Today is the day. The day that will decide my future, I can't apply to any other hero school, UA is the only one that accepts Quirkless applicants. It's this or nothing.
Izuku is at the gates of UA again, hopefully not for the last time. He takes his first steps towards being a hero, and trips
Ah figures, can't even get up the stairs properly,
He braces for impact with the floor,.but after a couple seconds he realizes he hadn't hit his face into the pavement yet. He opens his eyes to see he's floating
"Huh?"
Mystery girl "sorry for using my quirk on you without asking, figured it'd be bad luck to fall right before the exam y'know?"
Midoriya "oh wow, your quirk is so cool! How does it work, can you just make things float or do you affect the weight of objects? Is there a weight limit for you or can you do it to anyobjectisitvontactbasedisthereatimelimitdoesitputanystrainonyou.
Mystery Girl ".... Wow I haven't had someone be this excited in my quirk since it was registered, wait I should probably let you down. Release!"
He felt his feet touch the ground again
"Sorry about that, I tend to ramble on when it comes to quirks." She probably thinks I'm creepy now
Mystery Girl "oh no need to be sorry about it, just took me by surprise, my quirk is zero gravity, I can negate the gravity of objects I touch. Although if I strain myself too much I tend to throw up"
Izuku had his doubts about it negating gravity, or at least that it's all it does, because when she used it on him, he didn't start floating up, he stayed right in place. He can ask her more about this later, he needs to hurry up if he doesn't want to be late. "We should probably head to the exam"
Mystery Girl "right, best of luck analyst-kun"
He began his way to the written portion of the exam wait…, did I forget to get her name, she saved me from face planting into the pavement and I forgot to even get her name. Maybe I'll see her in the exam
The written exam was mostly the same, harder but the same. with more emphasis on hero law and more questions about handling certain scenarios, such as a hostage situation and bomb threats. Izuku had a lot of fun completing the test, finishing about an hour into the exam, handing it in to a Cememtoss who for some reason almost had a look of terror? He ignored the looks and marched on, thinking of strategies to handle whatever scenarios UA would throw at him.
He sits down in his assigned seat, looking around the auditorium, trying to ignore the fact he's currently sitting next to a surprisingly quiet Bakugou how do I handle this, at least when he's loud and angry I know how to handle it, I' haven't seen him this quiet once in my life, he probably wants to kill me.. then he'll be disqualified, he wouldn't risk that would he?
He saw the one kid with the weird hair from the general exam here too, maybe he has the same plan?
Present Mic " CAN I GET A YEA?!!!!" present Mic says trying to hype up the crowd. Not a sound was heard throughout the auditorium he clears his throat, anyways tune in listeners you should see a paper below your chairs, as you see you'll be fighting…. Robots. They've been assigned different points based on difficulty, the weakest are worth one point, the slightly stronger bots are worth 2 with the strongest ones rocking in at 3 points.
glasses boy "EXCUSE ME SIR, BUT THE PAPER SHOWS 4 ROBOT TYPES, THIS IS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL FOR A SCHOOL HELD IN SUCH HIGH ESTEEM AS UA.
Bakugou "PIPE DOWN NERD, MAYBE IF YOU LET THE TEACH FINISH HE'D HAVE GOTTEN TO THAT" Did Bakugou just stick up for a teacher? Impossible, he'd never. What could've possibly changed his attitude.
He felt like his whole world was flipped on its head. Thankfully Mic-sama pulled him out of his existential spiral.
Present Mic "thank you examinee for your questions, yes there is a 4th robot that is worth zero points, think of it more as an obstacle to avoid"
He gets some last minute stretches in, this is it, his best chance of getting in. Of course it had to be robots, it’s the worst case scenario. I'd rather have fought the teachers, at least my training would work better on them, oh well I still got one idea.. wait is that the girl that saved me before, she looks nervous I probably should help her.
He begins walking towards her only to be stopped by the same boy who interrupted during the briefing.
Glasses boy "Are you trying to distract another examinee? "
"What no she ju.."
Glasses boy "If you're not gonna take this exam seriously, at least let the other participants prepare accordingly "
Mic "ATTENTION EXAMINEES THE EXAM WITH START IN 3… GO!"
Izuku was already off, looking for any kind of loose machinery or stocked store front, surely they'd have stuff throughout the exam for those with more restrictive quirks
"THERE'S NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE, SEE EXAMINEE 2376 GETS THAT, WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GO!"
He immediately comes into contact with a one pointer it's barely taller than Izuku, and immediately begins charging right for him, he jumps out of the way to the right and before he can turn around, the robot is hit with a ray of light and collapses into pieces. The boy who did it wore a weird belt around his stomach, where you can see the afterglow of sparkles.
"Sorry for the steal mon amie, but I have to pass"
Well that was unfortunate, actually this might just do
He immediately begins ripping of the now defunct robots arm , it has a drill function attached to the end of it, if only he has a power.. he rips off the robots head, aha a backup power source, maybe if I just… he attaches a bunch of wires experimenting until finally, the drill begins to spin "yes!" He quickly runs further down meeting a group of 3 one pointers. He quickly charges the first one, jumping up and slamming the drill part into its eye, and as he straddles the now circling robot he pulls on its head and manages to shift his weight to turn it towards the others, jumping off as they crash together. He then walks up and drills through the center of the prone robots, scoring himself 3 points. He continues his rampage through the town , destroying 4 more one pointers before coming up on a 3 pointer. It's roughly 3 times the size of Izuku. As it charges at him he dashes into a nearby building. Running up its steps as the three pointer crashes through the store front.
Think think, how to deal with this…. We have a chair, a TV, A couch..
Izuku grins in a way that can only be described as feral as he pushes the TV stand towards the stairs, and pushes it right down the stairs hitting the waiting three pointer. He then rushes down the stairs and uses the drill to pierce right where he's seen the main power source for the one pointers, it powers down "WOO! i can't believe I've done that! he rushes back into the street looking for robots when he hears several crashes to his left, as he sees a giant robot come out from under the rubble, the thing is the size of a 5 story building.
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"ATTENTION LISTENERS, THE Zero POINTER HAS BEEN RELEASED, REMEMBER ITS WORTH ZERO POINTS, PROBABLY BEST TO AVOID IT"
Izuku prepares to run when he hears, "I can't move, I'm stuck"
He looks back at the zero pointer, and sees the zero gravity girl stuck under some debris, right in the path of the rampaging zero pointer. Before he knows if he's already running towards her.
She must have overused her quirk if she can't move the rubble, I can try and drill it off of her but the zero pointer is too close,
He notices the boy that shot a laser from his stomach before and grabs hold of him
Laser boy "Hey now mon amie, I don't think we're that close"
Midoriya "Listen to me, I need your help to rescue a fellow examinee, you can either go along with it, or I will drag you all the way to the zero pointer"
Aoyama "You're insane, well mom amie if we must die, then you must know my name is Yuga Aoyama"
" Izuku Midoriya, let's hurry, I just need to to blast away some rubble, think you can do that?"
Aoyama "oh there's nothing my sparkles can't do"
They run up to the rubble, and Aoyama blows the rubble off of the girl, they both pick her up and begin to run as the zero pointer continues to catch up to them
Gravity girl "its catching up to us, here let me use my quirk to lighten us a bit"
Izuku feels himself able to run faster, and they begin to make gain against the zero pointer. When they hear it stop moving, they turn around to hear
"THE EXAM IS OVER, YOU ALL DID AMAZING OUT THERE, ANY INJURED STUDENTS PLEASE WAIT FOR THE MEDICAL TEAMS TO COME HELP YOU."
It's over, he only has 10 points and it's over.. there's no way he passed. It's alright you've prepared for this, you'll just have to get in during the sports festival, although being quirkless I'll have to get first place to even stand a chance, and what if I failed the exam stupid Deku should've just not even..
He's interrupted by the girl next to him throwing up, the strangeness of the rainbow colored bile knocks him out of his trance. "Are you ok?"
Uraraka "Yea, just overused my quirk, Ochako Uraraka by the way, figured since you both saved my life we should at least know each other's names
."Izuku Midoriya"
"Yuga Aoyama"
"Uraraka "
Five judges sit in a row, 4 representatives selected by Nezu, and the current HPSC representative, All Might. All of Nezus’ representatives wore casual suits, whilst All Might was in his hero costume, currently in his buff form. They are here to judge each student's heroic actions in the exam. They are currently on one Izuku Midoriya, a student who caught Nezus’ attention. Not many students even bother to try and use the robots tools, much less check for a second power supply, and when he saw the boys quirk status, well Nezu was very intrigued on how the boys mind worked.
All Might POV
he had already looked at the file quirkless, for some reason the boy seemed familiar but Yagi couldn't figure out why. Maybe it's just because the boy is quirkless. However he gets a headache every time he looks up at the screen, he's been getting them more and more recently whilst he's been deciding on who to give his quirk to.
Poor boy doesn't even know what he's getting himself into, he barely handled some robots, how could he handle an actual villain.
Judge 1 "mm yes he definitely showed promise, even got that other student to help in the rescue.'
All Might "but the boy put himself in unnecessary danger, and if that other boy refused he would've been crushed"
Judge 3 "teamwork is necessary in heroics, but we do have to wonder how much of that rescue can be attributed to Midoriya."
Judge 2" I think they both deserve rescue points for this the other boy wouldn't have even noticed the girl without them"
Judge 4"enough chatter, we are focusing on Midoriya right now, not the other Aoyama.
All Might, "can we bring up the boy's villain score."
The screen showed 10 points.
More than he expected still the robots were designed to not go for the kill, at least he's fairly sure they were. And no villain would give the boy the same courtesy..
Judge 1 "mm 30 off of the next lowest student. "
All Might "let's begin the scoring then"
No one wanting to argue with the #1 hero all readied their signs.
JUDGE #1: 7
JUDGE #2: 5
JUDGE #3: 7
JUDGE #4: 10
All Might looked at the other scores,
then back at his sign,
They left the decision to me? Don't they all see the same person he sees? Maybe they just don't want to seem biased because of the boy's status. Well if he had to make the hard choice to save a kid's life, then so be it.
He switched it with the farthest one to the left
All Might: 0
Judge #1 cleared throat "very well it's decided Izuku Midoriya will not make it into the heroics department"
I did the right thing, it's impossible for someone quirkless to make it as a hero. Best to crush his dreams here, then to let him continue on false hope.
He coughs, quickly wiping the blood off of his lips.
I thought becoming a judge would help me see which kid is most heroic, and then I could pick my successor from them. But none seemed like the right fit, and I'm running out of time. I should see if Nezu knows of any good candidates in the 2nd and 3rd year’s
Izuku had been pacing his room. It's been two weeks and he still hasn't got his results from UA
What if the rule about quirkless people being able to apply was just for PR. Stupid stupid, should've thought about that before only applying to UA… but no other hero school even claims to accept Quirkless applicants. What will I do if I fail, if it was all a lie?
His mom opens the door, gently as the older hinges creak. "Izuku honey, you got a letter for you, it says it's from UA"
Oh right, forgot she was home today, we don't talk too much. I know she cares for me. I mean she works all the time to support me. but, every time I see her face, all I see is a look of pity, and regret.
Mom "you better have applied to other schools Izuku. What will you do if you can't go to school this year?"
Izuku "Yes mom, I made sure to be prepared " he says whilst he grabs the letter from her hands "could you.. I need to do this alone, please"
Mom: "Of course honey, I'll make some katsudon, that's your favorite right?"
"Thanks mom"
She shuts the door behind her, and he stares at the letter, tentatively pulling at the seal. Just rip it off, like a bandaid, no need to delay the inevitable.
He rips open the letter, and a piece of paper and a metal disk fall to the ground. He picks up the paper first
'Dear Izuku Midoriya, you scored spectacularly, getting 96%, the second highest score in UA history. Therefore UA would be more than happy to accept you into our General Studies course.
And I would like to personally congratulate the first quirkless student into UA so please see me in my office on the first day. Just tell the homeroom teacher Nezu wants to see you.
Nezu UA Principal'
He did it, he made it into UA. There was still hope of him achieving his dream and he was one of the best scorers!? But his grades in middle school were always average at best. He didn't think he'd do that well.
With that boost of confidence. Izuku inspected the metal disk, and found a button that said play. Izuku flinches as it Shows All Might on the screen
Why is he of all people doing these?
All Might " YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED ME ON THE NEWS RECENTLY. WELL I CAME TO THIS TOWN TO WORK AT UA AS THE HEROICS TEACHER. ANYWAYS, EVEN THOUGH YOU PASSED THE WRITTEN EXAM WITH FLYING COLORS, YOU FAILED TO GAIN ENOUGH POINTS IN THE PHYSICAL EXAM, ENDING UP ONE POINT SHORT OF GETTING A SPOT. I DID HEAR YOU PASSED THE GENERAL EXAM THOUGH, HOPEFULLY YOU CAN NOW EXPLORE MORE…. REASONABLE CAREERS."
Ah…… tears run down his face, blurring out his vision as All Might disappears, he said some other things but Izuku heard none of it, instead he heard those same words. 'be realistic, more reasonable. Why, why do his words still sting so much, he already knew that All Might was like everyone else. I already knew this. So why does it hurt so much more now? Does he even remember what he told me beforehand?
He stares at the metallic disk, one second, two seconds. He lost by one point. He missed the easiest way into his dream by one point. He looks up at the last poster of all Might left in his room, it was one of his debut, him posing on top of wreckage holding 6 people under his arms. Smiling, He can feel that smile eating away at him. Mocking him, telling him to give up and take the easy way out. But he has seen the statistics. He knows quirkless people can hardly find a job 67% of them are unemployed. 40% will be dead by 18, whether through suicide or from quirk motivated attacks. And it doesn't get any prettier as the years go on. He rips it off the wall. Crumbling it up and throwing it into the garbage. He will not let this keep happening. He has to be a hero. To show the world that quirkless doesn’t mean worthless. So when a little kid, 4 or 5 years old, gets home from the worst day of his life. When they search up ‘Famous quirkless people’ they can see a hero as one of the top results. Instead of a list of quirkless statistics calling them outdated and broken. He leans back into his chair and takes a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out….. He gets up, still holding the metal disk, putting on his red Everlast shoes (the only brand that even makes quirkless shoes anymore.) Turns out the extra toe joint means normal shoes are a tad too tight on his feet. Thankfully not many people know about the shoe brand. The last thing quirkless people need is for an easy target to be placed on them. “Hey Mom, I’m heading out for a quick jog, I’ll be back”
Mom: “Are you sure honey, It’ll be dark soon. It might..”
He quickly interrupts her “I’ll be careful, don’t worry.”
Ok, love you sweetie”
As the door closes, Inko Midoriya stares at the door, and looks into her son's room walls all but barren, except for one Present Mic poster she got him when he was 3. He’d beg to listen to his radio show all the time. He smiled so much back then, full of joy. I'm sorry I can't be the mom you need. You needed a strong mother who could stand up for you in a world built to crush you. I shouldn’t have destroyed your smile that night.
She remembered the night of Izuku's quirk diagnosis vividly. They had gone to her husband's quirk doctor. Full of hope. Just for her baby to hear those crushing words. She and his father got into a brief argument over how to raise their son. Hisashi never liked heroes, and wanted to tell him it was impossible.
“We can finally stop this childish dream of his, think about it Inko, do you want our son to die to some villain? “It’s not the time for that, he didn’t take the news well. He was crushed dear, now you want me to crush the only dream he's had since he could talk?”
“He's quirkless Inko, what don't you understand, he’ll just get himself killed!.”
“Enough! We will talk about this later.” Hisashi had suddenly looked at his phone as it dinged.
“ I have to go, we will finish this later’
She had never seen him again after that. He had called her over the phone, telling her that he was being forced to work in America for a while. But she had her doubts about that.
She ran her hand over his desk, this is where, filled with so many mixed feelings. She had apologized to her son for failing him. For making it so hard for him to reach his dream. Then he started coming home with bruises. He claimed they were from him being clumsy. However she wasn't dumb. But no matter who she told. She was fed the same line. “You know quirkless kids are more fragile’ “the other kids just don't know how to handle someone so delicate." The police told her there was nothing they could do. And then as word spread of Izuku's quirklessness. suddenly her rent went up, and then they had to switch doctors when their previous one ‘had too much on their plate’. The only ones that accepted quirkless patients charged exorbitant rates. Even with the money Hisashi still sent she couldn't afford it all. so to pay for all these new expenses she took on more shifts. Creating a further divide between her and her son. They barely saw one another anymore. But staring at her son's room, devoid of any All Might merch, the only thing that she saw her boy smile about nowadays. She knew she had missed something big. Then she saw the piece of paper left on the desk. reading over it, she cried. Her boy had made it to UA. his dream, and if she knew her Izuku. He probably had a plan to get into the hero course. He definitely got his fathers intelligence. She suddenly heard an alarm. “The katsudon!” she rushed out of the room, dropping the paper back onto the desk.