Chapter 1: Wake Up Call
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
'What is that sound...' the thought echoed in his mind.
'Where am I...' Izuku tried to open his eyes, though instantly regretted it. The harsh white light above his head was blinding, especially after just waking up. A low, way too low groan sounded out, and for a moment, he didn't recognise that voice even though it had definitely come from him.
"So, you're finally awake." a deep voice sounded with a slight chuckle.
He let out another groan, moving an arm to cover his eyes before trying to push himself up. The tugging of something attached to his arm went almost unnoticed, though the stinging sensation on his arm grabbed his attention.
"Woah there kiddo, relax, you're in a hospital in Shizuoka" the voice assured, a hand was placed on his chest. and with it came the familiar smell of woodsmoke and campfires.
"... Dad? Is that you..?" the bed raised into a deck-chair like shape as the whir of the actuators almost drowned out the insidious beeping of the heart monitor.
"Long time no see, hey kiddo, it's been a while since we've talked in person" as Izuku opened his eyes, he saw his father sitting by the bedside looking like he hadn't slept in nearly a month. "You've been through the wringer lately, haven't you kiddo, what with getting kidnapped and all… You've... grown," he continued, though it was obvious he was leaving out something.
"What happened… Where are the other captives… If I'm here, did they all make it out?" the last few memories Izuku had were those of punching someone in the face while screaming, though it was probably a while since then if he was in the hospital now.
Hisashi just gives him a toothy grin at that. "You did damn well, Izuku, heh, raised more hell than even All Might did at that, and he called out all the heroes on live television! Bloody damn hilarious that was," his smile faded slightly, taking a breath in. "As for the others, you got them all out, but their situations is the same as you. Everyone's been in a coma after passing out on the streets. With you waking up now, I'm hoping it's not long before the other victims wake up. I'd tell you more, but honestly, I think you can see from the IV and a mirror the effects, and I don't know even half of the words on the doctor's clipboards."
Izuku saw him shrugging sheepishly before he pointed towards the iv drip rack… which was covered in IV bags. "... what am I looking at?" He looked back to Hisashi to see him pressing the call button.
Upon feeling eyes on him, Hisashi just shrugged again. "Let's wait for the doctors to show up, I'm about as curious as you are." He sits still for a moment, before suddenly standing up as if remembering something. "Actually... Sit tight, someone wants to see you, kiddo, some blond called Yagi Toshinori, and an old veteran hero"
Hisashi approached the door, then flung it open. "Hey old man, kiddo's awake now, you too gramps"
It was at that moment where Toshinori, and a diminutive old man stepped through the open doorway behind Hisashi. While Toshinori was wearing his usual overly baggy clothes, the old man was wearing a white and yellow hero costume, as well as a black domino mask.
"So this is the boy, ey Toshinori? Not bad, he looks decently fit, not as beefy as you were back in the day, but definitely better than how you are now, you stringbean," the old man cracked. He sent a humorous gaze towards the blond. "Midoriyas. Nice to meet you, the name's Sorahiko Torino, but you can call me Gran Torino."
"Like I said, an old veteran hero. Right now, we're waiting for a nurse to arrive. I don't understand half of the fancy words on their clipboards so we're waiting for the one coming to tell us. You two might as well take a seat in here." Hisashi sat back down in the bedside chair and gestured to the other seats in the room.
"Better than waiting and standing outside for hours on end," Torino huffed, before hopping onto a chair.
Toshinori just stood awkwardly, before joining his mentor. He sent a look to the younger Midoriya, who in return simply mouthed 'we'll talk later.'
. . .
Moments later, the telltale sound of shoes on tiles notified the unlikely group of four of the arrival of one of the hospital's staff members.
"Good morning, Mister Midoriya." they took a glance around the room. "Oh my, it seems you have some guests. Would you like for me to explain what's changed to everyone before taking your son off to be examined?"
"That would be nice, yeah."
"As you wish. The first thing you will notice, in terms of physical changes, is an increase in height, the development of musculature, and the development of your vocal cords. Meanwhile, less visible changes include a rapid increase in metabolic rate, as well as an increase in the productivity of bodily organs. In short, you will need to eat more, but don't need to worry about exercising unless you're trying to build up muscle. Your body will turn most of the excess food into energy instead of waste. One change that we are hoping to identify is a change in physical and mental capabilities, as one of the most recently awake have shown signs of an increased reaction time as well as increased stamina. Their current limits are approximately four hours. More information will be made available after testing. Do you have any questions?" all they got in return was four blank stares.
Silence reigned for a moment, until the rumbling of a stomach broke the serenity, and plunged the room into an awkward pause. "Can I get a waffle?" Izuku broke the silence once more, followed by Hisashi's and Torino's cackling.
Since he had been kept in captivity for a week, and comatose for slightly longer, the doctors had run Izuku through a series of tests. The tests were simple initially, they only tested to see if his body was working as one normally should. Though over the span of a few days, the number of machines which he had been placed in could make anyone concerned. At least his mom had woken up from her coma though, that was a definite plus. It would have broken him if his mom didn't make it out even though he did.
On a more mundane note, mom had to go through the same tests that he did, and while that was happening, he had to do physical fitness tests. The doctors said it was to see what had changed for him physically, which, he could understand. He didn't remember getting grades this ludicrously high at school. He didn't think he was capable of getting three seconds on a fifty-meter dash, nor put a small dent in the punching machine, but the dent and timer definitely weren't lying, even after redoing the tests again to make sure they were accurate. The only test which he couldn't redo was the endurance test and that…
. . .
"How long do you feel like you can go for, mister Midoriya?" the treadmill slowed to a stop as the doctor approached, clipboard and stopwatch in hand.
"I-I don't know, sir. I don't feel tired though so that's something right?" Izuku rubbed the back of his head, wiping off the very little sweat that started to gather on it.
The doctor only gave him an unbelieving look before he responded. "Mister Midoriya, there are two things which I would like to say to you. First of all, you've been running on a specially made treadmill that goes at faster speeds than they would normally allow, and you've been running at almost Eighty Kilometres an hour for the past three hours, to the point where someone's come to see you and they've been waiting for almost half an hour. Second of all, I would appreciate it if you didn't call me 'sir', that makes me feel older than I should be. I know I'm around sixty but I am still in better shape than my granddaughter, and she's planning to go to UA! If you have to call me something, then please call me Doctor Yanagi, or just Doctor."
"Uhh- okay si- Doctor Yanagi… Who's the person who came to see me?" Izuku hopped off the treadmill and grabbed one of the towels on the side. "And um… where do I find…"
"Naomasa Tsukauchi is the man that's looking for you"
"Right, so where can I find him?"
"You don't need to worry about that, just head back to your hospital room, I will have him directed your way." Dr. Yanagi turned his back on the room, grasping the door. "If you need something, just press the call button, and someone will be there as quickly as they can." Shortly after saying this, the doctor turned around and left.
Having kept his visitor waiting long enough, Izuku dashed out of the room and back towards his hospital room.
As Izuku ran, another meeting was taking place in the opposite direction. Hisashi had been waiting for the doctor, hoping to calm his mind.
"Doctor, what can you tell me about the marks I've seen on his skin? I could see them all over him," ever-observant Hisashi questioned in concern. He had seen them while helping Izuku change into basic workout clothes. Small, faint, star-like marks littered his son's skin, from the torso to his shoulders.
Doctor Yanagi huffed exhaustedly before he answered. "Faded scar tissue, most of them. Burn scars, likely quirk based judging from the particular shape of them" he turned to face Hisashi, who was hunched over, a sad expression on his face. "Am I right in assuming you know of where these scars came from?"
"... He said that the bullying stopped…" In truth, Hisashi didn't hear much about Izuku's school. He hadn't for years, though, now after the revelation, Izuku's constant wearing of long-sleeved t-shirts, as horrid as some of the designs may be, started to make sense. It was to hide the small myriad of starburst scars. It was unacceptable. He had to do something about this. "I… I need to make some calls… if you would excuse me"
"Alright, Mr. Midoriya. Oh, and if the topic of schools comes to your attention, perhaps you should look a little closer towards this prefecture, It is close enough to Musutafu after all, and quite the number of them have zero-tolerance policies."
"... Thankyou, Doctor." his barely audible words echoed through the empty halls, Hisashi left the hospital. He had a lot to do, after all.
Chapter 2: Returning to Normal… Hopefully
An old, beaten and battered phone rang atop the hospital as he stared at the sky above. There were no stars in sight. Good. The image of starbursts all over his boy's skin was still fresh in his mind.
Click
"My, for what reason could it be that you're calling this late, Hisashi? How is your family's recovery going?" the principal's voice was distorted over the static of the call,
"They're doing good, principal Nezu, sir. There's been a surprising trend in all of the victims of that Yakuza group but…" the effects on the victims, on his family, were far from his mind at the current moment. "That's not quite what I've called for… Sir, how would you feel about barring entrance from Aldera…'
As the door closed, a plain-looking (not that he could talk) man with black hair entered his hospital room. Despite having woken up a week ago, Izuku was still being kept in the hospital room to be monitored. If you asked him, you could tell he was getting sick of hospital rooms.
"Good evening, young man, I'm Naomasa Tsukauchi, I'm a detective working out of Musutafu, it's nice to meet you." the man bowed as the door closed behind him. "I know it's a little delayed, seeing as how a few days have passed by this point, but the police force needs to get your statement on what happened while you were in captivity."
"Right… the captivity… I'll tell you what I can remember at least… near the end of it, my memories cut out after punching someone in the face… Uhh wait manners, um… My name is Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you" he bowed as he greeted the detective.
"Before we begin, I am legally obligated to tell you that my quirk is Lie Detector. I can tell if you lie when you answer my ques-"
"That's so cool! Is it just yes or no questions? Can you also do more complex question? Does it work if someone only tells you part of the truth? Can you tell if someone's only telling you parts of something? Ah- S-sorry for cutting you off"
Tsukauchi snickered at this. "Toshinori did say you loved quirks, but I wasn't quite expecting this. Yes, my quirk works on more complex questions, but then if something is being left out, then it's harder to detect. I tend to work with specifically yes or no questions, because with those, it's easier to tell if there's more."
"Ahh~ that's really neat, it lets you get a lot of information from people too if you ask the right questions"
"Yes, well, shall we get started then, Midoriya?"
"Right, let's…. Let's do this"
Over the span of the next hour or so, Tsukauchi asked him a variety of questions starting from how he got kidnapped, and his time when missing, how all the captives were locked within one room, how they had to ration food, and how they could plan easier because everyone was together. To Izuku's utter embarrassment, the other victims had told Tsukauchi that it was him who came up with most of their escape plan.
The first step was to find the pattern in the guard's shifts, when they arrive, when they swap out with other guards and which guards were lazier than others. If Izuku had to be honest, this was why they were in captivity for so long. The captives had to work on this at the same time as confirming where they were.
Next came scouting. This task was arguably easier, since one of the victims had a radar quirk. We found out through him that we were one level underground, in a two story building. The stairway was close to the front entrance, and there was apparently a road in front of the building.
Then after scouting, we needed to wait, until there were as few guards as possible, and for when the lazier guards were on duty. So far, the later it became, the lazier the guards were. We thought that it was because they were drinking alcohol, mostly because some of the people with animal mutations kept muttering about some sort of smell.
Eventually, we managed to plan out a basic break out. The on-duty guards had been drinking for the past few nights, as pointed out by a girl with a wolf quirk. With a bit of effort, we had unhinged the door to our cell,someone even used it as a shield.
"Smart thinking, that was. When the building fell on top of you guys, that door must have taken most of the hit." The thought of what might have happened had the door not shielded them caused the detective to shudder. "Speaking of which, how exactly did the building's collapse happen?"
"Er… well… I'm not exactly sure either, but if I had to guess… I guess it was a bad quirk mix… We used one of the gas quirks to help plan out a path of escape, but one of the guards had some sort of stinging or zapping quirk. It looked as if he could turn his fingernails into whips, and whenever he had them wrapped around something it would feel like we were being zapped." he looked at his left arm. Spiraled flecks of paler skin wrapped around it.
"A low level villain going by Raibu, his quirk is called Taze. When the rescue team found you, his quirk was wrapped around your arm- What happened near the end? The security camera footage we managed to dig up showed you running towards the villain before the feed cut out" he wrote something in his notepad before he shifted his gaze back to Izuku.
"R-right… I… uh… I punched him in the face… really hard." he could still feel and hear the cracking of the thug's face when his fist crashed into it.
"So that's why his nose was broken…" the detective wrote a few more lines within the notepad before he flipped it closed. "Well, thank you for today, Midoriya, this has been rather informative, compared to what the other patients have told me. You have a good head on your shoulders. Keep that strategic mind of yours honed and U.A. high will be a breeze" The chair dragged across the floor behind him as the detective made his way towards the door.
Izuku thought for a moment before he too stood from his seat. "Wait! How do you know about that? The only one i told about that is Al- Toshinori" He almost let it slip then, he had gotten so used to calling the man All Might when he was training under his guidance
Tsukauchi stopped at the door handle, then chuckled. "Why don't you ask All Might yourself?" He turned back and smiled at the young man before he took his leave.
Izuku stared at the closed hospital door bewildered as the detectives' words rang in his head.
They had kept Izuku a little bit longer at the hospital for the final tests. The last day was spent almost entirely on the stamina test, as he had no issues running for almost a dozen hours, even if he had been pushing his limits at around the tenth hour. Much to the young man's relief, he and his mother were released later that evening, and though the journey back was uneventful, small difficulties arose when they returned to their apartment.
"Mom- Careful! Watch out for the shelf-"
THUD
She stumbled into the shelf, and took a moment to stabilize her balance. It had been a while since she had been this tall.
"I'm okay, Izuku, just… managing. I'm still trying to get used to being tall again." It was true, the last time she had been that tall was when she had given birth to Izuku.
"Are you two alright over there?" Hisashi's voice rang from the kitchen over the roaring stove.
"Getting there, Dad!"
"We're okay Honey!"
"Well I wouldn't exactly say we're okay… It's not everyday that people get growth spurt, you became a whole head taller, Mom! I only grew ten centimeters taller I think,"
As he glanced at one of the nearby framed pictures, he saw his faint reflection in the glass. His hair had been cut short after the ordeal, to remove the singed strands. Izuku hadn't cut his hair in a long time, and was unused to seeing it as short as Dad's.
"Dinner's almost ready! Tonight's main dish is Spicy Beef Udon."
"Okay!"
Somehow, as Inko sat down, Izuku found himself staring at the calendar, and at the date circled in red on it. February 26th . He had barely over a week until the exam, and Izuku had lost 3 due to the incident.
"Dinners ready"
As if not hearing him, Izuku stood by the calendar, deep in thought. He didn't know if he could finish cleaning up the beach in time for the exam, or what would happen if he took One for All into his body with the serum still in place. Dr. Yanagi had said that his body had found a "new equilibrium" with the serum's effects after all.
"Izuku, dinners ready!" this time it was Inko who called
"Izuku?" Hisashi patted him on the shoulder and snapped him out of his thoughts, "something on your mind kiddo?"
"Oh- well uhm, It's the UA entrance exam… I've been training for almost ten months now, but… well, you've seen what happened in the last three weeks. I don't know if I've trained enough for it…" Izuku didn't know how to answer his father, in regards to Training with All Might and One for All.
Hisashi had a pensive look on his face, as if racking his mind for an answer. "Tell you what, why don't we give those trainers of yours a call and sort it out with them after dinner? And you three sort out whatever secret it is that you're hiding"
"Wh-what?! We're not hiding anything!" *Izuku frantically denied his father's claims.
"Well, anyways, you should still talk to those two after we finish dinner, now come on, lets eat before the food gets cold"
"R-right…"
In the end, dinner took slightly longer than intended, with both Izuku and Inko eating larger portions than what Hisashi had remembered. The Midoriya patriarch was glad that his tendency to overcook came in handy.
"Gran, how long are you going to be staying here?" Toshinori watched as his teacher devoured taiyaki at his table. Gran Torino had been living with him in the expansive yet empty apartment for the past three weeks.
Finishing his current mouthful, Sorahiko responded. "Until you pass that quirk of yours along, something tells me that the boy's father is gonna cause a few problems"
"Young Midoriya's father? What makes you say that?" He wasn't expecting the sudden shift of topic.
"Well, while you were talking with your successor, I was talking with him. Hisashi Midoriya is a pro hero, one who excels in infiltration missions, so if there was anything the boy was trying to hide, he would have picked up on it by now." he paused to eat another piece of taiyaki, and to take a moment to think. "What are you going to do about the boy's father, Toshinori?"
"Um, well…" the Symbol of Peace wracked his brain to try and find a solution, but none could come to him. He didn't know the Midoriya patriarch well enough, nor was he good at telling lies.
"Don't 'um well' me Toshinori, spit it out, what did you have in mind?"
"To be honest… I don't know what I could tell him."
"You're kidding." Sorahiko stared at his student for a moment, his thoughts trailed to what else Toshinori could have done, or what he could have missed. "Next you're going to tell me that all the two of you did was cleaning up that blasted beach. Right?"
"No! Of course not! I've been teaching him boxing on rest days! Young Midoriya already knew some of the bare essentials, so I gave him a direction to work towards! I've even seen him practicing while he was waiting for me to get there!"
In all honesty, Toshinori had been pleasantly surprised to know that his ward knew the basics of how to fight. He had only seen the boy punching and kicking, but those hits looked solid. Seeing that the fundamentals were already in place, he decided to help his student by giving him boxing lessons.
"Hmff, at least you have some brains in that thick head of yours. Anyways, if you can't think of anything, we might as well call that rat Nezu and see what he thinks." The older man sighed at his student's antics. Yes, the blond was learning how to be a teacher, but in Sorahiko's opinion, it shouldn't have been that difficult. At least he got one thing right with giving the child boxing lessons.
He handed Toshinori his phone, then picked up the plate of taiyaki. Much to Sorahiko's chagrin, the wondrous pastry had gone cold with their conversation.
"Hello Toshinori, it's surprising to hear from you again so soon, after all the administrative work for your upcoming position as a teacher at my school! To what do I owe the honor?"
Nezu, the dog… bear… mouse? Was sipping tea in his office despite the hour, working away on one or another of his projects. He had just recently added Aldera to the list of schools barred from exams, and was keeping an eye on the paperwork of students transferring out of the school. Several students, such as-
"Good evening, Nezu sir, I was wondering, what could I tell Hisashi Midoriya about what's going to happen to his son?"
"Ah, you mean how you plan to give the boy your quirk, yes?"
"Right. What should I say"
"Well, what about the truth?"
"How much can- Wait What?!"
Wet splatting sounds were heard through the static of the phone. It seemed that Toshinori's outburst caused a coughing fit.
"I *COUGH* I'm sorry, could you say that again? I don't think i heard you right"
"Why don't you tell Hisashi Midoriya about your quirk?"
"Are you sure sir? Even with All for One dead, some of his followers might still be around. How can you be sure that he's not one of them?"
"It's quite simple really." Nezu took a sip of his tea. It was still delightfully hot. "It's because he's one of my best agents!"
Through the phone, all Nezu heard was Toshinori's stunned silence for a moment before the blond responded. "Okay. I'll try to talk to him about it. Have a nice evening, sir."
The room fell silent momentarily as the call disconnected, only to be filled with borderline crazed laughter.
"Oh my, It seems that one of my students is going to uncover yet another state secret. I wonder how you'll manage with this one, my little flame breather."
Chapter 3: Ch 3 - The name is
Hisashi took a sip of his cup of coffee as he stared at the beach. Despite how early in the morning it was, Hisashi hadn't headed home from the night's patrols. Instead, he opted to go to the beach where his son was training to get some answers from the Symbol of Peace and his mentor.
The blond in question was watching Izuku haul the remaining pieces of trash off the surface of the beach. His presence there was less to offer guidance, and more to drive the trash to the junkyard. So far, Izuku had hauled a large oven and several other large kitchen appliances onto the back of his pickup truck.
Sipping the remains of the cup of piping hot coffee, Hisashi let out a world-weary and exhausted sigh. "Right, let me get this straight. You, the Symbol of Peace, have a quirk that can be passed down from wielder to wielder, and you intend to pass it to my son because he has the 'Heart of a Hero', am I getting it right so far?"
"Yes. The purpose of this training was to get your son into shape to handle the power of my quirk without any harmful effects. After all that's happened recently, I believe that his body is now ready to inherit it" Toshinori held out an open palm. It looked as if he was visualizing something floating over it. For a moment, his intense focus on his palm made Hisashi believe that something really would appear.
"Well, what else did he do?" Hisashi's question seemed to snap Toshinori out of his thoughts. "Don't tell me all you had him to was cleaning, if that's all-"
"Of course not! I also gave him some boxing lessons! He's gotten pretty good at it over eight months of practice."
Hisashi sighed in relief. "Okay then, next order of business. What are you going to put on the quirk registration file when Izuku does get it?"
"That's up to young Midoriya. Honestly, part of the reason why I keep so secretive about the quirk, apart from hiding it from the public, is because I have no clue what to call it other than One for All" Toshinori stopped leaning on the railing.
"Well, alright." Hisashi stretched and yawned, before looking back to the beach, and the horizon behind it. "I'm gonna get going, I need to take a nap, besides, the sun's almost up by now." As he turned to leave, he caught a glimpse of Izuku waving at him and raised his hand to wave back.
"Oh, before I forget," turning back, Hisashi looked at the shrunken symbol of peace, "Tell him his homework for today is to brainstorm creative quirk names."
He turned his back with a wave. "Cya"
"What to call it… what to call it…" Izuku had been in this state ever since hearing of his Dad's surprise homework at the beach. Since being released from the hospital, he had learned that his old school, Aldera high, was blacklisted from taking the UA entrance exams. It was no wonder that it had happened though, at least, It seemed like this was the obvious course of action for Izuku. UA's legal team was pushing to close the school for child negligence and abuse.
With nothing left to do for the rest of the day, Izuku had continued to clean Dagobah under the watch of Gran Torino, who for some reason stayed to watch him go through various boxing stances and give pointers on how to fight various opponents. For such a diminutive old man, Gran Torino certainly was scary, and that cane hurt.
"No wonder All Might is scared of you…" Izuku mumbled as he breathed out.
"What was that?"
"NOTHING!"
"Ahuh. Might as well finish what's left of the beach now, it's just that rusty old van that's left."
"Right!" Izuku cried as he approached the battered vehicle.
The van looked decrepit, as the course of time had worn down on it. The metal was rusted over and barely any traces of paint were left on it. Thankfully, the chassis wasn't buried too deeply under the sand, as with a few kicks roughly around the car, the front bumper was unearthed.
Apprehensively, Izuku squatted down in front of the truck, and slowly wriggled his fingers under the bumper, trying to gain a good grip on it. The metal groaned in protest as he tried to pull it up slowly. The bumper crumpled under his unyielding grip, as the van was slowly, yet steadily raised out of the sand. One foot… Two feet… Three…
However, it seemed that the van had other ideas, as the metal of the bumper tore off from the rest of the vehicle, and it landed on the soft sand with a dull thud. Izuku stared in judgemental silence as Gran Torino cackled off to the side.
Izuku shook off his stupor as he tossed the scraps at the neat pile of trash by the roadside. Gripping the bumper didn't work, and it probably wouldn't work a second time unless he wanted to get tinnitus. Underneath the bumper, however, was what looked to be a more solid frame.
"If at first, you don't succeed…" Izuku approached the van again and dropped to one knee. "Try…" His hands found purchase under the worn-down frame, and with a steady motion… "Try- Again!" and he raised the front of the van over his head.
Much to Izuku's surprise, he was able to lift the van despite it being nearly a tonne. As he repositioned his hands to better carry it to the pickup point, he wondered, 'What did those people put in me? Normal people can't carry this much unless they have a good strength quirk'
He sighed and shook his head. 'No use thinking about that now. It's already happened.' He put down the van a little more forcefully than he needed to and watched as it collapsed under its own weight. Izuku felt… disappointed. He had come so far all on his own, he had cleaned almost all of the beach on his own, but now with the serum coursing through his veins, his achievement felt… hollow.
"And that's the last of it" Gran Torino landed on top of the wrecked vehicle and crushed it further.
"Um… What now?"
"Well, there's still that task that your father told you to think about"
"Right… Thinking of a name for All-Mi-"
"Ah-uh, Not Toshinori's quirk, yours. It'll be your quirk after he gives it to you, you'll be the one to decide what to do with it. It will still have its original name, but it will also need a cover name for the records." Gran Torino motions for Izuku to follow him, and starts to walk down the road.
"R-right… A name… I was just going to call it Superpower and move on, but since my dad said to make it creative…"
"Well, what's his quirk then?"
"I'm sorry?"
The retired pro hops up onto the railing and sits down on it. "What's his quirk? You're gonna need it to come up with a name for yours. Oh, your mother's too."
"Uhm… My mother's quirk can bring small objects to her. The name changes a lot, but the essence of it is a weak telekinesis quirk. . As for dad's quirk…" he approached the railing and looked out at the empty beach. "He calls it Dragon's Breath. He can breathe fire, and his entire respiratory system is leagues stronger than normal human ones. He's also for the most part fireproof, among other secondary mutations. Oh! And he can also breathe out smoke too"
"Hmm, then a dragon quirk, and a telekinesis one. Plus you'll be getting One for All's strength when you inherit it."
"So I guess that means I should be naming it based on dragons?" the young man looked to his mentor's mentor,
"That'll definitely work, though you should do some research on it, and remember to leave it vague enough to explain One for All's strength, but enough of that for now. You finished cleaning the beach, you should go home and take it easy. It'll be basic combat from here on until the exam, so get some rest. That'll give you some time to think about a name." he hopped off of the railing and landed on the pavement. Giving a sideways look to the young successor, he simply smirked and waved. "Tomorrow, bright and early in the morning. I'll see you then."
"R-right… I guess I'll see you later then Gran Torino sir." Izuku turned away from the retreating hero and took a glance at the deserted beach.
Despite his hollow victory, the view of the open ocean was incredibly rewarding. After he admired the view for a moment, Izuku continued on.
Inko stared at the mirror as she observed the changes in her body. Thankfully, her law firm let her have a break because of the kidnapping incident. Whatever drugs they had doused her with, while it was different from what everyone else had gotten, it had made her more fit than she had been in years. Hell, she had a six-pack! She's never had a six-pack before! Mitsuki would have had a field day if they stilled talked with eachother.
'I should probably get into a healthy routine, I don't know if this is permanent…' the Midoriya matriarch sighed and left the bathroom. She had a lot of things to work through.
As she made her way to the study room, she heard the front door open.
"Tadaima!" 'Oh, it's Izuku.'
"Welcome Back Sweetie!" Inko walked into the living room to greet her son.
This time, she avoided stumbling into something on the way, but she saw izuku's thoughtful expression.
"Izuku, is something wrong?"
"Maybe? I don't know, it's not exactly that something is wrong, more like I don't know how to answer something"
"Let me guess, it's your father's 'homework' right?" Naturally, Inko was skeptical of what the Symbol of Peace had told her and her husband. She still had her reservations, but given what had happened when they were kidnapped, she felt like she had little room to object. To her, Izuku had already proven himself as a hero that night.
"Yeah, I need to come up with something that has both a mental and a dragon theme but also leave it vague or mysterious."
"Well, if you want something hard to define, why not use the term Soul?"
"Soul?"
Inko nodded. Before the kidnapping, her previous client had gotten into trouble with their quirk, soul link, and a whole week of the trial was used with comparing different quirks named Soul. "Even with the advent of quirks, the term, Soul is still hard to define. To be honest, I think it's gotten vaguer since quirks came."
"I guess that makes sense. Different cultures have different ideas of what a soul is, and different quirks that come about might challenge the current meanings or maybe even rewrite them-" Inko smiled as Izuku muttered out his thoughts while pacing. She was glad that her son had snapped out of whatever had demotivated him, even if it meant slowly wearing a hole through the carpet.
"Izuku"
Izuku continued muttering.
"Izuku?" despite calling his name, Izuku continues muttering.
Inko walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Izuku."
"Huh- Oh right! How does Dragon Soul sound? Do you think Dad would like it?"
"That's a good one sweetie! But your father is asleep right now." She sighs as one of her hands finds its way to her cheek. "He would have arrived home sooner, but he had to push it and walk to the beach too," Inko honestly wasn't surprised with Hisashi for seeing Izuku before he returned home, but that was what she likes about him, that he always went the extra mile for those he cared about.
"It's nice having Dad around again,"
"It really is"
The two reminisce about the fond memories from early childhood for a moment, of how Hisashi would always treat them with nice gifts before he had to go away for his mission. Eventually, once Inko realized that Izuku smelled mildly of sweat, she sent him to shower and continued into their study room. She had some research to do, after all.
Blue eyes looked out at moonlit ocean waves as the girl wandered through Musutafu. She had just missed the last bus and was probably far away from her destination. She was lucky when she found out about one of UA's older programs. Heights Alliances, apartment complexes clustered a few blocks away from the school for potential students. They were built for entrance exam applicants with bad quirk exhaustion effects. Normally, she wouldn't have needed to book a room there, but with how her quirk evolved recently…
Anyways, UA's entrance exam was a week away, so even if she got lost in the ward, she could spend a night in a hotel without worrying about missing it. That being said, she would rather not spend what little was left of her evening searching for a hotel if she could help it.
Much to her surprise, there were still people outside despite the late hour. A man, or maybe a tall and muscly teen, dressed in running gear, looking at the beach and ocean. She had heard that someone had been clearing the beach recently, but nobody's been able to find out who it was.
'Maybe he's the one who cleaned the beach?' she thinks. It would make sense, rarely do news reporters work this late on foot. 'Maybe I should ask him for directions?'
As she pondered her next course of action, a hero clad in black and red armor dropped next to the runner. Odd, she thought, it was rare for a hero to be out this late, much less talking to someone.
To sate her curiosity, the girl tried to listen in to their conversation. It was a father and son, from what she heard, meaning the guy in the tracksuit was around her age. That was all she could figure out, however, as she heard the hero in question mention a lost girl looking at- Oh… He meant her. The hero pushed his son towards her as he shot a wired projectile at the rooftop above, and when the younger man looked back at him, all he saw was the open ocean behind the Dagobah beach. It was a grappling hook that dragged the hero to the rooftops. There's an awkward pause as she sees him standing still for a moment, before seeing both his hands hit his cheeks with a slapping noise, and he started approaching her.
The first thing she notices as he draws near is his curly verdant hair, shining under the street lamps. He walks up to her with an apprehensive expression, but asks regardless.
"Can I help you, miss?"
"... I'm lost…"
"Oh- Um, do you know where you want to go?"
"Nn. Heights Alliance…"
"Oh! You're going to try to get into UA, miss- uh…." he stopped suddenly and turned to face her, he looked slightly red under the street lights. " Im sorry I didn't ask your name… uh… I'm Izuku Midoriya." He looked embarrassed to have forgotten but then stepped into stride beside her.
"... Yui Kodai… Are you trying to get into UA too?" she looked closely at him, specifically at his arms. He looked well built, almost like a bodybuilder if she had to be honest, even under the almost undersized running shirt.
"Y-yeah, I've been training a lot for the past ten months. I just hope I'm ready for the test… UA churns tonnes of amazing heroes every year" as he led her towards the temporary dorms, he regurgitated all sorts of facts about the hero school.
Eventually, as they walked, they fell into silence. Not an uncomfortable one, or at least, she didn't find it to be uncomfortable. A glance at her companion showed that he looked nervous, he probably ran out of topics to talk about, even if knowing about all these heroes was interesting. She was genuinely interested in what he had to say about Mt. Lady, even if the hero seemed to abuse her sex appeal.
"Nn..." she nudged his arm to get his attention.
"Is something wrong?"
"... Can you tell me more about… Gigantification quirks?" There was something in that question that made Midoriya look at her for a moment. Did she say it weirdly? She didn't know. "... I mean how they work…"
"Gigantification quirks… I don't know much about the mechanics of how they work, because that changes from user to user, but a lot of the time, the user mentions either a size comparison or a dull burning sensation all over their body. I can only guess that the sensation is growing pains though. Usually, people with gigantification quirks can picture a lever they need to pull that goes with this, but sometimes it might not just be a lever." he looked deep in thought as he said this. His hand rose to his chin as he recalled one of the oldest cases of a gigantification quirk. "There was a hero, a long time ago in America. He was a shapeshifter, and one of the things he could change into seemed to have a gigantification quirk. There are a lot of stories about a giant dinosaur holding up the Empire State building, the story of the hourglass giant, but not a lot is left other than stories…"
"Hourglass… Giant?" While she didn't know much, if anything about American heroes, she did remember seeing the term when she tried to do her own searching. "Is there anything more about this hero?"
He shook his head. "The only thing that's left is stories that parents tell their kids when they can't sleep and old toys. I can remember my dad telling me about those on the phone." The building had come into view as they were walking. Despite it being quite a long walk, all the talk about heroes and quirks filled most of their time.
"By the way, why did you ask about gigantification quirks? Is your quirk similar to one?"
Yui paused as she reached for the door and looked back at him. Not knowing what to say, she only reached a hand into one of her pockets and pulled out what looked like a tiny suitcase.
"What?"
Ignoring his confusion, Yui placed the tiny suitcase on the ground and then brought her hands together. A faint, light-blue glow encased both her fingertips and the suitcase before it rapidly grew into a full-sized suitcase. "Does this answer your question?" she asked.
However, she was not expecting Izuku to start asking a barrage of questions. She tried her best to answer some, but a few of them went unanswered, either because she didn't know how or they were too weird. She didn't know or want to know if someone would explode if an item grew massive inside of them. Eventually, Yui entered the building, upon her companion realizing how late it had gotten. She waved a final goodbye to Izuku as she approached the receptionist.
She didn't realize that the time in her pocket opened the zip of the suitcase slightly, nor did she realize that one of her caps had fallen out.
Chapter 4: Inheritance
"EAT THIS!" He could still see All Might holding up a strand of his hair to him. Even after hours have passed since that moment, Izuku could see that image every time he closed his eyes. What's more, he could still taste the hair product that coated it, and it tasted foul, horrendous even. But as much as Izuku wanted to complain, he remembered what All Might said, that the transfer of One for All needed to be done through some form of DNA. And so, all Izuku could do was grin and bear it. That being said, he could feel something was different after eating that strand of hair, a strange feeling in his gut. Hopefully, that wasn't indigestion, or even worse, diarrhoea.
He dug around for a pair of clothes that could stretch enough to fit over him. Barely any of his other clothes seemed to fit him since the incident, so he'd mainly been wearing a mix of his larger clothes, All Might hoodies, and hand-me-downs from his Dad, though the hoodies were also a bit too small, despite being ordered a size larger than necessary.
"I need to go buy new clothes…" he sighed as he put all the smaller clothes in a neat pile. His old clothes didn't fit him anymore, and most of the hand-me-downs from Dad were uncomfortably tight.
There were still a few things that Izuku needed to put away, including the pile of some of his Dad's old clothes, and the red cap on his desk. Speaking of which, Izuku approached his table and picked up the cap. He didn't mean to take it with him, but he noticed it on the ground after saying goodbye to Kodai-san, and although he tried to return it yesterday, Izuku never ran into her. He needed to return it sometime later, but for now, he was headed out to Dagobah beach again. All Might and Gran Torino said that they were going to test One for All today, so he wanted to get there early.
Although his Mom was still asleep, he managed to say goodbye to his Dad before he tied his shoes and rushed down the stairs. When he got to the street was when he really started to run.
Thankfully, since the sun wasn't up yet, Izuku didn't have to worry about accidentally running someone over as he sped through the empty streets. Though if someone did see him running faster than the cars travelled, they would probably think he was using a quirk to go that fast.
He ended up reaching the beach in less than ten minutes, instead of the half an hour that it usually took. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't the first one there, as he saw All Might in his tiny form standing by the sidewalk.
"All Might?" he slowed down as he approached.
"Ah, Young Midoriya, good morning!"
"Is something happening? I thought Gran Torino would be here too"
"Ah… Right, about that. We're going somewhere safe as a precaution. If something goes wrong, we'll have Recovery Girl to help you."
"Y-yeah… that would make sense, if something gets knocked down it could hurt someone… Wait- Does that mean we're going to UA?" his eyes lit up like it was Christmas.
"Yes, but we should hurry" abruptly, the symbol of peace shifted into his Hero form in a puff of steam and put Izuku over his shoulder.
"Wha-"
"WE HAVE PLACES TO BE, AND TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN!"
All Might lept off of the sidewalk and into the sky, taking a screaming Izuku with him towards UA High.
A tired man stretched while looking into the courtyard. He had just sat through an hour-long meeting with Nezu and his other colleagues on who was doing what for the Entrance exam.
"Hey hey! Guess who's at site B for the test this Wednesday!"
He sighed and buried his face in the white scarf around his neck. "There goes my eardrums…" He turned to his blond friend while rubbing his ear with an annoyed look. "Did you really have to yell, Mic? You're standing right next to me."
"Relax buddy, it's not like you have a class to get to later. Hell, It's been almost a year and I still can't get over the fact that you expelled your whole class."
"All the more reason for me to leave and get some rest" He turned back to the window when he thought he saw something out in the corner of his eye. Too large to be a bird, too quiet for it to be a vehicle. Was it someone's quirk? "Besides, I have some things to check on."
"Oh come on, It's not like you have to do as many patrols now, what with the new guy in Musutafu sharing like, half of your patrol routes," An arm and a lot of weight came onto his shoulder, as his taller friend leaned on him.
That seemed to silence the underground pro as he looked up to the sky. Whatever he saw, it wasn't in the early morning sky, so instead, he looked down at the courtyard."While it may be true that we see each other on patrols, Vulcan has a family to-"
"What, and you don't?" his sentence was cut off. Choosing to ignore the snark in his friend's voice, he instead stepped up to the window, in favour of surveying the courtyard, and the two males in it. 'Is that All Might? And who's that with him?'
"Besides, didn't I catch you cuddling wi-" whatever he was going to say was mostly muted by the hand covering his mouth, had it not been for the blond's quirk and naturally loud voice.
"Not while we're at work, Mic," he glared at the man, who backed off with his hands up.
"Okay, Okay, but I still wanna know how it started,"
"What's this about Shota cuddling?"
"Oh for the love of…" Midnight's smug look was the first thing he saw when he turned around. He turned back to Yamada with a deadpan look. "See why I said not at work?"
"You just gestured to all of me." she approached the two, eager to eat up the apparent gossip. "Anyways, what's up?"
"That's what I'm about to find out." he starts making his way through the corridor. "I'm heading to the security room."
"Eh? The security room? Why?" Despite his back being turned, Aizawa felt his friend's eyes on him.
"As I said, that's what I'm about to find out." He continued walking.
"What got on his nerves this morning?"
"I don't know, maybe he didn't drink his hourly coffee?"
He walked through the corridor, listening to his friends chat about students which caught their eyes. Apparently, Midnight had recommended someone this year, but whoever it was likely wouldn't end up in his class because her quirk was more precision-based than power-based.
He let his thoughts drift through the list of students until his thoughts eventually wandered to the pair he saw in the courtyard. He hadn't seen anyone with dark, fluffy hair in the exam footage, and All Might didn't attend it either. The proximity alarms weren't going off, but that wasn't too surprising, he had caught a glimpse of All Might after all, but the fact that he carried someone into the school still worried him. Even though the intruder alarms weren't going off, it was better to be safe than to be sorry.
After entering the security room and logging into one of the computers, the underground pro got to work. First, he rewound the camera's times to match with when he saw something from the window, It was early, so the lighting would be poor, but thankfully, there was plenty of light in the courtyard.
However, when he checked the cameras for the courtyard, nothing appeared on the screen for that time period. The screen showed nothing but an empty yard. His focus shifted from the fountain to the surroundings as he scrolled the time forward. Oddly enough, everything seemed the same. Nothing out of place, no strangers in the halls other than occasionally seeing some of his colleagues in one or two camera shots.
Something was wrong, he knew he definitely saw people in the courtyard, but the camera feeds were empty.
He wracked his brain for answers but came up empty and sighed. "Looks like I won't be getting any rest any time soon…"
"Woah! This place is huge!" before him stood a vast empty hall. Gym Gamma according to the sign beside the door. He could hardly believe that he was standing in UA, much less that he was standing in the school before having passed the entrance exams.
"Indeed it is, my boy, it's the perfect spot for testing One for All." Toshinori stepped into the building behind him, looking around the empty space.
"Okay, but how do I do it?" he looked between his own fist, and Toshinori's.
"Oh, that's simple." a wave of steam burst forth from All Might as his voice boomed throughout the building. "JUST CLENCH YOUR BUTTCHEEKS AND YELL FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART! SMAAAASH!"
". . . eh?"
"TOSHINORI YAGI YOU BUMBLING BUFFOON!" out of nowhere, a yellow and white blur slams into the back of the blond's head. Gran Torino proceeded to bash All Might over the head with his cane, all while a string of curses flooded out of his mouth.
Izuku didn't know whether to laugh at his mentor's misfortune or to help him out, though he did have to agree with Gran Torino on this one, those instructions didn't make much if any sense. Although it would have been funny, the more help he got in mastering One for All, the better.
"I CAN EXPLAIN! I CAN EXPLAIN!" the symbol of peace yelled out. "ACK- NOT THE FACE-"
The older hero landed with a huff. "You'd better have a damn good reason, Toshinori."
"I said that to get him pumped up! So he'd hit the right switches without thinking about it!"
"..." the older hero looked at the blond for a moment in pensive silence. "That's… smart. It's a good idea, but you should have given some instructions beforehand."
He watched as All Might and Gran Torino went back and forth, thinking of a multitude of ideas and ways to view the quirk. The two heroes argued over bad ideas and bickered about good ones for several minutes as Izuku watched silently, soaking in their ideas like a sponge. The idea of One for All being an electric circuit made a lot of sense, but he also liked the idea of One for All being a flaming mass of energy, almost like the sun.
"Uh… Instructions would be nice, but I kinda want to test something first, if that's okay" Izuku stepped forward, looking for permission from either his mentor or the veteran.
With a puff of steam, All Might shrunk back into his skinny form. "Go ahead, young Midoriya. Please, let us hear this idea."
Gran Torino has a pensive look for a moment. "Something's better than nothing, maybe that'll give us something to work off of."
"Right um…" he paced around a few steps as he tried to think of how to explain his thoughts. "Right uh… I got One for All last night, and ever since I woke up I've felt… Different, like there's some sort of… something burning in me. I thought it was just something I'd eaten, but it doesn't seem like it. Do you guys think this is One for All?"
"My best guess is that it's One for All's energy inside of you, yes."
"So I was thinking, building off of something you guys said… If this feeling is like a fire burning in my heart, then what if I take that feeling and fill my arm with it when I punch?"
"The torch metaphor ey?" Gran Torino had a cocky look on his face. "Maybe that'll work, but why don't we see if you can move this energy in the first place."
"Hai!"
As he listened to the elder pros debating some more theories, Izuku stretched his body while contemplating how to activate One for All. Eventually, he found himself in the middle of the room, in a simple stance. He felt what was probably One for All as it flickered within him, almost as if it wanted to burst right out from his chest. As he took a deep breath, he felt a strange heat which rose from inside himself and started to spread wildly from his chest. So he let it. He let the power grow from his chest and tried his best to direct it. Up to his shoulder, down his arm, and into his fist.
His fist raced forward as he lunged, the power of One for all burnt beneath his skin and almost begged to be let out. crackling energy rang in his ears as he cried out, "SSSSMAAAAAAAAAA-"
But all too soon, as his fist raced forward, he suddenly found himself looking up at the bright lights in the ceiling of the training ground, the crashing waterfall of force seemingly forgotten as a dull ache in his back and front, and the sharper aching in his arm made themselves known.
"Wha-" he tried.
"That was too much energy for your arm to handle. What were you thinking going straight to a hundred like that?!"
As he looked around, he saw both Gran Torino and an inflated All Might standing- well, squatting in All Might's case- right next to him. All Might's massive palm hovered over his chest, likely from having to stop his punch and knock him over.
"Well he was able to move the energy as we thought, that's a step in the right direction. Now, how are you feeling, my boy?"
"Uh…" he grabbed the hand offered by his mentor and pushed himself back up. "My arm is sore… What happened?"
A wooden club smashed into his shin as a gruff voice answered. "You overloaded your arm, that's what. You put too much energy into that punch and as a result, you almost blew it off. If I hadn't made Toshinori stop you, we'd be racing towards Recovery Girl right now."
A look at his arm showed that there were no serious injuries. At least, none were visible on the surface level. Izuku felt like he'd just tried to lift the old van on the beach, except someone repaired it to the point where it was street legal. His arm felt sore, like the type of burning soreness after an intensive workout.
"Hmm… I managed to move it all into my arm, but it was too much for my arm to handle… I don't think the fire metaphor will work for now because of how fire can grow and spread uncontrollably, almost explosively as you said." Several ideas for fiery sources of energy flowed through his mind as Izuku thought of how to better use One for All. He brought up his arm as he muttered and raised it out in front of him with the hand clenched. Slowly, as he started to roll through the different ideas he noted which methods and ideas worked well, and which ones didn't. As he did so, he pulled out a notepad from a pocket in his pants, thankful that it didn't fall out on the way here, and started jotting down his observations.
All Might and Gran Torino watched him go through several repetitions of this process, occasionally flipping to the next page and flipping back.
"Toshinori, Why do I get the feeling that this brat could figure out everything about this quirk without us?" the elder hero looked at Izuku with fascination. Even though what he was doing was simple, and only hearing one in every fifth word he said, the older hero could tell what an amazing mind the young successor had.
"Maybe he can, I just think that he needed a push in the right direction." Toshinori deflated as he looked at his student.
Veins glowed red on Izuku's arms before they seemingly vanished, and gave the arm an almost ethereal glow, blinking between the two, and a lightless, normal arm every few seconds.
In the notes that he had jotted down as he progressed through various ideas. Even though the torch metaphor seemed to work fine, he needed some way to lower the power. His issue seemed to be with power regulation. With the torch metaphor, the "fire" spread out too wildly and chaotically. So if a fire didn't work, maybe its fuel would, and if he used fuel, he could possibly compress it too if he needed. Though for now, compacting was probably a bad idea.
The idea of using gunpowder seemed to work so far for control, but there was also the idea of a river and his dad's fire breath that came to mind, even if the latter felt weird to use due to where he was using One for All. with at least 3 seemingly functional ideas, he moved onto the other issue. He had a decent idea of how to try the gunpowder idea, but without throwing an actual punch, he didn't think he would make much headway. Trying to find a comfortable limit was a nightmare too since he couldn't put a number on how much he was using.
It was strange. He could feel the power in his arm, as well as what felt like heat.
'Maybe I should get some feedback from All Might…' he thought as he looked through his pages of notes.
Izuku pocketed his notepad and looked around the room.
"All Might! Can I test a punch again?"
This seemed to grab the two heroes' attention as he saw All Might inflating into his buff form.
"If you're sure, Young Midoriya. We'll stop you if it looks like you can't handle the power."
With All Might's reassurance, Izuku fell back into his stance and charged a fragment of One for All into his arm. The energy buzzed beneath his skin and flickered to match his every move. In an instant, his fist surged forward, and with it came a decently powerful blast of air pressure, which streamed all the way to the far side of the training ground. A small dust cloud was swept up in the blast.
His arm was only slightly bruised from the backlash of throwing that punch. He couldn't help but grin.
The power faded as he looked down at his arm. There were only small, blue bruises on it, and it definitely felt sore. Regardless, he couldn't help but feel proud of his accomplishment.
Sadly, the feeling only lasted a few seconds, as a gruff voice yelled into his ear.
"Again!"
Izuku turned in the direction of the voice and saw a black domino mask almost directly in front of him.
"Wha-" Caught off guard by his sudden approach, Izuku stumbled back a few steps.
"Keep firing off smashes, we need to see how long you can keep this up. Toshinori! You get over here too! Maybe with you, we can figure out exactly how much we're working with"
Not wanting to incur Gran Torino's wrath, the two hastily moved into place. All Might stood with his palm out, and Izuku stood opposing him mere steps away, his own hand clenched tightly into a fist. A foot stepped forward and led into a lunge, and power surged in his fist as Izuku lept.
"SMASH!"
His breath left him as he watched buildings fly by. He had been trying his best to hold back, but his newfound strength had gotten the better of him. Izuku stood on the train as he lamented the fact that his borrowed jacket had shredded itself in his rigorous testing yesterday.
He adjusted the straps on his backpack as the train pulled into the station. He was on his way to the mall for new clothes after procrastinating for two weeks.
"Doors opening. Please stand clear."
He took in a breath and stepped through the door. A wave of crisp, cold air hits him. He couldn't feel much of it, but he still rolled his sleeves back down, or at least as far as they went. His silver age hoodie used to wrap around his hands, and now they were just around his wrists. The sleeves were also uncomfortably tight, to the point where he could see his muscles peeking through the fabric.
It didn't take long for Izuku to reach the mall, and even less to find a store for clothes. He wasn't there to replace his entire wardrobe, thankfully. If he was, then his Dad would have driven them so they could carry all the clothes back in a car.
His thoughts started wandering as he entered a sporty-looking store. He was initially surprised to hear that they still had a car. Izuku had thought that his Dad had sold it when he went on the long-term mission, though when he and his Mom were driven back from the hospital, it was the same, bulky and dark grey car he remembered from early childhood.
For now, he only needed a set of comfortable exercise clothes for UA's practical exam. That was how he found himself at checkout as the cashier awkwardly watched him fold his newly bought clothes into his backpack. The top wasn't the nicest, but it felt durable enough to not break during the exam.
He stepped out the door and waved as the cashier said to come again. Thankfully, his visit to the shop didn't take nearly as long as he thought it would, then again, it wasn't like he had anything to do. He was about to check with his mom if she wanted anything from the shops when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"Midoriya-san?" a quiet voice called his name seconds later.
Izuku turned around and looked at- Oh wait, this was the girl he was trying to find.
"K-Kodai-san right?" he asked, not entirely sure what she had approached him for. Perhaps it was just because she was being friendly and saying hello. Were they friends? Izuku had no idea how close friends were, what with how terrible Aldera had been to him.
"Nn…." she nodded, looking at him with an almost blank expression from under her hood. Her hair blended in with the hoodie, much to his amusement, though he tried not to let it show.
".. Hi… Are… Are you ready for the entrance exams?"
Though the only response he got was a shrug.
For a few moments, they stood without saying anything. Izuku didn't know what to say, seeing as this was the first time he was talking to a girl at the mall his age.
"I'm… Nervous… I came here to try to find an arcade or something to take my mind of it, but I can't find one…" she paused for a moment, before looking up at him. "You're from this area, right? Do you know where an arcade is?"
Izuku froze momentarily. He knew where the arcade was, but he'd never gone into it before.
"Y-yeah… I know where one is, but I've never been inside, so I don't know if it's any good or not…"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, before curling upwards slightly. "Guess this means we'll just have to find out"
Somehow, despite his reluctance, he found himself standing deep within the arcade. Izuku couldn't help but get dragged inside, especially at his companion's reasoning. Some games were better when played with friends after all, not that he'd know, seeing as he hasn't had any real friends in years…
And so, despite his nerves, Izuku started playing with Kodai at some of the machines. Eventually, the awkwardness of the first few games left, and the two started playing more and more competitive games. Unfortunately for him though, Izuku lost track of time when they started competing with Dance Dance Revolution.
He only noticed the fact after they had attracted a crowd and he'd broken the platform by stepping too hard. The sound of the plate cracking sound was loud enough to have both of them freeze on the spot.
Izuku stared blankly as Kodai grabbed his hand, pulling him off of the cracked plate and through the crowd of onlookers. His mind was too preoccupied with the fact that a girl was holding his hand, as the thought of the broken machine lurked in the corners of his mind.
By the time the duo stopped running, they had exited the mall and had run until there was grass beneath their feet.
Izuku looked up as they slowed down to see orange skies above. The two of them had spent the majority of their day in the arcade. That's when the realisation came crashing down onto him. As funny as it was in his head, he was mortified that it had happened.
"I broke the dance pad-" he choked out, the sound of the crack the pad made echoed within his mind.
The quiet giggling from his companion broke the silence that followed, prompting the both of them to burst into laughter.
"We spent so much time trying to beat each other on that dumb machine, and then it gave up before we could" her laughter faded into the night as she finally stood straight after their hasty escape. "This was fun… Thanks"
A silence settled between the two… friends? Acquaintances? Izuku didn't know how close this made them. Not sure what else to say, Izuku broke the silence.
"It's gotten pretty late huh… we should probably head back to… um…" he thought of how Kodai was staying in the Heights temporary housing and his sentence died in his mouth.
"Nn… You still have my hat right?" she started walking towards the train station, and glanced at him as if she was saying to follow her.
Izuku followed in stride beside her. "Y-yeah, it's on my desk in my apartment. I could bring it to you tomorrow before the exams"
"Hmm… I don't like mornings but I guess that works…" She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened the phone app. "Here, give me your number."
And there went Izuku's brain again. He had zoned out so completely that he had almost walked into a road sign.
"... Hello? Midoriya-san?"
"H-huh?" Izuku's focus returned to the world around him, and to Kodai's phone.
"... Can you give me your number? It'll make it easier to meet tomorrow morning"
"O-oh right." Izuku keyed his number into her phone. He hadn't been expecting this, not at all.
A girl was asking for his number. Was he overthinking it? Probably, but it wasn't like Izuku knew what else to do in this situation plus she had a point in making it easier to coordinate with each other.
However, when she pressed the call button instead of putting her phone to sleep, all the brakes in Izuku's mind fired off. Hurriedly, he gasped for his phone and ripped it out of his pocket.
Though his companion had cut the call before he could do anything.
"There, now you have my number too… You might want to save it in your contacts though, so you know it's me later."
"I guess this means we'll talk later then?"
"Nn… We'll talk later."
Silence returned between the two as they walked through the station. Izuku had thought that what she said was a 'see you later', considering how he saw her drifting away.
And so, Izuku set his eyes on the charts on the walls of the station. It said that the train was about to leave and- oh.
"Doors Closing. Please stand clear."
Hearing the high-pitched whistle of the train's announcement systems, Izuku made a mad dash towards the train and through the open doors. Though in his haste, Izuku failed to notice the flier on the ground. While he did make it into the train cabin, he slid on the ground thanks to the flier and almost slammed into the wall opposite the door.
Once he managed to right himself, Izuku noticed the flier stuck to his shoe and the repressed giggling that came from a nearby seat. It was Kodai again.
"We're heading in the same direction, aren't we?"
Izuku exhaled shakily as he glanced at Kodai. "Y-yeah, I guess we are."
As they had agreed on text, Yui stood outside UA's gate and looked through the crowd for a head of fluffy dark green. Despite having spent the majority of the previous day at the arcade with her new friend, she was still feeling quite anxious about the day's exams. While she was sure she would get a decent grade for the written portion, she had no way of telling if her quirk would start acting up during the practical.
"Kodai-san!" a not-so-far-away voice cut through her train of thought, and she looked in the direction it came from.
Midoriya was jogging towards her, one arm waving to her while the other grasped a yellow backpack on his shoulders. She tried to not stare too much as she waved in return.
He was wearing a sleeveless exercise shirt after all, despite it being mid-winter, and she could very easily see his toned and muscular arms.
"Good Morning!" approached the young man.
"Nn… Morning…" she couldn't help but yawn after saying it. She had gotten used to waking up later since staying at UA's temporary housing, so she wasn't used to getting up before ten.
"... Are you ready for the exams?" she looked up to her companion as she asked this, brushing her red hood out of the way.
"As ready as I'll ever be…" came Midoriya's reply. "Let's hope ten months of training don't go down the drain…"
Perhaps she wasn't supposed to hear that last part, given how quiet he was, but she couldn't help but think about his words. Ten months' worth of training, and extreme training from the looks of it, sounded like it was overboard for UA's exam, especially since she heard of someone going in with no formal training and making it into the school completely fine.
"... If you ask me… Ten months seems more than enough to get in." a hand knocked on his chest to shape his attention to her. She looked at his eyes and said, "So you have nothing to worry about."
"R-right!" he looked away from her sheepishly.
"... Wanna head inside? The exam's gonna start soon, and we need to get to our seats ."
"Yeah… Let's do this."
Unsure of what to say and not in the mood to make small talk, Yui silently followed beside him. She idly looked around at the garden to the side as they passed the brunette standing past the doorway.
There were still a number of people lagging behind in UA's courtyard, slowly drifting towards the gate. Some looked like they were trying to hype themselves up, and others looked like they were going to pass out. Hell, there was a diminutive boy with what looked like grapes for hair who was shaking like a leaf.
Choosing to ignore them for now, the pair headed through the doors and were quickly ushered into exam rooms by the teachers. It was only after they split up though when she realised that she forgot to ask for her hat.
The written exams came first- they always came first. They were held in the mornings, while the practicals were always held in the afternoons. Apparently, the idea behind it was to ensure that no students would be passing out halfway through the written test due to exhaustion.
Out of all of the exams, Yui found the chemistry paper to be the most challenging. It's not that she thought her answers were wrong, rather, it was that she took too long doing calculations that she didn't have enough time to check her answers.
She sighed as she walked into one of the many lecture-hall rooms, no use crying over spilt milk. It took her a few minutes to find her seat, and then even longer for a hero, Present Mic to be specific, to show up and give a presentation. They were fighting robots it seemed, and each one had points assigned to them. Did this mean that there was a cut-off grade?
Oh, There was Midoriya… Being yelled at by someone with a stick up his ass… As Present Mic returned to explaining, she turned her attention back to the stage. What she had to do seemed simple enough. The entire entrance exam felt like one big hack and slash game to her, except everyone was a player.
Yui shook the games out of her head.
'Focus.' the words echoed around her head as she prepared for the practical portion.
The note at her seat had placed her in Training ground A, so she, along with a large group of other examinees made their way to the buses.
She ended up sitting next to a girl with pale skin and white hair. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought she was a ghost. A few people tried to strike up a conversation, but the tension was too thick to cut through. Yui herself ended up silently watching everyone until the bus stopped at the testing grounds.
The next few moments could only be described as chaotic, because one moment, people were milling about, waiting for the on-site announcer, Midnight, to count down, the next, the doors were thrown wide open, and Midnight had cracked her whip while yelling "GO". Only the boy with physics-defying purple hair rushed forward, as the rest of the competitors looked around in confusion. It took Midnight's yells to send everyone else into action.
She drew a steady breath, and exhaled, before running forward, swerving around the other competitors. Yui was determined to become a hero, and she wasn't going to let anyone stop her.