Ochako took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. No pressure, just going into the literal hardest Hero school in Japan, no biggie! All she had to do was beat about three hundred other people who wanted the position!
As she walked forwards, she caught a look at the other students there. One student in particular was drawing a lot of attention - probably because she was the tallest person there. If Ochako had to guess, the girl was about three metres tall, not counting the ears. And she was adorably fluffy!
She'd seen a lot of heteromorphs working at her parents' firm. The tallest worker she knew would have been a whole head shorter than this girl. She stumbled slightly as her foot caught a sticking up ti but managed to catch herself, the other students backing up slightly.
Ochako sighed with relief. That would have been unlucky if she'd tripped fully. Ochako took a deep breath, strode forwards confidently-
And managed to trip on seemingly nothing.
Ochako had a brief moment to appreciate the irony of this before tagging herself with her Quirk. She floated slightly, trying to reorientate herself. Then the tall girl came up to her, her friend shooting her an angry look.
She smiled. "Could you give me a hand, please?"
"S-sure!"
—
Ikumi sighed, helping the other girl get onto the ground. She pressed her fingertips together, and seemed to settle. "So you're okay?"
"Oh! I'm fine, thank you!" The other girl laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "It would have been bad luck to trip and fall before an exam!"
Ikumi chuckled weakly. "Yeah… You're going for the Hero course as well? You've got a really cool Quirk-"
"Ah, hell no." Kacchan gripped her arm and tried to pull her along. "Come on Midori. Talk Round Cheeks' ear off about how cool you find her Quirk AFTER we take the exam!"
The nice girl pointed at herself. "R-Round Cheeks?"
Ikumi gave Kacchan a pointed glare. "S-sorry about Kacchan. He's being unusually well behaved right now." Ignoring Kacchan's angry complaining, she smiled at the other girl. "My name is Midoriya Ikumi. And you are…?"
"Oh!" She beamed up at Ikumi. "I'm Uraraka Ochako! Nice to meet you Midoriya, but we should really get going!" She skipped off, waving. "Good luck!"
"Good luck as well, Uraraka!" Ikumi exclaimed.
Beside her, Kacchan sighed. "Okay, now let's hurry it up." He stomped forwards, Ikumi easily keeping pace a moment later. As Katsuki pushed ahead, Ikumi smiled.
She'd managed to make a new friend!
—
The written exam had been pretty tough, but Katsuki and Midori hadn't just been training physically. Every spare moment not spent working on their Quirks or hanging with their friends had been spent studying. There hadn't been anything really surprising.
Well, except for the latest announcement. The Hero on the podium stared at the microphone then turned it off, choosing to shout to the auditorium.
"WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE! EVERYBODY SAY 'HEY'!"
Silence blossomed, slightly broken by Midori whispering to him. "Oh, wow! Kacchan, it's Present Mic!"
Katsuki shot an annoyed glance up at Midori as she fangirled over the skinny blonde guy in shades. "You're gonna give yourself a freaking heart attack with every teacher, aren't you?"
"WELL THAT'S COOL, LITTLE LISTENERS! NOW THEN, I'M HERE TO GIVE YOU THE GUIDELINES FOR THE PRACTICAL! EVERYBODY WHO'S READY, SAY 'YEAH'!"
Nobody said anything. One person coughed slightly.
Unperturbed, Present Mic turned the screen on. "ALRIGHT LITTLE LISTENERS, THIS IS HOW THE TEST WILL GO!"
As he explained, Katsuki looked down. "So they're splitting us up so that people from the same school can't work together," he figured. Made sense - if he and Midori teamed up they would be unstoppable.
Midori nodded. "Well, we thought it would be like that anyway." She paused. "Good luck, Kacchan."
"Tch." Katsuki scowled. Like he needed luck. "If you don't make it in, I'm gonna kill you."
"Excuse me? May I ask a question?"
Katsuki blinked as a hybrid of a jock and nerd stood up, pointing at the handout. "You mentioned that there were three Villains to fight, yet this handout shows four! If this is an error, then it is highly unbecoming of Japan's top Hero school! After all, we are here to be moulded into Heroes!"
Katsuki could practically see the stick shoved up his ass. He then turned to look disapprovingly at Midori, who flinched. "And you! You've been muttering to a friend this entire time! The pair of you are distracting other students and being incredibly disrespectful to this great institution!"
Aw, hell no.
"Shut the fuck up, Glasses!" Katsuki glared back at him. "You really so prissy that us talking throws you off your game?!"
The nerd-jock recoiled. "S-so rude!"
Ikumi looked the jerk in the eye. "W-well, I think Present Mic was about to explain it…" She managed, pointing to the Hero.
Present Mic nodded. "LET'S SETTLE DOWN, EXAMINEE 7111! YES, THERE IS AN EXTRA VILLAIN, BUT THAT ONE PROVIDES NO POINTS! THINK OF IT AS A HUGE OBSTACLE THAT'LL RAMPAGE IN CLOSE QUARTERS!"
Nerd-Jock bowed, apparently satisfied. "I see! Sorry for the interruption!"
Katsuki bit back several choice words.
"OKAY, LISTENERS! THAT'S PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING, SO I'LL GIVE YOU ONE LAST THING!" Present Mic spread his arms wide. "NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, EMPEROR OF FRANCE ONCE SAID, 'TRUE HEROISM CONSISTS OF BEING SUPERIOR TO THE ILLS OF LIFE'."
Midori leaned forward, a look of wonder on her face. Katsuki found a smile splitting his face. "SO IN THAT SPIRIT, GO PLUS ULTRA, KIDS!"
—
Mezo looked up at the tallest person on the bus, who had carefully manoeuvred herself into a seat. Like everybody else, she had changed into a dark red tracksuit with purple lining. It wasn't everyday that he met somebody who seemed so like him. "I wasn't expecting to meet somebody taller than me today."
She twisted her hands, looking away. "Oh. Sorry."
"You don't have to apologise." Mezo stuck a hand out, which she shyly accepted. "Shoji Mezo."
"M-Midoriya Ikumi." She looked over his arms curiously. "So, what is your Quirk? If-if that's not rude, we're technically competing-"
Mezo simply nodded, letting another arm form from his tentacles. "My Quirk is called Dupli-Arms. Basically I can replicate my eyes and ears to improve my senses or make extra arms, and I'm a lot stronger than I should be."
Midoriya hummed, starting to scribble in a notebook. "That's really cool! Can you alter the properties of your arms beyond extra sensory organs? Is there a limit to how many extra limbs you can make or can you make as many as you like-"
"I think we're at the testing area," Mezo interrupted as the bus stopped outside what looked like a small city. The other examinees looked around, awestruck.
He paused when he saw her put the notebook away, her face slightly downcast. "Nobody's really asked me questions about my Quirk like that before. Usually they said-"
No matter what, we will never accept cursed blood like yours!
"-That they weren't very interested in it."
"W-well, every Quirk is unique, so why wouldn't-" Midoriya stepped off the bus, the vehicle briefly tilting as she left. She flinched slightly as some of the other examinees stared at her. Her face brightened as she spotted another girl, apparently trying to calm herself. "O-oh! Ochako's here as well!"
She started to walk over only to be interrupted by the dark haired boy from earlier. "Excuse me, miss. That girl is clearly trying to concentrate! Are you trying to interfere-"
Midoriya shook her head. "No, I just helped her earlier at the gate and I-I wanted to talk to her, that's all!"
"I see. Still, this isn't the time for idle chit-chat," he shook his head disapprovingly. Midoriya looked away awkwardly, but nodded. The other competitors tittered at the display.
Mezo gave her a quiet thumbs up, shooting a disapproving look at the other boy.
Present Mic grinned at the group, then a buzzer sounded. "AND… BEGIN!"
—
Ikumi blinked with the rest of the examinees. Present Mic grinned at them. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! REAL LIFE DOESN'T HAVE A COUNTDOWN!"
With that, everybody shot forwards. Ikumi pushed off, sprinting ahead of practically every other contestant. The glasses guy outsped her, legs pumping as the engines let out orange scented smoke.
Ikumi headed in a different direction, a cluster of One Point Villains charging over to her. Sucking in a deep breath, she felt Dragonframe surge within her breast.
She had trained her Fire ever since she'd discovered she could do it. It had progressed from mere embers to a powerful blast of fire. But after training the telekinesis aspect of her Quirk…
FWOOSH!
She exhaled, a blast of fire hitting the cluster with a dramatic explosion. Ikumi quickly counted - about four. A Two Pointer nearby fired on her and she darted to the side, then kicked it hard enough to smash its metallic exterior.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a Three pointer bearing down on a student who had tripped, and she reacted, kicking a hole in the tank-esque robot and destroying it. "Are you okay?"
Shakily, the other student nodded, managing to pick himself up and dart after a Two-Pointer. Ikumi ran over to another group of One Pointers, breathing more fire at them. As they broke down, she quickly took stock of her surroundings, looking for more robots.
The rest of the area was filled with chaos. Pieces of One and Two-pointers littered the streets, with a few Three pointers being attacked. Ikumi managed to pick up another One Pointer for use as a flail, hitting a Three Pointer hard enough to crack the pavement beneath it.
Her ear twitched when she heard a Three Pointer trundling in a nearby area. Sprinting after it, she kicked its face in, earning an angry yell from another examinee. "Hey! No kill stealing!"
"Sorry!" Ikumi yelled back. The other student turned to throw some ice at another bot, a disgruntled expression on his face. Grimacing, she leapt on another Three pointer, breathing fire directly into its face. Only two minutes into the exam and Ikumi felt like she would be able to manage at this pace.
"Twenty…" Uraraka huffed, running forward. She gave Ikumi a brief smile as she ran over to another bot to tag it with her Quirk, several already floating in the air.
Ikumi smiled back, before turning her focus back to the matter at hand. She darted around, finding a few more faux-Villains to break as she did.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Shoji on the rooftops, extra eyes and ears extruding from his arms, searching for Villains. Ikumi craned around, looking for more Villains-
KER-ASH!
—
Midnight grinned. "Oh, I like her," she purred, watching as the teal furred girl ran forwards once more, smashing robots with fists and flame.
Eraserhead watched with a sigh. "Another brawler getting by in a test tailor made for her strengths."
All Might nodded absently. He had only caught a nickname - Midori - but he couldn't forget a Quirk as distinct as that. It was good to see her at U.A, taking those natural Heroic instincts to greater heights. And she seemed a far cry from the timid girl who had barely been able to make eye contact.
Still, he had thought she had a liquid manipulating Quirk. Maybe she had some other aspect to her Quirk beyond liquid manipulation? He knew that Endeavour's youngest child Shoto had a Quirk that allowed him to create fire and ice, so it wasn't impossible.
If he hadn't been in Chiba and seen a fine example of heroism, then she could very well have had One for All.
He was shaken from his thoughts by Nedzu. "A promising crop so far, no?"
The ambiguous mammal's face turned vicious. "Let's test their mettle."
All Might watched slightly apprehensively as Eraserhead flipped open the switch case for the Zero Pointers. He knew that the other girl and his successor would be alright, they had proven themselves to be tough enough. But All Might was still worried, all the same.
—
Katsuki smashed through another Two Pointer. "Fifty-four," he grinned, eyes stitching themselves to his next target. The other Extras at the exam were giving him a wide berth but that just meant more robots for him to break.
There was one guy who stayed close to him though. Some guy with sharp teeth and a bad haircut who smashed the robots with fists that turned hard and craggy. What few robots didn't get turned to scrap by Katsuki got finished off by Shitty Hair. Guy had balls, at least, staying so close to his explosions. Katsuki would give him that.
A huge crashing sound came from across the road. Katsuki briefly stared at the hulking Zero Point robot, then charged forwards while Extras ran away. These robots were attracted to loud noises, and he could see a cluster of abandoned Villains just waiting to be killed.
As he charged, another Three Pointer came around the corner. "Hasta la vista, meatbags," it rumbled, redying its missiles.
Katsuki smirked, ready to smash it-!
Behind him, he heard Shitty Hair trip over a piece of robot. "Damn it!"
Unfortunately, he was just in the path of a salvo of missiles. Katsuki had a brief moment to appreciate the other guy's eyes going wide before he moved, shoving Shitty Hair out of the way. The missiles hit the patch of concrete where he was lying just a couple of seconds earlier, the explosion barely phasing Katsuki as he glared at the machine.
Then he smashed the Three Pointer's faceplate in. "DIE, YOU FUCKING ROOMBA!"
Shitty Hair stared up at him. Katsuki glared down at him. "You alright, Shitty Hair?!"
"Uh… yeah?"
Katsuki nodded sharply. "Get the fuck up! I ain't gonna help you again!"
He charged forwards again, smirking slightly when he heard Shitty Hair follow him. The other guy grinned, slightly shakily when Katsuki tore through the bots like they were made of paper, refusing to slow down.
—
Mezo felt rather than heard the Zero Pointer's approach. Standing on the top of a building to hunt the Villain bots, he was at a good vantage point to see the absolutely gigantic machine rise from the ground, towering over the tallest buildings in the mock city. A huge red lens focused on him as it started moving, changing its course.
As calmly as he could, Mezo started to run, trying to get away from the machine as it raised a hand. Too late, it came crashing down, the shockwave cracking and breaking the building he was standing on. His footing gone, Mezo was barely able to twist around to fall properly-
Suddenly, somebody slapped him, and he felt his whole body lose all weight. Stunned, he floated just above the ground, unable to land properly. Twisting one of his eyes around, he saw the brown haired girl floating on a piece of discarded rubble. "R-release…" she moaned, pressing her fingertips together.
The Zero Pointer took another earth shaking step, Mezo barely able to pull her out of the way. He tried to run but another tremor from its movement broke his stride and he went sprawling. His rescuer looked up with wide eyes as the Zero Pointer came closer-
And then Midoriya was there, sucking in a deep breath. As she grabbed them she breathed out, a massive gout of flame hitting the Zero Pointer's hand and forcing it back, the flames punching a hole in its hand. The flame petered off and she ran with both of them in her arms, smoke still leaking from her mouth.
As they reached safety the brown haired girl stared up at Midoriya with wide eyes. "Midoriya-"
Her eyes crossed and her cheeks bulged. They barely managed to get out of the splash zone as she puked. Mezo looked over at Midoriya, who didn't look much better. The much larger girl awkwardly patted her friend on the back, keeping her out of the vomit.
"AND… THAT'S TIME!"
—
At about the same time as Ikumi, Mina was dealing with a similar problem. She had been charging around, dealing with robots and being generally amazing.
Then the Zero Pointer had shown up and thrown everything into chaos. Mina was big enough to admit that seeing something that big had brought back unpleasant memories of the Villain she had barely managed to redirect.
She was running when she heard a confused sounding cry. "Whey…"
A blonde guy with a lightning bolt in his hair stood there, a dazed look on his face. Apparently he couldn't hear the freaking Zero Pointer bearing down on him.
It came closer, and for the second time in a while Mina ran into trouble without consciously thinking about it.
Under her skin, One for All clicked. Instinctively, Mina leaped, remembering All Might's advice, her bones creaking but not breaking. A mass of acid formed around her fist, far more than she could normally make.
"ACID SMASH!"
—
SSSSHHH!
The teachers stared at the screen. "Holy…" Snipe breathed.
All Might couldn't help but agree. One minute, there was a whole Zero Pointer… the next, nothing but a half melted mess of metal, the rest already corroding into sludge.
The judges looked between each other. "Where did she pull that from?"
"That was far more power than she displayed earlier!"
"And did you see that jump she made? Does she have a strength enhancing aspect to her Quirk-"
As they talked, All Might couldn't help but grin. Young Ashido had made a good first impression, it seemed. All Might knew that One for All boosted Quirks, but… he hadn't imagined anything as dramatic as this! Maybe he should see about getting her some more Quirk based training in school.
—
Landing was a bit harder, but a jet of high PH acid from her hands slowed her descent as the Zero Pointer melted away. "Whoa…" Mina breathed, looking at the massive pile of melting metal which had once been a Zero Pointer. One for All was seriously crazy. Then she looked over at the blonde guy who was staring vacantly around. "Are you okay?!"
"Yay…" He gave a thumbs up.
Mina flopped backwards in relief. "Ah, that's good…"
"AND THAT'S TIME!"
Mina gasped. "Damnit!"
The points she'd grabbed would have to be enough.
—
Ikumi's throat and mouth burned. Maybe if this was a comic book she could have kept breathing fire endlessly, but most Quirks didn't work like that. Dragonframe gave her body in general and her mouth and throat in particular incredible heat resistance but constantly using her Quirk had been approaching that limit before that last attack.
She had never let off a blast that big before.
Shoji looked over to her with a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you alright, Midoriya?"
"I'm fine," Ikumi rasped. She had overused her fire breath before - what she needed was a cool drink and some rest. "How about you and Uraraka?"
Ikumi had just been fleeing when she saw Uraraka and Shoji fall. After seeing that, nothing else had mattered and she had run in without thinking. Uraraka managed to look up, pale and shaking. "'M fine," she managed.
Shoji gave a short nod. "I got a few scrapes and bruises from the attack but I'm fine otherwise."
"That's good…" Ikumi pulled out her water bottle, which she'd filled with aloe vera juice. Taking a swig, she sighed as it soothed her overheated throat.
He looked over at Uraraka. "Do you need to go to the nurses' office…"
"Uraraka," the other girl responded. She shook her head. "As-as I said, I'm fine. Just a bit queasy now."
"I'll be the judge of that, young lady."
Ikumi started slightly as she saw the familiar short figure of Recovery Girl come up. She gave each of them a critical look. "Here you go, young lady." Uraraka blinked as she got a handful of candy.
Recovery Girl patted her gently on the back. "Apart from using your Quirk too much, you managed to avoid anything life threatening or crippling. Make sure you eat something that's easy on your stomach and don't try to use your Quirk for a while."
She then looked up at Ikumi. "Open up, young lady." Sheepishly, Ikumi did so, kneeling down so that the Heroine could look at her mouth. She hummed, then handed her a large handful of candy. "Hm. No serious damage, but just in case…"
She pecked Ikumi on the cheek, and she gasped as she felt the burning in her throat and mouth just vanish, followed by a tired feeling. "Eat those, they'll help you feel better."
"Y-yes, Recovery Girl!" Ikumi managed to squeak out.
As the Heroine went, Ikumi sighed. Uraraka looked down at herself awkwardly. "I just hope I have enough points to get in…" she mumbled.
Shoji shrugged. "We don't know what the cut-off point was. I feel pretty confident that the points I got will be enough."
Ikumi nodded. "You'll get in, I'm sure of it! You were really cool out there, making those robots fly!"
"Aheh…" Uraraka rubbed the back of her head.
—
Unseen by the new group of friends, Tenya couldn't help but stare. The other examinees shook their heads, muttering amongst themselves.
"Man, that was crazy."
"Did you see her try and fight that thing? I mean, she's big and all, but that was on another level!"
Tenya shook his head. She hadn't gone in to fight it, she had gone to save the other students… Had she forgotten that this was an exam?
His eyes widened. An exam… Maybe they were testing us for more than our ability to destroy robots!
Tenya couldn't help but grit his teeth. He had been wrong about the tall girl. He had thought that she was being disruptive but in the end she had been a superior candidate. When he met her at U.A, he was going to apologise for his harsh words.
As they piled onto the bus, he wondered if anybody else had figured out the hidden meaning of the exam besides Midoriya.
AN: Got this ready, whoo!
Surprise surprise, Mina has One for All! I'm sure you can figure out roughly when All Might gave it to her.
So now Ikumi has gone through the exam! And even made some friends, yay! How will the scores change after this?
Ikumi's Quirk is fun to write for, even though I realise that it is a very, very powerful Quirk. Sure, it's not One for All, but it's definitely top tier.
Please review, for comments keep me alive!
Next time… We're gonna see the results and probably get to class!