A/N: I've stopped skipping scenes similar to canon in this chapter. There are minor changes that will grow in importance.
-(-)-
It was finally the day. His first day at UA, first day of high school, first day of hero training.
And he was already lost.
In fairness to Izuku, the UA campus was not small by any means. Two towers of glass, connected at the ground floor and a bridge-like section several stories up made up the main school building. And that was just the main building, ignoring the many myriad facilities they had surrounding it, from gymnasiums to the testing grounds they had used for the entrance exam. There were so many facilities, finding the right signpost was a challenge in itself. Eventually he managed to find his classroom, 1A. The door was giant, like many others on the campus. Accommodating those with the height to make it necessary.
Sliding open the door, his heart sank. Both of the people he least wanted to be in a class with.
"You're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property you cretin!"
"You're kidding me, right? Your old school put that stick up your ass or were you born with it?"
Of course! Things were already going so well for him, the other shoe had to drop some time. Why not give him another three years of being in Kacchan's class along with glasses guy who thought he was a nuisance? His good karma had paid out in spades and now things were settling back into normality.
"It's him," the boy with glasses said with unexpected weight and reverence. Even more so when Izuku realised it was said about him. "My name is Tenya Iida from the Somei Private Academy!" the boy with glasses, Iida, announced as he power-walked over.
"Hi?", Izuku said, the world coming out as a question and a song all at once. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's super nice to meet you."
The already tall Iida seemed all the taller with his straight and rigid posture. "Midoriya. You figured out there was more to the practical exam, didn't you?"
"You mean the rescue points thing?" Izuku asked. "No, I could help so I helped. I wasn't really thinking about it at all, ahaha..." he laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"Really?" Iida asked in mild surprise. "Would you even have passed with so few combat points?"
Izuku began to wonder how closely Iida must have studied that scoreboard. "Ah... Well, I guess at the time it–"
"Hey, I recognise that messy hair!"
"Ah, it's you!" said Izuku as he turned around at hearing the voice to find the girl from the entrance exam.
"Oh my gosh, this is great! We both made it! And we're even in the same class! I wonder what we'll be doing today besides orientation! I wonder what our teachers are like, I can't wait to meet everybody!"
"If you're just here to make friends, then you can leave."
And that was how Izuku and the rest of class 1A met their homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Lying in the hallway in a sleeping bag, drinking from a juice box. And despite the childishness of that appearance, looked utterly fed up with life and everything it had to offer.
With no prior notice, the entire class were told to put on gym clothes and head outside to the sports fields. Once gathered there, Aizawa informed them they would be skipping orientation for quirk assessment tests. When asked why, his response amounted to "I can do whatever I feel is best for the betterment of my class."
Bakugou was called up first to demonstrate what Aizawa meant by "quirk assessment test". It was the standard series of tests for physical education but they were allowed to use their quirks in whatever way they wanted. Bakugou powered a softball throw with an explosion, smashing his middle school record by more than an order of magnitude.
The class' excitement at having such freedom to use their quirks was short-lived when Aizawa informed them the person scoring the lowest would be kicked out. That seemed... extreme to Izuku, but it wasn't untrue that UA was so successful they were basically given carte blanche to run the school how they liked. If Aizawa said he could do it, he could probably do it.
And so the testing began. The fifty meter dash. The best run was Iida whose engine quirk netted him a time of 3.04 seconds. The worst run came from the diminutive form of Minoru Mineta who had a novel idea of using the balls that were part of his quirk as bounce pads. Unfortunately he messed up his timing and tripped on one, coming to a tumbling stop before the finish line and scampering over it for and eight and a half second finish. Izuku was around the middle of the pack with 5.66 seconds.
Next was grip strength. Mezo Shoji came out on top by utilising his ability to make multiple hands, nearly breaking the machine under all the pressure. Worst was Koji Koda who could apparently talk to animals but didn't really have a way to utilise that in the test. Izuku was again around the middle of the pack. In the realms of superhuman but there were those who did far better.
Bakugou had been watching Midoriya's attempts and was deeply suspicious of the weakling's new ability. That wasn't part of his quirk before. What was he hiding? Or had the weakling been sandbagging their whole lives?
The third test was the standing long-jump. Bakugou dominated in this one as whenever he lost velocity he would use another explosion to propel himself. Eventually his stamina gave out but he blew every other score out of the water. Last place was once again Minoru Mineta who had a novel idea. Creating a chain out of his sticky balls he confidently said "Check this out, ladies!" Then whipped the chain forwards, catching the end of the sand pit. As he tried to use it to swing his way forward he fumbled his launch, falling sideways off the platform and getting a score of four inches. Izuku, feeling unsatisfied with his progress so far decided to push himself a little in this test and went a little beyond his usual limits. In a single bound he launched himself well over the sand pit and quite a way onto the field beyond. His legs ached slightly but he felt fine otherwise.
The repeated sidesteps was something of a wash, though it was the one test Minoru Mineta managed to ace. Using his balls, he bounced himself side to side at a rapid pace. A few others used similar novel tricks with their quirks to get good scores but most ended up very similar to their middle school scores, Izuku included.
For the softball throw, Izuku was surprised to see Bakugou's dominating opening throw get beaten rather quickly. Twice. Momo Yaoyorozu pulled a cannon out of herself, loaded the softball and fired, doubling Bakugou's score. And Ochako... Broke the scale. The ball went up and did not come back down, giving her a score of infinity. At the back of the pack was Tooru Hagakure whose invisibility helped her not at all, leaving her with a below average score for the standard tests. Once again, Izuku pushed the boat out on his throw, getting a score well above the average.
Next was the distance run. This sort of test, much like the fifty meter sprint, was Tenya Iida's bread and butter. However, because the run was longer he was able to get to a much higher speed and finished well before anyone else was even close. Trailing behind, doomed by his small stature and overuse of his quirk, Minoru Mineta once again failed to perform. Izuku didn't push himself hard for this test, it being a test of stamina. He stayed at his limit of two percent in great bounding strides. Another above average score.
The seated toe touch. A test of their flexibility. And another test where a vast majority of the class were in the same boat, not having a good way to leverage their quirk. Though Sato managed the worst due to his particularly muscular physique causing him problems. Shoji was once again one who could perform particularly well at this due the very lenient understanding of where his hands were.
And at last came the sit ups. The final test. Once again, not many quirks could benefit someone in doing sit ups since they were very firmly defined. As such, it became more or less an ordinary test with little to no superpowers. Izuku and Sato found themselves duking it out for the top spot, while Ochako and Aoyama were both struggling. Ochako because her level of fitness wasn't the best it could be and Aoyama because his belt kept getting in the way. He couldn't remove it so he was sadly left with it obstructing his movements.
"Alright, time to give you your results," Aizawa said to the re-gathered class of varyingly winded and exhausted students. "These are your ranks from best to worst. You'll probably have an idea of your standing already."
Izuku watched curiously as the rankings appeared on a projected screen. The first thing he noticed wasn't his own place, but Bakugou's. Not only was he not in first place, he was in third. UA really was on an entirely different level. As his eyes scanned down the list he found his own name near the bottom but on the left column, placing him in ninth. That felt about right. He hadn't really bombed any of the tests but he'd only stood out in one. And then right at the bottom of the rankings was one Minoru Mineta, the diminutive student with purple balls for hair, the boy himself letting out a strangled noise as his eyes laser-focused on his own name.
Aizawa shut off the projector. "Also I lied, no one's going home." His face morphed into an entirely punchable grin, as though he was enjoying their anguish far too much. "That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all!"
The entire class (save for Yaoyorozu, who had seen through it) let out a collective sigh of relief, Mineta dropping to his knees and clasping his hands as he cried out his thanks to some unseen force.
"That's all. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom and go home," Aizawa instructed, back to seeming bored. "Mineta, come with me."
The confused grapehead obediently followed after his teacher, thoughts swirling a bit at being singled out. Was it a double-bluff? Was he really being expelled?!
As the two rounded a corner behind the gymnasium, Aizawa stopped and turned to look down at the boy, now one of his students. "You took a tumble a few times during the tests. Do you need to see Recovery Girl?"
"No sir. I'm fine." Internally, Mineta breathed a sigh of relief. So that was all it was.
"Mineta, you ranked last in the tests."
And all of a sudden he was back to being worried. "But you said–"
"You're not being kicked out," Aizawa said to cut off the boy's wrong train of thought. "But you're in last place. I want you to think about what that means. You not only got the lowest combined score on the tests, you did significantly worse than Hagakure. Her quirk is invisibility and gives her next to no physical enhancement or ability. Yet somehow you, with a quirk that let you place first in one of the challenges unopposed, managed to not even compete with her overall. What does that say?"
The teacher put his hand up as the boy opened his mouth. "Don't answer. I'll tell you what it says. It says you need to think long and hard about your place in this school. What your purpose here is. What you need to do to achieve it. Because at this rate, you'll learn first hand that students from different departments can switch places. There are plenty of students in General Studies that didn't make the cut for the Hero course. They would be eager to take your place.
Step up your game. Go beyond. Or you'll just get left behind."
Having changed back into their uniforms, the students of Class 1A (really, all of the students at UA) were heading home.
"Midoriya!" Iida shouted as he hustled to catch up to the green-haired boy.
"Oh, Iida, hey!" Izuku answered as he slowed to let the taller boy catch up. "I didn't check, how did you do on the test?"
"Oh, quite well! I was near the top, though I must admit to being disappointed in myself that that ruffian outperformed me," the serious boy said with a wild sweeping gesture.
Izuku nodded understandingly. "Yeah, that's Kacchan, alright."
"You know him?"
"We grew up together. He's got a lot of attitude but anyone who saw him perform knew he was going places."
"I may not like it, but I have to agree there."
"Hey guys!" Ochako shouted as she chased the boys down. "Are you going to the train station! Let's walk together!"
"Oh, you're the infinity girl!" Iida said with mild surprise.
"Ochako Uraraka!" she said with an open smile. "Let's see, you're Tenya Iida and you're... Midoriya? Was that it?"
"Yeah! I'm Izuku Midoriya!" Izuku answered a little too excited to be talking to a girl who remembered his name.
"So what do you guys think of Mr. Aizawa?" asked Ochako, her hands clasped behind her back as the group started their walk to the train station.
"He claimed he wanted to push us to excel but the means he used make me uneasy," Iida mused, arms folded, "It was effective but the deception just doesn't seem very heroic."
"Well he wasn't being a hero then, right? He was being a teacher!" Ochako countered.
"I just wish I knew who he was," Izuku voiced. "I mean he works here, he has to be a hero, right? Did either of you recognise him?"
Shaking heads was all the response he got.
-(-)-
The next day's lessons were much more standard for a high school covering the standard curriculum, English and Mathematics being the morning classes. The only part that made them special was the teachers. Present Mic providing lessons in English while Snipe taught Mathematics. Following that was the lunch period with school lunches provided by the cooking hero, Lunch Rush.
And then came the afternoon classes. The entire afternoon was only a single class: Hero Basic Training.
"I AM HERE!"
The voice unmistakable to any hero fan, the power of it, the weight behind those words carried even through the school walls. The entire class waited in gleeful anticipation.
"Coming through the door like a hero!" the inimitable form of All Mightt bellowed as he thrust himself chest first through the doorway.
"Oh wow, it really is him!" one student said.
"He really is a teacher! This year is gonna be awesome!" said another.
"Is that his silver age costume?"
Izuku's head almost twisted off it turned so fast on hearing the frog-like girl say that. Recognising All Might's silver age costume at a glance?! That was amazing!
"Welcome to the most important class at UA! This is where you will learn the basics of being a pro! And what it means to fight in the name of good! Today's lesson..." he paused for dramatic effect, curling in on himself before thrusting his out his hand. "Will pull no punches!" In his hand was a card with the word BATTLE stylistically emblazoned on it in red letters.
"Fight training!" Bakugou growled with an eager grin.
"But one of the keys of being a hero is... Looking good!" All Might continued as he pointed at numbered containers being ejected from the classroom wall. "These costumes were designed based on your quirk registration forms and the requests you sent in before school started!"
The class were cheering openly at this point, so swept up in All Might's momentum and the excitement of the moment.
"Get yourselves suited up! Then meet me at Training Ground Beta!"
"Yes sir!"
-(-)-
"They say the clothes make the pros, ladies and gentlemen! And behold! You! Are the proof!"
Izuku certainly couldn't argue that as he emerged from the tunnel behind his classmates. Everyone looked incredible, like they were already heroes! They all looked the part so much, even he himself started to feel like he really was one along with them.
Whether it was a simple design like the gi worn by the boy with a tail or the boy in a simple red and yellow shirt and shorts combo, or the more elaborate affairs like Bakugou's explosive-reminiscent headpiece with giant grenade bracers or Iida's... Well, the end result was he looked like a cross between a knight and a car. Everyone had some kind of aesthetic that made them stand out from the crowd in a way that said "hero".
And then... There were the girls' costumes. Skin-tight bodysuits everywhere. Uraraka was wearing one. Frog girl was wearing one. Acid girl was wearing one with cleavage. That one punk-looking girl was the only one who that wasn't particularly revealing which was kind of nice to him. Someone he could talk to in costume without becoming a babbling mess. Momo Yaoyorozu was wearing what was basically a swimsuit with a plunging neckline for gods' sake!
… Weren't there more girls in the class?
Oh, he realised. The last one was the invisible girl standing next to tail guy. Her costume was just gloves and shoes.
Her costume was just gloves and shoes. Izuku's brain may as well have liquefied when that realisation struck.
"Hey, Izuku! Is that your costume?" said Ochako as she saw him approaching.
Izuku's own costume was, if he was being honest, suspiciously similar to All Might's current costume. He knew he was letting a little of his inner fanboy seep through but he thought people wouldn't notice if he based his costume off of All Might's old one. How was he supposed to know All Might would wear it for this lesson!
Deku's costume consisted of a sleeved and legged unitard and boots much like All Might's but with the addition of gloves and a mask. Izuku copied the design on All Might's chest and arms, though with a raised black circle in the centre of his chest. The helmet was supposed to have protrusions coming out from just above the forehead pointing straight up. It had them, but they didn't come out quite like Izuku had hoped, looking more like demonic horns than... their inspiration. The lower jaw was reminiscent of a certain hero's smile but again ended up looking a little more like a menacing grin than the student hoped. Above that was an air filtration system since Izuku expected to be dealing with a lot of smoke with his quirk involving heat. The colour scheme of the costume was mostly charcoal-grey with the suit pattern, boots and mask in a vibrant, glowing red.
"Wow, Izuku, you look amazing! You look like a cross between All Might and Endeavour!" Ochako gushed as she looked him up and down before her eyes unexpectedly locked on his very exposed abdominals in his also skin tight suit.
Neither of them were quite aware of how closely they were inspecting each other's bodies as they both stammered out "Y-you look great!" at the same time.
Neither did they notice any of the rest of the class's reactions as they glanced behind themselves to see.
"Wow, he's in way better shape than I thought he'd be," were the paraphrased thoughts of Ojiro, Kirishima and Sato.
"Quite the unexpectedly sinister appearance," thought Iida and Tokoyami, with displeasure and approval, respectively.
"Huh, maybe I was too hard on the rest of the girls costumes being skin-tight," thought an unexpectedly considering Jirou.
Todoroki's thoughts contained no small amount of misplaced anger on someone seemingly wanting to emulate Endeavour's look.
Tsuyu on the other hand more noticed the similarity to All Might's current costume, putting a considering finger to her chin.
All Might managed to stifle his laughter over Izuku's choice of costume design and bring himself back to the lesson. "So, now that you're ready it's time to begin combat training!"
"Sir!" Iida interrupted immediately, "This is the model city from the entrance exam! Will we be participating in urban battles again?"
"Not quite! We're going to be kicking your training up a notch!" the pro responded, taking the interruption before he could even get going in stride. "Villain fights you see on the news happen outside but statistically most of them will occur indoors! Backroom deals! Home invasions! Secret underground lairs! Intelligent villains stay hidden in the shadows! This exercise will have you paired up and set against each other as good guys against bad guys in two-on-two indoor battles!"
"Doesn't this seem kind of advanced?" Tsuyu asked.
"Will you be deciding who wins?" Momo asked.
"How much can we hurt the other team?" Bakugou asked.
"Do we need to worry about the losers getting expelled like earlier?" Ochako asked.
"Will you be splitting us up based on chance or comparative skill?" Iida asked.
"Isn't this cape trés chic?" Aoyama asked.
"I wasn't finished talking!" said All Might, finally buckling after a flood of questions and resorting to pulling out his notes. "Listen up! The villains have hidden a nuclear missile somewhere in their hideout, a five story building! The heroes must foil their plans by either capturing the villains or recovering the weapon! Likewise, the villains must capture the heroes or protect the weapon! We'll choose teams by drawing lots!"
"Isn't there a better way than something so arbitrary?" Iida asked.
"No that makes sense!" Izuku answered for him. "A lot of heroes end up having to team up with people they've never worked with before. You can't always choose who's available when a villain attacks."
"Ah, I see. Excuse my rudeness!" Iida said formally, bowing at the middle to his teacher.
"No sweat! Let's draw!"
As if ordained by fate, Izuku ended up teamed with and facing against all of the people he knew the names of in his class so far. Ochako as his teammate on the hero team, Iida and Bakugou as the villain team.
From the moment the first battle was revealed, Bakugou had been glaring at Izuku with menace. Izuku in turn looked at him but with annoyance. Was the blond still stewing over not being the only one to get into UA?
"Villain team, head inside and get set up! In five minutes the hero team will bust in! Prepare yourselves appropriately! Remember, you are the villains so embody villainy! If things go too far, I'll step in. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" Iida said with firmness while Bakugou echoed it in a mutter.
As the hero team waited for the time limit to be up, Ochako studied the floor plan of the building. "So do they expect us to memorise this whole thing? It's pretty huge. But you know, All Might's just as cool as he is in person, right?! And he didn't threaten to punish us like Mister Aizawa so we can relax!"
"Yeah... Relax," Izuku echoed distractedly.
"Are you alright? Is this about how that grenade guy keeps glaring at you?" asked the gravity canceller.
"You noticed that too?" Izuku said with a frown hidden behind his ever-smiling mask. "Kacchan and I grew up together. He always used to give people a hard time over not being as good as he was but for some reason he really had it out for me since we were little." He clenched his fist, the metal plates of his gloves letting off a ting sound as they impacted one another. "But still! I earned my place here the same as he did! I won't let him push me around anymore! And I'm gonna prove it by winning today!"
"So it's a fated battle between rivals?" Ochako said with an anticipatory smile.
"Ah! W-well, I don't know if I'd go quite that far..."
"Aww come on, bring back that spirit! Let's win this!" the girl cheered.
"Alright! Let's begin the indoor combat training!" All might said over loudspeakers. "Team A! Team D! Your time starts now!"
"Okay, let's go in quiet, okay Uraraka?" Izuku said, nerves getting to him as the moment of action came upon him.
The two of them snuck in through a window on the first floor with no issues The interior of the building didn't seem to bother with the façade of being a real building. Instead it was a labyrinth of identical corridors made up of what looked like identical blocks. Feeling at the walls, Izuku amended that description. Not blocks. Just made to look like them. The walls were solid concrete.
With caution, the two made their way through the floor looking for any thing useful while trying to keep themselves unnoticed. The stairs would be good and they found and ascended one set, catching one of the villains unaware would also be good though likely to reveal their position, finding the weapon would be great as it would mean the most time consuming part of their job was done.
Unfortunately, they found none of those things before Bakugou caught them unawares, swinging around a corner and attempting to blow Izuku's head off with an explosion.
In response, Izuku flung himself to the side into Uraraka, knocking both of them to the ground. "Uraraka, are you okay?!"
"I'm fine!" she answered firmly as the two of them turned and got into a ready position.
"What's the matter, Deku?" Bakugou growled as the smoke cleared. "Not gonna stand up and fight me?"
"I should've known you'd just come at me like this but I didn't think your grudge would run that deep!" Izuku rose from his kneel and stood watching his childhood... acquaintance for any tells.
"Looks like you think you're hot shit with that costume now! Well let's see how you do against a real fighter!" Bakugou shouted as he charged at the usually meeker boy. As he raised his right hand for a first strike he was surprised when Izuku took that arm, spinning himself around and in a move that was around thirty percent technique but mostly strength, used the momentum of the movement to flip the explosive quirk user onto his back, slamming him into the concrete floor.
"Guh!" Bakugou gasped as his back hit the ground. To his credit, he didn't leave himself vulnerable and rolled away and flipped himself back to his feet. "How! You're nowhere near that good a fighter!"
"You kept telling me that so much I ended up believing it, Kacchan!" Izuku shouted back. "That my quirk was garbage, that my fighting was garbage, that everything I did was worthless! Well guess what! I believed it so hard I studied everything I could! Every hero, every technique, every quirk, every fighting style so I could be better! That includes yours! And you know what else?! I got here just like you did! So you can say whatever crap you want but I'll still be a hero!"
"Uraraka!" he said, looking at his teammate, "Go find the stairs! Find the weapon! I'll keep him here!"
"Right!" Ochako answered with a nod before ducking into another hallway.
"You think I'll let you?!" Bakugou roared as he moved to chase down the escaping girl but "Woah, what the-!" found himself suddenly off balance, his body not moving the way he wanted to. Instead it was moving towards- "Deku!"
"You're pretty hot-blooded, aren't you, Kacchan?" Izuku asked tauntingly as he pulled the explosive user with his own quirk. Bakugou brought his arm around to slap an explosion onto the other boy's face but it was caught on Izuku's arm to no effect. "When I was submitting my costume design, I figured I'd be around a lot of heat and explosions 'cos of my quirk!" he explained as he continued to fend of blows with simple blocks. "It's just lucky for me that you're such a bad match against me, Kacchan!"
"Ghhh!" Bakugou grunted, using an overly large explosion to push the other boy away. "You got some neat tricks now, Deku! But if you wanna compare costumes how's this! You know my quirk is to secrete explosive fluid in my sweat! These grenades collect it, ready for a single enormous blast!"
"Stop, young Bakugou! That level of force is too much!" came a voice into all the participant earpieces.
"He'll be fine with his fancy suit!" Bakugou growled. "Besides, all he has to do is dodge!"
As Bakugou pulled the pin in his grenade gauntlet, Izuku realised that, yeah, that was a really good point. So using the super strength component of One for All he kicked off the floor to send him skidding into another hallway and out of the way of the explosion.
The pressure wave of the explosion was enormous, tearing a rent through the halls of the building and ripping a hole in the outer wall. Seeing Izuku no longer there, Bakugou wondered if he had blown the boy out of the window and rushed over to check. "Where is he?" he asked aloud, looking out onto the pavement.
"Young Bakugou if you use another explosion like that your team will be disqualified!"
"What the hell?!"
"Your job is to protect the weapon! Destroying your own hideout would be a foolish move!"
"Rrrrgh!"
Behind him, for a moment, Izuku thought maybe he could just knock Bakugou out of the building considering the bomber would survive easily. But that wasn't a valid way to win and Bakugou would just climb back up even angrier. Instead, he slipped back into the hallways and contacted Ochako. "Uraraka, did you find it?"
"Yeah, fifth floor but... Iida caught me, sorry!" she responded. "But now he's monologuing! He's really into this villain deal!"
Izuku winced. Super speed against anti-gravity was a bad matchup for their side. "Alright. I'll try to take care of Kacchan, then come support!"
"Roger!"
Bakugou was no longer watching the opening in the wall. Instead he was back to scouting the hallways.
But this time Izuku had the drop on him.
In one hand, Izuku readied his capture tape. With the other, he pointed at his old rival. With a gesture and an exclamation of "What the-! Dammit Deku!" from the bomber, the blond was sailing towards his green-haired opponent. Swinging his right arm around to turn the tables on Izuku, he wasn't prepared for Izuku to have gone low and found his leg neatly snagged by the capture tape. Not knowing how far they needed to go to capture the enemy for the exercise, Izuku pulled back his other arm for a punch-
"Katsuki Bakugou of the villain team captured! Five minutes remaining!"
Izuku looked from his old rival to the stairs revealed in the big blast. "Later, Kacchan," was all he said as he ran to ascend to the top floor.
Katsuki Bakugou was left to stew in his shock that he had been so thoroughly and humiliatingly beaten.
Much as Izuku wanted to just discard thoughts of the previous fight, it wasn't such an easy thing. As he ran around trying to find the stairs up twice over he couldn't suppress the elation that he had finally proven himself worthy, even if Kacchan probably wouldn't see it that way.
Matter of fact, he was probably pissed.
… Thoughts for later, he decided! As he ascended to the top floor and heard the roar of Iida's engines he refocused on the new, the final battle about to take place! The inner sanctum was easy to find with all the noise. Iida had clearly planned for Uraraka's quirk. The room was completely bare aside from the two combatants already there and the weapon, which Iida was holding in the air.
"Damn! Here already!" Iida snarled in an exaggeratedly evil voice. "That simpleton Bakugou fell to you easily but you will not foil my evil plans so... uh... easily! Prepare to meet your doom, heroes! Muahahahaha!"
"Wow, he really did get into the villain thing, didn't he?" Izuku asked, holding his neck in sympathetic embarrassment.
"Any ideas, Izuku?" Ochako asked, having reached her limit for options.
"Uhh... Maybe?" The real answer was no. He didn't have anything. He didn't bring anything to the equation that Uraraka didn't already have. He was faster than she was but not in the same league as Iida.
"One minute remaining!"
"Zhaa-ah!" Izuku yelped. "Okay, try to get the weapon between us!" he said quietly enough only Ochako heard him.
"Got it!"
With a kick off the ground, Izuku chased across the room directly at Iida. Unsurprised by the move, Iida was already moving. "Muahaha! I saw all your tricks in the entrance exam, hero! Youuu mayyy beee fast! But you're nothing compared to the villain... Uhh..." Iida stalled, "... Evilgenium!"
Ochako couldn't hold back her laughter anymore and was openly giggling as the exercise became a glorified game of two-on-one tag. With two people, even if it was much easier to corner the speedster he was still too fast to catch. And as All Might shouted "Thirty seconds left!" Izuku chanted in his head over and over "Uraraka is hot, Uraraka is hot, Uraraka is hot!" He made a pulling gesture as Iida and the weapon cut Ochako out of his eye-line.
"GONG"
"Oh, crap, Uraraka, are you okay?!" Izuku asked as he ran around the side of the weapon.
On the other side he saw the girl with her arms circled around the base of the weapon. "I got it!" she said with a giddy smile. Izuku felt he may have pulled her a little too hard and slammed her head into the weapon. Oops.
"Noooooooooo! My evil plans have been foiled!" Iida cried overdramatically as he fell to his knees in despair.
"The hero team wiiiiiiiiins!"
-(-)-
A/N: Was supposed to be a Skyrim chapter today but it fought me. So have more MHA instead!
So... 149 follows in one chapter. Top 10% of stories with just that. Hot damn. That's only making me want to do this one right, even if it is super indulgent.
What else... Right. Mineta. He's... He's gonna have a hard time here. In canon, Izuku was always there to either perform worse or be a massive distraction from how bad Mineta was doing. And not just in the quirk tests. He's on a rough road.
That's pretty much it for author comments though. The rest seems to speak for itself.
If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.
Thanks for reading.