Izuku sighed as he leaned back in his chair, rubbing his forehead.

He stretched out his arms, rolling his shoulders as he took a break from his work. He was so glad that Nezu had convinced his mum to let him drop out of regular school in favour of online courses.

Without the constant harassment from his classmates and teachers, it was much easier to think, and when it was easier to think, his head hurt less. And less pain in his head was a rare and wonderful thing.

Izuku, now 17 years old, had gone through a lot over the last 8 years. From the analysis of century-old cases; ones that he was able to give a unique perspective on due to his Quirk, to combat training with Eraserhead and the rest of the UA staff.

It also helped that he could tap into the memories of some of the greatest fighters in history and view their fighting styles in first person, although he still had to practise to get to their level. His Quirk just gave him the knowledge on how to do things, it was up to Izuku to internalise it.

He had learned stealth from everyone he could: from ancient Japanese ninja, people that Nezu were glad to have their existence confirmed, to modern-day experts, styles designed specifically for avoiding detection from Quirks.

Hand to hand fighting skills from experts from all throughout history, from the Shaolin monk's mastery over a mixed range of martial arts to the ancient greeks' wrestling, an efficient and brutal grappling style.

He had also gained many weapon skills from swordmasters and expert marksmen, though he had less practise with firearms due to their heavily regulated existence, making it hard to use them without someone like Snipe, who was fully licensed, to oversee him.

Looking back, Izuku knew he would be eternally grateful to Nezu for offering him a position as his intern and was excited about the upcoming entrance exams.

He had briefly contemplated refusing Nezu's offer of recommendation and trying his luck in the entrance exam, but had taken the offer as he realised fighting against robots, something he wouldn't be suited for on the day, and possibly failing the test would invalidate almost everything he had done so far.

So he accepted the offer. Nezu had smiled and started cackling madly, so Izuku guessed he would have some special exam designed to challenge him. And that meant Nezu was doing it alone because he knew Izuku couldn't see into his mind but could see into any that helped him.

He chuckled as he closed the document for an essay he was writing on Quirk Theory, having finished it. He turned to his bookshelf and grabbed one of his notebooks, this one titled; "Human Anatomy in the context of hand to hand combat #2".

The book, and its predecessor, was one of the many different series of notebooks that Nezu had gotten him to write, as practice for both analytics and combat.

But it hadn't just been Nezu that had taught him things, no. As Midnight had put it, Izuku had basically adopted UA as his family, which meant that the teachers were the 'cool aunt and uncles' that Izuku never had.

Izuku had rolled with her declaration, and so had the other teachers, showering Izuku with more support and guidance than he had ever been shown by his previous teachers.

And he was glad for all of his interactions with the UA staff, as each one was like family to him now.

Izuku walked onto the UA premises, smiling at the camera's, giving them a wink.

Today was the UA recommendation exams, and Izuku was feeling ready. He had his one support item, a scarf reminiscent of Aizawa's, but dyed black, and was wearing his best jumpsuit.

He smiled at another recommendation student entering at the same time as him, a tall boy with a close shaved head who waved back excitedly.

"HI THERE! MY NAME IS INASA YOARASHI! IT'S SO AWESOME TO BE HERE ISN'T IT, MY DUDE! OH, SORRY, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!"

Izuku chuckled for a second, holding out his hand for the boy to shake. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, it's a pleasure to meet you Yoarashi. You seem all pumped up for the exam!"

Yoarashi smiled, not noticing the two-toned head of hair walking into the front doors behind him, and shook Izuku's hand. "OF COURSE I'M PUMPED! WHO WOULDN'T BE FOR THE EXAM THAT DECIDES IF WE GET INTO THIS AWESOME SCHOOL?!"

Izuku laughed and gave the boy a fist bump, agreeing with him. They talked for a bit more about UA as they moved towards the recommendation exam room before splitting off.

Izuku was about to sit down when his phone went off, signalling a message from Nezu. "Izuku, please come to my office."

Shrugging, he stood up and headed back up the stairs, waving to Inasa as he did so. He got some odd looks from the other recommendation students as he left the room.

He walked through the halls of UA, eventually reaching Nezu's office, punching in his personal code into the door, and walked on in, ducking under the robot arm meant to smack him at head height and calmly stepping through the floor traps set up on the ground.

Nezu smiled as he watched his student dodge his traps so easily, before sitting down into the chair across from him, smirking. "So, did I do good?"

Nezu just laughed as he nodded, giving the boy a wide smile. "Pray tell, who's mind did you get that information from? I was sure that I kept all of this as secret as I could, I even told the staff to avoid my office for a week as I set this up myself."

Izuku just shrugged. "I didn't have prior knowledge of which traps you would use, just the fact that the traps themselves existed. I then cross-referenced that with how well I know you, and tried to think about how you would set them up."

He pointed at the traps on the ground. "Did you really need to spell out 'PLUS ULTRA' with the traps, or was that just a thematic thing?"

Nezu beamed and clapped his hands in joy. He really did love having Izuku as his son student, no other person challenged him intellectually anymore, at least not one he had met. Maybe David Shield, but he hadn't spoken to the man in years.

"Both, my dear boy, both." He pulled out a small booklet, handing it over to Izuku. "Your recommendation written test. You have 1 hour to complete it."

Izuku nodded as he took the booklet off of Nezu. Flicking through it, he quickly noticed that many of the history questions had events that either had details that were incorrect or had some events that were completely made up.

Izuku smirked as he grabbed a pen off of Nezu's desk and started to fill out the booklet, inputting the correct answers with the information given, but noting all the mistakes. He reached the end of the booklet, a mostly blank page, with the exception of a website's URL printed in bold black font.

He input the link into his phone as he looked up at Nezu, who was smirking. It might be difficult for others to tell what facial expressions Nezu was making, as he was a Chimera, but Izuku had always seemed to intuitively understand them.

What showed up when he typed the link in was what looked like a login screen, asking for a password. He tried a few that he thought Nezu might have set it as, before skimming through the booklet, looking for hints, when his attempts failed.

He quickly scanned the pages, looking for anything that might indicate what the password could be, when he noticed that some of the letters in the occasional word were very lightly bolded, while others weren't.

Quickly flipping back to the first page, he started writing down each of the bolded letters in the order they appeared in. The letters that had shown up were akin to gibberish, a mass of mismatched letters and numbers. Izuku had to think for a moment before realising that it wasn't random letters, but an encoded message.

He attempted a few common cyphers from history, but none of them seemed to fit individually. He then spent around 20 minutes going through possible mixtures of cyphers, eventually getting the answer with a combination of a Caesar shift of -3, and a Vingere cipher with the keyword "archive".

Eventually, he had the words [Fog rolling in] written down.

Groaning at the nearly 200-year-old reference Nezu made, something he probably knew only Izuku and a select few would get, he put the phrase into the password box, taking him to a new page.

The first thing on the page was a picture of a chibi Nezu giving a thumbs up, followed by a timer with a message underneath. The timer, labelled, 'finish time' was set to finish… right now. On the dot.

Izuku shivered at Nezu's talent with prediction, and read the message underneath the timer, smiling as he did so, as Nezu watched him with pride.

Well Done Izuku!

If you are reading this then you did exceedingly well! You overcame the nervousness I could see on your face as you entered the office, and managed to focus enough to figure out all my puzzles!

And now for the official business. Izuku Midoriya, you have successfully completed the written portion of your Recommendation Exam, earning yourself a spot in general studies should you fail the practical exam, which will be assigned to you shortly.

Know that I couldn't be more proud of you Izuku, you've put a lot of work into this, and I believe I speak for all of UA when I say that I look forward to having you in our classes, and look forward to the waves you will make as a registered Hero.

With love and best wishes,

Nezu.

Izuku's eyes were watering by the end of the letter.

He jumped up from his seat, running around the table, and slammed into Nezu, picking up the animal in a bone-crushing hug, smiling like a madman. "Thank you! I'm not going to question how you knew the time I would finish, I know you're smart enough to do that and more! I look forward to working with all of you as well! It's a dream come true!"

Nezu smiled, ignoring the memories being dragged up by the quick physical contact, reaching around the boy and hugging him back. He patted the boy, who put him back down on his chair.

"Now, my boy, it is time for your practical exam. Recommended students don't have to fight robots like the general applicants, and each test has been fine-tuned for the applicant that completes it.

Nezu tapped away at a few buttons on his keyboard, explaining further. "It used to be a race, but after multiple complaints from staff and applicants alike, I decided to implement a new system to be fairer to applicants with Quirks that do not lend themselves well to physical competitions, such as yours."

Izuku nodded, already feeling like he knew what he was about to be thrown into. "I finished about an hour before the rest of the applicants are meant to, so I'm betting I'm either going one-on-one against Eraserhead, or maybe Ectoplasm, or you're going to throw me to the sharks in a 4-on-1."

He looked Nezu in the eyes, smirking as he crossed his arms. "My preference is the 4-on-1, so don't disappoint me, alright, dad?"

Nezu just laughed, adding a few more staff members onto the email he had been about to send to Eraserhead.

'This should be fun!'

Izuku was pumped.

It wasn't often that he got to fight people like this, in a no holds barred battle, and he was fighting with actual Pro Heroes, plural. People he respected and looked up to, people he admired.

He couldn't wait to beat the shit out of them.

Well, that was if he was able to. As his opponents walked into the arena Cementoss had set up, Izuku did a quick check. Eraserhead, Midnight, Ectoplasm, and Present Mic. All of them were wearing gas masks, to protect them from Midnights Quirk.

All people with skill sets that focused on hand to hand combat, with maybe the exception of Present Mic, and immunity to their own AOE attack. Izuku dropped into his combat stance as they surrounded him, one hand in front of him, the other on his scarf.

He laughed as Eraserhead pulled a similar, but not identical, pose. He knew that if he wanted to win this, Eraserhead had to be one of the first to go down.

He pulled up the hood of his tracksuit and zipped it up fully, covering his face with the novelty All Might design, with mesh so he could see out of it. He then reached into his pocket and grabbed out some thin black gloves, covering his hands.

He smirked as Aizawa bristled in the realization that he couldn't see any of Izuku's skin. Nezu's voice crackled over the intercom.

[Everyone, you may commence the battle on my mark. This fight will conclude when either Izuku is unable to continue fighting or is unconscious 15 minutes pass, or you are all unable to continue fighting, or have been rendered unconscious.]

"Good luck everyone! I'm looking forward to this fight!"

[You may begin, NOW!]

Izuku dodged out of the way of the capture tape sent towards him, rolling underneath the wave of sound that blasted towards him.

Getting up, he inhaled deeply and dashed towards midnight, weaving left and right to avoid her whip. He got struck in the shoulder on his approach, but was lucky that he was still wearing his scarf, as it absorbed some of the blow.

Still hurt like a bitch.

Getting in close, he quickly slipped onto the ground and faked a swipe at her legs, getting up quickly as she jumped to avoid the attack, and grabbing the wrist holding her whip, and wrapped an arm around her waist.

Spinning on his heel, he flipped her over his back, slamming her onto the ground with enough force to knock her out, but not enough to hurt her permanently. He grabbed her whip, quickly rolling it up as he dodged another blast of sound, thanking Present Mic mentally when it moved the remainder of Midnight's gas away from Izuku slightly.

Taking a deep breath and brandishing the whip, he dodged under an attack from one of Ectoplasm's clones, before countering with a kick to the chest. The clone dissolved into the trademark goo, and Izuku moved on.

He fought through the horde of clones coming his way, eventually reaching the real Ectoplasm. He didn't like it, but as he approached at full speed, he used Midnight's whip to wrap around one of the man's prosthetic legs, pulling it forward as he jumped at the man.

He was greeted by Eraserhead's fist to his side, and rolled along the floor as pain shot through him. He was used to it by now, having almost 8 years of combat training from the man himself.

He rolled away from another attack from Eraserhead with the scarf, grabbing the end of it and pulling it forward, before letting go and hopping up. It had the desired effect of throwing Eraserhead off balance for a second, allowing Izuku to slip past and attack Ectoplasm.

He parried a few blows from the Hero before jumping back to avoid both a clone and Eraserhead's attacks. Deciding that he wasn't going to get to Ectoplasm anytime soon, Izuku blocked a right hook from Eraserhead, and rolled backwards, running towards Present Mic.

He had steeled himself for the pain, plunging his fingers in his ears while Mic let off a yell, unavoidable at this distance. He powered through, used to headaches far worse than what Mic could give him, and rushed the man.

Mic stopped his scream just in time to catch Izuku's boot to the face, knocking him to the floor, but was saved from a knockout by Eraserhead reaching them and launching a kick, forcing Izuku to dodge.

"God Aizawa! You're so annoying! Guess it's time to test out my new move!"

Behind the mesh of the hoodie covering Izuku's face, blue lines started appearing in his eyes with greater and greater speeds, eventually becoming a solid colour as the information flooded Izuku's mind. What information was he seeing, you ask?

Eraserhead's current thoughts.

"Ultra Instinct!"

With that yell, Eraserhead found his hits being countered with speeds he had never seen from Izuku before. Almost the exact moment Eraserhead tried to attack, Izuku had a guard up…

His eyes widened as he realised what Izuku was doing, right before Izuku's arm shot into his face, sending him reeling. He tried to avoid thinking of what he was about to do to starve Izuku's Quirk of Information it could relay to the boy, but his years of combat training made it very difficult for him to just release conscious control of himself in a fight.

Izuku laughed as he continued overwhelming his teacher. He knew he would be getting one hell of a headache after all this was over, but the advantage he got from using this new move was worth it in his opinion.

Pretending to duck under Eraserheads feint of a kick, he twisted his body and slammed his heel into the man's forehead, following through with the kick and sending the man to the ground. Eraserhead looked up at him from the ground, dazed and frustrated, as Izuku slammed his fist into the man's forehead, knowing how resilient Eraserhead was.

He needed a lot of force to knock the man out, a dangerous amount, but he knew Recovery Girl could heal them later. He turned to the two remaining teachers, dropping his Quirk, as he needed to redo it for another person, and was just in time to receive a combo of a soundwave and an uppercut from Mic and a clone respectively.

Falling to the ground in a heap, headache spiking in a similar manner to early uses of his Quirk, he couldn't help but smile as he fell unconscious.

'Score that dad! I'll see you all in the Hero Course!'

AN: Ultra Instinct is not going to be Izuku's super moves name forever, it was more of a spur of the moment joke that Izuku made. Suggestions are welcome for the moves new name!