Shoto was on fire which was probably attracting a bit more attention from his competition then he would have preferred but, if he wanted to go for as long as possible before having to light up again to thaw himself out, starting out slightly overheated would be to his advantage.
"Uh, dude? You know you are on fire right?"
He turned to meet the concerned gaze of a concerned looking guy with silvery hair, shark teeth and what looked like metal shards growing from around his eyes. "Yes."
The boy scratched his head. "So, uh, that is intentional then? Aren't you worried about tiring yourself out before the test even starts?"
"I am thermoregulating in preparation actually. I can't use both halves of my Quirk at the same time so I am heating myself up so I can use my ice for longer since I can use it more easily without worrying about accidentally harming others."
His eyes widened before he broke out in a disorientingly familiar grin. Oh. Huh. Eijiro never mentioned having a twin. Or was it a half brother? "Dude it's super manly of you to be thinking about your competition like that!"
Yeah they were definitely related. "Thanks. Todoroki Shoto."
His grin brightened. "Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu! Nice to meet you man!"
Shoto considered the boy. "Does your Quirk have something to do with iron then?"
He nodded and raised his arm in demonstration, it turning instantly into a polished silver color. "Yeah my Quirk is called Steel. I can cover my whole body in a layer of it so long as I have enough iron in me. Too little and I can't transform all the way and end up a bit anemic afterwards."
Shoto nodded and raised his own burning left arm. "My Quirk is Half-Cold Half-Hot. I create flames on my left side and ice on my right. Like I said I have to thermoregulate or I risk overheating or giving myself frostbite since I only resist the temperatures on the appropriate sides."
The boy nodded in understanding. But before they could chat much more the signal to go was given. Shoto immediately turned off his flames and rushed into the testing site. In front of the group he slammed down his right foot and a massive glacier engulfed the robots ahead of him. A horn went off from a speaker on a nearby building, before a voice crackled out of it. "Todoroki if you could please exit the testing site. With that one attack you have already scored the maximum of 100 villain points allowed for the test so you can leave the rest for the others."
Shoto frowned but looked up at a camera drone and gave it a small bow before casually strolling back out passed the stunned onlookers that had yet to even start. He paused in front of them. "You all know the test has started right?"
That kicked them into motion as he strolled the rest of the way back to the bus, lighting up for a few seconds to warm himself back up. He could probably take a nap while he waited.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Some of the teachers gave Nedzu and Vlad shocked looks. Yagi gave a sputtering cough of blood (the man having talked his way into watching the testing as the future Heroics teacher and wanting to see how his successor did most likely). "What the actual hell what that? Why was he not a recommendations student?"
Nedzu gave his more human socially acceptable laugh. "Oh, he would have been had he not requested during his interview to take the regular exam. He was aware of our little Vigilante issue so basically offered his seat for his friend. He wasn't the only one to try and do so. Take a look at site G for example…"
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Testing Center G
Eijiro watched the high energy form of who he could only assume to be Yoarashi from spotting him with both Shoto and Hitoshi earlier. He was practically vibrating in excitement for the start of the test which as Hitoshi would say was a total mood. Eijiro was just as ready to start as he clearly was. Unfortunately for Eijiro though, he was stuck in only his track pants because his Quirk would have totally destroyed any warm top he could have worn.
God it was cold out here.
"Uh, not to be rude but are you okay without a shirt on? It's kind of cold."
Eijiro turned from his attempted distraction from the cold to this new one. A girl with long ginger hair in a teal tracksuit was giving him a concerned look. Eijiro rubbed his arms to try and warm up. "Not really but I didn't want to destroy my jacket."
Her eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh! You have a transformation type Quirk then?"
Eijiro nodded and briefly Hardened before releasing it. "Yeah, my Hardening is not exactly great for my wardrobe."
She nodded. "Yeah my Big Fist is the same if I am not careful to remember to roll up my sleeves if they are not really loose in the first place."
Eijiro looked around at the crowd. "I hope we start soon. I'll warm up once I can start moving around more."
As if listening to his prayers, there was a loud shout of "Go!"
Eijiro did not hesitate to start running into the artificial city but he was not the only one. Yoarashi literally flew overhead with a whoop of delight. Not one to let the boy outpace him, he activated his Quirks and picked up the pace, charging through the robots like they were made of tissue paper as he built up momentum with his rock hard skin. It took him a second to realize that like this it was as if he was running around with one of those invincibility stars from Mario Kart.
He gave a laugh of delight. This was awesome!
Coming to a break in the robots, Yoarashi came to land next to him with a laugh. "It is amazing to see a fellow future hero with just as much passion in a fight! I believe we likely both have scored enough Villain points to pass with no issue so did you want to go check to make sure some of the testers that might be struggling slightly are not getting too hurt?"
Eijiro returned his passionate grin. "Of course! What kind of hero would I be if I didn't help out those who might need it!"
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Toshinori grinned as his successor and a boy that likely would be one of his new friends come class start split off from one another to check on their fellow testers. One of his future fellow teachers (the one that had been laughing at Eraserhead's displeasure at seeing someone had helped his son sneak in a gun for the test) pointed at the screen showing the boy with the wind Quirk. "The kid isn't wrong about having enough Villain points alone for both of them to pass. The only reason they haven't both hit 100 Villains points yet too is they were stealing from one another by sticking together. It is possible that if they pick up enough Rescue points they both might end up with scores over 100 and set some new records like Todoroki just did."
Nedzu nodded. "It seems like that will be in the hands of our esteemed judges."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Testing Center E
Hanta was a bit disappointed that he didn't seem to have had any luck in finding either Loki or Sir's other nephew. Though in his defense, he had no clue what either of them really looked like outside of the fact that they might have had green hair like Sir did. The complete lack of guys with green hair as far as he noticed basically had proven that theory wrong though.
Or, well, there was that one guy with green hair here at his testing site but he doubted that Sir's one Quirked nephew had such a prominent mutation aspect to what was apparently a transformative type Quirk to grow blades from his jaw and arms based on how the guy was cutting through robots like they were straw dummies. That seemed like that was something that would have probably come up in casual conversation at least once between Sir and his father.
He shrugged off the disappointment. Oh well, he would get his chance on the first day of classes so long as he passed. With that in mind he threw himself more fully into breaking the robots.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Testing Center F
Mina was admittingly a bit nervous about passing. Sure, she was not having any trouble with busting all these robots but she admittingly was finding herself helping others get out of the way of attacks in time more than she was melting shit with her acid. Plus there was the whole writing half of the exam that she couldn't help but worry she might have failed. She had always sucked at written testing under pressure. She was a kinesthetic learner not a visual or auditory one. That is why she had always rocked at dance and why she was so sure she would be great at Heroics. After all here she was moving with more skill then a drunken giraffe like she swore so of the competition were with just how bad they were at dodging.
There was that one buff guy smashing through the bots that she had to protect the back of multiple times and the vine haired girl who had failed to uproot herself when a blast came from one of the robots she was in the middle of breaking. It was like no one here but her and that one girl with the headphone jack ears had any understanding of situational awareness. The two of them had basically silently agreed to help keep these guys alive.
Mina had to wonder if Kirishima was dealing with something similar in his own testing site.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Testing Center B
Tenya stared up at the massive robot down the street with the rest of the test takers as it burst through a nearby building. Instinct and Hizashi's previous instructions ringing in his mind, he began to turn to run when a noise stopped him. A cry of pain, something he was far more instinctually trained to listen for after spending so much time with Izuku drilling proper listening skills and situational awareness into him since they had become friends.
Tenya's head snapped back around as he scanned…There! A girl was pinned down under a chunk of building. Shit his Quirk wouldn't be much help in that regard. He spun on the spot quickly cataloging the visible Quirks of those in range to help. He grabbed a boy with multiple arms as he ran past. "There is a girl back there pinned by concrete, can you help me get it off her so we can get her to safety."
One of the boy's arms shifted into an eye to look back around before he nodded and ran in her direction. Tenya of course still approved first. "Just hold on, I grabbed someone to help me get you out of there. Do you think you could use you Quirk in any way to help get yourself free?"
She shook her head. "I'm passed my limit. Any more weight I cancel with my Quirk and I will be too sick to move."
Tenya frowned. "Don't worry about that, I can carry you out of the way."
The other boy had caught up now and was quick to move to shift the slab off of her. With a wince she twisted back and slapped it with all five fingers and the slab went flying as the gravity on it was immediately canceled. Tenya didn't even wait long enough for it to hit the ground before scooping her up in a bridal carry and beginning to jog away. The other boy seemed to have realized what had happened quick enough and was running again too.
They had just reached the gates with the others when the final call of the test ending rang out and Recovery Girl pushed her way forward through the newly opened gates and beelined over to them. "They saw her get hit up in the control center so made sure I came here first. Honestly, it is nothing short of miraculous that more of you kids don't get hurt in these death arenas like this."
The visibly queasy girl frowned. "I was the only one that got hurt?"
Recovery Girl shook her head. "No but you are the only one who had the bad luck of being hit by falling building. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that someone else had hurt themselves badly in the chaos though." She then kissed the girl on her forehead, knocking her out. "Iida, right? See to it that she gets put on the medical stretcher to go sleep off my Quirk. You are not hurt I take it?"
Tenya shook his head before bowing as best he could with the sleeping girl in his arms. "Thank you for asking."
She scoffed. "So well behaved. How you and your brother are related is beyond me." She wandered off to look over some of the others.
The boy he had recruited to help him help the girl drifted over, a mouth now on the end of one of his arms. "It seems my help was not needed after all."
Tenya shrugged and carried the girl over to the medical bots. "I was working under the assumption that her Quirk would not be of use to get her free since I was uncertain on the matter. I thought it would be better to have the extra hands if needed… Oh, uh, pun not intended."
The boy laughed slightly. "It's fine. I am more impressed that you noticed her first. Not a whole lot escapes me with my Quirk so I was surprised when you pointed her out."
"I have a friend from my current school who does situational awareness drills on all of our group. You can only be pelted with things so many times out of the blue before you are aware of your surroundings all the time. I blame his cousin and the rest of that part of his family. They are all completely nuts from what I have heard and seen."
The boy's mouth curled up slightly in amusement. "They sound fun. I am assuming that since Recovery Girl mentioned a brother and called you by name that your brother is probably a hero?"
Tenya nodded. "My older brother is the hero Ingenium. My apologies, I just realized I failed to introduce myself." He bowed at the other boy. "Iida Tenya."
The other boy returned the bow. "Shoji Mezo."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Testing Center A (15 minutes earlier)
Katsuki bounced on the balls of his feet as he started to get his blood pumping. He was really glad he had insisted on getting Hitoshi started training with a weapon ASAP once he realized that the other boy would be able to use one if he filed the right paperwork. This would be a piece of cake for him but destroying robots was very much out of his pseudo cousin's wheel house.
"My you look awfully calm. A good Quirk matchup I take it?"
Katsuki looked over at the blonde grinning extra that had walked up into his personal bubble. "Yeah, what of it?"
The boy stuck out a hand to shake in a rather western manner. "Monona Neito. I was wondering if I could use my Quirk to Copy yours for the start of the test."
Katsuki considered the boy for a beat before a voice in his head that sounded annoyingly like the Nerd reminding him he was trying to be less of a jerk and another like Dusty that real heroes help those weaker than themselves. He stuck his fist out so that Copycat wouldn't accidentally poison himself. "Bakugou Katsuki, Explosion. My Quirk turns my sweat into nitroglycerin that I ignite with sparks from my palms. Shits poisonous so make sure you make sure your palms are clear or the stuff when your copy runs out unless you want to end up in the hospital. How long can you keep a copy?"
The boy tapped the back of his hand. "Five minutes from contact."
"So assuming that the test starts in the next few, you will still need to tap me two more times?'
The boy gave him a surprised look. "You would let me refresh the copy during the exam?"
Katsuki shrugged. "So long as you don't kill steal from me I don't really give a shit. Your Quirk is pretty versatile but the test isn't designed in your favor any more than it is for people with useful mental Quirks. I don't mind helping get around the rigged system. Besides, you don't have the practice with my Quirk to possibly out class me with it so what's the issue?"
The boy's grin turned a bit more natural. "You're not so bad Bakugou. I had thought that maybe you would be one of those stuck up guys who think that since they are hot shit with their fancy heroic Quirk that everyone else is lesser than them."
Katsuki huffed, unable to not think about how he had sort of been like that less than a year before he got his wake up call. "Yeah, well my cousin is Quirkless and is the single most terrifying guy our age I know so Quirks aren't everything."
"Quirkless? Really? Not a hidden Quirk perhaps?"
"Yeah, his Old Man got his genes fully mapped so he definitely doesn't have a Quirk factor."
Copycat looked a bit of at a loss for how to respond to that. "Huh. I didn't realize there still were Quirkless kids being born. I thought they were all part of the older generation."
Katsuki sighed. "They are, they just have a really low survival rate now because of the hate crimes and suicide baiting they have to deal with. My cousin is fine since, if nothing else, he has job security through his family businesses but there is a reason he hasn't attended a proper school in nearly a year."
Copycat seemed quite distressed at that. "Shit and I thought I had it bad with my Quirk 'stealing' Quirk."
Katsuki gave him a bewildered look as the nature of the boy's Quirk seemed to click. "Wait. Shit this is going to sound like a weird question but do you have a guy named Hisashi somewhere in your family tree? Like as a grandfather or something?"
Copycat seemed bewildered at the question. "Yes actually? That was my maternal grandfather's name. My grandmother doesn't really talk much about him though but given that he likely bailed when my mother was discovered to have been born Quirkless that is understandable."
Katsuki groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Of fucking course. After this is all over you are coming with me."
Before the other boy could argue against the idea, there was a loud shout of "Go!" and Katsuki was off. He would deal with the Nerd's fucking nephew later.
To no one's surprise, this test was a fucking cake walk for him. Enough that he didn't feel any issues with taking the extra time to regularly check in on Copycat and let the boy refresh his Quirk as often as needed. The boy had been surprise the first time he came over to check on him but by the third (after Katsuki had blown up the 0-pointer to hear what the Rat had to say about him breaking his toy later) the boy seemed to have been expecting it.
As they walked out of the test site together the boy was shooting him questioning looks as Katsuki was careful about how he dragged the boy to a place where they would likely not be overheard by anyone beside the Rat inside one of the maintenance buildings. "Where are you taking me?"
Katsuki had pulled out his phone that he had not bothered to shove in a locker like most the other testers. The piece of shit was designed to survive his own Quirk so it wasn't like it breaking it was a worry for him. "What is your grandmother Quirk?"
"What?"
"There is a good chance that my uncle is your fucking grandfather. What's her Quirk? The Old Man is better at remembering Quirks than the people that hold them."
Copycat looked a bit dumbstruck. "It's called Recolor. It is just a simple Quirk that allows her to change the color of any object or person that she touches for a few minutes."
Katsuki nodded and sent a pointed text message to his uncle.
You ever sleep with a chick with a Recolor Quirk before you met Auntie?
Old Man:
That is an oddly specific question.
Should I be concerned if I say yes?
Congrats you probably have a biological grandson with a fucking Copy Quirk.
His name is Monoma Nieto.
Old Man:
saHFUP;hf;fasj
Feel free to look into that.
Katsuki lowered the phone. "So the answer to that question looks like it might be a yes."
Copycat was sitting on the floor looking at him in bewilderment. "You're my cousin?"
Katsuki shrugged. "In spirit at least. My godmother is the Old Man's wife and my mother is one to one of your apparent uncles who is our age. Welcome to the nightmare that is the Midoriya fucking family."
"How did you even figure that out?"
Katsuki bit his lip as he considered the answer to that. "You can't tell anyone this since some people would not take the revelation of the truth well. You remember the guy All for One from All Might's final fight? So, yeah, that is the Old Man. Your Quirk sounded too much like a derivative of his Quirk. Add to that the fact your mother is Quirkless like the one genuinely biological kid of his that we already knew about and it was painfully obvious.
Copycat seemed to be at a complete loss. "One genuinely biological kid?"
Katsuki sighed and sat down next to the boy as he opened up his gallery on his phone to an image with most of the Midoriya's. He pointed to the laughing Nerd in the middle. "Despite how much the others look like the Old Man, they are all adopted except him. Since the Old Man obtained them through less legal means, we have all just been pretending that the other three are actually blood related unlike the two that he did get custody over legally." He pointed to Dabi, Tomura and Eri. "Before you ask, both Staples and Dusty dye their hair. They are both just as naturally white as Unicorn and the Old Man."
"And my mother." The boy absentmindedly tacked on. "My coloration comes from my father's side."
Before Katsuki could ponder that much, his phone began to ring with an incoming call from the Old Man himself. He picked up.
"You can't just drop a bombshell like that Katsuki and stop responding to my messages!"
"I'm sorry if explaining our family shit to him was taking too long."
"...He's there with you?"
"Obviously."
"...Can I talk with him?"
Without a word he shoved the phone over to Copycat who hesitantly took it. "Hello? …My mother's name is Monoma Sachi…She's Quirkless…So you didn't steal her Quirk? …Well what do you expect when your Quirk actually steals other people's Quirks…" He paled. "No I've not… How would I even test it? Walk up to someone and ask if I could try and steal their Quirk?"
Katsuki snorted and rolled his eyes. "Copycat, you realize you could try and steal one from his collection right?"
The boy froze as he gave Katsuki a look that fell somewhere between horror and intrigue at the idea. Yeah the kid was definitely a Midoriya. "Yeah I could try that… Bakugou would be able to bring me to you?"
At the response at the other end of the phone seemingly giving him confirmation, Copycat was scrambling to his feet and shoving Katsuki. "Well what are we waiting for!"