Izuku the Phoenix
Chapter 5
"Izuku! It's already six, you need to wake up! Else you'll be late for your entrance exam!"
His eyes snapped open at his mother's shout, then flitted over to the All Might themed clock on the bedside table. Four minutes past six.
Izuku sat up, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He'd had difficulty sleeping last night, nerves keeping him up.
Today was the day. Today, he'd be taking the UA entrance exam. Today, he'd take his first step towards becoming a hero.
Standing up, he grabbed his usual school uniform and dressed, mind whirling with thoughts.
Eight months ago, he'd learned the truth about his powers. His quirk wasn't just fire or healing, no. His quirk... turned him into a phoenix!
Naturally, he'd scoured the internet for everything related to phoenixes. Every myth and every legend.
They were all different, depending on which culture or country the stories originated from. But there were some recurring themes in all of them.
The phoenix was a mythical bird thought in many cultures and religions to be the true spirit of fire or the physical incarnation of the sun. Said to have a 500-to-1000-year life cycle, it's a symbol of longevity and rebirth. Near the end of its life, it'd build itself a nest of incense and sacred materials that it then ignites and is reduced to ashes, from which it arises again, reborn anew.
Ashes.
Ashes had been the only thing he'd found of the fruit after he'd thrown it away.
Even with all his research, there were some things he didn't have an explanation for. For instance, his healing powers.
Another curiosity was his fire. In all myths and legends, phoenixes were said to have fires that burned with unrivaled intensity.
Which was the exact opposite of his 'non-burning' flames. 'Just another mystery of quirks, I guess... Or whatever this power is.'
On another note, his training from that point on, had gone better than he could've ever hoped for.
The power he'd once thought to be just a supportive quirk, had turned out to be better suited for combat and hero-work than anticipated.
First thing he'd done after finding out about being a Phoenix, had been to learn how to fly.
Lifting off the ground was the easy part. Learning how to maneuver himself at high speeds and quickly change directions, was a work in progress. Hindered by the fact that he wasn't allowed to fly as he pleased.
It was especially difficult during strong winds, rain, and bad weather in general.
He still had little clue about how to fight in his phoenix state. Of course, his beak and talons were good weapons, especially coupled with his speed and superior mobility. But too dangerous to use without proper training. It wouldn't do to accidentally spear someone through.
Fully dressed, he descended to the kitchen, where his mother had already prepared a bowl of katsudon.
"Do you have everything ready, sweetie?" his mother asked.
"Yeah, I did it all yesterday."
He ate quickly, inhaling the katsudon, then washing it all down with some juice.
His backpack sat by the corridor, packed with notebooks, clothes for the physical part, and food.
At seven, he decided to depart. He grabbed a jacket from the wardrobe against the February chill, then tugged on his shoes and made to leave.
"Izuku," came his mother's soft call and he turned. She stood smiling by the door to the living room, her eyes warm. "I'm proud of you. Good luck out there."
He felt a smile blossom on his own face. "Thanks, mom."
Izuku took steadying breaths as he approached UA Academy. The place was packed with hopeful high schoolers, all radiating equal parts nervousness and excitement.
Carefully avoiding bumping into anyone, he walked through the gates and towards the large doors with UA emblazoned on them.
During his short walk, Izuku observed some of his fellow applicants. The ones who stood out most were those with mutation quirks. His eyes flitted to a horned, pink-skinned girl with hair just a shade darker than her skin, then to a guy with a bird-like head.
Briefly, Izuku wondered what their quirks might be. The guy, perhaps he could sprout wings, like Hawks, or talk to birds?
Distracted, he bumped right into a fellow student standing ahead of him.
"Ow... S-sorry, I didn't see you there. Are you okay?" Izuku apologized. The person he'd walked into, stumbled forwards, then quickly regained his footing.
Immediately, Izuku noticed the tail sticking out from the guy's lower back. He turned to face Izuku, a small smile on his face.
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine. No harm done. Was a little out of it myself to be honest, nerves and all that." he chuckled and extended a hand. "I'm Ojiro Mashirao."
Izuku took it, returning the smile. "Midoriya Izuku."
Ojiro, Izuku observed, had short blond hair swept to the front of his head and thin eyes with no lower eyelashes. He stood maybe an inch taller than Izuku himself, and with a solid build. He wore a white shirt tucked into brown pants, a normal school uniform, and pale grey sneakers. Poking out from behind him was his tail, muscular and completely hairless save for the tip.
"Not long now," Ojiro said "the written exam starts soon."
Izuku nodded and took a quick look around. "There are so many people."
"Right, but it's UA, so I guess it's to be expected."
Izuku took out his phone, double checking the registration confirmation he'd gotten from the school. "I'm supposed to be in room E, how about you?"
"C. And I think E is that way." Ojiro pointed to a sign hanging overhead.
"Oh. D to F, ahead and to the right." Izuku mumbled.
"Well, I'm off to my own room. Good luck."
Izuku was left scrambling for words. "Y-yeah, you too." He replied sheepishly, then headed for his own room.
He entered room E quietly and was greeted by none other than the pro hero Cementoss himself.
'Oh my God that's Cementoss! The 58th ranked hero! He's quirk is cement- and he's standing right in front of me!'
"Let's see..." the hero muttered, checking his Clipboard "Your name, please."
"M-Midoriya Izuku, sir!" Izuku answered promptly, straight backed and at attention.
Cementoss chuckled, bemused. Then rifled through his papers until he found the name.
"Ah, here you are." He handed Izuku a ticket. "You just go in and find the seat with your number on it, alright?"
Izuku took the ticket, nodded, then left to find his seat.
'2232... 2233... There, 2234!"
He looked up and met red, glaring eyes.
"Deku..."
Izuku startled. "K-K-Kacchan?!"
A tick mark formed on Katsuki's forehead. "Shut up, ya damn nerd!" then in a calmer, but gruff tone, asked, "So, you came anyway... Thought you might chicken out at the last second."
Izuku gathered himself. "I'm taking this exam for myself. I'll be a hero, no matter what."
After a tense silence, Izuku took his own seat in front of Kacchan's. He picked out the ticket he'd received and read through it.
Name: Midoriya Izuku
Examinee number: 2234
TIMETABLE:
Written Exam Location: Room E, 08:00~12:00.
Practical Exam Orientation: Auditorium A, 12:45~13:30
Group Practical Test Location: Ground Beta 14:15~15:00.
Individual Practical Test Location: Battle Centre B, 16:00~16:15.
Twenty minutes had passed when the first announcement came.
"Heya little listeners! Listen up, 'cause I'll be going through the rules for the written exam. You ready... Good! The written exam is going to be a combination of math, history, science, language, and quirk law."
"There's a portion with multiple choice questions. And pay especially good attention here, 'cause you might regret it if you don't. There can be one or several correct answers to a single question. But! Know that crossing out all answers will not earn you a full score. A correct answer will earn you one point. A wrong answer will see you deducted one point. This only applies to the multiple-choice portion. So be smart with how you answer those."
"The exam will take place over the course of four hours, with a total of 40 questions, and a grand total of 100 points. The only things allowed during the exam are pens and calculators."
There will be a teacher present during the examination. If you're caught cheating, you'll be disqualified immediately and unable to take the exam next year. That's all. The exam starts in five minutes. If you have any questions, address them to the teacher assigned to your room. GOOD LUCK!"
Izuku winced at that last bit, Present Mic's well-wishing yell having made the speaker screech annoyingly.
"Alright, kids. Like Mic said, the exam starts in five minutes. Please remove anything not permitted from your desks." Cementoss said, taking a stack of exam papers and placing one face-down on each examinee's desk. "Don't turn it over until I say so."
Izuku took steadying breaths while waiting. He knew he was ready. Besides, he was more worried about the physical than the written.
Five minutes passed quickly.
"Alright, you may turn over your papers." Cementoss announced and the exam was officially underway.
'14.' Izuku read. 'Give a short summary on the first appearance of quirks and the impact it had on society.'
He thought for a moment, then put pen to paper.
The appearance of quirks started with the birth of the 'Luminescent baby' approximately XXX years ago, in Qing Qing, China. A child born with a quirk that allowed them to emit bright light from every pore on their skin. The event sparked uproar throughout the world and had lots of consequences.
Practitioners of various religions believed the child to be a messiah or prophet sent from their God. Others believed the child to be a doomsday omen. That it heralded the beginning of the end.
Within the next twenty years however, the number of children born with these supernatural powers increased exponentially, forming the very foundations of the Hero-Villain society we know and live in today.
In the early days, people born with such powers were shunned by the general public. There was widespread fear of not only the supernatural powers they possessed, but also the strange and disturbing appearances of those born with mutation quirks.
As the number of people born with quirks increased and scientists discovered the quirk genome, such fear dwindled.
At around the same time, legislation prohibiting the usage of quirks was passed.
With the increase of quirks, the rate and severity of crimes increased to heights previously unseen. It became too much for the police to handle alone. Law abiding citizens prohibited from using quirks had little chance of fighting criminals with powerful quirks.
That was when the first vigilantes appeared. Perhaps the most well-known vigilante from that time, was Spiderman, who guarded the streets of New York City. It was as a consequence of his heroic actions, and the safety he was able to provide, that resulted in the US government later establishing the Hero Association.
Not sure what else to write, he left the question for later. He didn't want to spend too much time on one question and wind up with no time for the others.
'15. Explain what the QD-scale is.'
Another moment of thought. The Quirk Danger scale. He'd read about it on several occasions. Wasting no time, he wrote.
The Quirk Danger scale is, as the name implies, a scale used to categorize quirks that might potentially cause disaster on a larger scale. Quirks that can directly affect the economy, cause natural disasters, etc.
There are five levels to this scale. The higher your quirk is ranked, the more dangerous it is.
One such example is the Disaster Hero: Thirteen, who's quirk makes their body into a black hole.
'17. While pushing a very heavy box, Tobio notices that it was much harder for him to get the box to start moving, than it was for him to get the box to continue moving once it had started. This is an example of which mechanics principle?'
He read the alternatives.
A. Law of universal gravitation.
B. Newton's third law.
C. Newton's first law.
D. Law of frictional force.
E. Newton's second law.
'This... This is an example of Newton's first law, isn't it? An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion in that direction, unless acted upon by an outside force.
Since Inertia is effectively nature's way of trying to avoid change, it explains why the box is hard to move while it's still; it requires force to get it to move from rest to motion. And It's easier to continue motion when it's moving because it requires much less force to keep it moving in the same direction.
Mathematically, this principle dictates that the coefficient of static friction will always be greater than the coefficient of kinetic friction.'
Izuku made a ring around option C, then went through the others just for safe measure. He immediately ruled out the law of universal gravitation.
He knew Newton's law of universal gravitation was about each particle attracting every other particle in the universe with a force depending on the product of their mass and the distance between their centres.
'The third... That's the one about all forces between two objects being equal in magnitude and in opposite directions.'
So that one was out, as well. And he couldn't recall the second law.
The law of friction was a possibility, but again, he wasn't too sure on how that one worked. Risking being deducted a point just for a minor chance, was unwise.
Satisfied with his answer, he went for the next question.
"Alright, pens up! Time's over!" Present Mic announced. Izuku put down his pen, looked over his answers, and nodded satisfied. He'd done the best he could.
"Hand in your papers, and remember, you'll be briefed on the practical examinations in Auditorium A at exactly 12:45. If you don't know where that is, just check overhead for any signs or ask one of the adults nearby, they'll give you directions."
As Present Mic talked, Cementoss gathered the exam papers, muttering a few words of comfort to those who looked particularly stressed.
Izuku stood up and stretched his stiff body. Exhaling, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. The knot in his stomach loosened a bit.
Everyone else in the classroom had already packed and were moving towards the exit.
"Oi, Deku... How'd you do?"
Izuku turned to Katsuki, taken slightly aback at the sudden question. Kacchan had never cared enough to ask him about test scores in school.
"I-I think it went well. I did my best. Though, I'm not too sure about the language portion." Izuku answered. "How about you?"
Kacchan grunted. "I fuckin' aced it, of course. Nothing too hard."
A slight awkward silence hung between them. Not sure what to do, Izuku rubbed the back of his head.
"Uhm, so, I'm going to head for the Auditorium."
Bakugou just grunted and started packing up his belongings. Izuku took that as his cue to leave.
Auditorium A was massive. As big as a football stadium, with rows upon rows of seats. It took Izuku a while to find, but his seat was situated almost directly across the stage, only a little elevated, so he had to look slightly downwards.
He could see Kacchan a few rows below, and even spotted Ojiro near the front.
A tall, slim man, with long, blond hair spiked upwards in a large tuft behind his head, and a small brown mustache, took the stage.
He wore a black leather jacket with a very tall collar, upturned and complete with studs, and matching black pants and knee-high boots. His neck was obscured by a directional speaker. And to finish up the ensemble, were a set headphones with the word 'HAGE' written on the headband and a pair of orange-tinted shades.
"For all you little examinee listeners tuning in today, welcome to my show!" the man began. "Everybody say HEY!".
Absolute silence.
"What a refined response... "
Izuku almost squealed in delight. That was present Mic! He listened to his radio show every day!
'His quirk is Voice, and it allows him to increase the volume of his voice, giving him an ability similar to a sonic scream. The sound is strong enough to cause people's ears to bleed from far away!'
'The only known weakness, is that the sounds don't travel well underground, making his Quirk ineffective against anything that's underground or separated from him by layers of earth. His superhero moves are DJ Punch and Sonic Boom!'
"Oh wow, I didn't know that."
Izuku startled, head whipping around to see a girl with hair a darker shade of green than his own, and a grin made up of sharp teeth.
He realized his mistake at once. 'I was muttering aloud again!'
She leaned closer and whispered, "You a fan of his?".
Izuku turned beet red. 'She's so close!'
"I l-listen to his radio show." he replied, nervous.
She nodded. "I'm Tokage Setsuna, by the way."
"M-Midoriya Izuku."
"Now, as you might have noticed from reading your tickets, the practical is divided into two parts this year." Present Mic continued. "One a group examination, the other individual."
Behind the hero, a large screen lit up.
"For the group practical, once you reach the assigned test locations, you'll draw lots from a box. Which means that the make-up of your group will be random."
The screen showed a pixel like animation of students picking lots.
"The objective will be to capture or subdue a person in a chosen area. The test will be forty-five minutes in length. Fifteen to plan, and thirty to capture or subdue. You'll be graded based on your performance."
Mic took a deep breath.
"Afterwards, you'll have a one-hour break before the individual practical commences. This one will be fighting robots acting as villains. There are four types of robots, one-pointers, two-pointers, and three-pointers. The zero-pointer is just an extra, so you're better of avoiding it."
The screen displayed pixel-art of the four robot types.
"That's all you really need to know regarding the exams. For the time and locations, check your tickets. Any questions?"
Izuku briefly considered asking why they'd changed the exam this year. Though, on second thought, a group practical would shed light on the examinees ability to work in teams. Which heroes often had to do. The random selection was probably to make it more realistic. You never knew who you might have to work with in the field.
Izuku joined the throng of examinees heading out and took a peek at his ticket.
"... Ground beta, at 14.15..."
He found a map of the school grounds outside the main building. 'Ground Beta, hmm... Straight down the road and to the left on the second intersection. Alright, not too far then.'
With an iron grip on the straps of his backpack, he set out towards the ground Beta.
AN:
Hi everyone, I'm back with another chapter!
Been a while since I posted a chapter on this fic, but I've been busy with work during summer.
This chapter is approximately 3k words. So, it's longer than the previous chapters. There's not really much that happens, but I like delving in to the small stuff.
It might surprise some of you that I've changed the exams to include a group practical exam. The reasoning behind it being, that I think it gives the students an opportunity to showcase their ability to work in teams, leadership, strategic thinking, and social skills. The teachers will see how each person interacts with other people and get an idea of the student's personality.
I also decided to include some original history. I kind of feel like MHA just glosses over the history of quirks and how it affected the world. I know the author has alluded to difficulties in the past, with an overwhelming amount of crime, but I still feel as though delving deeper into the history of the MHA universe would've made the story as a whole more interesting.
As some of you might have guessed, I'll have a chapter for each part of the exam. So, one chapter for the group practical, and one for the individual practical.
On another note, this story has almost 400 favorites and 500 follows, which is amazing! Thank you for the support!
As always, leave a comment. Tell me what you think about the newest chapter.
See ya soon!
~Zenix404~