose to use the respite to start thinking to herself, 'WHAT to do? What CAN I do? What would Suijin DO?'

The thought about the boy sent warm feelings through the girl, but she ignored that, opting to use her understanding of him to help her.

'He'd try and understand the situation, assessing the opponent and himself before moving. Ok, cool, I can do this.'

First, she was in a test with Mr. Quickshot over here with a completely unfair advantage against her teacher… ok, so no fighting, at least not directly.

Second, she either had to escape or beat Nezu, but with his infrared tracker and the various cameras around, sneaking away isn't possible.

He'd find them too easily.

Mina looked around, hoping the varying sights would give her an idea, and as her gaze landed on the yellow and black-haired boy, occasionally sporting his trademark yellow arcs of electricity, an idea popped into her head.

"I got it." She stands up, hand in palm, as a lightbulb goes off in her mind.

Noticing the inquiring gaze of Kaminari, Mina leaned in closer, saying, "I got a plan to win, but you're not going to like it."

Sigh

.

.

.

"My Dear Students, Where are you?"

Amidst his deranged singing, the principal was sending his wrecking ball through various buildings, leaving only rubble and collapsing metal in his wake.

Eventually, he ended up back in the same area, not finding the students in the surrounding destroyed locations.

'They haven't gotten away since my cameras haven't picked anything up, meaning…'

The adult directed his attention towards the person-sized hole in one of the buildings, sporting a small grin on his face—not that anyone could tell.

"It seems I was too careless in my initial pursuit. I will rectify that." With his words, the machine crane picked up speed as the pure metal ball of death headed towards the building.

As he was in the middle of the act, a single thought of injuries floated towards the principal's mind, 'Recovery Girl can fix them up…hopefully.'

His hesitant answer didn't stop the maniacal look on his face as he watched with trepidation, as destruction was only moments away from occurring.

A few experiments on him when he was younger by a few bad humans that have long since been dealt with caused his personality to go for a loop.

CRASH

Regardless, he couldn't stop the smile that overtook his face as he watched another structure of metal helplessly crumble with no student inside.

"Onto the next."

Or he would've been if his eyes didn't come face to face with those of a yellow-haired boy, one he was distinctly familiar with.

Denki Kaminari, one of the objects of this test, is one of the two heroes he, the villain, is supposed to defeat.

"Thanks for gracing me with your presence; it really makes my job a lot easier, but…"

A quick glance around showed the distinct lack of the unique pink hair belonging to one Mina Ashido.

"It seems this is a trap to delay me, meaning I don't have time to play around and elongate things more than necessary."

With his words, the crane once again moved, the whirring startling the young boy and drawing a fearful expression onto his face.

'A test of confidence and the ability to perform under pressure, perfect for two of the most dependent, scared students in the class.'

Will they crumble under pressure or succeed? The result was final; this was a school, after all, but as this was a test, they couldn't let the students know of that.

Eager eyes watched the boy as death approached him, and just as the climax was breaching the final, Kaminari didn't disappoint the principal.

The boy showed a resilient look, charging in, ducking to avoid the metal ball before standing straight and charging into him.

'Reckless.' The boy didn't seem to understand that Nezu could simply roll him over, ending him and possibly his life this very instant.

Regardless, he wasn't interested in where this was going.

Meanwhile, inside the mind of Kaminari, a war was raging: 'Maybe we could leave? And go where? The cameras got our every position. Mina said to distract him, but since he's figured that out, I can only try to hold him here.'

The boy ran onto the unmoving machine, jumping onto the ends of it before calling forth his quirk, trying to short-circuit it.

"It won't work; I designed these to be able to store up to way more watts than you've ever outputted before."

The megaphoned voice only put a more determined expression on the boy's face as he seemed to resolve himself.

'Your quirk's useless.'

'How could you be a hero if you lose all usefulness when you go overboard.'

'Give up, you're a better battery charger than a hero with a quirk like that.'

Kaminari clenched his teeth, remembering all of the words spoken to him, the reason for his cheery external demeanor.

He remembered the playful comments that cut into his psyche, causing him to subconsciously not want to use his quirk.

He remembered when he used to believe those comments and started to resent his own quirk for how useless it was.

The boy also remembered the feeling during the sports festival—the stars in his eyes as he watched his classmates, many with 'useless' quirks like his own, go beyond their limits.

'I think this'll be the first time I truly go beyond my limits and do all I can.'

Just as before, Kaminari reached inside himself, feeling the bundle of energy and potential waiting to be released.

Except unlike before, he didn't restrict it; he didn't hold it in trying to mold it into a crude, unnatural shape.

As he let go for the first time in his life, Kaminari had a faint realization in the midst of his quirks activation.

The reason for his failure, the reason for his unsucessfullness for years when it came to molding his quirk like he'd seen many other emitters do.

'Electricity isn't something that can be confined; it can't be held to some kind of form or shape; it's free flowing, everywhere and nowhere.'

And as the boy understood this principle, he put it into action, letting the potential be released to wreak havoc on the world.

And havoc it did.

'Mina, I don't think i'll mearly hold the principle; I'll Stop Him!'

With a grin, the boy finally understood what everyone felt when they said the famous phrase.

When they went Plus Ultra.

CRACKLE

BUZZ

A small, sparse amount of yellow energy could be seen going through the air as Nezu, from his seat, saw as all the processes of the machine went limp.

The door wouldn't open, the backup power source couldn't operate, and worst of all…his tea warmer was disabled.

Still with a calm face, sipping the tea in small intervals, he commmetned to the open air, "Seems that, like I before deemed in the entrance exams, these two do have the essence of a hero."

Amidst his words, the pink-haired girl he spotted in the middle of the battle finally came out from the cover of one of the large rocks, revealing her figure.

A blush covered Mina's figure as she watched her friend defeat the principle—a feat she never before would've thought possible.

Hence her being heard, a testament to her doubtfulness of his abilities.

Guilt-ridden, she stood there thinking of how she could have left, succeeded already, and ended this test.

But…something about leaving Kaminari to the whims of her sadistic principle caused her to halt. I begged her to at least check on them.

Leading to their current circumstances.

"Duh."

Snapping her out of her thoughts was a sound, emitted without the use of the tongue as she looked up, spotting Kaminari's hands held out in two upward-facing thumbs, his face devoid of all intelligence.

Mina stifled her laughter into a fit of giggles.

Still accepting that as a thought breaker, she spun around, throwing up a peace sign in front of her eyes in recognition of his efforts, before turning around and doing her part in this exam.

'Lets End This.'