Frieren had mentioned mana exhaustion a few times during the ten months of spell training. Mages that used up all their mana would collapse to the ground, often falling unconscious. If they did remain conscious, then they wouldn't be able to stand up. A mage hit with mana exhaustion would depend on the other members of their party to carry them to safety, so Frieren had stressed the importance of rationing one's own mana. As long as it can be helped, a good mage must never get into a situation that results in all their mana being used up.
Izuku can already see Frieren's mildly disappointed stare as he woke up in a hospital bed. Not getting mana exhaustion is like Magic Studies 101, and yet he did just that on his practical entrance exam. But, he did not regret it one bit, as he could see the reason he even fired that enhanced Zoltraak to begin with rush to his side.
"Midorya!" Uraraka looked all over him as if to check for any abnormalities. "You finally woke up! Recovery Girl said you were just really exhausted and simply needed some rest, but I didn't think that you'd sleep for four hours straight-"
"Wait did you just say four hours?!" Izuku bolted upright. "Oh no! I should get back home now!"
"Not so fast, young man!" A dainty little old voice came from an appropriately dainty old woman who was so unfathomably short for an adult. She had a giant syringe as a cane, and wore a doctor's lab coat. It took Izuku about two seconds to realize that this old lady was, in fact,theRecovery Girl, UA High School's resident doctor (and, unknown to him at the time, a simultaneously relieving and terrifying sight for UA students who happened to do something foolish). It was strange that she was so short now, given that she used to be taller, at like a normal height. Why did some people suddenly get shorter when they start getting grey hairs, anyway? Is that another mutation from quirks?
"Right, you need to clear me first, right?"
"Yes, just one little checkup before I clear you to go home," Recovery Girl nodded. She took out her stethoscope and put it on Izuku's back, listening for a few seconds. She then looked at the screen of the monitoring device placed beside Izuku's assigned hospital bed. "Breathing appears to be normal. Nothing abnormal on scans. Looks like just good old-fashioned quirk exhaustion. You can go home now, Midoriya. And you too, Uraraka. It is good that you stayed here until he woke up."
"Well," Uraraka fidgeted as she looked at Izuku. "I just wanted to say thank you for blowing up the Zero Pointer. It was… really scary. I actually thought I was going to die. Your friend was having a hard time lifting the rock off me."
"Oh right, where is Fumikage now? Izuku asked.
"He said he needed to go back as soon as possible," Uraraka replied. "Which did, uh, make sense. He lives all the way in Hokkaido!"
Izuku nodded at that. So he hadn't gotten that apartment yet. "Ah, okay! Well, it was nice to see you around Uraraka. We'll see each other again soon."
"Oh, hehe, I do hope for that," Uraraka chuckled. "Since you're fine now and all… I suppose we should…"
That was when Recovery Girl's hands, surprisingly strong for her age, began to push the two teenagers out of her clinic. "Come on now! Go home, kids! Chat elsewhere, not here!"
"R-right!" Izuku and Uraraka fled. Unfortunately, once they got to UA's gates, their way back to their respective homes were apparently on opposite directions, so Izuku would wave the first girl his age he'd ever spoken to in a normal manner in a long, long time.
Oh my God! He talked to a girl! Heinteractedwith a girl! Ah, if only All Might was here to see this!
When Izuku got home, he found Frieren in front of his computer, browsing the internet. It started about five months ago when Frieren had fully adjusted to the concept of cellular devices, computers, and televisions, not to mention the internet. She had found it odd that people used the internet to spread strange things like memes and status updates, and when she first used a computer, it took her a whole minute to type a simple request on a search engine. However, Frieren eventually got used to it. And, the way she smiled when it was mentioned that the internet was basically the sum total of mankind's knowledge? It was absolutely smug and maniacal. It was like she was imagining herself gaining a glorious victory over an opponent she had fought and long hard against only to do them so very dirty.
(Frieren was actually thinking about Serie, who she thought to be childish despite her being the oldest being on the world. Serie found the idea of generalizing the knowledge of magic throughout all mankind to be ridiculous, that only "special" people should know magic. The very concept of the internet would probably make the old elf go ballistic.)
It wasn't long before Frieren was totally and utterly consumed with surfing the net. She used a hydromancy spell to prevent her eyes from drying out, so she was constantly looking up all kinds of topics. Aside from learning the locations of the various occult bookstores throughout the country (and indeed, the whole world), Frieren was also rather interested in medical topics. Izuku could swear that she intended to self-study a whole medical degree by herself.
It was jarring, really. Izuku knew very well that she was this thousand-year-old elf with powerful magic spells, but… she spent a third of the day scrolling and reading without getting bored or sick of it AT ALL. He supposed that being a thousand years old means that your sense of time is a little warped. And, well, that little thought unnerved him somewhat. Was Frieren seeing her time here as a mere blink of an eye? That would explain so much about her demeanor…
"Frieren-san?" Izuku croaked as he came in through the door. His mother hadn't come home yet, so it was just them in the apartment at the moment.
"Yes?" Frieren looked over at him. "Oh, right, this is your computer, is it? Is it your turn to use it now?"
"No, no, just remember to turn it off and let it rest from time to time, please?" Izuku asked. He'd said it a few times before, but she really does so absorbed with reading that it sometimes runs for six hours straight. It's fortunate that she hasn't been playing the video games he had in there. Otherwise, the thing might have become as hot as the surface of the sun.
"Ah, yes, of course. You finished your examination?" Frieren asked.
"I did."
"Hmmm, it was fast."
Izuku blinked. Fast? Seven hours was fast?! But of course, she didn't see time the same as he did. "Seven hours is a pretty lengthy amount of time for us humans, you know," Izuku frowned. "But it was okay. I think I have a real shot of getting into UA."
"Congratulations, then," Frieren replied. "I can see that you'll be a great mage… and hero."
"I sure hope so!" Izuku nodded excitedly. "UA will send the acceptance letters in about two weeks. I don't know if I can sleep until then…"
"I can cast a sleeping spell, then. A growing human child needs all the sleep they may require," Frieren offered. Inko told her about Izuku's sleeping problems, so Frieren had been helping the way she knew best: with magic. She had one that makes your dreams be about fighting a dragon, another that can make someone sleep for a century, and another that's tailored for humans to sleep for a full eight hours. Frieren had described the last one as "a mundane spell." Needless to say, Izuku picked the last.
"Oh! I also made a new friend!" Izuku's eyes glittered with golden light. "Her name's Uraraka Ochaco, and her gravity can nullify gravity! She was so nice, she stayed for four hours just to say thank you to me for keeping her from being stomped on by a robot!"
Now Frieren was surprised. She knew about robots, and she thought them to be golems, but made out of metal. "An examination where an examinee can get stepped on by a metal golem sounds extremely hazardous," Frieren commented.
"I just have this feeling that we'll be great friends once we get into UA, you know?" Izuku answered.
Great friends. Frieren has those. Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen… though she didn't realize it at the time. She really wasted her time not getting to know them better.
"It is good to have good friends," Frieren simply answered. "Now, did you get mana exhaustion? I can sense when someone recently got it, you know."
Izuku paled. "I did… when I saved that girl from getting stomped."
Frieren looked at him for a moment before smiling. "Well, that isoneacceptable scenario to get mana exhaustion."
Oh, it was, indeed.
Two weeks later, the acceptance letter arrived. Inko had delivered it with barely contained excitement to Izuku's room. Frieren was already asleep at the time, surrounded by ten of those fake grimoires she got from the Sanctum Sanctorum Bookstore.
And so Izuku opened it in the quietness of his room. Even now, doubt clawed at his mind. What if they thought he was too reckless when he went up and shot that Zero Pointer to death? What if, what if, what if-
Izuku hadn't even noticed it when the holographic projector fell out of the envelope, clattering on his desk. It then projected a video of-
ALL MIGHT?!
"Greetings, young Midoriya!" The Number One Hero smiled and posed, flexing his titanic muscles, which were still visible from underneath his pinstripe suit. "You might be wondering why I am here! Why, I am to be the newest member of UA's faculty! Anyway, you are surely nervous about your result! Well, I am glad to tell you that you have been accepted into UA's hero course! You passed your written exam with, well, passable scores. However, your practical exam is where you truly shined! You gained the second most Villain Points in this year's exam with 54 points! HOWEVER, that is not all!"
Izuku gulped. What else could there be?
"What kind of hero school would UA be, after all, if its hero course did not reward selflessness in the face of danger?" All Might beamed. "We all saw how you stood against the Zero Pointer in an effort to save young Uraraka, along with young Tokoyami. You used your quirk one last time against the Zero Pointer, ensuring that its threat is done and gone, even at the risk of yourself! As such, you have been rewarded 60 Rescue Points, bringing your score to a total of 116 points!"
All Might's smile somehow became even brighter. "Welcome, young Midoriya, to your Hero Academia!" A scoreboard then replaced All Might, showing the ranks and points of all those who passed the practical exam and got into the hero course.
Izuku got first place.
As he stared at the scoreboard being shown to him through the holographic acceptance letter, his eyes hovered over to the name in second place.
Bakugo Katsuki.
Ah.
Izuku wondered how he must be feeling right now, being in second place. He must be so, so, so, furious.
Katsuki stared at the scoreboard in front of him. He was in second place. And in first place… was that Deku! How?! This is impossible! How could that quirkless loser score higher than him, Bakugo Katsuki, the future Number One Hero? How? How? How? HOW?! "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUCK?!" Katsku screamed. He barely resisted the urge to set off an explosion, as he was in front of his computer and would rather not destroy it.
His mother Mitsuki shouted from downstairs, annoyed at his loud swearing. "Shut your trap! You're accepted into the hero course, what else do you want?!"
Katsuki didn't answer. Instead, he turned his attention back at the scoreboard that infuriated him so much. No, no, no! He was the best! He was the greatest! He will defeat all the villains so hard that crime rates will go down to zero! These were all basic facts of life, laws written into the very fabric of the universe! Why, oh why, then, was that quirkless, useless, bastard above him?!
No. Did he have a quirk all along? Was Deku laughing at him all this time? Was that bastard looking down at him! Impossible! He must… he must have cheated! Birdbrain's government dad must have helped him somehow! That was the only logical explanation. There was no way that quirkless weakling could have gained a quirk out of nowhere! No, no! There was just no way!
But… if Deku was coming to UA, then he can be taught his place again! Yes, yes! That's right. Katsuki will show him where he belongs. NO ONE upstages Bakugo Katsuki! NO ONE is better than Bakugo Katsuki! He'll show that weakling. He'll show all those extras! They will all see that he is the best!
He. Is. The. Best.
He will have all the glory for himself!
All the glory For One.