The season had changed, and it was still too cold for the flowers to bloom. The morning of the entrance exam had arrived. I knocked on the door in front of a familiar building.
"Tokoro, are you in there?"
"Yes, you’re early. Come inside."
I followed the old man into the house.
"First, I’ve almost finished what you asked for. But you’ll have to wait a little longer for that one thing. There’s still room for improvement."
As he said that, the old man handed me the items. A bag, leather boots, a longsword, and a dagger in its sheath.
"The weapons are about as close as I could make them. A piece I poured my heart into. Well?"
I lifted the longsword with one hand and gave it a swing.
Light. It felt good too.
Even with the length, it was light in the hand, and the grip felt comfortable.
"And this is a bonus."
What was this?
"Throwing daggers. The weapon you wanted won’t be much use against enemies at range. I made them anyway, so whether you use them is up to you."
He had even made something like this for me...
"Thank you, sir."
I bowed my head in gratitude.
"Kwahaha, I’m just repaying a debt to you. I like making things too, so don’t worry about it and focus on the exam."
"Yes, sir."
______________________________________
I gathered my gear and headed to the exam site.
Big.
That was all I could think when I saw the building.
I was staring blankly at it when I felt someone bump into me from behind and came to my senses.
"Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going."
The girl in front of me apologized and admitted it was her fault.
"No, I was the one spacing out. Are you hurt?"
"Nope, I’m fine."
The girl in front of me had earlobes shaped like earbuds. With her short hair, she gave off a first impression that made her look like a boy, but her outfit made it clear she was a girl.
"I’m Jiro Kyoka. You?"
"I’m Sorano Taka."
"Heeey, you’re aiming for the Hero Course too."
"Yes. You are too, Jiro?"
"Yeah. For now, that makes us competitors. Sorry, but I won’t go easy on you."
She looked at me with determined eyes as she said it.
"Neither will I."
As I talked with Jiro, time passed, and we went into the exam hall together.
______________________________________
The first test was written. The result seemed better than I had expected. Satisfied with that, I moved to another classroom to hear about the practical exam.
"Welcome to my live show today!!! Everybody say hey!!!"
.....
"My, how quiet you all are!!! ... Examinee listeners! I’ll ssswiftly present the outline of the practical exam!!! Are you ready? Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!"
The noisy explanation began. In short, the exam site was divided into several areas, and we would earn points by defeating the robot villains that appeared there. The robots were worth 1 point, 2 points, or 3 points, and at the end there was a large, powerful robot worth 0 points.
During the explanation, there was also an incident where a man who looked like a model student with glasses pointed out that Midoriya was being too loud.
"Finally, I’ll give you all our school’s 'lesson.' As the hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "A hero is one who overcomes the misfortunes of life," Plus Ultra!! Now then, I hope you all enjoy your suffering!!"
With that, the explanation of the practical exam ended, and we moved to the test site.
______________________________________
The exam site was packed with buildings like large office blocks.
How much money did they spend on this?
As I thought that, I checked my gear. At my waist was the longsword in its sheath, and on my back was the dagger, positioned with the hilt angled down to the left so I could draw it with my left hand. On my belt, I had the pouch for the throwing daggers.
Comfortable.
Even though this was the first time I had worn this gear today, for some reason it felt familiar and comfortable. Was this also because of "him"?
While I was thinking that, I reacted to a sound.
"All right, start!!!"
At that signal, I broke into a run.
The others just stared blankly at me from far away.
"What are you doing? There’s no count in a real fight, you know? If you just stand there, that one over there will take it from you?!!"
At that signal, the others started running all at once. I ignored them and charged the 1-point robot in front of me, drawing my sword from its sheath.
I sliced through the joints in the robot’s legs. Unable to support its own weight, it collapsed, and I climbed onto its head and stabbed the sword into the robot’s head. The robot stopped moving, and I shifted my gaze to another target and moved while thinking,
The sword Tokoro made for me can cut through steel too.
Thinking that, I kept cutting down the other robots and earning points.
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