Chapter 8: Quirk Assessment Test
"Do you have your spiral notebook?"
"Yes."
"Your pencil case?"
"Yes."
"And you packed your books and not just a bunch of action figures?"
"Jeez! Yes, mom. I'm not in elementary school anymore. I've gotta go, or I'll be late," Izuku complained, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Izu," Eri whined, gripping his pant legs, "I don't want you to go!"
Izuku smiled down at the girl, rubbing her head affectionately. "I won't be gone long. Besides, Mom will be here, and Himiko will come by after a little while."
The girl's cute pout almost made him stay, but today was the first day of school, and he couldn't miss it no matter what.
"I'll be off. Be sure to hug Himiko for me. Alright, Eri?"
"O-Okay," she nodded, going over to Izuku's mom to watch him leave.
He felt bad but couldn't exactly ditch on the first day, 'I'll be back! So don't you worry, Eri!'
If he was going to get to school on time after how long he'd taken to get ready, he'd need to run down to the train station and then almost the entire way up to the school.
'Well, it's good cardio; I guess I can count this as endurance training,' he thought to himself as buildings and people passed him.
The run wouldn't be too long, maybe ten minutes. All Might had made him run a lot longer while training, so this wouldn't be too difficult.
"Hey, Izu!"
A pair of soft white hands wrapped around his middle, making him jump very high. And then he realized it was Himiko behind him; her arms were surprisingly strong and had completely arrested his momentum.
The pomegranate scent Himiko always had was also a big giveaway; the telltale metallic smell underneath may have been unidentifiable to most people. But he knew that smell was most likely blood.
'It makes sense; she's almost always taking my blood.'
"Hey, Himiko," Izuku laughed, gripping her hands.
"Aww, no fair you knew it was me?" She asked.
"Obviously. You're the only person aside from Eri who calls me Izu," he laughed, turning to look at the girl. Do you want to walk with me to the station?"
"Sure," she smiled. "So what do you think you're going to be doing?"
Izuku considered her question, "Maybe the entrance ceremony and getting acquainted with my classmates?"
"Now don't go cheating on me, ya hear," Himiko giggled, wagging her finger at Izuku.
"W-W-What? H-H-Himiko, I'd n-never do that?"
Izuku could practically hear the wide, toothy grin she shot his way, "Ya better not, or I'll definitely drain ya dry!"
"Well, that's fine; if I'm ever dumb enough to do that, all of my blood is yours. Oh, by the way, when will your school be starting?"
"Hmm? Oh, I'm not in school."
"Oh, that's nice," a second of silence lingered between the pair. "Wait, what! You graduated already? You're eighteen?"
The confused blush she sent Izuku made him even more dumbstruck.
"Well, no, but I thought you knew I was older than you when we lived close to each other. I mean, we were never in the same classes. Why? You uninterested in an old hag like me now?"
"Y-You idiot," Izuku huffed at the girl. "It doesn't matter how old you are; I was just surprised, that's all. I guess that means you can keep Eri company while I'm at school, though; that's great!"
"See, there are perks to dating an older woman! Oh, and I'm sixteen. My seventeenth isn't until August."
"D-Do you know how old I am?"
"Yep, you're fifteen. You just turned last July!"
'Wow, not even a moment's hesitation.'
"I'm Sorry. I never asked about your birthday," Izuku said, looking down and feeling ashamed.
"It's fine; that just means you're going to have to make it up to me on my birthday," she smiled wolfishly at him, making him to blush.
The image of Himiko licking her palm while projector lights in the movie theatre played in the background came to his mind, making his blush worse.
"Oooh~ were you thinking of something naughty, Izu," she teased him.
"O-Oh hey, look, there's the train to U.A.!" Izuku stuttered, pointing," g-gotta go!"
Himiko's hand shot out, gripping Izuku's. "Um, I wanna kiss before you go," she looked up at him surprisingly bashfully.
"I-I-I mean r-right here? N-Now?" There weren't a lot of people walking by, but there were certainly a few students and adults entering the train eyed the pair curiously.
Her small, cute nod made his heart jump, "Y-yeah if it's not too much trouble."
Izuku's very nature was at war with his desires. On one hand, he wanted to kiss his girlfriend now that she was acting this cutely, but on the other hand, an embarrassing number of people were giving them odd looks.
"O-O-Okay i-if you r-really w-w-want me t-to," he stuttered worse than he had in a long time.
Standing stiff as a board and feeling very self-conscious, Izuku leaned into the girl, unable to bridge the gap between them.
Himiko seemed to have lost her patience because her own shaky hands held the side of his face, and she met his lips with tender trepidation.
The ridged and stiff way their lips pressed together slowly dissipated as the familiar taste of one another made them relax. They slowly deepened the kiss, Himiko wrapping her arms around him in a gentle hug. The cool, moist air of April dampened their clothes.
Izuku was the first to pull away, his blush forgotten and his smile on his face. "I'll see you after school?"
"Y-Yeah," she said after a second of fidgeting, her nervous look shifting to the ground. "I love you."
Her soft whisper made him blush, "I love you too."
Her goofy grin as she twirled back the way they had come made Izuku smile. She seemed to be humming to herself as she skipped her way to the apartment.
'At least she's having fun,' Izuku laughed to himself.
"Damn, some guys have all the luck," said a passing boy as he made his way onto the train.
Izuku's mortified blush crept up his neck, 'I think I should just hurry and make my way on.'
Himiko skipped down the street, humming to herself, her fingers brushing lightly over her lips.
"Kiss, kiss~ I got a kiss from Izu~," she sang, making her way down from the hill the train station was situated atop.
The morning air was very refreshing and helped keep her awake; she hadn't said anything to Izu, but she hadn't been to sleep since the previous night.
It had been extremely hard to find another place to sleep since that murderous girl's house. It had been the perfect place to stay at the time; she had been able to satiate her need for blood and give herself a place to stay.
But now she didn't need a blood supply since she had her Izu. Especially since she could actually keep his blood down.
Ever since she had taken blood from Izu when they were children, no other blood would do. She could hold it down for, at best, five minutes before it inevitably came right back up. But Izu's blood was different. Special.
A place to stay was a much more difficult situation to remedy; she couldn't just assault a person and live in their house. Not if they were innocent people anyway; Izu definitely wouldn't approve of that.
She had thought about asking Ms. Midoriya if she could stay with them, but she knew too many questions would be raised, and she refused to be taken back to her family. They didn't deserve to see her after they had rejected her when Izu hadn't.
'I refuse to be someone I'm not,' Homiko thought angrily, reaching the middle streets of Musutafu, running a hand along a scar on her shoulder that extended down to her back. Her father had given her the scar, and the thought of 'the shed' made her shudder, 'never again.'
She continued down the streets, noticing they were far less noisy than most. Ever since All Might had started showing up in the city, criminals had become increasingly cautious about committing crimes.
"Hey bitch, get out of my way!" Yelled a loud voice from behind her, running footsteps growing closer.
Or maybe they weren't as bright as she thought. Goosebumps rose along her arms and legs, fine hairs standing on end. She knew this feeling meant someone was about to attack her.
So, crouching low and then springing into a backflip, Himiko caught sight of the man, looking dumbstruck at her sudden movement. His neck craned to try and follow her arc, but his neck could only move so far.
Himiko landed behind the man, slamming her small foot into the backs of his knees. As the man fell, she withdrew her knife and held it to his throat.
"Better not move, or I'll cut ya," Himiko giggled, still happy about her exchange with Izu from earlier, but now she was a bit pissed about the rude bastard interrupting her.
"What the fuck?" The man was confused about what had happened, but it wasn't exactly hard for him to grasp with a knife at his throat.
Now that she had a good look at the guy, she could see that he had dusty whitish hair, a cheap-looking purple suit, and sunglasses.
"H-Hey, you're a villain, right," asked the man very nervously, showing he had a missing front tooth, "I'm a broker, and I'm being chased by some clients I kinda pissed off. So would ya mind letting me go?"
She thought about that for a moment. Sure, she knew information brokers in the black market were fairly rare, at least the good ones were. She'd had to deal with a few when she had run from home and been assaulting various criminals of different severity. Heck, even a few were proper villains.
"W-Wait, that creepy grin and blonde hair. You're the crazy bitch that was attacking other crooks in Yokohama. If ya let me go, I got a few small-time guys you can have information on in exchange."
Himiko looked at him for a moment, 'Well, my tracking hasn't turned up any new people in the city, and hopefully, these guys will either have places I can take to stay or a good amount of money to steal.'
"Fine," Himiko sighed, letting the man go and quickly concealing her knife. She pulled a ragged piece of paper out of her pocket and wrote her information down, handing it to the man. "Give me the info on my cell, and then forget you saw me, or I'll hunt you down. After all, a good information broker shouldn't sell out their clients, and I don't trust you after giving a few up to me."
The man rubbed at his neck, his nervous smile wavering," Of course, I'll send you the info. Thanks, kid!"
As the man ran off, Himiko continued her walk to Izu's apartment, very excited to see Eri again. A few seconds after the broker had run away, a pair of heroes in their costumes passed her, looking for him.
"If you're looking for that shady guy in the purple suit, he ran that way," Himiko smiled, pointing in the opposite direction he'd run.
"Thank you!" The pair yelled, running in the direction she'd given.
'No use letting the guy go if he just gets caught before sending me the info. I guess even heroes use black market brokers, though."
Her happy skipping and humming started up again. Looks like her problem was solving itself.
The tall door looming over him made Izuku feel very self-conscious. He knew he was short compared to most kids his age, but was he going to have someone as huge as this door in his class?
Izuku shook his head and smacked his cheeks,' I can do this!'
Sliding the door open more confidently than he felt, Izuku looked inside. At the last second, he hoped neither Kacchan nor that boy with glasses for the exam was in the same class as him, "n-nice to meet y-you all! I'm—"
"Take your feet off that desk at once; that is the property of the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan," yelled a thunderous voice, cutting off Izuku's rush of courage.
"Huh? What the hell for? Get outta my face before I kill your ass four-eyes!"
That familiar yelling voice made Izuku flinch, 'They're both here.' Izuku silently and internally sobbed to himself.
"K-Kill me," the boy with a stern face and glasses gasped in shock at Kacchan's violence, "are you sure you're in the right place? A-Anyway, I'm sure we just got off on the wrong foot. I'm Tenya Iida, another first year, and I just graduated from Somei Private Academy."
"Somei!? You a stuck-up rich kid!? I should blow you to bits!" Kacchan yelled, clearly not wanting to make any friends anytime soon.
The boy, Iida, was taken aback by Izuku's old bully's comment, "You're awful. Do you really want to become a hero?!"
As Izuku watched the exchange, it seemed the boy had caught sight of Izuku, and Kacchan had too.
"Ah, hello, I am Tenya Iida; I'm from Somei!"
The boy quickly made his way over to Izuku in just two large steps, "I-I heard, i-it's n-nice to meet you, I'm I-Izuku Midoriya."
"Midoriya… you… you perceived the true nature of that practical exam," Iida paused, an admiring glint in his eye. "While I could not! I misjudged you at the time, but I can clearly see that because of your insight, you were the better candidate."
'I didn't perceive anything; my dumb body just moved on its own like it always does!'
"Hey! That curly green hair! You're that plain-looking boy from the exam," Izuku jumped slightly at the bubbly voice behind him and its excited shout.
Izuku had to suppress the urge to wrap his arms around his face at the girl's proximity as she continued talking excitedly, "But that makes sense. Present Mic said you'd made it in! I mean, how couldn't you? That kick you gave that huge robot was awesome!"
Katsuki Bakugou stared in hatred at Deku. The nerd had managed to pass the entrance exam somehow and made a complete fucking mockery of his achievement. He could remember their teacher's words from that day and the fucking nerve Deku had.
"It's so wonderful that two of our students made it into U.A.! Especially you, Midoriya! That's a miracle we never expected!"
Deku's stupid fucking shaking in front of the teacher as he spoke made Katsuki grind his teeth in rage. Once the pair had left the teacher's office and made their way outside the school, Katsuki grabbed Deku by his arm and shoved him into a corner on the side of the school.
"What kind of dirty fucking trick did you use, you quirkless bitch! Huh?!" Katsuki raged, gripping Dekus's school uniform in an angry fist, "I was supposed to be the first and only student from this shit school to get into U.A., and you fucking ruined that! I thought I told you to get lost and kill yourself, Deku!"
The unsurprising shaking coming from Deku hadn't been odd, but what had pissed Katsuki off was the look the little asshole sent him. Through watery eyes and shaking limbs, the little twerp had a glare so intense it almost made Katsuki let go. Almost.
"S-Some people… told me that I could be a-a hero! And because of them, I'll become a hero no matter what! So you can shove it!" The boy yelled, making Katsuki freeze in utter astonishment.
'What the fuck?' Katsuki asked himself, seeing the nerd gripping his arm, which held his uniform very tightly.
Then the fucking nerd had run off, obviously scared of what Katsuki would do after his uncharacteristic outburst.
Now, here the little shit was, strutting around U.A. like it was the most obvious fucking thing in the world. It pissed Katsuki off.
Izuku was still being bombarded by the friendly brunette, her excited hand movements never stopping.
"I think we've got our entrance ceremony and guidance sessions today, yeah? I wonder what our teacher will be like; I'm kinda nervous!"
A gruff voice came from behind the girl, making her and Izuku jump. "If you're here to socialize, then you can just get out."
As Izuku looked down, he saw a very scruffy face peeking out from behind a yellow sleeping bag, a juice pouch coming into view, and then being drained instantly.
"This is the hero course. It took you all eight seconds to quiet down. Even a second in a hero's day can mean the difference between life and death. This is the kind of path that isn't for the weak-hearted, so if you can't handle it, leave now."
A pause fell over the room. No one seemed to be moving to leave, but a few people looked nervous.
"With that said, I'm your homeroom teacher, Shouta Aizawa. Now, everyone, put on your gym clothes and follow me.
Izuku looked down at the school's gym uniform. It was a lot more unique than his middle school gym uniform. A stylized U and A were on top of one another, and the blue uniform's trim was white and red.
"We're going to be doing a quirk assessment test," Mr. Aizawa said as the students of class 1-A stood on the open U.A. grounds.
"Quirk test?" The girl who'd been talking to Izuku asked, confused. I thought we had the entrance ceremony and counseling today."
"That's all a waste of time; U.A. is known for its freestyle educational approach, and that applies to us teachers as well. Softball throwing, the standing long jump, the 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side-to-side stepping, upper body training, and seated toe touching. You did all of these exercises in middle school, yes? These are standard non-quirk testing exercises; Japan is a country that still employs the policy of not allowing the use of quirks outside of hero work."
Mr. Aizawa bent down, scooping up a softball and tossing it to Kacchan, "Bakugou, what was your record for the softball throw?"
"About sixty-seven meters."
"I want you to throw that ball as hard as you can with your quirk, and don't hold anything back," Mr. Aizawa said, stepping away to allow Kacchan to approach the pitch.
Izuku could see an evil grin cross the boy's face as he wound up, readying a throw.
"DIE!" Kacchan yelled, creating a massive *BOOM* as the poor softball was propelled several meters away.
'Die? ' Izuku thought, sweating at Kacchan's choice of words.
Mr. Aizawa looked down at the calculating device in his hands and showed everyone the result.
"705.2 meters?" A spiky red-haired boy whistled in astonishment, "That's insane!"
"So we get to use our quirks all we want?" asked a pink-haired and skinned girl. This looks so fun!"
Mr. Aizawa seemed not to like what the girl had to say, "fun? You think this will all be a walk in the park, right? Listen at U.A.; we train you to use your quirks to the best of your ability, both strengthening and refining them. Over the next three years, we'll be putting you through hell to push you to your limits, so if you think this is fun, I guess I'm not being hard enough on you. How about this: whoever is at the bottom of the scoreboard at the end of the day is removed from the hero course for good."
"What!"
"You can't do that!"
"We just got here!"
A chorus of objections and cries of outrage met Mr. Aizawa's declaration, but everyone quickly quieted when he spoke, "If you don't like it so much, one of you volunteer to drop out so the person who would be on the chopping block can stay."
A long silence fell over the students, making the man smirk.
"That's what I thought. Now stop complaining and start working your butts off. Show me you've got what it takes to make it in my class! That's what our school motto means: go beyond, plus ultra!"
'I guess things are picking up now,' Izuku thought nervously, gripping his shaking hands, 'can I use One for All like I did before when I was protecting Himiko and Eri?'
Izuku clenched his muscles, trying to summon the feeling All Might's quirk conjured in his head. The power came to him slowly but in jackhammering waves, making his bones and muscles vibrate painfully.
'D-Dial it back, or I'm gonna tear myself apart like All Might said! Egg in a microwave, egg in a microwave,' he thought, frantically imagining he was turning the intensity of the cooking down so he didn't explode.
The familiar hum of One for All made him smile; it felt like All Might was with him whenever he activated the quirk. He hadn't noticed the arcing strands of static coming from his body in green crackles when first using the ability.
"Whoa, looks like someone's fired up," said the red-haired boy with sharp teeth.
Mr. Aizawa looked at Izuku with a piercing stare that made him deactivate One for All. "S-sorry, sir."
Their teacher shook his head, turned, and walked past the softball throw. "We'll be doing the 50 meters first, so line up by your student numbers, and you'll go with the person whose number is directly below yours."
The first pair to run was Iida and a girl with a mutation-type quirk.
'Maybe a frog type,' Izuku thought, watching them.
"And… start!"
Only a handful of seconds passed as Izuku watched the pair burst from the starting line, and in the blink of an eye, Iida passed with the girl a few seconds behind.
"3.04 seconds!"
"5.58 seconds!"
"Whoa, that was fast!" Izuku smiled, his eyes sparkling, "I wish I had my notebook on me!"
Next up was a boy with a tail, and the girl who had been talking with Izuku seemed to be tapping parts of her body.
'Activating her quirk maybe? '
The boy finished first, just a bit faster than the girl.
"7.05 seconds!"
"7.15 seconds!"
"Well, at least it was better than middle school," the girl smiled to herself.
Then it was an odd blond-haired boy with a belt around his waist and the pink-skinned girl. Now that Izuku could see her closer, he could see her eyes were a familiar shade of yellow like Himiko's, but surrounding the pupil was a black sclera that made them pop in a different way from Himiko's.
"If we're allowed to use our quirks, then allow me to apologize in advance, mademoiselle, because you stand no chance against my flashy quirk!"
The girl seemed very annoyed at him as she removed her shoes and sat them to the side, "Whatever, dude."
"Ready? Start! "
The girl dashed forward first, and then her strides became more of a skating motion as her feet seemed to be secreting a viscous liquid. Just as Izuku thought she would win for sure, the blond boy shot past her a beam shooting out of the belt he wore.
Yet again, Izuku had assumed the winner of the raise wrongly when the boy's laser petered out, and he fell to the ground unceremoniously. The girl passed him before he could regain his lead.
"5.24 seconds!"
"5.51 seconds!"
"Next, seventeen and eighteen! Get over here," Mr. Aizawa yelled, getting Izuku's attention.
"Ah, yes, sir," Izuku called back very nervously.
Kacchan got ready beside Izuku, positioning his arms in a very weird way; Izuku readied himself, too, allowing One for All to fill his body and strengthen his legs.
'I can do this; thanks to Himiko's training, I'm way more aware of my body and how to use it effectively. That villain attacking us was bad, but it gave me a great insight into how to use One for All!'
"Ready? Start!"
Both Izuku and Kacchan shot forward, Izuku slamming onto his face after tripping, and Kacchan barely able to keep himself from having the same reaction.
"What the fuck?!" Kacchan yelled, looking at his hands, "Why isn't my quirk working?"
"Ow," Izuku winced, rubbing at his bruised knees.
Mr. Aizawa's surly voice caught their attention, "I canceled your quirk, Midoriya. Sorry, Bakugo, I guess you were too close to him while I was canceling his, and you got caught up in it."
"Huh? What the fuck?"
"W-Wait, you canceled our quirks? Y-You're Eraserhead, the erasure hero!"
"So you know who I am, whuppty doo. I saw you during that practical exam; that quirk of yours is too impractical. What good will you do if you shatter your legs in the first test? If your go-to strategy every time you get a little cornered is to shatter your limbs, then you'd be a liability on any team you ended up on. So you should quit."
Izuku looked down at his hands, scraping his nails through the dust on the ground, "M-my power isn't as wild as it was back then! I c-can control it now!"
Mr. Aizawa looked at Izuku very doubtfully. "You expect me to believe that in just under a month, you managed to get that impractical power to a usable standard? I highly doubt that either way, I gave you back your quirk. Get this over with. Either use your quirk and succeed or break your body and fail; it's up to you."
As Izuku and Kacchan readied themselves again, he could see Kacchan grinning at him out of the corner of his eye.
Izuku's mouth thinned into a determined line, One for All crackling around him again.
"Ready? Start!"
Izuku shot forward even as a cloud of smoke obscured his vision. Kacchan had both launched himself and blinded Izuku.
'That's not gonna stop me,' Izuku thought, sprinting all the harder, hearing Kacchan's explosions right beside him.
"What the fuck!" Kacchan yelled, noticing he hadn't completely overtaken Izuku
"Aaaah!" Izuku yelled, pushing his legs to go faster.
"4.13 meters!"
Izuku doubled over, his eyes closed and his hands over his knees. For a second, he just waited to hear the other score that he'd gotten. He hadn't heard the first result too long ago, so his time must have been right behind Kacchan's.
But then, a long silence met his panting, and he looked up, "What happened?"
Mr. Aizawa looked at him astonished and grinned widely. "You tied with Bakugou! I guess you weren't lying, kid!"
Izuku's wide, happy smile was almost immediately whipped from his face when Kacchan's fist came dangerously close to his head.
"I'm gonna kill you, Deku!"
Thankfully, the bandage-like scarf around Mr. Aizawa's neck encircled the angry boy.
"The fuck is this? Why the hell is your scarf so strong?"
"Because this is a carbon fiber and high-tensile steel capture weapon, you better stand down, Bakugo. I won't tolerate any fighting in my class! Now get back with the others and prepare for the other events."
"Tch," Kacchan clicked his tongue at Izuku, clearly wanting to beat him up, but for once, a teacher wasn't willing to turn a blind eye.
The next few tests whittled away at Izuku's stamina; keeping One for All running through his body continually made him very sore. It was like cleaning the beach for the first time all over again.
The standing long jump and the grip test had been some of his better scores due to the strength in his arms and legs, but it didn't help him very much with the toe touch, and it just barely helped with the side jumps. He'd nearly fallen over during the side-to-side jumps when he went too fast.
The softball throw was last, and then Izuku would know if he was going home or not. After all, he hadn't scored horribly on most of the tests, but he didn't have a score as impressive as the girl called Ururaka had gotten with her softball throw.
'Infinity? Seriously, I'm following that? Life is so unfair.'
Izuku sighed, stepping up to the pitch and catching the softball Mr. Aizawa threw him.
Izuku shifted his weight around, trying to find the proper throwing stance he'd learned in middle school. He mimed a few test throws, making sure his shoulders were loose.
'Alright, just one more time.'
Izuku summoned One for All to fill his body, spreading evenly at the wattage he knew he could handle, but the constant usage of the quirk made him very tired and sore all over. So, as he stepped forward, swinging his arm around and twisting his torso, he could feel his arm scream in agony when the ball was nearly released.
A jolt of agony went up his arm and down his spine, making him panic and send a bit too much force into the throw. A soft, tearing noise met his ears as the ball shot down the field in a slightly upward arc that gave more distance with his throwing style.
"700-meters!"
"Whoa, that was cool!"
"Yeah, he almost threw it as far as Bakugou!"
"Midoriya, did you break your arm," Mr. Aizawa asked, having heard the sound Izuku's arm had made.
Looking down at it, he didn't see the telltale limp mangled form his legs had become, but his muscle was shredded around his bicep and shoulder. The bones were intact, but he bet they'd come close to snapping, too.
"N-No sir," Izuku winced, showing his arm to the teacher. "I think I tore a muscle, though."
"All right, if you can, stick around while I show all of your rankings and see who's going home," Mr. Aizawa said, a smile that was a bit too wide on his face for what he'd just said.
1st. Momo Yaoyorozu
2nd. Shoto Todoroki
3rd. Katsuki Bakugou
4th. Izuku Midoriya
5th. Tenya Iida
6th. Fumikage Tokoyami
7th. Mezo Shouji
8th. Mashirao Ojiro
9th. Eijiro Kirishima
10th. Mina Ashido
11th. Ochako Uraraka
12th. Koji Koda
13th. Rikido Sato
14th. Tsuyu Asui
15th. Yuga Aoyama
16th. Hanta Sero
17th. Denji Kaminari
18th. Kyoka Jiro
19th. Toru Hagakure
20th. Minoru Mineta
Izuku was extremely surprised to find he was right below Kacchan. He was sure he was going to be near the bottom of the barrel. Whoever Mineta was, he was in a very bad spot at the moment.
"There you have it, Mineta, get out. I've noticed you haven't put any training in your body despite your stature. Any hero would try to give themselves every advantage possible, but you didn't even bother with the bare minimum of strength training at all. And Midoriya!"
"Y-Yes, sir?"
"If you hadn't gotten that power working, I have no doubt you'd be at the bottom of the list, and the only reason for that would've been the utter impracticality of your quirk compared to Mineta's. However, you were able to use your quirk in almost every test consistently; I took off a few points for the side jumps and the softball throw. But the throw should be obvious why you lost points; if you'd known your limits and told me, you would've scored the same as Bakugou and placed 3rd with him."
"T-Thank you, sir, I'll remember my limitations from now on," Izuku yelled, very happy he wouldn't be kicked out, but he was also feeling a little bad for Mineta. That was until he tried to, in his words, "cop a feel" on Yaoyorozu-San, making him very glad the pervert was gone.
"Now, everyone, go back to the locker rooms to change into your school clothes," Mr. Aizawa said until he saw Izuku trying to make his way with everyone else. Except you, Midoriya, take this note and get fixed up by the old lady."
"Oh, okay, thank you, sir."
The school day had been extremely tiring, especially after Recovery Girl had healed him with her quirk. He shuddered at the news that if she used her quirk on him when he was too hurt or tired, he'd just drop dead.
Thankfully, all of their classes had opportunities for them to introduce themselves and get the syllabus for each class so they could memorize the curriculum.
"Hello, Midoriya," said a friendly voice coming up on his right side, "I hope your arm is better."
"Oh, hey, Iida! Yeah, Recovery Girl fixed it good as new; I've just gotta take it easy with my quirk for the rest of the day."
"Well, that's good news. I'm glad you'll make a full recovery," he said, chopping his hand in the air very stiffly.
"Hey guys," Said an enthusiastic girl's voice to Izuku's left, startling him. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you!"
"Hey, you're the infinity girl," Iida remarked very rudely.
"Hey, that's a little embarrassing; my name's Ochako Uraraka, so call me that! And you two are… Tenya Iida and Deku Midoriya, right?"
"W-What? T-That's not my name!" Izuku shouted, hoping the awful name hadn't caught on.
"Oh, but that's what Bakugo yelled at you earlier, "right?"
"H-He calls me that as an insult; it's because the last kanji of my name can be read as useless."
"That is horrible! How could a boy like that make it into the hero course of U.A.," Iida asked, very outraged.
"Because he's so amazing, I hate to admit it, but Kacchan's quirk is really powerful, and he has great control over it. He might not look like it, but he's really smart, too, and he's always been physically fit."
"You kinda sound like you idolize the guy," Uraraka said very confusedly.
He'd grown accustomed to analyzing quirks and users and just stating the facts about them. Even if he didn't particularly like the person, he would always assess their abilities fairly.
"It's not that; I've just known him for most of my life. We used to be friends when we were kids, but when I was younger, I thought I was quirkless, and he got really bad when he learned that. If I'm being honest, I hate Kacchan a lot."
Izuku remembered Kacchan telling him to kill himself the day he had tried; the thought made him clench his fist angrily.
"Well, I like Deku; it sounds kinda similar to Dekiru; it means you're able to do anything!"
Izuku smiled at the girl but shook his head, a sharp gaze in his eyes, "I appreciate it, Uraraka-san, but I'd really rather not hear that name from anyone's mouth if I can help it. Kacchan isn't going to stop anytime, though, but I hate his guts already."
"Hmm, I'm wondering Midoriya. Why do you call him such an endearing nickname if you dislike him so much?
"Cause I know it pisses him off," Izuku grinned at the two.
The uncharacteristic way Izuku answered seemed to make the other two students crack up into loud laughter.
"W-What? What did I say?" Izuku asked, confused.
"I-It's just y-you said that w-with the smuggest s-smile," Uraraka laughed, clutching her stomach.
"I-It was quite humorous," Iida laughed very robotically, causing Izuku and Uraraka to break out into even more laughter.
"A-Alright guys, I-I'm headed this way," Uraraka wheezed, heading toward the train station.
"Yes, I'll be off as well," Iida nodded, heading down a side road.
"See you guys tomorrow," Izuku waved to them both, heading toward his own train station.
'I wonder what we're gonna have for dinner tonight,' Izuku thought as he approached his apartment building after having taken his train home. A smile spread across his face as he thought about the day's events. 'I did well in the quirk assessment test! I'm gonna tell Himiko; maybe she'll even give me a kiss in return. Oh, who am I kidding? She'd kiss me anyway.'
"Mom! Himiko! Eri! I'm ho—" A hard double tackle nearly sent Izuku down to the ground. Two pairs of arms grabbed him around the waist and legs, dragging him down.
"Izu," yelled a pair of voices, making him wince at the volume.
"Why can't you two just greet me normally like Mom?" Izuku scolded, picking Eri up with one arm and hugging Himiko with the other. As they hugged, Eri joined in being squished between the two teens.
"That's no fun, Izu," Himiko whined, grinning at him. "I love seeing your flustered face when I hug you!"
"D-Don't you think I'll just get used to it eventually?"
"Funny thing, I've been doing it for a few months now, and you're still not used to it," she teased, poking his burning face.
"Stop teasing Izu, momma!" Eri yelled, hugging Izuku's red face.
"M-Momma? Why are you calling Himiko that?"
"Cause momma said to call her momma," she giggled, looking at Izuku as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
Izuku shot Himiko a very piercing stare that made the girl squirm." What? I only want you to call me Himi-chan. Besides, Eri is our baby, so if anything, she should call you Papa. Not Izu."
If his face hadn't been red before, it was practically a fire hydrant now, and Eri's nod and next words made his brain almost shut down, "yeah! If momma is momma, then Izu is papa!"
Izuku sank to the ground, setting Eri on her feet. He curled up, his head between his knees, and he let out a very embarrassing squeak. He could swear steam was pluming up from him.
"Huh? Momma, what's wrong with Papa," Eri asked very innocently.
"Aaaaaaaah," Izuku's mortified shout at her words was very funny to Himiko, but she figured she could give him a break.
"It's nothing, Eri. Let's get Izu up and get him some food," Himiko came over to Izuku, her bare feet whispering along the ground. "Your mom made katsudon. I know it's your favorite!~"
Izuku nodded after a little while, allowing Himiko to pull him up to his feet and make their way with Eri to the dinner table.
"Oh! Hi papa! Did you have a good day at school?" Izuku's mom greeted him as she caught sight of him with Himiko and Eri.
"Not you, too," Izuku whined, sinking into a chair at the table. Eri looked up at him and did the universal sign for wanting to be picked up. So he obliged the girl and placed her on his lap, running his fingers through her hair.
"How am I not supposed to make comments when you do things like that?" She shot back, plating a few servings of the food for everyone.
"If you don't wanna be a papa, stop acting like one," Himiko shot at him as she sat in the seat to his left, allowing her to pat Eri's head while they waited.
"All jokes aside, how was your first day, sweetie?" his mom asked, bringing over a plate for Eri and Himiko first, then hers and Izuku's.
"It wasn't too bad. We did a quirk assessment test, and I placed fourth, right below Kacchan!"
"Ugh, why'd you have to get lower than that jerk? And why do you still call him that," Himiko asked, annoyed on Izuku's behalf.
"Mr. Aizawa said I only didn't tie with him because I tore my arm muscles during the softball throw," Izuku absently said, cutting Eri's pork cutlet for her. "And I call him that 'cause I know it pisses him off a lot."
"You tore your arm muscles?!" Himiko yelled very worriedly, but it was a bit colored by the blush on her cheeks. No doubt she was thinking about how he had looked when injured. Himiko didn't exactly want him to get hurt because it worried her greatly, but her quirk made her have a preference for wounds so she could access the blood.
She scooted closer to Izuku, examining both of his arms before frowning. "Neither of your arms looks bad. Does it hurt?"
"Oh, Recovery Girl patched me up in the nurse's office. So I'm fine," Izuku smiled after finishing cutting Eri's pork and letting her dig in.
"Recovery Girl, huh?" A mischievous grin spread across her face, "Did it excite you getting personal care from a hot nurse hero?
Izuku shuddered, looking at Himiko very seriously. "Recovery Girl is seventy years old, and I'm good."
"Hahaha," Himiko laughed at the ridiculous face Izuku was making, "w-well don't worry, papa, I've got a spare nurse outfit laying around somewhere we can use."
"H-Himiko! Not in front of Mom and Eri!"
"So that means when we're not around is fine?" His mom asked, raising an eyebrow.
Izuku just blushed, turning to eat his own food before it got cold.
'Things are so much more lively with Himiko and Eri around,' Izuku smiled, remembering the quiet and depressing days from middle school that hadn't been so long ago.
Himiko's warm fingers held his as she grinned at him. He smiled back, squeezing her fingers.
Chapter 9: Battle Trials
"Regular speech,"
"Flashback speech,"
'Inner dialogue,'
'Phone Text Chat'
The next day of school was starting to be far less nerve-wracking than their first. Izuku diligently paid attention as Present Mic lectured the class on English sentence structure. Sure, it wasn't exactly Izuku's favorite subject, but he wasn't gonna waste his opportunity to be a hero.
"Now, which one of these sentences has a wrongly conjugated verb?" Present Mic asked, looking at the class. Izuku raised his hand, just barely beating Yaoyorozu, "Midoriya! You're on the air!"
"N-Number four I-is wrong, sir," Izuku said.
"Right, you are, young man! You see, the verb in sentence four is in its past tense when it needs a present tense instead!"
A few mumbles went over the class at Present Mic's intense attitude toward such a mundane topic.
After a few minutes of exhausting English lessons, Present Mic made his way out, allowing them to leave for lunch.
"Hey, Midoriya! You wanna eat lunch with Iida and me?" Uraraka asked him, smiling in relief at the end of class.
"O-Oh, sure, if you g-guys are fine with it," Izuku stuttered, still not used to talking to girls other than Himiko.
"I must admit, I didn't know what to expect from our other classes after Aizawa sensei's highly irregular tests yesterday. But it seems they have a good grasp on not only hero procedures but also regular school curriculum," Iida enthused as his arm made a chopping motion.
'He does that a lot,' Izuku laughed.
"Well, since we didn't get to yesterday, let's check out the cafeteria!" Uraraka cheered, leading the two boys.
"WHOA! It's the cooking hero: Lunch Rush," Izuku yelled very enthusiastically at seeing a hero you wouldn't normally see.
"You're such a fanboy," Uraraka laughed, her whole body shaking.
"I-I can't help it! It's so cool seeing heroes like this every day!"
"I must agree; it is quite exciting!"
Uraraka gave them a bashful smile, "Yeah, sorry. You were just making a hilarious face, but I understand what you guys mean!"
After they finished their lunch and returned to the classroom, Izuku noticed that it was abuzz with chatter.
"So what do you think we're gonna do?"
"I don't know, but I hope we get to use the costumes we ordered!"
"I know, right? It'd be a bummer if we couldn't use them for a while!"
Izuku's excited grin made him remember the design he had created for his costume and how Himiko and his mom had made him the suit themselves.
"Izuku! Look, we spent all day yesterday sewing this for you," his mom smiled, holding up a forest green jumpsuit with black accenting lines down the arms, legs, and torso.
"Your mom wanted to put white into the pattern, too, but I thought this looked way better. Oh, I also got you some chest, knee, and arm pads, so you better not get busted up with all the effort I put into finding them!"
"I'll try my best," Izuku laughed, giving them both big hugs.
Izuku smiled at the costume case next to his desk, hoping he'd get to use it today during hero basic training.
As he was lost in thought, a loud set of footsteps made their way to the classroom. And he was startled by an equally loud shout from the doorway.
"I am here, arriving like a hero!" All Might cheered, hanging by the door frame.
Izuku could swear he heard the door groaning for a moment under All Might's weight. Izuku felt an odd kinship with the doorframe for a moment, knowing full well how much the pro hero weighed.
"Whoa, cool! That's his silver age suit," Ashido cheered as All Might made his way to the teacher's podium.
"So retro," Kirishima enthused with the girl.
"Today, during Hero basic training, we'll tackle a very real part of hero work. Battle Training!"
"B-Battle training!" Izuku gasped, very concerned about whoever would be fighting Kacchan.
'Who am I kidding? With my luck, it'll be me,' Izuku sighed, hunching his shoulders.
"Battles are a large part of most heroes' work; even if you decide to become a rescue hero, you'll need to have some combat experience! Life is unfair, and villains can be worse; they won't care if you don't have experience fighting. So that's the purpose of today's training: to give you that experience and see the tactics of your peers! Now, everyone, suit up and make your way to ground Beta!"
This suit his mom and Himiko had made him was a bit frustrating, not that he didn't appreciate the work they'd put into making it. On the contrary, that made him love the costume. That didn't mean the numerous buckles on the chest padding, legs, and arms weren't giving him trouble.
'I get why you got this, Himiko, but did you have to make it so complicated when it should be like two buckles on each piece?'
As Izuku gave himself a once over in the mirror, he noticed the suit was a bit tighter than he would've liked, no doubt Himiko's idea to mess with him. Sighing, Izuku left the locker room to join the others.
"Whoa, Midoriya, that suits super down to earth! The armor is a little different, though. Are those motorcycle pads?" Uraraka asked, poking the hard chest armor.
Now that he looked at it, the armor was very similar to motorcycle padding. After inspecting his costume, Izuku went to compliment the girl about hers. But just as soon as he looked, his eyes were averted at the skintight body suit.
"Yeah," she nodded, blushing from behind her pink-tinted visor. "I probably should've been more specific with the design because this is super embarrassing to wear!"
"I-It's cool; it reminds me a little bit of a sci-fi movie character. Kinda space themed, ya know?"
"Right! That's exactly what I was going for!"
"Hey! I've gotta say, everyone! I love all the designs I see here," All Might's eyes scanned the crowd, nodding, and then his eyes met Izuku's, and he saw the mouth guard that resembled All Might's wide grin. And on top of his mask were a pair of standing "bunny ears" that didn't fool All Might at all; they looked just like his own standing hair locks. He seemed to be suppressing a laugh. "l-looking at you guys is getting me pumped up for the two-on-two battle trials we'll be having here!"
"Sir," said Iida from inside a full suit of armor, "will we be performing these trials in the cityscape in the vane of the U.A. entrance exam?"
"Good question; today's trials will be held indoors! While most villain fights are seen taking place outdoors, most of the more heinous villains will fight indoors on their terms. It's very one-sided and unfair, but that's how most smart villains will fight. It's our job as heroes to overcome this disparity. Now you'll be divided into two-person teams of heroes and villains."
Yaoyorozu chimed in before All Might could continue, "What is the condition of victory for this exorcise?"
Kacchan burst out, "Can I just blow the hell out of whoever I fight!?"
Then Uraraka spoke up nervously, "Are you going to expel whoever does the worst in this test, like Mr. Aizawa?"
Finally, Iida spoke up, at least having the courtesy to raise his hand, "How will the teams be split up for this test?"
All Might stood shaking at the verbal onslaught for a moment; he was clearly struggling to keep up with the questions. "Uh, well, in order of your questions, the test, as I said, will be a two-on-two team battle consisting of heroes and villains. The villain's goal is to protect a fake nuclear weapon until either the time for the test runs out or until they can capture the heroes. And likewise, the hero's goal is to either capture the weapon by having a single member of their team touch the weapon, or just like the villains, they can win the trial by subduing their opponents," All Might paused, scratching his head thinking about the other questions he'd heard, "no, young Uraraka nobody will be expelled no matter their scores, and young Iida, we will determine teams by random drawing."
At that, Iida jerked unhappily, "Random drawing! Isn't that a bit beneath an institution like U.A.?"
Izuku shook his head, understanding the thought process in this exercise. "Not necessarily. Think about it: in real life, heroes always team up with other heroes they aren't familiar with. This will kind of simulate that!"
"Hmm, yes. I understand. I retract my assumption and apologize. Please forgive my hasty words," Iida bowed to All Might.
"N-No problem! Now, everyone step forward and pick a number! It is sad to say, though, that due to young Mineta's expungement, one of you will be doubled up and fighting in an additional battle today. That person will know because the ball they'll withdraw will have two sets of numbers instead of one."
Everyone groaned, hoping they wouldn't be the person chosen for fighting a second time; well, everyone but Kacchan.
One after another, the students stepped forward, either cheering they didn't have the double battle numbers or, in Kacchan's case when he yelled loudly at not pulling it.
'I have a really bad feeling about this,' Izuku thought, dreading his approach to the box All Might was holding,'please don't be me, please don't be me, please don't be me.'
Aaaaand he drew the double numbers, "Why does god hate me?"
Izuku sighed, holding his head.
"Now, now, young Midoriya. I'm sure it won't be as bad as all that. Just please be sure to do your best and not overdo it," All Might reassured him, patting Izuku on the shoulder.
"Now, here are the teams!"
Team A. Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka
Team B. Shoto Todoroki and Mezo Shoji
Team C. Momo Yaoyorozu and Izuku Midoriya
Team D. Katsuki Bakugou and Tenya Iida
Team E. Yuga Aoyama and Mina Ashido
Team F. Rikido Sato and Koji Koda
Team G. Denki Kaminari and Kyoka Jiro
Team H. Fumikage Tokoyami and Tsuyu Asui
Team I. Mashirao Ojiro and Toru Hagakure
Team J. Eijiro Kirishima and Hanta Sero
"There you have it, so with that out of the way! It looks like the first two teams up are," All Might thrust his hand into a second box, pulling two balls from inside, "Team A as the heroes and Team D as the villains!"
Izuku had to suppress the tears that were going to come to his eyes, 'god really does hate me! I've gotta fight Kacchan as the first fight, and then I have to go into another battle afterward!'
The evil grin Kacchan sent him made Izuku's spine crawl at its intensity.
"A-All Might? I-Is this really t-the best idea?"
Approaching the clearly shaking boy, All Might lay his huge arm on Izuku's shoulder, trying to reassure him, "Don't you worry, my boy! There are cameras all throughout the building you will be tested in, and if the battle goes too far, I will stop it immediately. But if you feel like the battle has gotten too out of hand and I still haven't stopped the test, please don't hesitate to say so."
"O-Okay," Izuku nodded, walking over to stand in front of the building, where they would be storming in in a few minutes.
A rough shoulder slammed into Izuku's back, almost making him fall over, "fuck out of my way, Deku!"
Izuku glared at Kacchan's back, and even when he turned to glare, Izuku never broke his glare, making the other boy seem even angrier.
"Are you alright, Midoriya?" Uraraka asked worriedly as Kacchan continued into the building.
"Y-Yeah. I'm sorry, but he's probably gonna rush me as soon as the trial starts, so we probably won't be able to work together the whole time. But I think I've got a plan."
Uraraka seemed surprised at his serious tone as he studied the layout of the building on the map they had been supplied with, "really? I thought you'd be a little too worried about something like that, but you're really fired up, aren't you?"
"W-Well, if I'm being honest, I'm terrified," Izuku laughed, his hands shaking, "b-but I'm not gonna run, so I've got a plan for us like I said."
Even after having told Uraraka his plan, Izuku wasn't entirely sure about this; it was half-backed and thrown together in the spur of the moment. But there wasn't anything he could do about it, so this was the only plan they had. At least the only plan that didn't require him to break his bones to win, but he was sure destroying the building they were in wouldn't reflect well on their score.
"Are you sure about this, Midoriya," Uraraka asked for the third time since they had entered the building.
"This is the only way," Izuku answered yet again.
"I know, but what if he doesn't-"
Uraraka was cut off as her unfinished question was inadvertently answered by Kacchan, "Where the fuck are you, Deku?!"
The sound of echoing explosions made the girl jump, and Izuku grimaced at the fury in Kacchan's voice.
"Go, Uraraka! I'll draw his attention to this stairwell, so you head up the opposite one! The bomb should be on either the next floor or the one right above it since he didn't start down on the first, second, or third floor!"
The girl hesitated for a moment before nodding to Izuku, slapping him on the shoulder, and smiling at him, "Beat him up, alright?"
Izuku's shaky grin did little to reassure her, but she left, deciding to trust his plan.
"This is going to suck," Izuku sighed, waiting a few seconds before he crept up the stairs to the next floor.
Kacchan's shout was now far closer than it had been, almost definitely sounding right around the corner. "You little bitch! Where are you hiding? You too fucking scared to use that goddamn quirk you've been hiding from me all these years!?"
'What,' Izuku went over his words for a second. Now that he thought about it, that might've been the only explanation for Izuku suddenly using a quirk when Kacchan was sure he didn't have one. So that explained why he was so pissed with Izuku; he thought he'd been hiding his quirk all this time just to spite the other boy. 'Well, that doesn't exactly give him a pass for any of the shit he's done. He thought I was quirkless this whole time and treated me like dirt, so it's only fair I pay him back just a little. It might not sound too heroic, but I'm gonna enjoy this!'
"I'm right here, Kacchan!" Izuku yelled, gaining his attention.
After his shout, the building went deathly quiet. The only sound heard was Izuku's shoes tapping against the stone floor as he walked towards a corner.
'If I know Kacchan, he'll probably wait until I get close to this corner and swing at me with a big left hook.'
And true to Izuku's assumption, Kacchan sprang around the corner just as Izuku had reached it, "I'm gonna kill you! Take this!"
And exactly like he thought, Kacchan threw a left hook. So, Izuku moved his head to the side, grabbed hold of Kacchan's wrist as tightly as he could, and then flipped the boy over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground and knocking the wind out of him.
Not wasting a moment, Izuku reared back and slammed a kick into the side of Kacchan's face.
"I probably shouldn't say this, but that felt really good!" Izuku yelled, taking Kacchan's moment of stunned pain to send One for All shooting through his body in a familiar rush. It took little time these days to regulate how much power he sent his body. The green crackling static covered him from head to toe.
"T-The fuck," Kacchan spat a wad of blood from his mouth, looking at Izuku, both dumbstruck and confused, "so, you have been fucking playing me this whole time! Was it funny to you? Thinking I was so fucking beneath you, you didn't even have to bother showing me your quirk or using it on me until now!?"
"Fuck you," Izuku yelled, very uncharacteristic anger at Kacchan's words filling him with confidence, "you think I would put up with all your bullying for almost my entire life, just as an inside joke that no one but me would enjoy? I've always thought this, Kacchan, but I was always too afraid to say it; you're too full of yourself! Didn't you ever stop to think I never fought back because I couldn't?! Well, guess what? Now I can, and you can't stop me! I'm not a Deku anymore!"
Kacchan slammed his palms into the ground beneath him, heaving himself to his feet, and slammed a hand into the wall next to him, "You should be scared, Deku, 'cause when I'm done with you, you're gonna be a bloody smear on this wall!"
Kacchan rushed toward Izuku again, this time propelling himself faster with a cluster of explosions.
'Another left hook?'
Izuku dodged downward at the last second, seeing a left hand pass overhead and an explosion bursting in the space he'd left. Izuku leaned back onto his hands quickly and thrust his feet up into Kacchan's stomach, making the boy cough in pain.
The force of the double kick sent Kacchan slamming into the roof above and falling back down to the ground. Just as Izuku was thinking the fight might go easier than he had thought, Kacchan let off an explosion in front of himself. The blast wasn't powerful, but it did create a concealing smokescreen.
'Crap, where next? Another left? No, he probably figured out by now that I know how he fights! So what next?'
A light tap behind Izuku startled him, and he realized that Kacchan had also used the smokescreen as an aerial maneuver to land behind him. The realization was too late, though, and an explosion hit Izuku's back, singeing his suit and armor. Thankfully, it wasn't able to penetrate the padding fully.
Izuku crouched low and sent a backward kick up at Kacchan's face. The blow was caught, and an explosion nearly dislocated Izuku's ankle.
Wincing in pain, Izuku let go of the ground with his hands and twisted, slamming his other foot into Kacchan's face. They both fell to the ground after the blow, panting and glaring at one another.
"Quit fucking aiming for my face, asshole!"
"Stop using explosions," Izuku deadpanned, looking at the boy like he was an idiot.
"The fuck? I'm not gonna quit using my quirk!"
"You just gave my answer to your stupid statement," Izuku laughed with a tremor in his voice.
As he got back up to his feet Izuku was forced to lean a bit more heavily on his left leg, he turned and ran as quickly as he could up the next staircase, leaving Kacchan dumbstruck on the ground.
"You little bitch! You're running!?"
Izuku made his way up the stairs, Kacchan no doubt on his heels. He ducked into the nearest room, closing the door behind him, and then he sprang up using his good leg to hide in the rafters.
"Uraraka," Izuku whispered into his earpiece, "are you there?"
"I'm here Midoriya. How is your part of the plan going," she asked, worry evident in her voice.
"Well, he's definitely pissed off," Izuku whispered, hearing Kacchan thundering around outside the room he was in. "What about you? Did you find the bomb?"
"Yep, just like you thought it was on the highest floor, and Iida is guarding it. Looks like he took everything out of the room, so I can't float anything."
"How many entrances are there to the room?"
"I can see one right behind me and the side entrance to the left of Iida. He can see both entrances, but he's facing my way more."
"That's good. When I say so, get Iida's attention, and I'll do my part," Izuku sighed, looking down at his right leg and touching the ankle gingerly. It was definitely sprained, so Izuku shifted his ankle pad down a bit and tightened it around the wound to help alleviate the pain.
Izuku listened to Kacchan rant and rave around on the floor they were on. Izuku lightly jumped down from his hiding position and grabbed a metal trash can that was next to the door.
A slow peek outside the door assures him Kacchan wasn't nearby, so he crept toward the stairs he'd taken and threw the can down the stairs.
Immediately, a chorus of explosions made its way to Izuku and the noise, but he quickly retreated into a room opposite the stairs leading further up to the last floor.
"I'm gonna find you, Deku," Kacchan yelled, rocketing down the stairs and allowing Izuku to run up to the next level before he could notice.
'Okay, now it's a matter of seeing which door to the bomb I'm near,' Izuku slowly pushed the door open, seeing Uraraka hiding behind a nearby pillar as Iida ranted to himself about villainy. 'What's that about?'
"Uh, Uraraka, I'm right behind you, so I'm going to circle around and get to the other side."
"S-Sounds good," the girl said, a slight tremble in her voice.
"Are you alright," Izuku asked, hurrying as fast as he could to the side entrance.
"Y-Yeah, it's just… Iida is being super serious about this and—"
A small burst of her own laughter cut her off.
Izuku could hear Iida from his side of the room, "So, you've come, Uraraka! I calculated as much when Bakugou ran off on his own! I know your quirk allows you to levitate objects you touch, so I've removed all objects from the floor in the room!"
Izuku slowly opened the door to Iida's left, seeing that Uraraka had managed to make him step a few feet forward away from the device.
'Pretty good, but just in case, I want a better distraction so Iida can't use his speed to stop me from getting it.'
"Uraraka, make a big move for the device from the front to make him panic, but act like he stopped you before you could try."
Just as a loud boom tore through the floor below them, Uraraka took a step forward and then a second wobbling one that she took to run in a wide arc to Iida's right.
The armor-clad boy followed her movement, never taking his eyes off her, but now turning his back to Izuku, 'Thanks for making it seem like I'm still downstairs, Kacchan.'
Izuku opened the door wider and readied himself. As Uraraka made a fake grab for the device, Izuku let One for All fill his body. He sprang forward using his unharmed leg. Just a few inches from the bomb, Izuku heard a shout that wasn't Iida or Uraraka.
"Found you! You fucking coward!"
Izuku's fingers were just about to brush the bomb, but then a very forceful explosion slammed into Izuku's face, sending him blasting into the wall the bomb was against.
Kacchan was now on top of him, throwing punch after punch that Izuku tried blocking with his arms, but a firm grip around his arms and an explosion made his arms too weak to hold up.
"I said if you came to U.A., I'd beat the shit out of you!"
"Get off!" Izuku grit his teeth, placing both of his feet on Kacchan's stomach and pushing him with all of his power. It had been desperate, but the push sent Kacchan at an angle away from Izuku and in such a manner that he slammed into Iida, who had run their way to secure the bomb.
Uraraka soared overhead, her fake play for the bomb now working in their favor as she landed on the objective and released her quirk, "I got it!"
Izuku let his head fall back, sighing in relief, his arms and leg aching, 'well, that sucked.'
All Might's yell echoed through the entire building, "The hero team, wiiiiiiiins!"
Uraraka sank from the bomb and slowly made her way over to Izuku, "are you alright!?"
"Y-Yeah, it's just… my everything that hurts," Izuku joked, sitting up to see Kacchan and Iida flailing in a tangle of limbs.
"Get the fuck off of me, Shitty Four-Eyes," Kacchan yelled, still trying to get at Izuku.
"Good heavens! Are you a feral beast? Cease your thrashing and allow me to extricate myself," Iida yelled, his arms hooking under Kacchan's armpits.
After a few painful seconds of watching them struggle, the pair finally stood to their own feet, and Iida made his way over.
"That was an excellent strategy, Midoriya! Using Uraraka as a distraction was quite effective, but how did you get away from Bakugou," he asked, crouching down and slinging Izuku's arm over his shoulder to carry him.
"That was pretty easy," Izuku chuckles, looking down and mumbling. "I've got a few notes on people and their weaknesses. I already know Kacchan, so I knew pissing him off would make him way more narrow-sighted. But just in case, I got a few good kicks on his head a little before I gave him the slip; honestly, he might have a concussion from that first kick to the head I gave him. It took him a lot longer than it normally would to realize I'd come up here, and the only reason is because of my insults and targeted strikes."
"I assume you didn't expect him to make his way up to the fifth level," Iida grimaced in sympathy.
"I thought it could happen, but after I heard that explosion downstairs, I thought I had more time. I guess I didn't."
"Well, you still managed to win despite all of the variables, so I must commend you," Iida smiled, helping Izuku along as Uraraka followed, looking slightly queasy.
"Are you okay?" Izuku looked at Uraraka in worry as she held her stomach.
"Y-Yeah, I just get super nauseous when I float myself; if I'd done that a second time, I'd probably hurl," she waved a dismissive hand with a shaky smile.
Izuku looked back, gazing at Kacchan, and then he quickly turned his head back at the burning glare he was receiving.
'Oh crap, he's super pissed!'
Once they had made it down another two floors, Izuku saw what had been hit by the giant explosion Kacchan had released. The entire third floor was destroyed, and the walls were either shattered or completely gone. Iida and Uraraka looked at Kacchan with far more wariness than they had before.
"I knew he was deplorable," Iida whispered lowly to Izuku and Uraraka, "but if you had been down here, you could have been seriously hurt.
"That's why I kicked him in the head pretty hard, not like he held back against me," Izuku gave him a very dry look.
'Although, I probably could've kicked him way harder,' Izuku thought.
"Quit fucking muttering to yourselves up there, and let's get the fuck out of here," Kacchan's quieter-than-usual cussing made Izuku more nervous than his usual volume.
All Might was waiting outside, a large smile on his face that seemed a little strained when he saw how hurt Izuku was and, to a lesser extent, Kacchan.
"Welcome back! Congratulations to the winners and to the losers, and please don't be discouraged! Even in the jaws of defeat, we can rise and learn from the experience, so with that, let's make our way back to the control room!"
"I'd say the M.V.P of this test was quite obviously young Midoriya and, to a lesser extent, young Iida! Now, can anyone tell me why I gave that assessment?"
Yaoyorozu raised her hand, "Sir, Midoriya was able to accurately deduce that Bakugou would target him specifically and only him, so he smartly sent his partner to gain intel on the enemy before making a move. Then, he was smart enough to taunt Bakugou into an easy-to-read attack, delivering several blows to his opponent and disorienting him. He did make a mistake, however! When he allowed his enemy to get behind him, he suffered a severe wound that hindered him in the end. Meanwhile, Iida stayed on task the entire time, never leaving the device and keeping his opponent away. However, he grew nearsighted at the explosion he heard, thinking he was safe to battle Uraraka fully, and that allowed the other team to secure the bomb in the confusion. Uraraka played too passive of a roll, but she did support her teammate adequately. And then there's Bakugou; he was completely wild and irrational. From abandoning his task and teammate to blindly attacking Midoriya and then destroying the third floor because he was frustrated. His performance was the worst of everyone, even if he nearly saved his team's objective in the end."
All Might stood with his body shaking in amazement for a moment before he seemed to remember he was the teacher, "y-yes, very accurate and to the point. Good assessment! Now, with that being said, everyone have that opening battle in mind while going forward. In the meantime, young Midoriya. Do you think you can make it to the nurse's office?"
"Y-Yeah, I can make it. Thank you very much, All Might," Izuku bowed, hurrying as fast as he could toward the nurse.
"Very well," All Might watched him go but called after him, "If your second team is called while you're still away, your fight can be postponed until you return."
Thankfully, the feeling had returned to his arms, and he could move them, but it hurt greatly, so he was careful not to bump into anything. Kacchan didn't even turn his head as he left.
In the control room, as Izuku left, the buzz from the other students was loud.
"That was so cool," Mina Ashido yelled to the group. "Did you see those sick moves Midoriya had? He kept just kicking Bakugou around!"
"Yeah, but those attacks Bakugou got on him seemed way worse than Midoriya's," Kirishima said, remembering the fight, "and that smokescreen air maneuver thing was really smart."
"If this is how intense all the training is going to be, then I'm getting pumped for this," Kaminari said, his grin wide.
'I hope he'll be alright,' All Might thought, very worried for Izuku. He had taken a considerable amount of damage, 'I think he used minimal force compared to young Bakugou because he feared hurting the boy.'
All Might turned to the blond boy who was glaring at his own feet, 'I don't believe he would have given Izuku the same consideration, however.'