Chapter 1
First fic, hope it goes well. More notes at the end. Special thanks to those at PV's Server on betaing this chapter.
Also crossposted on ao3.
Breathe in, Breathe Out.
Those are the words that always play in the mind of Midoriya Izuku. An useful piece of advice that came from his mother. It has helped him wade through the years, whenever he is about to go on a muttering spree or having a nervous breakdown. He always remembered those words.
Breathe In, Breathe Out.
It helped him then, it will keep on helping him now.
Looking up with a final breath, the large building of UA High comes into his field of vision. Its visage sends shivers through his spine.
This is it. He has trained himself for this. Every day he had pushed himself to his limits to get this far. He had done his studies, improved his grades, trained himself physically and mentally to even be able to catch up to those with Quirks that are far more combat focused.
He won't fail. It's unacceptable, not after everything he had done to get here.
Looking around him, he saw the determined looks of every student here. All of them are aiming for UA. To be great heroes in their own right. However, UA's acceptance rate is very low, as expected of the greatest hero school in Japan. They can't accept just anyone, they only take the best of the best and push them to their limits till they break through it. It's their motto after all.
Plus Ultra.
However, one of the things that made UA stand out most is their Pro Heroes that came from UA are known to be among the best of the best in their field. The 18 Hero Midnight, The Voice Hero Present Mic, The Flame Hero Endeavor. And finally the greatest of them being the Number 1 Hero himself.
The Symbol Of Peace, All Might
The man is a legend, his quirk being unknown made him all the more mysterious yet brilliant. Like a shining star that envelopes them in its hopeful light.
He shook himself, he's getting too caught up again. He needs to get started or he's going to be left behind. With a final slap on his face with both hands, he trek towards the entrance. Ignorant of the weird looks around him.
One of them is a girl with brown hair. Looking at the retreating boy weirdly as she tilted her head.
'He seemed oddly determined. Well I need to be too then! This is UA, I need to do my best! ' She thought, nodding to herself as she entered the gates along with the other examiness. Their future will be decided by this test.
Izuku sighs as he walks away from the exam halls. He had just finished the written test and is heading towards another to reach the practical exams. Those that took the business course are already gone. They had finished their test a while ago. Those that took the hero course had multiple exams. There was the standard written test, then the heroic written test which evaluates their other skills and finally the physical exam.
He was sure he had done his best in the heroic written portion, it was divided into three sections. Each of the sections focused on some parts of heroics. Riddles were in the first section to see their comprehension skills. Then there were hypothetical scenarios in the second section. And finally the last section only contains one question. A rather specific one.
'What does it mean to be a hero?'
At first he was confused before deciding to answer it as best as he could. The principal of UA was known for his eccentrics so it might be some sort of personal test. Either way, he gave it all and hoped for the best!
He walked into the designated room and looked for his seat. It was rather dark, so it was a bit hard to find. But in the end he managed to find it…..along with a certain explosive blond.
Said blond also looked rather pissed off when he noticed him too.
"What are you doing here Deku?!" He asked with his usual demeanor. Damn, does the universe really have it out for him? What did he do to deserve this? He was a good son and helped his mother. He was kind to everyone he met and never caused trouble.
But then again, Bakugo Katsuki is always angry so it might just be him.
"What did you just say you damn nerd?!" Bakugo asked with an enraged expression. Crap he must have muttered that.
Before any altercations could happen, the already dim lighting dimmed even further and all the lights focused on the stand in front of them.
Seeing that the exam was about to start, he immediately sat down on his seat and ignored the explosive blond beside him. They have an exam to focus on after all.
However the voice that comes out next absolutely destroys that focus and well took it for himself.
"CAN I GET A 'YEAH'" The screaming of the voice hero Present Mic himself bellowed into the room, surprising the students and making them excited. However they didn't really scream back out to him, creating a rather awkward moment for Mic.
"Jeez, tough crowd, BUT NO MATTER! IT'S TIME TO GET INTO THINGS! ARE YOU READY?!" Mic bellowed again.
The absolute silence that followed is enough for the students to feel second hand embarrassment for Mic. Much to their amusement.
Izuku, on the other hand, only felt excited. He had read up and knew everything that could be known of him. Heard every single of his podcasts and radio shows. And even analyze his quirk to even the littlest of details. He wonders if his quirk ever affects his vocal cords in a permanent manner cause all those screaming must be murder for it.
"Shut up dammit!" Bakugo growls out, making him snap his mouth shut, damn and here he thought he had good control over it already.
Mic then kept on continuing his presentation despite the awkwardness, guess he has some experience in it. Anyways, the students realised they will be brought into a designated area and will be tasked on destroying robots to gain points. The higher the better their chance in getting into UA. There are 3 types of robots that were given, each with their own designated points. 1, 2 and 3 pointers respectively.
Suddenly a hand comes up, making Mic point towards him.
"YES EXAMINEE 7111! WHAT'S YOUR QUESTION?" Mic asked as he pointed towards him.
The hand then dropped down, making the student stand up and revealed…..a rectangle? No wait he is just that stiff looking. The bespectacled boy pulls up a pamphlet and starts reading off of it.
"It says in the pamphlet that there are 4 types of robots. Is this a miss print? If so, it would be a shame for such a prestigious school such as UA to make such a simple mistake!" The boy says before suddenly pointing at Izuku." And You! Do you think this is a game? Your muttering is distracting! If you keep treating this exam as such then I highly recommend you stop and get out of the exam hall!" He says.
Izuku ducked down before saying "S-sorry!", the students around them start snickering at his predicament, the most obvious being the blond besides him. All of them are already brushing him off as a fellow rival and competitor.
Izuku narrowed his eyes at that, he'll prove them wrong. He'll show them that he can stand among them and even surpass them.
"Alright, alright, settle down! I was just getting to that little listener! There are 4 types of robots but the last one is just a distraction! Destroying it won't give any points, it's best to just avoid it entirely!" Mic explained, making the students sigh despondently and brush off the zero pointer.
"Thank you for your explanation and apologies for the interruption!" The rectangle boy says before sitting back down.
Mic merely waved off before starting to finish up the explanation.
"Now look at the card in front of you, inside is the area that has been given to you!" He says making the students pull out the card and look at it.
Besides him, Bakugo scoffed after taking a peak at his own card." So they're putting those in the same school in different areas huh?" He asked rhetorically
"Well it made sense, won't want those from the same school to team up to pass the exam" He muttered absent mindedly
Bakugo scoffs at that. "As if I need help, I'll crush anyone that is in my way!" He says with a savage smirk, making Izuku sigh exasperatedly.
"Well that is the gist of it! Go ham with the robots and you'll be fine! Now for the final parting words, I'll leave you the words from Napoleon Bonaparte himself! 'A true hero is someone that overcomes one's misfortune'. Now say it with me now, PLUS ULTRA!" Mic says, finally making the students scream along as well.
'Always works.' Mic thought to himself, a smug grin clear on his face.
With that, The students get up and head towards the changing room to change their clothes before heading towards their designated area. Izuku merely wore a simple green shirt with black form fitting pants. Heading out of the fitting room, he enters the bus and waits for the rest so they can go.
While inside the bus, he kept reciting the mantra inside his head to calm his nerves.
Breath In, Breath Out.
He can do this, he has trained himself. He is prepared for this and will give it his all.
Breath In, Breath Out
Failure is not an option. He's not sure what he can be if not a hero. His whole life, being a hero is the only thing he can think of. To save people, to help them with a smile. It's the only thing he ever wants to be.
Breath In, Breath Out
Throughout the whole ride, he kept himself in this trance. Controlling his breathing to keep himself composed and grounded. He needs to keep himself calm, he can't screw this up just because he was too jumpy. That would just be embarrassing and mortifying. What would his mom say if she heard that? So keep his nerves calm, calm his thoughts and breath.
With a lurch, he was snapped out of his trance when he realised they had arrived. Exiting the bus, he can't help but gawk a bit. When they say an area he didn't actually imagine said area being a large city!
"Man UA must be pretty rich to be able to make this"
"It's pretty impressive though"
"As expected of UA"
Chatter filled the place as they all gawked at the city. Izuku can't help but agree with them, they are the greatest hero school in Japan. Guess it's supposed to be expected that their way of handling things is far more eccentric than normal. Helps that quirks tend to make things easier, a lot of tech that was thought to be impossible was possible thanks to the appearance of quirk. Some have said that if it wasn't for quirks, humanity would have achieved space travel. But he personally disagrees with that notion; quirks might have delayed their achievement towards space travel, but it has improved their society's technology via quirk research. In a way, it helps improve their base foundations and help revolutionise their way of handling problems.
He's rambling again isn't he? Judging by the weird looks from the rest, he had also muttered it out loud. Great, can this day get any worse?
"Excuse me!" A hand landed on his shoulder as a familiar voice rang out.
He just had to open his big mouth didn't he?
Looking at the person behind him, he saw it was the earlier bespectacled boy that had admonished him earlier. What does he want now?
"Can't you see you're distracting the others? Are you trying to make the rest of us fail through this? You should be ashamed of yourself" He says without even letting him answer.
However before he could, the gates of the city started to open, making the rest of them flinch and look at it wearily.
Izuku shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and breathed. His lungs get filled with air as he feels the familiar pressure building up within him.
Breath In
The pressure increases, filling his body with energy as the familiar pressure increases and starts to pool itself within his body.
"GO!"
Breath Out
As the air leaves his lungs, the familiar pressure is also released as he lunges towards the gate. The pressure started within his chest before flowing down his core then into his legs. Releasing them explosively as the air around his legs parted, boosting his speed when he headed into the city.
The wind startled the other contestants. Blocking themselves from the wind as they look at Izuku's retreating back with a weird look, some even sneered at him.
"Wait, it started?" One asked curiously
"Hah! He probably lost his nerves and started too early" One of them sneered at him
But some decided to follow his lead and join him in getting points, they don't want to lose the points. The most notable ones are the brown haired girl from earlier and the bespectacled boy. Some of the students left behind start to wearily look around them nervously.
"What are you waiting for?! There is no countdown! GO GO GO! Follow that plain kid!" Mic says into the speaker while pointing at Izuku. Making the students panic and try to rush into the city with manic expressions.
With Izuku, he met a 2 pointer robot in front of him. It vaguely looked like a scorpion but with 3 eyes, 2 tails and shield like appendages for legs. The number 2 shone brightly on those legs.
Breath In
He mentally intoned as the familiar pressure starts to build within his chest, his quirk is pretty powerful but control is the hardest part when using it. It's just a simple telekinetic quirk, an ability that allows him to control gravitational forces to achieve telekinesis. Bakugo had called it weak when it first appeared but he saw potential in it. Helps that it also allows him to relate to his mother even more. The advice that his mother gave him always helped him when trying to control it.
He looked towards the approaching 2 pointer, his right pulled back and coiled. His feet slide on the ground as he tries to slow his momentum, the earlier burst of speed had allowed him to enter the city and cover a good distance already.
Breath Out!
The pressure released as he swung his hand forward, releasing a burst of pure force towards the bot. Completely destroying the upper part and making its legs leave the ground for a few seconds.
Huh, that's weird. He could have sworn his 'Repel Impact ' is a bit weaker to test the robots durability. It seems like the materials that made it are a bit weaker than expected. Good he supposed, he can save his energy and aced this exam.
While the students were slack jawed at the power behind 'The Plain Kid', Izuku released another burst through his feet and glided through the ground at extreme speeds. Kicking up dust in the process. The bespectacled boy was the most shocked among them.
'He's fast, far faster than I am.' He thought to himself, he had thought the boy to be a nuisance to the exam but it seems like he was wrong.
Izuku saw another batch of robots running towards him, 2 one-pointers, 3 three-pointers and 1 two-pointer. Missiles were launched towards him, making his eyes narrow as his arms tensed. With a spin on his body, the missiles suddenly circle around him when they get near and are sent back towards the villain bots.
'Vortex Impact! ' He roared in his mind, sending the missiles back with their speed increased. The missiles exploded as they landed near the bots, destroying them with only a few surviving.
With another burst of speed, he appeared near them and swung his arms like a whip. A thin wave of condensed force was sent towards them, cutting their bodies in half. Their upper bodies falling down as wires sparks from their lower bodies.
Izuku continues to control his breathing properly, he needs to make sure he has enough energy to handle any problems. If he uses too much force then he will start to strain and that will force him to consume that much more energy and that will tire him out too quickly. He needs to be careful with his quirk usage.
With another burst of speed, he starts to search for more robots.
In a very dark room, sat the examiners. The television in front of them shows the examiners in all the sites.
"Seems like we have a pretty good batch this year" A gravy-like voice sounded out, making the rest of the examiners nod at his words.
" My, my they are all rather aggressive aren't they? I like that~" A mature yet sensual voice called out when looking at one certain explosive blond destroying the robots and licking her lips when looking at Izuku cutting through them like butter, making some of them worry about the school's reputation and the student's health.
"Kayama, they are just kids." A tired voice called her out.
"Please Eraser, It's not like we didn't have fun when we were their age. I know I did~" Kayama Nemuri or The 18 Hero Midnight to the public retorted.
Eraserhead or more commonly known as Aizawa Shota just sighs at his colleague's behaviour.
A squeaky like voice snickers as he looks at this year's batch of students. The owner of the voice looked like a mix of a bear, dog, and mouse. No one is really sure of what he is and no one is brave enough to ask him about it. This is the principal of UA, Nezu.
"Yes, yes they are all quite formidable" He spoke when looking at the monitors."However, the real test has yet to begin" He says before pushing a giant red button on the arm of his seat.
The examiners lean forward from their seats at the principal's words. Their next obstacle would show them what these kids are made of.
" Fifty-two!" Izuku grunted out as he destroyed the final robot in the street. He had helped out a few people when he saw them biting off more than they could chew. Unfortunately, it had left him a bit out of breath. He didn't regret it though, what kind of hero would he be if he complained about helping people? It's just the right thing to do.
Looking around himself, he used his shirt to wipe his face revealing a bit of his abs as he did so. He had done a lot of physical activities when preparing for the exam. The beach on Dagobah used to be a trash heap, but thanks to his efforts it is now back to its pristine state. He can't help but feel proud of that accomplishment.
A rumble interrupted his musing, he looked around frantically while trying to find out where the rumbling was coming from. Suddenly, other students rounded the corner of the street and started running away towards him. He blinks a bit, his common sense told him to follow the flow to avoid danger but his heroic sense told him to do the opposite instead. Who knows if there's anyone in danger that way.
Izuku in all his cinnamon rollness, followed his heroic sense instead of his survival ones.
As he rounded the corner, he saw tank-like wheels rolling through the ground, crushing the road beneath it as it kept on moving. He looked up, and up and up and up and finally saw its head.
'Damn that's big ' He mentally thought. 'Guess that's the zero-pointer, no wonder they told us to avoid it ' Izuku told himself as he looked around, trying to see if there's anyone that was left behind. Ignoring the students that ran past him, the bespectacled boy ran past him. The engines on his calf boosting his speed.
The boy looked towards Izuku with a bewildered look. Is he really trying to destroy the zero-pointer? He shrugs, telling himself it's not his problem. If the boy really wished to grab attention and do such an idiotic thing then he can't really stop him. He has an exam to finish first.
Izuku didn't really see anyone that needed help, most of them had already made some good distance from the giant robot and could escape easily. The robot itself is rather slow so they would be fine. Suddenly, his head snapped up.
The reason why is because he had heard a small yelp of "Ow" somewhere. Looking forward with narrowed eyes, he saw a brown haired girl laying on the ground, a large rubble covering her.
Without hesitation, he breathed and released a burst of force. Increasing his speed to cover the distance between them. He appeared before her in a few seconds, his breath appeared laboured but he powered through exhaustion. He looked down at the girl before him and his eyes immediately landed on the rubble on her feet.
Lifting it up easily he puts it away as he looks at the robot, there is still quite a distance between them but they can escape if they hurry.
"You ok?" He asked her with a concerned expression.
"My ankle, I think it's broken." She says while gritting her teeth a little from the pain.
Izuku sucked in a breath, she can't run properly that way and the giant robot would catch up easily. His mind coming to a decision, he put his arms under her and pulled her up. She yelped from the sudden lurch, her face blushing from the close contact.
"Sorry about this but we need to hurry." He says before bursting away, making her yelp in surprise again. Carrying her towards the entrance, he went past a few examinees too. Most of them were rather surprised he managed to outpaced them but he didn't really care. He needs to get her out of there. Sliding through the ground as he slows down, he puts her down and breathes a sigh of relief as he sees that most of the students managed to get away even without his help. To be honest he was glad that they didn't need it. He was too tired now to even move properly, his lower body is screaming in pain from the strain and he needs to lay down for a while.
"AND TIME'S OUT!" The speaker rang out, making some of the students groan in disappointment and some to sigh in relief. He was part of the latter, he dropped down to the ground unceremoniously as he sat there with his hands supporting him.
Damn, he was more tuckered out then he thought.
"Are you ok sonny?" A kind yet wise voice asked him, making him look towards the source and notice an old woman looking at him with a concerned woman was rather short, her grey hair being put in a bun with her outfit being that of a doctor paired with a visor. She also brought along a large syringe that is used like a walking cane. His eyes widened as he recognised her.
"You are Recovery Girl!" He exclaimed in surprise, making the woman smile at him.
" My, my. You know your heroes huh? You still haven't answered me sonny, are you alright?" She asked again gently.
"Oh? Uh yeah I'm fine. Just a little strained and tired. A little rest would be fine for me" He answered easily, showing a bit of a tired smile to prove his point.
"Oh dear, well I can still help a bit with that." She says before kissing his cheek.
He exclaimed in surprise a bit before suddenly realising his body feels fine, a little bit more tired than before but he feels amazing.
"Was that your quirk?" He asked excitedly, making her nod at him before looking at the brown haired girl. He didn't really pay attention to them though as his mind starts dissecting her quirk.
Can it only work through kissing? How much energy does it take at minimum to heal his injury? Does any energy count or is it just limited to their stamina? What are the worst injuries she can heal? So many possibilities and even just the simple healing she had shown had made it pretty useful.
He absentmindedly gets up and starts to leave, he would love to question the heroine more but he decided not to bother her anymore. She probably has more people to tend to. With that he starts to leave, all the while leaving one brown haired girl curious and searching for who and where her saviour was.
To anyone, this was probably a simple exam at a pretty prestigious school.
But to Izuku, this is the start of his story.
Wooh, so hows that for the first chapter? I know that not much happened and it only covered the entrance exam. However I needed to take things a bit slow at the first part, I started straight at the exam for a reason, i try to hid his background as much as i can and it will get explained more over time. Some parts of Izuku's life is a bit more different then canon and it will play a big role in the future.
Other then that, well I only gave the bare bones of what his quirk does here. Its a lot more complicated then just simple telekinesis. Well it is telekinesis but the technical part works differently.
Anyways, leave a review and any criticism is appreciated.