Hey everyone, MagmaKyuubi here with another chapter. I have some important info in the Author's Notes, so please read them. Also, please leave a review but no flames.
B0OKW0RM: You'll see who replaces him in this chapter, and I think it's someone rarely included in MHA fics, at least in terms of being Izuku's classmate.
Morijingod: I know, lol! I hope that mine is a bit different from the others around, if not tell me how I can improve it.
Leon: Thanks! I wanted to highlight that the idea that quirks only show up when someone is 4, is well a ridiculous concept. I mean if someone is born with a quirk that lets them breathe fire but only if they drink gasoline, how would they figure that out. They'd spend most of their life without knowing about their quirk, unless they do some sort of stupid dare in college or try stealing gas from cars.
I don't own My Hero Academia or Ben 10. The alien descriptions are mainly from the Ben 10 Wiki.
Regular Speech – "RATH SMASH!"
Thoughts – 'Fix It. Fix It. FIX IT!'
Special Communication – "Attention Everyone!"
Flashback – A punch that changed the weather!
Chapter 4: High Expectations
'Yuei is a maze!' Izuku thought to himself as he tried navigating the many corridors of the school. The school's huge size only made things more difficult, but he eventually managed to find his class. Checking the time on his phone, he sighed in relief, 'I'm not late!'
Yuei Highschool had two hero course classes for every school year, with a total of 40 students in them. Only 1 in 300 applicants pass through the entrance exam, and there were only 36 open seats which are split between the two classes. The remaining 4 seats are filled by recommendation students, who take a different exam and have to be recommended by someone influential.
"Found it... What a giant door, but I guess it has to be accessible to everyone." Izuku mumbled to himself as he prepared himself mentally, "It'll be the best of the best from the exams."
'Well, at least Katsuki won't be here, so that's comforting. I hope that blue haired guy is in the other class, he was pretty intense.' Izuku thought to himself, hoping to not have any jerks in his class. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and saw that the class was relatively calm, with only one source of noise.
A few people were chatting with each other, probably getting to know one another or they were already friends. The blue haired guy was there, and he seemed to be admonishing a blonde student, with a black lightning streak running through his hair, about sitting on top of the desks.
"Get off that desk, it is an insult to those who came before us to Yuei, as well as the craftsmen who worked painstakingly to make the desk!" He exclaimed rather loudly, although Izuku did notice that the teen was trying to not make a ruckus.
"Relax, it's not like there's a rule against sitting on them. Also, the teacher isn't here yet so why not relax a bit?" The blonde guy replied, trying to calm the blue haired teen down.
"Of course there's a rule against such actions." The blue haired teen replied, before pausing for a few moments to think about it, "And even if there weren't any, desks were not made for sitting. There is a perfectly fine chair, the object which was made for sitting..."
"Allow me to start from the beginning, since I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Tenya Iida, and I'm from Somei Private Academy. It is nice to meet you." Tenya introduced himself after taking a deep breath to recentre himself.
"I'm Denki Kaminari, it's nice to meet you too." Denki replied, before adding as an afterthought, "I'm still not getting off the desk."
Their discussion was halted when the blue haired guy heard the door closing and turning around, he saw Izuku entering the classroom. Marching towards Izuku and having given up on getting Kaminari to sit correctly, he began introducing himself to Izuku.
"I'm from Somei Private Academy..."
"I heard you before!" Izuku cut him off, a bit rudely some might argue, "I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I'm pleased to meet you Iida-san."
"Midoriya... You perceived the true nature of the practical exam, while I did not!" Tenya replied, seeming to have gotten a bit upset at that piece of information. "I misjudged you! I hate to admit it, but you were the superior candidate!"
"What're you talking about?" Izuku replied in slight panic, not sure what Tenya was talking about.
"The rescue points of course. You figured out that a prestigious school such as Yuei would have a hidden method of scoring, and thus acted accordingly!"
"The rescue points! I didn't know about them, I just tried to help others when I could. I didn't do anything special; I just did what anyone would have done." Izuku replied, and several people who were listening in became depressed.
"Ah! That curly hair!" A bubbly voice exclaimed behind him, causing him jolt in surprise, "You're here Midoriya-san!"
'It's Uraraka! She's too cute in that uniform!' Izuku thought to himself once he turned to see who came in. "Hey there, Uraraka-san, I didn't know you'd be in 1-A as well. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Hehe... I wanted to keep it a surprise!"
"Anyways, what do you think we'll be doing today?"
"Well, we've got the entrance ceremony and guidance sessions today, right? Wonder what our teacher will be like? Boy, I'm nervous." She answered him, coming pretty close to him. This caused Izuku's face to start turning pink, since despite his confidence improving, he was still a shy guy at heart.
"If you're here to socialize, then get out." A voice cut them off, and after looking for a few moments, they found the source on the ground. A yellow sleeping bag was on the ground, and the person in it was the one who spoke. He looked rather unkempt, and a lot of people would mistake him as a hobo. He took out a jelly pack and began drinking it, and after sucking it dry, said "This is the hero course!"
'There's someone in there!' Was the collective thought of everyone who had seen the exchange. The man got out of the sleeping bag, and his clothes didn't make him any less creepy. He sports a baggy black outfit that consists of a long-sleeved shirt and matching pants that tuck into his boots. He also wears a utility belt and an odd-looking scarf around his neck.
"It took eight seconds for you to quiet down. Time is a precious resource." He told them.
'He's our teacher!?' Was the collective thought of the class.
"You lot aren't very rational, are you?" The man continued on, ignoring the surprised faces of his students.
"So, he's a pro hero then?" Izuku mumbled to himself quietly, as he racked his brain trying to figure who he was. 'But... He doesn't look familiar. This haggard looking guy... Who is he?'
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa, pleased to meet you." He introduced himself, although the look on his face was more tired than anything else. "You'll find your gym clothes in your desks. Change into your gym clothes and head out to sports field."
"14 minutes... You lot barely made it on time, and I expect you all to improve on it." Shota told them after everyone gathered on the sports field after changing. They were all in their uniforms, which were cleverly designed to have 'UA' spelled vertically on the front. "You'll be doing a quirk apprehension test, so ready yourselves."
"A test of our quirks!?" One of the students exclaimed in response to what Shota said.
"What about the entrance ceremony? Or the guidance sessions!?" Ochaco asked their teacher.
"No time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes."
"But sensei... Aren't guidance sessions important for our development? Also, how are we supposed to know the rules and guidelines, or the location of places like the support studios or the counsellor's office?" Izuku asked his teacher, since he read online that these topics will be covered in the entrance ceremony.
"What I meant, was that the entrance ceremony consists of the principle droning on about pointless topics, things like the best way to keep your fur shiny or which chess moves should be banned from tournaments." Shota replied after pausing for a moment, continuing to inform the students, "You'll find several booklets in your desks, that'll cover everything you need to know. You can also ask me or any other teacher if you need more help or have any questions."
"Yuei is known for its 'freestyle' educational system. That applies to us teachers as well." Shota told them, and seeing the confused look on their faces, he explained "Softball throwing, standing long jump, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side-to-side stepping, upper-body training and seated toe touch. You did all of these in middle-school, yes? Your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests."
"This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating." Shota told them.
Those lines made Izuku feel weird, since a teacher shouldn't be pushing their political opinions on to their students. It didn't help that Shota's tirade against quirk prohibition sounded a bit like what online MLA fanatics rant about. Maybe it was just the way he phrased things, so Izuku decided he'll just have to judge him by his actions.
"Midoriya. How far could you throw in middle school?"
"Umm, I think it was around sixty meters." Izuku replied hesitatingly, since he wasn't exactly sure of the answer.
"Great. Now try it with your quirk. Do whatever you need to, just don't leave the circle." Shota told him, "Give it all you've got."
Nodding in response, Izuku activated the Omnitrix and began cycling through it, looking for the perfect pitcher. Hearing his teacher cough loudly, while he was pressing down caused him to accidentally transform into a different alien than what he wanted.
"RATH!" Izuku shouted after transforming, "RATH? WHY DID THE OMNITRIX TRANSFORM RATH INTO RATH!"
"Midoriya, what's the problem?" Shota asked a little agitated, maybe by the fact that Izuku has yet to throw the ball or maybe the loud shouting.
"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, SHOTA AIZAWA, HOMEROOM TEACHER OF CLASS 1-A AT YUEI HIGHSCHOOL." Izuku shouted at his teacher, who didn't even blink at the angry 3-meter-tall humanoid tiger glaring at him. "RATH NOW KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED! YOUR COUGHING MADE RATH CHOOSE RATH, EVEN WHEN RATH DIDN'T WANT TO BE RATH!"
"So? Are you going to throw the ball or should I mark you as not applicable?" Shota replied, not really caring about what his student told him.
"RATH WILL THROW THE BALL, BUT NOT BECAUSE YOU TOLD HIM! RATH WANTS TO THROW THE BALL, BECAUSE THE BALL PISSED HIM OFF!" Izuku shouted while pointing a finger at his teacher.
"Why're he angry at the ball?" Muttered one of the students quietly, while sweat dropping at the large tiger.
"RATH IS ANGRY AT THE BALL, BECAUSE IT IS BALL SHAPED. IT SHOULD BE..." Izuku replied, his sharp ears having heard that comment, "IT SHOULD BE SHAPED LIKE A SQUARE! AND RATH KNOWS THAT MAKES NO SENSE, AND THAT MAKES RATH EVEN MADDER!"
His anger having reached a boiling point, Izuku grabbed the ball and took a pitcher's stance. His muscles bulged and veins became visible through his fur, which seemed to get thicker and wilder. Thankfully, the gym clothes provided were more than capable of surviving the transformation, and they stretched even further as his form grew a tiny bit more. Winding up his arm, Izuku threw the ball with all his might and then glared at his teacher.
"It's important for us to know our limits." Shota began saying, as he showed everyone the distance counter, which was still climbing over 2,000 meters. "That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you'll be."
"Awesome! That looks so fun!" A pink skinned girl, with pink hair and yellow horns, exclaimed while pumping her fist.
"Over 2,000 meters? Seriously?" A tall muscular guy with a broad build muttered to himself.
"So, we can use our quirks for real! Man, the hero course is great!" A black-haired guy with weird elbows told the person near him.
"It looks fun... you say?" Shota interrupted the excited chatter, "You're hoping to become heroes after three years here... and you think it'll be all fun and games? Alright then, in that case, new rule. The student with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged 'hopeless' and will be instantly expelled!"
Meanwhile, in the teacher's lounge, a blonde skeleton known as Yagi Toshinori was reading the teacher registry, to learn more about his fellow teachers.
"Aizawa, huh..." Yagi muttered to himself, 'He's going to be nothing but trouble!'
The reason why Yagi thought that, was the comments written on Shota's file. It mentioned how he'd expelled 154 students during his time teaching at Yuei.
"WAAAH!" A number of students shouted in response to Shota's proclamation, and everyone began panicking. Even Izuku was panicking a bit, even though he knew that with the sheer variety of aliens he can transform into, most of the exercises will be easy to complete.
"Your fates are in our hands!" Shota continued speaking, smiling wide, "Welcome. This is the hero course at Yuei High!"
"The lowest scorer will be expelled...?" Ochaco began saying before cutting herself off. She continued after a moment, taking a deep breath, "It's only the first day! I mean, even if it weren't... That's totally unfair!"
"Natural disasters... Highway pileups... Rampaging villains... Calamity is always right around the corner. I'd say Japan is full of unfair things." Shota responded in a calm tone, "Heroes are the ones who correct all the unfairness. If you were hoping to spend your evenings hanging out at MgRonald's, that's too bad. I'm sorry to tell you that from now on, for the next three years, all you can expect from your life at Yuei is one hardship after the next. You will be run through the wringer. That's Plus Ultra. I expect you to use your strength to overcome these trials and climb to the top, so bring it."
'Trial by fire, I suppose... This is what it's like at the top... We've no choice, but to give it our all.' Iida thought to himself.
"The demonstration is over. Now it's for real." Shota finished his speech, and in response the students began shaking off their fear and psyching themselves up. Izuku manually transformed back to normal and joined the rest of his class as they moved onto the first exercise.
Event 1: The 50-Meter Dash
First up were Tenya Iida and Asui Tsuyu. Tenya completed the dash in 3.04 seconds thanks to his quirk, 'Engine', which allowed him to run at extremely high speeds.
'It had to be third gear for the 50-meter dash...' Tenya thought to himself.
'Eh... Like a fish in water. We'll see how he does in the other events.' Shota thought to himself as he noted down Tenya's score.
Asui meanwhile hopped the 50-meters and made it in 5.58 seconds. Her quirk was 'Frog', and it basically let her do anything a frog can.
Second up were Mashirao Ojiro and Ochaco Uraraka. Mashirao completed the dash in 6.89 seconds, using his quirk, 'Tail', to launch himself forward.
'I'll just make my shoes lighter... My clothes too.' Ochaco thought to herself, and she finished the dash in 7.15 seconds. It was slightly faster than her middle school record of 7.28 seconds. Her quirk 'Zero Gravity', allows her to nullify the effects of gravity on anything she touches with all five fingers. Overuse caused her intense nausea.
Third up were Mina Ashido and Yuga Aoyama. Mina completed the dash in 5.31 seconds, using her quirk 'Acid' to slide faster across the ground.
"Hehe... So unimaginative, all of you." Yuga began saying as he faced opposite the track, "If we can use our quirks..."
Once the start signal was given, Yuga jumped up and fired a laser from his naval to propel him and sent him crashing halfway across the track. He got up and repeated the same action, finishing in 5.51 seconds. His quirk 'Naval Laser' allowed him to fire a powerful laser, but if he kept it up for too long, he'd hurt himself.
"If I'd fired an instant earlier, my stomach would have exploded." Yuga commented, a smug smirk decorating his face, while sparkling. Everyone else just thought he was weird.
'They're pushing their quirks to their limits. By seeing how much they've improved, I can guess what they're capable of and what they're not.' Shota thought to himself as he called on the next two students.
While making their way to the starting positions, the girl walking with Izuku introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Saiko Intelli. My quirk increases my IQ when I drink tea, but it is of no help in these tests." The blue haired girl began telling him, "I have noticed that your quirk grants you a great deal of strength, so if you were to carry me, you would not be hindered by my additional weight."
"Oh, I won't be transforming into Rath." Izuku replied, and seeing the downcast expression on her face, he reassured her, "Don't worry though, the form I'll take can carry you, no problem. It's also pretty fast, so we'll get a pretty good score."
It was simply Izuku's kind nature at work here, that he was willing to help his classmate without asking for anything in return. He would have still helped her, even if doing so would have given him a worse score. Transforming into Supersonic, he carried her in a piggyback, having her hold on tight as he crouched down for a running start.
Shota simply raised an eyebrow and smirked when he saw what they were doing. Upon giving the signal, the duo disappeared from sight and seemingly teleported well past the finish line.
"0.13 seconds for Midoriya, 0.14 seconds for Intelli." Shota told them their scores out loud. A few students began complaining, but Shota shut them up with his reply, "I never said that you couldn't ask others for help. But since these two figured out that little loophole so quick, I'll add another rule. If you're going to ask for help, then you need to help the other person as well. It can be in the same exercise or another one."
"Thank you for your assistance, Midoriya-san. I am aiming to become a support type hero, one who organizes raids and such. I am not that great at physical tasks such as these exercises."
"It's no problem Intelli-san, what's the point of wanting to be a hero, if you're not willing to help others." Izuku replied, making a few eavesdroppers cringe in response. He continued, a bit fast for most people, but Saiko managed to keep up quite well, "A support type hero, so like the principle or Sir Nighteye? That's pretty cool, there are very few heroes who can do what they do. Still, from what I've researched, they both possess exceptional physical abilities. The principle is some sort of chimera, so it's not too surprising, but Sir Nighteye used to take on villains alongside All Might. Even now, he's an exceptional fighter. What I'm trying to say, is that even if you're not aiming to be a combat-based hero, being physically fit and knowing how to fight are essential to being a hero."
"Hmm... Your argument is reasonable, and your points are valid. I shall endeavour to improve my physical abilities. Thank you for your advice." Saiko replied, her face showing she's thinking heavily, "I do have a question, what exactly is your quirk? You transformed into that angry tiger, I believe you were calling yourself Rath, and then you transformed into that speedy feline creature. You used that watch on your wrist, is it a support device that allows you to transform into various feline forms, each possessing unique attributes?"
"I can see why you'd think that, but no. The watch is my quirk, it's called the Omnitrix. Basically, it scans all living creatures in a radius around me and takes bits from their DNA to create different transformations, each having specific abilities." Izuku replied, being extremely thankful that the two sets of memories regarding his 'quirk' allowed him to tell the crafted lie without fidgeting a great deal. Considering his anxiety, and how he's generally nervous, some fidgeting isn't out of character for him.
"What an interesting quirk! Can't say I've heard of anything like it, but I suppose they are called quirks for that reason, no?" Saiko commented, and they were snapped out of their discussion by Shota beginning the second exercise. They broke off, with Saiko telling him that she needs to figure a strategy to do better in the exams and wishing him good luck. She headed towards a voluptuous black-haired girl, and they seemed to know each other.
Event 2: Grip Strength
Izuku wasn't really sure which alien he should transform into, since he's never really tested out grip strength with them. Eventually, he chose Techtonic, who could easily crush rocks with his fists.
Izuku managed to get a score of 317 kg, but considering he couldn't get his entire hand through the grip strength tester, it didn't really show how much force Techtonic could exert. He basically had to grip the device using the edges of his fingers and thumb. He surprisingly didn't get the highest score, that honour went to Mezou Shoji.
Mezou used his quirk, 'Dupli-Arms', to basically squeeze the device with two hands instead of one. His quirk gave him a set of arm-like tentacles adjacent to their arms that can transform into duplicates of their other body parts.
"540 kg!? Are you a gorilla or an octopus?" A student with weird elbows exclaimed in surprise.
"Octopi are sexy..." A short student, with purple orb-like hair, muttered out loud, which seemed to make everyone around him uncomfortable.
Event 3: Standing Long Jump
Izuku transformed into Frostmoth for this exercise, after confirming with his teacher that flying is fine. He just flew across the sandbox, easily clearing it. He wasn't alone in that regard, since quite a few students managed to clear it or come close to doing so.
Event 4: Side-To-Side Steps
Izuku went with Supersonic to clear this one, and surprisingly he wasn't the top scorer. He did very well, scoring second place by a large margin, but he couldn't match the short guy who threw the purple orbs on his head and bounced between them extremely quickly.
Event 5: Softball Throw
Since Izuku already went, he couldn't redo the test but considering it would be unlikely for him to beat the top three, he wouldn't have bothered. The first was Ochaco, and it seemed like this test was made for her.
"Oops!" She exclaimed after throwing the ball and sending it floating into the sky.
"Infinity? Wow! The infinity symbol actually popped up!" One of the students exclaimed in surprise. Shota reassured them that he'll simply mark her as a meter higher than the top scorer in this category. Otherwise, she would have scored first regardless of how well she did in the other exercises.
The second and third top scorers were Saiko and her black-haired friend Momo Yaoyorozu. Momo's quirk, 'Creation', allowed her to create any object, so long as she knew its molecular makeup, at the cost of using up the fat in her body. Saiko had helped her figure out ways to perform the exercise more efficiently, like using a drone to carry the soft ball, rather than a cannon. The drone could apparently keep functioning for an hour or two and they were quite fast, so they scored quite a bit higher than Izuku.
Event 6: Seated Toe Touch
Initially Izuku wasn't going to transform, since he figured none of his aliens could really help him, but after seeing a girl with earphone jacks earlobes extend them for a higher score, he got an idea. Turning into Feedback, he extended his head antennae, although he couldn't manage to beat her score.
For the remaining two events, Izuku just did them normally. None of his transformations would have gotten him a higher score. It wasn't like he struggled to do the exercises, since he'd trained his body extensively, it was rather easy for him. He thought about turning into Supersonic for the endurance run, but since it was testing how long they could run and not how fast, he refrained from doing so.
"Moving along. It's time for the results. Your total scores simply reflect your performance in each of the events. Explaining the process would be a waste of time, so all you get are the final rankings." Shota told them after they finished the endurance run, which was the last test. Using the device in his hand, a holographic list began appearing, "Also, I was lying about expelling someone."
"That was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you." Shota explained with a terrifying smile on his face. Everyone just stared at him in shock, well almost everyone.
"WHAAAA!?" Was the reply of most of the students, who were extremely worried about doing well in the tests.
"Well of course it was a lie... Didn't take much to figure it out. Should I have said something?" Momo commented upon seeing everyone's shocked faces.
"No, I don't believe it's a lie. I've read that for the last several years, quite a few students have gotten expelled on the first day. Assuming that Aizawa-sensei has done this test every year, then it's extremely likely that he's expelled a great deal of students from the hero course. Of course, it's more likely that he's simply using these tests to gauge some other quality of ours and would have expelled us if we were lacking in it." Saiko replied, her intelligence boosted greatly by the tea she was drinking. She was taking sips from her canteen throughout the entire exam, to figure out ways to get scores high enough to pass. Shota's grin somehow managed to get even wider explained, and it became clear that she might have been right.
"Not too far off the mark there, Intelli. Anyway, we're done here. Go change back into your regular uniforms and head back to the class. Your documents about the curriculum and such are back in the classroom, give them a look. You'll also find the booklets I mentioned earlier in there as well."
After saying his piece, Shota headed towards the building and after a few minutes, the students broke out of their stupor and did as they were ordered. Izuku was extremely proud of getting first place, but the runner up wasn't too far behind him in points.
The rankings, from top to bottom were: Izuku Midoriya, Momo Yaoyorozu, Shoto Todoroki, Tenya Iida, Saiko Intelli, Fumikage Tokoyami, Mezou Shoji, Mashirao Ojiro, Eijiro Kirishima, Mina Ashido, Ochaco Uraraka, Koji Koda, Rikido Sato, Tsuyu Asui, Yuga Aoyama, Hanta Sero, Denki Kaminari, Kyoka Jiro, Toru Hagakure, Minoru Mineta.
As Shota made his way around a corner, he was stopped by a large blonde man. It was All Might, in a yellow pinstripe suit.
"Aizawa, you big fat liar! If that Intelli girl didn't figure it out, you'd have left them in the dark."
"All Might... So, you were watching... Good to know that you don't mind wasting your time. Also, stop wasting your time transformed."
"A 'rational deception'? April fool's day was over a week ago!" All Might exclaimed, but did acquiesce and shrunk down to his skinny form. "Last year... You expelled an entire class of first years. You mercilessly discard those you believe have zero prospects, but now you go back on your word?"
"I didn't go back on my word, or anything like it. This year's class all have some potential, while last year's was chockfull of problems. Anyways, what were you doing watching us from afar?"
"I wanted to see the students in action myself. I will be teaching them after all."
"So, you'll be watching Kan's class as well?"
"Of course, and I hid so that the students didn't feel even more pressure on them." Yagi replied, "By the way, what did you think of that Midoriya kid?"
"He's not too bad, but why the specific interest. Already have a favourite?"
"Nothing like that." Yagi waved away the accusation, "It's just we've already met before, and his situation isn't forgettable. Apparently, he's only had his quirk for about ten months."
"Really!?" Shota replied, his face showing actual interest. He normally doesn't read the student's files, mainly so he can judge them based on their actions rather than what some piece of paper says about them. "In that case, he's got even more potential than I realized. I'll see what the files say about him and his quirk, still I'm wondering why 'Erasure' didn't cancel his transformations or even stop them."
"No clue. I just know that it showed up around ten months ago." Yagi replied, some suspicious lingering about Izuku's sudden quirk. Tsukauchi may have helped remove a great deal of it, but the scars left by his long-time nemesis don't disappear so easily.
As he was leaving Yuei to return home, Izuku was stopped by Tenya coming up to him.
"Aizawa-sensei sure fooled us; he made me think 'this is how it is at the top!', but then it turns out he was lying. Even that turns out to be a lie. Our own instructor deceiving us like that..."
'Iida seems scary at first glance, but he's actually just super serious.' Izuku thought to himself, before another voice called out to them.
"Hey, you two! Headed for the station? Wait up!" Ochaco exclaimed as she ran towards them.
"Ah, infinity girl." Tenya commented upon seeing her, which made Izuku sweat drop.
"I'm Ochaco Uraraka! Um, you're Tenya Iida! Right?" Ochaco asked the blue haired teen after introducing herself. She received a nod in return, but all three were surprised to hear someone else calling out to them.
"Midoriya-san!" Exclaimed another voice, and it was Saiko who was waiting near the gates alongside Momo. "I was waiting for you to arrive! I wished to thank you for your assistance in the exams; by buying you lunch from a nearby shop. Plenty of Yuei students rate it quite highly, so it should be quite a good restaurant. Yaoyorozu-san was interested in joining once she learned of my plans, I hope you do not mind our company."
"Umm, you don't have to buy me lunch as thanks. I helped you because I wanted to, not for any reward." Izuku replied, his face turning red. This was the closest he's ever gotten to going on a date with a girl. She's even the one who was sort of asking him out, even though Izuku was well aware she didn't mean it as a date.
"I am aware of that, but I still wish to thank you regardless. Your friends can join us, although I will not be covering their lunch." Saiko told him, and seeing as she won't take no for an answer, Izuku agreed.
Momo introduced herself to them, and much like Izuku she was extremely happy to hang out with other people. He did have to call his mother to inform her, but she was very happy that he was eating out with friends as well. For the first time since he was a kid, he's actually making friends. They're eating out at a restaurant after school, something he's never been able to do thanks to Bakugo.
The restaurant wasn't too far from Yuei, and thankfully there were a few tables open. Sitting down, they waited for a few minutes for the waitress to take their order, and during that wait they introduced themselves to everyone on the table.
"Hello there, welcome to 'Musutafu Kitchen'! My name is Kamiko Kurasaki and I'll be your waitress today." Kamiko introduced herself and handed them some menus, "Oh, your Yuei students. I'm not sure if you're aware, but you get a discount on your order."
"It's nice to meet you too." Izuku told her and introduced himself and his friends. Momo and Ochaco were looking through the menu, but he wanted to ask Kamiko something, "I'm wondering if you could recommend anything for us?"
"Hmm... Well, our special, 'The Hero Hopeful's Ramen', was specifically made for hero course students. Lunch Rush actually helped the cook develop it, and it has all the necessary nutrients for a body recovering from intense training. It's also very affordable and filling, and you can see the price on the menu."
Everyone searched for the special on the menu, and Kamiko wasn't wrong, the bowl was very affordable and came with plenty of toppings. Izuku had already decided that he'll order the special, and the rest of the group did as well.
"Could you make mine an extra-large and can I have additional pork in my bowl, place at least five extra slices. I'd also like to order a large mixed platter of Tempura, a large order of Yakitori, a large plate of Takoyaki, an order of 15 Chicken Wings and a plate of Tamagoyaki. For dessert, could I have a large slice of cheesecake, a plate of variety Mochi and some Red Bean Onigiri." Momo ordered, and everyone just stared at her in shock. She blushed a bit and added, "My quirk requires me to eat a great deal more than the normal person, although I mainly eat foods high in fats. I don't mind sharing a bit, especially with the desserts, and I'll be paying for my order."
"It's fine. It was just surprising to see you order this many things." Izuku replied, apologizing for staring and the others followed suit. "I'd like to also have some soda, what do you guys want to drink?"
Saiko ordered an iced tea, Tenya orange juice, Momo followed suit with soda and Ochaco only got some water. After Kamiko wrote down their order, they were silent for a few moments, before Ochaco decided to break the ice.
"Umm, how about we talk about our quirks?" She asked, figuring it was a relatively safe topic to discuss.
"Very well, allow me to begin. My quirk is 'Engine' and it's a mutant type. It grants me engine-like protrusions on my calves and allows me to move at extraordinary speeds. The mufflers are organic, and although extremely painful, I can remove them. This will cause stronger, tougher ones to grow in their place. I haven't done such a thing; however, my brother has." Tenya began telling the group about his quirk.
"Oh, that's right. Your brother is the Turbo Hero: Ingenium, right?" Izuku asked, having figured that piece of information a while back.
"That's correct, but how did you know? I don't remember mentioning that."
"Oh, well it wasn't too hard to figure out. I mean the Iida family agency may not be the most famous, but they are pretty well known. Everybody also knows that the Iida family has two sons, and that Ingenium is the older one. With your similar quirks, the same family name, as well as the fact that you both look very similar, it didn't take me too long to figure out you're Ingenium's younger brother." Izuku explained, with most of the group appearing shocked at his analysis. Only Saiko was unfazed, nodding to his explanation before mentioning that she had a similar train of thought.
"Wow! Your brother is a pro hero!" Ochaco asked him with sparkling eyes.
"Yeah! He runs the Team Iidaten, an agency which focuses on teamwork. They recruit various specialized heroes and team them up with others cover their weaknesses. I remember reading that Ingenium has over 70 sidekicks, although the article didn't have any trustworthy sources, so it might be an exaggeration."
"Yes, Team Iidaten's focus is on working with one another to efficiently solve problems and save people. I do believe that the agency currently only has around 65, but I will have to check to be sure." Tenya replied, "My brother leads his team with his unwavering adherence to rules and regulations. A truly beloved hero! It's my admiration for my brother that's inspired my own desire to become a hero."
"That's really cool!" Izuku replied, resisting the urge to take out his notebook and correcting his mistake about the number of sidekicks. He had something on his mind, so he asked Tenya, "I have to ask, why didn't you do the recommendation exam? I mean the Iida family have been heroes for several generations, and Ingenium graduated from Yuei. They'd definitely be able to recommend you, shouldn't they?"
Once Izuku asked his question, Tenya's face fell, and he seemed to get depressed. Izuku and Ochaco were confused as to why he made that expression, meanwhile, Saiko just smirked, and Momo giggled a bit.
"Iida-san was in the recommendation exams, but... Would you prefer to explain it?" Momo began telling them, before pausing and asking Tenya.
"Very well. I did participate in the recommendation exams, but I was ill suited for the practical portion of it." Tenya told them, and upon seeing their interested faces he continued, "The practical portion was a difficult obstacle course, that involved things such as traversing a mud field, raging river, climbing walls and quite a few other situations. Upon entering the mud fields, my engines got clogged and that slowed me down tremendously."
"It's alright Iida-san. There were very few people that actually completed the obstacle course, and most of them had quirks that allowed them to simply ignore the race." Saiko reassured him, "There was the boy with the wind quirk that allowed him to simply fly through the entire race, Todoroki-san who froze everything in his path, the girl that split into pieces and flew across and the boy who could sink into the ground and move through it. I similarly was unable to complete the obstacle course, and Yaoyorozu-san managed to complete it thanks to her incredibly versatile quirk. I managed to squeeze by in the entrance exam, after figuring out that the robots had a shutdown button hidden on them."
"Robots? What did the entrance exam entail?" Momo asked in confusion.
"Well, we had to just destroy a bunch of robots. There were three kinds that gave points and then a really big one that was supposed to be some boss we can't beat. Present Mic called it a Thwomp." Ochaco explained to Momo, "The zero-pointer, which was the massive robot, was going to crush me, but Midoriya-san destroyed it easily."
"Truly?" Momo asked with sparkles in her eyes.
"Well, I wouldn't say I destroyed it. I dismantled it using Polaris, one of my aliens." Izuku replied, before pausing for a moment and continuing, "By aliens I mean transformation. Saying transformation repeatedly was a bit of a mouthful, so I decided to call them something else. Monster has negative connotations, so I ended up with aliens. It helps that some of my transformation look like they're from outer space."
"So, a quirk of your quirk?" Saiko quipped, before continuing, "What did you mean by dismantle it? Those robots were several stories tall."
"Well, Polaris has really powerful magnetokinesis." Izuku explained, and seeing how most of the table didn't really know that much about his 'quirk', he figured he might as well tell them about it. "I guess I should explain my quirk a bit. It's called the 'Omnitrix', and it basically lets me transform into several forms, each having unique abilities. I only have 11 right now, but I might get more in the future."
"Get more?" Momo asked him with a confused look on her face.
"I won't bore you with the details, but basically my quirk scans life forms in a radius around me and creates my various transformations." Izuku explained briefly, not wanting to delve too deeply into the lie, "I'm not sure how it works, but the doctor said that it's a mutant type. So, Yaoyorozu-san, what's your quirk? I seem to remember that you created various objects during the apprehension tests, and you mentioned that you eat more food as a result of it."
"My quirk is called 'Creation', and it allows me to create physical objects from my body by using the fat in my body. I can create any non-living object, so long as I understand the atomic configuration of said object."
"Here I thought my quirk was powerful." Izuku commented, mostly to himself but everyone heard him. Momo blushed a bit, but everyone else just chuckled a bit.
"I'll go next! My quirk's called 'Zero Gravity', and by touching an object with all five fingers I basically cancel gravity on it." Ochaco explained, giving them a demonstration by floating a napkin on the table before cancelling it. "Oh, right! There was another part to the entrance exam, besides destroying robots. You could get rescue points if you helped someone or rescued them from danger."
"Oh, that makes sense. Plenty of students get into Yuei's hero course that don't have quirks well suited for combat, so they must have made it through by acquiring rescue points."
"Well, you're not entirely wrong..." Saiko commented, "The exam is still heavily geared towards people with combative skills, but that makes sense. From what I've researched, they generally switch between two test formats, one for combat and the other for rescue. It allows the school to test the students in a relatively safe environment, and the robots themselves aren't too sturdy. Even without a combative quirk, a person can easily destroy them if they trained regularly or turn them off if they can find the shutdown switches and buttons."
"Yeah, and it's not like students that fail can't enter the hero course in other ways. The website wasn't too clear about how they can do so, but it did mention that general education, business or support students can somehow enter the hero course." Izuku added.
"Yes, I saw that as well. However, if I had not gotten through the entrance exam, I was planning on entering Seiai Academy." Saiko told them, and after seeing their shocked expressions, she explained that she didn't want to wait to start hero training. "Still, I am quite grateful that I got into Yuei. Since I am the only one to not have discussed my quirk, I shall do so now, while the food has yet to arrive. My quirk is called 'IQ', and it allows me to enhance my intellect by multiplying my IQ through drinking tea. Various teas have different effects, such as some improving my processing capabilities, and others my planning ones."
"That's quite interesting!" Tenya commented, "My quirk requires a liquid fuel as well, and in my case its orange juice."
They continued talking with each other, until the food had finally arrived. It took a while, because they were preparing Momo's massive order. Still, the quintet enjoyed their meal immensely, and the look on their faces after seeing Momo finish her meal in a refined manner before everyone else made her giggle a bit.
After they were done and paid their bill, they exited the restaurant and waited for Momo's driver to show up. Once a fancy black car showed up, they bid Momo farewell as she entered it, and the quartet began making their way to the train station. Luckily, their trains left around the same time, so no one had to wait too long to return home.
The next morning, Class 1-A started the day by studying English with Present Mic. Apparently most of the class expected to not have normal classes like this, and their horrified faces almost made Izuku laugh.
"Who can find the mistake in the following English sentence?" Present Mic asked the class, and seeing their bored expressions, he tried to get them pumped up. "All right, everybody. Show me some spirit!"
'So normal', 'Boring', 'Ordinary', 'Dull', 'Yawn', and 'Come on' were the thoughts of the students barely managing to pay attention. Izuku on the other hand was extremely happy with the class, since a pro hero was teaching them. Izuku managed to get his autograph after the class ended and did the same with the rest of the hero teachers they had.
Lunch was a pretty amazing affair, since they ate top-notch food for dirt cheap in the cafeteria. The cook was the Cook Hero: Lunch Rush, who was well known for helping in disaster relief by cooking for everyone that needed food. Izuku got some white rice and curry, and he even managed to get an autograph from the robotic looking hero. Sitting with his friends, the four that he made yesterday, they were joined by a few others from class.
Eventually, it was time for the class that everyone was waiting for, Hero Basic Training. Izuku already knew who their teacher was going to be thanks to the entrance video that he got, but it seemed like no one else knew. Working hard to keep his face from breaking into a wide smile, Izuku unconsciously began tapping his foot in excitement.
"I AM..." A voice boomed, one that everyone recognized, and their eyes became focused on the doorway, where a large muscular blonde man was posing. With a wide smile on his face, he continued saying "COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
"It's All Might! It's really him... Incredible. He's really going to be teaching us!?" Denki exclaimed in surprise.
"That's his silver age costume! He's drawn so differently than the rest of us. Gives me goosebumps." Asui commented, and nobody noticed the fourth wall breaking, too enamoured by the blonde hero's appearance.
"Hero basic training! The class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mould you into heroes!" All Might told them while taking a heroic pose, and added in as an afterthought, "It also gives a lot of credits."
"No time to dally. Today's activity is this!" All Might told them while showing a card with the word 'Battle' printed on it, "Battle training!"
"Battle training..." Izuku mumbled to himself in slight worry.
"And for that... You need these!" All Might continued, pressing a remote that caused vertical drawers opened from the wall containing numbered cases, "In accordance with the 'Quirk Registry' and the special request forms you filled out before being admitted... COSTUMES!"
"YEAH!" A number of students shouted in excitement.
'Costumes!' Izuku thought to himself in excitement, not being the outgoing type to shout with the rest of his classmates.
"After you change, come out in ranking to ground beta!" All Might ordered them and received a resounding 'Yeah!' from them. He continued saying, "Looking good is very important ladies and gentlemen! Look alive now! Because from today on, you're on the path to becoming HEROES!"
With that final inspirational line, All Might disappeared in a burst of speed, one moment he was posing in front of them and the next he was gone. After a few moments of being stupefied, the students scrambled to grab their cases and make their way to the locker rooms.
While submitting the form for his costume's design, he based it off Rook's proto-tech armour, since it looked really cool. He specified that the suit had to be able to conform to his various transformations, and hopefully he'll see if it does. It only went down to his biceps, since Techtonic had really massive arms that would tear the suit apart.
Looking around, Izuku spotted that several of his classmates had finished putting on their costumes and they looked really cool. Well, some of them looked cool, like Yuga's knightly armour, Mezou's ninja-like costume and Tenya's sleek racer armour. He noticed the short member of their class feeling up the wall and coming closer he heard him muttering to himself.
"There's has to be one here." The purple orb haired teen muttered to himself, "Our senpais must have left one for us. Aha! Found one, thank you kind gods for this grand gift!"
From what Izuku could see the short teen had found a peephole hidden by a poster and was planning on looking through it. If memory served him correctly, on the other side of that wall was the girl's locker room, but before he could stop and admonish Minoru, he put his eye to the hole.
As Izuku rushed to pull him back, Minoru jumped back crying in pain and covering one of his eyes. Looking at the wall he saw what looked like a headphone jack extending from the hole and if he remembered correctly, one of his classmates had a quirk like it.
"Umm... Jiro-san, was it? I was going to pull him back, but I guess you already heard him. I'll tell All Might-sensei or Aizawa-sensei about this and about the hole in the wall." Izuku told her while dragging Minoru away, admonishing him along the way "What were you thinking trying that? Don't you want to be a hero?"
"You wouldn't understand! I was so close too!" Minoru whined and shrugged Izuku's hand off. He then made his way out the locker room, not noticing everyone else's deadpan stares.
Sighing at his troublesome classmate, Izuku and the others followed suit and exited the locker room to training ground beta. Upon seeing his female classmates in their costumes, Izuku turned bright red, and he wasn't the only one. Momo's costume barely covered her, even her breasts were quite visible, Ochaco's and Asui's were skintight and left very little to the imagination and Mina's showed quite a bit of cleavage. For a kid like Izuku, this was a bit much and he felt like fainting, and the girls were also blushing a bit after noticing the guys either staring or trying to avoid looking at them.
"Ah, Midoriya-san! Cool costume, it looks really practical and professional!" Ochaco told him once she saw his costume, her face turning a bit pink and whispering near the end, "I wish I'd been more specific on my request form... This suit's so puffy and curvy. It's embarrassing..."
"Being in the hero course is the best!" Mineta commented, leering and close to drooling.
"Well, shall we begin my wards! It's time for battle training!" All Might's voice boomed, breaking Izuku out of his thoughts. Looking at his students, All Might did a head count, "We're all here then? Looking good everyone!"
They were in training ground beta, which was basically a small city, not too different from the one they did their entrance exam in. It wasn't unreasonable for Tenya to make the assumption that they would be facing robots again.
"Sensei! This appears to be the same field used in the entrance exam. Will we once again be performing cityscape manoeuvres?"
'So, it is Iida-san. I figured as much, with how similar it is to the rest of his family's costumes. Still, it's so cool!' Izuku thought to himself.
"Nope! You'll be moving onto step two, indoor anti-personnel battles!" All Might replied, "Villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors, but statistically, the most heinous villains are more likely to appear indoors."
"Between confinement, house arrest and black-market deals, in this hero-filled society of ours, the cleverest villains are the ones that lurk indoors." All Might explained to the students following, "You'll now be split into villain and hero teams, and face off in two-on-two indoor battles!"
"So, no basic training?" Asui asked their teacher.
"Practical experience teaches you the basics! The distinction here is that you won't be fighting disposable robots. You'll be facing each other!" All Might told them bombastically, but he was suddenly bombarded with a number of questions.
"What determines victory?" Momo asked, raising her arm.
"How will we be graded in this exercise?" Saiko asked, while fixing her costume's monocle.
"Are you threatening to expel someone, like Aizawa-sensei did...?" Ochaco asked, fidgeting a bit in worry.
"How do we proceed to divide ourselves into teams?" Tenya asked while performing chopping motions with his hand.
"How fabulous is my cape?" Yuga asked, posing with sparkles flying off.
"One at a time! My quirk isn't super hearing you know!" All Might told them, while sweating a bit from all the questions. Pulling a piece of paper from one of his pockets, it turned out to be a cheat sheet since he began giving them instructions from it, "Listen up! Here's the deal, the villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes' task is to go in and take it! The heroes have a limited amount of time to either capture the villains or secure the weapon. The villains must either capture the heroes or protect the weapon until time is up!"
'It's like a plot from western comics!' Izuku thought to himself, before sweat dropping at what All Might did, 'Is that a cheat sheet?'
"Your teammates will be decided by drawing lots!"
"Is that really the best way? Would it not be better to group us based on quirk compatibility or even based on our personalities?" Tenya asked.
"Actually, it makes sense to have random teammates, since pro heroes often have to team up with heroes from different agencies on the spot during emergencies." Izuku answered him.
"Exactly! In the future you'll find yourself forced to work with people you don't know or even like. You'll have to put aside any problems you have with them and quickly learn how to work together to resolve the emergency as swiftly as you can." All Might explained further, bringing out a box with a hole on the top that had 'Lots' written on it.
"Ah! I see... I apologize for getting ahead of myself..." Tenya bowed his head and did some chopping motions with his arm, "My mistake!"
"It's fine! Let's just get to it!"
Everyone stepped forward and drew a piece of paper from the box, each having a letter on it. Izuku Midoriya and Mashirao Ojiro made up team A, Todoroki Shoto and Mezou Shoji made up team B, Momo Yaoyorozu and Denki Kaminari made up Team C, Tenya Iida and Minoru Mineta made up team D, Mina Ashido and Yuga Aoyama made up team E, Rikido Sato and Koji Koda made up team F, Saiko Intelli and Kyoka Jiro made up team G, Tsuyu Asui and Fumikage Tokoyami made up team H, Ochaco Uraraka and Toru Hagakure made up team I, and Hanta Sero and Eijiro Kirishima made up team J.
"Moving on, first up are... These!" All Might exclaimed after reaching into two boxes, one labelled 'Heroes' and the other 'Villains', "The heroes are team A, and the villains are team C!"
"The villain team goes in first. The timer starts in five minutes, that's when the hero team can enter the building. The rest of us will watch via CCTV." All Might instructed his class, showing them the building with the monitors, while he led teams A and C to the building that they'll be doing the exercise in. Turning to team C, "Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, you two need to adopt a villain mind-set. This is practical experience, so go all out and don't hold back! Though I will stop you if I think your taking things too far."
While Mashirao and Izuku waited outside the building, discussing their plans to win the exercise, Momo and Denki were moving the bomb somewhere else.
"Imagine if the bomb was made out of metal?" Denki joked as he held one end of the bomb as they were moving it up the stairs.
"It's doubtful that Yuei would use an actual bomb in a training exercise." Momo replied, "This is the best floor to have the bomb on. We should find a large room to place it in, so we have sufficient space to defend it."
"Yeah, sounds good. I didn't mean an actual bomb, but maybe they'd have some sort of metal shell or something."
"Hmm... They'd most likely leave something like that for more advanced classes. Now, regarding our opponents, we're going to be facing Ojiro-san and Midoriya-san. I know a bit about Midoriya-san's abilities, and he'll be an incredibly difficult opponent to face." Momo told him, "I don't expect Ojiro-san to be a difficult opponent, so we should focus our plans on taking down Midoriya-san or stalling him long enough."
"Hey, just because Ojiro's quirk isn't that strong, that doesn't mean he isn't." Denki defended his classmate, "I was talking to him yesterday, and he's been doing martial arts for years. He's even won a few tournaments."
"Ah, my apologies. I didn't mean to insinuate anything, but I already reasoned that he's a skilled martial artist, both from the way he carries himself and his costume. It's simply that I have been practicing martial arts for years as well, so I am confident in my ability to defeat him. Similarly, with his focus on hand-to-hand combat, you should be able to take him down quite easily with your electricity."
"Oh... I guess you have a point." Denki replied as they placed the bomb in the centre of the room, his tone apologetic. He thought she was looking down on Ojiro because of his quirk, but she was apparently just being rational about things. "Still, he could surprise us. So, what do you know about Midoriya? I know he can transform into different forms, but that's about it."
"Well, I don't know a great deal either, but he has several more transformations than what he showed yesterday. Some of the transformations we saw could have abilities we don't know about, and from what I remember, he mentioned that every transformation has its own abilities. It will make planning against him rather difficult, especially without knowing more about his abilities." Momo answered him, before pausing to think for a few moments, "Our best bet is to take him out before he can transform or cause him to transform into something other than his intended form. We should focus on eliminating Ojiro-san first, and then taking on Midoriya-san together."
"That sounds great, but how're we going to do that? Should we head out when the timer begins and find them, because we probably shouldn't leave the bomb alone."
"You're right, one of us should stay behind to protect the bomb. Which task would you prefer?"
"I'll head out, with my 'Electrification', I might hit the bomb by accident. It might not be real, but we might get points taken off, if its damaged."
"Good point, and with my quirk, I can create a number of defences to deal with intruders." Momo told him, and with that they split up.
Meanwhile, a short distance from the building, Mashirao and Izuku were discussing their quirks and abilities.
"Well, my quirk is just my tail." Mashirao told him, rubbing the back of his head, "I've been studying martial arts my entire life, and I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good fighter."
"My quirk lets me transform into various forms, each with their own abilities. Like Rath, the humanoid tiger, is super strong and tough, and Supersonic, well he's extremely fast." Izuku explained, before grimacing a bit, "Unfortunately, several of my transformations are going to be pretty much useless."
"Why is that?"
"Well, Rath is too much of a hot head and will likely end up punching or destroying the bomb, which will most likely cause us to lose. Techtonic's powers would cause the building to fall apart, and without a lot of metal stuff, Polaris' can't do much with his magnetic powers." Izuku explained to his teammate, "I mean, I do have one transformation that can let us win, but I think it'd be really unfair."
"What do you mean by unfair?" Mashirao asked him, before smirking and adding, "Your entire quirk is unfair."
"Haha!" Izuku laughed sarcastically, "Well, Frostmoth can fly and turn intangible. I can just go through the building until I find the bomb, and just touch it."
"Yeah, I can see your point." Mashirao added, recognizing that an ability like that would be difficult to counter. "Maybe you should keep that as a secret weapon, just in case we end up in trouble. I know a bit about Kaminari's quirk, but what do you know about Yaoyorozu's quirk?"
"Well, she can create any non-living object from her body. She uses fat to do so, so she can't create an infinite number of things. She also mentioned that she's trained in martial arts yesterday, during lunch."
"You went out with her?" Mashirao asked in shock.
"Huh... Oh, not like that. Intelli-san wanted to pay me back for helping her in the apprehension test, and Yaoyorozu, Iida and Uraraka joined us." Izuku replied, his cheeks turning pink.
"Alright, alright..." Mashirao snickered a bit, seeing Izuku turned pink, "I talked with Kaminari yesterday, and he told me a bit about his quirk. He can store and release electricity, but if he goes overboard, he'll short circuit his brain. Apparently, he turns stupid if he uses his quirk too much. Do you have any transformation that can be useful against him?"
"Actually, yeah. I have one that's perfect for fighting him."
"Really? Well, how about I keep Yaoyorozu busy, you deal with him and then we can take her out together, or you could use that speed form to grab the bomb while she's busy with me." Mashirao suggested, and after refining their plan a bit more, they readied themselves. Soon All Might called out over their earpieces that the exercise has started.
Entering the building, they began searching the first floor, just to make sure that the bomb wasn't there. It would be pretty embarrassing if they lose just because the villains used reverse psychology on them. After making it to the second floor, they encountered Denki while searching through the rooms.
"Ojiro, you go onto the third floor. I'll deal with Pichu, and then look through the rest of the rooms on this floor." Izuku told his partner and blocked Denki from trying to stop the tailed boy. Izuku smirked at Denki's expression at being called Pichu, but the comparison was too apt in his opinion. Both had lightning abilities, and both would hurt themselves if they overused them.
"Pichu!?" Denki replied, his face morphed into a surprised Pikachu face and Izuku had to stifle a laugh. He then exclaimed out loud, "WHY PICHU?"
"You both have yellow fur and a black lightning bolt." Izuku answered him, readying himself to change into one of his aliens. The main reason he compared Denki to Pichu was to throw him off and give himself time to transform. Activating the Omnitrix and cycling through it, he noticed out the corner of his eye that Denki broke out of his stupor and was attacking.
"Indiscriminate Shock 100 Thousand Volts!" Denki shouted as he unleashed a wave of electricity, but it was too late. Izuku had already selected his alien and transformed.
"Well, it seems like luck is in my favour." Izuku told his opponent, as his head antennae began absorbing the electricity heading his way.
"You can absorb electricity!" Denki exclaimed in shock, having not realized that Izuku had a form that could do that. He could do something similar, and because of that he quickly hatched a plan. "Well then, let's see how much you can absorb! Indiscriminate Shock 1 Million Volts!"
A far more powerful wave of electricity was released by Denki, but Izuku just used his antennae, tail and fingers to absorb the oncoming electricity. Denki's strategy was sound, since people who can absorb electricity often have a limit and overloading it would knock them out. He just had the misfortune of facing a being that could absorb the energy from a big bang.
"Whey..." Denki exclaimed with a dopy look on his face, stumbling around randomly.
"I guess that's what Ojiro-san meant by turning stupid." Izuku muttered to himself.
"Ojiro has been eliminated!" All Might's voice rang out, which caused Izuku to curse under his breath.
Quickly using his capture tape to tie up Denki and ignoring All Might's voice stating that Denki was eliminated, Izuku climbed up the stairs and began looking. It didn't take him long to find the room the bomb was being kept, since he used radiolocation to locate his partner through their connected transceivers.
"You've come too late hero! I've already defeated your friend, and soon you'll follow!" Momo exclaimed dramatically, although her cheeks were a bit pink from embarrassment.
"Hey." Mashirao added, while tied up with the capture tape and sitting in the corner.
"Your reign of terror will soon end villain! I'll defeat you and avenge my fallen comrade and disarm the bomb you recklessly armed." Izuku replied, before rushing at her.
They began fighting, and while Feedback did have some enhanced strength and speed, it didn't help much. Momo was a really good fighter, far more skilled than Izuku, which allowed her to keep ahead in their fight. They were stuck in a draw, with neither side making much progress in taking down the other. It didn't take Izuku long to realize that Momo was keeping them in a draw, since she was planning on running down the timer. Jumping backwards, Izuku pointed a hand towards her, his fingers sparkling with electricity and fired a beam of energy at her.
His attack was obvious, and she managed to dodge. He didn't let up and continued firing at her, leading her away from the bomb and distracting her with electric attacks. He then rushed the bomb, but he wasn't as discrete as he thought he was. He realized this when a grenade came flying in front of him, and after jumping backwards it went off and blinded him. It turned out to be a flashbang, and a few seconds afterwards, Izuku regained his eyesight. Momo had returned to her original position in front of the bomb, and she'd created a staff to fight him with.
'Crap! I'm can't use any super destructive blasts, since I might hurt Yaoyorozu. If I miss and hit the bomb, I'll cost us the match, and Feedback isn't the best in hand-to-hand combat. I could change, but to whom? Rath, Techtonic and Polaris are out, Supersonic also. She can easily create marbles or some liquid to turn my speed against me.' Izuku's mind was racing, his habit of overthinking things coming in full force, 'Shardrock wouldn't be too bad, but Yaoyorozu's really smart and she'll quickly figure out that I'll be weak to sound. Scoville is another okay choice, but I might burn her badly with fire and plants don't grow well in concrete. She'll easily figure out that Ravager has enhanced senses, and a flashbang would defeat him quickly.'
It seemed Momo had gotten tired of waiting for him and moved forward to attack. That broke him out of his trance, and he grabbed the staff before it could hit him.
"That wasn't the smartest idea, Yaoyorozu-san." Izuku told her and began releasing electricity from his fingers into the metal staff. He was surprised that she was unaffected and as if reading his mind, she smirked and launched a kick at his side.
"I may have made a metal staff, but I made sure to also create highly insulated gloves." She told him, and it was only after she pointed that out that he noticed them.
Most people would begin to panic, but Izuku was already panicking when she attacked. Momo actually broke him out of his stupor, and that gave him the opportunity to think calmly. Smirking, he used his enhanced strength and wrenched the staff out of Momo's hand and went for an overhead strike with it. She dodged backwards and was in the process of making another weapon, when Izuku let go of the staff and slammed his hand onto the Omnitrix. A bright green flash caused Momo to close her eyes and when they opened, instead of the tall black cyclops stood a short white gremlin.
"Well, what will you do now?" Izuku asked in a digitally altered voice, that echoed slightly. Smiling widely, he began duplicating himself, quickly circling Momo and dogpiling her. She managed to throw off the first few duplicates, but she was quickly overwhelmed and defeated. Quickly moving towards the bomb, Izuku managed to touch it and with that win the match.
"The hero team wins!" All Might announced through their transceivers, and Izuku began recombining with his duplicates and transforming back to normal.
"Here." Izuku told Momo, while extending a hand to help her up. "That was a good match. If you knew about my transformations and their abilities, you would have won the match."
"Thanks..." Momo replied, rather unsure of whether he was speaking the truth, but she still smiled in response. They then helped Mashirao out of the capture tape and did the same with Denki, who seemed to have recovered from his brain overload. They then began heading towards the monitoring room, as instructed by their teacher.
"Now, can someone tell me who's the MVP of the match?" All Might asked his students.
"Was it Midoriya?" Eijiro answered, "I mean, he won the match didn't he."
"Ah, while he did help his team win, he isn't the MVP. Can someone tell me why?"
"It's because I froze up while fighting Yaoyorozu. It may have only been for a few moments, but it gave her enough time to make a weapon and block the bomb." Izuku answered, well aware of how he messed up, "I couldn't use any powerful attacks as Feedback, since they're destructive and could have really injured Yaoyorozu. This made me decide to switch transformations, but I ended up overthinking which transformation I should choose."
"How so?" All Might asked him.
"Well, some of my transformations are just not suitable for indoor combat or even the exercise. Yaoyorozu's highly versatile quirk would have allowed her to counter and defeat several of my other transformations really easily. Supersonic suffers from the same weaknesses as many speedsters, so she could have created a slippery or sticky liquid or even just scattered marbles around. That flashbang would have knocked me out if I transformed into Ravager, since that transformation gives me highly enhanced senses." Izuku explained, making sure to take his time and not rapidly mumble out his reply. "After I got into this pattern of thinking, it became really difficult for me to choose a transformation. I ended up finding reasons why each one wouldn't work, and if Yaoyorozu didn't attack and snap me out of it, I would have stayed as Feedback and probably lost the match. It didn't help that I forgot about one of my transformations that would have made the match extremely easy to win."
"Which one would it be?" Intelli asked him, her face showing her interest and curiosity.
"Frostmoth can fly and turn intangible, as well as create ice and freeze things. Ojiro-san and I discussed it before the match, but we figured it using it in a training exercise would be redundant." Izuku told her, before finishing his explanation with a sigh, "We decided to save it in case we really needed it, but in my panic I forgot."
"Well reasoned response, Midoriya-shonen. However, don't worry about what happened too much. You're in Yuei to learn and it's normal to face obstacles on your journey. You have three years to train and overcome them, so don't let what happened keep you down. Instead, learn from your mistakes and figure out ways to solve them." All Might reassured him, "Now, can anyone else tell me who the MVP is?"
"Well, it's not Pikachu, that's for sure." Kyoka commented with a smirk.
"Hey! How did you hear what he called me?" Denki exclaimed in surprise, having thought the monitors transmitted video only.
"He called you that!" Kyoka replied, snickering a bit along with some of the others, "I just called you that based on the surprised Pikachu face you made."
"Actually, he called me Pichu!" Denki replied, in an attempt to make things better but really just making it worse.
"Calm down, everyone!" All Might told the class, a good number of which were snickering. After seeing that Denki wasn't really all that upset and had started snickering with everyone, he continued, "Yes, Kaminari-shonen isn't the MVP, and can anyone tell me why?"
"From what we saw, he was too shocked by Midoriya-san's comment, that he gave him enough time to transform into his desired form. I believe the villain team's plan was to stop Midoriya-san from transforming or force him to transform into a random form." Saiko answered the blonde hero.
"Correct! You'll learn more about banter, wordplay and how to use them in your second year, and more importantly, you'll learn how to ignore taunts and insults." All Might explained, chuckling at the surprised looks on some of their faces. "Surprised that there is a class about banter? It covers that and things like catchphrases, as well as one-liners you'd say when entering a room. Have you never thought about why a lot of heroes sprout cheesy lines when facing villains or saving people?"
"No, not really." Hanta admitted, "I just thought they said them because they sounded cool."
"You're not too far off, at least for a partial answer. A part of why heroes say these lines is to bolster their own confidence and steady themselves." All Might told the class, "They also help calm victims down and raise their hopes, which is an essential part of being a hero. They also affect villains in two major ways; these cheesy one-liners would either cause the villain to not take you seriously or to lose hope. Why that happens is quite complicated, so I'll stop my explanation here. You'll learn more about this in your second year. Now, any other guesses for who the MVP could be?"
"We have already discussed why Kaminari-san and Midoriya-san are not the MVPs. Ojiro-san is not it as well, since while he showed great martial art skills in fighting Yaoyorozu, it would have been better to wait for his teammate once he located the bomb. Both teams suffered from a lack of communication, so I will not dwell too much on that topic. The MVP of the match is Yaoyorozu-san." Saiko replied with confidence, "Yaoyorozu did excellently in almost every aspect of the exercise, she stuck to her role in the plan, she managed to defeat Ojiro-san efficiently without wasting too many resources, forced Midoriya-san into a corner and had she more knowledge on his transformations, would have beaten him."
"Err... Took the words out of my mouth, Intelli-shonen!" All Might told her, sweat dropping a bit but also giving her a thumbs up and a smile. Bringing back the villain and hero boxes, All Might drew a ball from each and proclaimed, "Now, for the next match, team I will play the villains and team B the heroes."
"I'm going all out Uraraka! The boots and gloves are coming off!" Toru exclaimed when the exercise began, taking off her boots and gloves, leaving her completely invisible.
"Sure..." Ochaco replied, while sweat dropping a bit at her teammate's actions. 'It makes sense since she needs become invisible, but it feels weird for someone to be naked in an exercise. At least we're both girls...'
Meanwhile, the hero team barely talked to one another. Shoto was seemingly emotionless, while Mezou was just a quiet person. Mezou mentioned that he can use his quirk to find out their locations, and Shoto told him he'll take care of the rest.
"There's someone on the north side of the fourth floor. The other's somewhere on the same floor and they're barefoot, most likely the invisible one trying to ambush and capture us there." Mezou informed his partner, using his quirk to create a number of extra ears. This allowed him to hear a great deal more, which helped him pinpoint his opponent's locations.
"Get outside, it's about to get frosty in here." Shoto replied, "Our opponents think they're playing a defensive game, but that means nothing to me."
Upon finishing his line, Shoto froze the entire building over. This overwhelming display of power was accompanied by a show of incredible control, since Shoto managed to only freeze his opponent's feet instead of their entire bodies. Walking into the building and making his way to the bomb room on the fourth floor, he was almost hit by a flying desk upon opening the bomb room's door. If it weren't for his highly trained reflexes, he would have gotten brained and knocked unconscious. Using his ice to create a mirror, Shoto saw that Uraraka had managed to float a few pieces of furniture around her. He responded by creating a wall of ice that blocked her view of him and made his way to the bomb.
"Hero team wins!" All Might exclaimed, and Shoto began using his fire to melt the ice and free the trapped students. Upon returning to the monitor room, All Might asked the class who the MVP of the match is.
"There wasn't much of a match to have one." Kyoka muttered to herself.
"I must agree, All Might-sensei. The villain team did not manage to do anything before they were frozen, and the hero team committed several mistakes. Shoji-san did well enough, although not much beyond reconnaissance, but it was Todoroki-san who made the biggest mistake." Saiko interjected, "Freezing an entire building like that may be an impressive display of power, but it was an incredibly foolish move."
"Yeah! A normal building would have collapsed from all that extra weight and the effect the cold would have had on the concrete and metal supporting it. This is ignoring whether the building has suffered previous damage that hasn't been repaired or if the construction company was lazy and committed a number of violations." Uraraka added, still slightly shivering, "Even if the building didn't immediately collapse, the ice would have melted and seeped into the concrete, causing it to break apart over time and trigger a collapse at any moment."
"I'm going to have to agree with them, sensei. More than that, freezing the room with the nuke was a very stupid idea. There's a reason why I didn't use any big attacks near it, since if one hit it, it would have gone off. In real life that is..." Izuku explained, "It's even worse with ice, since such extreme thermal changes could have triggered the bomb, even if there wasn't some thermal trigger."
"I would also like to add something." Tenya exclaimed, while chopping his hand, "Such tremendous show of force, to simply capture two individuals, is far too much. Shoji-san seemed to be aware of Hagakure-san's position, so Todoroki-san could have left her capture to him. Todoroki-san could have then defeated Uraraka-san in a manner not too dissimilar to how he did in the exercise."
"All right, all right. Those are all very good points, but we're here to discuss who the MVP is. Aizawa-san will be reviewing the tapes and will give you his feedback tomorrow, so let us focus on something else." All Might interjected, stopping an argument from forming. None of the students were wrong in what they stated, but it still seemed to upset Shoto greatly, if the frown on his face was any indication. Having taken control of the conversation, "Since this match was finished so quickly, I will have to assign the title of MVP to Shoji-shonen. He was instrumental in locating the exact locations of the villains, so the title shall go to him. Now, for the next match, team J will be the villains and team H will be the heroes."
The match was much more interesting than the previous one. Hanta used his quirk to create a number of tape traps around the bomb, while Eijiro waited on the first floor to face the heroes. Fumikage fought him and kept him busy, while Tsuyu climbed up the building and looked for the room with the bomb. Upon finding it, she sneaked in through the window and without alerting Hanta, she touched it and won the match for her team. She was given the MVP title, although it was debated whether Fumikage deserved it more.
The fourth match had team D as the villains and team F as the heroes. The villains hid the bomb on the top floor, since they doubted either of the heroes could get in through the roof. Minoru managed to trap Rikido with his quirk, and not even Rikido's enhanced strength could tear off the purple spheres. Tenya defeated Koji by running past him and tying him up with his capture tape. Apparently, there weren't many animals nearby for Koji to call on for help. The MVP title was given to Tenya, who came up with their plan and was instrumental in leading the sugar empowered Rikido into the villain team's trap.
The last match was between team E as the heroes and team G as the villains. When the heroes entered the building, Mina's wild movements and reckless use of her quirk caused some acid to splatter on Yuga's cape. This caused them to start fighting, and Kyoka took advantage of that to unleash a powerful sound attack using her stereo boots support gear. This caused the hero team to become heavily disoriented and allowed Kyoka to tie them up with her capture tape and win the match. Apparently, the villain team did have a plan, but the heroes infighting messed it up. Kyoka was assigned the MVP title, but since she was the only person who did anything, it was rather expected.
"I hope you learned a few things from this exercise! If not, you will when Aizawa-san gives you his feedback tomorrow. For now, watch how a pro hero makes an exit!" All Might exclaimed, while giving them a thumbs up. When nothing happened, several students began to murmur when suddenly All Might's image wavered and disappeared.
"That was an afterimage!" Several of the students exclaimed in awe, after they realized what the hero had done. Everyone began making their way towards the locker rooms, although Izuku wanted to test something out first.
"You guys go on ahead! I just want to see how my costume works with the rest of my transformations." Izuku told them and transformed into Supersonic. He inspected his costume, and after seeing how it morphed to fit him perfectly, he switched to another one of his aliens. Thankfully, the costume had some hidden slit that allowed the Omnitrix to be visible, or maybe the Omnitrix could do that on its own. After a few minutes he was done, and he was extremely happy that none of his transformations destroyed his costume. 'I really hope I don't get an alien like Humungousaur or Gravattack. I'd end up tearing my costume apart!'
After news of All Might's employment at Yuei Highschool was leaked, the newspapers were abuzz about what happened. A person reading a newspaper covering this put it down on the bar counter, all the while clenching his fist tightly.
"You see this? He's a teacher now. Hmm... What would happen if villains..." The raspy voice began saying, belonging to a blue haired youth wearing a number of severed hands as accessories over his body, "killed the Symbol of Peace?"
This blue haired man seemed to be talking to the bartender, whose body seemed to be composed of dark purple clouds. There was also a hulking brute staring mindlessly at the man wearing hands, with a beak and visible brain, and an ominous aura was surrounding it.
Hey everyone. I'm going to first discuss some important things and then talk a bit about this chapter.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
I stated in chapter 3, that I will be making a poll for the next fic I'll start with. I haven't done that for a few reasons. The main reason is that I have to choose a few ideas from my rather log list. To give you a sense of things, I have over 212 fic ideas for MHA alone. I have over 90 ideas for Naruto (quite a bit more, but my notes for Naruto are a bit messy, and I don't have an accurate count). I have a few more for other fandoms, but I'll be focusing on Naruto and MHA for now.
From those I chose 55 MHA ideas and 36 Naruto ones that I felt would be fun to write. I then picked 4 MHA ideas and 4 Naruto ones from those, which will be in the poll. I will be making the poll after releasing this chapter, and you can read more about each of the ideas on my profile page.
News separate from the polls: I will be writing a new fic. This is because once I reach chapter 5 in this fic, I will be putting it on hiatus until I eventually rewrite it. The reason for that is because it feels a bit awkward to me now. The new fic (which will basically take the place of this one) was inspired by another writer's work, and I have already gotten their permission to use their idea.
The writer is Hypn0s on AO3 and the fic is HACK. Basically, the new fic will be an MHA one with Izuku having a quirk of his own. He can permanently copy the powers of videogame characters, after fulfilling a few requirements, and I have a really interesting roster of abilities lined up. The powers Izuku gets in my fic will be different than Hypn0s', although only 1 power is the same as in HACK. Another difference will be the plot, mine will stay rather similar to canon while HACK deviates quite a bit from canon (I definitely recommend reading Hypn0s' fic, it's pretty good).
Also, before I forget, there is a poll up about whether I should make my chapters Short (Min 5K), Medium (Min 7K) or keep them Long (Min 10K). Please pick one or comment on your preferred option.
STORY COMMENTS:
No Bakugo, but I already had that obvious in the previous chapter. Still, this is confirmation for everyone who thought I might do a swticheroo, which wasn't anyone since very few people leave reviews. (Please leave reviews, but no flames)
Who replaced Bakugo, well its Intelli Saiko. I don't like Shinso, mainly cause fandom worships the ground he walks on and ignores the fact that he's an ass (he's not that different than Bakugo, just a whiny wimpy version of him). I thought about having Inasa take his place, but if I was going to have him at Yuei, then he'd be in class B at the minimum. What do you guys think about Saiko Intelli being in class 1-A?
Aizawa's little speech about the government always seemed off to me. I mean it makes sense that quirks wouldn't be allowed for these exercises, since they're fitness tests. Especially in a society that doesn't allow public quirk usage (which isn't an unreasonable thing when you think about it). Also, Aizawa's dismissal of important aspects of the school, like the guidance counsellor or the orientation (which helps the students learn about the resources available to them and the rules they have to follow), didn't make much sense. I tried to explain it, as Aizawa not wanting to waste time when he's already prepared a summary of everything for the students.
About Rath's throw... I honestly had to make it much less than what it should be. Here's the thing, since the Ben 10 aliens are from a cartoon, their abilities aren't really all that accurate (this is me talking about a manga character that can transform into a cartoon one...). But Rath is really strong, I mean he could hold a tank with one hand (well half of one), and he has plenty of other strength feats. When he threw the ball, he activated his anger empowerment, which makes him even stronger. Tell me if you think the throw was too much.
Izuku's costume is based off Rook's proto-tech armour, and that's because Rook's armour looks really cool. Is it a bit lazy, sure, but I honestly do like the design of the proto-tech armour, and it works as a superhero costume.
Why did Izuku overthink when in the manga All Might praises him for his snap decisions. Because the manga is highly inconsistent and doesn't make sense. Here's the thing, the way I see Izuku is someone who overthinks rather than rush in. I'm not sure I'm conveying my point well, but I wanted to paint the image that he struggles with too many choices. If he had one transformation than he'd make do with it, but because he has 11, he struggles finding the best one for the job at hand. Instead of picking the form he prefers, like Ben, he instead agonizes about who'll perform better.
Why didn't he end up using Frostmoth? It's because I forgot about him when writing that fight scene, and I didn't want to rewrite it completely. It also makes sense why Izuku wouldn't go for the rather cheap win in a training exercise at least, if it were a real villain and bomb, he'd have gone Frostmoth instantly. I guess this also answers the previous question as well, since without Bakugo there to threaten mortal harm on him, Izuku doesn't feel like he's in actual danger and thus doesn't activate his ultra instinct decision making skills.
My points about Shoto freezing the building, well they make sense. I'm not the first writer to point them out, but I just wanted to show that just because you can use overwhelming force, it doesn't mean you should. It's a lesson Shoto needs, because he can do much more with control than just flinging glaciers at people.
Next chapter will be the USJ (Oh no, I spoiled things... Not really though), and it will be the last chapter before this fic goes on hiatus, pending a rewrite. I already have plans for the rewrite, along with different aliens (since I figured several of them don't really work that well in MHA).