Here's the first chapter of autumn. Heatwaves are long gone, trees are changing colors and the son of number one villain is applying to the number one hero school.

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Comments:

Brocole07: Doing my best and enjoying it more than any writing in a long time.

Dsman: Definitely, but this chapter's exam has its sides too.

GreyMask 57: Thank you. Couldn't think of any better way to make his someone who can and has killed without going too out of character.

Etherious. Nat5u. Dragneel: Here's the update and next one will be in two weeks.

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Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 15: The Hero Exam

Izuku looked up at the UA wall and the tall buildings behind it with empty eyes. If the people around knew all that he had done… Was it really right for him to be here?

"Izuku!" A familiar voice called to him. Izuku turned towards it and responded.

"Toshi?"

Right or wrong, coming here was his best option. Izuku joined his friend and spotted Tenya inside the gate.

"Hey TN!" Izuku shouted, but the taller teen didn't respond. Izuku looked at Hitoshi.

"I don't think that's it," Hitoshi responded. Izuku pulled out his friend notebook and crossed out the name idea. By the time he got the notebook back into his backpack they had already reached Tenya. Izuku glanced at Hitoshi.

"How have you rested for the exam?"

"Better than you from the look of things."

"Huh?" Izuku stared at Hitoshi, uncertain about what to say.

"You look like you haven't slept since the last time we met up. I would know."

"Hitoshi is correct. You have seemed increasingly tired and quiet for the past few days," Tenya said. "It is a very bad time to be tired even with your skill. Is this about the incident on Sunday, or did something else happen?"

Unknown to Ida, the words stung Izuku. They would hate him if they knew.

"Uh, n… nothing happened," he stuttered for the first time in a long while.

"You think so lowly about us that you think we would believe that." Shinso poked Izuku's shoulder.

"It's really nothing… The whole UA and entrance exams and All Might being a teacher here and I saw Death Arms in the news bragging about how he'd save anyone in need. I've gone through every nightmare in the past few nights, including one where that guy on Sunday managed to…" Izuku paused. He was only partially lying. "And then there is…"

"What the hell are you doing here villain!?"

Izuku froze mid-sentence. After a brief shock his expression turned even more tired than it had been, undoing whatever impact Hitoshi's and Tenya's presence had. He turned around to face Katsuki Bakugo for the first time in ten months, since the walking garbage fire had told him to kill himself.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I told you I was going to be only person from our school to get in UA. Don't think that has changed just because you left for a few months! Do you really think they would even consider having a villain like you in this school?"

"I could ask you the same?" Midoriya asked. His expression was blank, but he had inched closer to his friends. Whether it was to feel safer or be ready to protect them wasn't completely clear even to himself. Bakugo stared at him, even angrier than before.

"What are you blabbering nerd."

"He is saying that it is your actions that are villainous, and not worthy of a hero, not Izuku's," Tenya said, waving his hand.

"Oh, what would you extras know about either of us?" Bakugo said.

"Everything relevant," Hitoshi interjected. "Yes, that includes his quirk and everything you have done for the past ten years. Your idea of a hero has to be pretty twisted to think you could be one."

"Really, you claim you know what this Deku's quirk is about, but you have no idea. You haven't actually experienced it."

"Yes I have," Hitoshi said. Bakugo froze, staring at him. "Izuku has borrowed my quirk several times and helped me a lot with it. I don't' see what the big deal is. Felt a bit strange being quirkless the first time, but it didn't bother me much."

Bakugo's eye twitched and he turned away with a huff.

"Not sure what he has done to you to make you spout garbage like that, but it's not like that was going to matter. You're not allowed to attack other applicants during the test and there's no way that nerd is going to pass without using a quirk. Not that the school would accept someone like him. Just wait till they realize what his quirk does."

"Actually," Izuku said, having gained some composure and positioned himself in front of Hitoshi. "The principal already knows and encouraged all of us to apply. We had tea and spoke with him, right after he banned a couple of bullies like you from even applying. This isn't Aldera Bakugo. You aren't a big fish in a small stale swamp anymore and you aren't the best at everything."

Surprisingly Bakugo didn't explode or even respond to that, just walking away without a word. Perhaps mentioning the principal had been the right choice even though they weren't as acquainted as he had made them out to be.

Izuku staggered back as soon as the blond-haired bomb stepped inside and disappeared out of sight. Luckily Tenya caught him before anything big enough to get attention happened. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," Izuku said. "I've never talked to him or heard anyone else talk to him like that. It's… I don't know how to feel."

"You can feel like you stood up to a bully once again, but you shouldn't think about it too much. Today we all have to focus on one thing," Tenya encouraged.

"And that is getting a higher score than him," Hitoshi added. "You said he thinks he is best at everything. The best way to teach him a lesson is scoring higher than him."

"That is not what we are here to do," Tenya interrupted. "We should focus on doing the best we can to gain admittance to the school."

"And that requires getting the best possible score, same as teaching that guy a lesson," Hitoshi said.

"I like the idea," Izuku said. "I can't think of a better way to teach him a lesson, not legally, if I can do it."

"We'll I guess it doesn't hurt anyone or contradict the goals of the exam," Tenya admitted. "Frankly it is less of a concern than your lack of sleep."

"I know I know," Izuku responded. "We should get going to find our exam rooms if we want to make it in time."

"Right, let's go," Tenya declared.

They were unfortunate enough to have different classrooms assigned for their written exams. Although it meant Hitoshi and Tenya weren't around to question the reasons for Izuku's tiredness and dark demeanour. He could focus on the struggle of taking a written exam while sleep deprived. It wasn't quite as difficult as he had expected, or Kurogiri was just that good of a tutor.

After the written exams UA gave the hero course applicants a long lunch break, probably so people would not have to do the practical portion right after eating. It gave Izuku time to find Hitoshi and Tenya without rushing straight to the cafeteria. He found the two waiting outside of it.

"So how did your exam go?" Tenya asked.

"I didn't fall asleep," Izuku responded and faced Tenya's stare for a few seconds before looking down. "I think I did fine. I thought it would be harder."

"It wasn't as bad as I thought either," Hitoshi said, "but I'm still worried."

"I am sure you both did well," Tenya declared. "Now we should go eat to be at our best for the practical exam."

They got their food and started looking for a free table. Hitoshi suddenly moved in the way to guide Izuku in a sideways direction, which might have been strange if Izuku hadn't already noticed the explosive blonde out in front of them. Luckily, they found an empty corner table where some quick eaters had already left. Izuku sat between Hitoshi and Tenya, imagining how this could become a daily thing if they did well. They just had to pass the practical exam, if he could just focus on it. As he was finishing his lunch Izuku could no longer hold back a large yawn.

"Maybe you should take a nap. We still have an hour before the exam introduction session begins," Hitoshi suggested. "Want help with that?"

"I would say yes, but you might need it more to be at your best in the test," Izuku responded.

"Hey, I've slept more in the last few days than a normal week."

Izuku tilted his head to glance at Hitoshi with a small smile.

"That isn't a very high bar."

"You are the one that looks like a sleepwalker."

"You should both sleep," Tenya remarked. Both Izuku and Hitoshi turned to look at him as Izuku's face slowly twisted into a smirk.

"So are you volunteering to make us?" Izuku asked. "I'm sure Toshi trusts you enough."

Tenya blinked.

"What?"

"You know my ability to give quirks isn't limited to their original owner. If I let Toshi make me sleep then I can't make him sleep, and the same applies the other way around, but you seem well rested already."

"I am okay with that if Tenya can learn to use my quirk fast enough," Hitoshi said. "Wouldn't you like to have two quirks, for a while?"

"Ummh, didn't Izuku say it would be dangerous?"

"One shouldn't be too bad, especially since it's not a very physically demanding quirk," Izuku said, "and I can take it back if there are problems… Well, we aren't going to pressure you."

"You don't need to," Tenya sighed. "I have no reason to doubt you and if Hitoshi is okay with giving away his quirk who am I to refuse it."

"Okay," Izuku said and slowly raised his hands to each of his friends' heads. "Lets see how this works out."

Izuku closed his eyes and focused on finding and transferring the quirk. That was something he was fully capable of already, but this time he tried to directly transfer the quirk forward. He could feel the quirk slowly flowing in and straight back out. His hands dropped back down.

"How are you feeling?" Izuku asked Tenya.

"A little ill actually, and I think I am getting a headache."

"That sounds pretty normal," Izuku assured. "Try to use the quirk with Toshi and we'll see if it gets any worse."

It took Tenya a while to get a grasp of the quirk, but he had already seen Hitoshi teach Izuku so with plenty of the break still left he got Hitoshi to fall for the brainwashing. With a few words Hitoshi slumped against Izuku as he fell asleep. Next Tenya focused on Izuku who was keeping an eye on nearby people who had started paying more attention to them.

"If you start feeling any worse wake me up," Izuku said and Tenya nodded.

"Are you ready?" Tenya asked.

"Yes," Izuku responded and was caught by the quirk. Everything went dark. At least the quirk induced sleep was dreamless like an anaesthesia, so for the first time in several days he was free of the nightmares.

He woke up to Tenya shaking his shoulder, stretched his arms while blinking away the sleepiness.

"I needed that," he said, "for ten more hours."

"This isn't a time for joking. The practical exam introduction session is going to start in ten minutes."

Izuku's eyes widened. He turned to check Hitoshi who was in similar state. Without a word he put his hands back on their heads and returned Hitoshi's quirk. Then they ran, finding and arriving at the auditorium just in time as a staff member was about to close the doors. The auditorium was dark and full so they were separated, taking whatever empty seats they could find. Izuku was the last without a seat and the pro hero teacher Present Mic had just arrived on the stage so when he saw an empty seat, he took it without a second thought.

"WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE! EVERYBODY SAY HEY!" The so-called hero shouted way louder than necessary even in the large space.

"Wow, glad I didn't sit in the front row," Izuku mumbled.

"So you chose to sit here… damn villain."

Izuku froze still for a moment before his head turned to the side, stiff as a robot. Of course he had to sit right next to the walking bucket of nitro-glycerine. Not quite so right next to anymore. Bakugo had dragged his chair as far from Izuku as he could without sitting on the next person's lap.

"Great," Izuku muttered and focused on the presentation and papers he had gotten for the test. Present Mic was just explaining how they would be divided to the examination grounds.

"Hey, nerd," Bakugo called. Izuku wasn't sure if he should have been annoyed or concerned that the garbage fire talked to him. "What area you are on?"

"B, why do you care?" Izuku responded and settled on concerned when Bakugo's mouth twisted in a smirk that made Tomura look like a paragon hero.

"Seems we are on the same area."

"So you can see me score higher than you," Izuku said. "Didn't think you'd be excited about that."

He turned his focus back on Present Mic, but seething Bakugo didn't care about the presentation so Izuku's hand was already in his pocket when the explosive teen finally talked.

"You are a dead man."

Izuku picked out a business card and slid it across the table towards Bakugo.

"Then you are going to need this."

"And what the hell is it?"

"Contact information for my father's lawyers. If you don't understand what it's for, ask your mother."

Izuku turned to face back forward, ignoring the confused and seething dynamite stick next to him, at least he tried to ignore it while forcing himself to control his breathing. He got a welcome distraction when Ida got up to question an apparent inconsistency between the presentation and written material they had received. Apparently one of the robot opponents listed was worth zero points. Present Mic explained it away as being one that applicants are just meant to avoid.

"That doesn't make sense," Izuku muttered quietly. "Heroes are supposed to face the villains and risk themselves to help people. They are teaching people to run away." The video clip of Death Arms leaving Izuku's mother to die flashed in his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut and drew a deep breath.

"Maybe there is something more to it," he concluded or hoped. "Something to do with the secret part of the test maybe."

"PLUS ULTRA! BREAK A LEG EVERYONE!" Present Mic ended his presentation. Izuku didn't waste any time getting away from the volatile firecracker next to him. On the way to the exam grounds he looked at what was ahead and started truly understanding the immensity of UA. The exam grounds were entire mini cities. Izuku couldn't help but wonder how much UA spent on things that only helped one course, a minority among the student body. Even the walls and gates around the grounds were excessively large as if they were built only to look imposing to people.

Izuku navigated through the crowd, trying to get into the front row, anything to get an edge over Bakugo. Unfortunately the pyromaniac had the same idea and while coming up from different sides of a small group they didn't notice each other before literally bumping into each other. Izuku tensed when he realized that, but Bakugo jumped back already in a fighting stance.

"Stay away from me thief!"

"Are you still going on about that. Keep saying it and I'll beat this exam with your quirk," Midoriya said before he realized what he was saying, while Bakugo's shout had attracted the attention of other applicants.

"What are they talking about using his quirk?"

"Maybe he has a quirk copying quirk like you."

Izuku blinked thinking: 'What did he say?'

"No!" Bakugo shouted and presented his most arrogant and devious grin. "This guy is a quirk stealer. If you let him touch you, he can take your quirk away! Let your guard down for a second and you'll be quirkless. You wouldn't even know it before you tried to use it. Wouldn't be surprised if he only came here to look for quirks to steal."

Within a few seconds of those words Izuku had an all too empty area around him that no one entered. Izuku looked around but it only made people step further away. One person brought his tail up as if he was ready to strike at Izuku if he approached. Izuku could have retorted back about the dangers of Bakugo's quirk, but instead his shoulders slumped. There was no point. He knew it all too well. The walking loudspeaker had won this round and he didn't mean Present Mic.

Maybe he could get Hitoshi and Tenya to come over after the exam. He really needed their emotional support, or maybe he could hang out with Kurogiri. With them he sometimes almost forgot how despicable the society and many of the people around them were. In a way he thanked Bakugo for reminding him of that and his purpose for being here.

"And begin!" Present Mic shouted in the background. Izuku turned to notice the gate had opened and ran in. The people in front of him who had heard Bakugo jumped out of his way as he ran.

"WHAT'S WRONG? THE TEST'S STARTED! RUN RUN! THE DIE IS CAST!"

The crowd of applicant's was unleashed after Izuku. Rapid banging was the only warning before Bakugo flew past Izuku along with a few other students with speed enhancing quirks. He bit his teeth together and pushed himself to run faster.

A one-point robot charged from a side alley right in front of Izuku and threw a punch. Izuku sidestepped it easily and by then had the Dragon Blade ignited already. He rammed it right into the robot's chest around a joint where its neck met a stronger piece of armour. Even so he could feel resistance as the blade struggled to cut through the armour, much harder than even Nomu's skin. The robot had already raised its other arm to strike when its systems finally failed. Without wasting a second Izuku dove away from under the falling husk of junk metal and kept running.

That had only been a one-pointer. He wasn't going to beat Bakugo like this. He focused all his attention and need to succeed on making his fire hotter, vibrations faster, blade thinner.

Hotter, faster, thinner, another one-pointer showed up and charged at him with a wide swing of its arm. Izuku brought his blade up to block. The force still shook his entire body as the metal of the robot smoked.

Hotter, faster, thinner. He turned his arm and pressed against the robot. His blade sunk through its armour and something inside sparked and the robot's arm stopped. Izuku swung his other blade forward and this time it sunk in faster, not fast enough though.

The entire exam ground had descended into chaos. Izuku briefly saw Bakugo flying in an arch over some distant applicants. He disappeared behind a corner and there was a flash of explosion.

Izuku changed direction, not even trying to catch up to the faster applicants that had headed directly towards the centre of the exam grounds. He needed to find more robots and beat them faster. His entire arm tensed as he pushed the quirks. Soon he found two one-pointers and a larger three-pointer together. The three-pointer had bulkier arms and shoulders that looked like rocket launchers.

Hotter!

Izuku thought about all the heroes that had failed his mother, All Might who had crippled his father, Bakugo and everyone who had judged him after the blond torment told them about his quirk. Izuku wasn't fighting robots. He was fighting a wall those people erected seeking to keep away people like him, or Hitoshi, and at this rate it might well succeed. A far too familiar explosion echoed from the distance. Anger heated to rage, and his fire followed.

He charged at the nearest one-pointer, sidestepped its strike like before and swung his blade straight through the robot's chest with no more resistance than it had previously faced against Nomus' arms. The other one-pointer lost both its arms in a single move. The sudden loss of weight made it stumble. Izuku jumped on and over the bot, decapitating it as he did.

The three-pointer was too slow to stop Izuku as he landed on its face and hanging onto it with one arm sunk his blade deep into the robot's insides.

With all three destroyed Izuku finally stopped for long enough to stare at his flaming blade. It had turned blue and much more solid looking than before. The surprise at the sudden change made him briefly lose focus and the fire started being tainted by hints of orange. He quickly took back control of the quirks and managed to force it back to its new form. Strangely while the blade was clearly much hotter it only felt a little more unpleasant against his hand, as if the heat was more contained. A four-legged two-pointer rushed along the street towards him. Izuku decided to try everything he had. Raising his hand towards the approaching robot he focused on the Hellfire Arrow quirk, trying to make it feel like his blade. The robot was only a few meters away when he was ready and released the quirk. What appeared wasn't as much an arrow as a blue oval shaped blast that made a quick whistling sound before it struck the robot's neck and in a blue flash explosively separated it from its body.

Izuku smirked and whispered to himself, "seems you aren't the only one with an explosive quirk here… Kacchan."

He got back on the move and while he was limited by his, still impressive, running speed compared to those with speed quirks he no longer wasted much time on the robots. He only stopped at a crossroad to send two of his newly blue blasts at approaching one- and two-point robots. One hit took the two-pointer out, but the other only grazed the one-pointer's arm and Izuku was still too slow with this quirk to fire off another so he settled on the dodge-and-decapitate tactic and moved on. He couldn't slow down or hesitate. Every explosion in the background fuelled his own flame. The constant background cacophony of battle was cut by a nearby panicked shout.

A trio of applicants had been surrounded by an entire group of robots of all three types against the outer wall of the exam grounds. One of them, a really short guy, threw purple balls growing from his head at the robots that seemed to stick to them and limit their movements, probably why they hadn't yet been captured or crushed despite being clearly out of their league. Izuku charged at the group of robots like someone whose ability to hesitate in battle had been beaten out of him by genetically engineered monsters.

He jumped on a two-pointer and decapitated it while using it as a stepping board to leap on the three-pointer's back. A blade of blue flame sunk in and then cut up through the robot's body and out of its shoulder. An image of a dead woman with the same wound flashed in Izuku's mind.

So maybe there were still some things that could make him hesitate, or at least stop long enough to fight against the urge to vomit.

"Wait. Is that the quirk stealer?" One of the other applicants said, breaking Izuku away from his thoughts.

"Wouldn't that mean he took that quirk from someone?"

"Better keep a safe distance."

Ten seconds later all of the remaining robots were in three or more pieces.

Izuku stopped briefly to give the trio a cold stare. The little ball headed guy was so terrified tears were flowing from his eyes as he faced Izuku. Izuku raised his arm and barely looking fired off another blast at an approaching one-pointer. Pieces of metal that used to be the robot clattered on the street.

"You should head back towards the gate. It should be the safest area by now," he said and started running again, charging or firing a blue blast at every robot that he saw until he was back somewhere near the centre of the grounds. There couldn't be much time left. Robot pieces flew out from behind a corner following an explosion and Bakugo stepped to the crossroad a few seconds later, a fierce animalistic look in his eyes which quickly found Izuku and his still lit blades. For a brief instant the hot-headed blond seemed more disgusted than angry. His head snapped to the side when a three-pointer charged towards them. Bakugo flew up and towards it with rapid small explosions, but Izuku's blasts were faster and two blue blasts hit the robot's armoured face before Bakugo landed on it and blasted its back open. There was no way of telling who got the points.

"STAY OUT OF MY WAY DEKU!"

Izuku's flames got a little hotter.

Before he could respond the ground started shaking. A gigantic figure rose over the fake apartment buildings, the zero-point robot. It raised its gigantic arm and punched the ground, creating a pressure wave and a dust cloud that struck Izuku like a storm. He had to spend a few seconds blinking dust out of his eyes.

"Why the hell would they send something like that against middle-school students?" Izuku said, more focused on analysing the situation than running away like everyone else around him. "Maybe they wanted to see if anyone actually dared to take it on. Test if people were actually willing to risk everything, but there were no points in it. Could they really be teaching people the opposite, to run away when facing danger?"

He fired off several blasts on the robot, landing them on it in a vertical spray reaching from its track to the distant head far enough up that the blasts seemed to lose some of their power before reaching their targets. The explosions were impressive but if he had penetrated the armour the holes were too small to see from so far away. The robot didn't care at least.

It didn't look like something Izuku could take down and the monster of a machine was rolling right towards him, crushing everything in its path. Biting his teeth together he turned around to get out of the way at least long enough to find a new way to attack. Even if it was just an exam, he was not going to be one of the fake heroes running away from danger.

Bakugo was already long gone. A too-familiar scream made Izuku look back one more time. It was the little guy with purple balls growing from his head again. He had apparently just gotten out of a building on the giant robot's path of destruction and couldn't run fast enough to get out of the way of the approaching tracks of the robot. He kept throwing his sticky balls at the robots' tracks so fast his head bled but the giant machine didn't slow at all.

"Damn it!" Izuku shouted. He ran towards the ball head guy and grabbed the short boy's arm. The guy jolted from the sudden touch but Izuku lifted him and was already moving before he realized what was happening. At least the little guy was light. Even carrying the other boy on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, Izuku still ran faster than the shorter teen had. He barely kept ahead of the giant robot that thankfully didn't try to punch him.

A surviving one-pointer jumped from a side street, trying to attack Izuku and found itself split in two before touching the ground. The guy he carried yelped as Izuku jolted to the side dodging the robot. Izuku didn't even slow down until…

"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic declared. The robot stopped. Izuku too stopped running and let go of the other guy. Extinguishing his quirks, he leaned against his knees, winded from the battle.

"Thank y-" the ball head guy started saying but fell silent as he turned to look at Izuku. There was no doubt of what he was thinking as his hand went up to his head to check the balls were still there. Izuku sighed and turned away.

"I'm not going to take your quirk."

He headed back to the entrance, counting his points.

"49… plus 2 is 51… then 54 and… so 55 total, is that enough? I can probably get in with it, but with how fast Bakugo was moving he probably got more."

Izuku wanted to punch something, but he walked in the middle of the road and people around him still kept out of arm's reach. Outside the big gate he looked up at the sky, already breathing easier despite the earlier exertion. At least it was done. He hated the idea of probably losing to Bakugo, but that was only a side mission, as Tomura would put it. Glancing towards the other exam grounds, his thoughts started moving to Hitoshi and Tenya. After changing clothes, the scattered crowds of applicants started to dribble back towards the main building and gate. Izuku wanted to run, but he had already got too much attention.

He reached the front of the main building alongside the first larger crowd of students. Some walked straight out of the gates while others congregated to talk about the exam in small groups, probably with their friends. Izuku looked around for his. He could really have used some senses enhancing quirks in addition to more mobility. Luckily Tenya was tall and Izuku soon spotted his head above those around him. Izuku sneaked up behind him unnoticed and tapped his back. Tenya jolted a bit but relaxed when he saw Izuku.

"Hey, how did you do?" Izuku asked.

"I believe I did well enough to pass. I counted 52 points."

"Really?" Izuku said surprised. "I actually beat you despite your speed?"

"I would not be surprised by that," Tenya said. "How many points did you get?"

"Maybe 55, I'm not quite sure how they are going to assign points for one three-pointer so I guess we could have equal score," Izuku got more serious. "Did you notice any other sides to the exam?"

"Nothing obvious beyond the apparent lack of sufficient safety measures. This exam might not be too dangerous for those who are selected as hero students, but the entrance exams can be attended by anyone."

"True, I had to save this one kid twice," Izuku paused and glanced down at the ground, "and he was still only focused on what my quirk could do to him."

"Did you actually use it on the exam?" Tenya asked wide-eyed.

"No, but Bakugo told everyone. We were in the same area."

"Oh," Tenya said and after a few seconds started looking around.

"Do you see Toshi anywhere?" Izuku asked, reading Tenya's intention. Hitoshi was an expert at curing his quirk discrimination related depression.

"No, and the crowd is just getting worse."

Izuku stared at the crowd for a moment and then raised one of his arms straight up and fired off a fire arrow, just a regular orange one that Hitoshi already knew.

"I am not sure that is allowed," Tenya pointed out. Izuku didn't comment, just kept looking around. Maybe if he had a coffee making quirk… A few students surprised by Izuku's fire arrow concluded there was nothing more happening and moved on, revealing Hitoshi heading straight for the waiting duo. Izuku immediately focused on his gloomy expression. His body moved before he even thought about it and Hitoshi found himself trapped with Izuku's arm going over his shoulders and his friend's smile destroying any thoughts of escape.

"Hey, it couldn't have been that bad."

"I don't know about that," Hitoshi sighed. "I found the switch to shut the robots down but still only got fifteen points. You think that is enough to get in?"

"Umh… we still don't know if that was all there was to the test."

"Even if there is, even if they have a whole second point system, what are my chances against those who already got several times the points from the fight?" Shinso fell silent for a moment. "Speaking of which, how did you do?"

"Well…" Izuku hesitated.

"Please, I need to hear at least some good news."

"I got 52 or 55, Tenya got 52."

"You will get in," Hitoshi said and smiled for the first time. "Maybe I can still get to the general studies. Maybe if I didn't stay with that guy for so long…"

"What guy?" Izuku asked, still keeping Hitoshi in his hold as they started walking to the gate.

"After I figured out how to shut down the robots, I managed to take out a couple of them. I couldn't really surprise them, but their attacks were slower than Tenya's. Your dodge and counterattack style worked great. Then another applicant got driven into a corner by two robots. I managed to jump one of them while they were focusing on him, but he got hit pretty bad fighting the other that fell on him. I think he broke an arm and a leg at least. He definitely screamed like he did. I had to use my quirk on him to stop him from moving and hurting himself more."

"And stop the pain," Izuku reminded. "With the fog you put on people's minds even broken bones probably aren't that bad."

"Right, you figured that out. Well, I thought the school would send someone to help him since they monitored everything that was going on, but instead they sent in that giant zero-point robot. I had to carry him on my back to get away."

"I'd say that was pretty heroic," Izuku said.

"Truly, you did what any reasonable person would expect of a hero," Tenya added. "The school would be fools not to accept you for that."

"Tenya," Hitoshi said slightly embarrassed, "did you just criticize UA, the most elite of elite schools?"

"I… I mean they probably aren't fools like that. I am sure they recognize your actions."

"We can hope. Anyway, did anything interesting happen with your exams?"

"A lot actually," Izuku said. "See."

He raised his other hand and lit the dragon blade. It was its usual orange flaming blade. Izuku focused on it.

"I might not have a shelf full of quirk notes, but that's just your normal Dragon Blade," Hitoshi said.

"Shh, I need to focus," Izuku said. With the intensity and adrenaline of the battle gone it was suddenly much harder to raise the heat. It needed more than focus. Izuku struggled to replicate the feeling of before despite being calm this time.

Izuku blinked in realization. He shifted his focus into the feelings he had felt. Bakugo would hate to know his presence alone had helped Izuku.

"Hey, is that…" someone said outside their group.

"…the quirk stealer?"

"What?"

"We heard that guy can take away your quirk if he touches you. Better keep your distance."

"Then where did he get that fire quirk?"

"More like from who."

Izuku gritted his teeth. His blade condensed and started burning ever brighter until its colour started shifting. He held his hand further away to not accidentally burn Hitoshi or himself as the blade reached its full blue shine. This time he made sure to memorize every aspect of how it felt with a clear mind.

"I couldn't cut the robots well at first. Then this happened. Their armour didn't really matter after that."

"So, you weren't satisfied with seeing glowing swords in movies," Hitoshi said. "You just had to turn your quirk into one, a cooler one at that."

"I don't think everyone agrees with you," Izuku responded, glancing at the nearby people that were still whispering about him.

"So, what about them? Most of them won't get into the hero course like you, if any."

"Yeah, probably," Izuku said and extinguished his quirk. "So... Now that we're done, do you have time to go somewhere so we can hang out and have dinner?"