Masaki glanced at her son's friends in the rearview mirror, the layout of the high end car they were in letting it… mostly comfortably fit all six of the so-called Ryoka in the back, three facing each other. She smiled softly, turning towards the Midoriya house, "So, how did it go?"
"Pretty good!" Izuku chirped, to loud snorts all around.
"You cut a skyscraper robot in half, and it was just pretty good?" Rukia deadpanned, causing Izuku to flush and duck his head.
"You- uh- you blew up the head of yours!" Izuku defended weakly.
"Yeah, and I didn't call it "pretty good"!" Rukia shot back.
"Did you all even try to make it fair for the others?" Uryu reproached.
"It was a special robot worth no points," Izuku explained, "we just got them out of the picture."
"And destroyed my arm," Tatsuki said, unwinding the compression bandage from around the offending limb.
"Why were you wearing that?" Masaki asked, "Orihime could put both us and Isshin out of business with her healing if she could see everyone."
"Shuzenji-Sensei didn't believe my healing was quite that good," Orihime explained, "so she insisted Tatsuki wear a compression bandage for a couple of days."
"It would be hard to believe," Masaki defended the Youthful Heroine.
Recovery Girl was honestly part of what kept the Mustafu hospital in business, ironically. People came from all over Japan expecting to be treated by her, only to find that she had a backlog nearly a year long. So, they inevitably ended up at Mustafu General if it was anything that needed immediate attention.
"How do you think you did, Uryu?" Masaki asked her son, who adjusted his glasses.
"I think I did well enough, mother. The written exam wasn't the hardest, and they gave us a wide range of supplies to work with for the practical. I decided to work on a Quincy Kleider from a bullet resistant weave. While the chances of me having to take to the field against villains is low, I believe it to be better safe than sorry."
"I'd like to see the bullet that can make it through Blut Vein," Masaki said, "though yes, it is better safe than sorry I suppose."
"I want to be able to claim my bow is my Quirk, if the need arises."
Maskai nodded, stopping the car in the driveway of the Midoriya house, blinking as she sensed a Hollow she didn't recognize inside it. Quietly, she made a small Heilig Bogen in one hand and climbed out of the car with the others.
"IZZUU!" The presence got closer as the door swung open, letting a little girl with green hair partially covered by a hollow mask rush out of the building, passed Masaki and crashed skull mask first into Izuku's gut, sending him flying back and into the car, forced to sprawl across Rukia and Yasutora's laps.
"Hey, Nel," Izuku gasped, head tilted backwards, "how has your day been?"
"I missed you!" 'Nel' said, "but I had fun with Yuzu!"
"What about Karin?" Izuku asked, finally climbing off Yasutora and Rukia and letting them get out of the car.
"She said she was busy," Nel blew a raspberry.
"Who's this?" Masaki asked, dispelling the Heilig Bogan and crouching down in front of the girl.
"Nel's Nel," the girl said, like that explained everything. Masaki laughed, brushing her hair aside and then doing the same with Nel's messy hair.
"And what's Nel doing in the human world?" Masaki asked.
"Being with Izu and his friends and family," Nel answered.
"Well, if Isshin and Inko are happy to have you, It's nice to meet you, Nel. I'm Ishada Masaki, I'm a friend of the family."
"Aunt Masaki?" Masaki turned towards where Karin was walking out of the doorway, an extra large pez dispenser in her hand.
"Oh, hello, Karin!" Maskai said, standing up and walking towards the black haired girl, "have you gotten taller since last time I saw you?"
"I hope so," Karin puffed out her cheeks, before looking towards Izuku, "You promised we'd train after you were done with the entrance exam?"
"Right!" Izuku nodded, patting down his shirt, "Right! Down to the training area?"
"I swear," Rukia grunted, "if it weren't for you owning hobby stuff, people would think you never take breaks."
- X Karin X-
Karin brought the blade of red Reishi down towards Izuku, her hands in a textbook kendo grip on the "pez dispenser", really a replica of a Quincy "Seele Schneider" created by Kisuke for her to use. Izuku, with a look of almost boredom on his face, deflected the broadsword along the flat of Gesshoku.
"Are you even remotely taking this seriously?" Karin asked, swinging the sword for Izuku's neck. He leaned back, the blade hissing through the air centimeters from his neck.
"Karin," Izuku said, parrying the blade again on the return attack, "you do realize if I was taking this seriously, you'd be dead, right? You've had that for a week."
"And you killed your first Ba- Hollow," Karin corrected herself, "right after getting your powers. What's your point?''
Izuku heaved a sigh, shifting his grip on Gesshoku so it was tighter, "Alright then, come at me."
Karin rushed forwards, swinging her sword straight down. Izuku vanished from her sight, and she whipped around just in time to block the swing aimed at her. Gesshoku and her sword barely pressed against each other for a second before she was sent flying back from the strike, the blade flying out of her hand. Activating her Quirk, Karin pulled the sword back into her hand as she came up from a rough roll on her shoulder.
A shadow came over her, and Karin pushed her Spiritual Power, her, what did they call it? Reiryoku? Into the blade and used it to double handedly block the downwards swing from Izuku that caused a crater of dry stone to fly in every direction. Which made it all the more galling that he was only using one hand to do it.
Karin kicked out with one foot, trying to trip up Izuku only for him to effortlessly hop over the attack. Still, it let her get back up and on the offensive.
Not that it did much. Izuku deflected each strike from her blade with a careless movement of his wrist, not even backpedalling from the attacks. Kicking out again, Karin took the jump back to catch her breath.
"Remember," Izuku said, briefly tossing Gesshoku between his hands. Unlike Karin, who was pouring sweat, he didn't look even winded, "we're doing this to build up your muscle mass and Reiryoku, Karin. You don't need to beat me. You won't beat me."
Out of anyone else, the statement would have sounded egotistical. But the truth was that even a year and half out of practice, Izuku had fought too many fights to lose to her, she knew that. From Bakugo to the Ulqu-whatever guy who had punched a hole through his chest.
And while Karin had had her share of scuffles on the football field, it just wasn't enough. But that didn't mean she wasn't gonna try.
Karin threw the blade at Izuku, who sidestepped it without a glance. Activating her Quirk once it was behind him, she watched the fading blade boomerang in midair and fly for Izuku's neck.
Izuku ducked, the blade flying over his head and back into Karin's hand. Charging forwards, Karin swung the blade at her crouching brother.
For the first time in the match, she struck home, blade right to the top of the head. It should have felt like a success.
Instead, as her hand cracked and her fingers twisted at odd angles forcing her to let go of the blade, it felt like a failure.
"What-" Karin bit her lip to hide the sob of pain. Big girls didn't cry, "what just happened?"
"When two Spiritual Powers clash," Izuku said, standing up and dispelling Gesshoku and his outfit as he immediately rushed to her side and held her wrist gently, "the weaker one takes damage. I should have warned you, I'm sorry. C'mon, let's go see Orihime."
Karin nodded weakly, cradling her broken hand as they began to walk to the part of the so giant training ground that had been cordoned off for Orihime and Tatsuki's use.
- X Ochako X-
Ochako sat on her bed, staring at the pillow. The floating pillow. It wouldn't be strange, if she hadn't so much as touched it with more than one finger. She had just willed it to lose its gravity, and then pushed it up with one finger. And when she touched something with all five fingers, it didn't immediately lose its gravity anymore. Her Quirk had changed at the Entrance Exam, and she didn't know why.
Deactivating her Quirk with a thought, and touching her fingers together on habit, Ochako walked to the hotel door and pulled it open, pulling up instructions to the town library as she went.
She needed to figure out what was going on.
- X Orihime X-
Orihime hummed as she pulled out a boxcutter from the sack of supplies she and Tatsuki had left in the training ground. They were at one of the rocky cliff faces, far away from where the others could be expected to start a fight. Slowly, carefully, she began to cut out a stencil of a large flame, "This place is gonna be great!"
"Tell me about it," Tatsuki chuckled, rotating her previously injured fist before throwing a few shadow boxing punches, "You sure you don't mind helping me tomorrow?"
"It's not good for anyone if you break your hand every time you use All Might's Quirk," Orihime said.
"Seriously," Tatsuki said, closing a fist and staring at it, "Like, don't get me wrong, that punch… that must be what it's like to be Izuku or Chad. Just destroying something huge like that with a punch was… it was awesome, Hime, but if I'm gonna destroy my hand every time I do it I can't keep it up. I'm not Izu."
"He's been getting better about getting hurt," Orihime defended her other best friend.
"Being completely busted doesn't count," Tatsuki grunted, throwing another punch in the air, followed by a high kick, "It's easy not to get hurt when nothing can hurt you."
"Stencil's ready!" Orihime chirped, holding up the cut out frame and smiling at Tatsuki. Tatsuki grinned, reaching into the bag and tossing her a can of blue spray paint, shaking her own with the other hand.
"No worry about being caught this time," Tatsuki said, helping Orihime lay the stencil out, "Good thing we never did, I doubt UA takes people with criminal records."
Orihime hummed, popping the top off her can, "I bet it depends on the crime."
"And tagging?" Tatsuki said, beginning to spray out the blue onto her half of the giant stencil while Orihime did the other half.
"I mean, we're adding color to the world," Orihime said, climbing up the ladder and spraying the top half of the stencil.
"Still a crime," Tatsuki said.
"Are you guys busy?" Izuku said, walking towards them with Karin cradling her hand next to him.
"Sparring injury?" Orihime asked, hopping down and rushing over. Putting all five fingers on Karin's shoulder, her Quirk activated and told her the injuries the younger girl had. That was a lot of broken fingers, "What did you do?"
"She hit me with the sword," Izuku said, "I didn't expect the backlash."
"Sōten Kisshun, I reject!" Orihime called, Ayame and Shun'ō flying out and creating a barrier around Karin's hand. Fingers snapped back into place, bruised skin returned to the right color, and Karin stopped cradling her hand.
"Thanks," Karin said.
"Any time," Orihime smiled.
"Just don't use that as an excuse to become like your brother," Tatsuki called with a grin.
"I-" Izuku sputtered, "I'm- Tacchan!"
- X Ryo X-
Inui Ryō stepped into the principal's office, wondering why he had been called ther-
"Ryō," Nezu sighed, resting his paws on his snout. Ryo quietly took off his muzzle, sitting across from the ermine (though only the two of them knew that for certain) principal. He was staring at the computer screen blankly, eyes haunted.
"What's wrong, boss?"
"I fear we've gone too far in trying to make the Entrance Exam 'Plus Ultra', my friend," Nezu said.
"This about the kids destroying a bunch of the Executors?" Because UA's budget, while beyond generous, wasn't in any state where they could just casually throw out four of the expensive, military surplus robots.
"No," Nezu said, "We'll have to budget ourselves more harshly this year because of that, don't get me wrong, but… it's nothing compared to this."
"Nothing?" Ryō asked, "Sir, a boy cut one of those robots in two with a single swing of a sword. Even with the restrictions we placed on them, the Executor is meant to guard Tartarus. If kids are getting to the point where they can destroy them as easily as those four did, it's only a matter of time before someone tries a break out! And I'm not talking a Tsutsumi Kaina, I mean an actual successful attempt on Tartarus proper!"
"Yes, I suppose that's true," Nezu sighed, before turning the screen of his computer towards Ryō, "I'll have to bring it up to the HPSC later. But for now… this is our concern. Uraraka Ochako, Quirk is a five point Emitter that allows her to remove the 'gravity' of an object."
Ryō watched the wild, terrified expression on the girl's face as she struggled in the rubble in the Executor's wake, the robot drawing closer to her. Sensors scanning for lifesigns picked her up, and quietly accounted for her to step over-
Suddenly, all the rubble around the girl glowed pink, and she shoved her way out, running away from the robot as fast as she could with a horrified expression on her face. Seconds later, the robot picked up a lifesign appearing in front of its face, and everything went black.
"You said she had a five point Emitter," Ryō said, "so how did she-? No."
"I'm afraid so," Nezu said quietly, "You can see why I fear we may have taken things too far."
"A girl Awakened at the Entrance Exam?" Ryō asked in horror.
"That appears to be what happened," Nezu said gravely, "a… what would Shouta call it? "Simulated Death" as it were. I need you to find her and talk to her about whether or not she wishes to stay with UA. Don't pressure her into it, if she doesn't that is entirely our responsibility, but she's likely scared and confused. The least we can do is help her find her place in the world, no matter if that is at UA or another school like Shiketsu."
"And what about you, sir?" Ryo asked, locking his "muzzle", actually a piece of support gear, in place.
"I need to call and speak to her parents to apologize for the mistakes we have made."
- X Izuku X-
"I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home. I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed. I gazed a gazeless stare, at all the millions here," Izuku sat in his room, strumming at the guitar with a pick shaped like the substitute Shinigami badge, "We must have died alone, a long long time ago…"
"It always surprises me how good your English is when you start singing," Rukia said from where she was sitting against the closet that had once been her bed.
"Did he ever tell you how he got started?" Tatsuki grinned, sitting at the desk and playing with a pencil.
"No," Rukia said before pausing and saying, "All Might?"
"He said in an interview once that he liked older bands from the United States of America," Izuku admitted, "So I started listening to them, and singing along. AC/DC, Metallica, Nervana, all sorts of stuff. And Dad decided to go out and get me a guitar because… well, it was a hobby other than just watching the same All Might videos and taking notes all day."
"Do you have any hobbies that don't have to do with All Might?" Rukia teased.
"...My notes are because I wanna be a hero," Izuku said.
"Says the boy who saved the world," Rukia said, causing Izuku to duck his head with a blush, "You beat Aizen, and you still just want to be a hero in the world of the living."
"Soul Society too, if I can find a way," Izuku said, resting the guitar on its stand and stretching, "anything on the bulletin?"
Rukia pulled out the soul pager, the smartphone device turning on and she hummed, "There's a few Hollows running around Tokyo with decent sized bounties. They're technically outside of our jurisdiction, but…"
"Head Captain Yamamoto isn't gonna care who freed them, so long as they are," Izuku said, fishing out the Substitute Shinigami badge, "We could use the money now that we've got extra people living here again. Taachan, I'll see you later?"
"Yeah," Tatsuki waved her hand, "I can go down and work on the art. You two have fun on your date."
The badge, mid swing on its rope, slid off and hit Izuku dead center in the forehead, sending his body crashing onto the bed as his soul stood above it gasping at Tatsuki with a blush. Rukia was similarly choking on a Chappy. Finally swallowing it and expelling herself from her body, Rukia coughed and joined Izuku in corusing, "it's not a date!"