A/N - Wow. There's more Hollow Knight fans that read MHA than I thought. Neat.
Also somehow this reached 100 follows already. Also neat.
Can't wait to see how I ruin this story and the game lore somehow.
I don't own Hollow Knight or My Hero Academy. They are owned by Team Cherry and Kohei Horikoshi respectively.
/\/\/\/\ Line Break /\/\/\/\
Izuku stared up at the grand building that was UA, entranced. Sure, he had seen it a week ago when he had come to register his blade, but he couldn't deny the sight wasn't something to see. Complete with a wall and large gate, the building truly was worth being called the best hero school in Japan. Distantly, it reminded him in some way of the White Palace with how stylistic it looked. He hoped there was less spikes here though.
Doing a quick check to make sure that Spire was hooked onto his back properly, he began walking. The exam would be starting soon, and he didn't want to be late in getting there.
"Out of my way, Deku!"
He turned, only to see Kacchan (Katsuki Bakugo) approaching him.
"You ready-" Izuku started to ask, before the collar of his shirt was grabbed. Katsuki pulled him closer before snarling.
"Ruin this for me and you're dead Deku!" He growled out, before shoving him out of the way. Unprepared for the sudden movement, he started tripping slightly losing his balance. Preparing to do a roll to regain his balance, he was confused when he never felt the solid ground below him. Turning slightly, he saw a short girl with brown bobcut hair staring at him.
"I-I'm sorry!" She stammered, freezing up upon meeting his eyes. "I used my quirk on you... It'd be a bad omen for you to trip and fall..." She quietly got out as he stared at her. Letting go of her quirk, Izuku fell lightly to the ground on his feet. He watched as Katsuki stormed off into the building, before turning back to the girl, who let out a small noise at being the centre of his attention.
"Thanks." He let out, while giving a small bow. The girl nodded meekly before running off herself into the building.
"Well, at least today will be interesting." He mused.
/\/\/\/\ Line Break /\/\/\/\
Izuku came out of the written exam extremely confident. He was always at the top of his class in terms of grades, and he was sure that he had gotten at minimum 95%. A quick glance around when he had finished told him that he had been amongst the first to finish as well.
Now, they were being led towards a large theatre room, where the explanation for the practical exam would begin. People were being seated next to those that they were at school with, so Izuku unluckily found himself sitting beside one Katsuki Bakugo. Who was talking it just as well as he was, if the "friendly" growling was any indication. He tried his best to ignore him until the presentation began.
A few moments later, a familiar face (to him at least) walked onto stage. The blonde haired man, wearing sunglesses and a boombox around his neck, began.
"Welcome everyome to today's live performance! Can I get a 'HEY!'from the crowd?!"
He held his hand up to his ear, and was meant with a resounding silence. A few snickers was heard from the crowd, before the man continued on as if he wasn't just brutally rejected.
"That's great! I'm here to give you all the run down on today's practical exam! So listen up!"
"Pro Hero: Hizashi Yamada
President Mic 'Voice Hero'
Quirk: Voice. Allows him to Increase the volume of his voice, giving him the ability of a sonic scream. It is loud enough to cause ears to bleed from large distances.
Power: 3/5
Speed: 2/5
Technique: 4/5
Intelligence: 5/5
Cooperativeness: 5/5"
Izuku analyzed. Even through his new training on the beach, he had found some time to do quirk analysis (not hero otaku he reasoned) on pro heroes. It helped that he used to do the same in Hallownest with the Hunter's Journal, which he planned to recreate. Hearing Bakugo let out an annoyed growl, he turned his attention back to Present Mic.
"This is how your test will go!" Pushing a button, a slideshow appeared on screen behind him. "You'll be entering a 10 minute villain simulation! Each of you will be assigned to a different block where your test will be taken! None of those from consecutive numbers will be in the same block!"
A quick glance at Katsuki showed the clear irritation on his face. "You live this time." Was muttered by him. The screen flashed, drawing both of their attention back to the presentation. On the new slide, there were pictures of various shapea with numbers 1-3 on them.
"All of these testing blocks will be a fake city filled with various types of faux villains! Each type gives off points from 1 to 3 depending on the number, so it will be a scramble to grab them! Use your quirks to the fullest and take them down! Of course, attacking or inhibiting others is forbidden in this test and will nullify any points you have gained!" President Mic explained
"So it's like a hunting test. To see our abilitt to take out villains. Interesting, but very specific to combat based quirks. Quirks like Mandalay's search would be useless. Why make it purely combat focused?" Izuku wondered.
"Sir! May I ask a question?" A voice called out. All eyes turned to a blue haired boy, who had stood up.
"I hadn't asked for them yet, but sure. What's wrong little listener?" Mic asked.
"On the handouts we recieved there appears to be four villains specified! Such a blatant error is highly unbecoming of an establishment such as UA! How could we hope to become model heroes if our school makes mistakes!" The boy shouted, before turning towards Izuku. He saw the boy slightly flinch when their eyes met, but he continued his rant anyways. "Also you, curly green hair! You've been muttering on and off! If you're not going to take this seriously please leave! You are distracting everyone!"
Blinking, Izuku turned to Bakugo, who gave an annoyed nod. Had he really been muttering this whole time? He hadn't noticed at all. Turning back to the blue haired boy, he gave a slight bow in apology, but nothing else. Being called out like that in front of everyone wasn't polite after all. That seemed to annoy the boy, but before he could say anything else, Present Mic began talking.
"Alright! Calm down! Thank you for your input examinee #7111! However if you had just waited a moment, I was going to get to that! So sit down and listen!" With that, the next slide clicked into place, a picture of a large robot with a 0 on it.
"Yes sir! Sorry sir!" The boy shouted, before sitting down stiffly in his seat.
"The last faux villain is different from all the others. This one is the zero pointer, and is more so used as an obstacle! Defeating it will grant you no points, so don't waste your time on it! Each location will have one in it, and it will rampage in close corners, so be careful!"
Excited murmurs were sent along the crowd. Everyone was excited as this seemed to be set up like a game.
"That's all the info we got, so be prepared to go to your location! And remember the schools motto! Plus Ultra!" Present Mic signed off. As students started to get up, he snapped his fingers. "Oh, right! Any students with a support gear of some kind, please stay behind so we can make sure they were properly registered!"
As the theatre began clearing out, only a handful of students remained behind to register support gear, Izuku being one of them. After a few moments, one by one students were called into a side room, before leaving shortly after. When Izuku was finally called on, he stepped in the room to come face to face with the pro hero Power Loader.
"Hey there kid!" He spoke when entering the room. "Now, hand me your sheets and we can get this over with quickly!"
Handing over the documents, he saw the pro hero read over them quickly, before nodding his head.
"Good, seems in order. Can I see this 'Spire'?"
Taking the weapon off his back, he placed it onto the table. A whistle of admiration was given from Power Loader as he inspected the blade.
"24" blade length, handle adds a couple on to that. A bit of a weird shape for a sword, looks kind of like an arrow. The material and the way the blade was made is extremely well done though. Props to whoever made this." He prattled off. Finally, he nodded before holding the weapon towards Izuku. "Don't see anything off about it except that it's a fine weapon. I assume it helps with your quirk?"
"No." Izuku shook his head, causing Power Loaders eyebrow to raise and pull the weapon back slightly.
"No? But the rules state that only support gear that helps your quirk can be used. Who told you that you could bring this?" He asked.
"Nezu did. Said it'd be interesting." Izuku replied. At that Power Loaders eyes opened wide, before unconciously handing the blade off. A few seconds later and Izuku was out the door, nodding in thanks.
'Why would Nezu let something like that through?' He wondered. Well, there were still more gear to process, so he shrugged his shoulders and waited for the next student. He'd have to keep an eye out
Anything that Nezu finds interesting is sure to bring trouble.
/\/\/\/\ Line Break /\/\/\/\
Arriving at test site 5, he saw the location that they were going to use. There was a huge fake city, with some buildings being as tall as 12 stories high. A group of students were all gathered near the entrance, all psyching themselves up for the incoming test. Most of them seemed ready to go, all confident in their quirks and equipment that will lead the to pass. Izuku was taking his time to inspect Spire, making sure it was ready to go.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the same brown haired girl from the start of the day, talking to herself to try and get over her nerves. She occasionally took a peek at everyone else, but always seemed to flinch and look away when her eyes met Izuku. He shrugged, not really putting too much thought into it, when all of a sudden he heard a now annoyingly familiar voice.
"You there!" He felt a hand grab his shoulder. Turning to look, his suspicious were confirmed when the same blue haired boy had grabbed him. Izuku tilted his head in a silent question. "Why are you here? Are you supposed to be a villain to mess with us? You are clearly disrupting a few peoples focus!" The boy shouted out at him. With the attention on him, he could see many people pointedly not staring at his eyes, all with upset faces.
"Taking the test" He calmly stated back, but narrowing his eyes. "Like the rest. Why call me out when I did nothing?"
"You were muttering before as a distraction! Plus you look like a villain with those eyes!" The boy restated.
Izuku internally sighed. He realized that with the change from being quirkless to his current state, he would still somehow find a way for others to single him out. 'Villanous Quirks' were something that society had claimed were evil quirks used and meant for villains. Due to his void like eyes, people would assume he was a villain instead of a hero, simply because they were frightening. It certainly wouldn't help in the future, as to rise the ranks you needed to be popular. This was part of the reason he was glad that Spire was allowed. If they were this scared of just his eyes, what would his actual quirk do? Scaring away potential savees would not help him. He went to open his mouth, but suddenly a loud buzzer went off.
"And start!" Present Mic's voice called out. The doors to the large fake city swung open. All the students stood around confused for a moment. All but one, as Izuku with Spire drawn had already ran forwards and made his way inside.
"What are you all waiting for?" Present Mic screamed out. "There's no countdowns in heroics! The tests already started!" Looking over, he could faintly see Izuku in the background, facing down a three pointer. After a couple of beats, both went into action. The robot swung it's fist at it, which Izuku nimbly dodged befote cutting at the joints of the arm, rendering it useless. Taking the extra time bought, he swiftly finished it off by cutting off the head. Present Mic smiled and pointed at him. "Look, someone's already begun! Clock's ticking folks!" With that, the students all began to rush forwards, intent on collecting points.
Izuku had already made his way deeper into the city. In the first three minutes, he had managed to collect around 20 points. So far, this had been no more different that when he had to fill out his Hunter's Journal. None of the robots he'd found so far were of any difficulty to deal with, having faced against harder odds before. The one pointers were easy to maneuver around, and he could deal with them in his sleep. Two pointers were sturdier, but the joints connecting their limbs were weak spots that he exploited before stabbing them in the head. Three pointers took some time, having to actually dodge potentially harmful attacks. Plus, they seemed to have extra sensors and were more aware of their surroundings. Still, with careful movements he was able to defeat a couple. He took a few seconds to check out a few of the other students in the area.
Blue haired boy was dashing around at fast speeds, using the momentum in his kicks to deal large damage. He made note of the engines in his calves that probably helped augment that.
Brown haired girl was using her 'Float' quirk from earlier to lift the robots before supposedly cancelling it. The resulting crashes left the robots disposed of, making her point count rise.
He was even able to make out a silver haired girl with seemingly no clothing except gloves and boots on. Taking a second to blink at that to make sure he wasn't just seeing things, he realized that the 1 and 2 pointers seemingly couldn't see her, as she snuck sround and disabled the robots via a switch on their heads. Quickly getting his hormones under control (as he was still a teenage boy), he looked away. Probably an invisibility quirk of some kind. Which left him wondering why he could see her.
There were a few others in the nearby area, one with multiple arms like a pokemon would have, or even someone with extendo arms and tazer fists, and his mind went into overdrive analyzing as many quirks as he could. A shame he didn't have a notebook on him right now. Some of them were super interesting.
"Only 5 minutes left!" He heard Present Mic call out.
Oh.
How long had he been watching other people instead of acting on his own. Lightly cursing his inner quirk analyst (quirk otaku), he continued forwards. While he didn't want to block anyone else's chances by destroying more robots, he did need to make sure he had enough points himself to pass. After all, he may have overheard some people with upwards of 40 points already.
/\/\/\/\ P.O.V ??? /\/\/\/\
The teacher's were all together in a screening room, watching the multiple monitors that were showing the exams off.
"Such a large battlefield with limited time, always forces students to act in their best interest." One of them called out. A deeper male voice beloning to the #1 hero, All Might.
"Yes, but watching some in youthful panic is simply... delightful." A female voice, belonging to the R rated hero Midnight.
"Yet, each of them still play towards their strengths." He himself spoke out, seemingly tired. "Those that are information gatherers have destroyed large packs at once that noone has foubd. Some are speedsters, and can always show up when needed. Some are just natural born warriors that can deal with the situation. All these are a type of hero."
"And yet, defeating villains is not the only thing that a hero needs to be." A different male voice called out, belonging to Vlad King.
"Indeed. In which case, why don't we finally make things interesting." A high pitched voice called out. All eyes turned to them, as they pull up a glass case covering a button, which he proceeded to press. "When faced with an unwinnable situation, how will they react?" The voice began laughing eagerly awaiting what was to come.
All of the teachers slightly moved away from him. They unanimously agreed the the principal, Nezu, was strange. The dog/mouse/bear thing had a quirk called High Spec, making them extremely intelligent. Yet they couldn't tell if that was what caused his personality to be so... eccentric.
/\/\/\/\ Line Break /\/\/\/\
"Two minutes and thirty seconds remaining!" Present Mic called out.
Izuku walked through the city, eyes searching every corner. The test was now winding down, with barely any robots left to destroy. He had found himself at a comfortable 35 point line. Hopefully that would be enough to pass, as even as he was searching, he couldn't find any others. He went to sheathe Spire on his back, mentally applauding himself for a job well done.
Then he felt the rumbling of the Earth and he cursed himself for jinxing it. All students in the nearby area has stopped what they were doing. Turning, they all looked in the direction that loud crashes were coming from. Suddenly, a giant robot came crashing through the streets, destroying buildings nearby and causing rubble to drop below. The robot was clearly marked with a giant zero on it. It was slowly making it's way towards the students.
Then the panic began.
Students began running away, desperate to get to safety. All sense of honor had flow out the window, with students shoving each other in order to get away faster. Izuku had been part of this group too, but he hadn't been running away. Rather, at a slower pace, he had been walking forwards while taking the time to help others who had fallen over. He wasn't particularily scared of the zero pointer, after all, he had faced worse in his opinion. However, he saw no real reason to defeat it as everyone had seemingly been fine escaping it and it wasn't worth the points.
That's when things started to go wrong.
/\/\/\/\ P.O.V Power Loader /\/\/\/\
Power Loader watched on as Nezu was laughing like a maniac. The dog/mouse/bear thing was watching the screens in glee as the students had started to run in panic.
"Are we sure that the zero pointers are safe?" He heard All Might ask. The larger man was looking on in trepidation as the robots went on a tear through the cities.
Having designed the robots them, he knew what they were capable of. His instructions were: make them large and scary, but make sure that there's a safety net involved.
"Of course! Power Loader made sure that all zero pointers would be shut down if I pressed this button again." Nezu affirmed excitedly, pointing to the same button that had released them.
"With a threat like that looming above them, people show their true colors." He heard Vlad King say, watching a screen of students shoving each other in order to flee. "Save for a few who are ignoring the issue, everyone is running away."
"Everyone but one."
All eyes turned to Eraserhead when he said spoke. He was staring at one monitor in particular. Everyone else turned to watch. On screen was a green haired boy, a sword in hand. Unlike all the others fleeing from the giant robot, he had been walking forwards, seemingly unafraid. They noticed that he was helping those who had fallen over, yet instead of thanks, most were calling him crazy or flinching at his eyes.
"That's Izuku Midoriya." Power Loader found himself speaking. "He registered that sword despite it not being complimentary of his quirk."
Eraserhead raised an eyebrow at that. "And you let him take it despite it being against the rules?"
"Hey! I got distracted! He said that Nezu found him interesting!" He defended himself. With that, all eyes shifted to their principal, who giggled at the attention.
"It's true!" Nezu admitted. "We had quite the lovely chat about quirks when he came to register his blade."
"What did you talk about?" All might asked.
"Well..."
...
Nezu had been sitting at his desk, getting some of the final bits of paperwork done fr the oncoming entrance exams. He was busy working away, until he heard a knock on the door. Pausing, he called out. "Come in!" The doors opened to reveal a student with green hair with endless black pits for eyes. He walked up slowly to the desk, and sat down at Nezu's behest. "So, you're not a student here. What brings you into my humble establishment?"
"I want to register support gear." Was the boy's response. Straight and to the point.
"Of course. Those who need it for their quirk are allowed one piece of support gear to complement them." He rummaged around in his desk, before pulling out a form. Handing it over, he noticed the pause from the boy. "Something wrong?"
They sat in silence for a couple seconds, before the boy looked up. "My weapon doesn't compliment my quirk." He stated.
"Ah, that could be a problem." Nezu tapped his hands on the desk. "What kind of weapon is it?"
"A Na- A sword." The child stumbled over his words.
"A sword huh..." Nezu looked thoughtful, purposely ignoring the slipup for later, before asking another question. "What is your name?"
"Izuku Midoriya."
"Ah, I remember reading your application. Recently you acquired your quirk hmm?" At a nod, he continued. "Which means you may not have much experience with it. Did you know how to use one before or after you had a quirk?"
"Before. Why?" The boy tilted his head, not knowing where this conversation was going.
"Well, I was just wondering if you were trying to avoid usuing your quirk, since you don't know how. After all, since it's newly discovered, it stands that you wouldn't be able to use it? Which is why you plan to use a sword, correct?" Nezu smiled at him, expecting his suspicions confirmed. Yet he was surprised to see the boy shake his head.
"No. I use my weapon because I don't want to use it, not because I can't." He corrected.
Nezu blinked at that response. "Why wouldn't you want to use your quirk?" At that, the boy stopped staring at the ground and met his eyes straight on. When he got no reaction, he shook his head.
"People think quirks make them villains. Mine may be a case." He stopped for a moment, before continuing. "Also, I want to prove something."
"Prove what?" Nezu asked curiously.
"Prove them wrong."
That didn't quite answer Nezu's question, but before he could ask him to elaborate, the boy had taken the forms and left.
...
"With that, he took the form and left." Nezu finished. "He was very stiff. Short sentences and little emotion in his voice. Not what I expect from a child."
"The kid's not bad." Vlad King spoke up. "Gathering 35 villian points with the use of his sword. Quite skilled with it to. Managed to fight all types of robots and come out with no injuries. Wonder if it has any special properties?"
"No, nothing weird about it other than it's shape. Just a really well made sword." Power Loader denied.
"Yet the sword can cut through other metals as if they are butter." All Might countered.
"I'll admit... The metal the weapon is made of is very high quality. Much more than what I made those robots out of." Power Loader admitted. "Plus, he's mostly aiming for joints, clearly hitting the weaker parts."
"Something's happening." Eraserhead cut in. Once again all eyes shifted to one monitor.
The zero pointer was still doing it's job, crashing through buildings and causing chaos between the students. However they were getting a lot closer to some of them who were slower to respond. A brown haired girl had tripped, and a small piece of rubble from the building had fallen on top of her, pinning her down.
With experienced eyes, they noticed how no one had moved to help her, instead taking the time to continue searching for more robots to destroy, or still running from the zero pointer. All except two people.
The girl with the invisibilty quirk (Toru Hagakure, made visible by only a few articles of clothing) had made her way over to the trapped girl. Her hands were moving in erratic movements, trying to get the other girls attention. In panic, the brown haired girl (Ochaco Uraraka) used her quirk to make the rubble weightless, and pushed the rubble off herself before seemingly turning it off, face looking green and about to throw up. However she didn't notice the invisible girl at all and instead put her underneath the rubble, with no way of escape. With the zero pointer slowly moving forward, and now dangerously close, she was now stuck in it's path of destruction and her invisibility certainly wasn't helping at this point.
"Shut it off! Now!" All Might called, rushing forward to hit the button. He was stopped by multiple people, both Eraserhead and Nezu reaching out.
Izuku Midoriya had begun to move.
/\/\/\/\ P.O.V Izuku Midoriya /\/\/\/\
Watching the entire interaction, he was mildly disappointed to see the brown haired girl who helped him this morning panic. In her desperation to escape, she had accidentally thrown another person under the bus. The giant robot continued it's rampage towards the fallen girl, who had no way herself to move the rubble.
He had hoped he wouldn't have to use his abilities this early. Initially, he wanted to try and prove that his skill with his Nail would be enough to make him a spot in the hero course. That, and he would be able to keep the nature of his shade form in check. Everyone who had seen it had labelled him a villain due to it's nature. But he wasn't selfish enough to not use it if someone was in trouble. Part of being a hero meant doing what you could to save someone after all.
While he had some speed, the distance between him and the trapped girl was too large to close with just his natural run. So with no more hesitation, he focused his powers and began running. Feeling his inner energy of the void surge, his shade form came alive, shifting his body into the inky black shadows it represents. Horns and claws extended, with four dark tendrils flowing from his back and eyes turning pure white. He heard some gasps in shock from behind him, but ignored it in favour of running forwards. The zero pointer was now on top of the girl, and their foot came up, ready to stomp down on her.
Quickly, he dashed forward in a dark blur, and made it underneath the giant robots foot just in time. Claws extended, he reached up and grabbed his leg with both hands. Despite using all his strength, the zero pointer's leg still pressed down slowly, so he used two tendrils that he could control and dug them into the ground for more stability. A couple seconds more, and eventually the two came to a stalemate, and with a quick burst, shoved the leg backwards slightly. Unbalanced, the zero pointer stumbled backwards before falling, allowing Izuku to catch a quick breath and check on the girl. Using his claws, he quickly moved the heavy debris from crushing her.
"Can you walk?" He asked quickly, eyes still locked onto the zero pointer, but the girl visible in the corner of his vision. Quietly, he noticed that she hadn't flinched upon rescue.
She tried to stand, only to cry out in pain and fall over again. "N-No. I think my leg's broken." She got out, gloves holding her leg in pain. Traces of blood could be seen along the appendage.
Turning quickly to look back at the other students, he saw the blue haired boy that insulted him earlier. "Hey! Can you help!" He called out.
The slight flinch when their eyes met annoyed him, and the slight hesitation to move, before the blue haired boy turned away and ran off in search of more robots. Izuku made a tsk of disappointment, seeing other students take his lead in search of more points, before turning back to the zero pointer. The time he took calling for help, it had slowly stood up, and now its sensors were solely on him. It let out a loud mechanical WHIRR, and its fist reared back. Thinking fast, he let out a quick "Sorry." before picking the girl up carefully and jumping out of the way. He heard her make a squeak of surprise, before feeling her arms wrap around his neck tightly to make sure she didn't fall.
The place they just were moments ago was crushed under the weight of the robotic arm in a loud crash, before the zero pointer let out another loud WHIRR and gave chase towards them, knocking over and destroying more of the surrounding buildings. Deciding that the zero pointer wouldn't change targets now that he'd apparently angered it, he took a side path that led away from most of the students. The less casualties that he could cause, the better.
Taking the zero pointer further into the town, he quickly began running through his options. He didn't have the power outside shade form to deal significant damage with Spire, and without the speed increase and dashes in shade form, he doubted he could pull it off. Dealing with larger enemies using the Nail had required many hits, patience and time, the latter of which he didn't currently have. Shade Soul would do some damage, but with only two uses it may not be enough. Usually, attacking enemies with a Nail would fill his Soul Meter, but the feeling of being re-filled was absent when attacking the faux villains. Apparently, since robots were not organic, they did not have any essence to leech from. That left him with two options. Using an Abyss Shriek from below or a Descending Dark from above. With most likely no time to climb a building, he'd have to settle with the former. However, he would only have one shot, and he would need to find a place to leave the girl in his arms since it would put her in danger.
Speaking of the girl, he was trying really hard to ignore the feeling of her in his arms. Despite being in shade form, he could still feel what his claws and body felt. She was clinging tightly to him, and both had luckily forgotten her lack of clothes in the intense nature of their situation. He needed to find a moment where he could safely leave her.
Giving a quick look over his shoulder, he saw the villain still giving chase, ramming through buildings like a bull seeing red. Given its size, he was surprised to see it be slightly faster than him, the distance between them shortening without constant turns. Looking around the area, he realized he was coming up to one of the walls of the fake city. A dead end. Another quick look showed that there were no alternate paths to take, now stuck in a single corridor with the zero pointer. Somehow, the robots programming recognized that, and it started preparing for a final charge.
Izuku had never tried to dash with another in his arms before. He didn't even know if it would work. But now he had no other options. He couldn't jump high enough to clear any of the nearby walls, and without his Mantis Claws or Monarch Wings, he had no extra vertical mobility. So preparing, he stared at the zero pointer, getting ready to sprint forwards.
"Wait! What are you doing?!" The girl in his arms called out in fright. He didn't answer. "You can't charge it! It will kill us!" No response. "Say something!" She called out desperately.
A couple seconds of silence. "Hold tight." Was all he said.
At that moment, both Izuku and the zero pointer charged forwards, the latter intent on destroying their target. The girl in his arms screamed as they ran forwards towards the giant machine. Izuku let two of his tendrils wrap around the girls waist, and the second before contact, shifted in his a dash fully enveloped in the powers of the shade cloak. Focusing hard on the girl in his arms with the power of the void, he pushed and felt her temporarily shift with him, and they both passed through the giant robot, landing on the other side. Right after Izuku's feet touched the ground, he pulled back his power slightly, feeling and seeing the girl shift back into her previous look. He could feel her shiver in his arms, out of discomfort. It clearly was an unpleasant experience, but at that moment he didn't really have a choice.
The zero pointer could not stop its momentum, and such fully crashed into the wall. Being the outer wall of the fake city, it was made of more durable materials, and took the brunt of the blow, knocking the zero pointer down once again. Finding his chance, Izuku retraced his steps and quickly ran back to the main entrance of the town, reuniting with most of the students who looked at him oddly. Placing the girl down lightly near them, he let out another quick apology, before turning just in time to see the giant robot coming for revenge in the distance. Hopefully, another examinee would help the clearly injured girl, as he had more pressing concerns. Internally, he could feel that his time in shade form was almost running out of time, which confused him as he mentally knew he could hold it for 5 minutes. Yet, he hadn't heard Present Mic call off the test as complete, so maybe not much time had passed.
Passing it off as something due to dashing with a passenger, which he had never tested before, he reached his limit of how much he could handle dealing with the giant robot. Running towards it again, it roared out in fury and went for another punch. He slipped past it, and used his claws to rip a chunk out of the joint by its hand. Yet, this didn't seem to do much of anything, and the robot tried once again to crush him with a stomp. Unfortunately for the machine, this was what Izuku had been waiting for. Easily dashing past and underneath its leg, he got underneath the base of the zero pointer and charged up an attack he had yet to practice in this world. Yet, hours of muscle memory not from him made it easier to pull off. Channeling the energies, he lifted his head, feeling the entirety of his Soul charge put into this attack.
And then he shrieked.
/\/\/\/\ P.O.V Power Loader /\/\/\/\
He felt his jaw ache. He knew it was because his mouth had been wide open in shock. A quick movement from his eyes confirmed that most of the room had the same expression as him.
The first shock came from the shift into another form. Quickly, all the heroes realized just why the boy said what he did with Nezu. Looking as if it was pure darkness, Midoriya had gone from slightly odd to look at, to downright terrifying. Black horns and pure white eyes, along with dark claws and extra appendages. The clear increase in speed was noticable, having made it in time to stop the robot from crushing Hagakure.
That the kid had saved the girl from the zero pointer had been no real surprise. That was something they all at least slightly expected. If not, they would have already hit the emergency shutdown button. In fact, they almost had when the two had become cornered in the dead end. Even Eraserhead had wanted to stop it at that point. Yet Nezu had insisted they continue, eyes rapt in attention and interest.
They watched as Izuku somehow temporarily changed the form of the girl to his own, and then they shifted through the zero pointer, much like another quirk they knew. Using the time gained from stunning it against the wall, he safely removed Hagakure from the area, before seemingly moving to stall the robot from ruining the test for others. Then he had gotten underneath it, and unleashed his attack.
They weren't any audio connected to any of the screens. With multiple monitors and cameras connected to many different testing sights, they wouldn't be able to listen in to every one. Yet, if the fact that every student, including a couple from other arenas and Present Mic (who was known for being loud) had covered their ears, it had been quite loud. The attack itself was also terrifying. What had erupted from the boy had seemingly been ghosts or wraiths of some kind. Pure black spirits had burst forth from the boys eyes and mouth, and had ripped the zero pointer to shreds. For three whole seconds, they were unleashed and destroyed everything above him, most of the robot disappearing amongst the black, the rest remaining behind as scrap. After the time was up, they seemingly receded into the boy, who instantly reverted back into his regular form. A large majority of the robot was now nowhere to be seen, seemingly vanishing from existence. No one had seen him draw it, too busy staring at the wraiths that he had summoned, but his sword had been drawn, prepared to continue fighting if need be. Yet, he was clearly unsteady on his feet if the slight swaying and heavy panting was anything to note.
When he finally let out a breath of relief and sat down hard on the floor, Spire being placed gently beside him, they all worried for a second. A quick look had shown that other students were now winding down, and they realized that Present Mic had called the end of the exam. Everyone looked at the clock and saw the time as 4:02.
No one had realized that they had extended the exam an extra two minutes.
/\/\/\/\ P.O.V Izuku Midoriya /\/\/\/\
'That was harder than It needed to be' Izuku internally thought.
Taking care of the zero pointer in the end had been easy. Finally catching it alone, he let loose with the full blast of Abyss Shriek. While he expected the blast to disable the robot, he hadn't realized just how powerful using it in shade form would be. The robot had been disentigrated in some parts, and the rest by the edges had been turned to useless scrap. A quick look around had shown that it was apparently loud to use. Having never needed to worry about that before, he supposed that it made sense in a way.
He would need to apologize to that girl. When they were cornered, the only solutuon he had to keep her safe was apparently to test his shade cloak on her. Something that could have easily gone wrong. It had certainly tired him out to do it, but he used the power of the void to temporarily shift her into a shade form, which probably didn't feel nice. The first few times he remembered transforming into it had certainly felt... Off. Not really able to put it to words, it didn't feel cold, but more empty than anything.
Right now though, he was tired from all the running around. Sitting down as soon as he heard the signal, letting Spire rest by his side. The weapon had clung to his back while in shade form, and while didn't quite understand how, he wasn't complaining. In fact, he must have unconciously shifted the weapons form too, since it had somehow followed him through the robot. Izuku knew he didn't have the best stamina, something he'd have to work on, and was content with a quick break.
Looking around, he finally noticed that no one had moved from their positions. All around students were staring at him. Everyone of them had faces of shock or horror at what he did.
"He took it out in one blow!"
"That was terrifying to watch!"
"Did you hear that scream! It was haunting!"
"That form of his was so scary!"
"We're lucky we weren't in his way! He could have killed us!"
"No one will like a hero that scares them!"
He could hear the various students gossip amongst themselves. Sighing internally, Izuku tried his best to ignore them. None of them had seen that he used it in order to save someone. Or, if they had, apparently they had forgotten about it that quickly in favor of quirk prejudice.
"Are you hurt, dearie?" He heard a voice call beside him. Startled, he turned is head and saw an older lady, one he easily recognized.
"No, Recovery Girl. Just tired." He responded.
"Is that so?" The youthful heroine mused. "In that case, take one of these." She handed him what looked to be a simply gummy bear. "It will make you feel energized." With that, she turned to leave. Before she could though, he stopped her.
"Is she okay?" He asked. Recovery girl turned and raised an eyebrow.
"Who? Oh the invisible one? Yes, dearie she's fine. My quirk healed her leg right up! Already up and left." Recovery girl smiled. He nodded at that. Once again, his mind pulled out the notes he had analyzed for his journals.
"Pro Heroine: Chiyo Shuzenji
Recovery Girl 'Youthful Heroine'
Quirk: Heal Allows anyone who she kissed to heal injuries in cost for their stamina. She was the main medic in staff of U.A.
Power: 1/5
Speed: 1/5
Technique: 5/5
Intelligence: 5/5
Cooperativeness: 4/5"
"Are you sure you're okay dearie? You're muttering. Maybe a concussion?" Recovery girl asked again. He blinked, before shaking his head no. Somehow, he needed to learn to stop muttering. "You best be headed home then. Results will show up in a week!" With that, she walked off to check on other students. Izuku stared for a couple seconds, before picking up Spire and heeding her suggestion.
/\/\/\/\ One Week Later /\/\/\/\
He wasn't nervous about his results. The written portion he had finished with ease, and he had a safe amount of points in the practical. There's no way that he didn't pass, so he wasn't nervous at all.
That's what he kept telling himself anyways.
Realizing that he had fully cleaned off the beach, he had no idea what to do in his spare time. Most of the past 9 months had been spent there cleaning, so he was left temporarily hobbyless. After the first couple of days, he decided he would recreate the hunter's journal, or at least as much as he could remember. Thanks to art lessons from Paintmaster Sheo, he was quite confident in his artistic abilities. Including the many hours of doodling for both quirks and maps, his drawing skills had become nothing to scoff at. While not professional level, they were still extremely well done, so he was able to properly draw his old foes. Though he started 5 days ago, the journal was only 10 entries filled, as he also spent some time filling his hero journals too, something he admits he forgot in lieu of the beach being fully cleaned.
Speaking of the beach, he tried to spend any extra time there practicing with Spire. Unfortunately, with the beach being cleaned, there was a huge increase of tourists and civilians who came by. As such, he would need to find a new place to practice in peace. After all, no one would want to see him swinging a weapon around in public.
"Izuku!" He heard his mother call from the other room, interrupting his thoughts. Looking up, he saw her open the door to his room, an envelope in her hand. "I-It's here!"
"Thanks." Izuku said, giving a small smile. Gently taking the envelope from his mother's hand, he went back to his desk before ripping it open. Inside was not a letter like he had expected, but a small metal disk. Before he could touch it, it lit up, seemingly activated on its own. A few seconds later, a hologram video appeared above it, showing All Might, dressed in an extremely fancy suit and tie.
"This is a projection!" He shouted out. "Yes! I'm sure you're wondering why I am the one in this video! Well, starting this year, I will be becoming a teacher at U.A"
Izuku blinked at that. He wasn't going to lie, he was still a bit bitter about being told he couldn't be a hero. Even if it was the truth at the time. Recently, he had gotten rid of most of his All Might merchandise and lost a lot of his worship for the number 1 hero. Instead, his room had drawings of different people and places in his time in Hallownest. Posters and figures of other pro heros like Mirko, Ryuku and Best Jeanist were also there.
"I am here to give you, Izuku Midoriya your test results! For the written portion, you passed with flying colors! 98/100, making you third place among all your peers! For the practical portion, you had destroyed enough faux villains to get you 35 points. An impressive score! However... I'm sorry, but that alone would not be enough to get you into the Hero Course."
Oh.
He had thought that a 35 point scoreline would be enough. Taking more would mean less points for others, and while he wanted to get in, he didn't feel comfortable destroying others dreams. He had dealt with enough dreams as is. But then, what was the point of taking on the zero pointer?
"That is, if we were only marking using Villain Points!" All Might's voice called out, and his eyes snapped to the projection. There, he could see a video of him saving the invisible girl from zero pointer. He noticed that through the video, he was unable to actually see her, only able to see her gloves and boots. Watching the video of Abyss Shriek, he noticed the differences. Back then, it would act simply as an explosion done in 1 seconds, while here they lingered for a few seconds, and tore things to shreds. Something he would keep note of. "A hero course that rejects those who do the right thing is not a proper hero course at all! You, who did something no one else would, risked your life to help another examinee, losing precious time to gain points as you did. As such, we were able to reward you Rescue Points!" Then there was a slight hesitation. "At first, we wanted to award you 60 points for your heroics, but we noticed that you hesitated in using your quirk on young Hagakure to get past the zero pointer. As such, we realized you may not have known what you were doing, and might have caused injury with your quirk. However, we were able to award you 40 Rescue points, putting your total at 75 points, making you second overall! Congratulations, Izuku Midoriya, you are accepted to U.A's hero program!" With that, the projection shut off.
Izuku let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. He had made it in to the hero course.
He would become a hero.
/\/\/\/\ Line Break /\/\/\/\
A/N - Pairings undecided so far. But assume what you will. :)
I'm just paving the road for a different "Deku squad"
Hope you enjoyed! Any criticism welcome.
...
Hero Course Student: Izuku Midoriya
Undetermined Hero Name
Quirk: Void Heart. Allows him to shift into a shadow form, giving him claws and enhancing his strength. Can call ghosts(?) to assist in battle.
Power: 2/5 {3/5} (4/5)
Speed: 2/5 (3/5)
Technique: 2/5 {5/5} (3/5)
Intelligence: 5/5
Cooperativeness: 3/5
{#} = With a blade.
(#) = Shade Form.
That's his official stats anyways. His quirk and other abilities are still unknown to others, as such, are left out.