ORIGIN STORY, PART IV: EXERTION
Two days after the Sludge Villain Incident, Deika Central Tower…
Darkness fell over Deika City, a city of around 109,000 located in the mountains of eastern Aichi Prefecture. Deika was an oft-forgotten industrial hub in Aichi, overlooked in favor of the larger metropolis of Toyota, but still had a sizable business presence, largely thanks to one company: the Detnerat Corporation, headquartered in Deika Central Tower.
A door burst open as a gaunt man with a distinctive triangular nose and a receding crop of orange hair strode into a darkened conference room, his coat billowing around his shoulders. As he walked, black marks blossomed like ink into a domino mask of sorts around his eyes. The jovial CEO of Detnerat, Rikiya Yotsubashi, was off duty. In his place stood Re-Destro, Grand Commander of the reborn Meta Liberation Army.
The other four people gathered around the table all made a salute with their thumb and forefinger, creating what looked like an "L" for "Liberation" when viewed from the side. The first was a woman with blue skin, lilac hair and black eyes, a notepad at her side. This was Chitose Kizuki, ace reporter and executive director of Shoowaysha Publishing - also known as Curious, Chief Intelligence Officer of the Meta Liberation Army.
On her right sat a man with lengthy dark hair, wearing a plain-looking business suit and a pair of yellow-tinted glasses. This individual was Koku Hanabata, an elected member of the Japanese National Diet's upper chamber, the House of Councilors; widely acknowledged as the leader of Japan's third-largest political party (after the Liberal Democratic and Constitutional Democratic Parties), the Hearts and Minds Party. He was also known as Trumpet, Tactical Outreach Director of the Meta Liberation Army.
On the opposite side of the table stood a tall, thin man with long dark hair that covered his eyes and ran down his back, wearing a simplistic outfit consisting of a black turtleneck and dark grey pants. This man was Tomoyasu Chikazoku, Chairman of the Board at technology company Feel Good Inc., but was also known as Skeptic, Vice-Commander of the Meta Liberation Army.
Finally, the last person at the table was a man clad in a heavy-duty winter parka, his hood down to show his face. He had messy, shoulder-length white hair and dark grey eyes, all increasing the already bishonen appearance of his fine-boned facial structure. This man was Geten, who had discarded his family's name over 20 years earlier with his commitment to Re-Destro's service as Iceman, War Chief of the Meta Liberation Army.
On the wall hung a portrait of a man with a receding head of orange hair drawn back into a long ponytail and a thin, scraggly goatee, wearing a high-collared green coat with a blood-red shirt underneath. His face was adorned with black markings that formed a domino mask around his eyes, just like those on Re-Destro's face. This man was the late Chikara Yotsubashi, a second-generation Quirk user best known to the world as Destro, the original leader of the Meta Liberation Army. He was also the father of Rikiya Yotsubashi.
"I call this meeting to order at 6:32 PM" Re-Destro stated. "Skeptic, roll the footage of the Sludge Villain Incident from Musutafu a few days ago."
The skinny man typed something on his computer, and a screen on another wall lit up, showing news footage of the Sludge Villain Incident. "This fascinating little story hit the news a few days ago, and now the press and the government dogs are lauding these two children as examples of heroism" Re-Destro stated, snarling the last part out. "However, I called this meeting because I heard a frightening rumor about the green-haired child who lost an arm. Skeptic...get me any information you can on Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo."
Once again, Skeptic obliged, and a file came up on the blonde teen. "Explosion? Now there's a powerful Meta Ability" Trumpet noted. "He seems like a solid recruit at some point down the line."
"I agree. It's something of a shame that Aldera was shut down before we could sink our fingers into him; if Geten didn't want to train him, I absolutely would have loved to" Curious added, thinking of the similarities between their Meta Abilities. "What of the other one?"
This time, Midoriya's file came up. "Izuku Midoriya, 14, Korusca Technical Middle School…" Skeptic read off, before a scowl crossed his face. "He's Quirkless…"
The black markings on Re-Destro's face flared further. "Preposterous! An un-evolved subhuman like that would be so readily promoted in this society?" he growled. The other four eyed him warily; Trumpet and Skeptic's Meta Abilities weren't the most combat-applicable, and if he truly went into a rage, neither Curious nor even Iceman had the firepower needed to bring Re-Destro to a halt long enough to calm himself.
The balding man's eyes narrowed on one part of the footage playing on the wall, and he quickly grabbed a remote to pause it, then zoom in. "I've seen robotic legs like those before...the winner of the national competition a few years back, eh?" he muttered to himself.
"Curious, Trumpet, find any way you can to downplay the story as much as possible. Trumpet, get extra surveillance on Midoriya and his associates...particularly a girl by the name of Mei Hatsume" he said, issuing his orders to his top commanders. Finally, he turned to the cryogenic bishonen at the table. "And Iceman?" he said, before a feral grin split his face.
"Be ready to crush that boy on my command."
*R-R-R*
Two months later, Dagobah Beach Municipal Park…
Momo Yaoyorozu raced down the narrow streets of Dagobah District, rapidly approaching her destination. The streets slowly widened as she got closer to the coast, granting her a view of said destination - a giant garbage dump on the beach once known as Dagobah Beach Municipal Park. While it had once been beautiful in the past, a villain attack that destroyed an adjacent resort had littered the beach with debris, while ocean currents began to wash trash ashore. Shortly afterwards, people began dumping their garbage illegally there...well, until Mei Hatsume found out about it and had immediately engaged their friend group in eliminating the trash to both obtain raw materials and train for UA's Entrance Exams.
Running down a flight of concrete stairs from the cliffside above to the beach below, Yaoyorozu followed the muffled sounds of explosions and machinery around several towering stacks of garbage to one of the few open sections of the beach. Sure enough, her friends were all there - Bakugo was slinging explosions to disassemble a stack of old stoves, cars and refrigerators, Hatsume was inspecting some kind of reprocessed metal ingot from her forge, and Midoriya was practicing his demolition work with his latest prosthetic.
"Good morning, my friends!" Yaoyorozu shouted, catching everyone's attention.
"Morning" Bakugo grumbled, sad that he'd been taken from his work when he was getting so into it.
"Good morning!" Midoriya greeted respectfully.
"Hiya Momo!" Hatsume said, her protective goggles sliding up to reveal her mutant eyes. "What's got you in such a hurry today?"
Yaoyorozu reached into a bag by her side and withdrew an envelope. Midoriya's eyes widened. "Is that...an official UA seal?!"
The ponytailed girl beamed. "It is! Father called a few of his connections in the Heroics Commission and UA's faculty and staff, and managed to secure an invitation for me to take the recommendation exam in October!"
The other three all sweatdropped at her casual mention of her father's connections in high places. "What a rich kid…"
"Good job, Momo!" Midoriya congratulated her.
"Not half bad, Ponytail" Bakugo added with a grin.
"Great! Now then...I have another test I'd like to run of two of my finest babies!" Hatsume said, turning to pull a white sheet off of something very large.
As the cloth fell away, a robotic suit about four meters tall gleamed in the sunlight, its coat of yellow paint adding to its character. Two little antennae on the head seemed to pay homage to All Might, while the wheels on either side of its legs and on its arms implied some kind of vehicle capability. Looking at it, Yaoyorozu felt herself remembering staring up at the G2 robot at the amusement park several years earlier.
"Let me introduce you to Hatsume Baby No. 1841 - the Power Dizer suit!" Hatsume presented gleefully. "Today, this baby will test its mettle against Hatsume Baby No. 1820, with the help of Hatsume Baby No. 988!"
"Wait" Midoriya began. "Hatsume Baby No. 1841 is the Breaker One...and Hatsume Baby No. 988 is the Leg Modules…" The greenette's eyes widened. "I have to fight that for your test?!"
"Relax, Zuzu!" Hatsume responded, leaping onto a ladder on the machine's backside, brandishing a very large powercell in her hand. "I'll be gentle with you!" Seemingly to prove her point, the pinkette winked at her friend as she inserted the powercell and leapt into the machine's cockpit, though this just elicited a blush from the green-haired teen.
Midoriya stretched and cracked the knuckles of his left hand, the visor from his headband sliding down to cover his left eye. Hatsume, meanwhile, flicked several switches, multiple displays lighting up around her as the mech suit initialized. "POWER DIZER" a robotic voice announced, signifying the machine's activation.
"Kick some ass!" Bakugo shouted as the de facto referee, a small explosion emphasizing his point.
Midoriya immediately shot forward, the motors in his legs helping him move far quicker than the average heroics student. Ducking under a powerful strike from Hatsume's machine, the teen quickly grabbed the arm with his Hero Breaker and flipped upwards onto the appendage, then leapt upwards with the intent of dropping onto the machine. His right leg opened up to reveal two rocket boosters, which the teen then activated.
"Rocket Stomp."
Midoriya shot downwards in a blink of an eye, but Hatsume's robo displayed surprising speed as it evaded the blow, ports on its side opening up to shoot little balls at him. "Those are-?" Midoriya began to wonder, only to be cut off as they exploded to reveal nets. "Capture nets! Dammit!"
Midoriya managed to evade most of the traps, but one of the nets caught him and pinned him against an old refrigerator. The Power Dizer's chest plate opened up, revealing a cannon. "INCINERATE."
Thinking quickly, the teen heaved the refrigerator upwards with the help of his cybernetic implants, whirling around just in time for the archaic appliance to bear the brunt of a powerful flamethrower. Even shielded by the mass of metal, the heat still scorched the cybernetic teen, but in the process the net melted out from around him.
Dropping to the ground, Midoriya delivered a double-footed kick to the half-melted fridge, launching it towards Hatsume. The large machine swatted it aside, but the greenette successfully used the diversion to find cover behind another junk pile. Hatsume's machine looked from side to side, before a hatch on its face popped open to reveal a large red lens. After a few moments of scanning, it looked directly at one of the piles. "INCINERATE."
The greenette dove out from behind the pile just before another blast melted it down. "Thermal vision? That's got to be cheating, Mei-Mei!" he protested, grabbing a large tank off the ground and throwing it at his foe. The Power Dizer shot another blast of flame, but the old propane tank exploded into a tremendous fireball, briefly confounding its thermal vision.
The flames died down just as Midoriya dropped down in front of it, the green lines on the Breaker One glowing golden. "Titanium...SMASH!" the greenette roared, driving his fist directly into the incineration cannon in the middle of its charging cycle. The attack sputtered and died, and a few moments later the Power Dizer went dark, a visibly sweating Hatsume climbing out wiping her brow.
"Not bad, Zuzu" she panted, steam rolling off of her. "Turns out that it gets pretty hot in there when it's in combat mode...I should probably add a better cooling system."
Midoriya walked her over to a beach umbrella they'd set up and grabbed a bottle of water for her out of a cooler. "That incineration cannon is a super cool concept though!" he said, drinking a water bottle of his own. "I think it'd be a neat feature for the Hero Breaker system, and using your mini electric dynamo in one for electrical abilities would be really cool too!"
"I'll take that as a challenge" Hatsume giggled, drinking most of her water and dumping the rest on her head to cool herself down. Nearby, Yaoyorozu began her own training by attacking a training dummy with a metal staff she'd Created, and Bakugo returned to his demolition work.
*R-R-R*
Four months later, UA High School Recommendation Exams…
"Greetings, prospective young heroes!" called a voice within an enormous auditorium. Only the front 200 seats of the auditorium were actually occupied, as that was the maximum number of recommendations that UA invited to the exam every year.
The voice in question came from a small white mammal wearing a stylish waistcoat and trousers. A large scar crossed his right eye, which itself scanned the crowd of students. "Am I a dog, a rat or a bear? Who knows, but one thing is for sure - I'm the principal!" Principal Nezu, the enigmatic head of UA High introduced himself to the crowd.
Throughout the crowd, prospective students felt the principal's beady eyes scan their soul. Some grimaced, like an ashen-haired boy with no lips on his face and a green-haired girl with sharp teeth. Others stiffened, like Yaoyorozu and a blue-haired boy wearing glasses. One applicant looked notably more fired up than before, an enormous boy with a buzz cut hairstyle. And some, like a boy with bicolored red and white hair, didn't react at all.
"All two hundred of you are here today because of your drive to pursue public service in hopes of upholding peace and justice, and because your abilities or drive have earned the notice of those already defending the public" Nezu addressed the students, before a large screen lit up behind him.
"Allow me to now introduce the exam's format. As with any UA entrance examination, the first part of your trial shall be a comprehensive written exam covering mathematics, Japanese, English, the sciences, economics, the Heroics Acts and the Quirk Code" the principal explained. "This exam will cut your numbers at least in half - a maximum of one hundred students will be allowed to pass and take the practical exam."
"Speaking of the practical exam, this year you shall run a five-kilometer obstacle race starting in Training Ground A. You will be judged on your overall time and the creativity with which you use your Quirk by a panel of mostly impartial judges from the UA Board of Trustees" Nezu finished. "Now then, you should know by now to Go Beyond…Plus Ultra!"
Silence filled the auditorium, and the principal resisted the urge to sigh. "Human children these days are very up-tight…" he thought to himself. "Anyway, your exam begins...now!"
The doors burst open and several clones of the Cloning Hero, Ectoplasm, made their way into the room to distribute tests and pencils, then take up positions around the room to proctor the exam.
"Here I go...wish me luck, everyone!" Yaoyorozu thought to herself, diving into the first question.
*R-R-R*
It turned out that there had not, in fact, been a full hundred passing examinees. Only forty-six of the original two hundred remained, enough for all the contestants to be placed in a single free-for-all race instead of two groups of fifty.
"HEEEEEEYYYY, LITTLE LISTENERS!" shouted the Voice Hero, Present Mic. "IT'S THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE PRESENT M-I-C, HERE TO PROCTOR YOUR EXAM!"
Most of the students relaxed slightly at the sight of a hero who was widely known to be pretty easy-going despite how effective a hero he was - the man had placed at number fifty-three in the previous year's hero rankings. The only ones who didn't relax were the bichromatic teen, who remained ice-cold to all his surroundings, and the blue-haired boy, who stiffened slightly.
"I THINK YOU ALL KNOW THE DRILL - LINE UP HERE AND WAIT FOR THE RACE TO START!" Mic added, watching the students subconsciously move to be ready for action. "AND REMEMBER - YOU'RE NOT JUST BEING JUDGED ON YOUR TIME, YOU'RE ALSO BEING JUDGED ON YOUR CREATIVITY! GO BEYOND...PLUS ULTRA!"
Suddenly, the gate ahead of them shot open with alarming speed. "AND THERE'S YOUR SIGNAL! GO! THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REALITY, AFTER ALL!" Mic shouted.
A sudden chill filled the air before the bichromatic teen exploded ahad on a wave of ice, racing directly into the city while narrowing the path behind him. Immediately afterwards, a burst of wind filled the air as the muscular teen with the buzz cut took off like a rocket, propelled by what looked like a small tornado. The two of them quickly vanished into the cityscape ahead, leaving everyone else behind.
"What incredible power…" Yaoyorozu thought as she took off running. "I need to be more creative to try to catch up with that...but how?" Looking downwards, the answer struck her like a bolt of lightning. "Of course!"
The bottoms of her tennis shoes bulged, then shredded entirely as the ponytailed girl used her Quirk to create a pair of rollerskates on her feet. The results spoke for themselves as Yaoyorozu quickly moved to the front of the pack, then outstripped them. "I'm in third place, but I've got to do better...got to go Plus Ultra!"
Seemingly as if they knew what she was thinking and shared the same sentiment, other competitors began to give it their all in the same way. The sound of a deep breath being taken caused Yaoyorozu to look to her right, where she saw the lipless teen swimming through the ice floe left behind by the bichromatic teen as if it was actually water. Noticing her stare, the other competitor waved in a friendly manner before returning to his swimming routine. "His control is very impressive, and so is his creative use of what most would find to be a hazard to avoid. I'll be surprised if he doesn't make the cut."
Rounding a corner, the end of the cityscape came into view as a gate in the side of an impressive concrete wall. A pair of arms stretched past her, and to Yaoyorozu's surprise, a boy with an odd smile and what seemed to be an elastic body shot by like a rocket. "A unique use of an otherwise odd mutation…"
To her surprise, however, the path came to a sudden stop - literally. A large artificial lake stretched out beneath them for the next hundred meters, with two offset rows of pillars jutting up from it for competitors to cross on. Sitting in the path, however, were two large windmill-like contraptions clearly meant to serve as hazards for stopping the would-be heroes.
Sure enough, the elastic boy flew face-first into one of the windmills and fell into the water far below. "OOPS, IT LOOKS LIKE OUR FIRST CONTESTANT IS OUT!" Mic cried in overly dramatic anguish as an Ectoplasm clone collected the dripping-wet rubber boy.
Thinking quickly, Yaoyorozu Created a pogo stick from her bare midriff and used the momentum she'd already accumulated to bridge the first gap, pulling her legs up to place her feet on the pogo stick in one fell swoop. While the other competitors crossed with far greater difficulty, the ponytailed girl successfully used her pogo stick to leap across the gaps. In front of her, she noticed the two-colored teen freeze the windmills in place, before the windy teen pursuing him blew the ice off with his whirlwind.
As the sheets of ice fell, Yaoyorozu found herself dodging more hazards than she'd anticipated. A large chunk of ice struck her in mid-jump, causing her to lose her stride and sending her directly towards one of the gaps with no hope of correction. Thinking fast as she began to fall, the ravenette Created a grappling gun and shot the hook from it into the rising arm of the windmill, using the momentum from it to swing herself around half a dozen pillars and the second windmill, landing barely behind the first and second-place competitors.
The water hazard ended shortly thereafter, with the path now leading directly towards what looked like a forest of smaller pillars spaced fairly densely, creating a multitude of tiny passages to run through with the ever-present risk of confusing your eyes and running headlong into one of the hazards. The ice user and his windy adversary used their Quirks to go over this obstacle, flying through the air or skating across a newly formed icy ceiling. Other students had no such luck, Yaoyorozu included, having to go through the maze instead.
As she skated forwards, dodging left and right to avoid pillars, the ravenette was surprised when what looked like a pair of feet went whirling through the air in front of her as if they'd been thrown. A few seconds later, a storm of flesh-colored chunks flew by her, zipping through the obstacles with impunity. Two of these were clearly hands; one dragging a pair of yoga pants behind it, while the other carried a gym jacket. "Now there'san odd Quirk. Zuzu would have a field day here…"
Off to one side, a few pillars fell to the ground, and Yaoyorozu realized this was because the ground under them had turned to mud as the ashen-haired boy with no lips swam under or through them. The pillars in front became sparser, and soon enough the ponytailed girl found herself following a long causeway across the lake, directly towards a waterfall that flowed directly over the path.
The sound of rapid footsteps and engines came from behind her, then receded into the distance as the blue-haired teen ran past her at incredible speed; what looked to be small exhaust pipes stuck out from his calves. Yaoyorozu's eyes narrowed, before she started to pick up the pace.
With the rest of the pack closing in behind her, and the roaring of the waterfall signifying incredible force behind the falling liquid, she'd need to breach the roaring curtain to continue the race - the engine boy had gotten through with sheer speed, while the floating chunks seemed unharmed, the lipless one sank into the concrete, and the two frontrunners breached the waterfall with sheer power. "That's it!"
Calling on her Quirk again, Yaoyorozu Created a vial of a clear, thick, somewhat oily liquid in her right hand and threw it towards the waterfall. "Kacchan, this one is for you!" she thought, just as the vial shattered and the nitroglycerin within exploded,creating a powerful shockwave that counteracted the waterfall's own kinetic energy long enough for the ponytailed girl to slip through.
On the other side, a massive cave opened up in front of Yaoyorozu; several levels carved into the walls of the cavern above where she stood made the cave look somewhat like an old mine. The wheels broke off of her rollerskates as she attempted to skate across the rocky floor, tripping her up for a moment. Luckily, she regained her balance and ran forward without the aid of any wheels, hoping to catch up with those in front of her.
A rumble on the walls alerted her to several falling boulders tumbling from the higher levels. Thinking quickly, the ravenette Created a bazooka and took aim at the largest boulder, shooting it with an explosive round that shattered it and gave her room to dodge the smaller rocks. To her surprise, the boulder melted into what looked like plastic.
"Foam boulders? Why?" Yaoyorozu wondered, only to be answered when a student behind her got tagged by one and was escorted away by an Ectoplasm clone. "Another trap for us to fall into, I see."
Dashing forwards and avoiding more falling boulders, the cave opened up to reveal a long, narrow canyon infested by more clones. Thinking quickly, Yaoyorozu tossed several nesting dolls at them, which opened up to reveal flash-bang grenades, melting the clones into slime. Rounding a corner, she found herself face-to-face with a huge rock wall - the last obstacle to surmount before the race ended.
The wall appeared to be a sticking point for most of the other competitors, slowing them down drastically. The engine boy was attempting to hopscotch up the rocks on either side, which were not sheer cliffs, but disjointed inclines with large gaps; the lipless teen was nowhere in sight. The two frontrunners were long-gone, as evidenced by a few chunks of quickly-melting ice on the ground; next to them, the floating chunks were launching themselves up the cliff one at a time, making exasperated noises.
Yaoyorozu reached down to her belt as she continued to run forwards, grabbing her grappling gun and firing it into a tree growing at the top of the cliff. "I hope this is enough!" she thought, reeling herself in and reaching the top in moments.
A straightaway greeted her with a finish line at the end; Yaoyorozu watched as the wind user overtook the bichromatic teen just in time to cross the line first. In the middle of the track, a patch of quicksand grew, with the ashen-haired teen surfacing from it like a fish and hopping out onto the track, opting to run the rest of the way.
Yaoyorozu picked up speed as she sprinted down the track, ignoring the hunger pangs starting to show up from her Quirk use. However, at the last moment, the engine-legged boy shot past her, skidding across the finish line and almost running into a wall. The ravenette crossed the line a few moments later.
As she dropped to the ground, tired out by the race and her Quirk's drawbacks, the ashen-haired boy knelt down beside her. "You did awesome out there, you know that?" he said cheerfully.
"T-Thank you…" Yaoyorozu trailed off weakly in response.
The other frowned. "Are you alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"I-It's just my Quirk. I just need something to eat…" she responded.
"One moment" he responded, running into a nearby building. A few seconds later, he re-emerged with a bag of chips and a candy bar. "Here you go," he said, offering the chips to her.
"W-Why?" the ravenette responded.
The lipless teen smiled - not that it was easy to tell. "Because that's what heroes do, isn't it?" he asked.
The ponytailed girl pondered this for a moment, before nodding. "I-I guess so" she responded, digging into the bag of chips as a tornado of floating chunks rocketed by, then swirled around the yoga pants and gym jacket, reassembling themselves into a green-haired girl with sharp teeth.
"Nice to meet you, by the way. My name is Juzo Honenuki; what's yours?" the lipless teen asked.
Yaoyorozu stopped eating long enough to nod at Honenuki. "Momo Yaoyorozu, nice to meet you."
"Yaoyorozu, eh? Well, I hope we both make it in!" Honenuki stated cheerfully, turning to walk away as several other contestants staggered in.
"AND THAT'S ALL, FOLKS! OUT OF THE FORTY-SIX ORIGINAL RACERS, ONLY THIRTEEN OF YOU MADE IT THROUGH!" Present Mic shouted. "FEEL PROUD; YOU ALL DID GREAT TODAY!:
*R-R-R*
One week later, The Lair, Yaoyorozu Estate…
Momo Yaoyorozu burst through the door of Hatsume and Midoriya's workshop, slightly soaked by the rain outside. The duo in question watched something with multiple moving parts that was probably deadly gradually slow down as the power to it was cut, while Bakugo exploded in a nearby chair.
"Jesus Christ, Ponytail, fuckin' knock next time!" the explosive blonde shouted in surprise, sizzling handprints still smoking on the ugly green armchair's arms.
"M-My apologies" the heiress responded. "I'm just in a hurry to open this!" Holding her arms in front of her, Yaoyorozu displayed an envelope for the others to look at.
"This is...a UA crest?" Midoriya asked.
"Either this is my acceptance letter, or my rejection letter. I wanted you all to find out with me" Yaoyorozu responded, opening the envelope and watching as a metal disc fell onto the tabletop, a glow emanating from it as a blue light projected a video in front of them.
"Momo Yaoyorozu, Heroics Recommendation Candidate 122" spoke a tired-looking man wearing a black jumpsuit with an unusual scarf wrapped around his neck. "Due to your quick use of and talent with your Quirk, you placed fourth in the practical after passing the written exam in first place."
The other three were ready to cheer for Yaoyorozu's admission, but the man on the screen wasn't done. "Originally, this placement would have meant you would be enrolled in Class 1-B, taught by Vlad King; however, the first place candidate declined his offer of admission after the exam, so your revised third-place finish means I shall be teaching you in Class 1-A. Report to the appropriate classroom by 8:00 on the morning of April 8th."
The projection shut off, and this time the other three really did cheer. "Good job, Momo!" Hatsume cheered, hugging her friend tightly.
"Glad you made it in, Ponytail; I wouldn't be able to crush you on my way to the top if you didn't" Bakugo said, but his prickliness wasn't nearly as genuine as his congratulatory words.
"You did it, Momo!" Midoriya said. "Now it's up to just the three of us to get into UA. Just sit tight - we'll be there right beside you!"
"DAMN RIGHT!" Bakugo and Hatsume both shouted, pumping their fists in the air.
"T-Thank you" Yaoyorozu sniffled, overwhelmed by her joy and the congratulations from her best friends.
*R-R-R*
The next day, Bakugo was dragged to a social event by his fashionista parents, Yaoyorozu was taken to tour one of the Yaoyorozu Group's factories in Kyoto, and Hatsume insisted on working on something special all alone; as a result, Midoriya found himself walking down to the beach to clear some trash and maybe complete some projects of his own. However, as he stepped onto the patch of sand they'd first cleared at the steps, he thought he heard voices nearby.
Sliding down the lens from his headband over his left eye, the greenette scanned the area and spotted two heat signatures a little ways down the beach. Indulging his curiosity, the cyborg teen crept further down the beach to see a slightly older blonde teenager carrying a refrigerator on his shoulder, supervised by…
"All Might?!"
Both of the blonde men on the beach whirled around and stared directly at the greenette peeking out from behind a pile of ruined appliances, who, upon realizing he'd blurted that out, simply waved sheepishly.
The blue eyes of the Symbol of Peace widened significantly. "Young Midoriya?" he asked, before realizing that the boy was waving at him with his right hand. The same right hand that All Might had watched get blown off in the Sludge Villain Incident. "H-How the?" he wondered, before realizing that the arm in question was metal. "Oh…"
"Yagi-sensei, who is this?" the blonde boy next to All Might asked.
The Symbol of Peace blinked a couple times. "Oh, right! Young Togata, I would like to introduce you to one of the most heroic young men I've ever had the honor of saving, Izuku Midoriya. Young Midoriya, this is Mirio Togata, a UA High second-year...and my personal student."
In the time it took the two men to blink, Midoriya had appeared right in front of them. "Personal student? Oh my god, that's so cool! How did it happen? What's it like learning one-on-one from All Might? What's your Quirk?"
"Woah, slow down, man! I can't answer so many questions so quickly!" Togata laughed. "All Might says he approached me because Sir thought he'd like me, and it's really cool learning from him!"
Holding an arm out in front of him, Togata passed the appendage through the refrigerator in front of him. "My Quirk is called 'Permeation', and it lets me pass through anything I touch. It's taken me years to learn how to use it, and I'm still having trouble with it even right now. Still...I won't give up until I can save a million people!"
Midoriya's eyes seemed to sparkle. "What an awesome Quirk! You can surprise attack villains to quickly neutralize them, pass through debris to locate civilians, or travel through the ground really fast!" he rattled off.
Togata's eyes sparkled right back. "Oh my goodness, I'd never even thought about the rescue potential of my Quirk! If I work at using my Quirk that way, I don't just have to beat villains to save a million people; I can pull them out myself and beat the villains!"
Togata then looked at his right arm, which bore four distinct scars. "My Quirk also, uhh, mutated recently, so now I also have a strength ability that happens because of how my Permeation interacts with the molecules my body passes through. It broke my arm the first time I used it though, and even now I still hurt my muscles whenever I use it…"
The lens slid down over Midoriya's eye again. "Ouch, that's some nasty scarring for your own Quirk to cause. Can you regulate that power in any way?"
Togata grimaced. "According to All Might, it seems that I can only handle around 10 percent of this strength mutation's kickback at my current level of strength. I've had some success meditating to hold 10 percent in my arm, but it's hard to maintain that concentration, especially in battle" the blonde summarized.
"Have you tried spreading that energy out through your body instead of just confining it in one limb?" Midoriya asked. "And how do you dial in that level of power through meditating?"
"I...shoot, I haven't tried spreading it out!" Togata realized, before his expression turned kind of embarrassed. "As for regulating it...I think of it as being like an egg in a microwave that I don't want to explode."
Midoriya snorted, only to realize what he'd done and redden. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to laugh, it's just...an unwieldy analogy. Maybe try thinking of it like a glass of water that you're trying to keep at a certain level and prevent from overflowing?" he wondered aloud.
Togata closed his eyes and seemed to tense for a second. Red lines spread across his body as he clenched his jaw, but then calmed down as they slowly transformed into a thin golden aura clinging directly to his body. "Midoriya...you're a genius!" he exclaimed. "This is exactly what I was looking for!"
As Midoriya glowed from the praise (and basked in the light Togata emitted), All Might stood in stunned surprise. "This kid...he hadn't met Young Togata more than five minutes ago, and he's already figured out a better way for him to use One For All than I ever could have hoped to! With any luck, I won't have to write Gran Torino like I'd feared...I owe Young Midoriya my eternal gratitude."
"So what about you? What's your Quirk, and what are you doing at this beach?" Togata asked Midoriya.
The greenette looked embarrassed and shy for a moment. "My friends and I have been cleaning up this beach; my friend Mei likes to make inventions out of the scrap here, and I train with my other friends Katsuki and Momo by cleaning up the beach. Only a few months to the UA Entrance Exams after all" he said, before lowering his voice. "And...I'm Quirkless…"
Togata blinked a few times, his blue eyes widening. "You're Quirkless and training to be a hero? That's so cool!" he exclaimed, stunning Midoriya. "Is that why you have that robot arm?"
"Oh, no...the arm happened because of an accident. So did my legs" Midoriya admitted. "It was thanks to them that I could dream of being a hero again; Mei made these for me, and I think they've let me catch up with Katsuki and Momo in our hero training."
Togata smiled. "You've got a heart full of heroism, Midoriya!" he said. "Maybe I'll work alongside you someday; you have what it takes...POWERRRRR!" The blonde teen crossed his arms in front of him, making a somewhat silly pose as he said his catchphrase.
"POWERRRR!" Midoriya responded, returning the gesture and causing a grin to break out on Togata's face - and All Might's as well.
"That's the spirit!" the blonde teen cheered.
All Might stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Young Midoriya, I can't thank you enough for helping Young Togata learn to control his Quirk's new mutation" he said. "You're down here often for training, right? I would like you and your friends to continue training here; it will prepare you well for the exam and help you give back to the community as a true hero should."
Lowering his voice slightly, All Might leaned towards the greenette. "That being said, I can't have you calling me All Might if we meet again while your friends are here. My real name is Toshinori Yagi; please call me by that instead."
Midoriya blinked in surprise, stunned that he'd just been trusted with All Might's real name. "I-I won't let you down, Yagi-san!"
The tall blonde grinned and transformed into his muscle form. "Now that's the spirit, Young Midoriya! You already have that Plus Ultra attitude going for you!"
Izuku Midoriya went home that night having made a new friend and gained the approval and gratitude of his idol. Needless to say, he slept very well that night. From then on, the days and weeks turned into months, moving closer to the Entrance Exams as Midoriya and his friends cleaned the beach…
IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF REDESIGN, REBUILD, RECLAIM…
The Entrance Exams have arrived! How will Midoriya, Hatsume and Bakugo fare? Will Yaoyorozu's friends join her? Stay tuned for more!
NOTES:
Chapter four is finally complete, only two weeks later than expected! The lead-up to finals was a total pain, but hey, straight-A semester for the first time ever; I can't complain at all.
The Meta Liberation Army has made an early appearance due to Midoriya's Quirklessness; since he belongs to a minority they're actively attempting to oppress, it's no surprise that they're not too happy about his prominence in the news cycle. Sending Geten after Midoriya though...ouch. Better watch your back, Zuzu.
Since we don't know much at all about the Recommendation Exams, I had to come up with basically everything about it myself. Figured I'd make it especially difficult and very good at eliminating the competitors; ironically, due to its acceptance rate being 1 in 50, it's actually less stringent than the regular exam.
Iida made an early appearance here, but the four students admitted are the same as canon - he wasn't creative enough with his Quirk to impress the judges, and placed sixth (bumped to fifth with Yoarashi declining). He'll still show up next chapter for the regular exam.
The Power Dizer that Hatsume built is a direct reference to Kamen Rider Fourze; a mech suit of a similar design and the same name was seen in that series, and I liked it enough to incorporate it here. It may come in handy down the road.
The latest chapters of MHA proper have been really interesting; I'm very curious to see where Horikoshi goes with Lady Nagant's character. What a cool design, Quirk and backstory, man.
As always, thanks for reading. Also, let's all have a moment of silence for the great Kentaro Miura. May he rest in peace, completing Berserk the way he always hoped to in whatever's on the other side.