AN: Thanks reading and leaving a review!
After the celebrations for the new year and her new family wound down, Himiko was right back at it. The month was a blur of training, studying, and spending time with her loved ones, and before she knew it, it was the end of January and the day of the exam had arrived.
Despite staying up late the night before, Himiko was up far earlier than she usually was. Filled with nervous energy, she practically leaped out of bed, ready to run laps around the house.
She hoped that energy would last until the practical portion of the exam.
After getting dressed quickly, when Himiko left the bathroom she saw her mom was up just as early and had already prepared a large breakfast for her. Smiling, she collapsed into her chair.
"Good luck today Himi," Inko said as she sat down at the table, cradling a cup of tea.
"Thanks, mom!" Himiko's grin split her face as she looked at Inko before she turned her attention to her meal. Picking up her chopsticks, she quickly devoured everything in front of her, barely tasting the food as she shoveled it into her mouth. She finished her meal by chugging an oversized glass of blood and orange juice.
Giving her mom a quick hug, Himiko practically raced out of their apartment as she jogged all the way to the train station, treating it like a warm-up before the exam. Slowing down as she approached the platform, she scanned the crowds, smiling as she saw a familiar head of pale blue hair. Shoving her way past the growing mass of people, she waved at her friend. "Hey 'Suko!"
"Hey Himi," Atsuko called back. "Ready for this?"
"Of course!" Himiko chirped. "How about you?"
"I'm still nervous," the other girl admitted. "I barely slept last night."
"Neither did I. But it'll be ok! Once we're done we can go to your place and just pass out in front of the tv!"
Atsuko giggled. "I love your optimism," She gave her friend a warm smile. "Thanks, Himi."
"Anytime 'Suko," Himiko returned her friend's smile. "Now let's get going, we don't want to be late!"
"Still feeling optimistic?" Atsuko asked as they stood in front of the massive gates of UA high school.
Himiko smiled at her friend. "Of course! I just–" her gaze returned to the gates. "I didn't realize how big the school actually was."
"Well, if they want to be the best they have to accommodate all types, don't they?"
"Yeah!" Himiko agreed. "And we're going to go there!"
"Yeah," Himiko's enthusiasm was infectious as Atsuko felt a smile tugging at her lips. "Let's show them what we've got!"
Giving each other a side hug, the two girls stepped through the gate and walked to the main building. Once they checked in they received small cards and a map with instructions on it. Unsurprisingly, they were assigned to different rooms for the written exam.
"Well, looks like we won't be seeing each other until lunch," Atsuko said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"That makes sense. Don't want us cheating, after all!"
"Like I'd want to cheat off of you."
"Hey!" Himiko protested only to see her friend sticking her tongue out at her before she descended into a fit of laughter. "Well, I don't want to cheat off of you either!"
Atsuko joined her friend in laughter, feeling the nervous tension draining out of her. "I'll see you at lunch. Don't burn yourself out before then!"
"I'll see you then!"
Following the instructions, Himiko found her room and sat down, ready to start the exam. It was time to make Kan proud.
Test-taking was never Himiko's strong suit. Looking back, she realized it was something she always struggled with. The years of abuse and neglect made it worse, and even now, after a year of learning at a specialized school, she still had trouble. Fortunately, her time at Dantin had done wonders for her, and she found alternate methods of studying as well as different methods to retain information and focus properly. Today all of those skills were put to the test as she worked through both halves of the written exam.
As she put her pen down for the final time, she let out a long, quiet sigh of relief. She was less confident in her answers than she would like, but she hoped it would be enough - all she had to do was ace the practical exam!
Following the map, Himiko arrived at the auditorium where she descended to her seat. She saw Atsuko was already there, along with another boy from Dantin that she vaguely recognized from another class.
"Hey Himi," Atsuko whispered. "What training ground are you in?"
Himiko looked at her card curiously before she handed it to her friend. "Alpha, what about you?"
"I'm in Beta, and he's in Gamma. I guess they don't want us working together," Atsuko offered her friend her card back.
Himiko frowned as she took the card and set it on the desk in front of her. She had secretly been hoping that they were both assigned to the same training ground so that they could pair up. From the look of things, UA had accounted for that and didn't even give them a chance.
Her annoyance was short-lived, however, as the announcer, the hero Present Mic, appeared on stage and began explaining the rules of the exam. When the display came on to show them their opponents for the exam, Himiko's heart sank
Robots!
They were going against Robots!
What good was her quirk going to do against them?
Shaking her head to clear it, she focused on the instructions. She didn't come this far just to give up now! Mic explained that each of the training grounds would be filled with robots of varying sizes and strengths, with the stronger ones being worth more points. Their goal was to defeat as many as they could in ten minutes to earn as many points as possible. When someone asked about the fourth type of robot on the instruction sheet, Mic waved it off and described it as an obstacle to be avoided. Himiko frowned - something didn't seem right about his attitude toward them.
As they stood up, Himiko reached down to touch the holsters strapped to her legs, drawing comfort from the fact that they let her register her gift from Kan as support equipment. At least they gave her something to work with, so she wouldn't be completely unprepared. Her eyes darted over to Atsuko, their eyes meeting.
"Himi, your quirk–"
"I got this Suko!" Himiko grinned, trying to hide her own nervousness.
"You always were a terrible liar, you know that."
"Only to you," Himiko stuck out her tongue, and Atsuko responded by mirroring her action before the two girls descended into a fit of giggles. "You'd better not slack off because I intend to keep our promise!"
"I won't," Atsuko gave her friend a warm smile and held up her fist. "Just so you know, I'm going to be disappointed if I make it into UA and you don't."
"I'll figure something out," Himiko promised before she held up her fist and tapped her best friend's, mimicking the gesture Kan used with them before they turned to join the crowd filing out of the room.
As Himiko rode the bus out to the exam site, she looked over her fellow test-takers, mentally picking out a few with mutation-type quirks that she'd have to keep an eye out for. While she couldn't use anyone's quirk while Transformed, she would gain any physical benefits of the form, so anyone with a particularly muscular body could be helpful in her mission.
Getting off the bus, she joined the rest of the crowd at the entrance, waiting for the call to begin.
"Time starts NOW!"
Himiko gasped, looking up to see Present Mic watching the crowd expectantly. Nodding in realization, she took off, running alongside the other examinees in her group. Conserving her energy, she slowed down just enough so that others could get ahead of her, and watched as they crashed head-first into the opening wave of robots.
Himiko watched the first wave go down, a plan already formulating in her mind. Kan had taught her that everything had a weakness, she just had to find it and exploit it. As students unleashed their quirks, she watched the robots getting destroyed in dozens of different ways. More importantly, she learned just how fragile they appeared to be, with exposed wires along their back and gaps in their armored plates along their arms and legs.
With a predatory smile spreading across her face, Himiko drew her knives. While she didn't like that she'd have to get so close to something that didn't bleed, she would make do. Something she had discovered during her training was that she enjoyed the thrill of close-quarters fighting. Perhaps a little too much, but that was a problem for her therapist to worry about.
She knew better than to charge down the main thoroughfare like the majority of the examinees did. Instead, she dashed down a side alley. Emerging at the other end, she saw her first target. It was a simple one-point robot, but it was perfect to test her plan. Dashing up to it, she ducked under its fist, coming up behind the robot. With several quick swipes, she severed wires and cables, watching sparks and oil mix with explosive results until the robot lay in a crumpled heap of parts in front of her.
"Yes!" Himiko cheered, holding her knives close to her face as she allowed herself a moment to celebrate. "I can do this!"
Now that she had a plan, Himiko took off running. She raced around the arena, picking off robots in ones and twos as she went. With each victory, she added to the tally in her head, satisfied with her steadily increasing score.
That is, until she heard other people calling out their point totals.
"Twenty-five!"
"Twenty-seven!"
"Thirty!"
Himiko's eighteen points seemed to pale in comparison, and when she paused to catch her breath, she heard the five-minute warning go off.
She'd come too far to lose, she had to go further!
Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself as she looked around. One of the mutants she had picked out on the bus - a large boy with a polar bear mutation - was mere meters away, and currently he was being overwhelmed by a swarm of robots. More importantly, his pristine white fur had blood matted and caked on it.
A smile split her face as she charged in, using her knives to sever cables and tear apart joints as she destroyed two of the robots that were harassing the other student. This gave him the opening he needed to defeat the massive robot he was facing.
"Thanks for the help. I hope you're not expecting me to repay the favor though!"
As the hero hopeful bounded off, Himiko knelt next to one of the broken robots. Reaching out, she ran two fingers along the metal, collecting the crimson liquid that the student had left behind. "Don't worry, I got my reward."
Himiko licked her fingers and activated her quirk, feeling the slime wrap around her body and transform into cords of muscle as she grew to match the mutant's hulking form. She smiled, not really caring how unnatural it would look. "You looked like you were having fun with those robots, I want to try too!"
Taking off in a different direction, Himiko came across a small pack of robots exiting an alleyway. Lowering her head, she slammed a massive shoulder into a robot, sending it flying into one of its companions and damaging them both, before she turned her attention to the remaining one. Her natural speed and agility were limited by the body she was in, but her newly enhanced strength more than made up for it.
It didn't take long for her to overpower the robot, and once she confirmed that all three robots weren't moving, she took off again, searching for her next target. The robots had already begun to thin out, and she was starting to worry about how much time she had left.
As she was running, she spotted another student that had fallen to the ground, a pair of robots hovering menacingly over him. Feeling a renewed rush of adrenaline, she charged in, wrapping her massive arms around one of the robots and using her momentum to launch it into the other, destroying both of them. Skidding to a halt, she turned to look at the student.
"Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah, thanks for the help!" He dusted himself off and stood up. He was getting ready to take off when they both paused as the sound of the two-minute warning rang out.
That's it, Suko, just like how Izuku taught you.
Atsuko narrowly dodged a metallic limb of a robot as she reached out, creating a sturdy rod out of the very air itself that extended from her fingertip through a gap in the robot's leg joint into the robot. As the robot tried to twist and turn in an attempt to follow her, the joint tore itself apart as it lost the battle against her quirk, sending the robot crashing to the ground.
"That's twenty-five," Atsuko said to herself. Due to the primarily defensive nature of her quirk, she had to be pretty close to the robots to use her quirk against them and wasn't accumulating points nearly as quickly as several other students were.
She didn't have time to worry about that, however, when a loud buzzer sounded, and suddenly she felt the ground shaking underneath her.
"What's that?!" Another student called, panic lacing their words. When she turned to look, Atsuko immediately understood why.
The immense form of the fourth robot, the so-called 'obstacle' that she was told to avoid, had appeared.
"We've gotta get out of here!" Someone called, and Atsuko saw several students around her begin to flee back toward the entrance.
But her attention was elsewhere.
As she watched its relentless march through the city, its arms casually swung back and forth, destroying nearby buildings and sending debris flying. From where she stood, Atsuko watched as the robot collided with an office building, sending a large chunk of the upper floor flying. When she mentally plotted out its destination, she gasped.
There, on the side of the road, a group of students were digging out a fellow examinee from the rubble. If she didn't stop the flying debris, they'd all be buried under it.
Taking off running, Atsuko positioned herself between the projectile and the students. Holding up her hands, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed.
She was dimly aware of the sound of the building colliding with her barrier as she passed out.
Himiko was running down an empty street when she heard the two-minute warning. It didn't take long for her to realize something was wrong - the ground began to vibrate beneath her feet, and she could hear the sounds of buildings collapsing in the distance.
Can't get distracted.
Out of the side of her eye, she saw students scattering and running before she finally saw the massive fourth robot for herself. She couldn't help but gasp at the size before she looked down and quickly examined the area. She saw most students running, but there were a few brave individuals who stayed behind to help injured or weak students escape the robot's path.
She also saw a hoard of smaller robots swarming around the base of the bigger robot.
Grinning a savage grin, she charged the smaller robots. The students needed cover and she needed points, so it worked out perfectly!
Lowering her shoulder, she slammed into the side of a robot, sending it crashing into its partner and attracting the attention of other nearby robots. Swinging her oversized hands, she took down another robot before they engaged her.
With furious swipes, she managed to take down two more robots before the buzzer sounded, and the lights on the robot immediately switched to green as they turned around and withdrew, following the massive robot deeper into the training ground.
Feeling her adrenaline draining out of her, Himiko found a nearby wall and leaned against it, panting heavily as she slid to the ground. Her transformation melted away, leaving her sitting in a pile of gray sludge, but she didn't have the strength to move. She simply looked down at her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists as her breathing slowly steadied.
Seconds later, she heard the beeping from an automated robot, getting her attention. As she looked up, she saw a robot on a monowheel standing nearby, leading a tiny old lady toward her. From her appearance, she looked like a doctor of some sort.
"I-I'm ok, really!" Himiko stammered out, her blush spreading as she realized she was sitting on the ground naked. "But, um, can I have a change of clothes?"
Recovery Girl eyed the pile of sludge underneath Himiko and shook her head. The poor girl's quirk must have some destructive element to it, and she didn't have the right type of clothing to avoid that. "I'll send a robot back with a gym uniform for you."
"Thanks!" Himiko forced herself to smile. "I've just got some minor scrapes and bruises. Don't worry about me!"
Recovery Girl gave Himiko a warm smile and tossed her some gummies. "You should take these while waiting, they'll help speed up your recovery."
"Thanks!" Himiko snatched the gummies out of the air and shoved them in her mouth. As she chewed them she felt her soreness fading, and some of her energy coming back to her.
Himiko wasn't sure what was in those gummies, but she was brimming with excess energy as she skipped out of UA. She had given it her all and was confident about her chances of making the cutoff. As she was leaving she saw Atsuko waiting off to the side under a tree. Her friend noticed her and waved, a smile on her face. Returning the gesture, Himiko skipped up to her friend.
"So how'd your exam go Himi?"
"I think I did it!" Himiko chirped, before putting her index finger to her chin. "I think I counted thirty-five points by the end? I had a slow start, but one of the guys in my group had a polar bear mutation! I just had to borrow a little bit of his blood and those robots never stood a chance!"
"I'm so happy for you Himi!"
"How did you do?"
Atsuko's smile fell. "I didn't do so well. Don't get me wrong! Your brother's advice actually paid off a lot, and using small focused barriers I was able to destroy a lot of the smaller robots! But…"
"But what?" Himiko asked, feeling a tightness in her stomach that she didn't really like.
"When that giant robot came out near the end - I overexerted myself and passed out? The next thing I remember was waking up after Recovery Girl used her quirk on me."
"I'm sure you did fine!" Himiko said, unsure of who she was trying to reassure more.
"Oh you should have seen her, she was amazing!" The two turned to see a tall, muscular boy of African descent with short black hair approaching them. "Don't let her undersell herself. She saved a whole group of us! Her quirk kept us safe from falling debris."
"How much debris?" Himiko asked curiously.
"Most of the top floor of an office building.
Atsuko's face turned bright red while Himiko grinned at her friend. "Of course you would do something crazy like that. No wonder you passed out!"
"I'm just thankful she kept us safe! And I wanted to thank her personally. I don't know what would have happened if she didn't do that."
"I know we were all competing against each other, but I couldn't just help myself and leave everyone else stranded. What kind of hero would I be otherwise?"
"Well, I'm grateful for the save. While Recovery Girl's pretty great, I think a lot of us would still be in rough shape if you didn't do that!" The man hears a notification on his phone and checks it. "Crap, I've got to get going. Hopefully I'll see the two of you in a few weeks!"
"Yep, we can't wait!" The pair watched as the boy ran off before Himiko turned to Atsuko. "So I guess you're selling yourself short, after all."
"Maybe I did," Atsuko smiled. "I guess we'll find out soon?"
Himiko sat in the living room with Izuku, both of them working on their homework. Despite the entrance exam being over, school marched on and she still had to graduate from middle school. She was deep in concentration when her phone began to explode, Atsuko's ringtone beeping in quick succession.
Suko: Himi! I did it!
Suko: My letter from UA came today!
Suko: I got in!
Me: I knew it!
Me: Hopefully I'll get my letter today too!
Setting her phone down, Himiko tried to return to her homework, but it was no use. Groaning in frustration, she stood up and began roaming around the living room, trying to distract herself. She was about to give up and go clean the kitchen when her ears perked up at the sound of the door opening. She and Izuku watched as Inko entered, a handful of letters in her hand.
"Himi, you have a letter from UA!" Inko said, her eyes lit up in excitement.
"Yes!"
Racing over to the entryway, Himiko grabbed the mail from her mom. She could tell which one was hers by the weight of the letter - it was significantly heavier than the piece of paper she had expected. Handing the rest of the mail back to her mom, she tore open the envelope to see a video disk sitting inside.
"If you want to watch it by yourself, we'd understand," Inko assured her as she slipped off her shoes.
"Nope!" Himiko shook her head. "I want you to be here with me!"
Himiko ran back to the living room table and knelt next to it, gently placing the device on the table where they could all see it. Once her mom caught up to her, she pressed the red button and played the recording.
The projector lit up, displaying an image of the hero Vlad King as he stood in front of a screen. He remained still for a moment before he began to speak.
"Greetings Himiko Midoriya. I know it's been a few weeks since we last spoke, but for good reason! As a teacher at UA, I did not want to give the appearance of favoritism or partiality. But now that you have taken your exam, that time has passed, and I am here with your results!"
The hero referred to a piece of paper before he returned his gaze to the camera. "First off, the written portion of the exam. Your score was on the lower end, but it was still high enough to qualify you for UA's general studies department. It is a testament to your drive and resolve that you managed to improve yourself so much over the course of a single year. However! The written exam alone isn't enough for you, because you are aiming higher!"
Vlad gestured to the screen beside him, which began to rotate through a series of images, each taken from the exam. She remembered each moment vividly as she watched them rapidly cycle through. "During the practical portion of the exam, you were forced to fight foes that you are at a disadvantage against, since your quirk didn't work on them. However, due to your prowess and quick thinking, as well as your willingness to help those in need, you have scored enough points to secure a seat in the hero course!" The hero broke out in a toothy grin as he swept his arms wide. "Congratulations little Midoriya, it's my pleasure to announce that UA will be your hero academia!"
Himiko already felt the tears running down her face as Vlad continued to speak, her cheeks hurting from her wide smile as she stared at the hero's image. She felt Inko and Izuku hugging her, their words falling on deaf ears as she leaned into their touch, her gaze locked on the little image of her mentor.
I did it!
I'm going to UA!
I'm going to be a hero!