Armored Hero: Hagane

by Mikatsuki Augus

By now you know how it goes right? You die, reincarnate and somehow turn into some kind of op character in a differnt world, much like in any other Isekai, excepet it wasn't the same for me! I was literally born without powers in a world where everyone (almost) has them, even the most useless! Well, I had to merge brain to find an alternative path and become a Hero.

Well, anyone who knows me now knows that I tend to write what I have in mind, regardless of whether I like it or not, and this story was something I've had in mind for too long. Honestly, the armatur was a discarded idea for my first story I seriously wrote, Red Dragon Archfiend, then discarded for no real reason, and came up for other possible ideas that I never published. I've decided to take off that spit now. on a facebook group I found a very kind person who offered to translate this story, one of the two I had in mind for a few months (the other will be published when White Sagon Sky finishes translating the new chapter of Rda). having said that, happy reading ^^

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When one thinks of reincarnation it is believed that it happens in a spectacular, weird, singular or particularly horrific way. My reincarnation was more comic than macabre.

I mean, what are the chances of having: a train accident while you're almost at the station, being thrown off the train, breaking almost all your bones. At that point you wonder lazily if you will drown with your own blood since your ribs pierced your lungs, or bled out because a sheet of metal blew your guts out of your side, but you know what? None of the two! A piece of debris fell on my head breaking it like a watermelon, while I was thinking about which god I had pissed off that morning.

So now I'm here, in the void, surrounded by darkness trying to figure out how the fuck I survived long enough to ask myself that question in the first place.

At least until a light appeared that almost blinded me, although I'm quite confused how it could be, since I no longer have a body.

"So... are you god?"

Why do I have this weird sense of deja vu?

"Well... yes. That's what they call me almost everywhere" he replies frowning. "So you're dead..."

"How perceptive you are, did you understand it because I'm in front of you, or was it particularly fun to watch live?"

God makes a grimace.

"I don't enjoy seeing one of my children die in such a macabre way, despite what people might think seeing my life choices, that's more Lucifer's job" he replies flatly.

"So what do I do now? Are you here to judge me and send me to hell or what?" I ask curious about the process.

"No and I'm surprised you're so calm about it, but then again, you're probably still processing it all and you will return to worry later" he sighs "Even though we should really talk about all the blasfemic curses and fanciful insults you've addressed me all your life, we are not here to talk about this"

"So what for?" I ask confused.

Won't my soul be judged for my sins? I mean, I'm not actually a saint, but I had done my fair share of bullshit, albeit not very obvious, during my 21 years short-life.

"Your transition has been... interrupted" he replies, confusing me even more "Normally you would have been sent to another world to save it from being destroyed, like many others before you, but without much explanation, an anomaly removed the element that you should have corrected. The world you were supposed to go to was reset and now you are stuck in the void between dimensions. Now I am here with a proposal since you cannot go forward, but neither you can go back as your soul has been removed from the reincarnation cycle"

Uh oh. That… doesn't sound good.

"What should I do?" I ask hesitantly, not knowing how bad was the situation.

"There is a world in danger, a certain idiot made a mess with forces that he could barely understand and now it is in chaos, or better to say, it will be in a few years" he says almost seeming distressed at the prospect "I want to send you there and I'd rather you help save it"

"Wait what? Another world? " I ask skeptically for the complete lack of an explanation.

"Exactly" he says with a sigh as he sits down on a chair (?) that came out from nowhere "You have nowhere to go back, nor something to lose by now. My wish is to send you there and hope you'll help, but I won't really oblige you if you don't want to. You will have to decide whether to be part of that world or not"

"So either I stay here and disappear/float in the void forever, or I go there and risk dying" I say, huffing almost amused at the prospect. Almost.

He is not entirely wrong and it scares me. Even if I had reincarnated in my old world I would no longer be myself. Choosing not to go to the new one means dying (at best, baseless), but choosing to go there means that I'd probably die, because not only I'm not athletic in any way, but I'm also helpless and useless even as a comic shoulder, if the gods are involved.

As if he read my mind, or maybe he really did (I don't know and I don't care) he responded to my fear.

"That's not my world, so I can only bend the rules that prevent me from intervening, sending you there with some advantage" he warns me "Where, when and how you will be reborn are unknown even to me, so once that you arrive you are alone. Whatever you decide to do, will be your own responsability"

"Wow, what a motivational speech" I snort at his words "So when am I going?"

"Now"

He snaps his fingers and everything goes black.

?

So, you are probably wondering where I ended up and what I did for almost 13 years, right? Nothing too useful. Well, don't close the story here ok? I wasn't twiddling my thumbs, I struggled to improve, but it's hard if you're a Quirk-less.

Familiar word? Yes, I was thrown into Boku no hero Academia universe, of all places, without a fucking Quirk. So much for the benefits huh? Well, I don't have a Quirk, but I can use magic thanks to magical circuits.

Another familiar word huh? Yes, I have 40 circuits that can deliver 12 units of prana each. Again, nothing spectacular, but then a problem arose. I had absolutely no idea how to learn to use spells, so I couldn't pass him off as a Quirk. Ew, really not a good start. I have learned with a lot of trial and error, really TOO MUCH mistakes for my health, the three most basic spells like: Reinforcement, structural analysis and projection.

Here the problems began. I think my abilities with the three basic spells can easily surpass any wizard, but due to the lack of necessary funds, I didn't have a way to apply them. Sure I had discovered things about DNA that would revolutionize medicine, but I couldn't prove anything and I didn't like some random person using my years of hard research just because he's barely credible.

With my reinforcement I could empower myself to the point of being vaguely 'super human' but I couldn't really compete with someone who had Quirks based on physical enhancement, gigantification or even a real reinforcement quirk, as I was just improving my own basic skills. Skills which were superior to the athletes of the Pre Quirk era, but that could not compete with people who had undergone an evolution in that particular scope.

This really pissed me off. Society didn't really make things any easier. Japan, because for some damn reason I was reborn here, did not treat well Quirks-less. People are indoctrinated to teamwork and integrate since childhood, but since I was different (diagnosticated as a Quirk-less), even if due to genetics, I suffered daily continuous discrimination at school, mockery from neighbors or verbal bullying (I knew how to fight and with the reinforcement I could break bones as easily as Midoriya has broken his own). I have had a lot of disciplinary notes and suspensions over the years because 'promising students' wanted to show me my place, but it went very badly. I've never pushed me too far, but everytime the teachers ignored the attacks or problems I faced daily because they didn't want to ruin the possible 'career of future heroes' and blamed me for defending myself.

Returning to the magical problem, here the Mana in the air has almost completely disappeared. So in addition to the trouble of not having a master, a magic creast and lacking anything useful, I couldn't even use magic much even if I decided to go that way.

So the logical choice would be to sign up for the UA support course, and then try to get into the hero course. No, I don't even admire them in the slightest, other way around, with a few exceptions I am completely disgusted by them, but it was more a personal revenge against all those who had mocked me so far, but I decided to try the hero course directly.

I wanted to laugh in the face of everyone who had tried to humiliate me every day since my rebirth for being different, that even with my handicap I was a step above them despite they were having a quirk.

That's why I built an armor. My father in this life had terrible tastes (and fortune) with women, but with two daughters who are idols, and with the thing that he was a military man before (he had children a little late), he had connections and with his own recording studio which has since become quite rebranded in the industry, apparently, he could afford a lot of things because he had somehow gotten awfully rich. I started living alone at the age of 8 because my 'biological mother' preferred my older sister to me because she had a quirk, and since she was a child she has always been successful in commercials, supporting roles in TV series and films, sometimes even as a protagonist. She wanted to put me up for adoption because being connected to my sister would 'damage her image of perfection' as I was 'defective', and this led to their divorce.

From time to time I've sent her some messages to congratulate on her success and she's replied out of courtesy, but we hadn't seen each other or had a call for at least height or nine years.

The second marriage of my father didn't go much better. His new partner for the same reasons did not want me around my stepsister, as well as she did not want to have anything to do with me because she was the son of her ex, but my father did not want to abandon me anyway. I am grateful to him, but I walked away. My sisters were pretty close despite the rivalries between the two (shitty) mothers, so I didn't want to push them away.

I live with a guardian (who although we lived in the same house we barely saw each other, as he worked all day), he's a close friend of my father, who comes to visit me from time to time.

The house I live in is on two floors, has a medium sized garden and a garage which I use as a fairly large workshop. Since I couldn't make too much tests, because of the limited amount of materials at my disposal, I was able to make only one functional armed prototype with the armor that would allow me to participate in the UA entrance exam.

My father could afford more, but even if he loved me as a parent loves his child, he didn't believe in me as I would have hoped, unfortunately.

My 'armor' was nothing else than the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam, with the only fundamental difference on the additional thrusters reminiscent of the strike because of the absence of the core spelder and other thrusters on the shoulders to increase mobility and facilitate dodging, also here taking a cue from the Strike build.

It sadly doesn't have a Siluette Pack, as I couldn't afford to invest too much to create capable weaponry as well as two swords with retractable blades, Vulcan, and a particular nameless shield labeled as MX2002. I really suck with names so I label them with codes, however it has two peculiarities: the first is that the outer layer is actually a folded boomerang whose blade can vibrate at high frequencies thanks to the electricity passing through it, strong enough to allow me to cut even the hardest metal alloys. It is called the RQM55 "Shining Edge" Boomerang. The shield instead has a hook called EEQ8 Grapple Stinger, basically a grappling claw that can be fired in a straight line, which connected to the shield battery can electrocute targets or simply retrieve them. All Impulse melee weapons have a 'non-lethal' mode that simply delivers a jolt a little stronger than a classic teaser to one a little stronger for someone with hardening quirks or making them more resilient, suitable for paralyze targets without killing them. However, the fact remains that being made of reinforced titanium they still hurt a lot if you are hit.

The Impulse has two sets of Vulcans on the sides of the head, one that was lethal (which was unloaded for obvious reasons, aka lack of bullets) and the other that uses non-lethal bullets with strong stopping power that break under the subcutaneous tissue (skin). From there, the bullets release a small amount of dendrotoxin (100 nanoliters), incapacitating the target long enough to be fixed and with no harmful side effects in the process. It works, even though my guardian wasn't very happy that I tried it on him. However, these special bullets were very difficult to create; to get the dendrotoxin I had to convince my father to go round and round to get it, and I still don't know how I managed ti convince him.

Most of my funds over the years have gone into creating the variant phase shift armor (VPS Armor) and building a generator capable of keeping it running for long periods of time. The VPS Armor was designed to cushion any incoming physical attack, although it can still be overcome if someone like All might hits it, but it is very durable and can hardly be overcome otherwise. If I had better starting materials it would have been so much better.

Cores on the other hand have been a real headache for most of the last five years, and although I knew how to make a super compact fusion reactor, there was no point in mounting such a thing on this armor, so I decided to fall back on several heavily modified lithium batteries to power it.

Here the magic comes into play. Having only the three basic spells available, I learned to alter the materials I use, because after years of practice I could reach the Nanometer scale. With the ability to see atoms, it was possible for me to change the attributes of various minerals and materials by altering them. To be clear, I'm not creating matter out of nothing, I'm more on the false line of changing the arrangement of the atoms of an element such as graphite to get something else. I was quite versed in chemistry even in my previous life as my old professor was... very passionate about the subject, so once I could see directly how to model atoms it became incredibly easy.

Obviously, however, the lithium battery does not have an infinite life, so the Impulse can convert heat, electricity, kinetic or solar force into energy, although unfortunately it still does not give it infinite autonomy. There would also be the Siluette packs that with their auxiliary batteries could recharge it in combat… if only I could build them!

I was still looking for a way to recharge it during operations, but I'm still all on the theoretical side, because it's hard to get certain materials. Some needed specific licenses, others my father didn't want me to get my hands on because they were too dangerous and so on.

However, the Impulse exoskeleton can lift up to 30 tons thanks to the modifications with magic that allow me to alter the materials, and the plating is in multilayer titanium which combined with the VPS Armor make it as resistant as a small fortress.

As for coding, I honestly don't have the funds or a doctor crazy enough to operate on the implantation of the Alaya-Vijnana System. Just like in one of my favorite gundam series, thanks to the help of nanomachines, I should implant an interface in the spine for the physical connection to the connector of the Alaya-Vijnana system. One part is on my back while the other is inside the armor. With this connection, the data would be processed directly in my brain, allowing me to move it as if it were my body, without the delays caused by the manual activation of the piloting systems. Unfortunately, the raw material is also missing for this.

I have created the system, done simulations, collected data and created the instructions for the procedures, thanks to the discoveries made about the human body with structural analysis, but I think I would violate a couple of human rights laws by publishing them, assuming that someone believe me.

So, yes, thanks to the impossibility of using this method, I fell back on the creation of a support AI that would at least mitigate the impossibility of creating a human-machine interface. Having time, even computer science had become a joke. And I had even changed school in my preceded life because I was not capable of it.

Honestly, who expected that structural analysis could even read the programs inside the devices that contain them? After a while... I've just learned how to code.

February 26...

I left the house with the Impulse in sentry mode after having breakfast, getting ready and doing the whole morning routine. The shinkansen to go from Tokyo to Musutafu were full that morning, loaded with students, workers and a few plainclothes heroes who had to travel to get to the city. So taking the exam equipment with me was a pain in the ass as they stopped me for a lot of controlls, heroes and various law enforcement, but I had the UA documents that I was given to take it to school and use it, so they didn't make too many fuss.

It took me about an hour and a half to get to the most prestigious school in Japan, and honestly I was surprised by the size of the buildings. They were much larger than the photos made the complex look.

"Get outta my way, stupid Deku" I turned my head just in time to see Izuku wince at Katsuki's voice.

Or at least what I thought Izuku was, because there were clear differences that I couldn't miss. He has wavy hair generally similar to Inko's, but it was longer than I remember, and he was wearing a gakuin uniform, with no pants but a skirt and stockings. The shapes of him under the uniform were quite… visible under the uniform. However the ashy blond ignored how the poor nerd tried to say hello and passed on. Did she seem to have been a little upset? But she is used to it. It's so weird... I approached her just in time to grab her for her backpack while she was tripping, but out of the corner of her eye I saw another hand approach her for the same reason. It stopped as it pushed her back to his feet with little effort.

Unlike a lot of the guys here, I was tall enough to be 15, 174 centimeters and very toned muscles from various martial arts and kendo training. They were great pastimes to disconnect from magic and computers, as my dad complained about the bad lifestyle I led and I honestly wanted to get into my armor, not remote control it because I was too fat, so I sealed my mouth a bit and ate healthier, although I LOVE to eat.

"Are you ok?" Uraraka Ochako asks with a slightly worried air "I was going to use my Quirk on you, but he got you first"

While the green cinnamon roll was thrilled enough that a cute girl was talking to her, I decided to break her trance state out of pity, because I honestly also know what it feels like to be without a Quirk, along with the isolation that comes with it.

"How did you manage to stumble upon nowhere?" I ask skeptically, making him resume.

"A-ah ?! II think I'm a-a little too t-tense for the exam... eheh... " he scratches the back of his neck, blushing with embarrassment.

"Haha, I know the feeling, I'm also very nervous about the exam" admits the girl with permanently red cheeks "Ah, I'm Uraraka Ochako, nice to meet you Deku-chan"

She jumps at the greeting.

"D-Deku?!"

"Isn't that your name? That angry guy called you like this, earlier" the brunette's smile spoils a little, thinking she insulted him.

"N-no, it's a derogatory n-nickname Kacchan gave me!" she hastily replies "M-my name is Mi-Midorya Izu-Izumi"

Why do you stutter so much?

"Sakurajima Tetsuya" I introduce myself briefly, making the two nod.

"Sorry I got the wrong name, but it sounded pretty cool, so I thought it was short for 'dekiru'! You know, "you can do it!" " she says a little excited and awkward "Or something like that..."

"Call me Deku!" she exclaims red as a tomato, making Ochako tilt her head in confusion.

"Okay?"

"I don't know how to comment on this"

Honest. On the one hand it is absolutely hilarious, almost annoying, to see Izumi's exaggerated reactions, on the other I was absolutely disgusted by humanity. Even I, like without Quirk, had emotionally gone through the same stress of growing up without friends or family for my biology, and seeing her wiggle too hard about everything was really sad, especially since I know she's not used to any contact that doesn't involve punching or insulting her. I hope they haven't done worse to her.

"It's-It's like the Copernican revolution..." she murmurs, covering her red face as best as she could.

I look at the clock uncomfortably and I see that the exam starts in 15 minutes, so I decide to cut other interactions that aren't too necessary.

"I hate to interrupt your moment, but we have to go, the exam starts in less than a quarter of an hour" I warn them and they look at me slightly panicked.

"Ah, we have to go!"

"Y-yes!"

In their haste, they didn't notice the Impulse behind them.

Ground Beta...

The written exam was so easy that I almost felt guilty for having finished it in ten minutes. At the practice site I wore a simple suit that wouldn't get stuck in my armor wearing system. Once put on and started, the outermost layer of the Impulse is colored white and blue, with red and gold details here and there. The mint green interface lights up inside the helmet without obstructing my view too much, making me see almost as if I were without it, with all the icons for preferences for the most important things such as the state of the vehicle, vital parameters, energy, internet access and more.

"All systems online. Stable Variant Phase Shift Armor values. No structural or weapons anomalies were revealed "

The inorganic voice of the AI without a name informs me after performing the initial diagnostics. I moved forward to get closer to Izumi who in the meantime was heading towards Ochako, nervous and stiff as a board. I sighed, thinking that she probably had no idea how to activate, much less control One for All. Much to my annoyance, however, Tenya stops her grabbing her shoulder, looking at her with disapproval.

"What are you trying to do? That girl is trying to concentrate for the exam, and are you trying to sabotage her? " he asks adjusting his glasses, causing unwittingly or not, a scene that has distracted many people, who in the meantime had begun to taunt Izumi "If you don't want to take this exam seriously, please leave, we're not here to play!"

"N-no! Um... she ... "

"She's an acquaintance of ours, and you're stopping Izumi from talking to him, four eyes" I snort annoyed as I approach, followed only by the metallic clatter of my footsteps.

"O-ours? S-Sakurajima-kun ?!" she asks shocked and a little surprised by my armor.

I ignored the others who were looking curious at us.

"Yo" I greet lazily raising a hand.

"F-four eyes?! It's rude-"

"It's also rude to harass random people, but I didn't break your nouse because of it it yet, so how about you fuck off somewhere else?" I cut him off coldly. Yeah, I weke up falling out of bed this morning, and as I got up off the floor I also slammed my little toe against a corner, so I woke up pissed off like… the last 10 years now, just a little worse than usual. And surely Iida Tenya didn't help my mood. "Let's go"

I honestly know that Tenya is not a bad boy, but I really don't have the patience to deal with him now.

I grabbed Izumi and dragged her towards Ochako, who, hearing the hustle and bustle, glanced over at us. I decided to ignore both Izumi's protests that it wasn't necessary to disturb the girl, and Tenya's recalls once I got over the surprise of my meddling and insults.

"Deku-chan and...?" she greets but tilts her head towards me not recognizing me.

"It's me" she sounds confused by my slightly metallic voice, but then she gets it.

"Sakurajima-kun ?! Since when are you a robot?! " She asks shocked and I give her a flat look, which they couldn't see because of the helmet.

"It's an armor, and for the record, it was literally behind me when we met" I replies impassively.

"R-really?" asks the green bean surprised that she hasn't noticed before and I nod.

"Yes"

The two of them look at each other, embarrassed that they didn't notice something pretty hard to miss when it is literally by your side the whole time.

"Eeeeee, start!" the awkward silence is interrupted by Present Mic, and at the same time as the announcement the doors of the miniature city open.

I didn't really waste time grabbing Izumi and Ochako, who still stunned hadn't moved. Before they could say anything, the thrusters of the Impulse fire up above the large stunned crowd ignoring the surprised screams of the two, along with the warning that the pro hero and teacher of the school gave the other candidates for wasting time. I left them almost 800 meters later.

"And with that I'd say I'm done with the Pre Exam good deeds. Good luck" the two girls look at me, slightly bewildered, they thank me as I fly away, separating themselves.

I watched the situation from the sky over the streets as I moved, and I throw myself at a bunch of pointers that were still waiting. There were two 3-point, two 2-point and one 1-point. I removed the safety devices that prevent the weapons from acting at full power, released the boomerang just over 120 cm long with the electricity crackling and with a little help from the coupling system, I pulled my weapon. Like a spinning wheel, it cuts the fake Villans as if they were butter and some of them catch fire when the sparks ignite the oil that comes out of their carcasses.

I pick up the boomerang when it come back to me and hang it back on the shield as I land. Apparently the noise attracted other pointers as several were arriving to be destroyed. The sides of the belt of my armor open, revealing two hilts of European swords, which like ribbons bring out the folded metal blades and put them in place, crackling slightly when the straight swords were ready for use. Once again, thanks to the use of thrusters, I reset the distance in a few seconds, cutting and breaking enemies, in a vortex of metal and liquids, looking like I was skating close to the ground thanks to the flight systems of the armor. Honestly, the joints were more flexible than I expected when I assembled it.

Teachers room...

In a dark room, several figures were watching from numerous screens the possible candidates for the hero course take down enemies for points.

"In this practical exam neither the number nor the position of the enemies are communicated to the candidates. The things that can come out of this, considering the time limit and a very large area are: the ability to collect information to quickly ascertain the situation-"

Students who stand out in particular are several who have sense-enhancing Quirks, like a girl with jacks attached to her earlobes; a rather large boy who has six arms but had ears on the extra limbs; or an armor that flies here and there, cutting the robots of the admission exam with ferocity and fluidity worthy of a murderer.

"-The speed of responding to any situation-"

In this case, people with physical enhancement Quirks or who specialize in rapid movements stand out, or an armor coming out of an anime mecha that reacts to a surprise attack by flipping a pointer that had launched towards him from a building, while it was shooting the flight. He simply dodged and hooked the mentioned pointer with a claw from the outer surface of the shield attached to his left arm, before electrocuting it by fusing the circuits and throwing it at another pointer that had caught a particularly sparkling blonde boy from behind.

"-The ability to judge, while remaining calm in any situation-"

The shining blonde guy fired a laser from his belt to take down several pointers, but another examining had just emerged from the alley did not see the incoming shot, so the student in armor had moved just as fast to parry the shot with the shield .

"-And finally the pure and simple fighting ability!" The principal ends "The basic qualities to protect peace in the form of a score"

This selection features an explosive evil-faced blonde who kept blowing up robots right to left, two students who were yelling at something while their Quirks hardened bodies like steel or rocks, or the student in armor who with his boomerang slices through heaps of pointers.

"Principal, we do this exam every year, we know how it works" a female voice says bored "But there are a lot of good hunks this year too!" She ends up a little more excited.

"And they are still underage Midnight" admonishes an annoyed voice, not happy with the work he will have to do after this exam.

For those who didn't understand, she was Recovery Girl.

"I know, I know... for now"

"Ahah, I know we do it every year, but I'm bored and I wanted to show off" says Nexu, ignoring the little bickering of the two women "And we have a new guest today, so all the better"

"But who is that boy?" Cementoss asks while the armored boy continued to make a massacre without hinting to stop.

"Mmh... Sakurajima Tetsuya... Quirkless?!" Power Loader says surprised, intrigued by the boy's performance and weapons.

"Why is someone without Quirk taking the exam? And where did he get that thing?" asks Snipe, worried and surprised at the precision with which he throws the boomerang and swords.

"We lifted the rule that prevented Quirkless from attending hero schools to make things fairer and less discriminatory, it just never happened to us that a Quirkless tried to enter this course, because it was theoretically impossible" says Nezu now interested in the unexpected surprise that occurred "Magijima-kun, what equipment is the boy using?"

"Uh oh..." he mumbles, remembering some details as he checks the list of support tools authorized for the exam.

"What happens?" Nezu asks puzzled in the darkness, seeing his colleague sweat slightly instead of him.

"Well... I may have completely rejected his request..." he admits hesitantly.

"What?! Why?!" Temuri asks shocked, surprised by her colleague's response.

"Every year we get a lot of requests to use support tools during exams, some are jokes some are not, but I have never received a request for such complex armor" he admits with a sigh when the guilt has started to fill him "I thought it was one of the jokes that usually come, especially since many of the things used to create it are not easily to find, nor have I ever heard of them "

"So why are he using it? HoundDog checks each student before passing him for the practical test, without the document certifying the suitability of the instrument for the test he would not have let him pass" a scruffy man says to the side.

"I am checking now, Aizawa, and while I have not checked or given authorization, it seems that the confirmation email has been sent to him instead of to another guy on the secretary" Power Loader replies skeptically.

UA is the largest and most renamed school in Japan, handing in the world with few that can match it, as far as the department of heroes and support is concerned, among the best also for the business course and for the general courses. Requests for applications, scholarship applications and recommendations come from all over the world every year. Of course, while there are many serious people who really want to get in, there are still idiots who waste their time with childish and downright unnecessary jokes. Tetsuya in this case jumped to the eye for the out-of-the-ordinary performance of his armor, and was wrongly labeled as one of the latter even though he was serious about joining the hero course.

"So you he's taking the exam thinking that everything is fine?" the question was rhetorical and no one answered "I told you that this exam was not rational enough, and that the review of the instruments had to be done in person and not online, but you never don't listen to me" he snorts irritably.

"What do we do then? No matter how well he goes, he won't be admitted anyway" says Cementoss.

"I think it's better this way, for someone without Quirk this job is too dangerous"

"We cannot stop the exam for one person, so we will see what to do later, when we have examined better the problem" Nezu says, cutting off any other discussion on the subject. After all, this oversight could have happened for many reasons, be it human, systemic or third party fault "Now, I think it's better to see how many of them really have what it takes to take the path they're trying to get into"

Nezu removes the protection from a remote control with a red button and presses it, bringing out the last obstacle during the last two minutes of the exam.

Ground Beta...

A loud roar makes my head spin while I'm flying. From a huge cloud of dust, followed by the noise of the tracks, the zero pointer comes out. Has a humanoid torso, is it dark green, very… symmetrical? Is this the right description? The fact is that even with the obscured rectangular face the eight red eyes shine menacingly. I zoomed in on his feet, finding a lot of students who were running away. Some disinterested, others terrified, others relatively calm, the fact remains that I have seen that they were ignoring the more unfortunate competitors who were trapped under the rubble. Some blocked, others with deep cuts here and there, regardless of the injury, there was one thing that came to mind.

The sound of a sheet metal tearing my stomach.

Even before I realized what I was doing, I pounce onto the road at the foot of the zero pointer, moving boulders that blocked the injured competitors, who had started to move away quickly by helping each other.

BOOM!

Another punch against another building and the rubble collapses again. I dashed forward once more, catching a few pieces of buildings in flight before they could fall on other students, who look at me in surprise as I land. They weren't heavy enough to get me into trouble, but it wasn't a weight I could lift like it was normal, so it was a little hard to hold in place.

"Ouch"

I turn my head and look at Ochako with one leg stuck in the cinder block. She had an expression of discomfort and nausea, probably resulting from the prolonged use of Zero Gravity. I stared at her for a few seconds as I dropped the boulder the size of a truck with a trailer to one side.

The annoying vision of that concrete beam falling on me had come back to my mind.

A tornado almost makes me lose my balance, so I and many others look up, seeing Izumi charging the giant robot. I shook my head, deciding that I would catch her later, ran to Ochako and raised the beam as the green bean hit the Zero pointer with a powerful punch, sending it flying for a few hundred meters.

"T-Thanks, but Deku-chan?!" she asks in alarm as she tries to get back on her feet seeing her scream as she falls.

I didn't tell her anything before firing the thrusters again and jumping over to her. I grabbed her a few seconds later in the air by the shirt, preventing her from crashing to the ground.

"Uh!? S-Sakurajima-kun?" she gasps due the pain she is starting to feel and I stare at her badly for breaking three limbs.

It wasn't my fault, but the sight sometimes, like before, bothered me. There are times when the details of the accident that brought me into this world come to mind, although I usually tend not to react as I did today, throwing myself into these situations. I shake my head to break that trance, landing.

"Time is up!"

"N-no... I'm still at zero points..." Izumi whispers desperately before passing out from the shock of her injuries.

I place her on the ground, being careful not to move her limbs too much.I knew she still couldn't control One for All yet, but Ochako had a different reaction.

"D-Deku-chan? Did she pass out?!" she asks stumbling slightly from nausea "What happened to her?! Why her limbs-?"

"Good work, good work. Here are some gummy bears" an elderly voice says while walking, followed by the sound of a stick tapping on the ground alternating with the sound of footsteps.

The old woman in question is Recovery Gild. She is a short, gray-haired woman styled in a fishnet bun, from which she pokes a large syringe diagonally to the left. She has a particularly small nose and eyes which are usually drawn as two small dashes and a long mouth with defined nasolabial folds. She is wearing a doctor's coat and a dress with yellow and red tank-like designs on both sides, two yellow buttons and a belt with a pink "R" shaped buckle. She is wearing pink boots and has a helmet around the sides of her head, a purple visor that covers her eyes. In addition, she walks with a stick designed like a syringe that she can use to treat the wounded.

"OH darling, did you do this to yourself using your Quirk?" she asks once she sees Midoriya's unconscious body.

"She overloaded her limbs with too much kinetic energy and broke all her bones" she replied for him, making the school nurse scowl.

I got a quick look at Izumi's performance and now I'm sure that's not a normal physical enhancement. Sure, All Might said the quirk builds power and uses it for physical enhancement, but he doesn't know how either. Quirks are part of the body and its biology, so they follow the laws of physics, so what the Quirk absorbed was the kinetic energy of the movements that later manifested itself through physical enhancement. Sure, it also assimilated the DNA and somehow the possessors' Quirks, but they hadn't manifested yet, so it was useless to think about it now.

"How weird, it seems that her body and her Quirk are not in sync yet..." she talks to herself, then tensed her lips and somehow reached out to kiss her head.

With a faint green glow, I see his bones return to their place and the color return to normal. It is quite fascinating to see how the altered DNA strain changed human bodies to develop these effects, but I am still jealous that I have no real power beyond some magical ability that will disappear within the next two decades at the latest anyway.

One week later…

I was annoyed. The letter from the UA had arrived, but my biological father from this life insisted to exhaustion to open it together. I was dying to know how the exam went, but since we had hardly seen each other for the past six months as I was making the last few changes to the impulse to get it up and running and he was very busy with work, he obviously wanted to see me now that I had no more commitments for a while. What bothers me is the reason. He was against my decision to try to take the hero course test because he thought even with my armor I wouldn't pass. He would have been fine if I tried another course, or even if I didn't go to school and looked for a job, so I'm sure he thinks I failed and will tell me to stop chasing an impossible dream.

He was very open minded for a Japanese, probably it was because being from an older generation and having seen the war raging against Destro's "liberation army", actively fighting him even as a child soldier, he started to see the rigid Japanese society with a different vision, and many of its traditions too outdated for our time.

Once I walked into one of the many family outlets in central Tokyo, it was quite elegant and had private lounges for VIPs. After showing up at the cashier for reservations, albeit with a bit of skepticism as I wasn't dressed up in an elegant way, I was escorted to one of the high-class lounges. There, my old man was waiting for me. His name is Sakurajima Gorou.

In Japan the surname is taken on the basis of the importance of the parents, but that bitch who wanted to give me up for adoption wanted to take my surname from me so as not to legally recognize me as her 'son'.

In a suit and tie, with the features of the face marked by a rather troubled life, which made him look older than he was (48 years old), they have softened almost imperceptibly compared to the stoic figure that he usually is. He is tall enough by Japanese standards, 189 cm, with slightly faded black hair and a good left eye (the other was closed, with a large scar that passed over the right side of his face) dark blue.

The unexpected surprise was the younger girl sitting to her left at the circular table.

The other was a person I had hardly recognized for how long it had been. Mai is an attractive girl with waist-length black hair with bangs hanging down to the left side with a bunny-shaped hair clip in the back, blue-purple eyes, and a slender, well-defined body. She is tall enough for a Japanese girl, almost 165 centimeters. She wears a cream white shirt with long sleeves that tighten at the wrists, a light brown skirt that reaches below the knees, black stockings and red converse with white details. She also has a black leather jacket leaning against the chair where she is sitting. Ah, I guess I forgot to mention that, but she's 16, one year older than me.

"Ara, you've finally decided to show up" Mai declares with a little sarcasm.

"Well, I'm sorry if a famous actress like you doesn't have much free time, but I don't remember asking to see you" I shrug indifferently.

She almost flinches at my complete lack of interest in her statement. But Gorou frowns.

"Tetsuya, don't be rude to your sister" he admonishes me with a frown "And Mai, keep aside sarcastic remarks like this. I told him at the last minute about this meeting, so he didn't have time to prepare and we both know how crowded the center is on weekends"

"Sorry Otou-sama" she says after a moment.

I just snorted, not bothered by her reproach or by Mai. Honestly, I'm completely indifferent to the whole 'family' thing. Also in my past life it was very troubled, so I can easily do without it, but it would have been rude to Gorou not to show up the week after the exam, without a plausible excuse. Besides, I still should have seen him for a school-related matter.

I sat down without too many words, taking the menu to see what to order. I've never been a fan of high class, I felt too out of place, so I wanted to go to more comfortable places like 'All you can eat' or fast food. I hardly ever went out to eat, but the few times that Misato, my guardian, forced me to go out, we went to places like that.

The silence was awkwardly tense as we each looked at the meals available to order, since no one knew how to strike up a conversation.

"Tetsuya, how was your day? I learned that the letter from the UA had arrived this morning for the outcome of the exam" she says while with a tablet that was at the table to order the food.

"Yes, there were some problems and we should go to the UA next week, but I passed" were the only things mentioned in the envelope containing the holographic exam disc.

"UA? Which course did you apply for?" Mai asks surprised and curious about it.

"You entered the hero course at the end, huh?" he says crossing his fingers in front of his mouth in a Gendo pose, rather shocked by the news.

"Course of heroes?! But-"

I stared at her coldly, making her stop before she could finish the sentence. I knew what she was about to say. I was Quirkless so it was too dangerous/impossible/stupid to try to become a Hero. But I wasn't going to pull them back. For some reason, this was the only road I thought I could take at the time.

"What does the letter say?" asks Gorou curiously.

"I have no idea. I didn't see the attached video because you asked me to see it together, I just read the letter inside the envelope that said that i passed the exam" I say honestly.

I take the record from my trech pocket and put it on the table, press the play head and-

"I'm here as a projection!" the loud voice of All Might, a zoom on his smiling and mysteriously obscured face resounds in the room.

"What...?" I raise an eyebrow when I see Japan's number 1 hero suddenly appear.

"All Might?!" gasps surprise Mai observing the smiling hero "He's from a UA, right?"

"Yes" I reply confused.

I knew he was going to be a teacher, but if the media and students didn't know it until his first class, probably the only one to get a videotape was Izumi. So why was he here?

"Sakurajima-shonen will probably be confused, but I'm not here for a special occasion, I'm here because I'll be working at UA from this year!" he announces energetically after he moves away from the camera "So, let's start: you passed the written exam with full marks and the practical exam with 122 points. Normally you would have passed it without any problems, even reaching first place by a large margin from second, but there were some... complicated and decidedly unfortunate circumstances that made your practical exam null and void"

"Wait what!?" I ask slightly alarmed by the revelation.

Mai looked at me a little worried and confused, while Gorou had a disappointed frown, probably thinking I lied to him.

"It's not your fault in any way, if that's what you're thinking" he says seriously, with a slightly attenuated smile closer to a frown. "Your combat prowess, spatial awareness, your reflexes, speed with you gather information and adapt to the battle field were commendable, just as your armor was absolutely stunning, however the mistake I am talking about is an act made by a UA teacher not by you"

It didn't make me feel better, but at least the disappointment in Gorou seemed to disappear. It would have been a terrible bad impression to say I passed and then I did not.

"Power Loader takes care of the requests and the analysis of the support equipment, when he examined yours he thought it was a joke. He did not do it in bad faith and he was wrong, but he tries to understand that there are also people who are not very responsible who falsified the projects or directly the specifications of the equipment they use for the examination, but sometimes they are just annoying jokes. The fact is that your request was wrongly labeled as a joke in bad taste, therefore denied"

"Are you kidding me or what?" I growl at that stupid projection, feeling the veins on my head throbbing as anger began to flood my system.

"However, you used it anyway. So, according to the rules established by the administration, your practical exam is equivalent to no-show. Again, it was a mistake by the secretariat that sent the confirmation email to the wrong address" the giant in yellow apologizes slightly "So having zero points in the practical exam, in other circumstances you would not have passed "

"Wait, what do you mean?" I ask more merged than anything else, ignoring the other two people in the room.

"That's not all, though!" All Might takes out a remote control from his pocket "I think I was a TV host in the previous life... anyway, look at the screen!"

The camera moves to the screen to the left of the peace symbol which lights up showing another cutscene.

"Sorry, are the teachers here?"

It was my voice. After the exam, I went to the teachers' lounge to ask Izumi to pass half of my points and pass her. I wanted to accumulate extra points to make sure I finish first with as many points as possible. I started them figuring out where All Might was going and honestly, I didn't know what to feel about it.

"After the exam you passed in the direction to make a request, another person was pushed by your action, and tried to help another competitor who had not had much luck with the points of the criminals, but you already know this"

He pressed a button to restart the video.

"One of the test takers, Midoriya Izumi... can I share my points with her?"

To welcome me was Present Mic, who had looked at me confused.

"M-Me too!" Ochako had followed me, probably feeling guilty about how Izumi had hurt herself to help her "That girl saved me! And... and I heard her say that she was on zero points... so I want to at least give her what she has lost through my fault!" she leans slightly forward "Please! -"

The video pauses again.

"Even if you didn't have a quirk or a reason to expose yourself to unnecessary risks, you still pounced yourself into the area hit by the zero pointer to help the students who couldn't escape" several images of me inside the Impulse helping various students to moving off the road, getting out from under the debris and so on appear on the screen "And even after the exam you tried to help a person who needed a hand. So, in response to your actions, we have decided to pull quite a few strings to respond to your efforts. In fact, the rule provides that the candidate will not get any points DURING the practical exam if he violates the rules. But what about what happens after the exam? There is no rule that prevents you from accumulating save points!"

Ah...

The leaderboard appears on the screen and I am second.

"Sakurajima Tetsuya, 75 points! Uraraka Ochako, 45 points! Midoriya Izumi, 60 points!" after the announcement I let out a big sigh for the roller coaster of emotions passed during the last minutes. However, it left a bitter taste in my mouth to know that my actions done out of pure greed were rewarded, however "A hero course that excludes those who do the right thing and save others? Such a thing would be absurd! Is it idealistic? Well, it is! Our job is to risk our lives in the name of an ideal" he turns to the screen and smiles brightly "Congratulations, all three of you have passed!"

The video ends there, then silence falls.