[center][color=0072bc][i]On the first day, God said, “Let there be light.”

And indeed, the first child was of light, burning bright, burning fierce.

But with resplendence came repugnance, with radiance came wickedness, with light came shadow, for power fell upon good and evil equally.

Great villains heralded great heroes. Great heroes heralded great villains. And when both pillars crumbled under the weight of their ideals, what remained?

Does it shine with hope? Does it burn with despair?

It beckons to all, ringing across the endless sky, the star of the one that will usher a new age.

But who reach out to pluck that star?

…

[b]I will.[/b][/i][/color][/center]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq8-R9Ju5F0[/youtube]
[h1][b][color=0072bc]𝕁[/color][/b]𝕚𝕘𝕠𝕜𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕜𝕦 [b][color=0072bc]𝔸[/color][/b]𝕔𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕞𝕪[/h1]
[sub]Chapter 0: Heartstep Rainbeat[/sub][/center]

Three years ago, the fog that Kirisama was named after would have been a sight to behold in the morning, when the sun became tangible against the fine mist. But there was no sun, not under such a heavy cloud cover, and in the present, the city still bore many scars from that battle one year past, when the upper echelon of the Soai-kai clashed with a task force composed of the JSDF and heroes ranking in the top 20. Construction companies had done their best to fix up the center of the city, but this far out, destroyed buildings and ruptured pavement were a common sight. It was haunting, and for the few who had been around during that terrible conflict, it brought up unpleasant memories of the burning skies, of the hundred demons, of hiding in the basement, of holding their hands over their ears, of hoping that a yakuza’s honor would mean none of them would be dragged out of their homes and used as hostages. The great Pillar of Evil, All For One, had been a shadowy mastermind, but in his wake, others sought more direct methods of control, organized violence coagulating into dens of sinister intent while true monsters rose from the wombs of beasts.

Recently, there had been less and less children who wanted to become heroes. Crime paid more for equal amounts of suffering, while the glamor that the Symbol of Peace once inspired was now gone, and in his wake was the dreary reality of rising crime rates and police presence, of the constant fear that the kitten you picked up from the streets would start breathing fire or ripping through steel. On the news, specialists wondered what would happen to the next few generations of heroes, who wouldn’t even have experienced or been inspired by the all-encompassing magnanimity of All Might. In the House of Representative, certain politicians have even been promising on cutting down the budgets of essential services in order to beef up the Heroics budget, trading life quality for perceived safety. And on the streets, one could rarely escape the sound of nearby construction, the constant demolition and rebuilding of the aftereffects of Quirk-empowered clashes.

Perhaps Kirsama’s current state, of a reconstructed center and a neglected outskirts, was representative of Japan as a whole, as heroes and villains ebbed and flowed, neither side able to raise a champion that could color the world black or white.

But if anyone in the bus was concerned, they clearly should be shifting their concern to more pressing matters, such as the upcoming entrance exam they were about to take. Despite being a brand new school placed in what constituted as the boonies, Jigokuraku Academy had been almost excessively particular with its selection process, and it was only through a healthy combination of luck, hard work, and more luck that the sixteen students currently riding a charter bus had managed to pass everything and reach the ‘final exam’. Some were native to Kirisama, enrolling in this hero school due to proximity, while others were from further off prefectures, here because no other academy would take them, and though there were a few conversations here and there, the bus was largely bereft of chatter. It was too big for such a small group, after all, and at 7 AM on a cloudy day, few were in the mood to be cheery.
Well, some were.

Eventually, the bus grinded to a halt, and a young girl (tour guide? hired help? random elementary schooler?) with a receding hairline and a shiny forehead ushered them out with a smile. Outside, it was cold enough still that breath whitened, and the occasional seaward breeze that could be felt was ‘chilling’ instead of ‘refreshing’. More concerning though, was the fact that the place they stopped by did not look like an examination area at all. No, it was just an area that looked like any other place in the outskirts of Kirisama: rubbles of rubble, toppled buildings, cracked pavement, all stretching as far as the eye can see, or as far as the fog would allow them to.

Coughing once, the girl with the large forehead pulled out a sheet of paper from her skirt’s pockets, unfolded it, and said, [b]“Eh…hello everyone and congratulations on making it this far. For the final part of Jigokuraku Academy’s entrance exam, you will be tested here, in this area in before you. Villains have done villainous things and left this section of town heavily damaged, and there are many civilians here who must be rescued as a result of this. Naturally, you will also have to contend with fighting villains at the same time, but don’t worry, you can count the amount of villains here in one hand.”[/b]

She paused, before shuffling through the rubble and pulling out a dummy the size of a baby. [b]“Also, there’s no need to worry about ‘how’ you rescue people or if you’re able to treat their hypothetical injuries. You won’t be marked on that, so if you want to, you can just do this.”[/b] Without much care, she hurled the baby-sized dummy into the bus, where it bounced off the railing, rolled back down the stairs, and laid there sadly, head hanging over the edge. [b]“You get points based off the amount of people you rescue, and you get a lot more points if you capture a villain and bring them in. In this scenario, assume that you haven’t been cleared to utilize extreme force, and that there won’t be reinforcements or relief headed your way any time soon.”[/b]

A pause. The girl sneezed. Apparently she was colder than she acted.

[b]“Try not to hurt yourselves with your own quirks, and try not to burn yourselves out either. The bus will be where you can store rescued ‘civilians’, and I think that’s it now.”[/b] Already, she was heading back into the charter bus with its heater and its plush seats, balling up the sheet of paper in her fist. [b]“You can start when the signal sounds. Good luck.”[/b]

And then she was gone, leaving the prospective students to their own devices.

In the sky, gray light poured from a hidden sun, pale enough that it could not warm them at all.

It really was a cold day.