Bakugo was angry. He had that situation completely under control, but now that useless Magikarp might think that he was responsible for saving his life! He didn't actually know how he was keeping the situation under control, but he knew that he was the best of his age, was destined to be the best there was, and so he certainly would have found some way to take that Muk out, wouldn't he?
Voltorb's eyes were narrowed in seeming anger, as always, but Bakugo knew his lifelong companion more than well enough to read the subtle signs of concern.
"What are you worried about? You're the best there is, because you're mine! That Explosion would have stopped that villain's monster if it was just a bit closer! You'll see!"
But it wasn't a little bit closer. Refusing to let doubt seep in, Bakugo instead chose this moment to train.
"Okay, if Explosion is too dangerous for you except as a last resort, and electricity can't take on all our opponents, then we just need to find another way to blast them apart!"
Using some knowledge he gathered on the matrix from past Voltorb users, most of it unreliable but the best he had, he gave it exercises focused on concentrating sound. This should lead to a reliable attack for hurting ground-types (as well as semi-liquids like that Muk), and plus it would fit his explosive personality. Yes, that was the solution to his doubts. If he, impossibly, wasn't already the best, then he simply needed to get better.
--
Unbeknownst to the explosive boy, that 'useless Magikarp' was having almost exactly the same thoughts. As All-Might regaled Izuku with stories of the building Milotic had smashed the first time he managed to summon her, and the people that almost didn't make it, it was made clear; sudden evolution like what this power entailed filled a pocket monster with extensive power but gave them little control. He had to prepare for it.
One, to form his bond as closely as possible. Two, to get Magikarp used to the idea that it might hold more power. It might become a slightly bigger Magikarp, or dramatically change into a bizarre fish. The changes created by this power were just as varied as evolution, and a look through the history of trainers, legal and otherwise, who managed to 'evolve' their pocket monsters showed an astounding level of change.
So, every day Izuku came to the beach and summoned Magikarp, having it swim against the tides, escaping on its own every time a wave washed it against the shore, to get stronger, then to a nearby pond where it could be happy. Izuku tried out different foods to find Magikarp's favorites. When he wasn't with Magikarp, he worked out or practiced simple martial arts. While he was hardly going to become a professional fighter in the few months left before UA's exams, he could show that he was serious.
All-Might was hesitant to share the power with the boy. It wasn't something that one just gave away willy-nilly, and not just because of the potential danger from handing it off to the wrong person. Beyond the hazards of the super-powered yet probably uncontrolled pocket monster itself, it also caused splitting headaches, sometimes to the point of near-lethality. He himself had almost been hospitalized trying to use it before he managed to get Milotic into existence.
So he waited, and waited, and waited a little on I more, until he realized that the day of the exam was rapidly approaching and Izuku still had a Magikarp, and, with all of the boy's training, it couldn't handle itself against even a moderately strong pocket monster of practically any other type. It couldn't even face a fire or rock type with its own water typing. So, eventually understanding that it was now or never, he met the boy at their regular beach at their regular time, but held up a hand and stopped him before he went on to their regular training.
"Izuku, it's time."
The boy's determined face changed to a grin of excitement.
"Now, as I've told you before, this power is dangerous. If you can't control it, it could hurt or even kill you. There is no shame in backing out now."
Izuku seemed to refuse even mildly entertaining the idea.
Half impressed by the boy's determination and half-sighing at his apparent lack of self-preservation, All-Might pulled up his sleeve and charged the symbol. A line, interrupted by a circle, and surrounded by several half-circles, started glowing on his upper arm. First, he used it to bring Milotic into being, ensuring that he was prepared for any potential rampages. Then he did something he only understood in theory, remembering Nana Shumura's explanation, and concentrated the power in his fingers.
As one grew into a claw, All-Might stated solemnly, "now, hold out your upper arm and I'll carve this into your skin."
Izuku dutifully held out his upper arm a second before he actually processed the words, shouting out "wha-" before All-Might sliced into his flesh and went about 'carving' with shocking speed. The young boy barely had time to process the pain before it was all over, but pain he did process.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Izuku screamed, gripping his now bleeding upper arm.
"Once the pain subsides, you should be able to use it. Outsider's Growth, it was named by someone long ago, though I have no idea where that name came from. Careful, it's not…always a pleasant experience."
Izuku gritted his teeth and stopped himself from declaring that it was already an unpleasant experience. He was not about to sass All-Might. Not after having finally gotten the chance to be a Hero.
After a few minutes, the pain did subside, much more quickly than it should have naturally, and he felt a buzzing sensation in the back of his head. It almost reminded him of radio static.
"Now," All-Might said when Izuku nodded at him, "I brought Milotic out to keep things under control, so let's try it. See if you can empower Magikarp!"
Izuku summoned Magikarp. He stared at his companion, flopping about in a way that was so familiar, once so shameful to him, but he shouldn't feel that way. Regardless of what had happened in the past, All-Might had given them this opportunity to show what Magikarp could really do. Izuku focused, feeling the energy growing in his upper arm and spreading from there, reaching out to Magikarp. The sound of radio static grew in the back of his head, getting louder and louder, giving him a flaring headache, creating an intense sensation of change and growth and power…an image popped into his head, vague and fuzzy, blue and serpentine, spinning about, no, gyrating, for some reason he felt that that was the best way to describe it. Gyrating, gyrate, gyra, gyara, gyara…the pain grew to be too much and Izuku passed out.
--
Izuku woke up on a make-shift bed, All-Might staring over him in concern. "Don't worry, that almost happened to me the first time too."
"Did it work?" Izuku asked.
"It didn't finish," All-Might answered. "Magikarp started glowing like he was going to evolve, but it stopped when you passed out."
Izuku punched the bed in frustration. "You mean that after all that work, I'm too weak?" Tears started to form in his eyes. "People always used to think that I couldn't become a Hero with a Magikarp, but it turns that I'm the one holding Magikarp back, go figure!"
All-Might grabbed Izuku's shoulders and forced the boy to look into his eyes. "Young Midoriya, look at me. I already said that this almost happened to me the first time I tried to turn Feebass into Milotic. Magikarp was glowing. It was working, you just need to try more. At least I think so. Did you get the name?"
"The…what?"
All-Might slapped his forehead. "I did not prepare you for this properly, did I? When I first succeeded with Feebass, I had images pop into my head. There were many beautiful works of art, as 'beautiful as my pocket monster,' focusing on the Venus de Milo. Then I thought of the English word 'exotic,' which I understood on a level I hadn't before. Somehow, I felt that it was right to put them together. If it's working, then you should have come up with a name, or started to before you, well…" he gestured to the bed.
Izuku scrunched his forehead in thought. "I also suddenly understood an English word. I don't even think I knew it before now. 'Gyrate.' I was thinking it over and over again, like I was trying to come up with a new way of saying it."
All-Might smiled as he nodded. "That's it! Once you figure out the name the power is giving you, you should be able to activate it properly. That does not mean you can safely control it, however, as I've explained. Now, we'll practice again under controlled circumstances away from people, starting tomorrow, August 2-"
Both of their eyes widened as they realized they had forgotten about the UA entrance exam being tomorrow.
--
Momo found the written exam almost insultingly easy. She knew that she was ahead of most of her peers on the tested topics, and that the recommendation exams in particular were more about making sure that your rich sponsors weren't asking UA to risk its reputation on worthless students just because you were rich, but really, it was hard to see who would fail this.
"Wow, that was incredibly difficult! I am glad that UA is striving to make sure we do our best!" One of her fellow recommendation hopefuls shouted at the top of his lungs, answering her question.
"I…suppose," she answered, trying to be polite.
Smiling to an almost disturbingly deep degree, the boy in question shouted out to her, "you didn't find it difficult?"
At her awkward nod, he continued, "wow, you must be a genius. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to study with incredible people like you!" Expecting some degree of competitiveness or arrogance, she was surprised at the complete lack of sarcasm in his tone. "I've never met an Elf before!" The boy continued. "Do your ears help you pay attention to the teachers so you can learn better?"
If it weren't for his tone earlier, she would have scoffed and ignored him. She was from a wealthy and well-connected family, and Elves never got it as badly as the other Meta-Humans anyway, so she didn't have as much personal experience with racism as many of her kindred, but she was ready to sneer or ignore such comments.
However, he was completely sincere. Nothing about his expression, tone, or general behavior indicated that he would have even known how to lie about acting otherwise; he genuinely was curious about how her ears worked, and probably didn't even realize why his question could come off as offensive. That…confused her. How was she to respond to it? Should she chide him for his ignorance, calmly explain what he had done wrong, or just let it go? Or maybe even just give a sincere answer to a sincere question.
Luckily, she was saved from her confusion by the school staff announcing that they had to run an obstacle course using their Unnatural Abilities. Preparing two of her drones, one flying one equipped with taser wire and a wheeled one equipped with smoke grenades, but not deploying them (it limited her movement somewhat to keep drones actively engaged, not the best condition for an obstacle course), she considered the fact that she would mostly be dealing with trainers from now on and have to learn how to deal with such comments.
She had already thought through emotionally how to respond to outright racists, but benign ignorance wasn't something she had even considered. Momo only knew the horror stories from her aunts and uncles, admittedly somewhat biased as Tir na nOg supporters with connections in Ireland, and the same condescension they had felt toward her for focusing her elvish talents on cyber-engineered robotics, or 'rigging' as they called it colloquially, made her a little uninclined to listen to those voices. So, this made her confused and worried, and that made her start late to get through the obstacle course. Embarrassingly so.
The very same boy who had asked her the question about her ears earlier was storming ahead, using his pocket monster to summon a wind behind him, while another boy was right on his tail, seemingly just through his own physical strength. Even though the second-place kid was also a trainer, he was only using his pocket monster to destroy obstacles rather than aid in his mobility.
She herself managed to catch up to the rest on physical feats alone, at least until some Atavist Wizard turned the ground to mud and got everyone but the two kids in the front stuck. Not panicking, Momo deployed both of her drones, one blasting the area with smoke to hinder the others even further and keeping the Wizard from seeing what she was doing, and the other flying above where she could grab it and use it to help pull her out from the mud. It wasn't strong enough for her to fly with it, but it kept her light enough that she could run ahead without sinking. Just as she feared, using up brain-power to keep the drones working meant her legs weren't operating at top capacity, but she found her progress acceptable anyways.
At least until something licked her. Finding herself inexplicably paralyzed by the sensation, a girl and her pocket monster, some purple monstrosity with hands floating in front of it, no arms connecting them to its body as far as she could see (which all of her studies on biology, even the bizarre biology of pocket monsters, found inscrutable), stuck their tongues out together as they ran past her.
Unfortunately for them, while her body may have been paralyzed, her drones weren't, nor was the cyberware in her brain that let her command them, and that same girl found herself getting tasered for her efforts. Feeling the effects of the monster's tongue wear off, she ran past the girl and suppressed the urge to stick her own tongue out. Momo was a lady. Such petty things were beneath her.
Their squabbling meant that they couldn't catch up to the two boys who made such steady progress earlier. The benignly ignorant one from earlier and his large black bird were just about to cross the finish line when he looked back, right into the other one, a physically strong boy (and a handsome one, at least for a non-elf, she had to admit), with some vaguely humanoid looking monster, and seemed to deflate. When they caught one another in the eye, the one who was about to win just gave up. What was that about?
She guessed that it didn't really matter, as because he chose to stand there and let the other boy get first place, she herself managed to get third after the Dog Atavist that trapped them all, barely beating out the girl with the disembodied hand creature. There was a little damage to her pride over getting a spot ahead because of someone effectively giving up, but not enough to void the victory.
"My ears aren't that much better than a trainer's, really. I did well in school because I paid attention in class." Seeing the haunted look he held as she passed him, she did briefly feel a desire to comfort him, but ultimately she could only think of sincerely answering his earlier question.
"Wow! That is very impressive! I am glad to have been in the company of such a genius, and take part in UA's selection exam!" His expression was completely back to normal, until he glanced at the same trainer from earlier, "it's nice that some of us belong here." That would have been concerning if Momo didn't have an interview to be part of.
--
"So, in spite of performing more than admirably in the recommendation exam, Mr. Inasa has chosen not to join our Hero Program. We are uncertain as to why. A shame, as his Swellow was apparently an evolved pocket monster. You almost never see those from a child who hasn't even started proper training yet. Certainly not two in one year." He crossed out 'Swellow Trainer' on his list, as well as two others who didn't quite make the cut in spite of what their sponsors claimed about their abilities, and then handed the list to Aizawa and Kan.
He disliked the fact that they were looking at the officially registered categories instead of profiles on the children, especially as he was certain that neither teacher actually watched the exams. Aizawa would insist that his own exam would be good enough to weed out the bad ones and Kan trusted in the school's judgement (and, though he'd never admit it, placed a little too much importance on category and what it said about the Heroes who held them).
"An Atavist and a Wizard? An Elementalist at that? I think we both agree that I'd be the most suited for that one," Kan immediately perked up.
Aizawa looked like he was only halfway paying attention. "Yeah, sure. I guess I'll take the Elf to even things out. We'll both get a trainer, so which'll it be? Haunter's impressive, more in that she managed to evolve it already than because it's especially powerful, but…what's a Sableye?"
"Apparently it's dark and ghost type," Nedzu helpfully informed them.
Aizawa's eyes opened as the implications popped into his head a few seconds before Kan realized the same thing. "No energy weaknesses, huh? I wonder if that's gone to the boy's head. I can either show him his real potential, or knock him down a peg quickly if he thinks he can rely on that. Give him to me."
Kan shrugged. "I certainly won't mind having a girl who could evolve in Middle School in my class. 1-B will be the best this year either way."
Aizawa shrugged to himself, not overly concerned about such competitions. "So, it's settled then. We've got these four sorted, now to just figure out the…remaining 38 who pass the general exam. Great."
--
Izuku stared at the archways of UA with awe. This building was where his future lied, luck willing. They were amazing, they were incredible, they were so many synonyms for 'great' that he couldn't stop thinking about them until he ran into a girl and tripped, only being saved from hitting the ground by grabbing some floating brown thing. It looked like some children's toy, but one carved a long time ago, like they might have played with it in Babylon or something, except that it was floating, and glowing, and growling at him…righting himself quickly, he stood up and bowed, shouting "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall on top of your pocket monster like that. It was an honest mistake, I was just so nervous about seeing UA in all of its glory like this and…".
"It's okay," the girl tried to reassure him. "I brought out Baltoy to give me courage for the same reason."
He was too busy apologizing to listen, until she named her pocket monster and he looked at it, his mind spinning with questions. "How is it floating? Is it a flying-type generating some sort of downward wind through Unnatural means?"
"Psychic," she corrected, "and it's also a ground type, actually, even if it never touches the ground. Hopefully he'll get me through the exam." She chuckled nervously.
"He looks amazing! I'm sure he'll help you out a lot!" Izuku encouraged her, slightly embarrassed about how he'd do if he couldn't figure out Outsider's Growth.
"What about yours…?" She started to ask before an announcer called out that all prospective students needed to hurry to their seats. "Well, see you later!" She shouted as she walked away, Izuku slightly flustered about the fact he had just talked to a girl before moving in with the crowd.
--
"Alright, listeners!" A man with slicked-back hair and clothing suggestive of either a radio personality or an actual radio stood on stage next to a purple, almost humanoid pocket monster with organ pipes growing from its back and an extended mouth. A mouth that, when it noticed the students not immediately sitting down and giving its trainer their attention, opened and gave a massive bellow that reverberated throughout the hall and left everyone deaf for a second.
Present Mic and Exploud! Izuku cheered internally. I can't believe I'm seeing and hearing them in person!
"We're here to see if you have what it takes to be among the best! Here at UA, we don't push you to your limits, we push you to your limits and beyond! Plus Ultra, as we all love to say! Now can I get a yeah?"
He waited an awkward moment for the students to respond, but no one did. Izuku was about to, but the crushing atmosphere of apathy created by everyone else shut him up. Disappointed but wanting to move forward, Present Mic shouted out that it was time for the written exams, which certainly did nothing to increase their excitement.
They weren't really more difficult than the tests at the end of the semester to graduate from Middle School, so Izuku was more than confident about his performance there. What he was worried about came next.
"Now, everyone, it's time for the secretive yet legendary practical exam! Can I get a let's go?"
Izuku really wished that he could overcome his anxiety and join in, as Present Mic looked a bit disappointed over the fact that no one else was, but his nerves got the better of him as per usual and he said nothing.
Rather than react to the student body's lack of a reaction, Present Mic continued to show a presentation of various creatures most of the student body had never seen before. From following the careers of various Atavist and Meta Heroes, Izuku vaguely recalled something about…were they spirits?
"These are your opponents in the exam. Spirits, summoned by our very own Heroes here,"
"Aw, man, we have to fight fake pocket monsters? Is keeping those furries' egos up really that important?" Someone shouted out.
That kickstarted Izuku's memory about the enigma of spirits, which weren't really any more of enigma than pocket monsters and Meta-Humans and Atavists themselves, but only added more confusion to the world's attempt to categorize these beings. They could be summoned by magic, and even trained and commanded like a pocket monster, but only for a limited time. They seemed to vanish once their task was done, or if the summoner lost control, and also seemed to pop into existence when they were summoned, but mountains of evidence suggested that that wasn't the case. There was plenty of reason to think that spirits existed independently of their summoners, but where they were before and after they were summoned was a mystery that would make the man who solved it famous.
While the same was technically true of pocket monsters, those stayed around with their trainer and seemed to exist in their clothing when not summoned, plus they were known to die without their trainers, while it wasn't certain whether spirits could die. Some were connected to their environments, while others were based around the classical elements.
Present Mic smiled back at the rude kid shouting.
"Well, I guess that you're confident. We'll see how you actually do in the field. Regardless, the reason we have spirits here is that they can be dismissed when needed, so no one actually has to get hurt, on either end, when you fight them. No one really knows where they come from and where they go when they aren't needed, but they don't get killed, and these ones won't kill you! Unfortunately for you, that doesn't mean they won't attack! Hurt them enough so that they'll obey their orders to disperse, and you'll get villain takedown points! Pocket monster trainers get one point for taking down spirits that are weak to their monster's typing, three points if they're neutral, or five points if they're strong against it! Meta-Humans and Atavists get three points for any elemental spirit they take down! Your pamphlets have the information on how typing works in relation to spirits, so feel free to consult it!"
He stood back and let the prospective students absorb this information, some grumbling about the difference in points between what trainers and non-trainers could earn, even if no one could agree as to which was actually advantaged, until a boy in glasses stood up.
"Excuse me, sir, but there is no information given about this last type of spirit. If that's a mistake, then it's a pretty glaring error on the part of what is supposed to be a distinguished institution!"
Izuku was going over the list as they spoke, noting that the the 'Undine' acted as water-types, the 'Salamander' acted as fire-types, the 'Sylph' as flying-types, the 'Gnome' as rock and ground types, and the 'Shade' as ghost-types before he started wondering if it was type-based attacks or the typing of the pocket monster that mattered for counting points, and if it was the latter how did they deal with dual-types that had contradictory strengths and weaknesses, were they simply changed to 'neutral' in the way they cancelled out when used as moves? Or did having one type simply mean that…
"And you!" The standing boy continued. "Please stop muttering! It's distracting to everyone around you! If you're not going to take this with the seriousness that it deserves, then leave!"
Izuku hadn't realized that he speaking out loud, and slumped, embarrassed, while Present Mic answered the first query.
"The City-Spirit? Don't worry about it. It isn't worth any points, no matter your category. I recommend ignoring it."
--
Everyone stared in awe at the facsimile of a ruined city UA had created for them. Their awe only increased as masses of water congealed into vague images of horses, flames burst from seemingly nowhere only to shape themselves into enormous lizards, rocks simply jutted up from the ground, growing into almost-human shapes, and swirling winds brought together bits of mist that defied any attempts at a consistent shape yet still remained as one form. Many of them shivered at the sight of black-yet-transparent masses, barely resembling the top halves of people but with no distinguishing features, fading in from nowhere. They kept taking in the sight, considering how best to go about fighting these creatures, when Present Mic shouted, "what are you guys waiting for? The test already started!"
--
Mineta had genuine concerns about how brave he could be. It was his biggest obstacle when trying to go for Hero work. However, the promise of getting the respect he always craved, the women he always desired, pushed him forward. Now, seeing the strange distortions in reality appear before him before making monstrosities of water, stone, fire, mist, and whatever the heck the Shades were supposed to be, his knees started shaking. And this was for a perfectly safe practice fight. He might not be able to do this.
He should turn around, find a perfectly safe career doing literally anything else…a Gnome struck a girl in front of him as her electric-type did nothing to it, knocking her back until she almost fell on him. He saw the way that the standardized athletic uniform they gave them all complemented her buttocks, how with her falling form her breasts swayed a bit…
"Wurmple, string shot!" He shouted only half thinking, his pocket monster binding the Gnome's legs together while he reached out his hands and caught her.
"Thanks," she gasped out, not even noticing that her butt-cheek had landed right into one of his palms. Her face turned red when she did, and she got to her feet while Mineta braced for a slap.
Instead, she assumed that it was an accident, thanked him once more, and went on her way. Mineta grinned to himself. Heroes really do get the ladies! He was getting into UA now. A fire had been lit.
--
Ururaka was proud as another Salamander fell to Baltoy's mud slap, even if she thought it was only one point. She didn't remember offhand the relationship between ground-types and fire, but she thought it was something like that. It was why she was avoiding the Undines, Shades and Sylphs and getting Baltoy to use the one psychic attack he was sometimes able to use on the Gnomes.
"Psybeam!" She shouted as a Sylph flew behind them and sent out a burst of wind. Baltoy's glowing lines sent out a burst of circular energy that struck at the Sylph, it's misty form dissipating and then pulling back together. Ururaka ordered him to do it again, but Baltoy couldn't, bringing up the glow but unable to pull off the move.
He had been like this forever, but it was particularly frustrating now, since she had put so much effort into coming here, risked the money to move her into an apartment, prepared to do a job that could get her parents out of their financial straits. Was her selfishness hindering him? No, that was nonsense. She was doing this for the money. She needed the money. Pragmatism guiding her, she had Baltoy float them to a nearby ledge where she could flee from the Sylph and find an easier target.
--
"Sonic Boom!" Bakugo ordered with a manic grin, his Voltorb blowing apart another Gnome. Giving him five points for every ground-type he destroyed when he had specifically spent so much time preparing his electric-type to face ground-types? UA might as well have awarded him with honors without even bothering to do the test. He laughed as he jumped over some struggling boy being pummeled by an Undine, not even bothering to lift a finger, and searched for the next Gnome to blast apart. UA was for the best, and Bakugo was ready to show them he was that.
--
Koda was terrified. Most wouldn't see it, merely staring at the massive Troll and his pseudo-tribal clothing covered in bear motifs, but he was. Shaking to control his nerves, he prayed to Bear, tried to imagine what Bear wanted of him. Bears looked foolish and violent to the ignorant, but they contained great wisdom, and their Spirit knew great Healing. Koda fancied himself to be the same.
Seeing a trainer cry out in pain when a Salamander burnt his arm, Koda called on his Essence and cast a spell to Heal the boy. He knew that it was probably a foolish waste of his Essence. The drain wasn't something he could really afford right now, but he saw, and he wanted to help. It was why he wanted to become a Hero in the first place.
--
Jirou was currently aware that she had made a tactical error. Ordering Whismur to go into an Uproar had been a perfectly fine idea for taking out a single Undine, but now her pocket monster wouldn't stop. And the noise had attracted Gnomes, who weren't going to be nearly as damaged by it.
It had taken a lot of courage on her part to tell her parents that she wasn't planning to continue the family business of selling instruments going on the path of the Hero, and she had no intention of wasting that courage. But what was she supposed to do here?
As they started beating on her pink little friend, ignoring the small bits of dirt and sound the sound-waves she was unleashing chipped away, Jirou angrily punched one, striking right where the neck would be on a human, and did far more damage than she was expecting when its head lolled forward and the next burst of Whismur's Outrage sent it flying right off and triggering the beast to vanish.
Rockin', she thought. We make a pretty good duet.
She'd had her doubts, but then learning what Present Mic's pocket monster used to look like before evolution and seeing what her Whismur could be…it was looking like she just might make it.
--
Izuku didn't have the slightest clue what the others around him were thinking. Considering how strong they all looked, they were probably confidently dominating the exam and wondering how close they'd be to first place. No-one besides Izuku was going to be in last, if his current progress continued.
Magikarp, as per normal, had flopped from side to side when summoned. Izuku had tried ordering him to flail against the eyes like with Muk, but it turned out that spirits didn't have eyes. He tried fighting by himself, but when he punched a Shade his fist flew right through it and sent him sailing toward a Salamander, which roasted his hand when his fist rammed into it.
It was arguably particularly sad that he couldn't even take down a Salamander and get one single point with his water-type. Realizing that this was going nowhere, he tried to find a spot where the spirits weren't looking and concentrated energy into Outsider's Growth.
Magikarp flopped more and more rapidly. His head felt like the world's loudest radio static was pouring directly into his ear. The pain grew and grew. It flared up, distracting him from the outside world, making him unable to concentrate on anything, not even the word forming in his head. Gyrate. Gyration. Gyradion. Gyradon. Gyra. Gyarad…"Ahhh," he shouted, unable to sustain the pain anymore right as a Sylph blew him over, Magikarp sent flying. "Magikarp!" Forgetting about trying to get Outsider's Growth to work for now, he went running to look after his pocket monster.
--
The staff was watching with varying levels of interest. "More Rescue Points for that Troll," one of them noted.
"That poor Magikarp trainer," another spoke up. "I know that a Hero could come from anywhere, but he really needs to learn that that doesn't mean a Hero could be anyone."
"We'll see," someone else responded. "I'm personally a little concerned about that Voltorb trainer. He's getting an absurd amount of Villain Points, but hasn't even accidentally gotten a Rescue Point consideration."
"He's got talent. We can teach virtue."
"Honestly, I feel like it's the opposite. Isn't that why we have Rescue Points?"
Before the debate could devolve further, someone asked if it was time to send in the City-Spirit. The school's resident shaman smiled.
--
Everyone noticed the sudden shift in the air. A few noticed the shifting rubble. More noticed when debris, both of fallen buildings and placed trash, started swirling in a single space. Once again, everyone noticed that the debris warped and gathered together, forming into a gigantic humanoid figure, roughly twenty-five feet in height and wider than the fattest Troll. It made no sound as it stepped forward, at least not until one of its 'arms' stretched forward unnaturally quickly and knocked some poor kid's pocket monster unconscious. Everyone, seeing how quickly it had done so, and remembering from their pamphlets that this was the creature worth zero points, ran screaming or calmly retreated.
Ururaka had been scouting from up high when a piece of stone beneath her floated away to join up with the monstrosity that had just been created. Like everyone else, she wanted to run for it. Get out of there. Hope that the points that she had earned already would be more than enough.
Unfortunately, thanks to the ground beneath her feet floating away, she tripped and fell into a nearby bit of rubble, twisting her ankle at an uncomfortable angle. That was…not good.
Trying to stand, she only succeeded in getting the enormous spirit's attention as the flaring pain in her leg proved too much. Baltoy tried to float in front of her and keep her safe, but there was laughably little that it could do. It tried a mud-slap. The city-spirit got a bit dirty. It tried psybeam, but failed miserably.
The sound of a car-horn issued forth from the spirit, and a sound-wave hit Baltoy directly, cracking it into pieces. Ururaka suspected that it would have died without the trainer bond. Tears formed in her eyes at the situation; she couldn't even bear a little pain in order to make herself stand up when Baltoy was going through hell to keep her safe, and from a monstrosity that probably had orders to not kill her the way it was him. What was she doing? She wanted to be a Hero, didn't she? Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. She screamed at herself.
--
Izuku heard her screams and, believing them to be a cry for help, turned back toward the gigantic culmination of everything dangerous about a city. It was just like with Bakugo, really. When someone was in danger, he couldn't think of doing anything but helping them. There was nothing either he or Magikarp could possibly do in their current state, but when he saw the spirit threatening the girl, he knew that he had to take care of this. How? It didn't matter, he wasn't operating on conscious thought at this point.
He saw the threat. He saw the person that he needed to save. He saw the spirit's body gyrating…gyrating…gyrating…gyro…gyra..gyrad…the flaring pain of the radio signal meant nothing to him now. He pushed through it, like he couldn't before. He hyper-focused both on the need to save someone, and the act of gyrating and whatever word was related to it, and felt the power growing. Gyrad…Gyarad…."GYARADOS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs without understanding what he had just said.
The glow of evolution surrounded Magikarp, and then exploded. Or at least, that was what it looked like as the fish's mass increased tenfold before shaping itself, becoming serpentine in appearance. As the glow vanished, what was once an orange carp had become…a sea monster? That was the closest to a one-phrase description that Izuku could come up with to describe what he saw before him, the twenty-foot long serpentine monstrosity with the head of an eastern-style dragon and a fish's tail, its fins (now enormous) and barbels (now trailing from its face in long wisps) the only features that connected it to its original form. All-Might was right; Outsider's Growth could get weird, as there was no way that that was connected to a Magikarp's natural form.
He was also right about its natural aggression. Gyarados, as he guessed it was named, charged forward without an order, building some sort of green fire in its mouth before biting and ripping into the city-spirit. Izuku might have let his awe drop to admire the sight if Gyarados's tail wasn't also thrashing about, striking him and sending him flying into the air.
Dangerously high, actually, as he noted until some girl shouted "Baltoy, try to save him!" A crumbling pocket monster floated up and barely managed to give him room to grab onto its handles, not catching him but slowing his fall enough that he could roll into his landing and…ow! That…might have been a broken arm.
--
UA's staff was stunned. "Did that kid just evolve right at the end of the exam?"
"It might be a special ability. Maybe his pocket monster can disguise itself as a Magikarp?"
"Well, that power is something we should certainly cultivate in our school!"
"Are you joking? He got attacked by his own pocket monster. A creature that out of control? The last thing he needs is training to be more powerful. No one who can't control their monster can be a Hero."
"He'd be a liability," someone else agreed, looking as the Gyarados smashed several buildings, a few seemingly intentionally, as it continued its fight with the city-spirit. "That thing looks like it will hurt more than it helps."
"You're all focusing on his pocket monster, and not on the boy himself. Even though he thought that it would be worth zero points, he still fought that thing in order to save that girl. I think that that shows he has what it takes to be a Hero by itself."
"Don't be absurd. Most people want to help others. That doesn't matter if they don't know how, or can't and just make things worse."
"But he did help."
The debate would rage on for quite a while before it was decided that Izuku Midoriya would be granted just enough Rescue Points to eak himself into the bottom of the top 38.
--
Aizawa and Kan were meeting once again, this time for their favorite activity: sorting the kids who passed the general exam into their respective classes. Considering that there were thirty-eight and too little time to check out more than their category listing, it never went swimmingly.
"A Whismur trainer, huh?" Aizawa noted. "With all the years I've worked with Present Mic, I think I know what she'll need better than you."
Kan accepted the reasoning. "I'll take the Scyther trainer. Working with those blades safely is something that I think I can work with."
"You just think it looks cool," Aizawa accused, then moved on before Kan could respond. "It's mostly trainers; I think we should settle the Atavists and Meta-Humans first. I guess that you'll want all the Atavist wizards?"
Being a Boar Atavist who specialized in Water Elementalism, it only made sense, and Aizawa saw the logic, even if he didn't like sticking to one's specialties like this.
"There's only two this year," Kan noted, trying to hide his disappointment at the fact.
"You can have both of them, and even the Meditite and Mr. Mime trainers," Aizawa answered, giving him the only psychic-type trainers he noticed passing on first glance in order to make a point, not that it seemed to. "Then I'll take the physical focus Atavists. Otter, Rhino, Monkey? Maybe you can take the Porcupine, just to keep us a little bit even."
"The Bear, too," Kan answered. "It'll make sense for me to have more of them. There are only two Meta-Humans here, a Troll and an Ork. You've already got the Elf. Why don't you take both of them? Keep a theme going; some media types might claim segregation, but what do they know?"
Accepting that fact to keep the conversation moving forward, Aizawa sighed before looking through the unsorted trainers. "I want the Wurmple," he spoke up, causing Kan's eyes to narrow.
Wurmple, Caterpie, and Weedle were some of the most highly demanded pocket monsters for Hero work; 'String Shot' was one of the most useful moves out there, and they could learn it easily, capturing and immobilizing villains, providing a grapple for climbing, a make-shift bandage, and all sorts of things that made Hero work easier, and then they could eventually use harden and learn how to fly…so much potential, yet so rarely realized for whatever reason.
Well, the biggest reason was that they sometimes evolved on their own without trainer intervention, a rarity among pocket monsters, and without care lost some of their earliest abilities, as seen by two other students on the list.
Kan would have fought for it, if his eyes hadn't narrowed on another entry. "Then I get the Spinarak." Not necessarily as amazing, but still had String Shot.
Aizawa found that fair. "Flip for which one gets the early Metapod and which the early Kakuna?"
"From what little I know of Butterfree, it fits your style better than mine," Kan responded.
Aizawa shrugged, ready to settle that and move on. "The Voltorb has a note. Huh, the most Villain Points out of anyone, but no Rescue Points whatsoever? Someone on the admissions board thinks he doesn't have the right mentality. Well, that's clearly my wheelhouse. Let's face it, Kan, you're too soft on problem students."
"I also know a lot about combat. I can bring out his potential," Kan argued.
"It looks like he already has potential. What he needs is the threat of consequences."
"You don't know that with the information given, but fine. Aw damn, we've got a Pichu again."
Aizawa groaned. "Does this one know how not to electrocute himself?"
"What do you think?" Kan then grinned. "You know, with such a skilled Voltorb trainer in your class, I think that it would be best to mentor his potential if…".
"You didn't take long to get vengeance for that one, did you?" Aizawa noted before folding his arms over his chest. "But fine, as long as you take the Magnemite trainer, I don't need anymore electric-types, and I get the Baltoy. I've never heard of that before, but it's listed as a ground-type, so that might help." Also, it would have been nice to have at least one psychic-type in his class, even though he'd never admit that to his colleague.
"Anyone else that you've got strong feelings on?"
"These two. 'Smeargle' and, what does this say, 'can disguise as a Magikarp, real monster name still being registered?' I have no idea what the former is, and what's with this note?"
"I've heard about Smeargle. It's apparently got some weird move that only it can learn. As to that note, it seems simple enough to me; he can't control his pocket monster. Odd that he got in with that problem."
"Because the entrance exam is nonsense," Aizawa explained for the umpteenth time. "Someone needs to really test that kid, see if he deserves to be here."
"And that someone is you? Very well. I'll take the Smeargle then, I appreciate a good mystery. So, what about the rest of them? They all look like above-average untrained trainers with solid pocket monsters."
Aizawa took a moment to look over them. "I definitely want the Kecleon. Stealth like that's within my line of expertise. Then," he quickly calculated how many seats he had left to fill in and chose from the remainder of the list more or less at random. "Ponyta, Slugma, Bellsprout, Sunkern, Murkrow. You can have the rest."
"Machop, Dunsparce, Misdreavous, Paras, Shuppet," Kan confirmed. "If Nedzu doesn't have any objections, then that's sorted. Quicker than last time."
"Honestly, I think we've just learned to stop over-thinking each one and tossed them where they'd land."
While the thought did distract him, he was still thinking over that unnamed pocket monster that disguised itself as a Magikarp. Kan was right in his observation, of course. Someone that couldn't keep their pocket monster from attacking themselves or others had no business in Hero work.
Aizawa had insisted on taking the boy into his class largely so he could expel the kid, to be perfectly honest, but he'd be given a chance like everyone else. While 'fairness' was too irrelevant to life in general and Hero work in particular to be a serious consideration for everything he did with his students, he wasn't completely ruthless. He just seriously doubted that such a kid could surprise him.
--
World Notes: Undines, Gnomes, Salamanders, Sylphs and Shades loosely followed Ironclaw's lore on spirits, while City-Spirit loosely followed Shadowrun's. Ironclaw spirits and Shadowrun spirits aren't seen as distinct in-universe.
I have a reason for each character's 'category,' even if not necessarily a good reason.