Chapter I: The Entrance Exam
Midoriya Izuku wasn't really a complicated person.
If he has something he needs to do, he will put his energy into it, and he will finish it.
That's what Aizawa taught him, anyway. Don't waste any energy. Do it fast, and do it good.
Staring at the massive gates to whatever zone U.A. would be using for the practical part of their exam, he got a bit nervous and overwhelmed.
However, he knew that this was just another task to finish.
Why couldn't Eraser give him that recommendation anyway?
Then again, it wasn't really his fault. Some rich company's daughter got the earliest slot for 1-A, and the kid of the No. 2 Hero, Endeavor, got the second one not shortly after. He doesn't really know what happened with 1-B's recommendation slots, but Aizawa told him that Vlad's slots were full too. Didn't really matter to him whoever took those slots, but he just wanted to skip the social interaction that was sure to come with U.A.'s entrance exam.
Not that he'd talked to anyone recently, of course.
He wasn't really good with crowds of people, after all.
The loud voice of Present Mic got him out of his own head, and back to reality. He exhaled heavily, shaking off the nerves that he knew would get in the way of him performing at the top of his game. Taking in his surroundings, he got himself ready to sprint once the gate had opened.
"OKAY! START!" boomed the Voice Hero, which Izuku took as his cue to bolt as fast as he could past the massive, newly-opened doors.
'Let's get this over with.'
Before fully putting all of his attention towards the sounds of the robots in front of him, he took a glance back at the other examinees. Not surprisingly, almost all of them were all still standing there in a state of shock, with only a few of them following behind him. He saw the dark blue hair of the student who had asked Present Mic a question earlier at the practice exam's orientation, the spiky red hair of the guy beside him during the written exam portion, who asked him for a pencil (since his broke), and some guy in a mask with a lot of arms.
'See you in class, I guess," he mused.
Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Izuku looked up front once more. Feeling the familiar warmth of his quirk doing its thing in his right hand, he felt the round, green object he had planned to make finally finish materializing. Knowing there was probably no one out that far into the city, he threw it without a second thought.
The grenade he threw blew up, fucking up some robots in the process. Some fell on top of each other, some were directly in the range of the blast, and some got crushed under the debris that the bomb's explosion would produce.
Knowing that was probably the last time he could pull a trick like that out of his sleeve again (in fear of endangering the other participants), he felt the familiar cold steel of the handle of a butterfly knife he's always made with his quirk. Before running to the alleys, he did a few tricks with it.
Just, y'know.
To make sure he wasn't rusty.
And he knew he was probably being watched by every hero at that point.
"Damn, that was actually fuckin' cool eh, Aizawa? Your kid's kinda clean with that knife," said Lady Nagant, Japan's top marksman hero, impressed at his little show. While everything about her says that she would be used to taking people out from afar, she still knows her way around hand-to-hand combat. After all, Pro Heroes have to have some kind of solution to their weaknesses so they aren't taken down that easily.
Aizawa merely grunted while watching his trainee take out heaps of robots with surprising agility and strength (for someone without an enhancer quirk, that is.)
"He and I both know he'll have no problem with this exam," said Eraser, sipping his coffee as he watches Izuku take out two more three-pointers, throwing knives that embedded themselves dead center of the robots' heads. Snapping his fingers, the knives blew up, the small explosion causing more robots to get caught in the collateral damage.
"What the hell is this kid's quirk? He's pulled out like a hundred different items from his hands in the span of a few minutes! Even the recommended student we had couldn't make stuff that fast!" commented Vlad King, watching the boy now pull out a roll of bandages, tossing it over to some of his fellow participants who were wounded before dashing out to get some more points.
"It says here that his quirk is called Pocket. It lets him make anything that can fit in the palm of his hand, as long as he knows how it works, what it's made of, and is inorganic," explained Nezu, reading off the kid's official records.
"It may seem extremely strong at first, just like Yaoyorozu-san's, but the amount of thinking you'd have to do with it would be more than you think."
"How so?" asked Lady Nagant, genuinely curious as to what exactly would make this quirk difficult to use.
"Think about it this way: you have to think of an object that can fit in the palm of your hand, can perfectly counteract your opponent, and after that, you have to know how it works, what it's made of, and how you're going to use it, all in the span of a few seconds. Doesn't seem all that simple now, right?" elaborated the principal.
"To have made his quirk work, he's most likely trained both his body and mind to a very good level, and he's probably studied a lot of subjects just to make his quirk as versatile as this. On top of that, our very own Eraserhead has been dragging him along some missions for quite a few years now. It would only be natural for him to make this look a lot easier than it is."
Aizawa grunted at the mention of his name. Well, what Nezu was saying was true though.
He didn't like seeing potential go to waste, and neither did Nezu.
He just did the work for the two of them.
"The gap in experience aside, don't you think we have quite the interesting batch of hero hopefuls this year?" commented Nezu.
Aizawa looked around at the other screens which were centered on every other examinee. One screen showed a blonde going feral, forming explosions on his hand, practically having the time of his life. Another screen displayed a girl with orange hair and enlarged hands practically punch a robot in half, and the last one he took a glance at had a guy with kanji for a head practically smash someone with words that seemingly popped out of thin air.
A bit unusual, but it got the job done.
"I hope so. Looks like a lot of problem children to me, but we'll see soon enough," he replied.
After answering Nezu's question (which probably was rhetorical, now that he thought about it), Aizawa curled up in his sleeping bag and dozed off. He was far too tired to look on further, and he knew Izuku would be fine, even if the two of them had just busted a drug den earlier that morning. Hell, if he couldn't keep up with Aizawa's sleep schedule, then would he really be Aizawa's trainee?
Chuckling upon seeing the familiar yellow cocoon roll on the floor, Nezu turned his eyes back to the screens.
"I think we've seen enough. Anyone wanna do the honors of releasing the 0-pointer?" asked Nezu, looking around the room for any volunteers.
"Oh, let me do it! I've always wanted to hit a big red button!" exclaimed Midnight, raising her hand from one corner of the room. As Nezu smiled and gestured her towards the button, she practically skipped her way towards it.
Izuku was seated atop the edge of a building's rooftop he had climbed earlier with a grappling hook, regaining the stamina he'd expended throughout a good 8 or so minutes of the exam. Pretty confident that he had enough points to pass the exam, he was fine with letting the other robots go to the other examinees, only looking out for other ones who may be in trouble from the robots.
As soon as he had thought of that, he felt the strong rumbling that came from the middle of Battle Zone B, which signified the entrance of the 0-pointer. He felt something was going to go wrong, so he dropped down from the small building and started running towards the tremors.
As he met several students running back to not deal with the large robot, he saw the familiar brown hair of the girl with gravity manipulation he'd passed by earlier. He saw that she was stuck in the middle of some debris, probably not able to move because of an injury. Once he saw that the robot was getting to her faster, he began to sprint faster.
Getting rid of the chunk of debris that was on top of her, he helped her up and supported her weight by slinging her arm across his shoulders.
"You alright?" he asked her, to which she nodded to.
"Yeah, but I can't use my quirk anymore and my ankle's sprained," she said with a bit of struggle, trying to limp away from the approaching monster.
Counting the minutes that have passed since the beginning of the exam, Izuku figured out that what he was about to do would be alright.
"I wonder if U.A. would be mad if I did this?" he asked himself, not really expecting an answer.
"Uhhh, I don't really think this is the time to be talking about something like this, right? We should be running, right?" she replied, letting out a nervous chuckle, her voice a bit shaky from fatigue and of course, fear for her life.
"Relax, I got this. I'll just say sorry in advance to them for now."
"W-wha?"
Looking dead straight towards one of the hidden cameras he had found earlier, Izuku made a small device from his hands in front of the camera. Once it was finally generated, the faculty and staff monitoring that area saw him bring the device closer so they could see it better.
The device was bluish in color, and had a faint pulse emitting from its center. It had the label E.M.P written on its side, and the heroes could probably put two and two together.
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to use this to save gravity girl over here. I'll get rid of the pulse once the 0-pointer is down," he droned out, before turning around and chucking the device towards the 0-pointer.
"Is that what I think it is?" commented the Pro Hero Power Loader. It wasn't really a surprise that he was the one that recognized it first, being the hero working on a lot of support items and all.
"An electromagnetic pulse. Did this kid raid Area 51 or some shit? How does he figure this out?" remarked Snipe, wondering how an 18-year-old boy would know how to make an E.M.P from thin air.
Nezu merely laughed at the dumbfounded looks on the faces of the other teachers, as he shared the same amused expression as the others who were probably looking forward to this kid to surprise them.
'This might be the very first time in the history of the U.A. Entrance Exam that someone's put the 0-pointer down without causing some unnecessary destruction," thought the rat principal.
For a split second, a few cameras that were in Battle Area B went out.
When they went back on, the 0-pointer was on the ground.
"Well-played, Midoriya-san. A very refreshing performance. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future," said Nezu out loud, watching him carry the wounded girl to safety.
"That bot might fall forward, so hold on tight," said Izuku to the girl beside him, who was still baffled and confused at what he was doing.
"Hold on tight? What do you mea-EEEEEEEEEEEP!" she squeaked, as she was cut off by him picking her up bridal style and full sprinting towards the entrance of the Battle Area. After she had gotten ahold of herself, she realized what kind of ungodly sounds had just come out of her mouth, feeling her cheeks grow warm in embarrassment. The boy carrying her didn't seem to mind though, and he just gave her a small laugh.
She had to give it to him though, he was running pretty fast for someone who doesn't seem to have a strength/speed quirk. Then again, she could practically feel his toned muscles under the grey v-neck shirt he was wearing, so he's probably done a lot of training.
After a bit more running, they were finally far enough from the robot that was falling down. Izuku gradually slowed down, putting the girl back down on the ground gently once he had made a full stop, much to her chagrin (she didn't show the disappointment on her face, of course.)
"Thanks for helping, uhh-"
"Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku," he introduced himself, pulling her up.
"Thanks for saving me, Midoriya-kun! I thought I was gonna be a goner!" she exclaimed.
"No problem, Ms.-"
"Uraraka. Uraraka Ochaco," she interrupted cheerfully.
"Uraraka-san. Good to meet you," he told her with a small smile on his face, shaking her hand.
"How are you doing, children? Any injuries?" asked a small figure wading through the small crowd, who turned out to be Recovery Girl, cane in one hand and bowl of gummies in the other.
"I'm fine, Ma'am. Uraraka-san has a sprained ankle," replied Izuku, taking one gummy from her bowl. He's heard that those restore energy, and he wasn't all that tired, but he wanted to taste one anyway.
"Alright. Stand still, sweetie," said Recovery Girl, placing a kiss on Ochaco's forehead. After a slight delay, Ochaco's ankle was quickly returned to its normal, healthy state.
"Thank you so much, Recovery Girl-san!" said Uraraka, bowing her head in thanks.
"It's no problem, sweetie. It's my job. Just don't pass out, alright? My quirk takes some stamina out of you to heal faster, so just be careful on the road if you're driving, okay?"
"Yes ma'am," she replied, before her legs gave out for a few seconds.
Thankfully, Izuku caught her before she fell face-first into the floor.
"On second thought, I think you should take her home, Midoriya-san. Don't do anything funny, okay? U.A. trusts you," said Recovery Girl, feeding a gummy into her mouth to help her get ready to leave.
"And you too, Uraraka-san, don't be afraid of this sonny boy right here. He won't do anything silly, and you can probably trust him since he saved your life. You two take care now, alright?"
The two young adults nodded, and they went on their way back to get their stuff, and eventually, out the gates.
The ride home was a pretty quiet one, although Ochaco didn't really expect to be going home on a motorcycle. Far too tired to think about formality, Ochaco just clung tight to the boy in front of her, holding on for dear life.
Once they had reached her apartment, it was time for Izuku to say goodbye.
"Really, thanks for getting me home safely. I ordered food, so I think I should be fine for the night. You take care on your way home, alright? You've saved me a lot of times today, and the least I could do is ask for your number so I could treat you out for some food sometime," she offered.
Midoriya Izuku wasn't really a complicated person.
If he gets offered free food, he takes it.
"Sure. Here," he replied with a small smile, handing her his phone.
Once that was done, he took his phone back.
"Thanks for today. I'll see you soon. Take care, alright?" said Uraraka, her face still beaming no matter how tired she was.
"Take care. Good luck on your results," replied Izuku, waving her off.
As the door closed behind him, he heard the familiar text notification sound from his phone.
Midoriya, this is Aizawa. Tsukauchi finally found leads on the gang we've been chasing for the past 2 weeks. Big hand-off of smuggled goods tonight, and some moles told us they'd probably leave the country after this operation. I think we have to do this now.
Midoriya sighed, got a bottle of cold coffee from his bag, and gulped it all down in one go.
Well, at least studying in his dream school was something to look forward to.
And maybe getting free food from a cute girl.
Hopping on his motorcycle, he sped towards the location Aizawa had sent him, making a few utilities that could come in handy for Aizawa along the way.
'Just another day in the life of Midoriya Izuku.'
AN: Hey! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my fic! This is my very first one, so please do tell me what you like and not like about it.
As for lore, nothing before the entrance exam stays the same. Izuku's past, all that jazz, nothing is the same as canon. I'll slowly unearth these lore chunks bit by bit throughout the chapters where we would be following canon. U.A. here is a university, so expect them to be aged up a bit, and to be a bit more mature.
Rate, follow, and review!
Also, tell me if you want to see Aizawa and Izuku taking down the drug den mentioned at the end of the chapter at the start of the next chapter.
That's all for now, cya!