A/N:

Wow. I am completely blown away by the amount of support this has received both here and on AO3. You guys have no idea how happy it made me to come back to my desk after a very rough day and see just how many people had enjoyed this.

Particular thanks to those who took the time to leave reviews, and in response to two in particular:

hec he got a hat - You and some folks from AO3 had similar questions. Hope the end of the chapter clears some things up for ya.

TBM10 - Phoenix is simply a name associated with rebirth from flame, I don't want to make him absolutely overpowered. The story would become very boring very quickly. Doesn't mean there won't be a few BAMF scenes.

The end of this chapter was unplanned, someone over at AO3 pointed out that following the story too closely in terms of dialogue would end up being a bit tedious and then that happened.


Izuku couldn't say anything significant had happened to him in terms of his Quirk – in fact, it hadn't manifested at all since the Sludge Villain Incident, and the only thing that stopped him wondering if it really had been his Quirk was a set of medical forms he'd received in the mail about a week after, detailing the results of his examinations and, particularly, his blood test.

He'd never had his Quirk Factor tested before, considering his x-ray results, but sure enough – yep, he had one, though it was nothing like either of his parents'. The doctors had clearly found it significant to the point where they'd enclosed a handwritten note, telling him that he was "a medical enigma" between having two joints in his toe and a mutated Quirk, but Izuku cared less about the medical intrigue of his existence than the fact that he had a Quirk.

After discussing it with All Might one morning during training (and rigorous training it was, as Izuku forced himself to lift and haul things he'd never dreamed he had the strength to lift or haul), he settled on the name Phoenix. He wasn't sure if people got to name their own Quirks, though he figured that parents typically named them upon manifestation and registry and the users simply went with the assigned name, but the national registry accepted his change-of-Quirk form anyway, and that was what went into his Yuuei application nine months later:

Midoriya Izuku. Quirk: Phoenix!

And now, here he stood, at six in the morning at the end of the tenth month of his training with All Might, standing atop the last of the trash that had completely overwhelmed the beach.

Screaming.

Not a scream of terror, or of pain, or of anger, or despair.

A scream of victory.

A victory so intense he immediately succumbed to exhaustion and tumbled off the edge of the trash heap into the arms of none other than All Might, who set him down on his feet and ruffled his (sweaty) hair.

"Midoriya, my boy! What a fine job you've done here!" he declared, with the grandiosity typical of his muscle form. Izuku had quickly come to realize that his two forms had distinctly different personalities, though perhaps it was simply a matter of All Might being so used to putting up a front in his muscle form that he did it even around those who knew his true form.

The number one hero was clad in a navy blue peacoat and a pair of brown corduroy slacks, complete with a fashionable scarf tied in a sailor's knot; compared to him, Izuku, in workout wear (minus shirt), felt distinctly underdressed.

"Even I was not sure you could do it, but you went above and beyond! You've exceeded my expectations!" Such high praise from his hero warranted Izuku raising his head to look the man in the eyes, just in time to see him pluck a strand of golden hair from the distinct vee-shape over his brow.

A small laugh escaped Izuku's lips, and he snorted. "It's funny. It almost feels like I cheated or something."

"Nonsense. Every kid with a Quirk that you know was born with it, of that I am certain. You, on the other hand…you earned this! Through your own sweat, blood and tears!" And a disproportionate amount of the latter, the small voice of his true form added, but muscle form neglected to mention this.

"Young man…are you ready to receive my power?"

This. This was what Izuku had been waiting for. "O-of course!" he stammered, nerves twisting his guts into loops, and without even blinking, All Might thrust the hair towards him.

"Eat this!"

What.

The moment totally ruined, the young man could only stare at the golden strand before him, pinched between a very large thumb and forefinger. "E-eat that?"

"Yes! It doesn't matter how, you just have to get my DNA inside of you somehow." All Might coughed (this is considerably more uncomfortable than the training ran through both of their minds), then shook the hair. "So! Eat!"

"B-but – "

"Eat!"


One distinctly uncomfortable (and oddly sour) snack later, Izuku had sprinted home, showered, changed, eaten, brushed his teeth, and made a vague effort to comb his hair before he gave up entirely, letting it settle into its usual green bush atop his head.

The train and bus rides to Yuuei were a blur, and before he knew it, he stood before it, in all its grandeur: the high school of heroes. He felt a chill run down his spine at the very thought.

"Deku."

Now there's a voice I haven't heard in a while.

"Kacchan…?"

"Stay out of my way today." Bakugou didn't even look at him as he strode past, hands in his pockets. "Don't you dare get into Yuuei, understand me?" Though his voice was level, Izuku could almost feel the anger seething beneath his words, and in spite of himself, he flinched, then cringed.

If I wanna be a hero…I can't keep cowering like this! This is it! This is my first step toward becoming what I've spent my whole life yearning towards! The first step into –

And then he tripped on that first step, over his own two feet no less.

Expecting to crash face-first into the pavement, he squeezed his eyes shut tight, then – when the impact didn't come – tentatively opened them again.

"Sorry for not asking permission first," he heard a voice next to him say. "But you looked like you were gonna fall, y'know?" A giggle.

A pair of soft hands repositioned him, and when he looked to his left, there stood a girl his own age, a little shorter, with a round face, rosy cheeks, and an absolutely adorable smile on her lips. As he stared, his face heating far past the temperature of the sun, she pressed her fingertips together, murmuring: "Release!"

Izuku's feet tapped on the concrete, and he shuffled in place, blinking. "I – "

"It's my Quirk," the girl explained, still smiling. "Anyway, I better get going, don't wanna be late, y'know? See ya!"

"Um, bye…?"

The entire exchange had taken less than thirty seconds, but for the first time in his life, Izuku had spoken to a girl (even if it had only been a single-letter word that she may or may not have actually heard him say!) and managed to not completely embarrass himself.

Yep, today was looking good.


The next couple of hours were entirely unremarkable, with a tour of Yuuei's facilities and grounds proving to be by far the most interesting, and after a presentation by the renowned Present Mic detailing the practical exam terms and guidelines (which had been received with the loudest silence Izuku had ever heard, excluding an outburst from a distinctly uptight young man in horn-rimmed glasses who then proceeded to call out Izuku on his muttering habit), he found himself standing outside what appeared to be a full-scale replica of several city blocks.

Wow, this campus must be huge! And this isn't even every examinee…

"Start!"

Nobody moved, but the shout had grabbed the attention of everyone in attendance, and for a moment, there was a general murmuring as prospective students milled about, talking amongst themselves, before -

"What are you waiting for!? There are no timers in real life battles! Go! Start!" The voice of Present Mic, magnified tenfold, a hundredfold by his Quirk, boomed out across those assembled, and the exam began in total confusion, Izuku trailing in at a run at the very back of the crowd.

The robots, representing villains, were around twice Izuku's height, maybe a bit more, but they were considerably more than twice as intimidating as he. He'd darted into an alley, hoping to secure some points for himself, but seized up immediately the moment he laid eyes on a one-pointer.

Behind an array of glaring LED screens in a pitch-dark room, an emaciated man with golden hair clenched his fists.

Before Izuku could do anything, a brilliant beam of blue light shot past him, punching through the army-green of the robot's carapace and splintering the steel-alloy chassis into bits as the entire thing caught fire and collapsed, metal plates clattering to the concrete underfoot. Still staring, he could only gape soundlessly as a blonde boy wearing a decidedly unique belt around his midriff jogged past him in a manner Izuku could only describe as dainty; with a wink, the boy called back to him:

"We make a good team, oui? But I don't think we'll be seeing much more of each other. Adieu!"

And then he practically skipped off.

What a nerve! Izuku managed to get his limbs working in time for Present Mic to bellow "Four minutes remaining!" across the arena, and for the first time, his anxiety was less about actual combat than if he'd even get a single point at this rate…

Much to his chagrin, his fellow examinees had set about felling every robot in the area, and the remaining three minutes were mostly spent sprinting from street to street, trying to find a robot that hadn't already been smashed or that wasn't about to be smashed. No such luck – even the girl he'd met at the entrance was outperforming him with a Quirk that seemed to have the sole ability to make things float: dashing headlong through a group of them, touching each one to send them skyward, and then slamming them into the ground below, breaking them to bits.

"Thirty!" he heard her call, and his eyes went round enough to give the moon itself a run for its money. This girl, with this simple Quirk, was making far better use of her time, and he – he'd simply been trying to get a point!

"One minute left!"

Oh no. Oh no no no.

As if on cue, a colossal explosion blossomed from the simulated city center not two blocks away from Izuku and the girl, and a moment later, the other examinees came flooding out of the woodwork like so many dozens of termites. The reason for their flight became immediately apparent – the colossal robot that Present Mic had left out of his explanation until he'd been called out on it had decided to make its entrance, almost casually smashing its way through buildings to carve a path along a street far too narrow for its bulk.

Izuku, too, turned to run, but somewhere in the din of screams and crashes, a tiny voice pierced through, finding its way to his ears.

"H-help!"

He turned back, against the tide, waving his arms to clear the dust in front of him, and through the cloud, he was able to see her, pinned underneath rubble far larger than her body: the girl he'd been watching not a minute prior, her eyes watering with either fear or pain. He badly hoped it was just the former; getting injured like that during the entrance exam would be horrible…

Aren't they going to stop it? he thought, for just a moment, but then kicked himself. No. If they were going to stop it, they'd have done so already! This…I'm the only thing standing between it and her! Nobody else is even giving her a second glance…I'm all she has!

He drew stares as he pelted headlong back through the rush of examinees all fleeing the zero-pointer:

"Is he nuts?"

"What the hell does he think he's going to accomplish?"

"Why would you go after a zero-pointer? They said it themselves, you don't get anything out of it, so you should just run, right?"

They have no idea…and that's…that's why I have to be her hero!

What had All Might told him that very morning…?

"Clench your buttocks and scream, within your heart…SMAAASH!"

This is it. It's now or never, Izuku!

His knees bent, his fists clenched, his mind focused, he could only think of one thing: the power he'd been given – no, the power he'd earned! Earned, with his own sweat, blood, and tears…!

"SMAAAAAASH!"

His scream sounded off the brick and mortar all around him as he shot up like a rocket, feeling his legs break into pieces with the force, his voice echoing in his own ears until it was louder than the din below, louder even than Present Mic's shout of "Ten seconds left!"

With an explosion even larger than the robot itself had made, Midoriya Izuku's fist slammed into the head of a machine hundreds of times his size, only it wasn't just All Might's – One For All that activated. The second his fist made contact, a blinding flash filled his vision, seeming to originate from behind his own eyes – a flash he could only remember seeing once before.

Phoenix…

The two Quirks mingled, fusing into a detonation that ripped the roofs from the buildings around him and sent shockwaves roaring across the arena, a radial rush of radiant flame erupting from the point of impact and sweeping through the sky –

The zero-pointer's head shattered like glass, and molten steel from the broken shards rained down on a body falling backwards like the collapse of a skyscraper, positively leveling everything behind it as it slammed into the ground with the force of – was there even anything to compare it to, short of a meteor? Izuku himself realized, belatedly, that he was falling, but there didn't seem to be a need to worry; he was falling rather slowly, almost drifting, and as he neared the ground, he could see shock, awe, even terror in the faces of the examinees who'd stopped to watch.

As he touched down, dropping to one knee, a last gust of fire cloaked his body before the power faded and all that was left was Midoriya Izuku, kneeling in a pile of hot, greyish-white ash. Shaking a little. Rising to his feet on wobbly legs broken and healed seconds apart. Freckles standing out on his pale face.

The girl he'd rushed to save had freed herself – of course she had, she can make things float! – and lay on her stomach across the broken torso of one of the robots she'd smashed a few minutes ago, with an extraordinarily peculiar expression on her face; Izuku realized what it was a second later as she slumped forward and proceeded to vomit spectacularly onto the pavement.

"What was that!?"

"Shit, and I wrote that kid off."

"I've never seen anything like it!"

"He took that thing down with one punch!"

"Yeah, and he took half the arena with it."

Thirty seconds after he'd announced that only ten seconds remained, Present Mic called a close to the practical exam, glossing over the delay.

The examinees forgave him; they'd been pretty stunned themselves.


Despite his display, like the grand finale at a fireworks show, Izuku hadn't gotten a single point.

He went home utterly dejected, unable to believe that his (hopefully high) score on the written exam would be enough to get him into Yuuei. They'd said the results would arrive in a week, via post.

"Izuku, sweetie, what's wrong? You've been giving that fish the stink eye for five minutes now."

"I'm fine, Mom," he told her, lying through his teeth. "Just don't have much appetite right now."

"Are you sure? You've usually inhaled half your dinner by now."

"Yeah, just…worried about the exams, I guess." This was not a lie.

"Oh! How do you think you did?" Midoriya Inko's smile was far too bright for her son to tell her the truth, so he told her only half.

"Well, I know I did pretty well on the written exam," he responded, taking a small bite of rice more to appease her worries than anything, "but I have no idea how well I did on the practical. Normal exam stuff."

To his guilty relief, his mother bought it, and the rest of the night passed without incident, as did the next week. Izuku wished he could say he'd nearly forgotten about the Yuuei exam, but the truth was, that had been almost the only thing on his mind. He was almost certain he'd failed, but at the same time, there was still a spark of hope that refused to die, an ember that refused to burn out.

Like the flame of a phoenix…

He supposed if he had only had One For All, he'd feel a little better about it, knowing that he could have only thrown a single punch before his entire arm broke, but the Phoenix Quirk had served to reverse the damage done by his overuse of One For All…he could have kept on going…

Even so, it was his own fault, wasn't it? He'd been frozen stiff when he had the chance to score points. He could have figured out that his own Quirk countered the drawbacks of One For All much earlier if he'd even tried.

"Izuku! It's here! It's here!"

He wasn't conscious of getting up, or running for the mail. All he knew was that, a minute later, he was back in his room, at his desk, the door closed as he stared down the envelope in his hands.

Then, without warning –

Stupid!

Furious with himself, Izuku ripped the envelope in two, and to his surprise, a small metal disc clattered onto the desk, projecting an image of none other than All Might himself, the man who hadn't contacted him at all since the exam.

"I am here! As a projection, of course!"

Um.

"You may be wondering – why am I, All Might, appearing in a letter from Yuuei? The reason is simple, young Midoriya – I am in this town for one reason, and one alone.

"I came here…to teach at Yuuei!"

This proclamation was followed by dead silence on Izuku's part, and after a moment, the holographic All Might went on.

"What's that, you say? Get to the point? Whatever I want to say to him…can be said later!? …Ah, fine, all right."

It took Izuku a moment to realize that All Might was addressing the owner of a hand that had come in from offscreen to nudge his arm, and despite how upset he was, he couldn't hold back a snicker.

"Naturally, failing the practical means an automatic failure."

The snicker died.

Of course. I knew this was coming. I didn't do anything at all on the practical, and it's my fault for even trying to do anything! I'm…just a failure…

"However!"

Izuku's chin jolted upward, tears already trailing down his cheeks. The small, holographic All Might waggled a finger reprovingly through the tip of his nose and he pushed his chair away from the desk to get a better view.

"A certain someone came to see us after the exams. You may recognize her!"

Holo-Might stepped aside to reveal a small, equally holographic television screen mounted on the wall behind him, and a moment later, it flickered on, revealing a familiar round face framed by light brown hair…

"It's her!" Izuku breathed. "That nice girl from the entrance exam…"

"Excuse me!"

"Eh?" Present Mic, nonchalant as ever.

"Um…that boy, from the exam…curly hair, freckles…um, you know, kinda plain looking?"

"She means me!" he gasped.

"Well…I noticed him a few times around the arena, and every single time I saw him, he looked really lost…but at the end, he was incredible! And…I don't know if he got any points or not, but…" She looked down at her feet, kicking at the ground with one shoe, then shifted her gaze back to Present Mic, suddenly fierce. "I don't want to see someone like that fail the entrance exam, while someone with a Quirk like mine gets in!"

She shouldn't put herself down like that…she was really clever back there.

"He saved my life!"

The screen switched off, and All Might stepped back into view, still bearing his trademark smile. "Thankfully, Miss Uraraka's concern was not needed! For, you see, at Yuuei, we don't simply grade based on villain points – we also grade based on rescue points! The orientation is designed to focus on the villain half of the exam, but we also award points to examinees based on heroic actions performed in combat!

"And to Midoriya Izuku – sixty hero points!"

Izuku could have sworn his jaw hit the desk.

"That puts you at number seven in the exam rankings, and number one for rescue points!

"Young Midoriya...welcome to your hero academia!"

Midoriya Inko jumped with fright at the howl of triumph that erupted from her son's bedroom.


That very same night, Izuku found himself jogging along the very same beach he'd spent ten months cleaning up, on his way to meet All Might.

He could see the emaciated form of his hero standing by the shore, hands in the pockets of his usual cargo pants, posture poor. Next to him, less than half his height, stood a hunched, elderly woman with her grey hair in a tight bun.

A little confused, Izuku slowed his pace, hailing the pair with a "hey!" As one, they pivoted on the sand, taking a few steps forward to meet him; All Might raised a hand in greeting, while the elderly woman squinted, scrutinizing Izuku.

"Is this the one, Toshinori?" she asked, as if he wasn't there.

"Yeah. This is him. Midoriya Izuku." All Might introduced him to the woman, and she nodded.

"Ahh, yes. This one. The Phoenix. Your Quirk is a strange one, child."

"H-huh? What d'you mean?" He'd been expecting a joyous reunion, not a stranger commenting on his Quirk.

"Well…it was initially described as activating on death, but you didn't seem to be very dead during the entrance exam," she went on. "Oh! Toshinori hasn't introduced me, has he? I'm Recovery Girl."

"Recovery Girl!?" Izuku gasped. "The Youthful Heroine!"

A chuckle. "I daresay I'm not so youthful anymore. But I digress." Izuku shook her outstretched hand, and she returned to the topic at hand: "However, Toshinori tells me that he's also chosen you as the successor of One For All. Am I correct in stating that this is what you used to destroy the zero-pointer?"

"Y-yeah, it was. It broke both my legs and my arm, too." Turning to All Might, Izuku frowned. "Why didn't you tell me this would happen…? I thought I was ready!"

The number one hero sighed, hanging his head. "I'm sorry, young Midoriya. Your body can handle One For All without splitting apart, yes – but it cannot withstand the force of one hundred percent without sustaining damage in the process. When you jumped the way you did, you used all of One For All, as when you swung your arm. And that's where things get interesting…"

"You see," Recovery Girl cut in, "the fact that your own Quirk triggered after your usage of One For All tells me that perhaps its trigger isn't death, but rather some sort of damage threshold. You broke three of your limbs within five seconds, and that seems to have been enough. My theory is that the activation mechanism for your Quirk is based off of how much damage you sustain over a period of time, and if that exceeds a certain rate, it will trigger. Incidentally, you don't have any scarring, do you?"

"Not on my arms or legs, no. Why?"

"That confirms it. The ash you left behind at the entrance exam contained your DNA. The other part of my theory is that your Quirk doesn't heal you, but rather spontaneously incinerates and regenerates damaged portions of your body."

Izuku blinked. "I don't feel anything different when it happens, though…"

"No, you don't. It's instantaneous. You don't even have time to feel it. So far, there don't seem to be any adverse effects, but all the same, I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"What interests me here are two things," All Might spoke up. "One, the power boost from the Phoenix Quirk seems to augment One For All to some extent, or at least synergize with it. There didn't seem to be much fire-related damage to the zero-pointer, but the shockwave from the hit scorched the top half of the arena. Lucky that you hit it in the air like that, or we'd have a lot of burned examinees to explain away."

"Good thing you didn't use it until then, either," Recovery Girl grumbled. "If you'd have done that to a one-pointer and blown up a city block like that for a single point…"

"Two," All Might went on, "it seems that while you can sustain damage from One For All, it's erased by your own Quirk if you go overboard. You have a safety net, which sounds great, but judging from what Recovery Girl has said, it doesn't heal your body – it replaces the damaged parts."

Izuku immediately saw where this was going. "So…if I rely on my Quirk to mitigate the effects of using One For All, I won't actually be able to adjust to its power. It's like building muscle – it's the healing process that strengthens you, right?"

"Excellent observation. Yes, that's exactly my point. You can use them to play off one another – perhaps it would even serve to train your Quirk if you kept doing it – but if you simply use One For All at 100% to the point where you end up forcing a regeneration without trying to hone both your body and mind to use it otherwise, you will never be able to properly control this power.

"And maybe you're thinking – I can just use One For All to trigger my Quirk over and over to keep up the power boost! But we don't know the limits of your Quirk, either. And before you go thinking that this only affects you, and maybe that cycle of self-destruction and regeneration could become a viable fighting style – remember, one day you will have to pass on One For All to someone else, and if you don't know how to control it properly, how will you ever teach them?"

A nod from Izuku, who stared at his clenched fist for a moment before looking up. "I'd…I'd like to test my limits sometime, if that's okay. But… I'd also like to be worthy of inheriting One For All! I don't want to just cheat and rely on a built-in reset button, even if I can train it to the point where I can sustain it. I…I worked hard to earn this power. I want to work hard to grow it."

For a moment, All Might fixed him with his sunken gaze, pupils glowing in the darkness, and Recovery Girl tapped a finger to her chin, thinking. Then, suddenly, All Might was smiling, and he'd pulled Izuku into a gruff hug, patting him roughly on the back. "I knew I made the right choice with you, young Midoriya."

"If I may," Recovery Girl interrupted, "you still have two powerful Quirks within you, and while I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in seeing the regenerative properties of the Phoenix Quirk myself…"

"That's also true," All Might admitted. "Yuuei's training program will serve to test the limits of your mind, your body, and your powers, and once you've figured those out, it'll whip you into shape like nothing else most people have ever been through. Perhaps after the American Dream Plan you won't think much of it, but it's still one of the most difficult – if not the most – programs in all of Japan, if not the world.

"Try not to worry too much about it just yet. For now, you're in, and that in itself is something to be proud of. You've come a long way from the scrawny crybaby of ten months ago!"

"T-thank you, All Might." Izuku bowed, respectfully, and when he straightened, he tilted his head to stare at the stars, a small smile growing on his face. "…I really made it…"

I've got a long way to go, All Might. But…I won't let you down! I will be a hero!