Ketchup and Mustard

Click.

Hiroto had been given an odd look by many at the entrance examination of Japan's top Hero academy when he arrived with a backpack far larger than one would expect of someone his size, and the stares and whispers only increased when Hiroto altered it following the entrance exam's explanation by the Hero and teacher Present Mic. What had before been a large yet unassuming backpack had its external fabric slid off, revealing two large canisters with tubes extending from their form to be attached to a mask which had been contained within the bag too.

Hiroto found himself smiling beneath his mask, having discarded the initial backpack by his side and connected all the pieces of his cobbled-together Support Gear.

Okay, that should last me the entire test period. I may not be able to use my Quirk's gases to knock out other contestants, but I'm sure whatever fake Villains there are will stand no chance.

His Quirk was indeed a powerful one, though not without its drawbacks. Born to a father with control over a poisonous substance he could secrete from his body and a mother with minor control over the air around her, Hiroto could in turn exude poison from his own body and spread it throughout the area around him.

While the initial effects of the poison were to render someone unconscious, it was said by Hiroto's doctors that extended periods of exposure could kill even grown adults...the reason why Hiroto wore his mask, as while his father was immune to his own poisons Hiroto was not. Possessing far more utility and reach thanks to the mixture of his parent's quirks, his own had sacrificed pieces of each of them it seemed. The end result was that Hiroto had begun to dabble in his own form of Support technology with what few resources he had available to him, as accidentally killing himself if his Quirk got out of hand was not something the young teenager wished to do.

So prepared was Hiroto that he even had a spare gas-mask to replace it in case the first was damaged by some means, for not only would it be potentially dangerous to be without fresh air, it would be awfully embarrassing to be taken out by his own Quirk during the entrance exam. If the point was to succeed with his skills and personal merit, why not allow forward thinking to be one of them?

U.A. was not going to take just anyone and while they had not mentioned that they would grant points beyond what one received for defeating faux-villains, Hiroto could not discount the fact that they might choose someone with greater overall capabilities than just their combat prowess. Truth be told, he was somewhat hoping as much, as he was not exactly 'strong' nor trained in actual fighting...every 'fight' he had gotten into with children his age was one where he was hopelessly beaten down because to use his Quirk would be to break the law, even if it would instantly win him the encounter.

His teachers always did seem to like those students who had mistreated him more after all, and he was not going to leave himself at their mercy. It didn't matter if he had learned how to fire a gun at a young age thanks to his father, a police officer who had chosen the career path when his aspirations of being a Hero didn't pan out, or that his Quirk could knock out his entire school, he was helpless against their bureaucracy and the fists of his peers.

Despite this it was with pride that Hiroto stood tall (or rather, as tall as his fairly average stature could allow) and turned to face the gate of the examination center he was at: he was confident in the strength of his poison gas, and he was looking forward to using it on those faux-villains spoken of by that annoying 'school DJ'.

As if School DJ was really a title or position at a school as prestigious as U.A., right?

U.A. was where one attended if they wanted to be taken seriously in the Hero world, and it was almost a pre-requisite if one did not want to be relegated to the sidelines as some Hero's sidekick for years upon years...or so its reputation said in Hiroto's own middle-school. He wanted to get in...no, needed to get in for insecure and pained reasons that were buried beneath layers of pride and arrogance born of the knowledge that he was one of the strongest kids his age thanks to his Quirk.

Now was the time he could show it.

In any case, DJ probably was shorthand for 'Dumb Jock', or so Hiroto liked to think. The jocks at his own school mocked him for his scrawny build and overall weakness in sports, but that was only because they were jealous of his quirk...again, so Hiroto liked to think. He barely spoke with them, so he had no real way of knowing at the end of the day, but as the top student in his class he liked to pride himself on his intelligence even if he was just a big fish in a small pond.

So amused by his own joke at Present Mic's expense was Hiroto that he did not notice the approach of another applicant: when they tapped his shoulder the flaxen-haired boy felt his entire body cringe at the sensation even as it whipped around to face whomever it was.

Huh? Who...

Hiroto found himself face-to-face with another of a small stature, though he froze when he realized that the one who tried getting his attention was a girl. Not just that, but a girl wearing clothes completely foreign to Hiroto...none of the Japanese kids he knew would dress in such a manner, so combined with her different looks he presumed that she too was foreign even if it didn't quite explain where she hailed from. What stood out more than her clothing was the fact that she possessed what seemed to be a set of equine legs like a horse with a matching short-cropped equine tail, while atop her head was a pair of horns that he couldn't quite place...were they from a goat or some kind of bovine creature?

As smart as he liked to pride himself as being, Hiroto was left awe-struck by his circumstances and so couldn't even figure out quite what he was looking at even as the girl in question remained there.

Just what was a girl doing approaching him? Girls never did that...in fact, guys never did that either if it wasn't to mock or hurt him, but it was even weirder for it to be a girl! Some other student had gotten flustered when everyone was entering the auditorium earlier and some girl talked to him, and now Hiroto found himself in the same shoes as the boy he had wanted to laugh at before.

It felt like years in his confused mind, but in reality only a moment had passed before the girl spoke.

"How meet nice you. Am Pony Tsunotori."

...well, that did not help Hiroto much in determining what was happening, and so beneath his gas-mask he found himself blushing of all things out of sheer embarrassment. He couldn't after all even remember the last time he spoke to a girl who wasn't a member of his family...

Still, despite his confusion and her wholly unhelpful explanation, Hiroto found himself able to just barely stammer out a response.

"W-what?"

As if she too had something to be embarrassed about, this "Pony" (what an awfully fitting name given her appearance) blushed as well and averted her large eyes to the ground.

"I'm sorry, le-arning language. From America, but here for exam-test-entrance."

Confirming his previous idea of her being from elsewhere, Hiroto nodded along and laughed, sort of piecing together things while gaining back some of his composure...after all, if she was from another country and didn't know the language then this applicant was less likely to judge him over his own issues. After all, they were going to be taking a test in a language they were unfamiliar with, so they surely understood what it meant to have handicaps right and were trying regardless?

"Oh, a foreign student. I'm impressed by your confidence."

Now Pony was the one seemingly confused, making eye contact again (or rather looking into where Hiroto's mask had its eyes, as beneath it his eyes averted from embarrassment the moment she looked at him directly) and inquiring about what he meant.

"Confidence?"

It took some effort, but Hiroto tried his best to appear confident in spite of his unease over speaking to a girl reaching its peak: why did it have to be a cute girl?

"You are facing off against students who are more comfortable with the instructions, setting, and other such things, right? Things are harder for you than a typical candidate."

His explanation may have made some in Pony's place nervous, but instead she placed her hands on her hips haughtily and broke out in a huge grin as she began to speak in genuine confidence well beyond the level Hiroto was faking now.

"I want be like All Might! Pony will take on any challenge to be hero like him!"

All Might...

Hiroto had seen the clips of the world's most famous Hero, and he had never quite understood the appeal...that clip of his arrival on the Superhero scene saying "I am here!" or whatever it was he said hadn't quite struck Hiroto in the way it perhaps did other children. It seemed to superficial, and having never quite met someone like All Might he was prone to believe it was all just some kind of act. What's more, All Might's Quirk was so boring...power beyond anyone else's, that was all. While it meant he would always win a fight, how could anything so vanilla be appealing to watch more than once or twice?

"I can't say I'm much of a fan of All Might. Power like his doesn't take much thought, and he's so mainstream…I'd rather the top hero be someone who uses some tactics in his battles beyond 'punch, punch, punch'. Why, he doesn't even kick!"

Given that Pony was so enthusiastic about All Might and was nodding her head along to his mild criticism of him it gave Hiroto the sense that the girl did not actually understand what he was saying. It would make sense, since he spoke at a faster pace than before perhaps as a defensive mechanism to get it all out before being interrupted by All Might's fan, but she just smiled along the whole time and did not seem to register his negative intent.

"...you have no idea what I just said, did you?"

Pony pumped a fist up in the air while adopting a more sheepish grin to replace her previous smile.

"Nope, but I heard 'punch, punch, punch' and 'All Might'!"

Perhaps it was for the best...Hiroto had felt the need to give his own opinion on the matter such was his personal ego, but it was not really needed he realizes since he wasn't going to change her mind...especially not when she was having trouble even understanding what it was he was saying.

Upon thinking of it more, it maybe made sense that this girl liked All Might as a Hero: he was from America, right? 'Detroit Smash' and his other techniques would seem to imply that, as did his uniform, but Hiroto had never really bothered to look into it. He just wasn't as awe-inspired by the world's top hero as so many others were his age, and he liked to think it was because he was more mature...whether that was the case or not was unknown even to him beneath his pride.

"I thought as much…"

Sighing, Hiroto realized that the girl was still there and talking to him despite the obvious language barrier between them...she was smiling, seemed interested in talking to him for some reason, and had been the one to approach (and surprise) him so part of him was dying from curiosity about just why that all was.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, why did you come over here? Were you curious about my powers?" he asked, slightly posturing to try and frame whatever was going on in a positive way. He just had to hope that the answer was yes.

Pony's instant nod in reaction actually flattered his ego, though Hiroto would be even more surprised by the words which followed.

"Pony watch much anime, and you've got cool Jin-Roh mask! You make poison gas or something but can't breathe it, right?"

This foreign girl watched enough anime to know the exact one he modeled his mask after: he knew some kids his age who would sneer at foreigners mass-consuming their media, but as a secret fan of American films (which he had to view with subtitles to in any way understand) Hiroto could not cast judgment.

In fact, for the first time since he could remember Hiroto was enjoying talking to someone his age: he had met his American mirror it seemed, and beneath his general embarrassment over conversing with someone of the opposite sex he actually felt a bit more at-ease now.

I wonder if she's seen The Terminator...

Casting aside his cinema curiosity, Hiroto realized also that despite her broken speech he was by no means dealing with some moron: she figured out his quirk and his weakness, so while neither thing was perhaps needing Sherlock Holmes to solve together it did leave him with a favorable impression of her. How many other students here would have been able to guess both right away only moments after having seen him? Some of the more feeble-minded may have even thought his mask was just for show, or that he needed the tanks to breathe normally thanks to some other issue...but Pony seemed to have picked right up on it all.

Not to be out-done, Hiroto glanced over Pony to see if he too could figure out what his compatriot's powers were...and found himself drawing a bit of a blank. She was dressed in seemingly casual clothing rather than the Quirk-hinting outfit he wore above his normal school uniform, and so he was left just with the fact that her eyes were a bit bigger than he remembered American eyes being from his watching their movies, her equine legs and tail, and then the horns atop her head.

Since she was not some fully mutant horse with horse legs for arms and thus always being on all four legs or something, Hiroto guessed that she just happened to look like what her parents named her...a pony. It might grant her some special properties not possessed by an average Human, but such mundane utilities tended to not be Quirks of any serious consideration. If she was applying to UA there had to be more than that, and so he doubted it was her eyes being a bit larger than usual either...meaning that all there was left for him to go off-of visually was the large set of horns sitting atop her head.

Having reached his conclusion and recovered from his delighted shock at her own intuition, Hiroto finally responded after a moment of awed silence, "I…why yes, yes I can. If I had to guess your Quirk has to do with those horns atop your head, right?"

He gestured to her head, prompting the horse-girl to smile and nod as he too guessed her Quirk right away. With her fingers pointing to her horns, Pony spoke back.

"Yup! I shoot my horns and grow new!"

To fully return the favor now that his hypothesis was proven correct Hiroto used his knowledge of Quirks in general to next guess what was the weakness to hers: Quirks were physical qualities one possessed like any other, and so ones that tended to create something tended to require something else to properly function like the body needs food to work. In this case Hiroto remembered something from a Health class and used it to apply to his overall idea.

"I'd ask for a demonstration, but you probably have a limit on how many times you can do it right? It must take a lot of Keratin to properly grow all those horns."

Despite having made the same kind of insightful comment herself Pony seemed awed by Hiroto doing so too, "Uh-huh. I'm working on endurance though, but need eat Keratin as say. I ate burger for breakfast."

Burger for breakfast, huh? How American...but I suppose I eat plenty of burgers and fries myself, so I can hardly judge.

As Hiroto contemplated the fact that unlike most of his peers he was trying to find ways to not look down upon Pony, she spoke up again out of some form of curiosity of her own.

"Why do you want hero course?"

Why did Hiroto want to attend U.A.? It wasn't anything grandiose or even noble, just the simple desire to prove to others that he wasn't worthless. Years of being unable to even use his Quirk in public to the point many thought him to actually be Quirkless, countless bullies talking down to him and teaching him to talk down in return, and high expectations placed on him his entire life by members of his family have left him embittered around the subjects of respect, pride, and self-worth.

U.A. was a place where Hiroto could truly prove himself, somewhere his Quirk would be cultivated and grown to its full potential, and where once he appeared in their competitions the entire world would see what he was made of.

After all, it didn't matter how good one's Quirk was...in the end everyone was still Human, and with that the weaknesses inherent to the species. Hiroto knew his Quirk was perhaps one of the luckiest in the world, beyond maybe eighty or ninety percent of others in terms of raw power if one measured it by raw potential, but he knew well just how much a fist to the face hurt or a kick while he was down. His Quirk couldn't save him in such instances, and so Hiroto had to watch as others with weaker Quirks and lesser intellect paraded themselves around as if they were better than him. They could hurt him, but if he fought back it could very well kill them so it was Hiroto who held back.

He had experienced the cutting words of cruel classmates who looked down on him for his scrawny build and size, lived through the pain of isolation born of being an outcast...and so a school that would bring respect and positive attention was all a young teenager trying to find a way to salve his emotional wounds could hope for. His own middle-school was seen as the lesser of the two where he was growing up, so he was well aware of how others perceived the various merits of schools and thus those who attended them.

If seeing his school uniform made others sneer since it was a 'bad' school he was forced to attend thanks to his circumstances, then the opposite would be true if he managed to attend a prestigious one like U.A. all thanks to his power, right?

With hopeful pride and ambition welling within his chest Hiroto opened up to this aspiring foreign student of U.A. in a way he had not even discussed with his own parents, "Heroes get all the attention, and as far as schools go this is the top one. Any student who goes to U.A. is bound to be renowned for their talent! Other schools barely even get any attention except when they try to steal some of U.A.'s spotlight, only to fail time and time again."

That Hiroto desired positive attention was not lost on Pony, who realized in some part that maybe the boy she was talking to wasn't used to receiving it. After all, how many applicants to a Hero school were doing it for personal respect rather than out of civic duty or some fascination with the flashy Hero lifestyle one witnessed every day? Pony wasn't sure about everyone's reasoning, but she certainly thought the gas-mask wearing boy was a bit different.

Being different wasn't the worst thing in the world though, right? She was different too, being one of the few foreign students even present among those applying, so she supposed they were two peas in a pod: perhaps emphasizing this fact was that each of them was standing away from the main group of applicants.

There was a giant gate leading to the pseudo-city testing ground that remained closed as of yet, and while most had crowded up around it the two of them had lingered back. Hiroto had wanted space to set up his gas mask and so separated himself, while Pony hadn't felt comfortable around so many people she couldn't quite talk to in a normal way...making it all the easier to spot someone putting on a mask that reminded her of one of her favorite anime movies. Anime was her favorite thing and the pastime that dominated much of her free time, so seeing something out of one had been amazing to her.

Some other students had already joked about her lack of language skills, but despite her difficulties even in this conversation she didn't really feel 'judged'. In that regard, Pony found herself hoping that she could pass today's examination right alongside this odd boy, as that would mean she could have a classmate she did not have to worry about picking on her. Some girl with big hands had been nice too, but Pony had lost track of her and did not catch her name so had decided to just dub her 'Lana' (after a cartoon character with big hands Pony had seen) until she could properly learn her name.

Come to think of it, Pony realized she had been asking things other than this boy's name too...she had given her own but he had not just replied with his, so she wondered if she would have to be more direct. With how many students attended U.A. she didn't want to possibly lose track of a possible friend just thanks to not having asked his name.

Before she can ask Hiroto about his name he had a question of his own, again mirroring her questions with ones of his own, "Why do you want to attend U.A.? Is it because of its prestige? As a foreign student you could have come to visit any school after all, so why U.A.?"

Pony found herself smiling again as she remembered the very cause behind her presence there, and so she took a moment to try and speak 'properly' so as to not confuse her speaking companion about her motives since they weren't all that complex either.

"Well, All Might went here so I want to too!"

Hiroto paused for a moment, as if to let her continue on...only to realize she had given her complete reasoning already and that he was expected to say something.

With a nervous chuckle he responded while rubbing the back of his helmet, "You're…awfully straightforward, aren't you?"

Unlike Pony, who had just taken the effort to try and speak in not-ambiguous terms, Hiroto had used a word (straightforward) that due to the language barrier could be interpreted...differently.

Huffing as she placed her hands on her hips, Pony let Hiroto know in no uncertain terms that she did not agree with his assessment of her...or at least what she thought he said.

"I'm not easy!"

Realizing his mistake immediately, Hiroto's eyes widened beneath his gas mask and he quickly went about trying to prevent this girl from slapping him.

"Oh no, not 'easy', I meant 'straightforward', 'forthright', 'honest', honest!"

Even with his face covered Hiroto gave off enough body language to back up his words that Pony immediately forgave him, realizing that her own misunderstanding was at fault instead of him.

"I'm sorry. Some words still confuse me, but I learning fast," Pony bowed her head, actually embarrassed and blushing now that she had for a moment thought about ramming the boy she had started to think of as a friend with her horns for daring to say something mean about her.

While prideful of his own intelligence thanks to being the top student at his own school, Hiroto was willing to acknowledge when others were smart as well: in fact he preferred it since he often times did not feel like he could properly relate to kids his age who could not even spell 'acknowledge'. As such Pony being able to presumably speak her own native language and speak some of his own, even if her listening comprehension in it required some work, was worthy of respect in his view...he thought himself smart and knew one dictionary, while she knew about one and a half and was working on making it two.

"You certainly know more of this language than I know of yours, so I can't say I fault you. Still, you should be careful since plenty of words have secondary meanings."

Maybe if we both pass I could learn English from her...I hate having to read things when I could be watching movies, so if I could understand the originals I won't have to have my eyes glued to the bottom of the screen when I watch Terminator 2 and Robocop...I wonder if she likes Dubs or Subs? Guess I could help her with Japanese if we have class together...

Realizing that he was getting ahead of himself, Hiroto quelled such thoughts and tried to return some of his former calm confidence in place of this tingling excitement: he had to focus if he was going to succeed, and he could think about how to improve his movie-watching hobby later. What mattered right now was getting into U.A. so he could learn under teachers like Midnight, one of the few Heroes which Hiroto could admit to looking up to given the similarity of their quirks.

"Forgot ask, but what's your name?"

Pony's blunt question shook Hiroto out of his thinking of the Heroin Midnight, who he was fascinated by thanks to her powers even if other boys his age were fascinated by just about everything not to do with her powers.

"Oh right, my name…"

He was wholly unused to actually giving his name out, actually. The only time he would hear the word 'Hiroto' was when uncaring teachers would do attendance, the disappointment of his parents, or from classmates mocking it and calling him stupid things like 'Wannabe Hero-to', 'Gassy Hiro', and other such unimaginative names...in fact he had come to in some ways resent hearing his name, so he didn't tend to give it to others at all.

Despite this Hiroto was tempted to maybe tell Pony, since it was not like she would mock him right?

Unfortunately years of social unease and shaming had left him too untrusting to just readily give it out, especially since he despised not only his name but his family name as well, and so he was tempted to just give her a Hero-name instead: one of his choosing that was far more intelligent and creative than anything those idiots who teased him could come up with.

Anything including the word 'gas' was disqualified immediately, as he wanted respect and not to be mocked as some Hero who just passes wind...but therein lay the problem: a lot of his Quirk really just was the gas he could emit, so what could he name himself that didn't include gas but commanded respect?

That was when a history book came to mind which he had read front to cover instead of ignoring large swathes of it like the school curriculum did.

"You can call me 'Mustard'."

A terrifying chemical weapon known as 'Mustard Gas' had been used in a war years ago, and while he dropped the 'gas' part he was content with what was left: a gas that could kill you by opening blisters in your lungs and throat was nothing to laugh at.

...

So why was Pony looking like she was about to giggle?

"Why food?" the girl asked him, at which point 'Mustard' realized his mistake.

"No, not mustard the food, mustard as in 'mustard gas'. I don't like giving my name out to strangers, so I thought of something related to my powers," he tried to rationalize, not wanting to admit to his mistake and instead taking ownership of the chosen name instead, "I read a lot of history books, so I figured it was a fitting name."

In a display of friendliness Pony poked Mustard's school uniform he was wearing and finally giggled, though it was obvious she was restraining herself from laughing more so as to spare his feelings.

"Pony can't eat French fries with you though."

She still didn't quite get it, and Mustard realized that Pony likely had no real idea what mustard gas was...he knew at his age thanks to his reading, but he would have thought a nation far larger and with more resources like America would have been able to teach Pony about it without her needing to do as Mustard did and read outside of the curriculum.

"Those American school systems aren't working out for you, are they?"

Recovering from her near laughing fit, Pony flexed her right arm and showed it off proudly to Mustard.

"I do work out at my schools, yes! Pony is strong!"

While not large, it was incredibly firm and toned, making Mustard wonder if perhaps this 'Pony' possessed the strength of one as a more minor aspect to her Quirk.

Something about her speaking ability stood out to Mustard though as she completely misunderstood what he was saying once again.

"Why do you say your name so often? Is it one of the only words you know?"

Pride in her physical strength was replaced by a sudden meekness as Pony again thought about her language abilities, "Maybe…" she said, shifting in place a bit while her eyes once more dropped to the ground beneath them, "I sometimes forget how to refer to myself, but I know my name, so Pony uses that."

"It's fine, I was just curious: I don't even know how to say Mustard in English, so you should be proud you can at least say your name in my language."

This seemed to perk Pony up a bit, exciting the girl as she realized once again that Mustard did not appear to care that she was poor at speaking and understanding Japanese at the present moment. She was certain she would pick it up more as she went along, but she was quite new to actually using Japanese so she was trying quite hard to learn.

Since she did not have a verbal response to him Mustard continued, "How about this: do you have a Hero name I can call you by too? Here in Japan it is considered impolite to call someone by their first name unless you know them really well, and I may be even able to help teach you another word that isn't you saying your own name."

The prospect of making her own moniker certainly interested Pony, though like Mustard she had not really put any thought into it before: unlike Mustard however she wasn't ready to come up with one on the spot and accidentally give herself a semi-embarrassing name like a food.

Trusting Mustard's command of the Japanese language much more, Pony figured it would be better if he left such a decision to him: he could come up with a better name, and if she didn't like it she could always come up with one of her own later on.

Confident in this plan Pony smiled at Mustard again and revealed it.

"You came up with a good name. What do you think I should be?"

The flaw in the plan was that while it sounded fine on paper, Mustard knew as much about Pony as she did his language: as such he was even less prepared for coming up with a name on the spot for her as he was for himself. Given that he realized near instantly he was going to fail at anything 'clever', so he just thought about her basic characteristics and decided to go from there: girl who has cow/bull horns on her head, a human-ish body crossed with equine features, hailing from America, and the ability to launch the previously mentioned horns which requires her to eat foods high in Keratin such as red meat like burgers...

Since he was fairly sure even in America calling a girl a cow was mean, even if they had their Cowboys in their Westerns, Mustard decided to focus on the things not related to her head's horns: that she was American and ate burgers...

That was when brilliance (or so he liked to believe) struck and Mustard came upon the temporary Hero name he would grant Pony to use with him.

"I'd have to know more about your powers to give you a proper moniker to go by, but for now how about I call you 'Ketchup'?"

Pony might not know a great deal of Japanese, but she was quite sure what that word meant and her eyes widened as she realized what she just signed herself up for.

"Ketchup?"

Mustard nodded, pleased with his choice, "Yeah, I hear Americans use it on burgers, and the fact you know that word tells me you probably have been using it to order your food here."

While it was perhaps a silly name, Pony was quite fine with it after the initial processing of the fact that she was going to be called 'Ketchup' for awhile now. To shot her thanks Pony moved forward to hug her new friend of sorts, remarking about how he chose something that was related to his own moniker, "Mustard and Ketchup! You're funny!"

The sudden physical touch again made Mustard cringe, freezing him in place as the brief gesture ended and he was left to follow up from her noticing that the names had a connection...one he had not actually intended for when he first got the idea but was fully willing to take credit for, "Hehe, yeah, I figured that since you were thinking about the food that you might like a similar name."

"So until polite to call me Pony I am Ketchup?" Pony asked, retaking her spot a couple feet from him to give the blushing boy some proper space: she had no idea just how much his cheeks resembled her Hero-name's substance thanks to his gas mask.

"Yeah, what do you think? I'm pretty clever if I do say so myself, Ketchup," Mustard tried to calm himself down by resorting to his natural pride that had survived in spite of, or perhaps because of, his circumstances.

Pony saluted him playfully in response, her voice chipper, "Aye-aye Colonel Mustard in the living room with the gas mask!"

Colonel Mustard? What even is that? Is it because I have a mask?

"That's a reference I don't get, isn't it?"

Pony had to think a moment about how to properly respond, but eventually managed to do so.

"You need a…'Clue'?"

"Wait, isn't that a board game?"

"Yeah! Haven't you played it?"

"No…"

Mustard had not played many board games in his life outside of Chess and Checkers...the ones which basically only required two players, since he could not amass groups of friends or family to come play with him.

Before Pony could respond to his dour admission one of U.A.'s staff announced to everyone that the test just started, and by the time either Mustard or Pony could turn to face the faux-city its gate was indeed open: it was time to show everyone what they were made of.

Looking to Mustard again, Pony began to give her goodbyes since she doubted honestly that he could keep up with her running pace, "Seems like we're starting! Good luck, Mustard!"

Already trying to figure out how he wanted to approach this test now that the gates were down, Mustard nodded back to her without saying much, "You too, Ketchup."

First he would have to pack up his things, since he had been interrupted briefly by Pony and thus did not have his bag and second gas-mask in order...

This thought made Mustard actually grab the object in question and rush over to Pony as she began to get down on all fours, revealing herself capable of running like a horse with all the speed that offered: he did not have a complete set of his Support gear to grant her, but a mask alone could keep her safe from brief exposure to his gases. Mustard might be wary about accidentally hitting his fellow applicants, but he would only actually feel bad if this girl were to accidentally stumble into some of his Quirk's gases. The rest only mattered so long as they got in his way and prohibited his usage of his Quirk...they were told not to harm one another, but if some idiot walked into his quite visible purple poison fumes would that even be his fault?

"Hey, before you go, I have a spare mask if you want. I don't really care if I knock others out by accident, but I'd feel bad about beating you right from the start."

Realizing the gesture's significance Pony went ahead with putting it on, even if the others were all already racing into the mock city to engage the fake villains present there, "Thank you! Much thanks!"

While she pulled the mask over her face Mustard felt odd, a discomfort many were already used to gripping his chest as he realized that he actually cared for a peer...and thus he set about quashing the odd sensation so he could properly focus.

"This is a competition though, so don't think I'll be going too easy on you."

Pony didn't seem to care that he was downplaying the act of kindness, and instead prepared herself again to charge forward.

"Now I'mma deck those robots!"

Mustard froze as he was left behind in the dust.

"Wait…"

Robots…

The fake villains weren't instructors playing the part or hired extras like that organization that gets hired to act as rescue targets for classes...they were machines instead?

It was in this moment of realization that Mustard's feelings of calm and confidence were replaced instead with a sudden gripping fear and anxiety about the test. He had not quite realized that the images on the screen earlier were wholly representative of what he was going to face, but Pony's words and looking ahead into the city now where he could see giant robots made it all click for him.

What...what am I going to do?

Who's heard of someone poisoning a robot after all?

A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope to hear your thoughts in the reviews below if you have any! I have a lot I am still brainstorming about the story, so your thoughts are most appreciated.