The girl blinked, her large brown eyes fixed on him, the blush of embarrassment still coloring her cheeks. Izuku's smile faltered slightly. Maybe I came on too strong. Maybe my comment was stupid.
"Oh, hi!" she said, her voice a bit shrill with surprise. "Thanks! Yeah, I almost wiped out. How embarrassing! Tripping before I even started!"
She scratched the back of her neck, a nervous laugh escaping her lips. The tension broke.
"No, no, not at all," Izuku hurried to say. "That was an incredible reaction. You used your Quirk to save yourself. That's pro-level stuff."
"You really think so? I just panicked!" she waved her hands in front of her. "I'm Ochako Uraraka! It's a pleasure!"
"Izuku Midoriya. The pleasure is all mine."
They shook hands. Her grip was firm.
"Midoriya-kun, you must have an amazing Quirk to be so confident! You walk like you already know you're going to pass!"
Izuku let out a short laugh, this one loaded with a decade of irony. "Not at all. You're completely mistaken."
Uraraka's smile wavered. "Oh, I am?"
"Yeah. My Quirk is… well, it's pretty useless for this," he shrugged, feeling the familiar weight of shame. "It's called 'Trainer.' It's literally for training animals. Dogs, cats, maybe a hamster if it misbehaves. It's trash."
He braced himself for the look of pity, for the awkward "oh, well." But Uraraka's reaction completely floored him. Her eyes widened, not with pity, but with dazzling admiration.
"What? Are you kidding me?"
"I wish."
"Wow!" she exclaimed, doing a little hop on the spot. "But then…! That means your whole physique…!"
"Oh, that." Izuku looked down at his hands, at the calluses covering them. "That's thanks to my mom. We started working out together ten months ago. She wanted to lose some weight, and I… well, I needed a shot. All I have is the physical training I did with her."
Uraraka's silence lasted only a second before it was replaced by a torrent of words. "That's even more incredible! Way more than having some strong Quirk! To make it this far with just your body, without a combat power! That shows tremendous willpower! It's amazing!"
Izuku didn't know what to say. No one, ever, had looked at him like that. As if his deficiency was actually his greatest strength.
"People used to call me 'Deku'," he blurted out, not knowing why. "It means 'useless' or 'the one who can't do anything'."
"Well, they're wrong!" Uraraka declared with a fierce conviction that took his breath away. "To me, it sounds like 'Dekiru'! Like 'You can do it'! You're like a Deku who never gives up!"
Deku. The word that had always been an insult, a reminder of his uselessness, sounded like an honorary title on her lips. He felt a warmth spread through his chest that had nothing to do with his training.
"I like it," he said, surprised by his own honesty. "I like how it sounds when you say it."
The blush returned to Uraraka's cheeks. "Well then, Deku-kun, let's get ready! We have to give it our all!"
He nodded, a genuine, confident smile forming on his face for the first time. "Together."
As they walked toward the auditorium for the briefing, Izuku couldn't help but think his theory was correct. A big heart. Definitely.
Present Mic's voice boomed through the hall, explaining the rules of the practical exam: a mock battle in a fake city where they would accumulate points by destroying three types of robots. After the talk, the applicants were led to different battle zones. Izuku and Uraraka ended up in the same one. In front of them, gigantic metal gates blocked the view of the artificial metropolis. The tension was palpable. Uraraka gave him a nervous but determined look. He returned it with a nod.
"GOOOO!!!" roared Present Mic's voice over the loudspeakers. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! THERE'S NO COUNTDOWN IN A REAL BATTLE!"
Chaos erupted. Hundreds of applicants shot forward. Izuku, used to running, pushed through the crowd and looked for Uraraka. He found her a few yards ahead, looking around, overwhelmed.
"Uraraka! Over here!" he yelled.
They regrouped behind the corner of a building. "We need to score points, fast!" she said. "What's the plan?"
"You make them float, I'll smash them!" Izuku proposed.
It sounded simple. It was their Plan A. The problem was that reality was more complicated. The first two-point robot they encountered was too agile. Uraraka barely managed to dodge it and couldn't get a hand on it. Izuku intercepted the second one, a three-pointer. He jumped and landed a punch with all his might. The blow slightly dented the chassis, but the robot barely flinched and countered with a mechanical arm that nearly took him out. His physical strength wasn't enough to destroy them in a single hit. They managed to take down three one-point robots through sheer persistence, but it cost them precious time.
"THREE POINTS! WE HAVE THREE MISERABLE POINTS!"
Izuku's voice was a choked cry, drowned out by the roar of a nearby explosion. He ducked behind the wreckage of a two-point robot, pulling Uraraka down with him.
"I know, I know! Don't yell!" she panted, wiping sweat from her brow. "They're faster than they look!"
"They're not fast, we're slow!" he retorted, peeking his head out. He saw a group of one-point robots rounding the corner. "There! Plan B! The distraction one!"
"I don't like Plan B!"
"Me neither, but Plan A was a disaster! Now!"
Izuku sprinted out to the right, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Hey, you scrap heaps! Your manufacturer was a hamster and your mother smelled of burnt oil!"
The robots' optical sensors swiveled toward him. It worked. As the machines lumbered in his direction, Uraraka broke from cover and ran toward a three-point robot that had its back to her, her hands outstretched.
"Got you!" she whispered, touching its metal chassis.
The robot stopped, its lights flickered, and then it began to float slowly into the sky. "Deku-kun, I got it!"
"Good! Now drop it on the others!"
"Release!" she shouted, pressing her fingertips together.
The three-point robot fell. The problem was, it fell with the grace of an autumn leaf, not the force of an anvil. It bounced comically off one of the one-point robots and landed on the ground with a dull thud, intact. The other two one-pointers turned toward Uraraka.
"Uh oh," she muttered.
"Plan C!" Izuku yelled. "RUN!"
They regrouped behind another pile of rubble, their hearts hammering against their ribs.
"This is an absolute failure," Izuku said, looking at the timer projected in the sky. Less than four minutes left. "My plan is falling apart. My life is falling apart. I'm going to end up training poodles for rich ladies."
"Don't say that!" Uraraka tried to stay optimistic, but her face was pale. "We're just not in sync. And… I'm starting to get dizzy."
"What?"
Before she could answer, a larger robot, a two-pointer with pincers for hands, emerged from the smoke. It fixed its single red eye on them.
"Look out!" Izuku shouted.
They moved, but Uraraka, weakened by her Quirk's overuse, was slower. The robot fired one of its pincers, not at her, but at a concrete wall beside her. The wall exploded outward.
Izuku saw the scene in slow motion. The dust, the concrete fragments, and among them, a jagged piece of metal, probably from another robot, spinning through the air.
"Uraraka!"
Her scream was sharp, a sound of pure pain. When the dust settled, she was on the ground, clutching her calf. A deep, ugly gash bled freely, soaking the fabric of her pants.
"My leg…" she sobbed, her face contorted with pain and nausea. "Ah… it hurts… and everything is spinning…"
Cold, sharp panic lanced through Izuku. They were failing. She was hurt. And the two-point robot was advancing on them, its red eye locked on its immobile prey.
"You can't run, I can't fight, it's going to crush us!" Izuku's voice was a high-pitched shriek of despair. The robot was less than ten meters away.
"I'm sorry, Deku-kun! I'm sorry!" Uraraka cried, trying in vain to get to her feet.
There was no time. There was no plan. There was only instinct.
"No choice, hold on!"
Without a second thought, he lunged for her. He lifted her off the ground in a tangle of limbs. It wasn't a heroic, graceful rescue, but a clumsy, desperate grab. One arm under her knees, the other around her back, her cheek pressed against his shoulder as he ran. The contact was total, skin against skin where her uniform was torn, the heat of her body against his.
He ran. He ran like he'd never run before, not even with his mother shouting at him in the park. Panic fueled the muscles forged over ten months.
I have to get her out. Have to get her to safety. She's hurt. She's dizzy. I failed. I failed. I failed.
And then, it happened.
As his mind screamed in panic, something else cut through. It wasn't a thought. It was… information. A cascade of cold, precise data flooded his brain, overlaying his terror.
What is this voice? It's not a voice…
[QUIRK ANALYSIS INITIATED: PROLONGED CONTACT + FOCUSED CONCERN DETECTED]
My head? What's happening?
[QUIRK NAME: ZERO GRAVITY] [USER: OCHAKO URARAKA]
Izuku kept running, dodging a piece of upturned asphalt. Sweat stung his eyes, but the information kept flowing, as clear and crisp as an instruction manual projected onto the inside of his skull.
[LINKED PHYSIOLOGY: The pads on her fingertips activate/deactivate the effect. Nausea is a direct side effect from the disruption of fluid in the semicircular canals of the inner ear. The vestibular system is not conditioned for gravitational fluctuation.]
Inner ear? Vestibular system? What are those words? Stop, stop, stop!
[CURRENT LIMITS: Mass limit per activation: ~3.1 Tons. Prolonged overuse leads to severe nausea.] [UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Latent ability to "tag" multiple targets independently. Release can be sequential or simultaneous via a single mental command ("Release All"). User currently releases each object individually due to habit and lack of training.] [SUGGESTED EVOLUTION PATH: 1. Vestibular conditioning through balance exercises (yoga, balance beam, ice skating) to mitigate/eliminate nausea. 2. Mental focus exercises to increase mass capacity and the number of "tagged" objects.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
The cascade of information stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Izuku stumbled and nearly fell, but he managed to duck into the shell of a collapsed building, a small oasis of relative safety. He gently set Uraraka down. She groaned, clutching her leg.
He ignored her for a second. He stared at his own hands. They were trembling. Not from the exertion, but from a deep, visceral shock.
What… what the hell was that?
He was pale, paler than Uraraka.
Did I imagine it? Did the stress make me crazy? Was it a hallucination?
He looked up and saw his hands again. The hands that had lifted her. The hands that had, somehow, seemed to steal his friend's secrets. There was no coldness in him. No calculation. Just pure, absolute bewilderment.
Suddenly, the ground trembled violently. A nearby building collapsed, and from the dust and rubble, a shadow rose, blotting out the sun. It was gargantuan. The zero-point robot. The insurmountable obstacle. And it was heading straight for them.
There was no time to process. It was time to act.
"Deku-kun, it's the giant robot! We have to run! Leave me here!"
"No!" Izuku's voice sounded strange, distant. "No, wait!"
He looked at the mechanical colossus, then at Uraraka, then at the mountain of rubble surrounding them. The information, the "user manual" that made no sense, was still floating in his mind. Tag multiple targets. Release All.
It sounded insane. It was insane. But it was all they had.
"Uraraka, listen to me!" he knelt in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders. "I think I know how we can do this! It sounds crazy, but please, please, trust me!"
She looked into his eyes, saw the panic and the bizarre certainty warring within them. Hurt and scared, she nodded.
"What… what do I do?"
"Your Quirk! Use it! Touch all the rubble you can! Quickly! Don't think, just touch! This whole pile! The steel beams, the chunks of concrete, everything!"
"What for? I can't lift all of it at once! Especially not this much weight!"
"You don't have to lift it! Just 'tag' it! Trust me!" he yelled, his voice nearly breaking with urgency.
Driven by his desperation, Uraraka obeyed. She crawled across the ground, ignoring the shooting pain in her leg, and began frantically touching every piece of debris within her reach. With each touch, a faint pink light flickered over the object.
"Faster!" Izuku urged, watching the zero-pointer get closer, its massive feet making the ground shake.
"I can't anymore, Deku-kun! I'm going to pass out!"
"That's enough!" he yelled. "Now, look at me! When I tell you, I want you to shout 'Release All'! Got it?"
"But that doesn't—!"
"GOT IT?!"
"Y-yes!"
Izuku took a deep breath. He stood up and, to his own surprise, ran out from their hiding spot, directly into the giant's path.
"HEY, YOU! GIANT TIN CAN!"
The robot's eye locked onto him. It changed its trajectory, now focused on the small, noisy pest.
Closer… closer…
Just as the robot's foot was about to crush him, Izuku screamed with all the air in his lungs: "NOW, URARAKA!"
From their shelter came her desperate cry: "RELEASE ALL!"
For a second, nothing happened. And then, the entire pile of rubble stopped glowing. Gravity reclaimed its due. All at once. Dozens of concrete chunks and steel beams, freed from their gravitational tethers, fell in unison. It wasn't a shower. It was an avalanche. A concentrated demolition bombardment.
The cascade of scrap metal slammed into the zero-pointer's head and shoulders. The giant staggered, its circuits overloaded by the multiple, simultaneous impacts. It listed to one side, letting out a horrific metallic groan, and crashed into a building with a boom that vibrated the entire mock city.
At that exact moment, a deafening siren blared across the battlefield.
[THE EXAM IS OVER]
Izuku just stood there in the middle of the street, panting, staring at the destruction they had caused. Uraraka, from her shelter, stared at the same scene. There were no smiles of victory. No cries of triumph. Just two pairs of wide eyes, fixed on the impossible result of a shared madness.
It worked. It actually worked.
The silence that followed the siren was heavier than the previous roar. Izuku was still standing, looking at his hands. The trembling had returned.
"Deku-kun…"
He turned. Uraraka was limping toward him, using a piece of pipe as a makeshift crutch. Her face was a mixture of exhaustion, pain, and absolute awe.
"That…" she said, stopping in front of him. "How did you know? Nobody knows that about my Quirk. I didn't even know that. It was like… like you read my mind."
Izuku shook his head, still in shock. The adrenaline was fading, leaving only a cold bewilderment.
"I don't know," his voice was a raw whisper. "I swear on my life, Uraraka, I have no idea."
"But you did it! 'Tag,' 'Release All'! Those words!"
"When I carried you…" he swallowed, trying to find the words. "I started seeing things. In my head. They weren't images, they were… data. Like… like I was reading the instruction manual for your Quirk."
He tried to explain, clumsily and haltingly, what he had "seen": the exact weight limit, the issue with the balance in her ears, the untapped potential to release objects en masse.
Uraraka's eyes went wide as saucers. Realization hit her. "So your Quirk! It's not 'Trainer'! It's not for animals! It works on people! Deku-kun, that's an incredible Quirk!"
Her excitement, her joy for him, felt like a punch to the gut. All the insecurity he had crushed for ten months, a lifetime of being the useless kid, came rushing back to the surface with brutal force.
"No!" he said, taking a step back. "No, you don't understand! This has never happened before! Ever! What if it was a fluke? A stress-induced hallucination? I don't know!"
He looked at her, pure desperation in his eyes. "I can't… I can't tell anyone about this. Can you imagine? If I go and say, 'Hey, I think my Quirk analyzes other people,' and then it never works again… I'll go back to being him. The useless kid who made up a power for attention. The original Deku. I don't want to create expectations I can't meet. Not again. I can't handle it."
She saw the raw vulnerability on his face. The confident facade had shattered, revealing the scared boy underneath. Uraraka's expression softened, her excitement replaced by a deep, warm empathy.
"I understand," she said, her voice soft but firm. "I won't say a word. It'll be our secret."
The relief Izuku felt was so intense his knees almost buckled. "Thank you…"
An idea, born of desperation and hope, sparked in his mind. "Hey…" he said, meeting her eyes. "If this… if this was real… maybe we can do it again. Under controlled conditions. If you want, we could… train together? That way you can improve your Quirk based on… whatever I saw. And I… I can try to figure out what the hell mine is. What do you say?"
For an answer, Ochako Uraraka gave him a radiant smile, the most genuine one of the entire day, one that outshone the pain in her leg and the chaos around them.
"Of course, Deku-kun! Count me in!"
The pact was sealed. Izuku hadn't gained a weapon; he'd gained an accomplice. A training partner. A friend.
As Recovery Girl arrived to tend to the injured, he looked at her again. The girl with the round face, bright smile, and iron will who had just kept his deepest secret without a second thought. And as he watched her, he confirmed his initial hypothesis with simple, irrefutable logic.
A big heart, he thought. Definitely.