Inside the Midoriya's apartment, Izuku animatedly recounted his experiences during the entrance exam for his mother, making wild gesticulations as he went. Recovery Girl's quirk really was quite amazing, he'd barely healed from his shoulder wounds, but he felt more alive than ever. With enthusiastic expressions, he was painting a vivid picture of the event to his mom.
"...The robot was huge and was smashing buildings like BOOM! KABOOM! Everyone was shouting oh no a giant robot what're we gonna dooo but Mina was there with me and we heard this scream, so we both looked at each other and said-"
Seated on the couch, Inko listened intently and tried her best to keep up with the rapid-paced storytelling, but she was getting overwhelmed. Gently, she tried to interrupt him, "Izuku, sweetie, slow down. You said you had something very important to tell me? Something that 'changed your life'?"
Izuku nodded eagerly and took a deep breath. He locked eyes with his mom and said with a huge grin: "I flew, mom! I can fly!" He then looked away, scratched his cheek and added: "Well, not exactly flying, more like running in mid-air, but the underlying principle was similar!"
Inko's face was a mix of shock, confusion, and disbelief. "F-flying? But, your quirk is stickiness, how could you fly?"
Chuckling, Izuku shrugged, "I have no idea! It sounds kind of silly, I know. But let's be honest, most quirks sound a bit strange at first, right? I think I might have been sticking to the air somehow. It felt like there was a solid surface under my feet."
Blinking in astonishment, Inko tried to process this information. "I don't have to tell you that it makes absolutely no sense, right? Do you think you could do it again?"
With a smile, Izuku answered, "I can try, sure!" His eyes scanned the room for a prop to aid his experiment, and he spotted the kitchen chair. Convinced it would do the trick, he waited for a nod of approval, then climbed on top of it. Eager to demonstrate, he extended his foot and let it dangle in mid-air before taking a step forward, hoping to experience the same resistance as before.
In a swift response, Inko activated her quirk and pulled the dining room table out of harm's way, preventing her son from a potential nasty injury. There was no trace of flight in Izuku's movement.
Disappointed, Izuku thought aloud, "Maybe I have to be higher off the ground?" He brushed off his earlier setback and climbed to the back of the couch, reaching almost to the light fixtures, and made another attempt. Unfortunately, the outcome remained the same. Still no flying. Not even a hover.
"I don't get it, I managed it before… but then again, I was about 50ft up- Oh, uh, I mean 10ft up?" he mumbled, catching himself before accidentally scaring his mom.
In response, Inko chuckled softly and enveloped him in a warm hug. "It's okay, Izuku. You don't have to worry about scaring me. If you're destined to be a hero someday, I'm sure you'll do a lot more dangerous things than being in the air. And don't stress too much about your quirk either. Sometimes being in danger can make us do amazing things, I learnt all about it during my training. But, that doesn't mean we should seek out trouble intentionally, alright?"
"Yeah, you're right, I guess it's just something I'll figure out over time… But once I get there, It's gonna make me the greatest hero ever!"
"That's the spirit." She kissed him on the forehead lovingly, and said "Now come on, let's have some dinner. You must be hungry after all that flying."
—
After Izuku went to bed, Inko decided to use the time before work in the morning ( it's fine, heroes never sleep! ) to do some research of her own. There was a lot of information to go through, collected from her year in the vigilante rehabilitation program and nearly a decade in the Ryukyu Agency. She was absolutely positive there was something here that could help her son with his new quirk situation, but damned if she could actually find the stupid thing.
The room looked like a scene from a very localised disaster movie. Piles of papers and boxes of documents were scattered everywhere, covering every inch of the floor and furniture. "Aghh, I wish I could remember that kid's name…" She muttered to herself, thumbing through another document. She had files on different retired heroes, quirk registries, trigger users, and dozens of vigilantes - redeemed and otherwise.
She sighed and took a deep breath. Rushing wasn't going to help anything; she just had to be methodical! Think back to what she wants to know, and try to remember… Nope, she couldn't recall his name or where he was from at all . She knew he was one of the vigilantes she studied for the final exam, but that was all.
Back in her final year of 'vigilante school,' Inko was tested on all 2300+ convicted vigilantes of the previous decade. She had to memorise their quirks, their base of operations, why they were wrong to do what they did, and how she would stop them if ever necessary.
Inko didn't agree with the test's premise one bit but kept up pretences for appearances. She truly believed that not all vigilantes were bad, and that some of them had good intentions and valid reasons for their actions. Nothing she would ever admit publicly. The research helped her in a different way: Networking. If push ever came to shove, it could have been useful to have some heroes used to operating outside the law in her phonebook. It never really panned out that way, with her decision to stay a sidekick; she was never offered many opportunities for inter-agency team-ups, but it helped her through the exams.
It could certainly come in handy now, there was definitely someone she had in mind in this mess of papers and scribbled notes - why does her handwriting have to be so bad?! - who was uniquely qualified to help her son with his new developments.
She pushed aside a folder on Hosu vigilantism and saw a newspaper headline peeking underneath that gave her a sudden spark of recognition. It was such a relieving sight that she picked up the newspaper and kissed it.
"Naruhata! That's where he was from!"
—
The following morning, Izuku awoke to the distressingly familiar smell of burnt toast, a sign that his mom had pulled another all-nighter. He rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms, feeling the soreness from yesterday's exam.
Putting on a comfy green hoodie, he headed to the living room. There, he saw the sea of documents and papers, and in the middle of the chaos was his mom, sitting on the floor with a cup of coffee. She looked up and smiled when she saw him, but he could tell she was exhausted.
"Busy night?" He said, to the bright smile and baggy eyes of his adoring mother.
"Izuku! You're finally awake!" She greeted him cheerfully. "I've got something I want to tell you, I think you're really going to love it! There's this hero, he's in America right now, who–"
I Am Here! I Am Here! I Am Here!
"Do you mind if I take this real quick, mom? Toru usually texts so it's probably important." he asked politely.
Inko had completely lost her flow, so she just nodded. "Uh huh, go ahead."
~*boop*~ "Hell-" Before he could even finish the word hello, he had to pull the phone away from his ear to prevent his eardrums from exploding.
"IZUKU! U!"
"Toru?! What's going on?!" Izuku asked, worried that something bad had happened. It was far too early for screaming, but it usually meant one of two things. She saw Mirko in public, which had happened five times so far. Or, she was being murdered. Which she thought was happening once, but it turned out she wasn't being strangled, she'd just put a t-shirt on back to front.
"THE RESULTS! THE EXAM RESULTS! I JUST GOT MINE!"
"Already?! It's been less than 12 hours!"
"Did you get yours?!"
"Not yet, no! Oh, god! What if that means I never passed?! What if I have to-"
The sound of the letterbox opening and a thick envelope hitting the mat stopped Izuku mid-sentence. Izuku and his mom both stared at the envelope then back at each other.
"...I think I just got my results."
—
" So, because of your actions at the exam, you were awarded 40 team points, 27 solo points, and 60 rescue points." The tired looking scraggly man on the video drawled, sounding very unenthusiastic. The camera spun around him in a 360-degree shot, which seemed unnecessary and overdone, the setup was probably meant to be for more dramatic announcements.
"Hey, Mom, who's that guy? I don't know him at all," asked Izuku, turning to his mom, who was finishing off a pot of coffee. Right as rain and ready for heroics.
"Hah, that emo? That's Eraserhead, I'm not surprised you don't know him. He's underground, he comes by the agency every so often to do paperwork. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure he was at my birthday party a few years ago. You remember, he sat on the balcony all night and you wouldn't talk to him because you thought he was smoking?"
"Oh, yeah. Guess he works at UA."
" I don't see the point, it won't change anything, but I've been asked to show you this video as well. So, enjoy that."
The holographic image shimmered slightly, and switched to a brown haired pink cheeked girl nervously entering a fancy looking office. She approached the man at the desk, ( " That's Present Mic! The voice hero!") and began to say her piece.
"Um, excuse me, sir?"
"Hey there!" Present Mic's boisterous voice echoed through the holographic display, "What brings you to my humble office? Wait! Let me guess! …An autograph!"
The girl fidgeted, unsure of how to respond. "Um, well, not exactly," she stammered. "There was a boy at the exam, I don't remember his name sorry. But he had green hair and…really strong arms."
Izuku tried to ignore his mom nudging him.
"He really helped out during the exam, but he would have lost so much time doing that! I really want to repay the favour, so can you… give him some of my points? Just however much he might have lost from helping me out!"
Present Mic grinned, his shades glinting in the light. "I get where ya coming from, little lady! But let me tell ya something, you don't need to give your points away to anyone! Sure, he helped you out, but that's what being a hero is all about! Helping each other and having each other's backs!"
The video froze on a screenshot of the girl smiling back at Present Mic, and Eraserhead abruptly appeared back on screen.
" So, yeah, there you go. I don't see the logic in keeping this a secret so I'll just tell you. You both got in the hero course. You got rescue points for helping her, she got rescue points for helping you. Congratulations." For a moment, he fished around in the pockets of his hoodie, and pulled out a party popper. It released a few anticlimactic streamers. "Welcome to your hero academia, Izuku Midoriya. …How many more of these do I have to do? 19? Ugh…"
Inko and Izuku were so busy jumping around the room together that they missed Eraserhead leaving the scene then returning because he took the wrong exit.
—
"We did it!" The four-way high five was a complete disaster and they all whiffed entirely, Izuku almost impaled himself on Eijiro's new hairdo and Toru nearly took off Mina's finger.
Regardless, the move still got a patented Kirishima fist pump, "This year is gonna rule!"
They now stood outside the imposing gates of UA, dressed in their brand new school uniforms. The last month leading up to the start of classes had been a whirlwind of activity. A flurry of purchasing new supplies, signing various release forms and waivers, and receiving a constant stream of well-wishes and gifts from Inko's hero friends (Izuku now found himself the owner of an unexpected abundance of potted plants). Izuku even had to navigate missed calls from a hero in America who struggled to grasp the concept of timezones.
"Now, what's our plan?" Toru teased, glancing at her companions. "Are we going to gaze dramatically at the gates and nod resolutely, or are we actually going to go in?"
Izuku's face flushed with a hint of embarrassment, and he sheepishly kicked his foot. "Um... I kinda want to look up at the gate dramatically and nod resolutely..."
Mina and Eijiro joined in, giving similar puppy dog eyes, hoping to convince her.
With a sigh, Toru relented, "...Okay fine, but I get to go second."
With a determined expression, Izuku raised his gaze to the formidable gates, his heart swelling with anticipation. He let out a resolute "Hm!" before readjusting the straps of his bag and taking the first steps inside, heading toward the destiny that awaited him.
—
"You would have taken a fitness test like this back in middle school, but obviously you wouldn't have been allowed to use your quirks." Eraserhead, the homeroom teacher for Class 1A announced to his students. All 20 of them stood in their PE uniforms, ready to hear what they'd be doing today instead of spending 3 hours at an assembly.
Eraserhead continued, "I think it would make more sense if kids were allowed to use their quirks in controlled environments from the start, but what do I know." He sighed, and tossed a baseball to Izuku. "Midoriya, go stand in the circle."
"Oh, okay." Izuku nodded, and did as he was asked. He clutched the ball nervously in his hand, feeling the weight of his classmates' eyes on him.
"Do you remember what your record for the ball throw was in middle school?" Eraserhead asked him.
Izuku hesitated, "Uh, yeah about that…"
"Don't worry about it being a bad score, it's why we're here." Eraserhead reassured him, trying to sound encouraging in his own special way.
"Oh, well in that case, zero."
"Zero?" Aizawa repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, see, my quirk is kind of set to being on all the time as default, I have to concentrate to not constantly stick to everything. But when I was in elementary school I could never turn it off during the fitness tests because everyone would be really noisy and I couldn't calm myself enough… I can do it now, no problem! But up to middle school it was either completely impossible for me to throw a ball, or they just wouldn't let me compete because it was a waste of time."
Bakugo snorted at this.
Eraserhead rubbed his temples, it was going to be one of those years. "Tragic backstories aside, do you think you can throw the ball now?"
Izuku took the ball and planted it on his wrist, ready to try out a technique he'd been working on for a while. Giving his wrist a flick, the stickiness on the ball lessened ever so slightly, and he began to spin it around his forearm. The ball, managing to stay just barely attached to his skin, spun faster and faster and faster, the centrifugal force almost making it difficult to keep his feet planted.
Lifting one leg off the ground for balance (and because he thought it looked cool), he prepared to fire the ball like a slingshot! With perfect, precision timing he released…
The ball went directly down toward the ground, rocketed back up and smashed Izuku in the face. Next thing he knew, he was a few feet outside the ring with a baseball glued to his forehead.
Eraserhead clicked the handheld distance recorder in his hand and showed the rest of the class. "Minus 2 metres. The lesson to take from this is," he pointed to Izuku's dazed body, "Don't do that. I think now would be a good time to let you all know…" He paused for effect.
"Whoever scores under a certain threshold on these fitness tests will be considered a lost cause, and transferred to general studies until you can prove you're physically capable of what's required of you in this course. It's unfair, but welcome to the hero business."
A girl with a spiky black ponytail raised her hand, but Eraserhead answered before she asked.
"No, I won't be telling you what the threshold for passing is."
—
"Come on, Toru! Knock it out of the park!" Izuku cheered, the giant lump on his forehead throbbing slightly. Mina and Eijiro joined in, whooping and hollering, waving their arms in the air.
"Woo! Yeah! Stratosphere that shit!" They shouted.
More students started cheering too; it seemed like the right thing to do. One of them, a blonde spiky-haired boy with a lightning bolt dyed into his hair, leaned over to the three cheerleaders while clapping. "Hey, I'm Kaminari. You guys know each other, then?"
"Nope, never seen her before in my life," Mina answered, sticking her tongue out.
Izuku tilted his head. "I mean, technically that is true, but yeah, Ashido and I have known Hagakure since we were kids. Her mom gave us quirk training, actually!"
Toru lined up her shot, squeezed the baseball in her hands, and prepared to throw when she heard a nasally voice leaning over to Izuku.
"So…is the invisible chick invisible all over?"
"What?" Izuku answered, confused by the audacity of asking that question. "What are you talking about? Why wouldn't she be?"
The purple little gremlin started rubbing his hands together. "So she probably won't need to wear a costume…"
Toru lowered the ball and turned to their teacher. "Mr. Aizawa? Permission to use a different kind of ball?"
Aizawa looked at Toru, gave it some thought, and finally shrugged. "Sure, I'll allow it."
Cracking her knuckles, Toru loomed menacingly over the little weirdo, who felt even shorter because of it.
"Hey, hey wait, what are you doing?!" He tried to get away, but Toru grabbed the creep by his collar, lifting him up in the air. He squirmed and tried to escape, but she spun him around like a hammer throw and launched him with all her strength.
"LET GO OF MEEEEEEEEEeeeee eeeeeee…."
The class watched in fascination as he sailed clear over the treelines and completely out of sight. Toru dusted off her hands and walked back to join the other students, satisfied.
"175 metres, good work."
—
The 50m dash was up next, which Izuku and Mina were particularly excited for. Izuku had an advantage on the flat track, since it meant he could use a lower output of his quirk to slide on the surface. It was possible on rough terrain, but he tended to avoid it because it hurt his feet more.
"What do you say we try to beat our old record?" Izuku declared with a smile and a determined expression.
Mina returned the emotion in kind, "Hell yeah! 5.3 seconds, let's do it!"
Another contestant for this round joined the conversation, "The way you guys talk makes me want to do better as well, ribbit."
"Hell yeah, Asui!" Kirishima cheered, giving everyone a thumbs up, "Let's give it our best!"
"How did you know my name, ribbit? But you can call me Tsu." She replied.
"Remembering everyone's name is the manliest thing ever!"
Bakugo pushed his way through them to the last spot on the track, "MOVE IT, SHITTY HAIR."
"Sure thing, Bakugo!"
Eraserhead took out his stopwatch and said without any enthusiasm, "Go."
As soon as Eraserhead gave the signal, the five runners sprinted forward with amazing speed. Bakugo was ahead of everyone else, but that was no surprise. Izuku and Mina were close behind, Mina sliding on her acid and Izuku skating on the floor like a hockey puck.
Tsuyu was not far behind, using her froggy quirk to jump across the track. Kirishima, though not as fast as the others, ran with all his might, digging his hardened feet into the ground for more traction.
Bakugo was way out in front, which only served to make Izuku and Mina push themselves even harder. However, Mina had reached her limit, and making more acid would have been painful. Izuku, on the other hand, was only limited by how quickly he could turn his quirk on and off. He needed some momentum to slide, so he would make his right foot 100% sticky for a fraction of a second and slide with his left, then switch. In the last moments of the race, he moved so fast that he left a cloud of dust and steam behind him.
He shattered his previous best record and zoomed past the end of the track, making Aizawa's hair fly as he passed by. But now he had a problem. Stopping. If he made himself 100% sticky at once, he would either faceplant or break his ankles. If he tried to stop by digging his feet into the ground, he would get burned. The only option was to glide and slowly reduce his speed.
The wall of the building in front of him got closer and closer, but he was still going too fast. Did they put the track next to a hill?! "Please please please slow down please slow down!"
Izuku closed his eyes until he felt himself come to a complete stop, and opened them to be greeted by a brick wall inches from his nose.
Eraserhead shouted from the racetrack and waved his arm, "Midoriya, 4.4 seconds."
—
"OK, everyone. So far, most of you have done well enough to stay in the hero course. And when our search and rescue team manages to find Mineta, I'll start working on his transfer papers. You all have at least one activity that you excel in, but the problem is that we want you to be well-balanced heroes. After our last event, I'll give you some information packets with customised training plans."
Eraserhead gestured to the scoreboard, flashing through the events with leaderboards showcasing who did the best. Izuku grinned at his name in 5th place on the 50m dash, behind Iida, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. Not bad for the sticky kid.
The final event was the standing long jump. Izuku thought he could actually do pretty well in this event, running and jumping on to the wall was one of his favourite training regimes in Hagakure's dojo after all. He could actually get some pretty decent air, it was nothing compared to what someone like Uraraka or Aoyama would be able to pull off with their quirks, but he definitely wasn't going to come last!
—
As fate would have it, it turned out that everyone in class 1A had some kind of amazing ability to jump far from a standing position. It seemed almost unfair! Even the girl with the earphone quirk seemed to have some cricket genes…
He wondered if there was any way his quirk could help him move a long distance without…touching the…ground.
Oh. Right! He had flown last month, that was true! That would be a great option now, if he could do it again. He sighed to himself. Well, even if he couldn't figure it out, it wouldn't make him do any worse.
He bent his knees and swung his arms back, ready to jump. "Stick to the air, stick to the air." He repeated to himself, and jumped.
As he leaped into the air, he felt some resistance on his right foot, but none on the left. It felt like he had one leg on a wall and the other dangling over the side. And he just stayed like that.
"Whenever you're ready, Midoriya." Eraserhead said.
"Oh, sorry, sorry!" Izuku apologised, realising that he was just hovering in one spot. Umm…Now what?
He tried everything, but he couldn't make his left foot, or anything else for that matter, stick to the air. So he hopped. All the way to the end of the sandpit. And stayed there, floating.
The class at the starting line looked at each other confused, wondering why he wasn't coming down. Eventually, they all walked down to meet him.
"Are you alright Izubro?"
"Uh huh! Fine! Great!"
Iida started chopping his arms, "Midoriya! If you have a problem you should not face it alone!"
"No problem here! Nope! All good!"
"Midoriya," oh, it was Uraraka, from the entrance exam, "um… Do you want some help getting down?"
Izuku forced a smile on his face, but his leg was starting to twitch. "I think my quirk is stuck, but I'm fine!"
After sighing and rubbing his eyes, Eraserhead's eyes turned red, and Izuku fell down with a thud.
"I'm going to change your training plan…"