Disclaimer:(read prologue)
Chapter 5: The Entrance Exam
Izuku looked on in awe at the sight in front of him. Even after preparing himself for ten months, being here still felt surreal.
"Out of my way, Deku, or I'll kill you." An angry voice Izuku recognized anywhere said behind him.
He turned and saw his former childhood friend walking towards him, his usual aggressive scowl on his face.
"Good morning, Kaachan," Izuku greeted him, taking a step aside, "good luck on the entrance exam today."
Katsuki walked past him, not even bothering to look at him or reply to what he said. Izuku only sighed as the blond continued walking. Katsuki has been leaving him alone ever since the slime villain incident; he doesn't know what's been going through his mind lately, but at least he wasn't being antagonized anymore.
"No point in fussing about it now," Izuku said to himself, "I here to start my journey to be the best hero I can be."
He took a breath, straightened up, and took a step forward. "Alright, let's do this!" he hyped in his mind.
He went to take another step, but his back foot caught his front; he lost his balance and fell forward. He quickly moved his back foot forward to catch himself, but his weight was suddenly gone.
Without his weight bringing him down, his foot caught nothing but air, causing his momentum to throw him completely off balance and start spinning in the air. Yelled in confusion until his spinning was brought to a halt.
"I'm sorry!" a feminine voice said to him, "I saw that you were about to fall and went to help; I didn't know you were already prepared to stop yourself, forgive me!"
Izuku looked to the source of the voice, and his eyes widened.
Holding onto his foot was a girl in a school uniform. She had bright, round brown eyes that shone with emotion; her round cheeks had a permanent pink blush, and her round face was framed by her bob cut brown hair. Her figure, Izuku noticed, filled her uniform in all the right places.
He was taken by her right away. So much so that he was left speechless.
"Pretty." Izuku thought, which was the only thing his mind processed at the moment.
"Well, everything worked out in the end." The girl said after she brought Izuku down; she pressed her fingers together and he felt his weight return. "It would be bad luck if you actually did fall. Good luck in the exams!" she waved goodbye as she ran into the school building.
"...Pretty." Izuku said, still taken by the girl.
OOO
Izuku was sitting in a large college-style lecture hall waiting for the next portion of the entrance exam to start. The first portion was a written test, which he had no problem facing.
He looked around the hall and saw the large number of students also taking the exam, but he couldn't seem to find Yui anywhere.
"She must be here somewhere." Izuku said to himself.
Before he could look further, a light shone on the podium in front of the room. There behind the podium, stood the pro-hero Present-Mic.
"ALL RIGHT, EXAMINEES, ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT EVENT?!" The over the top hero shouted, "LET ME HEAR YOU SAY 'YEAH'!"
The room stayed silent.
"Oh, it's Present Mic," Izuku said to himself quietly, "I listen to podcasts everyday."
"Shut up." Katsuki said harshly. He had the luck of having to sit next to the boy.
Present-Mic went on to explain the next portion of the entrance exam, which was a practical test. The test will be taking place in a mock city environment and the objective is to take down as many robots in the city in ten minutes. The robots have a value point of either 1,2, or 3; the examinees are assigned to a site in the mock city and are allowed to use their quirks however they see fit against the robots, but harming another examinee will earn a disqualification.
"Tch. I was hoping to crush you." Katsuki said quietly as he stared spitefully at Izuku, who was busy looking at the handouts given and muttering quietly to himself.
"EXCUSE ME, SIR," a loud voice shouted, drawing everyone's attention, " I HAVE A QUESTION THAT I NEED TO ASK!"
"All right, examinee," Present-Mic said, "hit me!"
"WHY IS IT THAT YOU ONLY MENTIONED THREE TYPES OF ROBOTS TO BE USED FOR THIS EXAMINATION, BUT THE HANDOUT STATES THAT THERE ARE FOUR!?" the boy shouted out, "IF THIS IS A TYPO, THEN IT IS UNBECOMING OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION LIKE U.A TO MAKE SUCH AN ERROR."
"...geez," Izuku remarked to himself, "no need to get so worked up about it."
"ON ANOTHER NOTE. YOU THERE, WITH THE GREEN UNKEMPT HAIR!" the boy then yelled, turning and pointing to Izuku.
"Eh, me?" he let out, caught off-guard with the attention.
"YOU'VE BEEN MUTTERING EVER SINCE THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE GIVEN OUT," the boy continued, "IT'S DISTRACTING; IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS EXAM SERIOUSLY, THEN LEAVE!"
" 'Distracting'?" Izuku responded loud enough for the boy to hear, "you're the one yelling at the top of his lungs. I wasn't bothering anyone."
The boy was taken aback at the response; he tried to come up with a rebuttal, but failed.
"All right, all right; settle down, people," Present-Mic said, calming the wave of quiet chuckles emanating from the audience, "to answer your question, the fourth robot is a death sentence, meaning that going against it will reset your practical score a 0. I did not mention it with the rest because it is not meant for you people to take down. If you encounter the insta-death bot, don't bother fighting it and run."
"THANK YOU FOR THE CLARIFICATION!" the same boy exclaimed with a sharp bow.
"Okay, examinees, you all should know your places for the practical, so give it your all!" Present-Mic concluded, "As the great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life.' PLUS ULTRA! BREAK A LEG, EVERYONE!"
"Napoleon Bonaparte?" Izuku remarked in his head, "You do know what happened to him, right?"
Izuku was standing in front of the gate leading to site B of the mock city along with the rest of examinees assigned to the area.
Wearing grey sweatpants and hoodie, he was inspecting the gadgets he wore on his forearms.
They were two vambraces with two small flamethrowers attached to each of them; one on the palm side and the other on the opposite side.
During his training months, Izuku told his dad that he had begun training in how to use his new quirk. Wanting to help his son, he commissioned the custom-made support items in America and brought them to him when he visited for Izuku's birthday.
Izuku couldn't be happier with his gift. He wanted to start using them in training, but All Might said that getting used to its controls first was priority. The hero also reminded him to submit a request form to U.A. so that he will be able to use it in the exam.
After letting a few small puffs of flame from each vent port, he looked around to the other hopeful applicants as he adjusted his belt that held extra fuel for the gadget.
"I still can't find Kodai." Izuku said.
He then saw the girl he encountered at the school's entrance. She in her own exercise clothes, looking nervous with her eyes closed.
"I never did thank her for her help," Izuku commented, "I should talk to her; maybe help her calm down.'
He took a step towards her, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him from going further. He looked back and saw that it was the same guy yelling in the lecture hall. Up close, he saw that he had short blue hair atop a square face, glasses and eyes rectangular in shape.
"That girl looks like she's concentrating right now," he said tensely with a strict expression, "You were planning on distracting her, were you? Making her lose focus on giving this test her best ability?"
Izuku's eyes narrowed a bit.
"You really like jumping the gun, don't 'cha?" he said unimpressed, "Ya better stop doing that before the gun goes off on ya."
The boy looked shocked at what Izuku said, as well as the other people whose attention were on them.
Before anything else can be said, Present-Mic came on the intercom.
"START!" the hero announced, the gate opening abruptly.
In his mind, Izuku heard a long whistle, and he instinctively felt the need to rush forward and not look back. And so he did.
Izuku didn't pay attention to the other test-takers, choosing to focus on finding as many robots to take down as he continued running into the mock city.
He saw three robots in front of him approaching, and went into action. He activated two flamethrowers with the flick of his wrists and formed a recurve bow and three arrows with the flames.
Drawing an arrow on the bow, he aimed at the large lense of one of the robots and released. The fire arrow pierced the lense and burst within its head, effectively destroying it.
Releasing the other two arrows as he ran, Izuku struck the other two robots. One robot received an arrow through its central core, neutralizing it, and the other got one leg blown off, immobilizing it.
Changing his bow into a spear, Izuku ran on top of the downed bot and thrust the spear head down into the machine's head, taking it out.
"Seven points." Izuku said to himself, taking note of the three robots' worth.
He looked around to find more robots to defeat; he spotted one that was overwhelming another applicant. Without hesitating, Izuku pulled his spear out of the robot's head and threw it at the other robot. The spear pierced the robot's back and exploded, destroying it.
"Eight." Izuku updated his score.
"Hey!" the examinee shouted, mad at Izuku, "get your own points!"
Izuku chose not to respond. Looking around, he activated his flamethrowers again to create another bow and more arrows. He began running again, shooting down any robots in his effective range.
OOO
"Sixty-two!" Izuku shouted as he thrusted his fire longsword in the chest of a 3-point bot.
"I think there won't be any bots left now."he said, pulling his sword out and looking around. One minute remains for the practical exam, and things have started to slow down.
He managed to find the pretty girl and the blue haired boy during the practical, but of them getting decent scores, but he still had not found Yui yet.
"She must be at another site." he said as he extinguished his sword, relaxing a bit.
Suddenly, the ground shook and buildings trembled. Out of nowhere, the insta-death bot, started making its way towards the examinees.
If Izuku were to describe its appearance, he would say it looked like a titan-sized mechanical T-Rex with appendages on its back that resemble wings.
"How did anyone not see that coming?!" he exclaimed as the rest of the participants began to run back to the gates. Izuku was terrified by the sight; he wanted to run, but his body held firm on where he stood.
"Someone help!" a voice called out.
Izuku looked down from the insta-death bot and saw the pretty girl from earlier trapped under concrete slabs in the path of the giant mech.
Instantly, Izuku ran towards her as fast as he could, reloading his flamethrowers with new cartridges along the way.
Once he was next to her, he created a giant circular saw and started cutting the slabs. He only got through one when the insta-death bot was upon them. It lifted its giant foot, intending to crush them.
Thinking fast, Izuku used his flamethrowers, emptying the cartridges completely as he gathered all the fire into his hands. Condensing the fire into a sphere, he recalls the spell used in a popular video game series that he has recently gotten into.
Taking inspiration, Izuku pointed the ball of fire towards the mech; some of the fire formed the head of a dragon with its mouth open.
"PSEUDOFLARE!" Izuku shouted, the condensed ball of fire launched from the dragon's mouth and struck the insta-death bot.
Not only did the attack knock the robot back, it destroyed it in a series of explosive bursts.
Izuku let out a sigh, now that the threat was gone, he can get the girl out of the rubble. He looked in her direction and saw that she had used her quirk to make the remaining rubble float off of her.
"Are you alright?" he asked as he helped move the concrete aside.
"I got a sprained ankle," the girl replied with a smile, "other than that, I'm fine."
"All carry you to a teacher supervising this exam." Izuku offered.
"The exam!" the girl's eyes widened with realization, "Your Points!"
"TIME'S UP!" Present-Mic announced from the speakers; the practical exams were now over.
"I'm sorry," the girl said with sadness, "If I just used my quirk to begin with, you wouldn't have to give your score to save me."
"It's alright," Izuku said, looking at her with a smile, "I would've come to help you either way. I honestly forgot about the reset."
"Really?" she asked.
"Really." he confirmed, and started to carry her bridal-style to the gates. The girl's blush darkened with his action.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya." Izuku introduced himself.
"Ochako Uraraka." the girl replied.
"Nice to meet you, Uraraka," Izuku said, "thank you for breaking my fall earlier today."
"It's nothing." Ochako said.
Near the gate, Izuku placed Ochako by Recovery Girl, who was there to tend to any injuries.
Seeing no other reason to stay, Izuku gathered his things and headed home.
A few days have passed, and the results from the entrance exam has yet to arrive.
Izuku was getting antsy. He contacted Yui to see how she was doing. She replied that she felt pretty good with her performance in the exam, but she has yet to get her results. Izuku offered to hang out with her, but she refused, saying she doesn't want to jinx the both of them.
So here Izuku was at home, staring blankly at the fish his mother cooked for lunch.
"Izuku," Inko called out, getting her son's attention, "Are you doing all right, you've been looking at that fish funny for a while."
"I'm just nervous about my results, mom." he confessed.
"Oh, don't worry about that, dear," Inko said, "I'm sure you did well. And if, by chance, you didn't get in, there are a lot of other hero schools that you can apply to."
"Yeah, you're right." Izuku said, and continued eating.
After lunch, Izuku went to his room and began a light workout as he read one of his comics.
A few minutes passed; then, Inko burst through his door, holding an envelope with a familiar envelope.
"IZUKU, IT'S HERE!" she cried out.
He quickly took it from his mother's hand and opened it. Inside was a single object, a small projector device.
Placing it on his desk, the projector lit up and a familiar hero was shown.
"HA HA HA!," All Might laughed, "I AM HERE as a projection!"
"All Might?!" Both Izuku and Inko shouted
"That's right," All Might continued, as if predicting the reaction of whoever viewed it, "It is I, All Might. I have recently taken up a job in teaching at U.A, and as my first task as teacher, I shall give you your entrance exam result."
"Now, Izuku Midoriya," All Might continued as Izuku braced, "You have done remarkably well in the written portion; a near perfect score, good job. As for the practical, you have managed to gain a score of sixty-two points, high enough to ensure your entry into U.A.. Unfortunately, you faced off against the 'insta-death bot', resulting in your score resetting to zero."
Izuku sighed at that, looking down. Inko placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, sad at the fact that he didn't get into his school of choice.
"However, that is not where this story ends," All Might continued, getting their attention back, "Take a look at this." He then played a recording.
The recording was of Ochako coming in to see Present-Mic after the exams.
"Excuse me, sir?" she said to the voice hero, "Can I ask you something?"
"What is it, little listener?" the voice hero asked.
"There's this boy, Izuku Midoriya, from the entrance exam. He rescued me from the giant robot and lost all of his points because of it," she explained, "I was wondering if I could give half of my points to him. It's not fair that he worked so hard in the exam only to lose his chance in an instant. So please, can I at least help him get enough points to pass?"
"See this, my boy?" All Might asked, pausing the recording, "Your selfless act to help others has inspired others to do the same. What kind of institution would we be if we punished such heroic behavior?"
"Don't worry, little listener," Present-Mic said to Ochako as the recording resumed, "Everything will work out on his end; you have my word." The recording ended.
"That is why there's a secret scoring system placed on the practical to truly measure an applicant's worth as a hero. I give you: RESCUE POINTS! Izuku Midoriya, not only do you have sixty-five robot points, you have earned sixty rescue points; bringing your practical score total to a whopping 125 points!"
Izuku's eyes widened as a smile grew on his face; Inko was in a similar state as she embraced her son.
"Come, young Midoriya," All Might said, reaching out towards him, "your hero academia awaits."
(A/N: If you haven't already noticed, I'm going to be placing a lot of references and cameos in this story. If you find and understood those references, then you know that their sources do not belong to me.)