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Ten months.

Considered a long time for most, but for Izuku it went by at a frighteningly quick pace. Everday, in and out, he would busy himself with pushing his quirk however he could. Hardly any item on that beach hadn't been touched by his quirk at one time or the other, and Izuku had figured a few things out by the end of the ten-month time period. The first thing was that it was easier for him to reserve big objects for big effects and small objects for small effects. The reason being, that while he could theoretically use his quirk to turn a real-life car into a toy-sized car, it was much more logical and caused him less exhaustion to just find something closer to a toy car and morph it. Unneeded transmogrification was just that, unneeded. Practicality should be used to the utmost if possible.

Despite all of his preparation, however, the arrival of the entrance exam had Izuku's nerves flaring on full tilt. He had dreamt about being at U.A. plenty but being was surreal. The four glass-adorned main buildings seemingly soared above everything around it. Seeming to dwarf even the far-off mountain ranges, the academy was a behemoth of architectural and educational design, no doubt about it. He just hoped that he could measure up to their standards.

Adorned with a lightweight black jumpsuit with white stripes along its sides and his plain backpack, Izuku simply stood in front of the place, mesmerized by everything. The calming breeze behind him gently eased him back into the here and now, ruffling his clothes and whispering in his ears. The amount of fellow aspiring heroes was almost overwhelming; the sheer amount of idle chatter was enough in of itself for someone like Izuku, who wasn't used to being around so much noise. Trying to stick to himself as much as he was able, Izuku made way for the school. All the more watching out for a particularly explosive blond who was sure to be in the line-up of wanna-be students. Speaking of, he couldn't help but wonder what type of competition he would be up against.

It would be no easy challenge, that much he was certain. Many people there could very well have quirks that outshined him and training that outdid his, that was just the nature of things. After all, he had only really trained for ten months, there were probably kids there who had trained for ten years. But he was hoping that, if he could get even just one chance, maybe his placement in U.A. would be considered. That one, perfect moment, when people acknowledge your potential.

Or he could just die.

Being engrossed in such higher-level thinking tended to make Izuku overlook small things, such as good walking form. Tripping in front of steps of U.A. was probably at least in the top ten most embarrassing things to ever happen to him, and it was even worse that he only noticed about halfway down. So instead of furthering the embarrassment by flailing in an attempt to catch himself, he simply clutched the straps of his backpack tighter and let it happen. While plummeting to the ground, Izuku couldn't help but ponder as to how he could manage to be so short-sighted on the most important day of his life he felt a hand grab him by the arm. And suddenly, he stopped.

'Curious.'

Raising as he did so, Izuku looked to the side he was grabbed on and found that a girl about a few odd centimeters below his own height with bobbed, inward-curling hair and a permanent blush had somehow stopped him in the middle of his fall. Her dark attire, aside from her scarf, was a slight juxtaposition to her sunny-seeming disposition. She held up her hands together before speaking, "Sorry that I used my quirk on you without asking, but I figured you wouldn't mind not falling face-first onto the ground!" Definitely a sunny one. Her tone had an edge of nervousness to it but kept its bubbly- ness all the same.

Izuku shifted a bit awkwardly, "Thank you… face-planting was not on my to-do list." The girl giggled a bit before answering, "Uh, yeah, me neither... It's hard not to get nervous though, with the big exam." She paused for a beat before adding, "Well, I'll see you inside!" With a small wave, the girl turned back towards U.A., leaving Izuku behind. He sighed and continued on by himself.

Izuku didn't necessarily mean to be so stand-offish. After all, he was very grateful for the girl's assist (and thankfully quick exit). But the problem with people is that people required communication, Izuku was not good at communication. He heavily disliked talking and avoided it when he was able to. Years of grade school hierarchy solidified this behavior in him. Heck, the only person he even felt comfortable talking to in his whole life was his mother.

'Moving on from that still sad fact... I do actually think it could be different here...' He thought back to how well and respectably the girl treated him, 'She didn't even mention my appearance like most would come to think of it.'

Shaking the thought away, for now, Izuku reached the front doors and stepped inside.

He, along with the others, was eventually ushered into a dimly lit room with a giant projector. Instantly, he could hear a very eccentric-looking man with sunglasses - that had to be the wildest hair he'd ever seen - very loudly explain how there would be a practical exam first, and then the written exam would be taken afterward. It seemed strange, as one would expect the written portion to happen before the physical, but then again, hero work wasn't so simple. Most of the paperwork occurs after an incident, after all.

Faintly his subconscious took in the details of the practical exam. Three types of "villain robots" to attack, each having a point value of one to three depending on power level; then there was the zero-pointer, the giant robot that there purely for obstacle purposes and could easily destroy any of them. The point to be made was simple:

Do not engage the zero-pointer.

Though as much as Izuku would love to take in the experience, his mind was on another, more prominent matter. He knew he could feel eyes on him at this point. It wasn't the shadows, though; they had been strangely absent so far today. No, he knew it was something else. Or rather, someone else…

With a shudder, he resigned himself to the fact that he probably could guess correctly as to who it was.

If one could actually stare daggers, Izuku would be dead by now.

He couldn't be surprised; it was something he knew would happen for months now. But when Katsuki Bakugou actually saw Monochrome in U.A. along with the other extras, he couldn't help but feel a sudden wave of unyielding rage. Monochrome had already made it clear before, but the fact that he actually was attempting to get into U.A., into the HERO COURSE of all things, made his fucking blood boil. Just seeing him, dressed in his stupid tracksuit, pulling that STUPID backpack he's had since like the fifth-fuckin'-grade, GOD! It pissed him off.

The familiar urge to blow up the nearest destructible object reared its head, but Bakugou reigned it back. He did not have an issue with holding back anger, after all. So no, Katsuki Bakugou did not let his anger get the best of him, he did NOT run up to Monochrome and blast his DAMN face off, and he did NOT cause a scene by calling the black-and-white bastard out. Did he channel that rage into blowing up everything he was allowed to in the exam later on?

Hell fuckin' yeah.

It was so simple, just go in, blow up the weak-ass extra robots, stay away from the big bad one worth no points anyways, and boom! He takes the first step to hero-hood.

And he'd never have to see Monochrome again.

The auditorium they were ushered into after the very outré presentation was massive. Izuku almost couldn't believe the sheer scale of it all. A whole simulated city, sky-scraping towers of buildings around everywhere and paved roadways too. All around him fellow my students running around to get their points, he even saw that one girl from earlier.

'Never did get her name… guess that won't matter though if I don't focus on the here and now.'

One thing Izuku knew was that he would be no real good straight-offense fighter. His quirk took time and energy to use, so every move he made was crucial. Case-in-point, he was keeping as far away from the other students as possible. Especially those very familiar-sounding explosions in the distance. However, this was the only half of his plan currently working. Because so far, he hadn't destroyed even a single robot.

Not that he hadn't tried, but every time he saw a robot open to attack, he froze. It was as if he was being reigned back by an invisible force and he didn't know why.

Like a deer caught in headlights, he would stop dead in his tracks upon seeing a robot. Shortly then after, someone less would destroy it before he could collect himself. One blue-haired kid with engines on his legs literally ran circles around him while dismantling them with ease. The girl who had helped him before seemed to have a quirk that let her manipulate an object's gravity with just one touch (made sense in hindsight with how she helped him) and would float them up so high that when coming back down they would crumble under their own weight. One blond boy with a strange smirk seemed to… shoot a laser from his stomach? Easily shooting right through them.

Long point shortened; he was being badly outpaced. He had to regroup and think of a plan before-

"TWO MINUTES ARE REMAINING IN THE EXAM EVERYONE!"

Silent, Izuku stood in the middle of the fractured pavement, surrounded by towering buildings. At that moment, he felt distinctly out of place. 'Two minutes, are there really ONLY TWO MINUTES!?' Those around him seemed to fade away as he tried to comprehend how he could've wasted all of that time. Was he really going to waste all of those hours training and preparing for this day!?

He got a distinct feeling that he was being watched again, but not by Bakugou. Hell, he probably wasn't even bothering with him anymore. No, not even the shadows were staring at him. It was the other aspiring students. He could see their faces in his peripheral. The judging, confused, and even mocking stares all fused together to become one message in his mind: "You do NOT belong here."

He needed to prove them wrong.

But how?

...

...

...

A great crash broke through the air. It wasn't Bakugou, Izuku knew that sound all too well. This was different, horribly different.

Looking up and ahead, he could see an immense dust cloud of debris in the distance. Its size was so extensive that it became an actual cloud overhead of everyone in the vicinity. Everyone around him had become frozen at that moment, a feeling of dire unease growing inside of them all. Nobody spoke a word, not a breath was given.

From the massive cloud came an equally massive fist that smashed into the ground in front of it. At that moment, a billowing cloud of destruction and debris swallowed everyone up and cast them in all directions around the battle center.

Izuku himself was sent violently backward, cartwheeling across the ground until, a couple of meters back, skidding to a stop onto his exposed hands and knees. His body had never felt a pain like that before, but somehow at the moment, he was able to think up of an explanation that was more likely than not; this must be the zero-point robot, and it had come to terrorize them for the rest of the exam.

Multiple glowing eyes burst through the dust cloud before Izuku, and for a moment, he thought that he was witnessing a conglomerate of shadows staring at him all at once. But when the hulking, square-shaped head of the robot surfaced, his previous suspicion had come true.

The zero-point robot, their great obstacle to avoid, had come right to them. All around him, other students ran opposite of the zero-pointer's direction, keen on saving themselves from a battle that they had no seeable chance of winning.

This, however, did not resonate with Izuku whatsoever. What did, was the pained scream of a girl somewhere between him and the steel beast.

His gray eyes locked onto the area the scream originated from, and with the settling of the dust. He saw her.

The girl he had met at the very start of it all, the one who hadn't judge or mock him. The one who had stopped him from falling. Her legs were caught underneath rubble that had been blown through the air with the robot's first impact. She was laying there, eyes desperately searching until they locked with his own gaze. She saw him looking at her, and in that critical juncture in his life, Izuku made a decision without even pausing to think about it.

He needed to save her.

Even with no hope for any help, as everyone else continued to flee as she had screamed for help, he would save her.

Even if it meant sacrificing the chance to get any point he could get from the other robots, he would save her.

Even if it meant failing the exam...

He would save her.

He was just about to get up onto his feet until he noticed that his quirk had been eating away at the ground around him. He could do something right now. God seemed to forbid it from not being risky as hell, but that didn't matter. He just knew one thing and that was that his quirk could control any object he touched. The ground technically was an object.

And the zero-pointer for damn sure was an object.

He willed his quirk into action, the ground underneath him shifted and then exploded upwards, taking him with it. Like a concrete elevator, it sent him careening up closer and closer to the zero-pointer's ever-enlarging 'face'. Feeling his hands and arms practically scream out in pain from the gargantuan effort he had used so abruptly, Izuku let go and was shot towards the robot and smacked unceremoniously into it, hands first.

Desperate to finish before the reality that many bones were probably broken caught up to him, Izuku pushed his quirk for a second time, and the color was quickly dissolved from the zero-pointer's head. Then, Izuku finished it off in an appropriate manner.

He caused its entire head to violently compress and implode in on itself, a massive explosion shaking the whole auditorium and throwing him back across the air after he did so.

Ochako Uraraka had been pretty optimistic about the entrance exam. She had prepared with her quirk extensively and had studied for the written exam just as much so. However, the situation she had found herself in was an un-preparable. Who would account for there being a giant death robot anyways!?

Apparently, one person had.

That one black-and-white guy was a bit of an odd one, and Ochako didn't say that just because of his appearance. He had seemed pretty stand-offish when she first met him, but in the battle center? He seemed like he was having a literal breakdown.

He had run around not getting any points and she couldn't help but to feel bad about it. Heck, she almost thought he was actually quirkless for a minute. But when he did use his quirk?

Honestly, she could barely even tell what actually HAPPENED. One second, she saw him looking up towards the hulking hell beast behind her and the next, he was gone and a pillar of concrete was left behind him. Except, the concrete seemed different? His quirk had just made it look off.

She spun around, as much as her trapped leg would allow anyways, and was just able to make out the boy smacking into the zero-point robot, and not even a second later, the head just collapsed and exploded! Very quickly she became acutely aware of something. The boy was now plummeting towards the ground and did not look like he had a landing plan.

She knew right then and there that she had to do something, for even heroes needed saving.

Of course, of fucking course! Just as Bakugou had the whole thing lock, stock, and barrel, fucking MONOCHROME comes in and makes everything he's done look like a goddamn JOKE!

'Of all the FUCKIN' things that piece of shit had to do, it had to be taking down the boss robot! Everything I just did looks like shit now!'

Bakugou was seething mad. It didn't even matter if the stupid-ass robot was worth nothing; either way, Monochrome had blown him completely out of the water with that feat.

With only a minute left, Bakugou had little chance of saving face. Especially since that seemed to be the only zero-point robot as well. So Bakugou let out his frustration in the only allowable way he had at the moment.

"DAMN IT!"

Bakugou went on to get an impressive extra twenty points in that last minute.

Toshinori Yagi, better known as the number one pro hero and Symbol of Peace: All Might, had been watching this year's entrance exam with great interest.

It was always good to get a good reading on the next generation of heroes, but that wasn't all for him this time. He had been getting weaker each year ever since he got a debilitating injury some odd years ago, and while he did have a seemingly suitable successor picked out, it never hurt to feel out newer options too. After all, inheriting the spot of the Symbol of Peace himself was no small task.

Not that by any means was his current choice any type of push-over. He was the current best of U.A. Right now, after all. But every possible option must be accounted for.

Izuku Midoriya certainly hadn't been on his radar, at least not in the way of succession. The kid seemed… out of place. He was dead last with absolutely zero points, and so far, Toshinori hadn't even really seen the kid's quirk at all. It was bizarre, in the nicest definition. Then, with two minutes left, the zero-pointer was sent.

And then Toshinori was thunderstruck by what he saw. The boy, who so far had done nothing of note in the exam, had defeated the zero-point robot to save another person. Not for the fame of it, not for the glory, not even just to show off. He had seen the look in his eyes; the determination, no hesitation whatsoever. It was the look of a hero.

Toshinori smiled as he watched the Ochako Uraraka, the girl Izuku had saved, return the favor by stopping his fall last-minute with her anti-gravity quirk.

He could already tell that this was going to be an interesting bunch of heroes-to-be.

The rest of the exam had been a blur. After pushing his quirk so far, Izuku could would stray on the edge of consciousness the rest of the day. Few events after the fact really stood out in Izuku's incomplete memories. Though that slap he got from the girl with the anti-gravity quirk hurt like hell, he remembered that much. After the slap though, he was lost. One moment he was on the ground of the battle center and then he vaguely remembered being tended to by someone old... Recovery Girl, was it?

Then he zombied through a written test after. It was like a huge chunk of his memory was gone...

Dear God, he didn't even remember putting down answers…

Then sometime after he went home and immediately crashed into bed, sleeping the rest of the day off.

One week later and Izuku was feeling marginally physically better, but mentally he was exhausted. He didn't know what to expect, the written exam was a wildcard in of itself seeing he couldn't remember even taking it. And the practical exam… Well with zero points it was safe to say that he did less than stellar.

Not that he wasn't trying to be optimistic, but when the sun was down it was a bit difficult to see the light side of things. So to speak.

At the moment, though, Izuku wasn't focusing on that. In fact, he was going out of his way to distract himself from the almost certain bad news he had coming his way. At his computer desk, he was indulging in a past time he was sure any other teenage boy around his age would be doing with access to the internet…

Binging on All Might videos!

To be specific, he was watching an all time favorite of his. The first video of All Might Izuku had ever seen and the one that had got him wanting to be a hero.

"LOOK, HE'S GOT MORE!"

The hulking form of All Might comes rising up at that moment. His triumphant laughter resounding, despite the relative poorer static quality of the old recording. Just the sight alone sent shivers of nostalgia up his spine.

"Fear not, citizens, hope has arrived!"

The all familiar dramatic pause, as if All Might knew that millions of people had been on the edge of their seats.

"Because I am HERE!"

The smile Izuku was wearing couldn't have been wider.

This was broken off by his mother burst through his door, tripping over herself as she did. Izuku whipped around, eyes wide, "Mother!"

Desperately shuffling on all fours was his mother, eyes broad with nervous energy. She was in a panic. "Izu-Izu-Izu-Izuku! The letter is here!"

Izuku stared in shock as she raised a letter in her hand, sure enough it was from U.A. And that was the moment his heart dropped.

Now, sitting at his desk alone with the letter isolated on his desk, Izuku sat there. He waited, and waited some more. The nerves and dread all mixed together into one big ball of anxiety.

'To hell with it.' Grabbing the letter with his hands and yanking it open with a loud rip. Out of the letter came a small, round gray disk. Before he could even theorize what it might do, a projection of All Might burst out into his wall.

"I am here as a projection!"

'Wait, ALL MIGHT!? But why is he talking to me'

'Yup, definitely All Might… but, why is he talking to me? Unless…'

"I know what you may be thinking, 'Why is All Might talking to me right now?' Well, I'll tell you why, young Midoriya!" He paused - well, more like glitched - for a moment. "There's a good reason I've been in Mustafa more than usual recently, I am now a member of U.A.'s school faculty!"

Izuku could only gape; All Might, a teacher!? It seemed unreal, he was going to be the number one pro hero and a teacher? It was crazy!

"Now, young Midoriya, you scored impressively on the written exam, passing it with flying colors!" Izuku was about to wonder absentmindedly how he managed to pull that off but was cut off by All Might continuing, "However, you scored a zero in villain points on the practical exam..."

And there it was, the truth he had been dreading to hear. To know you failed is a burden enough to carry by yourself, but having it confirmed to you by your hero, the number one hero in the world at that... Izuku couldn't help but feel ashamed.

"There is something to note, though, young Midoriya!" Izuku's attention was brough fully to the screen, "Villain points were not the only rating being scored by the judges! We were also looking for rescue points!" Izuku froze. All Might's grin grew, as if knowing he had Izuku's full attention, "For saving your fellow aspiring student, you, Izuku Midoriya, were awarded 60 rescue points. This means that you passed the practical exam as well!"

Passed.

He passed.

Izuku Midoriya, Monochrome, whatever you wanted to call him. He passed and was going to U.A. to become a hero. He felt like his heart had stopped and honestly, in that moment if it had...

He would've died happy.

Finally some quirk action, I know for sure I wasn't the only one waiting for this. Another really fun chapter to write and the first real big step in this story.

Bloodyvalentinejoke: Yes, looking back it doesn't make sense for Mitsuki to refer to her own son by his surname, that would be my mistake and I am sorry. I am not natively Japanese so sometimes the name placement and usage eludes me. Most of the characters referring to him as Bakugou probably made me forget it was the surname in the first place, to be honest, so I will remedy that. Though do note that unnecessary rudeness doesn't make your point any stronger, especially when, if you noticed, I only made that mistake only once out of all the times I had Bakugou's mother address him.