Mina Ashido

"How lucky, there's a medium-sized robot all by itself. I'll sneak up on it..." A girl with pink skin and antennae like an ant's growing from her head approached a robot along the trees lining the street. It stood there in a daze, apparently without a target. She pressed her hands together and aimed at it with a grin. "Be a good robot and take my slime attack!"

"Hamon Overdrive!"

A figure suddenly dropped from a rooftop, used the tree above the girl to briefly break his fall, then leaped again and kicked at the head of the robot standing in the middle of the street. The girl could faintly make out golden arcs of electricity coiling around his foot.

"So cool! Wait..." The girl suddenly realized what had happened. "That was my prey!"

Forgetting to pose, the girl charged angrily at the figure. "Hey, you! I saw that one first!"

Jilan Jiyu turned around, the wreckage of the robot scattered behind him, and replied cheerfully, "Just because you saw it first, does that make it yours? Besides, I already paid for it."

Jilan Jiyu had been darting around the battlefield, occasionally launching sneak attacks like this one. Though somewhat immoral, the tactic was very effective, and he had already destroyed many enemies. By his own calculations, his score should now put him firmly in the top three at this exam site.

Judging by how many students U.A. High School had admitted in previous years, he should be among those with the best chance of being accepted.

More than half the time had passed, and the ten minutes would soon be up. Even if he kept launching sneak attacks, he probably wouldn't get many more points, so Jilan Jiyu didn't mind chatting with someone else.

"Damn him, but there's no use getting mad. He already got the points..." the girl muttered to herself. She suddenly looked up at Jilan Jiyu. "If I got ambushed, the others probably did too, right?"

After Jilan Jiyu confirmed it, her mood quickly improved. Stars in her eyes, she gestured as she said, "That move you just did, dropping out of the sky, was so cool! Hey, I'm Mina Ashido. Can we be friends?"

But I stole your points... Jilan Jiyu suddenly felt a little ashamed. Part of his reason for talking to her was actually to waste her time...

Jilan Jiyu asked, "...Um, don't you need to find some more enemies? Do you have enough points?"

Mina Ashido smiled like a child. "Actually, I've used up almost all the slime in my body, so I can barely fight anymore. Even if I go looking, I might not find any, and even if I do, I might not be able to beat them..."

So this girl's the type to take things as they come... Come to think of it, you've already told me about your ability. We're still enemies right now, you know?

Jilan Jiyu looked calm on the surface, but inside he was furiously snarking. How was he supposed to talk to this girl?

Just as Jilan Jiyu was about to tell her to keep looking for enemies, the sound of a building collapsing reached them, along with the terrified cries of the examinees.

Then he saw it—a simply built, one-eyed robot several stories tall. The immensely powerful machine of violence, made of nothing but cold, hard lines, crushed a seemingly sturdy building with a single mechanical hand. The dust kicked up in its wake quickly spread across half the exam site.

"You've got to be kidding! How are we supposed to beat an enemy like that?!"

"We're not Pro Heroes! There's nothing we can do against that thing!"

"Run! All we can do is run! That's something we're supposed to avoid, right?!"

Like a monster from a tokusatsu movie, the enormous zero-point robot could crush a building with a single step. It was a natural disaster no one could withstand!

No matter how outstanding their Quirks were, the examinees scattered throughout the exam site were still middle schoolers at heart. In a panic, they abandoned their mock enemies and ran away from the giant.

The part of the large robot called its head turned, directing its gaze toward Jilan Jiyu. As if it had found prey, the indicator light on it suddenly flashed red.

"Crap, that thing's set its sights on us."

No wonder the school had made this mock enemy something to avoid. With its size, even if he could beat it, he would have no strength left to take down any other enemies.

"So this is deliberately training examinees to make a strategic retreat when facing an enemy they can't possibly defeat..."

Without hesitation, Jilan Jiyu grabbed Mina Ashido and ran for the town's main road. It was also where the students were gathering, because the only exit was there.

Mina Ashido didn't seem to understand the situation at all, but she didn't particularly resist as Jilan Jiyu pulled her along. She merely asked, a little curious, "Huh? Are we running away? Is that robot coming after us?"

This giant hadn't been released at the start, but had suddenly appeared when the students were nearly done competing for points. Besides testing their ability to adapt, it was probably also meant to encourage them to cooperate and help one another, putting aside their competition to get through the crisis together.

But there was no need to tell Mina Ashido all that. Jilan Jiyu simply said, "We need to meet up with the others and exchange information."

"Oh, I see." Mina Ashido seemed to understand a little, but also seemed not to understand at all. Looking at Jilan Jiyu's back and his flying hair as he pulled her along, she suddenly laughed. "I'm glad I met you. Anyone else would have left a burden like me behind, right?"

Jilan Jiyu had no time to think about what she meant. Analyzing the giant's path in his head, he said, somewhat dismissively, "Wouldn't anyone do the same?"

Even if they weren't heroes, ordinary people would help those around them when faced with dangers they might encounter, wouldn't they?

The town was fairly large, and Jilan Jiyu was in a rather remote spot because he had been hunting other people. But perhaps everyone's body in this world was enhanced: it didn't take long for Jilan Jiyu to find the gathering crowd with Mina Ashido in tow.

Since time wasn't up yet, they were still staring at the robot in terror, but on the whole they remained fairly calm. No one had lost control of their body out of fear. After all, they were the top students from their respective schools and still had some pride, so they gathered to discuss the situation.

"Can we really deal with this thing? My Quirk isn't anywhere near that strong," one person said to another beside them.

The other person promptly rolled their eyes. "Are you stupid? Mic already said we don't get points for dealing with this thing. Why do something that takes so much effort for no reward?"

Someone nearby cut in. "But I feel like my score is still nowhere near enough. I'm way behind everyone else..."

"Then what do you want to do? Go around this thing and look for isolated robots somewhere else?"

That was completely impossible. As expected of U.A. High School, perhaps: from Jilan Jiyu's observations, either someone was controlling this robot, or it had been programmed to automatically attack the person closest to it. The large robot, gradually approaching them, had already blocked the junctions leading to the other roads, deliberately driving the examinees in this direction.

Whether she was overly familiar with strangers or lacked a sense of danger, Mina Ashido had already excitedly found other people to talk to. He hadn't expected much of her in the first place, but seeing her act like this really made him wonder if she could be a hero.

Jilan Jiyu checked the time. Less than three minutes remained before the exam ended, and a bold idea took shape in his mind.