Under the shower, a tailless five-foot, bipedal red-furred tiger stood with its eyes closed. Suddenly, the tiger opened its eyes, and crystal spikes started to sprout on its back. Turning off the shower, the tiger walked out of the bathroom after tying a towel around its waist.
As soon as it walked out of the bathroom, a high-pitched voice was heard in the corridor outside. "Mom! Takeshi has spikes on his back!"
Takeshi, the bipedal red tiger, grunted and looked at the one who had just shouted—a girl with a bowl cut and earphone jacks hanging from her ears. Hearing the grunt from Takeshi, the girl squinted her eyes and said, "It's true. You have green crystal spikes on your back."
Takeshi nodded his head and headed into his room, closely followed by Kyoka.
Standing in front of the mirror in his room, Takeshi tried to retract the spikes on his back with utmost concentration.
Kyoka sat cross-legged on his bed and watched Takeshi trying something while standing in front of the mirror.
Curious about what he was doing, Kyoka asked him, "Takeshi, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to retract the spikes," he said with a low growl.
Kyoka smirked and asked him, "Is it working?"
"Nope," Takeshi said with a shake of his head.
"What's going on here?" an adult voice was heard, and from outside, a woman came into the room. She had earphone jacks growing out from her earlobes, just like Kyoka.
"Takeshi has spikes on his back," Kyoka told her mother instantly.
"Aunt Mika, I think it's my quirk," Takeshi said, without taking his eyes off the mirror.
"Ah. Then we should visit the doctor," Mika said with a smile after she adjusted her glasses.
"Isn't his quirk being a tiger?" Kyoka asked, looking at Takeshi.
Before Mika could say anything, the spikes retracted back into his body. And the moment the spikes retracted, he transformed into a boy with red hair, teal green eyes, and standing 3'6" tall.
Everyone inside the room blinked their eyes in astonishment, and the one who came out of their stupor was Kyoka, who jumped down from the bed and stood in between Takeshi and the mirror.
Looking at his face, Kyoka said out loud, "Wow! You look like this under the tiger face?"
That brought both Takeshi and Mika out of their stupor. Takeshi touched his face and mumbled, "Mom couldn't transform though."
"Maybe it's because of your quirk?" Mika said, as she stepped closer to Takeshi and embraced him from behind.
Kyoka hugged him from the front and said, "Now, no one will call you mean names."
Takeshi smiled at that, then tilting his head upwards, looking at Mika, he said, "Aunt Mika, let's go to the hospital and check out my quirk."
"Yes. We should do that." Ruffling his red hair and kissing his cheeks, she continued, "You both get changed."
"Alright, Mom," Kyoka shouted out as she bolted from Takeshi's room.
Takeshi only nodded his head in reply.
---
"Psst." Hearing the sound, the red-haired teenage boy looked at the source of it and saw a blue-haired teenage girl pointedly looking at him.
The boy just raised his eyebrow a bit in questioning, and with an exasperated sigh, she asked, "What were you daydreaming about?"
"The day I looked like a boy," he said with a shrug.
Hearing that, the girl smiled and said, "That's good and all. But we have the theoretical exam now."
"Isn't that after the orientation?" The redhead blinked and looked around. And seeing teenagers rising from their seats and exiting the hall, a look of understanding passed over his face.
"Yeah. The orientation is over, and if you can daydream while Present Mic was speaking, then I don't want to think what you'll do in the exam, Takeshi," the girl said with a teasing smirk.
Squinting his eyes, he held her face in one hand and, with his face dangerously close to hers, he said, "Kyoka, should I kiss you now?"
"No." Kyoka pleaded immediately, and with a wicked smirk, Takeshi kissed her right cheek and whispered to her, "I'll ace the entrance exam, so be sure to have the gift for me."
Kyoka didn't say anything; she used her earphone jack to poke him in his ears.
"Ow." He immediately let go of her face with a cry of pain.
"That's what happens if you tease me too." Blowing a raspberry at him, Kyoka exited the hall with a red face.
Watching her leave the hall, Takeshi shook his head and thought to himself, 'She's a little firecracker. My little firecracker.'
Stretching his hands, he went out of the hall and went to the exam hall for theory.
An hour later, after the theoretical exam was over, Takeshi boarded a bus with number seven on it. As soon as he was in the bus, he closed his eyes to take a small nap.
Half an hour later, he woke up, at the same time the bus stopped in front of a facility numbered seven.
Scratching his head and yawning, Takeshi stepped out of the bus, along with the other examinees.
He stood out among the examinees as he stood above six feet in height. His broad shoulders and height made some eyes turn to him.
Looking ahead, he saw students standing there idly, not moving forward. Shrugging, he advanced and went into the facility, confusing the other examinees.
On the way into the facility, he started to transform into a bipedal tiger.
[What are you guys waiting for? A villain won't say it's time to fight! Go inside for the exam.] The loud voice of Present Mic was heard from the speakers, prompting the examinees to run into the facility at their top speed.
The moment they stepped into the facility, they heard an explosion in the distance. Everyone came to the same conclusion after hearing the explosion in the distance. 'That tiger-guy is ahead of me by one point.'