Izuku sat by the entrance to U.A., watching the other prospective students make their way inside. He absentmindedly fingered the light-weight, expanding shield he had strapped to his left wrist. For the moment, sign-in was restricted to the hero and general-course applicants, though support students would be entering in the next couple of minutes. As he watched, a couple of students caught his eye, the first of which had a series of heavy-duty pipes sticking out of his obnoxiously muscular calves who was walking with a gentleman wearing an N-95 mask and black aviators.

Some sort of mutant-speed quirk? Or perhaps some sort of mutant-emitter combination? Can't be sure without observing it in action.

Another candidate wore all black and seemed to be speaking gently to themself. From the shadow of their hood, Izuku could make out a shape that resembled a beak. Nearby was another shadowy figure, though this one seemed to be fading in and out of his own shadow.

Definitely something related to the dark.

People continued to pass by for a couple more minutes before Izuku noticed a bit more space opening up in the crowd of students. A light smell of smoke touched his nose and he realized who was approaching through the crowd.

Izuku quickly grabbed his bag of tricks for the examination and tried to skedaddle his way back into the denser crowd, but was stopped when a voice cut through the otherwise pleasantly quiet din.

"Oi! Deku!"

Izuku groaned inwardly and felt himself shrink inwardly before he turned around to face Bakugo.

"Oh, h-hey, Kacchan. Nice to s-see you here too…" Izuku managed to stammer before trailing off as Bakugo loomed over him.

"The hell are you doing here, nerd?" Bakugo snarled. "I think I made myself pretty clear when I said you weren't gonna be welcome here."

"Yeah, yes, I know. I'm not actually here! Or, well, I'm not here for you — shoot! I mean — I'm not here for the hero course!"

"Oh? So what? You're here to watch me blow the rest of the extras away?"

"N-no! I'm — uh — here to apply for the support course. You know, just to see how I measure up before trying some other schools."

"Good," Bakugo turned back to continue into the school, "it's better if you stay far away from here."

"Ye — yep! You too Kacchan! I-I mean… He's gone."

"Wow! Who put ants in his pants this morning?"

Izuku jumped at the voice directly behind him.

"Think he's better than us or something?"

"I mean, you weren't bothering him."

When he turned to look, Izuku came face-to-face with two male students, both slightly taller than him and a fair bit wider at the shoulders. One had messy brown hair and eyes with, strangely enough, black eyes — almost like there was no iris. The other had straight honey-blonde hair and a half-sneer, half-apathetic expression on his face.

The one with brown hair paused to give Izuku a slight, reassuring nod, before passing him by with his companion.

"Good luck in the exams."

"You look like you'll need it." The blonde one added on over his shoulder before the brunette punched him lightly in the shoulder and seemed to jokingly scowl at his friend.

"Dude, at least wait until the competition starts to antagonize people."

"Hey, I doubt he'll be much competition anyway."

"I have half a mind to hope you get cut, if only to knock that ego down a peg."

Izuku sighed to himself as the pair and the conversation faded back into the crowd.

He checked his watch again and saw that he had about two minutes before sign-in for the support exam would start, so he decided that he might as well go and get in line now before the wait got too long.

The support course at U.A. wasn't too notable compared to some of the other schools like U.A.'s rival, Shiketsu, or even some of the other, less hero-course-oriented schools to the south end of Japan. The biggest draw to the U.A. course was the teacher, Power Loader, who, like all the other teachers at U.A., was a pro hero. On top of that, though, the U.A. support students got to work closely with some of the brightest up-and-coming heroes of tomorrow. That was something that not many schools could lay claim to.

When Izuku arrived at the sign-in desk, he found that only a short line had accumulated before he'd arrived and the receptionist was only just sitting down as he settled into the line. First up to the register was a girl with thin, but muscular arms and almost obnoxious bright-pink dreads. Across every limb, she wore gadgets and gizmos of all sorts that spun and twirled with her exuberant movements. Even from almost ten meters away, he could feel the chaotic energy radiating off of this girl.

"My name is Hatsume Mei. I'm here to make my babies for new heroes!"

Izuku winced inwardly in sympathy at the overwhelmed and terrified face the receptionist had on as she was assaulted by the tirade that was Hatsume Mei. Izuku watched as the receptionist slowly guided the exuberant girl through a small stack of paperwork and sent her on her way to the written-exam hall.

Before she headed off though, she turned and Izuku caught a look at her truly bizarre eyes. Of all the odd shapes and styles of eyes that were found in the world of quirks, Izuku had never seen eyes quite like these. The only way he could think of describing them was as the crosshairs of a sniper's scope.

After she was gone, the line moved much more quickly and it didn't take long for Izuku to get to the front of the line. Looking back, the line had gathered and there were many more entrants waiting their turn behind him.

"Name and school?"

"What?"

"I need your name and grade school for the paperwork." The receptionist was tapping lightly on the stapled stack of papers on the desk in front of her impatiently.

"R—right, Midoriya Izuku, Aldera Junior High."

"Right, I need signatures here, here and here, and you need to fill out these pages as is applicable to your case, then you can head over to the double doors over there and find a seat for the exam."

"Thanks, Miss."

Izuku nodded to the lady and scooted over to the side of the desk to fill out the sheets while the receptionist instructed the applicant behind Izuku, another girl, though this one with no outward mutation or obvious sign of a quirk.

Probably some sort of purely emitter then, or maybe a transformation-based quirk.

Izuku quickly finished up the small stack and slipped them into a small basket with the other applicants' papers and headed over to the exam hall.

Inside was a very wide room with roughly ten by ten desks, though a couple were missing near the front where the teacher might sit at a larger desk.

Izuku found himself a quiet spot near the back of the classroom where no one had sat down yet and busied himself with the shield attached to his arm. It was a relatively simple contraption. Composed of hard-plastic and springs, it was easily deployable and extremely light-wight, but it wouldn't be able to defend against anything much stronger than a simple punch. Still, though, it was quick and an added layer of defense, no matter how flimsy. It could still be the difference.

Izuku double and triple checked the calibration and tension to make sure that when he inevitably had to showcase a sample of what he could make, he could show it's full capability. Once he was happy, he shifted his attention back to his trump card in his bag. The homemade air-pressure-gun with a single canister of compressed air and five capsule-darts of his own making. He still had several other smaller inventions, though he didn't feel that any of them were worth the evaluation of the examiners. The shield, though flimsy and cheap, could be improved and made with more sturdy materials if he were given the budget to work on it. These were what he was most excited about sharing with the examiners.

He had taken the model of the capsule he had found back at Takoba beach, and he had modified it slightly so that the pinhead needle would retract back into the capsule if it struck something too hard to pierce. Doing so would create a spark inside the dart and could ignite the contents. Izuku had found in his research that, while nitroglycerin was a explosive and a powerful accelerant, it was also pretty useful in discombobulating an opponent as it worked by lowering blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure. Applying a significant enough dose to someone would lower their blood pressure and make them more susceptible to fatigue and easier to arrest peacefully, so long as someone was nearby in case the dosage was more than what was safe. It was for this reason that Izuku also carried a syringe with the necessary medication to stabilize someone who was experiencing a more dangerous dosage.

A single dart wasn't concentrated enough to bring down an adult, but it would definitely slow them down a bit. Two should be enough, by medical standards, to bring a full grown adult to a point of dizziness and disorientation that would disable them enough to not be much of a problem. Finally, three darts into a single target would more-than-likely end with a trip to the hospital. Also, each dart didn't contain a huge volume of fluid, but it was still enough to cause a sizable enough explosion to cause injury to a target. The only downside to the darts was that they were rather large and heavy, and therefore couldn't be short at long range lest they lose momentum and become inaccurate. Reliably, they could only be shot from approximately 20 meters away, though they were still usable from about double that.

"Alright prospective students of the U.A. Support Course," Izuku turned to face the voice at the front of the room, "the written exam is being passed around now. Flip them over when I give the word, then you'll have two and a half hours to complete it. When you are finished, hand in your exam to me at the front desk here in a neat pile. Once that is done, return to your seat and prepare any support items you've brought. We will begin the application test once everyone is done with the written portion. Any questions?"

A hand shot up in the front row. Tracing back down the arm, Izuku identified Hatsume Mei from the line outside.

"Yes?"

"Am I going to have the chance to promote my babies today? Is that what the practical test is?"

"You'll have to wait for the test itself to find out what we're doing, but no, today you will be selling yourselves to us, the examiners, who will be judging you on creativity and resourcefulness. We will decide on your potential and admittance to U.A. and our support course. Anyone else?"

No one else raised their hand.

"Then begin."

—

After handing in the written exam, Izuku sat back in his seat near the back of the exam room. He quietly fitted the first of the five darts into the air-gun in preparation for demonstration.

What will we be doing? Since mine works best on actual villains, how will they evaluate it?

"Alright students, time is up. For those of you who haven't handed in their exam, come forward now. The rest of you, finish up any preparations with your support items and get ready, the applied exam starts in five minutes from this room." The speaker then turned and headed back out the door. Before he passed through, however, he turned back to the shuffling students. "Also, take the sticker on your desks and stick them to the outside of your uniforms. Make sure they are visible," and with that, the speaker left.

As he had already finished preparing his own gear, Izuku chanced a look around at his competitors.

He couldn't spot Hatsume or what she was doing near the front of the class for all the other students milling about, but he did catch sight of a couple of other students who seemed to have better developed equipment. One boy had some sort of grappling gun holstered at their hip and what looked like some sort of bulky boxing gloves on both their hands. Their dark hair was tied up at the back and little flashes jolted out of the bun.

Some sort of electrical quirk? Maybe discharged by touch? Do the gloves help control it?

Another person, this one a particularly short girl, though she was ridiculously muscular, seemed to be focusing on some sort of mirror which she seemed to split in two somehow without smashing it before she then put them back together.

A third boy had what looked like a cape or cloak of some sort that shimmered in the yellow light of the room. On his face were some light-coloured scales and lizard-like features, though the rest of him was covered by his uniform.

Izuku took a deep breath and his attention was drawn back to the front of the room.

"Good afternoon, students." This voice seemed automated and was echoing from the sound system instead of from a real person. "Welcome to the applied portion of your entrance exam. In a little over a minute, when I have finished your instructions, you will be directed through the doors at the back of the room to a temporary support room where you will be given the chance to apply your support items to some robots. These robots are the very same that will be used in the hero course practical exam. Your job is to arm these robots for non-lethal and non-life-threatening combat with the hero prospects. There are three models for use. You will each be assigned one at random. You will be evaluated based on how well you are able to play to the robot's strengths and cover their weaknesses with your support items in combat with the hero students. Good luck. You have one hour to apply what you think the robots will need."

And with that, the voice stopped and a pair of double doors at the back of the room swung open.

Izuku made his way to the doors where another robot directed him to a station over in the corner of the new room. As he walked up to his station, he marveled at the obviously expensive equipment laid out for him. Little copper-plated gold coils and what looked to be silver and platinum electrodes sat in a small basket near the corner of the desk. Any and all things Izuku might have wanted to use when developing his support items were laid out for his use here. U.A. had certainly not skimped out on any expenses for the evaluation of its prospective students.

Eagerly, Izuku got to work.

—

It hadn't even been a minute since the robot had started moving that Izuku realized the mistake in his applications and the lack of cohesiveness of his own robot. Looking around at some of the other applicant's work, he spotted a couple of students with light gear strapped to their robots — like his own; though these students were all working with one-pointers. His own robot was much larger and bulkier — a three-pointer. There was less than no chance that it would be able to fully utilize the light-weight gear he had geared it up with.

Izuku had attached his extendable shield to the robot's arm and an aid had helped him program the robot with how to use it. Then he had managed to modify the machine's rubber-bullet firing system to be able to shoot his own homemade darts. He had fitted four of the five darts into the loadout before he had to finish up and filled the rest of the ammunition case with the original rubbers.

As soon as the machine had powered on and had moved off to get ready for the heroes' practical exam, Izuku had realized that such a large and heavy machine wouldn't be able to use the light, flimsy shield he had given it, and the bullets he had inserted would have been put to use much better on a one-pointer.

He watched as another three-pointer rolled past him absolutely decked out in all the gear and gadgets he could have ever dreamed up.

This could belong to no one but Hatsume. I wonder how she could have managed to put all this stuff onto one single machine?

Finally, the machines had all rolled out and the support students were directed back to their work-stations where small tablets were passed around with the explanation that they would stream the performance of each student's robot throughout the exam. Some highlights would make it onto the big screen at the front of the class, but if the students wanted to watch their own robot's performance, they could watch the tablets at their stations.

"Now," a voice started from the front of the room. Murmuring arose from the otherwise subdued and nervous room, though Izuku couldn't see who was speaking. "I want you all to understand that this part of the exam doesn't actually account for all that much. It just isn't realistic to assume that your creations are best equipped to be used by automated heroes. There is no real, fool-proof way for us to program your devices into our own without issues. Additionally, they are going up against some of the best and brightest upcoming heroes of the new day and we have no expectation that our work is polished enough to really put up much of a fight against many of those students."

At this point, the person in front of Izuku leaned down to grab something from their bag and Izuku caught sight of the support course teacher himself, the hero, Power Loader.

There he is! He's a lot shorter in person. I kind of thought he'd be a lot more imposing with that bulky, mechanical exoskeleton hanging off of him, but he's a pretty small guy.

"Instead of evaluating the actual performance of the robots, we will be looking into the blueprints and specs that you provided in the written portion of the exam as well as the thought you've put into what support items you have given your respective robots based on their model and strengths."

Izuku shrunk in on himself, knowing that he wasn't going to do too well on that front.

"Anyways, feel free to watch as the practical exam for the hero course starts —" Power Loader looked down at his watch, "Now."

Looking back down at his screen, Izuku watched as all of a sudden, the previously quiet and almost serene ghost town that was the exam site erupted into action. People his age flew from around the corner, one a fair ways ahead of the others. With a start, Izuku recognized him as the one with the pipes on his calves from outside.

'I was right, a mutant-speed quirk. They look kind of like exhaust pipes, so maybe there is some sort of bionic component where the machine reinforces the strength of his legs to allow for especially quick movement? Would that maybe apply to other feats of athleticism or is it restricted to running?'

Bonk.

Izuku was interrupted from his musings as the student in front of him had turned around and bonked him on the head.

"Dude, you're bothering the people around you with that muttering."

"Oh — oh, sorry. I do that sometimes…"

"Just stop and we're good, okay?"

"Y — yeah."

Turning back to his screen, Izuku realized that his robot was just engaging with one of the hero applicants. This boy was wearing a short-sleeved red hoodie and had tousled black hair laying down over his forehead. His face was contorted into some sort of hideous grin with dagger-like teeth out on display.

Izuku's bulky three-pointer was managing to keep up with the student well enough, but it couldn't seem to actually push the student back. The reason for which Izuku realized when the robot let off it's first of Izuku's special shots.

Izuku could hear the hiss of the air canister releasing a blast as the dart shot from the barrel of the machine's arm-cannon and blasted into the boy. When it connected, instead of sinking in and administering the discoordinating concoction, the dart burst and with a bang that made it to the highlight screen at the front of the room, blew the kid back six or seven meters before they managed to skid to a stop. Staggering back to his feet, the grin on the boy's face never wavered. Balancing precariously from the inevitable dizziness that came with such a blow, the boy staggered back forward.

Izuku was almost impressed. He had seen the change in the boy's skin texture from the video and could tell that he had some sort of toughening quirk that would let him take hits better, but that was still a pretty wicked shot. It was hard to tell from a video screen but it had looked a fair bit stronger than most of his tests.

Regaining his bearings, the boy pushed himself forward again. In response, Izuku's robot let off another shot into the offending boy, but this time, they were ready for it. Just as the robot fired, the boy slipped to the side and managed to sidestep the shot. Right in front of the machine's other arm, where the extendable shield was ready to use.

Two out of four shots were gone, but now the robot might be able to do something with the other support item it had been equipped with.

The shield sprang open and the robot slipped it between the combattants, but the boy hesitated only for a moment before he flexed his arm and threw a punch that cut straight through the cheap plastic shield.

Izuku clapped a hand to his face.

Of course the shield won't do anything for this robot, it can't maneuver the shield to properly redirect a blow, it's just going to try to straight up block it.

Slipping into the guard of the robot, one of the boy's hardened fists slammed into the machine's control box with the mounted camera and for a moment, the feed spun up towards the sky. When it focused back on the battle at hand, the boy was wrestling with the firing arm of the robot. One hand locked around the barrel of the air cannon and the other covered the opening. With another camera shuddering blast, the arm was blown into the air and off the machine as the third bullet was shot and exploded inside the barrel of the gun.

In the corner of the feed, the boy staggered back to his feet before hustling back out to find another opponent and keep racking up the points.

The machine that was Izuku's project whined in protest and slowly powered down. The camera feed stopped after about another ten to fifteen seconds.

Izuku slumped back into his chair and resolved to watch the highlights at the front of the room.

—

The highlight screen had been almost exclusively the decked out robot that was Hatsume Mei's. The thing was driving heroes off left and right with its arsenal of blunted blades and blasters.

Eventually, a familiar face to Izuku decided that enough was enough and stood against the machine's onslaught. Katsuki Bakugo slammed an open palm against the side of the robot and unleashed a shuddering explosion into its side. After a moment, Bakugo let off another explosion, except this one launched him back into the thick of the fighting as he left the massively dented machine to shudder and spark before it succumbed to the damage it had sustained and keeled over sideways. Not a moment later, it combusted and blew shards of metal off into the side of one of the model buildings.

From all the way across the room, Izuku could hear Hatsume Mei's mutterings of excitement and exuberation at the exceptional performance her "babies" had offered the examiners.

She seemed pretty happy with how things at the exam had gone. Izuku was a little less ecstatic. With a little over two minutes left in the exam, Izuku got up from his workstation and headed back out of the school and made his way back home.