"Start—"
As Eraserhead's first word was communicated to all the students, they all charged with incomparable ferocity. Flashy quirks emerged while talents from across the nation tried to show themselves above the rest of their competitors in this battle royale.
Once they stepped inside the large circular area marked by the white border, they aren't allowed to leave the area without avoiding marked as a failure.
Having a well-built and a trained body is considered as a prerequisite in the profession of heroism.
But very little trained as much as Rito.
His calves contracted as veins popped all over his body. Not wanting to lose to the competition, he decided to go all out while his rough palms clenched into hard fist capable of smashing boulders.
Watching all the students rushing forth, his senses tingled as his extraordinarily trained perception received all the visual images of his surroundings in slow motion.
With a confident smirk smacked across his lips, thin web-like cracks spread beneath his foot and his figure immediately flashed towards the freed HellHouse that immediately covered itself in a ball of pitch-black flames while his movement itself was accompanied with a whipping gale that forced his competitors to part ways.
"Sorry, passing through."
Even though his voice drowned in his shocking speed, he still apologised to the distressed participants politely as he immediately stopped in front of the big ball of flames and kicked on the rocky ground as his stomp forced out a few pieces of large rocks.
"Fire!"
Shouting with a huge smile, he immediately jumped sideways as his left leg kicked on the propelled rocks lightly, shooting them towards the black ball of fire.
"Woah! Is that guy a genuine martial-artist?"
While the students had yet to reach the vicinity of HellHouse, they could still gaze upon the strange scene of a boy kicking rocks at shocking speed while some students with great eyesight could observe the fact that this particular brown-haired boy wasn't wearing any shoes.
"Eh? Well, this was to be expected."
Rito looked on as the pieces of rock he threw turned into ashes while he suddenly heard a raging yell behind him.
"Back off, Punk! That box of candle is mine!!!"
Ichika emerged as she used the explosions crackling from her hand to boost her speed and immediately bypass Rito.
"Fighting fire with explosion?"
Rito's expression turned strange while a huge halo appeared above HellHouse's body and immediately descended on it, surrounding the living house as the black flames slowly receding.
"I can only suppress its quirk for a short time. Do what you have to do!"
Rito looked back and found Haruna standing in a distance as she held her hands outwards while her body glowed yellow-white.
'Sweet Quirk.'
Complimenting internally, he looked at the two-storey hut with huge eyes that sported ghastly flame pupils and strange red walls and roofs that did not match any construction material, and found that Ichika was already in front of its door.
Bang
Joining her palms from their base, Ichika let out a huge explosion from her hands as her hair whipped back and she herself propelled backwards without any care in the world.
"Got Ya!!"
A pink flash passed through the students as Hanabi's wings fluttered and she immediately caught Ichika's flying body.
"Right on time!"
Ichika shouted and returned as HellHouse's piercing screams caused the ground to tremble while the glowing halo around its body slowly cracked.
"Let me give one last shot."
Akira's brown eyes glowed brightly as he waved his palms while controlling a mysterious energy gushing forth his body to control the debris around him and shooting them on HellHouse's surface.
A Psychic!
Aaaaaannnnnnnngggggg
Crack
With a small crackling sound, the halo dispersed into thin air while chains of blaze emerged from the destroyed gates of HellHouse, shooting towards the students indiscriminately.
Evading the flaming chain shooting towards him with a sidestep, Rito shot forward while his palms bent till the base of his wrists and moved in a slow and erratic pattern.
Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnng
"Tch, shut up!"
Rito snorted in annoyance while HellHouse's roar immediately quietened down while Rito felt their gazes matching.
Startled by the sudden change, Rito's move halted when two furious chains of hell shot towards him from the HellHouse's 'mouth'.
Before he could evade or parry, a slug of yellow viscous liquid fell over the tip of those two chains and immediately, the chains started to melt accompanied with another cry of HellHouse as he kept on waving its chain while various students kept on evading, unable to even reach its vicinity without any extraordinary quirk.
"You gotta be careful, man."
With a light tap on Rito's shoulder, Riku spoke with a calm expression.
"Your quirk?"
Rito asked for the sake of confirmation.
"Yes, Acid Spray."
"Thank you."
"No worries. We gotta help each other. After all, we are going to be a hero?"
Riku showed one of his rare smiles that showcased a set of pointy teeth, but surprisingly, it went amazing with his face.
But his words did enlighten Rito as he eyes glowed with a confident glow.
"I understand... to outshine others, right. It meant to show your best ability in the area you excel in.
That Akira guy distracted HellHouse with his psychic ability while Hanabi and you act as a support. Haruna, on the other hand, has already achieved her goal by restricting HellHouse."
As Rito muttered while weaving his body unconsciously to evade the flying debris, Riku shrugged and went back.
"Alright. I might as well try."
Rito immediately crouched and with one swift motion, he inserted his hands into the ground while his body was struck by a few pieces of small rocks.
"Oooohhhhhhhhh!"
Accompanied by a deep tremble, Rito's loud shout attracted the attention of other students as they could only wonder if the poor guy had to go to a toilet or not. But once they felt the ground trembling, their expression became serious.
"Don't tell me that his quirk is his sound?"
"But didn't he say that he is quirkless?"
Incomprehension flashed within the eyes of those who were acquainted with Rito while Haruna, being protected by a particular white-haired girl with a single horn on her forehead panted as she was already drained after using her quirk— Halo, looked at Rito as her eyes suddenly constricted.
Riiippppp
Rito's muscle bulged to the extreme as his body's size increased by a small amount, causing the dark-blue jumpsuit to rip apart from the area covering his shoulders, biceps and calves.
"... holy shit..."
A stunned student couldn't help but spit in shock.
"Haaaa!"
Rito immediately pulled his hands up while cracks spread one the ground, covering Rito's and HellHouse's position.
But what shocked the students and the HellHouse to stop dead in its tracks was the fact that a huge boulder was propelled up while a hole of the same size was dug in front of Rito.
Rito flipped up a patch of the ground itself!
Alas, that wasn't all.
Rito had already decided to finish what he started.
Jumping towards that particular piece of land in the air, he flipped his body and struck his heel towards HellHouse.
Akin to a small meteorite, the piece of land shot towards the panicking HellHouse while Rito suddenly heard something inside his mind.
"Please, I am sorry. I will chang—"
But before the gruff voice could finish, the meteorite landed on the fiery hut and crushed it underneath.
Crash!
As the dust flew from the impact, many students covered their eyes while braced their body for the shockwave created from the impact.
***
"A quirk?"
In a dimly lit control room filled with a holographic image of each student, Kaminari gulped while he looked at such a shocking scene.
Replying to his doubt, a staff member shook his head in shock.
"From the suit, we could only measure quirk factor upto 50 points. According to the data, Rito Yuuki is definitely quirkless."
Meanwhile, from an empty space near Kaminari, a sweet voice interrupted others.
"Woah! You mean that he got this strong just by training. Too rare!"
Kaminari sighed as this boy made him recall an old friend of his.
Eraserhead, on the other hand, sat on the main chair and simply sighed as the image of a green-haired youth with a maniacal smile emerged in front of his eye.
He still remembered how blood flowed like a river on that particular day.
"As I said, the bravest can fall and the righteous can corrupt. But this is UA. If we can't guide our students to be morally upright, then we might as well shut the whole damn thing down."
Aizawa's voice interrupted the discussion going inside the control room while Kaminari's eyes dimmed when he heard Aizawa's phrase.
That day, the bravest of them fell while the most righteous of them all changed for the worse.
Looking around, Aizawa continued.
"You all should start recording their perimeters carefully. After all, if you messed up, a deserving candidate might not enter the academy at all."
"Yes!"
The staff responded with vigor while a black-haired, curvaceous woman looked at the scene and sighed before leaving. Even though Kaminari and the invisible woman wished to speak with her, they stopped themselves.
After all, they have already tried for too long without getting any response. Deep down, most of them had already given up.
While I was still sulking about India losing the cricket world cup again, I finally decided to write another chappy.