Welp. This has now apparently turned into my main fic, but I lowkey should've seen this coming. I don't even wanna work on half of my other fics anymore.

But here's the part where Subaru deals with the Zero-Pointer. Enjoy.

Special thanks to Writermakeshift for beta-reading.


XI. My Trial, Part III

Like All Might had told him, One for All's energy stockpile not only granted its users increased strength and durability, but also heightened senses and better awareness of their surroundings, meaning that it was an extreme stroke of luck that Subaru had activated Full Cowl when he did. Because otherwise, he never would have been able to hear Mineta's voice from how far away he was.

(But there wasn't exactly any time to think about that in the face of the fact that Mineta was about to get flattened like a certain Italian from an old manga series.)

There was not a single ounce of hesitation that existed within Subaru as he sprinted towards the other boy, squeezing out as much power out of Full Cowl as he could and pushing the muscles in his legs to their limit. But there wasn't any time to get Mineta out of the way, however, so he raised his hands and braced for impact as he caught the large debris that would have surely killed almost anyone else.

The force of the combination of concrete, metal, and thick glass slamming against his palms caused him to immediately out all of the air he breathed in, and he almost stumbled under the sheer weight of the thing. It was taking everything he had in him to hold the debris up, and Invisible Providence did extremely little to lessen the amount of stress that his arms were under.

"Midoriya...?"

Subaru looked at Mineta. "I can't...hold this...for long!" he yelled out. "You need to get out of here!"

"But—but what about—"

"There's...no...time...! I'll be right behind you! GO!"

Mineta, thankfully, finally scrambled away from the debris's shadow, and Subaru, for a split second, considered carrying Mineta himself, but he was beaten to the punch when the guy with the pipes in his calves ran over and helped Mineta to his feet, and there was a brief second of eye contact between them where Subaru nodded in thanks, before the two of them quickly left and regrouped with the crowd of bystanders at the end of the street.

Leaving just Subaru, the debris he was still holding up, and the Zero-Pointer that was now about fifty feet away and getting closer and closer as each second passed.

He really needed to get going now.

With an audible grunt, Subaru heaved the debris that he was holding up away from himself, causing it to kick up a cloud of dust as it hit the ground next to him. He turned away from the Zero-Pointer and moved to run away from it, but for some reason, he ended up succumbing to the urge to stop and turn back around.

(It was forty feet away now.)

Don't even think about it, Subaru. Try as he might, there was no way in hell he'd ever be able to take on something like that with his current power, right?

(Thirty feet.)

But imagine just how badass it'd be. Didn't All Might have to deal with this when he had to take the practical?

(Twenty feet.)

Present Mic had called it the Zero-Pointer for a reason—there was absolutely no reward for taking it out, and its main purpose was most likely to slow down the top scorers in each testing zone.

(Ten feet.)

...but did he really care about that?

(Five feet.)

"Screw it," Subaru said, and rushed towards the Zero-Pointer.

If anyone were to ask him just why he thought it was a good idea to try and take on the Zero-Pointer, then the ideal answer would have been something along the lines of 'I wanted to slow it down and buy everyone else time'. At least, that was what he told himself at that moment.

But in reality? He also really wanted to fight the giant robot. He was still a guy, at the end of the day—surely Katsuki and All Might would understand.

As he came within arm's reach of the behemoth, Subaru used the physics-breaking power of One for All: Full Cowl to leap up onto the platform next the Zero-Pointer's tank-like treads, before using his momentum to jump again, this time reaching as high as he could and grabbing a ledge, and started climbing up the robot's entire torso.

When he was finally face-to-face with the Zero-Pointer not long after, he called out Invisible Providence, and used the extra limb as additional support to maintain his footing. He then balled his right hand into a fist and reared his arm back, sending it forward with grim determination on his face.

The collision of his Full Cowl-enhanced fist making contact with the robot's 'face' caused a slight CRACK! to erupt, as the shockwave caused a few of its red 'eyes' to break, and the small dent that had formed from the initial impact was growing deeper and deeper as he repeatedly aimed for it with each strike.

He only paused when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, only to immediately haul himself on top of the Zero-Pointer's head, narrowly avoiding the robot's large hand as it attempted to pull him off it like he was some kind of insect.

His eyes widened when he saw that the Zero-Pointer was nearing closer and closer to the crowd of students that were still trying to desperately get away, he started attacking the top of its head with increased vigor, this time using all three of his limbs as much force as he could put behind each hit.

While the metal that made up the Zero-Pointer's actual head was extremely thick, here was the neat part about Invisible Providence—just because it technically wasn't any stronger than his own punching strength sans One for All, it didn't mean that it was also subject to the physical limitations of the human body.

Meaning that it could infinitely keep attacking without any rest, unlike his hands that were starting to be overcome with pain and fatigue.

So that, combined with the ever-confusing lack of side effects that used to come with each use of his Authority of Sloth, made it so that Subaru had a bit of help as he continued trying his damnedest to stop the Zero-Pointer in its tracks. And in this case, it was more along the lines of Ethereal Assistance than anything.

"Come on, come on—!"

Subaru was just about to punch with One for All fully charged consequences be damned, but another punch from Invisible Providence caused the thick metal to finally, finally give in, and created a relatively small hole at the top of the Zero-Pointer's head, that was now revealing cables, wires, and other bits of exposed circuitry.

And without hesitation, he plunged his arms into the hole and started pulling out anything and everything he could.

But it was at this moment that the unthinkable happened.

When Subaru pulled his hand back the first time, the Zero-Pointer didn't seem at all affected by the loss of the first fistful of wires and cables that he pulled out, so he just kept reaching in and pulling them out, again and again, even using Invisible Providence to somewhat speed up the process.

But at some point, he had started pulling out more and more out than he would have been able to each successive time his hands went in, but right now, he felt nothing but the overwhelming need to stop the Zero-Pointer in its tracks.

Which was why, when he pulled his arm out for what felt like the seventh time, he couldn't do much else but stare at what he was seeing.

Because during all of that, he ended up failing to notice the black...appendages that had somehow sprouted from his arms, all of which were now holding what was probably the entire rest of the Zero-Pointer's head.

"What in the hell is this?" he murmured, looking back and forth between his arm and black bundle of electronic components being suspended in the air.

But before he could do anything further, he was overcome with immediate silence, as the encompassing rumbling noise from the Zero-Pointer finally ceased, with the robot itself not moving any further and its outstretched hand remaining in front of him.

Huh. Well, it looked like he finally shut it down. Now all he had to do was figure out how to get down from here and—

...creak...

Subaru immediately tensed up at the low-pitched sound, and immediately looked back towards the Zero-Pointer's gigantic hand. How could it still see him?! Did it have a backup power system?!

But as the sound of creaking metal continued, he noticed that the hand kept still, and for a second, he felt his stomach drop when the idea of the Zero-Pointer being manually piloted by someone crossed his mind.

But he quickly found out that it wasn't the case, because in reality, the creaking sound was actually caused by the Zero-Pointer's head slowly tilting backwards, and in that instant, Subaru realized that he had somehow pulled out whatever was keeping it attached to the rest of its body, before it promptly tipped over with him still standing on it.

Subaru sharply inhaled and immediately reached out towards the Zero-Pointer's hand with Invisible Providence, but by then it was too late, and he was now in free-fall, more than fifty meters in the air. And because he was now behind the robot, there was virtually nothing for him to grab onto and break his fall.

Shit, what was he supposed to do?!

The ground was getting even closer as the seconds passed, and he could even make out the horrified expressions of the other students below.

Come on, Subaru, THINK!

His breaths were getting faster now as his entire being was very quickly filled with panic, and he barely registered the sight of Mineta and the guy who helped him get to safety quickly moving in his direction.

He didn't want to die. Even if he still had Return by Death, he still didn't know if it worked differently on Earth after just one use, and he couldn't just accept death if he was out of options. Not like this. Not when he had only just started proving himself with One for—

Subaru's eyes widened as the epiphany came to him. There was still one thing he could do.

With the sound of rushing air whistling around him and imminent death rising up to meet him, Subaru grit his teeth and activated One for All: Full Cowl once again, before spreading his arms and legs out and managing to glide impromptu towards the side of a high-rise building. But because his fall had so much velocity, breaking his way through a window and landing onto the floor would have resulted in at least serious injuries.

Which was why he needed to slow down.

Right as he reached the height of what was probably half the size of the Zero-Pointer, Subaru tugged on his left sleeve to where it covered his hand, before placing his arm and left foot against the wall.

The resulting friction of his body against the glass windows were very quickly becoming more and more painful as he continued trying to slide down the building, but the combination of his tracksuit and Full Cowl made it so that it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been.

But he obviously couldn't have kept this up forever.

At some point, the burning sensations on his arm and foot had increased tenfold, and the realization that it was now his skin being scraped against the glass caused Subaru to yelp as pain finally made itself known to him, and he subsequently lost his focus and was now back in free-fall, not five seconds after initially slowing himself down.

Well, at least he was gonna make it out, he supposed, as he closed his eyes and braced for—

"MIDORIYA—!"


BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Well," Kayama began. "I don't think I need to say how this is looking for him."

"You can say that again," Vlad King (Kan Sekijirō) replied. "You wanna take this one, Aizawa?"

"Not like I have much of a choice, do I?"

Kan barked out a laugh. "No, can't say you do."

Right now, Toshinori (as well as several other U.A. faculty, he knew) all had their eyes glued to the large, cinema-like in the Entrance Exam Viewing Room, which currently showed what was happening in Battle Center A, specifically how one Bakugō Katsuki was quite literally breezing through every single one of the Villain bots that he came across.

But what seemed to be the more interesting part, as he heard some of his co-workers murmur, was how he was also stopping to help out other students if it ever looked like they needed help.

Toshinori looked down at the tablet in his hands, and placed his finger on a bar at the top-right part of the screen, which then changed to display the current scoreboard among all of the test-takers in the Hero Course Practical. And true to his assumption (and prediction), Bakugō-shōnen was undoubtedly in first place, with an immense lead of sixty-three Villain Points and thirty-two Rescue Points.

Even his score right now was comparable to Toshinori's own final score when he had taken the practical himself, all those years ago, and even he had to at least punch his way through the robots—the entire exam just seemed tailor-made for the kid.

It was truly remarkable. If Toshinori had never met Midoriya-shōnen, then perhaps he would have considered Bakugō-shōnen to take on the Quirk, but from what he knew (and had seen) of him, it would have most likely been significantly wasted on him. Still, though—he at least managed to improve with his Quirk usage through their bi-weekly training sessions.

He could very well be looking at a serious contender for the top Hero rankings right now. Even if Mirai's own pupil Tōgata Mirio was the immediate contender for the Number One rank once he graduated, Bakugō-shōnen would just end up taking it by force only a year later.

(Not that he wanted to put any pressure on Midoriya-shōnen to actually take his place as Japan's 'Symbol of Peace', as they liked to call him, but given that he himself was the boy's mentor, Toshinori couldn't help but feel just a little bit biased towards his protégé. But as long as he settled into making One for All his own, then he had no real complaints.)

"Kayama," a low voice murmured in from somewhere in front of him. Without turning his head, Toshinori's eyes darted towards Eraserhead—that was, Aizawa Shōta—and watched as the other man's head bobbed back and forth from the large screen at the end of the room to the tablet in his hands.

"Is there something wrong, Shōta-kun?" Kayama asked, leaning in and taking a look at his tablet.

Aizawa looked up and nodded to the screen. "The kid with the green lightning." He handed her the tablet, and Toshinori focused his attention back to both his own tablet alongside what the large screen was now showing.

Because the tablets made it so that Toshinori and the others could focus on just one Battle Center (or even one area, if they really wanted), the screen at the end of the room only ever rotated between each overhead view of them in alphabetical order, focusing on one for about a minute or so before moving to the next.

And right now, everyone in the room could see Midoriya-shōnen easily dealing with his own Villain bots in the bottom left area. With a tap on his tablet, it even showed that the kid was quickly rising through the top ten scores, before finally stopping just behind Bakugō-shōnen at forty-two Villain Points and twenty-seven Rescue Points.

Toshinori smiled at the sight. Well done, my boy.

"Midoriya Izuku...what about him?" he then heard Kayama ask.

"Look at his Quirk info." As soon as he registered the words that came out of his mouth, Toshinori's head snapped to them in alarm.

"Oh...huh. That...doesn't make sense. Now how did that get through?"

Uh oh. Completely disregarding the subtlety he had while eavesdropping, Toshinori tapped on Midoriya-shōnen's name on the scoreboard, which then pulled up a digital sheet that listed all of his public personal information.

Name: Midoriya Izuku

Age: Fifteen

Quirk: Short-Range Telekinesis

Quirk Description: Can freely move and manipulate objects within a radius of two meters.

...well, shit.

Struggling to ignore his pounding heartbeat and increasingly sweaty palms, Toshinori cleared his throat, getting Kayama and Aizawa's attention. "Excuse me," he began. "I couldn't help but overhear you. Is there an issue?"

"It looks like it," Aizawa replied, nodding. "The Midoriya kid on the scoreboard—what's listed down for his Quirk doesn't line up with how he's been performing so far."

"Wait, now that you mention it," he heard Kan interject. "Telekinesis shouldn't be able to do that, last I checked."

By this point, Toshinori was at a loss for words, and about three steps away from losing it. To say that this wasn't good would have been such a big understatement, Sorahiko-ojisan would have slapped him upside the head for saying something so obvious, if he were in the room with him.

He was an idiot of the highest caliber. Over forty years of protecting the secret of One for All with his life, and this was how it would finally get out? At least the people who knew had a hand in helping him stay hidden from All for One, but he didn't want any pressure to be put onto Midoriya-shōnen before he was ready.

What would his shishō do in this situation...?

After what felt like an eternity, the silence was broken by the sound of Headmaster Nezu clearing his throat. "I'm afraid that's classified information."

"Wait, so you know what's going on with him?" Aizawa asked.

Nezu nodded. "Regardless of the potential illegalities of Midoriya Izuku's information, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to not pry any further. It's a matter of national security—I'm sure you understand."

A tense silence spread throughout the room as Toshinori and the other faculty members watched as Aizawa continued to stare at Nezu for what seemed like minutes, before the tired-looking man sighed and relaxed back into his chair.

"Fine."

Oh thank you, kami-sama.

"But if you're going to put him in my class, then I expect an answer at some point."

...god damn it.

"While I can't guarantee that, I expect you'll get it from Midoriya himself," Nezu replied, and it took everything Toshinori had in him not to whip around and stare at his boss—that would just call all sorts of attention on him.

(Actually, you know what? He couldn't be bothered to care right now. This was a problem for future him.)

"And besides," he continued. "I believe we're past the eight minute mark now."

After about a second or so, the screen on Toshinori's tablet started repeatedly flashing a transparent red as the sound of a low rumble made itself known, and before long, all of the Zero-Pointers had come out and were now roaming throughout the Battle Centers.

(Ah, he remembered this part—he thought it would have been a difficult battle, but like all the other Villain bots, he ended up taking it out in just one hit. Good times.)

Toshinori smiled in pride and satisfaction as he watched Uraraka-shōjo and Bakugō-shōnen deal with their respective Zero-Pointers, with the former creatively applying her Quirk with the help of another student, and the latter simply flying up to it demolishing it in a single blast.

Well, then. During his own time as a student, he had been considered a part of the school's unofficial 'big three' during his third year. Perhaps Midoriya-shōnen and his friends would become the newest iteration of the 'big three'. Imagine that.

Toshinori tapped on the side of the screen to switch to Battle Center B's cameras, and to his surprise, he saw Midoriya-shōnen's unmistakable green lightning traveling up the front of his zone's Zero-Pointer, before he start to punch it repeatedly in the face. He even found himself moving the tablet even closer to his face when he saw the giant robot's hand reach up towards him, but then relaxed when his protégé almost-effortlessly dodged it and renewed his attacks on top of its head.

...and the Zero-Pointer finally shut down not because of Midoriya-shōnen's repeated strikes, but because of the black tentacle-looking things that shot out of his arm and promptly pulled out the electrical components in the robot's head.

"What?!" he heard Aizawa, Kayama, and Kan collectively shout, and all Toshinori could do was pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

He was now officially fully regretting ever taking up the U.A. job offer. Couldn't he have just helped Midoriya-shōnen out after school?


I honestly wanna just get the entrance exam over with, but the words kinda write themselves when I'm in the zone. Next chapter will actually be the last part, I promise.

I'm gonna be taking a break from this fic for the first 2-3 weeks of February to write the first couple chapters of a new fic I'm planning out (it's about MHA actually being a simulation Izuku went under, meaning lots of angst), so stay tuned for that.