Chapter Five: To Smuggle In A Weapon...

When Izuku woke the next day, he was refreshed, and a little thrilled. That was good. It meant he didn't accidentally ingest his mother's food. The thrill came from remembering the little eye in the glass jar. The jar originally had the unborn fetus of a deer from America or something. Izuku had found the tiny, disproportioned body interesting, so he took it. Eventually, though, like most things, Izuku got bored with it, and the jar sat in his closet. Where the deer fetus was now, was unimportant. Pretend he gave it a nice funeral and buried it if you like.

Izuku hopped out of bed, completing his morning rituals, and thinking of how he was going to integrate the little eye into his plans for the future. Despite what Allmight had said, Izuku was going to get into the hero program, even if it killed him.

He plucked up the jar with a contemplative "hmm." He was going to have to do a lot of observing, he thought, an idea slowly forming in his mind. A lot of observing and... collecting. He donned his smile and set the jar on his desk with a small clack. He scooped up his backpack, and left the apartment without checking to see if Inko was still home, because frankly, he didn't care. He had something much more important on his mind, and it was exciting him to no end.

X...X

At school, there was an influx of people talking about the slime attack. But mostly, they were talking about Kacchan. He scowled (yes, really) as he noticed a trio of girls had crowded around Kacchan (who looked annoyed, honestly), asking questions way too enthusiastically in Izuku's opinion. And that wasn't even the worst part. No, these girls were disgustingly plain, not only in their looks, but in their Quirks.

"Ooo! You can make waterdroplets float around your fingers, whoop dee fucking do." Izuku ranted silently.

Those girls weren't worthy to be in the presence of such a great Quirk like Bakugo's. Revolting, really. He should put frogs in their lockers again.

Izuku continued down the hall, deciding to ignore them for now. He had a plan to finish hatching.

X...X

Izuku rested his chin on one of his hands, narrowed eyes observing the way sweat beaded on Kacchan's brow even when he wasn't exerting himself. His thin hand sketched out a word on his notebook.

"Nitroglycerin"

A flammable liquid that emits a strangely sweet smell.

Izuku closed his eyes. Nitroglycerin is also said to have a nice taste. Kacchan would taste delicious.

He shook his head quickly. He couldn't focus on that right now. He bent his head towards his paper, scribbling out the inner workings of his plan.

"Focus on other things."

Focus on Katsuki's sweat; on the possibility of extracting slime from the eyeball; on lighting something on fire without anyone noticing.

Focus on creating a hidden weapon for the U.A. entrance exams.

X...X

After school- after seeing Kacchan's popularity spike- Izuku was nervous for him. Sure, Kacchan thrived under some attention, but sooner or later it would get too much for the poor boy, Izuku was sure.

So, he decided it would be one of those days. One of the days where he would follow behind Kacchan at a distance, you know, to make sure he got home safe. The incident the day before just reinforced the justification of watching Katsuki's every move.

He walked slowly and deliberately, carefully placing his feet down as to not make crunching noises from the stray pebbles that ended up on the walkway. There were, thankfully, no incidents, and Izuku smiled contently when he heard the screamed greeting Kacchan gave to his mom.

Izuku turned and began his own walk home, barely two blocks away from the Bakugo household.

X...X

The day of the entrance exams was edging closer, and Izuku had made immense progress on his weapon. He had finally made it past the blueprint stage, and was quickly approaching the end of the actual building part.

For about a month he had been collecting metal pieces from the garbage dump and using money he took from Inko's account to buy a few necessary wires and a fruit juicer.

The juicer was, of course, for the eye that he pulled out of the formaldehyde jar. It turned out that the orb was almost completely filled with the slime the criminal was made of, and it turned out that the sludge was very flammable, but didn't exactly burn. It would be perfect for a big bonfire, he thought absently as he welded more pieces of metal together.

Long nights of testing and retesting finally payed off, and observing the final product, Izuku felt a swell of pride in himself that he hadn't felt in a long time.

He was getting into U.A. High.

X...X

Izuku felt a faint trill of anxiety in his chest as he approached the grand building that housed his hopes. The other students looking to get in were clumping together in groups. Maybe they had known each other before now.

Izuku located Kacchan out of the corner of his eye. He was scowling, like always. But the contemplative look in his ruby eyes was different. Squinting at the expression, Izuku failed to notice the crack in the concrete that seemed to come from nowhere.

The tip of his red sneaker hit the jagged blemish in the ground, and suddenly he was falling. Until he wasn't.

He had squeezed both his eyes shut in anticipation for the impact, and when it didn't come, he pried open one lid cautiously. He was hovering dangerously close to the pavement.

"Sorry!" A feminine voice spoke from behind him, and suddenly he smacked the rest of the way into the ground.

"Oops! Heh, I guess I should've waited for you to get situated, huh? Again, I'm really sorry for using my Quirk without asking you, but I figured you wouldn't want a scratched up face right before the exam."

Izuku sat up abruptly, causing the girl to flinch back from him before relaxing. He analyzed her closely for a second. Short, brown hair. Rosy cheeks. A wide, natural smile.

She was cute, Izuku concluded. And she also had a gravitational Quirk, he figured.

He adjusted his smile into a sheepish one. "Uh, yeah, thanks," he said, a bit awkwardly. He wasn't prepared to engage in conversation this particular day.

She reached out her hand, offering help up. Izuku accepted solemnly.

"Welp," she said after a moment of silence when Izuku was on his feet, "Good luck on the exams!" She said, running off without introducing herself. Izuku figured he might have creeped her out, just a little, with his lack of small talk.

"Yeah. You too." Izuku whispered, continuing on.

The assembly before the practical exam was alright. Izuku finally got to see Present Mic in real life, but the experience was dampened by an annoying guy out in the crowd who complained about the robots or something.

Izuku had wished he would shut up so they could move on.

Outside the exam area, however, held a completely different atmosphere.

Hundreds of teenagers, psyching themselves up for the coming competition. The faint smell of gasoline in the air. Almost undetectable tremors wracked the ground as the machines roamed the premises.

It was like a spark of chaos had lit the air on fire.

Izuku rubbed the arm where his weapon was cleverly hidden. The flames of chaos...

And suddenly, the gate that separated the controlled zone from the waiting area opened with a rumbling groan.

Hell broke loose.

The surge of potential students nearly carried Izuku off his feet as they all sprinted towards the entrance. Izuku, gaining his footing, ran after them.

Inside the fake city, Izuku was almost overwhelmed by the amount of brilliant Quirks that were displayed. The annoying tall guy from earlier zipped around at incredible speeds; some other Quirk completely obliterated a 1-pointer bot.

It was amazing.

Izuku snapped himself out of his awe, realizing he had no points of his own.

A sick smirk painted his freckled face as he stuck out his arm, feeling the steady thrum of heat that pulsed through the weapon. He took off, heading for one of the "villains" that held the most points.

His heart was practically beating out of his chest in excitment as he came across it. Now was the time to see if it actually really worked.

He activated the weapon. A stream of fire came from his arm, making its home of the robot. The slime Izuku had filled the weapon with stuck to the metal of the robot and seeped into the steel joints of the machine, and the fire went with it, burning the robot from the inside out.

But Izuku didn't stick around to watch. He had more points to collect.

X...X

There was two minutes until the test ended when the 0-pointer appeared.

People screamed, heading in the opposite direction of the thing, but Izuku froze when he heard a yelp.

The brunette girl from earlier had gotten trapped underneath falling wreckage.

Izuku felt a weird sort of glee, watching her struggle. Maybe it was from the image of her popping like a water balloon full of blood when the robot rolled over her. Yes, that could bring amusement.

Unfortunately for Izuku, the girl did not get ran over. No. Annoying glasses guy sprinted in and saved the day.

For a brief second, Izuku wondered if the guy had noticed the smile on Izuku's face. If he had, Izuku was going to have to work hard to gain his trust.

Izuku turned and disappeared behind a building.