The ten months leading up to the entrance exam for UA went by in a flash. Haruto was making breakfast for all the littles on the day of the exam thinking back on the past months.

He tried to talk to Izuku after the sludge incident, but he always seemed busy and had this look of focus and determination that Haruto had never seen before on the quirkless boy. He once saw Izuku while he was taking the children to the park to play. Izuku was running through the park an emaciated man on a segway leading him. And another time while he was out for a run of his own he saw the man was sitting on a fridge at Dagobah beach while Izuku was pulling it with a rope.

Seeing Izuku's hard work made Haruto push himself even harder, sleeping on the roof more often than in his bed. Every once and a while he would catch sight of Taiga's hair poking out from the roof's door and it made him smile and do a few more flashier sequences.

Shaking his head he plated all the food and called for everyone to come down for breakfast. Eating quickly he threw on his blue tracksuit top and was waving bye when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked down and saw it was Taiga gripping his jacket. Haruto smiled and knelt down at eye level with her. "What is it, Taiga-chan?"

She still hasn't talked much but it's been better. She stared up at him, her sapphire eyes boring into his amber ones, tracing the scar over his right. "G-good luck o-oniisan. Be careful," she said, her voice quiet and unsure.

Haruto gave a wide grin at her words, his eyes shining. He pulled her in close, becoming even happier when she didn't flinch at his touch. "Always, little tiger," he said standing and ruffling her hair and got a smack and a pout for his trouble making him chuckle.

He looked back as he walked down the street seeing all the children and Bassan waving to him and shouting good luck. He smiled and waved back, before taking off in a light jog to make sure he wasn't late for the exams.

Once at the school he found a bathroom and changed into his Aldera junior uniform. He soon found the room where they were taking the written portion of the exams and those were over in a flurry of papers and scratching pencils making Haruto sigh in relief that they were finally over.

Following the signs he made it to the auditorium just before the start of the speech taking a seat near the entrance next to a boy with wild purple hair.

Standing on the stage was the pro hero Present Mic, his voice carrying across to every student in the room.

"Welcome examinee listeners! Everybody say hey," Present Mic yelled. Haruto stood and yelled along with the hero before looking around and seeing that he was the only one to do so. He rubbed the back of his neck, his face warming. The guy next to him chuckled. "Love the energy kid!"

"I'll quickly do a rundown of the practical exam! Are you ready?" Present Mic yelled his question and again Haruto was the only one to yell along. Haruto grumbled about how no one was trying to have fun, making the boy next to him snigger into his hand.

"That's the spirit," the hero yelled. "Now as it said in the application requirements you listeners will conduct a ten minute urban battle after this!" On the screen behind him the letters A-G appeared each representing their own battle center. "After the presentation you'll be heading to your battle center,okay?"

Haruto glanced down at his card and saw he would be going to battle center G. He asked the purple haired boy next to him and found he was going to G as well.

"There are three types of faux villains in each battle center. You earn points for each one depending on their level of difficulty," Present Mic explained. "Your goal dear listeners is to use your Quirks to immobilize as many as you can within the time limit." Next to him Haruto noticed that the purple haired boy's hands tightened on his chair's armrest.

"Calm down man. I'm sure you'll do ok. Just do your best, right?" Haruto whispered, shooting the boy a smile. He saw the boy take a deep breath and he gave Haruto a small nod.

"Of course attacking other examinees and any other unheroic behavior is prohibited!" Present Mic was about to continue when someone near the center of the room stood and yelled to grab the hero's attention.

"On the print out there are four types of villains," the guy said, holding and pointing to the sheet they were all given, which did in fact show four types. "If this is a misprint, then UA, the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake." This made Haruto and the boy next to him snort. They looked at each other and both smirked. The blue haired boy was about to continue when Haruto decided it was enough.

"Hey, if you stopped jumping to conclusions, maybe Present Mic-sensei would be able to finish and answer your question," Haruto said, stopping the boy from speaking. The blue haired boy opened his mouth to say something to Haruto when he was interrupted by Present Mic.

"Right, you are, dear listener. The fourth type of villain in the city is worth zero points. He's just an obstacle. There is one in every battle center. He's not impossible to defeat, but there's no reason to. I recommend that you listeners just avoid it," Present Mic explained.

The boy who interrupted bowed and apologized, not looking in Haruto's direction. With that, Present Mic dismissed them so they could change and get ready for the exam.

The examinees each took buses leading to their respective battle zones. Outside the doors students milled about.

Haruto was stretching, calming and readying himself for the fight. He stood when he saw Present Mic up in the tower looking over all the battle centers.

Soon the doors blasted open and Present Mic screamed. "GO!"

Haruto ran one of the only ones to do so along with the purple haired boy he sat with during the exam presentation. He looked around the city and Haruto decided he needed to go up. A board of light formed under his feet raising him above all the buildings. He saw some explosions to his right signalling someone had found some of the robots. He went in the opposite direction and saw a large group of three and two pointers.

Smiling, he released the board and dropped like a rock. Blades of light formed on his arms and he came down slashing, ripping apart the robots. He dashed around them, none of them able to touch him, he used light platforms to jump and flip around never in one place for more than a moment. It's not long before there's not a single bot moving.

Haruto let out a breath and smiled, before he realized he hadn't been keeping count. He shrugged, not too worried about it he would just go destroy more. A new board of light formed under him and he flew back over the top of the buildings. A serene smile on his face as the air blew back his hair.

"Quite the crop of candidates this year eh Principal Nezu? Some of them look positively delicious," said a dark haired woman licking her lips as she watched one of the screens as Bakugo blew apart another robot.

"Calm yourself Nemuri," said a tired voice.

"Oh Shouta don't be a spoilsport and you know I'm right you're watching this just as closely as me," she said with a teasing smirk on her face. All she got was a grunt in response.

"But indeed you're right Nemuri-chan, this group seems to have lots of potential," Principal Nezu said with a smirk growing on his furry face as he watched Haruto fly and flit in and out of combat. "However the real test is about to begin. Toshinori-kun, press the button."

Haruto had just finished dealing with another group of bots when he felt the ground rumble beneath him.

"It's the zero pointer run," he heard someone scream as they ran past him he saw more and more people running. Then he saw it. He didn't know how he hadn't seen it before but there it was the zero pointer it towered over the students, double the size of some of the buildings even. Haruto was about to follow the group of running examinees when he heard a muffled scream.

"Help!"

And Haruto was running back towards the robotic behemoth. Nearly crushed by a pile of robots was the boy he met at the exam presentation. Haruto thought the boy mentioned when they were changing that his name was Shinso. Seeing the behemoth nearing Haruto used hands of light to lift the debris off of Shinso and he quickly let it all fall back after he grabbed Shinso from under it.

"Hey Shinso, can you walk?" Haruto asked and received a negative response. Looking towards the entrance he saw it was very far away and back up to the robot that was already mid swing.

Despite his situation Haruto let out a hearty laugh. This made Shinso look at him like he was crazy. "What are you laughing about? That thing is about to crush us," Shinso screamed.

All Haruto gave him was a smile. And around them a dome of light surrounded them. Shinso looked down and saw that his leg was slowly mending a warmth spreading through his body. Haruto lifted Shinso up, setting him on his feet. "You should be able to walk now." Haruto grinned at Shinso. Then a loud bang could be heard from outside the dome. "Our friend up there just gave us a bit of a love tap." Haruto laughed, excitement coursing through his body.

"You should go Shinso," Haruto said and a door towards the entrance opened in the dome. " Be careful on the way back," he said as he grabbed Shinso and launched him on a board of light to the entrance. Shinso tried to yell at him to stop but he was already too far away.

Haruto felt another bang on his barrier and smiled. He dropped the barrier and used a light platform to jump up to run across the bot's arm, the behemoth unable to follow the quick movements. As he ran a ball of light formed in his hand and started to spin the force of the spinning creating a visible wind pressure. With a great leap aided by another light platform he was level with the giant robot's head. Haruto smiled at the robot as he formed another wall behind him and kicked it, sending himself careening towards the robot's head arm extended. When the ball of light made contact it shot from Haruto's hand blazing through the robot's head exploding on the other side as it made it's exit.

Haruto caught himself with another platform as he lowered himself back to the ground to the cheers and shouts of the other participants in his battle center.

As he was coming down he saw a small old woman with a visor and using a giant syringe as a walking stick.

"Are you hurt boy?" The old woman asked, her lips puckering and extending.

"No ma'am I'm pretty much at a hundred percent my quirk heals me," Haruto said, grinning and rubbing the back of his head. "But have you checked on Shinso? My quirk can heal but I'm not the best at it yet. He's the one with purple hair and looks like he's never slept a day in his life."

"Oi!" Speak of the devil and he'll appear cause there was Shinso with a slight limp shuffling towards them. Haruto sent him a smile, not at all guilty about the description. Shinso grumbled at him before he got examined by Recovery Girl.

"This is pretty good. It seems you just didn't heal all the way instead of the break it was before it almost seems just like a sprain," she said looking over Shinso's leg poking it in different places , bending it. She glanced over her shoulder to Haruto who was sitting down basking in the sun. "Good work boy. I may need some help from you in the nurse's office when you get in."

Haruto opened his eyes, the light behind them dancing as he looked at Recovery Girl. "That sure I'll get in, are you?" He asked, an open grin on his face. All she did was look at him like he was an idiot and dismissed the two boys as she handed them some gummies.

It was near sunset when they were made it back to the school. Haruto and Shinso were walking together towards the front gate of UA. Shinso had his head hung low knowing that he hadn't done nearly well enough to the Hero Course.

"I better get home, everyone is probably excited to find out what happened," Haruto said, turning to Shinso, his hand clapping onto Shinso's shoulder. "It will be ok Shinso. Even if you didn't get into the Hero course now, I heard that at the sports festival those with a good showing from the General course can replace a poor performer in the Hero course," Haruto informed Shinso. "So you better not start slacking." Shinso looked up to Haruto trying to gauge the truth of his words. And when he saw no lies Shinso smirked.

"Thanks Haruto. I needed that," Shinso said. "And thanks again for saving me."

"Don't sweat it. We're all trying to be heroes. I just did what any hero should do," Haruto said, his hand instinctively going up to rub at his scar. Shinso nodded to him and walked away.

Haruto watched as Shinso made his way to the nearby tram station, before he turned and started making his own way home. Haruto smiled. The kids were gonna love the story he had for them today, especially Taiga.

AN: Thanks for reading. Hope you are enjoying the story.