DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MY HERO ACADEMIA, I ONLY OWN MY CHARACTER AND A FEW PLOT CHANGES! THOUGH, I CAN STILL DREAM!

CHAPTER 2: BURNING DOWN
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THIRD POV
KASAI SPENT THE previous ten months training. After the sludge villain incident, she didn't want anything like that to happen again, where she's frozen with shock. She wanted to be prepared, for any fight and any situation. She wanted to train her body to move, despite the fear.

So, during these months she went to school, studied, and when she got home, she would train in her room, or in one of the training rooms. She first started with hand to hand combat with a punching bag, of course she had them covered with handwraps. Once she was skilled at punching, she added the kicks.

Then, when she acquired a fair amount of muscle to tone her body, she continues the cardio with running. This was done at home, and since they practically lived in an estate, she could run around the perimeter. This often kept her outside the home until the late hours of the day. She didn't mind. She was used to being lonely.

On the weekends, she got up in the early hours of the morning to train with her Holy Fire quirk. She will spend time extending the length of her flames to create walls of brilliant white fire. She would also incorporate them with her combat by creating two dual swords, well, sort of swords, since they only extended from her hands. Kasai also practiced time and time again to perfect the ability to encase her whole body in flames.

All of her fire techniques took an average of 6 months to perfect, since she only worked on them during the weekends. If her afternoon weekdays weren't spent studying for the entrance exam, she worked on her flexibility. Starting with yoga was the obvious first. It was a few hours everyday doing a series of different multitude level stretches.

All in all, she spent her ten months training and reshaping her body to the perfect extent. She fights like a skilled boxer, not the best, but skilled enough. She can light herself on fire and become a literal human torch. Then finally, she can bend in the most flexible of ways, almost like a combination of a ballerina, gymnast, and yoga instructor. Mentally and physically, Kasai was prepared.

So, on the morning of the entrance exam, she left a bit earlier than expected in order to ride on the train. She could have gone later and gotten a train with her twin brother, but they're not really that close. Growing up, her brother was separated from her, and their siblings, in order to undergo her father's training. Their relationship grew strained, one full of jealousy and resentment on her side. She had a quirk too, a fire one, but she never got her father's attention. In his eyes, she was viewed as a failure along with her other siblings, Fuyumi, Touya, and Natsuo.

Anyways, eventually after a train ride, she walked towards the Academy with a scarf around her neck. Unfortunately, due to her fire quirk, cold weather seemed to affect her more than others, so she had to dress in layers. Well, not that much layers, but enough to keep her content. Plus, she can also use her fire manipulation to raise her body temperature.

"Stupid winter and your cold weather," she scoffs to herself, rubbing her gloved hands together.

Hopefully for the written part of the exam, Kasai won't be seated next to Shoto. Because that would be awkward to explain. Like, oh, I didn't expect to see you here, but I did! I just didn't want you to know I was taking the exam as well. I mean, you're getting through recommendations, but I'm not. And that's okay...psych!

Yup, that would be completely awkward if it happened.

Turquoise colored eyes scan the area, carefully, before the pale haired girl resumes towards the prestigious school. She was in awe at the mere sight of the building, and suddenly, it was becoming very real. She's here. A chance to finally prove herself. A real chance to gain her father's approval, to not be a failure.

At the revelation, Kasai steels her nerves. Her determination burning like a raging wildfire in her soul. She won't give up. This time, she'll fight like hell to prove herself. She'll incinerate the whole test and come out on top.

She'll be number one....well, she'll do her best.

Though, just as she closes some of the distance between the gate and the school, she notices the familiar green locks of her classmate, Midoriya. She's not baffled at his presence since she's known about him applying at U.A for ten months now. Though, she still finds it weird. Not once in her school life has she seen him use a quirk, Kasai often wonders if he does have one.

"Move, flamebrain, or I'll kill you," Bakugou insults, walking on her left.

She smirks, like usual. "You've said that many times, but I'm still waiting if you'll actually do something," she states.

"Oh yeah! Then, I'll do it right here, right now," he snaps, turning to glare at her.

The other students walking by get startled by their yelling, but the duo don't pay them any mind.

Kasai crosses her arms in a defying manner. "Oh yeah? Then, do it! I dare you," she smirks, smugly.

"Whatever, you shit for brains," he waves her off before continuing towards the building.

The pale haired girl rolls her eyes, smirking in victory. Despite the incident with the sludge monster, Kasai and Katsuki still continued their verbal onslaught on one another. It always started with one insulting the other before they butted heads. Then, it would either finish with one of them walking away, like how the ash blond just did. Or their argument will become very heated, to the point of them almost using their quirks.

As she walks forwards, the Todoroki witnesses as Bakugou intimidates Midoriya up ahead. Shaking her head, she ignores everything else and continues walking. Passing the freckled boy who's now floating due to the girl next to him, she says nothing to acknowledge him.

Though, she does wonder. How is he going to fight in the combat testing if he, what I assume, doesn't have a quirk?

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

ONCE THE WRITTEN exam was over, they took a short break. It was so the recommended students can take their leave as well. Kasai counted herself lucky when she didn't intercept with her brother. Though, she did spot him since he was seated towards the front while she sat more in the back, away from his peripheral vision.

Now, however, they're back in their seats about to start the second portion of their exams. Well, first there's going to be a brief explanation of the mentioned task. Kasai knew that it was a combat type of task and that it involved robots, but other than that, she knew nothing.

Sitting in her seat, next to a boy with navy hair and squared glasses, she waits patiently while drumming her fingers on the desk. As the Todoroki waited, she scoured, and gazed, at the examinees around her. Some caught her attention, like a girl who was completely pink with some horns on her head, she wondered what quirk she had. Though, others creeped her out, like a short boy who had purple orbs as hair, she noticed him during the break when she caught him staring at her. She literally physically cringed.

Luckily, her wait was shortly over when the auditorium dimmed to darkness. The stage caught their attention as it lit up in a spotlight. Immediately, she noticed the new proctor. A blond male, maybe in his thirties, dressed in all leather.

Blond mohawk? Rockstar vibe? A speaker around his neck? This is obviously the pro hero, Present Mic, Kasai evaluates.

"Welcome, one and all, to my live show! Everybody say heeeyyy," the girl deadpans at his introduction.

However, she silently laughs when no one responds to him. The silence is so much that it practically begs for a cricket's chirp. Or a pin to drop. Anything really.

"I've got shivers down my spine, too, listeners! All right examinees, I'm going to give you the low-down on how this'll go down! Are you ready?! Yeah," Present Mic informs with a yell, his voice amplifying through the room.

Again, the silence was deafening.

"Now, pay close attention, listeners! We'll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice run at our replica city-district! You can take whatever you like! Everybody gather at the designated meeting area after the presentation, ya dig," he informs, showing a diagram of the several districts in the screen behind him.

Kasai glances down and her turquoise gaze reads the information on her card. She's in Area D. Secretly taking a look at the boy's card, she notices that he's in Area A. Even if their serial numbers are one after the other, they're separated into different groups.

"We'll be sprinkling a large number of 'villains' over the battlefield. And they'll appear in three different varieties, with point value scaled according to difficulty! Using each of your individual quirks, dispatch as many villains as you can, your goal, listeners, is to rack up a high score! And don't think about directly attacking any other competitors or any of that nasty anti-hero stuff, because that's against the rules, capisce," the pro hero explains, showing the different kinds of 'villains' which are really robots.

Kasai nods in understanding, taking in the information. Though, she's surprised when the boy next to her suddenly stands up, raising his hand.

"Excuse me, may I ask you a question," he calls out, holding his copy of the written rules.

A spotlight suddenly turns on, giving him the necessary attention.

"In the handout there are clearly four types of villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for a top-tier national academy of U.A's caliber! The reason we are seated here today is because we seek guidance on the path to becoming model heroes! Moreover, what's with you?! Yeah, you, curly haired kid," the tall boy informs in a scolding manner before turning toward the back.

The Todoroki follows his pointed finger and finds it directed at Midoriya. She bites her lip, holding her laugh, at the sight of an annoyed Bakugou, who's sitting next to the former.

"Can't you sit still for a second, you're distracting! If you think U.A is some pleasure juant, then leave this place at once," the navy haired boy reprimands with a sharp glare.

The girl raises her brows before smirking. Good thing I decided to stay calm and not act like my careless self, wouldn't want to be at the end of his crossfire, she thinks as the room fills with snickers of amusement.

"Okay, okaaay! Thanks for the segue, much appreciated, examinee 7111! The fourth type of villain you'll encounter is worth zero points! Let's call them 'arena traps'! Any of you ever played Super Mario Bros, I guess it's rather retro. You remember those thing that would go thwomp on you? There's like that in each arena! Their gimmick is that they rampage when crowded," Present Mic answers, explaining the importance of the fourth villain.

Hmm, so if there's only one and they rampage then that means it's a pretty large robot. And if it attacks when it's crowded, then this robot acts more like a natural disaster than a villain, Kasai ponders, taking the information that the hero gave.

"Thank you very much! I apologize for being rude," the boy next to her bows in apology before sitting down, the spotlight switching off.

Eventually, the pro hero dismisses them to their designated areas after a few patting words. Though, before the Todoroki goes to her area, she enters the girl's lockers and changes out of her middle school uniform and into some athletic clothing. It's basically a white tracksuit, with pants and a jacket, along with her converse.

Though, as she leaves the locker rooms, she only has one thought.

Let's burn these villains down, she smirks with determination.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

STANDING AT HER designated area, she stretches while waiting for the combat testing to start. A few examinees are still arriving, so that means that not everyone has arrived to their spots yet. It doesn't bother her, because in the meantime she can build her strategy.

Kasai thinks that she can go about it all planned out, or she can just wing it and destroy everything in her path. Maybe she can do the both, destroy every robot she sees, but go at them with strategic attacks. However, she still has the thought of coming out on top to think about. She wants that high score, she wants to be number one.

Working on her arm stretches, she's suddenly pulled out of thoughts when she hears Present Mic's voice. It's not hard to miss. Especially, when amplifies through the school speakers.

"And start!" The blond pro hero announces.

Turquoise colored eyes widen before she calms down, and without hesitation, she takes off. With a running start, she shoots her white flames from her palms and feet, launching herself into the air. They basically act like jets, and it works, seeing as she's ahead of everyone else.

Touching the ground, Kasai keeps running, not wanting to slow down. Not even reaching the center of the city, she's already bombarded with villains. Narrowing her icy eyes, she analyzes the situation. Coming up with a quick, solid, plan, she attacks.

Stretching out her arms, she shoots a torrent of fire from each hand. She uses the lowest level of heat to attack them. It doesn't take more than a few seconds before the fire melts through them. Especially if they're one pointers.

Two points.

Continuing with assault, Kasai keeps melting through the hearts of the robots, taking them down easily. It's one after another. If she's not shooting fire at them, she's melting them with her touch. It doesn't long to multiply her points several times over. Besides, if she wasn't tearing down at her own robots, she also lended a helping hand to those who were caught off guard by unsuspecting villains. She always blasted them away before checking on the examinee, making sure they didn't get hurt.

Running around a corner, she spots a crowd of three pointers. Nobody has reached them yet since she's further into the city. Smirking at the collection of incoming points, she runs towards the villains. Once she's a few feet away from them, the Todoroki smiles at their convenient positions. They're basically creating a crescent, trying to block her.

Narrowing her eyes at the challenge, she summons her Holy Fire from her palms and manipulates them towards the ground. The flames dance at her feet, but they grow in size as she moves her hands back and forwards. Eventually, with the rowing patterns of a wave, her flames become as large as the mentioned.

And with a final grunt, she pushes the tidal wave of fiery hot flames towards the grouping of robots. It's fast, their destruction, since she used the hottest temperature she can render. Though, her flames were already hot enough to begin with. Once the robots are incinerated to piles of melted scrap metal, she extinguishes the flames.

51 points.

Running up ahead, she glances to the sides, into the alleys, for any robots. When she does find a hiding robot, she quickly blasts them with a stream of fire. Mostly at their heads, since it's the easiest way to destroy them. Kasai could go all out, but she's finally feeling the effects of overheating. The sweating doesn't bother her, though, instead it's the shortness of breath.

She never really used her quirk in combat situation before. Not to mention, she has been using her higher techniques for the robots' destruction, and that may have wore her out.

But she isn't giving up yet.

Kasai needs to push herself if she wants to be the best. She has to endure the pain, the exhaustion, all of it. She said she wanted to be the best, and now isn't the time to back out.

"Six minutes, two seconds left," the Todoroki hears Present Mic's voice announce.

Smirking at the time limit, Kasai pushes herself forward. Turning several corners, the pale haired girl finally meets a crowd of diverse robots. She finds two one pointers, four two pointers, and one three pointers. Not hesitating, she generates flames from her palms and builds it up, large enough before bringing her hands together.

The sole action creates a wall of fire, much like the one from before, but this one stays in front of her. Though, that's before she pushes it forward and towards the robots.

64 points.

Quickly extinguishing the flames, she continues running. Noticing a bunch of one pointers, Kasai puts her flexibility to use. She runs and cartwheels, before slashing at the droids with a fire 'sword', cutting them in half. It sounds easier said than done, but she had to have an exact precision and accuracy, or she would have slashed her sword through the asphalt.

68 points.

Huffing with exhaustion, she pants out of breath while resting herself on her knees. Unzipping her jacket, she exposes her red shirt before fanning herself. The heat is getting the best of her, and right now, she's cursing her higher body temperature.

Though, that's before she felt the ground rumble, almost knocking her off balance. Eyes widening, she then remembers the fourth type of robot. The one she evaluated as the natural disaster. She curses a string of swears for forgetting the information.

From afar, Kasai gapes at the towering, skyscraper level of high, robot. People run past her, not wanting to be near that thing, and heck, she doesn't blame them. She knows when she's outmatched, so the girl isn't even going to try to melt that thing. It's made out of the same metal as the other robots, but it's immensely denser.

If she tried to burn that thing, she'll exhaust herself before making a dent.

Launching herself with her fire jets, she flies, and evades herself from being stepped in by the large robot. However, before she can manage to make a start in distance the voice hero suddenly announces the end.

"The test is over," he yells out, his voice sounding through the speakers.

Dropping down to the ground, she huffs with an irritated, yet content, look. She also notices that the robot came to a stop once the test was declared over. Walking away, Kasai feels happy with her outcome.

68 points, not too shabby. Though, if I didn't get the number one spot, I wonder who did, she muses with a smirk.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

IT'S BEEN A week since the exam, and Kasai has yet to tell her father, or her siblings, that she applied. Though, a part of her is too afraid of what their reactions will be, especially her father's. So, to avoid any contact with them, though it wasn't that hard, she kept to herself and stayed busy with schoolwork.

But that soon ended when Fuyumi, her older sister, brought in the mail. At the time, Kasai was in the courtyard, relaxing, and just enjoying the sunny day of February. The sounds of footsteps alerted her of someone's presence, and turning her head, she spotted her sister.

"Kasai, you received some mail. Though, if you don't mind me asking, why are you getting mail from U.A," her sister questioned after handing her the letter.

Meeting her sister's gray eyes with her turquoise ones, she quickly turned away.

"I-I may have applied to U.A and went to take their exam last week," she semi confesses.

"W-what, but I thought father only wrote a recommendation for Shoto," the older sister states, in shock.

The youngest sibling glowers. "He did. I got to U.A on my own. I took the mock test, I studied for the written exam, I trained for months. I did everything myself because he only expects Shoto to become the only hero. Tch, he doesn't even acknowledge me," she seethes, glaring at her letter.

Fuyumi gently smiles. "Well, are you going to open it? I want to see if you got in. I want to know if I should congratulate you, or tell you that you tried your best," she states, moving to sit next to her younger sister.

Kasai smiles in gratitude. "Yeah, let's see if I got in," she tells her before ripping the envelope open.

When she does, a circular gadget falls on to her lap, surprising her. Glancing at her sister with raised brows, Kasai holds up the gadget. Though, that's right before it shoots out the projection.

"I am here, on your screen!"

The youngest Todoroki gapes at the screen, her turquoise eyes widening at the sight of the number one hero. She knows she shouldn't be shocked to see the hero since she saw him up close at the sludge monster incident. However, she does get shocked, especially when this is supposed to be from U.A. Does that mean that he's now working at the top tier, national, academy?

Not realizing it, Kasai missed most of the announcement, barely snapping back when she hears her points.

" You did excellent at the written test, and at your practical skills rating, you passed! Though, the judges were looking at more than just smashing robots for points! They were taking the consideration of insight, agility, judgement, and of course, fighting prowess! But you also managed to do what all heroes do, it's in the job description to put your life on the line! So taking your villain points and your rescue points, the judges saw another foundational hero in you! Todoroki Kasai, 77 points! You passed!"

Kasai stares in shock, she passed. She actually managed to pass. Looking up at the projection, she sees the scoreboard of the total points. She sees that she got sixty-eight villain points and nine rescue points which added to seventy-seven total points. Reading the scoreboard, her eye twitches. In first place is, the one and only, Katsuki Bakugou with the exact same points, however, he only got villain points. Though, he only got placed first due to their names, his is alphabetically first.

"You passed! You actually got in," Fuyumi says, bringing her out of her fixated state. "Congratulations, I'm so proud of you!"

Kasai smiles at the words, feeling her heart warm up. She and her sister weren't that close, but she always depended on Fuyumi's soft attitude. Since their mother was put into a mental institute, her older sister made it her job to look after her siblings.

"Thanks, Fuyumi," she tells her sister, an embarrassed tint on her cheeks.

"Well, here you go. I'll leave you here so you can design your costume," the oldest Todoroki states before standing up. "Oh, and Kasai?"

The aforementioned turns to her sister. "Yeah," she questions.

"I really am proud of you. And I'm sure you'll make a great hero," Fuyumi smiles at her kid sister before walking away.

Kasai trembles, giving a teary eyed smile. Thank you, Nee-chan.

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Well, that's chapter two, I hoped you liked it! Ooh, and a tie for the top spot. Will that bring more tension between Katsuki and Kasai?

Anyways, don't forget to COMMENT and VOTE!

BYE!

Total Word Count: 3,949