hapter 4: First Impressions
"Careful! Careful now! Too much power and you'll destroy your musculature, not enough and nothing will happen!"
"Gonna be honest…it's hard to concentrate when you keep yelling like that!"
"Heroes have to be prepared to deal with all sorts of distractions!"
"I can deal with distractions after I can do this without blowing up!"
"…Fair point."
Izuku tried to tune Mr. Yagi out, as he concentrated. He'd, unfortunately, been convinced to ingest the strand of hair from All Might. Apparently One for All could only be passed down through the ingestion of the DNA of the user of the quirk. Mr. Yagi had informed him that it would take some time for his digestive tract to absorb the quirk, so they'd gone their separate ways, with the promise that they'd meet up the next day to begin working with the quirk.
They'd met up at Dagobah beach, and Izuku had been trying to channel the power of the quirk. It was tricky business, if he used too much power at once, then the quirk would overclock all of his muscles and he would literally tear himself apart from the inside out.
Thankfully, Izuku or rather Percy, had a lot of personal experience with drawing on this kind of power.
It hadn't taken long for him to find the sudden surge of power deep within himself. It was similar enough to the sensation he'd become familiar with in his previous life, whenever he tried to pull on his divine abilities. Only, when Izuku searched down to find the power, he didn't find a rampaging sea of power, but a warm glow. Calming, and nurturing.
Closing his eyes, he let out a slow breath and tried to summon the power. He didn't want to grab too much, he could begin pushing his limits when he had a grip on actually summoning the power, but for the time being he would focus on just consistently summoning One for All.
The power was nearly overwhelming. It pulsated, and undulated in his breast, as though begging him to summon all of it at once. But Izuku fought through the desire, and focused. He imagined himself reaching down into himself, scooping out a small fraction of the power, as though he were ladling sugar into a sugar spoon.
All at once his muscles pulsated, as a warm tingle shot down his spine. He could feel his body tense, and hum. It was strangely painful, and at the same time comforting. It was most akin to the kind of post-workout burn that he experienced after a particularly gruesome exercise.
He felt…he felt strong. He felt fast. He felt like he'd once felt as a demi-god. As though he could tackle anything, and could come out on top.
Suddenly he understood why Mr. Yagi had been so careful in choosing his successor. This kind of power, it was intoxicating. It would be far too easy to lose oneself to the power thrumming in his every muscle. To become obsessed with it.
He opened his eyes, and met Mr. Yagi's excited gaze. He was grinning broadly, a proud expression on his face.
Izuku matched the grin,
"This is going to be fun."
For the next several months, Izuku trained day after day with the quirk. With classes for the year over, he could devote all day, every day to his training. He only had a couple of months before the entrance exams to U.A., and he wanted to have as good of a grip on his new quirk as possible.
It didn't take him long to get used to summoning the quirk, and he was soon able to be able to summon the quirk quickly, and without thinking about it.
He then began working on slowly getting his body used to channeling more and more of the power. As it stood, he could only use a fraction of the power at his disposal. It was a slower process than he was happy with, but he needed to take it slowly.
The absolute last thing he wanted to do was break his arm by accidentally punching too hard.
But in spite of his slow growth, he was happy with what he'd managed to accomplish, and even the minor power up made him ludicrously stronger than anyone his age had any right to be.
He'd once accidentally misjudged the strength behind a punch and blew a couple hundred pounds of sand into the ocean.
But as he pulled on his workout clothing the morning of the exam, Izuku was overall pleased with his progress. He was no longer even slightly concerned with the practical portion of the exam, whatever it might have been. He was certain that his strength, mixed with his literal decades of combat experience, put him on a different playing field altogether from all of the others who would be entering the exam.
"Izuku…" His mother asked nervously at his side as he pulled his shoes on.
"Are…are you completely certain you want to go through with this? You know I'll be proud of you no matter what! But I just…"
Izuku held back a sigh. He'd been expecting something like this. While his mother had eventually conceded that there was nothing she could do to talk him out of his decision, he knew that this was killing her. She was a worrier by nature, and it had only gotten worse since his coma.
While she wasn't his real birth mother…or rather, not the one that had birthed his specific soul into the world, Izuku had come to care for her as his own. She shared many of the similarities of Sally Jackson. She was kind, loving, and courageous in her own sort of way. Most importantly, she genuinely cared for him and loved him. While she was no substitute for his original mother, he still cared for her well-being and state of mind.
Wrapping his arms around her, he drew her in for a tight hug.
"I'll be okay mom," He reassured,
"I…I just worry!" She whimpered, digging her hands into his shirt. "I don't want you to get hurt…"
"I know mom…" He soothed, "But you can't protect me forever. I'm going to get hurt, whether I go down this route or not. But this way, I can help people. I can make a difference, and that's what I've wanted to do more than anything."
"Just…just promise me you'll be careful." She whispered, "I can't lose you too.."
"I promise." He reassured.
She squeezed him one last time, before releasing him. Dabbing at her eyes, she smiled at him,
"I'm so proud of you honey, never forget that."
"I won't mom!" He grinned, and grabbed his bag and darted out of the house.
U.A. University was a testament to modern engineering. The building itself was beautiful, and the auditorium where they were brought for their written examination was one of the most technologically impressive rooms that Izuku had ever been inside. Though he supposed the school's endowment had a lot to do with that.
The exam was…not as difficult as he'd been worried it would be. Thankfully, his ADHD and dyslexia hadn't been reborn with him, and his grades reflected that. His distaste for school still existed, but he no longer had the same troubles that had given him so much hell as a kid.
Though he wished the exam hadn't been three hours long, still by the end of things, he felt pretty confident that he'd scored more than well enough to get in. They were brought out from that auditorium and were led into another of the school's many auditoriums. It took him a minute to find his assigned seat, and he almost groaned when he saw that his seat was directly next to Bakugo's. Still, they'd gone two years without speaking to one another, he supposed that there wasn't real harm in it. Not like the guy would try anything to jeopardize his potential admittance into the school.
Only a moment after he'd taken his seat, the lights in the auditorium went down. And a spotlight illuminated the podium.
A man with long blond hair, styled into what looked like a mohawk clambered onto the stage. Izuku recognized the man as Present Mic. A hero that could amplify his screams into concussive like blasts and magnify its volume at will. It was still rather wild in his opinion that actual pro-heroes were used to teach at the school.
"Greetings U.A. Candidates!" Present Mic cheered excitedly, "Are you ready for your practical exam?"
Izuku didn't know if the man was expecting a reaction, but he was met only with silence.
"As it said on your applications! Today you crazy guys and gals will be conducting a ten-minute mock battle trial in one of our super-hip super-simulated urban areas! But wait, there's more! After I finish laying down this fat beat, each of you will head to your assigned testing grounds! Sound good?"
Silence.
Izuku checked his identification card, and noted that he'd be participating in training ground B.
"Now it's time for all of you to meet with the foes you've been charged with dispatching!"
The large monitor behind the teacher sprang to life, as three images appeared on the screen, surrounding a map of the testing areas.
"Each of the opponents has been assigned a point value based on difficulty, and you earn points for each of the villains that you take down so you'd better pick your targets wisely!"
A digital recreation appeared on the screen behind the teacher as he explained.
"And just so you all are aware, attacking your fellow contestants is a big no-no, so keep it all above the board, ya dig?"
"Excuse me!" A young man with navy hair and glasses a few rows down from Izuku raised his hand in the air, and the spotlight shone down on him,
"I'm sorry sir, but on the printout the school gave us, they listed four types of villains, not three. With all due respect, but if this was an error on the part of U.A. staff or faculty then it is shameful. U.A. is the most prestigious university in Japan and to be so shamelessly lackadaisical in regard to our entrance exam dishonors this fine institution."
"…Good gods who uses the word 'lackadaisical' anymore?" Izuku muttered to himself, and Bakugo snorted beside him.
"And you!" The boy suddenly whirled around and glared at Izuku, "Muttering such shameful and insulting things is a distraction to the other students! We have all worked hard to be here and your obscene muttering is causing nothing but a disturbance."
Izuku felt his face twitch, as a twinge of annoyance shot through him.
"Every party needs a pooper, and that must be why they invited you pal," He shot back, and a few students in the crowd had to stifle their laughter as the navy-haired boys cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
"All right, all right boys, save some for the exam." Present Mic said, "Lets see here, Examinee 7-1-1-1, thanks for calling in with that groovy request," A new image appeared on the screen behind him, "There is indeed a fourth villain type, and it's worth exactly zero points. It's nothing more than an obstacle we'll be throwing your way!" He grinned and flashed a thumbs up at the crowd,
"Well that's all I got for you, but how about one last tasty soundbite before you go off. As General Napoleon Bonaparte once laid down, 'A true hero is one who overcomes life's misfortunes.' Oh yeah, that's tasty! Now go off and good luck!"
The school had offered use of their changing rooms in order for them to get into their workout gear for the test. Once changed, they were all loaded up onto buses and shuffled off towards their testing centers.
If the school itself was impressive, then Izuku genuinely didn't have the ability to describe what it was like to stand outside the testing center. Over an enormous, multi-story wall, Izuku could make out the outline of a city, which must have been the testing grounds. He allowed a self-satisfied smirk to fix itself upon his face.
This was it. This was what he'd been working so hard, for so long for. This was his chance, his chance to prove to not only himself, but to Amaterasu that she hadn't been wrong in her choice of him as the real Izuku's replacement. He'd…he'd been having his doubts, up until recently. He hadn't realized how long he'd relied on and been comforted by his father's power.
His power.
Not until he could no longer feel his connection to the sea. He'd felt so weak. So vulnerable.
Defenseless.
But he'd fought through the nagging sense of impending despair and had made it here. Now…now it was time to prove that he hadn't wasted the chance he'd been given.
He'd also be lying if he didn't admit that the thought of some real action again was making his heart race in excited anticipation.
He turned, feeling a sudden hand on his shoulder, and felt his good mood dissipate as he took in the face of the boy who'd spoken during the exam briefing. He was glaring up at Izuku, standing a few inches shorter, and his other hand resting on a small water bottle attached in a holster on the waist of his blue jumpsuit.
"Oh," Izuku grumbled, "Hey specs,"
"You didn't need to be so rude in there." The boy glared, and Izuku shoved the shorter boy's hand off his shoulder,
"Neither did you." Izuku glared, "You called me out first asshole."
"Well I wouldn't have to if you'd been acting like a proper man." The boy glowered, "Instead you used vulgar and disgusting language and insulted a fellow applicant."
"Good gods you are just the supreme chairman of the no-fun brigade, huh?"
"Why you-"
The irate young man was interrupted as the doors to the city were suddenly opened. Not bothering to wait for a signal, as well as to just get away from the annoying fun-sucker, Izuku channeled One for All into his legs, and tore off at a blistering pace through the opening into the city.
"Well that little rocker has the right idea!" He heard Present Mic announce as the first robots appeared on the street in front of him,
"There's no signal in the real world for things to start, so you all better start ROCKING! GO-GO-GO!"
Izuku smiled broadly, reveling in the feeling of power thrumming through him as he leapt through the air and descended on his first victim.
It was time to put all that hard work to the test.
BREAK
It was strange being on this side of the exam. It was even stranger knowing that he was there as a teacher, even if he wasn't an official judge for the examination.
Toshinori's eyes tracked across the various screens, watching as students fought with all of their might to compete for one of the few spots in the hero course.
He should have been watching them all, keeping track of potentially interesting students, but his eyes kept wandering back to the image on the main display monitor. To the young man with green hair in training ground B.
Izuku Midoriya.
His protege.
His successor.
Pride swelled in his breast as he watched the young man effortlessly dispatch a pair of three pointers, ripping the missile canon off of one and slamming it into another.
He'd come so far in such a short space of time.
Toshinori himself had adjusted rather well to the power of One for All, but it was nothing compared to this kid. If he hadn't known better, Toshinori would have sworn that Young Midoriya had had a quirk all his life. He'd taken to One for All like a fish to water.
He had chosen wisely.
"We have a good crop this," Someone observed, Toshinori still didn't know their names.
He should probably do that at some point.
Someone let out a low whistle,
"This Midoriya kid's gonna be a monster. He's got nearly two times the points as the next kid."
"Even more intriguing, is that he's balancing his combat points by rescuing his fellow contestants."
The screen followed Young Midoriya as he rescued a young woman who was trapped in the claws of a two-pointer. He then ripped the arm off and used it to impale the robot.
"Yes, it would appear that we have some truly impressive young heroes this year," A small rodent-like creature said, a rather sinister-looking grin on his snout, "But let's see how they stand up to a little…adversity…" He pressed a large button on the control panel, and giggled maniacally.
Toshinori joined the small rodent as he grinned in anticipation.
"Show me your power Young Midoriya…"
BREAK
Breaking things was fun.
Izuku hadn't realized how cathartic it was to fight again. After nearly two years of doing absolutely nothing of training, being able to finally put that hard work to use was therapeutic as all hell.
"Grah!" He grunted as his fist embedded into the shell of a three-pointer, out of the corner of his vision he could see a two-pointer was repositioning to fire at him, so he swiveled and threw the three-pointer into the charging machine.
He wiped a dollop of sweat from his brow, and was just about to leap forward and help a poor kid who was trapped in the clamps of a one-pointer, when he was stopped. The entire facility began to shake. Buildings creaked and groaned, and Izuku took a hesitant step back. The earth itself opened up, as the single largest monstrosity he had ever seen rose high above the skyline.
"So that's the zero-pointer, huh?" He grunted. It was even taller than the giants he'd once faced, as it was well over seven stories tall. Students were screaming, as they turned tail and began running as fast as possible in the direction of the entrance. The zero-pointer had begun rumbling in their direction, crushing buildings and cars as it rolled forward on its tank-like treads. It reared one of its enormous arms back, and punched the concrete street. Izuku was nearly blown off his feet as dirt, dust, and debris was thrown violently into the air.
There was more screaming, as students who weren't quick enough were caught in the blast. Izuku trusted that the school wouldn't try and intentionally kill their students, but that didn't mean that he would sit idly by while people were in danger.
He focused, and listened carefully, paying as much attention as he could to the screaming. Focusing on one person at a time, he leapt into action. Channeling One for All into his legs, he blurred into motion as he darted through, across, and over buildings. Pulling students free from the incoming metal menace. He had just finished dropping a young man on the ground away from the zero-pointer when he heard another cry for help.
A girl had been trapped under a pile of rubble a block away from him, directly in the path of the zero-pointer. Not hesitating for even a moment, Izuku rushed over to her, and hefted the large stone that was pinning her to the street. She scrambled out of the way, looking as though she was ready to vomit.
"Thank you," She wheezed, and then she looked up, "We-we gotta get out of here!" She said, but Izuku shook his head,
"You can leave if you want," He shrugged, looking up at the zero-pointer, a feral smile on his face. "I'm going to go say hello to our new friend."
"What?" The girl screamed, but before she could say anything else, Izuku had already run off. The machine was tall, and he knew that he'd need leverage to get enough height in order to make this possible. He would be vulnerable in the air, but in his experience, beings of that height and strength physically couldn't move their bodies fast enough to adjust to someone much smaller and more nimble.
Channeling as much of his power as he dared into his legs, Izuku used the shell of an overturned car as a pseudo ramp, and launched himself high into the air. The wind whistled in his ears, and he was blanketed by a strange sense of weightlessness that he had once associated with swimming through the seas.
He felt free.
He felt alive.
He felt like this was all worth it.
He tightened his hand into a fist, and cocked his arm back, he would need to time this well or risk simply smashing face-first into the machine's chassis. He focused on the blinking red eye in the center of what could have been its head. He built up the power of One for All, basking in the comforting warmth and strange tingling sensation that coursed through his muscles. He could feel the raw power, the untapped potential, the legacy of all who had come before him.
"Hope you're watching this All Might," He muttered, grinning maniacally "Because this one's for you!"
He roared, and his arm darted forward. Flesh met steel, and for a moment, it was as though nothing had happened.
Then the world exploded.
The zero-pointer rocketed back, and the strange red eye-like structure that Izuku punched, shattered. Glass, metal, and circuitry flew through the air. A horrible, grinding sound reverberated around the facility as the metal monster's head tore free from its metal body. The zero-pointer collapsed into two large pieces onto the ground, throwing more debris into the air.
Izuku had only a moment to celebrate his victory, before he realized that there might have been a small problem with his plan.
He couldn't fly.
And now he was falling.
Fast.
Thinking quickly, he repositioned his body and cocked his arm back. Channeling the power again, he punched hard at the air, and the concussive blast of the attack launched him through the air. Repositioning himself once more, he turned and channeled power into his legs and lower body. He was aiming for the roof of a nearby building that had, miraculously, not been touched by the zero-pointer. Timing his moment expertly, the moment his legs made contact with the roof, he tucked his body and rolled. The impact from the fall dispersed beautifully, as he rolled across the roof and hopped to his feet.
He was sore. His arms hurt, his legs hurt, and he could feel the beginnings of a migraine start behind his eyes.
But through the discomfort, through the pain, he felt proud. He knew that he'd smashed that test. That it wasn't even going to be a question that he was getting into the school. His legs finally giving way to his exhausted body, he fell back onto the roof, as a laugh escaped him.
He hoped somewhere, wherever he was, Izuku was looking down. That he could see what Percy had managed to do with his body. That he was going to be the hero that Izuku had always wanted to be.
Life was good.
BREAK
The waiting was the worst part. He had never been patient, and the week after his entrance exam had been one of the longest, slowest weeks he could remember in centuries. He'd tried to occupy himself with training, and practice. But it wasn't doing the trick. Worse still, was that for whatever reason, Mr. Yagi hadn't been answering any of his calls or texts.
It had worried him.
He knew that he'd done well in the entrance exam, but maybe he'd done even worse in the written exam than he'd initially thought. It hadn't taken long for the first threads of doubt to begin sewing their way through his imagination. He'd lay awake in bed at night, thinking through what he'd answered in the exam, the questions he could remember, and the possible way he should have answered.
He sighed, as he fiddled around with his food on his plate a little.
"Izuku…" His mother said carefully, "I'm starting to worry about you. It's not like you to be this…sullen,"
"Sorry mom," He said, "I didn't mean to worry you…I just can't stop thinking about the exam is all."
"W-well…" She gulped, "Whatever happens, just know that I'm so proud of you and everything you've managed to achieve."
He smiled weakly at her, "Thanks, mom." He put his chopsticks down on the plate, and cleared his place at the table, "I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight,"
His mother didn't say anything, as he closed the door to his bedroom behind him. With a sigh, he collapsed onto his bed. He didn't want to, but he needed to start thinking about what he would do if he didn't get into U.A.
He supposed that he could always wait another year and apply again, but he didn't think he could wait that long. There were other hero schools to be sure, but would it be too late to begin applying? He hadn't even looked at other schools. Hadn't considered it. U.A. had been where the old Izuku had wanted to go, so that was where Izuku had set his sights.
Maybe he'd be a vigilante? Though that idea didn't seem to hold much water either. What he really needed was to speak to Mr. Yagi, but the damned old man hadn't been answering his calls at all. He was hoping that, should worse come to worse, maybe he'd be able to help Izuku out with something.
"Izuku!" His mother called frantically, pounding on his door. "It came, it came, it came! Your results from U.A.!"
Izuku was up and out of his bed faster than it took to blink. His mother had slid the envelope under the door, knowing that he would want to look at the results on his own.
Hands shaking somewhat, he walked over to his computer desk, and tore open the envelope. A small, circular device fell from within, and clattered onto his desk. Before he could do or say anything, the small device beeped, and a projection illuminated his dark room.
"BOOYA! I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION NOW!" The large, ever-smiling face of All Might was staring deep into a camera lens, before stepping back. He was on what looked like a sound-stage, wearing a finely tailored suit.
"I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE, BUT WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT AMOUNTS OF PAPERWORK!" The man laughed at his own joke, and Izuku sighed. All Might's "other half" as he'd been calling it, was a real dork at times. All Might then coughed into his hand, and bowed respectfully,
"MY APOLOGIES, YOUNG MAN. THE TRUTH IS, I DIDN'T COME TO THIS CITY JUST TO FIGHT VILLAINS. YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE NEWEST U.A. FACULTY MEMBER!"
Well that certainly explained a lot, Izuku thought to himself, the man must have been busy as all hell, given that the first day of classes was only a few weeks away.
"ANYHOO! ENOUGH WITH THE BEATING AROUND THE BUSH, WE BOTH KNOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!" His smile grew, "YOUR EXAMINATION RESULTS."
Izuku gulped, and his heart hammered in his chest,
"YOU PASSED YOUR WRITTEN TEST, CONGRATULATIONS."
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief, that had been what he'd been truly worried about.
"NOW, AS FOR THE PRACTICAL EXAM." The grin, somehow, grew even wider, "THE PRACTICAL EXAM IS SCORED BY A PANEL OF JUDGES, BASED NOT ONLY ON THE POINTS ALLOCATED BY DESTROYING THE ROBOTS, BUT FOR THE HEROIC ACTIONSPERFORMED ALONG THE WAY!"
That made sense, Izuku thought, not every student would have quirks that would be all that useful in a combat situation, but might be incredibly useful for rescuing people or helping others. It was only logical that there would be other factors to the test,
"YOU, YOUNG MIDORIYA, BLEW ALL OF THE COMPETITION OUT OF THE WATER. NOT ONLY DID YOU MANAGE TO DESTROY ENOUGH ROBOTS TO GET IN ON THAT SCORE ALONE, BUT YOUR SELFLESS ACTS IN RESCUING AND HELPING YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS DID NOT GO UNNOTICED, OR UNREWARDED. YOUR SCORE…"
The scene shifted, and an image of a scoreboard appeared on the projector.
It didn't take him long to find his own name.
At the very top of the list…
"WITH FIFTY-THREE COMBAT POINTS, AND SEVENTY-SEVEN RESCUE POINTS, GAVE YOU A SCORE OF ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY POINTS! MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THE EXAM!"
Izuku couldn't help himself, as a stupid grin spread across his face.
"CONGRATULATIONS, YOUNG MIDORIYA!"
All Might couldn't seem to quite hide his pride,
"AND WELCOME...TO YOUR HERO ACADEMIA."