Tuesday, February 26, 7:24 AM, Izuku's Room, Yamanashi Prefecture
The pre-dawn chill of the Yamanashi peaks still clung to the Torino residence, but the vibrant atmosphere inside was heavy with silent tension. February 26th had arrived; the day of Izuku's "rebirth" would be tested against the highest standardized test in the nation.
Outside, the front door rattled as a familiar, rhythmic knocking echoed through the hallway. Tenya Iida had arrived unexpectedly to pick up the four-eyed boy for the exams.
Gran Torino grunted, tossing his morning newspaper aside. He took a deep, centering breath, prepared his lungs, and rocketed toward Izuku's bedroom door. He didn't bother with the handle or the traditional courtesy of a knock; he slammed his shoulder into the wood, the door swinging open with a violent bang that rattled the rafters.
"GET UP, YOU LAZY BRAT! IIDA IS REVVING HIS ENGINES ON MY PORCH, AND I'M TIRED OF HEARING ALL OF THAT DAMN NOISE!" the old man roared, his jet quirk already emitting a low, dangerous whine as if he were ready to deliver a concussive wake-up call to Izuku's ribs.
He skidded to a halt in the center of the room, his eyes widening behind his small domino mask. Izuku wasn't in bed. In fact, the futon was already perfectly folded and tucked away in the corner.
Izuku was standing by the open window, the mountain breeze ruffling his bright pink hair. He was staring out at the rising sun as it bled gold across the cedar trees. He was already fully dressed, encased in a specialized sleeveless grey hoodie that Iida's family tailor had crafted for his massive 285-pound frame. The four-armed boy also wore loose black sweatpants and red shoes. He looked less like a student and more like a monolith of disciplined intent.
"You're... already up?" Gran Torino muttered, his aggressive energy flickering into genuine, unmasked surprise. It was the first time in ten months he hadn't had to drag the boy out of his sleep.
Izuku turned his head slowly, his lower eyes tracing the old man's silhouette with a predatory focus. "Normally, I would find pleasure in indolence. Laziness is a luxury only those with power can afford. However," Izuku paused as he adjusted the cuffs on his lower arms. "For such an important event that determines whether I pursue my brother and my dream or we waste away in a cell for the rest of our trivial lives, I decided that for once in my time of staying here, I will be punctual."
Gran Torino crossed his arms over his chest, his expression hardening back into the veteran's mask that had seen decades of war. "Good. Then listen closely, because I'm only going to say this once before you and Iida hit the station. This isn't a spar in the living room, and this isn't a history debate with the kid. U.A. is the gateway to everything we've worked for. If you fail to pass this test, the deal is done, and you'll be back in a cell before the sun sets on your results."
The old man stepped closer, his small frame somehow managing to loom over the giant. He pointed a weathered, calloused finger directly at the center of Izuku's chest.
"You may have barely scraped by with your textbooks, but don't get cocky. The U.A. written exam is a psychological battlefield. If you bomb that paper because of your lack of schooling, you'd better make damn sure that your performance in the practical exam is a spectacle. If you show them a level of efficiency and physical power they cannot ignore, it might be enough to sway the examiners' minds, regardless of the marks on your paper. Do you understand?"
"I am aware, Gramps," Izuku replied, his voice a low, confident rumble that vibrated the floorboards. "I do not intend to leave my fate to the mercy of a red pen. I shall dismantle the practical until they have no choice but to acknowledge my strength."
Wasuke's mouth formed on Izuku's cheek, grinning with rows of eager teeth. "Don't worry, you old fart, we got this! You've seen us in action before and know that we can take on the best of the best! Afterwards, just make sure that you don't drop our acceptance letter in the trash with your senile eyes after we pass!"
Izuku walked past Gran Torino toward the doorway. As his hand touched the wooden handle, he stopped. The silence in the hallway stretched for a long moment, heavy and uncharacteristic for the usually chaotic household.
Without turning his head to look back, Izuku spoke, his voice losing its sharp, condescending edge for the first time in ten months.
"Thank you, Gran Torino," Izuku said softly. "For giving a monster like me a chance. You could have let my brother and me rot away in a cell, but you saw potential in us that no one ever did. I promise…" Izuku then looked back at the old man with determined eyes. "I shall not squander the chance you have provided us, and I promise that I will take on this path until the very end."
Gran Torino stood frozen in the center of the bedroom, his eyes wide, his mouth slightly agape at the sudden, raw display of affection and gratitude. Before the veteran hero could find the words to bark a retort, a "don't get soft on me," or a cynical comment about property damage, Izuku stepped out into the hallway and closed the sliding door behind him with a soft thud.
The old man stood in the quiet room for a long time. He looked around at the space that had been occupied by a "monster" for the last year. He looked at the repaired shoji screens, the floorboards they had lacquered together by hand, and the carbon-fiber teacups sitting neatly in the kitchen beyond. He thought about the ten months of arguing over food, the destructive spars that had leveled his furniture, and the way the pink-haired boy had slowly stopped looking like a prisoner and started looking like a hero.
Sorahiko walked to the window, pulled it open as he watched Izuku and Iida walk down the narrow mountain path toward the train station. Iida was chopping his arms through the air, likely reciting formulas, while Izuku walked with the steady, heavy gait of a titan.
"Kid's finally growing a heart," Gran Torino whispered to the empty, cold mountain air. He let out a long sigh, a small, proud smirk touching his lips. "Give 'em hell, Izuku."
7:28 AM, Torino's front door
Tenya Iida was waiting at the foot of the porch steps. He wore his brown middle school uniform with a blue tie, ironed to perfection just as any Iida should be. When the front door creaked open and Izuku stepped out, Tenya snapped to attention, his hands performing a sharp 90-degree salute in shock.
"Izuku! You have finally arrived!" Tenya's voice boomed through the quiet morning air. "I must confess, I anticipated having to assist Gran Torino in retrieving you from your futon! Your punctuality today is surprising, but it is also a monumental sign that you are now ready to become a hero!"
Izuku stepped onto the porch and looked down at Iida, his expression unreadable. "Save the praise for later, Tenya. I don't need to waste my brain on a lecture. I am, however, surprised you came all the way from Hosu for the entrance exam. Wouldn't it be faster for you to go directly to the exam?"
"It may be," Iida responded. "But we've been through so much together, so I wanted us to support each other until the very end."
Izuku wore a sly smile, but it quickly faded to a neutral expression. "Well, since you want us to support each other, do you have any food? I work best with a full stomach, and I forgot to grab something on the way out."
"Ah! Of course!" Tenya reached into his bag and produced a small, insulated bento box. "My mother knew that someone with your build would need to consume something with lots of nutrients before the exams! She prepared these this morning!"
He opened the lid to reveal four neatly wrapped, large onigiri. "They are cod roe rice balls! A high-density protein source prepared with maximum precision!"
"Finally, food!" Wasuke appeared on the pink-haired boy's cheek. "Izuku, can you let me have this? The food will dissolve faster if I eat it, and we don't want to throw up during the exam."
Izuku didn't hesitate. He reached for the zipper of his hoodie and pulled it down to his waist. Instead of a school uniform, he unzipped to reveal a form-fitting, sleeveless white thermal shirt that stretched across his pectoral muscles. The cool air hit his shoulders, but he didn't even shiver.
Suddenly, the massive, toothy mouth on his abdomen stretched open, visible as a slight bulge beneath the thin white fabric before it tore a small, strategic slit through the cotton. A low, appreciative growl emerged from the stomach.
"Come to Papa!" Wasuke's voice rumbled eagerly from their stomach.
Wasuke took control of Izuku's lower left arm and snapped the bento box out of Iida's hands. He plucked an onigiri and tossed it directly into Izuku's lower mouth. The sound of rhythmic chewing filled the quiet porch as Izuku's lower mouth devoured the rice ball.
"SO GOOD," Wasuke barked, his voice muffled by rice. "Tell your mother she's a saint, Glasses! It's the first meal I've had in months that doesn't taste like Izuku's spite!"
Tenya stared at their stomach's mouth for a moment. "I... I shall relay your compliments! However, Izuku!" Tenya's focus snapped back to Izuku's lack of a uniform. "Why are you not wearing a school uniform, and where is your change of clothes?! We are attending the most prestigious exam in the country! Did you simply get off your futon and choose to take the U.A. exam in your training gear?! That's a violation of U.A. protocol!"
Izuku whipped bits of rice off of his sleeveless shirt. "I never attended a school, Tenya. Why would I bother buying a uniform? This hoodie is perfect for the written portion of the exam, and if I am forced to sit down for two hours for this moronic test, I at least want to be comfortable while doing it. Plus, I don't need to bathe; I put deodorant on all four of my arms."
"Deodorant is a start, but a bath...!" Tenya started, his hands chopping frantically. "You should have at least showered! Presentation is the first step towards becoming a hero!"
"Nonsense," Izuku replied, his voice a low, bored rumble as he walked down the path. "There is no point in looking presentable for an exam if the only thing that matters is results. Plus, we also have to complete the practical exam. We'll be covered in sweat, blood, and dust after the test. So why should I bother cleansing myself twice when I can be more efficient and do it once at the end of the day?"
Tenya paused, his hand frozen mid-air. He looked at Izuku's logic, trying to find a rebuttal, then let out a sharp sigh. "Your assessment of hygiene is... logically sound, even though it's socially disturbing. I suppose the results truly are the only thing that matters today."
They began the walk down the mountain path toward the train station. After a few minutes, Tenya stopped talking. His usual academic recitation of formulas died away, replaced by an odd, heavy silence.
Wasuke stopped chewing on his third rice ball, an eye forming on Izuku's palm as he looked at Tenya. "Hey, what's with the long face, Glasses? You forgot your lucky pen or something?"
Tenya shook his head, staring at the ground. "Torino... I have been reflecting. For the last ten months, the police forbade you from training your quirk for the practical. You have spent all your time studying textbooks and doing Gran Torino's manual labor."
He looked up at Izuku, his expression full of genuine worry. "Are you truly ready for this exam? You haven't used your quirk offensively in ten months. You will be rusty. And I have even been beating you fairly easily in our last few spars. If my speed can overcome your physical strength, then whatever U.A. throws at us will surely pose a grave threat. And that doesn't even factor in the written portion. If you fail the practical... you will be back in a jail cell by the end of the night."
Izuku stopped walking. He turned to face Tenya, the rising sun catching all four of his eyes, making them glow with an ancient, unshakeable confidence.
He reached out with his upper right hand and placed it firmly on Tenya's shoulder. The weight of it was grounding, like a mountain settling into place.
"Quit your trembling, Tenya," Izuku commanded, his voice devoid of its usual condescension. "There is nothing to be worried about. Our abilities have not decayed; they have merely been coiled, waiting to be unleashed. As for the written exam, I did not spend ten agonizing months going through your math books just to be tripped up by a multiple-choice question."
Izuku's smirk widened, a sharp look of pride. "We are both going to pass this exam with flying colors because my allies never fail me. Do you understand?"
Tenya stared at Izuku, the worry in his chest slowly being replaced by the infectious intensity of the boy beside him. He took a deep breath, his spirit roaring with renewed vigor. "I... I understand! My apologies for my lapse in judgment! We shall achieve greatness together!"
"Damn right we will!" Wasuke screamed from their second mouth on their stomach. "Now let's pass this damn exam and show U.A. what a real monster looks like!"
8:50 AM, Train to U.A. High
The high-speed rail cut through the landscape, the jagged peaks of Yamanashi flattening into the rolling industrial sprawl of Shizuoka. Izuku sat by the window, his large frame taking up nearly two seats' worth of space. Across from him, Iida was a blur of motion, his hands flying as he went through the last of the material on the train.
Izuku, however, was silent. His upper eyes were fixed on the glass, but he wasn't looking at the reflection of his own tattoos. He was watching the skyline.
Musutafu.
As the train crossed the municipal line, the air inside the cabin seemed to change. To the other passengers, it was just the shift from mountain air to city smog, but to Izuku, it was the taste of his old burial ground.
'Home,' he thought, the word feeling like ash in his mouth.
It had been eleven years since he had set foot in this city. He remembered the Musutafu of his childhood as a place of vibrant colors and the smell of that woman's cooking—scents that were violently replaced by the copper tang of blood and the damp rot of Hoso's alleys. This was the city that had rejected him the moment that he needed it the most.
As the train pulled into the central station, the automated voice announced its arrival. Izuku stood, his height and unsightly appearance causing a few nearby commuters to flinch and pull their bags closer.
"Izuku! We must depart with haste!" Tenya shouted, already halfway to the door. "The walking route to U.A. is precisely twenty-two minutes at a brisk pace! We cannot afford to waste any time sightseeing!"
They stepped out onto the platform, and the wall of noise hit them instantly. Musutafu was a city of millions, a concrete hive vibrating with the energy of a society obsessed with Heroes. Large digital billboards displayed the latest rankings, with All Might's smiling face looming over every intersection.
Walking through the streets, Izuku felt like a ghost walking through his own wake. He recognized the architecture of the shopping districts, the specific curve of the overpasses where he used to walk home from the mall. He saw a store in the distance that displayed an All Might plush that Inko tried to buy Izuku, but he wasn't interested; a memory so distant it felt like it belonged in a different lifetime- how ironic that he had already lived through two.
"You're awfully quiet, Izuku," Wasuke whispered internally. No mouth formed on the skin this time; the connection was purely through their soul-domain. He knew Izuku would want this conversation to be as discreet as possible. 'Don't tell me the "King of Curses" is getting sentimental over some old buildings.'
"Sentiment is for the weak, Wasuke," Izuku replied. 'I am simply… keeping track of our surroundings. We both know that sometimes you have to watch your back in crowded areas."
"Yeah, right. I can feel your heart rate,' Wasuke teased, though his tone held a rare note of empathy. 'It's weird being back, isn't it? Knowing that somewhere in this mess of buildings, our "mother" is probably still living her life, completely unaware that her "discarded" son is walking past her front door.
Izuku's jaw tightened. He didn't look for the apartment. He didn't look for the familiar signs of his old neighborhood. He kept his gaze ahead, focusing on the distant, looming silhouette of U.A.
9:12 AM, U.A. High Entrance, Musutafu
The sun was high, casting a glare off the massive glass towers of U.A. High School. The main building loomed ahead—a colossal, silver 'H' that seemed to pierce the very sky, its mirrored windows shimmering with an almost divine brilliance. It was a fortress of ambition, a monument to the societal order that Izuku had spent his life observing from the shadows.
The approach to the main entrance was a wide, polished concourse flanked by manicured greenery, stone faces of previous heroes, and high-tech security sensors. Thousands of examinees swarmed the plaza, their nervous energy thick enough to feel.
Izuku stood before the towering gates, the scale of the institution doing little to dwarf his presence. Beside him, Tenya Iida stood as rigid as a statue, his body riled with excitement.
"I can't believe it," Iida said, his voice dripping with enthusiasm. "We are here, finally, at the gates of U.A.!"
"I know, Glasses!" Wasuke's voice rumbled in Izuku's jacket. "After ten long months of suffering through those cursed practice exams, we can finally pass the real deal."
"Don't get overconfident, brother," Izuku said, while his lower eyes scanned the crowd. "We still have to pass the written exam first."
"You don't have to remind me," Wasuke lamented. "I can feel my brain getting fried just thinking about it."
"But you technically don't have a brain."
"Oh, you know what I mean, Iz-"
"Out of my way, ext—"
THUD!
Just as Izuku heard that, someone slammed directly into the side of Izuku's left shoulder, falling in the process. The impact was violent and unyielding. The examinee's momentum was instantly killed, and the recoil sent them stumbling backward, their feet tangling until they hit the ground.
Izuku, however, didn't move an inch. His conditioned muscles and bone structure kept him from even budging. He slowly turned his head, all four of his eyes looking down at the poor examinee.
As Izuku looked at the boy, he realized that he was starting to recognize him. The boy on the floor had spiky blonde hair, piercing red eyes, and finally a permanent scowl on his face. He also wore a black middle school uniform that Izuku recognized from Aldera Junior High.
Curiosity flickered in Izuku's mind. He narrowed his eyes, looking into the boy's soul.
In a heartbeat, the bustling plaza of U.A. vanished. In its place, Izuku saw a terrifying, war-torn landscape. The ground was made of pulverized, blood-red rock candy—shattered shards that crunched like glass and shimmered like crimson gems under a sky choked with thick, black licorice smoke, with a golden-yellow ocean in the background. The blond-haired boy stood in the center of this sugary carnage, clutching heavy military grenades with the pins already pulled. All around him, massive explosions burst in deep reds and burning oranges, sending shockwaves carrying the heavy scent of molten caramel. High above, through the smog, heavy planes dropped payloads that turned the horizon into a continuous wall of high-explosive fire and boiling red syrup. Despite the devastation, the blonde boy wore an ecstatic grin, radiating a sense of absolute victory.
"Hey, Izuku!" Wasuke snapped his brother out of his trance. "I get that you are trying to get a read on this guy, but you have been just staring at him for the past 30 seconds, and he is starting to get really pissed off."
"HEY ASSHOLE! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" The blond boy yelled from the ground. "I TOLD YOU TO WATCH IT! AND QUIT LOOKING DOWN AT ME LIKE YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME, YOU DAMN CREEP!"
The fallen examinee's boisterous yelling created a scene, drawing the eyes of every student to the center of the commotion.
Iida found himself momentarily devoid of a logical rebuttal for the situation at hand. On one hand, this student was being inexcusably vulgar to his friend, but on the other hand, he realized the boy technically had a right to be angry. Even with his crude choice of words, the examinee warned Izuku to get out of the way before he bumped into the four-armed boy and caused him to fall. It also doesn't help that Izuku is just staring at the boy with a cold, analytical gaze. Because of this, Tenya decided that the best way to resolve his situation was to stare at his friend, waiting for him to respond and to see how much Izuku had changed in the past ten months.
Fortunately for Iida, Wasuke answered his silent calls. "Izuku," Wasuke whispered. " I know you're not going to like this…but I think you should help him up. Even though this guy is being a huge dick, it's still your fault he is on the ground. Plus, we are at a hero school, remember. For all we know, the principal could be testing us to see if we have truly changed from our criminal ways. If you want to be a hero in this lifetime, this is a small step to help us continue on this path."
The pink-haired boy snarled down at the examinee. He wanted nothing more than to insult this nuisance and walk away, leaving him to wallow in his pathetic cries, but his brother's logic was sound. So Izuku swallowed his pride as he walked up to the blond man, lending him his hand to pick him up off the—
SLAP
The examinee slapped Izuku's hand away with a violent strike. "FUCK OFF! I DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN PITY! I CAN DO IT MYSELF!" As the blond boy finally picked himself up off the ground after all of the yelling, he whipped the dust off his pants.
Finally, with an explosive huff, the boy stomped past them, clicking his tongue with his hands in his pockets; the crowd parting around him like water around a shark.
"Brat," Izuku said aloud, then pondered to himself. 'Is that the same spoiled boy who kept on pestering me when I was a child? He has the same blond hair and red eyes, and I remember seeing people in my neighborhood wearing that uniform. However, the one thing that's bothering me is that quirk of his. The environment in his soul clearly shows that he has some sort of explosion quirk, but how is that possible? His father had only Acid Sweat, and his mother's quirk gave her clear skin.'
While Izuku was thinking, Iida adjusted his glasses, ranting about the boy's lack of decorum. "Such hostility! To think a candidate for a prestigious hero school like U.A. would possess such a volatile temper!"
'Wait,' Izuku remembered. 'Inside of his soul was some sort of candy-like ground. The woman's Quirk, Glycerin, made Inko comment about how sweet she smelled." Izuku then smelled his shoulder. "And my shoulder does smell a little sweet after he bumped into it."
"Tenya."
Iida snapped out of his rant. "Yes, Izuku?"
"What do nitric acid and glycerol make together?"
Tenya blinked his eyes at the pink-haired boy. "Why are you asking me so suddenly?"
"Just answer the question," Izuku said impatiently.
"It makes nitroglycerin."
"And what is nitroglycerin used for?"
"It is mainly used medicinally to treat chest pain by dilating blood vessels," Iida explained. "But if tampered with, it can be used as a key component in manufacturing dynamite or high-end explosives."
Izuku let out a long, low sigh. "What a pain..."
"Is there a problem?"
"No, it's nothing." Wasuke appeared on Izuku's cheek, reassuring the blue-haired boy. "Let's just go and complete this damn written exam."
As the trio continued their walk into U.A., Izuku thought to himself. 'I guess Katsuki Bakugo also enrolled in U.A. High. I hope the brat fails both of the tests miserably. The last thing I want is for her to learn about me.'
9:30 AM, U.A. High School, Testing Room 17
The interior of U.A. High School was even more imposing than the facade. The hallways were wide enough to accommodate heteromorphs of all sizes, and the air held a pressurized silence that weighed heavily on the shoulders of the thousands of examinees. Due to his sheer mass, Izuku parted through the sea of middle-school uniforms like Moses through the Red Sea.
He was directed to a classroom with long, communal desks designed both to seat multiple examinees and to discourage easy cheating. His designated seat was at the middle desk on the right edge—a heavy-duty station specifically made for larger builds, likely a courtesy of the principal's meticulous planning. To his right, at the same desk, sat a beastman nervously adjusting his glasses; to his left, a girl with vibrant orange hair gripped the edge of her desk with white-knuckled intensity. In front of him was a boy with a bird-like head reciting a mantra under his breath, and behind him sat a short boy with purple, grape-like spheres on his head, staring at the orange-haired girl with a deeply unsettling level of focus.
Izuku sat down with his arms folded across his chest. He felt the cold, analytical gaze of security cameras tracking his every movement.
"This is it, Izuku," Wasuke's voice rumbled within their shared soul. "The written exam. Don't let those hours of Tenya's shouting go to waste."
"Quiet, Wasuke," Izuku replied. "I have 60 minutes to complete this exam, and the last thing I need is your redundant commentary."
Suddenly, the school's intercom crackled to life. A boisterous, high-decibel voice exploded through the room with enough force to make Izuku's lower eyes twitch.
"HELLLLLLOOOOOOO LISTENERS! WELCOME TO THE START LINE OF YOUR HERO ACADEMIA! LET'S GET DOWN TO THE LOGISTICS, EVERYBODY! LISTEN UP, 'CAUSE I'M ONLY GONNA SAY THIS ONCE!" The voice buzzed with static-fueled energy.
"STEP ONE: THE WRITTEN EXAM! You've got sixty minutes to show us everything in those smart brains of yours! We're talking MATH, SCIENCE, JAPANESE, HISTORY, ENGLISH, and HERO ETHICS! Put everything you know onto those pages, got it?!"
The intercom gave a brief chime before the announcer continued.
"ONCE THE BUZZER SOUNDS, WE'RE GONNA HAVE A FIFTEEN-MINUTE INTERMISSION! Stretch your legs, hit the hay, or grab some water, because you're gonna need your strength! AND FINALLY: THE PRACTICAL! We'll head to the buses for the main event at the Battle Centers! We'll dive into the rules for the field once we get everyone settled in the lecture hall at 10:50, SO DON'T GET TOO AHEAD OF YOURSELVES!"
Finally, the voice shifted into a tone that was still joyful but held a razor-sharp edge of warning.
"AND DON'T EVEN THINK OF ANY FUNNY IDEAS, LISTENERS! WE'VE GOT TEST PROMPTERS STATIONED IN EACH AND EVERY ROOM! THEY'VE GOT EYES LIKE HAWKS' FEATHERS, SO KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR OWN PAPER, OKKKKK! YOU HAVE SIXTY MINUTES! STARTING... NOW!"
The sound of three thousand papers flipping simultaneously filled the room.
Izuku picked up his mechanical pencil with his upper right hand and flipped the booklet open. His eyes—all four of them—scanned the first page.
Question 1: Analyze the legal distinction between 'Necessary Force' and 'Aggravated Assault' under the 22nd Amendment of the Heroic Conduct Act.
"…."
Izuku quickly looked at the other question.
Question 2: Calculate the required kinetic energy displacement for a Level 4 Gravity Quirk to stabilize a collapsing 12-story structure with a steel-reinforced concrete foundation.
Izuku's pencil hovered over the paper. He blinked and quickly began looking through the rest of the exam for easier questions.
'What is this test?!' Izuku thought, his brow furrowing. 'Tenya only taught us about the basics of hero law and how to calculate stuff like the force of a falling construction beam. Advanced questions like these were nowhere to be found in the practice tests. If these are the questions on the exam, why did the principal send us those out-of-date study packets?'
Izuku Torino was momentarily at a loss for words. How could the supposedly smartest person in the world make such a careless error? Then suddenly, a dark, cold realization began to coil in his gut. 'Does the Principal intend for us to fail this exam?'
"What the hell is this?!" Wasuke's voice was far more frantic than his brother's inside of their soul. "Izuku! Look at page three! Page three is about the history of international hero relations in the European Union! We spent six months wasting our time arguing about whether the great Destro or Oji Harima was in the right, but we didn't learn shit about foreign policies! What are we going to do, Izuku?"
"…."
"...Izuku?"
Izuku began flipping through the pages aggressively, his anger simmering. Wasuke was right. Page three was a wall of kanji and English text regarding modern geopolitical hero treaties. Page five was a series of advanced calculus problems that looked less like math and more like a series of malicious riddles.
"That Damn Rat!" Izuku whispered, his voice a low, dangerous vibration. "He wanted us to fail this exam! There's no plausible way someone as smart as him could have accidentally sent us the wrong study material. He never wanted us to get into UA; he just wanted to grant us false hope before dragging us back to a cell. Did Gran Torino and Iida know about this as well? That brat should have realized that our material was drastically different from his. I bet the old bastard was probably laughing at our idiocy the moment we left that damn house! Once I am done with this paltry exam, I AM GOING TO TEAR ALL OF THEM ASUNDER—"
"Calm down, Izuku," Wasuke whispered in Izuku's soul. "I get that you're mad, but we can't afford to make a scene. For all we know, the principal, even as smart as he is, made a dumbass mistake, or the exam, like many other exams, is completely different than the study guide. Also, you, of all people, know when someone is lying. All Jujutsu Sorcerers are con artists, and you are the greatest one of them all. So, wouldn't you be able to tell if Gramps and Tenya were lying to us?"
After hearing Wasuke's words, Izuku began to calm down. Wasuke was once again right. Even though he believed that something was off with this exam, an outburst right now would be tactical suicide.
"My apologies, Wasuke. I almost lost focus."
"Good. Now that you've calmed down, what should we do? We need to get at least a 60% to pass the entrance exam, and we are not going to get that from just guessing."
Izuku glared at the test. While his own lead hovered uselessly, every other pencil in the room tore into the paper with a relentless, taunting rhythm. The sound of their steady progress grated against his focus. He narrowed his eyes and surveyed the hall.
The surveillance was intense. Multiple security cameras tracked every sector, but it wasn't the machinery he was worried about; it was the prompter.
At the front of the room stood a man with long, unkempt black hair and facial hair shadowing a clearly exhausted face. He was wearing an all-black hero costume, yellow-barred goggles, and what appeared to be a worn-out gray scarf. To the average examinee, the prompter would just look like your average C-list pro hero who realized hero work wasn't cut out for them and retired. However, to the keen eye of Izuku Torino, the pro hero was…
'Eraser Head,' Izuku recognized. 'Of all the heroes to proctor our test, Nezu chose the most diligent one. Fine then. I will play your little game, Rat.'
"Wasuke," Izuku murmured internally. "We're going to have to cheat."
"WHAT?! You can't be serious?! This is U.A. of all places! We're going to get caught."
"Not if we are careful about it. Now listen to me very carefully," Izuku commanded internally, his mental voice cutting through his brother's panic. "I have already mapped the security. There are four high-definition cameras in this sector. Camera 4 and Camera 7 operate on a twelve-second rotation cycle. At the nine-second mark, there is a blind spot behind the student to our left. Our four eyes will remain fixed on this paper at all times. I will be pretending to fill in random questions and writing nonsensical filler to maintain the facade of a working student."
Izuku leaned forward, propping his chin with his hands."Then, I am going to sprout small eyes on the knuckles of my hands, my upper hands on top, and lower ones tucked beneath the desk. I will use a concentrated pulse of cursed energy to refine the irises of their eyes—effectively turning them into miniature binoculars. I can zoom in on the papers of the examinees both next to us and several rows ahead. I will then harvest their answer and cross-reference them."
"That sounds risky, Izuku!"
"All of that's child's play; the greatest risk to our plan is the man walking around us," Izuku countered, his mental focus shifting to the unkempt man approaching a desk in the front right corner of the room. "Shota Aizawa. Hero Name: Eraser Head. He's an underground hero who's known for his stealth. He has cracked down on multiple crime organizations with deep connections in the underworld. His Quirk: Erasure; it erases the activation of emitter and transformation types just by looking at them. He is our main threat. If he suspects that we are cheating and uses his quirk on us, and if we react, our chances of becoming heroes plummet to zero. Wasuke, you need to track his head movements through our peripheral vision while I pretend to be working. The moment his chin even slightly tilts toward this row, you must signal me, and I will turn off my quirk immediately."
Wasuke signed and then sharpened his focus. "Fine then, if this is what we need to do to pass this stupid test, then let's do it."
Izuku allowed a small amount of cursed energy to flow into his lower pair of arms, hidden in the shadows of the desk. On the tips of his fingers, tiny, rabbit-sized eyes began to bloom.
He didn't need to see the whole room. He just needed to see the paper of the orange-haired girl to his left and the grape-haired boy behind him. The girl was tearing through the math section with surgical speed, and the boy was not far behind. Izuku's lower left hand slowly crept toward the edge of the desk while his other hand gripped the arm of his chair. Two of the tiny eyes on his knuckles blinked open.
Through his knuckle-eyes, the world was a jagged landscape of chair legs and discarded erasers. Izuku channeled a thin thread of cursed energy into the eye, the iris tightening as the focus shifted. Suddenly, both of the examinees' papers, which were each four feet away, were as clear as if they were on his own desk.
Izuku, using his multi-threaded mind, began to copy the answers, translating their answers and their logic into his own handwriting with his right hand. He then cross-referenced it with other examinees' answers, ensuring he got a few wrong on purpose to avoid suspicion if he somehow got a perfect grade.
"Damn, Izuku, for someone who bulldozes through most of their problems, you're really good at this!" Wasuke cackled. "They're both starting to slow down on the history section. Look for someone else."
Izuku shifted his lower right hand back under his desk as both of the students started to struggle with the history section. Izuku then shifted his upper left hand slightly to the side, opening his eyes on his fingertips to look at the answer of the bird boy in front of him, who looked to be struggling the least in this section. Izuku then focused on adjusting the angle of his eye to make sure that he was looking at the answer properly.
Suddenly, Wasuke's voice screamed in his head. "IZUKU! TWELVE O'CLOCK! HE'S APPROACHING YOU!"
Izuku's reaction was instantaneous. He severed the flow of cursed energy. The eyes on his fingers dissolved into steam, reabsorbed before the skin could even cool.
A shadow fell over his desk.
Izuku didn't look up. His four eyes remained locked on his paper, his pencil mid-stroke as he was writing a long, complex (and entirely fake) paragraph for a spider-based hero in America.
"Are you having any problems with the exam?" Eraser Head asked, his voice a flat, deadpan rasp. He stood right beside the desk, his yellow goggles catching the blue LED light.
"I'm finding the history portion to be… excessively difficult," Izuku replied, his voice a low, calm rumble. "I was ill-informed that we were required to learn the legacies of foreign pro-heroes as well."
Aizawa's eyes narrowed. He stared at Izuku's hands, then at the hoodie, searching for any sign of hidden support items or mechanical aids. He then activated his quirk, his hair floating ever so slightly.
But there was nothing to erase.
"Stay focused on your own paper," Eraser Head warned. "U.A. does not permit shortcuts."
He turned and walked away, his heavy black boots echoing on the floor.
"Holy shit," Wasuke gasped. "That was close!"
"He is dangerous," Izuku agreed. "But never mind that; I told you to keep watch on Eraser Head. Were you even trying to pay attention to him?"
"I only lost focus for a second, OK," Wasuke replied. "And everything worked out in the end, so quit being a hardass and keep on going."
Izuku sighed and waited for three minutes, his pencil moving idly. He used his peripheral vision on Eraser Head to make sure that he was officially in the clear. The moment the pro hero turned to check a student in the back row, Izuku acted.
He didn't just sprout eyes on his hands this time. He manifested a small, flat eye on the back of his neck, hidden beneath the thick collar of his hoodie.
The perspective allowed him to see the entire row behind him. He cross-referenced their answers in his mind. If two students had the same answer for a physics problem, he recorded it. If there were a discrepancy, he would then perform the calculations himself, using the limited knowledge Tenya had taught him.
It was a symphony of cheating. Izuku's hands worked with terrifying speed, filling in the bubbles and writing the essays with the cold efficiency of a machine to ensure that he wouldn't be humiliated by a piece of paper.
By the fifty-nine-minute mark, Izuku had completed the entire booklet. He sat back, his upper hands dragging on his face and his lower ones resting on his lap. The tiny eyes had all been reabsorbed, leaving no trace of his treachery behind.
"We did it," Wasuke whispered, sounding genuinely impressed. "That was some pretty good cheating for a fatass like yourself."
"Shut it, brother," Izuku replied, closing his eyes with a smug smirk. "At least we are done with this stupid exam."
After one minute, the buzzer sounded.
"PENCILS DOWN, EXAMINEES!" The intercom announced. "PROCTORS WILL NOW COLLECT THE RESULTS OF YOUR HARD WORK!"
Eraser Head walked down the aisle. When he reached Izuku's desk, he picked up the paper. He looked at the flawlessly filled-out sections, then glanced at Izuku, who was staring blankly at him, the pink-haired boy's previous look of exhaustion turning into one of profound boredom.
Aizawa grunted and moved on. He knew something was off—his instincts screamed that the boy was cheating, but without evidence of his quirk activating or a device, he couldn't act; at least not yet.
Izuku grabbed his bag and headed for the lecture hall, only to be stopped by a familiar voice he knew all too well.
"Izuku, wait up!"
Tenya Iida was running to catch up. Wasuke joked from Izuku's cheek, "I thought students weren't supposed to run in the halls!"
"Well, technically… huff, we are not students yet… huff… so this doesn't count yet," Iida exclaimed while he caught his breath.
As Wasuke and the blue-haired boy battered in their usual manner, Izuku gave Tenya a cold glare. Even though they made it through the written exam, even if Iida normally couldn't lie to Izuku to save his life, he was still skeptical of how true the boy with glasses' intentions were. To clarify how truthful Iida was, he decided to ask him an innocent question.
"Tenya, what did you get for question number 38?"
Iida then looked at Izuku, confused. "What do you mean? Didn't you receive a different exam?"
"Pardon me?"
"Well, at least I know you didn't cheat!" Tenya said with a look of relief. "Due to your unique circumstances and lack of formal schooling, you were assigned a whole different, but easier, exam compared to the other examinees. That's why I was able to tutor you and study for my own exam simultaneously. I am capable, Izuku, but I am not delusional enough to think I could teach you material I was currently struggling with myself!"
Izuku then gave Iida a small nod. At least he knew that Tenya wasn't lying to him. He was still too honest of a boy to hide his true emotions. And since Iida was telling the truth, it made the four-armed boy less skeptical of Gran Torino playing him. However, this made Izuku question why his test was swapped out for the real deal.
"Well, now that we're done with the practical exam," Iida commented. "Let's go take our break in the lecture hall. It will provide a tactical advantage to assess the practical exam."
"Fine then, lead the way." He may have finished the written exam, but he would not let his guard down again. He intended to listen to every single detail of the practical exam.