Alright, folks! Time to move on back to the 'normal' stuff. Except, I might drop the first chapter of another fanfic in a while, who knows? Quick question before all of that - am I the only person whose views tracking mechanism went belly-up? The number of views on this story didn't change for days, and trying to click on it gives me an error message. I wrote to support, but things stay broken for almost a week now.
And now, back to business.
Crimextar06 [Comment 1] - Aiko getting to interact with her biological father is literally a nightmare scenario for anyone involved :V
Trixuny [Comment 1] - :D
TheGreatBubbaJ [Comment 1] - I'm not going to say yes or no, but your theory is interesting. Time will tell.
Detrametal [Comment 1] - Yep, those are total family relationship goal. Except for the fact that one of them is dead. And the other one might be Cthulhu. But otherwise, yep yep.
TheGreatBubbaJ [Comment 2] - memes are all I have, have mercy (_)
Crimextar06 [Comment 2] - Yeah, add the fact that the One for All was first transmissed in this world because Yoichi saw a superhero film where powers was transmissible through blood and has purposefully pursued leader of anti-AfO resistance through his headquarters (while screaming at him to drink his blood) and then jumped after him through the window (it was a skyscraper - and only the resistance leader had a quirk allowing him to fly) only to get grabbed and immediately bite off his finger and bleed into the leader's mouth... and, well, the school's probably going to explode when All Might resurrects him. And Second Holder's automatic reaction of (omg we are all going to die) is probably right on point.
skyartsflammingavion - :D Great!
dvd181 - I need it as well, but when will I find the time?
cabarca143 - Uhm, ok?
Trixuny [Comment 2] - Second chapter shows that All Might went NO WAY until Yoichi came back from the dead (mostly) to persuade him, so that's a bit of a stronger reaction, methinks.
Detrametal [Comment 2] - AfO NOT being way stronger would make the school not agree to him being anywhere near it without a war, so it's a bit of a prerequisite to the scenario, ngl.
RandomReader867 - You really should have read my intro at the beginning, ehhh
(***)
Uraraka Ochaco's first meeting with Izuku Midoriya was clearly rather underwhelming. And, frankly, a bit of a mess-up on her side. She saw a visibly determined boy with green hair walk towards the entrance of the UA, clearly with the intent to join the same exam as she was joining.
Then, when being almost next to her, he tripped. She decided in a split second to help him with her quirk (tripping right before the exam like that is kinda a bad omen, right?) but before she managed to touch him, he expertly bent his body and changed the soon-to-happen meeting with the pavement into a forward roll.
"Oof, damn it." She heard him say. "Way to start the ex…" He turned his head back, probably to see what he had tripped over, only to see Uraraka, still with her hand extended towards his earlier position. "... uhm… h...hi?" He was a bit startled by her. It was… kinda cute?
"Oh, hi!" Uraraka straightens her position up. "Sorry, I saw you falling, and I thought that it's bad luck to fall like that before the exam, so I tried to catch you with my quirk, but… uhm… that was an awesome forward roll."
She didn't want him to think that she had something to do with him tripping. There were probably some meanies out there trying to sabotage other people to make their chance for passing higher, right?
"Oh, thank you!" The boy exclaims enthusiastically. "I'm Izuku Midoriya!" He extends his hand, so she cooperates and shakes it.
"Uraraka Ochaco." She introduces herself. "Good luck with the exam!"
"You too!" He replies and Uraraka decides that being in one class with him would be pretty nice. He feels friendly, that's for sure.
(***)
Uraraka is doing quite well, or at least so she thinks. The robots are quite intimidating, but they aren't particularly fast. She sticks to the weaker ones, waits until they are facing someone else, then she taps them with her quirks, sends them flying… and then sees them crash into the ground when the gravity returns.
She realizes she is far beneath some of the other examinees. By the time she got her twentieth point she saw the stern kid with engines in his legs shout that he just got his fortieth point. She saw the green-haired from before crush two Two-Pointers in three seconds, both with a single punch. He didn't shout his score, but she was certain that he was way higher than she was.
She scores twenty-eight points before the ground starts to tremble under her. Then everything shakes and she finds herself on the ground, with her body battered, and her mind confused.
What just happened? Why is everyone fleeing from her? What is that shadow that was just cast over her?
She turns her head only to see… oh my God.
It's the zero-pointer, she saw their shape on the print-out, but there was no scale on them. She thought that they were going to be the same size as the three-pointers, maybe a bit bigger. But not THAT big.
She can't move. It's both the injuries (she doesn't even know what hit her, but she still feels bad) and the dread.
"Uraraka!" She hears a shout, and sees the green-haired boy run towards her. He is the only one. Everyone else is still fleeing.
He won't make it, Uraraka realizes. She can see the Zero-Pointer raising its hand (it's massive, why did they make it so massive?!), Izuku is still far away, and she…
Somehow, he makes it. It's like a blur of colours with some greenish electric discharges that passes by her in a heartbeat and pulls her away from certain death. It stops thirty meters away, with Uraraka still dizzy.
"Can you walk?" Izuku asks. His eyes are on the zero-pointed, whose head is turning to face them again.
"No, I… I think my leg is broken." Uraraka knows that Recovery Girl is on standby nearby, but what sort of ridiculous realism level for the ENTRANCE EXAM is this? Is the school principal powerful enough to not be afraid of the lawsuits?!
"Alright." Izuku doesn't feel particularly terrified of facing the zero-pointer again. "It's between us and the exit, and I can't fend off the lesser robots while carrying you. So… I guess I'm doing this the hard way. Mom's going to kill me." He bends his legs, before jumping.
With enough strength to crack the concrete beneath him.
What?
Two seconds later she hears the explosion. She looks towards its source to see the Zero-Pointer's dying moments. Its face is caved in… no, it practically explodes. Did Izuku just…
Then she sees him. Falling down, with his limbs flailing around, clearly broken. With nothing to stop his fall. And if he hits the ground from so high…
Uraraka makes herself weightless and grabs some nearby junk. She still has one healthy leg, and she isn't letting him die!
She narrowly makes it in time and cushions his fall with her quirk. Then she loses consciousness out of quirk exhaustion, nausea, and her wounds. She finds out a week later that if not for her last minute save of a fellow examinee and the rescue points it gave her, she would have failed the practical exam.
(***)
Probably the oddest part of Izuku's attempt to get into the UA was watching the recording of All Might… together with All Might. Or at least, Yagi thinks so. Inko and the rest of their kids are with them on the couch, facing the screen.
Izuku doesn't know that Mr. Compress, Ms. Compress, Stain, Gentle Criminal and La Brava (so a majority of their villainous acquaintances) are in the house. Together with Gran Torino, who at this point has all but vocally acknowledged being a grandfather to Yagi's children.
Eri did that. Yagi knows it. Her cuteness and adorableness are nuclear weapon's grade. She tamed the old monster in thirty seconds after meeting him. He tried being traditionally overbearing and stern, with a scowl on his face, but she just ran towards him, and asked if everything was alright because he looked sad (while wearing her favourite All Might onesie because she would have preferably worn it 24/7, especially since she discovered that All Might is her new dad).
When he was trying to puzzle up an answer (or feint being senile), she gave him one of her lethal smiles, pumped her fist in the air and exclaimed "You can smile now! Why? For I am here!"
Gran Torino was K.O. at that moment. Ever since then the biggest problem they had with him was the old hero sneaking in candied apples for Eri during his every visit, despite Inko setting limits for candy consumption in her house.
"Izuku Midoriya!" The screen-Might announces and All Might decides that he kinda hates the way his voice sounds in a recording. "I AM HERE… with your test results!"
"I can't believe you are using this catchphrase like that." Inko comments from his side, while shaking her head disapprovingly and Yagi chuckles a bit. She has no idea in how many ways he plans to twist that catchphrase during his teaching career.
Izuku doesn't even notice her words. He is staring at the screen-Might as if his life depended on it. That's quite a focus, Yagi decides. Thankfully the TV doesn't catch fire.
"First is the Written Exam!" Screen-Might in that (slightly) stupid suit announces. "It's my pleasure to announce that you scored 97 points out of 100 on that one! The highest score this year, ex acqueo with one more student."
"Damn it, I knew that I did something wrong." Izuku mumbles to himself. Asa, Yagi and Inko roll their eyes as if on cue. They know that the written exam for the UA admission is ridiculously hard.
The first fifty points are reasonably easy to acquire, and if you score anything beneath that in the exam as a whole, you're automatically out. Then you get forty points that are really hard to get and differentiate good students from extremely good ones. The last ten are practically university-level knowledge. If anything, it's a miracle that there were two people with 97 points. Yagi remembers that for the past three years in a row nobody got beyond 90 points.
"Then, the Practical Exam." Screen-Might continues. "First are the combat points. You have destroyed seventeen One-Pointers, thirteen Two-Pointers and five Three-Pointers. This adds up to 58 points. But… that's not all! Eyes on the screen, Young Midoriya!"
Suddenly they all see a girl with brown hair, fidgeting visibly in front of a man they recognize as Present Mic.
"Uhm, excuse me." The girl asks. "Do you know the boy with curly green hair and freckles? He, uhm, he was the one to destroy the Zero-Pointer."
"Yes, I know who you are talking about." Present Mic replies promptly. Of course he does, he regularly visits his parents (although only once Aiko promised to stop messing with him in exchange for him not being so loud) to brainstorm the ideas for his next radio session with Mr. Compress. Those two just absolutely hit it off and enjoyed exchanging new ideas on how to be in the center of the stage known as life. "What about him?"
"Would it be possible to share some of my points with him?" Uraraka asks, and Yagi can tell that Izuku is shocked by it. "I… I mean… I know that he got more points than me, but… he saved my life from the Zero-Pointer, he even broke his legs and his arm to stop it, and…" She takes a deep breath. "If he ran away like the others, he could probably score some more points along the way, and I … it just doesn't sit well with me."
"Sorry missy, but you can't share your points." Present Mic says while patting her head. "But you won't have to." The recording ends. It's back to the screen-Might.
"What sort of hero school would only test how destructive their future students can be?" Screen-Might announces. "Do you think that we would let you walk away without rewarding your decision to save another participant? Perish the thought!"
The screen-Might smiles widely.
"The judge decided to award you sixty Rescue Points!" Screen-Might says, while giving them all a thumbs-up gesture. "That brings us to a total of 118 points. Not only is it enough to pass, but I'm honoured to inform you that it's also this year's highest score! Young Midoriya!" He smiles while extending his hand towards the camera. "UA is now your Hero Academia!"
Izuku cries. Inko cries too. Their waterworks are, as always, inspirational. Asa hugs his brother, joining in with his happy tears as well. Eri joins the human pile of hugs seconds later, while Aiko just stands on the couch next to them and scarcely pats her brother's head. Yagi's heart is warm and he manages to not cry with them, but he still hugs whoever his arms can reach.
Few minutes later the villains and Gran Torino roll into the room with a large cake. Mr. Compress starts producing the decorations and drinks literally out of his sleeve. Then they all celebrate.
(***)
Uraraka managed to only just arrive at her new class and she already knew that her new classmates were going to be tough to deal with. She literally just entered the classroom, and she already ran into trouble. Not her own, but...
"You can't just randomly announce that you dislike someone!" The rocket-legged boy from the exam announces, waving his hands in front of him strangely. "Don't you think that it is disrespectful to your future classmate?!"
"WELL, THAT'S JUST TRUTH!" Tall kid with short, black hair shouts (or just speaks very loudly?), in front of a clearly disinterested kid with two-coloured hair and a large burn on his face. Who is just sitting in his seat, like nothing was happening "A HERO SHOULDN'T LIE, AND SO NEITHER WILL I!"
"This doesn't change anything!" The rocket kid states back. "Besides, you are clearly startling the new arrivals with your shouts and negativeness!"
The black haired kid turns his head and sees Uraraka standing in the entrance, clearly taken aback by the volume.
"I APOLOGIZE!" He shouts again, and lowers his head so much that he actually hits the floor with a loud BAM. When he raises it up, it's clear that he bumped it enough for some blood to come out. And there is certainly a bruise. "I'M SIMPLY EXTREMELY ENTHUSIASTIC OVER MY ADMISSION TO THE UA! MY NAME IS INASA YOARASHI!"
"Oh, uhm, hi!" Uraraka replies. "I'm Uraraka Ochaco, and…"
"And I'm Tenya Iida!" The rocket boy announces. "I was just trying to explain to Yoarashi-san that declaring his antipathy to another student right off the bat isn't a healthy way of starting his history as a UA student."
"I BELIEVE THAT A HERO SHOULD BE PASSIONATE AND HOT-BLOODED!" Inasa keeps shout-speaking at them all. "WHICH IS WHY I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TODOROKI OVER HIS BEHAVIOUR DURING THE RECOMMENDED STUDENTS EXAM. I HAVE ALREADY ANNOUNCED WHAT I FEEL ABOUT HIM, SOMETHING I FAILED TO DO BACK THEN."
"That's not…" Iida is about to say something when Uraraka hears the door opening behind her again.
She recognizes the freckles and the messy green hair immediately. Especially as she already saw that clearly startled face after he tripped before the exam.
"Midoriya!" She says loudly. "We're in one class!" She knew that if she got in, then so did he. It wasn't even something to be happy about. Being in one class, however…
"Uraraka, you got in!" He jumps up just a bit (his honest reactions are, kinda, adorable, Uraraka has to admit).
"If you're looking for new friends, do it elsewhere." They both hear, and it's at this point that Uraraka notices the… human caterpillar lying on the floor behind Izuku, slurping a jelly pouch. Izuku actually jumps forward in surprise, landing gracefully right next to Uraraka.
The caterpillar raises up from the floor and enters the room.
"To your seats, quickly!" Izuku whispers, before lunging towards his own. Uraraka decides to listen to the boy that saved her life. And, thankfully, so do Iida and Inasa.
"It took you eight seconds to quiet down." The man that emerged from the caterpillar announces. He looks… washed up? A bit like a bum. Especially the messy beard that looks less like an actual beard and more like him just forgetting to shave it. "Life is short, and wasting time is illogical." He makes his way towards the teacher's desk.
"I am Aizawa Shouta." He announces. "And I'm going to be your homeroom teacher. Now take your PE suits and follow me. We're going to have a Quirk Apprehension Test."
"What about the opening ceremony? And meeting the guidance couns..." Uraraka decides to ask. She kinda looked forward to it, and…
"We don't have time for the frilly niceties." The teacher promptly shuts her down. "The clock's ticking."
Does she want to know why Izuku reacted to their teacher's arrival by sudden panic and leap towards his desk?
(***)
Uraraka discovers the reason for that when the pink-skinned girl makes the mistake of calling the Quirk Apprehension Test 'fun'. Aizawa-sensei immediately starts looking like a psychopathic killer from some horror movie, and announces to them that he is going to expel the one who comes in last.
The competition is fierce. Uraraka does her best, but her athletics are so-so and her quirk is useful only in some competitions. Izuku Midoriya, Inasa Yoarashi, Yaorozu Momo and Todoroki Shoto appear to be the leading members of the class, with Tenya Iida following them due to his achievements in speed-oriented tests (but he is clearly lacking in the strength tests).
"Oh yeah, the whole expulsion thing was a lie. It was a logical ruse to bring the best out of you." Aizawa-sensei announces once the last test ends. Prompting a class-wide WHAT?
"Oh c'mon guys." Momo says while rolling her eyes in the background. "Of course it was a ruse, don't tell me you fell for it. He wouldn't expel someone on the first day."
"Uhmm…" Izuku decides to speak. "Actually, he expelled his entire class on the first day last year." The teacher sighs in the background, probably irritated by the fact that Izuku (if he was saying the truth) just called him out on the 'logical ruse'.
"Wait, he did?" Momo now stares at Izuku, blinking a few times in obvious shock. Izuku nods back.
"They had no potential for heroics." Aizawa-sensei says dryly. "They weren't treating it seriously, even after I threatened them with expulsion. They acted like the heroics were a game, instead of a vocation that threatens your life on a daily basis." He sighs loudly. "Your curriculum sheets are back in the classroom. Give them a once-over." Then he just leaves them, still shocked.
"How did you know that, dude?" The yellow haired kid asks towards Izuku. He isn't the only one who is curious, as the entire class is looking at Izuku. "I don't even know who he is!" He isn't the only person in the crowd who doesn't know that. In fact, everyone but Izuku seems completely lost.
"Errr…" Izuku isn't doing his best with being in the center of attention. "My dad works for the UA's accounting department. He told me a lot of things about the school, and… I met some of the teachers before I got admitted. Including Aizawa-sensei."
"WHO IS HE, ACTUALLY?" Inasa shout-speaks. "HE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A HERO. MORE LIKE A TERMINAL INSOMNIAC." Uraraka agrees. If she saw Aizawa-sensei in a dark alleyway, she would probably think that he was a villain planning to murder her. That or he was a beggar gathering money for… coffee, maybe?
"He's Eraserhead!" Izuku beams and Uraraka is ninety percent certain that she just met a case of a hero fan. "The Erasure Hero. He can deactivate every emitter and transformation quirk within his line of sight. He's one of the most successful underground heroes in the country."
"Underground heroes?" This time it's the small kid with bubbles for hair. The one that's the most relieved of them all because he got the lowest score on the apprehension test.
"It means heroes that don't get media coverage." Momo decided to clean up her earlier mess-up by proving that she does know things. "Either because they like working in private, or because their quirks can be negated easily if someone knows how they work. Sometimes also because their quirks are perceived as 'villainous' by the public."
"Eraserhead is actually something of a Number One Underground Hero in the country!" Izuku adds. "They might be avoiding media coverage, but they are well-organized on their own. Not enough to have an official ranking, but Eraserhead is pretty much the closest thing they have to a celebrity, alongside Ms. Joke."
Uraraka likes that hero name, and wonders what sort of quirk makes you call yourself like that.
"I'm still kinda worried about him being our homeroom teacher-ribbit." The frog mutant girl says with a rather cute addition at the end. Uraraka does her best to not laugh and somehow wins the fight.
"Just put in an effort, and it will be alright." Izuku replies quickly. "He didn't test our abilities, because those can be improved easily. He was testing if we were going to give it our best rather than half-ass it. He is an extremely strict teacher with dozens of expulsions under his belt, but his students that made it to the graduation have the lowest work casualty rate and the highest closed case rates per homeroom teacher in the country!" He smiles cheerfully.
"SO HE THROWS OUT PEOPLE WHO AREN'T PASSIONATE ABOUT HEROISM?" Inasa shout-speaks with a wide smile. "I HAD MY DOUBTS EARLIER, BUT I THINK I LIKE HIM NOW!"
"And I think that we should proceed to the classroom immediately!" Iida adds with a series of hand gestures. "What if it's his next test?"
The field vacates almost immediately.
(***)
It wasn't another test, but they all realize that it might have been one. The rest of the school day passed relatively normally. They were meeting their teachers for the first time, so most of it was introductions.
Uraraka leaves the school together with Izuku and, surprisingly enough, Iida - he is strict, and quite… passionate, but also rather friendly. Once you give him the chance.
The school has barely started, but Uraraka Ochaco is already making friends!
(***)
The next day they get their first Foundational Heroics lesson. When All Might of all people steps into the class, there is a riot. Uraraka isn't surprised. It died down almost immediately, because Aizawa-sensei stepped in right behind him.
All Might announces (with Aizawa just standing there intimidatingly; he is really good at it) that they are going to step right into the thick of it, and they are going to have proper battle training. Uraraka would have preferred rescue training, since battle sounds kinda confrontational, but… well.
They get their gear (to a lot of happy squeals which makes Aizawa-sensei roll his eyes at them) and then they move out.
Izuku's costume is kinda cool, Uraraka decides. It's a black jumpsuit with something of a cat ears and a visor. It makes him look a bit like male Mischief who isn't hiding who they are (so besides the visors, the rest is visible). Uraraka's is a bit… puffy. She doesn't like the small kid's eyes being on her so much.
"... it will be an indoor battle trial!" All Might announces. Aizawa-sensei still doesn't say a thing, instead he was just standing there. Still intimidatingly. "I know that you've mostly seen the larger fights with villains happening outside, but statistically speaking the majority of this job is done indoors. You'll be separated into 'villain' and 'hero' groups, for two-on-two team battles!"
"Realize just one thing." Aizawa finally speaks. "We have Recovery Girl on standby, but there are damages she can't heal. Anyone who uses clearly lethal force on another WILL be immediately expelled. Heroes are supposed to arrest villains, and the majority of the villains actually avoid killing heroes, since it brings way too much attention to them. Instead they prefer to achieve their goals or escape the heroes."
All Might is briefly overwhelmed by questions, including Uraraka's inquiry on whether there'll be a threat of expulsion to motivate them on this. All Might clearly didn't hear her question, but she swears that she saw Aizawa-sensei snigger just a bit.
Creepy.
Then All Might tells them that the training will be about defending the fake nuclear bomb (for the villains) and either trying to secure it (by touching it) or arresting all villains (for heroes). There is also going to be a lottery to pick who is going to fight against who.
Iida is surprised by it. Izuku is a bit startled by Iida's reaction and explains from the side that team-ups sometimes force unfamiliar hero agencies to cooperate at a moment's notice, and this training is probably supposed to simulate this. Because if there'd suddenly be a nuclear bomb out there, sending someone to stop villains from having it would be done in a hurry.
All Might actually looks faintly… surprised by Izuku's explanation? But he clearly jumps on the bandwagon and confirms that answer. Did he actually think about it this way before the training, or did Izuku inspire him to make that answer?
Two minutes later Uraraka discovers that she is a part of Team A… with Izuku Midoriya! Well, this is something she will certainly look forward to. He reacts funny when startled, but is also super-powerful! It will be a breeze, right?
All Might announces the opposing team. Tenya Iida and Inasa Yoarashi. Uraraka suddenly (and painfully) remembers that her robot points were low. Tenya had more than twice her combat points, and Inasa is apparently a recommended student.
So he is strong.
At least they are the heroes. And Izuku is on her team, right? And he had the highest score from the non-recommended students. That means something, yes?
They are given five minutes to memorize the building plan. Izuku's face of utmost concentration when he is staring at the paper is actually pretty cute.
"This is going to be tough." She can hear him mumble and suddenly her enthusiasm and optimist shrink.
"W...what do you mean, Midoriya?" She should figure out some cute nickname for him. If only to see him startled when she uses it for the first time.
"Iida witnessed both our quirks in their full force." Izuku replies. "We know his, but we know almost nothing about what Inasa has. Other than the fact that it's very powerful and it's about manipulating air. And we can't exactly rely on the map, because knowing the school they could as well put in one or two wrong bits, just to teach us about expecting the unexpected."
That sounds like a very Aizawa-sensei thing to do, Uraraka decides. And it's one more thing that somehow didn't cross her mind.
"I… kinda hoped that you would know Yoarashi's quirk." She replies. "You seem to know a lot of things."
"Well... " He scratches his cheek a bit. "I could have gone for a recommended exam myself, but I really want to… errr, earn my hero license. I don't want to use underhanded methods. I have Eraserhead visit my family for dinner like once a week or two, but I didn't know that he was going to be homeroom teacher until I saw him enter our classroom."
"That's… admirable." She says, and he blushes a little. "Still, not exactly helpful to us."
That's when they hear the announcement that the battle has started.
(***)
Broke - Inasa can't attend UA for as long as Todoroki is there.
Woke - Inasa was so angry at Todoroki that he decided to attend just so he could tell him to the face that he sucks because he forgot to do it after the Recommendation Students exam.