Pro Hero Metal Bat

by Phantos God of Horrors

Izuku Midoriya had no quirk and had no one outside of his mother. Aside from his smarts, he didn't have anything. All he ever carried with him was the weight of insults and depraving speeches everyone gave him for being him. So when the heroes yell at him for saving Kacchan's life, he escapes to the beach to find peace. What he finds is a chance to make his dream come true; a bat.

10. Chapter 10

And it's finally here. Took too long to finish, but with it being 29k words and all I hope I can ask for your forgiveness in the matter.

This was the plan of its length, after all. There was a lot I wanted to say, but also a lot of humanization I had to add in between all the important parts of the story. Without it, I would have hated this chapter. The next chapter, 11, should not be as long as this. There should be far less for it to cover, as I plan on sticking to only the first day and the short bit we get of it in canon. It'll basically be that with about 4 more perspective jumps, which is what every part of this chapter is, or at least that's what I like to call them. I don't even know how many I put here, and I'm too tired to count them before I go to bed. It's past midnight and I need a real solid 6 hours of sleep not broken up in the middle. I haven't gone a straight night of sleep in weeks. I hate it.

I do have a discord, as last chapter and the update this will be in place of have made. Honestly, if I have any problem with this site to praise AO3 over it, it's the posting of links in my writing. You can see it doesn't translate over on this site for whatever reason. You can try to fix this link as it should be to connect to the server, but in all honesty, I recommend just going to the AO3 post of this story (under the same name) and using that link since it can be posted in full. Aside from all that, thank you to everyone who has interest in this story and has stuck around long enough to see where it has to go next.

discord . gg/QYKaGkG

---

"I know the support department tests are tomorrow but you should come with us, just up until we get to the school. Ojiro's been wanting to meet you and Iida. Might as well knock out two birds with one stone."

"I would, but that would mean delaying my babies from their work and that is an option I cannot allow. If I waste my time meeting with people I'll never get to build the gear they need."

Izuku sweat-dropped and leaned over the railing. "You know you could just multitask and make something small while talking to him. You don't have to do them separately."

"Cutting corners isn't going to make great inventions, Metal Bat," Hatsume retorted over her shoulder. "If I don't give this my all then it will never be the best. I can't afford to give anything greater attention than my work."

"You're talking with me right now."

"But my newest baby hasn't left her spot since I started her. Perfection can't be rushed and it can't be done when walking and talking, it demands care and attention."

Izuku sighed and looked past the girl to the shoreline up ahead. It was a beautiful sight, or at least growing into one with the trash strewn about it lessening. A good majority of it was gone, leaving maybe a quarter of what was there when he had first started his self-proclaimed mission, to put both his body and mind into heroics as his heart was from the start. He was somewhat displeased knowing the beach wouldn't be fully cleared by the time the new school year came around, but was impressed by the amount of work he and his newfound friends from the last year were able to put in to the task.

Izuku's bat clanged against the rail as he stood right up. He clung to the action and tapped it against the rail several more times as he focused his attention on it. The metal baseball bat was the only piece of trash on the beach that had ever really found a home. Since meeting Mei, he'd seen a lot of junks and machinery be scrapped, reworked and reused into something she could make functioning for her 'babies,' but nothing ever stayed in full tact once she got her hands on it. Everything else she and Izuku pulled from the sand was tossed into a real place for trash; everything but the baseball bat. He was working himself around it and it was working for him.

The morning sun gleamed across it, but Izuku moved it at just the right angle to keep the glare out of his eyes and his warped reflection on the steel surface. He chuckled at the way his head stretched because of the bat and spun the sport's tool over in his hands to watch it waver ever so slightly as it moved. The dancing of the light off it mellowed him until he stopped the bat in his grip and raised it upright, staring at a cleaner and straighter reflection of himself against its tall surface.

"Still, it wouldn't hurt to meet him before school starts so you can have an idea of the support gear you can make for him."

"I'll start making support gear for him when he comes to my workshop when the year begins. I need his dimensions before I can start designing everything or what I make won't work for him, and I can't take measurements or notes or craft anything properly out here. Yuei will have a workshop I can use for all that once we're accepted."

"Yeah…once we're accepted." Izuku nodded as he looked over the pink-haired girl still tinkering with the box in her lap. "We'll all make it in."

"Of course we will. Yuei would be blind not to capitalize on big family names, a first timer for his kind and a genius like myself. They'd fall short if they didn't focus on what we offer over the competition and what we're capable of." Her summarization left a lot to be desired, Izuku would admit, but the general outlook struck home harder than her choice of words. She believed they'd all pass the exam and be accepted. She believed he could pass and be accepted. It was the only hero school across Japan that allowed for quirkless applicants in any department, leaps and bounds beyond even its main rival Shiketsu, and she believed in him. An afterthought to her own focuses and studies, more likely than not, but a gesture he appreciated none the less.

"I'll make sure I'm giving it my all then," he told her through his smile. He dug his phone out of his pocket and skewered his mouth at the time. "Need to make sure I'm at least there on time first. Promised Iida I'd meet up with him first before we connect with Ojiro and head on. You sure you don't want to come along?"

"Tell him if he makes a good enough show at the entrance exam I'll let him ride front row seats of my showcases with you. All press is good press and having a direct connection to a support studio will only help carry your name into the world of heroics. I'll let you two and Bifocals parade my babies into the fray for the world to know of my inventions!"

"I'll put in a word for you." Izuku choose not to grace the poses Mei gave during her speech with any verbal acknowledgement. He took another look at the beach and the ever shortening piles of trash and the rising sun over the sea. His shoulder rolled from the phantom pain that stung the back of it in memory of the mall and Yaoyorozu and Eri. He had taken his first few steps to being a hero, but both felt like huge leaps up the staircase.

Now it was time to see how many more he'd take.

---

This was it. This was Yuei.

The school towered over Izuku and every other teen who passed him by to enter the gate. The walls of said gate stretched on for seemingly miles, and the green haired teen had half a mind to test his guestimate. He could see less of the stretch of brick from inside the borders, covered either by tree or by building flanking either side of the main building the school chose to shape as the English letter H. The building itself was a sight of its own, walls lined with glass framing and steel outlining, the sunlight glistening and illuminating the monument of a school. Every kid who passed Izuku came in wearing the same awestruck look as they gave the school grounds their attention.

Izuku himself found it intimidating.

"Ya know, I think I can just go home," Izuku declared. "This is as good as my day's going to get. No reason for me to go in and watch it crumble before my eyes." With that, Izuku turned on the ball of his foot, spun his bat onto his shoulder and walked in the other direction of the school.

Only for a tail to swipe in front of him and pull him back in Yuei's direction.

"No, you're not," Ojiro stated, drawing his tail back over his shoulder. "You told me that your thoughts weren't discouraging you from doing this."

Izuku groaned. He was grateful for Mashirao and Tenya accepting to join him on the travel over, the three meeting up along the way over the railways and giving Izuku time to introduce the two properly. "Yeah, well, that was before I actually stood outside the place." Izuku threw a hand towards Yuei's main building and looked to its peak. "A school building standing 30 times the size of the complex you live in isn't exactly the most welcoming sight to be greeted to. I was more at peace dreaming of its scale before."

"Well, for a school of large reputation, one would expect them to live up to it." Iida adjusted his glasses as he joined his friend in gazing upon the height of the building. "Anything less wouldn't have garnered them the reputation they have today."

"I don't think 'living up' meant building to the sky border," Izuku muttered. He lowered his gaze back upon the pathway leading to its front doors. "That height is probably the same bar they expect their students to reach. Yuei would multitask like that."

"I was going to say overcompensate but that works too," Ojiro commented. Silence passed over the boys as Iida and Izuku turned their eyes upon the tailed boy who shrugged back at them. "They don't exactly have the best acceptance rate for students, and their student body isn't of the highest count of any hero school. Quality over quantity, I guess."

Izuku nodded and looked to the school again. "Quality, yeah—"

"If Yuei cares about the quality of their students, they'd know not to humor the thought of letting you attend."

Izuku pressed his lips together and sighed out his nose as Katsuki passed by Iida's side. The explosive boy gave a look over his shoulder, giving Izuku a sneer to remember him by and the boys beside him to get a good enough first look of him. "Don't expect the school to give you any pity points, Deku. You aren't even worth that."

"Yeah, and the cost of you is a liability to the school," Izuku mumbled under his breath, relieved the slightest that the blonde didn't hear a word as he followed the stream of students into the main building. Izuku knew he was going to see Katsuki at the entrance exam; he was just hoping it be from a further distance so all he could do was glare his way instead of having to talk to him. Hopefully he wouldn't have to confront him again.

"That's Bakugou?" Ojiro asked. Izuku nodded. "At least he's as vile verbally as I expected him to be."

"I envisioned him taller," Iida commented, fiddling with the strap of his bag absentmindedly. "With such a vulgar attitude as you've mentioned, and even what he showed just now, I assumed multiple factors were playing into his own ego."

"Just a powerful quirk and a bunch of other kids to scare and threaten into submission," Izuku summarized. "It's all he even needed to fill his head. I know Aunt Mitsuki hates that kind of attitude from him, but he at least knows not to act that way around her. It's more respect than you'd expect him to have, so don't get your hope up for anything better." Izuku cocked his head towards his tailed friend and pointed a finger at the building's doors. "Also, if you want to talk about overcompensation, he is a perfect example."

Ojiro blinked a moment before his face scrunched in on itself. "Ew, okay, I did not need to envision that."

"I didn't tell you to."

"Midoriya," Izuku interjected, "while I understand your displeasure and resentment towards Bakugou, I do ask that you not spread or share information or remarks like that. It is an attitude unfit for heroics, and if he does manage to make it into the class, I do hope the school can succeed in remedying that attitude into something more appropriate. Stooping to his level wouldn't solve anything in the matter."

"I know, I know." Izuku turned his head over to his taller friend. "I'm-it's a shit joke, I'm sorry. I just…wanted to try and lighten the mood a bit, that's all. Outside of you guys and Hatsume I don't plan on talking like that with anyone else." Iida accept the apology with a nod a smile, albeit soured from what Izuku called his joke, and shared between them before all eyes were turned back on the school and silence fell over them.

Izuku drummed along his bat and bit his lip. Stress was eating at him faster than he shoved down his breakfast. It was building in his since he got off the train, and Katsuki's short confrontation had only piled on to it. He felt like all eyes were on him, even though the quirk remarks the explosive blonde made as he passed hadn't garnered attention from anyone aside from the three boys standing at the school's gate. He knew the eyes of teachers would be on him, though, gazing over his shoulder and pinned on the back of his head as he went through whatever tests they were to throw his way. Everyone else taking the test would be under those same eyes, too, but how he was to be viewed compared to everyone else was a question he had yet to answer. He wondered if Iida or Ojiro had similar thoughts plaguing them.

"Well then" – Iida took a glance at his watch and broke the silence – "despite our efforts to arrive earlier than the crowd, I believe our time spent out here will have us struggling through a crowd of other future heroes to fill the auditorium for the opening presentation. I suggest we go in now so we can make sure to secure our seats."

Ojiro shrugged and agreed, "Yeah I'm fine with that." He took the first step past the school's entrance and down the brick road. "It's been nice getting to stand here and talk, but I'd honestly like to get this test over with." He turned back to the other teens and pointed to his face. "Do I look overly anxious about this?"

"Not that I am able to tell," Iida admitted, following over the line behind Mashirao. "If pre-test stress – as my brother calls it – is bothering you, you've failed to show it. With all that my family has been telling me about Yuei and its entrance exam, I was worried I would be the only one taking this exam feeling nervous over what such a school is capable of throwing their examinees into."

"Like you said, 'school living up to its reputation' and all that," Ojiro chimed.

Izuku smiled softly, watching and hearing his two friends' converse without him. It was a weight off his chest to know their thoughts, and another off his shoulder to know he at least had them by his side in the test. He hoped that would stay true physically as much as it was emotionally.

"Midoriya!" Iida called out to him, breaking the green teen out of his mind. "We really should hurry. A school like this would capitalize on punctuality and it would be in our best efforts to show an interest in maintaining and exceeding their expectations even now." Ojiro beckoned their friend over with a silent hand wave, turning up an eyebrow towards Iida during the latter half of his sentence.

"Alright, alright," he forfeited and threw his hand into the air. "I'm coming." With a deep breath he took one step over the line, just far enough to be on the school's brick path, feeling no different standing fully within the school lines as he did outside of them. An exhale of relief followed before he continued again behind the two boys towards the main building. "Let's get this exam up and over with—" Still behind his two friends, Izuku's foot hit against a brick – sticking out loose from the paved road beneath them – and sent himself falling face-first towards the ground.

He caught himself though, his bat flying down faster than him and landing top first on the ground. Izuku kept himself propped at an angle, stressing to hold himself on his feet with the bat as his other hand corrected to push him back upright. He swayed on his feet as he collected his composure to find both his friends still walking forward as though nothing had happened. He patted himself down, coughed into the back of his hand to act as oblivious as his friends and hurried after them; on the way over, he made sure to bonk his bat on the brick his foot had connected with before someone else got caught by it too.

Izuku stayed oblivious to the girl who paused behind him as he tripped, still stuck in place as he recovered before she could reach him and left before he could acknowledge her, and the brick he had wacked back into its place, albeit cracked at its end.

---

Izuku sighed and pressed his face into his hand. "Of course the seating arrangement is sorted by school districts…"

"The hell you muttering, Deku?"

"Not a single thing you care about."

If his heart wasn't already a whirlwind of emotions going into the test, Izuku would have given Katsuki more emotion in his response; joy of disregard or anger of acknowledgement to being beside the blonde, Izuku wasn't sure which he would have used. The feeling came mutual from the explosive teen by his side, with the blonde leaning back in his chair and Izuku forward in his to help keep what distance they could from one another. Izuku could see, over his shoulder, the glare Katsuki was giving his very existence, but merely gave note to knowing the other boy was as he always was.

Instead, Izuku poured more attention to the room around them. It was one of apparently four lecture halls the school was using for the opening to its entrance exam, and it was near packed to the brim with students all over Japan – and probably the world – filling its seats up and down the rows. He had parted ways with Ojiro, who had his prefecture situated in a different room than his, but got lucky with Iida joining him in the same lecture room – up until the two had to sit in reserved seats designated by the schools the students came from. Izuku knew what that meant for his seating arrangement before he even saw it, or more accurately saw him – Bakugou Fuckin' Katsuki – glaring daggers into his eyes as he found his place among the crowd of students.

At least Izuku could see his blue-haired pal seated several rows in front of him, sitting attentively for the exam to begin.

"You got two dipshits to follow you around and be your cheerleaders or somethin'?" Katsuki jeered him.

"Unlike yours, my friends actually strive to be something other than mindless," Izuku retorted, looking back over his shoulder to the other boy.

"Staying around someone as worthless as you doesn't exactly prove they have any brains of their own."

"Maybe that's why Tsubasa left; so he could finally grow his own."

Katsuki scoffed. "That chicken couldn't even grow a pair. Coward wasted his quirk wanting to learn medicine like his dad."

"Do you just hate everyone, generally?" Izuku pivoted in his seat, drawing his bat over his lap with his other hand. "Is there a single person on this planet you could compliment that isn't yourself?"

The blonde's shoes kicked off the desktop and left him to fall forward, his face inches away from Izuku's. "I don't hate anyone, Deku," Katsuki hissed. "I just don't sympathize with weaklings who squander their gifts and potential. Or those who waste their time chasing a fantasy."

Izuku could feel the finger pressed against his chest with the direction of that last sentence. "Really, I'm the one chasing it?" He kept his voice hushed in comparison to the rest of the room, but he could see Katsuki shift his expression from hearing him. "If being a hero is so far out of my reach, I'm surprised it's in your line of sight."

The explosive teen's single laugh was dry of joy. "Out of the two of us, I was actually trying to be a hero. I've been training ever since I got my quirk while you've been dawdling away taking notes in your dream journals without putting any real effort outside of the last year. You honestly think your half assed attempt to catch up with the rest of us is going to make you a hero?"

There was a lot more sting to Katsuki's words there, enough to keep Izuku's remark hesitant. He wasn't wrong; Izuku hadn't done any sort of training, anywhere close to what he had done in the span of a few months, ever since he was diagnosed as quirkless. He had no brawn like the rest of the kids around him, and his brain had taken priority and the notebooks did too. If he could still fathom being a hero, then learning from the greatest in the business was the first step down that road. Had he really been that hesitant to take the next step on that journey?

He was, Izuku hissed at himself. He waited over 10 years before he decided on any proper training to be a hero. By then he was years behind any of his peers, especially Katsuki who had figured out what he wanted to be and focused his effort on being the biggest in the room. Most everyone in the auditorium around him had probably done the same, even those who weren't aiming for heroics; they had a place in mind to go and put all their heart in their work to apply to Yuei to make their dreams a reality. Izuku was years behind on starting, so how was he supposed to compare?

"I asked you a question, fuckin' Deku," Katsuki jeered him. "You gonna respond or did it some common sense finally get through your head?"

Izuku's knuckles spotted white as he clutched the bat in his lap. He could see All Might's face; not the bright and powerful smile plastered on his walls, but the skeletal frown he had seen on the rooftop. Being the powerful eruptions that run from Katsuki's palms, he could hear the crass insults and sneers that colored the blonde's face.

Izuku didn't have to compare to their images, not when the men underneath were a swing and a miss.

"Yeah, I guess something finally did," he responded, turning back towards the podium under the spotlight to hide the smallest of smirks on his face.

"Welcome to today's live performance!" a voice boomed around the room, drawing all attention towards the spotlight and the lanky blonde man beneath him. Izuku heard Katsuki scoff, most likely in his direction, and turn his own attention to the pro hero, Present Mic, standing before them. Behind him, the screens covering the wall flickered on and showcased the school's UA logo. "Everybody say 'HEY'!"

The room around them was deathly silent in response, and Izuku had to agree that joining in on that cheer would have been awkward.

"Well that's cool, my little listeners!" The pro hero seemed unaffected by the cold response, striking a pose as he pointed to the crowd of students laid out before him. "I'm here to present the guidelines of your practical! Are you ready?!" Another bout of silence rushed over the room from the students.

"We're learning about the practical before we get to the written?" Izuku pondered. "A bit out of order."

"Written exams are tests and the same at every school," Katsuki commented, surprised Izuku that he would at all. "They have no reason to lecture us about something we already know how to take or wait until afterwards to blindside us with the practical."

"This is how the test will go, my listeners!" The screens behind Mic snapped into another image, of one box branching into several smaller boxes. "You'll be experiencing ten-minute-long 'mock cityscape maneuvers'! Bring along whatever you want! After this presentation, you'll each head over to your assigned testing location! Outside of the city will be the building you take your written exams in, and once you've completed it and the time runs out, you can head on over to the changing rooms to get ready for the practical! O.K.?!"

The bat along his lap gained weight in Izuku's hand. Not everyone had a quirk their body could or would control, and thus were given equipment growing up to help them manage their powers. Some had to continue using items – even upgrading them – as they grew up. Him using a bat and being quirkless seemed to fall under the same category for the Yuei staff to have approved his use of it. All he had to do was prove it was worth convincing them.

"That's so kids from the same middle school can't help each other out, yeah?" Katsuki's absent question brought back Izuku's attention, the blonde boy reading off the handout he was given when he entered the auditorium. Izuku looked at his own after he fished it out of his pocket, finding the letter B on his not matching the E on Katsuki's.

"Guess they don't want kids who grew up knowing each other so well to work together for the exam," Izuku guessed. "There are hero groups though. Probably just makes it easier on the teachers to grade people on their individual work here. Not like separating us is going to make much of a difference."

Katsuki scoffed. "I'll crush everyone testing in my area. And don't think you're safe just because I won't be around to watch you fail it."

"Yeah, because everyone here has the intent of sabotaging everyone else. Sure."

"Each site is filled with three kinds of mechanical faux villains!" Mic continued, seemingly oblivious to any conversations students were holding in front of him over what he was sharing with them. The screens behind him changed again, each of the three showing off a different silhouette. Izuku only recognized them because they were the same ones on the handout he received when entering the lecture room. "Points are rewarded for defeating each according to their respective difficulty levels! Use your quirks to disable these faux villains and earn points! That's your goal, listeners!"

"You think they'll hand out points on a technicality?" Katsuki's remark didn't elicit much other than unamusement from the green teen.

"Of course," Present Mic added, "playing the antihero and attacking other examinees is prohibited!"

"And look, there goes half of your points." Izuku's comment earned an equally unimpressed expression from the blonde boy. He took a second to smile back dryly before turning to the handout laid on the countertop before him. The pro hero clearly said three faux villains would be what they fought against, but there were clearly four headshots printed out on the paper.

"May I ask a question?!" Izuku's head shot to the figure that shot out of his seat rows in front of him. It seemed Iida had made a similar notice. "There appear to be four variants of faux villains on the handout we have been given! But you've stated that there are only three of us to fight against! Such a blatant error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming of Japan's top academy!"

"You'd be surprised how many small errors we make at this school," Present Mic heartily replied, unbothered by Iida's surprised and almost appalled pose in response. Izuku bit his tongue from looking over his shoulder and following up with a remark to Katsuki, and he knew the blonde teen was doing the same if his silence was anything to go by. "You make a good point, examinee 7111, there are four icons on the handouts! But the fourth faux villain doesn't reward points upon defeat! He's more of an obstacle for you listeners to think and work around! Each testing site has one – and only one – 'gimmick' villain that rampages through the city, and all you have to do with it is turn tail and move on to something else!"

"I see. Thank you for the clarification!" Iida bowed to the pro hero before dipping back into his seat, letting Mic fall back into his 'script.'

"If there are no more questions, then that's all from me!" Present Mic struck another pose, pointing to the screens behind them as the flickered again, each screen showing two of the lettered testing areas and grouped numbers below the boxes. "With the numbers you've been given, take yourself to the next step and prepare for your tests! All the while, I'll leave my listeners with our school's motto!" The middle screen behind him altered, pushing its two testing areas closer to the top and bottom borders, leaving enough space in the middle for two large words to pop up in between them. "If you're going to pass, little listeners, you'll have to try harder than you possibly can! Plus Ultra!"

That was a cheer most of the auditorium joined him in, and Izuku would have to had Katsuki not dropped a hand on his shoulder. As everyone else around them climbed out of their seats to go, the two boys stayed in their place, and the students on either side of them turned away to leave.

"Even with a baseball bat, don't expect to do anything against robots," Katsuki sneered and frowned at him in a whisper. "Your dumbass pals aren't going to help you get through this exam and you and I both know you won't be able to carry your weight in the practical. You'd be lucky to even get into general studies, and at worst end up in the hospital trying to fight against metal with nothing to help you. Do us both a favor and just walk out of the school now; Yuei doesn't need an insult like you in its heroics program."

There was no smoke emitting from his palm or Izuku's jacket when Katsuki pulled away and stomped off just as soon as he finished talking. He didn't give Izuku a moment to respond before he was out the aisle and down the stairs. It was quicker and shorter than he remembered any other encounter with the blonde, though it did remind him of the last time they had been in such a position to one another.

"The best heroes out there, well" – Katsuki tossed a singed notebook out the school window absentmindedly, stalking closer to the Izuku he cornered against the back wall of their middle school classroom – "they showed signs of greatness even as students. I'll be the first and only hero from this crappy public middle school! The first to win the honor of becoming a student at Yuei High. Guess I'm just a perfectionist."

Katsuki dropped a hand on Izuku's shoulder, letting his quirk sear against the fabric as he gave the shivering boy a sick smile. "In other words, don't you dare get into Yuei, nerd!"

The blonde left the green teen shaking against the wall, turning on his heel and heading out the door with his lackeys behind him. Before he took his exit, he turned his head back over his shoulder. "You wanna be a hero so bad?" he sang mockingly. "I've got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life…go take a swan dive off the roof!"

"Why the hell do you think I would listen to you?" Izuku grumbled to himself. He swung his bat underneath his arm and locked it there as he got from his seat and turned the opposite way of the explosive teen's exit, taking his way down the row and the stairs to the taller blue-haired boy who had been waiting for him at the exit.

All the while, his thoughts lingered on Katsuki's words.

---

To Yagi Toshinori, Yuei was how he remembered it. The school was always massive in scale and position, and every time he returned it felt like he found something new that he never noticed before. Hallways he had never been down, classrooms he never had to go in, offices he didn't know were occupied; for all the school was worth and all any student could achieve in it, each dream imagined was only a fraction of what the school had to offer. Every other piece was filled by every other dream, and there were probably many more that had yet to take form in the school's system to make use of what was left.

The problem did occur when the school turned into a labyrinth as he tried to find the observation room for the entrance exam. He had spent the early morning with his prodigy and a short conversation between his old mentor and once sidekick – he'd avoided talking with them so long, he wasn't surprised they held such short conversations in return. Now, he was running late, in his lanky form no less, trying to follow the list of directions the principle had left him and second guessing every turn he made.

"Nedzu likes his games, but I'd prefer it if he left them for the students," the hero mumbled to himself. "This isn't the kind of stress I need today."

"Hey Yagi!" The lanky blonde nearly tripped over his own two feet as he stopped and backtracked down the hall to the last opening, finding a taller blonde dressed in back and speakers waving him down.

"Ah, Yamada," he greeted the other hero. "Finally, someone in this forsaken building."

"Having troubles, number one?" the vocal hero jested, striding down the hall to greet the approaching gentleman.

"More like a nightmare," Toshinori grumbled, waving the list of directions to the other man. "Nedzu gave me these to try and find the camera room so I could watch the exam with you all, but he wrote some of them in riddles that I'm having trouble finding the answers too." It didn't help that some of them were also written in cardinal directions; he was inside, how the hell was he supposed to know which way West was?

"Well, have no fear! I was heading that way myself! Just send the listeners off to take their tests, and was hoping to catch some coffee with Nemuri if she hasn't stolen it all yet."

"Let me join you in all of that, please." Toshinori tailed beside Present Mic as they made their way down the halls. "I took my time with a small breakfast this morning, and some caffeine would only do me wonders."

"I thought stuff like that messed with your stomach," Mic prodded him.

"No, sugar does that."

"I'll make sure to overload your cup with it then!" the booming hero sung, earning a sweat drop out of the skeletal man.

"Your teasing is worse than Kageyama's."

The walk to the camera room was filled with Mic's banter, and truthfully he did enjoy listening to the man ramble on about his coworkers. It reminded him of the hero's radio show, of which Toshinori would indulge in during his overseas travels. Over the short year he had been back in Japan and prepping for a position as a teacher and instructor among the staff of Yuei, he hadn't really chatted up the other heroes he would be working with, and had probably only really gotten to meet most of them over the past two months actually spending time on campus. It helped that his successor was already a student among the rest, and spending the spring semester and the end of the fall had given him time behind closed doors to learn about his job and responsibilities. Most of that was spent with the school's principal, however, seeing as most teachers were busy either teaching or on the field. The hero courses' homeroom teachers had some time with him, all apart from one who apparently didn't have a homeroom class and spent his duties working outside the school as a hero.

It was a strange thing to learn, of a teacher with no classes and skipping school himself, but Toshinori could applaud the man for spending his free time as the hero he was instead of showboating it as many young ones to the job would. Maybe he'd finally get to meet the man.

Apparently the watch room was in a watch tower, and not the main building of the school; a fact of which had Toshinori more tired than angry as he walked out under the sun to the giant pillar of a structure. The elevator ride was quick, a German song playing above the two pro heroes during it and one the lanky man remembered from his time spent abroad. He was humming the tune of the final chorus as the elevator dinged open and he and the other hero made their entrance into the dark room lit only by the plentiful screens overlaying the front wall.

"Ah, Yagi," a squeaking voice chimed up, "I'm glad you could finally join us." The thin man turned his attention to the voice and the two-foot-tall rodent-like figure that it came from.

"I would have sooner if you gave me normal instructions, but then I'd know they weren't coming from you, Nedzu," Toshinori told him as he made his way over to where the principal of the school sat. "Can't say I wouldn't have preferred normal instructions."

"Not everything is fun if I can't keep you on your toes," Nedzu joked back, gesturing to the chair beside him for the hero to sit down in. Toshinori did, and took a moment to survey the room again, finding four chairs behind him and a few more around him still vacant. "Thank you for helping Toshinori find his way here all the same, Yamada. I would rather we all be here ahead of schedule so we can watch our new flock of examinees when the practical begins."

"Anytime, prince!" Mic saluted, hopping his way over to the back wall and the snack wall that laid against it.

"Seems I still managed to beat part of the crowd," Toshinori mentioned, gesturing over to the various empty seats. "Were any of them called on duty?"

"A few, but I only prepared seats for those who I knew would be joining us today. Besides" – Nedzu scooted forward in his chair, clicking the buttons of his laptop a few times before scooting back – "we have a few guests joining us today, and I have Nemuri showing them around campus while the examinees are still taking their written tests."

"Seeing as how we still have coffee, I can tell," Yamada interjected, stepping in between the two and handing Toshinori a cup of his own. The lanky blonde thanked the other hero, who nodded back and fell into his own seat further down the front. "You sure she was the best choice as their chaperone? As intimidating as he looks, Nishida would have loved to give anyone a tour of the campus."

"I have him watching over the written exams," Nedzu explained. "And he offered the position to Nemuri knowing the fact. They've been touring the campus since you, Kan, 13 and Inui gave your opening guidelines, so they should be arriving here in a few minutes. You can keep this appearance up when they arrive too. Better than straining yourself needlessly."

Toshinori took a hesitant sip of his drink. "Are-are you sure? I haven't been in my big form all that much today. I can keep it for the rest of the exams and then some if they plan on staying over a while afterwards."

Nedzu only waved him off and scooted back to his computer again. "No need. I'll be asking you to roam the campus in your current state over the course of the next school year anyways. With your time running lower and the decisions you've made playing into that, I think having you ease into a new normal around the students here would be far better on your health than having you push and stress your buff physique whenever a student is nearby." A ping rang from Nedzu's computer as Toshinori nodded in understanding and the principal leaned back in his chair with a grin. "Speaking of which, here they come now."

The ding of the doors behind him made Toshinori jump and nearly spill his drink before he could place it down on the desk in front of him. Through the doorway sauntered in Nemuri, dressed up in her heroine uniform as Midnight, with four teenagers trailing in behind her. The number one hero cursed the short principal beside him for another one of his games as he collected himself and watched the 18 and up heroine strike a pose and gesture to the room before them.

"And this, lovelies, is where we shall be watching your fellow soon-to-be's take their exam!" Nemuri sang, near encouraging one of the girl's to shoot forward and beam at the room around her. The rest lagged behind her, each looking around the room and soaking in the sights for themselves.

"Man, you guys really do go all out in every department," the front girl gushed, looking from screen to screen and the testing grounds they displayed. "And I thought the gymnasium was decked out for what it was. This place is a streamer's dream."

"Well I do enjoy making dreams into realities," Nedzu chimed in, drawing the attention of the girl and the other three teens over to him and Toshinori. "I do have to say our means of entertainment don't exactly show your regular programming, but I think what you'll get to watch will be just as exciting." The short principal turned his chair to face the four teens collecting themselves together beside Midnight. "I'll take them from here, Nemuri. Thank you for giving them a tour of the school."

"My pleasure," she mock saluted before jumping over to Present Mic below her and diving after his cup of coffee, starting a fight between the two of them over it as Nedzu took the teen's attention.

"Welcome to my school," he greeted them and pointed a paw at the four chairs behind his. "Please, take a seat. I've been excited to finally welcome our recommendation students join us for an event like this, and I'm hoping the year ahead will please you to find more surprises like this."

The four students made way to the seats and Toshinori took small notes as he watched them. The chattiest of them already had been the only one to move with the same laid back attitude the other teachers around them had, while the other three students kept quiet and to their own varying levels of stiff and formal as they each took a seat. To say he wasn't surprised Nedzu had brought students along to watch the exam would be a lie, but to say he wasn't having a minor panic having his civilian look presented to students immediately would have been too. If he had known beforehand, he would have invited Togata to join him for a bit of comfort in the situation.

"Tokage, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Honenuki." Nedzu nodded to each kid as he said their name, giving Toshinori a moment to put each name to a face before the sentient animal gestured to him. "This is one of the staff at Yuei you will be seeing around from time to time, Yagi. He'll be a councilor bouncing between the classes of each year's heroic departments, so you'll be seeing him more often than most of your school mates will."

Toshinori bowed his head to the four teens as they turned to them. "Pleasure to meet you all," he greeted them. "Yagi Toshinori. I'm hoping to do what I can in aiding and shaping you all into the world's next batch of heroes. Apologies if I don't exactly look the part you were expecting." He gestured bashfully to his thin body with a chuckle.

"It's alright sensei," the girl with green hair told him with a smile. "Looks don't matter all that much to me. I'm sure someone who's been around as long as you will be a great teacher. I can't wait to learn under you."

Toshinori coughed into his hand, hiding what specks of blood he could from the kids in the dimly lit room. "I'm only in my early forties," he muttered over his knuckles. "I may look like I've lived nine generations – and trust me it feels like it sometimes – but I'm probably as old as all of your old men."

The green girl – Tokage – nearly toppled out of her chair as she bowed to him. "M-my apologies sensei! I didn't mean to offend you or anything!" Her face was beat red as she shot back upright. "I-I shouldn't have made a comment like that!"

"It's fine." Toshinori waved her off and patted the corner of his lips to collect any drips he may have missed. "You're not the first person to think of me as an old man; I get it quite a lot. Let's just chop this up to a mistake. I'm not going to judge you because you made one. You are going to a school to learn after all – consider it your first lesson from me."

"T-thank you sir!" She gave him another quick bow before shrugging her shoulders and collecting herself. "T-Tokage Setsuna. It's a pleasure to meet you, Toshinori-sensei and Principal Nedzu."

Toshinori nodded back to her, a small thanks for her introduction, before he pivoted ever so slightly to the girl beside her. She was quite taller than Tokage, and from her posture far more out of place. She gave the green girl beside her a quizzical look before she caught Toshinori eyes and straightened herself for a short, seated bow. "Yaoyorozu Momo. Thank you for accepting me into Yuei, Principal. And it is a pleasure to meet you too, sensei."

"Likewise. I recognize your family name." The lanky hero fiddled his hands in his lap. "I've never gotten to meet them in person, but I've worked beside plenty heroes who have. Your family has been quite the beneficial benefactor to heroes all over the world. Give your parents my thanks for their work."

"Thank you sensei." Yaoyorozu smiled kindly to him. "Mother and Father would be happy to hear someone appreciates their work that much."

"Far and beyond." While more standard than complex, the Yaoyorozu family was quite the big name in the support industry. Had Toshinori never met David, he was certain he would have fallen back on the family for another kind of support in his hero work, if not a close third.

The boy beside her was one vaguely familiar to the hero's eyes, but not enough for him to guess on the top of his head. The split hair of white and red and the scar over his eye rang a bell—"Todoroki Shouto. It's a pleasure to meet you, senseis." Ah, that was it. One of his long time 'rival's.'

"Yes, I've heard about you," Toshinori told the young Todoroki. "You're Enji's son. He's talked about you quite a lot. His pride and joy, knowing you would get into Yuei before you were old enough to apply." The prodigal son looked uncomfortable at his words, what Toshinori read as embarrassment in front of total strangers. The pro hero bit his tongue knowing he would have to do so again in the future for something like that. "Apologies. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

The last boy of the group bowed his head before Toshinori had fully turned over to him. "Honenuki Juzo. It's an honor to be accepted into Yuei."

"It's wonderful enough to know you trust this school with your future. Apologies that I am unfamiliar with your family names." He bowed his head to Honenuki and Tokage. "Do know that I will treat none of you differently for the families you come from. I'll make sure to help you and your classmates to the best of my abilities, equally."

"Thank you, sensei," the four students accepted, bowing together as he did to them.

The sound of soft claps drew the attention of the five to Nedzu bringing his paws together. "Wonderful. Now that you've all been fairly acquitted with one another, let me begin. You four are our first recommended students in Yuei history to be invited into this room, during a freshman practical exam, no less. Understand that I, like Yagi, will not be treating any of you different from the rest of your classmates, and that a situation like this is no different. You're here to watch the practical exam with us, but nothing you say about the examinees will be taken into consideration when grading their performances. I wish to treat this instead as a bonding exercise."

Nedzu spun his chair back around, tapping his fingers against the keys of his computer. "As competitive as the world of heroics may be, much of the profession is built upon companionship and team coordination. No one man or woman is capable of everything, and in a perfect world heroes will be at the stage where they can do everything together. I don't expect your generation to be the one that gets us there, but I ask that you try to get as close as you can to that perfection." The screens overhead bounced around other perspectives, locking on to the gates in front of each mock city. "To get there together is to look out for and support each other. Some of these students may become your classmates, and I only ask you four to work together in watching how the act and what you would and could do to help them become even better. Keep in mind, those who do become your classmates will be doing the same as you during your years here, taking note of what each of you are capable of and what they can do to work alongside you – and you alongside them – in real world situations, so you need not worry of bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders. They'll be there to carry it with you."

The four students gave a sound-off in unison before they turned in on each other and began their own introductions. Toshinori turned his chair like Nedzu's, giving the teens their time together some privacy as he looked down at the school's principal. "I can't help but feel some of that was targeted at me," he whispered down at him.

"Togata may become a wonderful pillar for society, maybe even stand taller than you do, but no monument stands on one pillar alone." Nedzu kept his voice equally hushed as he skipped through camera angle after camera angle on his computer. "The world you made is a strong one, but even more so, you've laid the groundwork for a world we can make even better. Now to see who else makes for the proper building material."

---

Izuku wasn't completely confident that he had passed the written exam. Not too many questions required that much attention to answer or explain, but his thoughts wouldn't focus on the paper and pencil in front of him. He had spent several minutes of his test time swinging his pencil by the wrist as a stress reliever. Getting to finally see Ectoplasm in person was equally worse on his attention span, and he had almost asked the hero to sign his exam papers when he had finished as left the testing building. He did succeed in smacking himself upside the head for that when he was changing into his tracksuit for the practical.

Waiting for the practical to begin only added more stress to his body. As heartily as he wished he could have ignored Katsuki's words, they were ringing in his head. The exam they all had to take would have them fighting robots. How was he supposed to counter that with a baseball bat and his wits? How was he supposed to break down machines to get the points he needed to pass? Was there a catch to them, a way to damage them less to earn more points or that he wouldn't have to break them at all and earning points off them through some other means? Was he being too hopeful? Would throwing off his jacket and swinging his bat around solve any problems?

Izuku opted to give that last question a test, zipping his jacket open instead of ripping it off and taking steps away from the other examinees so he could get some practice in with his bat.

Three minutes of stomping about and slashing and swinging his bat around answered his question with a resounding no. Even in mindless practice would his thoughts wander to those that bugged him. Would all of his training prove to be for naught, or would he actually stand a chance and pass the exam? The longer he had to wait for it to being, the more it gnawed at the back of his mind, and the more hopeless everything began to sound, minus one soft voice.

"H-hi," a voice stuttered behind Izuku, causing him to stutter and whip his head around before his body followed suit. The girl it came from jolted back a step in surprise, an uneasy smile across her face wavering as he stared her down. She wasn't someone he recognized, not by the brown bob of her hair or her choice of an almost one-to-one pink version of his own tracksuit.

"Hey," he drawled out, lowering his bat as he evened out his shoulders. "Hi." The brunette before him didn't seem to know how to respond, and with little to go off of, Izuku found himself in the same predicament. He gestured out at her, waving his hand slightly to the side. "Is… did I—can I do something for you?"

The question proved enough to ease a choppy laugh out of her, as she patted the glowing red of her cheeks. "S-sorry, sorry. I spaced out there. I…I saw you at the school's entrance, when you tripped and stopped yourself from hitting the ground." Izuku coughed into the back of his hand absently, hiding a growing blush of his own behind his knuckles. "I-I was actually going to try and catch you before you fell, since I-I was right behind you when it happened, but you caught yourself before I could reach you. I thought it w-was pretty cool how you were able to balance yourself like that."

"O-oh, uh…thanks." Izuku swayed on the balls of his feet, having to acknowledge being confronted on his little slip up when he had first entered the school. A bit more embarrassing of a situation than he was expecting to experience today. "Sorry I-I didn't notice you back then. I wasn't intentionally trying to ignore you, if you were that close. That's-uh-that was nice of you to try, anyways."

"T-thanks!" she beamed at him, and he returned the smile, albeit strained between his heated cheekbones. A minute of silence passed between them, and Izuku watched the girl drum her fingers together and sway on the balls of her feet as she looked at the buildings and fields around them.

"Are-uh…nervous?" Izuku's question was able to draw her attention back to him, and her wide-eyed expression spoke volumes before her voice did.

"Oh…yeah actually." She gave a nervous giggle and rubbed the back of her head. "I-I'm not from around these parts, actually, so this is the closest I've ever been to this school. The ride over here was kinda long, so I spent it trying to prepare myself mentally on the bus. Not sure I did enough…"

"Yeah…you and me both," Izuku sympathized, tapping the tip of his bat against his toes. "Kinda thinking there wasn't much I could have done to be ready enough in the department."

"W-well hopefully we've trained enough to be accept i-into the hero department instead." She gave a weak chuckle at her own joke, and Izuku couldn't stop himself from joining in.

"Hopefully."

Izuku rolled his bat in his hand as they fell silent again. The girl's eyes dropped to the bat twirling beside his hip. In turn, her hands caught his own eyes; more accurately, the pink marks decorating her finger prints were brought to his attention. There were similar to the dots on the girl's cheeks, though the design to them didn't match completely. Either a physical mutation from a parent or something tied to her quirk, Izuku guessed.

The brunette gestured to the bat by his side. "Are you…taking that into the exam?"

He hummed in question, his brain lapsing a moment before he remembered what he was carrying. "Oh, yeah. I…uh, I probably wouldn't pass the test without it." Izuku bounced words around the tip of his tongue, choosing carefully what came next. "It's nice Yuei allows its examinees to take supplementary gear into the tests so they can use their quirks more effectively."

Izuku wasn't sure who was more shocked; the girl before him who looked at him surprised, or himself seeing the girl be surprised at his words. "T-they do?"

"Ye…yeah. People are still born with quirk their bodies can't handle, and many of them have to wear or carry something to help maintain and control their quirk. Yuei's rules balance it out for other examinees so anyone and everyone can bring something in to help better their tests scores, as long as they send in registration forms and the school signs off for those who ask to use them."

"Oh…" The girl looked down at her shoes and tapped the soles together. Her fingers drummed unevenly. "That-that sounds really useful."

"I-I'm hoping it is." Hoping quick to change the topic before it was too late, he pointed to her dancing hands. "You have some nice fingertips—prints! I mean cool—cool fingerprints! Or the um, uh" – Izuku smacked a hand over his face and grumbled into his palm, and between his fingers could see the girl before him didn't look any better than he felt – "t-those markings on your fingers. Are-are they related any to your quirk?"

The brunette girl nodded her head vigorously, patting her cheeks to filter the steam out of her ears. "Yes! Uh, I-I mean yeah." She turned her hands to face him better, giving Izuku a clear look at the pink ovals covering the top joints of each digit. "Connecting them to anything or together can activate and deactivate my quirk." She gave a small giggle and curled her fingers inwards. "I'm not too sure where they came from, since my mom and dad don't have any of their own. I get these from my mom" – she pointed to the pink dots highlighting the top of her cheeks – "but the ones on my fingers are a first in the family."

"Huh, guess we both get our dots from our parents," Izuku joked in his attempt to keep the mood lighter. He scratched a finger around the freckles under his eyes, the ones his mother told him he got from his father. What pictures they had around the house of him only cemented her claim. Happy coincidence it was to find someone with a similar tale, though Izuku doubted the girl or her parents considered what she had as freckles. Close enough, he reasoned.

Closer than he was to this stranger, Izuku realized. "Oh, we um-I don't know your name. How—we—hi?" Izuku dropped his hands to his sides and gave a small bow. "Midoriya Izuku. Sorry, I just realized we haven't said our names yet." The girl before him joined him in the soft laugh that followed.

"You're right. Sorry, I got caught up in…all that. Uraraka Ochako." She bowed in return, her fingertips pressed together in front of her stomach.

The two were only given a short moment to relish in each other's names before a loud buzz sounded around them, both teens jumping in response and turning to see students shuffle out of the written testing building. That must have been the end of the time limit of that, Izuku reasoned and scanned over the crowd looking for Iida. If there was any solace in the tests so far, it was knowing Iida would be in the same testing ground as him. With Ojiro in a different district and Mei scheduled for a different day and department, he was happy to have at least one friend in arm's reach.

"Guess the practical is starting soon," the girl beside him muttered, turning her attention to the giant doors of the mock city beside them both. "There are a lot more people testing than I thought there would be. I think there's enough people around us to make all of Yuei's classes next year."

"Yeah, and there's six more groups like this and we're all applying for the same two classes," Izuku added. He wasn't finding Iida among the crowd shuffling out of the changing halls beside the written test building or the latter. Where was he? "Most classes have a cap of 20 students for admission, and not every class even gets filled completely. I hear the support classes don't even get 10." Uraraka looked baffled at that. "Yuei makes the best of the best, but I guess it only accepts them, too. They just have to filter them out for the public to see."

"It's kinda intimidating," Uraraka admitted, shuffling a hand behind her head. "But Yuei is the top school in the nation for a reason, I guess…"

"What a coincidence; I was going to say the same."

Uraraka and Izuku jumped forward with a yelp, the latter launching a step forward and throwing his bat over his head ready to swing as he finally took notice of Iida in his blue running attire standing behind them. "Jesus…Christ, Iida," Izuku panted, dropping his arm again. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. I don't need one more today."

"Midoriya, I do hope you're joking," Iida told him. "You've exaggerated this before and you shouldn't be risking your health if you think you'll collapse during the test."

"I-I think I'm having one now," Uraraka admitted, fallen on her knees and clutching her chest. "Is everything in Tokyo like this?"

"My apologies!" Iida launched forward and helped the girl back on her feet, still shaken and leaning back from the tall boy that had appeared. "I hadn't meant to startle either of you so badly, but I was having trouble spotting either of you with so many other fellow examinees around us. The only reason I had not called your name was because I wished not to make a scene as everyone else prepares for the exam. I was surprised to find you conversing with someone else instead of taking your time to prepare for the test."

"That's what we're trying to do, to varying success." Izuku patted his shirt and readjusted his jacket. "You were taking too long on the written test, and I was kinda just getting anxious, and we just kinda started talking. I wish I could say my confidence has gone up, but I'm still just as worried about this whole thing as before. The practical is gonna be one hell of a test." Iida nodded his head into his hand in agreement, and Uraraka lowered her head in thought a moment before she rose it back up.

"I…I have faith," she muttered. "I came all this way…and my parents saw me off so I could be here…I have no reason to give up now, w-whether it's gonna be hell or not."

"While I am…less inclined to use as little profanity as that, I agree in the sentiment wholeheartedly." Iida fixed his glasses on his nose so a shine reflected off of them. "My family has done nothing but support me in my efforts to be a hero. As much as I do this for myself, I'm aiming to be a hero for them too.

Izuku saw a similar shine in the brunette's eyes as she turned her slowly growing smile towards the bluenette. "Y-yeah, exactly." He tugged at the helm of his jacket and brought the bat to rest beside his hip. His mom was at home cheering him on, he knew she was. Iida and Uraraka had their parents to impress and have support them, and Izuku knew he now had the same too. He had a dream to fight for and a bully to stand up to and friends to support in their own dreams as they supported his own.

He had a reason to keep his spirits up and fight.

"AAAAND…BEGIN!"

Heads shot up all around them, and Izuku joined everyone in looking to the sky. Or more accurately, to the top of the tower behind them and the vague figure shouting from the rooftop.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Present Mic shouted back down at them. "THE TEST HAS BEGUN! GO, GO GO!"

Almost instantly did Izuku's head snap back down, watching as the colossal doors before his testing group open and watching the examinees in front of him dash on in to the testing area. Iida and Uraraka were quick to join the crowd, their eyes dead-set forward for the fighting they were about to engage in. But he stayed back, just a moment longer; to put both his hand around the grip of his bat, raise the steel pillar close to his head, and look his warped reflection in what little of his eyes he could see.

Then he ran forward too.

---

The first minute of the practical was nothing but nail-biting for Izuku.

Because of his later start, he had avoided being stuffed in the crowd before him, which at least gave him space to roll his shoulders as he ran in. On the flipside, his friend and the girl he just met got to tail that same crowd in, and the empty streets he took not to get caught up in fighting other people for points left him hearing the battles echo in the distance with little sight of the faux villains for him to take on.

He was without friend or foe, a situation concerning on its own given the exam surrounding him, but it at least gave him another moment to breathe and think. The faux villains were robots, he knew that much. All he had was a baseball bat and his own powerless strength to combat them. He had basic human strength at his disposal to take on mechanical foes, and he had no doubt the teachers and staff at Yuei knew he would. But maybe there was a catch for someone like him. Not every hero could punch down a brick wall, not every hero could lift a car over their head, so how could a school expect teenagers to decimate machines with quirks restricted to use under strict supervision? (An image of Katsuki flashed through Izuku's mind but he waved it away as an exception to the rule, as far as the law would state.)

Maybe there was a catch to the machines, a detail to them that made them fightable for children taking an exam. Yuei was a school, so there would have to be some form of restriction and regulation to their devices, right? A means of letting teenagers fight them without taking the test too far. There would have to be a key to the robotic faux villains that he could abuse too; maybe the material they were made of would be lighter and more easily breakable for him to get points, or they'd even be around his height or an average adult's to mimic more common criminals heroes had to face.

The lumbering machine barreling through a wall five feet in front of Izuku near squandered those ideas. "Shit."

In all actuality, just a one-pointer faux villain was thrice his size, shaped like a raptor/scorpion hybrid on wheels. The moss-colored machine took quick notice of Izuku, locking its one red and beady eye on him as its whole body whirled loudly and turned to him. He took notice of what looked to be a machine gun's turret under one of the robot's arms, and Izuku had to wonder again if all his speculation was for naught.

Suddenly, the machine sped forward, raising one of its plated arms over its head and swinging it across towards Izuku. Just as quickly did Izuku bring his bat up, shooting it flat at the arm and taking the brunt of the hit for just a split second, and in that split second was Izuku's courage rising. Another half second later, the rest of the power behind the machine's fist came into play, forcing his arms to bend and the bat to press against him before the robot sent him tumbling back against the fake city's sidewalk. As fake as the town was, the cement he connected with was real enough to fool him.

Izuku groaned as he rolled onto his back and gasped for air. Good news was the gun was probably for show, given its first instinct and initiative wasn't to shoot him. Bad news was fuck that hurt. He struggled to get himself up and when he did, he found the machine still standing there, staring him down ready to charge and strike again. At least Yuei was kind enough to design them without a mode to pummel down the lesser offensive examinees, Izuku would give them that.

In return, Yuei gave him three more robots dashing around the corner behind him and locking onto him as their targets.

His own mind whirled as his eyes darted between the four machines surrounding him. A-three pointer, a pair of two-pointers and that first one-pointer. 9 points he could make for his exam score, as long as he could damage them enough for the points to count, with a few minutes already spent on his fifteen minute clock of a practical exam. How the hell was he going to get them and more before the exam ended? His hands shook the bat held between them as he gulped. "Not like anything's ever been fair before…"

The one-pointer charged again, lifting its arm to the sky and slamming it down to Izuku. Before it could hit him the greenette had dived out of the way, rolling onto the street into a crouch and turning to the next machine that charged him. A two-pointer shaped vaguely similar to a centaur stomped its way over, and the tail that switched his recognition of the machine to that of a chimera swung across at him, forcing Izuku to roll backwards to avoid it. He didn't back off too far, as the tail swung back the way it came and Izuku swung his bat to meet it.

The end of its tail cracked off the machine as his bat followed through, and he and the machine both took a second to look at it before they moved again. The bot took a while to turn with its four legs and slam his arm into the street, missing the teen who sidestepped it with ease and slammed his bat into its arm. Recoil surged through Izuku's arms after the impact, but he saw a worthy enough size dent in the arm's plating to send a second surge of pride to overtake the pain.

Suddenly did the pain return as the faux villain's arm shot out of the ground and backhanded Izuku in his side, sending him spiraling and flying down the street. He fell into a tumble a few yards from the machine, and before he could jump to his feet did another machine jump him; a three-pointer swinging its arm from down low to catch Izuku from underneath and chuck him. Izuku barely felt the window he shattered through, but the countertop he slammed on and rolled off us – along with the wall he rolled into – left a jarring impact throughout his body.

"Ow…" Down in a few quick hits. If he wasn't gasping in pain he would have attempted to laugh; he tried anyways and his chest stung like hell. He almost couldn't notice it when the rest of his body stung too. It's what he deserved for taking on Yuei's entrance exam, he told himself. A school for the best really did try to weed out those worth enough. Of course the faux villains they made wouldn't hold back in their attacks. He could try to dodge them all he wanted, keep his distance all he wanted to keep from getting hurt but backing up would only pin him against the wall. Not even hit by brick fists or taking the bullet hurt as bad as their hits did.

Was that first time really a fluke? Four men with no real intention to hurt him before he acted compared to four robots with the intention to bash him in before he could act. How did this fight feel more real than back then? He didn't have Iida's speed to dodge their strikes consistently; he didn't have Ojiro's extra appendage to maneuver around with; he didn't have Katsuki's aggressive, pressing nature and battle style. He was here to stand out, but how the hell was he supposed to measure up to the competition?

Hunter sighed and shook his head. "Kid, take one look at the heroes out there and you can see no one really gives a shit about how any of them act, so long as they save lives doing it." He rose back to stand up tall and looked down at the green teen. "You gotta problem with the way you do things? Fine, work it out somehow. Probably got somebody you can talk to about it other than me. I ain't exactly that good at this. But next time you stand your ground to prove a point, a shove back at the start would only help reinforce it." He waved a hand at the kid. "You think you can stand? I tried going easy on ya; didn't want to break any of your bones, just get ya heated enough to fight."

"I…I…" Izuku slammed his hand onto the countertop's edge and pulled himself up with a groan of a roar. His other hand came to hoist him up, using the bat he had yet to let loose of his grip to push off the counter too. By the time he was on his feet he was falling in the opposite direction, but he caught the counter soon enough to keep himself upright. He pressed his hands into fists and pressed his knuckles against the stone surface of the counter and regained his sight out the window, staring at the four mechanical beasts staring back at him. A sneer and a laugh escaped his lips simultaneously. "…am a fucking idiot."

He stumbled around the bar and through the more open hallway to stumble out the window he came through. All the while the bots stayed motionless, their beady ruby eyes locked on his head and flickering under the light of the sun above. The instant his foot connected with the pavement of the street, Izuku's mind went racing again. The robots towered over him, obviously so, but they weren't designed in mind to counteract that detail. The one-pointer's arms were too long to fold against him, the two-pointer's body and tail were locked into place and the three-pointer's cannons didn't have a hint of firepower in them. Even the latter two were clunky and slow compared to the lowest pointed robot, but the one-pointer only had the mobility and wheel to move forward, no sign of the mechanics required to pivot on the spot or rotate a new direction so easily. Izuku scolded himself for ignoring such wide open targets so easily.

He gripped the bat in his hand and cocked his head towards the first robot that had assaulted him. "Wanna try that again?" Without another word the robot shot forward, its arm chambered behind it to be launched at Izuku's head. And he counted on it.

With the bat chambered by his side, Izuku ran forward to meet the robot. Instead of colliding or connecting with its brick of a fit he ducked under it, and as its body kept moving Izuku struck his bat forward, slamming it into the lower joint of its mechanical spine and slicing right through it. The joint burst as Izuku followed through with the blow and the one-pointer's body collapsed while its one wheel dragged on another two blocks before it fell too.

He had thought to dodge them before, but how else was he supposed to get points if he didn't get in close?

The two-pointer buckled forward, turning its body as it stomped forward and coiling its tail like a snake. With the end of it missing, the connector of its joints was used to stab at Izuku, and only missed when he decided to jump over its strike. Instead of meeting flesh the metal met cement, and the perfect staircase was made for Izuku to run up and close in on its torso. The faux villain swung its hand backwards to swat him off, but the green teen jumped over it too and bashed the head of the machine in on its body.

Izuku rolled off the two-pointer as it collapsed on the street, while he ended up crouched on his own two feet. Before him still stood the duo of three-pointers, standing by shoulder-to-shoulder as they stared at him and he stared back defiantly.

He chuckled and wiped beads of sweat off his chin. "Guess I was right…Yuei did use lighter materials to make you things…" He rolled his shoulders and straightened his back. What was he doing berating himself again, comparing himself to others again, fretting all hope was lost again? "That's three pointes for me." He already knew he could never be like Iida, like Ojiro, like Yaoyorozu, Mei or Katsuki. He could never be like All-Might, and frankly the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to be. "I just gotta do that twice more, for twice more, right?" He had his own smile, his own brain, his own body, and his own baseball bat.

"TEN MINUTES REMAINING!"

Izuku barred his teeth in a smile and brought his bat to stand in front of him. The sun reflected off it, and he could see the smallest of dents near the top of his weapon. "I think I'm heated enough to fight now."

He was better off making them want to be like him.

---

"I must say, the vast number of students that apply for this exam is nothing short of astounding," Yaoyorozu commented, glossing over the overhead screens overlooking the entrances of each testing area.

Setsuna acted even more impressed, bouncing in her chair as she looked around too. "I've heard there's more students here than there are people at three Run to Feed the Hungry events," she chimed in. "If Yuei can bring in this many people, I wonder if other schools have as big an entrance exam."

"Shiketsu may be a revered hero school but I think less than 75% of the amount of students here apply there too," Honenuki mentioned, looking over at the teens beside them. "And they're Yuei's biggest competitor."

"That's Yuei from you," Todoroki countered. "The attention this school gets is probably greater than the reputation that precedes it."

Even with his back to them, Toshinori felt they could still see his smile. It was pleasant, listening to the future students of Yuei to converse with one another so quickly. They hadn't done much of introductions following the repetition of their names and a short family history, but they were closer than arm's length as they chattered on about the exam they got to witness. They had barely acknowledged the slow trickle of teachers from each of the three years of grades the school had employed. The lengths Yuei went to just to hold a single entrance exam never ceased to astound him and while having the honor of joining the other side of Yuei's population since he graduated was going to have a hard time topping that experience, he didn't doubt the next year wouldn't try its hardest to amaze him again.

"AAAAND…BEGIN!"

The heart attack Mic nearly gave him did not count in their favor.

At the sound of his voice did the doors to each exam city open, the sea of students flooding into each becoming surprisingly satisfying for Toshinori to watch. So many students eager to pass and enroll in the heroics classes, and while most wouldn't be accepted into the school at all, he doubted they'd all give up and not test at schools elsewhere across Japan. Most would probably become heroes, and the thought alone was easing on his frail form.

Watching the students fight was another thing entirely. He knew the grading process would be more definitive after the exam was completed, but he also knew to keep watch as a safety protocol now and have some early responses to the actions and performances of the students as they happened in real time. Several students in each of the testing areas were outshining the competition around them, some vehemently so. A girl in City A was melting down every faux villain she came across with the liquid that shot from her hands, an acid of some sort he assumed. City D had two kids that looked like brothers, a boy with stone features and another with steel, charging down different streets and bashing through robots while taking a beating of their own. Horns flew about City C, piercing through the hulls of the machines as a girl raced between them and put her faunas form to good use.

It was a boy in City E that caught his eye in particular; a boy with ashen blonde hair piling more ash atop himself as explosions ruptured from his palms. The boy charged each faux villain he saw with his hands behind his back, launching himself through the air to get in close and blast the bodies of the machines wide open. Slowly, Toshinori began to recognize the boy as the one he had seen attacked in the mall alley. The one the slime criminal had taken hostage and abused the quirk of to keep himself protected for as long as he did. He looked as vigorous as the glimpses he caught of him the first time they crossed paths, maybe more so. Maybe a bit too vicious, but if he was applying to be a hero and had that much practice and knowledge with his quirk, a bit of refinement would make him a stellar hero for the public.

Nedzu refused to hand him any student's profiles before the test began, leaving him to learn the students he saw for the grading portion of his job from their form alone. He knew it was to eliminate a chance of bias stemming from his grading process as he looked over the applicants as they tested, but it would have been helpful to pull up the name of the kids that caught his eye if only to bother him less. Knowing the principal, the names of every student were already in Nedzu's head – though the heads connected to those names were probably floating around aimlessly in there too – but the short quirked animal had a lot less bias towards certain students, so Toshinori knew his ambiguity to favor one examinee over another was real.

That "perfect" image of the principal was only ruined by the screen he was watching on his computer instead of the many above him and the rest of the teachers.

Toshinori had noticed it when the exam started, the principal watching the computer placed before him sharing the feed of the same cameras shown above them. He left the matter be, assuming it as nothing more than him overlooking the start of the exam to find any foul play and follow anyone who tried something under the belt for reviewing after the exam was complete. But with every glance Toshinori stole, he always found Nedzu watching his computer, not giving any of the screens above him his attention. He wondered: had the principal found someone or something wrong, one to watch attentively and report quickly in case a matter was to go out of hand? There was little else that could have possibly been the truth, and the longer it went on in just a few short minutes, the more his curiosity built. Not too long into the exam did Toshinori give in to his wondering, and he turned his full attention to the computer screen just in time to watch a faux villain chuck one of the kids through a window.

"The machines Power Loader has built for the entrance exam can be quite the challenge for the examinees," Nedzu commented at the hiss of recoil Toshinori gave at the sight he witnessed. The principal of Yuei kept his voice, careful not to draw the attention of the teachers or the four students in the room with them. The computer screen before him scrolled through other camera angles, all focused on the same street the robots had assaulted the examinee. "They're modeled loosely off various prototype designs of machines designated for military use, meant to counter future terrorist allegiances and organizations to assist heroes and the world police. Majima took liberties in merging a few of the designs into the three basic enemies the students have to fight, enough to vary them to give the students a variety of obstacles without having any overlap the original designs he worked off of had." The screen began scrolling through cameras within the building the boy had been thrown into. "None of these testing robots are invulnerable, but for some the challenge can be far greater than they expect. I'm curious to see how this one reacts to the challenge."

Nedzu finally settled on a camera across the room from the boy he was watching, said kid lying on his back in the shadows of the building, almost hidden from the camera feed had the color of his clothing and the baseball bat in his hand not stood out. "Please tell me you did not program the machines to target him."

"No, they're programmed to assault all students evenly. I made sure a failsafe program was installed to prevent any of them from attacking students who aren't able to get up, along with a means of reporting any severe injuries so Ectoplasm can rush through the fields and escort the children to the side for Recovery Girl to attend to. These four are currently sending me one now" – Nedzu scrolled his mouse over to the small box that popped up on the corner of his screen and clicked it away – "but I don't believe we need to be concerned."

Toshinori gave the small principal an incredulous look. He glanced over his shoulders to find the other staff watching the screens overhead attentively and the children behind him still in awe at the same sight before giving Nedzu his full attention. "You can't be serious—"

"When am I not?"

"He's not even moving." He was right; pointing at the screen, Toshinori and Nedzu could see the kid was still limp on the floor. "I understand the entrance exam is supposed to be a challenge – I remember taking it myself – but I don't remember you allowing any students to be put through more than they can handle. They're here to become heroes, but they are still kids."

"And we are looking through these students for something more." Nedzu nodded to the screen and the two watched as the kid struggled to pull himself to his feet, leaning on the counter in front of him and taking a moment to catch his breath and his body and…

Toshinori recognized the kid.

He recognized the kid stumbling around the counter and down the main hall of the building he was chucked in. He recognized the kid that climbed out through the window he was thrown through. He recognized the kid with green hair walking into the street facing danger head on, because it was the same kid with green hair who had ran through a burning market place to save the blonde boy from the villain made of slime.

"I know him," Toshinori mumbled and leaned back in his chair. He had no doubt in his mind that this was the same kid he had met near a year ago. He had almost forgotten him and the blonde boy, given his attention was directed elsewhere for almost every month since then. And while the blonde kid was somewhat dimmer a memory, the green kid grew like a beanstalk in the back of his head as he recalled—

"Midoriya?"

Toshinori nearly snapped his neck as he spun around, finding the tall teenage girl sitting behind them and looking between their chairs to the computer screen in front of the two Yuei staff. Yaoyorozu jumped as she drew the attention of the lanky man, both taking a moment to correct themselves silently as the latter turned more towards her. "You…you know this young man?" he questioned her.

"Y-yes sir," she responded with hesitance, stiffening in her chair as Nedzu spun his seat around too. She kept her voice as low as his, keeping from drawing the attention of the room around them still focused on the exam at hand. "Midoriya and I met a few months ago, and I've talked with him from time to time since then. I had almost forgotten he was taking this test since you invited me – us – to watch it with you."

"I had assumed maybe one of you four would know at least one other student participating in our test," Nedzu commented. "That is good; if the students we accept have connections to one another, they'll be a step ahead of even our current employed heroes. A strong bond of companionship and teamwork would benefit our nation greatly. It's not going to change how the students are graded for the test – I would not allow such bias to be the mindset of our school and our actions – but if people like that are accepted in then it will make the year more interesting to work with."

"I believe Midoriya will pass the exam," Yaoyorozu stated with far more confidence and composure. "He's proven himself far more than capable enough to become as great as the rest, and I believe with his quirk he'll do more than alright against the faux villains everyone has to face in this exam."

For a moment Toshinori heartbeat stopped with the rest of his body. Nedzu was still animated where he sat, but there was a lag to his movements. "You believe it is because of his quirk that he will be able to pass our exam?" he questioned her.

"I don't believe it will be the only reason he does, but I do believe it will help him in a test structured so heavily around one's physical prowess," she hastily responded. "I haven't seen too much of him in action before but I believe I've talked with him enough to know he won't fail the exam by not trying."

"You know his conviction that well already? You two must be really well acquainted already—"

"What are we talking about?" The green-haired Setsuna rolled her chair shoulder-to-shoulder with Yaoyorozu's, quietly startling the tall girl seating in it and drawing over the attention of the two boys who had made it in through the acceptance exam. "Is it something we should all be talking about, ya' know, since we're here to bounce off one another and bond?"

"We may as well." Nedzu spun around in his chair and typed madly on his laptop. "I originally had no intention of bringing this about to anyone else's attention, but I believe any time would be better than no time." With a few more clicks, the screen above the six of them shifted, showcasing the broadcast from one of the street cameras facing the boy and the four robots.

Toshinori looked up just in time with the others to watch a quirkless kid cut seamlessly through a one-pointer with his baseball bat.

Despite the chatter going on from the kids now behind him, Toshinori's ears had tuned out their voices to nothing but ambient. He could hear the slowing beating of his heart better than he could his own breath. The boy on the screen kept fighting, taking not even 15 seconds to bash in the head of the two-pointer and jump off like the back of his jacket hadn't been cut up by the glass he flew through. He was staggering, sure; he looked to put more energy into catching his breath than he did charging for another fight. But Toshinori couldn't find a single trickle or splatter of blood anywhere on his body.

Yaoyorozu mentioned he had a quirk but Toshinori couldn't come to accept that. The boy had introduced himself as one without any powers beyond basic human limitations, and his effort against the slime criminal had done everything to support that truth. Had he truly had a quirk all along and hid it so well that he himself hadn't know about it? Had something triggered its first appearance to the boy since they talked? Quirks almost never showed up for people as they entered their teenage years, Toshinori knew that well enough. The only way to get a quirk at that point was if someone else handed it over.

The hole in Toshinori's side ached at the thought, and the pain only worsened as his phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked the message on screen.

The plating on the faux villains are their real weaknesses. Everything else is too densely layered to give the majority of the examinees another struggle. He may have known what he was doing attacking the head of the second bot, but the spine he tore through of the first would take more than a single swing from a kid with no quirk. He's achieved the impossible.

- Nedzu

Toshinori gave the short principal a look from the corner of his eyes, finding the small mammal's phone set beside him on the chair, screen blank and out of the way of the eyes of the student behind them. The latter were still enamored with the screen overhead, converging on the tall ponytailed girl to talk about the boy she knew on screen. He looked back up with them, finding the same kid ducking his way under the fists of the three-pointers and climbing on their bodies to bash in their torsos just enough to disable them and receive the supplementary points.

If the plating on the bodies really were weak enough for the students, than maybe the Midoriya kid had figured it out or taken the assumption and made it work for himself; he had done only that for eight of his points. Had he not cleared two three-pointers in under a minute, not rip a one-pointer in two, and Nedzu not brought up the probability of the situation, Toshinori would have given him the benefit of the doubt.

But watching the kid bolt down the street to fight more machines left a familiar, sour taste in his mouth.

---

"That friend of yours is really going to town on those robots," Setsuna commented, watching the fellow green-haired teen on screen take down the second three-pointer. "Kinda weird to see someone using a baseball bat for a school exam, though. Are people allowed to bring weapons to the exam?"

"If it supplements their quirks, yes," Honenuki mentioned. "In the case of non-physical quirks, support items and weaponry can better display what one is capable of doing. The pro hero Snipe apparently brought his revolvers to the entrance exam since his quirk complements marksmanship so well. A baseball bat wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for someone to use or bring, but it does seem unconventional for someone who has a strength quirk."

"According to Midoriya, it's a power channeling quirk more than it is a simple strength quirk," Momo corrected. "He's able to pass the strength in his body to what he touches or holds, so long as he still touches it. He told me he chose a bat since it would stand out more and provide something a bit more defensive than a sword while still applying the same amount of offense."

Setsuna let out a low whistle as they watched Midoriya turn the corner to a small pack of one-pointers alone on the streets. "That sounds like a really useful quirk. Is he able to do it with people too? Like, pass on strength to them too?"

"Sadly not," Momo sighed. "The strength he'd give would only sap away the instant his hand left them, so it only lasts in the moment of contact. I haven't experienced it myself, though, so I don't know what it feels like."

"I don't see why he would hinder himself with a weapon," Todoroki commented, following the swing of said weapon knocking the head of a one-pointer off its body. "If he has the strength to put out raw power, then why not put it into his own fists?"

Honenuki looked over at the other three students with a shrug. "Would you want to punch steel with your bare hands? Maybe his power output doesn't change the durability of his body. For all his strength he's still flesh and bones; maybe there isn't any overlap, so he makes up for it put putting his power into more dense objects and weapons. Inconvenient, sure, but at least he was able to find a way around getting himself hurt."

"He never mentioned that with me." Momo looked down at her lap, counting off her fingers the details Midoriya had given her when she had asked. "I hadn't even considered it until now."

"Then this exercise is going wonderfully." The four teens look before them to the principal leaning around his chair to look at them over his shoulder. "If any of you weren't learning from each other, I would have considered my efforts in bringing you all here a failure. Do keep at it." He gave them all a nod as he turned back in his chair and focused on the same broadcast on his computer.

Momo wondered why he was watching Midoriya so directly for the exam. It felt a little uneasy compared to the rest of the teachers and staff in the room assessing the screens above them from camera to camera, their own commentary hushed out either to themselves or one another. The principal had danced around even giving a hint as to why the green boy was who he followed around, and a part of her wondered if it had anything to do with the news he made fighting at the mall. That same part of her wondered if it was also a reason she was accepted, hidden under the proclamation that she and the other recommendation accepted students would attend the exam in the overview room, as though he was needed to watch over the two of them and anyone else from using their quirks without legal supervision or licensed allowance.

The lanky man beside the principal only further concerned her. To be where he was, both in his physical place and his position of oversight on the heroics courses at Yuei, would mean he had some form of power, and Momo was willing to bet it was more political than physical. He was well enough acquainted with her family and Yagi's, the latter of whom she hadn't recognized from the family name until his father was mentioned. Endeavor was far more open about his true name in public than most heroes, the intimidation he emoted playing a large role in letting him be so transparent about details like that. But for Yagi to know a boy she hadn't even know about as personally as he let on meant he was closer to the heroes in the rankings than she would have guessed. If she were to assume any further, she wouldn't be surprised to learn of him actually as a legal representative of the Hero Association checking to oversee all students following the laws that she and Midoriya had tampered with not two months ago.

How stiff he sat in his chair and how his hands fiddled with the legs of his pants set her assumptions into further worries. He was intent on focusing solely on Midoriya as well, his eyes having stuck to the overhead screen since it started tracking him through the exam. Nedzu at least would look back at them from time to time and comment as she or the other students beside her brought something up. Wherever Yagi's thoughts were, Midoriya was most definitely at the center of it all.

She only hoped he would pass the exam with flying colors and help kick any of their worries under the rug by the end of it.

---

"FIVE MINUTES REMAINING!"

"Shit," Izuku grumbled and rolled his arm in a heavy swing. With trial and error he was able to take down the faux villains that he came across, but that didn't mean it wasn't a trail at all. As open and weak as their bodies and heads were, he almost forgot he was dealing with machines until the blowback of his swings set in. Those first three-pointers really sent that home, even if he was able to take them down with only an extra scrape on his calf in the end. His bat was in worse condition than him, and he scoffed at the four dents that littered it on all side and nearly gave it solid edges. If he got in – and it was becoming a greater if every minute – maybe the school could supply him with new bats with his hero costume; hell, what his hero costume would be was still under question, and the new school year would start in less than two months.

The one-pointers he found after were far easier to hit once or twice and move on, since they seemingly deactivated quickly enough, so Izuku just assumed he accumulated points with each bot that fell. Only problem was that left him with half a test to go and only 15 points in hand. If he wanted to get the bare minimum to even be considered for the heroic course, he had to hurry.

And hurry he did – into the vast open street populated with other students and machines fighting left and right of him. Teens were tearing and bashing down faux villains everywhere he looked, bashing them into the street and tallying their points along the way. But with each kid that passed him, the higher their tallies were – from the mid-twenties to the low-forties – and leaving behind not a single bot for him to take on himself.

Dammit, I'm being left behind, he cursed. A boy with a body of steel tore through a two-pointer with a tackle and charged head on into another. How am I supposed to catch up with everyone taking the points? Another boy tore through a faux villain with a beam emanating from his stomach, sending himself shooting back to dodge the swing of a second bot. How am I supposed to become a hero if I can't get in?!

Iida charged into his view, colliding his foot with a one-pointer and sending it careening into a building. Izuku could barely hear him mutter his point count over the satisfied smile on the taller teen's face as he gazed over the faux villain he had attacked. Whatever it was, Izuku didn't doubt that his friend was going to pass the exam. Funnily enough, Izuku had no faith that he could catch up to the speedster now.

"THREE MINUTES REMAIN!"

DDOOOOMMM!

Izuku tripped as the ground shook beneath him and everyone around him, sending him to his knees as he waited for it to pass. Other teens around him either caught themselves or collapsed with him, each and every one of them searching around for the cause of the tremors. And then the culprit rounded the corner, and Izuku's heart skipped a beat at the giant who bore down upon them.

Holy shit. The giant "gimmick" villain crushed the upper corner of a building as he turned onto the street, his tracks and wheels rumbling the pavement underneath their feet and his hand tossing rubble down towards them. Most students had already turned tail and ran in the opposite direction from the faux villain, avoiding the rubble and the machine easily. Several others lagged behind, dodging the falling rubble just in time to twist down other streets in search of other robots to gain points from or just hide away from the big zero-pointer. But Izuku didn't move from his kneeling position, watching the behemoth with wide eyes and a dry throat as he processed what he saw. That's supposed to be an obstacle? It looks like the real challenge of the exam more than anything!

He stumbled to his feet as it made its way down the road and only stopped himself from turning away as well when his eyes fell downwards. Past the shoulders of everyone else booking it from the machine, Izuku could see the one person who wasn't. Face down on the ground and surrounded by rubble was the brunette he talked with at the entrance of the testing zone, the girl who had attempted to help him when he tripped at the entrance of the school. She was moving and shifting on the ground, but she didn't make any effort to get up. And the gimmick made no effort in stopping its charge.

Izuku was only aware he was moving forward when bumped shoulders with another teen not taking a second glance behind him, but he had no thought to turn and join the other students fleeing from the giant machine. His eyes were all but locked on the shuddering body of Uraraka as he ran forward to her. Iida caught his eye for a split second, and he could see the bewilderment behind his glasses as he passed before he continued on without a word. He couldn't think of any to come up with.

The gimmick robot was far too close for comfort in Izuku's opinion, leaving him barely any time at all when he finally reached Uraraka. He crouched down beside her, taking quick note of the gash in her arm – just below her shoulder – and worked his hands around it as he heaved her off the ground. He draped her other arm over his shoulders and started running back the way he came with her by his side. They only made it three steps before she cried in pain and Izuku was alerted to the way her ankle was turned and the two nearly fell back down. "Fuck, I'm sorry—"

Izuku nearly jumped out his shoes when another hand cupped over the girl's stomach, and it eased Izuku's soul back to his soles when Iida helped them both back up. "I came right when I noticed," the tall teen told him as moved forward again. "My brother told me they have the school nurse situated close by in case any students are badly wounded. We should get her back to the entrance as fast as we can."

Izuku gulped when he nodded. Iida was right, they should hurry Uraraka away with a bleeding arm and a sprained ankle, but he knew it meant sacrificing his points. There was barely any time left in the exam, and rushing her to safety would take up what was left of it. He'd fail his application for the heroics course as a result; he barely had the faith he would pass as is, anyways. If he was lucky the school would consider him for the general department, but there were more than enough students around him who would probably be considered over him.

It was a split second of luck that Izuku noticed what was over them when a shadow casted over them, and he tilted his head to find chuck of buildings break off from the gimmick machine's hand and tumble down towards them.

"Run!" Izuku shouted, loud enough to get Iida to notice the rubble heading their way. In a panic the tall teen heaved the girl into his arms, moving the weight off of Izuku and taking off with him as the building came tumbling down. Several large chunks of stone and steel crashed behind them, and Izuku watched over his shoulder as the stream continued to follow and a chunk aimed for them as they ran.

Against better judgement did Izuku jump, spinning in the air with his bat drawn behind him as the stone chunk neared. Once it was close, he twisted his body and swung, and to his hopes he had somehow managed the strength to bash a block as big as himself off course from falling on him and his friend.

Just as the building's piece moved did Izuku notice the smaller one behind it. With no momentum to treat it like the one before, the stone block cracked Izuku across the head and sent him crashing into the pavement face first.

---

Watching the young Midoriya actually take down robot after robot left mixed feelings in Toshinori's stomach. On one hand, he was witnessing the quirkless boy he had thought he had ruined the dreams of fight on for them, and was somewhat successful in doing so. On the other, too many factors of the situation – Nedzu believing him to be quirkless, the tall girl behind him convinced he had a quirk as she explained it to the other students, the boy more and more easily brushing off every shove and backhand the faux villains gave him – clashed with his perception of the boy that he had no way of knowing what was true about him or what he did.

The best case scenario was that the boy was actually quirkless, and his feats in the entrance exam were possible simply through his sheer will and thinking. He was exactly the kid Toshinori remembered him being, thought grown up more than before and far more mindful in his actions. As rough as he was, Toshinori could see the makings of a hero in him, one that could be shaped into a far better and more capable hero to match with some of the best in heart, even if he couldn't meet them in their capabilities. He could humor the idea of the kid being outfitted with support equipment, though; even since meeting Melissa, he wondered if a quirkless hero relying on tools manufactured well enough to replace the need of a quirk could possibly make it as a hero, and he would like to argue in favor of the idea.

But the worst case scenario rang heavier in his heart. He was showing signs of durability and strength Toshinori would only believe came from a quirk. Yaoyorozu's rough but detailed explanation of the boy's "quirk" didn't help his case, and there could probably be more to it than she knew about. With how little concern he had for his own wounds and the bruises most likely under his clothes, the drawbacks she shared could have been a complete lie from the boy, and if they weren't, Trigger was still a thing. There were probably a couple people taking the exam using it, and he knew the signs of when it wore of well enough that the rest of the staff most likely did too. There wasn't a single member of Yuei's staff that would be tricked by it.

Toshinori had enough of All For One's games to let another one slip in when he least expected it.

"The kids are really rushing it with only six minutes to spare," Midnight commented, watching a kid with wing-like arms wrap around the back of and crush the torso of a one-pointer.

"A limited pool of points does that to a crowd," Nedzu remarked. "While the students aren't directly fighting each other, it's all about how fast they are to act. Others will fail because they lag behind, and those who march ahead strong will make it in just fine."

"Minus a few scrapes, you mean," Honenuki added from behind the principal.

"A few wounds are to be expected with this job. Minimizing what we can is always helpful, though. As long as the students stay in one piece, we have nothing to worry about."

Toshinori joined the students behind him in side-eyeing the principal, though the kids were a lot more uneased by his words. He was used to Nedzu making comments like that – his way of humor, he supposed – but he could agree it was more than a little uncomfortable to hear with his dry tone.

"The robots can't hurt anyone that badly, right?" Setsuna questioned, leaning back in her seat from the short head honcho of the school.

"In many cases of hero versus villain situations, it's the surrounding areas that hurt the heroes more than their opponent's do. The faux villains will fling contestants around and hit the students, sure, but all punches are pulled and we have safety mechanisms in place keeping the students from being pressed into the ground or a wall to trap them."

"That's a pulled punch?"

Toshinori looked up to the screen showing Midoriya's fights as one of the faux villains backhanded the boy and sent him skidding across the pavement. The lanky hero clenched at the knees of his pants as the kid shook off the hit and charged the robot again.

"Yes. Had Midoriya not brought his bat up in time to block, the villain would have stopped his arm once it had made contact and leave him to fall and roll away."

That was bullshit and Toshinori knew it. Most of what Nedzu said was, and he could tell from the side glances of other teachers that they knew it too. The faux villains were outfitted to prevent maiming or decapitation, but leaving a chair sized bruise was all in the programming. Every hit would be followed through. If the kids behind him even remembered Midoriya's first fight with the robots, they wouldn't believe the principal for a second. One of had chucked the boy through a window, for god's sake.

Most students were supposed to dodge the punches and swings. Countless other students on screen were jumping and diving out of the way of strikes, attacking before they could be hit or diverting away leaving the machine's to chase after. Midoriya was the only kid he could see taking contact from the faux villains, and even then ever following hit was shrugged off faster than the last one. If he really was quirkless then he was doing the impossible, as Nedzu had commented. It was the only text he had sent, the only notion he was watching the boy as Toshinori was, but it was more than enough to bug him from the rest of the test, and if worse came to worse, the rest of the day and beyond.

"Four minutes to spare," Mic called down from the hatch above them. "Are you going to send the gimmick in at the third?"

"It's what I was planning on," Nedzu responded, pushing his laptop forward to unveil the glass lid covering a bright red button. "We can't let it roam around for too long, but too short a time and it would mean nothing for the applicants."

"Wait, there's another kind of robot in the exam?" Yaoyorozu questioned, leaning over in her chair to better see the principal in front of her.

Toshinori looked back up at the screen above, finding Midoriya standing still among the crowd of other students fighting off machines. The green teen made no notion to join them or take any points before they could, and Toshinori doubted he had the speed to in the first place. He knew the kid had less than the points he needed to even be considered for the support course, and he had done little enough to garner any hero points to supplement his battle points. The number one hero only hoped the kid would be fast enough to get out of the way when the gimmick villain appeared.

"The final robot marks the cooldown period for the examinees," Nedzu informed the students. "Assaulting it won't garner the students any hero points for their score, but it will give them the time to reassess the battlefield and make what points they can in the rest of their time here. This is where we'll truly find our heroes in the making." As Present Mic called out the three-minute marker to the end of the exam, Nedzu flipped over the glass covering the button and pushed down on the red trigger.

Toshinori watched as near every screen above them altered to show the titan of a robot roll into frame, making their way into the wide open and most populated street in every testing ground and shocking every student that saw it. Even the ones sitting behind him.

"That's, uh, a pretty big robot, ya know," Setsuna muttered. "I thought you said this was the cooldown period."

"Yes I did," Nedzu responded cheerily. "As massive as our gimmick villain is, it has nothing in speed. The students will easily avoid it, but its size and ruckus will undoubtedly unsettle the students some. Reaction and timing are everything, now."

Students left and right were running away from the robot the instant they saw it, others taking a moment to fully register it before they turned tail too. It seemed they all understood exactly what the giant was and not to waste their time with it. Reasonable enough of a response, given the sheer size of the villain and that on its own it wouldn't give any points to defeat.

Which is why Toshinori nearly threw up what was left of his stomach as he saw Midoriya run at it.

"Seems one of the kid's got spunk," a white-haired man further down the rows vocalized, watching the same footage on a screen closer to himself. "That or an ego. Or a death wish. Ectoplasm should stop him."

"No need for that," Nedzu responded. "He's been head strong so far in this exam but he's still shown a reliable mind and a sense of judgement. I doubt he is attempting to fight the zero-pointer to get what it can't give."

The number one hero looked down at the principal of Yuei with wide eyes. Was he really going to shrug off everything the boy was doing for later? Did he just want to watch the kid get hurt by more than he should be capable of handling? Nedzu was one to put students through the wringer, but he never humored a kid getting killed!

"He's not fighting it at all anyways," Midnight followed up. "Seems he's getting another kid out of the way." She was right, too; anyone tuned into the conversation turned back to their screens to find Midoriya helping a girl to her feet and limping after the other students. They didn't make it too far initially, but another boy came into frame to help burden the load and the three kids continued to run from the gimmick villain. "She looks badly hurt. I'll let Recovery Girl know to be on standby for Testing Ground B."

"There's a kid in A who'll need to see her right after," a gentleman across the room decked in yellow plating and machinery called out to her. "He's taken a hit to the head, and Ectoplasm has a clone following him around already if he begins to fall over or faint."

Toshinori shook uncomfortably in his seat in the few short seconds he spent watching the teachers around him gloss over Midoriya and the kids with him to focus their attention again on all the students. Any one of them could pull up his records on the computer if they needed to identify him in case of an emergency, he had no doubt in his mind. He wondered if anyone even knew the kid's identity already and were willingly ignoring him because of his quirkless status.

When they'd first met, Toshinori had seen a small part of himself in the boy when he had asked about the possibility of being a hero without a quirk. He saw it again when the boy has run through fire in a vain effort to save the other kid from the sludge villain Toshinori had found minutes earlier trying to do the same to the boy. A heart and mindset of a hero, one that could have been shaped into a perfect one; one he could have shaped into that perfect hero.

But beyond those two instances, the kid had been a far cry from being ideal. For all the promise he had to him, Toshinori saw the flaws to him holding him too far back. A kid far too timid and nervous, too thoughtless of his own safety and without a means of saving himself. Maybe in an ideal world, he could have done his best to help the kid grow. Maybe he could have done what was possible to encourage him and made sure he was properly trained to become a future hero. Maybe he could have passed One For All down to him instead of Togata.

But adding all the responsibilities of his quirk and his position onto the shoulders of a kid weighed down by his attitude and his lack of experience so late in his life compared to other children? And with what little time he had left in the year or so Nighteye predicted would be his last? He couldn't burden a kid with so much to do in so little time, thinking he would need more than he had to shape the kid into the hero of tomorrow. He needed someone more experienced to take the torch from him, and his own fear had him turn away from the kid as he was rushed to the side by heroes and paramedics the first day they met.

Toshinori felt dread and blame course through him as chunks of buildings fell on the kid and his friends.

---

"Gahh…" Izuku cried as he rolled over and cradled his nose in his hands, his bat missing in action. Even the slightest nudge against it with his fingers felt like he was shifting it out of place. He could taste and had to spat out the blood that flowed down into his mouth, gagging at the flavor of iron. His sight wasn't fairing much better, and no amount of blinking was making the world around him any clearer. The ground still rumbled beneath him, and the creaking and jolting of the giant gimmick villain pounded his ears. Every bone in his body burned beneath his flesh, but all Izuku did was growl at the fire as he fought to stand up.

There was still time in the exam; mere minutes left for him and everyone else participating. He had points he needed to make and an exam to pass. He had a heroics class to get into and a renounced school to attend. He still had a dream to make come true and a world of people to prove wrong. He wasn't going to give up now!

He couldn't make it to his feet but his hands and knees would do just fine. He smeared the flowing blood across his face and kept one hand over his nose as he crawled with his dodgy eyesight. The pavement scrapped against his bare palm and his cloth-covered knees but he was going to be fine, he knew it. The world around him was connecting together again and he could see better again, and he could see in front of him the handle of his bat and its silver body glistening under the sunlight. He would have his trusty weapon, Iida would have taken Uraraka away to safety and with any hopes join him again just as he had to save the brunette, and with the crowd of students on the street bringing in faux villain after faux villain he'd be able to accumulate enough points and pass – even if just barely – and take his first step to being a real hero.

With his eyesight clearing out and the blood still dripping from his nose being pushed to coat the other side of his mouth, Izuku grabbed the handle of his weapon and pulled it from the rubble it had landed beside.

He watched as a good third of the bat broke off from beneath the stone that had crushed it.

Izuku's body temperature dipped from a raging fire into a frigid cold as he stared at the cracked and misshapen end of his bat, where the rest of it had been prior. It was far lighter in his hand now and he had every doubt in his mind that it would still work against the faux villains. It wouldn't garner him another 15 points if he tried to keep fighting. He wouldn't meet the requirement to pass the exam, meaning he wouldn't get in into Yuei, meaning the only heroics course open to someone like him would be closed.

A shift of pink caught his eye and sent his stomach plummeting further as he looked ahead to it. Not too far from him was Iida, slumped unconscious against a piece of the building with his glasses knocked from his face, and Uraraka, shivering and withering and spitting out from her mo not too far from the bluenette. They had been caught by the rubble just like him. Izuku's effort to keep them safe had failed to even save them.

And beyond them was nothing but a near empty street. Students were specks in the distance; what was left of them anyways. Not a signal or marker of fighting was going on up ahead, and Izuku couldn't see an inch of any other faux villain. The border wall of the testing ground was visible in the distance, and beyond it a small portion of Yuei's main building could be seen beyond it; all Izuku could see of it was the upper portion of its H structure. Even then, it was faint and yet again far out of his reach.

"No…" Izuku muttered. His shoulders sagged and his body rested on his legs. The bat shook as his hands did. His breathing hitched while salt water dripped down his blood stained cheeks. "I-I can't…" The world around him creaked in his ears, the floor beneath his legs shuddering and quaking in tandem with his lips. "I've…I've got—"

The building beside him cracked and shook, and Izuku followed its broken veins to the huge hand that rested atop it and the colossal giant it belonged to, inching ever so closer behind him, gazing down upon him, boring down on him with a blank slate of a face casting its shadow over him. It crystal glass eyes blinked without cohesion or pattern but its body stood hunched over him with purpose and intent; to ruin Izuku's chances – of passing the exam, of entering Yuei, of becoming a certified hero without a quirk – more than it already had. "ONE MINUTE REMAINING!"

The frozen casing in Izuku's chest erupted and singed his lungs. His grip on his bat steeled and he bared his blood-highlighted teeth. "You motherfucker."

---

Watching Midoriya charge the giant robot only to grab the girl wounded in its path and hightail from the machine reminded Momo of when she first met him. Almost word for word was his nature the same, both in his actions and in his heart. And watching him crash face-first into the street from chunks of a building reminded her how he had done the same when a bullet had drained him of enough blood.

Most of the room had an equal frown of a reaction, but almost no one reacted to what was on screen. Setsuna winced audibly beside her, muttering her sympathies to Midoriya while Honenuki and Todoroki wore more placid expressions when they leaned back in their seats after watching the screen too. Aside from them, Midnight and the two other pro heroes that had spoken up about Midoriya just before came to the agreement to at least let Recovery Girl attend to the wounded in Area B before the rest of the areas. By the sound of it, Midoriya and the two students nearest to him were the only ones still remotely close to any zero pointer out on the loose.

The only ones any more animated and more reactionary than herself were the two men in front of her, but their words were well hidden under her breath for her to hear. She knew whatever was being passed between them was about Midoriya, though. Whatever had Yagi slide his chair into the principal's was most definitely about the boy on screen.

The camera angle had shifted to another angle, giving a closer look at the boy from the building beside him. Momo was relieved when Midoriya had moved after his fall, only to lose the feeling as he rolled onto his back and clutched his face behind his hands to try and hold it in one piece. While the footage wasn't crisp or very colorful, she doubted the dark color seeping between his fingers was dirt.

She was reminded again of the mall; of when he had played possum and faked unconsciousness in front of the criminals, and of when he was blacking out in the back of her family's car as she kept the pressure over his wound while the driver hightailed it for the hospital, calling the ambulances previously on the scene to meet them there.

But Midoriya was getting up from this one, flexing his brow through what scrapes he had on his head and smearing the blood from his nose across his jaw. He crawled away from where he had fallen to where his bat had, and though the videos were without audio, Momo could feel the crack of his bat when he had picked only part of it up and she could see a similar shatter ring through Midoriya as froze to stare at it, completely tuning out the approaching zero-pointer behind him.

"Would…his quirk still work even if the item he was using was broken?" Setsuna had brought up from beside her, her voice another hush in the room Momo was barely able to catch.

She kept her eyes on the screen overhead, to Midoriya who sat still on his legs despite the chaos surrounding him, as she responded, "I don't see why he wouldn't be able to…But I don't know if smaller objects can hold and put out as much strength as those bigger…"

There was a vacant look over Midoriya's face as he looked past where the camera could see, but wherever his thoughts were, nothing was breaking him out of his stupor. The footage they were watching shook, she guessed from the gimmick villain barely on screen, but Midoriya didn't acknowledge it for a second.

"He'd probably risk breaking it further, and I doubt the end of it now will have as much force in the swing even with his quirk effecting it," Honenuki chimed in, sounding equally as downtrodden. "If he does make it in, he'd need something sturdier to use and put his power through. I'm surprised alloy got his this far."

"He'll have to look for something new if he doesn't get in, either," Todoroki added, appearing the least dismayed yet still unhappy watching the green teen on the screen. "He hasn't made that many points and I don't think what he's got so far is more than most others taking the exam with him."

Midoriya only had 15 points at the least; Momo was counting the giant numbers over their bodies as they fell, reading it as the basic marker the school's staff would be using for their grading. She hated to agree with Todoroki but he was right, and she'd be surprised to hear the school setting a bar so low for entry students. If he was going to get in, Midoriya had to do something for more points.

And then the shadow of the giant overtook Izuku, stretching past him on the street and leaving him in darkness on the video feed. But he was visible enough still for Momo to see him – to see his eyes change once the light on him was replaced. She could still see him as he turned and rose, as he pivoted on his toes and faced the goliath of a machine still yards away from reaching him. She could still see him as he walked deeper into the gimmick's shade and approached the beast willingly.

The room around her spiraled into mixed reactions at the sight. Yagi in front of her all but jolted in his chair as he took the school principal's laptop and mashed the keyboard, muttering for a way to stop the zero-pointer before it and the 5-something teen came toe-to-toe; she could head Nedzu telling the taller man that he didn't have a way to stop it, that it would on its own soon enough. A few other pro heroes around the room acted equally as worried as the lanky man – she watched Vlad King rise out of his chair, looking at his computer screen and sparing a second to look over his shoulders to where she and the others sat, before he was attempting the same manual override of the zero-pointer too. A few other heroes looked over at the screens showing Midoriya slowly leaving the frame with an ounce of curiosity, no doubt unenamored by the other students' displays. The rest of the room leaned forward in their seats in anticipation. Momo admitted to being one of that few.

Some complaints vocalized as Midoriya had soon disappeared from the corner of the frame entirely, but Power Loader was quick to shut down the ruckus as he took control over the camera and directed it up towards the boy. They were all greeted by the sight of Midoriya standing with his feet apart just in front of the massive robot villain, his broken and shattered bat high above his head – before it came swinging down.

Momo knew the tower they were in was reinforced and built to be sturdy for their safety at the height they were at, but she swore even with the audio off that she could hear the rumble of his impact.

---

The first emotion that ran through Ochako was fear.

Her parents told her that she would probably be one of the few "country bumpkins" – she wasn't particularly fond of the term but the accent her dad added when saying made it sound cute enough – who would be testing for acceptance into Yuei's heroics program. The heroes more commonly seen on the news or in the papers, at least those making big names for themselves, were born and raised in big cities from all over the world. Most of Yuei's top dogs, the top two heroes in all the world and the fourth there too, were paraded and captioned as men who grew up in or around the heart of Japan. A small amount of any city of heroes Ochako knew about were raised in more rural areas, and even then the numbers rarely amounted to ten in each. If she got into Yuei and made a name for herself, she'd be surrounded by people similar to All-Might and Endeavor and Best Jeanist and even her favorite, 13, all working and studying to become a pro hero as she would.

That was frightening on its own, but then she got to experience the city surrounding the profound school. Tokyo was massive compared to her home, and far more compact with its buildings than even the trees of her prefecture. The drive to town was simple enough, and she found herself a somewhat quite hotel to stay in before and after the exam before she rode home the next day, but since stepping off the bus Ochako felt like she was suffocating with so many people around her. The train ride to the school felt like all eyes were on her, as though everyone knew she was from out of town and the jittering itself wasn't catching their attention.

And then there was seeing Yuei for herself, and frankly, she couldn't believe a school was allowed to be as big as Yuei really was. She thought there was as much square acre to it as her prefecture, but she knew she would be exaggerating even then. Still, the images she'd seen online and the videos she got to watch from news clips and promotional videos had done little to prepare her for the sight of a place so vast.

Midoriya had fluxuated her fears several times before the practical exam was complete. How he had tripped and collected himself was so animated that it felt almost out-of-tune with Yuei's reputation, but she couldn't tell if he was loose in just his posture or his personality too. She saw him again during the written test, sitting several seats in front of her in the other column, somewhat jittery as he finished his exam and headed outside the testing center long before she was done too. When she finished changing right after, she had found so many students waiting outside the towering doors of what was undoubtedly their practical exam testing area, and then the green-haired boy far away from them, swinging his bat and stomping his feet like he was a samurai.

At least actually talking to the other teen had reassured her more than it had worried her. Despite his open attire, his messy green hair and the metal baseball bat he was carrying around, he acted anything like a delinquent when he talked to her. She had a hard time holding the conversation – barely had the courage to start it from the get-go – but he acted in a similar ballpark to herself and it was a weight off her shoulder to talk with someone who was just as anxious for the practical as she was. Hearing what he had to share, she wished there was something she could have brought to the test to help fight the nausea from her quirk – and the anxiety, now that she considered it.

The tall blue-haired boy who came from out of nowhere nearly scared her back into her earlier panic, but the short time she got to know and talk with Iida was enough to shoo away any more worries. He had struck a chord in her, mentioning he was taking the exam and aiming for Yuei; a declaration she had made her own of, though probably with a different goal in mind than hers. The familiarity was enough to warm her heart in the moment – finding not one but two other teens she could relate to before the real test had begun.

They hadn't squashed all her worries, though; she couldn't help but feel underprepared when the sound off had gone and Present Mic had called out the start of the exam. In a place far bigger than she ever imagined, more densely crowded than she was expecting to see, and herself far less equipped than she could have been had she just known of her opportunities. The pressure in the back of her mind is what sent her barreling forward amidst so many other students once the doors had opened for them. She stuck with a good portion of the crowd until the street opened up into one much wider and filled with faux villains all over, and only when one charged her did she swallow her fears and charge ahead.

They were hulking machines, for sure, but their weight was holding them down more than anything. A few sidesteps and dodges to tap them from behind was all she needed to send them flying before she released them back onto the street with a crash. With each staying down after the fall, it was actually quite easy for her to rack up points; and despite such a crowded and battle-filled street, she was barely having to fight people for the points first. Minutes went by in the practical, and no matter how physically tired she got or how uneasy her stomach felt from the constant use of her quirk, her heart was pumping fast enough to beat the rest of her fears out of her and excite her for the chance of passing the exam and being accepted into the hero's course.

Then came the gimmick villain, and the first emotion that ran through Ochako was fear.

In mere seconds were her hopes crushed under the size of it and its hands, the latter of which were probably the height of her times twelve. The claw-like appendage clamped down on the building right beside her and pushed down, crushing the upper-half of the fake establishment and sending rubble flying down – towards her, no less. She tried to run away as so many others did, though the effort was futile as a jagged chunk of stone came flying her way and caught her in the arm, ripping through cloth and skin as it came crashing down beside her and sending her down too.

She cried out as pain rippled through her body; from the gash in her arm, the impact of hitting solid pavement and whatever had possibly snapped her ankle as she tried to push herself up. Of all that she could have been prepared for to experience in Yuei's entrance exam, she predicted losing her lunch before she lost an ounce of blood, and her original thought was scary enough to her then. Now, bleeding and withering on the street watching a titan of a robot inch its way towards her until it could run over her, Ochako wanted nothing more than to spill her stomach willingly.

Then she rose from the ground.

Not of her own accord, however, buy by another pair of hands. Her good arm was thrown over another person's shoulder, while one of their arms took over cradling her wounded one as she was helped to her feet. She pushed through the nausea in her stomach and the pounding in her head to look up as far as she could, and the green tuffs of the boy's hair caught her attention before the baseball bat did.

"Midoriya?" Ochako had tried to say, but the urge to vomit instant ramen was far greater than the want to talk; he looked too battered himself to talk either. She was almost thankful her scream in pain came from a different lung as she tried to walk forward and put pressure on her twisted ankle, nearly sending them both to the ground again. Then another pair of arms worked their way around her and brought her up once more. It was the taller boy that she had met, only for a moment, back outside the front doors of the testing area and had been by Midoriya's side when they had entered the school grounds altogether. She had barely tried to call out his name as she had Midoriya's, knowing fully well she didn't have the energy to, but she had enough to spare for a small smile of gratitude as the carried her away from the giant faux villain.

That moment of happiness lasted about 5, maybe 6 seconds before she was thrown off her feet and watching more shards and chunks of building come flying down their way and the urge to throw up had reached the top of her throat. She watched as Midoriya lagged behind them and knocked a sizeable piece of the buildings away from hitting them before column decked him across the head and sent him head-first into the street. She had no time at all to warn Iida of another piece flying their way before it banged him in the back of the head and overtook them, leaving the tall boy to crash into it and crumble to the ground, and her rolling into it stomach first and finally forcing it out her mouth.

She coughed and cried as she let out the side effect of her quirk and the hits she had taken finally taking their toll. It didn't matter that her mother's quirk made it turn into a rainbow color effect; the taste of bile was never something that would go away with it. Despite how often she had been advised against it, Ochako moved to rest on her side, turning her head to spit out what continued to rise up in her throat and use the wrist of her bad arm clung to her side to wipe out her eyes and clear her vision.

Iida was out cold, barely twitching other than the rise of his chest as he breathed to show Ochako the blow to his head had only knocked him unconscious. There were a few scrapes over his arms – probably from where he had tumbled from the blow, she assumed – but barely any signs of blood spilling from his body akin to her shoulder. She gave a sigh of relief and another cough of a color palette splatter before she rolled onto her back and saw Midoriya kneeling far behind them in no better a position than them.

His face was covered in dirt and blood, and his nose was a crooked mess from how it hit the ground. His clothing was in tatters, his knuckles were scrapped and the bat in his hands was shattered at the end, broken beyond repair. He was looking her way, and every emotion of loss and disbelief she could find in his eyes, she shared in her own. Her papa would say, "Shit hit the fan," but she was hesitant to use the same language herself.

The titan continued to close in – its shadow casting over Midoriya – and snapped Ochako and the green boy's attention to it. The hulking mechanism loomed over even the buildings, its giant red blinkers for eyes glaring down with each blinking light. The damage it had done not only to the street, but to her and Midoriya and Iida, had made the beast of a faux villain terrifying enough.

When Present Mic called out the marker for the last minute of the exam, the first emotion that ran through Ochako was fear. The second that tackled it to the ground was worry. The machine was showing no signs of stopping as it closed it, and whilst Midoriya had turned to look at the robot Iida was stiff as a board lying on the pavement beside her. She wasn't sure she had the energy to use her quirk on him to pull him out of the way, and the condition she was in guaranteed a painful crash-landing if she tried to go with him. But she would have to do something, and if she could use her quirk on the tall boy to push him out of the way, she was fine crawling the rest if need be.

When Midoriya pushed himself to his feet she followed suit, though only managing to sit up and scoot in front of Iida enough to give her the perfect angle to work. When the green boy took his first step, Ochako grabbed the tall boy with her good hand and activated her quirk. She swallowed down the nausea that hit her in the instant and slowly swung her arm back, shoving Iida through the air and allowing him to float down the street a good few feet. She brought her hands together and winced as Iida slumped down to the ground again, noticing for a moment how his body twitched afterwards. But there were more important things to focus on, namely the giant gimmick villain still making its way forward and Midoriya…

Sauntering towards the machine.

The first emotion that ran through Ochako was fear, as he approached the machine close enough to touch it. The second that tackled it to the ground was worry, as he rose his shattered and tattered bat above his head.

The third that blew them out of the water was amazement, as he swung down at the foot of the machine and shook the ground beneath her.

Despite how the motion made her stomach rumble, Ochako couldn't help the amazement in her eyes as, even when the first hit had not slowed down the giant, Midoriya backed up as the gimmick approached and gave another downwards swing that sent shudders through and past her. He swung again and the earth beneath the zero-pointer's tracks cracked. He swung again and the robot began to dig into the pavement. He swung again and the robot's feet sunk even further. He swung and he shouted and he swung and he shouted and he swung and he shouted and even when Present Mic called out the end of the exam Midoriya kept swinging and shouting until the feet of the gimmick were buried in the street entirely.

Only then did Midoriya end his assault and chuck his bat, bent in half at the top of the handle, into the ground by his feet. Only then did the faux villain shut down, accepting its position stuck in the pavement. Only then did the action around her die out. The exam was over. She was alive; wounded badly and sick to her stomach, but alive. They all were, and the knowledge of that had her sigh out her stress.

Only then were they greeted by Ectoplasm, one copy for each of them dropping down from the sky – or probably the rooftops still intact from above. The hero's mask was a startling surprise as it came into her sight suddenly, but the hero checked on her wounds and assured her the school's nurse was on her way to treat her injuries. The hero's close sat beside her as she rested against the rock of a building, body slumped while she released a sigh of relief.

Midoriya came limping over with another clone of the pro hero supporting him. His face was still covered in blood, now streaking down his chin as a few fresh tears trailed down his cheeks. He hadn't bothered to pick up the mangled mess of his bat, leaving his hands to hang empty and dead by his side. His breath was ragged, run dry from the effort he had just put in. He looked past her, over in the direction she had shoved Iida in took stare a moment, before her turned his gaze back to her. His eyes were blank of any emotion for her to read but she doubted the sight of his wounded friend was leaving him any form of happiness.

Midoriya crouched down to her – nearly fell on her as he did – and the first emotion that ran through Ochako was fear until he placed his hand over hers, smiled and told her, "Thank you," with what voice he was able to muster.

She could only return the gesture with tears and a smile of her own as the whirlwind of emotions in her settled for relief and gratitude.

And nausea, as she puked one last stream of the rainbow on his and her shoes.

---

The staff room watching over the practical exam was a mix of emotions; Toshinori was filled with none of the positive ones. While a vast majority of the staff, teachers and the students behind him varied from excitement to relief, all Toshinori could feel was a sinking dread that was threatening to reopen the hole in his side.

Ever since he had left All For One a bleeding and broken mess, dying in the middle of a street turned to wreckage, Toshinori kept on the news and swam through what information he could online to find any quirks or stories that would ever bear resemblance to the monster that took the life of the heroes who held One For All prior to him; who had killed Nana before they had a proper goodbye. Nothing ever showed up when he searched and Naomasa had no stories to report to him that bore similarity either. With each passing month did Toshinori's fear the monster had lived their final fight subside, until a whole year passed with no new information or news that let him settle and rest easy at night. His worry persisted, of course, but the idea All For One lived was an afterthought; nothing more and nothing less.

Then he watched a kid with no quirk beat a robot over 50 times his size into solid pavement with a broken baseball bat.

Watching the green-haired Midoriya pour blood out his nose and the two examinees with him crumble to the ground either unconscious or puking their guts out had set the room in a frenzy over the kids' safety, but their planning had been Plan B as the kids continued to act. The girl of the group, the brunette in black and pink, had pushed through her sickness and injuries to push the taller, blue-haired boy with her quirk and moved him further down the street than the zero-pointer would reach by the time the exam's clock ran out. What the girl had planned to free herself from danger, Toshinori didn't know, but he was more than confident that any idea was thrown out the window as Midoriya stalked up to the gimmick villain and began wailing down at the base of it.

The room around him calmed down drastically as they watched Midoriya swing his broken baseball bat down on the foot of the giant, each hit slowly embedding its wheels and tracks into the street. Several staff sighed in relief that the kid was far from down and out and a few even cheered and gushed their excitement at the action; namely Midnight and a few of the students behind him. Ectoplasm was still over the mic, informing the room he would jump in once the test had completed, seeing as how the students were in far less danger than they were a second ago, and Toshinori would be hard pressed to say the room wouldn't agree that everything was fine.

But he could see the stoic and shocked form of Vlad rows in front of him. He could see the screen in front of the pro-hero, displaying Midoriya's profile to the white-haired teacher of Yuei. The blood-manipulating hero didn't cheer with the rest of his coworkers, nor did he act in a way to stop their hype; he only looked back over his shoulder with an expression of disbelief and fear the number one hero could relate to. But those eyes weren't directed to All-Might.

Vlad's attention was on Nedzu, the principal, now standing on his desk and watching the room around them react to the end of the exam.

"I must say, I'm just as surprised by this outcome." Nedzu's voice was overshadowed by the room around him, but his head was turned enough for Toshinori to know the words were for him to hear. The principal gestured to the hero of his staff to keep quiet for the time, and Vlad only back in his chair as he looked over Midoriya's application profile again. "This isn't going to be kept quiet; I'll make sure every staff member knows once we are overviewing the examinees individual performances. We'll work out a plan from there, but until then we'll have to keep quiet about this from outside these walls. You've met him before, I take it?"

Toshinori didn't like the vague explanations he was given but he knew he was in no position to ask for something more detailed than that. But room around him was more than convinced Midoriya had a quirk. Yaoyorozu had enough information to describe it to the other accepted students around her. Vlad, Nedzu and he were the only three that knew he was quirkless, or at least documented as one. And with the boy finishing his assault on the now stuck zero-pointer, Toshinori had no reason to believe the document was correct.

"Yes…I have."

The only question on his mind was how the kid was able to get a quirk in the first place, or, if his fears were true, how All For One had managed to live and find him.

---

1 Week Later

To say Izuku had high hopes would have been both an understatement and an overestimation. Ever since the exam ended and he was free to go home, he had been on edge for the letter the school would sent out to every student who had taken it. As much as Izuku wanted to get in, the belief that he would with only 15 points from the practical better predicted the eventual outcome; he hadn't made it in. It was the slim chance that he might have that kept him from sending out other applications to high schools around Japan that would take someone in with his test scores despite his quirkless identity.

He hadn't spent the week since the exam ended doing much other than the studies he had for the rest of his last semester in junior high. He still had a good month and a half until the school year was over, and he couldn't let Yuei's entrance exam take precedence over his current academia even if it was to be his next center for such – or could have been. Katsuki was the same, attending school again as he and all their classmates were, though the blonde had stayed silent around him. He had managed to do the same with Teashishi, Suchīrubōn and Yubinaga, leaving Izuku more of an outcast than before in his time outside the classroom.

Part of that feeling was intentional on his own end. After the exam had ended and he, Iida and Uraraka had all been patched up and dismissed by Recovery Girl (a moment of which he wish he had the energy to spend getting an autograph from her and Ectoplasm when his doubts of acceptance were still high), he had all but opted out of his usual training exploits and meeting his friends in person. He had thanked Hatsume for her belief in him over text, and wished her best on her own exam the night before she would take it. Ojiro was in a similar ballpark to Izuku, but the tailed teen was more than confident he had scored enough points in the practical to pass; the only thing he hadn't done was kept track of the numbers himself during and got lost in the heat of the exam just trying to be faster than the competition around him.

Iida had really been the only person he talked to in person before he got home after the exam and stayed there. Finding his friend out cold had worried him – a worry only diluted when Recovery Girl kissed Iida's head and healed the wounds he garnered – but waking up to see Izuku half covered in his own blood was probably more startling to Iida than Izuku's own worries. The pro hero of healing kissed him too, patching his nose back into place and stitching together the scrapes that littered his body while draining him of a good chunk of the fumes he was running on. The heroine let him and Uraraka join the few other students who needed time to rest and clean up before they went home, having Izuku and Iida part ways with a promise that they'll be fine and that the green teen would text his friend to let him know when he was heading home.

That was the last text he sent Iida all week.

Izuku drummed his chopsticks on the bowl of rice in his lap. He barely ate any of his dinner at the table and had promised his mother he'd eat what else he could before he went to bed. Seven days ago the exam had ended, meaning sooner or later the acceptance or denial letter would be arriving at the Midoriya doorstep. It would be the first thing Izuku took from the school since the exam; he hadn't gotten an autograph from any of the heroes he saw or passed; he hadn't swapped numbers with Uraraka in the possibility she was accepted where he wasn't; he'd even thrown out what was left of his bat before he left the school borders. At least a letter saying he wasn't accepted would mean he hadn't left Yuei empty handed.

His head bobbed as his mother's hand ran through his head. "You better not be getting sick on me now, Izuku," she chided him jokingly. "Not eating anything isn't going to help any either."

Izuku shook his head, pushing the hand out of his hair in the process. "I'm not sick. I promise. I feel healthy, just…not as hungry, right now."

"Well you did eat lunch later than usual. Dinner just came early, then." Her hand dropped to his shoulder, resting there as his head tilted to brush his cheek against it. "If you don't want to eat, we can store it for now and heat it up later."

"It's fine, I'll eat it." He scooped a chunk of the rice with his utensils and plopped it in his mouth. "I'll just take it slow. It doesn't taste bad cold."

"But it would taste better warm." She patted his shoulder silently, leaving mother and son in silence for several following moments. Izuku took another bite in between their words. "Izuku?" He hummed as he chewed as his response. "You would tell me if you weren't feeling okay?"

His chewing slowed down and his chopsticks lowered to the rim of the bowl again. He swallowed even slower. "I would," he promised. He let his head fall back to look at his mother upside down and smiled to her as best he could. "Thank you."

His mother smiled back just as softly and left a kiss on the top of his head. "Of course, Izuku. And…for what it's worth" – her hand brushed back through his hair – "I bet you did wonderfully. I wouldn't worry about it."

He shouldn't be surprised she knew what was on his mind. "Thanks…I hope I did too." He didn't bother to act oblivious about it either.

"I have no doubt you did." Her gaze lifted to the door of their apartment. "Who knows? Maybe it came in today's mail. I'll go check to see if it's a part of the pile." With a last soft tap to his forehead she headed for the door, and Izuku lifted his head to watch her leave until she was out of sight and left him with a door slightly ajar.

It probably wasn't doing his mother any favors loafing around doing schoolwork and hiding away in the apartment, Izuku admonished himself. Despite their lack of communication before, she was still his mother and she didn't shy away from acting like it. Even if there was the chance she still didn't believe in his dream so quickly, she hadn't done a lick of work to stop taking care of him. She deserved to know his thoughts on it all, probably more than anyone. He'd open up about it when she came back—

"I-Izuku!"

Though he wasn't quite expecting her to come scrambling back into the apartment on her hands and knees. Before he could even stand she composed herself enough to flash the letter in her hands to him, and he almost dropped his food then and there.

He placed his small dinner on the coffee table and rushed over to her, plucking the letter from her grasp and examining it for herself. This was it; this was the letter from Yuei, if the stamped insignia and written address were any indicator. This is where he'd know if he was accepted into Yuei or not. If he was going to have a real chance of becoming a hero or not. He looked down the hall to him room, ready to rush in and find out for himself, but his eyes drifted back to the shock written over his mother's face. This was something on her mind as much as it was his, wasn't it? She deserved to know the answer when he did.

He paced back to the couch, fumbling with the lip of the envelope and ripping it open with a swipe of his thumb, and pulling from it…a disc. Izuku looked over the small device between his fingers, flipping it around in confusion until the button on the front took center stage of his attention. His mother inched over to his side, and he shared a small look with her before she nodded. He returned the gesture and sat down on the couch her, leaning forward to place the disk on the coffee table and pressing the button on the front. They watched together as the device blinked to life and shone into the air above them.

"This is a projection!" Mother and son blinked in unison as a video feed appeared above the disc, greeting them to the sight of a small mammal dressed in a suit greeting them with a smile. "And while that might be stating the obvious, what exactly I am is a mystery for all except my job as principal!"

The Midoriya's jumped at that announcement, quivering in surprise. "T-the principal is the one sending the letters?" his mother stuttered out. Izuku was in a similar state of disbelief.

"Normally I have other teachers present the final scores to the examinees, usually the teachers of who the students would be assigned to," the projection of Principal Nedzu elaborated. "Of course, I don't have any classes to teach; I have a school to run. And this year is being run in a different way than last. But seeing as you, Midoriya Izuku, were our only examinee labeled as quirkless in your medical records, I thought it best I take action this time around."

His heart was beating in his ears. The video recordings were made for students accepted into Yuei? That meant he was accepted, right?

Right?

"For starters, you passed the written portion of the exam with flying colors!" Nedzu waved his hands as he cheered and jumped in his seat. "While you did not receive a perfect score – no student in our history ever has – you made your way into the top 3 percentile of all examinees! That alone is a feat in and of itself, something we can only expect from the most promising of students!"

His mother's hands cupped over his, squeezing his palms at a strength he barely could return. They gulped in unison.

"The practical portion of our exam is another matter entirely, and I have no doubt you noticed it yourself," Nedzu continued. "It can be quite the challenge for most any applicant we get, and I've seen plenty of applicants over the years fight their way through the challenge for the opportunity to apply to my school. But I have to admit: I haven't seen any student before approach my exam the way you did. From someone who went through it without a quirk, I should have expected as such, but I believe your exploits in the news just before the New Year had set presumptions in my head before then. How silly of me to have let that slip by!"

Nedzu knew of his from the mall incident? Izuku was sweating bullets at that revelation. He wondered if it had played any in their final decisions, and worried if his recklessness then was only reinforced by his performance in the exam. Was that why Nedzu himself was the one delivering the video?

"Despite the recognition of you when your application had come in and the news revealed, I made sure it had no bearing on your final score. In the end, what you received was because of your performance here, not there. And here during the practical, you had earned yourself a villain score of 15 points! While not the lowest in the exam, it alone would not be enough to secure yourself a passing grade into our heroics programs."

That's when his stomach dropped. He hadn't beaten enough of the faux villains to score himself to safety. It wasn't enough to get him in the hero classes. The weight of his mother against him grew as she leaned on him, bringing an arm around him for a small hug and a coo of reassurance. The weight of his eyes grew as they watered despite her efforts.

"But if our grading program was built only on the points you get for beating robots up, I'd be out of a job!" Nedzu jumped off his chair, and a few seconds were spent as the camera behind the projection lowered to center on him again. "There are three aspects that make all great heroes: the body to act, the will to act, and the heart to act! Most heroes in our day and age are made only from a combination of two – you'd be surprised how many we have that focus so little on the latter. But only the greatest heroes in our world are a combination of all three at equal levels!"

He blinked as the perspective of the projection swung up to a screen behind the principal, one that flickered to a still image of Izuku from the exam. More accurately, it was picture from the latter portion of the test where he was covered in his blood and dirt and wielding a broken baseball bat and glaring off to the side of the screen. He recognized it as the moment before he had wailed on the zero-pointer uselessly, breaking his bat against it further just to vent his frustrations with the exam before it had even ended. His mother gasped beside him and shook; Izuku hadn't told her he had been bruised that badly during the test. He wasn't planning on going over that portion of it ever again – hell, he was surprised to see even that clean of a picture from it. Then why…

Nedzu was worked back into the frame as he climbed upon his desk. "I almost forgot this was supposed to be my next spot," the principal chuckled and gestured to the photo behind him. "To say we were floored by your performance in the exam would be an understatement! To watch you jump into the fight after a small slip up at the start, to acting at a moment's notice for the safety of other examinees and not only before but also after you had received these wounds; there was a near unanimous agreement that you had acted with your body, will and soul in this exam! An agreement that you had acted as a true hero in the face of uncertainty, danger and the oddest of odds stacked against you!"

Izuku blinked out what tears he could and wiped away the rest with the sleeve of his coat as he leaned forward in the couch with eyes wide. His mother beside him did the same, the grip she had on him tightening in anticipation. The screen behind Nedzu flickered again, showing the number 15 of Izuku's villain points for a brief moment before it began to flicker.

"Alongside the villain-based points in our grading system, we tally another set of points to add to it in the end: rescue points, or heroic points as I like to call them! Your actions to save your fellow examinees when everyone else was running away, and attempting again to take our zero-pointer head on when the cards were stacked against you; these events shined out in the exam more than anyone else could achieve! Our second highest score of 77 in the exam was earned solely off villain-based points, and you received almost as much as he did in rescue points alone!"

In the back of his mind, Izuku had no doubts that those points were earned by none other than Katsuki. But in the front of his mind, he saw a number two digits below that shine on the screen behind Yuei's principal. And at the top of his throat Izuku choked on the emotions that threatened to burst his windpipe.

"With a whopping 75 heroic points added on to your 15 villain points, totaling in an astounding 90 points for your final score" – the big number flashed into place on the screen behind Nedzu, and Izuku couldn't hold back the gawk that made it out before the principal was finished – "you not only passed our entrance exam! You placed first overall!"

"I passed," Izuku squeaked out, shaking uncontrollably as he turned to his mother. She did the same, her eyes watering to match his as they built up again. "I passed," he repeated himself as he moved his arms around, bringing his hands to rest on the sides of his mother's shoulders as hers landed atop his. His face broke into the biggest of grins as he shouted, "I passed!" and tackled his mother into a hug, nearly knocking them both over on the couch as he laughed. "I passed!"

"You did it!" His mother hugged him back just as tight, sobbing into his shoulder while she yelled as he did on hers, all while they rocked on the couch in their embrace. "My baby got into Yuei!" Izuku sunk further into the hug for a final tight squeeze before he pulled back to face her and smile brightly. She smiled back as best she could, taking a hand of hers back to wipe away her tears. "I-I'm so proud of you, Izuku." His smile softened as he squeezed her shoulders and gave her a soft thanks through his own tears.

"Midoriya Izuku." The family of two turned back to the projection of Yuei's principal stood on his desk as the screen behind him played a flashcard of stars and stripes to rotate. "The top score of our entrance exam. The first quirkless student admitted into this school." The short principal extended a small paw to the camera and gave a smile bigger than the one he had danced around in the video with. "Welcome to Yuei High. This will be your hero academy!"