The adrenaline coursed through his veins, sharpening Izuku's sight and hearing. He breathed harshly from the constant running, looking around for another robot to smash in. Almost all of them had been destroyed already, he was getting desperate. You need 50 points to pass the exam, or so Izuku had heard on his most visited hero forum. How many points do I have…46?
47, Ainz corrected him.
Izuku heard a yelp to his right and whipped his head to where he heard the sound. There one of the other examinees, a boy with leaves falling from his head, nursed an arm as he faced a one-pointer.
"TWO MINUTES REMAINING!" Present Mic shouted through the speakers.
Izuku started running to save the boy from getting hit again, but got whiplash as he was abruptly pulled to the left.
There are 2 two-pointers over there.
Izuku shouted angrily in frustration. "We talked about this! You can't just drag me wherever you want!" The cooperation between Izuku and Ainz didn't go as smoothly as it usually went, there were just too many things to focus on and too little time to actually communicate.
It's only logical,Ainz said just as nonchalantly as he talked about other things. We need to get the points before the other examinees do, otherwise we might not pass the exam. It's not co-op, Izuku, it's a competitive game. Altruism won't help you pass this exam.
Izuku shook his head. "But that's—" he looked at how others were rushing to the 2 two-pointers, then back at the leaf boy, "— not what a hero would do!". His legs weren't working with him, so all he could do was powerlessly follow in on what Ainz was doing.
A loud boom shook the ground, freezing everyone in action. They all looked up, staring into a robot that stood taller than the buildings surrounding them, forcing its way through the city. It smashed the sides of the buildings and left compressions in the street as it moved. A chunk of cement came flying at the small group, resulting in one of the two-pointers being crushed. The examinees started running away, trying to get out of the danger zone that followed the zero-pointer.
Izuku wanted to follow suit, but Ainz had other ideas. He jumped to the last remaining two pointers, and Izuku quickly realised it was his turn now. He pulled back his arm to deliver a blow to the robot's head, adding two points to his tally, as Izuku immediately started running away. The zero-pointer would be hot on his heels, but that just meant they'd have to run faster.
He heard a familiar voice, so faint he could have missed it completely. "Oww…"
Izuku stopped, turned around, and as soon as he saw her, he sprinted as fast as he could back to the danger zone. The girl who had saved him from falling was trapped under rubble, she probably couldn't get out of there herself.
There's no point in saving her, Izuku. The robot will be shut down before it can hurt anyone, your efforts will be wasted.
Izuku plastered on a smile, reminiscent of his favourite hero, and started hauling the largest pieces off of her legs. "Like I said before, Ainz-san." He hurried up, the robot inching closer and closer. "That's not what a hero would do."
He turned around, the wheels of the massive foot rolled over a slope, angling it up and towards them; it was about to fall on top of them.
"You better keep your word!" Izuku shouted, squatting down and jumping higher than he'd ever had. He jumped straight for the zero pointer's center of gravity and pulled back his arm, just like he'd done with the two pointer. "Give it your all, Ainz-san!"
Izuku glowed green and blue before the punch connected to the zero-pointer's humongous wall of a chest, blowing the robot back and making it fall to the ground with a loud boom. It had a large hole in the middle from where Ainz had hit the robot, but Izuku started falling again right after.
Sigh…This is why we always need a plan.
Ainz took control of his legs again, trying to bring them under Izuku's body to prepare for the impact.
Don't worry, I've fallen from higher.
"How is that supposed to be calm me down?!" Izuku screamed in confusion and panic, mostly panic.
Ainz grabbed one of the falling debris and kicked against it with his legs, correcting their fall. They started falling faster, flashing past a floating chunk of the robot with the girl Izuku was trying to save on top. Izuku closed his eyes as he saw the ground come closer and closer. Ainz braced for impact.
The crash landing came a lot faster than Izuku had expected, he opened his eyes. The impact was signaled with a loud boom, far softer than the one from the zero pointer falling but louder than any sound Izuku had ever made, and a flurry of dust and small particles picking up in the air. His legs were bent to absorb as little of the impact as possible; a small and shallow crater formed under them. A huge smile grew on Izuku's face, he had saved the girl and landed just like a hero!
Izuku punched the air in victory, "Success!"
A loud crash sounded from right behind him.
He turned around just as quickly. The bubbly girl was throwing up on a chunk of the zero pointer. "Are you okay?" Izuku asked as he kneeled next to her, hand hovering above her back, unsure if he was allowed to touch her.
"IT'S ALL OVER!" Present Mic announced.
"My pocket—" the girl kept on vomiting, "medicine…"
"Ah, yes!" Izuku said a bit flustered, he couldn't just stand there and gawk! He spotted a pouch attached to her waistband and hurriedly opened it, fumbling for the medicine. He took a strip of medicine and popped one open, but the girl had already fainted.
"O-oh…" Izuku quickly put the medicine strip back in the small box and into the pouch.
A short woman with a syringe for a walking stick came up walking to them.
"Recovery Girl?"
She looked at the girl who laid there unconscious and quickly gave her a kiss, then wordlessly looked over her shoulder and pointed to the girl with a nod of her head. The first responders rushed quickly with a stretcher, placing the girl on top. "Bring her to the infirmary."
Recovery Girl turned around to Izuku, hand diving into her pockets and pulling out gummy bears.
"Are you hurt, child?" She asked, but didn't wait for an answer before giving him a big smooch.
"Ouch!" Izuku recoiled from the smooch, falling to the floor, and slammed a hand to the place she had kissed him on his cheek. It had stung, like when you touch a burning hot pan before immediately pulling away, only he had felt it from within different parts of his body too, not only his cheek.
"What's wrong?" Recovery Girl asked worriedly.
Izuku shifted his gaze between Recovery Girl and the hand he held against his cheek.
"I-I don't know…"
Ainz-san?
Recovery Girl walked closer to him, reaching for his hand. Izuku stiffened, fighting the urge to pull away from her touch. She dropped the gummies into his hand and patted it closed. She still looked at him curiously, dissecting him with her gaze, but ultimately decided to let it go since she couldn't find any serious injury.
"This will help with recovering your stamina," she said before departing to help other examinees.
We'll talk about it when we get to your house.
Izuku opened the front door to his apartment. "You can begin talk- Oomph!"
His mother held him in a crushing hug. "Izuku! I'm so proud of you!"
"M-Mom!" Izuku exclaimed in surprise. "We, uh, we don't even know if I've passed!"
His mother wiped away some tears as she released him. "That doesn't matter. I want you to know I'm proud of you, Izuku. I- I know I haven't been the most supportive and-"
"It's okay! I…I know you were only worried about me." He smiled, "You don't have to keep on apologizing, Mom."
The tears burst out again. With a watery smile, she pulled him back in for another quick hug. "I baked a cake to celebrate!"
Hurriedly, he followed his mom to the dinner table. "Really?!"
You still owe me an explanation, Ainz-san.
And just like Izuku said, he didn't forget about it even after a delicious dinner with his mom and eating the cake. "Well?" He asked as he sat on his bed. "Care to explain why it hurt when Recovery Girl tried to heal me using her quirk?"
All quirks have drawbacks…I happen to be weak against healing spel- quirks. It's not something you should have to worry about too much, as long as we prepare for our fights and have a backup plan in place.
"Right… But why does it hurt me ?"
It's a consequence of sharing my powers; I also share my weaknesses. I suspect you'll feel the effects where I have more control, but I haven't figured everything out just yet. Ainz paused and then chuckled. Although, I doubt you're eager to test it out.
"Right on the money," Izuku laughed a little. "So all I have to do is not get hurt to the point of needing a healing quirk?"
Yes. Essentially, don't be too reckless.
"I'll try, no promises."
"Was that all of it?" Izuku asked, dusting off the dirt from the wooden box. Ainz had told him where he secretly stashed his money in different locations, leading to Izuku having to go on a treasure hunt for some time. It was odd, but Ainz explained that he didn't trust banks to store his money, which immediately made Izuku suspicious of how the money was procured. Of course, Ainz fiercely denied the allegations. And this was supposed to be the last of it.
That should be it.
Izuku filled the hole he had dug back with dirt, patting it down with the shovel. He opened the box and quickly stuffed its contents inside his school bag. It was very heavy, and he had to carry a second bag on his chest just to fit everything in it. Izuku threw away the box and stuffed his hand shovel in the pocket of one of the bags. Once he was done, Izuku typed a message to Giran on the black burner phone he had gotten from the man just after he joined LoV.
Meet me at the usual spot.
It took a while before he saw three dots, indicating that Giran was typing.
You have the money?
As promised.
Two blue check marks told Izuku that he had read his reply.
Izuku slipped on a red mask with crystal like blue eyes, a wide toothy grin and green markings. It was a mask he had bought from a shady Halloween shop, apparently called the 'Mask of Envy'. The man at the counter was more than happy to get rid of it (something about ninjas and it always returning), which made Izuku think it was haunted. But Izuku didn't come across any problems, so he didn't get rid of it. He flipped the hood of his black hoodie over his head.
It wasn't ever good to be stared at in a bar full of criminals, but being stared at while having nothing concealing his identity was worse. That's how he handled the stares, even though it always made his hairs stand up. And tonight, with two bags filled to the brim with cash, Izuku was even more on edge.
"Glad you could make it, Kizu," Giran said, eyeing the bags Izuku carried on him.
Izuku slung the bags to the corner of the booth, sliding into the seat and resting an arm on top of them. "You know the drill, Giran. I want information."
"Right down to business, I see!" Giran leaned back, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Can't say I expected this from you, pipsqueak."
Izuku narrowed his eyes from behind the mask, not that Giran could see his expression. They had had this conversation before, where Giran had promptly told him to "cough up the money if ya want to do business with me."
Slightly irritated, Izuku replied, "Yes, well, I need to know where my compass is. It's very precious to me."
"So precious—" Giran's eyes drifted to the bags that sat next to Izuku, "—you'd pay me in the thousands. Ain't know a compass worth that much! Might as well buy a phone for the GPS."
He really, really hoped that this 'World Item' was worth it. Ainz had explained to him that it was the reason they were in this mess, but Izuku wasn't sure how something could do that in the first place. Unless it was something very high-tech, which a compass wasn't. And Ainz had never given him a reason to believe it was otherwise. He had been rather vague and had talked around what exactly it did to get him inside Izuku's head.
"It's not just a compass! It, um, it—"
Sentimental! Say sentimental.
"S-sentimental! It has sentimental value! It used to be my late grandma's."
Giran hummed, squinty eyes narrowing knowingly, grin picking up a little in the corner.
"Yes, your grandma. Whatever lets you sleep at night. Look, kid, I don't usually do business with, well, kids. You're an exception, however, I will need to be paid upfront." Giran beckoned the money over with a hand gesture, but Izuku froze.
"Fifty percent upfront, the rest after you get the job done," Ainz said sternly. "I'm sure you know how important trust is in business."
Giran gave a hollow chuckle, "It's only the staple of a good businessman. I'm fine with 50% upfront, but I want a thousand on top of the other 50, and I'll get the job done." He slumped forward, hand stretched out. "Do we have a deal?"
Izuku exclaimed from within his mind, A thousand?! We're already giving him everything we have!
Ainz pretended to think for a while. It shouldn't be too difficult to acquire the money.
He leaned forward, grabbing Giran's hand in a firm handshake.
"Deal."
Ainz-san… Are you sure this is worth it?
Ainz grabbed a piece of paper from his hoodie pocket. Don't worry about it, Izuku.
Izuku groaned, Ainz-san…
He slid the drawing across the table, a crude imitation of the World Item. It was a golden compass, with intricate patterns of stars and swirls, reminiscent of galaxies, all around the housing of the compass. The actual compass was black on the inside, with white glowing lines drawing three circles, from which narrow triangles pointed at the four wind directions. In total there were eight, including the wind directions in between the primary ones, but slightly offset from the glowing white lines were fainter ones, and together, it looked like the sun. The pitch blackness of the compass was filled with stars from far away galaxies, giving the compass an occasional burst of colour, and moving slowly as though one was looking through a telescope, panning to see more of space.
Ainz could never hope to recreate the beauty of the World Item, he was never one for the finer arts, so he had Izuku draw it in hopes the hero-drawing skills he had developed in the years he had been writing in his notebooks could help in finding the World Item.
"The casing is gold with patterns resembling space. The inside is black with white glowing lines making up the compass dial, and stars that move."
Giran picked up the drawing, inspecting it. He quirked an eyebrow at Ainz, "Move?"
"My grandfather had someone use their quirk to give it aesthetic effects. That's how the lines glow and the stars move. It looks…magical. Otherworldly." Ainz chuckled, a joke only he was privy to. "You'll know it when you see it."
Giran nodded, folding the drawing before tucking it away in an inner pocket of his suit coat.
Ainz stood up, hoisting one of the bags with him. He put it on the table and pushed it closer to Giran. "Your payment."
Giran smirked, eyes shining with a greedy glint. "Pleasure doing business with you."
Izuku's hands trembled, eyes blown wide as he stared at the letter in his hands. The envelope indicated what it was, with 'UA High School' written clearly in the bottom corner. His eyes started to water, forcing Izuku to blink and let the tears fall. His dreams were so close, in fact, you could say he was holding it in his hands. The culmination of all his years in pain, hating himself for things he couldn't change and clinging onto denial, even when he was full of self-doubt. Hopeless and pointless, that's what everyone said, and the letter in his hands could be the final thing to prove them right.
This was it.
It was either a yes or a no. Acceptance or rejection. What was he thinking? He should have signed up for other hero schools! He probably didn't make it, which would mean he wouldn't be able to become a hero and-
Izuku, it's okay. Calm down. It's not the end of the world, we can figure something out if you get rejected.
He took a big breath, held it for five seconds, and breathed slowly back out. He repeated this 3 times before he got his overthinking mind back to a manageable flow of thoughts. A small trick that Ainz had taught him when he was having a panic attack. Once his heart calmed down, his hands started to steady.
Might as well rip the band-aid off.
He ripped the envelope open, a small disk falling to his desk from within.
"THIS IS A PROJECTION!" it shouted.
All Might?"All Might?!" Ainz and Izuku said in unison. "What's All Might doing in the acceptance letter from UA?"
"Your results in the written exam were OUTSTANDING! Good job." All Might struck a pose, giving Izuku a big projected thumbs-up. His humongous smile simmered down to a smaller, more serious one. "However, I'm sure you know that isn't enough to get into the hero course."
Izuku held his breath.
"Camera Two? Ah, okay." All Might looked away, the camera angle following and switching to what Izuku presumed was 'Camera Two'. "Your performance in the practical exam was…above average. But of course that isn't enough either for a hero school that produces the best of the best."
Izuku started freaking out, hands flailing.
"A-Ainz-san! What are we going to-"
"BUT!" All Might interrupted, although unknowingly. He struck another pose, hands balled into fists as if ready to throw a punch. He snapped his right hand aggressively forward, hand relaxing to release a single finger. "That is if we ONLY looked at your villain-based points! A hero course that rejects those who do the right thing is no hero course at all! RESCUE POINTS were also a factor here! And you scored EXTRAORDINARILY on the rescue points! Together with the 60 points for rescuing Ochako Uraraka from the zero pointer, that gives you a total of 102 RESCUE POINTS! And together with your villain-based points, you have 151 POINTS! You've broken the record, my boy!"
Izuku sat shocked, jaw dropped and on the floor.
Shakily, he pointed to the projection.
"D-Did you h-h-hear that Ainz-san?"
Mm.
Tears started forming in his eyes once again.
"CONGRATULATIONS, IZUKU MIDORIYA!" All Might shouted in his standard pose, fists against his waist. "You're in. Come now, Midoriya!" He reached out a hand, "This will be YOUR HERO ACADEMY!"
The tears fell and Izuku quickly wiped them away with his sleeve.
"D-Did you hear that, Ainz-san?" he said with a watery smile.
Ainz proudly smiled and nodded.
Good job, Izuku, you did it.
"No."
Izuku smiled a big toothy smile, the remnant tears spilling slowly down his cheeks.
"We did."
AN: I hope you enjoyed the second part of chapter 7! Thank you for reading. We've been introduced to the World Item, but will Giran be able to find it? Ainz used to be a salaryman, so he knows how to do business, which I hope came through in the scene. And yay, Izuku has been accepted into UA!
To VerniBaton: "Interesting, did something special happen with Ainz that made him say something like that or is he talking in general?" Yes, something did happen ;). One of the more interesting aspects of this weird crossover (at least for me) is how Izuku and Ainz's personality/views clash, so I'm happy you enjoyed that! Thank you for reading!
To RANGER1863: Izuku is veery suspect. I had the 'giving up his body in a life or death situations' already in mind, because it would work around some of the biggest drawbacks of Izuku and Ainz sharing a body/powers (the coordination and the late reaction time). The fact that my story has thousands of possibilities makes it harder to write...haah... There are so many things I could have done that would have derailed the story a ton, but also so many variables that make it harder to decide stuff (like power scaling). Ainz's luck already has had some influence in the plot, but it would be funny to see it expounded on. Your ideas are very interesting and it would be absolutely hilarious to read. This fic, however, has always had a clear ending it's heading towards and a plot line that doesn't really allow for it, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to incorporate them as a subplot, but if I can I'd definitely want to try. Thank you for your high praise, I'm happy you like my fic so much ^^
To Ogimme: I'm glad you like Bakugou's death, it was the first big decision I had to make for this fic. Izuku and Ainz's relationship is pretty complicated, as essentially they are two strangers forced to spend every second of every day together. However they have spent 10 months together, so they've gotten pretty used to and comfortable with each other. And yes, Izuku will 100% have a crush on Uraraka. it's important to one of my plot points, so I cannot say much on what their relationship will be.
