Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 184 PROVISIONAL EXAM

“Good luck,” Nejire tiredly said from the bed as we jumped off of her balcony. Well I jumped and Toru held on. I walked us toward our own dorm in the pre-dawn light. 

“I can’t believe you had sex with a pornstar,” Toru whispered in my ear. “Why is that hot?” 

“No idea,” I said. “It was an…experience to say the least. I think I understand what I do to you girls a little better now.”

“Drive us crazy? Piss us off?” 

“Make you cum so hard you pass out,” I said. 

“Oh right, that part,” she giggled. “You’re so perfect.” 

“You’re perfect,” I said. “Most people would be mad, you know?”

“I am very mad…at her. How dare she take advantage of my boyfriend,” Toru said, raising a fist in the air. “You worried about awakening chakra in her?” I shook my head. Toga had it for weeks now and she wasn’t acting any differently. Maybe a little stronger, but that could have been the training we had been going through. 

I always wondered how the League had been such a problem for heroes. Toga was a high schooler like the kids at UA, but always beat them. Now I understood that they devoted themselves to training. No school or drama, they were as obsessed with it as I was. 

I came up to our dorm and climbed up the wall. Dropping Toru off she demanded a kiss and I was off to my own room. Showering again I put on my school uniform and was heading downstairs. Most everyone was already awake in the waiting area. I hadn’t realized how nervous everyone was. No one ate or spoke as they sat around. Lost in their own thoughts preparing for the day.  

“Who died?” I said loudly, making a few of them jump. “Come on guys, this is supposed to be exciting. We might earn our Hero Licenses today.” I had a quest for just that, I was excited to get this over with. 

“Provisional,” Momo corrected. 

“Provisional, what the hell does that even mean?” I asked. 

“It means temporary,” Momo said. 

“Whatever, temporary, permanent, same thing. We could officially be heroes. Little cards with our faces on them that say, yes I can use my god-given quirk to help people in need. No more will you have to ignore someone robbing a convenience store. When someone asks you for a pair of handcuffs to apprehend someone, you can tell them, right here, Momo,” I said with a big smile. 

“Yeah yeah,” Red Riot said. “At least you got some sleep.” 

“Me? Hell no, I got like nothing,” I admitted. “But that is no reason to let it show. Come on. Let’s spar, brew some coffee and chug it, play a game. Something to lift your spirits.”

“Shouldn’t we save our strength for the test?” Momo asked. 

“Oh I think we have done plenty of training. I think it will be easy,” I said. “I tell you what? I might have heard a thing or two about the test.” 

“Goddamn it, where the hell do you hear this stuff?” Bakugo growled. 

“What? I flirt, grease a few palms, and just so happen to hear a thing or 2. Not interested?” I asked.

“I didn’t say that,” he mumbled. People gathered up as Toru came down the stairs. She sat next to me as we huddled up on the sofas. Surrounding a coffee table the 4 couches barely fit all of us as some stood or others sat on the back cushions. 

“I hear that there will be other schools involved.”

“Oh my god, we knew that,” Momo groaned. Other people groaned angrily as well as I laughed. 

“There’s more, there’s more,” I assured. “We will be the targets of most of them.” 

“What?” Midoriya asked, nervously. 

“UA is famous. What are we, a 0.2% acceptance rate? But all of our quirks were shown during the Sports Festival. People know what we were capable of. They will be targeting us specifically.” 

“That’s not good,” Mina commented. 

“No, it’s not. So we will have to be smart about this if we want all of us to pass,” I said. “I assume we all want to pass?” There were nods around the group. “Good. Other than that I’ve heard it will consist of a battle royale. Every man for himself.”

“How are we supposed to help each other if it’s every man for himself?” Toru asked. 

“Well every school for himself then. If we can trust each other not to backstab I think we will be fine. I also heard it will consist of a disaster scenario too. I’m not sure what that will entail,” I lied. “So just trust each other, and we should make it out okay.”

“Sounds annoying,” Bakugo growled. 

“What? You don’t trust me?” I asked. “You went to save me from kidnappers and everything, Bakugo. I thought we had something special.” 

“Shut up,” he growled as people laughed. 

“You ready to go?” Aizawa said, walking in. We all turned to him and were grabbing our suitcases with our costumes inside. 

Loaded up on a bus we headed out of town where the hero schools were supposed to meet. After a good 4 hour drive we arrived around 10 am. The group had become more talkative on the drive, but all were distracted. Toru and I slept. Her leaning on my shoulder as I laid against the window. We hadn’t had much sleep after the pornstar drama. She got a little heated hearing about it. Using her phone hotspot to pull up some videos of the blue star, she got way more into it. 

“We are here,” Aizawa said as the bus came to a stop. “Takoba National Stadium.” Toru and I woke up as others giggled around us. Aizawa walked down the aisle, frowning at us as he passed. “Be on your best behavior. This test happens in September and June. If you mess up now it will be 9 months before you can try again. Everything could be a test, so don’t piss anyone off.” 

“Including you, sensei?” I asked. 

“Especially me,” he said in his patented bored tone. We were soon grabbing our suitcases and piling out of the bus. I yawned widely as we grouped up. 

“You 2 seem comfortable sleeping next to one another,” Momo noted. Judging us. 

“Toru has a very calming effect,” I said. 

“Weston, radiates heat,” Toru said, grabbing my arm. “He’s like a furnace.”

“I wish I could sleep like that,” Mineta said, eyeing her. 

“Don’t worry, you can sit on my lap on the way back, Mineta,” I offered. The little perv flipping me off, as the group laughed. 

“Come on guys, we gotta get serious,” Red Riot said. “Gather round. On 3. Plus-”

“Ultra!!” An enthusiastic man finished. He was a little taller than me. In what looked like a newsboy hat with an S on the front he excitedly laughed. 

“You shouldn’t randomly insert yourself in other people’s huddles,” a tired voice said. We turned to see others in the same school uniform. 

“Sorry about that,” the big guy said walking out of our group. I recognized him from the manga. He was supposedly pretty strong, able to control wind. 

“I’ve heard of these guys,” Bakugo said. “UA in the East. Shiketsu in the West. They are from the number 2 school. Shiketsu High.”

“Right,” Momo said. “It’s good to meet you.” The man that had interrupted was soon joined by the dark broody type and a hot brown haired girl. With thick lips she eyed me up and down. Giving me a wide smile. 

“You must be Weston,” she said walking up. Grabbing my hand to shake it vigorously. “I saw you in the Sports Festival. You won, right?” She asked quickly. Reminding me of someone as I felt the chakra in her. 

I began to sweat, remembering this now. Toga was supposed to be at the Exam. Stealing Midoriya’s blood for some reason she had pretended to be this girl. They never explained how she took her place. But the chakra pathways were clear as day to me. My Roronoa clone had switched out just 2 days ago, so it hadn’t been long. I wasn’t sure what she was doing there. Either it was a mission assigned her from Shigaraki and kept on the downlow, or my Roronoa clone wasn’t trusted with everything. 

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, prying my hands away from her. “Nice to meet you. I’ll see you inside.” 

“Come on, Camie,” the bored emo one said. She tsked and walked away. 

“What’s the matter with you?” Momo asked. “Usually you’re flirting with everyone.” 

“Not that girl,” I said. “There’s something not quite right about her.” She was way too enthusiastic to meet me. I worried the vampire girl was obsessed with me now. I eyed Toru. “Don’t go near her.” 

“Why?” She whispered, worried. 

“Just don’t,” I said. “I got a bad feeling from her.” She wanted to ask more but was interrupted as a green haired woman walked up to Aizawa. 

“Eraser! Eraser is that you!?” She yelled excitedly though she was only a few feet away. “It’s been so long since we have seen each other. Let’s get married.” 

“No thanks,” he said instantly. They talked as I thought. 

I didn’t think they ever explained why they wanted Midoriya’s blood. Did they suspect him of being All Might’s successor now? AFO had said it when he and All Might fought, and I was pretty sure Shigaraki and AFO could still talk to one another psychically somehow. I wasn’t sure what to do. With his blood Toga could turn into him. Or did they want to study his quirk? I might have to step in to prevent that. 

Or did she want my blood? I had awoken chakra in her. Maybe she blabbed. But Toga wasn’t the type to volunteer information or sign up for being tested on. I doubted she had told anyone. Either way she drank my blood and felt something she probably never felt before. Ignoring her obsession with Roronoa after it happened. I wasn’t sure her thoughts, but Toga was enough of a pain to worry about. She could be obsessive. If she found out about Toru I worried what she would do. 

“You alright?” Toru asked. 

“Uh, yeah,” I lied. “Let’s go.” I walked past the people from the other school. Ignoring others as we walked inside. Toru and a few others followed. Too much to think about I decided not to worry about it. I wanted to be like Luffy. Like with the worry about a challenge, it was not something I could control. My worry should be on the next quest. Not some unforeseen that may or may not happen.