A/N: This one came out fast, but don't expect that much. Best chapter though so far, so enjoy!~

Chapter Three: The Path to U.A

Izuku had a lot of decisions to make, and not a lot of time to make them.

There were roughly ten months until the U.A entrance exams, and he was already several years behind others his age who had been training and harnessing their quirks. All he had was his knowledge and a wavering confidence— not exactly the best set of skills going into a test for one of the most elite schools in the entire world.

So he finally decided on what he should do, and, after steeling his nerves, he returned to Mei's workshop the next day after school had ended.

Izuku let out a breath of relief when the garage door had opened up from his knocking, glad that the girl was there. He bowed deeply to Mei, who was wiping sweat and oil from her face, looking down at the boy in confusion.

"P-Please, help me get into the Support division!"

Those were words Izuku had never expected to say. He always wanted to he a Hero, and he wanted to do it all himself— But now was the time to put the feverish dreams aside and try something he believes he can do.

Please don't deny me too harshly—

"Okay," Mei said simply.

Izuku looked up at her in surprise, as the girl stretched her arms casually.

"Thank—" Izuku was cut off as she put up three fingers in his face.

"Butttt you have to do three things for me," she said with a big grin. "First, you have to test anything I want you to test!"

Anything?! Izuku gulped at the thought but nodded, not seeing it as that big of a deal.

"Secondly, you have to help bring supplies in for me. And thirdly…" Mei trailed off a bit and looked around, as if making sure nobody was around. "You have to sign a contract for me."

"Sign… a contract?" Izuku blinked at the statement. "L-Like what kind of—"

Mei was somehow already prepared, pulling out a messy document from her back pocket, one that was covered in smudges and heavily crinkled.

"A contract that benefits us both for our inventions! So we can truly profit and soar high into the ranks of the Support division!" She let our a hearty laugh, as Izuku looked on in surprise.

"W-Were you prepared for this?!"

The pink-haired girl shrugged and pushed the document into his chest, which Izuku hesitantly took while shivering a bit from the contact, looking the paper over. "There's always the chance to increase your gains! So it's best to be prepared.~"

The contract, although barely legible in the current state, detailed how anything Izuku created under Mei's teaching was subject to being co-owned by her. It also stated that the secrets of their trade would be kept between them, specifically saying "the secrets of their babies", or else the person who breaks the contract will be subjected to—

"O-One million yen…?" Izuku glanced up at Mei, who had her arms crossed and a smug look on her face, as if she had been waiting for him to get there.

"That's right! What better way to make sure we can trust each other right? I don't want to pay that much, do you?!"

The girl leaned in close, bursting Izuku's personal bubble, making him panic a bit and hold up the paper over his face as a barrier.

"R-Right! I don't!"

After semi-reluctantly agreeing to the girl's terms, Izuku felt like he had finally taken a true step forward to becoming the Hero he's always dreamed of being, and the long road ahead of him burst wide open.

-First Month of Training-

The first month proved to be the hardest, but Izuku didn't expect it to go any other way.

"You'll have to learn while training your body and spirit too! It's the only way you'll make it," Mei had told him.

Izuku remembered several televised events that U.A was famous for, one of them being the U.A Sports Festival. All four divisions came together, and it was really tough for any of the other three divisions to compete with the Hero classes and their strong quirks.

"I-I see," Izuku responded, thinking, and unknowingly beginning to mutter. "So I need to physically become strong enough so that I can handle up close fights and encounters, as well as be ready to take the force and brunt of any damage caused by using the devices I create and use—"

Mei hadn't seen Izuku's odd, overthinking muttering before, but it somehow didn't phase her as she nodded along happily, waiting for him to snap out of it, seemingly intrigued by it all.

"—ahh, s-sorry!" Izuku shook his head, catching himself in the act. He was surprised to see Mei beaming as she looked at him. It was the first time that somebody didn't break his chain of thought.

"That's right! You're as scrawny as a Human can possibly be, so there's no way you'd be able to truly compete yet," Mei pointed out , "We need to get you ripped!"

"I-Is that really nece—"

Izuku froze as he felt unwarranted touching on his body, as Mei had moved behind him and started to feel on his stomach, chest, and arms. He was stunned, his mind blank during the encounter before Mei finally moved away and shook her head.

"Yup, absolutely nothing! Luckily a few of my babies should help with that..~"

Mei walked over to one of her work desks in thought, leaving the shocked Izuku frozen in place without a care.

"Aha! This is perfect for—"

She turned excitedly, only to find Izuku on the ground, passed out from the shocking embarrassment.

"Eh…?"

After that first day of preparation, the days began to pass by at a slow pace.

Mei was no physical trainer and was a bit on the shorter side, but she had always kept up with her own body so that she could lock herself away in her workshop for days at a time and continue her experimenting and inventing. Such long periods of no movement could've easily left her weak, thus, Mei had created special devices for such an issue.

Izuku found himself jogging, doing crunches, sit-ups, lunges— Everything someone who worked out constantly might do on a daily basis, but nothing that he had ever truly done. It seemed nearly impossible on its own, but the devices didn't make it any easier. One device applied increasing weight to ones legs, another squeezed ones stomach and moved in a way that was meant to work their abs— But to Izuku, they might as well have been torture devices.

By the end of that first week, Izuku felt like he couldn't move. As Mei looked down at him laying on the ground, she used her quirk to examine his face closer to see how truly exhausted he was.

"Well, this isn't working well huh," she commented. "Maybe a different approach then?"

When Izuku had recovered, Mei opened the garage door to the workshop and opened her arms and if presenting it to hin.

"We'll start with Mei's Physical Training Course 2.0 then!"

"W-What is it?" Izuku could only stare at the long garage stacked wall to wall with stufff.

Mei chuckled smugly. "Well, you're going to be taking all of the scrap and moving it outside of course!"

Isn't that just… A chore?! Before the tired Izuku could ask, Mei continued on.

"While using my training devices of course, and you'll also have to start listening to my lessons, or else you can't even start to create something. Got it!"

Izuku didn't even have the power left in him to agree or disagree, settling on a grunt.

From then on, every day after school, Izuku continued his training. Moving the huge seemingly endless piles of metal proved easier than raw exercise, but not by much. He strained to listen to Mei's explanations on soldering, electronics, and other such things as he pushed his body beyond its limit every weekday.

On the weekends, Izuku took the time to rest his body, while reading up more at the local library— Books on the history of U.A, thermodynamics, methods of body cultivation— Anything that could possibly help him, even if he didn't understand it at all at that moment.

It was a struggle for a month, til Izuku finally managed to finish his physical task. All of the scrap from the large garage was now settled neatly into ten large piles, each nearly twice as tall as he was.

While he was resting, Mei had helped him removed the training devices, much to his disdain due to the touching but he wasn't able to argue from exhaustion. She examined them and then him and smirked.

"See! Progress!"

Confused, Izuku looked down at himself. He could feel his muscles strained and burning, and could actually see the difference. His muscles were now showing slightly, and he could feel the hardness in his guts as his abdominal muscles became more and more pronounced.

"Now that you've completed the first portion of the training— Time to take it it all back inside!~"

Izuku passed out from exhaustion from just hearing those words.

-Fourth Month of Training-

When the air started to cool down and the trees began to shed their leaves, signalling the start of Fall, Izuku had begun a strictly less physical but more mentally demanding training regime. His birthday had come and pass, and his determination only grew as the amount of time left waned more and more.

"O-Ouch! Ow ow ow—" He winced and shook his hand, having burned it for the third time today.

"You're going too slow, you'll just hurt yourself more! Relax and go on confidently," Mei called to him from nearby. Without even looking, she was keeping tabs on what he was doing somehow while continuing her own work.

Izuku took a deep breath and got back into his work. He was starting to create something of his own, something he knew from experience would be useful.

Mei had told him that the first thing he created would be tough, but it would give him the inspiration he needs to push on and create more and more, so Izuku decided that his first project would be very, very personal.

"I think I have an idea," he had told her when he decided, "I-I have a childhood friend, and his quirk is, well… Scary. But it's really close range, so if I could keep away from him…"

Mei smirked and held out a wrench to Izuku, who looked at it.

"Well, what are ya' waiting for? Get to work then," she exclaimed.

Learning to weld and solder were surprisingly difficult, but Izuku felt like he could do anything after his body training. He still kept up with himself, jogging to school and doing general workouts here and there, because losing the most hellish three months of his life would truly end his motivation.

His fellow classmates were starting to catch on that something was up though. A few times, they caught Izuku muttering in thought, his hands covered in bandages, bags under his eyes, and an overall exhausted demeanor about him.

"If I connect the parts with insulated tubes and then make sure they're connected fully, then the air should be able to pass through quicker and shouldn't blow the baby up. Baby?" Izuku seemed to pause for a second in his muttering, questioning himself before continuing. "The baby should be able to handle the intense air pressure—"

Babies….?! His classmates were shocked, believing he had truly gone off the deep end.

Only a smack over the head from the teacher finally brought him out of his trance, leaving Izuku heavily embarrassed with so many eyes on him.

What he didn't notice, however, was the intense look of disdain that Bakugo was sending his way, knowing something was going on with the green haired boy, seething over the fact that someone else was going to attempt to get into U.A.

I'll make sure he doesn't even want to look at that damn school building anymore, Bakugo thought angrily, his left hand twitching and forming tiny explosions from his anger-induced stress.

Izuku shivered in that moment, feeling like something sinister was going to happen soon.

-Eighth Month of Training-

Izuku had finally done it. He stood up triumphantly, gazing down at his completed device, beaming for the first time it a while.

The past eight months had been rough and draining, but finally Izuku could see the light, the fruits of his labor laid out on the desk in front of him.

"Finally done huh? Can't wait to see you test it!" Mei had returned to the workshop with thermoses of hot chocolate. The girl had changed her usual attire recently, going for a thick jacket and scarf and ski goggles, as if the cold air and bit of snow outside were a reason to look like she was going skiing.

"I'll have to test it when I get back, I almost forgot that it was the holiday season," Izuku said, turning to the girl and accepting one of the thermoses. "Thanks!"

"Well you better do it soon, or you'll regret it when it backfires on you later," the girl commented, taking off the bag on her back and placing it on one of the desks, rummaging through it.

Izuku watched her as he got his jacket and backpack on. "You were out scavenging in this weather?"

Mei laughed, not looking at him. "Of course! No time for rest right? If we get all lazy and comfy during the Winter then we won't be ready when the entrance exams come!"

With a sigh, Izuku nodded reluctantly in agreement. He had been working with Mei to get her sleeping and eating schedule on a more regular quota. Though it wasn't to much avail, it was helping give her a lot more energy, and Izuku was glad he could help her with it at least a small amount.

"Your parents are gone often to sell their creations right? So what are you doing for the holidays?"

"Oh you know, probably a little of this and a little of that, spend time with my babies and such," the girl responded nonchalantly as she pulled out some pieces of scrap and examine them.

"R-Right…" Izuku took a sip of the hot drink and began to walk away, giving a small wave. "Well, I'll be back in a week at the most."

Mei waved him off without looking. "Right right, don't take too long!"

As Izuku stepped out into the cold, he shivered hard, appreciating how well insulated Mei's workshop was. As he trudged through the brisk wind and snow, he couldn't help but thinking of his new friend and how the past year had changed him so much.

I owe a lot to Mei, even if I don't quite make it in the end, he thought as he arrived home.

"I'm home!" Izuku slid his shoes off, and looked up as his mother peeked out at him from a doorway.

"Oh, Izuku, I was wondering if your study friend was going to come over for the holidays at all?"

"I-I doubt it, they're pretty busy," Izuku responded with a nervous smile.

He never told his mother that his friend was a girl, knowing it would only cause confusion and stuff that he really didn't want to deal with. It had taken himself a while to get over that fact, and now Izuku had gotten used to it, and his interactions with Mei had become very natural.

When Christmas day had arrived, the snow had begun to pile up as a surprise blizzard had struck. Izuku found himself gazing out at the snow, while the wafts of his Mom's cooking entered his nose occasionally.

It was peaceful, just like every year. Just him and his Mom… But something was nagging at him.

Is Mei really just there by herself, still working? Or did her parents show up for Christmas?

The thoughts overshadowed the happiness of the moment, and then one thought finally clicked and horrified him for a moment.

S-Should I have invited her? I-I was too preoccupied with what my Mom would think, but what if she's just there alone?

Izuku stood and clenched his fists, getting a bit angry at himself.

I can't forget that I'm not alone in this anymore!

With that, he decided to go to find her, grabbing a few things to put into his backpack. As he was putting on his jacket, scarf, and boots, his Mother worriedly came to see what he was doing.

"Izuku?! There's a blizzard out there!"

"Sorry Mom, I really have to check on my friend, I'll be back in an hour!"

With that, Izuku left, without giving his Mother a chance to stop him. Moving through the snow was easier than it would have been months ago thanks to his trained body. He quickly trudged through, not letting the panging cold get to him as he made it to Mei's workshop in a record time.

The garage door wouldn't budge, meaning the security system was active. He opened the nearby panel, having learned from Mei how to deactivate it, and fiddled with it for a moment. There was a spark from the panel, making him gasp as it shocked him, but the door began to open.

He quickly moved inside, seeing it was dark except for a faint light at the end near the desks.

"'Mei!"

Izuku made his way to the end of the garage, but slowed himself down as he reached the girl.

Mei was asleep, her arms crossed on the desk and her head resting on them, her breathing light and peaceful, the bit of drool making it obvious that she was exhausted. Izuku let out a sigh as he looked at her.

She probably overworked herself like usual, he thought as he set his backpack down and removed some things he had brought with him. At least it's warm in here… I'm sure this place is more home to her than her actual house.

Izuku took a blanket he had brought and gently laid it over Mei, careful not to wake her, though she didn't seem to notice. He smiled and took his alarm clock from his bag, setting it to go off in a couple of hours.

Hopefully she'll at least wake up to this and get something to eat, Izuku thought as he set it nearby.

He hesitated as he looked at the last thing he had brought. It was something he was working on when he wasn't doing his training, something that he really needed a second opinion on. It was a journal, a new one Izuku had started on months ago to add to his several Hero-related ones.

The journal recollected all of the lessons Izuku had gone through and had all of his personal notes and questions he would go back to and answer. Many drawings and ideas were also inside of things Izuku had no clue would be functional or not. It also held personal thoughts and ideas for Mei was well, things he saw that she did right or wrong, and ways he felt she could improve as well. It could be embarrassing— But he wanted her opinion on it.

Izuku laid it gently on the desk near Mei's sleeping figure, sliding his backpack back on and trying to quietly head out.

When Izuku closed the door and headed off, Mei barely stirred, still completely asleep and unaware.

Nearby the journal sat with a title written prominently on it:

Hatsume and Midoriya's Path to U.A

-One Week Before U.A Entrance Exams-

It was nearly time for all of the hard work to pay off, but Mei wasn't letting Izuku off easily.

"If you don't wear your baby around, how can you ever expect to get a real chance to test it?" Her reasoning was sound, but Izuku couldn't help but feel it was necessary after having already done several tests for his invention for months.

That is, until Bakugo confronted him one day.

Izuku was going to the convenience store for snacks as a sort of small celebration, knowing Mei wouldn't want to do anything big anyways, when he felt the angry glare piercing the back of his skull. He had turned to see none-other than his childhood friend there, looking extremely pissed.

"So, nerd, you still think you're getting into U.A huh?" Bakugo was gritting his teeth as he spoke, as if trying to contain himself.

Izuku knew he wouldn't be let off the hook, but Bakugo had never confronted him in the last part of the school year, so it had given him hope that nothing bad would happen. Maybe he couldn't find me because I was always with Mei…?

Bakugo suddenly pointed at him accusingly and yelled, "You've been hiding from me for months, but now I can beat some sense into you!"

H-He really couldn't find me this whole time! Izuku gulped and took a step back instinctively. However, he opened his eyes wide in realization. What am I doing? I-I'm prepared for this—

"Kacchan—"

"Don't give me any bullshit," Bakugo spat, interrupting him. "I'm going to be the only one from our school at U.A. I thought I made that clear enough, but I guess you're too stupid to understand words!"

With a yell of anger, Bakugo began to rush towards him. They were in a fairly narrow street, with walls on either side of them and nowhere to really go. Izuku knew he might struggle to outrun his old friend, even with his physical training he had endured.

So he stood his ground and concentrated, remembering what he had prepared for.

On Izuku's back was a different sort of backpack than usual— This one was more cylindrical and silver in color, covered in canvas in order to hide its true properties inside. From the backpack, several thin metal tubes went through his clothes and connected to Izuku's boots and gloves that he was wearing, hidden to anyone who didn't know about it.

This has to work, this is the first real test, Izuku thought as Bakugo was nearly upon him, his hand raised and poised to give Izuku a nice explosion. If I can't overcome this, then how can I overcome the U.A exam!

Izuku gathered his nerves and raised his hands, clicking his ring fingers in, touching a certain spot on the palm of his gloves. A whirring noise occurred from within the backpack, and a powerful blast of air shot out from underneath his boots.

Bakugo was surprised as Izuku suddenly flew to the side, avoiding him in a split second. He looked over to his right, watching as Izuku spun in mid-air and landed expertly on top of the nearby wall, catching his balance quickly before standing.

The Sun above cascaded down upon Izuku, leaving his face a shadow as he looked back at Bakugo with a confident expression, while the blonde haired boy was left in complete shock.

This was Izuku's creation: the Flow—

And it had worked just as intended.

To Be Continued

Next Chapter: Entrance Exams Pt. I