Two days later, Early morning.
A messy beach could be seen covered to the brim with trash and other destroyed items, with Izuku seems to be able to try and pull a rope attached to a fridge with All Might in his buff form sitting on top.
After doing a small bit of advancements towards pulling the fridge, Izuku questioned All Might about why he was dragging trash along the beach, with All Might telling Izuku that he's not ready to inherit his quirk.
"B-but you said in "Successor" that i was worthy of your power...!" Izuku worriedly claims. "W-wha-" All Might stumbled "Y-Ynow, Last chapter?" 'What the hell is this kid talking about?' All Might almost fell down "You mean yesterday?" "Yeah."
"A-Anyway, Though your body is already built quite nicely, it's not enough, My Quirk One for All is a lot to handle and is the fullest physical ability of many people gathered into one, an unprepared body cannot fully inherit it, The limbs will come off and the body will explode." All Might casually stated "I... I see..." the possible outcome of Izuku gaining the quirk as an image of a shadowed version of Izuku having his arms and legs ripped off and exploded cue the Super Mario Bros. death music.
"You got it!" All Might cheerfully stated, "But there's another reason After some online research I discovered this beach has been like this for many years."
Izuku then explained that it was due to the waves washing things a shore and people taking that opportunity to carry out illegal dumping, using the trash brought by the waves as an excuse.
"Heroes these days are all about the showy stuff. Originally, being a hero meant doing volunteer service, Even if it was considered boring, You can't waver from those roots." All Might finished his explanation as he crushed the same fridge,
CRACK! WHAM!
with the force generated blowing away some of the debris behind him, revealing the magnificent beach. All Might proceeded to give Izuku a paper "This is your first test! Before the date of your exam, you will clear this beach!"
Midoriya looked up from the papers detailing All Might's training regime. He blinked. He looked to his left and his vision was filled by huge mounds of trash, easily hundreds of tons of it. He looked to his right, and saw the same thing. An enormous, mind-boggling amount of trash. He squinted at one section in particular. 'Is that a car?' He rubbed his eyes, hoping that it was a figment of his fatigued mind—it was only a bit past 5:00 in the morning, after all, perhaps he was just seeing things. He opened his eyes and looked again. 'Yep, that's a car, all right. Awesome.'
"Oh." Midoriya said. He pasted a sickly smile on his face, "is that all? And here I thought you said this was going to be difficult."
All Might let out a booming laugh. "That's what I like to hear! Let's get started! First, I'd suggest you take a moment to plan how to do this as efficiently as possible. A job of this magnitude can't be accomplished with a haphazard approach!"
And So! Izuku Midoriya's Training or should I say, Grinding has started. Breathing heavily, Midoriya hauled an armful of garbage to the truck that All Might had secured for him and let out a grunt as he dumped the load into the bed of the vehicle.
100 pts!
He started jogging back to the dump. 'One trip down, nine-thousand nine-hundred and ninety-nine to go.'
LEVEL UP!
Later, as he staggered home to shower before heading to school, Midoriya couldn't help but smile. He was dirty and exhausted, every muscle in his body was screaming at him in protest, but still, he smiled. He wasn't that scared, confused little boy any more. He could endure any pain, any hardship, because this was what he was meant to do. He was sure of it.
As Time went on, with sheer determination. Izuku kept training as he mostly beats up the Cars and heaps of garbage until they mysteriously disappear and turn into coins of which Izuku used to buy more merch whilst cleaning the Beach to it's former Glory.
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
And then Eventually, 10 Months Later...
It had been a close thing. Midoriya felt like kicking himself after his overzealous deviation from All Might's plan cost him several days due to overwork, but in the end, he had barely made it in time, finishing the beach clean-up with only hours to spare before the Yuuei entrance exam.
All Might had not yet arrived, and it had still been dark when he dumped that final armload of garbage into the bed of the truck. It was a simple action, one that he had repeated thousands of times. As he grew fitter and stronger during the course of his training, each load seemed a little easier than the last. However, nothing could prepare Midoriya for the rush, the sheer sense of accomplishment that flooded though him when he heard the trash clang against the metal bed of the truck.
LEVEL UP!
50,000 pts earned!
3 head portraits of a chibi Izuku appeared in front of him. "I... I got a life...! Finally, a life ahead of me!" Izuku grabbed his three extra lives and he felt as if his character portait on top of the screen has 100 of his heart points, 010 of his guts points and those 3 extra lives added to his remaining 3 extra lives which makes it six.
Filled with a sudden, wild energy, Midoriya broke into a run towards the beach. The frigid April air burned his lungs as he sprinted down the path he had run so many times before, something was bubbling up, growing inside of him, ready to burst. At the edge of the pavement and the beach, there was a large stack of Just plastic garbage that formed a makeshift tower—the only remaining proof that the dump existed as most of the breakable garbage got turned into coins. Moving with a dexterity that he couldn't believe, he scaled the tower of cars and made it to the top, just in time to see the sun peek over the horizon. Bit by bit, the sun cast its rays over the surface of the ocean, staining the water and the sky with brilliant red and orange hues, illuminating the spotless sands of the cleared beach and taking his breath away at the sight of it.
It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Overcome by the power of the scene, the proof of what he had done—what he had accomplished—his eyes welled up with tears and his heart swelled with triumph, so full that he thought he would burst if he did not let it out. He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs to their limit before screaming out at the ocean, as loudly and powerfully as he could. He didn't use words—he didn't have to—it was his challenge to the universe, a primal howl into the void, a defiant declaration that he had won; he had arrived, and nothing in this world or any others could stop him.
"Well done my boy!" All Might's voice thrummed with warmth and pride, as he lowered Midoriya to his feet. His face was split by a massive grin, an honest smile this time, completely unlike the smile-shaped mask he wore most of the time. Midoriya had learned to distinguish the difference between the two during their months together.
"All Might…" Midoriya whispered, his voice hoarse from all of the screaming he had just done. "I did it…I really did it, didn't I?"
"Yes," All Might agreed, "you have done an excellent job. I'd say that you have exceeded my expectations, but I never doubted you for a moment. You have become a fitting vessel in the past ten months." All Might coughed, "Anyways, it's time for your award ceremony!"
Midoriya nodded. There was nothing that he could possibly say that would accurately convey his feelings at the moment, so he decided to simply let All Might do his thing.
"Young Midoriya, someone once told me that there is a difference between those that are born with everything, and those who have earned what they have through their own effort." All Might plucked a hair from his head with all of the ceremony and flourish he could muster. "My boy, if you were to forget everything else I have ever—or will ever teach you—I want you to remember this: you have earned this power."
Midoriya stood as still as a statue, frozen in shock by the gravity of the sentiment All Might had just laid upon him, and the reality of what he had actually accomplished. He had finally been recognized, truly seen for who he really was by the man he admired most. He was going to be next symbol of peace, the shining pillar of justice that held the evil and darkness of the world at bay.
"All Might…" Midoriya began, "I don't even know what to—"
All Might extended his plucked hair to Midoriya, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Now, eat this."
Midoriya blinked. "…What?"
Quirk get!: One for AllAll Might's hair tasted like bug spray. Or hair spray. Midoriya wasn't sure, but it had some sort of horribly bitter chemical residue on it that burned and gagged him as the strand of hair traveled down his throat.
'It makes sense, I suppose,' He thought, idly rubbing his throat as he walked down the cherry blossom lined path to Yuuei's main building, 'there's got to be something holding his hair in that style.' Although, it did feel like he was pulling the Master Sword or something.
After the initial moment of awkwardness and confusion that resulted from his mentor telling him to eat a strand of his hair had passed, All Might had explained the way that One for All was transferred from person to person. Throughout the ten months of training, Midoriya had honestly remained rather skeptical of the idea of 'transferring a quirk', but he had gone along with the whole thing since he wasn't about to turn down free training from All Might. However, his explanation that it required the recipient to ingest the previous user's DNA made things clearer.
"Get the fuck out of my way, Deku." A rough voice growled from behind Midoriya, interrupting his musing.
"Ah, good morning Kacchan." Midoriya replied in a conversational tone, ignoring the casual threat of grievous bodily harm as he turned around to greet the speaker. He gave Bakugo an easygoing smile. "Good luck on the exam, yeah?"
"Tch." Bakugo scoffed, walking past Midoriya with an angry expression, "Sure, Whatever." Bakugo didn't stop, but he slowed down a bit before looking back over his shoulder. "…Don't get yourself killed out there. I don't give a fuck, but my mom would be sad if you died." He spat on the ground. "She still asks about you sometimes…stupid hag."
Midoriya quirked a half-smile in amusement. "I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best."
"Whatever." Bakugo grunted in reply before walking off with a scowl, ignoring the whispers of the other test takers who recognized him from the sludge incident
Ever since that day, Bakugo had stopped hassling Midoriya—mostly. He still spoke to him contemptuously, but Midoriya was hardly unique in that regard. Bakugo spoke to everyone contemptuously. He had, however, ceased the violence, threats and stopped going out of his way to put him down. Midoriya didn't believe that the change was due to any new sense of respect—and definitely didn't think it was due to gratitude—if anything, it was like Bakugo had decided that it was simply no longer worth the effort.
Midoriya shrugged—whatever the case—it was a welcome change to what had been a consistently unpleasant feature of his life. 'It's not like I have time to think about something like that right now, anyways.' He thought, stepping forward. 'I need to focus on the task ahead of me and devote one hundred percent of my concentration towards my new quirk. Everything else is inconsequential!'
Midoriya's gaze was steely, straightforward, and determined as he took a step forward, his stride full of confidence…until he tripped on his shoelace, which had come untied without his notice. He plummeted face first towards the ground. 'Or not...damn it.'
He closed his eyes, and just as he had resigned himself to eating the pavement, Midoriya's downward trajectory had come to a halt and he found himself gripped by the disorienting sensation of weightlessness. He opened his eyes—somehow, he was floating parallel to the ground.
"Eh?" He said. "What just happened?" A pair of small hands grabbed him and reoriented him to a standing position.
"Are you okay?" A feminine voice asked, "It's my quirk. Sorry about using it on you without permission, but I thought that tripping like that before an exam would be bad luck."
Midoriya turned his head in time to see a brown-haired girl with rosy cheeks smile at him. She pressed her fingertips together and he felt the weight suddenly return to his body.
'C-cute!' Midoriya swallowed hard at the sight of the bright and refreshing smile on her face.
"This sure is nerve wracking, isn't it?" The girl continued, "Well, good luck!" She turned to walk away.
"W-wait!" Midoriya called after the girl. He knew he wasn't the smoothest guy in the world, but he'd had the worst of his social anxiety beaten out of him long ago, and he wasn't about to let someone who had done him a favor walk away without so much as a thank you. She paused and turned back towards him. He bowed his head and met her gaze with a grateful smile. "Thanks for saving me. I don't relish the idea of getting all scuffed up before the test even begins! Good luck out there."
She smiled right back. "Don't worry about it. I just did what anyone would do."
'I wonder about that.' Midoriya thought, picturing Bakugo's laughter if he had seen Midoriya fall on his face. "Right." He agreed in principle if not in reality. He indicated towards the meeting area. "We should probably get going. Want to walk in together?"
The girl nodded. "Sure!"
The two headed inside, chatting casually until they got their seating numbers, and went their separate ways. It was only after Midoriya had taken his seat next to Bakugo of all people that he realized that he had never gotten the nice girl's name.
After about five minutes of waiting, the lights in the auditorium suddenly cut out. Midoriya sat silently and watched the pro hero, Present Mic, give his presentation covering the entrance exam "This is how the test will go! You will conduct a ten minute long city landscape maneuver! Within this city, there will be fake villains, each worth different amounts of points!" As he said this, the screen behind him started lighting up before revealing the three 'villains,' aka, three different types of training robots. "Use your quirks to disable them by any means necessary. Oh, cheating or injuring others is strictly prohibited, so if you do any of these things, YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED! And trust me, we'll know if you do."
With a strange sense of relief. Izuku was confident in his ability to deal with robots—due to hardware restrictions, any mobile platforms like the faux villains could only contain the most basic of AI system—slow to react to environmental changes, predictable, and easily fooled. Izuku was also glad that he's able to fight without worrying about having no control over One for All.
The pro-hero's explanation of the rules of the test was interrupted when a black-haired boy with a pair of rectangular half-rim spectacles and a serious-looking face spoke, "Excuse me, may I ask a question? On the hand-out, there are clearly four types of villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for a top-tier national academy of U.A.'s calibre! The reason why we are seated here today is because we seek guidance on the path to becoming model heroes!" The boy then turned his attention to Izuku,who was sitting beside Katsuki and pointed at him as he added, "Moreover, you, the one with green hair!"
Surprised and a little intimidated by the bespectacled boy's stern attitude and expression, Izuku involuntarily stuttered as he asked, "Y-yes?"
A second of tense silence passed before the serious-looking boy adjusted his spectacles and said, "could you turn down your muttering a bit, it's awfully distracting!" "O-oh... Sorry!"
Present Mic cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and said, "About the four types of enemies, Examinee 7111, the fourth kind of villain that you'll encounter is worth zero points. You could say that they are area traps to the avoided."
Once the bespectacled boy, who was currently known as Examinee 7111, understood why there were four types of enemies, he turned his attention back to Present Mic and bowed respectfully as he spoke, "Thank you very much! I apologise for being rude!"
Present Mic then told the examinees to get ready to go to their respective areas of the arena where they would be taking the test.