Chapter 4: The Quest for U.A.
No matter how many times Midoriya had been to U.A. for training, there was always a reverence that seemed undisputedly tied to the school building. It had been the place where two of the top three heroes, numbers one and two—All Might and Endeavor respectively—had learned their craft. It was famous for being a bastion of heroism in a world fraught with villainy and a symbol of excellence. Even something as mundane as a sports festival was a big deal, and U.A.'s was broadcast nationwide.
For someone who had lived and breathed heroes from a young age, there was a sacredness to U.A. that no other place quite had, even if he knew such awe was self-manufactured.
He breathed out a few times to steady his frayed nerves. The workout that morning had given him just enough of an appetite to scarf down the meal his mom had made, and there was a nagging voice in the back of his head that said that it was by design; after all, his nerves had churned his stomach to the point where if he had tried to eat now, he wouldn't have been able to force a bite down even if he wanted to.
The U.A. entrance exam was separated into two sections, a written and a physical. The written component was the easy part, a simple handwritten essay. He had expected at least some reading comprehension for English or Japanese or maybe a couple math questions, but he had received a letter in the mail from U.A. admissions, giving him a thin, blank paper booklet and a single question typed into the top of the first page, with instructions to complete the essay in no more than 1,500 words and to return it via mail within the week before the physical exam.
Perhaps Midoriya shouldn't have been as surprised as he was. U.A. was famous for its non-standard curriculum in the hero course and for the freedom allotted to the teachers. Even if he hadn't known that ahead of time, Vlad King had said it enough that Midoriya could repeat the phrasing word for word—in Vlad King's unique cadence, too.
That didn't mean the essay was going to be a guaranteed home run, however. It was a single, straightforward question, open-ended, and daunting in its simplicity. "What is a hero?"
It had taken Midoriya three drafts to parse his thoughts down to the required word limit, and he had pulled an all-nighter making sure it was beyond his usual standard.
All Might hadn't been happy about that, admonishing the boy for deviating from his schedule and ignoring the vital rest his body needed. Midoriya had given his mom a wary look the next few days for ratting him out to his idol.
Nevertheless, it was the practical portion of the exam that had Midoriya on edge. The content was an open secret—typically involving combat of some sort and robots—but the semi-transparency did nothing to settle his nerves.
All Might and Inko had assured him that he was going to do great, but some dark part in his mind hissed at his confidence, wrapping it tightly, constricting it and spitting venomous words to further weaken his constitution.
He closed his eyes and took deliberate breaths. In and out, in and out, he told himself. He could do this. It was just one step at a time. He just needed to put his foot out and take that first step.
He raised his foot. And it caught on the other shoe. He tipped over and fell. Well, I tried. Goodbye world, he thought as he shut his eyes and waited for his face to slam into the concrete sidewalk.
Only the impact never came. In the moment he closed his eyes, he felt the barest of taps on his shoulder. His body suddenly felt weightless, and his balance swirled uncontrollably. He snapped his eyes open and realized that he was floating in the air. With a startled yelp, he kicked his legs, trying fruitlessly to gain some semblance of balance.
"Sorry 'bout that," a voice from next to him laughed. It was a sweet, light sound, spoken with a gentle lilt. He turned his head to see a girl standing next to him. She reached out and steadied him in the air before pressing her fingers together. His weight suddenly returned, and he landed on solid earth once more. "I should have asked before I used my quirk on you, but it would've been bad luck if you fell going in, right?"
The girl was shorter than him by about half a head, wrapped in a thick tweed coat and a plaid scarf to ward off the morning frost. She looked cozier than he did, in his black middle school uniform. Her chestnut hair was cut into a shoulder-length bob, with two long clumps curling inward near her chin. Her face was round, and she had a near perpetual blush on her cheeks. Her eyes, a warm auburn, closed as she smiled cheerily at him.
He blinked at her, shocked, and squeaked out a couple incoherent stammers as his heart caught in his throat.
"I'm nervous too, so don't worry, you'll be fine," she continued talking. "Anyway, good luck!"
With a wave, she ran off into the retreating crowd.
Midoriya blinked again, letting his heart reset its cadence. Wow, I just talked to a girl!
<<<>>>
Making his way into the meeting room, Midoriya looked around for his assigned seat number. The room was a deep series of concentric half-circles of stepped seats facing a small stage. All the students already seated seemed to be grouped with similar uniforms. Makes sense. Separating us by school makes division easy. But that means I'm probably next to…
Bakugo flicked his eyes up at Midoriya as the boy approached and let out a huff as he kicked his foot up across his knee. "So, you did show up."
"Y-yeah," Midoriya swallowed, timidly taking his seat next to Bakugo. He pushed himself to the side, giving as much distance between him and the explosive boy as he could in the seat.
The awkwardness fortunately didn't last long, and within a few moments, the lights on the stage turned on, and a man in a studded leather coat walked out. His outfit was all leather—or some variant of it—and his eyes were obscured with triangular sunglasses with orange lenses. Perhaps most striking, however, was the man's hair, a veritable column of curved yellow hair sticking up several inches into the air. It reminded Midoriya of some parrots he had seen in books.
"Hello, all you funky hero hopefuls!" the man's voice, though seemingly unaided by any microphone, boomed over the large crowd, instantly silencing all the conversations in the room. "And welcome to the practical portion of U.A.'s entrance exam. I know you're all crazy hyped! Let me hear you give a 'hell yeah!'"
He was met with a deafening silence.
"Ooh, the focus is giving me crazy chills, yo!" The man's 1000-watt grin didn't as much flicker as he moved about the stage.
Midoriya gasped, his eyes sparkling. "It's the Voice Hero: Present Mic! I listen to his radio show all the time!" He hadn't known that the hero was teaching at U.A. He would need to ask for an autograph later.
Bakugo grunted in irritation at Midoriya's excited muttering.
"Right-O! No sense in waiting, let me explain how this works," Present Mic said as he threw finger guns towards the audience. "You'll be given 15 minutes in one of our simulated cityscapes, where you'll be set upon by a horde of killer robots! Yeow!" A graphic flicked onto the screen behind Present Mic's head, showing the silhouettes of the robots. "Your goal is to disable, destroy, or incapacitate as many robots as you can. They range from one to three points and their wickedness is adjusted to that. Teaming up will mean the points are split evenly between the active parties, like EXP in a video game, ya dig?"
So, it was robots. Midoriya gulped and clenched his fist. He wasn't sure if One for All had kicked in yet, meaning he wouldn't have super strength or super speed like All Might to rely on. He did have his own quirk, that much was true, and that boosted his physical attributes, but robots were a step above the guided spars he had had with Vlad King, where the man hadn't hit Midoriya with anything beyond light blows. The lessons were more about form and thought than raw power. What if his normal boost wasn't strong enough? What if the robots shrugged him aside?
"I have a question!" a hand shot into the air, and a boy with a startlingly straight posture stood abruptly near the middle of the room. "You say there are three robot enemies to deal with, but the graphic on the screen clearly indicates four!" There was, indeed, a fourth robot on the screen, this one far blockier and more robust appearing than the others. "Is this an error or an oversight? An institution as prestigious as U.A. should not be tarnished by such things. I demand an explanation. Additionally, you with the unkempt hair," the boy swiveled on his foot and pointed directly at Midoriya several rows back. "You've been mumbling this whole time. If you're not here to take this seriously, leave."
Midoriya flushed red and tried to stammer out a response, but his voice caught in his throat. Bakugo gave an amused chuckle, causing Midoriya to try to sink further into his seat.
"Rrrright, thanks for calling in, examinee 7111," Present Mic drew the attention back to himself. "You're right, there are four robots in the exam. Each testing area has one of these guys," he jerked his thumb at the fourth robot's silhouette. "But it plays a role more akin to an obstacle than an enemy. We call 'em 'Zero Pointers' because they're worth squat if you fight it. You can try to take it down, but I would recommend just avoiding them entirely, honestly."
"I see," the still-standing boy replied. "Thank you very much! Forgive my assumption." He bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle and sat back down.
"Well, that about wraps up everything I'm s'pose to tell you, so you'll find your testing zone on the ticket you were given when you checked in. I'll leave you guys with a quote from the once-great Napoleon Bonaparte: 'A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life.' Now get out there and go Plus Ultra!"
Midoriya quickly took the ticket out of his blazer pocket and inspected it. There was a large Greek gamma printed onto the paper.
Bakugo grunted from the side and Midoriya jumped when he turned to see the boy peering over his shoulder at the ticket. On Bakugo's ticket, a delta was visible.
"Looks like they split people in the same school up," Midoriya noted.
"They probably don't want me to destroy you in the test," Bakugo grinned with a wild expression as he stood and stalked out of the room.
Probably to prevent people from the same school trying to team up, more like, Midoriya thought with a sigh. He got up and followed the signs to where a series of several busses waited. Seeing one of the busses have a gamma on it, he approached and handed the ticket to small robot, who punched the ticket and allowed him to board.
The trip was short, thankfully, as Midoriya knew a longer wait would have let him stew in his anxiety even more. Before he knew it, he was standing outside the gates to what looked like an entire city block, perhaps more. U.A. really doesn't cut corners, wow.
As he looked around, he watched others stretch and prepare themselves. There was maybe 30 or 40 of them in this group. As he scanned the crowd, Midoriya caught sight of a familiar bob of brown hair. It's that nice girl from the entrance! His heart beat a tad faster. I should probably thank her for helping me earlier. It was an excuse, he knew, but he didn't really care. He took a cautious step toward her and opened his mouth, but a hand caught his shoulder.
"Don't you think she's trying to concentrate enough without someone else distracting her?"
It was the boy who had called Midoriya out in the meeting hall. It was only now that he could get a look at the other prospective student. He was tall, nearly half a foot taller than Midoriya, with well-groomed, but slightly shaggy dark blue hair. His jaw was square, accenting his general bulkiness, but it was obvious that it was all muscle. Midoriya could see that his tracksuit pants were rolled up, and metallic tubes jutted out from his calves.
"I just… I…" Midoriya tried to mount some defense, but the boy stared him down with an intense glare, pushing his square-rimmed glasses up as he did so. Midoriya felt himself starting to wilt under the glare. But before he could muster up a counter, Present Mic's voice boomed over the group as the gates began to slowly open.
"Aaaaaaand GO!"
Most of the audience looked around in confusion, including the boy that had been berating Midoriya, but Midoriya had bolted for the entrance the instant Present Mic's voice sounded.
"He's got the right idea," Present Mic crackled to life over a speaker on the gate. "Life waits for no one. Go, go, go!"
And the frenzy began.
<<<>>>
Midoriya had kicked off immediately. Even as he ran, Vlad King's words sounded in his head. It had been one of the final sessions before the exam where the pair had worked on combat scenarios.
"What do you do now?" Vlad King had asked as blood shot from his wrist, crystallizing into a crude axe blade.
Midoriya had paused to think, and in that split second, Vlad King had launched forward and slammed the boy into the ground, blade to Midoriya's throat.
"Your mistake was thinking too much," the pro hero pulled Midoriya to his feet as he spoke. "Fighting isn't everything in heroics, but it means life or death when it happens. Any moment you give your opponent is a moment they could use to kill. You gotta be decisive. Act first, plan while you're moving. In time, you'll do it automatically, but I'm not going to let you build up to it. This is too important; you learn through a trial by fire."
They had spent the next few hours in various combat simulations, and Midoriya had been slammed into the ground more times than he could have counted. He never got the hang of the 'act first' idea like Vlad King had wanted him to, though he had improved a bit to the large man's delight, and the words the man had spoken had been seared into his brain. The moment the gates opened a fraction of an inch, Midoriya had bolted through the opening.
But, while his unboosted speed was better than average, the others had quickly made their way into the exam grounds and were beginning to catch up to him.
I don't know if One For All has kicked in yet, or how it will affect my own quirk. I should only rely on my quirk when I run into the enemy. Try to conserve stamina until then.
He didn't have to wait long before he ran into one of his targets. Rounding a corner, Midoriya froze as a large machine lumbered toward him. It was roughly humanoid, with thin, flat plates what would have been its forearms, and a massive wheel taking up its bottom half. The machine was a dull army green with a large, white "1" painted onto its chest.
Guess this makes this a one-pointer.
A single camera eye whirled and seemed to home in on Midoriya. He gulped. Training with Vlad King giving him instruction was one thing, but actually coming face to face with something that was prepared to fight him was a whole other experience. He gulped, summoning his courage, and steeling his resolve.
Come on, Izuku, just like you practiced. No giving it a chance to strike back.
Taking a breath, Midoriya reached inside to grasp his quirk and draw its power. He waited for a moment, searching. But nothing came. The well of energy he had been used to feeling within his chest was just… gone.
The hell?
Midoriya's eyes widened and flicked from side to side, hoping against hope that something nearby was somehow blocking his quirk. It was a moment wasted. The one-pointer lunged forward and lashed out, knocking Midoriya to the side. He skidded to a halt on the pavement, clutching his newly road-rashed elbow.
But the robot wasn't going to give the chance to lay there, and it swung down at his prone form. Green eyes snapped up to the robot and Midoriya quickly rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet. He ducked in close to the machine and launched a kick into its midsection. Foot met metal plate and Midoriya reeled back, hopping on a single foot.
The plating wasn't very thick and the machine itself was relatively fragile. It would have to be, after all, all the applicants were just kids, he reasoned. But that didn't mean his kick didn't hurt still.
Okay, once more.
He hopped a distance away from the machine and took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching for his quirk. But he only found a void.
Come on! Where is it? Damn it!
He tried to pull power out, but no cooling feeling bloomed across his chest as he had come to expect; rather a burning heat built up in his throat, and a pulse of pain lanced through him, strong enough to snap him back to the outside world, cringing in on himself and coughing.
He glanced at the hand he had coughed into. Across the side of it was painted a streak of blood.
What?
There was no time to decipher it, as the robot charged forward and Midoriya was barely able to dodge out of the way, ducking into an alleyway.
Panic pulsed through his veins and his stomach clenched with a clammy cold as he started to hyperventilate. What was happening? How was this possible? Where did his quirk go? How was he going to pass? Oh god, he was going to fail. Fail the test and fail All Might and Vlad King and his mom and his own dream and…
The distinctive rolling of the robot sounded nearby, cutting through his thoughts. His eyes snapped up to the entrance of the alley, seeing the machine looking around.
Then there was a sudden flash of light and the charred remains of the bot crumpled to the ground. Midoriya peaked out and saw a blond boy with large eyes and a frilled shirt that looked like it cost more than his entire wardrobe combined bowing flamboyantly.
"Merci," the boy said with an accent.
The newcomer didn't seem to notice Midoriya, however, and continued on his way. Midoriya emerged from his hiding spot and continued to run forward, grabbing a garbage can lid at one point for protection, but when he wasn't quite sure. The entire test had become a blur, time melding together and Midoriya simply staggered his way through. Pain ate at his guts, a twisted disappointment of failure and frustration. His chest still throbbed, and his heart felt like it was hammering arrhythmically against his ribcage. He coughed up more blood and wiped the dribble from his chin.
There was the sound of metal shattering nearby. The tall boy who had told Midoriya off swung his leg with incredible force shredding a pair of the scorpion-like two-pointers. There were small, concentrated fires coming from the tubes in his calves. "That's 45," he said to himself.
A bit further away the sound of crunching metal and fracturing concrete drew Midoriya's eye. The girl from the entrance leapt forward, slapping a trio of bots and pushing them into the sky before she pressed her fingers together and they came hurtling to the ground in a sparking mess. "26," she breathily announced out loud.
45, 26!? I have zero! There isn't much time left, I need to move! I need to—
His thoughts were cut off by the ground rumbling.
<<<>>>
A man walked into large control room. The wall facing the doorway was lined with massive monitors, each showing a different section of the testing areas. Nezu sat in a large chair in front of the control panel, watching with interest. Behind him, several others hung around, taking in the various feeds.
"How are the kids looking? Any of them with potential?" he asked as he absently scratched at his stubbly chin.
He had walked up to a woman with a delicate face and curvaceous figure, her long, thick, dark blue hair hung loose, spread out in tufts that reached her waist. Her bright blue eyes were made especially striking by the contrast. She grinned as the man approached. "Oh, there's a couple promising ones. You aren't looking to steal any from underneath Vlad this year, are you?" she elbowed him with a flirtatious wink. He huffed in response, rolling his eyes.
"Just seeing what the crop looks like, that's all."
"It appears promising," Nezu said in a sing-song tone from his chair. "We have potential students who are more adept at combat than typical or who are very creative with their quirks. It's wonderful to see."
The man scanned the monitors, noting a blond boy with crackling hands breathing heavily amongst a veritable carpet of machine parts, a young girl with vines for hair constricting several of the villain bots, and a boy with spiky red hair shoulder tackle straight through a three-pointer that was being stuck to the ground by what looked like purple gum.
"Hm," he hummed. He made a few more mental notes on what he saw, but he didn't hold them to a high regard. He, after all, wasn't part of the judging committee for the exam; it was his job to judge the students after acceptance. In the far corner of the screens was a large table, automatically counting the point totals for the various examinees. He frowned as he spotted a name on the bottom of the list with zero points. Haven't I seen that name before?
"Well, I don't know about you," Nezu said. "But with only a few minutes left in the exam, I'm quite satisfied with seeing how they've dealt with the parameters so far. Why don't we give them a little added stress?"
He reached over to a button on the panel and flipped the plastic cover, before pressing it with a grin.
<<<>>>
The ground shook violently. Midoriya struggled to maintain his balance, and from the looks of the other examinees around him, he wasn't alone. Someone shouted out, asking the question on everyone's minds.
"Is this an earthquake?"
Even if Midoriya had an answer, he wasn't able to give it, as, though on cue, a building several blocks away suddenly seemed to retract its façade, revealing a mountain of olive-green metal underneath. Massive arms swayed with fearsome three-clawed hands, and the steps the robot took sent tremors shooting into the kids' spines. A massive, white "0" was emblazoned on the chest of the machine.
THAT'S the zero-pointer!? Isn't that a little over-kill?
"We're not going to get any points for that, we should just run!" someone in the crowd shouted.
The zero-pointer walked through a building, showering the street they stood on with rubble and dust, as if in agreement.
Midoriya's heart caught in his chest, pounding painfully. Shooting lances of pain reached down through his fingers. There wasn't anything he could about that robot. It wouldn't have mattered if he did.
Present Mic's voice announced that there was a minute left, but the sound was distant in the pounding noise of Midoriya's panicked breaths.
But as he ran, a noise pierced the fog of his brain. It was a cry of pain, and Midoriya's whole being skidded to a halt even as his feet obeyed his instincts. He swivelled.
Further down the street, someone was pinned by rubble, the zero-pointer looming menacingly overhead as it lumbered forward.
Pumping his legs harder than he ever had, Midoriya turned and took off toward the trapped person. He slid to a stop, already grasping at the rubble to try to move it. Large fragments of concrete pinned the person's ankle to the ground and there was a whine of pain as Midoriya tried to shift the material. He looked at the person. It was the girl from the entrance. She looked up with fear in her eyes.
"I can't reach it with my hands," she said quickly. "I'm at my weight limit. Go, my ankle's busted, I can't run anyway!"
Midoriya shook his head. "No, you're in trouble, I'm not leaving you!"
"But—"
"I said I'm not leaving!" Midoriya shouted. Her eyes glistened with terror and Midoriya felt something in his heart stir. Unable to shift the rubble, he turned to face the oncoming machine. He braced, a burning fire pooling in his stomach and spreading through his limbs.
Suddenly, the voice of All Might floated through his mind.
"How do you use One For All?" the man had puffed up to his hero form as Midoriya asked whilst trying to move a fridge. "You have to feel it!" He pumped his fist with enthusiasm and a wild grin as he said it.
Midoriya gave him an incredulous look.
"Ahem," All Might scratched the back of his head with a little bit of embarrassment. "The power resides deep within, a swirling flame of massive size. You let it fill you up, then you clench your butt-cheeks, swing, and at the top of your lungs, yell 'SMASH!'"
He swung his fist, a torrent of air pressure splitting the ocean in front of them for several hundred feet.
The moment that Midoriya snapped back to reality, he was no longer on the ground. He was already several stories in the air, winding back his fist as the zero-pointer came closer. He clenched his hand and his butt as power surged through him, the sheer force of the energy collecting in his arm shredding his track suit sleeve.
He swung.
"SMASH!"
Fist met the metal faceplate of the robot, and the metal crumpled like paper. The entire zero-pointer lurched back as its head caved in and the sudden shock tore at its insides, causing a small chain of failures cascading down the body, raining sparks to the concrete as the machine toppled to the ground with a resounding crash.
Midoriya had no time to admire his work. Blood splattered against his face, likely from his own fist, and before he had a chance to come to terms with what had happened, he was already falling.
He looked around frantically, trying to get his bearings. The way that the arm that he had used was flapping about in the wind was both unnerving and grotesque, but it was clear that the limb was shattered. He tried to angle his lower body, but nothing moved. Glancing back, he realized that his legs were both in similar states as his arm.
I'm… going to die, he realized. I can't stop myself. I can't believe…
SMACK!
Midoriya's thoughts were abruptly ended by a sharp sting as a hand slapped him in the cheek, hard. The next moment, he felt his stomach churn uncomfortably as a sense of weightlessness overtook him. He was floating.
Looking around, he saw the girl had managed to drag herself on top of the fallen robot's foot and had prevented him from crashing to the ground like she had done at the entrance of the school.
Her hands trembled as she forced her fingers together and called out, "Release." Midoriya dropped to the ground, landing with an "oomph" on the fractured concrete. It hurt but was far more preferable to the landing he was facing moments ago.
The girl, as gracefully as she could, saw that he was still breathing, then abruptly turned green, and lurched over the side of the robot, vomiting. Midoriya tried not to look.
After a moment of recomposing herself, she cautiously slid down the metal, limping over to him.
"Are you okay?"
She looked at his limbs.
"Er… I mean… alive?"
Midoriya laughed.
"Y-yeah, I think so. Thank you, you… saved me." His voice was little more than a croak. The girl might have said something in reply, but it was drowned out by a horn and Present Mic's voice booming out.
"And that's time! For anyone that's hurt, please stay where you are, and medical staff will be there in a minute, the rest of you may go back to the buses, we have some refreshments there for you."
Midoriya's heart sank. It was over. All the work, the sweat, the tears, the ten months of hell, all for his dream, all crushed in 15 short minutes.
"No…" he whispered to himself. "I just wanted… one point…"
Further words were cut off as an extreme stab of pain radiated through his body. It took his entire store of willpower just from crying out as his adrenaline high began to wear off. The girl fussed around him, unsure of what to do as Midoriya writhed in pain.
A few moments later, Recovery Girl approached the kids, followed by a pair of small assistant bots holding a gurney.
"Oh boy, that's not good," she said to herself as she saw Midoriya. She bent down slightly, her lips extending out unnaturally far to press against the boy's forehead. With a kiss, her quirk activated, and the fractured and mangled limbs seemed to straighten themselves. The bots quickly rushed to Midoriya and began to gingerly load him onto the gurney.
"Th-thanks," he managed, his voice becoming distant.
"It's okay," Recovery Girl assured him. "Just sleep for now."
Seemingly accepting the advice, Midoriya let his eyes slip closed and moments later he was slack and breathing calmly as the gurney wheeled him away.
"Are you alright, dear?" she asked the girl.
"Y-yeah, I think my ankle's broken though," she lifted her hurt leg higher to emphasize her point.
"Let me see," Recovery Girl pointed with her cane to a nearby chunk of concrete, and helped the girl walk gingerly over it. Recovery Girl checked the girl over and hummed in thought.
"Looks like a sprain," the nurse mused. "Here." She kissed the girl on the cheek and her ankle seemed to repair itself.
"Oh, wow, that's amazing!" the girl hopped to her feet and tested her ankle, only to stumble as a wave of exhaustion set in.
"Careful now," Recovery Girl dug into her pockets. "My quirk uses your own energy to heal you, so you'll be tired. There's refreshments at the entrance, make sure you have some sugar. Also, I saw that you had thrown up, is nausea a side effect of your quirk?"
The girl blushed and bashfully played with her hair. "Yeah, it is. If I exceed my weight limit, it makes me throw up."
"Good to know. Take this," she handed her a small package of a couple pills. "Take those with water to help the nausea before you eat. Now, if you'll excuse me, there are some other people I need to attend to."
"Wait a moment, that boy…"
"He'll be fine, just needs some rest. I'll heal him more a bit later when he has the energy," Recovery Girl waved as she walked away.
The girl chewed on her lip. The injuries she saw were horrifying. She had hoped that he would be okay at the very least. He had taken her by surprise; he had seemed so timid and soft-spoken at the entrance of the school, that the amount of power he had wielded was shocking. Normally people with immensely powerful quirks tended to be brash or arrogant.
Yet, he seemed anything but. He had used that power to save her, the mere act of jumping to meet the zero-pointer had been so strong that it had blown the rubble pinning her off her legs and sent her skidding to the side.
However, injuries aside, she couldn't help but continually replay what the boy had muttered under his breath as he lay there. I just wanted… one point… Why hadn't he gotten any? It wasn't fair. With a sudden swell of conviction, she took a breath, steadying herself and made for the entrance. There was still potentially one option she could try.
<<<>>>
Midoriya was surrounded by darkness.
"Hello?"
His voice echoed through the landscape, bouncing off unseen walls in the distance. The emptiness of the plain in front of him was somehow, contradictorily, both suffocating and shockingly void.
It stole his breath either way.
He wandered for several minutes, moving entirely on instinct, not even sure if he was changing direction or not. Perhaps he was walking in a circle? At this point, he couldn't tell.
But then, piercing the darkness was a moan, a grunt of effort, that hadn't come from him. He whirled on his feet, trying to locate where it had come from.
There!
In the distance, two pinpricks of light seemed to be moving of their own accord.
Midoriya sprinted toward them, nearly tripping over himself in his mad dash. It took only moments for the pinpricks to evolve into something much larger and Midoriya abruptly halted his run as he took in the sight before him.
Two enormous masses of pure energy appeared to wrestle. There was a blue one, its edges wavering and undulating in calming fashion. It was his quirk. Next to it, there was a gigantic reddish-yellow flame, crackling in intensity, pure heat shunted from its form in menacing waves. This newcomer seemed to dwarf his quirk, easily being twice or thrice as large, if not more.
Is this… One For All?
He watched as tendrils of fiery energy spread out from what Midoriya assumed was the core of this new quirk—though the core of it, much like his original power, was obscured from his sight—and attempted to latch onto his old quirk, trying to drag it into itself. His quirk writhed and trashed, lashing out with tendrils of its own to beat back its attacker.
"Hey, wait, stop!"
The quirks seemed to pay him no mind.
Midoriya started forward, running in between where the tendrils whipped out between the battling powers. "I said STOP!" he shouted.
Suddenly, the fight seemed to pause, and Midoriya's spine shivered as he could feel the attention of the powers shift to him.
"Why are you fighting? You're both supposed to be my quirks!"
Slowly, the tendrils of flame seemed to retract, and each quirk stood in front of him, the pulsating power of each the only sound in the now quiet landscape.
"I don't understand, is this why I couldn't use you in the exam?" he looked at the blue mass. "You were fighting with One For All?"
There was silence, but it spoke all the affirmation that he needed.
"I have to use both of you to be successful. Please, don't try to consume each other, okay?"
He reached his hands out, and the quirks seemed to respond, wisps of energy from each shifting out and curling around his arms before swirling on his torso, the cool sensation of his quirk blooming across his chest and a warm fire igniting in his stomach, and the quirks became brighter as they fed more into him.
Brighter and brighter, until his vision was only white, and Midoriya suddenly opened his eyes. He was in Recovery Girl's office.
Groggily, he sat up, pressing a palm to his eye to try to ward off the incoming headache.
"Oh, good," Recovery Girl's voice snapped his attention out of the fog of his head. "You're up."
"What… what happened?" Midoriya spoke slowly.
"You were reckless is what happened. If that girl hadn't stopped your fall with her quirk, you would have died."
Midoriya didn't have to look at her to know her eye twitched in annoyance.
"I had to do something; she was in trouble." he said, staring hard at his arm, which rested bandaged in a sling. "I couldn't just turn my back on her."
"I know," Recovery Girl's tone softened and came across as almost defeated. "Which is why I'm not on your case about it. Still, you have to be more careful. One For All is immensely strong and you used it like you've had it since this morning."
"That's because… I kind of… have?" Midoriya shrunk in on himself as he said it.
Recovery Girl let out a long, loud sigh, followed by something he didn't quite catch, but sounded suspiciously like a curse, followed by "of course".
"Well, in that case, now we know what using it will do." She got up from her chair and extended her lips, kissing Midoriya on the cheek. In seconds, the groggy, dull throb of pain that his body was trying to ignore went away, and the headache that had been growing vanished. She pressed a small pack of gummy bears and a paper into his palm as she did so.
"Eat these and get a good night's sleep," she instructed. "You should be fine tomorrow; if anything is off, call me at this number. No using One For All for a few days either. I don't want to hear that your limbs are shattered again."
Midoriya cringed slightly at her tone. "…yes, ma'am."
<<<>>>
Although the house had been brimming with both worry and quiet confidence, Inko was still relieved that Midoriya had returned from the exam seemingly uninjured. He had come home sulking, not saying anything, and simply retreating to his room, and Inko's heart hurt seeing her son in such distress.
She had prepared a warm meal for him, and his eyes seemed to light up a bit with the food. She chuckled to herself; no matter how much he hid, he was still such an expressive boy. Feeling that the exam was likely a sensitive topic, she elected to eat the meal in silence. She texted Yagi asking if he knew if something had happened at the exam, but only received an answer the next morning saying no, and Inko sighed. They would have to wait until the letter from U.A. came.
With a sudden lack of preparatory training to do, Midoriya spent time doing basic exercises and cardio as physical training, trying to ensure that he wouldn't fall behind, as well as trying to work on drawing out his original quirk more effectively.
The first few days, he tried to ignore the feeling of One For All within him, giving his limbs time to recover more thoroughly, but he soon began to explore the feeling of that quirk as well.
His two quirks were substantially different, he soon learned. One For All was far less contained in his body than his original quirk was; a lesson he learned after he charged his arms up with the power only to see his shirt shred off his body from the pure force. Thankfully, he didn't break anything.
Not only did Midoriya have problems merely constraining the power as he used it, but he constantly felt it creeping up through his veins, trying to let loose its fearsome presence. He had learned while training with Vlad King and Recovery Girl that his base quirk was always active, drawing on a reservoir of power to increase his physical attributes. However, the level of output his quirk used on a regular basis was miniscule, so small that the boost to him was effectively zero. And because the energy was uniquely his, unless a machine was specifically searching for it, he registered as not using a power.
It solved the mystery of his diagnosis when he was little, but it was presenting a problem now. With his one quirk always active, the other seemed to want to be unleashed as well, and Midoriya joked to himself at the idea that One For All was jealous of his quirk. Maybe All Might's quirk is just haunted. He laughed at the prospect of such a ridiculous idea.
Either way, One For All was a formidable force, and Midoriya had to work to keep it in check. His stomach burned with built up power, and if he wasn't careful, it felt as if his quirk and One For All might begin to clash again. It was exhausting to keep track of.
But, nevertheless, he worked hard to acclimatize himself, both for his own sake and for the sake of not thinking about the exam.
He knew he had failed, and he had solemnly looked up the other hero schools to see their entrance exam dates. It dug into him, self-inflicted barbs spitting on his dream. He knew his mom was worried about him when he let himself fall into an episode of it, but he couldn't shake the acrid feeling of failure off his tongue.
"Izuku?"
He felt his quirks bubble up briefly and fought them down.
"Honey? Izuku?"
He snapped back to attention. Where was…? Oh, right, he was having breakfast with his mom.
"I know you're nervous," she said. "But you're staring at the fish."
Midoriya suddenly realized that he had picked up the head of the grilled fish from his breakfast and had been staring blankly into its eyes.
"Oh, sorry," he put down the head sheepishly. "I was spacing out."
"I could tell," she said cautiously, her brow furrowing. "You've been staring at it for five minutes."
"Oh," was all he could reply with. His plate moved on its own, sliding into Inko's grip via her quirk. He sighed and rested his head on the table.
Moments later, there was a commotion down the hall and Inko came running into the dining room, holding a letter.
"Izuku! It came! Your letter from U.A.!"
Midoriya shot out of his seat like a rocket, taking the letter from Inko's shaky hands and immediately locked himself in his room.
Outside, Inko paced nervously, using her quirk to grab a bowl of chips that she was originally going to give to her son. She stuffed a few into her mouth. The whole training saga with Izuku, although relieving, had been stressful in their own way, and alongside his several years of bullying—which she noticed clearly, despite his attempts to hide the evidence—, she had gained quite a few pounds.
Hisashi used to laugh whenever she'd grab a snack to calm her nerves, saying she looked like a chipmunk. The memory tightened her throat a bit. Becoming a hero was all Izuku had ever wanted, maybe she should tell him more about Hisashi and what happened, but some part of her bite back the desire.
She took another bite and sighed, continuing to pace in front of Izuku's door.
<<<>>>
Midoriya stared at the letter on his desk. It sat, sealed and waiting, his name and address stamped on the envelope in subtle, typewriter-style lettering. The stamp on the corner bore the U.A. logo. This unassuming, delicate letter held his future. He had been watching it for the better part of ten minutes, as if waiting for the letter to open itself and announce his failure.
His stomach twisted in nerves and his throat felt clammy. It took some effort to breath and only jostled himself out of the funk when One For All's fiery bite flared in his gut, as if it was bidding him to open the letter.
Taking a deep breath, Midoriya picked up the envelope, noticing that it had a bit of weight to it, and quickly tore it open. Tipping it over, a small, metallic disk clattered onto the wood of his desk.
Midoriya regarded it curiously. It was smooth, a small circle that fit into the palm of his hand. Along the edge, two small buttons, one red and one green, lay raised. He brushed his finger over them; they didn't move. The centre of the disk appeared to be a camera of sorts.
He put it down, tilting his head with confusion. But before he could voice any thoughts, the disk chimed, and a blue pattern appeared along the edges. A moment later, the camera clicked to life, and a hologram projected just above it.
"Hahahaha! I am here, as a projection!" All Might, in a large pinstripe yellow suit stood beaming.
Midoriya jumped back as his mentor's voice boomed out.
"Young Midoriya! I apologize for not reaching out to you sooner, but you see," the hero paused for dramatic effect. "I had a lot of paperwork to do!"
Midoriya felt his shoulders relax a tad as he chuckled. It was classic All Might humour.
"You already know I'm becoming a faculty member at U.A., so I admit there's been a lot on my plate. But that's enough of the chit-chat! I'm sure you want to know your exam results!"
The creeping feeling of nerves constricted Midoriya's lungs once more.
"With the written exam, you did fabulously, in fact, Principal Nezu—who personally graded all of the written exams—told me that you scored in the top two percent of all the examinees. Well done! That's a serious feat, you should be proud." All Might flashed a thumbs up. "Now, for the practical. I would call your strategy a bit unusual, but you did not score a single robot point. Needless to say, that is well below the cut-off for a passing mark…"
Frustrated tears welled up in the corners of Midoriya's eyes and he bit his tongue to prevent any noise.
"That is, if those villain bots were our only criteria, of course!"
Wait… what?
"Indeed, 'Villain Points' were a metric of measure that the examiners looked at, but that's not the sole mark of a hero! There was another component, the 'Rescue Points'! And you, Young Midoriya, with your valiant act of self-sacrifice to save another examinee scored the most points ever awarded for a single act! 60 Rescue Points! In fact, your act was so impressive that it inspired another act of selflessness just after the exam. Take a look."
All Might pointed down and a screen appeared in front of him. On it, from what was evidently a security camera, Present Mic was walking through the halls of U.A.
"Excuse me!" a voice called out to him. Present Mic turned and the girl Midoriya had saved ran up.
"What's up, little listener? You guys were free to go home already."
"I know," she said hastily at first, but then slightly bashfully. "It's just, someone from my testing group, umm… he got hurt? Curly hair, freckles, kind of plain-looking?" She motioned in circles with her arms as if trying to entice the memory into Present Mic's mind.
"Hmm?" the hero paused to think for a second, then hit the side of his fist into his palm. "Oh, right! The kid who wrecked the zero-pointer! Yeah, he's doing a lot better. Recovery Girl's taking good care of him. I don't know if she'll let you visit him, though."
"No, that's not it," the girl said quickly. "It's that, I heard him talking to himself, and I don't think he got any points. He saved my life and gave up the chance to get points to help me, so umm…, is there a way I could maybe give him some of my points?"
Midoriya's heart caught in his throat and tears pooled in his eyes.
The Present Mic hologram seemed to regard the girl for a second before bending down to a single knee so he could look up into her eyes and reached up to lay a calming hand on the girl's shoulder.
"We appreciate the offer, Little Listener," he gave her a kind smile. "But that's not allowed. Don't worry, however, his act didn't go unnoticed. We'll take care of him, okay?"
The girl nodded. "Th-thank you," she said after a second.
"Good," Present Mic stood again and grinned. "Now, go on home. I'm sure it'll all work out, okay?"
The screen disappeared and a new one appeared in front of All Might, this one a scoreboard.
"With your act, we're pleased to give you a deserving 60 points, and for her, 45 Rescue points for both saving you and trying to sacrifice her own score for your benefit. As a result, you both made it into the top ten! Izuku Midoriya!" All Might posed dramatically. "You passed. Welcome! This is your hero academia!"
Midoriya broke down in tears as relief and gratitude washed over him in waves. He fell to the floor crying out, hugging his abdomen tightly. After a minute, he took some steadying breaths and wiped his eyes, looking at the paused video. He glanced at the scoreboard, reading some of the names, and the Villain and Rescue points each were given.
Katsuki Bakugo- 77, 0Eijiro Kirishima- 39, 35Ochako Uraraka- 28, 45Ibara Shiozaki- 36, 32Itsuka Kendo- 25, 40Tenya Iida- 52, 9Izuku Midoriya- 0, 60Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu- 49, 10Fumikage Tokoyami- 47, 10Yosetsu Awase- 50, 6Most of the names were unknown to Midoriya, but he did make note of two. Kacchan got first, that's incredible. And third was 'Uraraka', All Might said that girl was given 45 points, so I guess that's her.
Suddenly, there was another chime from the disk and All Might's projection vanished, replaced by one of Principal Nezu.
"Greetings! We are most proud to offer you a seat in this year's upcoming hero course. Should you choose to accept this offer, please press the green button on this device and simply mail it back to U.A. with the envelope and stamp that have been provided. You'll receive a list of supplies and your class placement within the week. Thank you, and plus ultra."
The picture cut out and Midoriya cautiously poked the small green button that had been unmoveable before, now finding that it pressed down easily and clicked into place.
Inside the envelope, he found the return envelope and stamp as promised and he quickly sealed the disk inside. With a measured breath, he wiped any lingering tears away and opened his door to see his mom nervously pacing in the hallway. She looked at him. He smiled.
"I got in."
<<<>>>
It was only after the pair had embraced tightly and then dried the floor from their impressive cascade of tears, that Midoriya see that he had a text message waiting for him.
He unlocked his phone and nearly dropped it when he saw that the message was from All Might.
Hey kiddo, the letter should have arrived by now. I was hoping I could talk to you privately for a bit. Can you come out to Dagobah Beach for 8pm?
Midoriya quickly confirmed that he could and let Inko know where he was going. Nervous excitement welled up in him as he dashed out of the apartment and mailed in his acceptance to U.A.
By the time eight pm had rolled around, the sun had already set, and the last remaining golden rays of the day were beginning to fade sleepily, to give way for a clear and crisp dark blue, illuminated by a twinkling full moon.
A gentle breeze rustled Midoriya's hoodie as he walked onto the beach. All Might stood nearby, in his hero form, wrapped in a massive single-breasted overcoat. The man smiled widely as Midoriya approached.
"Young Midoriya," his voice was intentionally soft, yet it still carried a power and authority to it that caused Midoriya to perk up unconsciously at. "I'm glad you made it."
"Th-thanks," the boy rubbed the back of his head bashfully.
"Congratulations are in order, by the way," All Might rested a hand on Midoriya, engulfing his successor's shoulder entirely. "I wasn't part of the panel of judges who scored you. I don't even know who they were—you did that all on your own."
Midoriya beamed at the praise.
"However," All Might's smile lowered and in a sudden burst of smoke he released his power, shrinking. The coat that had just fit him perfectly now seemed like it was swallowing the man. He fixed Midoriya with a solemn look. "I need to offer you an apology."
Midoriya furrowed his brow. "What? Why?"
"Why?" All Might repeated incredulously. "You shattered three of your limbs using One For All for the first time. How could I not apologize for that?"
Midoriya glanced around nervous that someone might have heard All Might, but it seemed the pro had scouted ahead and picked a deserted area of the beach. "I mean," he fidgeted, grinding the toe of his shoe into the sand. "You couldn't have known that the backlash would be that strong."
"I warned you that we had to build your body because an unprepared body would be unable to contain the raw power. We built you up to the point where you can hold the power, but using it seems to still put a lot of strain on you."
"It's a bit shocking to feel all this power in me constantly," Midoriya admitted. "It's like it's always on the verge of breaking loose."
All Might cocked his head with a concerned frown. "You don't simply summon the power? I thought it would have been like your other quirk. That's what I do."
Midoriya shook his head. "That quirk is always on at a low level, so I guess I naturally let the power flow a bit." He tightened a fist and stared at it, watching the tendons flex in his wrist. "My quirk and One For All don't seem to get along either. It's why I couldn't use my power during the exam until the very end."
"I was going to ask about that," All Might muttered. "We'll have to find a way to build yourself and your unconscious control so you don't run a risk of hurting yourself. Don't worry," he smiled. "I'm with you."
Midoriya wiped away a burgeoning tear. "Thanks, All Might."
"Of course," the pro reached out and pulled Midoriya into a gentle embrace. The boy eagerly reciprocated the touch. "And don't worry, we'll find a way to explain your sudden superstrength on your registry."
"My… registry?" Midoriya blinked, then suddenly panicked. "My registry! I'm still listed as quirkless! Oh no, the school's going to think I'm a cheater or something, I need to change it, wait, can I change it? Who even has those records? Why didn't I think of this before? Oh, Mom's going to be so mad at—"
Midoriya's abrupt shock was cut off by All Might's resounding laughter. "Don't worry so much, Young Midoriya. U.A. already knows that you have a quirk. Besides, you're young still, you can change the registry."
"I… can?"
"Of course," All Might held up a finger as he explained. "As people grow older, they discover new facets of their quirks through training or maturity, or even learn that their quirk was different than their initial assumption. Like if they thought that they could produce water, but later learned that they just pulled the water from the air. You can change your registry no problem. But you will have to give this new power set of yours a name."
"A name?" Midoriya furrowed his brow and held his chin as he began to think. "Come to think of it, I never actually named my base quirk. What would be a good name?"
"That's up to you, do you have anything bouncing around in that head of yours?"
There was a few more seconds of silence as Midoriya muttered to himself, his words too dense and low for All Might to pick them out. Then the boy whipped out his phone, quickly searching something. After a moment he nodded to himself and looked at his mentor with a widening grin.
"Impulse. That's my quirk's name."
"Impulse, eh? Not bad at all," All Might chuckled. "Alright. I'll let you know tomorrow where to change your registry."
The pair chatted for a few more minutes before deciding to part for the night.
"All Might?" Midoriya looked at the thin man.
"Hm?"
"I just… thank you. For believing in me."
A fond smile cracked the man's lips. "Of course." He watched Midoriya run off. I'll always believe in you. I have to now.
<<<>>>
"Mommy, Mommy," a high, childish voice rang out. "I'm a hero!"
The boy jumped out of the corner, a small, All Might-themed blanket pinned around his shoulders to look like a cape. His small body was clothed in an All Might onesie, his green curls poking out of the hood.
Inko smiled at her son. "Yes, you are," she picked him up, carrying the boy through the air as he giggled contagiously. Inko felt her heart lighten. "My little hero."
"And soon," Izuku's voice rang out loudly. "Soon, I'll save people, and I'll be a hero just like All Might! He always saves people with a smile!"
"He does?" Inko put Midoriya on the ground. "Then you better practice your smile."
The child beamed at her with a wide grin that almost seemed to light the room up by itself. "I'm going to be a hero and, and be like All Might and like dad, too!"
Inko froze, her own smile faltering.
The world spung forward and suddenly her son stood in front of her, black middle school uniform scuffed and charred. "I'll be back soon," he said as he opened the front door.
"Be—Be careful!" Inko found her tongue as he turned away.
"I will," Midoriya turned and smiled at her. "I love you."
He closed the door behind him. For a moment, she saw Hisashi's smile on her little boy's face.
Inko felt cold, a biting wind blowing from behind her. Her stomach dropped. She turned around cautiously to find that she was no longer in the apartment, but at a cemetery. Staring at her was the Midoriya family grave.
She visited it often, on weekends and days off when Midoriya was off training with Yagi or at U.A. She liked to talk to Hisashi and tell him what their child was doing. She looked at the familiar wooden emblem engraved with her husband's name on it, but it wasn't there. Instead, a new post had supplanted it. The kanji on it dripped blood, staining the grave site a repulsive crimson. She read the name.
Izuku Midoriya.
Inko jolted up in her bed, a cold sweat forcing her sleepwear to stick to her skin. Her breath was heavy and ragged, and she greedily gulped down air, trying to reset her heart rate.
Her hand brushed her cheek as she tried to pushed her hair off her forehead, and she was surprised to find a tear slowly moving down her face.
She curled in on herself and rested her forehead on her knees, sighing out. It was just a nightmare. That's all, she told herself.
<<<>>>
"So, these are our 40 students," Nezu looked down at the meeting room table where dozens of files were spread out. Several teachers were seated around the room, others standing, actively looking through files.
"There were four recommendation students this year?" one teacher, Midnight, with long dark blue hair asked as she glanced through the files.
"That's right, Kayama," Nezu nodded. "It's more than usual, so I'm thinking of splitting them up, two in each class."
"Do we get to choose which ones or request which students we want from the general entry exam?" Vlad King rubbed his chin.
"For some, yes. I have some students already planned for specific classes."
"You probably want that little greenie, what's-his-name, right, Vlad?" Present Mic leaned his elbow on the table with a grin.
"Midoriya, right?" Midnight reached across the table and the teacher next to Present Mic, a man in a red cloak, chaps, and wearing a tan gas mask shaped like a horse's muzzle, handed her the file. "Thank you, Snipe," she said as she opened the folder and started glancing through it. She glanced back at Vlad King. "Did you do some training with him?"
"Quirk control, yeah, he was a rare case of an extremely late quirk. He was someone I had in mind for my class," Vlad King admitted.
"If you helped train him, then why didn't you teach him how not to nearly kill himself using his power?" a man in a black jumpsuit and shaggy hair on the other side of Present Mic leaned back in his chair with folded arms and a frown.
"That superstrength was no joke," Present Mic. "I can't remember the last time I saw someone punch a zero-pointer out like that."
"That was a surprise to me too," Vlad King said, scratching the scar on his chin. "Either he just pulled it out or he learned it without me."
"There's a couple others with potentially self-destructive quirks in the pool today." Snipe tossed another file to the center of the table.
"In the case of Izuku Midoriya, as well as the others with potentially self-harmful quirks, I was actually going to give them to Aizawa," Nezu spoke up.
"But—" Vlad King started to speak, but Nezu held up a paw.
"I would like all of them to have a number of various opinions and ideas when learning here, especially with All Might joining the faculty. But in the case of some volatile quirks, it can be difficult to manage. So, I'd like Midoriya to have Aizawa keep a close eye on him. Is that fair?"
"Yeah, I suppose," Vlad King nodded.
"Sure," Aizawa shrugged.
"Speaking of the big man," Present Mic looked around. "Where is All Might?"
"He had to return to his agency today to do some paperwork regarding his move out here," Nezu explained. "All Might is helping oversee the heroics classes for all 120 hero course students, so he didn't need to be here for the particulars. Now, shall we get started on these placements?"
<<<>>>
Midoriya fumbled with his tie. Stupid thing, he frowned as the knot came out massively bloated and the tie came down only to the middle of his chest.
He shook his head and slipped on his uniform jacket, appreciating the sturdy fabric. He checked the glossy brass button on the shoulder patch. One single button, the mark of the hero course.
With a calming breath, he hefted his backpack onto his shoulder and left his room. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face as excitement bubbled in his gut. One For All buzzed through his veins and Midoryia had to push it down.
"You have everything?" Inko fussed over her son at the door. "Books, supplies, your school ID?"
"I got them," he smiled softly at her.
"What about tissues? And an extra pair of socks? And… and—"
"Mom," Midoriya turned to face his mom and grasped her by the shoulders. "I got everything. Now, I have to go, or I'll be late."
Inko sniffed back a tear. "Alright, I love you, sweetie."
"I love you too," he said, hugging her tight. He opened the door and took a step out.
"Izuku?"
He turned, tilting his head.
"You look so cool, honey."
His eyes lit up and his smile brightened. "Thanks, mom."
He turned back and left, his heart pounding in nervous excitement. The last month had passed by in a flash. Today was the day, the start of the school year. I'm ready, he thought as he took a step to a new chapter.