Chapter Text
“Welcome to today’s live performance!! Everybody say “HEY”!!” Present Mic shouted.
However, his enthusiasm was met with silence from the crowd. Except for one enthusiastic pink haired boy.
“HEYYYYY!!!”
With the spotlight now on him, there was a deafening silence as all the participants looked at him with a confused look. Though no words were said aloud, the subtext was obvious.
‘Is he stupid?’
“Hey you, listener! What’s your name?”
“Itadori Yuuji desu.”
“I like your spirit!!” Present Mic shouted as he gave Yuuji a thumbs up. To which Yuuji returns in kind with a happy, goofy grin.
Present Mic continued with his presentation. Though every time he asks for a response, Yuuji would be the only one to give a reply. That was until…
“May I ask a question? On the handout provided there appears to be 4 varieties of faux villains. If this is a blatant error, then it is highly unbecoming of UA. We are all here today in the hopes of being molded into model heroes!” Someone with blue hair abruptly stood up and accused the hero.
Just when everyone thought he was done, he went for a random unassuming candidate.
“You, with the curly hair! You’ve been muttering throughout the presentation… It's distracting! If you think that this is a game, then please leave immediately.”
“What’s his problem? Did someone shove a stick up his ass or something?”
Everyone once again turns their attention to the one who interrupted the blue hair’s rambling. To everyone’s surprise, that voice came from the enthusiastic pink hair. However, his cheerful and goofy smile was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was replaced with an annoyed scowl. Not to mention, did his voice got deeper?
“Excuse me, but it’s rude to interrupt someone when they're talking!!” The blue-haired boy exclaimed.
“Yet that didn’t seem to stop you from interrupting the presenter standing at the podium now did it? As far as I’m aware, we still haven’t reached the Q&A session yet, or did I miss it?” The pink hair replied mockingly.
The blue-haired boy seemed ready to defend himself but the pink hair continued.
“Not to mention, randomly verbally assaulting your peers in front of an audience, thus humiliating him is highly unbecoming of a hero wannabe. To become model heroes, he says… how laughable.” the pink hair finished with a condescending smirk.
At this point the blue hair was too taken aback and embarrassed to continue this argument. He promptly apologized and sat back down.
“Sorry for our little dispute just now.” Yuuji apologizes to Present Mic.
“It’s okay. It’s always great to have motivated listeners in the audience.”
Present Mic continues to explain about the gimmick known as the zero pointers.
After the presentation, Yuuji quickly moved to his assigned testing area.
“...and BEGIN!!”
“Hmm?”
“What are you all waiting for? The test has started!! RUN!! RUN!! The die is cast!!”
Thus, the physical entrance exam for UA has begun.
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Somewhere in the observation and surveillance room.
“We have quite the catch this year huh?” A black hair woman with glasses said.
“It’s still too early to tell.” a caterpillar(?) replied.
“Don’t be such a downer Erasure Head. What about you, Present Mic? Got anyone you fancy?” the black-haired woman asked.
“Personally, I’m rooting for the little pink-haired listener.” Present Mic said.
“You’re just saying that because he’s the only one who’s willing to match your hype during the presentation.” the caterpillar said.
“Not gonna lie, that is a major reason but you gotta admit, he’s a very interesting fella.” Present Mic defended.
“Trueeee!! The way his atmosphere switches spontaneously like that… It's almost like he has two different personalities. A bit young to have dissociative disorder…the way either personality carries themself doesn’t seem to be a coping mechanism for trauma… Could it be a part of his quirk?” The black-haired woman said.
“Looks can be deceiving Midnight.” Erasure Head said.
“Indeed. However, to answer your question, Itadori Yuuji’s quirk is registered as Cursed Energy.” a rat? Bear? replied.
“Cursed energy? That’s an…interesting name for a quirk. What does it do, Principal Nezu?” Midnight asks.
“It’s described as being akin to telekinesis but without mass.” Erasure Head answered instead.
“Telekinesis is often described by their user as having invisible appendages that they can extend and use to move objects. In our case, telekinesis without mass would imply that his quirk is unable to lift objects and its usage is restricted to energy or impact.” Nezu followed up.
“If it helps you can look at video footage D-12.” Present Mic says as he points at the referred screen.
On the screen, they can see Yuuji moving and maneuvering in the testing area with absurd agility. Every time he comes across a faux villain, he accurately decommissions them with a single punch. However, if you were to pay attention, you can occasionally see robots or debris struck by an invisible attack from impossible angles to prevent time from crushing the other candidates.
“Is he from a hero family? This sort of performance is beyond any normal 15-year-old teenager. If not, he can easily be considered as a prodigy on par with Endeavor’s youngest son.” a tall slender man with a toothy grin as wide as his face said.
“Though it would seem that the area of effect of his quirk is rather limited, his accuracy and control over it is impeccable. It also packs quite a punch which naturally prompts the question…” a cowboy said.
“Why isn’t he using his quirk to destroy the robots?” a tall skinny blonde finished his sentence for him.
“There’s a lot of possible answers to that question. It could be that we are overestimating the strength of his quirk from the footage, seeing that he’s only using them to push metal chunks out of the way and break already broken debris. It could be his way of appealing to us the judge. Oooor there’s a limit to how much power he can output safely.” Nezu chimed in.
“You’re suggesting that his quirk comes with severe side effects.” Erasure Head says.
“I would think that there’s a reason for his quirk to be called cursed.” Nezu replied
“Another problem child.” Erasure Head said with a long sigh.
“Come on now don’t be like that, it’s normal for strong quirks to have stronger drawbacks.” Present Mic tried to cheer him up.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did…” that’s when it suddenly dawned on the rest of the staff.
Though they aren’t qualified to diagnose someone with a mental disorder from such limited interaction. However, Yuuji’s unusual behavior does raise some red flags. As for whether those red flags actually hold water, only time can tell.
The silence, however, did not last long and was immediately replaced with loud cheers as two zero pointers were taken down simultaneously. One by Midoriya Izuku and the other one by you guessed it, Itadori Yuuji.
However, this time the zero pointer wasn’t defeated by a single punch from Yuuji but a single flick of his fingers. From that one flick, a huge dent was ‘punched’ onto the zero pointer’s head. The brute force of his quirk left the pro-heroes speechless.
“I guess we can cross out Principal Nezu’s first theory huh.” Present Mic said with a shaky laugh.
“I know it’s a little late but are we just going to ignore the fact that the boy could demolish all 3 types of faux villain without using his quirk.” a buff guy in a red skin tight body suit finally decided to point out.