Whoopsie, been a minute. Here, have a chapter!
"Hmmm… where is she? She said she'd be here by now," a young man with fluffy green hair mumbles to himself, flicking the yen coin in his hand up into the air, catching it again, and idly repeating it. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, the boy hefts a sigh and pockets the coin before leaning back against the wall, or rather, the side of the open entry gate into the towering U.A. campus. In the back of his mind, he feels the odd glances that are shot his way by the incoming freshman hopefuls as they walk into the main building for the written portion of the entrance exam. Which is what the verdanette is here to do as well, but…
Another hefty sigh as he shifts around, anxious energy roiling off him as his hands fiddle with anything they can get to, never stopping for a moment.
Mei Hatsume is the girl that the young man is waiting for, but if there is something the Izuku Midoriya knows well at this point, is the Mei Hatsume and "being on time" are an impossible pairing. So really, to expect today to be any different, even a day as important to their future careers as this, was just wishful thinking.
…
…
"Yeah, screw this, I'll find her eventually," Izuku huffs as he slowly rises up to his feet, dusting off his pants from the dirty ground and begins following the loose crowd into U.A. proper. Predictably, as what generally always happens when Izuku Midoriya is left alone, his mind turns inwards.
'Power Loader said that I didn't really need to do this, but I figured I should. Besides, statistically, at least one of the people walking by me will get into the hero class, so getting to know them, if very briefly, will be an asset if I am to make their gear. Then again, today is the day every person is going to take this exam, on top of this being the hero course practical, so that does mean that Bakugou will be here, somewhere. I pray for the poor soul that has to sit by him and be in his testing site. Who knows, maybe for once one of the proctors will finally catch onto the fact that his personality is a flaming dump-'
And just like that, the young man's internal muttering spree is brought to a close when his body alerts his brain to the sudden realization that they're falling. With his eyes suddenly snapped back into reality, and facing the ground like they naturally tended to, he all too late took notice of the slightly upraised, singular brick that he scuffed his foot into as his other foot has entirely gone parallel to the ground at this point.
"Welp, guess I'll die," the freckled teen whispers to himself, closing his eyes and bracing his body for the inevitable pain of the landing.
Only… it never came.
With his eyes still closed, his brain fired into overdrive at the sudden realization that he hadn't impacted the ground and his eyes shot open, only to find himself staring at the ground still. But this time, it's not moving.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" a youthful sounding, female voice pipes up from behind him. Instinctively, Izuku tried to turn around and face the voice, only to have his world turn upside down as he flips head over heels, now totally upside down and looking up at a cute looking brunette. "Or, err, actually, I'm sorry for using my quirk on you without your permission, it's just not very good luck to trip and fall before an exam, y'know?"
The green haired boy only tilts his head to the side and continues to stare at the girl impassively.
"Oh, right, you… probably want to stand," the girl says as she sheepishly rubs the back of her head. "I'd recommend you get upright for this." With her warning, the boy places his arms on the ground and pushes himself forward and up, gaining a bit of lift and speed as he flips back to a normal, albeit 2 foot off the ground, position.
"Release."
Suddenly, the feeling of gravity begins to exert on him again (strange, he until this point never felt the feeling of weight leave him until it was put back in place) and he rapidly falls back to the Earth, landing firmly on his feet. The young inventor slowly flexes his jaw and begins to stare at the young girl, his face quickly morphing into a contemplative disposition.
"Hmm… the ability to, based on the feeling of weightlessness, including the fact that I was able to freely press up from the ground with exactly the amount of force I applied, in addition to the current feelings of motion sickness, I'd say you quick negates gravity. Hmm… how is it done?" the green-haired boy mumbles to himself rapidly, stepping into the personal space of the girl in front of him.
The girl's rapidly reddening face is forgotten (not that he even noticed his effects on the girl) as his eyes dart down to her hands. "Ah. Pronounced pads on each finger, indicating a touch-based, most likely needing each of the five pads per hand touching the object you remove gravity from. To remove the effects of zero gravity, you said a trigger phrase, so either it is activated at will by this phrase or is a helpful phrase learned in order to indicate to yourself and others that your ability is being ceased."
"Now, onto the questions," Izuku helpfully informs the completely lost gravity-manipulator before pushing forward, affirmation be damned. "Can you use it on yourself? Do you feel any side effects to using your quirk on objects? Do you have influence on each thing you've removed gravity from, or is it just a one and done thing? Can you increase the gravity of objects instead of removing it? Wait, actually, how does your quick even wor-"
"PLEASE STOP!"
Broken out of his muttering storm from the shout, Izuku's eyes come back into focus, finally taking in the very confused and flustered looking girl, as well as the amount of people staring at the duo. Suddenly, even his socially stunted brain whirrs to life and makes a few important deductions:
This girl is screaming for him to stop what he's doing, and judging from how close he is to her, this appears to be blatant harassment.
With this being a group of people that have very likely have not met before, they are most likely not acquainted with each other, removing any possible cover.
This is U.A., so there are most probably pro heroes in this building, even more likely, they have cameras in a place like this, so they can see this as well.
"I-I-I, uh, um…" Izuku stutters, face quickly paling from the intense and sudden influx of shame, fear, and most prominent of all, embarrassment. Far too much embarrassment to even come back from.
So.
As quickly as he can manage, Izuku steels himself, his features coming back to a neutral color as the crowd still watches him, waiting for his reaction.
What they were not ready for, however, was for the U.A. prospect to flick his wrist, causing a strange, metal device to fall neatly into his waiting hand. Lifting his hand up from his side, confusion turns to shock as the device reveals itself to be what is in not uncertain terms a gun of some sort, looking to be a more high-tech version of a Colt Single Action Army.
"Whew, good thing I decided to keep this handy. Always gotta expect the need to reset," the young man said with a disturbing lack of care as the crowd of students around him do a mixture of scream and flee or flare their quirks in… some helpful manner.
"HEYYYYY! GREENIE! FINALLY FOUND Y- oh, you're doing that," a manic voices calls from the gates and gets closer to them before falling to a flat if not slightly exasperated tone. The new voice belongs to a girl dressed in grease stained workman's trousers, a black tank-top under an unzipped thick canvas jacket covering her arms and a pair of red steampunk styled goggles atop her pink hair.
"Oh, hey Mei, and yup, it's that time again," Izuku shoots back to the girl with a stunning smile, thumb cocking back the hammer with a very audible click.
"See ya next time!"
BLAM!
…
…
Screams ensue.
A brown haired girl with a permanent blush on her cheeks, closest to the boy and now dotted with a non-insignificant amount of crimson promptly vomits rainbows.
A perpetually angry-looking blonde-haired boy's eyes shoot wide, jar drops, and sinks to his knees in shock.
From behind the camera screens in his office on the top floor, a small creature in a suit sitting in a very important-looking chair spits out the tea he was drinking.
The now identified Mei, however, simply remarks:
"Hmm. Gross. Mop it up!"
1st Person POV (Izuku)
Damn. Well, that could've gone better.
"Izuku, Izuku!" I can hear you shouting, "Surely you didn't have to resort to THAT!? Why didn't you just apologize and explain yourself?"
Which is a fair point, I'll give you that. But while I didn't have to do it… I kinda had to do it, y'know? There's some things that just can't be recovered without an absolutely flawless use of the Japanese language, and a linguist I am not, so. Might as well take the best way out, no word play required, and I even get to have a fresh start without all of the awkwardness of moving on from that colossal mess up! Truly, a win-win for everyone.
Well… not everyone.
I lazily roll out of my bed and stumble to my feet, rubbing the last remains of sleep from my eyes as I wander over to my desk and plop down on the seat. Now seated, I pull out the top rightmost drawer, reaching inside to retrieve the leather-bound journal that is kept within. A journal ever-so helpfully labeled "Inventor's Notebook for the Past: Trial and Error Edition!"
Flipping to the back half of the journal to where the bookmark is, I reach forward on the desk and find my favorite pen still resting on the half-drawn blueprint I'd been working on last night and put pen to paper.
Izuku #308: Entrance Exam (Written)
Cause of Death: Missing Brain Matter Due to High Caliber Ammunition
Self-Inflicted: Yes
If No, What Happened: N/A
If Yes, Why: Embarrassment, figured that this was the best way to recover my ruined reputation; can't have a ruined reputation when it never happened at the end of the day.
Other Notes: Unique death reasoning! It's been a while.
"That'll do it. Sorry 308," I ramble to myself as I place the bookmark in the page, slap the journal closed, place it back in the drawer, and get up from the desk. "Let's have 309 be better, eh?"
As I make my way over to the bathroom for the daily hygiene rituals, I dig my phone from my pocket and offhandedly flick my way to my message history with Mei. Setting the phone on the counter, I type out a quick message, sending it out before grabbing my toothbrush and beginning to brush my teeth.
Me
Hey, make sure to be there by 7:45. Don't want to have to blow my brains out waiting for you again if I don't have to.
Spitting out the toothpaste from my mouth, I pour out a cap of mouthwash and give it a quick rinse before spitting that out as well. Finally, as I prepare my towel and grab a change of clothes from my room for after I'm done with my shower, I hear a message notification from my phone, followed quickly by 2 others. Turning the water on and stripping down, I quickly take a peek at her replies.
Mei
no promises
also
is that literal or metaphorical? because… can't be sure with you
Me
Literal. I'll tell you more about it when we're actually at U.A.
Mei
wow, just flex your immortality more
imagine
all of the babies that can be made if I didn't have to consider my life
Me
You already don't do that.
Frankly, the fact you still have all your body parts is a statistical impossibility.
Mei
[smug_ ]
Me
Just be there by 7:45.
With that, I set my phone upside down on the counter and hop into the perfectly temperate shower, and…
Hmm? What's that?
"How does Mei know about your quirk?"
Well, dear… whoever you are, it's quite simple.
Flashback, 2 months ago, 3rd Person POV
"Hey, Izuku, I can't believe it's never came up, but what's your quirk?" Mei prompts suddenly, the silence that had fallen between them as they did homework together broken instantly.
*snap*
Looking down, Izuku hardly notices that his pencil lead snapped as his hand suddenly jerks downward in surprise.
"Huh… I guess it never did," Izuku replies.
Clicking the top of his mechanical pencil, he tries to begin writing again, only making it about half a question in before he's interrupted. "So… what is it?"
"It's something boring. Not even useful for inventing," the green-haired tinkerer mutters, obviously not telling the truth.
"Incorrect, try again," Mei instantly counters, now fully abandoning her homework in pursuit of a more enjoyable train of thought.
"It's too destructive. Can't be used for inventing."
"Wrong."
Hefting out a sigh, the young man sets down his pencil and levels a look at her.
"Boss, I think it'll just be better if ya come clean about it," Nova's mechanical southern drawl sounds out from off to the side at Izuku's main work table. On it, the robot is somehow playing Solitaire even while tipped back dangerously far in a chair, having to throw the cards into their piles from his position. As Izuku shoots him a glare, the automaton cowboy shrugs and leans forward to pick up the discarded cards before tipping back again. "'Sides, not like she ain't versed in crazy, so your whole schtick'll go down easy."
"Izuku, listen to your robot," the pink-haired engineer says, nodding along to the robot's words.
Another sigh.
"I hate the both of you."
"Damn skippy"
"Love you too"
Tired already, Izuku takes a deep breath through his nose and wipes his hands down his face and exhales. "OK. Well, you asked for it. I apologize in advance for this Mei, I know your physics brain won't like this."
"Aw, c'mon, it can't be that bad," Mei laughs at the challenge. "Even though we're told Quirks make some amount of logical sense, everyone knows that they're bullshit."
The young man raises an eyebrow. "Alright, you asked for it."
Inching forward in his chair, his green eyes meet the golden crosshairs of Mei's as he take a breath. "My quirk, as I've taken to calling it, is called Respawn. Officially, I have no quirk, but you'll be able to figure out why that is in a second. Basically, every single time I go to sleep and wake up, I set what I've called a Respawn Point at the moment I wake. Each Respawn Point overwrites the last, and I can theoretically have a Respawn Point last several days if I choose not to sleep.
"During any of these periods between Respawn Points, if I were to die, I will 'Respawn' back at the last made Respawn Point. I retain any and all knowledge of the time before I respawned, though nothing else, either people nor objects, retain any recollection or change made during that elapsed time. Through testing, if I were to take a nap, I set up a temporary Respawn Point, but it only works once before I am sent back to the main Respawn Point of that cycle. And… yeah, that covers the most of it."
In real time, Izuku get to see Mei's eyes focus on his before slowly zooming out in a blank stare, most likely in the depths of her mind as it tries to make sense of this new information. The girl remains stock still and silent, so in the meantime, Izuku shrugs and begins working on his homework again.
About five minutes pass before he hears her clear her throat, and Izuku looks up to see her sporting an inquisitive look.
"So, basically, you're immortal until you die of old age?" Mei summarizes.
"Hmm… essentially, yeah."
"I have so many questions!" Her face, no longer a kind of pensive inquisitiveness is now her trademark eccentric curiosity.
"Of course you do," Izuku sighs before looking down and rolling his hand at her. "Shoot."
"There's no afterlife?"
"Unless they don't want me, no."
"How did you discover your quirk?"
"Died."
"How?"
"Bashed my temple on the corner of a sandbox. Bled out in minutes."
"Does dying hurt?"
He looks up and gives her a good, long stare. "What do you think?"
"It… does?" Mei slowly retorts.
"Yes. It does," he confirms before he screws up his eyes and hums. "Well, technically, if I just die instantly, or near instantly, there's little to no pain."
"How many times have you died?"
"291."
"How did the last one happen?"
"Was watching a hero and villain fight, hero punched the villain into a building very hard. Brick somehow got dislodged and shot out into the crowd of civilians. Caved my skull in, died in seconds."
She hums, and the warehouse is silent for once, minus the occasional clatter of cards and slight creak of Nova's chair.
"Have you ever died because of me?"
Her question is asked much quieter than her other ones, sounding almost nervous and… some other emotion the young gadgeteer can't place. He looks up a tiny bit, not enough to see her face, but enough to look across the table and see her wringing her hands.
Izuku squares his jaw a bit and takes a deep breath. "A time or two."
A beat of silence.
"How many times?"
"Do you really want to know?" Izuku's counter questions hangs dangerously in the air, as even Nova still from tipping and casts the best version of a concerned look at is the two of them.
"…"
"…No."
"Then I'll leave it there. Can you see why I don't really like to talk about my quirk?" Izuku rhetorically asks the girl.
"Besides the fact that you singlehandedly prove 99% of religions false?" Mei begins, drawing a much needed chuckle from her best friend and fellow inventor.
"Besides that."
"Well… probably because it's also basically impossible to prove, and if the wrong people somehow found out, your quirk could quite literally alter the flow of history?"
Izuku snaps his fingers and shoots her a cheeky grin and finger guns. "Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner, folks!"
"Oh boy, what do I win?" the mad engineer huffs sarcastically, flashing a smile of her own now.
"You get…" the young man trails off as he looks around him. Leaning over the table, he reaches out and grabs a screwdriver resting on the surface. "This wonderful screwdriver!"
"That's… my screwdriver."
"…"
"…"
Izuku heaves a sigh and spins the screwdriver handle towards her. "Just take the damn screwdriver."
Yeah, she's gotten better about that. Probably just took a page out of my book and used the forever useful technique of compartmentalization, but hey, if it works it works, am I right?
Stepping out of the bathroom fresh, I make my way to the kitchen where Mom has already set out a bowl of eggs and rice for breakfast. Checking my phone and seeing '7:21', and knowing it's a 15 minute walk to U.A., I quickly sit down, mumble an "Itadakimasu", and start to dig in.
While I dig in, I hear Mom turn off the stove and make her way over to the table, setting down a more American style breakfast for herself. Spearing a sausage on her fork and taking a bite of it, she then gestures at me with the fork and I take a look at her. "So, what attempt is this?"
Swallowing the bite I was eating, I take a pause stuffing my face. "Two," I respond back to her before continuing to eat."
She hums. "What happened to Izuku…"
"308," I helpfully supply, mouth still full of rice.
"Yeah, Izuku 308."
"Missing his brain from a bullet," I easily reply as I hear her fork clatter to her plate as I look up at her. Oh, no, that's her Disappointed Mom face.
"Izuku, why'd you bring a gun to the U.A. exam? To a school?" Inko Midoriya sternly asks me, and I can't help but squirm in my seat.
"I just… kinda figured that I should have a way to Respawn just in case?" I say, my statement sounding much more like a question than I wanted.
"Mhm. And why didn't you take anything else less conspicuous? What would happen if someone found out that you had that?" She accuses, and I nervously tap my phone to pull up the time. '7:26'
"I would wait until I get home and Re-"
"Izuku, suicide shouldn't be your first response to any inconvenience."
I poke around in my bowl for the last bits of my breakfast and sullenly put them in my mouth. "It's not even suicide, really. More like…" I roll my hand in the air, trying to find the right words, "forcefully rewinding myself to the start of the day."
Somehow, her expression projects even more disappointment as her eyes bore into mine.
…
…
"I should uh… I should get going," I awkwardly announce, slowly creeping up from my seat before quickly snatching my phone from the table and bolting. In record time, I'm out the door and running full bore to U.A., as if trying to outrun the palpable done-ness that my Mom was radiating at me.
A good distance away from the apartment, I slow my gait to a steady walk and shiver. 'That woman scares me more than the worst villain ever could. At least they'd make it quick; Mom's sheer disappointment lasts forever.'
"Well well well, look who decided to finally show up," Mei's voice greets me as I finally reach the gates of U.A., finding her leaning against the wall in just about the exact position of last time. "You tell me to be here, cutting into a precious 15 minutes of baby brainstorming time, only to be late! The nerve!"
The only correct response to her dramatics is a look at my phone, indeed showing 7:46, a minute late, and then promptly flipping her off.
"Mei, you're not even up by then normally. That's just 15 more minutes of sleep," I tiredly huff out, trying to steady my breathing. Yeah, I still have abysmal stamina, even if I've gotten a good bit stronger hefting all at metal around.
Mei flinches back, mockingly grabbing her heart. "You wound me! Just because you're correct, doesn't mean you had to say it."
"Meh, don't care," I say as I walk up to her and make my through the gate, letting her get into stride beside me.
An easy silence falls between us before I suddenly remember something from last time, and I starting looking at the ground. Only to be confused, as the upturned brick I tripped on last time is nowhere to be found, all of the laid brickwork looking as immaculate as one can expect of the #1 Hero School. Except…
"Wait, Mei, stop a second," I mutter to her, holding an arm up in front of her to stop her from walking forward before pointing with the other hand. "See that?"
"See what?" she questions, her irises zooming in to the point on the ground I'm pointing at before she furrows her brow. "Oh… huh, weird."
Nearly invisible to the eye, and definitely something that no one would see given the uselessness of the difference and the more important surroundings, is a very slightly different brick. The only thing that tells that this brick is not like the others is the very slightly darker color and the extremely faint outlines of space between the mortar around it. As if it is alone is specifically designed to move…
Walking over to it, I step on the brick and… yup, that's a brick alright. Even trying to replicate what happened last time, I scuff my foot on the ground in a way that if the brick were to move up, it would surely trip me. And yet, it doesn't move.
"Strange…" I mumble to myself, looking around. "It's almost as if…" I turn to a dark corner right above the entrance, and my suspicions are confirmed when a camera lens flares from the morning sun. Staring straight at it, I give it a friendly wave and go back to the now confused looking Mei.
Sitting in his office, a certain chimera watches a green-haired young man seemingly knowingly pin-point his little surprise for prospective students. Not only that, he deduces where his main camera is hidden and waves at it before going back to his friend.
Oh… wait, he remembers those two. Quickly turning to his computer, his paws turn into a blur as he pulls up two student files on his screen.
"Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume. The two students Majima was telling me was finally going to drive him to drink, if I remember his words correctly. Both brilliant, quite literal geniuses and once in a generation prodigies, and they just so happen to be friends beforehand…" the creature says his thoughts aloud before reaching over to his tea kettle.
He elegantly pours out a cup of tea for himself, and gives it an appreciative whiff before putting it to his lips…
"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!"
…only for it to spill everywhere as his entire body is wracked with maniacal laughter, managing to only get a few drops in his mouth before he sets the soaked cup back down on its saucer.
"Oh, this year will be fun. Maybe I can even get to know Young Midoriya more intellectually…"
Simultaneously, two different people get the exact same terrible, sinking feeling in their gut. Higari Majima, better known as the Pro Hero Powerloader, shivers down to his bones as he casts a weary eye to the corner of his desk where a bottle rests. Shaking, he stands up from his desk and swipes the bottle from his desk and best he can despite his shakiness, fills a flask he fishes out from his back pocket.
From his comfortable position in the examination room, having arrived there early with nothing else to do, Shota Aizawa's brow furrows deeply. Snapping awake, he quickly sits up and all but jumps out of his sleeping bag, his honed instincts telling him that something decidedly wrong just happened. Relaxing his stance, it further sags as the feeling becomes one he's unfortunately very familiar with, one that only comes when Principal Nezu is to his normal schemes.
"What's that all about?"
"Related to last time," I respond, turning to her and getting a little closer to her enough to whisper the rest, lest passersby get concerned. "Remember how this is attempt 2?" she nods "Well, last time, that brick was upturned and I tripped on it. Thankfully, a girl with a gravity-negating quirk saved me from falling, but I started one of my Mutter Storms about her quirk. She loudly told me to stop, got the attention of everyone, and in order to avoid the fallout of that, I, well-"
I pantomime shooting myself in the head.
Mei stares at my blankly for a second before bursting out laughing, drawing a few concerned stares from the U.A. prospects. She keeps on laughing, now having to clutch her stomach from how hard she's laughing.
"BWAHAHAHA!" the pink dreadlocked inventor guffaws. "Oh my god, that has got to be the funniest one yet!"
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I counter, although a smile finds itself on my face as well. "Izuku #308 didn't find it very funny."
Finally, her laughter winds down. "Whew… yeah, he probably didn't," Mei breaths out before perking up. "Oh hey, we're here."
'Here', being the entrance to an absurdly large examination room, with rows and rows of desks lining the floor, even going up several levels. Already, a fair number of seats have been filled, and Mei and I wander in to the front where a line of tables have been set up, all being manned by the same man. Or, well, one man and clones of the same man, the Pro Hero Ectoplasm. Each of the tables were marked off by the first letter of their last name, and we look at each other.
"See you in an hour?" I ask, raising my fist out to her, a gesture which she reciprocates.
"Are you underestimating me? 45 minutes tops, you can take all the time you need, Triple I-zuku."
I raise an eyebrow at her. "Oh? Is that a challenge I hear?"
"I don't know, is it?" she cheekily retorts, spinning away from me with a wave as she walks over to the 'H' table. I wave back, and similarly walk to the table with the 'M's.
I wait in line for a little while before I finally make it to the table, Ectoplasm's eerie white eyes staring at me. "Name?"
"Izuku. Izuku Midoriya."
He nods his head, and rifles his way through a box containing neatly organized if not a little overflowing stacks of folders, each marked with a name. "Midoriya… Midoriya… Mi… ah, there we are," he grunts, pulling a folder out with my name on it and opens it, revealing a fairly thick packet of papers. He takes the packet out before taking another sheet off to the side, what looks to be a bubble sheet for multiple choice questions, and covers the front before handing the complete exam to me.
"Take these, don't look at them until we properly start the examination. You're in…" he recites before trailing off and tapping a few times at a tablet on the table. "Side 3, section 1, row 4, seat number 15. That's over there." At this, he points off to a corner of the massive room and waves me off.
Nodding and taking the forms, I make my way over to the described location and in short time, I find my seat. Sitting down, I set the forms and a pencil I pulled from my pocket on the desk, and I prop my head up on my hand, tapping the desk with the other as I wait for the exam to start.
…
…
'Need more stimulation,' I think to myself as my eyes drift down to the papers in front of me, or more specifically, the blank side of the final page of the examination packet. 'Perfect.'
Picking up my pencil, I begin to quickly sketch out a rudimentary blueprint, just the outline of a another robot. It's been something I've wanted to make for a while, Nova having been a proof of concept for my ability to make functional and autonomous robots. Well… 'functional', meaning it runs; the whole 'weird consciousness that is way too sentient and likes all things Western too much' is another thing entirely.
But this! This one will be different, damnit! No consecutive all-nighters coding, no giving it access to the Internet, and everything will be picked through with a fine-toothed comb!
My pencil is a blur at this point, having now fully sketched out the outline and frame of the robot and I've now started work on the functions built into each limb. The dimensions, weapon systems, materials needed, quick calculations regarding power supply, it's all coming togeth-
"Whoa, what's that you're drawing?" a nasally, annoying sounding voice pipes up from my right. Jumping in my seat a little, my head whips around to face the voice, only to find… empty air.
What?
"Down a little more," the voice calls again, sounding resigned as if they've had to say the same thing many times before.
Following the directions, I see an extremely short young man (I'm not very tall, but he's practically half my size) looking at my paper, his eyes darting across the page. Besides his lack of height, the other defining feature of this kid is his dark purple hair, fashioned into balls going from the crown of his head down to his neck. Must be his quirk, they look too shiny and are positioned far too uniform to actually be hair. First guess, they're bouncy, second guess, they're sticky. Possibly both? Also, since they seem quite attached to his scalp, perhaps it hurts to pull them, similar to pulling hair? And how fast do they-
"Oh wow, how'd you know all of that?!" the kid exclaims, his expression lighting up into an amazed, albeit shocked look.
Oh. Oh no. I said all that last part aloud, didn't I?
Ignoring my internal torment, the miniscule boy continues. "You're actually right on the dot. My Quirk is called Pop Off. If I take these balls off my head, they can stick onto anything and are extremely hard to get away from once you're caught. I'm the only one that doesn't stick to them, and instead they're firm and bouncy."
"Very interesting, and I can see how that can be great for capture as a Hero. I'm guessing that's what you're doing?" I manage to say as unconsciously, I pull my arm closer to my drawing as a way to keep it out of sight.
"Yup. You too?" the grape-looking boy asks.
"Nope, Support Course."
"Oh, cool."
…
…
"My name is Minoru Mineta, by the way, nice to meet you," the shorter boy breaks the silence, and my brain lags at how introducing myself completely passed my mind.
"Izuku Midoriya, likewise."
With that out of the way, I turn back to my page and start back on ironing out some of the specifics before a high-pitched mechanical whine washes over the room, and the sound of a throat clearing follows it. All of our eyes are brought to the front of the room, where a singular Ectoplasm, probably the man himself, is standing behind a podium speaking into a microphone.
"Greetings, examinees, and welcome to the written portion of your U.A. entrance exam. I will now go over the need to know information before you all may begin," the teacher intones before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a card and setting it on the podium.
"This test will be administered by me, the Pro Hero and faculty at U.A., Ectoplasm. In this exam of 250 questions, you will be expected to answer as many of these questions as you possibly can within the two hour time frame. These questions will include multiple choice, constructed response, and short, written responses, in addition to 3 short essays you will find at the back of the exam. The topics covered will range to all normal academic fields such as STEM and Language, but will also contain quirk analysis, Heroics critical analysis, and a specific line of questions relating to the course you will be applying for. However, each examinee will have a question or two that relates to the other courses in order to instill a sense of well-roundedness to each potential student."
A faint murmuring fills the room as Ectoplasm takes a pause to let the information sink in for about a minute before he raises a hand up and silence falls again.
"If you by chance get done with your test early, please do not come up and try to hand in your exam early, as it can be a hinderance to your fellow test takers. Once the time has fully elapsed, everyone will be dismissed in organized groups in order to hand in their exam in an orderly manner. From then, all but the prospective Hero course students may go home, as they have yet to take their practical exam, unlike the other courses. Are there any questions?"
Silence.
"Fantastic. I will give reminders of the time remaining throughout the examination, first with reminders every half an hour until there are 30 minutes left, than the last 15 minutes, then the last 5, and finally, a last reminder to finish up at 1 minute remaining. With that being said, at the sound of my whistle, you may all begin," the Pro's monotone finally finishes, as he fishes around in his pocket for a tiny whistle.
Taking a step back away from the mic, Ectoplasm presses the whistle hard into his face mask and blows hard.
"BEGIN!"
I flip the packet over, sliding the answer sheet over to the side and scan the first question. Wow, this is… trivial, what?
The first probably 25 questions are humiliatingly easy, and with another 20 done in about 5 minutes total, I soon find what I assume is a pattern of about every 25 minutes the questions get harder.
…
Fine, you know what, I'll play ball. A wicked grin flashes on my face as I redouble my efforts and my pencil becomes a blur, answering question after question with ease.
Mei, looks like you've managed to make yet another thing into a competition.
If my counting is right, which I would sure hope it is, 42 minutes and some change is all it took. After the first half an hour had elapsed, I took to making a tally on each of my pages every time a minute passed. Even the quirk analysis essay, which tasked us with analyzing a Pro Hero's quirk and gave a hypothetical scenario and had you give a detailed explanation on how they should best use their quirk to solve the problem, was finished very quickly despite the (for the time taken) hefty length I gave it.
Similarly, one of the questions in the Support Course was an essay that gave you another Pro Hero and tasked you with workshopping a concept for a possible support item for them. Coincidentally, this is also where I learned that these exams, or at the very least mine, is made specifically for me, as the Pro Hero I got was the Chessmaster Hero: Nezu.
Very subtle.
Guess that him letting me into U.A. just from the practical got his attention, as well as a correct read that I would actually take the written exam, even though I didn't need to. The questions did seem like they were skewed more towards my interests than I would expect…
Oh wait. Oh no. Didn't Power Loader talk like being on Nezu's radar was a bad thing? And didn't I just give him for fuel by revealing I knew about his little brick?
Curses, why must my poorly thought ahead of actions have consequences?
'Probably because you just respawn and avoid all of the consequences of those actions?' my brain helpfully supplies.
Quiet you. Or, well, quiet me.
Tapping my pencil on the back of the test, right where the name of the rough but complete schematics would be, I freeze up.
Wait… who grades these? Will Nezu see this?
…
Oh, who am I kidding, of course he will. Hefting out a sigh, I resign myself to my fate as I try to find a suitable name for this build, idly noting the Ectoplasm called for 1 minute in the background. When I was making Nova, I was just referring to it as 'Invention #87: R.O.C.K.', or Robotic Operational Companion with Kindness before I changed all my internal data to his current name. Not the finest work on the 'K', but there's not many good words that start with K that're relevant, and his original purpose was to help my out while building things, so it just had to do.
But this one, hmm…
Another acronym? Probably not, I'm not very good at making those, and I'd prefer something a little more snappy.
…
…
Eh, I can't really think of anything, I'll just write down 'Prototype' and call it good. Picking up my pencil, I start writing it down on the top of the page, but about halfway through I'm interrupted by Ectoplasm's shout.
"PENCILS DOWN!" At his yell, a wave of students crashing back into their chairs echoes in the testing room, and a quick glance around makes me think not all too many of them got done. "Starting from Side 1, sections 1-4, come up and turn in your exams!" From my right, I hear Mineta's head knock against the back of his chair as a stressed sigh leaves his lips and I look over at him.
He catches my look and nods, a shaky grin on his face. "Whew, I think I got really far, question #194. What about you? I was so focused on my test, it was like I was in my own little world."
I give him a shrug. "Pretty far."
"Nice, I knew you were smart when you were able to break down my quirk at a glance," he says, giving me a thumbs up and straightening up in his seat as he looks over at the drawing on my desk. "Hey, is it just me, or is that more detailed than it was before the exam started?"
"Hmm… probably not."
"'Probably not?'"
"Mhm," I respond, slipping the pencil back into my pocket as I tidily line everything up on my desk for optimal sorting. As I flip my packet back onto its back, I give the incomplete title an annoyed glare. I know it's just a placeholder title, but having something unfinished, even something that insignificant, bugs me.
"Side 3, Sections 1-4, come up and hand in your exams!"
Ah, perfect timing, now I can stop fixating on that.
Standing up, I follow behind Mineta and everyone else, idly listening to the chatter around me.
"That was way too difficult! I know this is the #1 school, but that was intense!"
"I know! I only got to question 56 before I just started guessing!"
"I feel pretty confident about myself, I managed to get to question 101!"
"Whoa, dude, you're wicked smart! 101?"
…
The hell? Since when was answering less than half of the questions make you smart? I mean, some of the later problems were difficult, I would put them at a late high school level going up to university level, but I would think U.A. prospects would do better.
"C'mon Midoriya, stop spacing out, you're keeping up the line," I hear Mineta urge me, shaking my head to clear my thoughts and hop-stepping up to him. In short time, we both hand in our exams (Ectoplasm gives me an odd stare when he sees the schematics on the back of the packet) and step out of line, walking over and away from the milling about U.A. hopefuls.
"IZUKU!" I hear a feminine voice shout, as both Mineta and I look over and see Mei running up to us. "You wouldn't believe it! I was sitting next to a floating pile of clothes that was applying for the Hero Course! And then I asked about it, and then it turns out, it was actually a girl with an invisibility quirk!"
"Oh? How does she turn invisible?" I ask, now very intrigued at the prospect.
"I don't know! I was able to see through her with seemingly no light refraction, even zoomed in on where I would assume her face to be and there was no waviness or anything!"
"Hmm… something with her skin?"
"Nah, then we'd be able to see her muscles and innards and stuff. Fully invisible. When she eats things, you can't see them at all! It looks super interesting; I gave her a breakfast bar I had on me, and I saw it rise up and then just suddenly a bite appeared in the bar! It looks like things just disappear!"
"Fascinating! So it has to be something completely contained inside her body, because it affects her whole person and anything that is inside it…" I excitedly say before starting to mutter again.
"But then, I learned something terrible! Her costume idea was literally just going to be a pair of gloves and boots! She'd just be naked otherwise! Can you believe that?" Mei exclaims, gesticulating wildly in her passion.
"How terrible!"
"How hot."
What? Looking down, I make the embarrassing realization that I completely ignored the fact that Mineta was still standing right next to me, engrossed as I was. But my brow furrows into a scowl seeing his features twisted into one that belongs on a pervert, nose flaring and bloodshot, crazed looking eyes and all.
"Mineta, have some class," I admonish the lecher, getting him to look at me fully.
"What? I'm just saying that a Heroine running around basically naked sounds super hot! That's like, an objective fact!" Mineta defends, throwing his hands in the air in a placating gesture when my scowl doesn't go down any. "Alright, sorry sorry, I'll drop it. Besides, I don't think you introduced me to your friend!"
He walks up to Mei sticks out his hand for a shake. "I'm Minoru Mineta, what's your name, babe?"
Huh. That's weird. My eye's twitching.
And my hands are naturally forming the optimal position to strangle. Strange.
Fortunately, Mei seemingly wasn't feeling the same sense of sudden, unbridled rage I was feeling and quickly walked over to my side and threw an arm around my shoulder. "I'm Mei Hatsume, future CEO and Head of Engineering of Hatsume Industries! I see you've already met my future Co-Head of Engineering, Izuku Midoriya!"
Shifting my head to her quickly, a foreign yet increasingly familiar feeling builds in my gut, and before I can even thing, my arm reaches behind her back and my hand finds itself resting lightly on her side. Minutely, I push her into me as I look to Mineta, a plastic smile on my face as I laugh, hopefully not sounding too forced. "Yup, that's my partner! Sorry, but we have to get going, and I don't want you to be late to your practical."
"I… see. Well, it was good talking to you, Midoriya, and good meeting you, Hatsume," Mineta warily says, and I take a small thrill at seeing his face distort into one of disappointment as he leaves us. We stand there a minute or so before I lightly shoulder her.
"C'mon Mei, we should get going," I say, turning to her only to be met with a strange sight. On Mei Hatsume's face is a small but noticeable nonetheless blush, and her face is sporting the beginnings of a flustered look. Finally conscious on myself, I realize something: I've still got my arm wrapped around her.
Like it burned me I yank my arm off of her and I feel my face go molten from the blood rushing to it as I start to stammer.
"O-o-oh my g-god Mei, I'm so sorry!" I whisper-shout as I pull away from her.
"It's fine, Izuku," she assuages me as her blush calms down a little as she flashes me a small smile. "I know I'm not exactly good on personal space so… I don't mind." Turning away from me, she whispers something too quiet for me to hear her. "I actually kinda enjoyed it."
"What?"
"What? Hey, yeah, we should get going back to the warehouse! Babies to make, ideas to brainstorm!"
Mei gives my arm a tug before we start to naturally walk in step after a little while, walking through the halls with ease. Shortly, we're out of the main U.A. building, and I idly make sure to walk us out of the way of what I'd still have to assume is the Principal's brick.
Don't want to have anything embarrassing happen.
3rd Person POV
About a week after the U.A. entrance exam, Izuku and Mei find themselves lazing around their shared warehouse, working. Mei is sitting at a table she rarely uses, AKA the table where she works on delicate items, the lamp over the table shining brightly on the item on the surface as she tinkers with it. The item in question is her signature goggles, as she got the inspiration to add an x-ray vision feature to them by talking to the invisible girl. In typical Mei fashion, that is all that she can remember about the invisible girl, the girl's name going in one ear and out the other.
Izuku, meanwhile, is typing away at his main computer at amazing speeds, already on the long and tedious task at coding the A.I. for the robot he drew up during the exam. This time, he made sure to work on it while he was well rested and alert, even having Nova watch over him to make sure he would take breaks every now and then.
Nova, the ever vigilant robot, is executing his creator's orders perfectly as he's perched on a chair tipped to the nearest wall, his cowboy hat slanted over his eyes, doing his best at looking asleep. Even though that's impossible, the cowboy robot is trying his darndest to sell it, even rhythmically huffing out mechanical snores.
All and all, it's fairly peaceful and quiet outside of the clacking of the verdantette's keyboard.
*VMM! VMM!*
That is, until it's broken by Izuku's phone vibrating loudly from beside him on the steel table. Slowly, the young man picks up the phone and unlocks it, looking at the unread message.
"Oh neat," the gadgeteer hums, drawing Mei to look up from what she's doing and look at him.
"What's up?"
"U.A.'s letter came. Wanna grab yours and swing by my house and we can open them up together? Mom's been dying to meet the mysterious Mei Hatsume."
"Hmm… I dunno…" she hums, crossing her arms and looking at the ceiling in thought.
"She'll have you stay over for dinner, and you know how good her cooking is," Izuku tempts.
"Deal, see you in half an hour," she quickly shouts, jumping up from her work and rushing over to the door. She opens the door, but then quickly turns to the boy. "You better not be lying about that food." And out the door she goes, closing it firmly behind her.
There's a brief bit of stunned silence in the warehouse.
"You should get goin', Hoss. Don't wanna keep a lady waitin'," Nova pipes up from his position next to Izuku, abandoning his ""sleep"".
"Yeah, yeah, she did kinda just put me on a clock," the inventor huffs as he slowly gets to his feet, popping his stiff joints from sitting down for too long as he stands. Pocketing his phone, he too walks over to the door and begins to shrug on his jacket.
Shifting himself, he looks to Nova and clears his throat, causing the robot to look at him. "Hey, Nova, can you make sure to shut everything off before you go into Rest Mode tonight?"
The Western-styled robot shoots him a lazy thumbs up. "You betcha."
Satisfied, Izuku thanks his creation and makes his way out of the warehouse, shutting the door and making sure to lock it on his way out, and the scuffing of his feet on the gravel outside confirms him leaving.
Now alone in the now completely silent workshop, Nova slowly puts his arm down and turns to Izuku's computer, still on the screen he was last working on. Tipping the chair back to the ground, Nova stands from his spot and walks over to the device, taking a longer look at it. It's the coding screen, lines and lines of complex code staring back at Nova, the automaton instinctively understanding the mess of numbers and letters.
Slowly, the robot looks away from the screen at the blueprint spread out on the table next to the computer. On there is a more detailed, fully fleshed out drawing of the design Izuku brainstormed during the exam, notes and calculations crammed into the margins connecting themselves to the drawing by scratched pencil strokes. At the top of the page, however, Nova notes something odd, and unbidden, a strange haze falls over his mind.
Where the name is, there's a messily placed sheet of paper covering about half of it.
'Invention 101: Proto-'
Jerkily, Nova turns back to the computer and hovers over the keyboard. A mechanical hand rises up and onto the keyboard, the steel digits inputting a fast series of inputs before abruptly stopping, and Nova comes through the haze over his digital brain.
"Ugh… the hell was that?" the mechanical cowboy asks the empty shop, bringing up a hand to cradle its forehead. Shaking his head, Nova shrugs. "Ehhh, probably just need to recharge. I've been up for too long, but the Boss says I gotta turn everythin' off first."
"Let's start with this…" Nova gives a mechanical huff as he leans down to turn off the tower of the computer, but on the way down, he gets a glance at the screen and pauses.
…
"Hm? The hell's 'Light up the Night' mean?"
The plot thickens! And by that I mean it's finally going to actually bloody start soon! There were several times in this chapter that I wanted to end it, but then I was like 'ooh, but I just wanna add a little more' and then uh, longest chapter thus far happens.
Welp, that's about it. See ya when I see ya!
-Suzaku