Summary: Izuku takes the written exam.

Notes:

Chapter Text

Izuku didn't think that tests were normally supposed to be fun, and while his test anxiety definitely wasn't, he found himself forgetting to be nervous the more questions he answered. Even though the questions for the general section weren't extremely interesting, since they only covered the standard subjects he'd learned in middle school, they were challenging enough to make up for it. Izuku was glad that he'd studied in preparation for the test, because that meant that instead of being intimidating, the more difficult questions were actually invigorating.

And then came the support section. Izuku assumed that part of its purpose was to gauge each student's potential for the other tracks, because the questions were pulled from all three. Izuku felt like he did decently well on the design questions, even if that wasn't exactly his passion, but the only questions about invention that he could even make sense of were the ones that dealt with computer hardware. Maybe he should have studied mechanics a little more? Oh well, it was too late for that now...

To Izuku's surprise, there were only two questions about analysis and both of them were essays, so he could only hope that would be enough to show his skills and set him apart from the other applicants. He didn't want to have to think about what he'd do if his new dream got crushed like his last one had been.

For the first analysis question, he was given a quirk registration form and told to theorize about the strengths and weaknesses of the quirk, as well as give suggestions about how to use it. To his surprise, he actually recognized the quirk! It belonged to a retired hero named Glimmer who could manipulate light energy around her body in the form of sparkles.

At first, it didn't seem like a very powerful quirk, but Izuku knew better. The sparkles that Glimmer controlled didn't just look pretty, they could get bright enough that looking at them was like staring into the sun. Tempting, sure, but definitely not recommended. As a pro hero, she had used it to blind and disorient her opponents, leading to a high rate of capture.

The drawbacks, of course, were that if Gimmer wasn't careful she could permanently blind villains, bystanders, or even herself. She had to carefully manipulate the light of her quirk to make sure that it was bright enough to be effective without causing permanent damage, which was a pretty fine line. She wasn't a well known hero, but from what Izuku knew about her, she had done her job well.

All of that was common knowledge, though, if someone knew where to look, so while it was necessary to list that out, Izuku didn't think that basic level of analysis would help him stand out. But what else...well, he was supposed to give suggestions, right? It felt kind of blasphemous to give suggestions to such a successful pro hero, but Izuku forced himself to look at it like it was any other quirk. The test hadn't actually specified that the quirk belonged to a pro, after all, so he couldn't let that hold back his analysis, not to mention that if he was accepted into the support course, he'd be giving pros suggestions for a living.

So how could the quirk go beyond what Glimmer had used it for?

Well, she manipulated light energy, right? But...Izuku's eyes widened and he started writing the ideas as fast as he could structure them out. Not all light was visible, so what if she could manipulate not only the intensity of the lights but also the wavelength? From the footage he'd seen, some of the sparkles Glimmer had used had appeared colorful, especially that one time she'd produced rainbow sparkles during a pride parade, so it was definitely possible for her to shift the wavelength within the visible spectrum. And if she could do that much, she could probably train enough to create ultraviolet light and infrared light, which meant that she could use her quirk to burn rather than blind and maybe even use it like a black light to find forensic evidence at crime scenes!

In the end, Izuku's essay ended up being three pages long, two of which were entirely suggestions based on his theory that Glimmer could manipulate the wavelength of light. It really made him wonder why she'd never used it that way. It would have effectively negated a lot of the drawbacks of her quirk, since she wouldn't have had to worry about blinding anyone if her light was invisible. It would also make her much more difficult to fight, since the threats wouldn't be as obvious. It was almost a shame that she had already retired, because Izuku would have loved to see if any of his theories were actually useful.

He didn't recognize the other quirk, so he didn't have the advantage of previous knowledge, but then again, he also didn't go into the analysis with any biases, so it all balanced out. It was some sort of jet quirk that allowed the user to blow air out of the bottoms of their feet, which would probably be most useful for speed or maybe even for flight, depending on how long the hero could keep continuously blowing air. They would need specialized shoes that protected their feet while still allowing the air to flow, and the rest of their costume might need extra ventilation as well, depending on where the air came from. It was probable that the quirk actually worked by taking air in through the skin to power the quirk, or maybe it was powered by the breath?

If the hero could manipulate the temperature of the air, that opened a whole new field of opportunities. He could use hot air to make himself rise faster, or cool air to help victims during fire rescues! There were just so many possibilities, but Izuku limited those speculations to less than a page. He didn't know if temperature manipulation was actually within the limits of the quirk, so he didn't want to waste too much time on suggestions that might not actually be useful. Instead, Izuku tried to focus his analysis on ideas that were possible with only the information he'd been given. Beyond mobility, the quirk could probably be used to impair an opponent's vision, since if the hero could aim the jets at a villain's eyes, it would dry them out pretty quickly. It would be difficult to keep one's eyes open in a targeted windstorm, but even a brief puff to the face would force the villain to blink, which could make him a perfect counter to Eraserhead if he came up on him from behind.

Izuku debated about whether he should actually include that tidbit before deciding to just leave it in. It probably wasn't necessary, but at the same time, any little bit of information could mean the difference between being accepted to his dream school or having to find a third dream in under a year, so Izuku didn't want to take any chances. It couldn't hurt, right? Unless they thought it was creepy. What if they thought he was creepy? But then again, the entire analysis section was kinda creepy, just by the way it was designed...but what if his classmates were right and his notebooks weren't useful at all and he made UA hate him because he saw too many weaknesses in the quirks they gave him?

Izuku hurried and finished the essay before he could work himself into a panic about it and used the rest of the time to check his answers in the general section as a way to distract himself. He was already here, at UA, taking the entrance exam, so it was way too late to second guess himself now, right? And maybe UA would be like Mei, who didn't think he was creepy at all, but maybe that was because Mei was a little creepy herself?

By the time Powerloader announced the end of the test, Izuku had successfully talked himself down from his anxiety attack. Ectoplasm must be one of the teachers at UA, because it was his clones that came to collect everyone's tests once time was called. It was kind of surreal that there were so many real pro-heroes in the building right now. Izuku hoped that, if he actually got into UA, he'd be able to reign in his inner fanboy enough to not make a fool of himself around every single one of the teachers. Oh boy, yeah, that was gonna be difficult.

As soon as Ectoplasm grabbed her test, Mei was immediately back in Izuku's personal space, grinning like a madwoman, "How did you do Izu-kun? I bet those analysis questions were a piece of cake for you, huh? I could make so many babies to help those heroes, it's amazing! I already have so many ideas! Maybe that's what I'll build in the practical, but I have so many other baby ideas too...oooh, this is gonna be so much fun!"

Izuku couldn't help smiling as Mei cackled, even if the other examinees were shooting them strange looks, but her ramblings reminded him that he still didn't know what his practical exam was going to be. Analysts didn't have anything physical to show off, unlike inventors and designers, so what were they going to ask him to do? And why didn't Powerloader mention it along with the other courses?

After a few minutes, they were excused to make their way to the practical exams and there was a flurry of movement as all the examinees stretched and gathered their things to leave the room.

Izuku turned to Mei and smiled, "Good luck on your practical, Mei-chan! I hope you make it in."

"My babies are amazing, the proctors won't be able to ignore them!" Mei declared confidently. "And you're not allowed to fail, either, Izu-kun. You have to make it into UA so we can make awesome babies together!"

Izuku sputtered and turned red, but Mei was already skipping toward the doors. He was definitely going to have to get used to the way she phrased things. Did she even realize how she sounded, or did she just not care? Honestly, from what Izuku had seen from her so far, it could be either one. Still, it was comforting to know that he'd have at least one friend if he made it into the support course. Well, one person who didn't hate him at the very least. That was gonna be weird.

Izuku shook his head and grabbed his bag, then made his way to the front of the room, where Powerloader was sitting at a large desk next to the pro hero Midnight, who must have arrived sometime while they were taking the written exam. Izuku didn't want to interrupt their conversation, but he also didn't want to be late to the practical just because he didn't know where it was. There was a possibility that there were signs outside that he could follow, since that seemed to be the case for the invention and design tracks, but considering that Powerloader hadn't even mentioned the analysis track since Izuku had arrived, he wasn't willing to bet on that.

Izuku hesitated another moment before speaking, he was gonna feel so stupid if they told him to to just follow the signs, "Um, excuse me?"

Midnight stopped halfway through whatever story she had been telling and both heroes turned to look at Izuku, who fidgeted in place at the sudden attention.

"Hey, hot stuff." Midnight purred. "What can we do for you?"

"I was just wondering, um," Izuku grimaced. Way to make a good first impression. "Do you know where the intelligence and analytics test will be? I mean, of course you know, you're in charge, it's just that you didn't say anything about it, Powerloader, sir, so I, um, just was kinda confused and…"

Izuku trailed off awkwardly. The heroes seemed a little shocked, for some reason, but they didn't seem annoyed by his question, so that was something. Powerloader flipped through some papers on the desk in front of him before looking up at Izuku again, "You're Izuku Midoirya, correct?"

Izuku nodded and the heroes shared a look that Izuku couldn't read before Powerloader turned back to him, "Sorry for the confusion, Midoirya, it's just that most years, we don't actually have any applicants for that emphasis, so it's easy to forget it exists. Since you're the only one applying, it honestly slipped my mind, so I went on autopilot and gave the same spiel I give every year. Sorry."

"O-oh." Izuku swallowed, suddenly even more insecure. "I knew it wasn't as popular, but I thought there'd be at least a few others…"

"Oh, you're so cute, I could just eat you up!" Midnight cooed. "Are you sure you don't want to switch to the design track? I'm a lot more fun than that scheming old rat."

"W-what?" Izuku sputtered. "T-the rat?"

Powerloader glared at her, "Sorry about her, Midnight teaches art here at UA, which puts her at the head of the design emphasis, which still doesn't give her any right to steal students from the rest of us! " Midnight stuck her tongue out at him, but otherwise didn't interrupt. "And most students who end up emphasising in intelligence and analytics are recruited by Nedzu after they show potential in other courses. We're not used to people applying for analytics right off the bat."

Izuku didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded, "So, um, about the practical…?"

"I'll take him!" Midnight squealed. "We can get to know each other better."

"Don't you have your own practical to run?" Powerloader said dryly. "You'd better go before your students spread paint everywhere, I'll show Midoriya where to go."

"Let's be honest, if anyone is going to destroy the room, it's going to be your brats, not mine, but okay." Midnight pouted for a second, then shot Izuku a wink. "Good luck, hot stuff. You're gonna need it."

"Ignore her." Powerloader said as he stood. "She's just a tease."

Izuku jogged after Powerloader as they walked through the maze of hallways to...wherever they were going. No one had actually said where that was yet. His mind was still reeling from the revelation that he was the only applicant for intelligence and analytics, "So, um, should I be worried?"

Powerloader shrugged, "I honestly don't know. Like I said, most people don't apply to this track, so I don't actually know what the practical consists of, but you wouldn't have made it this far if you didn't have some kind of skill or interest in it, so you'll probably be fine."

"Um, do the other applicants usually make it in?" Izuku asked. "I know there's not many, but…"

Izuku was interrupted when a door in front of them swung open. When he glanced at Powerloader, the man looked tired, but not necessarily surprised, so Izuku turned back to the doorway, his eyes widening as he realized who exactly stood there.

"Hello, Midoriya." Nedzu's grin was wide enough for it to be slightly unsettling. "You must be the one who was poking around my servers this morning."

Notes: When you recycle throw-away OCs from one of your other stories because you already put in the work to figure out how their quirk worked...

Also, people were commenting last chapter on how long the written test was. I based it off of AP exams, which normally take several hours, not that I've taken one recently, but that's what I remember.

Izuku meets with Nedzu for his practical exam.

Chapter Text

Izuku gaped at Nedzu, the Nedzu, principal of UA and tried not to fanboy. He failed, "Oh my goodness, you're Nedzu! One of the few animals with a quirk, although that is becoming more common as animals evolve alongside humans, but High Specs gives you hyper intelligence and…" suddenly, Izuku's brain caught up with his mouth and he realized exactly what Nedzu had just said, "and you caught me trying to hack UA before I even took the entrance exam…"

He really was an idiot, just like Kacchan said, wasn't he? He was going to get kicked out of UA before he even got accepted just because he'd gotten bored and decided to do something stupid! Of course Powerloader wasn't leading him to his practical exam, he was taking him to the principal, who was going to press charges and then he'd get a permanent record and nowhere else would accept him and…

"I'll leave him to you, then. Good Luck." Powerloader said. As he turned his back to leave, Izuku could have sworn he muttered something about the end of the world, but honestly, he was too scared of what was about to happen to pay much attention. He swallowed thickly and looked at the principal, who was still grinning at him. Maybe he was just waiting for Izuku to apologize? Well, apologizing couldn't make things worse, at least.

Izuku lowered himself into a deep bow, "I am so sorry, P-principal Nedzu, sir. What I did was c-completely uncalled for and inappropriate. I, um, wasn't thinking c-clearly and obviously that's no excuse, but…"

"Oh, there's no need for that, Midoriya!" Nedzu chirped. "In fact, what you did was quite impressive."

Izuku straightened up in shock. The principal's expression was hard to read, on account of his face not being human, but he couldn't see any anger or malice, "W-what? You're not m-mad?"

"Oh no!' Nedzu stepped aside and gestured for Izuku to come in, "In fact, I was quite delighted! It's not often that people are brave enough to try, so it's quite fun to test my defenses against new faces. Tea?"

Izuku nodded numbly and sat in the chair Nedzu offered him. He still couldn't believe that he wasn't in trouble, but apparently Mei had been right about him making a good first impression. Or maybe Nedzu was just getting his hopes up to crush them later. It wouldn't be the first time.

Nedzu carefully poured the tea and set a cup down in front of Izuku, "So, how long have you been hacking?"

"Um, I think about eight months?" Izuku took the cup and held it while he waited for it to cool. "I only picked it up after I decided to apply to the Support Course. I, uh, I thought it'd be useful for information gathering."

"Oh, I agree completely!" Nedzu chirped and took a sip of his tea. "But I am surprised that you're still so new to it, considering your creativity this morning. Was applying to support a recent decision?"

"I, uh, well," Izuku chuckled awkwardly, "I thought that hero support was just inventing stuff. I didn't think to look into the analysis track until...um, sorry, I'm rambling, but well, since I really enjoy analyzing heroes and quirks, it just seemed perfect, I guess."

Nedzu smiled knowingly, "It's not often that we get young people applying to be analysts. Most people assume that support is simply invention of support items, like you did, and while analysis is an important part of creating those support items, many people overlook its potential in strategy and intelligence gathering. Speaking of your analysis, may I see your portfolio?"

Izuku nodded and dug the notebook out of his backpack to hand to Nedzu, who eagerly started leafing through it. Izuku wondered if he was just skimming his writing or if his quirk gave him the ability to speed read. If it was the latter, then how fast could he read? Was the speed limited by his quirk or could he train himself to read even faster? If he wasn't limited by his brain, then his speed would probably be limited by how fast he could physically turn the pages, but if he was reading something that scrolled automatically, like on a computer, how would that affect the speed…

"I'm not as fast as all that, Midoriya." Nedzu chuckled. "I still have to wait for my brain to catch up before I can turn the page, and while my quirk definitely helps, most of my speed reading is actually a skill I've cultivated."

Izuku flushed red and slammed his mouth shut, "Sorry, I know my muttering is creepy."

"On the contrary, it was a wonderful demonstration of your real-time analysis skills." Nedzu said simply, turning back to the portfolio, "And while it will most likely be useful to learn to be aware of when you are muttering, there is nothing inherently wrong with the habit."

Izuku's eyes widened and he stared at Nedzu silently while he finished the portfolio. His muttering...wasn't bad? That just seemed so weird to him. Kacchan had always said that it was annoying and creepy, but then again, he'd said the same things about Izuku's notebooks. Maybe it was creepy if a hero did it, but was simply an eccentricity when an analyst did, that would make sense. Yeah, an eccentricity, not an annoying habit that he had to get rid of.

Izuku liked that.

Nedzu finally turned the final page of his portfolio and set it aside, "This is quite impressive! I am assuming that you have been analyzing heroes for much longer than you've been hacking."

"Yes, sir." Izuku said. "I started analyzing heroes as a hobby when I was four, I just didn't realize it was a marketable skill."

"Would it be alright if I held onto this so I can peruse it more thoroughly at a later date?" Nedzu asked.

Izuku nodded, a weird sense of pride growing in his chest the more the principal praised him, "I already assumed that I wasn't going to be getting it back, since it's part of my application."

"Excellent!" Nedzu clapped his paws together. "Now, you have your laptop with you, correct?"

"Yes!" Izuku dug out his laptop and set it on the desk in front of him.

"Perfect!" Nedzu said. "Now onto the practical portion of your exam!'

Izuku swallowed nervously, thinking of all the ominous good luck wishes from Midnight and Powerloader, "Um, what will I be doing exactly?"

"As I said, I was very impressed with your efforts this morning, so I simply want you to continue what you were doing then." Nedzu's eyes twinkled with mischief, "I want you to hack into UA."

Izuku blinked away tears of exhaustion and frustration as he limped away from UA, sore from sitting hunched over his laptop for the past few hours. He'd tried everything he could think of, every back door, every little trick, even a hastily made virus, but by the end of the exam, Izuku had barely made it past the first round of defenses. It didn't matter how much Nedzu had enjoyed his portfolio, or how well he'd done on the written exam, he'd completely failed the practical.

What was his mom going to think? After all these months of her going out of her way to support him, would they grow apart again? Would she be disappointed in him? Where was he going to go to school? What job would even take a stupid, weak, quirkless nobody like him?

Suddenly, Izuku was rammed into by somebody going full speed. Immediately, he froze and curled in on himself to try to become a smaller target. Kacchan shouldn't still be here, should he? Nedzu had left sometime during Izuku's exam to go monitor the hero course practical and Izuku had tried to use that time to hack UA using Nedzu's computer but couldn't even crack the password. But Nedzu had come back pretty quickly, so Kacchan should already be at home by now. What if it was someone else who had learned he was quirkless and was going to beat him up and they'd never find his body and…

"Whoa, Izu-kun, are you ok?! What's wrong?!"

Izuku jolted from his spiraling thoughts and looked around, but the only person near him was Mei, who currently had one hand resting on his shoulder. Oh, Mei running into him was...actually completely in character, probably. It was just Mei, not Kacchan. And Mei wasn't anything like Kacchan so she wasn't going to beat him up. Probably.

Izuku forced a smile onto his face, "Nothing! You just startled me, is all!"

Mei frowned like she didn't believe him, "Then what's with the tears?"

He tried, he really did, but he only lasted about two seconds before those stupid Midoiriya tears were running down his face like some sort of stupid geyser. He hadn't even known this girl a full day and now he'd ruined their friendship or their partnership or whatever it was because here he was, crying in front of her and he just couldn't stop.

Mei had started rubbing his shoulder sometime during his breakdown and was probably trying to be comforting, but her muttering about unleashing her babies on whoever hurt him was actually pretty intimidating.

"No one hurt me, Mei-chan." Izuku finally got out between the tears, "It's my own fault anyway."

Mei looked at him skeptically, "Then what happened?"

That set off the tears again, but thankfully he could speak through them this time, "N-nedzu wanted me to hack UA for my practical, b-but I couldn't do it! I failed."

"Oh..." Mei sat down on the sidewalk and pulled him down next to her, ignoring the weird looks from the people passing by, "Are you sure they didn't just want you to try?"

That made Izuku pause, "What?"

"Well, every failure is just a stepping stone to success, right?" Mei said excitedly, "And you said yourself that UA's cybersecurity is absolutely insane, so what if he was planning on you failing?"

Izuku just stared at her, "If he wanted me to fail, then why did he tell me to succeed?"

Mei flicked him on the forehead, which was apparently her way of getting him out of his head and telling him that he was being an idiot, "A lot of inventions are just about learning the process. Even if they don't work, they still weren't a waste of time because they make the next invention faster! UA's security wouldn't be the best in the business if a first year could ram through it, right? They probably just wanted to see how you approached a problem that you couldn't solve. They wanted to see your process!"

Izuku thought about that for a moment. It made a certain kind of sense, but then again, everything it seemed like everything Mei said toed the line between being reasonable and being absolutely insane, so maybe it was just that she was saying it that made it sound so believable. Still, it might make waiting for his rejection letter a little less painful, just so long as he was careful not to get his hopes up too high.

"If you say so..." he said slowly, "but what about you? How did your practical go?"

Mei grinned and immediately launched into a story that involved blowing up her workspace three times until she finally got a working prototype of hover boots twenty minutes before the end of the exam. Izuku listened and laughed with her until his tears dried and Mom started frantically texting him wondering when he was going to be home. By the time he started walking home, his heart was a little lighter than it had been, and his phone was a little heavier.

It had a new number in it, after all.