A kick struck the side of an oil drum; the sound reverberated past the shoreline, lacking the melodic qualities of a gong. Grains of sand bounced wildly like popping corn as the vibrations spread through the ground.
"Again!" said All-Might in his booming voice.
Izuku had always imagined training with his idol since childhood. He expected it to be exciting and formative, an experience to hold over somebody like Katsuki's head. Instead, he stood on a beach that could be considered a landfill. Takoba Municipal Beach had been a dumping ground for some time. Nobody was sure where the first bit of garbage came from, but it hadn't stopped since.
"Again!" came the impatient voice of All-Might. Izuku's leg whipped again, slapping his shin against the cold steel. They continued until the teen's legs were covered in purple bruises.
The two sat on a broken refrigerator eating egg sandwiches after a while. "All-Might, can you tell me what we're doing out here?" Izuku asked between bites. The pro looked up from his sandwich; his signature smile was plastered on his face as if he'd never been eating. "Well, young Midoriya, being a hero isn't just fighting villains. We're civil servants; we work for the government, but more importantly, the people. So as part of your training, we're doing…," All-Might paused for dramatic effect, "community service!"
"We're cleaning up the beach?" Izuku asked. All-Might nodded. "Then why am I bruising my leg to the point where I can't walk?"
All-Might laughed. "To strengthen your bones and put some power behind your attacks. I would typically try to make you a strict plan, but you've developed some skills on your own. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You've focused on mobility in service of your quirk, but it isn't always reliable."
"So I need to learn how to fight quirkless. That makes sense considering the unpredictability of villain encounters; imagine if a villain had the powers of Eraserhead or if he could remove the oxygen from the immediate atmosphere or if he could take control of my flames or if-"
"All right, enough." All-Might chuckled.
In the months leading to the entrance exams, their training continued. Izuku continued to carve out the hero he wanted to become. Him the marble, and All-Might his chisel. His 14th birthday had passed, and seven months remained. All-Might deemed his physical prowess admirable enough to focus more on combat training as Izuku had cleared a large section of the beach. Sparring with the top hero was hell. Izuku was still forbidden to use his quirk. Even injured, All-Might had more physical strength than any other man on the planet. Izuku included. They would fight in the jungle of refuse. Izuku would spring from broken household appliances and hide in the body shells of old cars. He darted around looking for openings. All-Might held back. Izuku couldn't catch him off guard under normal circumstances. Occasionally Izuku would get lucky. He left cover to hit a weak point: a punch to the solar plexus, a kick to the kidney, something that could quickly incapacitate a villain. Eventually, All-Might would only let him fight on the clear patches of the beach. With nowhere to hide, Izuku had to get creative. Evading the pro was almost impossible. Dodging became second nature; it would hurt if he didn't.
The last day came. Izuku stood on the last pile of garbage to be picked up by waste management, surveying the land. The light green seafoam gathered on the shore as a squabble of gulls ran across the sand. He could smell the salt in the air, which was a welcome alternative to the smell of garbage. He breathed deep, centering himself. He was ready for U.A. All-Might hadn't shown up the past few days. The number one hero had a goofy grin when Izuku told him he was going to U.A. tryouts. Afterward, he vanished. The only thing he left Izuku was a cryptic text about a surprise.
Izuku jogged past the large metal gates of the U.A. campus in light gray activewear, his emerald locks swaying with his movements. He was busy going over study techniques to help with the written exam. It was the part of his training left in his hands. He skipped out on it every once in a while to spend time with his idol.
"Ow!" said a feminine voice. Izuku looked down at the girl he knocked over. She was pale with her short brown hair in a bob. Her cheeks were flushed, matching the color of her pink tracksuit.
"Sorry," he said. Izuku held out his hand to the girl, and she grabbed it. She had soft hands; her fingertips were too smooth, like dolphin skin. "It's bad luck to fall on your first day," he said, helping her up. She smiled at him as she used her momentum to push Izuku off balance as she came up. Izuku's butt hit the pavement.
"Now we both have bad luck," she said.
Izuku watched her walk away toward an auditorium; the test was starting. "I guess we'll see whose is worse."
The written portion came and went quickly. A palpable sense of nervousness washed over the room. U.A. graded the tests immediately; any student who failed lost their chance at the practical. Proctors walked down the rows with white paper cards. Izuku let out a sigh of relief when he received his.
"City B! I'm in City A! You damn loser, how am I gonna show you up now?"
Izuku clicked his teeth in annoyance; U.A. sat Katsuki next to him during the written exam.
"They probably did that to stop us from working with each other since we're from the same school. Not that it would be a problem." Izuku replied.
A man dressed in leather walked onto the stage at the front of the auditorium. He had a massive mohawk that reached at least three feet into the air. "GOOD MORNING, DUDES AND DUDETTES. IT'S YOUR FAVORITE HOST, PRESENT MIC!"
Izuku knew a lot about Present Mic. He was a pro with a sound-based quirk that let him increase the volume and reach of his voice. He also moonlights as a radio show host.
Present Mic began to explain the rules of the practical test. Each testing group would enter a mock city based on their paper cards. Inside they would have to destroy four kinds of robots that would serve as proverbial villains. The robots are worth up to 3 points depending on their difficulty level.
"Sir, you said there were four varieties of robots, but only three have point values! Is this a mistake on behalf of the school? If so, it is shameful!" shouted a rigid-looking boy in the back.
"THANK YOU, EXAMINEE. I WAS GETTING TO THAT." Present Mic said in a deadpan manner. "THERE IS A FOURTH KIND OF ROBOT. CONSIDER IT AN OBSTACLE." a mechanism lowered down a screen. The image of an assault mech the size of an apartment complex appeared upon it. "THIS IS A ZERO-POINTER! YOU CAN TRY TO TAKE IT DOWN, BUT THERE WOULDN'T BE MUCH OF A POINT. GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!"
Izuku stepped off the bus that carted him and a hundred others to City B. They all stood in front of the entrance in anticipation. Izuku noticed the same girl he had bumped into earlier she looked nervous. He started to walk over to talk to her, but an arm blocked his path. "Are you going to distract that girl and ruin her chances before we start?"
Izuku looked up and saw the same guy that interrupted Present Mic. "No, I was going-"
"WHY ARE YOU ALL WAITING? THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE! The teens stampeded into the testing ground. Izuku looked up in awe as he ran through the mock city. U.A. was one of the only schools that had a skyline. He pulled away from the mass of potential students heading toward the center of the testing area. He ran through alleys and backstreets, taking out robots off the radar. All-Might's training seemed like overkill for this task. The robots could fight, but not at the level of the top hero.
Izuku had racked up a total of 50 points. His strategy was methodical. He would send projectiles at the joints of the mechanical villains to hinder their mobility. Then he would attack their weak points with strong kicks until incapacitation. Izuku noticed a few other students that stood out. A blonde European boy that shot a laser from his stomach, a guy with spiky red hair who attacked the robots head-on without taking damage. The one who interrupted Present Mic had a quirk that gave him engines in his calves, like the pro hero Ingenium. Other students with less combat-oriented abilities started to freak out as they lost points to better-equipped challengers. Izuku finished taking down a two-pointer when a siren sounded. The gravel began to shake from the streets; something was coming. The head of the zero-pointer slowly emerged into the public square. Its glowing scarlet eyes bore deep into the examinees. Everyone ran. As the giant mech accelerated, it flattened anything in its path. Izuku joined the crowd running toward the entrance; he couldn't be a hero if he died.
The foundation of buildings cracked, and rubble started to fall from others as the robot continued its pursuit. Izuku was almost out of dodge when he heard it. "Help! Please!"
Everyone kept running. "Please, I'm stuck, somebody!" Izuku's body turned around on its own. Almost all the others had made it out. Trying to ignore the metal monstrosity, Izuku ran toward the voice. It was the girl he had knocked over. The rubble that fell before covered her leg.
"Bad luck, huh?" Izuku said, forcing a smile as he looked at her pained expression. "I'll get you out of there. Just hang tight." He didn't know if those words were empty. Could that much concrete be moved before they were spots on the asphalt? Izuku bent his knees and pulled as hard as possible. It started to budge, but it wasn't looking good.
"Wait," she said, "I can help." Izuku didn't notice it before, but she had pink pads on her fingertips. The girl touched the larger pieces of rubble that caused a problem and then placed her hands together at their fingertips. Izuku tried again. It wasn't perfect, but it was better.
Izuku finally threw the last piece off. The girl's hands fell apart, and she keeled over. Izuku looked away from the retching. The zero-pointer's shadow started to block out the light. Izuku picked her up in a bridal carry and ran. "We have to go!" The zero-pointer was closing in; they wouldn't make it in "TIME!" The robot's hydraulics hissed to a halt. Izuku sighed and fell to his knees. It was finally over. "Are you ok?" he asked, gently laying down the brown-haired girl. She winced as she touched the ground. "I'm okay. I think it's a sprain."
"I'm sure the school will send out a medic. Let's wait here."
"Can we talk? I need to distract myself; this hurts." she pointed at her ankle.
"Sure. I'm Izuku Midoriya."
"Ochaco Uraraka. Thank you-" An elderly woman walked in between the two and began to look over Ochaco. She had a white lab coat and a cane shaped like a syringe. The woman twisted Ochaco's ankle into place and planted a kiss on the young girl's forehead. "There, all better," she said. Izuku looked up at her with a mix of admiration and recognition. "You're the youthful hero, Recovery Girl!"
"Yes, I am, sweetie. You did a good job today. Would you both like lollipops?" Izuku shook his head. "I'll take one," Ochaco said. Recovery Girl held one out, and Ochaco stood up to grab it. Her ankle felt fine. "Thank you, ma'am."
"It's my job. Go on home now."
"Mom, I'm home!" said Izuku, walking in through his apartment door. He entered the kitchen, where a plump green-haired woman was frying at the stove. She turned around, and a warm smile graced her features. "Izu! How was it? Did you win?"
The teen chuckled. "There's nothing to win, Mom. I'll figure out if I passed in a couple of weeks."
"Well, either way, I'm proud of you. We're celebrating. I made pork katsudon."
Izuku smiled at his mother and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Sounds amazing."
The weeks passed at varying speeds. Izuku grew impatient as doubts flew through his mind. Did he make it? Katsuki's mother called to let his mom know Katsuki had received his acceptance letter. All-Might was still radio silent until one night before bed knuckles hit his door.
Izuku got a winky face text message from his idol. Someone had slid an envelope through the mail slot. Izuku ripped it open the second he saw the U.A. insignia. A disk with a miniature projection device fell to the floor. "I am here… as a video message!"
"All-Might?"
"Yes, it is I!"
"What's going on? Are you working for U.A.?
"I'm assuming you're going to ask: 'What's going on? Are you working for U.A.?' and yes, I've decided to work at my alma mater to raise the next generation of heroes!"
Wow, that's amazing! If you work there, I wonder what other heroes-"
"Young Midoriya, I can't hear you." Izuku looked down dejectedly but let the man continue. A list of rankings flashed across the screen. Izuku was in second place at 82 points, and Katsuki was at 86.
"You scored 52 villain points on the practical, but we judged based on a second category. When you risked your life to save that girl, you exemplified what it truly means to be a hero. Because of your deed, we awarded an additional 30 hero points. I couldn't be more proud. Congratulations, and welcome to your hero academia!"
The emerald-haired boy shed a tear. A voice said something off-screen. "I have 300 more of these!" All-Might turned frantically toward the camera, and the projection shut off.