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Katsuki sits in the entrance exam. He aced the written portion, he knows it. He aced all of the mock exams and the written test wasn't even difficult. The worthless Deku is sitting next to him, muttering about something or other as banana hair explains the exam. He pays attention, or at least, as much attention as he can with the worthless nerd's voice buzzing in his ear. He considers letting off an explosion to shut him up, but he doubts Yuuei would appreciate that, so he controls himself. Barely.
Glasses stands up and interrupts Banana Hair. He asks something about the fourth robot and calls the nerd out on his muttering. Katsuki chuckles derisively at the Deku's embarrassment. Nothing quite like seeing the Nerd put in his place. Honestly, Katsuki doesn't know why the self-rightous asshole's even here. He doesn't have a quirk, he's a quirkless, useless, hopeless, waste of space that shouldn't even be breathing the same air as Katsuki, much less be trying to be a hero.
When Katsuki gets to the location of the exam, he's calm and collected and sure of his victory. The other extras are nervous, chittering pointlessly in the background and all but bouncing on the balls of their feet in nervousness or excitement. Katsuki vaguely understands why they would be nervous, he's unique, a destined number one. The extras aren't capable of the same things he is. Of course they would be nervous.
When Present Mic announces the start of the exam, Katsuki flies into the exam. Literally, he uses his explosions to propel himself into the exam at breakneck speeds and wastes no time blasting apart the first robot he finds in his way. He takes half a second to note how weak the thing was (he thought that Yuuei had standards, aparently not) before continuing to blast his way through the crowd of robots and a couple of the faster extras. (They should get out of the way before they get hurt, and if they don't understand that than they're bigger idiots that he thought)
Nedzu sits in the observation room, watching all twenty training grounds at the same time requires immense ability to multitask, but that is one of the things the Yuuei Principal specializes in. His teachers are in a frenzy of marking and recording and doing a dozen other things as they watch the examinees in the arenas.
"Are you sure about this Nedzu?" Snipe calls out. "It seems a little unfair"
Nedzu bristles, he has already had this conversation, and he will stand by his decision. "To the contrary, any examinee who fails this simple test has no place at our school."
"We could have given them a hint" Snipe all but begs
Aizawa butts in for him "That would be irrational, the whole point is that they don't know."
Katsuki continues to blow away the competition. Literally and figuratively. He's covered in a thin sheen of explosive sweat and it continues to build as he fights his way throughout the model city. Making him more and more powerful and he blasts through robots and buildings alike. Behind him, a building he absolutely destroyed the foundations for lightly singed collapses, and he ignores it and continues to pummel the mechanical enemies.
One of the extras steals a robot from Katsuki. Katsuki decides to waste a few seconds making sure the extra understands what he just did and why he should never do it again. (He yells and punctuates his points with well practiced blasts, leaving ringing in the poor girls ears.)
When the Zero Pointer is released into the arena, Katsuki barely aknowledges it. It's big and strong, but it's on the other side of the arena, and it's worth nothing to him. If it won't prove that he's the best damn student this school has ever seen, he's not interested. Which is what he tells himself as he flings a boy out of his way. A dangerous combination of quirk and pure skill.
After the exam, recovery girl is livid. One arena had had far more injuries than the others. "Why didn't you stop the robots from going too far!?" The tiny heroine is making almost everyone in the room cower from her rage. "Do you know how many more injuries I had to treat!? Do you!?"
Nedzu's smile, despite the fury of the youthful heroine, remains firmly affixed to his face. "I'm afraid that very few of those injuries were from the robots. If you would watch this footage here." He gestures to one of the larger screens. It focuses on the progress of examinee 2732.
Recovery Girl's face flushes in anger at the scene before her. She straightens up to her full (if unimpressive) height as she takes the video in.
Katsuki is full of pride and arrogance and confidence when the letter from Yuuei comes. He knew he did a damn good job, that none of the other extras came close to destroying as many robots as he did. He fucking decimated the competition. He knows he has the skill, the drive, the power to be a hero. And not just any hero, the best of the best, the number one. He knows Yuuei knows it too.
He can almost taste his perfect origin story. The only kid from his shitty neighborhood, and his shitty middle school, to rise up to the high standards of the top hero school in the goddamn country, to ascend to the ultimate pedestal of heroism. Everyone will know that he's the best. Unbeatable, undeniable, unmistakable.
He opens his letter. A wad of papers falls out, and he hungrily opens them, wicked smile plastered to his face.
Snipe has brought back the earlier discussion again. Nedzu itches at the lack of discretion.
"I'm just sayin', it seems like we're missin' out on powerful students, ya' know!"
At any other time, Nedzu would be impressed by his employee's conviction. Now, it irritates him. "We're trying to teach heroes, not weapons. If they didn't pass, I have no desire to teach them." He pauses, his smile is still present, but it is strained. "You saw what that one boy did, didn't you?"
That quiets Snipe quickly. He did in fact see what the boy had done. Horror did not begin to explain his feelings towards that particular applicant’s… method of villain capture.
Horror. Confusion. Rage. The emotions flit around in Katsuki's head in almost equal measure as he stares down at the neatly typed letter in his hands. The urge to crumple it in his hands and incinerate it is strong.
Bakugo Katsuki, it reads
Congratulations for earning 72 points in this year's entrance exam. This score has earned you the top spot among applicants for this year. However, we have recently instituted a new policy, due to an abundance of Heroes who have forgotten the most important cornerstone of heroics. This policy states that in order to pass the entrance exam, the applicant must have at least one rescue points. Rescue points are a hidden system in the entrance exam in order to reward would-be students who act with heroic intent to help or save their fellow examinees. As you have not acquired the required number of rescue points, as well as shown a complete lack of regard for your fellow prospective students, we cannot accept you into Yuuei at this time. Regardless, we wish you the best in your academic endeavors.
With Kind Regards, Principal Nedzu
"After all, I have no desire to train bullies, much less give them a license."
For the first time in all of his sixteen years of life, Bakugo Katsuki has failed.