'So how did you do on the exam Zenchi?'

On the bus, Stephen and Zenchi had asked Zero how they and Ayajo did on the exam, though they could already guess how they both did.

It was exactly as they had expected, with Ayajo sending groups of puppets all around the battle center and taking care of them, they could both easily confirm that Ayajo had vastly exceeded them in points.

Zero had asked Zenchi for his experience as he was hasn't shared yet, and it would much more interesting than the clear cut experience they and Ayajo had.

"Well, I decided to simulate during the examination rather than simulate it as a whole before it started, since I could save more energy that way, and be more precise with the outcome i want to get."

"I simulated a fight with the first one-pointer i encountered and for a few simulations, I was testing to see how well I could defeat them without any special tactics, it was pretty bad."

"It took me more than ten seconds to defeat a one-pointer with my best outcome and trying with a three-pointer, it took me a whole half-minute at best to defeat it."

"It was obvious that i was much slower than other examinees when i watched them defeat their villains, so i examined defeated one to three-pointers that were mostly intact to find any weaknesses that i could exploit."

"I noticed that on each of the robots, there was an area that i was able to press like a button, and testing what would happen when i pressed it while fighting them, it had shut them down"

"So for the rest of the exam, I simulated the fastest outcome to shut down the villains I encountered and cut down my time to defeat a three-pointer to less than ten seconds" Though he can't be compared to Stephen and Ayajo, he had certainly exceeded the majority of examinees.

"Did you attempt to take down the zero-pointer as well? It would be embarrassing for you to not have even attempted it unlike the both of us who had taken it down, despite the futility in doing so" Stephen questioned, he was hoping that his friend had at least attempted to defeat the zero-pointer like both he and Ayajo, though it seemed a bit impossible even with Stephens quirk.

"Well even though i simulated during the exam, I did simulate the full ten minutes once before it started to see what would happen and to scout out the battle center, and i found out that at the two-minute mark was when the zero-pointer would've been released."

"At the three-minute mark, I activated my quirk for a full minute and ran through the possibilities and outcomes for the zero-pointer and already knew that i would be able to defeat it, though i did become a tad slower in defeating the robots in that one minute as i wasn't simulating the fastest outcome for them."

"Basically, I chose the outcome that allowed me to reach the top of the zero-pointers head and had found a button like on the other robots that revealed a number pad which i had to input a four-digit code into."

"Then I obviously simulated all the possible codes and found the correct one and shut it off." Zenchi finished proudly, he was glad that his attempt to defeat the zero-pointer was not in vain, even though the only thing he would've gained was his own satisfaction and maybe be commended by the examiners.

"Good on you Zenchi!! You achieved the outcome you wanted me to achieve, defeating the zero-pointer with it still in perfect condition!" Stephen commented sarcastically, Ayajo giggled a bit and Zero placed their hand on Zenchi's shoulder in a placating manner, seeing his eye twitch in annoyance.

With all three of them having shared their exam experiences, they all talked about what they think to expect when they entered U.A. for the remainder of the bus ride, all of them confident about being accepted.

---

A week later, at Ayajo's house, Stephen and Zenchi had come over with their acceptance letters the moment they had received them, wanting to open it when the three of them were together.

They were in the living room in her house and were seated on the couch, with each of them holding their acceptance letter, Zero was sitting next to Ayajo, in suspense at who would open their letter first.

"...Why are we just sitting here in suspense!? It is as if we are not confident in our acceptance into U.A.!! Since that is the case, I shall open mine first!" And with that, Stephen tore open his letter and a disc-like object fell out onto the floor.

Before anyone could react, the object projected out a holographic screen that started to play a video.

"Hello, examinee number 8241!! Or should I say Stephen Ozoku!!" In the video was principal Nezu who had started speaking and referring directly to Stephen, the quartet was not unaware of the identity of the speaker as it was only natural that they would know the principal of the U.A.

"I won't leave you in suspense, so I'll just state it directly, you passed!! But this isn't the end of the letter! This video message was personally made to commend you as one of the top three!! That's right you're in the top three!"

Stephen cheered in pride at having placed amongst the top three, his friends clapped in praise, glad to see their friend so happy.

"The way you led your robot through the streets of the battle center was exhilarating!! And the way you had finished off the zero-point villain had made multiple examiners watching cheer and stand up from their seats!"

"Hopefully you haven't read through the hardcopy letter which we were obliged to send you, which contains the rankings and points for all the people who had passed the exam, as i want to tell you myself"

"Before I tell you your score, we actually had a hidden scoring criterion other than just defeating villains for points! We call them rescue points!!" The group was only a little surprised at the revelation as when they thought about it, a hero is more than just defeating villains, rescuing the victims is also a very important job of a hero.

"We had a panel of judges within our group of examiners that scored you based on your altruism and selflessness during the exam, this was mostly to help those that struggled to earn points via defeating the villains, because what kind of hero school would we be if we didn't accept those who have strong sense of saving others and doing the right thing?"

"Enough on that, though your rescue points did not compare to your villain points, I am glad that you still sought out to help others even with your threatening army."

"Hmph, though they may have been cowardly peasants, a king does not sit idly by as their subjects get hurt in front of them," Stephen told himself, the praise at helping others did not mean much too him as he did not do it to receive thanks or gratitude, only because it was the right thing to do.

"Now to reveal your total points!! You Stephen Ozoku had earned yourself..."

---

Yesterday in U.A., the examiners and judges of the entrance exam a week ago had gathered in a room with a large screen and were currently waiting for the rankings of the entrance exam to be released, prior to sending out the acceptance letters.

While some of them knew the rescue points of the examinees due to being the ones who scored them, the majority didn't know their villain points which were carefully calculated for the entire week by looking through the footage of the entrance exam and assigning the points to the respective examinees.

The slight chatter in the room quieted down as they saw the screen turn on and display the rankings and points for all to see. The room started conversing again as they saw the ranking and searched for the examinees that they had kept their eye during the exam, hoping that they had passed.

Amongst the chatter were two examiners who commenting on the students in the top ten when they had suddenly started talking about Stephen.

"As expected, Stephen with his army of robots has clinched a spot on the top three, being second overall." Examiner one commented.

"With his ability to take control of the robots, it was impossible for him to fail as taking control of them would count as having defeated them." Examiner two added on.

"Not if he had released his control early, but it seems that he would have been able to control them until the end of the exam, though it didn't matter since he had sent them all to their deaths defeating the zero-point villain"

"What is funny though is despite his performance that exceeds all other examinees, being ranked second and all, the gap between him and first is like heaven and earth, even with a huge score of..."

---

"...211 points!! With 182 villain points and 29 rescue points, it is an astounding score!! I'd like to say that you had beaten our previous year's score but that privilege goes to the first ranked examinee!! Anyway, that is all from me, I look forward to guiding you on your path to becoming a hero!! See you in school when the semester starts!!"

Wanting to compare his score with the other passing examinees, he searched for the hardcopy with the rankings but found it in the hands of Zenchi.

"Hey! give that back, this Majesty needs to see how much worst the peasants ranked below me did! And confirm if Ayajo did, in fact, come first!" Stephen stated angrily, knowing that Zenchi had used his power to predict that he was going do that.

"And that would spoil the surprise for the rest of us... so let's see the rankings after Ayajo has opened her letter because I'm opening mine next"

Unlike Stephens's letter, his did not contain a holographic video but had a folded up piece of paper inside that contained a handwritten message, unlike the printed documents which also came in the letter.

'Examinee number 1966, or Zenchi Kanosei, this is a letter especially for you. I had taken an interest in you when you had displayed no obvious evidence of using a quirk during the examination apart from the fact that your eyes glow yellow for periods of time.'

'Despite knowing that you do in fact have a quirk, you had fought like a normal human with the villains and shut them down like you had known where the button was since the start, and you had also known the location of the maintenance panel and the code to the number pad only makes me more curious about your quirk'

'Going against all the other examinees with powerful and weird quirk hadn't hindered you in clinching a spot on the top ten which further proves the potential you have. I look forward to guiding you on your path to becoming a hero in the years to come'

'Congratulations on placing sixth with a total of 115 points!'

'-Principal Nezu'

Zenchi was flattered that the principal had taken notice of him and his quirk, and went to check his score on his official documents.

It had stated that he had 81 villain points and 34 rescue points with the document including an explanation on what rescue points were.

Despite not including it when he had shared his exam experiences with his friends, he had actually spent a lot of time rescuing and helping people who were about to get hurt by the villains or was struggling to defeat them.

As someone who could see into the future, it was nearly impossible to see someone get hurt in his possibilities and not want to help them, so he followed his heart and decided to help them as his conscious would not allow him to ignore those in need of help.

Stephen had patted him on the back in praise, while Ayajo had told him 'good job' for getting sixth overall.

Next was the most anticipated moment, Ayajo was about to open her letter, though she carefully tore it open and set the disc-projector down on the coffee table.

The video was nearly the same content with the exception that Nezu had referred to her full name, Ayajo Kazeki, and had not revealed her ranking.

He had also exaggeratingly praised her for almost breaking the exam and how she had beaten the previous record-holder multiple times over.

"Now to reveal your total points!! You Ayajo Kazeki had earned yourself..."

---

"...It is also possible that his quirk allows him to process information multiple times faster than normal humans and thus is able to be effective and efficient in his battles"

Back to the day before, a pair of examiners were discussing the nature of Zenchi's quirk after seeing him place in the top ten despite being unable to see how his quirk had helped him.

"That wouldn't explain how he immediately knew that there was an off-switch and its exact location on his first villain!! Don't get me started on how he knew the location and code of the zero-pointers maintenance panel..."

"He was one of the four examinees that had taken down the zero-pointer huh? One other being the examinee that sent theirs flying in a single punch, and the other had whittled it down with their army of robots, and the last one being..." The examiner paused, looking at the name at the top of the rankings.

"...the first ranked, Ayajo Kaneki, It was unbelievable how effective her quirk was for this examination."

"Though with the power that a single puppet showed, she could become an expert in any field of heroics, just imagine how efficient her quirk would be during rescues"

"Being able to summon dozens of powerful puppets that are able to work together efficiently, she might become the greatest rescue hero if she focuses on the rescuing side of heroics"

"I'm sure she'll become one of the best heroes even in of the more violent side of heroics, her quirk would allow her to efficiently subdue groups of villains or criminal groups without a single one getaway"

"Her total points are the proof of it huh? If she showed this much potential just in the entrance exam, I can't even imagine the shock and awe she'll generate from the sports festival..."

---

Back at Ayajo's house, the Nezu in the video had suddenly paused right before saying how many points she had gotten, confusing the group who had been waiting in anticipation.

"Is... the video buffering?" Stephen had asked, before anyone could answer him, the Nezu in the video had started speaking once again.

"Well, it's better if you see it in the rankings to see the difference between you and the other examinees in an instant, with that, I look forward to guiding you on your path to becoming a hero! See you when the school term starts!"

Stephen and Zenchi had put on a face of annoyance as Ayajo eagerly searched for the document with the rankings, her three best friends sitting closer so that they could read the rankings together.

1st: Ayajo Kaneki

Villain Points: 486

Rescue Points: 64

Total Points: 550