Ashes

Hero License Exam pt. 4

Dabi opened his eyes to a wooden ceiling, his brain fuzzy as he tried to remember where he was. Sitting up and looking around the tatami mat floor and a single room with a confused expression.

Where am I...

He stood up, holding his throbbing head as he looked began walking around. Tilting his head as he moved toward the walls that felt familiar to him.

Isn't this-

"Touya!"

Dabi froze, his head spinning as he looked behind him. His breath caught in his throat as he saw a figure looming over him that made him tremble. The walls became larger and larger until he was 9 years old again.

No... how...

His voice trembled as he spoke, "Dad?"

....................

Yokumiru watched from the monitoring room with a frown as the participants started writhing in their chairs. A few of them fell to the ground as they screamed out in their sleep.

What a terrifying quirk...

The third test was by far the most brutal in his opinion, and even though there was no chance of the participants losing their lives, it was still impossibly cruel.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as a voice sounded behind him, "The effects will last for an hour. After that, they will fall into a dreamless sleep."

The person who spoke was Nightmare, the underground hero they'd brought for this exam, watching the monitor with a worried expression. Her gas mask hung off her face and her short black hair flowed behind her. The green bodysuit she wore was laced with canisters that stored the gas she secreted from her sweat glands.

"Well, hopefully, it's dreamless..."

Yokumiru sighed at Nightmare's words, turning back to the screen as he saw the contestants in a mixture of emotions. Most were crying, some screaming, and a few were writhing as if in physical pain.

This test is the worst...

Yokumiru kept his grievances to himself though and simply turned to Nightmare, "Thanks for doing this Nightmare. I know how hard it is for you to use your quirk on people, especially with its weaknesses and all."

Nightmare waved her hand, "Don't worry about it Yokumiru, I owed Madam a favor. Besides, I've dealt with the weaknesses of my quirk for a long time, I'm not worried about it coming into play here."

Especially since these are all aspiring heroes... I think it's fine if a few of them gain immunity to it.

The immunity she was talking about was the main weakness of her quirk, Fear Factor. The quirk secreted a gas that trapped its victims in a nightmare.

Once trapped they would face the embodiment of their deepest fears, and unless they were able to overcome it they would be stuck in the nightmare until the effects wore off. That in itself was anything but weak, but depending on the situation...

If anyone can defeat their nightmare then they'll never be affected by my quirk again...

That was why Nightmare didn't like using her quirk, and she liked flaunting it even less. The more she used it the less effective it became since more and more people were bound to gain immunity to it.

This situation is fine though... It'll get Madam off my back and even if any of them gain immunity I won't be fighting them in the future...

"Nightmare, what's the quickest anyone's broken out of your quirk?"