Chapter 2: Start Lines
The adoption of Todoroki Touya didn't officially happen until two years after Kanako saved him from the Micon demon. He didn't mind. The forged paperwork was only meant to make him look legally like part of the family. In all other ways that mattered, he already was.
"Tou-nii, are you busy?" Izuku asked.
Touya closed the Akkadian book that he was supposed to be translating an old prophecy from. "No. What's up?"
Izuku stepped further into his room and raised an eyebrow at the book on his desk. "Are you sure you're not busy?"
"Absolutely not busy, please give me something to do," Touya said quickly. He hated translating Akkadian.
Izuku laughed. "Okay, can you help me with my 'Quirk'?" He made air quotes around the last word. "I want to try holding multiple portals open again and I need someone to throw stuff into them."
"Didn't you blow out a wall last time you tried that?" Touya asked. He was already rising from his desk.
"It was a window and that's why I'm practicing outside," Izuku said. "Come on!"
Izuku's "Quirk" had appeared when he was twelve, the lower end of the age range for when Dawn Summers's descendants started displaying their Key powers. Since then he'd been pushing the limits of what he could do with the combination of portals, levitation and telekinesis they'd put on his Quirk registry. There was still a knife stuck in the ceiling of the training hall from one of his first experiments.
Touya grabbed one of the tubes of tennis balls that Izuku used for Quirk training. In the backyard, the two of them found a spot where a missed catch wouldn't risk breaking a window and stood a few meters apart.
"Starting with one," Izuku said.
A portal the size of Izuku's hand appeared between them. It crackled with energy at the edges but was difficult to look at directly. It was a tear in space and time, and there were some things that existed in such liminal places that humans weren't meant to see. Touya had enough experience with Izuku's portals that he was able to keep his eye on the edge of the portal and throw a tennis ball right through the centre. That portal closed, another opened and the tennis ball went flying back at Touya, who caught it with a curse.
"Are you trying to break my nose? Give me some warning, brat," Touya said.
Izuku stuck his tongue out. "You don't throw that hard, skeleton."
Touya grinned, stretching the faint scars on the bottom half of his face. "Oh, it's on. Up the portal number, short stuff. We're going to make sure you ace every entrance exam you take."
Izuku grinned back.
The day of the U.A. entrance exam (three days after Shiketsu's exam, one week after Ketsubutsu's), Izuku and Eijirou took the train from the Yaoyorozu house to the school. Momo, who had taken the recommendation exam the day before, wished them luck (without using the word "wish").
"I'm so pumped, bro," Eijirou said as they stepped onto the platform at Yuuei Station. "If we get in, with Mimi-chan in the business course already, all of us will be going to U.A.!"
"We don't know if Momo-chan got accepted yet," Izuku pointed out.
Eijirou raised his eyebrows. "You really think they're not going to accept her? Her Quirk's super awesome and she's even more of a badass now."
"...I can't say that's not true." Izuku glanced out the window of the station building. "Oh wow, U.A. is big."
Eijirou's eyes widened as he took in the sprawling, shining campus. "I really hope they have signs."
There were signs that directed them to different rooms for the written portion of their entrance exam. Izuku chose a seat next to the wall where he could see the entire room and had a straight shot to the door. There wasn't likely to be a demon attack during the exam but it was best to be prepared for the worst. He'd learned from that time a Fyarl demon was thrown through the window of his classroom during a math test.
Gods and Powers, that had been a weird day.
Izuku allowed himself exactly three seconds to internally freak out when four copies of Ectoplasm walked into the room. He knew that U.A. hired a lot of Pro Heroes but it was different to see in person.
"Everyone's found their seat? Good," one of the Ectoplasms said. "I'll begin handing out the exams in five minutes. Remember to write your name, date of birth and applicant number on the exam booklet. Do not open your exam booklet until you're told to start."
What followed was the longest five minutes of Izuku's life. When the Ectoplasm clones (was one of them the original? Was there a way to tell the original and the clones apart by observing them?) finally started handing out the exams, he quickly filled out the front of the booklet and then had to wait again. His knee bounced up and down under his desk.
"You may begin," the Ectoplasm standing at the front of the room said.
Izuku opened his booklet and got to work.
"We're gonna die," Eijirou said.
"It wasn't that bad," Izuku said. He took another bite of fish and leaned back against the tree he and Eijirou were eating lunch under. U.A.'s cafeteria was very big but it still wasn't large enough to hold everyone taking the entrance exams even with the students only applying to general education having left after the written.
"Izuku, you're a certified genius. Angel and Spike had you tested. For us normal people, that exam was hard and the practical isn't going to be any easier." Eijirou stabbed his chopsticks into his rice. "We're gonna die."
"I think we'd have heard something if people regularly died during the U.A. entrance exam," Izuku said. "You've just got to do your best and live without regret, right?"
Eijirou looked up from his lunch. "Yeah, you're right! I've got to be the manliest I can be!"
"Plus, your Quirk is really useful for a lot of the things we could be tested on," Izuku said. "Like if we need to rescue people you could shield them—"
"Bro, you already went over every possible test last night," Eijirou interrupted. "Chill. Conjugate Latin or something. Don't make me stress out more."
Izuku cracked a smile. "Heh, sorry."
Eijirou patted his shoulder. "I know how you get. Try to remember to breathe once and a while."
Izuku blushed.
They headed back inside after they were done eating and were directed to a giant auditorium. The seats quickly filled up. They were assigned by applicant number so Izuku ended up sitting between two people from his middle school who avoided meeting his gaze. To them he wasn't Quirkless but he had been and they didn't know how to treat him anymore. You'd think nearly three years would be long enough to figure that out.
Present Mic (!) delivered the instructions for the practical exam. Three types of robots each worth one, two or three points. Destroy a robot, earn points. Simple.
There was a hand raised a dozen seats over. "Excuse me!"
"Yes, listener?" Present Mic pointed at the person raising their hand and a spotlight illuminated the navy-haired boy.
"You have mentioned three types of robots but the instruction sheet we were given includes four," the boy said, rather loudly. "If this is a misprint, it reflects poorly on U.A.'s standing as an illustrious institution."
That guy sounded scarily similar to Aunt Willow.
The boy turned. "And you, with the green hair! You've been muttering this whole time! Are you trying to sabotage those around you?"
Izuku quickly realized that the other boy was talking to him. He squeaked and shrank back in his seat. Several people laughed.
"Great question, little listener," Present Mic said when the laughter died down. "The fourth type of robot is worth zero points. They're only there to create more obstacles. I'd suggest avoiding them!"
"I see. Thank you!" The boy bowed and sat back down.
"Are there any other questions?" Present Mic asked. "No? Then let's rock and roll!"
Izuku dodged a strike from a one-point robot and simultaneously opened a portal where he'd been standing. The robot crumpled as it stabbed itself with its own leg. That would definitely have broken bones if it hit him.
The exam field had devolved into near total chaos a few seconds in. Every student was trying to get as many points as possible and Izuku was no exception, though he was one of the few who were able to pay enough attention to their surroundings to avoid putting fellow examinees in the line of fire. Izuku had saved more students than he had destroyed robots, and he'd destroyed ten robots so far. Eijirou wasn't in the same exam area as him, so he could only hope his friend was doing as well or better.
The blond in a ruffle-trimmed tracksuit who had nearly taken Izuku's head off at the start of the exam went flying past, having been propelled by the sparkling beam of light that burst from his stomach. Izuku used a telekinesis spell to help him slow down before he collided with a building.
There seemed to be fewer robots around now. That made sense. U.A. got a lot of funding but nowhere near enough to pump out robots ad infinitum. The examinees were racing against each other to get the remaining kills.
The ground began to shake. Izuku, who had been raised knowing that earthquakes were always bad news for both tsunami and apocalypse reasons, turned until he could see what, if anything, was causing the disaster.
Oh, that was what the zero-point robot looked like. He'd been wondering.
The robot worth zero points was taller than all of the buildings in the fake city. Izuku was about to join the other students in his area in running away when he caught sight of someone pinned under a slab of concrete directly in the path of the robot. He changed his trajectory and ran towards them.
"Can you feel if you're bleeding?" Izuku asked.
"No," the brunette girl said with a shake of her head. The lower half of her body was trapped under the concrete. Since that was mostly her legs, she likely wasn't experiencing any dangerous internal bleeding that the weight of the concrete was holding back.
"Okay, I'm going to get you free and then we have to move." Izuku took a deep breath and concentrated on the concrete slab. He could lift it. He'd moved heavier things.
The extra belief did it. His spell lifted the concrete and threw it at the zero-point robot. The slab, which was pushing the limit of the weight he could levitate, barely left a dent. The robot kept advancing on them.
The girl tried to get to her feet but fell back to the ground with a cry of pain. "My legs..."
The robot was getting awfully close and would easily crush them with one step. Izuku picked the girl up and ran, apologizing the entire time. He risked a glance over his shoulder. The robot was still gaining on them.
Okay, time to take a chance and do an experiment.
Izuku opened a portal right in front of one of the sensors on the robot's 'face', giving it no choice but to 'look' directly into the in-between space. For a microsecond he thought that it hadn't done anything. Then the robot stuttered, audibly shrieked and fell backwards. It crashed onto the street and lay still.
So, electronics made by humans couldn't safely perceive the insides of his portals either. Good to know.
"The exam is over!" Present Mic shouted over the intercom. "Stop what you're doing!"
Izuku stopped running but didn't put the girl down. The two of them looked at each other.
"Hi," Izuku said. "I'm Midoriya Izuku."
"I'm Uraraka Ochako. Thanks for saving me!" Uraraka smiled. "I was gearing up to use my Quirk, but I don't think I'd have made it in time."
"What's your Quirk?" Izuku asked.
"Zero Gravity," Uraraka said. "Hey, that was your Quirk earlier, right? We're like floating buddies!"
Izuku didn't get a chance to respond before Recovery Girl (!) arrived and started fussing over them. She healed Uraraka's broken leg with a kiss and pressed a bag of gummy candies into her hand.
"Try putting weight on that," Recovery Girl said.
Izuku put Uraraka down and let her lean on him while she tested her leg. Recovery Girl gave a satisfied nod.
"Take it easy for the rest of the week," Recovery Girl told Uraraka. She turned to Izuku.
"I'm fine," Izuku squeaked. He debated asking the Hero for an autograph for Kanako but quickly decided that the end of the entrance exam was not the place.
Recovery Girl glared at him. "Your nose is bleeding."
Izuku touched his upper lip and his fingers came away red. Huh. His nose was bleeding. He must have overdone it with the magic.
"My Quirk does that sometimes," Izuku said.
Recovery Girl sighed. Her lips stretched away from her face and she planted a healing kiss on Izuku's forehead. The headache beginning to brew at his temples disappeared.
"You shouldn't use your Quirk for the rest of the day," Recovery Girl said. "Have some gummies. Is there someone who can get you home?"
Izuku took the gummies and nodded. "My friend's taking the exam too."
"Good." Recovery Girl turned and walked off briskly to find her next patient, her syringe shaped cane tapping along the street.
Izuku pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and rubbed at the blood beginning to dry on his face. He would have to stop at a washroom before they left. At least he didn't have to worry about Angel and Spike fussing over him (stressing out for Angel, increasing his training for Spike) because he got injured...unless they had a reason to show up at the Yaoyorozu house that night. Izuku was going to hope really hard that didn't happen.
He really should have expected Spike dropping by to get Yaoyorozu-sensei's help with a spell. He was going to have muscle aches for weeks.
Up in the viewing room, most of U.A.'s Pro Hero teachers sat stunned. The major exception was Principal Nezu, who was sipping tea with a terrifying smile on his face.
"What in tarnation did that little green kid do to the zero-pointer?" Snipe asked.
Eraserhead didn't bother to hold back a tired sigh. The little green kid had definitely gotten enough points to pass and he'd bet his next paycheque that his class list would include Midoriya Izuku.
Momo got her acceptance to U.A. the Tuesday after the entrance exams. Reportedly, Himiko had squealed and then lifted Momo so far off the ground with her hug that she'd ended up being thrown onto a chandelier. The strength and quick reflexes Momo had gained while being hunted through a hell dimension for two years (two days in Earth time) were all that saved her from falling back to the floor and breaking something. Himiko hadn't been able to take a picture because she was laughing too hard.
Izuku and Eijirou were kept on tenterhooks for a month. Izuku was pretty sure Kanako and Touya were deliberately sparking Quirk/magic experiments to keep him distracted. To their credit, it usually worked.
When the letters from U.A. finally arrived, Izuku texted Eijirou to check that he'd gotten his before running up to his room with the letter. He sat at his desk and stared at the envelope for several minutes. This was it. Either he'd gotten accepted to his dream school or he hadn't. Either he was going to U.A. or he'd have to choose between his offers from Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu. His stomach did a backflip at the thought. Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu were top hero schools in their own right, but they weren't U.A..
Izuku took a deep breath and opened the envelope.
...And that was a holographic projection of All Might.
Angel and Spike would hear if he fell out of his chair unconscious, right?
"I am here as a projection!" All Might announced with his trademark grin. "These are your entrance exam results, Midoriya Izuku! In the written exam, you passed with a grade of S! I'm told that's one of the highest scores this year. Congratulations!"
All Might gave a thumbs-up. Izuku made a sound similar to a startled puppy. All Might was congratulating him?!
"Moving on to the practical heroics exam, you earned a total of twenty-three villain points, which would not be enough for you to pass except those aren't the only points possible! Between the aid you gave your fellow examinees during the exam and your impressive defeat of the zero-point robot, you have earned fifty rescue points. That brings your total to seventy-three points, which allows you to pass!"
All Might stepped to the side so that the list of the top ten scorers in the practical exam could be clearly seen. Izuku's name was in third place, above Uraraka Ochako and below Kirishima Eijirou. Eijirou had the second highest score!
"Congratulations, Midoriya Izuku," All Might said. "This is your hero academia!"
Izuku was so excited, and then so distracted by a phone call from Eijirou and congratulations from his family, that he completely missed that the name at the top of the scoreboard was Bakugou Katsuki.
The spring apocalypse was early that year. It happened in March rather than the usual May or June. It was also at Izuku's middle school on graduation day, because that was when their principal decided to summon the dragon god Ryujin out of the sea and attempt to bind his power to her to get immortality. Because she needed an audience for that, apparently.
"Izuku, why is your principal an idiot?" Touya yelled while he battled one of the water samurai the angry god had set on them.
"I don't know!" Izuku shouted back. He pulled one of his former classmates behind a wall and the katana that would have taken off their head got stuck in the brick. The water samurai it was part of didn't recover quickly enough to prevent Akemi from slicing it in half with her fire claws Quirk. The samurai dissolved into steam.
Yaoyorozu-sensei spoke psychically in Izuku's head. "Pro Heroes are on-route. Can you wrap this up any faster?"
"Sumi's working on it," Hinako replied.
A few seconds of fighting and dodging later, all of the water samurai melted into puddles and flowed back into the ocean. Izuku lowered the broken chair that he'd been using to beat one of the warriors over the head and looked around. On the graduation stage next to the bloody remains of the principal, Sumi bowed to Ryujin. The dragon god looming over the courtyard bowed back before vanishing in a flash of light.
"I hate prophecies," Kanako grumbled.
That was a feeling Izuku was sure the entire Slayers and Watchers Council shared.
Yaoyorozu-sensei told everyone who wasn't meant to be there to clear out. All of the Slayers except for Kanako quickly disappeared, just in time for Wing Hero: Hawks to land in the courtyard.
"You're late," Touya said.
Hawks stared at Touya with a look of wide-eyed shock. Izuku and Kanako glanced at each other and burst into laughter.
Unlike Eijirou and Momo, Izuku lived nowhere near close enough to U.A. to commute to school from home every day. Eijirou's forty-five minute trip was one thing, the nearly six hours it would take Izuku to get from Fukuoka to Musutafu by train was another. On their first day of high school, Izuku couldn't stop thanking Yaoyorozu-sensei and Yaoyorozu-san for letting him stay at their house for the school year.
"Nonsense," Yaoyorozu-san said when Izuku mumbled that they really didn't have to. "You're family."
Himiko grabbed Izuku's hand. "Come on, Mido-chan! We can't keep Gorira-san waiting."
The retired demon hunter who acted as bodyguard and driver for Himiko and Momo wasn't actually named Gorira, but Izuku had never heard anyone use his real name, not even the man himself. He was a burly man with shining silver hair and a Quirk that allowed him to communicate with vehicles. Izuku liked him.
Gorira dropped them off at a corner a dozen metres from U.A.'s main entrance. "Have a good day, kids. Don't blow up anything important."
"No promises!" Himiko chirped.
Himiko led the way, the ribbons in her hair and her rainbow backpack making her look like a pastel tornado. Izuku and Momo followed a little more carefully, apologizing to anyone Himiko bowled over in her enthusiasm. One of those people was Iida Tenya, who Momo and Himiko had met before at Hero galas their uncle Morimoto Kaien (Construction Hero: Minka) had invited them to. Izuku recognized him as the boy who'd questioned Present Mic during the explanation of the practical exam. He was relieved when his phone buzzed and he could turn his attention to that instead of worrying that Iida was going to start lecturing him again.
"Eijirou-kun is waiting for us," Izuku said when there was a break in Momo and Iida's conversation.
"Oh, and Mimi-neechan's disappeared," Momo said. "We'd better hurry. Would you like to join us, Iida-kun?"
Iida chopped his arm robotically. "I'd be delighted to accompany you."
The three of them entered the school and were able to head straight for classroom 1-A thanks to the map Iida had. They ran into Himiko on the way. She told them to have fun in class and not set anything important on fire.
"No promises!" Izuku said with a grin.
Iida sputtered. Himiko giggled and waved goodbye to them over her shoulder.
Eijirou was already in the classroom when they got there. He was talking to a very pink girl with horns and a boy with a black lightning bolt in his yellow hair. It took Izuku a moment to recognize him.
"You dyed your hair!" Izuku exclaimed.
Eijirou grinned. His normally black hair was bright red and gelled into spikes that gave him another thirty centimetres of height. "Yeah! My moms finally agreed. New school, new start, right?"
Izuku thought that when they'd talked about that they'd meant that since Himiko went to U.A. they might not be the weird kids who kept getting attacked by "villains" (read: demons) every few weeks. There'd been nothing in that conversation about hair dye. If there had been, Izuku was sure Kanako would have used it as an excuse to get him to model her designs. She used any possible mention of fashion for that.
"Oh, who's this, Kirishima-kun?" the pink girl asked.
"I'm Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you," Izuku said. He waved a little to the girl and the yellow-haired boy.
The pink girl grinned. "I'm Ashido Mina! Nice to meet you too!" She bowed.
The yellow-haired boy introduced himself as Kaminari Denki. Momo and Iida also greeted him and Ashido.
"Did you go to Eijirou-kun's school?" Momo asked.
"I did," Ashido said. "But what about you? How do you know each other?"
"Our parents are friends," Eijirou said. It wasn't a lie, really. All the best cover stories had a hint of truth in them.
Izuku nodded. "We kind of grew up together."
"That's so fun!" Ashido said.
The door banged open. The three Council kids turned towards the noise and fell into a fighting arrangement—Eijirou in front to act as a shield, Izuku further back to have room for his magic and Momo in between ready to cover them both.
The scowling blond with red eyes who'd kicked his way into the classroom stared at them. No, not all of them. He was staring at Izuku. When they finally spoke, it was at the exact same time with almost the exact same shock.
"Kacchan?!"
"What the fuck, Deku?!"