Motivation - SPORADIC UPDATES

Four

Be prepared for some long-ass paragraphs this chapter as we delve deeper into the unknown: Kazue's eMoTiOnS.

With singed hair and tingling hands and forearms, Kazue collapsed in a heap on his bed. The fight with the second intern had gone exactly as planned, and, if he was being honest, was disappointing. All he'd had to do was give Aerogale a good slap to activate his Quirk, effectively putting out the girl's fire with a powerful blast of air combined with the leftover dust. That let him give her a nice right hook across her no-longer-flaming face. She was out cold after he did the same with his left, not wanting to try and teach her a lesson like her fellow sulking intern. Fire, unlike dust, could actually seriously hurt someone, that someone being him.

Instead, Kazue had just scribbled out a list of things she could improve on (pretty much everything in the physical category) and taped it to her forehead. She relied too much on her inability to be touched during a fight like a crutch, not knowing what to do once her greatest strength had been negated.

Like he'd said earlier, a pain in his ass.

On the not-so-bright side, the recommendation exams his father had signed him up for were tomorrow. Well, at least the written portion. The physical exam would take place a week later once a few examinees had been weeded out. Kazue would pass, obviously, but the physical exam would be another matter. He was athletic, yes, and well-versed in martial arts, but his Quirk required someone else to be around in order to be used. And the brunet severely doubted that the examiners would take kindly to him mooching off of someone else.

Kazue didn't even know if physical contact between examinees was allowed. If it wasn't, well... he'd just have to stick with his biggest strength. His mind.

~-~-~-~

"You may begin the first section," the proctor announced, his approval to start cueing the practically synchronized sound of all the recommendation applicants flipping over their packets. "Once you have reached the end of the section, place your pencils on the desk in front of you and look up."

Kazue let out a quiet yet heavy sigh, flipping his own over to scan the first page of the Japanese section and dying a little inside as he started. Shouldn't the test for people whose abilities were certified by pro heroes be a little bit harder?

As much as he loved being a genius, finding something challenging enough to actually care about was harder than one might think. If he wanted to, Kazue could probably skip all of high school and go straight to college, and maybe the first year of two there as well.

Key words: If he wanted to. The brunet was perfectly happy being without motivation and little energy to do pretty much anything other than tinker around in his small workshop and turn pages.

Whatever. The sooner he finished, the sooner Kazue could take a nap. Lugging the giant industrial vacuum around the training room to clean up all the dust had taken almost everything out of the teen, especially getting the ceiling and upper portions of the walls. And the equipment. Oh, Kami, the equipment had been completely covered in dust and had to be meticulously gone over to make sure not a speck remained. Kazue might be lazy, but he didn't half-ass his job.

He set down his pencil quietly and looked up, glancing over to the clock on the wall. Six minutes of the forty-five allotted had passed, meaning he had over a half-hour to take a nap.

Nice.

The sound of another pencil being set down echoed throughout the nearly-silent examination room, catching Kazue's ears instantly. He looked over out of curiosity to see who the other genius in the room was, eyes settling on a girl his height with black hair pulled into a gravity-defying ponytail.