Izuku was visiting his uncle again, but the person answering the door wasn't his uncle. It was a blonde girl around his age with messy buns and an uncanny smile.
"Hi! My name's Toga!" she answered cheerfully, but the gene splicer knew that it was fake from the exaggerated movement.
"I'm Midoriya Izuku, it's a pleasure." he said with a smile of his own, noticing her mild shock. It either meant she was used to loud people, or people not liking her. "Is Jin home?"
"That Izuku? Come on in kid!" the scarred blond shouted from the living room. Toga let Izuku in and closed the door behind. The greenette noticed the stiff movement, but didn't comment. Walking into the main room, Izuku grinned at the lack of a nicotine patch on Jin's arm; he had kicked the addiction.
"Yo kid, seem's you met Himiko. She's staying with me from now on." he explained, and the taller teenager nodded in understanding; if she wanted to share, then she would. He wouldn't push. "Anyway, you up for a trip? she's got community service at Dagoba beach, and it's 'bout time to leave."
"Sure, you want a hand?" Izuku asked Toga, who looked at him like he had grown two heads. "What? They've dumped fridges and stoves over there. Unless you're stronger than you look, hauling those things around would be next to impossible."
"S-sure! Thanks, Izu-kun!" the blonde girl smiled more sincerely this time, but it wasn't fully natural. Izuku still blushed at the affectionate term. "Any help would be a huge help."
"I'm not letting him do all the work for you. You know that right?" Jin chimed in and Toga's shoulders slumped, making Izuku laugh. As the residents left to get their things, Izuku started writing notes in his "quirk analysis journal: 13". When the blondes came back, Jin in a black t-shirt and jeans and Toga with thick pants and a shirt that said 'knife to meet you' in hearts, Izuku finished his paragraph and closed the notebook. Toga looked over to read the title.
"'Quirk analysis'?" she questioned as they left for the door.
"Yeah." Izuku confirmed. "My quirk can change genetic structures, so I've managed to give myself multiple quirks. so what's yours?" he asked. The shorter teen turned anxious for a moment before covering it up.
"Aw, don't expect a girl to give away all her secrets! We just met!" she cheered.
"He ain't gonna care what it is, Himiko." Jin said over his shoulder. "Hell, he'd let you use it on him if you ask." there was a moment of silence before Toga responded.
"I can transform into people I drink blood from." her tone was much softer this time, and Izuku could see the embarrassment. He suspected that she was told it was a villains quirk like he was. He just had support.
"That's a very useful quirk." he started, before his nerd side started taking over. "You could be a hell of a hero with that. Think of how many deep-cover missions you could do without even showing your face! Blood donations could be used as a base, as there are procedures to cultivate blood in bags, and that means you'd have a large number of appearances to work with! What's the duration, does it have a limiting factor, can you transform from one to another without showing your real face underneath? Do you "store" the person's appearance indefinitely, or is there a timeframe from ingestion to transformation?" Toga was taken by surprise while Izuku pulled his notebook out and rattled off question after question. Looking at Jin, he only shrugged at her.
"Told ya. The kid doesn't care about if it's a villain's quirk or not, only about the quirk and the person using it." he said without even glancing at his nephew. "His little sister would have killed him if not for his own quirk, but he still asks for her help." this made Toga smile, truly smile, at the chance to not be labeled like she had for so long. She turned to Izuku.
"How long I can transform is based on how much I drink. Drinking a cup of blood lets me keep the transformation for roughly a day. Yes, I can switch between people, and the timeframe is about six months." she answered in order. Izuku scribbled away in his notebook as they kept walking. Soon they arrived at the beach, but the teenagers didn't stop talking. Izuku lit a pile of wood on fire while they moved the metal debris to the pre-designated dumpster. If Toga didn't want to answer a question, Izuku didn't pry and moved onto another one. Toga asked Izuku questions herself, such as dreams and drives and even the specifics of his own quirk, to which he responded animatedly. After a while, the sun went down and they had to head home, but not before switching numbers and Izuku letting Toga take some of his blood with the promise not to do anything embarrassing wearing his looks. When she bit down and drank, Izuku didn't make a complaint. Looking at the wound she made after finishing, she noticed something.
"It glows!" she squealed like it was an awesome trick.
"Why do you think I called it Bio-Glow?" Izuku said with a laugh, feeling the wound heal. "See you later, Toga-chan."
"Oh, is it 'chan' now? Are you trying to flirt with me?" the blood-drinker smiled, and laughed at Izuku's blush. "Bye, Izu-kun!"
As the Toga left with Jin and Izuku walked home, they had similar thoughts.
'It's nice talking with someone your own age.'
It had been months since Izuku and Toga first met, and the beach had been cleaned after the third month. It would have been done sooner if anyone else had given a hand, but there was only so much two people could do in a day.
After her probation (which Izuku learned was because of assault) was finished, the two spent a lot of time talking and exploring each other's quirks. There were even times when the teens went to the mall and restaurants.
But now was the time to focus, as Izuku stood in front of UA, ready to take the entrance exam. He stepped through the gates he'd been aiming for since he could remember. Finding his number and sitting in his seat for the written exam, Izuku spent time thinking about the people in his life who had supported him. His mother had never left, even when she had seen him mutilate himself with both his quirk and mundane tools to test his limits. Jin was that uncle who would always lend an ear and give advice, even getting over his own fear of using his quirk to make sure his dear nephew was as safe as he could be. Toga was the crazy neighbor that never let you sit and mope, dragging him out of his darker thoughts while showing him what it was like to be normal.
And then there was Eri. His adorable little sister he would change the world for just to see her smile, who wanted nothing more than family and love. He still saw her marveling at the green tint to her hair and the chains at her wrist, that in her eyes, made her family all the closer.
The proctor came in and set the papers face-down in front of every teenager there before giving the signal, and Izuku started reading everything in the twelve-page test. He first answered all of the science questions before moving onto math, then reading and history. Izuku noticed the last questions were about morality, and he figured it was an important subject for people wanting to save lives for a living. He decided to answer the questions as if he was really there instead of what they wanted to hear. A lot of the questions were one and the same, but there were a few that he could tell probably weren't what they were looking for; he was a human, not a machine with programmed responses.
Izuku finished his test before the timer, so submitted it and left the room to not disturb the other participants. As he found himself in the waiting room with an emblem showing the letter C, there was another person who had already finished their written exam. He was almost as tall as Izuku, though shorter by a few centimeters, and had square glasses with a neat, dark blue hair.
"Seem's I'm not the only one who finished early. Midoriya Izuku." the gene splicer greeted with a bow. The other teen stood up to bow as well.
"Iida Tenya, a pleasure." he greeted almost robotically. Izuku sat next to him and saw his calves' exhaust pipes, and had to ask.
"I'm sorry if I sound rude, but may I ask what your quirk is? Recording them is a hobby of mine, and I can't help but wonder what those pipes are made of." he questioned. Tenya looked at him suspiciously, making Izuku sigh before pulling his notebook out and showing it. Looking at it and the latest page, the high-strung teen nodded.
"I do apologize, but I was worried you were trying to get an edge." Tenya said before answering. "My quirk is 'engine', and it boosts my relative speed through accelerating muscle contraction in my calves and thighs as well as granting thrust. They are made of Keratin with a high iron content to make them heat resistant. If they are damaged, they will regrow like nails."
"So it acts like a one-chamber piston and exhaust jet? That would certainly grant quite a bit of torque and acceleration. What's the highest speed you've gone?" he asked, and Tenya was impressed at the accurate description to his quirk.
"80 Kilometers per hour, though I was constrained by the track field's turns." he said, and Izuku's eyes went up.
"I'm impressed. Without a quirk, the physical limit of human speed is only 64 Kilometers per hour. That means your legs are that much more capable of turning torque into acceleration. Does it have any special requirements to use it?" the quirk analyzer inquired. After a few more questions, Izuku put the notebook away.
"Sorry if I was intrusive. It's just that I don't think I'll be able to focus on many quirks today, so I'm making up for the fact with more in-depth notes instead." he apologized.
"Not at all!" Tanya assured. "It's a good trait for a hero to have. Though to return the favor, how about you tell me yours?" Izuku nodded.
"Alright. Mine's called 'forced evolution', and it does exactly that. My body produces a bioluminescent material," he said while reaching into a pouch at his side and pulling a medical vial out to show it. The teen in glasses looked at the glowing green liquid with a curious gaze. "This lets me change the genetic structure of organism's it's inside. I've modified myself with this over years to get a body more suited to being a hero, and even mimicked the abilities of quirks. Though without my little sister, I can't reverse any changes."
"Oh, you're a brother then?" The engine quirk user asked and Izuku put the Bio-Glow back in its pouch. Izuku smiled and pulled his phone out to show him Eri. She was trying to paint and had absently put her loaded brush to her cheek, leaving a trail of blue down to her chin. "That's adorable."
"Isn't she?" Izuku grinned. "She can rewind genetic history, so she helps with my modifications in case I… screw up." the taller teen looked a little green, and Tenya could guess why; messing with something as versatile as DNA could easily lead to nasty results fast.
"Does DNA modifying run in the family?" Tenya questioned. "It seems that you and your sister have the same aspect of doing so."
"Huh? Oh, Eri's adopted; her quirk has no relation to mine as far as we know." Izuku explained. Before they could get any further in the conversation, the test had ended. Everyone was told to go to the auditorium to learn about the practical test.
"Ah, guess we'll have to leave this until later." Izuku mourned. "Good luck, Iida-san."
"And to you, Midoriya-san." Tenya responded before they left.
Izuku was at the gate in block C of the mock city, waiting for the signal while everyone chatted. He saw Tenya was in the same block, and someone actually as tall as him, which was rare now he was taller than average by a large margin. He thought of all the emitter quirks he had, and decided that he was going to focus on Frostbite and Live Wire for the test.
"AAAAND START!" President Mic called, and Izuku ran through the open gate. The voice hero said a few other words, but he wasn't paying attention. The lanky teen jumped and climbed a tall structure while scouting where the mock villains are. Seeing some, he leaped off the building and crushed it under the force of his fall. He shocked a three-pointer and got a bright idea.
"These robots have a recognition software linked to an attack command. If I just switch the "ally" list with the "target" list, then…" he muttered while messing with the electronics. Soon the three-pointer recovered from the electric surge, and Izuku knew he did the rewiring right when it shot a one-pointer and destroyed it. He decided shocking and hacking them to get points would be a better way than just charging in alone.
"SIX MINUTES FOLKS!" he heard from the announcer, and Izuku charged to where the largest amount of noise was. Turning a corner to see a free for all, Izuku shocked a few before freezing the three-pointer closest to him before his allied one shot it, breaking the plate and letting Izuku rewire that one as well. The second attempt was much faster than the first, and soon, Izuku had two robots giving long-range support to his close-up fighting. Izuku was counting somewhere around forty to fifty points when the proctor called for the two-minute time.
Then the zero-pointer showed up.
"That's the gimmick!?" he shouted to no one. His two allied robots were unloading ammo at it, but it was only denting the armor of the skyscraper-sized robot. He remained in the area while everyone else was running, helping the tripped to their feel and shouting others out of their fear.
"Owww…" Izuku heard a voice and saw a girl with brown hair underneath rubble and in the path of the zero-pointer. Izuku couldn't tell if it could even notice her. He then decided on a plan, and acted.
It was stupid. It was reckless. It was what heroes were supposed to do.
The girl looked over and saw a tall, lanky boy running towards her and the massive robot behind her. She didn't know what his quirk was, nor was she sure they even met, but his eyes didn't show any fear as he charged her like nothing else mattered. Izuku stopped right in front of her and proceeded to lift the massive rock off of her like it was made of cardboard. Looking at the zero-pointer, he threw the artificial boulder at the massive enemy.
The impact staggered it, and Izuku took the opportunity to pick the injured girl up and get away. He jumped up a building off to the side, and realized everyone was grouping together, which would draw it to them. Izuku's hands glowed blue with lightning as he decided that it needed to be destroyed before it hurt someone. Taking a breath and anticipating the pain, the gene splicer lit his hands up and shot the robot with everything he had. His hands hurt, and he could smell burnt flesh, but even then he didn't stop until he saw a circuit blow near the zero-pointer's faceplate, signaling it's blind state.
"AND TIME!" everyone heard from President Mic. Izuku knew he didn't get the top score, but he was satisfied that he was in the higher numbers. Looking at the girl's ankle, he spoke up.
"The medics are down there; you want me to carry you?" the lanky teen asked, making her snap out of her stupor.
"Please?" she almost phrased it like a question. Izuku picked her up bridal-style before grinning.
"I almost forgot to Introduce myself; Midoriya Izuku." he said with a smile.
"Ochaco Uraraka." the girl greeted with cheer. Izuku nodded before climbing down smoothly to meet the nurse. Getting a good look, he recognized her.
"Recovery Girl! My friend needs a little help!" he called over. The elderly hero was surprised to hear her old handle from a young voice. Looking over, the healer saw a rather tall young man carrying a girl over a foot shorter than himself. The young man stopped in front of her before letting his carrier down gently.
"Thank you, dear. Would you like some gummy bears while I tend to her?" she asked politely, and the green-haired teen nodded as he sat down. Recovery Girl noticed the burns on his hands, but as he didn't act as if it hurt, she let it be for now. A quick kiss, and the young lady's ankle and scrapes were healed. She then looked at his hands. Noticing it, he shook his head.
"It'll heal before I get home without help. Just used Live Wire too much and hurt myself." he said without concern. Recovery Girl decided if he wasn't fussing over it, she shouldn't either.
"Why don't you go home dear. I'll make sure your friends alright." she told him, and the gene splicer nodded in understanding.
"I'll see you another time, Uraraka-san." he said to the brunette with a bow.
"Sure! Thanks for the save Midoriya-kun!" she cheered. Izuku smiled before walking to the front gate. Tenya stopped him to ask a question.
"Why did you destroy the Gimmick when you could have run?" he asked. The taller teen looked at him quizzically for a moment.
"Because everyone was crowding in panic; if I didn't stop it, then it'd just attack someone else. I didn't want anyone to get hurt." he answered with a straight face, hands still smelling like a bad roast. Tenya then knew that Izuku wasn't even considering the test when he destroyed the zero-pointer. He was just acting in the moment like it was a real scenario.
"Thank you then, for looking out for us." Tenya bowed, thinking something else.
'This is a hero.'
Holy hell, 3k words went into this! That's the entrance exam dealt with, and there are a couple changes I'm making because things happened differently. As for Toga, Jin was able to help her because the Midoriya's helped him. She still needs therapy, and she's on medication as well, but she hasn't killed anyone yet. But if you liked it so far, leave a comment! Till next time!
