The next day, the male intern—whose name, Kazue had learned, was Daguchi Ichiro—didn't show up and ask for help like everyone else in the past had. A little surprised at the change, the brunet just shrugged it off and almost finished his daily list of tasks without a hitch. One less thing to do, and he was perfectly fine with that.

All that was left was his daily training-slash-workout routine that his father had designed.

Changing into a plain black tank top and sweatpants, Kazue slung his gym bag over his shoulder and wandered off to the training room, hoping it wasn't occupied so he could finish as soon as possible so he could go back to not having a life in peace.

Unfortunately, his non-existent life, evidently, had it out for him because the training room was occupied, and by Aerogale's intern. Not the one with the dust, no, but the redheaded girl who could coat herself in flames. The one he still didn't know the name of.

Kazue leaned against the doorframe, watching with an eyebrow quirked. Changed into workout clothes like him, the girl was actually doing what he'd suggested on the list he'd taped to her unconscious forehead. Specifically, the third item on the list, her punching power. She was standing in front of one of the many bags held to the ceiling by a chain, visibly wincing every time her bare fists made contact with it.

"You know, you should probably wrap your hands before doing something like that," the brunet commented, easily slipping into his 'I'm the son of Number Seven' persona and dying inside at how fucking cocky his own voice sounded. "Wouldn't want to make your knuckles bleed. Sorry for not putting that on the list."

"Shut. Up." she gritted out without looking back, punching at the bag even harder than before. "And go away."

Kazue made his sigh louder than necessary, walking inside to set down his gym bag and dig around inside. "Take them," he stated, holding out an unused pair of bandages to the girl with his trademarked dead expression. "You'll only hurt yourself if you go barehanded."

"I said, go away," the girl muttered, sweat plastering the loose locks of hair from her ponytail to her forehead. "I don't need my Kōhai's help, alright? Screw off."

He mentally rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what was running through the older teen's mind. "Clearly you do, if that stance is anything to go by," Kazue commented dryly and dropped the bandages at her feet, not failing to notice how she paused for a fraction of a second to try and see what she was doing wrong. "Hands up higher; anyone could easily deck you across the face if your guard drops that low. Feet the slightest bit farther apart. Thumb goes across your fingers, not at the side of your fists."

With that, he proceeded to 'screw off', heading to the opposite side of the gym and starting his stretches. Kazue was not about to get a muscle cramp in the middle of training after lecturing an intern about their own shortcomings. Now that would really be a pain in the ass.

~-~-~-~

About a week later, the day of the practical exam finally rolled around. Not that Kazue was particularly looking forward to it, rather he just wanted to get it over with and go back to the agency where his talents would actually be useful.

He recognized a few people—well, more of everyone, really, because all he needed was a single glance for something to be permanently ingrained in his memory—at the exam location, but stood off to the side alone in his plain grey and black tracksuit. The number seven, ironically or unironically enough, was pinned to his chest.

Kazue didn't exactly have a strong desire to socialize outside of obligation, but he also wanted to stay as far as possible away from the proctor of the exam.

Voice Hero: Present Mic.

It wasn't that the teen disliked the man, not at all, it was just that the hero was naturally loud and Kazue wasn't about to change the volume settings on his hearing aids in front of a group of strangers. It was already considered a 'liability' in the hero world to not have a physical or powerful emitter-type Quirk, but to have to rely on something else to hear? That would only make it more of a pain in his ass than it already was.

At this point, basically everything in his life qualified as a pain in the ass.

He just wanted to go home, read, mess around with some electronics, and sleep the rest of the day away. Was that too much to ask?

Yes, yes it was.

Kazue mentally groaned as Present Mic busted out several poses, beginning to announce the stage they were at and what they still had left. The written was finished, the practical was about to start, and last was the interview. If Kazue ended up passing the second test, then... ugh. He was going to have to be all 'sociable' with whoever was in charge of the interview. And it was for the heroics course, so that meant he was likely to be asked why he wanted to be a hero or go to the school at all. Spoiler alert; Kazue didn't want to be a hero. That was his father's thing. He wanted no part in it, preferring to stay behind the scenes and making sure everything ran smoothly.

"You'll go six at a time for the practical," the hero grinned widely. Oh. Right, Present Mic was still announcing the instructions. "Go to the exam location when your number's called! The exam will be a three-kilometer race. But it's a course that you won't be able to finish if you just run. Use your Quirks freely to reach the finish line!"

The brunet deadpanned, considering just laying down on the grass, closing his eyes, and going to sleep right then and there. Instead, he just grimaced, raising his hand to ask the inevitable question.

"Yes, listener!" Present Mic screeched, reminding Kazue of a cockatiel the longer he was in the hero's presence.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as all the attention of the other applicants suddenly turned on him all at once. "Is physical contact between examinees allowed?" Kazue asked, digging the toe of his sneaker into the grass and fixing his gaze on the man's shoulder.

Wonderful. His aversion to social interaction outside of the agency was acting up again.

~

Hizashi's eyes widened underneath his triangular shades, realizing for the first time what Shōta had been complaining about for the past week. About how the exams weren't 'rational' and didn't pass good enough judgement on someone's potential to be a hero. "Sorry, listener," he apologized, cringing inside at his upbeat voice. "No can do."

The kid just nodded once, dropping his hand back to his side with his dead expression only becoming flatter. No doubt about it, Hizashi had just crushed the dreams of a teenager he didn't even know the name of. Shit... yeah, he'd definitely have to bring it up at the next staff meeting.

~

Kazue was annoyed as he dropped his hand to his side and let his thoughts wander, ignoring the few other students still looking at him. The principal of Yūei was supposed to be a genius, if his research the night before had anything to say about it. So, why couldn't the entrance exams be more... logical? Why couldn't they design an exam that wouldn't give one group of people the advantage and toss another to the curb? Was it so damn hard to use common sense these days that it should be called uncommon sense?

Apparently, it was. Yet another item to put on the list of things that were a pain in his ass.

~-~-~-~

Okay, so maybe Kazue had been the slightest bit dramatic in his thoughts earlier about how much of a pain in the ass the exam was going to be.

That didn't mean it wasn't a pain in the ass, no, but just... a little less than he'd thought it'd be after surveying the Quirks of the five other people in his group. Specifically, the girl with Creation. Like he'd thought the week before when he'd absentmindedly picked apart her Quirk after the written exam, its possibilities were limitless. Well, almost, as long as she knew the molecular structure of what she was creating-

Stop getting ahead of yourself, Kazue warned his speeding train of thoughts, forcing his eyes to glance over the other four students to see what he could potentially gain from the leftovers of their Quirks. There was a girl with dark green hair who could split her body into separate parts and remotely control them, but that couldn't exactly help him. The same went for the rest, one of which could turn into various members of the cat family, another that could transform their skin into whatever material he touched, the next had a resemblance to an arctic fox—having both ears and a tail—as well as being able to control ice, and the last could expel expanding foam from their hands.

Out of all five other contestants in his group, the only one who could leave behind something actually helpful was the Creation girl. Looked like Kazue would have to play the part of the 'cheater' and stay behind her the entire time to be able to use her left-behind objects, considering she couldn't transform them back into lipids.

"ARE YOU READY?!?!??"

Kazue winced at the sudden yell, resisting slapping his hands over his ears and regretting not creating an automatic volume changer based on input decibel levels. "No," he mumbled under his breath, joining the other examinees at the starting line and surveying the visible portion of the course.

"START!"

Tbh I don't really like this chapter that much but it shows more of Kazue's real personality so 🤷‍♀️

Now then... Question: What group do my non-existent readers, let alone commenters, think Kazue is going to be in (aka the Dekusquad, the Bakusquad, or other)?

Questions/comments/things I should change?