"Happy birthday to Zu! Happy birthday to Zu! Happy birthday I-zu-kuuuuu! Happy birthday to you!"
Blowing out the 'one' and 'eight' candles, Izuku smiled at the moment of peace he was getting in the middle of Maki's training.
With UA being on summer break, Tomura was back home, and for once, out of his favorite black hoodie. With his hair being almost as bad as Izuku's was as a kid, Inko had taken him to the barber and he had come back with a crew cut. It was honestly bizarre seeing his brother's face clearly for a change.
Tomura, and Izuku by proxy, had naturally dry skin. Maki's quirk had helped Izuku massively in regards to that, but Tomura still had to moisturize like the devil.
Pony was across from Tomura, staring at him without blinking, until he started squirming in his seat and he had to finally ask.
"What? Is there frosting on my face or something?"
Pony finally blinked, before blushing and looking away when she realized she had been staring.
"Your eyes… I didn't realize how red they were."
Inko was so happy she was recording this.
"Awww! Tomura's becoming a lady killer! I told you a haircut would make you look more professional!"
Tomura didn't know how to get himself out of that hole, so he instead turned his focus towards Izuku's snickering.
"Oh can it Smoky! I'll make sure to show any girl you bring home all of your baby pictures! Especially the one where your hair ate a brush!"
Holding his hands up in surrender Izuku fought to hold in his snickers.
"I didn't say anything!"
He adopted a thinking pose after a moment.
"Although... maybe Mom's onto something. She's starting to wonder if you're ever gonna bring a girl home."
A horn jabbing his cheek had him looking over at Pony whose face had gone tomato red with an angry pout promising him pain if he didn't shut it.
Inko flashed a grin wider than a cheshire cat's.
"You know Izuku… I haven't heard you mention bringing any girls home either."
Izuku made vague gestures in Pony's direction, causing Inko to roll her eyes.
"Oh please, I mean a girlfriend! Pony doesn't count."
Holding a finger up in protest, Izuku's hand slowly fell when he didn't have a comeback.
"Just hand me the damn knife so I can cut me another slice of cake."
Today was the day. They would show they had what it takes to get into one of the world's top hero training colleges. Both Izuku and Pony had spent the last five months training almost every day. Him with Maki, her with her mom.
They just finished an early supper when their phone alarms started going off, letting them know they had an hour until their tests began. Inko was beside herself with worry as she paced back and forth.
"Do you two have everything? Spare clothes, extra pencils, ID and passports? Oh and Izuku are you wearing the right underwear?!"
Following her checklist, both Izuku and Pony checked each item off the list. Izuku even double checked the tag on the pair he was wearing to make sure. Pony loved Inko, thinking of her almost as a second mom, but her worrying could be a bit much sometimes.
"Yes ma'am Miss Midoriya! Me and the big lug have triple checked everything! I even have a bottle of keratin supplements in case one of us overdoes it today!"
Wringing her hands in a dishrag, Inko nodded as she continued pacing.
"Right, keratin! How could I forget, what else would you need… Extra gloves for Izuku?"
Pulling out one of three sets he had in his backpack, Izuku grinned at her.
"We're fine mom I promise!"
Looking at his phone, he noted the time before dropping it in one of his backpack's pockets..
"On that note, let's go! I want to be thirty minutes early in case there's an issue with our arrival."
He formed a portal under Pony, before having her drop onto his shoulders. Her scream was music to his ears as she playfully slapped his shoulder.
"I could have used my horns you know!"
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, you know it wouldn't last long enough for you to use during the test. This way I get my fun, and you save your strength!"
Waving to Inko, they made their way out the front door, Izuku ducking underneath the door frame to avoid bonking Pony.
Pointing into the distance, Pony stood and struck a pose.
"Onwards my valiant steed! Today UA! And tomorrow, the world!"
She was able to keep her serious face and pose for all of five seconds before she had to sit back down and grab his horns to stop from falling off, she was laughing so hard.
Rolling his eyes, Izuku opened a portal that should be just off the entrance path of UA. Kurogiri made sure he could confidently nail coordinate portals as long as he had time to focus.
"Yes ma'am Princess Applejack!"
Ochako Uraraka was a bundle of nervous energy as she walked through the entrance of UA. She'd had dreams of doing so for years, but she couldn't help but swallow nervously as she mentally prepared herself for the test ahead.
UA wasn't just a world renowned hero training college. It was one of, if not the only colleges that offered free tuition. Between the principal's financing, ability to find tax breaks, hero donations, and government funding, UA was able to offer its services for completely free for its students.
As she looked out over the crowd though, it made her just realize how much of a draw that truly was for most people. UA's acceptance rate was in the single digits, not just because of their high standards, but also because of just how many students applied.
At 6'6, she was able to easily look over the crowd around her. Though she had made sure to work out extensively, and practiced her quirk to a degree she initially didn't think was possible, the sheer number of people was intimidating. Halfway up the path however, something caught her eye. It started as a dot, but as she got closer it grew and grew until a smoky green portal was visible for all to see. As a leg stepped out followed by another, she found herself following the leg up. And up. And up , until she was actually leaning back a bit to look up at the face of the person who walked out.
"B-Big…"
Big was the only word she could think to describe the massive form before her. If she had to guess, he was potentially twice as tall as she was. The blue jeans and button up shirt he wore implied it wasn't boosted due to size, and holy crap he had to be shredded. The rolled up sleeves showed forearms that didn't look to have an ounce of fat on them, with fingerless gloves covering his pinky finger. Her eyes slowly made their way to his face taking in the sheer size of his form. While his jawline was sharp, it wasn't unnaturally so, with a normal nose and green eyes, his face was fairly normal except for the green smoke that started just above his ears, and even replaced his eyebrows. The cute splatter of freckles across his face would look slightly out of place on most other men, but they seemed to work for him.
"Did you get the destination right Izuku?" A feminine voice in perfect english broke her out of her stupor.
The strange voice caused her to realize it wasn't coming from the man. Riding the man's large shoulders was a blond-haired, blue eyed girl with horns and hooves, who was holding onto a pair of matching horns on the man's head.
The man looked around for a moment before seeing the giant gate that led to UA.
"Looks like it, and Pony, remember to speak Japanese, we don't want to be rude." His voice was deep, with a slight accent she couldn't place.
Ochako tried to get the giant's attention.
"Um, excuse me. Are you sure you should use your quirk like that? Getting in trouble right before the exam wouldn't be good."
Seeing her, the man stepped back to give her some space.
"Err, sorry about that. Don't worry about my quirk though, we're from the United States, and because UA is a private institution, we were allowed by Nedzu to travel via my quirk, as long as we have our passports and return home straight from the exam, we won't have any trouble with the law."
He bowed in apology, causing Pony to let out a shout as she almost got flipped off his shoulders, earning him a slap on the head when he stood back up..
"I'm Izuku- wait no, Midoriya Izuku. And this is Tsunotori Pony."
Pony gave a wave from her resting place.
Bowing back, Ochako gave Pony a wave.
"Uraraka Ochako, pleasure to meet you Midoriya-san, Tsunotori-san."
"You too Uraraka-san!" Looking down at Izuku, Pony continued. "Did I say that right?"
Izuku gave her a thumbs up.
"Yay!"
Starting towards the door with Uraraka, Izuku continued the conversation.
"Do you think you could help me find mine and Pony's seats? My kanji is rusty and I wouldn't trust Pony to follow instant noodle instructions without a translator."
Izuku hated systematic seating. Well, hate might have been a strong word, maybe disliked was a better fit. Either way, he and it did not get along in the slightest. Whenever a teacher tried to use it, it almost invariably ended up with him in the middle and a poor sap or five behind him being unable to see.
Whatever system UA used to organize, it seemed to have non-Japanese schools first, which meant he was in the first of almost thirty rows. Even hunched over his shoulders blocked the view of the first few rows behind him.
His annoyance at the situation was interrupted by Pony punching his arm before excitedly pointing at the leather clad voice hero that just started his way across stage.
"Gooooooood morning UA applicants! I'm your host, Present Mic, and today we'll be kicking our show off with a news segment, but before we begin, can I get a 'YEAHHHH!'"
Pony's moment to translate his sentence from Japanese to English was the only thing that saved her from the embarrassment of being the only voice in the silent auditorium. Present Mic's pose faltered slightly before he perked right back up.
"Tough crowd, reminds me of when I started stand up! Either way let's begin!"
Izuku's hand shot up before Mic could continue on.
"Examinee 74, you're on the air! What can I do for you!"
When the spotlight flicked on, Izuku spent every ounce of willpower he had to avoid messing up under the thousands of eyes.
"Excuse me for interrupting, but would it be possible for me to swap seats with someone in the back? The rows behind me can't see the screen." He nervously scratched his neck, all of the attention being a bit much even for him.
"Way to think like a hero examinee 74! Examinee 9275 could you please make your way down to the front? Once you two have taken your seats we can begin."
Once he and the other applicants had taken their seats, Present Mic continued.
"Every one of you today has passed the written exam, so now it's time to brief you on the physical exam rules!"
As Mic finished his exclamation, he spun in place before striking a pose, pointing a remote at the screen at the back of the stage.
"You little listeners will be released into our training grounds where you'll commence ten minute mock battles in super hip urban settings!"
The screen changed to show three robots surrounding the image of a city.
"You'll be facing three different types of robots each with their own value depending on difficulty! Choose carefully, your goal in this test is to use your quirk to raise your score as high as possible, but attacking fellow examinees is instant disqualification!"
"Excuse me sir but I have a question!"
The voice broke Izuku out of his planning as another examinee raised their hand. A spotlight appeared over him as well.
"On the printout you listed four types of villains not three, with all respect if this is an error on official UA materials it is shameful!"
"Alright examinee 7111, thanks for calling in with your request! The fourth villain type is more of an obstacle, it's worth zero points! It's not that it's impossible to beat, but more there's really no point. I recommend my listeners try and ignore it and focus on the ones topping the charts!
"That's all I've got for you today,
"Excuse me sir I have a question as well!"
When the spotlight came over him again, Midoriya was more prepared.
"What are the rules about collateral damage?"
"While normally Heroes try to keep collateral damage to a minimum, we encourage examinees to go all out as long as no one is hurt! With that, I'll sign off with a little present, a sample of our school motto. As general Napoleon Bonaparte once laid down, a true hero is one who overcomes life's misfortunes. Are you ready to go beyond? Let's hear a PLUS ULTRA!"
The examinees who could see Izuku's grin in the dark light shuddered at the almost feral look of it.
When Izuku made it to the bus for Training Ground Beta dressed in a cheap muscle shirt and sweats, he noticed a problem immediately. Well, almost immediately. He may have gotten a bit distracted at the bus driver being Ectoplasm.
While the bus was open layout, and plenty long enough to fit a chunk of the applicants going to Training Ground Beta, there was no way for Izuku to fit without physically crawling through the door. Ectoplasm noticed the problem and went to pick up the phone on the dash, probably to get a truck or something similar for him.
"Err hold on Mr. Ectoplasm sir, about how far away is Training Ground Beta?"
Ectoplasm paused to think for a moment.
"It's one of the closer training grounds, about five miles, you planning to run or something?"
Rolling the number over in his head, Izuku ignored the question and asked his own.
"About how fast are you going to be driving?"
Ectoplasm stared at him for a moment..
"About thirty miles per hour, you sure it won't interfere with your results? You won't get a handicap bonus."
Izuku started stretching and doing breathing exercises to get his blood flowing.
"No sir I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern though."
"EXCUSE ME!"
The blue haired guy from the auditorium came up to Ectoplasm from his seat.
"If we are allowed to run may I join him? If my engines have a chance to warm up I will perform better on the exam."
Ectoplasm sighed in defeat.
"Sure go ahead, does anyone else want to run ten miles before a rigorous physical test?"
As engine-legs joined Izuku in stretching and breathing, no one else moved to join them.
"Good, we leave in five minutes."
As Izuku finished stretching, he hopped in place a bit before greeting his fellow runner.
"Midoriya Izuku, I hope we both do well on the test today."
Bending the waist at an almost perfect ninety degrees, Izuku wondered if his fellow runner had more mechanical bits than just his legs.
"I am Iida Tenya, I agree and hope that we both do satisfactorily on this exam!"
"So uh, does anyone else see the giant casually keeping up with a bus ?!"
Pony turned to where the rest of the bus was staring out the window. Izuku seemed to be running after the bus as it started off, with a smaller figure running right beside him, seemingly with just as much ease.
"Oh! That's Izuku-nii! He's really fast and strong!"
As the other examinee's looked between the blond bombshell and the guy the size of a bus that was easily keeping up with one, they all mentally put her in the ' scary big brother, do not date ' section of their brains.
As people swapped from looking at her to Izuku and back, Pony felt a little embarrassed.
' Did I use the wrong suffix or something? I used what Tomura told me.' Going over what she said in her head, Pony couldn't figure out what would cause that reaction.
It was about ten minutes later before the bus stopped in front of a massive gate. Izuku had started working up a sweat, and his companion seemed to be in just as good spirits. As Izuku stripped off his shirt and sweats though, his companion started moving his arms in a frantic chopping motion at Izuku.
"It is highly inappropriate to be stripping in public like that!"
Izuku tied the legs of his sweats through the straps of the shirt on one of the metal bars atop the bus. He then took off his gloves, making an idle note of the tan line going at an angle across his palm and the back of his hand as he handed them to Ectoplasm.
"Sorry, but I don't want to rip my clothes when I use my quirk. They may be cheap but I'd still rather not waste money."
Looking at his own custom-tailored pants, Tenya could respect wanting to avoid shredding clothing, he had done it more than once himself. Bowing sharply again, he apologized.
"I must apologize in that case! Wanting to avoid unnecessary damage is an admirable trait for aspiring heroes!"
In the dark monitoring room, Toshinori Yagi squinted at the computer monitor in front of him. As he was new to the staff he wouldn't be responsible for any points, he was just supposed to keep an eye out for any students who needed to be disqualified for breaking rules. He idly glanced at the scoreboard showing the top twenty students. While it was meant to be empty when the tests began, he couldn't help but note the name Midoriya Izuku sitting in first place with five hero points already.
Tapping Nedzu on the shoulder he gestured to the screen. "Is that supposed to be like that? I thought everyone was supposed to be at zero to start with."
Nedzu's expression changed to a slight smile as he sipped his tea.
"Normally you would be right Yagi-san, but this year we had a most interesting situation during the rules presentation. Midoriya's large stature caused others to be unable to see the screen, but before Yamada could begin or notice the problem himself, Midoriya called attention to the fact and swapped places with a student in the back."
Taking another sip of tea Nedzu continued. "Yamada-san figured the situational awareness and desire to act was worth at least a few points. Nothing to write home about, but enough to show we acknowledged his actions."
As All Might went down memory lane, he recalled a number of times something similar had happened without his notice before his accident. He rubbed under his nose recalling the embarrassment he felt.
"I suppose that makes sense."
Burning a bit of his excess energy, Izuku felt himself grow to about fifteen feet as he bounced in place. Everyone else had warmed up and stretched and the test was due any moment.
"Go!"
That was all Izuku needed as he pushed off the concrete to quickly reach top speed, Maki had made sure to train him to be able to react quickly.
"Well? What are you waiting for?! There are no warnings in real life! Follow his example and go go go! Wait, where is he going, he's no-"
No sooner did Mic single him out did he reach his destination. Not the overly large gate the rest of the group had started towards, no. His destination was much more solid as he collided with the wall of the testing area at top speed, barely slowing down as he used the energy from the collision to grow even more.
"Oooooooh Yeah!"
All Might blinked for a moment as he witnessed a student completely ignore the gate and make his own entryway.
"...Did he just Kool-Aid man his way into the exam?"
Nedzu's face betrayed nothing as he sipped at his tea.
"I do believe he did."
The crowd of applicants paused for a moment before a voice broke them out of the stupor.
"THAT WAS MANLY AS HELL!, YEAAAAAAA!"
A boy who appeared to be made of steel broke from the stunned crowd and followed the jolly green giant's example. He rushed straight through what little wall remained between the gate and the gaping hole caused by Izuku. The second impact to the wall caused an enormous and thick cloud of dust to rise up.
"Yeah! Breaking things! I like these guys' styles. Let's follow their lead Fumikage!"
A sullen bird-headed boy was suddenly jolted from his place among the crowd as a living shadow clawed yet another hole into the already battered wall.
"Dark Shadow wait, no!"
"HEY HEY HEY! You know there's a perfectly fine door right there right?"
Someone shouted up to him.
"I reject your doors and substitute my own!
" That was as satisfying as I dreamed it would be, now where's some robots to destroy?"
Ignoring the dust that settled on his shoulders, Izuku's internal revelry was put on hold when he saw the cluster of two pointers gathered around a three pointer down the road and he continued on in his charge
As the three pointer unleashed its missiles at him, he raised his arms in front of his face as the missiles collided and he continued on through the explosion, growing noticeably bigger, now easily twenty five feet. Grabbing a two pointer by the tail with both hands, he swung it into the other bots in an arc, finishing his rotation, he placed both hands onto the three pointer's main body, before removing them as he saw the robot's chassis decay away into dust.
" That's eleven, not a bad start, lets see if I can keep it up."
Warping to the top of the building he was next to, he looked around for any other clusters. Spying a one pointer approaching another student from behind, he made a portal before shoving his arm through and grabbing the robot's head. By the time the purple-haired candidate turned around, all they saw was a headless robot falling over.
Uraraka picked her hands up off a crushed three pointer as they shrunk and she attempted to catch her breath, surrounded by metal debris and robot chassis one could only accurately describe as 'squished' . Rolling her shoulders, she could feel how sore they were getting from using her quirk.
She'd manage to rack up a decent body count by just growing her hands and dropping them on the robots, but it took a lot out of her, as the robots became more and more sparse, she debated on growing full size for a better view, but then she'd have to avoid stepping on other examinees.
Just as she started to go look for more robots, the ground beneath her rumbled as a massive robot revealed itself, as big as some of the buildings around her.
"That's a bit much for just an obstacle ain't it?"
From the commotion she heard, it sounded like a lot of people were running away from it, growing tall enough to see over the buildings, she saw several people tripping over themselves. She moved onto one of the bigger roads before growing to full size. Carefully stepping over the people running towards her, she made her way towards the zero pointer right as it destroyed one of the larger skyscrapers in the area. Right as she went to grab it, she heard a voice shout.
"Asteroid Impact!"
Izuku was confident in his point count. He had lost track of his exact score during the rampage he had carved through the robots that had crossed his path. He kept himself relatively small, never more than thirty feet tall, instead using the excess energy to keep himself running at peak efficiency. He was sure he'd feel it tomorrow, but it would be worth it.
He'd warped into crowds of robots and went all out in ways he normally couldn't with others nearby, using the robots as weapons as much as his own hands and quirks. More than a few robots that had tried to run away now had horns impaling them through the back of their heads.
As the ground started to rumble, he warped his way to one of the taller buildings to take stock of the situation. He barely managed to see the giant robot before the building he was standing on started collapsing, as he started to fall, he opened a portal below him and far above the robot.
"Oh you motherfucker, it's on now!"
As he fell through the portal, he consumed all of the energy he had stockpiled to grow to max size, his now massive form falling towards the zero pointer at a rapid speed.
"Asteroid Impact!"
Feeling the robot collapse under his weight was satisfying, and he had a moment to relish it before a massive form collided with him, sending him falling into the now empty main road.
It took him a second to realize what happened, when he was treated to the sight of brown hair immediately blocking his view. As the other figure pushed themselves up, and rubbed her head, he was treated to the view of a seventy-five foot tall Ochako Uraraka sprawled across his chest in what looked to be a form fitting sports bra and spats.
' Big, round, big and round…. and soft'
His face flushed crimson at his thoughts, and when she realized the situation her face flushed just as red before she hopped off him. She seemed to want to cover her face before she extended a hand out for him to grab.
As she pulled him up to his feet, he came upon a startling realization.
' She's... taller than me!'
"Sorry about that, I didn't expect you to drop in like that…" Ochako averted her gaze from the giant across from her. She had gotten a very good feel of his muscular form from her fall, and his form fitting briefs left very little to the imagination.
Scratching the back of his neck Izuku averted his gaze as well.
"It's fine."
"Time's up listeners! Make your way to the front! If you have any injuries, Recovery Girl will be with you shortly!"
Looking towards where Mic shouted from, they both relaxed as the test ended. As Izuku went to move towards the front of the exam area, Ochako couldn't help but ask.
"Are you not going to… shrink back down?"
"I... can't. I have to wait it out."
Carrying Uraraka as she sat in his palm, Izuku made his way to the front gates that now just barely let him pass through. As they reached the bus, he knelt down and set Uraraka down before dropping to seat himself near her.
He saw a little old lady gesturing at him and trying to shout up to him, so he opened a portal in front of him and in front of the now identified nurse before leaning his head through..
"Yes ma'am?"
Ochako had to cover her snickers, Midoriya's head coming out of a portal was almost comical with how large he was at the moment. The nurse was professional enough to remain stoic however, even if she only came up to his nose.
"Are you feeling alright young man? Do you need quirk suppressants or anything? Though, I'm not sure how well they'll work on you at your size."
Midoriya waved his hands before realizing his head was blocking her view of them.
"No ma'am, this is normal. Give me about thirty minutes and I'll shrink down."
Checking his form for injuries with a 'hmm', she nodded her head before moving on to the next participant.
Ochako rocked back and forth on her feet, arms crossed behind her back.
"Soooo, what's your quirk? I've been trying to figure it out but it's almost like you have two completely different quirks."
Izuku let his portal disappear as he spun and flopped onto his back with his head near Uraraka. He made a so-so gesture in the air.
"You're not entirely wrong. My quirk is called Osmotic Assimilation. Basically, I copy the quirks of those I spend a lot of time with. My size and portals are from my uncles, and my decay is from my brother. My Mom's quirk lets me attract objects that fit in my hand without touching them. It's pretty...handy."
Ochako fought to hold in her snickers.
"Oh my god, you did not just say that!"
Izuku grinned.
"You could say it was a bit of a… hand-me down?"
As Ochako burst into a fit of laughter, Izuku was happy to gain a new friend.
