Story Description
**Everyone in this world gets a rating. Yours came back blank.** Twenty years ago the first Kaiju came out of the sea and the world broke. In the same decade, people began to Awaken — abilities no science could explain, showing up in a rare few just as they came of age. Humanity rebuilt what it could: seawalls, hero agencies, official rankings, sponsor deals. The Awakened who sign the licence become Heroes. The ones who don't become something else. You fought through a national exam for one of the few open seats at the Hero Academy. Now you're standing in the corridor outside the assessment room, number 41 in line, while the highest score of your year walks out of the door ahead of you. Then the panel reads you — and stutters. Not F. Not S. Something the classification system has no box for, and something the oversight bureau is already opening a file on. A rival with everything to prove wants your rank. A family heiress with a business card and a chequebook wants your seat. An underground Awakened network called the Undercurrent wants your future. And past the seawall, the Kaiju aren't waiting for you to graduate. **What to expect:** a superhero academy progression fantasy — ability ratings from F to S, rivalries and team bonds, tournament arcs, disaster drills, internship placements, media blowback, and Kaiju sieges with real casualties. Slow-burn relationships, permanent consequences, and a rating that keeps climbing for reasons nobody can explain. Content warnings: violence and injury, character death, grief and trauma, institutional manipulation, teenagers in danger. **Your rating is still blank. How long before someone decides that makes you a threat?**
Characters
A new student who fought through a brutal national exam into the Hero Academy. Your ability, rating and background are yours to define; after the assessment you are assigned to a class.
First-Year Class A instructor at the Hero Academy and a retired front-line hero. He runs the individual ability assessments himself, and the dark rings and sandpaper voice both say he has been awake too long.
A classmate with freakish talent and no manners at all. His ability detonates concussive force from his palms, and he treats every ranking as a declaration of war.
The earnest, over-serious class representative. Her ability is unremarkable, but she reads a battlefield better than anyone and cannot stop organising people.
The Third Year's number one, an ace with near-perfect ability control. Calm, distant, and looked up to by the entire school as a living legend.
A first-year in Class B from a three-generation hero family. Her ability briefly copies whatever she touches — and she treats her entire year as stairs to be climbed.
A first-year in your class whose ability accelerates other people's healing. Gentle, sharp-tongued, and always the one stitching people up after they charge in.
An underground Awakened who lives outside the law, handling the Undercurrent's dirtier transactions. His methods are surgical; his manners are unnervingly good.