Izuku spent the next few months heading to U.A. and training with Aizawa. Of course, Aizawa was not a man who focused purely on his students, he was a man who trained logically and rationally. This meant that he had to see whom the crazy boy had for a support technician. Izuku was busy doing his own training today, so Aizawa decided to pay a visit to his support gear designer with two others.
Just as the trio reached the door to the residency of Izuku's friend, they heard an explosion sound from the garage, and Aizawa wasted no time in sprinting to investigate. They spotted a pink haired girl continuing to build despite her clothing having char marks from the obvious blast she had taken. Aizawa quickly pulled her away from the bench to avoid any more explosions.
"Huh? Oh new people! Hi! I am Mei-" She began only for Nezu to interrupt.
"Miss Hatsume? Am I correct?" Nezu politely cut in.
"Word of my babies is spreading! Yes I am indeed one, Mei Hatsume! What can I help you guys with?"
"We aren't here for your help, we are here to see what you are doing for Midoriya," Aizawa spoke tiredly.
"What reason do I have for showing you three confidential information?" Mei spoke seriously, surprising Aizawa with the sudden shift in her personality.
"Well, Aizawa here is doing some sort of mentorship with him, while I am overseeing all of his actions and training to ensure he doesn't do anything that could expose his identity to the public. Maijima is here to ensure you are following proper procedures and you aren't doing anything illegal to give Midoriya an edge," Nezu answered professionally, his words earning nods from the other two adults.
"Before I show you three this information, I request to see your hero IDs, that way I know for sure you are who you say you are."
Both Nezu and Maijima took out their IDs and held them towards her for a second, covering all the private information. All three heads turned to Aizawa who had yet to show his ID. Aizawa was about to politely decline, until he saw Nezu smirking. Everyone who has seen Nezu smirk, knows how bad of an idea it is. Grumbling, he flashed her his ID, as she nodded and stepped aside to let them in.
Maijima instantly made his way to the bench to ensure nothing volatile was left unattended. To his surprise, he saw mainly blueprints and dozens of empty cups, as well as some plates of plastic, obviously meant to be armour. He saw nothing on the table that could have caused the earlier explosion, so he glanced to Hatsume in confusion.
"So, Hatsume, do you mind telling us what caused the explosion?" He questioned with very audible confusion.
"Huh? There was an explosion?" She asked completely unaware of the state of her clothing.
"Yes problem girl, the reason I pulled you away from your project was because there was an explosion there, and your clothing is charred and covered in dirt," Aizawa muttered as he rubbed his eyes.
"Izuku always said I could work through a villain attack without noticing if I am focused enough, I guess he wasn't kidding. Now any questions? I want to return to making his costume!"
"You aren't actually making his costume in a garage without a license right?" Nezu asked calmly.
"Nope! I was planning on shipping these blueprints to U.A. That way they can be made in a professional environment, once the blueprints are properly made and organized!"
"I will admit, the fact that you have plates like these as a base is already super impressive, add on the lack of an actual proper workshop. I assume you will be applying the same year as Midoriya?" Maijima questioned as he studied the blueprint sketches, only to stop at one of the blueprints.
"Well, yes and no. Because I am only doing basic designs, my father will take some blueprints to his own actual workshop and work on them to ensure they are actually possible to be made, these plates are chunks of excess metal he has, that would have normally ended up in the waste or something like that. Also yes, I am indeed the same age as Izuku, he is my friend, and I will follow him to U.A.!" She shouted energetically, only to falter when she saw the blueprint Maijima was looking at.
"Interesting… Hatsume, is this blueprint something Midoriya requested?"
"Yep! He has been doing his own studying on the effectiveness and potential ways to create a personalized energy based shield. We both agreed on not creating that until I am at U.A. That way, I won't be dealing with lower quality materials, however his research is very promising. Flawed, but promising."
"Wait, all of these sketches are his own?" Maijima asked in shock.
"Nope, those sketches are mine! He has his theories and analyses in his notebook titled 'Costume Ideas Volume Two'! You should see the details he has inside of it! I was surprised he wasn't planning on designing costumes for a living after reading his notes!" She madly exclaimed.
"Miss Hatsume, how would you like to be supervised by Maijima and the two of you can work together to create Midoriya's costume in time for the first battle trial," Nezu spoke up, drawing both of their eyes to his small form.
"With all due respect Nezu, I have multiple classes I have to teach, there is no way I am bringing a teenager into the support workshop to help with Aizawa's personal student."
"I get to actually work on Izuku's costume?! Where do I sign? Where?!" Hatsume exclaimed as she looked at all three adults in a crazed manner.
"Right here." Nezu said as he pulled out a set of papers from seemingly nowhere.
Hatsume snatched them and instantly started skimming through them soaking in all the details about the documents. She signed everywhere her signature was requested, and then handed it back to Nezu with a manic look. After Nezu grabbed the documents back, he smiled and bid farewell to Hatsume and told her to come to U.A. the next time Izuku trained to be shown where she would have her classes.
All of the time until the exams to enter U.A. flew by in a blur.
Aizawa didn't allow Izuku to use his quirk in their sparring sessions, that way he could be a proficient hero if he was unable to transform. Which was the one area where Izuku was pretty terrible in, seeing as how he had spent all of his time fighting offensively in his transformed state, all of his offensive moves were off as he tried to mirror the attacks he does transformed, not transformed.
Of course, Aizawa wasn't too pleased with his shown reliance on his quirk, and when asked about it, Izuku answered honestly.
"Well, I plan on always being transformed when I am on duty, as that way I don't have to worry about focusing on transforming mid fight, plus it allows me to keep my own personal appearance a secret for as long as possible," Izuku replied simply.
"What about at the sports festival? Your name will be announced during it, your quirk will be shown to the world, what will you do to keep your own personal appearance a secret then?" Aizawa asked as he handed him a bottle of water.
"Well, I have read the rules around the sports festival, and there is no rule against being transformed for the entire event. So I'm going to hope Nezu will use a picture of me transformed instead of my un-transformed face. In the event that my normal face is shown, I will have no real way to keep my identity a secret." Izuku explained calmly, proceeding to drink half of the bottle of water.
"You always impress me. I was thinking you hadn't put much thought into the actual secrecy part of your plan, but nope, here you are with a very solid plan. There is only one flaw with your plan though."
"That is?"
"The vultures known as the media. If you want to be a popular hero, your name and everything about you will be known. Add in the fact of how you are stupidly tall without your quirk, you will have a hard time blending in."
"That is inevitable for all heroes is it not? I just wish to gain enough accomplishments that I have enough positive reinforcement to minimize the amount of hatred I receive. People are far less likely to hate a top twenty five hero, rather than a top one hundred hero. My main goal is to ensure that those with ugly quirks have someone to look up to as an idol, and that they can have the determination to surpass their discrimination."
"You are pretty wise sometimes. It is very clear you have your life planned out, but enough talking, let's improve your movement and decision making." Aizawa said as the two of them got into stances and continued their training.
Of course, life at school had mellowed out because of how tall Izuku was. His height and build made him pretty noticeable wherever he went, it also served as a deterrent, because no one wanted to pick on a dude who was clearly bigger and stronger than you. But regardless of the reasoning, Izuku was able to easily partake in his classes for the remainder of his time at Aldera High.
Of course, he was surprised to find out that Mei was being brought to U.A. for some special requests and designs. He shrugged it off when she said it was confidential information, not at all surprised by that response. He just hoped that Maijima was able to handle her properly, and that there wasn't too much destruction. He did end up having to give Mei his notes on the energy shield stuff, but he wasn't too torn up by it, and instead allowed her access to his notes as he assumed it was for his costume.
Before he knew it, it was time for him to partake in the entrance exam, or rather, what Nezu's plan for his exam was. He hadn't been told much other than the exam taking place on the same day as the entrance exam and to head to Gym Gamma ready for the practical after partaking in the written portion.
He had seen many quirks, and he knew that if he wanted to sell his quirk as a mutation, rather than a transformation, he had to show up transformed, and hold it throughout the day. He was glad Bakugou wasn't in the same room as him for the written portion, so he just took his exam in peace. He noticed that there was no one who had any visible quirks in his room, so he figured that Nezu had a hand in separating him from those who would take the heroics exam.
After a minute of getting used to holding a pencil with his different hands, he then breezed his way through it, finishing it tenth fastest in the room. Once he was done, he was allowed to get ready for the practical portion of the exam. He went into the changing room to change into his fighting outfit.
It was a simple outfit, a white muscle shirt which he covered with a light green sweater, a pair of plain socks, and a pair of red sweatpants.
He felt ready to take on the exam.
As soon as he left the changing room, he saw Mei holding out a small case to him. He grabbed the case and looked at her in confusion.
"Principal Nezu permitted me to give you one weapon to use for the exam, so I made you a staff. I know how you said you enjoy wielding sticks as practice weapons, and using a staff is the most logical weapon for you to use. Now hurry along, this will be part of my practical too, so don't disappoint!" Mei said as she jogged to the special viewing room.
Izuku shrugged at her antics and made his way to Gym Gamma…
Izuku arrived at the gym, immediately opening the case. He took out the staff and studied the weapon for a minute; it was a rather cool looking staff in his own opinion.
The staff was likely made out of some highly durable material, it was greyish silver, with green highlights all over the staff. The staff had two bands near the ends where he was obviously meant to put his hands, but it felt surprisingly short, and felt more like a baton than a staff. As he felt around it, he felt a piece of it push in a bit as his finger slid along it.
Holding the weapon parallel to himself, he pushed on the loose piece, and before his eyes, the staff extended and he heard a low hum coming from it. He then noticed the ends that extended past the bands were glowing an electric blue, and the pieces connected.
Mei had made him an electrically charged staff, that probably was made like a double sided stun baton. He stood and spun the staff around his body to get a feel for how to wield it, going through practice swipes and movements with it to grow comfortable before the test. He made a promise to thank Mei for the wonderful present and weapon.
Right as soon as he approached the door, it opened up and Nezu's voice rang out.
"Have fun! Your goal is to navigate through the maze, retrieve the special objective, and make it back out!" Nezu said through the intercom.
Izuku took in the appearance of Gym Gamma. It was a maze unlike anything he had seen before. Walls taller than himself, perfectly smooth to prevent him from climbing, and stretching beyond where he could see from the entrance.
Once he got past the entrance to the maze, he realized he had a big problem. There was almost no light in the maze, meaning spotting traps would be incredibly difficult. The only light he had to aid him in exploring was his energy staff, and that provided minimal light. He grunted in annoyance at this issue, but he was glad his eyes granted him better sight in the dark.
After a minute of wandering through the maze, he grew increasingly on edge as so far there were neither enemies, nor traps. He knew something was going on, and that any second now it would strike. Tests are never meant to have an easy section, every part of a well made test should be challenging, but doable. So far with this test, it was anything but hard. He chose to stop advancing to actually try and listen for anything.
Right as he was about to continue moving, he heard a very, very quiet hum that sounded more mechanical than electrical. It was a very faint difference in sound, but it was enough for him to react. He spun around and dove under a clawed arm that swung right where he was previously. Using his forward momentum, he jabbed his staff right at where he assumed the neck was, and as a reward, he heard the sound of circuits being overloaded and fried.
The robot collapsed onto the ground. He took the opportunity to look it over so he could know what type of robot he was dealing with. The robot was coated in pitch black paint, obviously to allow it an easy time staying hidden in the maze. It had no eyes on its body at all, which led him to realize they worked based off of sensors. Likely a mix of sonar, heat, and movement sensors to allow them the ability to hunt without eyes.
The sensors meant that he had to keep carefully maneuvering through the maze, as it was clear he had gone pretty deep into the maze before encountering any of the robot patrols. Only one problem immediately came to his attention. When he had trained with Aizawa, he had learned pretty easily that U.A. never liked having unrealistic scenarios, when possible. So that means that Nezu or whoever built this exam, likely increased the density of guards around the objective, whatever that objective was.
So he immediately began making his way through the maze listening for the subtle sounds of the stealthy bots.
Nezu, Aizawa, Mei, and Maijima all stood in a room watching a visual display of the maze and they watched as Izuku narrowly avoided each patrol unintentionally.
"Maijima, I'm not one to normally question your robot designs, but are you certain they are silent?" Aizawa questioned as he watched Izuku slip right past another guard.
"I couldn't really hear them in my own home with complete silence, so I can assure you, they are silent." Maijima responded as he leaned forward to watch Izuku's actions.
"He isn't aware of them. He is just getting incredibly lucky with their patrols syncing perfectly up with his speed." Mei interjected as she studied his movements and how to best allow that movement without causing discomfort.
"How can you be so sure, Hatsume?" Aizawa questioned, feeling it was something obvious.
"Oh it's simple really, the patrol routes are made to counteract the best strategy to sneaking through patrols. Normally, the best route to navigate a patrol of guards is to follow them, he knows about that trick, so if he saw them, then he would follow their patrol route. He isn't," Mei explained with a grin.
"What is he doing?" Maijima said as he stared at the map that showed him stopping, and a robot turning the corner behind him.
"Why, Miss Hatsume is indeed correct, he doesn't know about the patrols. He has stopped to wait to see what sort of threat is in this maze, of course he is going to find out right away!" Nezu exclaimed.
All four people watched as the robot closed in on Izuku, only for him to spin around, and dive under the robot's fist, then proceeding to finish it off with a jab of the staff to its neck.
"He does have enhanced hearing! I knew it! He probably doesn't know his hearing is greater than ours!"
"Got something to say Miss Hatsume?" Nezu politely requested.
"I didn't have much proof of his enhanced hearing, but him becoming aware of that robot at the last second proves it isn't that much greater than our own. If it was way better than our own, then he would have reacted faster to it, instead of when it was right behind him." Hatsume explained energetically, but also calmly.
"Now that he is aware of the threats, how will he progress…" Aizawa muttered as he leaned closer to the monitors.
Izuku was really hating how difficult this exam was, but he knew he could win, and he knew Nezu knew he could. He's just trying to get to the objective, which he knew he was getting closer to because of the increased amount of robots patrolling. He was really happy the robots weren't connected in a system to relay information between themselves, otherwise his whole objective would have been jeopardized by him waiting to be attacked.
After a painfully slow five minutes, he finally found a room with light coming from it, obviously where the objective is. So he made his way over to the room, and his hopes fell at what was waiting in the room.
All Might was in the room.
Acting unconscious.
Letting out a sigh he knew All Might would hear, he headbutted the wall lightly. Then he made his way into the room to check All Might for any injuries. He poked All Might a couple of times to confirm his guess about All Might pretending to be unconscious. Once he felt his guess was correct, he realized two things, he would have to hold All Might with both hands to handle his weight.
The other thing was that he would be unable to defend himself properly without his staff, and he left quite a few robots running.
"Fuck!" Izuku muttered angrily.
He then proceeded to ensure there were no extra injuries that he needed to be wary of. He could only tell that his actual injury was there, so he just assumed they wanted him to carry All Might out of the building as safely as possible. So with his mind set, he bent down and picked up All Might in the bridal carry position, and slowly made his way back into the darkness, unaware of Nezu's stage two.
Everyone was impressed with his ability to dismantle the robots without any alerting the other robots.
"You've really trained him well, Aizawa. I almost thought you were a terrible teacher so you expelled everyone to avoid dealing with them!" Nezu said with a bright smile on his animal face, making Aizawa shiver.
"The kid picked up training like a fish does swimming. It's like his quirk has a side effect of making him master training way faster than normal," Aizawa explained with an unintentional yawn.
"He has gotten to the halfway point, and he left a large portion of the robots alive. That very well could bite him in the butt later." Maijima said as he did a count of all the robots.
They then heard Izuku say the first word he had spoken in the entire exam as he stood in front of All Might. Hearing Izuku swear so calmly and suddenly, caused Mei to start cackling.
"In all my time spent training him, he never once swore." Aizawa slowly said as he interpreted what Izuku just said.
"So what is your stage two, Nezu? I know you aren't going to make it as simple as get in, get the prisoner, and get out." Maijima said as he eyed the button on Nezu's console.
Nezu just smiled and gestured to the screen which showed Izuku carrying All Might out of the room and back into the maze. After a few seconds of Izuku walking into the maze, the button was pressed and an alarm sounded. Within minutes, every bot that was functional was in front of the room where All Might was held. A minute later, all of the bots were moving out, actively hunting Izuku down.
Izuku's heart sank when he heard the alarm ringing, then he heard lots of movement heading in the direction of the room. Knowing he had no choice and that his cover was blown, he went into a full on sprint.
"I must have been able to disable them without them alerting the others. Surprising, but really not a good sign. I can't stop to disable any if they get close to me, I am also running around pretty much blind, aside from the little light I do have." Izuku muttered as he ran the direction he came from as he kept running into the odd body of a robot.
As he ran, he knew that the robots were all hot on his tail if the motion tracker theory was correct. He got to where he disabled the first robot and realized the rest of the way from that point on was best navigated backwards, that way he could recall turns and other details like that.
After another minute of navigating back, he noticed it was getting slightly brighter, then he also heard the sounds of robots ahead of him. As soon as he saw the light signalling the end point, he crouched down and slowly made his way into the light. As soon as he turned to look at the exit, he was greeted by ten robots, all clearly the stealthy robots he had been avoiding.
He gently propped All Might against the wall and decided to show off his own natural strength against the robots. What kind of hero would he be if he only showed off his skills with a staff, and not his own raw strength?
Izuku dashed at the robots, who were all moving towards him and All Might. He dodged under one robot arm and kicked an arm off of a robot who tried to assist the first robot. He then grabbed the robot that was down an arm and swung it into the crowd, destroying the robot he was swinging, and denting three others.
He then jumped on top of the first robot and slammed it into the ground, following up his slam, he rolled underneath another robot and tore its left leg off. He then stabbed the leg into another robot's neck, disabling it, then he saw a robot making its way toward All Might and charged at the robot. Once he got within reach of the robot he picked it up and threw it into an adjacent wall, breaking the machine on impact and denting the wall.
Looking back at the robots left, he saw he had six robots left, four of them were damaged, and two were relatively unharmed. He also knew he only had so long until the other patrolling robots made their way to the commotion, so he had to speed things up if he wanted to get out without destroying every robot in the maze.
With that thought in mind, he ran at the pack of robots and prioritized the healthy robots as they would be the biggest threat to his escape. He rolled to the right to avoid a swing by the first robot, then he charged through a heavily damaged robot, taking it down, and then he leaped over top of the two healthy robots. Once he was behind them, he decided to grab each robot's neck and slam their heads together.
He nearly got clipped by their arms before their heads smashed together, they took a second to recover from the slam, but right when they tried again to hit him, they were smacked together. Before he could finish the robots off, he saw the healthiest robot swinging directly at his chest, so he did the only thing anyone in his shoes would do. He made the robot in his left arm take the hit instead.
Izuku then quickly crushed the neck of the robot in his right hand and dashed over to All Might to ensure his safety. Izuku looked back at the robots when he got in front of All Might, and noticed he only had three left. Before he could consider taking them down, he heard more bots approaching, so he went with his plan B.
Izuku picked up All Might and carried him piggyback style, so he would have an easier time seeing where his feet would be going. He proceeded to charge right at the three damaged robots. He used the dead robots as a boost to ensure he got past the robots that formed a wall to block a straight charge. Izuku jumped off of the robot bodies and barely flew above the clawed arm of the robot that nearly hit him earlier.
Once he landed on the ground behind them, he charged right towards the open doors, and once he got out into the open sunlight, the robots all shut off. Seeing them shut off, Izuku cheered in happiness.
Then he promptly collapsed, exhausted.