Chapter 3: Mecha-Inferno
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEE-
Izuku shot out of bed with a smile on his face, turning off his phone alarm. He smiled even wider when he saw the date on the lock screen: February 26th, the day of the Entrance Exam. This is it...! He ran through his stretches, which helped rid him of the butterflies in his stomach, then went through his morning routine even more quickly than usual. He frowned as he pulled on his middle school uniform, only happy at the thought of never having to wear it again. He packed away his tracksuit in his backpack, grabbing some water and snacks as well. His mother was already at work, so he saw himself off.
He knew exactly which train to take to get to U.A., having done it many times before. It had become habitual, to the point that he didn't have to think about it, allowing his thoughts to wander. As he stepped onto the train, and as the train began to clatter down the track, Izuku thought, This is it. I have to prove that I've earned this Quirk, that I can do so much more than just Copy others. Perhaps it was rude of him to feel a sort of resentment towards his natural Quirk when he had wanted one for so long, but the blasphemous thoughts were there all the same.
The train came to a smooth stop, and the doors opened with a hiss. Izuku stepped out, avoiding bustling businessmen and the like as he went. The chill winter breeze nipped at his nose, and he felt his face grow red in a biological attempt to counteract the cold. He pushed on, walking with a purpose. U.A. wasn't much further.
After only fifteen minutes of walking, the grand structure of U.A. was before him yet again, no less incredible this time than it had been the first.
"Move it before I kill you, Deku." Izuku turned to see Bakugou stomping up behind him, his school uniform rumpled in his usual thuggish style. The blond boy was wearing a cream scarf tightly around his neck, no doubt to keep himself warm so that his Quirk functioned correctly. Absentmindedly, Izuku realized that Bakugou was just a bit shorter than him now. He almost laughed but instead managed a smile, waving slightly. His jitters suddenly disappeared.
"Hi to you too, Kacchan." Izuku side-eyed the other boy as they fell into step together. "I'd wish you luck, but I know you don't need it." Bakugou ground his teeth together, nodding slightly in agreement. He stepped past Izuku without another word, brushing shoulders too roughly to be casual. Izuku just grinned a little more at his antics.
You're so dramatic, Kacchan. He frowned as some people made passing comments about the Sludge Villain Incident to Bakugou but shook his head. Can't worry about him. Gotta focus! Sighing to himself, he gripped the straps of his backpack a little tighter. With a nod to himself more than anyone else, he puffed up his chest and walked with a purpose. Everyone who's believed in me... I'll make you proud!
He promptly tripped himself up on his own feet.
I'm a failure. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry, All Might.
Despite resigning himself to his fate, his body reacted on its own- he threw his arms out, ready to dive into a roll on contact, just like he had practiced. However, contact never came- he simply stopped falling all of a sudden. Giggling to his left drew his attention away from the ground, and he turned his head to the source. Standing there, dressed in a long brown jacket, a pleated skirt, and tights, was a girl with a vintage bob and very rosy cheeks. She had an interesting Quirklight too; it had a very pink hue to it, and a certain bounciness as well. The bright Core of it was vibrating, and he noted that her secondary Cores were centered on each of her fingertips. Oh, and she was talking to him.
"Sorry about catching you with my Quirk! I know it ain't allowed, but I figured it wouldn't have been right to just let you trip." She righted him to a standing position, then dropped him with a quiet "release," still smiling brightly.
Izuku smiled back, rubbing the back of his head. He could feel a blush burning up his cheeks. "I'm so embarrassed..." He swallowed the lump of nervousness that had coalesced in his throat. "B-but thanks for the save. Your Quirk is pretty cool. Something to do with floating? Telekinesis? But, no, it's touch-based... five-finger activation, right?" The nice girl stared in surprise, then nodded slightly.
"I negate gravity if I make physical contact with all five fingertips on one hand." She touched her fingertips together like she had when she had deactivated it. "And I touch my fingertips together again to release the effect." Izuku tilted his head.
"Does it cancel out inertia, too?"
"Huh?"
"Oh..." Izuku scratched his cheek. "It's just, you didn't apply enough force in the opposite direction to stop me from falling. I would have floated after hitting the floor, sure, but when you used it on me I just stopped..." He jolted all of a sudden, surprising the girl. "Ah, sorry! I've wasted a lot of time already! Good luck! I'll see you in U.A.!" With that, he dashed off, leaving the blushing girl standing there in confusion.
He stepped through the doors of the school building proper, which he had never done before with Toshinori, and began to make his way to the Written Exam- not before removing his shoes, putting them in his bag, and putting on indoor slippers, of course. After almost getting lost due to the sheer size of the building alone, Izuku found his way into the Examination Room and took a seat near the back. After several long minutes of waiting to start, Pro Hero Snipe began to walk around and hand out the Exam.
Geez, it's Snipe! Izuku gushed internally. His Homing Quirk let's him zone in on and hit anything within a 600-meter radius. He uses a gun, but I wonder if his Quirk works with anything... ah, the Exam! He blushed at nothing, picking up his pencil and getting to it. I wonder how hard the Exam is... I've been studying non-stop, but this is U.A.!
He read over the first question, expecting hell. Then he read it again, and blinked, and grinned. What the hell, this is easy!
Despite finding it the Written Exam stupidly easy, or at least easier than what he had expected, he was actually almost the last person out. He kept double-checking and even triple-checking his answers. Either way, once he was done he handed the Exam to Snipe and followed the temporary signage towards an auditorium. He quickly and quietly found his assigned seat, smiling at Bakugou, who was already sitting in the seat next to Izuku's assigned one. "Hi again, Kacchan."
"Shut up, Deku." Izuku continued to smile gently at him, and the blond responded with a dreary frown. Izuku placed his hands rigidly in his lap as the lights suddenly went off in the auditorium; his hands went back up to cover his mouth as the announcer stepped up onto the stage, the massive projector screen on the far wall lighting up with a screensaver of the U.A. logo on display. It's Present Mic! I love his radio show, I listen to it every week!
"HEY HEY, U.A. CANDIDATES!" Present Mic, wearing a leather ensemble with ridiculously long blond hair spiked up in a backward mohawk, shouted into the mic. "MAKE SOME NOISE! LET ME HEAR YOU SAY 'HEY'!" At first, the only thing that could be heard was general shuffling, and Present Mic was visibly disparaged; finally, though, Izuku threw a shaky fist up, catching the man's attention.
"H-hey...!"
Present Mic laughed up on stage, pointing Izuku out. "Thanks for the enthusiasm, listener!" Izuku practically glowed at the praise, ignoring the people snickering at him and Bakugou pretending to gag. "Alright, let's get right into the meat of the practical exam! If you'd be so kind, check the cards placed at your spots."
There was a quiet chorus of more shuffling as the crowd moved to do just that. Izuku picked up his card. "Arena A...?"
Bakugou glanced over, then proffered his own card. "I got B."
"Ah, man," Izuku grinned, "and I was looking forward to seeing you in action."
Bakugou's eye twitched. "I'll kill you." The deadpan delivery almost made Izuku laugh, but their conversation was interrupted by Present Mic continuing the presentation. The display on the screen changed to the image of a city, and Present Mic gestured grandly toward it.
"The practical exam takes place in seven different arenas! Today, we're doing a ten-minute mock urban combat run!" The projection changed again, four images of different robots popping up in the four corners of the screen. "Villains have overtaken the cities, and it's your job as Heroes to fight them! Robots play the Villains; one variety of robot is worth one point, then the next is two, and finally, three! You must utilize your Quirks or approved support equipment however you see fit to destroy, immobilize, or otherwise incapacitate them to earn points!"
Izuku gripped his bottom lip. "Testing our Quirks against opponents?"
Bakugou scoffed. "What do you mean, 'our'?"
Izuku didn't respond to that.
Present Mic gestured to the doors. "Now, to find the lockers-"
A blue-haired boy suddenly shot out of his chair a few rows ahead of Izuku, his hand raised directly vertically. Izuku blinked in surprise when a spotlight flickered on over him.
"Excuse me, sir, but I believe there is an error here! You stated there were three types of robots, but four varieties are listed on the packet and on-screen! It is highly erroneous for a school such as U.A. to make such an error. Moreover," the boy turned suddenly, chopping his raised hand downwards to gesture to Izuku and Bakugou, "you two had been conversing ever since you sat down! It's highly distracting and very unbecoming of potential Heroes! If you are only here to mess around, I suggest that you leave!"
Bakugou sat up a little straighter, glaring down at the boy. "Hah?! You wanna come up here and say that to my face-?!"
"Kacchan." The blond in question jolted at the suddenly quiet, cold tone of the boy next to him, not fitting the cutesy nickname at all. Izuku stood up, another spotlight flickering to life above him. "I don't know how to tell you this, but me and my classmate quietly discussing our battle zones is far less distracting than you leaping from your seat and shouting at a Pro Hero. Also, if you had actually bothered to pay attention to the screen, you would have realized that the fourth robot is worth zero points. Kindly take care to pay attention in the future, and perhaps avoid making a scene as well." Confidence suddenly leaked out of him like a torn water balloon, and he sat back down. Bakugou punched him almost good-naturedly on the arm, obviously holding back laughter.
Present Mic grinned, shooting a thumbs up in the three's general direction. "Thanks for the input, little listeners! You're right: there is a fourth robot, and it's totally beatable, but it's more to simulate a higher-class Villain than anything else! Fighting it will net you no points for the effort, so it's probably best to avoid it!" Present Mic spread his hands out wide in a very showman way, a huge grin splitting his face. "That's all from me! I'll leave you with this: the great general Napoleon Bonaparte once said that true heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life. Remember to go beyond! PLUS ULTRA!"
"PLUS ULTRA!"
Izuku stood up nervously, practically feeling everyone's eyes directed at him. He shot Bakugou a little thumbs up on his way out; Bakugou, in turn, flipped him off with a glare. With a small sigh, Izuku made his way to the lockers, changed into his teal tracksuit, then looked for the 'A' bus, which he found easily. Stepping up into it and taking his seat, he nervously twiddled his thumbs, ignoring the stares of his peers by observing his Quirklight and fiddling his dials.
After adjusting the dials until he was satisfied that he could turn them up and down on a whim, Izuku turned them all the way back down, rubbing his suddenly throbbing arms. It stings just as bad as the first time, but it's better than my arms exploding...He almost laughed at the grim thought.
"You would do well to avoid using your Quirk in undesignated areas." Izuku nearly jumped out of his seat, looking up from his stinging arms to see the same navy-haired boy, who was now dressed in a one-piece athletic uniform. Ingenium brand? Out of habit more than anything else, he took note of the boy's Quirklight: the color of it was similar to his hair, and the secondary Cores were located on his abnormally large calves. At regular intervals, the Cores on his legs jutted outwards, like a misfired engine shooting fire out of the exhaust. If the exhaust pipes on the back of his calves were anything to go by, he was related to Ingenium. "Excuse me? Did you hear me?"
Izuku looked back up at the boy's face, slightly embarrassed to have been staring, but he managed to collect himself. "I heard you, but I would also like to remind you that Quirk use is allowed on U.A. grounds, and last I checked we were still on U.A. grounds. So..." The boy adjusted his glasses, a blush starting to run up his neck. He seemed to want to say something else, but finally, he bit his tongue and meandered off to stand elsewhere. Izuku released the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding and looked back down at his arms, eyebrows furrowed.
The bus jolted to a stop, similarly jolting Izuku from his thoughts; he stood up immediately, looking forward to the front of the bus. There were several people taller than him ahead, though, so he had to meander off the bus before he could properly see their destination. That is, what was visible of it, anyway.
That's a huge gate...!
Surrounding the mock city was a massive wall, and indeed, the bus had stopped tens of meters away from the gate, which was even more huge up close.
Izuku rolled his shoulders, then stretched his arms, taking deep breaths as he went through the motions. Looking around, he suddenly spotted the nice girl from earlier, now dressed in a high-collared athletic jacket and sweatpants. Oh, the girl from before. I never got her name...
He began going over to her to properly ask for her name and maybe make small talk, but a large hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. Years of dealing with Bakugou made sure that he didn't flinch at the sudden contact- instead, he merely glanced over to see the same navy-haired boy yet again.
The boy glared at Izuku, his mouth sharply downturned in a deep frown. "That girl appears to be destressing in preparation for the Exam. Are you trying to bother her?" The boy adjusted his glasses, then continued. "Are you only here to distract the proper candidates taking the Exam? Is this another part of the test?"
Izuku scoffed, surprising the boy. "That's none of your goddamn business." Izuku swiped the hand on his shoulder away. "Leave me alone." This guy was getting on his nerves, which was bad since he was already on edge. He turned to continue making his way to the girl, but Present Mic's voice suddenly interrupted anything of the sort.
"ALRIGHT, START!" Everyone looked up to figure out where his voice came from, but Izuku had been yelled at suddenly enough times to react almost immediately. The huge gates had already creaked open, somehow silently; Izuku turned the dial up to 10% in his legs, and he shot forward, barely landing a punch on a one-pointer before anyone else could even start making their way to the arena. The robot crumpled like a soda can under the blow, making it obvious that it was made to be destroyed. Izuku laughed, loud and vibrant.
"WHAT ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR?! THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING VILLAINS! GO, GO, GO!" Present Mic's announcement alerted Izuku to the impending competition. Once again channeling One for All into his legs, Izuku leaped up onto the rooftop of a nearby building, only stumbling slightly. Quirklessly, he began to jump from rooftop to rooftop, smiling viciously as adrenaline bolted through him.
-
Meanwhile, in a room lit only by multiple display screens, several figures observed multiple competitors spread out across the seven faux cities.
Toshinori, in his emaciated form, watched on with a subtle grin from the back of the room. There on the central screen was Izuku, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, obviously looking around for something.
Present Mic pointed the boy out, laughing only slightly too loudly. "That's him! The kid who responded to my 'hey'!" Nedzu laughed, too, in his weird inhuman way, directing his attention to the boy.
"Interesting, interesting. He only has a single point, but all he's doing is looking around, looking around. Brownie points to whoever can point out why!" Toshinori gulped at the peculiar tone the chimeric principal of U.A. had taken. It was uncomfortably predatory, but Toshinori would give the rat-bear-mouse the benefit of the doubt in this particular case.
"Well," the scruffy man sitting beside Nedzu started, "it looks like he's trying to find a better place to fight the robots. Somewhere far away from the rest of the competition." Nedzu nodded serenely, the same predatory glint in his eye.
"Partial credit, Eraserhead." Pro Hero Eraserhead, otherwise known as Aizawa Shouta, sighed sharply through his nose. "Look at the direction he's headed in." Aizawa and every other observer who had listened in rather unsubtly observed the boy and the map. On it, fake buildings and underground tunnels where the faux Villains were kept had been marked red. Izuku was headed directly for the nearest one.
Aizawa's eyes widened. "He's looking for where the robots are coming from. As a matter of fact, it looks like he's figured it out."
Nedzu cackled, then calmed down long enough to take another sip of tea. "Quite right, Mr. Aizawa! Full credit!"
Toshinori's grin turned less subtle.
Young Izuku... you really are amazing!
-
There...! They came from this way! Leaping from the roof, Izuku snapped the head off of a three-pointer with a 10% kick, then lowered the percentage and leaped off of its decimated corpse. With 5%, he decapitated the two-pointer next to it with another kick. 6 points!
He bounded off in the direction the mechanical Villains had rolled from, switching between his legs and arms to properly annihilate any crossing his path. It was impossible to focus on both his arms and his legs, so instead he focused on keeping jumping and punching separate actions. The more he did it, the better his grasp on this new Quirk, but it continuously got more and more strenuous to use. Even though they had only just begun, Izuku was already reaching his limit. Still, he persisted.
A right hook to split a one-pointer in half. Seven! His knuckles were rubbing raw.
A leaping uppercut to take down a three-pointer. Ten! His shoelaces were coming undone.
A roundhouse to split open a crowd of one-pointers. Thirteen! His hair was getting in his eyes.
He continued like this, mowing through the crowd of robots in a deadly dance. They barely had time to register his presence before their heads were removed from the rest of their extremities. The power was intoxicating, the strength and the speed and the pain melding into a chemical that Izuku had been struggling to find the formula of his whole life.
He had never felt better.
A shout from his right caught Izuku's attention as his fist flew through the heart of another two-pointer. He looked over to see a lavender-haired boy barely dodging the haphazard blows of a one-pointer. On instinct, as the metal beast raised its arm, Izuku leaped forward and split the robot nearly in half with a jumping axe kick. Sixteen. Skidding to a halt upon landing, he turned and shot a thumbs up to the guy. He quickly had to look away; whatever the guy's Quirk was, the secondary Core located on his forehead was nauseating to look at directly, like an unpleasant hypnosis video.
"Mental Quirk, huh?" Izuku ran up to the robot he had decimated, missing the look of surprise on the tired-looking boy's face that would have told him he was right. He seemed to know, anyway. "Yeah, sorry, it's not the ideal Exam for something like that. Here," and with this, he tore a hunk of metal roughly in the shape of a weapon off of the robot using 2% of One for All, "this should help. Good luck!" He handed off the scrap to the boy, still avoiding eye contact, then turned the other way. The boy with the mental Quirk jolted out of his shock with a grin, running off with his new makeshift weapon to bust some robot heads of his own.
Izuku, his random act of helpfulness fulfilled, began jogging Quirklessly back on his original path, feeling the burn of using One for All. The crowd of bots was beginning to thin out, though Izuku was partially grateful, considering how exhausted he was. He only managed to find a few more. He looked around- on one end of the street was the rude boy from before, utilizing his Quirk to kick through a two-pointer. On the other end was a boy in a decidedly unathletic outfit blasting a three-pointer with a laser emitted from his belly. Izuku bared his teeth in an approximation of a smile.
Looks like they're catching up!
With One for All, he took to the rooftops again.
-
Toshinori watched in awe as the boy he had worked with for so long displayed his physical prowess. He thought that the plain teal tracksuit didn't do his pupil justice; when he wore it, he still looked like the skinny middle schooler that had poured his heart out to him all those months ago instead of the proper Hero hopeful with stronger muscles than some adults that he was now.
A nostalgic smile overtook his features at the memory of the first time they met up on Dagobah Beach. I wonder what kind of ice cream he likes...
-
Shouta glanced back at the scrawny man in the back of the room, squinting suspiciously at the odd smile on his face. He followed the Number One's gaze to find that he was looking at the same scrawny-looking boy from before, right as he was tearing through a three-pointer with ease. Aizawa couldn't help but roll his eyes- the boy had a similar Quirk to All Might, so the old Hero must be getting nostalgic. His mental griping was interrupted once again by his chimeric boss' tinny voice.
"There are many aspects of proper heroism that come to the forefront during a test like this," Nedzu started.
Shouta could have gagged; he knew firsthand how unfair the Physical Exam could be, with the Villain points being taken by people with physical Quirks and no one being told about Rescue points.
"Such as using the senses to gather intel." The main monitor flicked to the image of a large boy with multiple arms; at the ends of each arm, instead of hands, were multiple eyes and ears. Shouta liked the look of it.
"Or the use of mobility and speed to deal with situations concisely." The monitor changed to the image of a boy in square glasses. Exhaust pipes jutted out of his calves, and Shouta suppressed a sigh at the thought of having to deal with another Tensei.
"The ability to stay calm under pressure." A boy in a rather flamboyant and unathletic getup, firing a laser from his belt at a one-pointer while... staring directly into the camera? How does he know where it is?
"Ingenuity in the face of adversity." A boy with deep eyebags and lavender hair, just going fucking wild on a two-pointer with a piece of scrap. Shouta liked that one.
"And pure combat ability." Finally, the monitor flicked to a boy in a black tank top and combat boots, standing in the wreckage of multiple one- and two-pointers with smoking palms. Aizawa glanced down at the listings to find his name at the top, with no Rescue points and 74 Villain points. Bakugou Katsuki... he reminds me of Sensouji.
"These virtues affect their effectiveness in this trial and are essentially turned directly into points! However," with a gesture from Nedzu, Ectoplasm flipped the cover off of a button and gave it a firm press, " the true test has yet to start!"
-
With another two-pointer decimated, Izuku squatted down on the sidewalk directly next to the robot's fallen chassis to catch his breath. He rubbed his stinging arms, smiling through the pins-and-needles pain. That makes 31! It was a little frustrating- if he had more control over One for All, he'd have double the points, but he'd already stopped to rest several times. He wiped the sweat from his brow, but right as he was about to stand up and continue the pursuit, the ground rumbled. A massive door in the ground opened; lesser structures collapsed, fake electrical wires snapped, and a positively mammoth hand grasped the solid concrete of a nearby building. Pulling itself up was a robot of similar design to the rest but of a completely different scale.
Izuku gulped, taking a step back. The zero-pointer! It's huge! There's no way I can attack that thing without breaking something, and it wouldn't even be worth the effort. I'll run and grab some more points in the chaos. Nodding to himself, he turned to follow through with his plan, but a sudden cry of pain from behind him forced his feet to lock up. He whirled around to locate the source of the voice, only to find-
I know it ain't allowed, but I figured it wouldn't have been right to just let you trip.
It's her! She's...! Without another thought, Izuku bolted towards the girl who had saved his face just earlier. It was a hassle, since everyone else was running away, a flood of scared Hero wannabes blocking his path. He passed the rude boy, who turned to him in shock, but he didn't spare him more than a mental rebuke before focusing on the situation at hand. If he could figure out what to do, he could save her.
With my current limit being 10%, I can only reach the rooftop of a two- or three-story building- that's not even as high as its waist. If I hit it from that high, its own inertia would send it falling down on top of her and me. 10% wouldn't be enough to topple it in the first place. If I hurt myself no matter how high above 10% I go... then I have to go all the way and guarantee her safety! He bent his knees in preparation to jump, letting the searing hot agony of his whole power flood his legs.
Here goes nothing.
He leaped, roaring as his shattered legs began to flail uselessly in the wind-
He pulled back a fist, gripping his palm so tightly that he was probably drawing blood. One for All wrapped itself tightly around his arm, its Quirklight building up like water behind a dam-
"SMASH!"
One for All exploded outwards, the Quirklight forcibly unlatching itself from his arm. Flesh and bone met circuitry and metalwork. One for All's power flowed from the conduit that was Midoriya Izuku, crashing into the great mechanical beast with such a destructive force that the blow resounded like a crack of thunder. The punch crushed the zero-pointer's head entirely, and it slowly began to fall backward, raising a single arm in dying defiance.
A smile of elation fell across Izuku's face, even as his body screamed and protested. Then, he began to fall.
-
Toshinori scrambled to the forefront of the observers, eliciting some cries of surprise from them as he shoved his way past them. He held his hands clenched over his heart and gritted his teeth. That stupid, brave boy...!
He could only watch on in equal parts admiration and terror as his boy- as young Izuku rocketed up and annihilated the zero-pointer with every ounce of power that he had. He would run out there himself if he could, but he had foolishly already spent his time for the day. Well, at least you know one of the most important aspects of Heroism: the spirit of self-sacrifice!
Nedzu threw his hands up in the air in early celebration, not really seeming to care about the boy's condition after the attack, and everyone in the room, save Aizawa, gasped in surprise. Aizawa instead tightened his glare, his face sinking further into the gray scarf-like capture weapon wrapped around his neck. Toshinori knew all too well why- the mighty leap and blow had left Izuku's arm and legs bruised and shattered. Aizawa was going to be very critical of young Izuku from that point forward. Of course, the boy had to not die on impact with the ground for that to matter.
Despite all that, Toshinori allowed himself a small, albeit tight smile. Though... it's a bit soon, isn't it?
-
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Izuku clutched the shoulder of his broken arm, hot tears ripped from his eyes as he fell at what had to be terminal velocity. I'm so fucking stupid! In a moment of adrenaline-fueled clarity, he looked around with the tendrils of his actual Quirk, searching for something, anything... The nice girl! Her Quirk!
The tendrils of his Quirklight shot outwards further than he had ever sent them to where he knew she was and immediately sent the schematics to the Core of his Quirk, whereupon it turned into that same bouncy, ethereal ball.
He could feel the Mutant aspect of her Quirk manifest on his own fingertips and desperately slapped himself in the face. Immediately, he jolted to a snail's pace some meters above the ground, smiling blearily down at the shocked face of the girl whose Quirk he had just copied and used. He came to a full stop beside her, smiling even as he was blacking out.
He managed to do two things before he was consumed by blackness: touch the fingers of his one hand to the broken fingers of the other with a quiet "release" and roll away from the girl to vomit.
"AND THAT'S ALL TEN MINUTES! WRAP IT UP!" Present Mic's voice rang in his head as he slipped under.
-
"What the hell was that...?" Shouta pointed at the bruised and battered boy on the screen, who the girl was freaking out over. She put his head on her knees as she knelt, keeping his head tilted, so he didn't choke on his own bile. Oh, she's smart. Wait, focus.
"If his Quirk is a Copy, then why did he only use it there in desperation? As a matter of fact, I remember reading his file that explicitly stated that his Copy was limited by range, but he's been using that super-strength Quirk this entire time. No other person in that arena has a Quirk like that for him to copy." He glared at All Might, who he had realized must have a personal connection with the boy if the old Hero's reaction before was anything to go by. The way he was nervously rubbing his neck now all but confirmed it.
"Well, you see, young Izu- uh, young Midoriya's Quirk is, as you say, a Copy ability." Shouta glared harder at the odd slip of the tongue but nodded slightly. Taking the hint, All Might continued. "But this Copy Quirk has a partially permanent factor." Shouta noted the uncomfortable look on the man's face as he said noted the permanent part as if the words tasted sour. All Might was still talking, though, so he decided to save it for later. "Normally, it has a range of tens of meters, but that strength Quirk..."
Shouta's eye twitched. "Goddammit."
All Might nodded. "The strength Quirk he has been using is mine. For whatever reason, when he copied it on accident, it didn't leave his Quirk regardless of range. My Quirk is dangerous in the hands of the untrained, so I... tried to teach him how to use it." Shouta already knew Midoriya Izuku was going to be a problem child. Sighing heavily, he fell back into his seat, ignoring a cackling Nedzu, his shocked coworkers, and a flustered All Might.
"Alright, he's in my class," grumbled Pro Hero Vlad King, also known as Kan Sekijirou. He looked over at Shouta, huffing through his large lower canines.
With crossed arms, Shouta stared him down. "There's another Copy kid in Arena C. You can have that one." After a brief staring contest, Kan threw his hands up in surrender.
"Good to know, Aizawa!" Nedzu grinned ferociously over the rim of his teacup. "Glad to see you have confidence in Midoriya passing."
Shouta rolled his eyes. "He destroyed the zero-pointer. Even if he had literally zero Villain points, the Rescue points from that stunt would be more than enough to pass." Nedzu shrugged, seemingly acquiescing the point, still smiling that practically feral smile. Shouta glared at the screen again, away from that smug look on his boss' face, at the boy in his messed up track pants and dirtied shirt.
Here's hoping he has zero potential.
-
Pro Hero Recovery Girl, known to her few peers as Shuuzenji Chiyo, was getting tired of having to heal the injuries of a bunch of middle schoolers. She was a big advocate of changing the Practical Exam, one of the few things she and Aizawa agreed on, because these damn kids didn't know when to not go overboard yet.
Case in point, Toshinori's stupid disciple, who thought breaking three of his limbs to destroy the zero-pointer was a good idea. Both of his legs were twisted and bruised, and his right arm was similarly fucked up, along with his torn up knuckles. She could almost see bone. But, apparently, despite the stunt he had pulled, he had enough energy to be at least partially healed. She gave him a quick peck on the head, his limbs grotesquely warping back into their proper positions. They were still bruised, but the bruising had advanced to the healing stage much faster than they would have normally. With a sigh, she left him to her stretcher bots and stared at the girl who looked like she really wanted to keep fussing over him. Well, that's another good mark of a Hero, I suppose.
"He'll be fine. He needs some rest before I can give him another dose." The girl looked down at her in surprise as if noticing her for the first time. Chiyo huffed in annoyance at the disrespect. "Do you need any healing?" .
The girl blinked, then pointed at her foot. "I messed up my foot pretty bad," she started, looking a little sheepish. "I got trapped under some rubble by the zero-pointer. That's why he destroyed it, it was going to roll right over me. Is... will he be fine?" She seemed to plead with her eyes as well as her words as she continued, "There was still time left in the test; he couldn't get more points because of me-"
"He'll be fine." Chiyo said it briefly, annoyed, but the girl sighed in relief, nodding slightly. Chiyo rolled her eyes, giving the girl a peck on the head and a gummy packet. "Now scram. I have other Mini Might's to heal." The girl raised an eyebrow but complied. Exhaling sharply through her nose, Chiyo started towards the next injured kid.
-
Izuku jumped awake, sweating and panting, barely keeping a grasp on the font of his power as his body suddenly went into fight or flight. Recovery Girl looked up from the chart attached to the end of the bed, clicking her tongue in annoyance. "That was pretty stupid of you, kid. You do realize that the robots are designed to avoid fatal damage, right?" Izuku looked down, tearing up slightly at the reprimand. He did feel pretty stupid about it.
"You're right. I focused entirely too hard on the actual robot instead of the situation itself. I could have knocked it over from behind, or I could have just thrown the rubble off of the girl and carried her away. But I wanted to prove that this Quirk is mine, that I can use it to save anyone, no matter who I face." Recovery Girl blinked in surprise at that, and he quickly stammered, "Y-you see, my Quirk- er, the strength Quirk I was using-"
Recovery Girl held a small hand up, stopping him in his tracks."I know about One for All, boy. I'm the one who treats Toshinori's wound."
Izuku blinked in surprise, then nodded slightly, leaning over to let his tears fall into his open palms. "It's a Heroic Quirk, but... I can only control about 10% of it. Even then, just barely... I'm really sorry. I promise to do better." Recovery Girl walked around to the side of the bed, resting a gentle hand on one of his. She then promptly hit him over the head with her walking stick, a taut frown on her face.
"Young man, the only person I can blame is-" She was interrupted by the door of the nurse's office slamming open, with Toshinori running in through it. Recovery Girl leveled a glare at him. "Speak of the devil, and he'll appear with a grin." The blond man bowed deeply, allowing the old woman to whack him on the head a few times. Despite that, he was smiling softly as he unfolded.
"My boy, you did incredibly! I couldn't be more proud." His smile fell as he chopped Izuku firmly on the head. "Even though you went against my wishes and used 100% of One for All. You also had me scared to death! You're a smart boy, so I expect you to be more careful from now on, alright? Not everything needs you to go PLUS ULTRA!" He patted his side with a rueful wink. "It's not a good idea to try to." Recovery Girl stared at him wide-eyed.
"...Since when are you a voice of reason? I thought you would have loved him going all out." Toshinori laughed heartily, wiping away blood from his chin. He sighed, eyes tilting downcast, mood shifting suddenly in the opposite direction.
"I've been trying to be better about that ever since I lost Nana, I guess. I have more to worry about than myself." He smiled morosely, and Recovery Girl mirrored it with a taut smile of her own. Toshinori laughed again, a little wetly, before jabbing a thumb at the door. "I'll be right outside. Give him another smooch so we can go get ice cream already." The old woman nodded, and he took his cue to step out. She turned back to Izuku, her taut smile still in place.
"He's never given himself time to get over it." Sighing, she finally extended her lips and gave Izuku another kiss on the forehead. "You're fine to stay out of a cast as you are, but you'll be painfully sore for a while yet. The body doesn't agree with speeding up the healing process, you see, so it's usually best if I only use my Quirk partway." She hobbled off, and Izuku slipped from the bed on shaky feet. He gave himself a once over: he was still dressed in his dirty clothes, and he was still awfully grimy. He picked a little at the bandages on his right arm, then patted down the rest of his body. Finally, he examined his Quirklight, with its whipping tendrils and mostly rainbow colors, idly memorizing the swirling colors. White, blue, red, green, orange, purple, magenta, yellow, gray... and pink? That's...
-
Dagobah Beach, once beautiful and now beautiful again, was already gaining popularity. Someone must have noticed that the beach was fully clean rather quickly because there was a small crowd of beach-goers playing in the sand. Izuku recognized a few people there who had taken the Physical Exam too. Idly, he wondered if they had helped clean up the beach when he wasn't there.
"My boy, I must say, you surprised me with how apt you were in using One for All. You can't use as much as me, but you adapted very quickly." Izuku looked up from the sand to meet his mentor's eye. Toshinori was smiling, holding a cone of ice cream. He handed off the cone to Izuku, leaving himself empty-handed.
"It was tough." Izuku glanced down at his hand, clenching it tightly. "I had to keep constant control over all of my limbs. If I had gone too high, I would have hurt myself, but if I had gone too low, it would have released the effect. That would have been devastating in its own right, especially if I was in the middle of an attack or a jump. If I'm being honest, I'm legitimately surprised that I used it so well outside of training." He furrowed his brow, taking a bite of his ice cream.
Toshinori nodded along, his expression thoughtful. "As you know, I had an easy time using One for All. To be fair, you're using it after almost four decades of continued use; when I first received it, One for All was significantly weaker. Looking back at your attacks, I'd say your 10% was on par with what would be 40% back in my youth. Ah, maybe more like 35%...?" He scratched his cheek dully.
Izuku stared at him in shock. "You're joking!"
"Why would I joke about that?! Anyway, that's only a guess based on when I first got it! Even then, Nana barely used it, so really I was cultivating the power of the sixth- it was only just above superhuman all the way back then!"
Izuku nodded, then wrinkled his nose at a thought. "You still need to explain it to me."
"Sorry?"
"One for All. I want the truth about it, or however much you know."
Toshinori seemed surprised at the sudden inquiry, but his expression turned to one of contemplation rather quickly. "You deserve it. If you can bear it a little while longer, I want to wait until you're in U.A. to tell you the full story." Izuku sighed resignedly, taking another lick at his ice cream. "Also, I know I said not to overcomplicate it, but you do realize One for All is more complicated than 'punch hard,' right?"
Izuku blinked, then nodded slightly. "Right. It was easy to forget when I was in the moment, but it's different from a regular Emitter. Sorry."
"It's not a big deal, so don't apologize. You say 'sorry' too much, anyway." Izuku stifled the urge to apologize for apologizing too much. Toshinori leaned down on the railing, hands tightly held together. "It was still an impressive display. It's probably for the best if you use it like that while you acclimate. Your usage of a complete stranger's Quirk at the end there was impressive, too."
"Not a complete stranger... she had explained it to me before the Exam. S-she used it on me to keep me from tripping..." Toshinori laughed, slapping Izuku on the back.
"Even as cool as you are, young Izuku, you're still the same as ever!"
"Um, there's... there's something else?" Izuku gripped the railing tightly, save for one finger, the ice cream in his right hand starting to melt. He hardly noticed. "When I first woke up, I took stock of my Quirklight, and it had all the normal colors of One for All and Quirk Copy, but... it also had the same color pink as her Quirk. I thought that maybe my range or something had increased, and she was just still in range. Actually, the range did increase, but not this far. Now, right now... it's still there. I don't think it's leaving, either." He looked down at his left hand, the raised fingertips glaringly obvious. When he finally looked back up at Toshinori, the Hero had gone pale. The old man placed a shaking hand on Izuku's shoulder.
"Does she still have it?"
"W-what?"
"Her Quirk." There was fear in Toshinori's eyes, completely out of place in his normally bold features. "Could she still use it?" Izuku frowned. I suppose the natural evolution from borrowing a Quirk would be taking it for your own. But no, I saw her again on the way out, and she still had a Quirklight. He glanced back down at his hand, finally dispelling the effect. The tips flattened back down into normal skin, and he clenched and unclenched a fist. He could still feel the Quirk, though, just below the surface, bouncy and bright and lightweight. He looked back up to meet his mentor's eye.
"Yes. She can still use it. I-I'm certain that my Quirk is still just a copy. I guess it's just a longer-lasting copy, maybe even permanent." The tension in Toshinori's shoulders lessened, and the blond man sighed heavily. Still, though, the same fear was in his eyes.
"Do you know anything about your father?" Izuku tilted his head, confused by the sudden harsh turn of conversation. Why does he care about that bastard?He didn't remember telling his mentor about his absentee father, but it wasn't that hard to figure out; the man was never around anymore, never called, and Inko didn't wear a wedding band. Only recently, Izuku discovered that the only thing his father ever did nowadays was send a wad of cash every month, enough to pay most of the two other Midoriya's rent with.
"No? I don't remember him at all. Does he have a Copy Quirk, too? Actually, I guess that makes sense..." Toshinori nodded, more to himself than to Izuku, removing his hand from Izuku's shoulder to pull out his phone. He started walking away, waving a hand in farewell absentmindedly in Izuku's direction even as he dialed a number to call. Izuku didn't bother waving back, wondering what he had done wrong. Or maybe Toshinori was being weird? He hoped so.
-
Dialing Tsukauch... Dialing Tsu-
"Toshi-?"
"True Man."
"...Yep. What's this about, All Might?"
"I need a favor. A background check."
"If it's for you, anything. For whom does the bell toll?"
"Midoriya Hisashi. I need everything on him. And I mean everything."
"You got it. I'll call again when I have something."
"Thanks."
"Whatever you need. Next time you call, maybe ask about something other than work for once. We haven't had dinner together in a while, y'know? I miss you, you old man."
"I know. I'll keep it in mind, okay? Bye."
Call ended