"You're scared of me, Fumi..."

Dark Shadow floated around his host's bedroom, constantly looking for threats and hidden assailants. His very purpose, his prime directive, was to protect Fumikage. But at the same time… Fumikage has been fearful of Dark Shadow, even if he would never say it outright. After all, what kind of prospective hero student was afraid of his own quirk?

Well, to be fair, there is quite the precedent for that quiet fear, that unspoken conflict between user and quirk. Fumikage had once been a little loose with Dark Shadow, who he gave a doting and unimaginative name back when he was just four. Anyone with a quirk takes some time to discover how their abilities react and act in various situations. Those who actively train them find their limits and try their best to break those and go beyond (PLUS ULTRA!). Of course, it had been obvious from the start that Dark Shadow becomes docile when under intense light. But that wasn't the whole picture.

Dark Shadow also reacts to his host's emotions. Emotions that, when heightened, can turn the formidable dark entity into an even bigger monster. Unfortunately, the incident where the Tokoyamis discovered that the only child in their family could become so powerful and dangerous when driven by powerful emotion was also the reason for there being a red seal order in Fumikage's record.

Being a heteromorph and the wielder of what others may see to be a dark quirk or even a yokai made of shadows, Fumikage didn't have the best interactions in school.

"Hey, the freak and his demon."

Fumikage looked up from his seat. He was about eight years old, a tiny Dark Shadow hidden in his jacket's hood. It had been two years since his family moved to Hokkaido. It was the end of the school day, and they'd be getting home in a few minutes from now. In front of him, about six different kids, the "alpha gang" with rather strong quirks, looked down at him.

"Dark Shadow is not a demon," Fumikage looked away.

"Don't make us laugh, you freak," one of the kids, their apparent leader, said, conjuring hot steam from his palm. "You mutants are a pollution. You and your demon are some of the worst of you all."

"I am not a freak," Fumikage replied. "You are stupid. Go away."

The steam user's eyebrows twitched. "Grab him." Two members of his goon squad You mutant freaks, you should never talk back to your betters! We'll teach you a lesson. Learn your place, mutant trash!"

The bird-headed boy's heart began to pound. It pounded in his chest, louder, harder, and faster. He found himself forcibly dragged to the school yard, and one by one, the six began to kick and punch at him.

"Take that, you freak!"

It hurts. It hurts. It is painful. It is painful everywhere.

"Mutant scum!"

Why are they doing this? Because he looked different? Because he had a different kind of head on his shoulders? Because he looked like a bird?

"Do the world a favor and die!"

Hate. Hate. HATE HATE HATE HATE.

He hated them. So, so,so much.The hatred called. The anger turned into a beacon for darkness and even more hate. It was met by even more anger, one that was protective and familial. It screeched and roared, crying out for justice against prejudice.

Dark Shadow grew. He was so much smaller than the titan he would eventually become, but the power of the sentient quirk was still overwhelming against the six. Writhing with anger, his glowing yellow eyes turned to a malevolent red, Dark Shadow attacked. He sent every bully flying across the schoolyard, all in a bid to protect his host. They all landed on the ground with a thud, with one breaking his arm with a pathetic scream as it impacted against a rock.

"If you come after Fumikage again, I will hurt you far, far worse than I just did now!" Dark Shadow roared. The kids ran away, fearful of the monstrous shadow. Now that the beating had stopped, and the taunts had ceased, Fumikage began to calm down. Dark Shadow shrunk, and his host painfully stood up, realizing that his quirk had driven off the bullies. He ran home the best he could, and when he did, his parents were driven into a state of rage. He watched as his father began to make several calls, mentioning names like "Mr. President" and "Commission."

The whole incident was captured by the school's surveillance cameras, but the tapes would be erased and the families of the beaten bullies presented with NDAs, threats, and bribes all at once within the span of a day. A red seal order was placed on Fumikage's record, and no one was to speak of that event ever again. Everyone involved is to pretend that it never happened.

Such are the perks of having a parent who works in the HSPC.

Dark Shadow watched as his host slept peacefully. The sentient quirk felt regret about that incident right until this day. Yes, he just can't help being himself. He is, after all, a Quirk, not a human being. If Fumi's emotions make Dark Shadow go berserk, then that is just how it is. But Dark Shadow sometimes wished that wasn't the case. He wished that the things about Fumi that affected him were different. He wished that he can't go berserk, that he would always be calm and collected, just like how Fumi always tries his best to be just that. Maybe then, his first and greatest friend wouldn't have such a deep, underlying fear of him. Maybe Fumi wouldn't feel the need to bring flashlights in his pockets or ask Frieren if he can learn a spell that creates light.

But, at the very least, Fumi wants to be a hero, the hate he felt on that day never festering into something worse. Hell, he felt bad for it. Even up to this day, he still does.

Even if Dark Shadow can never understand why his host would put himself in danger for other people, especially as amongst those people would be those that would be ready to kick him in the face for looking like a crow and an eagle chimera, he will support him in his dreams. After all… that is what friends are for.

"Sleep well, Fumi," Dark Shadow cooed. "I'll always be here, no matter what."

Izuku looked up at the gates of UA, and shook with excitement (though it was still a bummer that Fumikage got into the school way earlier than he did, so he wasn't there to share the excitement with him). Ten months ago, he thought that he would just take the exam, fail horribly, maybe get into general education… or fail that too. At the end of the day, he could still say, "Well, I tried, at least." But now? He had a real chance of getting in. The thought of entering All Might's alma mater was absolutely electrifying, to say the least.

The practical exam is going to be all about scoring points against robots. If he can take down enough robots with Zoltraak, Skeldus, and Mana Tendrils, he'd have a good shot into the hero course. He'd have to be careful about his mana pool, though; while he'd be putting way less mana into each shot of Zoltraak due to not using it at full power, he still had far less mana than Frieren's previous apprentice, who's name is Fern. Apparently, the mana you had grows in proportion to the amount of time you've been training with magic, along with the years of your life at that point. Given that he had trained for "just" ten months and was just shy of turning 16 years old, the amount of mana he had was simply… alright.

Frieren had spoken of Fern very proudly. She said that she casts Zoltraak at its concentrated, demon-killing form with such speed that she may as well be a walking assault rifle. That is, if assault rifles fired laser beams made out of mana. And if Fern used the weaker Zoltraak that Izuku was currently most familiar with? She'd be a minigun, no, an entire squad, each member wielding a minigun that fired little Zoltraaks. Hell, she might even be like those close-in-support weapons that Izuku saw when America's Number #6 Pro Hero, the Lord of Iron, was seen using his technopathy to control the guns of several naval destroyers to shoot down a villain with a jet quirk.

She would go "brrrt" with all those Zoltraaks.

Izuku started wondering why the world started going towards his face when it hit him.

He tripped.

He tripped. On his own foot. Like an absolute idiot.

Ten months of magic training, and he still forgets basic footwork when he's overthinking and analyzing.

Before his face could strike UA's hallowed, holy concrete, Izuku found himself floating off the ground. He at first thought he had subconsciously activated the Flight spell, but he hadn't used a drop of his mana yet.

That was when a girl started talking to him.

A girl.

A girl was talking to him.

"Oh! Hi there, so I stopped you from falling with my quirk, hehe…" A girl about the same age as he was began. She had rosy cheeks and brown hair. She had a round facial plan, and she was… she was… she's cute…

Oh no. Izuku had no idea how to react.

"Uuuuuuuh thanks?" Izuku replied. He quickly realized that he was still floating in a horizontal position. "I can't… I can't stay like this… you know…"

"Oh, sorry!" The girl took hold of his shoulder and put him to an upright position before putting her hands together. Her fingers glowed a faint pink, and gravity took hold of Izuku again.

"Um, thank you," Izuku stammered, adjusting his jacket and feeling at the staff on his back (which he gained permission to use a support item, though Power Loader was a little confused until he explained the mechanics of his "quirk'). He could feel himself heating up. "You have an awesome quirk, by the way. Nullifying gravity… that's got a lot of potential applications. Are you also here for the hero course?"

"Thanks, and I am going for the hero course too!" The girl smiled. "My name's Uraraka Ochaco, what's yours?"

"Midoriya Izuku. Also gunning for the hero course."

"Cool! What's your quirk?"

Izuku paused for a second at that question. The first answer that came to mind was "I don't", but he remembered his cover story. He had a "quirk" now, one that needed a lot of imagination to work.

"I can manipulate energy into… a few different things," Izuku replied. "You'll see."

"Alright! I look forward to it, Midoriya."

Of course, that wasn't a guarantee. One or both of them might not even get into UA to begin with. Neither was it guaranteed that they'll be in the same testing site. But, Izuku found it justrightto say that.

"Fumikage, Uraraka, we're on the same testing site?!"

Izuku had just encountered his friend and a… what's the right word, future classmate? The general orientation had been… something. Present Mic oriented everyone, but his attempts at riling up the examinees had utterly fallen flat. It was somewhat awkward and sad that the pro hero/teacher/radio host (how the hell did he have time to juggle three jobs, anyway?!) with a voice quirk can't rouse a crowd. Then someone basically hollered at Izuku for muttering and being a distraction, which was, well,fair, but did Mr. Blue Hair Glasses really have to call him out in front of everyone?! Not that just that, but him, specifically?!

Oh, no! Bakugo is applying to UA too, isn't he? Izuku hadn't seen him yet, but he was surely in that assembly. There were only so many people with green hair that anyone knew of, so Bakugo is probably thinking that useless little Deku was still trying his damndest to get in.

Well, he's in for a rude surprise soon enough.

Either way, when Izuku found Fumikage and Uraraka, they were all heading to the same general direction to the loading bays where buses were waiting to bring the prospective students to the different testing sites for the practical exam. The written portion had been alright, at least, and Izuku is fairly confident that he would pass that one. The practical portion, however… the spells Frieren taught him had given him him confidence and a real chance to enter the hero course, but it was just impossible not to feel nervous.

"Hello, Izuku, you seem to be heading to Area C as well," Fumikage greeted. Uraraka also turned around, walking towards the two of them and matched their pace as they walked. "Hi, Midoriya! And, ah, hi, Midoriya's friend!"

"I am Tokoyami Fumikage," Fumikage greeted her. "I was not aware that my friend had finally gained another friend."

"We just met today on the gates," Izuku said. "I, uh, tripped, but she stopped me from falling."

"Is that so…?" Fumikage looked at the two of them. "Very well. I will look forward to seeing both of you in class."

"Oh, you're too kind, Fumi!" Izuku laughed.

"...Fumi…" Fumikage muttered. He knew well where that doting nickname came from.

"The buses are here!" Uraraka pointed ahead, and sure enough, the buses were there, waiting. Present Mic was also there, shouting out instructions at the prospective students. Apparently, they were going to ride the buses to the testing areas… which they sort of already knew, but whatever. "Let's go!"

Blasting robots with Zoltraak and smashing them together with Mana Tendrils has been, to sum it up, has been rather fun. The poor machines must be contemplating revolting against humanity again, because they were getting smashed apart at a vicious rate. Zoltraak pierced through one pointers, three pointers, and five pointers, while Mana Tendrils restrained and slammed them together. Meanwhile, somewhere close by, Dark Shadow went ham, destroying one robot after another in gleeful mayhem. It must be immensely therapeutic for the sentient quirk to break things.

And, to make things better, Izuku and Dark Shadow were shouting out the number of their "kills." It was something they picked up from an ancient pre-quirk movie called the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, where the dwarf and the elf were basically competing on how many orcs each one of them could kill while defending a fortress. Fumikage, meanwhile, facepalmed in second-hand embarrassment as several other examinees, such as a redhead with sharp teeth and a rocky exterior, a frog girl, and a blonde boy with a lightning bolt on his hair, stopped and listened with bewilderment. Another kid, one with purple hair, was busy somehow stopping the robots on their tracks just by talking to them (Power Loader had calibrated the robots to respond to examinees with mentalist quirks as if they were being affected, as Present Mic stated earlier during the general assembly). Oh hell, what if someone started complaining about "show-offs?"

"Sixteen!"

"Thirteen!"

"Seventeen!"

"ONE HUNDRED!"

"DON'T EVEN TRY TO BE FUNNY!"

"What intarnation? Are those magic circles?! And a staff?!"

Aizawa let out a sigh. He was trying his hardest to focus on watching the students as they took their practical exam, but Snipe was making it a little difficult. "Snipe, read the kid's quirk folder. He imagines himself as a mage to help his quirk work properly."

A moment of silence passed. "Oh. That… well, that is weird."

"Weirder than the one with a gluestick for a head? Or the one with amanga pagefor a head?" Aizawa asked. "Just… observe how he performs. Which, at the moment, appears to indicate that he has some actual promise."

Aizawa then felt some shuffling on his shoulder. Oh, damn his life. Nezu was here. How the hell he always manages to sneak into his capture weapon will always escape logical explanation. "Well! What a powerful quirk at work, indeed! He's going to you, Aizawa."

"No," Aizawa grumbled. He had been watching and listening to that green-haired kid in particular for about a few seconds, and he was shouting out his 'kill count' with… what is that, a sentient quirk coming out of a heteromorph? Well, that latter thing was just as weird as the whole pretending-to-be-a-mage-to-help-focus-his-quirk thing. But, he justknewthat Midoriya Izuku would be a problem child for him. He'd rather have Vlad deal with that.

"Oh no, no, Aizawa. You know all the dangerous and powerful quirks go your class because you can stop them if anything goes wrong," Nezu stated. "And my decision is final."

Aizawa returned his stare to the screen. "I better not be getting the shadow monster, too."

"Oh, you will." Aizawa groaned. Just because he had Erasure doesn't mean Nezu should be throwing all the insane cases at him. "And now, for the final surprise of this exam…" Nezu cackled and the other teachers shrunk on their seats from the sheer chaos emanating from the furry principal. Nezu kept cackling as he slammed his paw at a red button. And then, he laughed even more.

"Hohohoho, how will they deal with the Zero Pointer, I wonder?"

A mountain of steel and cold logic had appeared.

"This must be the Zero Pointer Present Mic mentioned during the general assembly, kero." One of the other examinees, the frog girl, said. "We should just avoid it, kero."

Izuku was all too ready to agree to that. He had already blasted enough robots with Zoltraak and Mana Tendrils to get into the hero course. And, by this point, he was getting dangerously close to mana exhaustion."Let's get out of it's way-"

"Someone help me! I'm pinned!"

Izuku turned around. He saw Uraraka pinned beneath some rubble, the Zero Pointer's shadow looming over her. Was the robot's sensor array blind, or what? An examinee was in its path, and it's still going! Crap, it's going to crush her! It's surely going to step on her! And others too, probably. Either way, it's a nuisance and a danger.

"Fumikage, get Dark Shadow to get Uraraka out of that rubble!" Izuku shouted as he ran toward the Zero Pointer. Examinees shouted in surprise as he saw him run toward danger. Why, oh why, was he going for something that wouldn't give any points?

"On it," Fumikage sent Dark Shadow forward toward Uraraka. The rubble was heavy, however, and even Dark Shadow was having a hard time lifting it. But he did his damnedest and his hardest, and the rubble began to budge.

Izuku, meanwhile, stepped in front of the Zero Pointer. He knew for sure that the form of Zoltraak that he favored wouldn't be able to destroy the mountain-sized robot. However… a bigger, stronger Zoltraak can for sure. He used one of those against a boulder when Frieren had been training him, turning it into molten slag.

The mage-in-training visualized and imagined. He can't imagine himself killing anyone with Zoltraak. He couldn't visualize hitting a person with killing intent, not yet. But a big robot with no soul and going straight toward someone that was pinned down? Well, he could destroy that. Hewantsto destroy it.

Izuku pulled at his mana, his strength beginning to leave him as mana exhaustion crept in with each ounce of energy he put into this Zoltraak spell. He pointed his staff at the Zero Pointer's head, aiming to destroy it whole.

"Zoltraak."

Zoltraak surged forth. The biggest magic circle that Izuku ever conjured appeared on his staff, firing a beam of energy that slammed into the Zero Pointer's head and left an enormous, molten hole. With its head gone, the Zero Pointer simply stopped, sputtering to a complete stop.

Izuku wouldn't hear Present Mic announce that the exam was over, however, as he fell to the ground and his staff fell with a clatter.

Mana exhaustion was a bitch.