Konata Doesn't Want To Be The Female Lead

"Konata, how was your exam? Just now, there was this sudden lightning storm right above your testing site and—huh?"

When Tokikono Konata staggered out of the exam site, her entire body exuding thick black smoke, Asui Tsuyu, who had come ahead of time to meet her, immediately rushed over. But the moment she got a good look at Konata's condition, she froze.

Her clothes were burnt and disheveled, her long sky-blue hair was a frizzy mess—it looked exactly like she'd been struck by lightning.

"…Don't tell me that storm was your doing?"

Having been friends with Konata for some time now, Tsuyu was quite familiar with her Quirk. And Konata wasn't planning to hide it either. Still, even knowing her abilities, Tsuyu found it hard to believe the enormous thundercloud that appeared in Testing Area B—brief though it was—had really been caused by this petite girl.

From the rumors already spreading, she knew that although the storm lasted less than five seconds, it completely leveled an entire city block within a 300-meter radius. The sheer destructive power of it was terrifying.

If the Quirk called Fantasy could be used like this after only one month of training—what kind of terrifying potential did it actually hold?

"Eh, more or less. I almost got killed by my own ultimate move though," Konata muttered, her lips twitching into a bitter smile as if recalling some traumatic memory.

"I think I passed at least, so don't worry. It's just surface wounds. U.A.'s Recovery Girl patched me up, and besides, I've got my passive Electric Shock Body, so getting struck by lightning isn't really a big deal. I mean, the more it happens the more you get used to it… aside from almost being flattened by a giant robot at the end, everything went fine."

She shamelessly leaned on Tsuyu for support, her voice weak.

"Flattened…?"

Just as Tsuyu was about to ask more, a green-haired boy came running frantically from the direction of the testing area.

"Tokikono-san, please wait!!"

"Kero?"

"Midoriya-shounen? What is it?"

Konata, still clinging to Tsuyu like a limp rag, tilted her head and looked at Izuku Midoriya.

"Um… about earlier… I'm really, really sorry!!"

Faced with her calm expression, the words Midoriya had prepared all flew out of his mind. In the end, all he could do was bow deeply and apologize like his life depended on it.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Konata blinked. "You were the one who saved me… Well, sure, you did almost crush me to death when you fell, but that wasn't intentional, right?"

She straightened up and looked away awkwardly.

Life really was unpredictable—that was all she could think.

Everything had been going according to plan. She just needed to nuke a wave of robots with her big move, and it would've been the perfect ending. Who could have predicted that the ground would suddenly shake, buildings would collapse, and out of nowhere an enormous, skyscraper-sized robot would appear?

Her first thought had been Pacific Rim, not My Hero Academia.

After realizing this was the infamous zero-point obstacle Tsuyu had mentioned, she decided to retreat immediately. But for some reason—maybe because her attacks were too flashy—the giant robot locked onto her.

Konata wasn't too worried though. She had no intention of actually fighting it. Just drop her ultimate, make a flashy exit, and pass the exam. Easy.

Except… she didn't expect her own lightning to strike herself.

The nearby robots went down as planned. So did she.

If it hadn't been for her passive Electric Shock Body mitigating the damage, she would've been fried on the spot. So that's why the system insisted on giving her that passive—turns out it was the most important skill all along.

After that, she could only lie there helplessly as the colossal robot loomed closer. The residual electricity in the area paralyzed her, and with everyone else fleeing in terror, no one could help.

All she could do was glare at the metal giant in defiance. She figured since this was an official exam with teachers monitoring everything, there was no way they'd actually let her die, right?

She wasn't scared. Honestly, she was mostly just thirsty.

Even though every nerve in her body screamed in pain, it wasn't something she couldn't endure.

And then Midoriya charged in.

To be honest, lying there watching that boy leap forward, raising his fist against an overwhelming opponent… Konata thought to herself:

Yeah. He really does deserve to be the protagonist.

It wasn't because he was the protagonist that he acted this way—it was because he chose to act this way that he became the protagonist.

The third time he saved her, Konata was genuinely moved. For a moment, she even thought Midoriya looked pretty cool.

That warm, fuzzy feeling lasted exactly five seconds—right until he crash-landed on top of her and almost killed her.

If not for her electromagnetic shield finishing its cooldown just in time to soften the impact, she was pretty sure both of them would've died on the spot.

"Right, what about your injuries?" she suddenly asked, snapping back to reality.

She clearly remembered: although Midoriya's final punch destroyed the giant robot, the cost was massive. His legs and the arm he used to punch were completely shattered, the bones inside reduced to mush.

"Recovery Girl treated me, so I'm fine now… but…" Midoriya trailed off, his face falling as he recalled his total exam score: zero points.

"Don't worry, Midoriya-shounen! You'll definitely pass! Just the fact that you had the guts to charge in at that moment—that alone makes you worthy of being called a hero!"

With a broad grin, Konata threw an arm around his shoulders.

"If they don't let you in, I won't enroll either. Brothers gotta stick together—ahahaha…"

Halfway through her bold declaration, she finally realized how awkward this looked: she was shorter than him by a full head, so from the outside, it basically looked like a cute blue-haired girl tiptoeing to hug and comfort a boy.

…This could definitely be misunderstood.

Casually letting go of the now stone-stiff Midoriya, Konata tilted her head back and gazed up at the sky.

"Hmm… Don't you think today's weather is just Fantastic?"

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