My Hero Academia: Thunder God

The battle with Snatch had come to an end, and the Kaminari family's life had returned to normal.

Kaminari resumed his daily routine, attending school as usual and silently cramming to finish his homework. Although his grades had always been exceptional, he still felt the need to sharpen his skills for combat.

Well... there was more. He still had to make time to prepare new songs while also guiding Snatch in developing his Quirk. Overall, his days were packed.

As for his parents, his mom continued taking care of the housework while drawing one Pokémon after another, while his dad led the company's middle and senior management to work on a plan called the "Pokémon IP Physical Industry Cluster."

In simpler terms, if this plan succeeded, concepts like "Pokémon-themed restaurants" and "Pokémon-themed schools" would begin to appear in everyone's lives.

Kaminari's father even harbored an ambitious dream: to build a Pokémon-themed amusement park someday!

In short, Kaminari and his family were determined to squeeze every last drop of value out of "Pokémon."

But because of this, Kaminari hesitated. He wondered whether he should introduce another intellectual property (IP).

The reason for his hesitation was simple: he felt his company shouldn't rely solely on one IP. However, seeing how busy his parents were now, he worried he wouldn't be able to manage a second one.

He understood the importance of taking things step by step, but it was precisely because he understood this that it made him feel conflicted. Still, for Kaminari, these were just small worries that cropped up in his free time.

After all, who told him to have so much on his plate?

Meanwhile, as time passed, the story of his battle with Snatch began to spread steadily within Japan's Hero circles.

It went without saying that this was the work of the Hero assistants at Midnight's office. Whether this attention was good or bad for Kaminari remained to be seen.

Three days later, the midterm exams arrived.

Since there were no practical test components this time, apart from going to the cafeteria during lunch, the students spent the day in their classrooms, creating a tense atmosphere.

At 2:10 in the afternoon, the familiar chime of the bell rang throughout U.A. High, signaling the start of the final exam: Hero Basic Information Science.

Their homeroom teacher, Aizawa, walked down from the podium, yawning lazily as he gave instructions.

"Time's up. Start collecting the papers. Pass them forward like always."

True to form, Aizawa hadn't invigilated the exam. Instead, he'd sprawled on the podium and napped throughout. Yet strangely enough, no one in Class 1-A had dared to cheat.

Once Aizawa left the room with the collected papers, Kirishima's loud voice broke the silence.

"It's over! I'm doomed! I couldn't answer nearly a third of the questions, and another third I'm not even sure if I got right!"

"Does that mean you're banking everything on the last third?" Sero teased, looking over at him with mock pity.

Well, Sero was no academic genius himself. In fact, several other students shared similar struggles.

It's worth mentioning that passing U.A.'s entrance exam already meant their grades in middle school had been solid. At the very least, they weren't the kind of students you'd call hopeless cases. But who could've predicted the difficulty would jump so much after enrolling at U.A.?

"Yeah… the last third was mostly fill-in-the-blank questions. Luckily, I've always had good fortune with those, so I should be able to get half of them right," Kirishima said with a self-satisfied grin.

Sero and Tetsutetsu stared at him blankly.

"So you're proud of that, huh? You idiot," Bakugo said, glaring at him with open disdain.

Meanwhile, the top students—Kaminari, Momo, Todoroki, Iida, and Midoriya—quietly compared answers with one another.

As usual, Todoroki remained silent due to his reserved nature. And Bakugo? Well, everyone understood his personality by now.

Kaminari quickly compiled their answers into a chart. It was something he'd done after every exam.

"Based on this, I think I got six wrong. What about you guys?"

Though slightly disappointed in himself, Kaminari understood his recent distractions had affected his performance.

Midoriya studied the chart, then admitted with a bit of regret, "Seven for me." He silently vowed to study harder and make sure he never disappointed All Might.

"Two," Tenya reported, frowning slightly.

"Three," Todoroki replied, his expression calm as always.

"None," Momo said with a small smile.

Kaminari nodded, then handed the chart to the rest of the class. Before long, the classroom erupted with wails of despair.

Ignoring the chaos around him, Kaminari turned to Momo and Kyoka, grinning. "My new song is almost ready. Tomorrow's Sunday—how about we meet up if you're free?"

Kyoka's eyes lit up at the mention of a new song. She couldn't help it, this was her passion.

"Should we invite Kazama too?" she asked nervously.

Kaminari hesitated for a moment, not because of Kyoka's suggestion, but because he'd promised Kazama that he could join the band once he earned a provisional hero license.

Noticing his hesitation, Momo quickly intervened. She had heard about this undecided band member before.

"How about we set some terms with him? Joining us doesn't mean he has to participate in all future activities. And we don't have to include his name in the song credits."

"If he's okay with those conditions, it'd be great to have a professional keyboard player, right?"

Kaminari exchanged a glance with Kyoka and finally nodded. "Alright. Tell him I'll test his skills tomorrow to see how much progress he's made."

Kaminari's reasoning was simple: if Kazama had genuinely worked hard and improved, then he didn't mind getting closer as bandmates.

After wrapping up the conversation, he walked out with Kyoka and Momo.

"Pika!"

The sleepy Pikachu under the table tilted its head and followed after Kaminari step by step. Its adorableness made the other girls burn with envy. They all wanted such a cute pet.

Stepping away from the noise, Kaminari stopped near a window and took out his phone.

"Hello, Dr. Tenma. This is Kaminari."

"Kaminari, what's up? Is there a problem with the suit?"

"No, the suit's working great. But… I was wondering if we could add color-changing and communication features to the Nano Sand."

However, Dr. Tenma's reply quickly dashed Kaminari's hopes.

The doctor explained that the Nano Sand was designed specifically for combat, and adding unnecessary features would dilute its purpose. Moreover, the technical complexity of enabling such functions would be immense.

In short, Kaminari's little wish wasn't feasible.

Sighing, he hung up the call, disappointment clouding his face.

"Guess I'll just have to focus on ideas that don't involve color-changing or talking," he muttered.

But even then, he couldn't help wondering why he was so fixated on creating a clone. Wasn't it unnecessary? Pikachu could already control the golden sands perfectly fine.

Deep down, Kaminari probably understood this. But still… he just wanted a clone that looked cool. Wasn't that reason enough?

"All those big-shot villains send out their minions first while they calmly watch everything from behind. I'll be like that one day too. When I run into some punk, I'll let my clone handle it first!"

As Kaminari's imagination ran wild, his inner chuuni spirit flared to life. Fire seemed to burn in his eyes as he declared to himself:

"I must create a clone!"