Chapter 4

A Hero's First Steps

The ten months were finally up. Izuku stared up nervously at the entrance to UA, the teen taking a calming breath before taking his first step forward, only to be shoulder checked by none other than a very pissed looking Bakugou

"Out of the way, nerd" Katsuki growled, not even sparing the Deku a second glance. The nerd didn't have a quirk. It was a fluke. It had to be. He was a quirkless Deku. There was no way he managed to get a quirk. Especially not one like that. His mom had telekinesis and his old man breathed fire. Nothing to do with electricity. That's all it was. A fluke.

Bakugou had spent the last ten months telling himself that, and he still didn't fully believe it. What he did believe is that Deku was still and would always be a worthless Deku, just another stepping stone on his path to greatness, and Bakugou would be sure to remind the Deku of this at every turn

As Bakugou entered the building, all Izuku could do was sigh. "How was I ever friends with him?" He asked himself, not really expecting an answer.

Shaking his head, Izuku looked forward once more, a smile on his face. This was his first step to becoming the hero he always wanted to be. And he was falling, a confused look on his face before realizing the ground was closing in fast. Quickly reaching out his hands to catch himself, he felt a sense of... weightlessness. It was different from when he used his Static Thrusters, he could still feel gravity pull him down with those. No, it felt like gravity had just stopped working.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked first" Came a voice from behind. It was definitely feminine, and turning his head around, Izuku blinked, coming face to face with the absolute cutest girl he had ever met "I saw you trip and I used my quirk without thinking" She bowed as Izuku slowly, almost in a trance, righted himself in the air. "Oh, I should let you down, Release" She placed the tips of her fingers together, and Izuku felt gravity take back its hold on him, his feet meeting the ground once more "Well, good luck" And with a smile, the girl left into the halls of UA.

Izuku stood there for a few seconds before a wide eyed grin fell over his face 'I talked to a girl!' He thought to himself, happy with such progress being made towards the fairer sex that wasn't his mother or a teacher

'You didn't even say a single word that entire exchange' Came the gravelly voice of Cole, the long dead conduit manifesting before Izuku with a disappointed look on his face 'And here I thought I taught how to build up that confidence of yours'

"No, you taught me to crack jokes in the face of danger and stand up to Bakugou" Izuku corrected, ignoring the few weird looks he got from those around him as he made his way into the halls of UA himself. He was used to them considering he still had a bad habit of mumbling out loud

'And how to jump over stuff in a cool and stylish way' Cole added, crossing his arms in mock hurt

"That has got to be the most pretentious way I have ever heard someone describe parkour" Izuku rolled his eyes, a chuckle leaving his lips

-000-

The room was packed full of UA hopefuls, Izuku looking around at the sheer number of kids who had signed up to take the entrance exam "There's way more people than I thought there'd be" Izuku muttered to himself

"Shut up, Deku" Came Bakugou's growl, the explosive blond sitting right next to the greenette. The students had been seated according to what school they went to, and further by what class they attended, and considering Izuku and Bakugou were the only two Aldera students to apply, they had been seated together

Before Izuku could make a proper response to the egotist, the sound of a loud booming voice that Izuku knew way too well sounded out "HELLO UA HOPEFULS! CAN I GET A YEAH!?" Shouted the Voice Hero: Present Mic, only to receive silence in response "Man, tough crowd, WELL ANYWAY, I'M HERE TO EXPLAIN THE PRACTICAL PORTION OF THE EXAM TO YOU!"

"No way, Present Mic?" Izuku muttered excitedly "I listen to his radio show all the time" Izuku had to hold the edges of his seat to keep himself from bouncing, though that didn't stop the wide, happy grin that formed on his face, not even the annoyed growl from Bakugou could bring his mood down

Turns out there were three robots to be on the lookout for, each one being a point value of one to three, and the more points a robot was worth, the tougher it was to take down. Izuku let a confident smile fall onto his face. He had this in the bag. He could easily short circuit the robots, unless they were insulated, but he had a backup plan for that as well

"Sir!" Came the interruption of the explanation from a bespectacled kid with blue hair in a nice three piece suit "You say there are only three robot types we must defeat, but the handout shows there to be a fourth, if this is a misprint, then it is an egregious error on UA's part" He kinda had a point, but Izuku just thought the guy was overreacting a bit much. Mistakes could be made even by the most renowned institutions. I-Island was considered to be the leader in all things science, and they made mistakes all the time

"And you!" The kid suddenly turned behind him, pointing directly at Izuku "You have been muttering nonstop since the start and it is highly distracting, if you will not take this seriously, then you should just leave" He had a stern look on his face, the blue haired kid obviously serious about his words

Izuku blinked as he looked directly at the kid who had called him out. If Izuku hadn't had Cole, he probably would have been the same shy kid as before and shrink back while apologizing, but Izuku had Cole, and Cole had taught Izuku to stand up for himself "Says the one who called out a UA teacher and Pro Hero like he knows better than the exam proctor" Izuku said, pointing to the stage where Present Mic stood "Pretty sure he was going to get to the fourth type before you interrupted, at least I was trying to be quiet"

The kid could only stare agape as Izuku pointed out where he had gone wrong, immediately turning to the stage and bowing "Of course, I should have realized you would have explained everything, I am deeply sorry!" He shouted in an overly zealous way

"Right..." Present Mic said before continuing "WELL RIGHT YOU ARE LITTLE LISTENER, I WAS ABOUT TO EXPLAIN THE FOURTH TYPE" He said, the screen behind him changing from the three silhouettes of the point granting robots to a silhouette of a larger robot "THE ZERO POINTER WON'T GRANT YOU ANY POINTS, SO IT'S BEST TO AVOID IT, LIKE AN OBSTACLE IN A VIDEO GAME"

Well that didn't sound right. These robots were supposed to represent villains, so if one was supposed to be avoided, that meant the one, two, and three pointers more than likely represented street level villains even a D lister could take out, so the Zero pointer must have been a more dangerous villain. There had to be a catch, Izuku just couldn't figure out what.

-000-

Izuku gazed up at the gate leading into Testing Ground Beta, a wide eyed look on his face. He knew UA had a huge budget, but to have multiple miniature cities sectioned off within an even larger city for students to take practical exams at? Just what kind of budget did UA have?

Izuku shook his head clear of any thoughts, looking around at all the participants, his eyes landing on a rosy cheeked brunette. He immediately recognized her as the girl who caught him with her quirk earlier. It must have been something to do with gravity. He started to make his way over before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Were you planning on distracting her from concentrating?" That same obnoxious voice. Izuku turned his head behind him to see the glasses-wearing boy now in a tracksuit, a harsh glare on his face directed at Izuku. He was a bit taller than the greenette, but not by much, only around fifteen, maybe thirty centimeters.

"Do you just automatically assume the worst in everyone you meet?" Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow at the taller boy, who could only give an offended look at the rebuttal. It was certainly how the boy came off to Izuku, and he had enough asshole's to deal with, and Bakuou was all of them

Before the boy could make a response, Izuku was already running towards the doors, which were slowly opening to reveal the city inside. The moment he was past the gates, he saw a two pointer, which looked a lot like a giant metal scorpion with two tales.

The moment Izuku saw it, electricity danced across his right arm, gathering in his hand, a grin forming on his face as he took aim and fired "MEGAWATT HAMMER!" He shouted as a condensed missile of electricity shot right for the to pointer, hitting it dead on in the face, causing it to freeze up, lightning arcing all over the chasey before it blew up, the hero hopeful running past the bot

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Shouted Present Mic "THERE'S NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE! HE'S GOT THE RIGHT IDEA! GO GO GO!" He waved his arm, trying to usher the rest of the participants in so they could gain their own points.

-000-

In a room full of monitors, all showing footage from the different exam sites, UA staff was gathered, watching those who had applied for the hero course, All Might among them in his muscled form.

"Well, we've certainly got quite a few strong ones this year~" Said a woman who's outfit could best be described as a dominatrix. This was the R Rated Heroine: Midnight, and she was known mainly for her very... adult personality would be the safest way to put it.

"Try not to scare them away this time, Midnight" Was the exacerbated voice of a large blocky stone man, the pro hero Cementoss.

"Yes, there are many great candidates this year" The high pitched voice belonged to a... mouse? Dog? Bear? Nedzu, the voice belonged to Nedzu, the principal of UA. No one had any idea what he was, and Nedzu liked to keep it that way, often even making jokes about his mysterious species. He wore a tiny little suit with a pair of brown boots and had a scar over his right eye. In his... paw hands(?) was a cup of tea, what kind? No one knew. He was always switching it up. His focus was on a handful of students in particular.

First was Bakugou Katsuki, who simply went after villain after villain, leaving anyone who needed help behind. Second was Iida Tenya, the glasses-wearing kid who had called out Izuku. He had engines in his legs which allowed him to run faster and kick with greater force. He focused mainly on villains, but he did stop to rescue a few participants who were in over their heads.

Third was Uraraka Ochako, the brunette who helped Izuku. Her quirk was the nullification of gravity, needing to touch something with all five fingers in order to activate the effect. It allowed her to raise the robots high enough to let them fall and break, it was also useful in the few rescues she made, lifting heavy debris off anyone caught under a destroyed bot

Fourth was Shiozaki Ibara, a girl with vines in place of hair. She was more worried about saving anyone in need, possibly a byproduct of her faith's teachings. The girl was highly religious, which wasn't much of a surprise to the animal principal, having noticed the rosary beads she wore

Fifth was Midoriya Izuku. The screen showed Izuku putting in equal work to defeat villains and rescue anyone too overwhelmed, showing off many interesting abilities with his lightning based quirk. He could fire concussive shock waves to blast back debris or a guarding robot, condensed missiles that caused decently sized explosions, lightning bolts with frightening precision, and many more attacks, but that wasn't the extent of his abilities. He had also made a few non-combat based moves; he could hover and glide by generating small updraft currents in his palms by firing off short controlled bursts of electricity that almost made them look like jet thrusters, just on a smaller scale and with electricity instead of fire. There was also his ability over electromagnetism, demonstrating it by lifting debris off participants and lifting robots before tossing them into another. Then there was, in Nedzu's opinion, his post interesting auxiliary ability, a tether made of lightning that pulled him in whatever direction he flung it, often pairing it with that hover ability to gain him extra mobility. And to think he only unlocked this quirk ten months ago.

Everyone took a step back as they gave fearful glances at their boss. His laughter could strike fear into the Devil himself.

"What do you all say we truly test their metal, hmm?" Nedzu asked, taking a long sip from his tea as a man in a scarf with scruffy hair lifted up a glass case and pressed the button underneath

-000-

Izuku was doing great, he had around eighty points, give or take, he may have lost count while he was trying to save people in over their head, but he was sure he had a passing grade now, so he was golden. Currently he was on top of a building, using Radar Pulse to find any straggling bots. He was a bit surprised to find not too many left, but with how many participants there were, the school would have to run out sooner or later. Then the ground began to shake, Izuku having to steady himself as he looked around before hearing a large crashing sound, turning around to see the biggest robot he's ever seen rise up. It was taller than even Mount Lady.

"The Zero Pointer" He muttered to himself, seeing participants flee from the giant, menacing robot as a fist came carenning down into the street, causing the buildings around it and the street it punched to cave in as debris went flying.

Izuku was about to join in everyone running away, this was a test, Izuku was confident he passed, no way UA would let this thing actually hurt anyone. Then he heard it. A cry for help. Turning around, Izuku's eyes went wide as he saw the robot making its way towards the fleeing crowd, but his gaze was focused on the brunette whose foot was caught under a large slab of the street, about to be crushed. Izuku was running before he realized it, a determined look on his face.

Once he was close enough, he extended his hand, a bolt of lightning extending from his open palm to the chest of the robot. It was too close for Izuku to grab the girl and run, so he had to stop this thing. Retracting, Izuku went flying up, the bot throwing a punch at Izuku, the boy using Static Thrusters to dodge out of the way before using another Lightning Tether to fling himself further up, planning to punch the giant robot in its face, only to overshoot and fly right past its head.

He cursed himself, but then an idea popped into his head, a grin forming on his face. The moment he hit the arc of his flight and began to fall back down, Izuku began to spark all over with lightning, in addition, his right arm began to glow, lines forming across his arm like veins, Static Thrusters shooting from his hands to speed up his decent, using them to dodge any punch the bot tried to throw at him. Once he was close enough, he disengaged his static thrusters and threw his hand forward, the power of his conduit gene and One For All working together with the speed he gained, completely destroying not only the head of the robot, but the entire upper body.

"THUNDER DROP!" Izuku cried as he made contact and destroyed the robot, lightning shooting out in multiple different directions as pieces of the bot went flying, the lower half falling backwards away from the girl who had managed to get herself free while the robot was distracted by Izuku, the boy falling through the sky, his right arm completely useless, not that it mattered too much to him. He knew he'd survive the fall.

He was slapped across the face, the sting completely taking his attention off the fact he was currently floating only a couple meters off the ground. He blinked before looking to his right, the brunette girl laying on a floating piece of debris before putting her hands together like she had before and Izuku hit the ground with a slight groan, mostly because his arm was broken.

"Shouldn't have used a hundred percent, that was overkill" He muttered to himself as he sat up, huffing at his gnarled arm. This was the whole point of those last four months, to get control of One For All. He managed to get up to thirty percent safely, anything beyond and he'd start to mess up his body in progressively worse ways. Going all out still broke his bones. At least he had his healing factor, which sped up his recovery by months. It had only taken two days for his arm to heal completely the first time he broke it. He was really glad he was a conduit

"Is anyone hurt?" Izuku went pale at the sound of a much older, feminine voice. He knew who exactly that belonged to. He got up, ready to run out of the exam site before the owner of that voice could see what Izuku had done... again.

"And just where do you think you're going, young man?" Izuku's face went deathly white as he slowly turned and gazed down at the short, pink haired woman dressed up as a doctor. Which she was. The Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl "That arm is most definitely broken, why don't I make it better?" She asked, but Izuku was able to hear the malice behind those words. She was pissed.

"N-no, it's f-f-fine" Izuku said, using his other hand to try and urge the woman to go tend to others, she obviously didn't want anyone knowing she knew him already, probably out of a need for professionalism "M-my quirk grants a p-passive healing f-factor" Which Recovery Girl already knew about.

The first time Izuku had used One For All, he broke his arm, which caused Toshinori to rush Izuku to UA, saying that Recovery Girl was his personal doctor and knew of One For All's nature. The boy was dedicated to getting stronger, and considering he had not only finished the beach, but continued to work out, Recovery Girl hadn't used her quirk since it required the person's stamina to activate, and if the stamina was too low, they could possibly die. So instead of possibly killing Izuku, his arm had been put in a cast

"Really now, my, quirks that grant a passive healing factor are rare, more rare than healing quirks themselves, but I'm sure you won't mind having that arm back in working order now" She said, and before Izuku could properly stop Recovery Girl, she had already kissed him, activating her quirk, loud cracking sounds coming from Izuku's arm as the bones mended and the muscle stitched itself back together. It was painful, but at least the pain passed the moment the healing was done.

With that done, Recovery Girl turned to tend to any other injured participants, leaving Izuku to himself with a sigh. Well, at least she didn't wack him over the head with her cane. That thing hurt worse than breaking his arm. Needless to say, Recovery girl was scary

-000-

Iida Tenya watched as the electricity quirk user left the exam sight, looking back at the half destroyed zero point robot. The boy was frighteningly strong, but that broken arm proved he was unable to control his full strength. That wasn't what Tenya was focused on. No, it was what the boy had done. He had saved the brown haired girl.

Sure, Tenya had maybe saved some participants, but that was more in an effort to get points by destroying robots. He never put any actual thought into if he should be actually worried about saving anyone. But that boy had. The moment he noticed the brown haired girl trapped, he didn't even hesitate to rush in and destroy the robot, saving her in the process. It had to be simply to save her. The robot gave no points, so there was no reason, test wise, to fight the thing unless there was a hidden point system based on saving people.

Tenya felt like a fool for not realizing such a stipulation earlier. They were training to be heroes, of course there would be an expectation to save people, they shouldn't need to be told that. Tenya most of all shouldn't need to be told that. He wanted to be a hero so he could continue the Iida legacy. "He will make a fine hero" Tenya said to himself

-000-

Bakugou was filled with pride. He had to have set some kind of record. He had rushed through the city the moment those doors began to open and blew apart any robot that got in his line of sight. He left those extras in the dust. The moment he noticed a robot, it was a pile of rubble only seconds later. Of course, the robots worth actual points were only small fries. They broke way too easily in Katsuki's opinion to actually be worthy of gauging his strength. No, what he was waiting on was...

A battle hungry grin spread across Katsuki's face when he noticed the Zero Pointer appear, blasting apart robot after robot as he made his way towards it. It was still a test bot, which meant he would have little trouble with it, but it should at least put up more of a fight than the other three. And it did. Not enough to keep Katsuki from destroying it. He had blasted his way up to its head before blowing a hole right in the middle of its face, frying the wiring inside and forcing it to shut down.

Katsuki didn't care if it was worth zero points, it had done its job in proving he was the strongest, and all the extras who had run away were just pebbles under his boot.

So imagine Katsuki's rage when he got his exam results a week later and saw a number two next to his name, the explosive blond grinding his teeth at what he saw in the top five

5. Uraraka Ochaco - 40 villain points - 50 rescue points - 90 total points

4. Iida Tenya - 50 villain points - 45 rescue points - 95 total points

3. Shiozaki Ibara - 20 villain points - 80 rescue point - 100 total points

2. Bakugou Katsuki - 120 villain points - 0 rescue points - 120 total points

1. Midoriya Izuku - 100 villain points - 100 rescue points - 200 total points

"How?" Katsuki growled in rage "How did that useless Deku get two hundred god damned points?" And what even the hell were rescue points? Heroes fought villains. That was their job.

Needless to say, Bakugou Katsuki was fuming as he gazed at the final rankings for the Entrance Exam to UA University

-000-

Midoriya Izuku was the happiest he had been in a long, long time. Not only had he passed the UA entrance exam, he got first place, and by a very wide margin. He had not been expecting to come in first place. But that wasn't the only surprise, All Might was going to be a teacher at UA. Needless to say, it was a night of celebration in the Midoriya household. His mother even made Katsudon, his favorite.

He was surprised how many rescue points he ended up with though, he hadn't thought he saved that many people. Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

That Sunday, Izuku found himself back at Dagobah beach, the place completely clean of trash, and even with some people enjoying the sand and waves. It wasn't back to its former glory just yet, but at least it wasn't covered in illegally dumped garbage.

'You did a good job, Izuku' Cole said, manifesting next to the greenette, a proud look on his face 'I'm proud of you kid' If Cole could, he would have ruffled Izuku's hair.

Izuku smiled softly "Well I had two great teachers" He said, about to turn around, only to bump into someone, both conduit and stranger falling backwards to the ground.

-000-

Shiozaki Ibara was elated to know she obtained third place in the Entrance Exam, happy to know her efforts in rescuing the other participants was counted towards her grade. The young Catholic woman had grown up with the mind set of helping all she could, as that was what Jesus, and further more, God would expect of her, and she refused to let the Lord down. She had been deep in thought, wondering how she would design her hero costume, what he name would be. She was on her way home from church, the girl living with her best friend, Ochako Uraraka considering both had to move in order to attend UA, and the apartment the girls shared was built by Uraraka's parents construction company, their rent was pretty cheap, only a couple thousand yen a month, easy money for both girls to come up with after taking part time jobs.

So caught up in her thoughts, Ibara hadn't been paying attention to her surrounding, the vine haired girl bumping into someone, catching herself with her quirk on reaction, and quickly standing back up, reaching her arm out to the cute... her face went red and eyes wide as she realized what she had just thought of the boy. Oh no... had she sinned? No, no. Of course not. It wasn't a sin to find someone attractive, only to act upon that attraction before marriage.

If she hadn't been so caught up in her mini panic attack, she would have realized the boy on the ground was in a similar state, but for different reasons. Before either of their thoughts could consume them completely, Ibara cleared her throat "A-are you alr-right?" She asked, the boy slowly nodding and taking her hand as she helped him up, his face as red as hers

"Y-yeah" The green haired boy said as he was helped to his feet, brushing his pants off "Thanks, s-sorry for bumping into you" He said, rubbing the back of his head

"Oh n-no, the fault is all mine" Ibara said, trying to take the blame "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and bumped into you" She brought up her hands, waving them placatingly.

"I should still apologize, we both weren't paying attention" He said before smiling at Ibara. Oh how that smile made her feel things she shouldn't have "I'm Midoriya Izuku" He introduced himself, her eyes going wide

"Midoriya... as in the participant who came in first with two hundred points?" Ibara asked, awed at the visage of the person who possessed enough strength and selflessness to obtain such a score.

"Y-yeah..." Izuku said before his eyes went wide "W-wait, does that mean you took the exam too?" He asked, pointing to the girl in a bit of shock. She looked way to innocent to become a hero.

Ibara simply nodded with a soft smile "I came in third, I'm Shiozaki Ibara" She introduced herself, giving Izuku a small bow, completely missing the widening of Izuku's eyes and the deepening of his blush

"That's amazing" He said, his eye darting back and forth before he took a deep breath, Ibara a bit confused before he asked "Would you like to grab something to eat?" He asked before quickly adding "I-in celeb-bration for us p-passing the e-exam"

Ibara was surprised by the sudden invitation, her heart beating quicker in her chest. She had never been the best around boys, no thanks to her father being over protective, he hadn't even wanted her to go to UA, her mother had to convince him. So to say she was freaking out on the inside was an understatement.

Had he just asked her out on a date? No, no, he specified it was to celebrate the two of them passing. It was simply to try and make a new friend. There were definitely no ulterior motives to Izuku's innocent invitation to hang out. Just the two of them. A boy and a girl. At a restaurant. Alone.

She was already running away before she even thought of a proper answer, steam billowing from her ears and her face a bright red.

-000-

'Telling you, she's into you' Cole said, a wide grin on his face as the two of them watched Ibara speed away

"It wasn't going to be a date" Izuku muttered, his blush brightening again at Cole's suggestion to ask the girl out. Why couldn't Izuku just be alone in his head? Things were so much simpler when he was alone in his head.