Chapter 4

It took 2 months before Kendo finally found a way to safely use One for All.

It had been a normal day, with All Might and Gran Torino doing their best to help Kendo while Izuku and Kurono watched. Or, more accurately, Kurono watched while Izuku occasionally looked up from his notebook where he was writing down about One for All and its past users. Izuku figured that if he could figure out who the past users were and how they used One for All, then maybe he'd be able to find something that could help Kendo progress.

"So, which user are you researching right now?" Kurono asked, interrupting Izuku's research.

"Seeing as there's not much more we can find on Nana for now, I'm focusing on the 6th User," Izuku replied. Nana Shimura had proven to be the easiest, short of All Might. This was primarily because they not only had more records and media than any other user barring All Might, but they had primary sources thanks to Gran Torino and All Might, who had lived to see Nana in action. Thanks to the combination of records and the two men, Izuku had quickly pieced together a folder on Nana. She was 44 when she died and was active for 24 years (apparently 2 years between graduating UA and becoming a hero were spent travelling the world), and her hero name was Perseverance. She received One for All when she was 34, meaning she had it for 10 years before her death. According to All Might, gran Torino and some old footage, her fighting style consisted mostly of grappling and short jabs, generally preferring to weaken her opponent slowly and surely before doing the finishing blow. She also had a family, but they all died in a freak accident around 14 years ago which had an unknown cause. Unfortunately, every user from 1 to 6 proved incredibly hard to find info on, which meant Izuku had to comb his way through records until he found possible candidates.

"Perhaps we should stop for a break?" All Might suggested, which Gran Torino surprisingly agreed to. Kendo, grateful for the break, walked over and plonked herself down next to Kurono and Izuku.

"How's it going?" Kendo asked.

"Just glad I'm not you right now," Kurono replied, smirking slightly.

"Would you like some tea, Young Kendo, Midoriya and Kurono?" All Might asked, appearing with a thermos filled with boiling water. They all agreed and thanked the man as he handed them their tea. Kendo was about to drink her tea when Izuku stopped her.

"Let it diffuse first, Kendo! Tea isn't exactly nice when it's just boiling water with one super concentrated amount of tea, is it?" Izuku said. What he wasn't expecting, however, was for Kendo's eyes to widen in shock and for her to jump to her feet, the tea all but forgotten.

"I've got it!" She exclaimed as she bent her knees and entered a combat pose. Suddenly, her veins began glowing red all across her body, and a few seconds later, orange and cyan sparks began sparking around her. She went for a punch, and while it wasn't nearly as strong as a 100% punch, it was still nothing to scoff at. And, most importantly, her arm wasn't broken.

"Well done, Young Kendo! You've improved significantly in these past 2 months to reach this point!" All Might congratulated, letting Kendo bask in the praise. Gran Torino also grumbled out a short well done.

"Well, kid, you've now unlocked the ability to not break your bones. Now, we move onto the next step,"

"What's that?" Kendo asked.

"Combat training," And without another word, Gran Torino jetted off the ground and smacked right into Kendo's gut, making her heave. Izuku got up to go and heal her, but Gran Torino stopped him.

"If she can't even take a single hit like that, then she'll be worthless in the real world. I don't want you healing her unless I say so, understand?" Izuku looked over at Kendo, who was starting to bounce back from the hit, and he reluctantly nodded.

"Good. Now go find something to do that doesn't involve healing the kid, got it?" Izuku nodded.

"Sure," And with that, Gran Torino turned back to Kendo. He saw that Kurono was busy drawing in his sketchbook, and Izuku didn't feel like going back to researching the 6th User, so instead he turned to the piles of trash littering the beach.

'Well, I may as well practice using my quirk' He thought as he walked towards the first pile of trash he could see. Admittedly, Izuku disliked dirty things more than most people. His room was cleaned at least twice a week, and he always carried a facemask in his pocket just in case there was a lot of smog or dust in the area or if someone else was sick. However, Izuku knew that if he was going to be a hero then he couldn't afford to be as mysophobic as he was. So, he grabbed an old microwave and began experimenting with different ways to reassemble it. As he did this, he sighed; it was going to be a very long 8 months

Despite what he first thought, the 8 months went by relatively quickly, and Kendo, Kurono and Izuku all improved their skills. Kendo had unlocked 5% of One for All: Full Diffuse (as she called it), Kurono had taken advantage of the training to improve his ability to draw action poses, and Izuku had learnt to use his quirk in more complex ways than he'd ever thought of, and in the process, he also cleaned the beach as once he was done with something he just disintegrated it. And now, he and Kendo stood outside the walls of UA, preparing for the Entrance Exam. Seeing as Kurono was entering the Design part of the Support Course, he had taken his exam the previous day.

"Are you ready?" Kendo asked Izuku.

"I feel like I should be asking you that, but yes, I am ready,"

And so, the two friends walked up to the door that led to the auditorium.

And Izuku tripped over a loose brick.

'Ah,' Was all Izuku could think as he fell. Suddenly, his collar yanked back, bringing him back to his feet.

"I apologize if that hurt, but I saw no other way to slow your descent," A cool voice said. Izuku turned to see a girl who was a tiny bit shorter than himself. She had chin-length silvery hair that was parted to the left and covered her eye. Her one visible eye was a pale blue, and she had dark eye bags as well. Interestingly enough, she held her arms in the same way Izuku's had already defaulted to: hands held elbow high with the hands draped down.

"I- uh, yeah- you," He spluttered as she watched patiently.

"He means thank you," Kendo butted in, wearing a strained smile from Izuku's incompetence at social interaction.

"Ah, I apologize. I generally don't do well at socialization either," And with that, the 'ghost girl', as Izuku now named her, walked past and into UA.

"Nice one, Izuku," Kendo teased as they began walking again.

"S-shut up, I was put on the spot!" Izuku replied. Kendo just replied with a cheeky 'sure' as they entered the vast auditorium. It was pretty dark, with red curtains on the sides, and up front was a stage and a large screen which simply showed a countdown that was currently at 6:00. Kendo and Izuku found their seats, and they simply chatted until the countdown had counted down entirely, at which point, a man walked onto the stage who Izuku did not recognize. He had greasy black hair and wore a black outfit with a long white scarf around his neck.

"The first part of this exam is the Written Exam, which serves the purpose of cutting the number of examinees in half. The rules are simple; if you score in the bottom 50%, you will automatically fail the entire exam and not be allowed to participate in the Practical Exam. Understand?" There were murmurs of affirmation, which seemed to be enough for the supposed pro-hero, "Good. Now follow the signs out to the testing areas. Cheat and you'll be blacklisted from every Hero School worth mentioning," The crowd shivered at this threat, as not only did he seem serious about it, but considering this was UA they could probably do that.

Kendo and Izuku quickly got to the testing area.

"I wonder who that hero was? I've never seen him before," Kendo said. Izuku shrugged.

"I feel like I've seen him, just don't know when," He replied. Kendo hummed.

"Reckon I'll pass?" Izuku snorted.

"Not even a question of if I'll pass?" He asked jokingly.

"You're you, Izuku. Failing isn't possible. Now answer the question,"

"If you studied enough, you'll pass,"

After he said that, they had to remain silent for the test, which was taken via a tablet. Many clones of Ectoplasm watched to ensure there was no cheating taking place. One person had their test taken away and they were removed from the room, which Izuku assumed meant they had been caught cheating. After 30 minutes, Izuku finished his test, and when he looked at the clock, he saw that another 30 minutes remained. So Izuku checked his work again and saw no flaws, and once he did that, he started writing on the paper they were given for problem solving.

'Kendo's quirk seemingly got boosted by One for All, as I noticed that she looked surprised by the size of her hand when she first used it along with Full Diffuse, which suggests that One for All boosts quirks. I wonder how this could affect other quirks I know about? Would Kurono's quirk last even longer, or even be usable when moving? Would Nemoto be able to use his quirk on large groups of people? Would Irinaka be able to control the entire compound? What would I be able to do? Could I theoretically use my quirk at higher speeds, or affect a larger area? Perhaps I'd even be able to control liquids and-,' Izuku was torn out of his writing by the bell going off, and soon an Ectoplasm clone came and collected his sheet of paper. After that, they were all herded back into the auditorium, with a more recognizable hero on the stage: Present Mic, who Izuku started immediately fanboying over.

"Oh my god it's Present Mic I can't believe he's actually here and that I might end up having him as a teacher! I always listen to his radio show every Friday and I love the segments where he brings on other pros like Ingenium or Midnight, and it's also-,'

"Excuse me!" A loud voice ahead of Izuku called out, making him snap back to reality, "But you've described 3 robots but on out sheet there are clearly 4! Either you've forgotten about the 4th one, or this is a blatant error on UA's behalf! And you!" Izuku was surprised when he turned to look directly at him, "Will you stop with that muttering? Are you just here to mess around? Because if so you should just leave!" This triggered something in Izuku, because 1: this guy had just singled him out without any consideration, and 2: he was being an asshole. Izuku opened his mouth to retort, but Kendo put a hand on hi shoulder to stop him. Izuku sighed and just opted to glare at him. Glasses boy sat down, and Present Mic explained that the robot was the Zero Pointer, and that they should just avoid it. Once that was said and done, they were herded into buses to head towards their respective zones. Unfortunately, this was where Kendo and Izuku had to separate, getting on different buses. Izuku subconsciously pulled out his facemask and put it on; even if this was a state-of-the-art bus, he was still reluctant to be there without a mask.

As the bus slowly filled up, a familiar face sat chose to sit down next to him. Izuku panicked slightly when the girl who saved him from falling sat next to him because 1: he'd embarrassed himself earlier, and 2: she was cute. Izuku put it down to the eyebags.

"Are you okay?" She asked. Izuku raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"When the boy called you out, I wasn't sure how you would be feeling, as you seemed rather bad at social interaction from what I had seen, no offence," Izuku was startled at how this random girl actually cared about how he was feeling; he sincerely hoped she made it into UA.

"Oh, err, yeah, I'm fine now! It's not the first time I've been yelled at!" Izuku replied cheerfully, but he realized he may have said the wrong thing when her eyes widened in shock.

"Good lord, I do not believe one should get yelled at enough to be used to it," She said. Ah, yes, Izuku forgot that most people don't grow up surrounded by Yakuza and are taught by a narcissistic asshole.

"D-don't worry about it! I was just raised differently, is all," Izuku explained. However, the conversation was cut short by the bus arriving at the fake city. Everyone poured off, with Izuku getting separated from the girl (he still didn't know her name!). When he spotted her, he made his way towards her, but a hand suddenly clamped down on his shoulder. Firm like All Might, but not nearly as warm.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice you were…" Izuku drowned out the words he was saying. It was the glasses guy from the auditorium. Izuku really didn't like this guy so far.

So, why not mess around with him?

"What?" Izuku replied, cutting off the boy. To Izuku's delight, he repeated his spiel about leaving other contenders alone. When he finished that as well, Izuku replied with 'What?' again. This time, the boy looked visibly irritated, and when Izuku replied with another 'What?', the boy began chopping his hands and yelling about how 'tricking other people is not heroic!'. Izuku couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened. Ah, the good old 'pretend you can't hear what they're saying' trick, a classic.

"GO!" Present Mic yelled out. Izuku looked at the top of a nearby tower to see him standing there, "Come on, there are no countdowns in real life!" And with that, Izuku ran in with the rest of the crowd, and he quickly splintered off into a side street to look for robots. Soon enough, he came across a 3-Pointer, and he overhauled the ground into a mass of spikes, impaling it in the head. Spikes were Izuku's best bet; they blocked other competitors while also serving as an easy way to defeat robots. As he ran past it, however, he noticed that it had a gatling gun on it. Izuku looked at it, and an idea suddenly popped into his head. He smirked, loving the idea that he had.

Shota Aizawa watched the examinees from the observation room, thoroughly unimpressed with most of them. A lot of them had quirks that just wouldn't cut it in UA. Most of them visibly had no potential, and others were downright nasty to the other competitors. Aizawa wasn't particularly fond of a boy with an explosive quirk, but at the rate he was going he was seemingly going to end up in the Hero Course, unfortunately. Meh, maybe Vlad would want him…hopefully.

Of course, even Shota could admit that some of these kids had potential. The boy with the hardening quirk (the leaderboard said he was Eijiro Kirishima) seemed to be respectful towards his fellow competitors while also being able to actually fight. A ginger girl named Itsuka Kendo was tearing through robots with a strange quirk that both expanded her hands and also granted her a boost in strength, speed and flexibility, and she also helped out a couple people too; Shota might actually ask specifically for her. And then there was-

"What in tarnation?" The voice of Snipe cut through Aizawa's thoughts, bringing his attention to Screen 4, where a green-haired boy was currently wielding a big fucking gun and absolutely destroying the robots. When a robot got too close, he'd extend an arm and destroy the robot in a single touch, leaving behind another gun, which he would use to replace his current one. Shota was stumped as to what his quirk was. Transfiguration, perhaps?

"What an interesting use of his quirk! When I first read it, I assumed he would use it to just to destroy the robots. Instead, it seems he is reassembling them so as to be able to utilize the gun implemented in it! Very clever!" Nedzu praised from his chair. Shota looked at the leaderboard, and saw that his name was Izuku Midoriya, and he had very quickly climbed his way to 3rd place, just behind Itsuka Kendo and Katsuki Bakugou.

After another 30 seconds of this, he decided to abandon the gun, and he now ran around collecting points like the other examinees were. Shota quickly found an observable pattern in his fighting: he either slams his hand into the ground to make spikes, or he run at them and destroy them by touching the robot itself. And while those attacks were incredibly strong, eventually someone might figure out a way to avoid them, and that's a fast way to end your Hero Career in a casket. He'd have to beat that habit out of him if he ended up in his class.

Shota was impressed when the kid rushed forward to slam his hand into the wall of a building to catch some debris that was about to fall on a boy with tall purple hair, and without an ounce of hesitation. Most people with powerful quirks like that would at the very least hesitate, and at the most ignore it all together, so he was glad that he seemed to not be as bad as other people with powerful quirks.

"My, my! It's been 8 minutes already?" Nedzu stated as he looked at his watch, "I suppose it's time to release the Zero Pointers!" Everyone in the room shuddered, even All Might, who now that Shota thought about it, probably didn't have to fight robots when he went to UA; hell, Shota didn't and that was only like 20 years ago. Nedzu opened a case that protected a red button and pressed his pawn onto it, and as loud mechanics could be heard in the distance, he let out a mirth-filled cackle that Shota swore made the room drop a couple degrees.

This was going to be interesting.

Izuku was starting to get tired from a mixture of Quirk Fatigue and running around. As he stopped to take a breather, he suddenly felt vibrations from the ground, and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"That's…new…" He said. Could it be the Zero Pointer? Nah, there's no way it's that big! Although now he thought about it, Present Mic never specified how tall the Zero Pointer was, did he?

Izuku turned around and was promptly knocked to the ground by an examinee that had run past. Izuku massaged his shoulder, and he looked ahead to see an entire group of examinees running from something. That something was revealed as it turned around a corner, revealing the absolutely massive Zero Pointer. It wasat least 10 stories tall, and while it didn't have any visible weapons, it's sheer size was more than enough to scare every examinee in the area. Izuku was about to run away himself when he noticed something up ahead. The ghost girl from before seemed to have hurt her ankle and was sprawled across the floor. Upon seeing that, Izuku remembered how she had been so nice to him, even though they hadn't even known each other before yesterday.

And before he knew it, Izuku was running at the Zero Pointer.

He only realized once he was halfway there, but it was too late to turn back. Not like he would anyways. What was the point of being a Hero if you abandoned a person just because you could be gravely hurt if you help them? Izuku ran at the Zero Pointer, and he could practically feel the other examinees staring at him in awe as he disintegrated the entire robot with a single touch. Or, more accurately, everything except the legs, which fell to the left and crashed down atop the buildings. That sizeable attack had exhausted Izuku, but he still made his way to the ghost girl.

"Are you okay?" He breathed out.

"Apart from my ankle, I am in perfect health. Thank you for coming back to help me, by the way," She replied.

"My pleasure," Izuku put his hand on the girl's ankle and healed it, barely conscious of the fact that the Exam had ended.

"There…now you…can…walk…" Izuku said before falling unconscious from overusing his quirk.

Izuku awoke to find himself in a hospital bed, but he wasn't in a hospital, more like an infirmary. He also took note of how there wasn't anything that implied he was seriously hurt such as heart monitor, which was good news. Izuku sat up, feeling well rested, and as he did he saw an old lady look up from her computer.

"Ah, so you're awake, are you?" She said. She got off her chair, revealing her costume which allowed Izuku to identify her as Recovery Girl, and made her way over to him.

"Honestly, I can't believe you healed that girl's ankle despite being exhausted. I was right around the corner, you know!" She scolded. Izuku grunted.

"Wasn't thinking right. Let my heart think instead of my brain," He replied. Recovery Girl sighed.

"Yes, I can see how Toshinori considered you as a potential candidate. Anyways, you're free to leave. Please try and stay out of my infirmary in the future," Izuku had forgotten that Recovery Girl knew about One for All, to be honest. He muttered out a quick thanks before leaving the infirmary. He stepped out into the halls of UA, and he quickly followed a map out of the building. As he walked to the gate, he took note of the area where he tripped, and he slapped his head.

'I still didn't get her name!" He groaned.

Notes: I would have liked to do some of this chapter from Kendo's perspective, but this chapter is already the longest by a long shot, so I decided to skip that. Maybe we'll see it in a flashback later on. best girlGhost Girl Reiko Yanagi makes her debut this chapter! Considering she barely has any dialogue, I'm basically working with a skeleton right now, but I'll make it work...maybe...hopefully...