Issues of Quirk Compatibility

Chapter 6: Entrance Exam

In her search for the power to surpass All Might, Endeavor turned to a Quirk research lab. Little did she know that this would usher in the age of the Heroine and dating by statistics. What's a quirkless hero to do in a world like this? Make your Vows Izuku; Massive Gender-bends, Deku/harem, Crack with Plot.

Izuku and his class are aged up by about four years, so everyone is 19-20 Years old. Need to get those hormones pumping at full and the advertisements to have time to convince nearly the whole country.

Anyway, the gist of this story is that Izuku makes his hero's journey in a world where almost all pro heroes are women, and he's a prime steak slathered in fan-service. Either that, or it's a deep and thoughtful examination of the objectification and empowerment of female super-heroes by the reversal of traditional gender roles. You'll see as it goes. Beware of Crack and other absurdities. But for now, On to the Story!

-U.A. Hero Exam Registration-

"I recognize you from your school's sports festival! Last name Iida, first name Tenyako. Quirk: Engine. General Synergy Levels are 35, 25, -5, and 15 for Base, Emitter, Transformation, and Mutant. I'm an intelligent guy for remembering all that, right?"

The stiff girl fixed him in a stern glare. "My levels are 37, 24, -4, and 16. Such inaccuracy in data-"

The tired business student cut her off. "down to -75 relationship points already? I didn't do anything! I have to make this quick!" "Synergy Levels are rounded to the nearest five. They're just to confirm your identity. And they tend to fluctuate a bit, don't they? Those numbers don't really matter." Barely restrained irritation was evident on his face.

Tenyako Iida gave a robotic bow. "Then I apologize. However I must disagree about the importance of synergy levels. They are an essential metric for relationships."

The boy sighed as he saw the relationship numbers climb to only -30. He confirmed the information the system had called up for the girl and told the computer to print her test card. "Your examinee number is 7111, your practical exam will take place in area A." He snatched the card from the printer as soon as it came out. "Here's your test pass. Next."

Tsukiai Churen had one goal that he had dedicated his entire life to: He was going to get a harem. He wasn't going to just be a boy-toy for a group of pent-up heroines, no, he was going to be a full-on harem master. It wasn't going to be easy, but he was willing to put in the work. He had spent countless nights planning and plotting, and had come to the decision that attending the business course at U.A. would be his only feasible option. His quirk, Dating Sim, allowed him to see the world as if it were a game.

Unfortunately for him, all those "Gamer" quirk stories lied to him, and the universe still stubbornly refused to bend to the rules of the games. Suffice to say, his quirk did not give him any advantage in either heroics or support, and without a good quirk there would be no way he could keep up to the school's standards. The only other "Harem Profession" was hero management, and he would need a great school to attract women for his harem.

There was just one problem; his Quirk Synergy was not just laughably low, but appallingly so. At -42, -33, 1, and -66 his scores pretty much tanked any romantic thoughts any of the girls might have had about him.

But now it was a new year! Sure, last year was an utter strike-out, but now there was a new crop of potential harem-members to scout! And what better way to do scouting than volunteering for that test reception job that no one ever wanted.

He shook himself out of his thoughts to see a vaguely familiar looking green haired boy standing in front of him. The older student ignored the feeling. He didn't care about other dudes. "Probably someone from my middle school is all." "Name, quirk, and synergy levels."

"Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless… 300, 85, 100, 95."

Tsukiai blinked. "Wow… I didn't realize Synergy went that high…" The student barely held in his jealousy and typed in the information. The computer near instantly returned an error message. Apparently the boy had already been accepted under recommendation. "High Synergy really does get you everything in this world. Lucky bastard." "I'm afraid there's been some kind of mistake. You aren't supposed to be here."

Izuku stared in silence as the business student failed to elaborate. "It's because I'm quirkless, isn't it? You think that quirkless means powerless. You're going to try and stop me to protect the poor defenseless quirkless?"

The hold-up in the line had attracted attention. It only took a moment for people to recognize their favorite idol and side with him. Tsukiai could see his relationship points with all the girls present continually plummet. Something had to be done. "No! No, not at all! The… system obviously just had a bug. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, I'll make a new card for you right away. You'll be examinee 99,999 and your practical exam will take place in area A. See, I'm a friendly helpful guy! I wasn't being mean to him at all! I wasn't even enjoying his shock and confusion at my intentionally confusing statement as a petty revenge for him having a higher Synergy than I do!"

As Izuku left to take his written exam he took everyone's attention with him.

Tsukiai collapsed into his chair. "Girls are so hard to please. Really makes me wonder if a harem is really-"

[BAM!]

The student jerked up and looked into the eyes of a very pissed off flaming blonde. "Katsu Bakugou. You're going to put me in Area A…"

His quick compliance did nothing to take the edge off of the girl's blistering -999 relationship points.

-Outside Area A-

Izuku couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. Ever since yesterday he had a vague feeling that something was off, and it only increased as he hung around this group.

Then he spotted her, and more importantly, it. He checked his necklace and noticed the missing ring. Ochako Uraraka was wearing one of the pact rings.

He quickly moved over to her, ignoring Katsu's burning glare. "Ochako, right? Where did you get that ring?"

The girl spun around with a megawatt smile. "Izuku! I found it on Dagobah Beach yesterday, isn't it beautiful! Can you believe that someone would throw out something so pretty? I'm really lucky I saw it before anyone else did, or they would have taken it!"

Izuku was about to explain the whole situation when Mistress Mike gave the signal to start. There was no more time to talk, it would just have to wait.

With one more cry of 'good luck,' Uraraka quickly used her quirk to float herself above the crowd and began to fall horizontally toward the city. Izuku, meanwhile, had to join the mass of students surging forward on foot. Granted, he likely had it easier than most. A number of girls intentionally fell back behind him to watch him run, leaving the idol a clear space fly forward.

Even without his powers he physically outclassed most of the hero applicants and could easily break the weak joints of the cheaply made robots. He tried to make his way toward where he assumed that Uraraka girl had gone, but he often had to make detours to rescue girls who focused on him rather than their fights.

Katsu meanwhile had tapped into the rage she felt at another girl having one of Izuku's rings. Her wings of fire allowed her to blast across the battlefield at frightening speeds, while her mind worked out some way to scare off the round-faced slut who was trying to steal her Izuku.

Ochako was blissfully unaware and busy racking up points. If only she knew what was soon going to take place…

-Five Minutes Remaining-

Mistress Mike had just announced that the test was halfway done when Katsu laid eyes on it. The Obstacle. The Thwomp. The Zero Pointer. The perfect tool to show that she was the only one who deserved Izuku and everyone else should just leave. Sure, they weren't supposed to attack it, but there wouldn't be a punishment. She had the power to destroy it, and there was no way they would fail her if she showed off.

In her haste she didn't look where the robot's body would be landing. Perhaps if she had, she would have saved herself a great many headaches.

-Izuku-

The idol had barely caught up to the girl when his instincts screamed at him to run away. A second later he realized why. Large metal sheets rained from the sky as Katsu began her assault on the Zero Pointer. Ochako was slammed by one of the pieces and brought to the ground in a daze. But the car sized shrapnel was just the beginning. The robot's main body was coming too.

His body moved without thinking. He was halfway to her when he realized that he didn't have the time to save her before the robot's corpse would fall on them both. Time seemed to slow down. His eye caught the glint of the ring on Ochako's finger.

He dismissed the thought. Instead, he braced himself and flooded his body with the power of One for All.

The still-attached arms of the robot caught on the buildings to either side and slowed its fall. Then the steel hit his palms. He pushed with all the force he could muster and brought it to a stop. For one second, he thought that everything would be fine.

Then he felt the pain.

While he had trained to control the power of One for All, the fact remained that the full power was greater than any human body was made to bear. His bones would shatter if he tried forcing the enormous robot off of him, and he would only be able to hold it for a minute or two before the strain on his body became too great anyway.

In desperation he drew on the stored fire energy to hold his body together. It worked, but his reserves were quickly depleted when tasked with so much. He reached out for more energy, but the cool air around him seemed to siphon it away instead. "Curses, why can't I get anything from the air, there's still heat there, right?" He struck with a chilling revelation to the limits of his power. "Wait, heat always flows from higher to lesser, so that means I can only draw energy from heat that's higher than my body temperature. There's nothing like that within reach, and my shoulders will break if I'm not reinforcing them with the heat energy. I don't have a choice, I need to summon another spirit and make a vow."

Barely holding the behemoth chunk of metal, Izuku locked eyes with Ochako. He opened his mouth and began to sing. The song seemed to spin about itself, as if the music alone could summon a storm. "Wake the wind, it will flow, watch the rising hurricane, tremble at the pow'r of storms… Wind will blow, this we know, feel the movement deep within, Wake, Sylph, and know the wind…"

Izuku sighed as color faded from the world and time stopped. The die had been cast.

-Katsu-

The obsessive girl took just a moment to appreciate the destruction she had caused. Small electrical fires dotted the robot's corpse and multiple buildings bore the scars of her attack. A satisfied smile graced her face.

Shouts of awe brought her attention to the still ongoing exam. She continued to mentally revel in her victory as she moved to smash her way through more point-giving faux-villains. "I love this power! As annoying as Hot-Wings can be, she's worth it for this!"

It didn't take long for Katsu to realize that she could consciously fuse with the spirit of fire that had been following her around. The boost was intoxicating, but also wonderfully numbing. While in that combined state her fears and anxieties faded away and her anger, lust, or pride could take center stage. There were only two downsides; she had to keep the emotion strong, and she could not break the rules of Efreet's summoning. The Spirit had explained it 'If you share my body, you have to share my chains.' But so far all it meant was that she couldn't rape or seriously hurt her boyfriend. Not that she really wanted to do that, but-

The ground interrupted her train of thought.

Her wings had disappeared and left her rolling along the ground. Her training let her tumble back onto her feet, but that did nothing for her bruised pride. She looked around for the spirit that abandoned her, and only then realized that most of the world had turned gray. None of the faux villains or students were moving. She unleashed an explosion into the neck of a One-pointer and was shocked to see the shockwave stand still where she released it.

The revelation came as a huge shock. "Time is stopped?!" A huge smile grew on her face. "That means I have all the time in the world to rack up more points!"

-Izuku-

The weight of the Zero-point robot's corpse disappeared from his arms as time stopped. Izuku took a breath and stepped out to enjoy the wind on his face. It took him a moment to realize what was different this time. The few fires were still frozen, but their color remained, and now there was a slight breeze as he waited for the Spirit of Wind to reveal herself.

"Hiya there! You look cute! Do you wanna go on a date?" The idol almost jumped when he felt hands dancing over his pectorals. A body quickly followed the groping hand into his view and rubbed herself against him. "I'm Sylph, the spirit of Wind, Honest Affection, Carefree happiness, and some other stuff. Nice ta' meet'cha! What's your name?"

As he took in the sight of Sylph's body, he could help but compare her to Efreet. While the Fire Spirit was very intentional in displaying her sensual appeal, the Wind Spirit seemed entirely unaware that her leotard left little to the imagination. Efreet was exotic, while Sylph was more of the girl next door. You could easily tell that Efreet was a spirit, but Sylph just looked like an air-head with wings.

"I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's-"

"Ooh, is that going to be my host? She's cute. Why is she wearing pants? Pants are boring. Skirts are so much better! They can go swoosh! Swoosh! And you can spin and they twirl and they have lace. I'm gunna make her wear skirts!"

"Umm… I don't think that will work. She can float herself with her quirk, and I don't think she wants everyone seeing her underwear."

Sylph turned to face him, and Izuku noted that her clothes had changed into a tight version of a ballerina's dress. "What's underwear and why wouldn't you want people to see it?" A short breeze lifted the hem of her skirt. Izuku looked away. Sylph didn't even seem to notice.

"I'm sure Ochako will answer all your questions when you're with her. Right now, I want to save her life. If I make a vow, you'll protect her, right?"

A red missile slammed into the wind spirit before she could answer. The boy watched in shock as Efreet swiftly pinned the other spirit. "Well… apparently Spirits can interact with each others' awakenings… And they don't like each other… But they certainly act like women in a catfight…"

The sound of tearing cloth brought him out of his stupor. Whatever they were doing, he had to stop it. He approached the catfight, doing his best to not notice how lewd the two female spirits looked at the moment. He reached out to wrestle Efreet, but she went limp the moment his hand touched her. He pulled her off the other girl and stared the two down. "What was that? What were you doing?"

Efreet seemed caught in a mania between desire and fear. "I want to be the only one, I have to be the only one, you don't need her, I'll do anything you want if you just give her to me!"

Sylph didn't wait for the other spirit to finish speaking. "Don't listen to her, she's a meanie! She's always tryin' ta' beat me up an' take my stuff and I don't like it! I'm sick of it! I wanna pay her back, but she always beats me and its not fair."

"Your both acting like children!" He'd never get anything done if it was at the spirit's lead, and Izuku already felt his patience wearing thin from the stress. "One at a time. Efreet, how did you get here and what do you want?"

Efreet Shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be here? I'm bound to you just like Katy, and you're the one who opened the rift to summon that useless cuckquean." The other spirit glared back, but Katsu just scoffed. "As for what I want; I want what I deserve. I want to be your only. I will be yours and she will be mine; her power, her host, everything will be under me to serve you. My fire will consume everything for you. That's my nature after all."

An awkward silence settled over the three. "…You don't have many friends, do you?"

Efreet pouted. "Neither does Katy, and people let her get away with whatever she wants."

Izuku pointedly ignored that remark and turned to the other Spirit. "And what do you want?"

Sylph bounced up and down, forgetting that her top had been torn off. "I wanna have fun and not get burned. So… Ooh, I wanna play with 'Frita without getting burned!"

A small nugget of greed made itself known at the back of the aspiring hero's mind. It was small and subtle, the last remains of the sorrow and resentment he felt as one of the only quirkless children. The same desire he barely held back with Katsu came back with a vengeance in the face of what seemed to be a blank check. "I need to make a vow to save Ochako, but what do I ask for? A double jump? Walking on air? Solid Air? Outright flight?"

He shook his head. "No, it should be small so she'll be safe. But on the other hand, I can't be certain I'll get a chance like this again, and air is such a versatile element. Plus, it seems like her demands will be less than the other spirits would ask for something similar." Sense and compassion waged war against his desire and jealously, swaying his wants and desires from one extreme to the other. But there was really only one way such a war could end; The most fed desires are the strongest after all, and Izuku was nothing if not a hero for others. "I offer this as my vow; I will be your shield and protect you from being burned by fire. In exchange, I ask that I never run out of breath."

The air-headed spirit considered the vow. "Nah, I'd rather have fun. Ooh, Why don't we have a playdate? That'll be fun! We can have one every weekend, and 'Frita can join in whenever she wants! Oh, and we can invite all the other spirits when they wake up!"

The boy nodded dumbly. His mind was miles away, trying to figure out whether spirits were easier or harder to understand than normal girls. "for the gift of unlimited breath, I accept your price and vow to use it to save the innocent."

Efreet disappeared and Sylph smiled. A blast of wind rose up and carried him back into reality.

-Katsu-

"A world without time gets boring really quickly. The enemies can't fight back, and I can't even fully break them without time. How in Izuku's name do I get out of here?"

The girl couldn't begin to guess how long time had stood still, but she was sick of it. It hadn't been long when she was struck by the revelation that she wouldn't get points for any robots destroyed outside of time; there would be no way of telling who did it, after all. Any robots she destroyed before time started again would just be points wasted. And she couldn't really do anything else, either. She wasn't going to directly interfere with the other students, and she couldn't leave to do something else since she didn't know when time would start again. Exercise, stretching, and even resting had all proven worthless without time. Considering dates and love confessions just made her angry at her own shortcomings. Eventually she came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was find a way to force time to start again.

So here she was, staring at an empty silhouette of herself located a bit off the ground. It looked almost like a hole that she fell though into this alternate dimension. She wondered what caused it, and what this all meant, but she was much more concerned with returning to reality. Questions of metaphysics were Izuku's territory, her job was to take down villains.

With a healthy degree of uncertainty, she leapt though the hole.

It worked. Color returned to the world, and time began to flow again. Then the wind hit.

It felt like a hurricane had sprung up in the middle of the testing ground. Robots were being tossed around like toys, and the other students were doing their best to find cover. Katsu herself has almost blown off her feet and couldn't even start a fire to fly with.

The wind quickly died down, revealing Izuku holding Ochako. The two of them stood in the middle of the robot's shredded remains, and the boy was calmly whispering into the scared girl's ears. The normally bubbly girl was terrified. She had sprouted wings and somehow caused a devastating hurricane. Izuku was her only lifeline as he slowly brought her down to earth.

That's not what Katsu saw, though. She saw her boyfriend seduced by another girl. She saw another student that had a quirk evolution like she had. She saw a rival.

-Staff Room-

It was utter chaos.

Despite how dangerous the practical hero exam seemed, there were a host of hidden safety nets and regulations to make sure that no one was seriously injured. The robots were made primarily out of aluminum so that students were less likely to be crushed. The lasers that they shot were set to stun. Everything was purely electric so that there was less chance of an explosion. The exams were staggered so that recovery girl and her apprentice could be on-site in case of emergency. Even the Zero pointer was programed to avoid permanently harming any students. If anything were to go wrong, the pro-hero watching over the trial should be more than enough to intervene.

All of those precautions had failed. And when preparation fails, what's left but chaos?

"Who rubber stamped a robot of that size? Did no one consider the damage it could cause if someone knocked it over?"

"None of the students should have been able to destroy it, much less in one hit! If they had that much power, they should have gotten a recommendation!"

"What's Mike doing? I'm not getting a response from her."

"That wind storm has destroyed cameras 3 through 7, and all the others in the city are only giving damaged feeds. We'll need to send Ectoplasm over to make sure that no one got buried."

"How are we even supposed to count points with this?"

"What was Izuku doing down there? Wasn't he already accepted on recommendation?"

"We can't let news of this leak to the media, they'll have a field day at our expense."

The principal Nezu remained silent in the midst of the chaos. She knew that the students were all safe, and had already calculated how many points each examinee had earned. Her thoughts were elsewhere. "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth." "All Might, would you please send a notification to the support class of 99 informing them of the destruction of their gift and offering to let them take any pieces of it that they want. Additionally, append a greeting from me to Mr. Midoriya's acceptance letter. Through his actions he has broken the school record for both villain points and rescue points. And finally, please tell Cementoss to construct an extra-large room for Mr. Midoriya and his harem in the dorms. It would be the height of foolishness to place any obstacles in the way of these girls' stress relief. And be certain to install extra cameras in that room as well."

All Might looked at the principal a whole new type of fear. "Principal… are you a voyeur?"

Nezu laughed. "I'm not going to watch them mating. There won't even be cameras aimed at the beds. No, I'm going to record their everyday lives and sell the recordings. As the previous principal established in Section 69, subsection D of the school's charter; 'The dorms will be monitored for security purposes, and the recordings will be sold off for daytime television.' Those sales are that main source of income for dormitory improvement, and instrumental examples for the business students. The networks and teachers censor and edit the material, but nevertheless it is a needed encouragement to always act in a decent manner."

All Might remembered the endless money making schemes of his old principal and sighed. "Only at U. A…"

-Chapter 6 End-

I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I spent a very long time considering what power I wanted to add to Deku's bag of tricks, and what twists I could add in. Hopefully the limitations I brought in for Izuku are clear and make sense. After all, you're much less likely to break you hand punching a wall than punching air, and your body can only take so much constant strain.

Slowly pulling back the curtain on what exactly bonding with a spirit does. I hope it's interesting at least.

For Izuku's song this chapter, I was inspired by the Song of Storms from the Legend of Zelda. Sylph is one syllable, pronounced Silf.