Chapter One
The sunrise stretched across the horizon of Dagobah Beach, Izuku sat on the freshly cleaned sand panting heavily. It had been a long and fruitful 10 months for him. After the day that had changed his life, he had done some discovery with his quirk. Suffice to say his mother was shocked at the late development, and quite literally cried herself to exhaustion and passed out. He had done some research and come to the discovery that his quirk was a mutant type. His muscles were denser and he seemed to have a constant superhuman strength, on top of the healing factor, kinetic absorption, and flight which he recently discovered it felt like he had more than one quirk.
But that simply wasn't possible.
Going to a quirkologist had led Inko and Izuku to the revelation that most of his abilities stemmed from his kinetic absorption ability. It was a mutant type with emitter properties. His body simply stored all the kinetic energy it had taken, and looked for ways to release it, which resulted in bursts of strength, flight, and apparently his body trying to heal itself to conserve the energy. It was a weird and diverse quirk, that no doubt had more things that could be discovered about it. It definitely had plenty of applications in hero work. Which had only strengthened his resolve to become a hero.
Due to that, he had been spending the past several months training in order to take the U.A. Entrance Exam. Cleaning up the dilapidated beach as well as talking his mother into allowing him to take martial arts lessons in his spare time. He enrolled in a joint Muay Thai/Capoeira dojo. It was an interesting experience all around, and while in practicality the two styles of martial arts do not mix well together, it is good for combat and mobility. Flashy, for sure, but Izuku would probably default to Muay Thai in most combat environments, unless he needed to move abruptly.
He had returned to school and mostly kept to himself, trying to avoid and ignore Bakugo and his friends. He didn't really want anything to do with them. The blonde was also pretty content separating, he was probably also focusing on his training anyway. Izuku had also been doing a lot of studying and cramming for the written portion of the exam, which was no doubt going to be as difficult as the practical, if not more. His extracurricular activities of watching heroes hadn't slowed down though, he still made enough time to catch up on any hero news he might have missed.
Sitting on the beach, watching the sunrise he sighed. All the tension in his body released at the beautiful sight. The oranges and reds made for a view he would forever cherish. Today was the day of the exam, and he was probably a lot more calm about it than he would have been a year prior.
"The day has come," he grinned, "the day I show the world who I am."
He cracked his back, the satisfying sound of his joints popping invigorated him. With a quick glance back to the now clear beach, the green haired teen released a slight chuckle and then took off towards his house to get ready. Quickly he leapt up onto the balcony outside of his apartment, with nimble grace. Mostly. He stumbled on the landing slightly.
"I still need to work on the landing." Izuku muttered.
That was going to have a pin put in it, he'd save that for a later day. He pushed open the door, removed his shoes, and then ran around trying to get ready. Due to the ruckus, his mother woke up and watched him from the doorframe of her bedroom.
She had a small smile on her face as the teen struggled to pull his pants up, stumbling across the hallway with a toothbrush in his mouth. Getting the sensation of eyes on him, Izuku turned to see his mother and blushed a bright red, which caused her to giggle.
"I'm so proud of you, Izuku." Inko said, tears starting to form in her eyes.
Tears welled up in his eyes too, but he fought them down, "Thanks mom. He glanced down at his watch and adjusted his glasses, "Ah! I'm gonna be late, love you!"
He then shot out of the door, before coming back in blushing. He placed the toothbrush back in the proper location and spit out the leftover toothpaste. After making sure everything was accounted for he walked out of the house at a much more sedated pace, keeping his eyes down. Inko looked at him with amusement, before she went into the kitchen and began making herself breakfast. Only one thought was on her mind.
Be safe, Izuku.
Izuku ran towards the blue archway with massive golden letters "U.A." embroidered on the top. Massive stone walls surrounded the compound like a castle, and the colossal towers inside doing nothing to dissuade that notion. As he was standing there marveling at the school, someone bumped into him. Hard. If it were ten months earlier the force of the blow would be enough to send him sprawling. But it wasn't ten months ago, so he tanked the blow, hoping to catch the one responsible.
Imagine his definite totally genuine shock when a spiky haired blonde boy scoffed as he walked by.
"If you pass the exam, Deku, I'll fucking kill you." He lightly snarled.
Izuku narrowed his eyes, but refrained from commenting. His heart rate was way too high and he'd end up stuttering and making a fool of himself. So he just brushed the comment off and stepped into the school premises shortly after Bakugo, and made his way to the examination room he was supposed to be testing in. Noticing that the other boy was not veering off course, and was going the same direction as him. Makes sense, he was from the same middle school after all.
They both entered into a room that looked like a massive theater mixed with a lecture hall. Everyone was shuffling into their seats, there was a test packet sitting at each of the seats and a pencil directly next to it. Down at the podium, looking bored was a tall blonde man with a ridiculous pompadour, a pair of headphones sat on his head, and sunglasses covered his eyes. Izuku's eyes widened and he began fanboying slightly.
The Voice Hero: Present Mic, with his quirk Voice he can increase the volume of his voice giving him a massive arsenal of sonic based atta-
"Shut the hell up, Deku. You and your damn muttering all the time, nerd. Pisses me off." Growled Bakugo from right next to him.
Izuku frowned, "S-sorry Kacchan. I guess I got carried away."
"Tch.. whatever…"
Eventually the hero in question stood up and glanced around the room, before nodding. The lights in the room dimmed and he let out a beaming smile.
Present Mic cleared his throat, "HEYYYYYYYY LISTENERS, BEFORE WE GET TO THE PRACTICAL EXAM ALL OF YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS TEST! CAN I GET A YEAH?"
Crickets.
"Tough crowd… ANYWAY, OPEN YOUR PACKETS TO THE FIRST PAGE AND BEGIN THE TEST, YOU HAVE TWO HOURS TO COMPLETE IT!"
Izuku flipped open the test booklet and skimmed it. The test consisted of some pretty advanced stuff, but luckily he had been studying a lot of it. It was pretty advanced math, and a lot of English, science, and even some modern literature questions. It was the final question that stumped him though. It was an essay.
Why do you want to be a hero?
Izuku didn't think he could write an entire essay explaining his motivations, so just put the first answer that came to mind. The first one that his heart told him was true.
Because I have the power to help people.
Hopefully that short answer wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass later. With the final page done, he flipped the book closed and left it upside down on the desk in front of him. He still had about half an hour left. What frustrated him was that Bakugo finished slightly before he did. Eventually everyone finished the test, and Izuku glanced around the room, waiting for the pro hero to make any announcement. He noticed quite a few abnormal people, Like someone with what looked to be a glue dispenser for a head, and someone who was just literally floating clothes, and someone with pitch black skin sitting next to a boy with the head of a raven. Quirks truly were all-encompassing and such a diverse thing.
Eventually the sound of movement at the front of the lecture hall drew everyone's eyes. Standing in front of the class was Present Mic, posture proud, as Izuku was still internally fanboying. The pro hero grinned and his eyes scanned the room before he spoke again.
"WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE, EVERYBODY SAY HEY!" He leaned forward with his hand to his ear as if expecting a response, when none came he wasn't dissuaded though, "WELL THAT'S COOL MY EXAMINEE LISTENERS, I'M HERE TO PRESENT THE GUIDELINES OF YOUR PRACTICAL! ARE YOU READY?! YEAHH!"
Again, an awkward silence followed. Which the hero seemed to ignore in favor of speaking more. On the massive screen behind him, a diagram appeared, showing several showing the first seven letters of the English alphabet, in separate boxes as well as a box marked "current location", with lines leading to each testing chamber.
"THIS IS HOW THE TEST WILL GO, MY LISTENERS! YOU'LL BE EXPERIENCING TEN- MINUTE LONG "MOCK CITYSCAPE MANEUVERS"! BRING ALONG WHATEVER YOU WANT! AFTER THIS PRESENTATION YOU'LL EACH HEAD TO YOUR ASSIGNED TESTING LOCATION! OKAY?!"
Izuku wondered if the man was expecting a response or was just doing this out of habit. He heard a scoff next to him and glanced to see Bakugo glaring ahead, bored.
"That's so kids from the same middle school can't help each other out, yeah?" He whispered, although it sounded more like a growl.
"P-probably. It's why consecutive I.D. numbers are assigned to different locations."
"I'll crush 'em all." He looked at Izuku out of the corner of his eye, "Tch, you get to live another day though."
Izuku sweatdropped as Present Mic began to go over the point system. As he was mid-discussion, there was the sound of someone standing up behind him.
"I have a question… there appear to be no fewer than four varieties of faux villain in this handout! Such a blatant error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming for U.A., Japan's top academy! We're all here today in the hopes of being molded into model heroes! And you," Izuku could feel eyes boring into his skull as he nervously turned around and if this were an anime he'd see menacing kanji coming off of him, "you've been muttering this whole time! It's distracting. If this is some sort of game to you, then please leave immediately!"
Izuku went bright red, with a lot of embarrassment and a bit of indignation, but refrained from saying anything but a mumbled apology. Present Mic didn't look too put off by the sudden interruption, in fact his grin widened.
"Alright, alright. EXAMINEE 7111, NICE CATCH! BUT THE FORTH FAUX VILLAIN VARIETY IS GETS YOU ZERO POINTS! HE'S MORE OF AN OBSTACLE!"
The bespectacled boy nodded with his hand on his chin, "I see… so it's like a stage gimmick to be avoided." He then bowed low, almost a ninety degree angle, "Thank you, sir. I apologize for the interruption!"
Present Mic just nodded, "THAT'S ALL FROM ME! I'LL LEAVE MY LISTENERS WITH OUR SCHOOL MOTTO. PLUS ULTRA!" He turned and walked towards a door next to the screen, "BREAK A LEG EVERYONE!"
Izuku stood in front of a massive wall, where from behind he could see a sprawling city.
"How did they make all of this?" He muttered.
He glanced around at each of the other applicants that were in his testing ground. Not a lot stood out to him. There was the loud boy with glasses from before, and he looked like he had engines sticking out of his thighs. A cute brunette stood about ten feet away, and looked to be psyching herself up. Standing to his right was a blonde boy with a weird thick belt, with what looked to be a lens. Focusing lens maybe? A short girl with dark skin and what looked to be bunny ears. Jogging in place was a very hairy boy with glasses, and standing right next to him was a tall, sallow boy with green hair and what looked like pincers next to his angular head.
Izuku kinda felt out of place here. Deep down he knew that he belonged here, but he could help the dredges of imposter syndrome creeping in. All of these kids were probably training for most of their lives and definitely had a better grasp on their quirks than he had on his. They were more worthy to be here. He shook his head of those thoughts, and stared ahead at the gate, his eyes hard. He was gonna pass.
He had to.
"AND BEGIN!"
Everyone stood there confused, as Present Mic stood atop a platform overlooking each of the pathways to the testing grounds.
"WHAT'S WRONG? THE TEST JUST STARTED, THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE! THE DIE HAS BEEN CAST!"
Izuku didn't need another reminder as he took off running. As soon as he made it past the gate he felt the familiar feeling of his energy charge up and surround him, making his eyes glow, as he took off in flight, dashing towards the first robot. A one-pointer. He swung his fist downwards and smashed the robot to pieces.
He would pass.
A/N: I'm sorry it was out so late, I was cramming to have it out earlier, but my internet died! Excuses aside, how did y'all feel about this chapter? I don't know how I feel about, there wasn't a lot of divergence from canon, I mean there was but it was subtle. I feel like once the school year starts is when when start seeing a lot of things change. Also, I am trying to kinda characterize Izuku like Bakugo, due to him now being strong and that's what he think strength looks like. Which is accurate to the source material. Don't worry, he won't be an arrogant shit like Bakugo, but he's definitely more confident. But at the end of the day, he will always be the same person. Honestly, my mans Midoriya has near Shirou Emiya levels of a hero complex. That's... insane.
Also to clarify, I don't have anything against Bakugo. He is not my favorite character by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy him. At this point in the story, though? I do not like him at all. Anyway, leave a review and all that jazz. So long and goodnight!