Shouta Aizawa was tired.
Well, he was always tired, but that's beside the point.
He had stayed out late on patrol last night because it seemed that almost every single small-time purse snatcher, kidnapper, and thug with a semi-dangerous quirk decided to come out.
On top of that, he had to come in early, on a Sunday, to prepare for and oversee the UA Entrance Exam.
Why he needed to be here to watch a bunch of middle schoolers beat the crap out of some robots was beyond him. It would just be the same as last year; kids with barely any control of their quirks trying to be more destructive than the rest.
Even if they had an impressive and useful quirk, it spoke nothing of who they were as students and people. Sure, UA looked over school transcripts for the top 100 scorers to narrow it down to the eventual 36 that would be accepted, but that didn't say anything about their reasoning to be a hero.
Then there was the format of the test itself that pissed Shouta off. Most of them just let loose on the perpetual horde of machines. It didn't test if they knew how to show proper control of their quirks. And the whole thing practically glossed over anybody who didn't have a flashy or visual quirk, like it did Shouta when he went through the entrance exam.
But no matter how much he petitioned Nedzu to change the test to encapsulate people with more subtle quirks, like his own, the board and shareholders always shot him down. All they were concerned with was producing the next member of the Top 10.
Speaking of which, Shouta was currently seated behind the current No. 1 hero himself. The Symbol of Peace: All Might.
Or more appropriately, Toshinori Yagi, since the previous mountain of muscle was currently a deathly thin old man.
When Shouta had learned about Nedzu offering All Might a teaching position at UA, Shouta had been inclined to think that the dog/bear/mouse had lost his mind. Didn't Japan's Grinning Guardian have more important things to do than teaching?
But then Shouta and the rest of the UA faculty actually met the man, and it was revealed that his time of being an ever-present symbol was coming to an end, already being reduced to three hours a day due to an injury that caused him to lose his stomach and half his respiratory system.
Then he continued to surprise the staff by deflating with a puff of smoke (literally) and showing that his true form was an emaciated senior citizen who coughed out more blood than air.
That had been a fun day for the teachers of UA. It's the only time Shouta had ever seen Hizashi speechless.
That had been more than 10 months ago. Now they all were currently seated in front of a vast collection of monitors and controls, connected to cameras in the various testing grounds, offering countless angles on the simulated cityscapes.
It was only Shouta, Nedzu, and Yagi in the observation room right now, the others overseeing the written portion of the exam.
Yagi and Nedzu were currently chatting while sipping some tea (the fact that All Might was an avid tea fan who also made bento boxes was amusing to the the erasure hero, not that his demeanor conveyed that fact at all).
Shouta was trying to catch up on some sleep, cocooned in his trademark yellow sleeping bag, while he could, before the madness of the practical portion of the exam started.
As Izuku and the rest of the examinees walked to the buses that would take them to the testing grounds, he couldn't help but worry about absolutely everything.
Did I freak out the other examinees with my muttering?
Does that boy with the glasses hate me?
Does that nice girl find me weird?
Did I fail the written part?
He felt like he'd done well on the written portion, but he was also sure that others had done better than him.
Izuku knew his efforts to improve his intelligence had paid off greatly, even if he felt unsure about it.
But Izuku's biggest worries right now could be summed up in one question.
What am I going to do against robots?
Izuku had trained his body to the best of his abilities, even becoming really good at free running, and his basic combat skills were coming along, but nobody was becoming a master combatant in 10 months, especially when you don't have an actual instructor.
Even if I was a great fighter, there's not much that a simple punch can do against metal plating.
Deciding to focus on something else, Izuku found an empty seat on the bus and pulled out his notebook as he sat down, going over his notes.
Nedzu was having a simply wonderful time. The Entrance Exam was one of his favorite days of the year.
He had the opportunity to witness the next generation of heroes forge their own path to victory with determination. He also got to see some of them run in terror from robots, but that's beside the point.
This year was different, because this time Toshinori was here to observe the practical portion.
His time as the symbol of peace was coming to an end soon, and he needed to pass on One for All soon, or risk the flame being snuffed out.
If Nedzu recalled correctly (which he always did), the main candidate for being a successor was Togata, of the Big Three, if his talks with Mirai were to be believed.
Mirio would likely be a good successor for Toshinori and would most likely be a superb symbol.
But is that what the world needs?
Having All Might as a pillar to support justice worked well, Nedzu admits, how could he deny it, with Japan's crime rate being the lowest in the world.
But that was the problem, having only one pillar.
If (when) All Might is no longer able to act as the support, the whole thing comes toppling down.
Sure, Togata could become the new symbol, but he wouldn't be able to command the same level of respect and fear right away. By the time he has the reputation to back his claim, the damage could already be done.
And if even by some small chance Mirio could bring crime back down to where it was eventually, they'd run into the same situation when it's his time to pass the torch.
Nedzu was brought out of his thoughts by the door to the observation room being opened.
He watched as a good portion of the faculty filed into the room and started filling up the empty seats, idle chatter filling the time until the test starts.
Snipe walked over to Nedzu, holding a tablet underneath his arm.
"Howdy boss. I got the results from the written portion of the exam compiled for you." He said as he handed off the device.
Nedzu always made a habit of looking over those scores, to keep an eye out for any promising young minds.
"Why thank you."
They turned to the monitors as Present Mic marked the start of the test.
Nedzu, being adept at multitasking, began scrolling through the scores while still monitoring the practical via the cameras, seeing who scored the highest in certain subjects.
Let's see, from the recommended students… all very good scorers, all of them scored at least 80% in almost all subjects. That Yaoyorozu girl scored the highest score with 90% in all but the more difficult sections, so an 85% average. Excellent. Now onto the rest of them…
Nedzu spat out his tea as the top score appeared.
Izuku Midoriya: 100%
WHAT DO I DO?!
Izuku had spent most of the test running, trying to think of some way to get some points.
He'd tried to take a one-pointer head on, but he would have been swiftly eliminated if not for a sudden laser blast.
"Bonjour, merci pour votre aide." Izuku looked to his side and saw a lanky boy with highly stylized blond hair and a weird belt, "Je doute que nous nous reverrons, alors adieu."
(Translation: "Hello, thank you for your help." "I Doubt we'll meet again, so farewell.")
"T-t-thank you?"
The boy ran off down the street to secure more points.
That was… was he sparkling? And speaking French?
Izuku shook his questions away for now, he needed to focus.
He continued to run through the fake city's streets, until he came upon a large group of robots and students gathered in a large street.
As Izuku weaved through the battlefield, he saw multiple people with varying quirks, like a boy with black hair who seemed to have a hardening quirk who was just jabbing robots in the eyes.
"TWO MINUTES REMAINING!" Present Mic's voice rang out from across the mock cityscape.
Izuku panicked. Only two minutes? What was he going to do?
And then the ground started to shake, and booming noises could be heard coming from around one of the buildings. Then the biggest robot Izuku had ever seen turned the corner, every footfall causing quakes and causing loose parts of buildings to shake free. And it was making its way towards all of them.
That's the Zero-Pointer! It's ginormous!
If Izuku was panicking before, he was now doing Advanced Panicking.
Nearly every other person was doing likewise, and they all started to run away, towards the exit.
Izuku was about to join them, already turned away from the mechanical monstrosity, when he faintly heard a sound behind him.
"Ow."
He turned and saw the nice girl who helped him earlier. Her ankle appeared to be painfully trapped underneath a pile of rubble. Right in front of the Zer
Izuku didn't hesitate and started running towards her. As he was running, the zero-pointer's leg grazed the sides of some of the building, sending a lot of debris onto the street. When it hit the ground it kicked up a lot of dust and smoke, blanketing most of the street in a large cloud, including Izuku and the girl.
Back in the observation room, a monitor for one of the testing sites just went dark.
"What just happened?" Ectoplasm asked.
Checking some prompts from his own computer, Power Loader answered, "Apparently the Zero-Pointer in that site scraped a couple of buildings, knocking out the nearest camera."
Typing some commands he continued, "I'm sending a few smaller bots to check if anybody's in trouble."
With that they continued watching.
Izuku just kept going, blinking the dust out of his eyes the best he could.
He nearly ran into the pile of rubble that the girl was trapped underneath but managed to stop in time. He saw the girl trying to push the rubble off of her trapped ankle, touching her fingers on individual pieces, but the heaviest pieces were on the top, out of her reach.
"How bad are you hurt?" Izuku asked as he dropped down next to her.
She wasn't looking in his direction when he came so she flinched when he suddenly asked her. She turned towards him; shock plastered on her face.
"What're ya doing here?" She said in a high voice. And a country accent?
"I'm here to help you!" He responded quickly, the stomps of the Zero-Pointer nearing closer. "Now how bad are you hurt?"
"I think my ankle is sprained."
"Could you pull it out if I got you some room?"
"I think so."
With that Izuku started ripping off the rubble on the top, while the girl kept taking the smaller pieces she could reach.
Another rumble shook the two, but much closer than before.
With enough off the top, Izuku tried to lift the part trapping her ankle. With all his strength he managed to lift in about an inch.
The girl pulled her leg out quickly, and Izuku dropped the debris.
He turned to her and saw she was trying to push herself up into a standing position. He went over to her and helped her stand.
"Thanks," She said as she tried to apply pressure to her ankle, wincing as she started to lose balance, "Woah!"
Izuku caught her and helped her lean up against him. She looked at him surprised.
"It's bad luck to fall and hurt yourself more."
Their eyes met and for a second, they both felt something, but then a quake reminded them both where they were.
"Come on, I'll guide, you just lean on me, ok?" He asked.
"Yeah."
With that they started slowly stumbling away from the giant robot.
But not fast enough, as another impact rattled the both of them, much closer than any of the previous ones.
They looked back, and they were able to see a massive shadow move through the thinning cloud. The mass then raised up, and Izuku realized what it was as it started moving towards them, still lifting up into the air.
With all his might, Izuku pushed the girl away from him, sending her a good 2 meters.
Less than a second later, the foot of the zero-pointer came down right next to him, a large piece of rubble landing on him, crushing his legs.
"AND TIME! THAT'S ALL FOLKS!" The voice hero cried out over the speakers.
Right before he blacked out, Izuku saw the girl limp towards him, her hand extended to touch the rubble on top of him.
As the faculty watched the last moment of the exam, the robot they had sent to investigate had shown them something.
A young brown-haired girl came limping out of a cloud of dust, guiding the floating body of an unconscious boy with what appeared to be, horribly crushed legs, and the rest of his body covered in cuts and dirt. It was like the worlds most morbid balloon.
"What happened to him?" Snipe questioned out loud.
"Does it matter?" Aizawa replied, "He either got badly injured by a robot or his own quirk. Either way, he's clearly not cut out to be a hero."
"Hmm," Nedzu hummed merrily, "In any case, alert Recovery Girl that there is someone in dire need of her assistance."
Unknown to the others, Nedzu was beginning to gain interest in a particular examinee.
Izuku opened his eyes slowly, the bright fluorescent lights nearly blinding to his un-adjusted eyes.
"Wha-"
"Oh, you're finally awake."
Izuku turned to his side to see the girl from the test right next to his bedside… leaning close to him. Very close.
Izuku's brain started to overheat.
"W-what are y-you d-doing here?" He attempted to say confidently but failed horribly at doing so.
"I was waiting to make sure you were okay!" She replied cheerfully, "Thanks for saving me by the way."
Oh yeah, I did save her.
He remembered the series of events leading to his black out. Like the part where a pretty girl leaned against him. And then he threw her!
"Wait, are you okay?" he asked worriedly, his voice continuing to rise in pitch, "I didn't hurt you when I tossed you did I? I'm sorry if I did, it was the only way I could think to get you out of the way in time, but you already had a sprained ankle, so I properly made it worse, I'm so sorry!"
She looked at him blankly for a few seconds. Then she broke out laughing. Izuku found himself calming down. Her laugh was… therapeutic. That thought made him blush.
"You literally saved my life, crushing your legs in the process, and you ask me if I'm okay?" She asked while wiping a stray tear from her eye. "We don't even know each other's names!"
Izuku would facepalm right now if his arms weren't sore.
"Oh, um… my n-name is I-Izuku Midoriya?" He asked a question for some reason.
"It's nice to meetcha," her voice slightly slipped into an accent, "I'm Ochako Uraraka."
They sat in silence for a moment before a voice came from the door.
"So, you're finally awake, young man?" The voice belonged to a very short lady in a lab coat and used an oversized syringe as a walking cane.
"WOW!" Izuku exclaimed, much to everyone else's surprise, "You're Recovery Girl, the youthful heroine! Your healing quirk is so cool, and powerful too. I guess your quirk is the only reason that UA could even think about hosting such a clearly dangerous exam…" he broke into a mutter as he continued.
Uraraka and Recovery Girl both sweat dropped, before the Youthful Heroine started speaking to break him out of his musings.
"Well, I'm just here to finish up you're healing and make sure you're good to leave." She walked over to the green haired genius, and then her mouth seemed to stretch out to inhuman lengths and planted a smooch right on his forehead.
A green glow enveloped Izuku, and he felt the soreness in his limbs fade. He was about to celebrate, but then a wave of exhaustion washed over him.
"My quirk may work wonders," she said, answering both teens' unasked question, "but it uses the target's own energy to speed up the healing process, draining their stamina. That's why I couldn't heal you all in one go, if your energy is all spent, you die."
Both of them took in this new information, nodding grimly.
"But on a less dour note, you're healed up enough to leave now. Take some gummies with you, they'll help replenish your stamina." She bid the farewell while gesturing to a large glass bowl on a table by the door, filled with different colored gummies.
With that the two teens started walking away from the infirmary, chatting while doing so.
"So how do you think you did on the written portion?" Uraraka asked Izuku.
"I-I feel like I f-fairly well. H-how a-about y-you?"
Why am I so nervous, it's not like this is the first girl to talk to me.
Oh, wait…
Izuku unintentionally made himself sad, but he was brought out of it by Uraraka's response.
"I think it just barely passed," she said as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "That kind of thing was never my strong suit."
Eventually they made it to the gates.
"Well, this is where we part ways. Goodbye Midoriya!" She said as she started to walk away from him.
"O-oh. Good-bye." He added an awkward wave with that. He turned to leave in the opposite direction, but then he heard hurried footsteps.
Turning back, he saw Uraraka rushing him.
"Wait, I almost forgot." She pulled out a flip-phone, "Do you want to exchange numbers?"
Izuku stared at her like she had grown a second head.
"You want my number." He forgot his stutter in his confusion.
"Well of course. How else am I supposed to talk with you?"
To say Izuku was amazed would be an understatement. In his dazed state, his brain went on autopilot and handed her his phone as he took her flip-phone.
After inputting his contact information and handing it back, he grabbed his own and stared at the new number and name; Ochako Uraraka.
"Well, see ya later Midoriya!"
"See you later, Uraraka-San."
He walked away from her and headed home, and when he sat down on the train, his brain finally caught up.
A GIRL JUST GAVE ME HER PHONE NUMBER!
(A/N) I AM HERE, IN AN AUTHOR'S NOTE! Please review, I love getting feedback, even criticism. Even the insulting ones, as long as it's focused on me. I want to improve, and you can help!
And remember kids, knowing is hal the battle!