Masanori Ueda
Zone 1 // Succeeding the Zero-pointer's Destruction
Daedalus swerved and dived through the battered streets — deshelled, exhausted and even injured, the attendees could be seen below, making their way towards the school's exit — the exam was over. Concentration directed towards piloting Daedalus to his main body and walking safely out the UA gates and past the bustling streets, Masanori was satisfied. Reflecting over the events of the exam he scoured for the successes and inevitable errors in his method.
Reflection is self-correction. And perhaps self-correction can bring one closer to self-perfection, he rationalised. He, of course, was tired — but not tired enough to prevent him from thinking all throughout the journey home and the night that followed. Anticipation did not often affect Masanori Ueda, but for the following weeks he found himself impatient for the results of a test that would define his future like none of the trivial exams had ever done before.
Ueda Household // Day of the UA Entrance Exam Results
Before the postman had even set foot in the block, Masanori was aware of his presence. Refining and gaining increasing clarity, the mental model of the middle-aged man was observed intently as it approached the row of semi-detached houses. A curved, iridescent black visor shimmered blankly; for its owner was deep in thought and had no intention of projecting an image.
Ring! Ring! The tell-tale noise signalled the arrival of a guest at the door, but was no merit to Masanori who had the clairvoyance to perceive an object without needing an alarm or a knock.
Ring! Ring! The inky black, perfectly smooth fingers stopped their rhythmic movements and the sound of violin playing cut out immediately. A glint of afternoon daylight danced across the visor as it finally broke the from its stagnant trance. Resting the violin upon a bookshelf and allowing Daedalus to hover idly in the bedroom, Masanori made his way down the stairs and to the front door. Following a quick exchange in which a collection of letters were handed over, the characters for "Thank you" and "Have a pleasant afternoon" flashed upon the visor in a visible glowing blue. The post officer stood frozen for a second before regaining his composure.
A world of quirks never fails to impress, he thought to himself as he moved on to the subsequent houses.
Letters firmly in hand, Masanori returned to the tranquillity of his room. Although having other forms of vision instead of eyes provided many benefits, it also made discerning colours and 2 dimensional features very difficult. This is where Daedalus came into use with its multi-spectrum camera. Through the use of his eyes, Masanori flicked the pieces of paper one-by-one before the motionless, hovering figure. One such letter had caught his attention earlier as he grasped its enlarged shape through his antenna-based vision; and sure enough, it was this letter that had branded upon it the UA seal. Masanori placed the rest of the letters (most of which were publicities) neatly upon his desk, and with one precise motion of his finger he unsealed the flap. A rounded metal disc dropped from the letter to the floor and began a short pre-recorded message from the current Number 1. Hero "Deku".
"Mara- boshi, was it? I uh hope so... well, we'll roll with that! Maraboshi Ueda congratulations on passing your entrance examination! You have been accepted into UA's hero cou-" Said the green haired hero, before pausing as if being interrupted by someone, "It's Masanori not Maraboshi? Oh. Dear. We can cut that out can't we? Can't we?? Well then uhh- where was I? Oh yes congratulations Masanori Ueda on passing your entrance examination for UA's hero course! We all look forward to seeing you at school!"
The recording cut off and silence filled the room once more. Daedalus rotated itself from the position where the hologram was to the location of the letter of acceptance on the table. Reading quickly through the formulaic text, Masanori confirmed that he (not this "Maraboshi" , whoever they were) had in fact been accepted into one of Japan's most prestigious hero academies. His screen lit up for a brief second — a rare moment of expressing his elation. His mother entered the room, inquiring as to the origin of the sound of a voice — a rare sound to be coming from Masanori's room. Masanori Ueda turned his featureless face in his mother's direction, and suddenly a mental recording of the recent events appeared upon the screen including both sound (from the microphone and speaker on his chin) and colour (from Daedalus' lens-eye). Ending with the No. 1 Hero "Deku" saying "...see you at school!", Masanori's face returned to its resting black and noise ceased to emit from his chin. Mrs. Ueda smiled, nodded, and closed the door to her son's room.
UA Main Campus // First Day of School
It didn't take Masanori Ueda long to find his assigned classroom: Class 1A. While making his way through the abnormally tall and wide corridors, he had taken the liberty of mapping out the school and already had a good idea of most of the locations. One such example was a large room was filled with evenly distributed tables and accompanying benches. Connected to it at the back by a long counter was a room with several appliance-shaped items, stacks of what Masanori could only assume were bowls and plates, and a whole assortment of other paraphernalia. This he quickly determined to be the kitchen and cafeteria.
Daedalus resting safely on his back so as to cause no disturbances, Masanori Ueda entered the classroom. Several children — seated or in conversation with each other — had clearly arrived more punctually than him, but he certainly wasn't the last. Masanori Ueda was not the talkative type (not due to a lack of confidence, but instead due to his quirk and his personality), so found his way quickly to a seat in the back row and awaited what would come next.
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Makoto Takamoto
Zone 2 // Succeeding the Zero-pointer's Destruction
Thoroughly exhausted and quite relieved that the examination was over, Makoto Takamoto slumped his shoulders back and sighed in relief. He was sweating vigorously and his breathing was erratic, occasionally disrupted by coughs. Robot parts were strewn around him and in the distance he could see the hulking mass of the zero-pointer. It seemed that the ingenious web trap had worked, and the zero-pointer had been successfully immobilised! But aside from the joy this gave him, he wasn't overly chuffed with his performance. He had allowed himself to fall behind and his lack of experience or skill with his only combative quirk was showing.
Makoto flung the door open to his room and crashed upon the bed. The walk home, despite its actual distance, had felt just as painfully long as the walk to school — if not longer, as he took several breaks to catch his breath. Lying on is bed and staring at the ceiling, he thought about the crazy day he had just been through. The coughing was not normal. Something was wrong. Something was different about it. He hoped that perhaps by some slim chance his efforts might be appreciated by
someone and maybe, just maybe, that someone might accept him into UA.
Creeeaaaakkk! Opening once more, the door to his room revealed the silhouettes of his parents.
"Makoto..." whispered his mother before pausing. He knew she wanted to mention his disappearance in the morning, but made a visual effort to withhold any comments, "Well? How did it go?"
"Fine. Thanks, mum. It went well..." Makoto replied trailing off. He wanted to avoid mentioning any of the coughing, his bad performance, or the incident with the 3-pointer, "Yeah. Uh, it was lots of fun aaaannnd there were
SO many cool quirks that I got to see!" He was usually a lot better and more enthusiastic when it came to explaining and describing things, but today his brain and body just wanted to rest.
Makoto's parents looked at him, noting his fatigue, and nodded to each other, "You can tell us all about it tomorrow, honey. Sweet dreams!"
And with that, the door to his room shut once more.
Takamoto Household // Day of the UA Entrance Exam Results
While nestled on the living room couch, Makoto couldn't shake the feeling of fear and anticipation that had been buzzing at the back of his mind like some sugar-hungry wasp for the past week. He had been watching a sci-fi movie with his mother and the action was reaching its climax when-
Knock! Knock!
"I'll get it!" said Mrs. Takamoto, and before he even had a chance to object she was at the door and talking to the post officer about Summer Holidays.
Typical mum... though Makoto, smiling to himself. His mum gently closed the door after finally finishing her extraneous conversation with, and thanking, the postman. Skilfully she tore open each letter and skimmed through it until she landed on one containing an odd circular bulge. She opened it. Makoto watched with interest as his mother's eyes danced over the writing on the strange piece of paper. She stopped, staring pensively at the letter she had just finished reading. "Makoto, dear. This is for you..."
"Wait, really!? What is it mum?"
"You'll see," she said, smiling sadly, "my little boy is all grown up."
"Stop it mum! It's embarrassing when you say that. Now please let me see what's in the letter!" Makoto said eagerly as he took the letter from his mother's grasp. He pulled the metallic disk out and laid it to rest on the rounded coffee table. Before he could commence with reading the letter, a familiar voice echoed from the coffee table. Makoto almost jumped in surprise to see the Number 1 Hero: Deku — an idol to all aspiring heroes — standing before him (in holographic form).
"Hi Makoto Takamoto. I hope that's your name, please forgive me if I got it wrong! Felicitations, you have been accepted into UA! Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah- we look forward to seeing you at school and best of luck! Bye! I think that was my best one yet don-" The recording cut-off abruptly and the wavery, mumbling voice of the young hero was silenced.
"NO WAYY!" exclaimed Makoto as he grabbed hold of the letter and quickly read through it. "I did! I DID IT!
I ACTUALLY DID IT!"
UA Main Campus // First Day of School
Time for first impressions attempt 2, Makoto teased to himself as he remember how excellently well his first time entering the school was. He made his way through the corridors, occasionally taking a wrong turn and having to backtrack. Class 1A was what the timetable had said, and sure enough before him was the massive door to 1A's classroom. Pushing his way into the door he found that many of the students had already arrived and several of them he recognised from the entrance examination day. He instantly recognised the spider-girl and the invisible-touch boy — Kori, who was engaged in conversation with a lavender-haired girl. Makoto heard the voice of the blue-skinned, tentacle sprouting boy that he had worked with to distract the zero-pointer. Makoto waved at him and smiled, "Hello again!"
Makoto's helmet lay dangling around his neck and his hair swayed in the slight interior breeze of ventilation. This was the start of his journey in UA to becoming a hero.
((
@Red Gallade small interaction between Takamoto and Kaito))
