I don't own BNHA or Marvel
Ochako Uraraka POV
To say she was nervous was a vast understatement.
Ochako had always been a person who wanted to help others. Holding doors, carrying the elderly neighbor's bags, always picking up trash she found scattered on corners. Cooking dinner for when her parents had to work late, being willing to wear clothes mostly from second hand shops, and of course, being more than willing to spend her life helping at her parent's construction company with her quirk.
It would have been simple, a demonstration of usefulness and control at the job and she wouldn't even have to go to college, a high-school degree and quirk permit and boom, she alone could up the efficiency of her parent's company while also cutting costs on heavy equipment. She wasn't the smartest in the world, but she had gone through her parents' papers before and the amount they would save was more than enough for their family, enough to provide for them and more.
But her parents wouldn't hear of it. They wouldn't let her be shackled by their situation, they wanted her to do what she wanted, not what she felt like she was forced to do. They wanted her to reach for her dreams, not settle with what little they could give her.
And like every child, her biggest dream was to become a hero. And despite their situation, her parents supported her every step of the way. She'd gone out of her way to make sure she studied, found the little moments to push her quirk without getting into trouble.
And all that work and support led to now, the UA entrance exams.
Sure, Ochako had already been accepted into a smaller much less well known hero university closer to her home, but UA was where the best of the best went. Where getting in meant that you would at least be looked at by the big names. Because it was something that had to be earned. No one could just strut into UA because a parent bought them in. Those who tried got put into the even more rigorous recommended student exams, internet rumors said Endeavor's son was one of the few accepted this way this year. Against the son of the number 2 hero, what really was an average girl who could mess with gravity.
And all the pressure of getting into UA was settling into her gut, Ochako almost ran away from the huge building's gates she was now standing in front of, but she had come too far to quit without even trying. Not after all the work she had put in.
So it was with that mindset that she made her way through the gates, keeping her eyes set forward. It was also why she noticed a boy with wild ash-blonde hair rudely shove his way past a boy with fluffy green hair who was doing what she had earlier and was staring up at the building in front of him.
Seeing the green haired boy stumble and begin to fall after being shoved, Ochako was quick to jump in and tag him with her quirk. Sure it was probably rude, but that was better than falling on your face right before as big an exam as the UA entrance exam.
"Huuuuuuh?" The boy's voice was sleepy as he hung in the air, her quirk having taken his gravity.
"Sorry about that, I just figured it would be bad luck to trip before the exam." Ochako said cheerily to the boy, watching him right himself in the air before canceling her quirk, allowing him to land cleanly on his feet.
"Thanks then." He told her slowly, and now that she could see his face, Ochako couldn't help but feel a bubble of worry form in her stomach.
She wasn't blind to the vices of living in a poor area. She had seen people on street corners give into drugs and despair. She had even been with her mother when an addict had mugged them for money. A hero had taken care of it, but the feeling of sudden fear was one she never wanted again, and was one of the reasons she wanted to be a hero.
The boy didn't look like those addicts, a wild desire for more wasn't in his eyes. But he was definitely on something, and it was a strong something. It wasn't completely apparent, but this close, she could see the red streaks in his eyes that told of either insomnia or drugs. That, combined with his slow speech pattern that she suspected now was meant to prevent slurs, and his lack of any physical twitch and generally...suppressed...demeanor told Ochako enough.
"Well, good luck at the exams." Ochako told him brightly before heading on her way. It might have been a little rude, but she was nervous enough as it was, no need to bring in the pressure of meeting someone new on top of that. That he was probably on a controlled substance simply reaffirmed her decision. That, or it was a very unfortunate side effect of his quirk.
Pushing the thoughts out of her mind, Ochako refocused on the coming exam. Written first, then practical.
It was a quick trip from the gatehouse to the assigned classroom for her written exam among other students she didn't recognize. Although she did think that seeing a completely invisible student was both a unique and ironic experience.
The exam itself was more difficult than she had hoped, but not as bad as she had feared. There were several long math equations she knew she had gotten, and several English translations she knew she had botched. Because she doubted that portion was meant to have puns or riddles in it.
The hero material was different though. On top of asking about various laws and the tops heroes currently active, the whole portion was largely hypothetical.
Given a certain situation, how would she, as a hero, handle said situation.
A burning building. A hostage situation. A fleeing mugger. A villain on a rampage. A sinking ship.
The questions went on and on, asking about her, her quirk and her original thoughts. And it asked why, to reason her choices she had written out.
Compared to that, the academic written portion was a cake walk. And Ochako could suddenly understand why no one could ever really be guaranteed a spot into UA. And also why they had booked 6 hours for the written exam.
When she finished, Ochako noticed she was one of the few in her assigned room that had. The invisible girl was another, and the other was a purple haired boy with bags under his eyes almost as big as the greenette from earlier.
3 of them had finished, and there were only 20 minutes left in the exam. Ochako could see everyone else in the classroom scrambling to finish questions, the silver haired proctor, Blood King if she remembered her heroes correctly, keeping everyone hyper aware of their dwindling time.
Ochako watched as a little more than half of the students managed to finish whatever they were writing and throw their pens down in relief, the pressure of the test clearly having gotten to them. Those that didn't finish, either groaned loudly, and tried to make use of the time Blood King spent collecting the exams to finish a thought. He was very clearly aware of it, based on his close observation throughout the whole exam, but he didn't say anything.
From there, everyone was directed to the auditorium at the center of the main building, their written test passes traded in for practical exam ones as they entered, each pass bearing the prospective student's assigned seat in the auditorium, overview of the practical exam, and practical testing site.
Ochako only loosely listened as Present Mic entered and began his explanation, focused instead on the diagram of the exam in her hands.
Robots. She could beat robots. It was all a matter of tagging them, letting them float high enough, and dropping them when they were high enough to break them, and no one was beneath them. The small sinking feeling in her gut that a clever student might simply shoot down the flying targets she was providing was quickly pushed aside as she resolved to stick to side streets and alleys. That was where heroes operated more often than not anyway.
"Excuse me, I have a question!"
A taller boy with sharp glasses interrupted Present Mic and drew every eye in the room to himself.
And while Ochako had to admit that he had a good point about the 0-point robot explanation, she was almost certain Present Mic would have gotten to it if he hadn't interrupted. And calling out the drugged boy may have had merits as well, to do so in front of everyone, to draw a mocking eye onto the greenette from all corners of the room, was uncalled for. If he was that concerned he could have asked a proctor on the side rather than make a big deal out of it.
But when it was all said and done, Ochako wound up in front of the gates to test site B, doing her best not to let any last second jitters spook her before the practical.
She almost missed the glasses boy once again confronting the greenette, but did her best to put it out of her mind. If he wanted to distract himself, he clearly felt confident enough he would do well. She needed to focus to do her …..
"GO!"
The shout made her jump a little before realizing there had been no count down and the gates into the site were wide open. Ochako stutter-stepped for a second before taking off down the left side of the exam site, a pair of one-point bots already in her line of sight.
Running as fast as she could, she darted past them, tagging them with her quirk as she went. Not seeing anymore in the area, she waited until they were equal with the third story windows before dropping them.
Only for one of them to be shot down before it could hit the ground by a white sparkly laser.
"Thank you Mademoiselle." A blonde with a large mirrored belt called to her. Ochako had to bite back a curse before she took off again. That kind of shot was what she had been worried about.
The next side street had a mix of one and three-pointers. Ochako repeated her dash maneuver, but this time dropped the robots when they were only two stories up, and was very pleased by the sight of a white laser missing one of the three pointers high and all the robots still breaking to pieces on impact.
Not sparing a glance back at the blonde that was following her, Ochako resumed her dash in a loop around the exam site, tagging units and dropping them. The blonde had given up after she managed to keep him from stealing any of her points for three sidestreets. Ochako wasn't one to think negatively of others, but she hoped that he didn't make it through the exam.
Her strategy, while it didn't amass her the most points in the world, got her over 30, which she hoped was enough, as she stopped near the back wall of the exam site to catch her breath, taking the time to see who else had fought their way to the back of the fake city.
The blue haired boy with glasses that had interrupted Present Mic was using a pair of engines coming from the back of his legs to boost his kicks as he cleared down the last few robots in the plaza at the back of the site. Behind him was the blonde with the belt and a very short boy with purple balls for hair. There were a few others as well, but the only one that stood out was the greenette.
Now that he had shed the baggy windbreaker he had been wearing, Ochako could see the muscle mass that had been hiding underneath. Ochako had to shake the distraction from her mind and reevaluate her initial impression of him. There was no way whatever he was taking affected him that much physically. Not with a build like that. The sleeveless compression shirt he wore showed off both his arms, and his abs, in a very appealing manner.
Before she even had the chance to fully think out how much longer they had left in the exam, Ochako felt the ground underneath her begin to rumble. Scrambling forward, Ochako barely managed to dodge several blocks of concrete being uprooted as a massive robot rose up from the ground at the way back of the fake city.
Right. 0-point villain. Thwomp.
Present Mic's speech suddenly made much more sense. There was no way anyone was going to be taking this behemoth down, not a chance. And so began the mad dash of the examinees back to the entrance to avoid the metal monstrosity. All except for the belted blonde, who was attempting to take pot shots at the thing.
And with a flick of its metal wrist, the 0-pointer sent an entire rooftop raining down at him.
Ochako was the only one to notice and sprinted at him as he tried to blast the rubble that was raining down on him. His own arrogance or desperation for points keeping him from dodging.
Luckily, he was on the edge of the boulder rain and there were plenty of places to dodge to. Unfortunately, when she tackled him out of the way, one of the awnings of a fake story was brought down by the rubble and trapped her lower body, a stabbing pain shooting up her left ankle.
Ochako only allowed herself to wince as she looked back up at the machine that was continuing forward at a slow march, both her and the laser boy completely forgotten to it. It only took a few seconds for Ochako to realize that, with the route it was currently taking, it would wind up crushing her under its tank treads.
Looking down at her legs, Ochako panicked when she realized that while she could use her quirk on the tarp awning that was keeping her pinned, she couldn't do so on the metal poles and rubble that was in turn keeping the awning taunt against her legs.
And while she could wiggle her way out, the robot would have turned her into fresh road-kill by then. Having at least a sprained ankle on top of that meant there was basically no chance she was getting out of this on her own.
Glancing back, Ochako could see most of the other applicants had already fled, all but one….
The greenette, the one she had helped back at the entrance, the one who had been faced with scrutiny by others when they saw him.
He was running forward, not away.
He was running straight at the robot; straight at her.
He sprinted straight past her, only taking the time to kick one of the larger boulders keeping the tarp taut as he passed.
With her new found freedom, Ochako wiggled free and looked at where he had continued running, straight at the 0-point mech.
She looked up just in time to watch him plant his feet and CATCH the large tread that moved the machine, his bare hands digging into the plated steel with a mighty yell.
"SMASH!"
She could see the effort on his face as veins popped on both his arms and both his legs, the signs of strain making their way up his face as all of his skin took a plaid shade of grey in his struggle.
But despite all odds, it was working.
He had completely stopped the machine, and Ochako could already see smoke coming from the wheel wells and could hear the crunching of self-destructing mechanisms.
After what felt like years, but in reality was just under a minute, the engines driving the 0-point monstrosity finally gave out and sputtered, their dying whines signifying that it had indeed been halted.
Once she had gotten herself completely free of the awning she limped her way over to where the boy was leaning against the motionless machine, his breath coming in visible straining gasps.
"Are you ok?" She asked him carefully, wincing as she accidentally put too much weight on her own injured foot.
When he looked up, all Ochako could see on his face was a wide smile stretching across his features, genuine happiness and giddy excitement overshadowing any exhaustion. And for a moment, Ochako forgot this had been the face so many had written off.
And then he fell backwards, passing out before he even hit the ground.
Ochako gave a sigh and plopped on the ground herself, giving a small chuckle as she did so. Now that all the adrenaline had left her system, she didn't know what she had been thinking, diving in to save the point sniper.
Her body had just moved on its own.
She had almost died because of her recklessness, but she couldn't for a moment find it in her to regret doing it. It had taken until the Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl had prodded her and healed her ankle that she realized the exam was over and she could head home.
She did so in a daze, slowly making her way back to the small apartment her parents had rented for the month for her to apply and hear back from UA. And after a week of waiting in anticipation, she received a thick packet from UA.
Ignoring the voice in the back of her mind that whispered that thick packets meant acceptance, Uraraka opened it and examined the small disk that came out before pressing the one button on it, the stray thought that surely UA didn't send her a bomb was quickly brushed aside.
"Greetings Young Uraraka!"
All Might was certainly not who she had been expecting to see, but she drank in the image of the number 1 hero with wide eyes.
"I'm sure you must be wondering why I am the one on UA mail, well it's because I've decided to return to my alma mater as a TEACHER!"
Well, that answered that question.
"On your written exam, you scored 85%! Not the highest score, but more than enough to pass." Ochako let out a sigh of relief, 85 was nothing too impressive, but if it got her through the door she would take it.
"On the practical side however, you earned 28 villain points! Which by itself is not enough for a pass. But what kind of hero school would we be if we didn't also reward heroic actions!" Ochako felt her breath catch in her chest when All Might had said she hadn't earned enough points, only for it to start pounding rapidly when he continued.
"For your heroic actions of selflessly saving others and confronting the one threat that had no benefit for facing, you earned 50 POINTS! Putting your final score at 78 points, third among all the competitors! Congratulations Young Uraraka! This is now YOUR Hero Academia!"
The video clip ended with All Might reaching his hand forward towards her, his trademark smile stretched wide across his face.
She would wind up watching the clip a dozen more times that night, and crying on the phone with her parents in excitement for the coming weeks.
And as she went to bed that night, she smiled at her last passing thought. If she got in for simply pushing another student out of the way of the 0 pointer, then there would be a certain green haired boy she'd have to thank on the first day of class.
Well. That's the entrance exam.
This was originally going to be the first half of the chapter and the second half would be the quirk apprehension test, but with how long this got and how carried away I got writing, that's going to be the next chapter. Still deciding who's POV I want for that. I'm thinking Todoroki or Aizawa, but I'm open to suggestions. As for the points, I gave Uraraka the extra 5 for confronting the 0 pointer, there was more to that bonus, but its offset by her not going in to talk with Mic.
Izuku is clearly no longer the useless druggie huh. Still bad enough to get noticed, but he got ripped, about equal to his canon training, and that is seriously ripped for a 15 year old. And he can channel a bit of Skaar strength. Too much though, and the drug overpowers his system after use and he passes out. I think of it as Skaar is a deep well of power, but it's covered by a wall of jello with the drug. Izuku can poke his way through with small little pokes and get bits of power, but anymore and the jello floods to fill in the gap and knocks him out.
Also, for those who noticed, there was a fair bit of Aoyama in this chapter. That was intentional. This chapter serves as my basis for not including him in the hero course, although he will be in the general course. I decided on 1 Marvel character to add to the roster, but for that to happen, someone had to bite the dust. And while most people get rid of the grape, I think he has enough depth as a character to warrant staying.
No clue when the next chapter is coming out, but hopefully soon. PSA for Americans able to vote, do it. If for no other reason than to confuse the metrics by voting for All Might or something weird like that.
Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus
