MHA - The Rise of Psion - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rei hummed to himself as he casually floated just a few inches above the ground. Technically what he was doing was breaking the law and something he wouldn't have ever considered doing even six months ago. Yet, here he was and it was all thanks to his best friend. Well, his only friend really. Nejire had done a lot for and with him since the day they met. She'd even taken it upon herself to help with his regular education.

Nemuri liked it when Nejire helped him come out of his shell so they're spent a lot of time together. Nejire had even gotten him a few bad habits, like his current method of travel. She'd told him, 'As long as you don't blatantly go flying through the air where you could be seen and interfere with other things, it's fine. Unless a hero is super bored or super pedantic they wont bother you for floating along peacefully.'

Her words had proven true. He'd floated past several heroes on patrol over the months and none of them had cared in the least. Only the pettiest of petty heroes bothered with small stuff like that.

He smiled brightly as he floated toward the familiar gates of U.A. high school. No matter how many times he made his way through the gates, he always found them impressive. He'd also seen them in action a few times when reporters or super fans had tried to sneak onto the campus to ambush a hero at work. He admired them, then floated by to make his way to the first testing area.

He'd put in a lot of work when it came to his studies. Despite how powerful his mind was, he was no super genius or anything. He had to study and work hard to even come close to catching up with his contemporaries. Even so, both Nemuri and Nejire were certain he would pass the written test with an acceptable grade. He wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the class grade wise, but that was alright.

After all, the biggest deciding factor was the practical. While he'd been given no information on it, and had been honest in not attempting to read either Nemuri or Aizawa's minds, he was certain he would pass. It didn't hurt that everyone else agreed with his evaluation. With everyone else having full confidence in his passing, then he had no reason to doubt it.

Of course, full confidence in him didn't mean he wouldn't do his absolute best. If he slacked off and didn't do his best, there was still a chance he wouldn't make the cut. If that happened... well, it didn't bear thinking about. He'd been warned what failure would mean and after almost a year of relative freedom... He was pretty sure going back to Tartarus now would be the worst sort of torture to him.

A child of five who barely understands the world has a lot less to lose than a young man of fifteen, almost sixteen, who spent the last year making friends and experiencing the world and all it had to offer. He was terrified of failure, terrified of ever facing that hell again, and would do everything in his power to make sure he never let anyone down.

He lifted his chin and floated his way into the area they were doing the written tests in. Step one, do his best on the written exam.

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Rei rubbed his temples as he walked out of the testing area and began making his way to the auditorium. The written exam had been brutal. He wasn't sure how well he'd done, but he'd hoped he'd done good enough to pass. There were quite a few questions he had significant trouble with where he could only hope his answers were sufficient. The problem was, he wasn't only feeling his own anxiety for the test. There were hundreds of kids just like himself in the school taking the test. His control was excellent, but that was a lot of anxiety and fear pressing down on his mind constantly. It was giving him a terrible headache and made taking the exam all the harder.

Fortunately, with the written portion now over, everyone's emotions were shifting to a more positive direction. Excitement and curiosity were the biggest growing emotions for the upcoming practical. Apparently, U.A. hada reputation for going over the top with their practical exams and everyone was curious about how it would go down this year.

It didn't take long for Rei to find out. After finding his seat in the packed auditorium, Present Mic, better known to Rei as Yamada-sensei, took control of the presentation and explained the rules. Three robots worth one, two, or three points and a fourth obstacle robot worth zero points. That last one bugged Rei a lot. He'd been told, often, that a hero should do everything they could to stop every villain they could, within their means.

Aizawa had taught him to cautiously pick his targets in conflict by using himself as an example. Aizawa trained relentlessly to prepare himself for conflict because of the limitations of his Quirk. His Quirk was nearly useless against mutation-type Quirks and many mutation Quirks offered their owners enhanced physical aspects. Most often, enhanced strength or agility. Aizawa's Erasure did nothing against those inherent traits making mutant types his worst match up in a fight. There were just some mutant-types that he could never beat no matter how much he trained because of the sheer difference in physical ability.

However, Aizawa always emphasized that he would still do his best to at least stall, distract, or otherwise entangle the villain until someone more appropriate could finish the job. Just standing around staring or running away because of a bad Quirk match up was not the work of a hero. A hero would always find something to do to help the situation.

Though... He looked at the blue haired boy who'd interrupted Yamada-sensei's presentation before he'd finished explaining things and was exceptionally rude when doing so. Rei hoped he and that boy weren't in the same testing area. If they were, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep himself from destroying every robot the boy targeted. It would be easy for him to ensure the boy got a zero on the practical, but that didn't seem very heroic.

Soon enough, he found himself facing a gate with a bunch of strangers. Lucky for the blue haired boy, they were assigned to different areas. He looked around the group of students and saw a few that looked unique.

As his eyes wandered he subconsciously read the emotions of the people he gazed at. At first, all he felt was nervousness, determination, and a little fear from most people. Then, his gaze fell upon the shortest person in their entire group. The short boys gaze was locked onto one of the more attractive girls who happened to be wearing yoga pants. The feeling he got from the short boy sent a feeling of revulsion through him.

He'd spent almost a year living near and learning from Nemuri, who slowly let out her normal personality around him as he grew more accustomed to the real world. Even in her worst moments he'd not felt such a level of sheer lust radiating from her. There was so much pure lust radiating off of the midget that Rei actually worried the boy might assault the girl he was staring at. It was disturbing and Rei wasn't sure what to do about it.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much more time to think about it as Yamada-sensei announced the start of the test and the gates began to open. Rei needed to pass the test, but he swore to himself that he would keep a mental eye on the short guy and be prepared to step in if he even thought... no attempted to do something.

That was a lesson Rei still had trouble with. Thinking things was not illegal. No matter how dark, vile, evil, or disgusting the thoughts he heard, they were not illegal. He'd learned that lesson a few months back when he'd first gotten access to full telepathy instead of just empathy. That very first day he'd caught the thoughts of an angry man wishing he could kill his boss. Even imagining different scenarios for murdering the man in different ways.

Rei had panicked and dragged Nemuri over to where the man was sitting, calmly sipping on a coffee at a cafe. The confrontation did not go as Rei expected. Instead of Nemuri arresting the man for plotting a murder, she apologized to the man. After a short talk, it came out that the man's boss had stolen credit for his work and presented it to their bosses. He'd lost a promotion because of it. He was just mentally venting and never had any intention of doing anything illegal. Rather, he planned to file a formal complaint, as was proper.

Rei had learned then that thoughts were not something he could use to judge people or accuse them of wanting to commit crimes. Even the most innocent person could have an intrusive thought, something they would never actually act on. It sucked, but even if someone was truly planning on committing a murder, he couldn't do anything until they actually took a step toward committing the crime in the real world.

The same applied to the short boy he'd scanned. The guy might be thinking disgusting things about the girl in the yoga shorts, but until he acted on something there was nothing more Rei could do about it. He'd have to just settle for keeping an eye on the creep and reporting what he could to the staff.

With his plan in place and the test started, Rei hopped a little off of the ground and grabbed himself with his telekinesis. It was a simple matter to lift himself into the air and take off like a rocket. Thanks to Nejire, he was now an excellent flier and, much to her consternation, was actually faster than her. It all came down to aerodynamics. Nejire basically had boosters on her hands and feet to help her fly and control her flight, but her body wasn't very aerodynamic. Rei, on the other hand, could make a telekinetic bubble around himself in any shape he desired making him exceptionally aerodynamic in flight because he would shape the bubble like a blade and slice through the air.

He also used the forward edge of his flight bubble to slice through the first robot he saw in his path. There was no resistance while the metal parted like a hot knife through butter. Rei laughed lightly and came down for a landing deep into the testing area where it would still take the others a couple of minutes to reach.

Robots immediately surrounded him and began firing their weapons at him with abandon. Rubber bullets from gatling guns fired by the one pointers and the tails of the two pointers, followed by dummy rockets from the three pointers. Every bullet and rocket hit a normally invisible barrier a full foot away from where Rei was standing. Each hit on the bubble caused a ripple that made it briefly visible.

It had taken weeks of work, but Rei had finally figured out how to generate a solid protective field around himself that could handle a lot of damage before breaking. He had to be careful in its use though. A hard enough hit to the force field would cause feedback and give him a major migraine. Too hard of a hit could possibly cause physical damage or even knock him unconscious. Against attacks only meant to bruise? He might as well be declared invincible.

After letting the robots pepper his shield with their rubber bullets for a few seconds, he reached out with his telekinesis and began picking them up. He lifted his hand and made a finger gun. When his thumb dropped like a hammer, a rubber bullet was fired off that smashed through a one pointer and destroyed it. He laughed and repeated the action firing off shot after shot until he'd destroyed every robot near him.

He was about to go looking for more robots to break when he felt it. A large spike of panic from another student not too far away. He didn't even need to think about it before he was in the air and moving faster than most peoples eyes could track. He'd been told over and over that a hero's first priority was protecting people. Stopping villains was important, but saving lives was the most important.

As he flew around a corner he found the source of panic. A girl with fluffy brown hair was hiding behind a wall while three one pointers unloaded their guns at her. Rei reached out a hand and captured each robot in his telekinetic grip. He squeezed his hand closes crushing each robot enough to break them.

The girl looked up with tears in her eyes. Her mouth began to open but Rei took off again before she could speak. With more and more students spreading out he was beginning to feel spikes of panic and fear as they ran into situations they couldn't handle. Rei spent the next several minutes running from student to student to rescue them from situations they weren't prepared for or couldn't handle.

Then, it got so much worse. The ground rumbled and he felt a wave of fear crash over everyone in all the testing areas at once. The zero pointers had been released.

-----Line Break-----

In a dark room lit only by the light coming from dozens of monitors, the staff of U.A. watched the students at work on the exam grounds. Each of them glanced from screen to screen keeping an eye out for anything interesting. For obvious reasons it was impossible for them to observe everything... well for almost all of them. The exception being, of course, Nezu.

There were two teachers, however, who were only watching a single screen each. Though they did watch different screens. Aizawa had his eyes locked on the screen showing Rei and his actions. Aizawa would die before ever admitting it aloud, but he was proud of Rei's progress. He would admit, however, that he much preferred working with a blank slate like Rei. The boy had no per-conceived notions on what being a hero meant or how heroes were meant to behave. He had no biases, no prejudices, nothing to keep him from doing the work of a hero fairly and professionally.

The second teacher was a skinny man, practically skeletal, in an over sized suit with lanky blond hair and deep set blue eyes that seemed to glow. His eyes were locked on a different screen showing a teen running around and effortlessly smashing robots to piece with his bare fists while small sparks of green lightning danced around his body.

While those two watched their prospective proteges, Nemuri watched as Rei swopped in front of another student and brought up his shield to protect the other kid from a barrage of rubber bullets. She spoke up with a hint of pride in her tone, “Rei seems to be doing exceptionally well.”

Nezu's beady black eyes focused on Rei's screen for a moment while his chest puffed out in pride, before returning to flickering from screen to screen, “Yes, he's doing rather well indeed.” Everyone could hear the sheer unabashed level of smugness in Nezu's tone as he spoke about Rei, “I do so love it when a plan comes together.”

Watching Rei rescuing other students while also destroying robots to increase his score was impressive and exactly why he'd wanted to recruit Rei from the beginning. Rei's potential was unlimited and he wanted that potential unleashed for the good of the world! His gaze shifted to the screen following All Might's chosen protege. The boy showed some promise, but it could potentially be years after graduation before the kid reached his peak power and became a match for All Might in his prime. Rei? He'd reach such a level around the time he graduated.

All Might wasn't going to be able to maintain the facade of his might with it currently fading into embers. Once it became obvious that All Might was no longer capable of being the hero he once was, crime rates were going to skyrocket. Everyone aware of All Might's condition knew this to be the truth. They had some promising students, but they would only be a stopgap measure. The public needed another symbol, something to rally behind and look up to.

His plan was for Rei to fill in the gap in between All Might's inevitable retirement and his protege being ready to take the reins. Of course, nothing said both of them couldn't become symbols in their own rights. The future was unpredictable, even for him. Although... perhaps he should arrange to the two to meet Sir Nighteye so the man could use his Quirk on them. Sir Nighteye wasn't infallable, but he could provide a lot of worthwhile information.

Well, that was for later, for now... He flipped up a plastic cover over a large red button clearly labeled 'Press For Fun'. With a wicked grin he exclaimed, “Let's see how they handle pressure!”

He slammed his small paw down on the massive button and released the Zero Pointer robots with a maniacal cackle.

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Rei launched himself into the air to get a better look at the giant robot that was scaring the crap out of the other students. They were fleeing in droves from the giant machine and he didn't blame them. The Zero Pointer was huge. Its every movement causing the ground around it to shake violently.

He scanned the area in front of the robot with both his eyes and his telepathy looking for anyone that might be in danger. It seemed like everyone was getting clear of the large machine with little issue. With that being the case, he refocused on the machine and tried to figure out the best way to deal with it.

His first thought was to use his telekinesis to stop the robot in place, but he quickly dismissed it. His telekinesis might be able to lift twenty-five tons, but that was a pittance of weight against the giant machine. Just a single one of its legs probably weighed more than that all on its own! So, that was out, as was trying to crush the thing. So blunt force was out. He needed something more precise. He knew just what to use for that!

Rei lifted his right hand and curled his fingers as if he was holding a handle. The air directly above his fist began to twist and warp as he gathered his telekinetic power into a smaller area. In a matter of moments a nearly invisible blade of force over twenty feet long had formed. Rei held it out ot the side and dashed forward using his maximum available flight speed, somewhere around one hundred miles an hour given his need for concentration on the massive blade of force.

His whole body jerked to a near stop when the edge of the blade clashed with the thick neck of the giant machine. He grunted as he felt a large pressure pressure in his mind while his blade began slicing through the thick, almost solid steel, neck of the zero pointer. It was a hell of a lot harder on him than he had expected it to be. Then again, he'd never sliced through anything so thick in all his practice.

He grit his teeth and forced his body to continue through the air, dragging the blade along with it and through the neck of the machine. He ignored the feeling of a blood vessel bursting in his nose and the taste of blood as it dribble down over his lips. Maybe slicing had been a poor idea, but he was committed now.

It felt like it took hours, when really it was less than twenty seconds, for his blade to slice completely thought the zero pointers neck and decapitate the machine. The instant the blade was freed from the machines neck, Rei felt a sense of sudden relief when the pressure building in his skull faded away leaving him with a dull headache.

Rei carefully observed the falling head of the machine while wiping the blood that had dripped from his nose off of his face. It wasn't the first time he'd burst a blood vessel in his nose and he doubted it would be the last. He just needed to take it easy for a while and he'd heal up just fine. He wasn't too worried as he observed the machine collapsing to the ground, he could sense no one even remotely close to it who would be in any sort of danger.

His head whipped to the side when the sound of a massive collision came from the arena next to his own. Rei's eyes widened as he witnessed another Zero Pointer getting decimated. It's head had crumpled in on itself and the whole body was falling backward from the powerful hit it'd taken. For just a moment he thought he saw someone dropping in the air, but they were gone before he could be certain of anything.

Seeing the other giant robot falling to pieces brought a smile to his face. It looked like there was another true hero in the testing group next to his. He couldn't wait to meet them!

-----Line Break-----

Rei hummed as he looked at the envelope in his hand. The results from the exam had finally arrived! He quickly tore the envelope open and pulled out the contents, a metal disk and a few sheets of paper. He quickly set the disk down and watched, enthralled, as an image of Nezu appeared above it. The small animal genius waved at Rei through the recording, “Hello Rei. I am very pleased to say that you have passed the entrance exam! Normally one of the teachers would be doing this recording, but in your case I made an exception.”

Nezu stood tall with his paws clasped behind his back, “You did excellent by earning fifty-seven villain points. A very respectable score that would have seen you placed in the top ten all by itself, if there wasn't more to the test! You stuck true to the teaching you've received on being a hero and highlighted it with your actions!”

As Nezu spoke, the wall behind him began to show scenes of Rei going to help other students during the exam when they were overwhelmed, “Hero points! Six judges, each allowed to award up to ten points per student, watched your actions and rated how heroic they found them to be.” The screen changed and showed Rei while he was cutting through the Zero Pointers neck, “You even went out of your way to stop an overwhelming villain when it would not give you a reward.”

The screen changed to show a dark room with six people in it, all holding up signs that read '10' on them, “You earned a perfect score for hero points! That brings your total score to one hundred and seventeen!”

The screen changed again to show the top ten, “That puts you in second place.”

Rei's eyes glittered with unshed tears as he looked at the list wondering who scored more than he had. First place, Kirishima Eijiro, Villain points sixty-two, hero points 60, total one hundred and twenty-two. Rei had been beaten by a mere five points. He didn't care. He didn't have to be number one, or even number one hundred.

He just wanted to be a hero, now more than ever.

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AN

Just over 4k words.

Just so you know how crazy big the 0 pointers are, I estimate that JUST the face plate of the robot is something like 50 feet tall and 20 feet wide. That's a SUPER rough estimate using an image of Deku right up in front of the machine. For reference, Deku is 5'5” about the height of just TWO of the robots eyes. Just using my estimate and saying that face plate, just the faceplate ALONE, is one inch thick, that means the plate would weight roughly 40k pounds or 20 tons. Even if it was as thin as ¼ inch, it would still weigh 10k pounds or 5 tons. That's just the exterior of a single face of the head.

So, yeah. Rei's 25 ton TK weight limit might seem like a lot, but it's not enough to even lift the head of the 0 pointer whereas Deku's single, WEAK (relatively speaking) punch not only obliterated it, but actually pushed the WHOLE ROBOT backward. And that was Deku with 0 training and brand new to One For All so we know it wasn't the true 100% limit of his power.

So, yeah, Rei is actually weaker than an untrained Deku in the raw power department. On the bright side, Rei's power is more flexible and way more precise.

Current range: 27,200 feet (5.15 miles)

Current weight: 1% 500lbs, 2% 1,000lbs, 20% 50,000lbs (25 tons)