Author's Note: Okay, so I know I said every OTHER week, but I couldn't help myself... I've been having a great time writing this fic, and I wanted to put more of it out there. That being said, I'm not the best at writing action, and I can see it in some of the later chapters as well. That being said, I'm looking for some more people to possibly beta and let me bounce ideas off of them.
Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on
/eFtmT8cTbY
We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.
The first time Izuku's resolve faltered, it was honestly a normal day leading up to it. He was walking home from school and planning to meet Kyouka a little bit later to work on their Hero designs. He smiled as he opened his notebook, edition number 13. He looked at the sketch that he did during school of what he wanted his hero costume to be. The primary color was green, matching his hair and eyes. Different sprawling images of clovers wrapped around his arms and legs, and his mask was that of a four leaf clover. Written below the sketch was a name: Cloverleaf. That's who he'd be as a hero. As he smiled to himself, the now fourteen year old walked his normal path unaware of the monster hiding in the sewers beneath him.
Izuku walked underneath a bridge, past a manhole cover. Hearing a thick bubbling sound from behind him, Izuku turned around only to be grabbed by… something as it exited the sewers. This creature, whatever it was, towered over him, easily containing his squirming form inside its massive amount of… sludge? Sludge seemed like an apt way to describe it.
"A medium sized invisibility cloak…" The sludge villain said menacingly before trying to force its way into Izuku's body. "Don't worry! I'm just going to take over your body. Calm down. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds, and then it'll all be over. You'll feel better soon."
"Focus, Izuku! Use your quirk! Focus on the sludge!" Izuku thought to himself. He tried. He really did. But given what this thing was made out of, there wasn't really any way for his luck to affect it. All he got was more in trouble and a headache. "Figures…" He thought to himself. "I guess Kacchan was right all those years ago. I can't even save myself from one villain. How am I supposed to be a Hero…?" Izuku felt himself blacking out from suffocation, the light fading from his vision. The last thing that he remembered before succumbing to the darkness was a loud shout.
"I am here! Texas Sma-" And then he was gone. He next woke up to a myriad of gentle slaps on his face. "-y! Hey! He-! Oh, good. You're awake." As Izuku opened his eyes, he couldn't help but feel like the voice was familiar, like he had heard it somewhere before. And then he finally was able to open his eyes to see All Might standing in front of him. "ALL MIGHT?" Izuku jumped backwards, almost hitting his head on the concrete as he did. "I'm glad that you're okay. Sorry about getting you caught up in my villain fighting. I usually don't make mistakes like this, but I was in high spirits on my day off in a new place." He then let out a deep throaty laugh. His signature laugh. The one that Izuku had heard countless times from the videos that he had his mother play for him when he was younger.
"A-All…" Izuku started to speak, but he was interrupted by All Might, and when All Might spoke, Izuku did not. He listened.
"But you were a big help, thanks!" All Might pulled out two large soda bottles filled with the villain. "I have captured the villain safely!"
Izuku broke out of his stupor when he realized that this was the perfect time to ask for "An autograph! Where can I... ? Ah, the notebook!" Izuku rushed over to grab the notebook that he had dropped whenever the sludge villain attacked him. He opened it up to a fresh page… Only to see that All Might had already given him an autograph? "Th-Thank you, All Might! Thank you so much! It'll be an heirloom! A family treasure!"
All Might simply gave Izuku a thumbs up. "Okay!" Turning away, All Might spoke to himself. "Now, I have to take this guy to the police… See you again on the other side of the screen!" All Might squatted down into what Izuku could only imagine as a jumping stance.
"This… This can't be it! I finally met my idol. My hero… And then he's just going to leave? I have so many questions for him!" Izuku thought to himself, already formulating a plan. Not a very good one, but a plan nonetheless.
"Well then, I thank you for your continued support!" All Might said as he jumped away from the young boy… Or so he thought. Izuku had grabbed onto his leg just in time to jump along with him; however, the jump itself… Well, it was terrifying to say the least. All Might noticed him shortly after. "Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey! Let go of me! Your fanaticism is too much!"
"Wait! If I let go now, I'll fall and die!" Izuku said, his words a bit jumbled due to the wind.
"Oh, right. Yes. That's true. Hang on. I'll find a place to land." All Might said, turning back towards the direction he had jumped. Shortly after, All Might had landed on a nearby building. All Might let Izuku get down onto the roof before turning away. "I'm sure the people below will let you down if you ask. Now I really have to go. I'm out of time."
"Wait! All Might! I have things I need to ask you!" Izuku reached out towards the pro hero.
"No! I won't wait!" Izuku's hand faltered.
"I'm sorry you had to save me." Izuku hung his head. His confidence issues and low self-esteem were rearing their ugly heads again. I guess even with all the luck in the world, there were still things that lingered. All Might stopped walking. "I… I guess I just needed to ask… I tried to fight back, but my quirk couldn't do anything against the villain. Could I be a hero even with a quirk that couldn't do anything against things like that? Could I still be a Hero like you?"
"Young man, pros are constantly risking their lives. I cannot simply say that you can be a hero without the necessary power. I'm sorry…" All Might looked back to Izuku one last time before jumping away.
Izuku's legs gave out. He collapsed on top of the building and did something he hadn't done in a while: he cried. With Kyouka and the others in his life, he had friends. He had a support system. He hadn't felt the… the need to cry in many years. And yet, his idol, the man he looked up to his whole life, had crushed his dream. He felt like he cried for hours. A vibration from his phone snapped him out of his crying. Pulling his phone out, he had just gotten a message from Kyouka.
Kyouka: Hey Izuku, we were planning on hanging out tonight, right? Where are you?
Izuku: Something happened. I'm on my way. I'm not sure how long it'll be until I get there.
About 30 minutes later, Izuku managed to get to Kyouka's house, not bothering to head home and change. The door opened to see Mika Jirou standing in front of him. "Hi, miss Mika."
"Oh hello, Izuku. Kyouka's in her room. She's been expecting you." Mika said as Izuku swiftly walked past her. She didn't take it personally that he was so quick to leave. She knew who he was there for. Izuku knocked on the door to Kyouka's room.
The door opened slowly, the room dark. A small light lit up on the far side of the room, and as the chair turned, Izuku saw Kyouka slowly spin with a flashlight beneath her face, illuminating it in what would normally be a creepy or intimidating way, but Izuku knew Kyouka. This wasn't either. It was just dorky, and he couldn't help but smile at it. "Oh you of vegetable-like hair. You have been expected for some time now. Only now do you dare show yourself? What say ye?" Kyouka said, a sly smile on her face.
Izuku walked into the room and turned the light on. "Hey, Kyo." He flashed her a smile, but it quickly broke. KYouka saw this and took a deeper look at her best friend.
"Izu… You've been crying. What happened?" Then she saw his clothes. She gasped, bringing her hands in front of her mouth.
"I was… I was attacked by a villain. And as I passed out, I was saved by… By All Might." Izuku started.
"Then this should be one of the happiest days of your life! What's wrong?"
"When I was attacked by the villain, I couldn't do anything. He was made of some kind of liquid. Everything that I've learned. Everything that I can do… I couldn't stop him. That hit me pretty hard, I guess. I asked All Might if I could still be a hero, even if my quirk couldn't help me do anything in that situation. And he…" Izuku took a deep breath inward. Kyouka already had a feeling where this was going, and she braced herself. "He said no."
"That rat bastard!" Kyouka suddenly yelled, startling Izuku. "How could he say that to someone? To a fan? Arguably his biggest fan in the whole world? I've seen your room, Izu. I know each piece of your All Might merchandise, and I know how important they all are to you."
"Not… Not anymore, Kyo. I… What if he's right? What if I can't be a hero?"
"You're just gonna have to prove to that dumbass that he's wrong. I've seen firsthand just how much of a Hero you can be. With how quick you think, your combat skills, and your quirk, you can do almost anything! Listen, Izu… All Might may be the number one Hero, but he's not your number one best friend. He doesn't know you like I do. He doesn't know what you're capable of. That just means that you're gonna have to show him what you're capable of. And I'm gonna keep helping you with that, you got it?"
"Thanks, Kyo."
"Alright alright, enough of this sappy shit. You gonna show me your hero design like you wanted to, you big hero nerd?"
The two spent the rest of the night joking and laughing, with Kyouka doing her best to cheer Izuku up. It definitely worked. By the end of the night, he had almost forgotten about the whole thing. Almost. He knew it would stay in the back of his mind for a while. He did end up messaging the group chat. Each of the other three friends had their own different way of reacting to the situation, but they all had the same basic format: "That's bullshit, and we all know it. You've got this, Izuku." Mei also suggested that she could hack into his accounts and mess things up, but Izuku shot her down on that rather quickly. Turns out that she was good with IT as well as inventing. It was what he needed: his friends' support and encouragement. He went to sleep that night with a smile on his face, determined to become a Hero and help people. The UA Her course exam was in ten months. He'd do his best to train hard enough.
And so, the ten months passed with him and Kyouka training almost every day together. Fumikage joined them quite frequently, but he couldn't every time that they trained together. Even Hitoshi and Mei joined them a few times a month. Mei didn't really train all that much, since she wasn't going to be entering into the Hero course, but the Support course instead. She was there, however, for the emotional support. Everything, all the training, all of the blood, sweat, and tears, culminated in the UA Entrance exam.
"Are we all ready?" Izuku asked the group as they stood outside of UA's gates.
"Hell yeah!" Kyouka raised her fist towards the sky.
"We shall move towards our destiny today." Fumikage said.
"I can't wait to show these people my babies!" Mei said with a huge smile. The bag slung over her back was filled to the brim with several of her inventions.
"Alright then, we've been training for a long time for this. Let's go." Izuku said with a smile. He took his first step… and then he was falling. While his first step had been successful, his second step had been less than ideal as his foot hooked his own ankle. As he braced himself for impact, he didn't feel himself hitting the ground. Instead, he felt two thin straps wrap around his torso and hold him in place.
"Jeez, Izuku. You'd think you'd make a better first impression than that." Kyouka said with a smile, pulling him back up to standing with her jacks.
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Thanks, Kyo. Let's go for real, this time." Izuku placed greater care in his steps as they all walked into the building.
Mei waved goodbye to the rest of them as she departed for the Support class exam, happily lugging her sack behind her like Santa. The rest of them made their way to the Hero course exam, eventually being split up due to schools. Really all that meant was that Hitoshi had to split off from the group, and that Izuku, Kyouka, and Fumikage had to sit next to Bakugou. The blonde scoffed as the three of them sat next to him, but said nothing after Kyouka shot him a death glare.
Soon after, a man stepped up to a podium at the front of the room. The pro hero Present Mic greeted the examinees. "For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today! Everybody say hey!" He was met only with silence.
"I think he's getting a tad too into character here." Kyouka whispered, stifling a giggle. Izuku couldn't help but snicker at the comment as well.
Present Mic continues, "What a refined response… Oh well, I'll just give you the rundown of the practical exam, then. Are you ready? Yeah!" Once again, silence. Izuku just nudged Kyouka in the side, making both of them try to hold in laughter once again. "As stated in the application, each of you listeners will be participating in ten minute urban battles directly after this. You can bring whatever you want with you. You'll each head to specified battle centers, okay?"
Kyouka looked down at her exam card, then to her right to Fumikage's, then to her left to Izuku's and let out a huff. "They're making sure that we don't work with friends. Even though we're consecutive testing numbers, we're all in different testing centers. I'm in A, Fumikage's in F, and you're in B, Izu." Izuku looked at her card and then his own, sighing slightly.
"There are three types of faux robot villains that are stationed in each battle center. You gain different amounts of points by immobilizing them, based on their level of difficulty. Of course, attacking other examinees and any other type of unheroic behavior is prohibited."
Whenever Present Mic said the word 'robot', Izuku froze. "My quirk worked wonders on people and the things that they were holding. But robots? That type of inorganic material… It would be a miracle for my quirk to work well on them. I'd end up getting a headache and maybe even worse. And then there's Hitoshi… His quirk wouldn't work on them. I wonder how he's going to do?" Izuku muttered to himself.
A hand shot up behind the group, which Present Mic addressed rather quickly. "Yes, dear listener?"
A rather tall student with glasses stood up, holding a paper. Most of the people in the room turned to look at him as he spoke. "On our handouts, there are four types of villains printed. If this is a misprint, then UA, the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake. Us examinees are here in this place because we wish to be molded into exemplary heroes. In addition…" The other student pointed at Izuku and Kyouka. "You two have been muttering between yourselves this whole time. It's very distracting. If you're just here to goof off, then you should leave immediately." A few people in the crowd started giggling. Izuku looked to Kyouka, embarrassed, and she just had a smirk on her lips.
"Sorry about that, we were just asking each other what type of tree is your favorite."
"I'm… sorry, what?" The other student looked at her, confused. Fumikage and Izuku, having known Kyouka for a while now and knowing where this was going, were already stifling a few chuckles.
"So we can get you a replacement for the stick you shoved so far up your ass that you can't get it out again."
The entire room erupted in laughter, and the student, whatever his name was, sat down rather quickly.
Present Mic cleared his throat. "Alright, alright, calm down. The first part of what you said, your actual question, is a good one, listener number 7111. You are correct. There is a fourth type of faux villain, but it is worth zero points. It's an obstacle, so to speak. There is one in every battle center, and in narrow places, the obstacle can turn into a major threat. It's not impossible to beat, but there's no reason to beat it either. I recommend that you listeners try to avoid it as best you can. Now, that's all from me. I'll give you all one last thing: our school motto. As the great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes.' Go beyond. Plus Ultra! You're dismissed!"
The three members of the group split up shortly after that as the vast array of students participating in the exam.
As Izuku waited outside of his battle area, he looked around at the students that were also assigned to this area. He really only recognized one, and that was, unfortunately, the guy who had tried to chew him out earlier. Izuku elected to ignore the man and prepare his mind for the exam. He had a lot to think about. As he prepared himself, horns went off. No countdown. "Oh well." He thought. "There aren't any countdowns in real life." And he ran into the battle zone.
He immediately saw a faux robot to his right and moved to take it out, but it was quickly taken out by a sparkling laser beam. Turning around, Izuku decided that in order to maximize his success, he'd have to separate from the rest of the horde. He broke from the group, sprinting through alleys before eventually coming to an open area with three robots in it: two three pointers and a two pointer. Izuku quickly took up a fighting stance against the robots. The three charged at him, the two-pointer raising its scorpion-like tail to strike. Izuku rolled out of the way, and through his roll, carried his momentum into a powerful spin. He used his momentum to bring his heel down on the tail of the two pointer for an axe kick, causing it to dent and bend in a weird way, but it wasn't enough to break anything. Growling in frustration, he jumped up and brought his hands up in a defensive stance. Several rockets came his way from the three-point robots. He dodged out of the way and rolled to standing.
Putting up his hands again, he looked around for something, anything that he could use. It was clear that even with all of his combat training, his fists and kicks weren't doing anything to these robots' metal plates. He saw a lamp post that was damaged, and an idea came to him. He ran to the lamp post and waited. As the two-pointer approached him, he concentrated on the lamp post. The hard, forceful steps of the two-pointer robot caused tremors to course through the ground. As the ground shook slightly, Izuku turned around and performed a spinning round kick on the damaged portion of the lamp post, and it came crashing down onto the two-pointer with enough force to damage its internal systems. Izuku sighed in relief. How long had passed? It felt like a good amount of time. He scanned the rest of his surroundings, but there wasn't anything that he could see to offer him such huge assistance. Turning, he ran towards another alley to find… something that he could use to take these down, both of the three-pointers following him. "I really hope that the others are having a better time than I am." Izuku thought to himself, rounding a corner.
Kyouka, admittedly, was having a much better time than Izuku was. She had just taken down her tenth robot with her jacks. Solid materials were much better conductors of sounds, and something special about sound that she figured out when she was younger, is that sound disrupts electricity. So with enough of a sound wave pumped through its mechanical carapace, she could disrupt the mechanics enough to immobilize her targets. Sitting at a solid 18 points, she had confidence about taking more down and passing the exam.
Fumikage had even more luck with everything. Dark Shadow was a powerhouse, even against these robots. He had destroyed so many robots that he had lost count of how many. Of course, he kept track of his points. With an astounding total of 33 points in only four minutes, he was a shoe-in to get into the course. Jumping across an alley from rooftop to rooftop, Fumikage spotted his next target and directed his path towards it.
Hitoshi… Well, Hitoshi was struggling just as much as Izuku was. Unlike Izuku's quirk, which just had difficulty affecting these metal menaces, his had absolutely no effect. That didn't mean he didn't try, though. He had managed to get a few points from lucky hits to weak points, chinks in the armor. Hitoshi shook his head. "Lucky is Izuku's thing. Here's hoping he's doing better than I am." Hitoshi thought to himself. As he ran through an alley-way, he saw a young girl paying attention to one robot while completely unaware of another one that had managed to sneak up behind her. She took the one she was fighting down, but the other had already raised its hand to strike her down. Fortunately for the girl, Hitoshi had sprinted as fast as he could towards her, tackling her out of the way of the giant robot's menacing hand. "Always watch your six." And with that, he moved on, electing to let her keep fighting this robot.
Mei, unlike all of the others, was having no difficulty whatsoever in her exam. Her babies were impressing everyone. They were all set up on a table like some science fair project. Sure, she had used a few of these AS science fair projects, but here she was, wowwing the support course instructors with those exact science fair projects. While nobody was watching, she released one of her latest babies. A small ant-like machine crawled out of a miniscule boc that she had just opened. It crawled down off of her table and made its way out of the room and towards the server room. This was just insurance. She had found out that the Hero course exam was fighting robots, and knowing Izuku and Hitoshi as well as she did, she figured that they might not do very well against robots. They deserved to be heroes, more than almost anyone. But the odds were stacked against the two of them. That's why she had a plan. A backup plan. A backup plan that would only be implemented if anyone from their group failed the exam, and only then. But she would do it for her friends without question. She only hoped that they were doing alright.
The five minute mark had already passed, and Izuku knew it thanks to Present Mic shouting so over the loudspeakers. Izuku had managed to defeat the two three pointers by tricking one into launching a rocket at the other, and then using a barely functioning rocket launcher to destroy the other one. The launcher then fizzed, and the electronics within stopped working. "Just my luck." He thought to himself. As he scoured his surroundings, he couldn't see any robots. Or, well, any working robots. He was surrounded by scrap metal. Time was passing quickly. Too quickly.
He went to run towards another clearing when he heard and felt large tremors. Much bigger than the others he had felt that day. Towering over the buildings came the zero-pointer. He turned around to make a break for it when something caught his eye, or, well, someONE. Underneath a pile of rubble, there was a young girl that was trapped… right in the path of the zero-pointer. "No…" Izuku thought. "I'm not running away. Being a hero means saving people!" Izuku turned and ran towards the girl, reaching her rather quickly. He was able to move most of the rubble off of her, the rest being lifted by the girl herself. Her previous position had prevented her from doing so before. The only problem was that she was limping. Slowly. And the Zero-pointer was approaching. Quickly. Izuku picked her up and ran as fast as he could with her. He set her down outside of the path of the robot and turned back, hoping to help anyone else. One of the students nearby that was running across a building took a misstep and plummeted down onto an awning, now in the robot's path.
Izuku was too far away to run to them. But he could do something. He HAD to do something. Leaning down, he picked up a small, fist sized piece of debris and threw it as hard as he could towards the robot. As the rock flew, he concentrated on the robot as hard as he could, placing as much unluck as his quirk would allow in the robot. The rock sailed and made contact with some kind of tubing. And as the robot's foot made contact with the ground, that tubing burst, releasing tons of fluid. If Izuku had to guess, probably hydraulic fluid. If he could have found out, he would have been happy. But instead, the amount of strain that he had put on his quirk for affecting the robots took too much of a toll. As he told himself that it was probably hydraulic fluid, he fell backwards, passing out. The last thing that he saw before black was a bunch of yellow numbers ranging from 0.01 to 100.00 above everything around him. Izuku wasn't sure if he passed out from the overuse of his quirk or the overload of information that he just was given. Regardless of why he passed out, the robot collapsed and fell apart upon contact with the ground right as the buzzer sounded.
Hitoshi hadn't managed to get too many more points in the second half of the exam, but there were a surprising number of people in the exam that just DIDN'T keep an eye out behind them. People that needed saving. People that he had saved. As the buzzer rang out, he hoped that saving people would mean something. Anything.
Final number of Villain points:
Izuku Midoriya: 8
Kyouka Jirou: 37
Hitoshi Shinsou: 5
Fumikage Tokoyami: 53
The room of teachers fell silent as they watched the next student throw a rock at the Zero-pointer and then… stand there as it made contact with a hydraulic tube and then collapse.
"So, in terms of Hero Points, how many should we give to Midoriya?"
"He saved the girl and then another young student from being crushed by the Zero-pointer. He deserves enough to pass the exam!" One teacher called out.
"Yes, but then he passed out immediately afterwards and put the second student in imminent danger as he made the Zero-pointer collapse around them." Another teacher spoke in a tired tone.
"He did take out the Zero-pointer, though. You have to admit that that's impressive, especially for a young kid."
"He hit it with a lucky shot. It has nothing to do with his skill as a hero." The tired teacher spoke again.
"Well, Shouta, his quirk is called Luck. I think you described his quirk rather well, but maybe not the boy." A small rodent-like creature spoke up finally.
"I'm sorry, Principal Nezu. I do not think this boy is cut out to be a hero. If he was put in my class, I'd expel him on the first day, and all of you know I would." Shouta Aizawa said. I elect to not give him any Hero points.
"Shouta, we have to give him some. He saved people. That's what a Hero needs to do. Who they need to be."
"I hold fast to my decision, Kayama. He placed himself out of commission and endangered other students with his recklessness." Aizawa's eyes narrowed.
"Well, Principal Nezu. What do you think?" Kayama Nemuri asked the rodent known as Nezu.
"I do think that Aizawa makes some good points, but so do you. I personally believe that we should give him 20 Hero points. But I can't, in good faith, give him any more than that." Nezu stated. "All for the motion?" Most of the faculty raised their hands. "And all opposed?" Both Nemuri and Aizawa both raised their hands. "Well, as far as majority goes, both of you are outclassed. 20 Hero points to Izuku Midoriya. Now, onto the next student."
The next few weeks were torture for the five teens. Izuku and Hitoshi didn't have high hopes for their results, but Mei had told them that she found out about 'Hero Points', and that she was certain that they'd get enough points to pass from those.
On that fateful day that the results came back… On that fateful day, everything changed for the five of them. Nothing would be the same after Izuku's resolve faltered for the second time.
