Katherine Ride: Battlefield *BOOK TWO*

Season Three- Tough Luck

Once the class changed into their hero costumes, they were sent to a room in the stadium with the other examinees. 1,540 students were participating in all, which made Katherine slightly more anxious.

With the low success rate of the exam, that means there's less of a chance we'll pass. I might need to give another Fearless Leader speech to pump the class up. Also, maybe I should trademark "Fearless Leader." I could do that, right?

Table that and pay attention. Someone is coming up to the podium.

A tired-looking man approached the stage the rest of the contenders were currently staring at. The man ruffled through some papers, then sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with so I can go home. I'm Yokumira Mera of the Hero Public Safety Commission. I'll be the one overseeing the Provisional Hero License Exam, any questions, no, great, let's move on."

"Well, that's a mirror image of Mr. Aizawa if I've ever seen one," Shoji whispered to Katherine, making her snort.

"Let's just get this out of the way—there are 1,540 of you here, but only a hundred will be participating in the actual licensing exam," Mera explained.

Among frustrated shouts from other students, Katherine nudged Shoji. "Wow, Mezo, you really dug our grave with that one."

"Sorry."

Mera held up his hand to silence the students. "Yeah, yeah, complain all you want, but that's how it is. Anyway, we have to filter those one-hundred students out. The way we're going to do that is with a preliminary exam, the objective of which will be to test your speed since that's necessary for Heroics or whatever, I dunno, this script doesn't make sense."

"Here's how it's going to work—all of you will take three targets each and paste them on your bodies where other people can see, except the bottoms of your feet and your armpits. You will also be given six balls and you'll use those to hit the targets on other students. A target that has been hit will light up, and after all three targets have been hit, you're out. Whoever hits that third target will be considered the person who took you down."

"The goal of this first exam is to take down two contenders with your six balls. The first hundred people to reach that goal will move onto the Provisional Hero License Exam," Mera finished. "You will be given targets and balls a minute after the preliminary exam has begun. Have fun."

The room suddenly began to open up, slowly revealing that the students were in Takoba National Stadium, which had been modified so different areas resembled different terrains, much like the U.S.J. Katherine looked around and grimaced.

This may be harder than we anticipated.

After getting her targets, she applied them to three different places on her body, as had been instructed—one on her outer right thigh, one on her left side, and one on the small of her back. It was still visible, even with her wings tucked in, but it would take a keen eye to spot it and an even better aim to hit it. Her new jacket was wrapped around her waist, her six balls stuffed into its front pockets. She put her mask on, taking a deep breath. She was ready, or so she hoped.

Soon, the buzzer that signaled the start of the exam rang, and Class 1-A headed out into the battlefield. "We should stick together!" Midoriya yelled. "If it's school against school, we won't want to get separated. They'll pick us off one by one!"

"He's got a point," Katherine agreed, but as she turned, Shoto was already heading off on his own. "Hey—Shoto! What the hell?"

He half-turned and called back to her: "If we huddle together, we become an easy target. If we break off, we'll use our quirks more effectively!"