Izuku ran down the halls of UA at top speed, not wanting to be late on his first day of school. If he was late, that would embarrass him to no end, but luckily, he still had a few minutes before the first classes of the day were supposed to begin, so he did the smart thing and stopped to ask somebody for directions. He slowed down to look around, seeing a tall young man who's uniform seemed far too tight. This young man had blond hair styled into a cowlick, as well as piercing blue eyes.
"Um, excuse me! Can you please tell me where Class-1A is?" Izuku asked.
"Class-1A? Ah, you must be one of the new first year students! No worries, buddy! It's just down that hall and to the left. Good luck, newbie!" the boy said.
"Thanks!" Izuku yelled back as he ran toward the corner a few feet in front of him.
Making his way to the classroom, as he turned a corner, Izuku bumped into a person that was a few inches taller than him, praying that it wasn't Katsuki. When he looked up, Izuku saw that it was the boy that had saved him in the entrance exam when Blackwhip had gone out of control, though he was still kicking himself over the fact that he didn't know the name of the person that had saved him, just his appearance.
"Hey, you're Midoriya, right?" Shinso asked, recognition flashing in his eyes.
"Yes! What's your name? We didn't exactly have a lot of time to exchange names the last time we saw each other, with me being in a hospital bed and all!" Izuku said, chuckling to himself.
"Right. I'm Hitoshi Shinso. I'm guessing that you passed," Shinso said.
"Yeah, I'm in Class-1A. You passed as well?" Izuku asked.
"Yep. Apparently, me knocking you out so that you'd stop earned me enough rescue points to let me pass. So, I guess I have you to thank for that," Shinso said, giving Izuku a small smile.
"Is that what happened? They didn't let me watch the tapes, so I don't really remember much other than my power going berserk," Izuku admitted.
"Yeah, that's my Quirk, Brainwashing," Shinso admitted reluctantly, not sure how Izuku would react.
"Whoa, that's so cool! Can you Brainwash anyone? Or does it have a specific trigger?" Izuku asked, retrieving a notebook out of nowhere.
"Uh, people have to verbally respond to me for it to work," Shinso answered, not used to people responding positively when he explained what his power was.
"That's awesome! With your Quirk, you could do all types of heroic stuff, like getting villains to surrender immediately, or making a hostage situation child's play by making the person taking the hostages let them go. Is there any limit to what you can make people do, or -?" Izuku said, not stopping for breath as he rattled off the potential applications of Shinso's Quirk.
"I think we should go in before we make people really weirded out," Shinso said, holding his hand out to stop Izuku.
"Right. Sorry," Izuku said, flushing slightly as he opened the door and stepped into the classroom.
The noise was like a punch to the face as Izuku stepped into the room. It seemed like everybody was talking over the person next to them, creating a cacophony of sound that almost seemed to rattle Izuku's bones. He thought that it was impractical for everybody to be talking at once, and that somebody must have said something before he had arrived.
"Oh, yikes. That's a lot of sound," Shinso said, blocking his ears with ear muffs the same color as his hair. The muffs were shaped like cats, something that Izuku thought was adorable for Shinso's usually deadpan and stoic nature.
"Are those cat shaped ear muffs?" the girl sitting the closest to Shinso, who had pink skin and hair, as well as jagged horns, asked.
"Uh, yeah. What of it?" Shinso asked, giving her a look he hoped was creepy.
"They're really cute! Can you tell me where to get some, or will I just have to get on your good side so I can borrow yours?" the girl asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Shinso's eyes widened as he walked away, a slight pink spreading across his cheeks. Izuku would have laughed if he didn't hear the faint grumbling of Katsuki on the other side of the room. He looked over to where he knew Katsuki was and locked eyes with him, silently trying to convey his determination to remain in the hero course. Shinso noticed this, and simply sat down two seats behind Katsuki, gesturing for Izuku to follow.
Izuku carefully moved around Katsuki, sitting down directly behind him. He turned back to Shinso and saw that the other boy was clearly uncomfortable with the amount of noise that was getting through his ear muffs. Izuku knew how fallible those technologies could be, so was tempted to try and get the class to calm down, but didn't know if he could muster the authority to do it. He stood up and breathed in, making sure to straighten his back as much as possible.
"Um, hello! If you don't mind, could you quiet down a bit? My friend here, Shinso, is having some issues with the noise, so if you could consider his feelings, I'd greatly appreciate that," Izuku said, not able to meet anybody's eyes, instead looking at their noses for a similar effect.
The class immediately quieted down, looking at him with awe and admiration, but some with fear. The person Izuku was focused on was Shinso, however, because of his positively stunned expression. Izuku got the feeling that nobody had ever really stood up for him before, which was only supported by the way he had flinched when Izuku had asked about his Quirk. Turning around to face the class, Izuku was about to question why his classmates were looking at him so fearfully, but that question was answered when a taller boy with glasses stood up and looked at him skeptically.
"It's you. The one with the dark tendrils. You may have the most out of control, dangerous Quirk I have ever seen," the boy said, looking at Izuku with a stern expression.
"Oh. Right. The entrance exam. Uh, that was a bad day for me. I didn't know that I was capable of that power, so I apologize if I accidentally hurt anyone here with it," Izuku said, shrinking under the taller boy's gaze.
"That's bullshit. He saved someone with that power. She's actually here," Shinso called out, standing to join Izuku. He pointed to Uraraka, who had been sitting behind the boy with glasses.
Uraraka took a moment to realize people were talking about her, but when she did, she immediately recognized Izuku and Shinso. She stood up and nodded vigorously, walking through the room as she explained how Izuku had saved her in the entrance exam.
"That's right. Midoriya helped me run away from the massive Zero Pointer, then we were hurt by a huge chunk of rock that the robot had thrown at us. Then, he got up and tried to help me, but I was stuck under the rock. That robot was gonna crush us, but then Midoriya jumped up super high and then that … thing came out of him, and it ripped the robot apart. He didn't seem to be able to control it very well, but I got Shinso to use his Quirk on him to knock Midoriya out so that the rampage could stop," Uraraka ranted, obviously very grateful for Izuku's action in the exam.
"Thank you for the reminder, Uraraka, but I think you all should sit down," a voice said from the door.
Everyone snapped their attention to the door, seeing a man in black clothes with long, greasy looking black hair. He also looked extremely tired, like he hadn't slept the night before, maybe even the last couple of nights. Izuku and Shinso immediately sat back down, not having walked too far from their seats, but it took others, like Uraraka, a moment or two to get back to their seats. The man made his way to the podium at the front of the classroom.
"I'm Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher. Here's how this is going to happen. You guys are going to put on these ..." he said, retrieving a P.E. uniform from the sleeping bag he had been holding. "... and meet me at the athletics field in ten minutes. Go," Aizawa ordered.
The students, save for Izuku and Shinso, all leap out of their seats, running for a uniform. Izuku didn't know why, because they had ten minutes to get changed into the uniforms, but maybe the others were just eager. He was excited, too, but he also knew restraint and self-control, something he thought was one of the defining traits of a hero. Knowing when to fight, not just how.
As the class made their way toward the locker rooms next to the athletics field, Izuku realized something. He recalled Aizawa calling her by what he knew now was her family's name, 'Uraraka', and he turned to her with a blush on his face.
"I've been calling you by your given name?!" Izuku asked, his voice breaking.
"Huh. I guess you have been," Uraraka said simply.
"I didn't know! I'm so sorry, that must have come off as incredibly rude! I won't do it again, I promise," Izuku said, bowing to Uraraka as he tried to keep walking.
"That's fine! It's probably what's best, since we don't really know each other that well outside of the entrance exam," Uraraka said, laughing at herself.
"Well, you did both save each other's asses," Shinso said, seemingly appearing from nowhere as he spoke.
"How so?" Izuku asked.
"She saved you during the entrance exam," Shinso said, like it was common knowledge. It was, of course, but Izuku could be considered anything but common.
"When? I thought you helped me, Shinso," Iuzku asked, scandalized.
"I did. After I knocked you out with my Brainwashing, you were still a hundred feet in the air and falling, so she used her Quirk on you to catch you before you splattered on the concrete," Shinso explained.
Izuku remembered feeling weightless the moment before passing out. Until then, he had just assumed that was him entering the One for All dreamscape, but now he understood that Uraraka's Quirk wasn't simple levitation, it was making things lighter.
"Thank you so much! Wait, could you tell me more about your Quirk?" Izuku asked, seemingly materializing his notebook from somewhere.
"Uh, well, I call it Zero Gravity, because it lets me cancel an object's gravity out when I touch it," Uraraka explained.
"It's five finger contact activation, right?" Izuku asked, furiously scribbling into the notebook.
"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?" Uraraka asked, slightly disturbed at Izuku's claim.
"Well, there are pads on every one of your fingertips, so I just reasoned that they would all need to be used to activate your Quirk," Izuku said.
"Well, that's right! I only need all the pads on one hand to touch something for my Quirk to work. If I touch the pads to their counterparts on the other hand, it cancels the effect!" Uraraka cheerfully told him.
"Oh, wow! That's such a cool power! You'll definitely be good with rescue and things of that sort," Izuku exclaimed.
"You really think so? I can't really do much with my Quirk yet, but I'm sure I'll improve," Uraraka said with conviction.
"That's why we're all here. So that we can become great heroes!" Izuku said, buzzing with excitement.
"I actually think I'm gonna throw up," Shinso said, looking very displeased with the way the conversation had gone.
"What? Are you feeling okay?" Izuku asked fretfully.
Shinso's eyes widened, regarding Izuku with disbelief. He looked to Uraraka, who was staring at the small boy in a similar way, but with much more fondness in her eyes. Shinso and Uraraka locked eyes, and he tried to make an expression that conveyed how much he detested this, but Uraraka only laughed at him.
"No, Midoriya. I was joking," Shinso said, narrowing his eyes a bit.
"Oh. Okay. I thought you were actually feeling sick for a second!" Izuku said with a laugh.
"Clearly," Shinso muttered, feeling far too tired to go through a whole school day as well as socializing. Shinso was sure today would be interesting, to say the least.
Izuku walked off, the class having reached the changing rooms next to the athletics field. Shinso and Uraraka let him go ahead while they stayed back, Shinso wanting to say a few choice words to her about some things he had noticed while talking to Izuku.
"This kid is clearly used to having emotionally unstable people around him," Shinso said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"How can you tell?" Uraraka asked, stepping back uncertainly.
"He immediately just accepted that I had a drastic switch in my personality. He didn't think I was joking when I said all of that friendly lovey-dovey shit made me sick. I was, to an extent at least, but he took it as a fact that I could just switch to being cold and negative. That's not a good sign if you've ever talked to developmental psychologists," Shinso explained, leaning up against the wall next to him.
"Whoa, you know a lot about this stuff, huh?" Uraraka asked with stars in her eyes.
"It's not much. I know about how to get people to do certain things because it makes my Quirk more effective, but a lot of that goes into why people do what they do, and a lot of that goes into developmental psychology," Shinso said, looking up at the sky to hide his small smile from Uraraka.
"That's really cool! What do you think that means for Midoriya, though?" Uraraka asked, frowning.
"That means that he likely grew up around somebody who was able to lash out at any moment. Somebody who's moods were unstable, though often negative. Have you noticed that he was pretty much always on edge while in the classroom, but once we got out into the hall and away from a lot of people, he mellowed out?" Shinso said.
"I did notice that, but I didn't wanna talk to him about it in case it was a sensitive subject. I don't want to dip into his personal space or anything," Uraraka said, waving her hands wildly.
"What are you two doing?" Aizawa's voice came from beside them.
"Aizawa!" Uraraka shouted, not knowing anybody had been listening to them.
"We were talking. We'll get changed," Shinso said, abruptly ending the conversation, though he gave Uraraka a look that said 'we'll continue this later'.
"I can already tell they're gonna be problem children," Aizawa grumbled, walking away.
After everybody had assembled in front of the throwing mound, Aizawa cleared his throat. Everybody was clearly weirded out by his appearance, with the man looking like a cross between a homeless man and a military veteran, armed to the teeth under his scarf. He didn't carry any weapons except for his knife, which was mainly used for cutting ropes and other restraints, but he had used it on a person. Aizawa hadn't known that a person could bleed so much before that, though that incident had occurred during his first few years of active hero work, and he was hardly as naive as that anymore. Aizawa hoped that was the case, at least.
"Alright, everybody, listen up! Here's how this is going to work; all of you will be participating in eight physical tests designed to test your abilities, physical or not. I trust you've all completed these basic tests before, albeit without your Quirks. I don't understand why schools still choose to limit their students so severely, but that's an issue for another time. Now, Bakugo," Aizawa said, before throwing a softball to Katsuki. "How far could you throw in middle school?" Aizawa asked.
"Sixty seven metres, I think," Katsuki said proudly.
"Good. Now, throw it with your Quirk," Aizawa said, stepping back.
"We get to use our Quirks, alright!" the pink skinned girl from before yelled out.
"This'll be super fun!" a blond with a black streak in his hair the shape of a lightning bolt cried.
"Just what I expect of the hero course!" a voice called, but Izuku couldn't see anybody's mouth moving, which meant that it was probably the invisible girl standing next to the pink skinned girl that had started the wave of cheers.
"'Fun', you say?' Well, how about this; the person who gets last place on these tests is expelled. If you show no potential, you're out," Aizawa said, flashing the students a grin that could only be described as manic.
"Last place?" Uraraka choked.
Uraraka moved to oppose Aizawa, but Shinso put a hand on her shoulder, telling her with his eyes to not even try it. He knew that it would end badly for her, so tried to save her the embarrassment of getting told off in front of their whole class on the first day. The two nodded to each other, and Uraraka stepped back.
"No objections? Good. We can start. Bakugo, throw the ball as hard as you can with your Quirk. Do what you have to but don't leave the circle, get it?" Aizawa said, a dry monotone making it clear how done he was already.
Katsuki nodded and stepped into the circle at the top of the mound. He cocked his fist back and waited a moment, clearly waiting for something that let him know when to throw it. Sensing his cue to throw the ball, Katsuki threw his hand out, letting go of the ball before using his Quirk as soon as he did. The palm of Katsuki's hand expelled a massive blast, propelling the ball high into the sky and off into the distance. Everyone cheered when they saw just what these tests would allow them to do, but once the ball landed, signified by a small beep on Aizawa's small device, the excitement changed into a sense of dread after seeing what Katsuki's score was.
"Seven hundred and five metres. That's what you're up against. Plus Ultra," Aizawa said before walking toward the running track.
The class gathered at the running track, with Aizawa explaining that two students are to race against each other, with their times recorded by separate bots positioned at the end of the fifty metre track. He put some students' names into a randomizer, with Tenya Iida and Tsuyu Asui coming out. The two students, the tall boy that called out Izuku earlier and a frog-like girl with poor posture, stepped up to the starting line.
Aizawa pressed something on his device, and a loud beeping sound rang out. The students took off, using their Quirks to great effect. Iida used the engines sprouting out of his claves to propel himself along the track at super-speed. He reached the end in a moment, speeding past the finish line in just over three seconds, causing Izuku to raise an eyebrow in intrigue.
Asui, as soon as the beep sounded, leapt into the air at a twenty five degree angle, soaring across the track at an impressive rate. She needed to touch down after about fifteen metres, but quickly hopped along the track. She passed the finish line only two and a half seconds after Iida for a time of just over five and a half seconds. Izuku was impressed with the two starters' speeds, hoping that he could match up to even half their scores without the use of One for All.
All Might had said that the key to using One for All without shattering his limbs like pasta was to visualise, whatever that meant. Izuku had been trying over the month that he had before the start of the school year, but he hadn't managed to summon One for All's power again, with Blackwhip sharing the same result. Izuku, on some level, didn't want to use Blackwhip again, in fear of losing control in a place where he could hurt people like his mother, or someone else. Taking deep breaths, just like All Might had told him to do, Izuku tried to bring that same heat that he had felt within him when he first used One for All to the surface as more students completed their races.
Before he knew it, it was Izuku's turn. He had been so focused on controlling One for All that he had missed the past five minutes, and there were only two students who had yet to run; Izuku and Katsuki.
Crap.
"Let's do this, Deku. I'm about to destroy you and your shitty power," Katsuki said, grinning like a feral animal.
Izuku walked up to the starting line and crouched down, hoping that his practise would pay off. He tried calling on the power of One for All again, and looked over to Katsuki, who was leering at him with a malicious light in his eyes. As the two prepared for the beep from Aizawa, they glanced at each other and locked eyes. The way Katsuki smirked, as if he already won, aggravated Izuku in ways he didn't know were possible.
When the beep sounded, Izuku pushed against the ground with all his might, not caring about the idea of breaking his leg with the power of his Quirk. Nothing happened, and Izuku simply lifted off the ground as his regular strength pushed him forward. Something he did notice that was out of the ordinary, however, was Blackwhip's signature 'swell' that came as its power was building inside Izuku's body.
With a vague idea on how to use his new power, Izuku quickly thought of a way to release the Quirk without causing too much damage. Katsuki had blown past him in an instant, and Izuku quickly judged the distance between them to be close enough for a Blackwip tendril of low power to be able to reach and maneuver around. Izuku let a small amount of Blackwhip out, moving his hand in a way that guided the inky, dark tendril toward Katsuki's back.
Blackwhip shot through the air, like a straight line, and hit Katsuki on the back, multiple different strands breaking off from the main line and wrapping around the blond's torso. Katsuki made a strangled sound, probably the wind being knocked out of him, but Izuku pressed on, knowing what to do.
Izuku focused on his control of Blackwhip, knowing that the coming jolt would likely be enough to shake his hold on the aggressive power. Katsuki's momentum, along with the added motion of Blackwhip slamming into his back, pulled Izuku forward, ripping him off the ground and pulling him into the air.
As the two boys leveled out in the air, Izuku enacted the next stage of his plan. Surprising even himself, Izuku slowly reeled Blackwhip back to him, and due to Katsuki being larger and heavier than him, he pulled himself toward the other boy, the speed at which he did so increasing as he neared his rival.
When Izuku reached Katsuki, he completely pulled Blackwhip back into himself, forcing his Quirk back down into its core. In his head, Izuku apologized to Katsuki, but knew that he was just doing what he needed to do to get ahead of him.
Keeping his momentum, Izuku landed on Katuski's back, feet first, and launched himself off of the boy. Izuku soared through the air as a result, getting ahead by a fair bit before Katsuki recovered from the fall Izuku's launch had sent him down.
"Damn you, Deku!" Katsuki roared.
Katsuki propelled himself off the ground with his explosions. He hovered after Izuku, utter rage in his eyes. Izuku saw this, and took off himself, running along the ground as fast as his regular legs could run, which, due to All Might's training regime, was pretty darn fast if Izuku said so. He knew that Katsuki was going to outrun him, but Aizawa said it himself; if he shows that he has no potential, he's going to get expelled. He needed to show that he could control and be creative with his admittedly rowdy Quirk, and he was going to take every chance he could to do that.
As expected, Katsuki raced past him and crossed the finish line in mere moments, whereas it took Izuku a few more seconds to pass the finish line, considerably more out of breath than Katsuki. He looked around and saw that everyone was looking at him, making him shrink under their gazes.
"Dude, that was awesome!" someone yelled, a boy with yellow hair and a black lightning streak through it.
"What the hell was that, Deku?" Katsuki asked, approaching Izuku with all the hatred the smaller boy had come to fear.
"Kacchan! I just thought that would be a proper use of my Quirk! I didn't want to hurt you, I promise!" Izuku said, backing away and subconsciously moving toward Aizawa.
"Is using the other participants to get ahead allowed?" Iida asked.
"You can do what you like, as long as it gets good results and doesn't hurt anyone. Since Midoriya clearly got a better result because of his actions, and Bakugo is unharmed, I'll allow it," Aizawa confirmed.
For a single moment, Izuku felt proud of himself. He had used his new Quirk in a safe, creative and, according to his classmate, cool and effective way. That was cause for celebration, but Katsuki certainly didn't agree with him, continuing to approach with the same fervor as he had before.
"Don't think that because you pulled some cheap trick, that makes you better than me! You couldn't beat me in a straight race. Remember that," Katsuki said, punctuating his message with a powerful shove to the shoulder, knocking Izuku back.
Izuku watched Katsuki walk away, huffing and groaning about something that Izuku couldn't hear. Uraraka and Shinso made their way over to him with large smiles across their faces, or as large a smile as Shinso could manage without hurting himself. The two congratulated him on his display of proficiency with his Quirk after what they had witnessed at the entrance exam, celebrating with him on how far he had come. Izuku, on the other hand, felt the opposite.
He had realized after the fact that he had been focussing solely on the individual steps that it took to use Blackwhip in that way. It took so many little things to do that admittedly simple maneuver, in the grand scheme of things. Izuku didn't let this get him down, however, and decided to let his inexperience with his Quirk fuel his drive to improve. He'd master his Quirk, and any others that crop up in the future.
Izuku also realized that he had controlled the shape and length of the whip, and not just shot it out to dissipate. He had actively recalled it into his body, which felt more natural than simply letting the energy dissolve in the air. It always felt anti-climactic, like he was leaving something unfinished, when he did that, so what he had just done felt a lot more natural.
"Alright. Now that that's over and done with, let's move on to the next test," Aizawa said, ending Izuku's moment with absolutely no tact.
The class moved through the tests efficiently, and, unfortunately, far too quickly for Izuku to figure out how to use Blackwhip to any meaningful effect in any of them. Before Izuku knew it, he was next up to do the ball throw. Aizawa had called him up, and thrown a ball to him, which he had caught, not before fumbling with it and almost dropping it, much to his classmates' delight. He heard laughter behind him, but for the first time, he didn't mind, as he knew from the tone that it was a lighthearted, playful kind of humor, and not the evil, dark chuckles that were thrown at him in middle school.
Izuku made his way to the circle, thinking the whole way there about how to use One for All and Blackwhip to the best of his ability. He thought about how One for All's base power, strength enhancement, wasn't responding to him, and he doubted he could get it to surface in these tests. So, he decided to rely on Blackwhip, which, while hard to control itself, was responding to him well.
He thought out how to use Blackwhip like a catapult, and how he could use momentum to launch the ball further than he could throw it. As he was getting ready to let Blackwhip out, he caught something that Katsuki said.
"What's he waiting for? It isn't like he could beat my score. I don't even know why the hobo's wasting his time. He should already be out of here," Katuski said.
"I think he shows promise. He did almost beat you, after all, and you're the top scorer on the entrance exam. I also saw what he did during the exam, and I can say that he is majorly holding back right now, only to not literally murder everyone here by accident," Shinso said, a small smirk on his face.
"Yeah!" Uraraka corroborated.
"Fuck off, he's just a Deku. He can't do anything," Katsuki stuck to his guns.
Katsuki's smack talk just made Izuku want to beat him even more. Izuku felt his anger bubble within him, but that wasn't all. He finally felt the same feeling that he had felt when One for All first responded to him in the entrance exam. The heat that rose and spread from his core to fill every limb, every cell and every space between spaces, the same one that he had come to associate with his gift of a Quirk, was finally emerging again after his first use weeks ago.
Izuku took this and ran with it, trying to use his fleeting power while he had it. He knew that One for All wouldn't stick around long, and he knew he had to act while it was still flowing through his veins, though he knew that it would most likely break him. Reworking his plan to factor in his new strength, Izuku acted, taking his chance.
He tried to collect all of his power into his arm, like he had with his legs in the entrance exam. Once he felt the passive warmth that was spread throughout his body become a searing heat that pierced his flesh running up and down his arm, he knew it had worked. Next, Izuku placed the ball directly in the palm of his hand and released Blackship through the same spot, letting the tendril wrap around and completely cover the ball.
After that, Izuku released the ball, letting it drop about halfway to the ground before letting it hang by his Blackwhip. Izuku began swinging his arm around, letting the ball swing around in the clump of Blackwhip it was contained within. With the ball gaining momentum, swinging around him, Izuku focused on not releasing any of the pent up energy of One for All before he was ready. It was difficult, as his entire arm was screaming in pain, and he was sure that any more of this and his arm would simply explode, like All Might said it would if he wasn't prepared, but a thought crossed his mind.
What if All Might was wrong? What if he had underestimated how much he had contributed to the Quirk, and Izuku hadn't trained enough to handle the output of One for All? After all, All Might had been a hero for about thirty five years, and that was a lot of time for his already god-like strength to increase to truly deific power. Power that Izuku's body, which had only been trained for ten months, no matter how intense the training, simply couldn't handle.
Finally sensing that the moment was right, Izuku, let the ball swing back behind him. He stepped forward, close to the circle's rim, and shot his arm forward, trying to put all of the built up power to throw his arm forward. A funny thing happened when he tried, though. A surge of power escaped his arm and flowed into the Blackwhip tendril, causing it to glow with a red aura.
It seemed that something changed with the tendril in that moment, because instead of a single black line going from Izuku's hand to the ball, it became smoother, and it allowed itself to bend and whip like an actual, physical whip.
As Izuku threw his hand forward, the ball stayed going in the direction that it had been falling. In a moment, however, the ball snapped, the Blackwhip refusing to extend any further. Izuku, recalling that this type of strange control of Blackwhip had happened earlier, willed the whip to retract back into his body, which hurled the ball out in front of him in a flash, even surprising him at the speed it did so.
Izuku let go of the ball with his whip as it reached the end of the whip's length, and recalled Blackwhip back into himself. He marveled at his show of control, not even thinking of how that might be something he was capable of. The slight flicking motion the whip made before letting go of the ball made a sonic boom, surprising Izuku at the amount of force that his Blackwhip could make. He briefly wondered if the funky looking man who originally possessed Blackwhip could do things like that, but put it aside as a thought to express to All Might.
Izuku watched as the ball soared into the air, spinning at a speed that made the colorations and seems on the ball blur and blend into a washed out red color that made it harder to be seen as it soared in front of the sun, forcing Izuku to look away.
With a beep from Aizawa's device, Izuku knew his ball had landed. He looked to his teacher and saw the man holding his device with the screen facing toward Izuku. He looked back to Katsuki immediately to see that the blond was in a state akin to shock, looking to the screen, where Izuku's score was displayed, or the boy himself, with unfiltered hate in his eyes.
"Seven hundred and eight metres. Good job, Midoriya," Aizawa said, giving credit where it was due.
Katsuki snapped, and started running toward Izuku to get some answers about what the hell that damn nerd had just done. He didn't get far, due to Aizawa manipulating his scarf in a way that it wrapped around the blond and let him fall to the ground, trapped. Aizawa's hair was standing on end and his eyes were glowing red. That was when the drawing of Eraserhead that Izuku had in his notebook flashed into his mind, completing the faint memory he had of the hero.
"You're the Erasure Hero: Eraserhead!" Izuku cheered.
"You know your stuff," Aizawa said, caught off guard.
"What the fuck is this thing made of?" Katsuki snarled, trying to use his explosions to tear at the fabric.
"It's a unique capture weapon designed for me, made of a special metal alloy, so don't even try to break it, or it'll cost you your status as a student here as well as your parents' life savings," Aizawa explained, releasing Katsuki from his binding.
As the whole class stared in shock at the scene that had played out in front of him, Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply, deeping than Izuku thought was possible.
"Alright, kids. None of you are getting expelled, as you all showed some form of potential. Hagakure, Shinso, you're on extremely thin ice," Aizawa said. "Get out of here," he finished.
All in all, Izuku would say he did well. He saw his score, seventh in the class, and decided that he could've done better, but was content that he wasn't last. He went home that afternoon with a clear conscience, a clean record and a clean slate, ready to begin his career at UA High School as a hero in training in earnest.
That night, Izuku waited for a long time for All Might to get back to him. He had even gone through his first, though unofficial, day of school at UA before All Might messaged him asking to talk. Of course, Izuku said yes and immediately sped off to Takoba Beach Park, where he had trained to receive One for All. It took him a while to get there, him having been asleep at the time that All Might finally messaged, but he got there in under ten minutes, hoping not to have kept All Might waiting too long.
As Izuku arrived, All Might waved him over to the bench the older man was sitting at. As soon as Izuku took his seat next to his mentor, All Might apologized.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, young man. It took me a while to find enough information about the previous users, let alone their Quirks, but with having to do hero work in between research sessions, I'm sure you understand how difficult it was," All Might said.
"Of course. I wouldn't expect any less of you than to try your hardest and to work as long as you can without there being serious repercussions," Izuku said, smiling sweetly at his hero.
"Alright. Now, onto the reason I called you here. I did find a bit of information on the previous users, specifically from users three through to seven, my predecessor. Would you like to read through it?" All Might revealed, taking a thin notebook from his jacket's large pocket.
Izuku thought about it. He sort of hoped that Blackwhip would be the only Quirk from the previous users that would manifest. Izuku wouldn't deny that the appeal of having multiple different powers was alluring, and he definitely wouldn't say no to having more than one Quirk, but he also wondered how he would keep a low profile with that kind of power. Still, he reasoned with himself, he needed to know about the other users and what kinds of powers they possessed if he was going to start manifesting their Quirks, like the funky man from his dream said.
"Yes, please," Izuku said, reaching for the notebook.
"Very well. I must warn you, Young Midoriya, that there is not much information on heroes from this era as a whole, much less on the One for All user before me. What I've found may not be very helpful, but it was what was available, even to the number one hero," All Might cautioned.
"I understand that you did your best, All Might, even if what I find isn't up to my standards, which is very unlikely. I think I'm just grateful to have any info on what kinds of powers I may manifest in the future," Izuku said, smiling at All Might.
"I'll have to give thanks to you mother sometime for molding you into the respectable young man you are today," All Might said, causing Izuku to blush.
Due to the streetlight not being very luminous, Izuku had to use his phone's flashlight to read the pages on the third user, since it was the first one with any real information other than their position in the chain of inheritance.
"The third user's name was lost to history, but I was able to find his Quirk," All Might warned.
'Quirk: Fa Jin. This Quirk allows the user to, by repeating motions, store up kinetic energy within their body and release in an explosive burst of speed and power. The user can choose to release only some of the built up energy, resulting in the capability for multiple bursts of speed and power. This was the third Quirk assimilated by One for All, possibly meaning it could've been supercharged by the amount of time it spent passively absorbing the built up energy from the growing flame that was OFA' the entry read.
"Wow. This Quirk, used in conjunction with One for All, could be extremely powerful. This could, used in conjunction with OFA's base strength enhancement, increase my strength and speed to nearly god-like strength. The caveat of having to charge it up with repeated movements is kinda tedious, though," Izuku thought out loud.
All Might enjoyed getting peeks into his successor's mind like this. It didn't happen often, but when Izuku went into a state where he was purely focused on analysis, All Might simply watched and was amazed by his sharply critical eye and his incredibly fast brain. He could never follow more than a few thoughts in a row, them coming and going like a light switch. Someone flips a switch, and suddenly a new thought comes and overtakes the one before it.
"Oh, this one has a name to it," Izuku noted, moving onto the fourth's entry.
'Hikage Shinomori, 4th User, Quirk: Danger Sense. This Quirk allows for the sensation of nearby physical danger, whether to the user or to other people. A sharp pain in the front of the brain is caused, scaled in the degree of pain by the intensity of the danger. The original range for this Quirk was average, though with boosting from One for All, similarly to Fa Jin, this Quirk may be far more powerful than it was originally' the entry for the fourth user read.
"This is incredible. Both of these Quirks so far have been extremely applicable in a wide variety of situations. Danger Sense could let me sense civilians in danger, allow me to dodge without having to look at enemies, and overall give me a greater level of spatial awareness than I would've been capable of before. Fantastic!" Izuku muttered to himself.
Moving onto the fifth entry, Izuku came to a Quirk he was beginning to know well, Blackwhip. He skimmed over the more basic notes, beginning to already understand the full uses of the power. It pretty much stated what Izuku already knew from experience, as well as his encounter with the fifth, who he now knew to be Daigoro Banjo, also known as the pro-hero Lariat. In the sixth entry, however, Izuku found something a bit more interesting.
'En, 6th User, Quirk: Smokescreen. This Quirk allows the user to project a large plume of smoke from their hands, allowing for the concealment of the user's location, diversion tactics and an advantage in battle. The user can somewhat control the degree of the density of the Smokescreen, but this ability may have been increased by the influence of One for All' the sixth entry read. Once again, Izuku was floored by the Quirk.
"This is simply incredible. Smokescreen could allow me to rescue civilians unseen, then drop into the fight and take out the villain, all without ever having been spotted by any opponents. These Quirks are really something, I have to admit," Izuku said, stars in his eyes.
After reading for a few seconds, Izuku stopped processing new words, and stared at the one beginning word of the seventh entry, the entry about Nana Shimura, All Might's master.
"I can fly?" Izuku asked, in mild shock.
"You might be able to Float. It's different," All Might corrected smugly, which was weird, even for him.
"Right, you must have been close," Izuku connected the dots.
"You could say that. Though, she wasn't with me as long as I'd hoped or wanted. She died as she lived, one of the finest heroes I've ever had the pleasure of meeting," All Might said, a tear leaking from his eye.
"What was she like, other than that?" Izuku asked, looking up at his mentor with wide eyes.
"Well, she never cracked the top hundred heroes, but she was the most passionate, loving person I've ever met. She believed that the bravest, most powerful people in this world were the ones that were always smiling, even in the face of impossible odds. She taught me everything about being a hero, and I try to honor her every day by smiling as much as I can," All Might smiling brightly.
"Hold on, there's a picture here," Izuku said, wanting to see what she looked like for himself.
Her picture was clearly taken on a phone. It was kind of out of focus, but he could see her clearly enough. The first thing about her that he noticed was that she wore a cape, which was probably where All Might got the idea from. Next, he noticed the dazzling smile that painted her face, making everyone around her smile just as brightly. It was a sight to behold, a single person inspiring so many people like that. He also found himself staring at her face because of other reasons, mainly because she was really beautiful, but made himself look away.
"She looked like an incredible hero," Izuku said.
"She was," All Might confirmed, with a melancholy sigh.
"Wait, All Might. Is this correct? You were Quirkless before you inherited One for All?" Izuku asked, flipping through the pages to All Might's entry.
"Yeah, that's right. I got bullied quite a bit back in my younger days, but it was never as bad as what Quirkless kids face today. I'm kind of amazed you haven't just given up by now. I certainly would have," All Might said, looking into the night sky.
"All Might …" Izuku trailed off, not expecting the change in tone.
"You have an incredible power, Izuku. I'm not talking about One for All, Blackwhip or any of the other Quirks you may inherit. I'm talking about resilience. Determination. Grit. You have the tools to succeed, young man, and I'm going to make sure you use them right to guide you along the path to becoming a hero, as you have already taken your first step," All Might said, clearly voicing something he'd thought a lot about.
Izuku chose to say nothing, instead deciding to cherish this moment. When he looked back at All Might, the man was holding back tears. Izuku didn't want to force All Might to say anything more than he wanted, or than he was comfortable with, so he settled for leaning toward his mentor and simply offering his company, letting the skinnier man wrap an arm around him and hug him sideways the way that Izuku hated. He'd survive, though, if it was for All Might.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you that I've made some progress with One for All," Izuku said, suddenly standing up.
"How so?" All Might asked, wiping tears away.
"I think that, before now, I wasn't using Blackwhip to its full potential. It was like it was a static line, before, but now I can shape and mold the whips to my will. It's a much smoother use of the power now, and I think that I'll get even better at controlling the whips in the future," Izuku said, proud of his progress.
"Nothing about the strength enhancement aspect?" All Might asked, poorly hiding his hope for Izuku's proficiency in his only contribution to his powers.
"No luck, but I did manage to do something … weird with the base power of OFA. I tried to fling a ball during school today while using Blackwhip to swing it around and the strength enhancement aspect to power my throw, kinda like a catapult," Izuku explained.
"Nicely done," All Might praised.
"It was a good idea, but it didn't really work out too well. See, when I tried to do that, all of the strength flowed into Blackwhip, and unlocked my new control over the shape and size of the whips, as well as the idea to do some other things, like contract it into my body, which feels much more natural in the mindset of 'Quirks are parts of your body'. Instead of losing that energy, I'm bringing it back in; completing the cycle," Izuku explained the best he could.
"You really are a bright bulb, aren't you, Young Midoriya?" All Might asked, rhetorically.
Izuku blushed due to the man's praise. He wasn't really used to compliments, so getting them on a regular basis was completely new for him. Izuku almost fell apart under Aizawa's respect for his abilities during the Quirk apprehension test, but managed to keep it together until he got home, only then freaking out that the Eraserhead had given thought he had done a good job.
The two stayed like that for the rest of the night, simply enjoying each other's company. Little did they know, things were about to get wild. All Might felt bad for Izuku, now, knowing that he probably wasn't going to be able to use the combat aspect of One for All for his coming trials, but that was pushed aside in knowing that it was for him to really get a feel for combat, as he had only had a taste in the entrance exam, and the children needed to learn.
When Izuku went home, he walked through the dark streets with ease, due to more than a few late-night training sessions at the beach that may have been under All Might's radar. He didn't want to admit how bad he had gotten during the time where he started overworking his body during his training. Izuku vaguely remembered leaving school during his lunch break to train once, and that was when he knew he needed help.
As he got home, he opened and closed the door as quietly as he could. He took a step, and the floor creaked below him, sealing his fate. He heard the clinking of metal beside him and looked into the living room to see the unmistakable silhouette of his mother, Inko, sitting in her favorite chair, overlooking the entrance. He decided that he would've been caught, even if he had remained stealthy, and dropped the act.
"Hi," Izuku said, lamely.
"Hello, Izuku. Where have you been?" Inko asked, strangely cold.
"Uh, I met up with All Might. He wanted to wish me well, but this was the only time he could do it in person. He also gave me a gift," Izuku said.
"Oh? Can I see the gift?" she asked.
"Um, that's private," Izuku said, his voice breaking.
"Private? Between you and a man you've known for ten months, and not your mother?" Inko asked, her facade breaking a bit to let Izuku know how worried she really was.
"Mom, I get that you didn't really trust Yagi back then, but he's proved himself worthy of trust, hasn't he? He's safe. I'm safe," Izuku reassured her.
"I'm sorry, Izuku, but you can't blame me for worrying about you. It's my job, and I'm the only one who's going to do it," Inko said.
"I know, Mom. I love you for that. I do. I just … need to be able to do my own thing, be my own person, and that's never gonna happen if I only leave the house for school and never meet new people. If I'm gonna be a hero, I'm gonna need connections, after all," Izuku said.
"Yeah," Inko breathed.
Inko stood and made her way to her son, hating that she had to look up at him now. Izuku looked down at his mother, and wrapped her in a hug, letting her know what he was thinking without having to say anything. The two embraced for a while longer, before the two went off to their rooms, saying good night.
End of Arc 1: Awakening