[Denki's POV - Written Exam Hall]
The written exam was laughably easy.
'Photographic memory for the win,' I thought, breezing through questions about hero law, Quirk ethics, emergency response protocols, and basic combat theory. 'Thanks, Ten years of obsessive studying and biological optimization.'
Around me, I could hear pencils scratching furiously against paper, the occasional frustrated sigh, and the soft tick-tick-tick of the exam hall clock counting down the time limit.
I finished with forty-five minutes to spare.
Glancing to my left, I spotted Mina hunched over her exam sheet, pink face scrunched in concentration as she worked through what looked like a particularly difficult math problem.
'She's doing well,' I observed with satisfaction. 'Better than she would have without my help.'
I thought back—perhaps a bit too darkly—to the "study sessions" I'd subjected her to over the past few months.
Training montages were all well and good for physical preparation, but academic success required a different kind of torture—ahem, I mean discipline.
"Denki, please," Mina had begged during one particularly brutal cram session with actual tears streaming down her face. "Just let me take a five-minute break! My brain is melting!"
"Your brain is fine," I'd said without sympathy while pointing at the next practice problem. "You know what won't be fine? Your future hero career if you fail the written exam. Now, explain to me the three-tier emergency response protocol."
"I hate you so much right now."
"You'll thank me later."
'And she will,' I thought with vindictive satisfaction. 'She'll ace this exam, get into U.A., and never know that I made her study partially as payback for calling me Pikachu and letting the entire school know about that nickname.'
'Revenge is a dish best served with educational success.'
To my right, Eijiro was also working steadily through his exam, red hair slightly disheveled from nervous hand-running. He looked confident though—far more confident than he would have been without our group study sessions.
I looked around and didn't see anymore familiar faces, so I put down my pencil and reviewing my answers one final time.
The proctor called time, and the exam hall erupted in a chorus of relieved sighs.
One hurdle down and now for the fun part.
[Practical Exam Briefing - Auditorium]
After the written exam and physical check-up—where a medical professional with a scanning Quirk had confirmed I was "remarkably healthy" and "unusually energized"—all the applicants were herded into a massive auditorium.
"HEEEEEYYYY, LISTENERS!"
The voice exploded through the speaker system with enough volume to make several people jump in their seats.
Present Mic stood on stage, his blonde hair styled in its signature directional points, wearing his typical leather jacket and orange-tinted glasses. His grin was manic, his energy absolutely unhinged.
"Welcome to your PRACTICAL EXAM briefing! I'm Present Mic, voice hero extraordinaire, and I'll be explaining how you're gonna PROVE YOUR WORTH to U.A. High School!"
'At least some things haven't changed from canon,' I thought, settling into my seat. 'Yet.'
Present Mic launched into his explanation with the enthusiasm of someone who'd consumed approximately seventeen energy drinks.
Applicants would be divided into multiple groups. Each group would be assigned to a separate artificial urban environment—massive mock cities built specifically by U.A. for testing purposes.
'How does U.A. even afford this?' I wondered, not for the first time. 'The budget for building and maintaining multiple city-block-sized testing facilities, plus all those robots... Japan's hero education funding must be insane.'
The exam rules were straightforward, defeat villain robots to earn points, No points for attacking other examinees with Ten-minute time limit and when time expires, all robots shut down automatically
Different Robot are categorised based on point values starting with 1-Pointer for 1 point, 2-Pointer for 2 points, 3-Pointer for 3 points and finally, 0-Pointer which we should avoid fighting it as it was an obstacle, not a target.
I scanned my assigned group number and location. 'Battle Center B.'
More importantly, I scanned the faces around me, looking for anyone I recognized from the main cast. 'I don't see Midoriya, Bakugo or anyone familiar.'
Relief washed over me. 'Good. That means I can cut loose without stealing anyone's canonical spotlight. I can show the teachers what a Speedster can really do.'
A wide grin spread across my face. 'Though I do feel a little sorry for the other applicants in my group,' I admitted. 'They're about to witness something completely unfair.'
Now, standing at the entrance to Battle Center B, I had to admit—the scale was impressive.
'U.A. really doesn't do anything halfway,' I thought.
A Pro Hero I didn't recognize—some minor hero with a megaphone Quirk, probably—stood at the starting line, reviewing the rules one final time.
"Defeat villain robots to earn points! There are no points for attacking other examinees! The exam lasts ten minutes! When time is up, all robots shut down automatically!"
He raised his hand and dozens of applicants around me tensed, preparing to sprint forward the moment the signal came.
"BEGIN!"
The world slowed down.
Electricity surged through my nervous system, overclocking my perception and reaction time. My hair stood on end as yellow lightning crackled across my skin, forming that familiar protective aura.
< Raijin Drive >
Fwoosh!
I became a yellow streak while the other applicants exploded forward, running toward the mock city with varying degrees of speed and enthusiasm.
But by the time they'd taken their first steps, I was already gone.
.
.
.
Moving at supersonic speeds through an urban environment required precision that most people couldn't comprehend.
Every corner, every obstacle, every potential collision had to be calculated in microseconds. One mistake at Mach 4 and I'd become a very fast smear across a very solid wall.
'But I've trained for this,' I thought, weaving between buildings with practiced ease. 'This is exactly what I've been building toward.'
Robots appeared in my enhanced perception like statues—frozen, slow and vulnerable. A 1-Pointer rounded a corner ahead of me.
I touched it in passing, channeling a precise burst of electricity directly into its circuitry.
Zap.
The robot sparked, shuttered, and collapsed, its internal systems completely fried.
'One point.'
A 2-Pointer emerged from an alley to my left and I fired electric bolt from my hands, 'Three points.'
Then three 3-Pointers appeared at an intersection ahead.
I blurred past all three in sequence, touching each one's power core with surgical precision and using their own electrical systems to overload their circuits from the inside.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
All three collapsed simultaneously. 'Twelve points total now.'
'This exam is on very easy mode for me,' I realized with dark amusement. 'They placed an electricity-based Speedster against robots that run on electricity. I can sense them through their power signatures, move faster than they can track, and shut them down with a single touch. It's almost unfair.'
I pushed deeper into the mock city, following the densest concentrations of electrical signatures. The 3-Pointers appeared more frequently near the center—better hunting grounds.
Thanks to my electrical sense, I could detect robots up to about 500 meters away, using them as my own personal radar system.
'Longer range would require more concentration,' I noted, 'but this is plenty for a ten-minute exam.'
Of course, I was holding back significantly.
My actual top speed—Mach 5, according to Edna's tests—would have let me clear the entire exam area in less than thirty seconds.
'Can't do that,' I reminded myself. 'If I destroy all the robots instantly, everyone else fails. And that would be both cruel and attention-grabbing in exactly the wrong way.'
'Leave some scraps for the others. Just... not very many.'
As three minutes passed, I'd accumulated 205 Villain Points and left a trail of shut-down robots scattered throughout Battle Center B.
'Not bad,' I thought, allowing myself a satisfied grin.
But I wasn't done because points weren't the only thing that mattered in this exam.
'There are Rescue Points too,' I recalled from my meta-knowledge. 'Hidden points awarded for heroic behavior—saving other examinees, preventing collateral damage, showing tactical awareness. Time to rack up some of those.'
I shifted my focus, using my electrical sense not just to find robots, but to locate examinees in danger.
A girl with a mutation Quirk—scales and a tail—was cornered by two 2-Pointers, her defensive abilities insufficient against their ranged weapons.
I appeared between them in a yellow flash, touched both robots simultaneously, and watched them collapse.
"You're safe now," I said, already moving before she could respond. "Keep going!"
A boy with a strength-enhancement Quirk had gotten his arm trapped under debris after a robot's explosion.
I lifted the rubble with electrically-enhanced strength—not my specialty, but doable—and pulled him free.
"Thanks!" he gasped.
"Don't mention it!" I called back, already blurring away to the next crisis.
'Being fast means I can be everywhere,' I realized. 'I can fight and rescue simultaneously. That's the real advantage.'
'That's what makes a Speedster a true hero.'
...
[Teachers' Observation Room - U.A. Staff POV]
In the central monitoring facility, dozens of screens displayed live feeds from all the Battle Centers simultaneously.
Nezu—the diminutive, white-furred principal of U.A. whose appearance resembled a mouse or bear or possibly a dog depending on your perspective—sat at the center console, sipping tea with one paw while his impossibly intelligent mind processed information from every camera feed at once.
His Quirk, High Spec, gave him intelligence that far exceeded normal human capability. Right now, that intelligence was working overtime, analyzing hundreds of examinees across multiple testing grounds, calculating success probabilities, and identifying exceptional talent.
"Fascinating," he murmured, his beady eyes gleaming with interest.
Around him, various Pro Hero teachers observed their assigned Battle Centers.
All Might—in his civilian form, gaunt and hollow-cheeked—focused intently on Battle Center D, where a certain green-haired boy had yet to score a single point.
'Come on, young Midoriya,' the Symbol of Peace thought desperately. 'Show them what you can do. Show them the heart of a hero I saw that day.'
While All Might's eyes were locked on Midoriya, the rest of the teachers—Midnight, Eraser Head, the faculty, even the support staff—Their attention had been captured by something—or rather, someone—else entirely... The Lightning Boy.
The regular cameras failed completely—nothing but a blinding yellow flash tearing across the screen.
A streak of crackling yellow electricity racing through the streets at impossible speed.
One moment, the cameras caught it scooping terrified children out of danger.
The next—robots were being annihilated in a different sector, the destruction happening in the span of a heartbeat.
"Can someone give me this kid's file?" Nezu asked mildly, not looking away from the screen displaying Battle Center B.
Midnight—the R-Rated Hero with her dominatrix-inspired costume—walked to a nearby table stacked with applicant files and retrieved one with a photo stapled to the front.
A blonde boy with golden eyes and an electric smile.
She handed it to Nezu, who opened it and began reading with that unsettling smile that somehow conveyed both amusement and calculation.
"Hmmm..."
"So what does it say?" Vlad King asked while leaning closer to look at the screen where a yellow streak was systematically dismantling robots at impossible speeds.
Nezu's smile widened slightly. "The applicant's name is Denki Kaminari. Quirk: Electrification. According to the official registration, it allows him to charge his body with electricity and emit it as a protective aura that electrocutes on contact. He can also channel electricity through his body to achieve enhanced speed."
He flipped through additional pages. "Parents are Narihana Kaminari—Pro Hero 'Lightning Strike'—and Kenji Kaminari, a quirkless insurance agent. Academic records show exceptional performance. Recommendation letters from multiple sources, including... interesting. His mother's hero agency, a martial arts instructor, and a support equipment specialist named Edna."
Aizawa Shota—Erasure Hero: Eraser Head—crossed his arms, "Enhanced speed from an electricity Quirk isn't unusual. Several heroes have similar abilities."
"Look at the camera feeds more carefully," Midnight suggested while pointing at the high-speed cameras positioned throughout the Battle Center.
The image quality was grainy—even U.A.'s advanced technology struggled to capture something moving at supersonic velocity—but it showed enough.
A yellow streak appearing in one location, multiple robots collapsing simultaneously, the streak vanishing and reappearing hundreds of meters away in the span of a heartbeat.
"That's not just 'enhanced speed,'" Snipe observed, his cowboy hat tilted back as he studied the footage. "That's extreme speed. Potentially supersonic."
"From a simple Electrification Quirk?" Cementoss rumbled doubtfully. "That seems... Not practical."
"Yet here we are," Nezu said cheerfully, sipping his tea. "Watching that happen in real-time."
Several teachers nodded, impressed despite themselves.
"It's natural, isn't it?" one hero muttered. "His mother is a Pro Hero. Strong Quirks often run in families."
But Nezu's smile had taken on a sharper edge, 'Natural? Perhaps. But this speed is not normal for simple Electrification. There's more to this boy than the official file suggests. How intriguing.'
"It also seems," Aizawa said dryly while looking at the scoring display, "that the kid will set a new record."
Everyone turned to look at the leaderboard for Battle Center B.
Denki Kaminari
Villain Points: 205
Rescue Points: 85
Silence stretched through the observation room.
"Well," Nezu said mildly, setting down his teacup. "That is a new record. By quite a significant margin."
All Might glanced away from his screen—where Midoriya was still struggling, still at zero points—and felt his heart sink slightly.
"Eight minutes elapsed," Nezu announced suddenly, his paw hovering over a large red button on the console.
His smile transformed into something almost villainous.
"I believe it's time to see the true nature of these examinees. After all, a hero's character only truly shows when faced with overwhelming danger."
He pressed the button and then WHAM.
In every Battle Center simultaneously, massive metal panels in the ground began sliding open.
Nezu laughed—actually laughed in a high-pitched sound that made several teachers sigh in resigned defeat—as tea slopped over the edge of his cup and onto the table.
'Here we go again,' they all thought in perfect unison.
...
[Battle Center B]
I'd just saved another examinee—some guy with a projectile-based Quirk who'd been about to get blasted by a 3-Pointer—when the ground began to shake.
'What the—'
The trembling intensified, accompanied by a mechanical grinding sound that made my teeth ache.
Then it appeared... The 0-Pointer.
A massive robot—easily twenty meters tall—emerged from the ground like some kind of mechanical kaiju. Its body was humanoid but scaled up to nightmarish proportions, with glowing red eyes, weapons systems covering every surface, and footsteps that left cracks in the pavement.
'There it is,' I thought with electricity already surging through my body in anticipation. 'The final test.'
The 0-Pointer's sensors locked onto me—probably because I was the closest target, or maybe because my electrical signature was so strong I'd attracted its attention.
It began moving in my direction, weapons charging with that distinctive whine of building energy.
'Time to show these teachers what happens when you put a Speedster in an exam designed for normal heroes.'
I again became a yellow streak.
The 0-Pointer's targeting systems couldn't track me—couldn't even register that I'd moved before I was already on it, running up its leg, across its torso, vaulting over its shoulder.
I stopped at the base of its neck, where the armor plating met the internal mechanisms. 'Perfect.'
Through the metal, I could sense the massive electrical power core that operated this thing. Enough energy to power a small city block, all concentrated in one spot.
'All that power,' I thought, placing both hands against the metal. 'Let's see what happens when I introduce a little chaos into the system.'
I discharged electricity—not the maximum I was capable of, but significant—directly into the 0-Pointer's systems.
At the same time, I seized control of its own power flow and reversed it.
The robot's energy began feeding back into itself, creating a cascading overload. Circuit breakers failed and safety systems triggered and immediately burned out. The power core went critical.
I was already gone, blurring away to a nearby rooftop, when the 0-Pointer began to shudder.
Sparks erupted from every joint while smoke poured from vents.
And then—BOOM.
The explosion wasn't dramatic in the Hollywood sense—no massive fireball or shockwave.
Instead, the 0-Pointer simply... collapsed. Its internal systems destroyed so thoroughly that the entire structure lost cohesion, metal components falling apart and crumbling to dust as the robot folded in on itself like a house of cards.
I stood on the rooftop with my arms crossed while watching with satisfaction as my handiwork disintegrated.
'Not bad for ten seconds of work,' I thought smugly.
A voice crackled through the speakers positioned throughout the Battle Center, "TIME'S UP! The practical exam is now concluded! All examinees, please proceed to the exit for medical evaluation!"
I blurred back to ground level, landing near where Mina and Eijiro were emerging from different sections of the mock city.
"Denki!" Mina called, waving energetically despite looking exhausted. "How'd you do?!"
"Pretty well, I think," I said modestly. "You two?"
"Got about thirty points!" Eijiro grinned, flexing despite the obvious strain on his body. "My Hardening held up great!"
"I got around twenty-eight!" Mina added. "Plus I saved like three people, so maybe bonus points?"
"Definitely bonus points," I confirmed. "Rescue Points are a thing, even if they didn't announce it."
We walked toward the exit together, joining the stream of exhausted, excited, nervous examinees.
...
[Teachers' Observation Room - Post-Exam]
Silence filled the observation room after Denki Kaminari destroyed the 0-Pointer.
"..."
Aizawa broke it first, "That was more anticlimactic than I expected."
He turned his attention to a different screen, where a green-haired boy was finally taking action—destroying his own arm with a single punch to save a girl from a 0-Pointer.
'At least someone is being dramatic about it,' Aizawa thought.
Nezu, however, was still smiling that unsettling smile, his intelligent eyes gleaming with barely contained excitement.
"Interesting," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "Very, very interesting indeed."
'Denki Kaminari,' he thought, filing the name away for future reference. 'You've just become one of the most intriguing applicants we've had in years.'
'Welcome to U.A., young Speedster. I suspect you're going to make things very entertaining.'
.
.
.
[One Week Later - Kaminari Household]
Seven days of waiting passed with Mina texting our group chat every three hours with variations of "DID ANYONE GET THEIR LETTER YET?!"
And finally—finally—the acceptance letters arrived.
I sat in my room, my parents and Megumi-nee crowded around me, as I carefully opened the envelope bearing U.A.'s official seal.
A small device fell out—some kind of holographic projector
I set it on my desk and pressed the activation button.
"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!"
All Might's voice exploded from the device at what had to be maximum volume, making everyone in the room jump.
'Did they seriously set this thing to max volume just to startle people?' I thought while wincing. 'That's either hilarious or cruel. Possibly both.'
"I actually came to this town to work at U.A.!!" All Might announced with his signature enthusiasm.
My parents gasped and Megumi-nee actually squealed at the confirmation.
I just nodded, having already known this from canon.
"You passed your written exam with flying colors… and… you… also passed the practical exam!!!"
'The dramatic pauses are a nice touch,' I observed. 'Really milking the tension.'
"You got 205 Villain Points, the highest combat score EVER recorded at U.A.! But… that is not all…"
Here it comes.
"A hero is someone who helps people! So you also earned 95 Rescue Points! CONGRATULATIONS, YOUNG DENKI! YOU PASSED YOUR ENTRANCE EXAM WITH THE HIGHEST TOTAL SCORE IN U.A. HISTORY!!"
The hologram shifted, displaying the top ten rankings:
....
TOP 10 - U.A. ENTRANCE EXAM RESULTS
Denki Kaminari - VP: 205 | RP: 95 | Total: 300
Eijiro Kirishima - VP: 50 | RP: 40 | Total: 90
Katsuki Bakugo - VP: 77 | RP: 0 | Total: 77
Mina Ashido - VP: 28 | RP: 45 | Total: 73
Ochaco Uraraka - VP: 36 | RP: 32 | Total: 68
Itsuka Kendo - VP: 25 | RP: 40 | Total: 65
Tenya Iida - VP: 52 | RP: 9 | Total: 61
Izuku Midoriya - VP: 0 | RP: 60 | Total: 60
Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu - VP: 49 | RP: 10 | Total: 59
Fumikage Tokoyami - VP: 47 | RP: 10 | Total: 57
....
My parents erupted in celebration, pulling me into a crushing group hug that made breathing temporarily difficult.
"We're so proud!" my mother sobbed happily, electricity crackling in her hair from emotional overload.
"Highest score in U.A. history!" my father repeated, his voice thick with pride. "That's my son!"
"I knew you could do it, Denki-kun!" Megumi-nee added, joining the hug pile.
I smiled feeling their warmth and love surrounding me.
Suddenly my phone buzzed, so I took a peak and saw the messages in our group chat.
Mina: AHHHHHHHH WE ALL GOT IN!!!!!
Eijiro: SECOND PLACE BABY! SO MANLY!
Mina: Denki you absolute MONSTER you got FIRST?!
Denki: :)
Mina: THAT EMOJI IS SO SMUG
Mina: I CAN FEEL THE SMUGNESS THROUGH MY PHONE
Eijiro: He earned it tho.
Mina: I was too busy dissolving robots with acid that I failed to watch Pikachu go Super Saiyan. Maybe they let us view our practical examination videos later.
Denki: ...that nickname is never going away, is it?
Mina: NEVER
I set down my phone with a smile and watched as My parents and Megumi-nee are making calls to share the news about me getting into U.A to their associates.
'Step one complete and now comes the plot officially begins.'
...
Author's Note:
Hi guys! How did you find the chapter?
I've been thinking a lot about the female lead, and I'm leaning toward making this a non-harem story. There might be room for a second female lead much later on, but for now, I'm considering keeping it non-harem.
At the moment, I'm thinking of having Momo as the female lead. It's not a final decision, I may change it in the future, but I feel like the MC would get along well with her.
I know she's a bit overused, but I think her personality and abilities fit the story and the MC's character.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions or opinions are welcome!