While there were other hero academies in the world, none were as prestigious, or as successful, as UA High. Its alumni was a regular who's who of legendary heroes, such as All-Might, Endeavor, Eraserhead, Present Mic, Terrible Tornado, Demon Cyborg, and Captain Planet. While there was no official rule regarding such, it was generally accepted that becoming a top hero in the world required graduation from UA.
Right now, Izuku was waiting to be let into Battle Zone B for his practical exam. The written portion had actually been easy, and he wouldn't have been surprised if he was given top marks. He, Katsuki, and the Salvato Sisters always scored high on their tests up until the end of junior high.
Many of the other students were talking among themselves about how the urban environment looked like a whole city. Izuku then noticed the girl who had helped back outside the exam center. She looked nervous, so he decided to go over and give her some encouragement. But he was stopped by the glasses-wearing young man.
"She looks like she's trying to focus!" The man said. "What are you intending to do? Distract her and harm her chances of-OOOF!"
The boy crumpled to the ground when a hammer slammed into his head. Walking up behind him was a tanned girl with pink hair in twin tails. She had a hammer that was larger than she was.
"He looked more like he was trying to help her out. Who are you to judge others? Do you even want to be a Hero?" she admonished the fallen boy.
Before the dazed glasses-wearing young man could reply, the girl summoned a taser and shocked him. Izuku had a feeling there was more to her Quirk than just weapons.
"I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm Saiko Bichitaru."
"It's okay, I'm Izuku Midoriya."
"ALRIGHT, IT'S TIME TO GET MOVING!" Present Mic called out from a nearby tower as the gates suddenly swung open. "THERE'S NO COUNTDOWN IN A REAL BATTLE! GET MOVING, ZYGOTES!"
Izuku was off like a shot and as he made his way through the city, he already came across his first target; A One-Pointer Robot. Using Vice-Admiral Smoker's [Plume-Plume Fruit], Izuku turned into a gust of smoke to avoid its swipe before rematerializing behind it, where he noticed a switch on its back.
"So they make sure the robots can be disabled even if an examinee doesn't have a Quirk capable of outright demolishing them. But why aren't there any simulations of people to rescue? That's a big part of being a hero too. Oh well...Time to put my training to use!"
He quickly made a flicking motion with his finger as he next channeled Admiral Kizaru's [Glint-Glint Fruit]. Snapping his fingers, Izuku sent a bolt of condensed light that obliterated the robot in a massive explosion.
Another robot came up behind Midoriya, only for it to be blasted apart by an effeminate blonde young man, a lighter blue sparkling laser shooting out of a high-tech belt with a glittering core.
"Thanks for the save!" Izuku said with a smile before noticing a Three-Pointer barreling down on the two of them. Grabbing the blonde boy, he jumped out of the way before kicking his leg out and sending another bolt of light that destroyed the robot.
"Merci!" The young man said with a sparkling smile. "We make a good team, you and I."
Yuri dodged a swipe from a Two-Pointer Robot and coated her arm in bone-like armor before delivering a punch to its chassis, caving it in. She then sensed another robot approaching from behind and spun around, grabbing it by the side with her hand turning into sharp reptilian claws, and then ripped out an entire half of it, oil spilling out like blood.
"I don't usually indulge in violence but this is actually quite fun!"
Another robot approached from behind to try and avenge its fallen comrades but a massive bolt of gold energy struck it, obliterating its entire upper half. Yuri turned around and noticed the lime-haired girl she, Izuku, Katsuki, and her sisters had rescued from the Sludge Villain ten months ago. Her arms were glowing with golden light.
"Um...S-Sorry, I just thought you needed help." The girl shyly apologized.
"Oh, it's no problem. Guess you repaid me for saving your life that day." Yuri said, smiling sweetly.
The girl's red eyes widened as she then recognized who Yuri was. "Wait, I DO remember you! You and your friends were the ones who helped me!"
"Well, let's see if we can become Heroes together?" Yuri suggested.
The girl smiled and nodded, gathering her power and emitting a bright golden aura around her body.
"Let's do this!" She said determinedly. Nearby, the axolotl-esque boy used a large pen staff to draw Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter into existence and have him attack some robots for him before disappearing in a burst of ink.
"Oh yeah!" Natsuki cheered, Using her Quirk, [Omni-Element], she created powerful gusts of wind to blast the robots. Seeing a girl nearby that was being overwhelmed, Natsuki cast a fireball at the robots causing them to explode.
"Thanks for the assist!" The girl smiled. She had long orange hair, freckles, a red beanie, black goggles, a white shirt, black shorts, and black boots.
"No problem! I'm always happy to help others!" Natsuki replied as she saw another girl dodging the rubber pellets fired by a few robots before summoning a bow and arrow and firing at the robots. "And it looks like she could use some help!"
"On it!" The orange-haired girl, Meggy Spletzer, said as she was coated in cyan energy before dashing forward at lightspeed, smashing through all the robots in a straight line and stopping, sparkles of the energy trailing behind her.
"You okay, Tari?" Meggy asked the blue-haired girl, who smiled brightly as she ran up to her and wrapped her arms around her.
"Thank you, Meggy!"
Natsuki chuckled as she lifted a finger up and a spike or rock impaled a robot that was attempting to jump the two friends. Turning to her, the short pink-haired girl winked, giving a fanged grin.
Monika was elsewhere in Zone C using her Quirk [Dynamo] to destroy the robots with Gravity and Electromagnetism while helping other examinees. Spotting a spiky red-haired boy struggling against a Three-Pointer. Acting quickly she manipulated gravity to lift the robot up in the air and crush it.
"That was so manly! Thanks for helping there." The boy said.
"No problem!" Monika said. "I've always been one to look out for others."
"I'm Eijiro Kirishima, nice meet ya!" Ther boy introduced himself with a grin while offering his fist.
"I'm Monika Salvato, let's both do our best!" Monika replied fist-bumping Eijirou.
Meanwhile, Sayori was swinging from building to building like a certain friendly neighborhood hero searching for villain bots to destroy. She swung up to a rooftop and began observing the landscape. She spotted an orange-haired girl with a ponytail using her enormous fists to smash the villain bots. Deciding to help the girl, Sayori swung down to the girl's position.
"Hi, there! I am Sayori Salvato." Sayori said, introducing herself.
"Hey, Name's Itsuka Kendo!" The girl replied.
"Need a hand?" Sayori said.
Itsuka laughed at her Sayori's unintentional pun. "Sure why not?"
"Cool!"
Meanwhile, the staff of UA was watching the students in the various battle zones on a large bank of monitors. Principal Nezu, a rodent-like animal with the Quirk [High Spec], which gave an unparalleled amount of intelligence, observed the exam.
"They don't know how many villains there are or where they are," The Chimera noted. "So they use everything they have at their disposal to find targets. Some use overwhelming power, others use intelligence gathering, and still others unbridled speed. Some simply remain cool under pressure as they search. The best is to use a combination of all of these."
"But of course," Spoke Bang. "Fighting villains is only half the exam. We didn't tell the students about the other half. After all...Their actions in that regard must be genuine. Fortunately, we do have a few promising students in that regard as well. But the real test is still to come."
He opened a glass case guarding a red button, then slammed his fist atop said button.
Explosions suddenly caught everyone's attention. Izuku was the first to notice the giant Godzilla-esque robot towering over the buildings.
"Holy crap, it's the Zero-Pointer! They didn't mention it would be so huge!"
The Zero-Pointer's attacks were already causing the students to scatter, and those that got trapped were helped by a few others.
The glasses-wearing black-haired girl narrowed her eyes at the approaching Zero-Pointer.
"There are only two minutes left," Izuku noted. "They must have unleashed this robot to really test the candidates."
"Ow!"
Hearing the familiar voice, Izuku looked and saw the brown-haired girl from before, her leg trapped under some rubble. And she was uncomfortably close to the Zero-Pointer, in danger of being crushed under its treads.
"It's that girl! She's gonna be crushed!" Izuku thought and before he could process what he was doing, his legs moved on their own. [One for All] surged through him as he activated the powers of Page One's [Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Model Spinosaurus], Luffy's [Gum-Gum Fruit], and Gasparde's [Candy-Candy Fruit].
Transforming into an anthropomorphic Spinosaurus, stretching his arms like rubber, and turning his fists into hardened crystallized candy syrup, Izuku let out a fierce cry as he jumped into the air with help from [One for All].
"The Zero-Pointer may not give any points to the villain score, but that doesn't necessarily mean it shouldn't be fought, contrary to what the proctors say to the examinees. For that mighty beast can provide opportunity. A chance for a young up-and-comer to show what he's really made of. Isn't that right...All-Might?"
Nedzu looked next to him, and it turned out Toshinori was sitting there as well, in his normal skeletal form.
"Indeed. Young Midoriya is showing the true character of a Hero. Not running when another is in danger, but facing that danger head-on!"
"So that's your chosen successor, hm?" Nezu noted with a hum. "He's certainly been proving he deserves the honor. And now it looks like he's fighting the Zero-Pointer to rescue that trapped girl. And he's not the only one. That boy Bakugo... He just seems to want to take down the Zero-Pointer but acknowledges that others are in the area. Young Monika, Young Yuri, Young Natsuki, and Young Sayori are working with others to take down the Zero-Pointer in their zone, and Young Yoshida is making sure to keep others safe while she takes it down."
Izuku pulled back for a right straight and thrust his stretching hardened candy syrup scaled fist at the Zero-Pointer's face.
"SMAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"
The girl looked on in awe as the powerful punch caved in the Zero-Pointer's face, its head getting blown clean off. However, that had more power than Izuku was used to, and he wound up falling uncontrollably.
"Crap! At least I still have the [Gum-Gum Fruit] active! I'll be able to absorb the landing!"
Suddenly, the girl tagged him as he neared the ground, letting him fall more gently. He noticed that she had reached a piece of debris, likely when she saw he was falling and was using it to levitate. As she released her power, she wound up puking up literal rainbows.
Izuku turned back to normal, deactivating the three Devil Fruits he had used, and walked over to the girl, taking a moment to right his footing as he did so.
"You okay?"
"Yeah...I'll be fine..." she coughed. "Overusing my Quirk tends to make me nauseous. I have a high tolerance for motion sickness, but not immunity."
Izuku smiled. "That's the second time you stopped my fall. Even knowing I would come out alright, you still tried to help me."
The girl blushed and smiled bashfully but at that moment, the exam had finished. As Izuku helped the girl up, a short old lady approached.
"Nice work, everyone," she said, "Anyone who has any injuries, I'll be sure to get each of you."
"I recognize that mademoiselle," The french blonde boy noted. "She's The Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl, the Heart of UA."
Recovery Girl checked over Izuku and Ochako. Izuku thankfully wasn't too hurt but Ochako's leg looked to be in pretty bad shape.
"I'll need to take a look at your leg, sweetie. Make sure there aren't any fractures."
Using her Quirk, [Heal], Recovery Girl kissed Ochako's leg, using their body's natural energy to repair the damage.
"Hey!" A familiar voice came and Izuku turned to see Saiko Bichitaru, the girl who got the glasses-wearing boy off his back. "I saw what you did. That was pretty cool!"
"Thanks. How did you do on the exam?"
"By my count, I think I got 40 points. I had to rescue a little midget with grapes for hair. He was kind of a perv though, but not ungrateful that I saved his life."
Izuku chuckled. "Well, I met a boy who seems to be of French Ancestry and could fire a laser from his belt."
"Bonjour, I'm right here~!" The blonde boy in question said, striking a dazzling pose. Izuku and Saiko couldn't help but giggle good-naturedly at the boy's eccentricities.
Meanwhile, the glasses-wearing black-haired girl sighed as she walked off with her hands in her hoodie pockets. She had hoped to be able to speak with Izuku and the Salvato Sisters and hopefully, catch up on old times, but it seems she'd have to wait and see if she made it into UA first in order to do so.
A week later, Izuku was waiting for his exam results.
"Is something the matter, Izuku?" Inko asked.
The family was having dinner, Izuku having several plates of food in front of him due to the fact that he needed a lot of caloric intake to keep his strength up to the nature of his Quirk.
"Nothing, just thinking about the exam, is all."
After dinner, the test results came in the mail. To Izuku's surprise, the letter included a hologram projector.
"BOOYAH! I AM HERE, AS A PROJECTION!" All-Might said, appearing on the projector, "Sorry I wasn't able to contact you at all this week, my boy, I was caught up in paperwork since I'm actually going to be a General Heroics teacher at UA starting this year! And what does that mean for you, you might be wondering? I think you'll be quite pleased, Young Midoriya! You officially earned seventy-five combat points, the second-highest after your friends, Young Bakugo Young Monika, Young Yuri, Young Natsuki, and Young Sayori, who tied for first!"
"Awesome! Looks like I made it." Izuku said, smiling with relief.
"That number alone would get you into UA without issue." All-Might continued, "And as a top student, no less. But the practical exam is not graded on combat alone. You must have noticed it, yes? The fact that there were no rescue simulations, despite this being an exam to get into a hero academy. Well, there's a reason for that! We can't just offer simulations for rescues, otherwise, we can't be sure the rescue was for selfless reasons!"
He showed images of Izuku's actions, as well as those of Katsuki, the Salvato Sisters, and a few others, saving people and encouraging others to do the same. It was honestly mind-blowing.
"We did all that...?"
"You and your friends not only acted selflessly to save others, but you inspired your fellow examinees to act as real heroes!" All-Might explained. "The UA faculty was practically begging you to be a student here! In total, you earned a grand total of eighty rescue points, the highest out of all the examinees! This puts you in the number one spot for this year's exam! Oh, and in case you were curious...The girl you helped, Ochako Uraraka. She also earned a substantial amount of rescue points, forty-five in total. What really clinched it for her was when she saved you."
Izuku checked the scoreboard next to All-Might. He was in first, Katsuki was second, and The Salvato Sisters were tied for third.
"I did it...I DID IT!"
"Welcome, Izuku Midoriya. This is your Hero Academia!"