Izuku had never been so happy to wake up to see his own bedroom ceiling before. While his brief stint in the hospital hadn't been too terrible, staying put in one place had never been either his or Kacchan's strong points. If it hadn't been for the distraction of the visits by his Uncle Mirai and Recovery Girl, Izuku was pretty sure at least some of that time would have been spent by the two of them trying to escape.
The two of them had been surprised Friday afternoon when Mirai had just turned up out of the blue but a quick explanation of the fact that Izuku had not been to only one collecting All Might merchandise in the family and that the man didn't want to burn down his own Hero agency had answered most any questions that they had held. They were less surprised when the man returned the next two days following his patrols to keep them company with the addition of his laptop so he could still work his normal hours.
Izuku was however surprised that his Uncle Shouta had never turned up. The man was still very much a mystery to Izuku. Despite being added to the group chat with everyone else, the man had made no effort to talk with Izuku directly and had even gone so far as to mute the chat. As much as his gut twisted at the idea, Izuku couldn't help but worry that his other Uncle didn't actually want to meet him.
Still, he should wait to worry about this until after he had at least gotten ready for his first day of school with Kacchan since they had both been attacked.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Shouta would never openly admit it but he was nervous. He had known the moment the words left his mouth about himself being a possible proctor of Izuku's exam, that he was going to be stuck with the job. It was only logical that he would be the one to do it since he didn't currently have a homeroom and thus was the most available person on the UA staff. It however meant he had to put off meeting Izuku as his uncle until after the exam. If it was discovered that the student knew the teacher proctoring the exam personally, the test could possibly be thrown out, but if they held off until after the scores had been finalized then it would be fine.
Which is why the first time he was going to see his nephew after the kid had nearly given him a heart attack, would be not as his Uncle Shouta but as the Pro-Hero Eraserhead, member of UA staff. So no one could really blame him for internally freaking out as he stood waiting in a mostly empty classroom, test papers on the currently empty student desk in front of him. Shouta could just hope that the kid would forgive him later for this bit of subterfuge to quickly get him out of this horror show that called itself a school.
While the request for a warrant for the investigation had yet to go through, Nedzu had not held off on beginning his investigation. Based on the Rat's barely contained fury when he had spit out the name of the school in question just this morning to Shouta as he stopped by UA for the testing paperwork, what he had found had been likely less than good.
Shouta had just leaned back against the wall and started counting his breaths to regain some semblance of calm when the door opened. Before Shouta could even register the presence of his nephew, Izuku's eyes widened and a small panicked squeal escaped his mouth. "You're Eraserhead!"
It took all of Shouta's self control to not react to his surprise that Izuku had recognized his hero persona without a moment's hesitation. Thankfully Shouta quickly realized the beginnings of what seemed to be a panic attack buried in the mumblestorm that was escaping the kid's lips. Slowly he approached the kid and rested his hand on his shoulder and gently tugged him into the room before closing the door behind him. When the kid showed no sign of reacting to the touch or even being moved, Shouta lowered himself to be eye level with Izuku. "Kid, you need to breathe. You just were in the hospital for a punctured lung."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Izuku had not been expecting to be sent down to the front office the moment he set foot in class, trailing through the door behind Kacchan. He was additionally caught off guard when he was informed he was going to be taking a level assessment test proctored by a UA staff member. In other words, a Pro-Hero. On the walk to the room he would be spending the day in, he couldn't help but run through his mental list of the members of UA staff openly acknowledged on the school's website. Not every hero on staff was listed of course, given that they openly admitted to having Underground heroes for the classes where the staff member was unlisted, but Izuku couldn't help himself as he tried to make a guess as to who he would be stuck for the majority of the day with.
Eraserhead had never occurred to him. Izuku heard the startled cry pass his lips of "You're Eraserhead!" before fully short-circuiting. All he could do was helplessly listen to himself excitedly ramble on how cool a hero he was and how he was one of his favorite heroes that he had never thought he would get a chance to meet in person.
Izuku hadn't registered their change in positions until the hero spoke. Suddenly jolting out of his thoughts, Izuku took in a sharp breath and forced himself to focus on counting them like his Uncle Mirai had helped him and Kacchan learn while stuck in the hospital. After a moment, he registered a hand moving from his shoulder. Izuku shifted his focus back to the Hero in front of him.
Eraserhead's eyes held a soft look of concern when they met his own. "You good kid? Sorry for touching you without asking but you seemed completely out of it."
"It's fine. Sorry if I worried you, I just get so excited sometimes about different Heroes that my mouth just runs away on me. You are sort of one of my favorites and I had never really expected to actually meet you-"
Eraserhead cut him off. "How do you even know about me, kid? I'm an Underground hero."
"Oh! Um, you patrol near my apartment building so I've seen you sometimes outside my widow when I stay up a bit late. You stop to feed the cat in the alley across the street sometimes."
The Hero seemed a bit dumbfounded at that. "Okay but how did you find out my Hero name? You couldn't have just found out who I was from that."
Izuku felt his face heat up at that. "You have a sort of Underground following online. Most Underground heroes do. I asked around on one of the Hero forums after I had seen you a few times once I realized that you were an Underground hero. Someone you helped out recognized my description of you and told me your Hero name before asking me to take down my post."
The Hero seemed to accept that explanation as he straightened back up to his full height. "Good to know my information isn't that easy to find still. You good to start your test now or do you need a minute?"
Izuku blushed but nodded and moved over to the desk set up for himself. He watched as Eraserhead pulled out his phone before turning it around so Izuku could see the timer app open on the screen set to 3 hours. "You will have 3 hours to complete that test packet to the best of your ability. After you either finish or the time runs out, you will head back to resume your normal classes. Normally I would tell you that you should expect a few more days of normal classes while you wait for the test to be reviewed but Nedzu told me this morning that he would be grading your test himself this afternoon so you and your mother should be informed by tomorrow morning at the latest of your score. I will start the timer when you flip over the test sheet to begin."
That was a lot to mentally process. Izuku had known that Nedzu was at least aware of him thanks to the chimera's presence in the investigation chat but he hadn't realized the mustelid-opossum hybrid was that interested in himself. Izuku idly wondered if he should be concerned about that fact. Taking a deep breath Izuku flipped the test over.
Solve the following equations for x:
½(x - 3) + x = 17 + 3(4 - x)
|x - 5| = 4
-2x + 4 ≥ 3
x² - x - 2 > 0
Huh. Izuku was surprised at how simple the first questions were. Of course, the test could just start with some easy questions and only scale up in difficulty as the sections progressed. Still as he flew through the math section, Izuku was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that maybe he was actually just good at math. All of the questions were just as straight forward for him in the section as the first few and before he finished thinking to himself that there would be more challenging questions later on, he was flying through the sciences portion of the test.
Before he knew it, Izuku went to flip to the next page of the test only to find that there was no next page. He was already done. Quickly flipping back to the start, Izuku read over his answers to double check his work. Then he was at the end of the packet again.
Just as he was about to flip through once more, a voice spoke up from the front of the room. "I've found that overthinking my answers on a test is counterproductive." Right, Eraserhead was watching him. Izuku looked up to watch as the man stopped the timer on his phone. "If you're finished already I can go ahead and see about getting that packet to Nedzu and you can rejoin your class."
Izuku nodded before standing up and walking the test over. "How much time did I have left?"
Eraserhead took the test and began to quickly thumb through it. "A little under an hour. It took just over an hour and 40 minutes for you to work through the packet and another 30 minutes to review all of your work. I already have a sneaking suspicion that you will be working on class work on a higher level then most of your classmates next year once you start officially at UA. I wouldn't put it past Nedzu to change your schedule slightly so that you are able to work on things on your actual level."
"At UA next year?"
"You have a spot guaranteed for you in the general studies and business courses at the bare minimum. If you want to shoot for heroics or support you still have to take their courses practicals. From what I can tell flipping through this, you already aced the entrance exam."
Izuku felt his brain fizzle slightly. "I what?"
Eraserhead gave Izuku a wide, albeit slightly crazed looking, grin. "It was a bit of a logical ruse on our part. Why do you think a UA staff member had to be the one to proctor the test?" He reached forward and ruffled Izuku's hair slightly. "You should head back to your class for what should hopefully be the last time. I'll see you around, kid."
With that the Underground Hero turned and vanished out the door.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Katsuki was concerned when Izuku had been sent out of the class the moment he had entered. It took a lot of work on his part to focus on his class work to try to get caught up with what they had missed while in the hospital. So when Izuku staggered in and sat down wordlessly at his desk behind him part way through their math class, Katsuki was worried.
The Nerd didn't take out anything for notes which was very much not like him. Before he could register what he was doing, Katsuki had written a note and quickly turned and placed it on the desk behind him for Izuku to read.
What is going on? You look dead.
A few moments later, he heard the faint sound of pen on paper before the scrap of paper rested on his shoulder.
I apparently just took the UA entrance exam. They told me it was just a level assessment test before I started. Eraserhead thinks that I did well enough on it to have passed already.
No way. How the fuck did that happen? Also who the fuck is Eraserhead?
Eraserhead is an Underground hero that patrols the nearby area. Apparently he is one of the unlisted teachers at UA. As for how it happened, all I know is that apparently Nedzu took an interest in me because of the case.
Don't tell me that this means that you are going to transfer into UA a year early. That would mess everything up.
I'm not starting this year. Eraserhead said that I will have a spot in one of the courses next year. All this means is that I apparently won't have to come to school here anymore.
That makes sense I guess. Passing a high school's entrance exam would probably be proof enough that you don't need to stick around in a junior high for the rest of a school year. It is not like you would get much out of sticking around. You could use the extra time for your hero training.
Yeah I was thinking that too. I will still need to pass some sort of practical portion of the heroics exam to enter the hero course. I will use all the extra time to get into proper shape.
We will have to see about getting you signed up for a gym this afternoon for sure.
Satisfied with this new found knowledge Katsuki turned back to focus on class. Internally he was frustrated at the situation. It was painfully clear now that the school had been screwing with Izuku's grade. How was Katsuki ever supposed to really be the best if the main person he was competing against was not even being allowed to play the game?
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Izuku forced himself to relax as he led Kacchan into the gym halfway between Aldera Junior High and their neighborhood. While it was hardly the nicest gym around, it was the largest gym that Izuku would be able to join. Theoretically anyways. The pair of boys walked casually up to the front desk. The man behind the desk, some sort of mutant type Quirk that left the man with a full body covering of fur, waved to the two in greeting. "Welcome! I don't think I've seen you two around before. I'm Ketsuken Sachi. How can I help?"
"My name is Midoriya Izuku and this is Bakugou Katsuki. We were hoping to sign up here to work on our training for the UA entrance exam." Izuku offered.
The man flashed a wolfish grin as he picked up a table from the counter between them. "I can help you with that. We actually have a few different kinds of training programs for Hero hopefuls. So what kind of Quirks are we working with?"
Izuku felt his tongue glue itself to the roof of his mouth. This was as far as he got before he had his application rejected due to his Quirk status. Thankfully Kacchan took over. "Mine is called Explosion." He held up his hands before Sparking them. "I have a medical license to use my Quirk periodically so I am good on that front. The Nerd is Quirkless."
And there it was. Izuku felt his stomach churn as the man on the other side of the desk got a puzzled look on his face for a moment as he shifted his gaze to the tablet. "I'm guessing that you're aware of the gym's policy for minors who have non combative type Quirks as well as Quirkless that you cannot be given access to certain parts of the gym without a designated spotter for liability reasons."
"That's why I am here."
Ketsuken nodded as he continued to search for something on the tablet. "Ah. Here it is." He gave the pair a smile. "Sorry about that. The forms I needed to find for you two were not where they were supposed to be. We don't get many new non physical Quirk sign ups with both new members being minors." He passed the tablet over. "Make sure you both add a good emergency contact number. Can I make a copy of that medical license for our records? I would hate for the two of you to have your training interrupted by someone when you are using your Quirk as directed by your doctor."
Izuku felt his heart rise at that. He had known this would be the best gym for them but having at least one staff member that was clearly unbothered by the fact Izuku was medically Quirkless was a pleasant surprise. He took the tablet and they moved over the bench that sat to the side of the entrance way. "Do you want me to fill out your paperwork too?"
Kacchan pulled his sketchbook and a pencil out of his backpack. "Knock yourself out. It'll give me more time to work on finalizing this design for you."
Izuku gave him a smile and began filling out the forms. The longest section to fill out for the pair was on the form for Kacchan in the relevant medical conditions section. Izuku entered a concise, for Izuku, explanation on how Kacchan's Quirk worked and why it was so important that he be allowed to Spark frequently while he worked out. "Who did you want me to put down for your emergency contact?"
"My dad or Auntie. The Hag doesn't always answer the phone if she doesn't know the incoming number. Besides, if something happens while we are here that requires the staff to call for us, your mom is getting called anyways."
"Good point." Izuku quickly added his mother in as Kacchan's contact, noting her as Kacchan's aunt. Then came the fun of filling out the billing information which Izuku filled out for the pair of them with the information on his mother's credit card he remembered from the other day. They could always update the information later if they needed to change it.
That finished, Izuku hopped back up and walked back up to the desk. Ketsuken smiled as he accepted the tablet back. He studied the information for a few minutes. "Everything looks good here. Can the two of you move to stand in front of that blank bit of wall there? We need to get a photograph of each of you for our records and your gym IDs. Those should be done printing out pretty quick. Are you two planning on using the facilities today?"
Izuku nodded as he moved into position. A quick flash of the camera and Kacchan swapped places with him. "We want to look around so we can best plan our training."
"You two seem fairly confident. I'm guessing the pair of you are working hard studying for the written exam too."
Kacchan snorted at that. "The Nerd has nothing to worry about on that side of things at least. He has a spot guaranteed to him in the UA general studies course at a minimum next year. He just tested out of our year earlier today."
Ketsuken raised his brows at that. "Impressive. Alright, we are good to go. You two can pick up your cards when you leave today. The gym lockers are just through those doors there if you are planning on changing. From there you should have full access to the facilities. I would advise you two invest in a pair of locks for the lockers for next time if you don't already have some. While there hasn't been any issues with anyone stealing stuff from unlocked lockers recently, it has happened in the past sadly so it would always be better safe than sorry."
Izuku gave Ketsuken one last smile as he turned to enter the men's locker room. He and Kacchan quickly found a pair of free lockers that their backpacks would fit into and pulled out their work out clothes that they had shoved to the bottom of their bags before leaving for school that morning. Once changed they headed out to the main room of the gym. In addition to your normal gym work out equipment, at the far side of the room was one of the main reasons Izuku had wanted to join this particular gym. The parkour course. "Do you think you can time me running that course?"
Kacchan rolled his eyes. "I'll have to go back and grab my phone. I can't watch you and the clock at the same time otherwise. You'll have to do the same for me after."
Izuku grinned and shoved Kacchan lightly back in the direction of the locker room before moving off to the side to do a few of the stretches he had read up on during his research. Or at least try to do them. Something Izuku immediately realized was that a few of the stretches were beyond what his current range of motion could do. Oh well, that would just have to improve with time.
Once Kacchan had returned, phone in hand, they wandered over to the course. It was currently in use, so the pair took up positions to watch the teen on the course. It took a second for it to register that the boy on the course already was partially in a UA gym uniform. Izuku watched in a bit of awe as the blonde suddenly phased into the final obstacle only to reappear moments later on the platform at the top of the wall. "Time!"
"That was 15 seconds faster than the last run." Izuku turned his head to look at the voice. Another presumably UA student, this one with indigo hair, stood off to the side with a stopwatch in hand. Izuku didn't hesitate before walking over to him.
"Hey, are you running the course next or can the two of us run it?"
That led to the indigo haired boy to let out a startled cry of alarm. Thankfully before he started to really panic the blonde hurried over and threw his arm over the other teen's shoulder. "It's all yours! Sorry about Tamaki here, he gets nervous easily in front of new people. It's one of the reasons we use this gym's parkour course and not one of the gym's back at UA."
Izuku frowned at that. "That must make the Sports Festival pretty miserable for you."
"Yeah, the Nerd has some social anxiety too. If it wasn't for his ADHD, he would probably not be able to handle crowds."
The older blonde gave Izuku a curious look at that. "Really, you seem fine right now?"
Izuku shrugged. "I mostly have issues with adults. The two of you are just a bit older than us so my anxiety isn't too bad right now. Besides, you look like your anxiety is worse than mine." He then plastered a grin on his face and gave a short bow. "I'm Midoriya Izuku by the way and this is my cousin Bakugou Katsuki. We are actually here to train for joining UA's heroics course next year."
The grinning blonde released his hold over his friend and folded himself in a more formal bow. "I'm Togata Mirio and this is my good friend Amajiki Tamaki. The two of us are currently members of UA's class 2-A. It is nice to meet our possible future kōhai."
Kacchan scoffed at that. "Nothing possible about it. The Nerd already has a seat in next year's class as a Gen-Ed student at a minimum and I have aced all the mock written exams for UA that I have taken. The only thing we need to worry about is the heroics practical."
Togata's brows shot up at that. "A guaranteed seat? I don't think I have ever heard of that happening before with UA."
Izuku blushed. "A-apparently I just took the written portion of the entrance exam today. Nedzu sent someone from UA to proctor the test for me this morning at our Junior High."
Togata let out a low whistle at that. "You've caught the principal's eye? I am not sure if I should be more impressed or worried by that. The last person I heard of that caught his eye was Aizawa-sensei."
That caught both of the younger boy's attentions. While they had known to some degree that Izuku's Uncle Shouta was on UA staff thanks to the exchange between him and Nedzu in the investigation chat, they had not expected to meet someone who had had the man as a teacher before they even met him. "Aizawa-sensei? What is he like?"
Togata shook his head. "Ah, sorry I shouldn't have mentioned him! All I think I would be allowed to say about him without getting into more trouble is that he doesn't teach students he doesn't think have real potential. He is sort of a UA cryptid."
Kacchan let out a huff of annoyance but Izuku gave a nod of understanding. "That is fair. All the teachers for heroics course students are Pro-heroes right? The last thing they need is for students to run around revealing their civilian identities to anyone who asks."
Togata brightened back up at that. "Exactly!" He clapped his hands together. "You two wanted to run the course right? Do you want any tips beforehand?"
Kacchan gave a feral grin at that and Sparked his palms. "Nah, we can handle it. Nerd, you wanted to run first right?"
Izuku nodded. "If you still don't mind Kacchan."
"I hope you don't mind a bit of an audience. I'm sure Tamaki and I一" Togata cut himself off as he finally seemed to realize his friend had vanished over the course of the conversation. "Er, maybe another time then. It was nice to meet the two of you."
Izuku grinned and nodded. "You too." With a final wave, Togata vanished into the maze of gym equipment. New possible friends now gone, Izuku turned his attention to the course. "You have the timer ready?"
Kacchan nodded. "I'll count down to start the timer for you, Nerd."
Izuku flashed another grin at him and walked over to the starting platform. On the ground all over the course was a series of different colored paths made of colored tape. Following the green one with his eyes, Izuku quickly plotted the course in his head. Then, as he heard Kacchan give the signal, he allowed his body to move without thinking.
Trusting his instincts and the mental map he had created, Izuku rapidly flew through the start of the course. The first section was all just basic running and jumping over obstacles. It wasn't until he reached the rings over a pit of foam that he had his first real issue. Izuku just did not have the upper body strength yet to make it past the first two rings. Nor was he even able to attempt the salmon ladder that Izuku had already questioned the helpfulness of learning to do later on. Thankfully, outside of those two obstacles that relied so heavily on a person's upper body, Izuku had no real issues. Even the vertical wall run to the final platform was doable once he got a proper run up to it. As he flopped onto his back panting, Kacchan walked over to nudge him with his foot. "Going to be honest Nerd, you did a hell of a lot better than I was expecting with how often you trip over your own feet. We should probably work on your endurance and upper body though."
Panting Izuku shoved himself back up into a sitting position. "I need to work on my flexibility too. How fast was I though?"
"You finished in under 5 minutes but that doesn't take into account the fact you had to completely skip that one obstacle."
Izuku nodded. "You ready to give it a go." Kacchan only grinned as he passed his phone over to Izuku.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Both boys were comfortably sore as they walked out of the gym. They had only worked out for a total of half an hour but Izuku thought it would be best to not push it on just the first day and risk hurting themselves. As they walked home, a thought hit Izuku.
"It's your birthday tomorrow."
Kacchan turned his head to give Izuku a bit of an odd look. "Yeah, and?"
"Sorry, it's just with everything that happened over the past few days, I totally forgot."
Kacchan snorted and bumped their shoulders together. "It's fine, Nerd. I've been an ass to you for years."
Izuku frowned. "I'm not saying it like that. I bought your birthday present weeks ago. I am just saying that it is possible we won't be able to do much after school tomorrow because of it."
Kacchan shrugged. "Well if you don't end up having to go back to school tomorrow, you will have to make up for the time we are losing later."
"I feel kinda bad that I might end up ditching you at school on your birthday."
"It's not like you have been getting anything out of going. Yeah, it will suck not having you there in class but I would be lying if I said I would rather you be there if it meant you were just going to get bullied."
"Today wasn't that bad."
"You also missed homeroom. You don't want to hear some of the shit that some of the extras were saying about you. Plus you missed the shit they did to your desk."
Izuku shrugged. "I doubt it would be much of anything new."
Kacchan practically growled. "Any of them leave you spider-lilies before when I wasn't around?"
Izuku froze mid-step. "No. That is new." He shook his head and fell back into step with Kacchan. "There are a couple of guys in our class that have suicide baited me before but normally they just tell me to go kill myself."
Kacchan seemed to curl into himself. "It's my fault. Word probably went around the shitty extras what I said to you after school before everything happened."
Izuku bumped their shoulders together again. "Don't blame yourself for their actions. I wouldn't be surprised if they had done the same thing even if you hadn't一 hadn't told me to jump. I know you didn't really mean it even if it was a shitty thing to tell anyone, not just me."
"Sorry again anyways."
Izuku gave Kacchan a sad grin. "The fact that you're actually sorry is why, even if I can't forgive you for what you said, I still consider you my friend."
Kacchan sparked his palms before throwing his arm over Izuku's shoulder. "I don't deserve you."
Izuku grinned as he leaned into the rare display of physical affection from his best friend. "Nope, but you can't get rid of me that easily."
Kacchan ruffed Izuku's hair. "Don't I know it. So, Nerd, what is the plan for tomorrow if you get to skip out on school for the rest of the year?"
Izuku shrugged. "I guess I could go shopping for stuff for my vigilante outfit though I am not sure how I am going to explain it."
Kacchan seemed to take a moment to consider it. "Isn't there that one Hero convention in a few months? We could plan on going there together in cosplay. It would give me an excuse for why I need the sewing machine for a few hours at night."
Izuku felt his brows shoot up at that. "You would really go through that much trouble?"
Kacchan shrugged. "While I still think Hero conventions are stupid, I wouldn't mind actually going to one with you. At least if we are both in costume, there is less of a chance people will recognize me later as the guy with you as you completely nerd out over all the Heroes there."
Izuku snickered. "Okay, that is fair. So who should we go as? I should probably do something simple so that you aren't making three costumes mostly by yourself."
"I was going to do Best Jeanist for myself. We still have some of the patterns from that one photoshoot my parents did with him a while back so it wouldn't be that hard for me to do. Not looking forward to putting that much gel in my hair though."
Izuku considered his options. "As funny as it would be for me to do a Sir Nighteye cosplay, it would probably be a bad idea to draw attention to how much we look alike. Present Mic would be too much of a project to do for a costume so I guess I could do Eraserhead."
"That's the Hero that you met today right?"
Izuku nodded. "His Hero outfit is pretty lowkey. I would just need a black outfit and a couple accessories that wouldn't be hard to make myself. The utility belt from the costume could be the one for my vigilante out too."
Kacchan shrugged. "Sounds like that would work. Get me a picture of the belt design you want so I can make it."
"I can draw it up tonight. You want me to get some industrial strength hair gel for you tomorrow if I end up being free to go shopping?"
"If you want. Maybe you could look into temporary hair color that might not stain my hair. My hair is a lighter blonde then Best Jeanist's."
"I'll look into it."