Chapter Text
Sigma groaned, how on earth did he get roped into any of this? Damn Dazai and his… Dazai-ness.
Sigma took a breath.
He could understand Dazai’s reasons, Sigma was practically made to garner information on enemies but infiltration wasn’t exactly his thing. That Tachihara from the port mafia would be better suited, or was he a Hunting Dog? Sigma decided it didn’t matter much in the end.
The whole situation made Sigma feel scummy. He hated manipulation but here he was manipulating the entirety of hero society into believing he was a completely ordinary student that had been believing in heroes his whole life. When in reality Sigma hadn’t even known about heroes when he had joined the agency. Sigma felt as though the thing that would get him caught was him not knowing some really common hero fact.
Sigma was currently facing a very interesting dilemma. In order to be a convincing fifteen-year-old that definitely has a quirk and wants to be a hero, he had to actually do the exam. Which would be fine if it was only practical.
Unfortunately, Sigma was, in reality, a four-year-old and had only been receiving a formal education for the past few months.
Kunikida had said that he was advancing very quickly, especially for someone his age and with his prior knowledge, but Sigma still barely understood basic algebra. And while he had already learned a lot about statistics, percentages and chance within the casino, he hadn’t learned nearly enough to carry him in the test, not to mention that the test would have more than just math. Sigma was truly thankful for Kunikida’s teachings and Ranpo giving him the questions to study for beforehand, as Sigma had absolutely no confidence in his ability to pass the written portion of the exam.
But sure enough, the test started and Sigma had to start too. He tried his best to show his work for questions that required it, even if he didn’t really understand what he was writing. But there were some questions where he realised that what he wrote for the work and the answer he put down didn’t quite line up, and his lack of knowledge in anything academic didn’t allow him to figure out which was right, which forced him to resort to guessing. Ranpo would be disappointed.
Soon enough the test ended, much to the relief of Sigma and other students too, apparently. Sigma was pretty sure that one blond kid was weeping. Looking around, Sigma could see that a lot of people seemed nervous and anxious over the test. He could understand their pain but Sigma couldn’t help but feel a little peeved–these students probably had more than two months to prepare, or more than seven months of education.
But he still had the practical to worry about. While he wasn’t nearly as worried about the practical as the written, it was still nerve-wracking. Sigma didn’t have the flashiest ability–something highly sought after in hero society–and his ability only worked on something sentient. Luckily for Sigma, he was a decent fighter. The rest of the agency wouldn’t allow anything less, and by rest, Sigma meant Yosano, Kyouka and Fukuzawa, or… Dad? Sigma wasn’t really sure as to what he should refer to the older man as, especially since he, himself was a Fukuzawa now.
Sigma looked at the note he was given after finishing the written exam, he was to go on the bus going to… ground sigma. He frowned and rolled his eyes.
Ranpo and Dazai must have been in stitches over that one.
Now that Sigma thought about it, that yellow hero mentioned that there were a few grounds used only for the entrance exams, so if Sigma was lucky he’d never have to go there again.
He knew that was unlikely, but he was allowed to dream every once and a while.
The bus to the grounds was silent, awkward and cramped. No one knew if they should say anything and just stayed quiet, but some noises such as coughs, sneezes and extroverts that didn’t get the memo that this was a silent bus ride, just added to the tension.
Sigma did take note, however, of one particular individual–a blond with blue eyes, a different blond than the one that was crying. This blond had an arrogant kind of swagger to him–a kind of smugness that would turn into mania if left unchecked. The blond was looking around, a smirk on his face, his nose turned up like he was looking down at them all, including Sigma. It was fascinating in Sigma’s opinion, how someone could be so open about their superiority complex that one could tell from a single look. Sigma decided that if they both got into UA he would befriend that blond.
Luckily as Sigma wouldn’t have to be the one to approach the blond, instead, he came to Sigma.
“Hey, I couldn’t help but notice you staring at me on the bus. Did I catch your eye?” the blonde questioned.
“A-ah? Was I?” Sigma chuckled nervously, “sorry about that, I hadn’t noticed. I’m Sigma Fukuzawa by the way.” Sigma offered a hand out to the blond.
“Neito Monoma,” Monoma took his hand before pulling Sigma closer, “hey, what’s your quirk Fukuzawa?”
“My quirk? It’s called No Deals, it essentially lets me learn anything I want about you through touch but in turn, you learn anything about me. What about you, Monoma?”
“It’s nothing special,” Monoma brushed off, “your quirk… it could be seen as quite villainous, don’t you think?”
“Well, yeah? But couldn’t any quirk? Also, I’m sure your quirk is pretty cool.”
“Hm,” Monoma put on a wide grin, “I have a copy quirk, I can copy the quirk of anyone I come in contact with,” Monoma explained. “I originally hoped that you’d have a more physical quirk but it seems not.” Monoma shrugged, “Though it looks like I discovered something better. We both have quirks that aren’t seen as ‘heroic.’ I do hope we can be friends, Fukuzawa.”
Monoma then walked off, leaving Sigma dumbfounded and confused as to what Monoma’s whole speech was supposed to achieve.
Sigma decided to ignore that in favour of Monoma saying they could be friends.
“ALRIGHT, LISTENERS!” Sigma and many others gripped their ears as the loud voice rang across the grounds, “THE EXAM IS ABOUT TO START IN THREE…! TWO…! ONE!”
As if spellbound, the examinees all rushed in different directions.
Physically speaking, Sigma was not very strong, often relying on weapons or the knowledge that his ability gave him. But against robots on grounds that didn’t allow or provide weapons, which was very unfair to those with non-physical quirks, Sigma was at a tremendous disadvantage. Sigma did have a leg up on most students there, however.
His lack of school uniform.
UA required their students to come in their middle school uniform, but Sigma was homeschooled and therefore didn’t have one. This meant he could wear whatever he wanted as long as it was appropriate, and heels were a part of Sigma’s usual closet anyway. The shoes were really wedges as heels didn’t allow for secret compartments but tomato-potato.
Sigma couldn’t hide a gun in his heels, to the disappointment of Dazai and the relief of Kunikida but he could hide a knife. Which he was also trained to use under his three instructors.
Sigma very quickly got to fighting the robots. Instead of destroying the things completely, Sigma preferred to simply take out the essential pieces. After a quick few moments of analysing the robots Sigma had realised that despite being built to be raised over the ground, all of them seemed to try pushing themselves lower, like some self-preservation instinct. Well, except the one-pointer, but it was pretty easily taken down anyway.
After some sneaking Sigma manages to get under a two-point robot and noticed that the metal was completely different, it was similar but not nearly as reinforced. He grinned as he pinpointed a weakness to exploit–their undersides were rather unprotected and had a latch that went directly to their battery. Whether or not the flaw was on purpose didn’t matter. Sigma learned he could just stab it instead of removing it and the robot would stop moving anyway.
Sigma did have to drag a few people away from some of the robots, the most common being the zero-pointer roaming the grounds that some unlucky souls caught the attention of. Fortunately, it had a pretty big blind spot. It would cause them both to lose some time but none of them were crazy enough to attempt to destroy it and waste potentially even more time while going after it and hurt themselves in the process.
Sigma was honestly concerned at the amount of students that didn’t know how to fight, why would UA allow this? Students were going to get hurt and knowing teenagers, they would find a way. Sigma kept having to drag them away, hide them under anything that was around, put in the trees that were there for some reason and on occasion take the hit himself.
The end of the test eventually came and Sigma was relieved. All that running around and getting under robots and then stabbing them with enough force to pierce through the metal and battery was exhausting. Sigma only prayed that it wasn’t all for naught.
Sigma returned to his empty apartment and sighed. After all his time with the detective agency, Sigma had forgotten that true silence was just loneliness in disguise.
Sigma laughed to himself– that kind of depressive poetry was more Dazai or Kyouka’s thing.
Sigma opened his phone.
ADA Family
Waste of medical supplies: sooooooooo
Waste of medical supplies: how’d it go Sigma?
I kin no one: I expect it went amazingly
I kin no one: you did have my help after all
The real agency child: i tink i failed
Were-kitty: aw, don’t say that Sigma
Were-kitty: I’m sure you did great
The real agency child: i forgort som of the ansers
Scary doctor lady: that isn’t like you
Scary doctor lady: normally your memory is flawless
Waste of medical supplies: was it that you were nervous Sigma?
The real agency child: wat kinda queschon is that?
The real agency child: ofcorse i was nervus!
Killer kid: don’t worry
Killer kid: if they even think about failing you then they’ve lost their life privileges
The real agency child: no murder! Wel do plan c
Killer kid: …fine
Sigma smiled. He may not be with his family in person but they were still there for him, still rooting for him. The thought warmed his heart.
The rest of Sigma’s week went surprisingly quickly.
He was pretty sure that boredom was supposed to make time go slower, but he couldn’t be sure–something to ask Dazai later.
Sigma took a nervous breath when he saw the letter on his doorstep. The letter had the official UA seal and was addressed to him. This was his letter, but whether or not it was his acceptance or rejection letter, he was about to find out.
Sigma looked around for the one who might have put the letter there and saw nothing–he did, however, find that his neighbour also had a UA letter.
Sigma closed his door and examined the packaging. It was nothing special really–except perhaps, the seal binding it and its contents.
He broke the seal and picked up a device from the letter. Sigma set it down and some sort of projection sprang from it. Sigma vaguely recognised the man being projected, he was one of the more popular heroes.
All Might , if he was recalling correctly.
“This is a projection!” the hero announced like it wasn’t obvious. “Apologies for taking so long young Fukuzawa, we hope that you haven’t been waiting long. But I bring news!” Sigma frowned, All Might didn’t specify whether or not the news was bad. “For the written portion of the test… you passed!” Sigma let out a breath he didn’t know that he was even holding. “But only just barely,” All Might tacked on, “as for the practical test, you received eighteen points! While higher than a surprising lot, not enough to pass the practical.”
Sigma could feel his heart stop.
Had he failed? What would the agency say when they inevitably found out? Sigma had just failed his first solo mission! They were all going to be so disappointed in him.
“However! The number of robots you defeated was not the only thing we were looking out for. We were also watching for your heroic spirit, your ability to see someone in need and help them out, and for that you got an extra forty-six rescue points, which gives you sixty-four points! That is more than enough to pass! In fact, that puts you in fifth place in our rankings for this year!” Sigma couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he had passed! That whole eighteen-points thing was just a trick to scare him, which Sigma didn’t appreciate. “And with that, welcome to Class 1-A, Sigma Fukuzawa. Though in the future we’d appreciate that you don’t sneak weapons into school.”
The projection then changed to a leader board consisting of the top ten, which put Sigma in fifth place with sixty-four points total, just like All Might had said. What Sigma found interesting however, was that the top scorer, Katsuki Bakugo had absolutely no rescue points whatsoever, Even the second lowest rescue-point-haver in the top ten, Tenya Iida, had nine points. Which meant that he had at least helped some people, even if it was by accident.
Had Bakugo just not bothered to help anyone or did he just get unlucky in that no one needed saving around him?
Sigma decided not to dwell on it.
ADA Family
The real agency child: gues hoo got in to UA!!!
Scary doctor lady: ayyyy
Scary doctor lady: I knew you could do it
I kin no one: told ya so
I kin no one: and the great Ranpo Edogawa is never wrong
Waste of medical supplies: what about that time with poe-
I kin no one: shut it Dazai!!!!!
Were-kitty: how do cut someone off in text?
The real agency child: how is dazai so good at rock papper sisors
The real agency child: som queschons cant be ansered