To be a Hero 3

Bonus chapter! Mostly a canon retread, but it sets up quite a few butterflies vis a vis Izuku's interactions with his classmates. 

In the event this gets voted on again, it'll get its own thread on Spacebattles! It will also be crossposted to other platforms. 

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Izuku was pretty confident in his written scores. For one, he wouldn’t have been allowed to take the practical exam for the hero course if he didn’t pass the first half of the written exam, the half that was able to be graded by AI due to the answers being relatively straightforward. It was common practice in the Japanese school system, so he was used to answering in an unambiguous way that the AI found easy to interpret.

The practical? Not so much. The three days before the exam was mostly used to train his tolerance of One for All, extending his time by thirty seconds. So… eight and a half minutes. Hopefully the exam would only require him to use his quirk for a short amount of time. Also, hopefully that the only other two things Gran Torino and All Might taught him would be enough.

Also, he hoped that his clothes were stretchy enough. It would be super-embarrassing if he lost all but his underwear again. All Might offered one of his own shirts, but it was too big, even for his buffed up form. So Izuku had brought some stretchy sweatpants plus a shirt of his father’s, one that Mom assured him that the man wouldn’t miss.

The collegiate-style lecture hall was filled to the brim, hundreds of seats occupied with hero hopefuls. Izuku glanced to his right, where Kacchan was fuming at his general existence. Nothing new there, really… Right when the time ticked over to two o’clock, a man wearing punk rock clothing, a complicated piece of speaker-like support equipment around his neck, and a massive hairstyle that swept up behind his head walked to the podium. It was Present Mic!

"Welcome to the UA Entrance Exam." He began. He was so cool! "Can I get a YEAH?" He called out, switching to English for the last word.

Izuku went to respond, but immediately noticed that he was the only one, and sat back down before he got more than five centimeters out of his seat. The silence dragged on, the collective anxiety suffocating. Or maybe that was just him.

He shouldn't be nervous. He had All Might's quirk now, and he could use it for eight and a half minutes. According to the document in front of him, the test was ten minutes long, of destroying robots, four different kinds, each worth 1, 2, or 3 points based on difficulty, with a 0 point robot that you should avoid instead. Perfect for him. But would it be better to start strong or to end strong? He's not bringing his phone, or it might get damaged, so he wouldn't be able to time it. Starting strong it is.

The silence passed. "What a refined response." Present Mic said, saving face. He proceeded to explain what was written on the hand-out, but before he could finish a tall boy with broad shoulders rudely asked a clarifying question about something that the pro hero hadn't gotten around to explaining yet. "Thank you for calling in with your request." Present Mic said with distinctly less enthusiasm than before. "Think of the zero-pointer as a natural disaster. There will be no villain points awarded for dealing with it, and it's about as hard to beat as a tsunami." Present Mic shrugged in an exaggerated fashion, to make sure the back rows could see him do it, probably.

The tall boy spun around and pointed straight at Izuku. "And another thing! You've been mumbling this entire time! Take things seriously or get out!"

Izuku flinched at the accusation. What? Who was this guy? Immediately, a surge of confidence… no, it was more like reassurance, overwhelmed Izuku's anxiety. He deserved to be here! All Might was in his corner!

Izuku stood up, traces of smoke coming off of him as Izuku glared at the other boy. "I'm taking this no less seriously than you." Izuku began, waving his arms to indicate the crowd. "Everyone here knows what's at stake. We're here to show that we have what it takes to save people, to give them hope. That's what it means to be a hero."

Before Izuku could move on to actually addressing the other boy's complaint, Present Mic interrupted: "Great speech!" He shouted. "You certainly have the right attitude, examinee! But can you back that up? Anyone can spout pretty words until they're blue in the face, but it takes a Hero to make those words reality!" He punched the air. "Can I get a Plus Ultra?"

This time, the entire lecture hall yelled out, or close enough that it made no difference.

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As the random selection of middle schoolers left the bus and waited around for the test to start, Izuku noticed that nice girl that had saved him from tripping over his own two feet earlier in the day. He never did thank her…

She was rather cute, to the point where Izuku couldn't muster enough coherence the first time he saw her, but something inside him was telling him to make up for his previous error, to make a better impression on his maybe-future classmate. That little voice that says 'you have a quirk now, everything is different'. It was a good inner voice, sounded a little bit like All Might, he should listen to it.

"Hey." He began, internally cringing at how pathetic that was. The instant the girl's attention shifted to him, he tried again: "I wanted to thank you, for earlier I mean." Izuku tried his best to smile, projecting confidence. How do you project confidence? Was he confident?

The girl smiled back at him, so he must have done it. "It's no big deal, anyone would have done it. I just saw you fall and reached out, is all. Didn't even think about it."

"Your body moved on its own?" Izuku quoted, echoing All Might's words.

"Yeah!" The girl replied, her smile widening. "So I'm Uraraka Ochako. You?"

He's talking to a cute girl! It just hit him, locking up his throat. After an unknown but agonizing amount of time, he managed to speak: "M-Midoriya Izuku." Why was that so hard?

Izuku was thankfully spared from any further need to embarrass himself by Present Mic's voice shouting "Start!" After a beat of everyone being startled, he added: "There are no countdowns in real life, GO!"

Everyone started rushing into the massive fake city, where the robotic opponents awaited. Izuku almost joined them, but remembered that he still needed to turn on One for All.

They only had a few days to train before the exam, so Gran Torino and All Might focused on four things: straining his ability to use One for All, how to throw a proper punch, how to run instead of jump, and most importantly: how to quickly activate it.

He's got it down to about four seconds to turn on Muscle Form. Too long, but he started off by taking twenty, so it was a pretty big improvement. All Might kept telling him to stay focused on how much he’s improved, not how far he still has to go. It’s hard.

With his body empowered by One for All, Izuku leapt… nearly out of the city, but a punch upward launched him back down right on top of a three-pointer, Izuku crushing it as he landed feet-first. "Uh oh…" he said worriedly as he surveyed the size of the crater. Hopefully he won't lose points for all this collateral damage…

Worse, the wind shear from his movement had ruined his strained clothing, leaving once more wearing only the bodybuilder underwear that All Might recommended for him. Wait, did this make it look like he planned on stripping?

Still, it looked like he had accidentally landed in a place with plenty of robots and very little in the way of other examinees. So he hopped to the closest robot, overshot, and ended up tackling it instead.

Fortunately, Izuku wasn't entirely helpless against his own clumsiness, so while he failed to regain his balance, he managed to keep going while he tried, smashing the two-pointer he had in his grip into a second one, destroying both as well as a storefront.

A one-pointer rushed his back while Izuku got back on his feet, but the rude boy from before kicked it's head off, his massive calves exposing literal exhaust pipes. "Twenty-one!" He shouted as he ignored Izuku to go hunt for more.

Twenty one? Oh man, he's so behind! Spotting another three-pointer, Izuku gently leapt towards it, but this time he undershot, only traveling about two-thirds of the distance. So he did it again, finally managing to control his landing zone as he threw exactly one punch to the large robot.

It flew backwards, the armor buckling under the force as it flew into a building, collapsing the twelve-story structure.

Izuku groaned as he saw what he accidentally did again. Then, he noticed a flash of blue and tanned flesh as the rubble collapsed.

There was someone in there! Immediately, he rushed towards the section, tearing away the rubble to quickly uncover a boy with six arms wearing a mask. Izuku immediately got on his hands and knees, deeply apologizing. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to destroy the building!"

The large boy seemed more amused than anything else. "I'm fine. There were a few one-pointers in that building, so you got some points. You should get back to it." The boy immediately charged, punching out a two-pointer with a synchronized impact of three fists.

"Right!" Izuku said, following his advice.

Izuku would like to have said that he improved his control over his strength during the exam… but he only had five more minutes. Two more times, he got a few more points before having to waste more time cleaning up his own mess, checking over the new pile of rubble for anyone inside, in case he missed something. He thinks he got a total in the low twenties? The nice boy with the arms didn't say how many one pointers were in that building.

After the third pile of rubble, Izuku gave up. He would be the first one to demand that any hero this destructive to get their license taken away. He wasn't cut out for this, he doesn't deserve One for All, he's going to fail and All Might's going to go back to the quirkless hero plan, and even that much would be more than he deserved.

Instead of seeking to get more points, Izuku decided to enjoy the time he had left with a quirk, just hopping around with his super strength and pretending that he was a lifeguard, watching over the teenagers in case someone needed help. Some of them did, surprisingly enough.

When his quirk finally gave out, his entire body feeling like one giant bruise, he was watching the giant Zero pointer robot as it rampaged around the city. He was at his limit; he should have known that he wasn't cut out for welding One for All when he learned how little time he could use it.

He just stood there panting as the other contestants ran past him, away from the Zero pointer. Izuku was about to join them, but then he noticed something: Uraraka, exhausted, her leg stuck in some rubble.

Despite every cell in his body screaming at him, Izuku ran towards the downed examinee, a surge of desperate strength forcing one foot in front of the other.

He couldn't use One for All anymore. He wasn't going to let that stop him. He didn't forget that he was going to be the first quirkless hero just because he started to aim a bit higher. He arrived at the site, and attempted to push the rubble off of her leg. His muscles cried out in protest, as he couldn’t even muster a third of his strength in the face of the pain. Uraraka was going to die if he didn't do something…

“Go!” Uraraka cried, tears in her eyes. “Get yourself away!”

All Might said that in training, keeping going when your body screamed at you to stop was just stupidity. But when you hit your limits on the field, there was only one heroic response. Izuku could hear him now, the memory echoing in his ears.

“You may feel that you’ve reached your limit, with the job left undone.” All Might had said. “I find that happening all the time nowadays. When that happens, fear not! Heroes are everywhere in this world, and most of the time when you see that, you can let someone else step up.” All Might’s face darkened. “But sometimes, there is no one else. You’ve already stepped up, and you’re in trouble, your body screaming at you to stop. But if you do, someone… will die.”

“In that time…” Izuku echoed, torturously putting his aching body back into position. “The only thing to do is to break your limits and go beyond them…” His eyes glared upward, straight at the giant red optics of the robot. “To show them the meaning of these words… GO BEYOND, PLUS ULTRA!”

Green sparks of power bloomed around Izuku, as his body swelled once more with the power of One for All. The pain was agonizing, but he just needed… one more moment! “Texas…” He said, bracing for the one thing he can do: an ordinary punch. “SMASH!”

He leapt upwards, pins and needles eclipsing all feeling in his feet, as his fist impacted the zero-pointer. The rubble around them blew away with the force of the shockwave, incidentally freeing Uraraka. The windows of the nearby buildings all turned white as the force powdered the inflexible parts, although the material managed to barely hold together.

As for the zero pointer itself? Its front cratered from the force, the top half of the massive machine tearing off and flying several blocks away, the bottom half instead traveling only one of them. The top half deposited itself at an intersection, completely obstructing it.

Izuku, on the other hand… barely held onto consciousness as the power of One for All left him, his entire body in too much pain to distinguish anything specific about his condition. Oh… he was falling, wasn’t he? He felt weightless… Actually, he didn’t jump that high. He should have hit the ground before he even realized he was falling.

He glanced around at the area, finally seeing Uraraka beneath him, her hands trembling as she laid down. Did she… leap underneath him so she could catch him with her quirk? She can completely stop the momentum of something safely with her quirk? That’s… amazing! Catching someone falling is one of the most challenging things a hero can do! It’s nigh impossible to stop someone falling at terminal velocity, even if you can intercept them they’ll just splatter themselves on your arms, and even that assumes that the hero can survive that kind of force! There’s so much that goes into an effective catch, and she can just… do it? She’s perfect for heroics…

Uraraka, who was smiling as she watched Izuku float in the air, suddenly flushed. “I’m perfect?” She exclaimed. Oh, he was mumbling… “I-I’m sure you’re just-” She interrupted herself with what appeared to be her stomach rebelling against her, turning to the side and vomiting all over the ground. Quirk feedback?

“Uh, you can let me down now!” Izuku offered. “I’m not over you anymore, so…”

She coughed, but brought her fingertips together. “R-release.” She whispered with a croak. Suddenly, gravity once again held him in his grip, dropping him about three meters onto the ground onto concrete. Ow. He was ready for it though, and it wasn’t that much additional pain.

“The Entrance exam is over!” Present Mic announced. Oh, of course. It was very close when he punched it, he knew that. He’ll just… rest a bit. He’s never overstressed his body this badly before, so he’s not entirely sure how long it’ll take before he can stand up, but there was absolutely nothing in the rules about needing to be able to leave under your own power, so Izuku was pretty sure he was safe.

Except for the fact that he probably doesn’t have enough points. All that collateral damage… he’s sure All Might is so disappointed in him for being so clumsy with his quirk… He just couldn’t continue and thus risk actually hurting someone, he’ll just go through Gen Ed like All Might said he would if he couldn’t pass.

Faintly, he heard the other examinees talking. Izuku’s extensive experience as a Hero Watcher made his ears particularly sensitive to the names of heroes, so while he couldn’t make out much, he did distinctly hear the words ‘Recovery Girl’, which was great. He could definitely use a healing quirk, and more importantly, so could Uraraka.

“Well now sonny, it looks like you’ve overstretched yourself.” Dr. Shuzenji said. Wait, she was Recovery Girl? …Yeah that makes sense. He didn’t think too hard about the healing quirk usage, because he kept passing out after each use, but it does match. He’s ashamed he didn’t notice before.

Recovery Girl did not look happy with him. “I’m sorry, but could you get Uraraka first? Her leg is hurt.”

“Here I was about to tear strips off your hide… but then you had to go and do that.” Recovery Girl huffed, “Every time, can’t stay mad at the lug. Toshi’s the worst influence, I swear.”

After a moment, Recovery Girl came back and gave Izuku a kiss, which, much like before, robbed Izuku of consciousness.

Even if he didn’t pass… worth it.

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Izuku was left adrift after the exam, with no word from All Might, Gran Torino, or Dr. Shuzenji, despite him asking. At least, for the first few days. After about three days, All Might sent a message: “Sorry my boy, but I’m sworn to strict secrecy on this matter. You’ll get your results at the same time as everyone else.”

Izuku sent back some platitudes, but groaned. He thought about going back to Dagobah Beach, but one of the tests they did for One for All was getting him to clean up the rest of the beach quickly. He managed it… although with a lot of sand getting thrown around, so it was completely clean.

If only he remembered to get Uraraka’s phone number… assuming he could work up the nerve to ask. Getting a girl’s phone number…

Izuku put down his weights, finished with his sets. At first, one of the reasons he liked exercising was that it required all of his focus, so he could stop overthinking things, but now… it was routine enough that his mind goes everywhere without him missing a single rep. As All Might said, eventually you reach your peak, and your exercise just maintains your shape instead of developing it… but it certainly takes longer than a year to reach that point.

He walked into the living room, Mom giving him his protein shake as he sat down. “Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, Izuku.” Mom said, wringing her hands. “Now, about that quirk…” Uh oh.

Stay strong. “What about it, Mom?” Izuku asked, plastering a fake smile on his face. “I have one now, so there’s absolutely nothing stopping me from becoming a hero!”

“But don’t you think it’s a bit… suspicious?” She asked. Oh no. She’s questioning his lies! Stay calm, Izuku. You over thought this for a reason. Not a good reason, but here it comes. “Quirkless your whole life, but then suddenly you have a quirk? One that’s perfect for your new lifestyle? There are rumors, you know.”

Izuku knew everything about those rumors. The quirk bogeyman, who offers a devil’s bargain to the quirkless. Stories were suppressed, but they can be found in the right places… mostly as cautionary tales. Izuku dreamed about it, but knew that it would never be worth it, even if the man was real. This wasn’t a direction that Izuku anticipated Mom taking, but… “Mom, it’s fine. I’ve heard those rumors too, and nothing like that is happening. The only one I’ve got in my corner is All Might, and that’s more than enough.” Izuku was an old hand at telling half-truths to his mother, saying things that were technically true but left out important details.

Mom’s eyes narrowed, but Izuku kept smiling. After a few agonizing moments, she nodded along. “Very well.” She said, “I trust you.” She added, which cut him deeper than any knife. “I know you wouldn’t put me in danger like that. Only yourself.” Hurtful, but Izuku couldn’t disagree. “Now, my next question: Is it steroids? There is a quirk, right? You’d tell me if you were faking it, right?”

Izuku laughed at that one. All the steroids in the world couldn’t destroy that giant robot. “It’s really a quirk, Mom. Actually, that reminds me: We need to go get some adjustable clothing, stuff that won’t rip when I use Muscle Form. You still have that card from All Might, right?”

As usual, the prospect of shopping lit up Mom’s face. “Yes, we do need to do that! We can shop at… the specialty store! I wonder if Mitsuki wants to come?”

Izuku chuckled. He knew that the opportunity to shop at a new store would excite his mother. “Let’s go.”

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Two weeks after the exam, his results finally arrived. It was in a hologram projector, which was a lot fancier than Izuku expected. Each of these had to cost at least three thousand yen, and that’s assuming they only put a few minutes worth of memory in them.

“I am here!” All Might boomed, “as a projection!” Yeah, that. He was wearing an eye-searingly yellow pinstripe suit, but he somehow pulled it off. “I would like to apologize for not meeting with you, Izuku, but I knew that if I met you in person, the secret would be out!” He beamed widely. That was a good sign! That means he passed, right? “First, you scored excellently on the written exam. You studied well, and your answers on the heroic philosophy questions were top notch! Not perfect, but a comfortable pass.” He laughed as he slapped the papers in his hand. “Now, on to the practical exam. You scored twenty-nine villain points before you stopped fighting the robots, which, on its own, is not sufficient to pass.”

Those words opened a gulf of anxiety underneath Izuku’s feet, and only by focusing on All Might’s giddy demeanor staved away the dark thoughts. He passed though, right?

All Might continued: “You made an admirable decision, stopping your attempts to get points because you couldn’t control your quirk well enough. That alone made up the difference.” He passed! “But of course, you didn’t stop there!” All Might gestured, and an image of a shadowy panel of judges panned through with the projector. He was 90% sure one of them was Cementoss, as he had a very distinct silhouette. “You see, there is a hidden, secondary score for the exam! UA wouldn’t be a proper hero school if the only thing they looked at was taking down villains, after all! There is a panel of judges that award what we call ‘Rescue Points’ for heroic actions taken during an exam that encouraged the opposite.” All Might’s image was replaced again with pictures of Izuku when he was playing lifeguard, desperately trying to feel like a hero instead of a wrecking ball. “You spent half the exam doing nothing but, my boy!” All Might smiled even wider, which made Izuku flush as warmth bubbled up from his chest. “But that’s not all! Don’t forget the grand finale!” It showed Izuku bulking up one more time, his skin turning an angry red as he overstressed his body, green sparks of power flickering around him. Then, it showed him destroying the zero pointer with a single punch, fulfilling one of his childhood dreams: performing a real Smash. Sure, it was a test, but that was way different than just in training.

“Oh my…” Was all his mom could say after witnessing him go Plus Ultra. “You didn’t mention that part…” For good reason. He didn’t want to worry her.

All Might looked to the side. “I have to do how many of these?” Mom’s emotional episode broke with a snort, as she giggled away the tension. “Right. With all of these things put together, from your restraint, your altruism, and putting everything on the line to save a life, you were awarded the maximum number of rescue points: Sixty! There was serious discussion on whether or not to give you more anyway, too! But with that, you’ve achieved first place on the entrance exam, with a total of 89 points!” The screen changed to show a ‘top ten’ of the exam, and right in first place, was his name.

Also, Kacchan was in second, with 77 villain points and 0 rescue points. He beat him by twelve points. The fact that he knows this means that Kacchan assuredly does too. Uraraka got fourth, though, so that’s nice. But Kacchan knows that Izuku has beaten him.

…He’s in trouble.

“Now, welcome to your Hero Academia!” All Might’s projection finished, completely ignoring the mood, as recordings tended to.

Still, it was a happy day. He passed!

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Yuuei… It was even more momentous the second time. Izuku rolled his shoulders to rid them of the tension that built up as he walked across the expansive campus. His uniform was built to survive the transition into Muscle Form, although he didn’t dare test how well it would hold up to high speed movement. This made the fabric surprisingly breathable and flexible, very different from the stiff and thick fabric that it appeared to be made of.

The hallways weren’t particularly crowded, part of UA’s exclusivity was the fact that it only had about a thousand students at any given time, which was, needless to say, absolutely tiny for the amount of space they had. It was a side-effect of only employing Pro Heroes as teachers, there just weren’t that many willing to get teaching credentials, and fewer willing to commit to it long-term. As a result, the vast majority of the teachers were retired from actual Pro Hero work, usually from injury, although there were a handful old enough that they were probably like Gran Torino, who still worked because they couldn’t afford to retire. The number of active pro heroes that also taught at UA numbered less than two dozen, although presumably a number of the retirees could still fight in an emergency.

The door to 1-A was huge, large enough that Izuku really wanted to use Muscle Form before he went inside. Alas, using one’s quirk in the hallways was probably still against school rules, even at UA.

After a moment of contemplating whether or not he should show off like that… “Hey, Midoriya!” Uraraka said from behind him, startling Izuku. “You’re in 1-A too? That’s great!” Oh! She looked so cute in her uniform! He wonders if hers actually felt like it looked… No! Bad thoughts!

Still, he should say something. “Ah, Uraraka, it’s nice to see you again.” Nailed it. Now… “Actually, I wanted to ask about your quirk, does it really remove all momentum from something when you use it? I didn’t quite see what you did after I punched the zero-pointer, but am I right that you threw yourself directly under me and caught me with your hands, activating your quirk? Was it as easy as it seemed, or is there some kind of limit to your quirk that made it riskier, like five-point activation? Was that quirk feedback that made you sick? It’s such a perfect quirk for heroics if you can just catch anything and safely stop it, good for combat defense and rescue both.”

As he rambled, Uraraka’s smile became more brittle until she checked the time on her flip phone. “Ah, we should get into class! It’s less than a minute until it starts!”

Oh crap! “Right!” Izuku said, quickly rushing to his assigned seat. The documentation put his class number as eighteen, so that put him right in the middle of the right column, with a perfect view of the window. He had to go around both Kacchan, who was in the seat right in front of him, and the rude boy from the auditorium, who was scolding Kacchan from putting his feet on the desk.

Noticing Izuku, the rude boy winced, and immediately dismissed Kacchan in favor of addressing him. Izuku cringed at the thought of the verbal diatribe that he was assuredly about to receive. But before he could, a deep, tired voice cut through the class chatter: “If you’re here to make friends, you should leave now.”

There was a small bit of panic as people looked around for the seemingly absent teacher, rushing to their desks. An… inchworm person? Caterpillar person? Reared up, his scruffy face scowling at everyone from the front of his bright yellow body. “It took you ten seconds to get ready after I arrived.” He paused, his scowl deepening. “Inefficient. You’ll need to improve that time if you want to be heroes, ready to go at an instant’s warning.” He unzipped what Izuku now realized to be a sleeping bag, revealing his body to be mostly if not completely homomorphic, wearing a black low-effort hero uniform with white strips of something bundled up around his neck and over his shoulders. Was that medical dressing? Probably not, too unsanitary, and he’d expect medical iconography if the man had a quirk that would sterilize it anyway. “My name is Aizawa Shota, and I’m your homeroom teacher for the next three years… if you last that long.” Stepping out of his sleeping bag, he pulled out one of UA’s athletic uniforms from it. “Get dressed and meet me in the athletic field. Speed is of the essence, and we have no time to waste.” His cryptic instructions completed, he walked off at a brisk pace.

Izuku quickly followed Mr. Aizawa, and the rest of the class seemed to have had the same idea, as there was a disorganized procession behind him as he followed the teacher. After about a minute, they left the building and Mr. Aizawa pointed to a small building that had a sign designating it as ‘Athletic field Sigma locker rooms’. “As hero course students, you have an assigned locker in every single locker room, including the large ones that are accessible to the entire school and intended to be used by the other courses. Robotic support staff will maintain an inventory of three athletic uniforms in each one, and handle any laundry that needs to be done. Get dressed.” Wow, that was well over one hundred gym uniforms per hero course student, and honestly, Izuku wouldn’t be surprised if it was over two hundred. Given UA’s budget, that probably wasn’t nearly as unreasonable of an expense as it sounded. Particularly due to the fact that there were only about one hundred and twenty-ish of them at any one time.

Still, he tested the stretchiness of the gym uniforms in his assigned locker, surprisingly none of them were locked, but that just meant that Izuku automatically labeled them as ‘unsafe’ and moved on with his life.

One or two of the other boys tried to strike up a conversation, but the rude boy immediately shut them down. “Mr. Aizawa wants us there as fast as possible! No talking!” He said, chopping his arms in the direction of the red and blonde students before resuming his own undressing.

When everyone re-assembled in front of Mr. Aizawa, he was staring off into space, possibly sleeping while standing up. The instant the floating gym uniform (is that girl invisible?) took her place, the man snapped to attention, immediately checking the phone he had in his hand. “Hm. Acceptable, for today.” He said drily. “I expect improvement in all areas from each of you, and your preparation speed is no exception. Let’s get to it.” He fiddled with his phone. “Midoriya, how far could you throw in middle school?”

Izuku paused. He wasn’t sure, actually. He never really kept track of his scores… Fortunately, Kacchan bailed him out on this one. “Forty-five meters.” He said. Izuku pointed to Kacchan while nodding.

Mr. Aizawa took a moment to consider, raising an eyebrow at Izuku. “Bakugo, how far could you throw?” He said instead of directly contesting Kacchan’s figure. He was too tired from his workouts to give a good showing at the last sports day…

“Sixty-seven meters.” Kacchan immediately replied with a smug grin.

“Impressive.” Mr. Aizawa said, although he didn’t seem to mean it. “Now, come here and do it with your quirk.” He brought out what appeared to be a hard plastic ball, the kind with gyroscopes and other fancy widgets. “Stay inside the circle, but otherwise do whatever.”

Izuku immediately placed his hands over his ears, making his action incredibly obvious as he glanced at his fellow students. Uraraka quickly did the same, which made the girl with cables coming out of her ears quickly do so as well. With that, most of the class repeated his action in time for Kacchan to detonate his quirk, Explosion, at the perfect release point for his throw for maximum distance, shouting something that was probably ‘Die’, although he couldn’t say for sure, he was plugging his ears.

Kacchan’s score was over seven hundred meters! Amazing, over a ten-fold difference… Mr. Aizawa continued to explain the test he was giving them: Normal athletic assessments, but with the full range of creativity and quirk use available to them. Several assistant robots arrived on the athletic field, all directed by Mr. Aizawa’s phone.

At first, Izuku got distracted by all of the excellent quirks everyone had, writing down his thoughts on them in the notebook that he remembered to put in his gym uniform’s pocket. It was small, but he’ll transfer them to a bigger one later in the day.

Then it was his turn to take the first event: the fifty meter dash. He was paired with Kacchan, of course, as they were student number 17 and 18. Perfectly logical. “C’mon Deku, let’s see that quirk that the hag said you somehow got.” Ah, Kacchan’s mom did tell him about it. They didn’t exactly say a lot about it when she helped Mom shop for Izuku’s new clothes, but while Auntie Mitsuki did comment how strange it was that Izuku wasn’t shouting from the rooftops about his new quirk status, they didn’t exactly tell her to keep it a secret.

Izuku looked Kacchan in the eyes. He liked to think that he knew Kacchan better than most, able to discern his moods and expressions with a glance. Kacchan had a questioning look, he was curious. In hindsight, learning about it from Auntie Mitsuki was probably the best possible option; she knew how to keep Kacchan from blowing up at nothing. Mostly by redirecting any anger at herself, but she knew her son better than Izuku did. “RIght. I can’t use it much yet, but it’s strong, Kacchan. I’ll show you.” As they waited for Mr. Aizawa to tell them to begin, Izuku took what he mentally called his transformation pose: It was a bodybuilding flex, bent to the side so he could show off the entirety of one side. Over the two weeks of waiting for his results, he was not completely idle: he couldn’t do a lot with his quirk, so he trained one thing beyond all others: transforming quickly.

The instant the assistant robot beeped the beginning of the mini-race, Izuku transformed into his muscle form in less than a second, his mental preparation priming the metaphorical pump, and shifted to the second non-quirk skill that Gran Torino and All Might taught him, besides how to throw a punch: proper running form for when you have super strength.

Unfortunately, his gym uniform, while quite durable by most standards, could not hold up to the stress of Izuku moving at full speed. The robot’s high speed cameras managed to catch him, displaying ‘1.12 seconds’ as his time, most of which was transforming. He wasn’t naked, as he still had the Might Tower sponsored bodybuilding briefs, distinct from the All Might branded underwear that he wore before he started bodybuilding by not having any visible logo, just durable black fabric that was tough enough to take anything All Might can dish out, even squats. Flushing in embarrassment, he released the power of One for All, light amounts of smoke releasing from his pores, nose, and mouth as he did so. Why did it do that?

Izuku stiffly started walking towards the locker room after picking up his notebook, intent on replacing his gym uniform. “Midoriya, where are you going?” Mr. Aizawa asked.

Izuku froze. “Um… I was going to get more clothes…” He mumbled, pointing at the locker room.

Mr. Aizawa sighed. “Go ahead. I’ll order the robots to fetch spares from the other locker rooms. We’ll figure out a solution to this.” His eyes narrowed. “But don’t think I don’t know that you’re breaking things because you have terrible control over your quirk. That’s something that must be fixed, or you’ll kill more people than you save.” Izuku’s heart skipped a beat at him outright saying it. He knew that! Mr. Aizawa’s expression softened a bit. “But today, I need to see your full effort, so you get a pass on property damage. For now.”

As Izuku slinked off to get more clothes on, he heard Mr. Aizawa address the rest of the class. “Anyone who fights Midoriya with quirks allowed before I’m satisfied that he can throw a punch without killing someone gets expelled. Especially if you think you can take it. You can’t.”

Ouch. Harsh, but… fair.