The Crow Code

Arc 2: The Toothpick Test: Chapter: 6

Chapter 6: The Titanium Fist

Recap:

Who's lying and who's telling the truth. From there I realized, I would have to stay and find out for myself.

>>>

The scores were released the next day after school for the Hero Exam. Of course, AJ and I passed with flying colors without checking. However, out of my own curiosity, I wanted to know what aspects I could improve on. As I look at the scoreboard, I looked at my academic score compared to my combat score. It was a twenty point difference and somewhat expected.

"Hey, Takamoto." A familiar arm wrapped around my neck.

It was AJ.

"Yo," I cocked a grin at him, "have you checked your score yet?"

"Is there any need to? I mean it was guaranteed from the beginning that we would get into the Hero Rankings with or without good scores." He said.

"Yeah," I laughed at his statement, "but it's still nice to know how you did overall."

"You're not my mom but you are my friends so I will check." He punched me lightly in the gut.

Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder and instinctively, I turned my head. It was Arian and she was with Hannah. It seemed that Arian had gotten quite friendly with her. Heat rushed to my face as Hannah smiled and waved at me.

"Hey, how'd you guys do?" Arian asked.

"We made it," I told her.

"That's amazing! You guys are going to be A-Rank Heroes right off the bat!" Hannah exclaimed.

"You should also be proud of yourself," I smiled, "you're also going to become an A-Rank too. After all, you won the physical exam."

"But, I've only got my combat power to rely on. You see... I'm not very good at academics." She responded a little c

"Even so, you're really amazing!" I said patting her on the head.

"Thank you, Takamoto-kun. For making me feel better." She said and gave me an angelic smile.

More heat rushed to my face like a bullet train.

"It was nothing," I stuttered, "after all, that's what friends do."

Behind me, I could sense Arian and AJ giving me thumbs up while snickering at the same time.

You guys suck. I mouthed to them.

All they did in response is stick out their tongues at me. I rolled my eyes at them and sighed.

"Um, is everything okay?" Hannah asked.

"It's nothing, just a couple of idiots being themselves," I said pointing back at AJ and Arian.

Suddenly, I felt a chill behind my back. I glance behind me to find Arian and AJ cracking their knuckles mouthing, You're so dead.

"Shit." I blurted out and jolted through the crowd.

"Takamoto-kun?" Hannah's face went into one of confusion.

"Hey, get back here!" The two obnoxious friends of mine started sprinting towards me.

"Hey isn't that the Student Council President and the Headphones Guy?" Some bystanders started to murmur.

"What are they doing?" Others started to chatter.

"Who knows."

>>>

A good five hours, a black eye, and bloody nose later, I was standing outside of District 15 with AJ. Apparently, Arian had to leave before us due to some special business there so she told us to meet her there instead of District 14. AJ contacted Manami earlier asking him why we were at District 14 instead of District 15. In his carefree tone, he responded: 

"As you know, we're pretty underfunded so we can't hold our own Workshops or Interior Ranking Examinations. Even though we're a 'Villain organization', we still need to uphold our reputation as a 'Hero District'. Unfortunately, we're just the cleanup crew, the backups, the hospital, and the place where people submit their Hero Credits. What I'm trying to say is you guys still need to take the Interior Ranking Exam, work at the Workshop until you finished your costumes, and make your Hero debut. That'll take about a week so I'll see you then."  

Both AJ and my face went blank. We were infuriated as we were never told about that. 

"F*** you Manami!" We both screamed in rage. 

>>>

As Manami mentioned, AJ and I needed to complete the Interior Ranking Exam, complete our costume at the Workshop, and make our Hero debut before we can return to District 15. 

The Interior Ranking Exams happen after the Hero Exam is taken at schools or at the district is finished. The Hero Exam determines your letter rank while the Interior Ranking Exam determines your number rank within the letter rank. Once your rank is determined, you have to head to the Workshop located in each District, except District 15, to get a costume made for you which once completed, you have to go through another test before you can debut as a Hero. The higher the rank, the shorter the amount of time it takes for this tedious process to be completed. For A-Ranks, it takes about a week or two to complete this whole process.

>>>  

As we walked in, we felt as if we were transported to a secret city within a city. The towering forty story District building was made out of all glass but had privacy screens over each window to prevent civilians from rubbernecking into the District's affairs. On the first floor, holographic screens, the same ones used for JumboTrons, depicted the current top heroes. Receptionists sat behind a desk ready to assist anyone. Shops, cafes, training rooms, sparing rings, ball courts made the place seem more lively. We walked over to a receptionist on the right. 

The receptionist had long brown hair with glowing green edges as if they took a dunk in radiation that covered her right eye. Her pale skin made it clear that she was a foreigner, probably from Europe and she seemed to be around our age. 

"Hello, welcome to the Hero Association. I am the receptionist, Golnaz. How may I be of assistance? " She spoke fluent Japenese with a slight German accent.

"We're here for the Interior Ranking Exams," I said in a monotone voice.

"Names?" 

"Jay Takamoto."

"Andrew Izuku."  

"Please wait a moment as I call your examiner and prepare your ID cards." She smiled then picked up the phone. 

As the receptionist was calling our Examiner we hear a voice screaming: 

"It 's happening again!" 

"No way." groups of people gasped. 

People dropped what they were doing and headed in the direction of one of the training rooms.  

AJ walks up to the other receptionist and asked, "What's going on?" 

"Ah," the receptionist snapped out of her daze, "oh that? It's quite normal here." 

"What's quite normal?" I asked. 

"Every week for the last year 'she' comes here because the higher-up ask her to run the C-Rank Interior Ranking Exams. However, her test method is really unique as it reflects a Hero's true abilities. As a result, the C-Rank heroes that are tested under her are more powerful than the others so most examines even request for her to run their exam." She smirked building up suspense. 

"Who is 'she'?" We both asked in annoyance. 

"A-Rank Number 18: Titanium Fist." 

>>>

Alright, we're finally in Arc 2! We're finally going to meet some Heroes and get into the action! Honestly, I didn't think that we would be able to make it here since this project was planning to be discontinued. Well, we're back and running!

-Digi (; -_-)