Chapter 4: Entrance Exams and Results
Summary: Time for Izumi and Momo to make some first impressions...
Chapter 4: Entrance Exams and Results
-Recommended Exam Practical-
All Might watched through the cameras, sitting with Dean Nedzu as both of them observed the recommendation students running through the obstacle course. The first two groups had already run, with the second including a pair of standout performances. It was the final group, however, that the pair had been truly waiting for. For this group included All Might's successor. The two of them paid close attention as Yaoyorozu took her position. Unlike the others, she wasn't bothering with any sort of runner's stance, something Nedzu was clearly curious about.
"You did say your protégé had control of roughly 40% of One for All, correct? Why isn't she taking a stance?"
All Might grinned, cheerful at finally being able to get one over on the Dean. Clearly, Nedzu had no idea just what his successor and her girlfriend had cooked up.
"I did. But I also told you they'd come up with a way to deflect attention from young Yaoyorozu suddenly gaining a new or altered Quirk. You're about to see the fruits of their labor, an old project that originally failed, as I understand it. But was made viable again by One for All."
Clearly intrigued, Nedzu watched the screen closely as the countdown hit zero. The other five competitors in the group lunged forward, taking off at various speeds and with various uses of their Quirks. Momo, on the other hand, stood still as advanced composites, cybernetic weaves, and metal flashed out and over her skin. Her tracksuit was shredded into confetti as, in the space of just five seconds, a skintight suit of futuristic looking armor covered her from ponytail to toe tips. Then, in a burst of speed that passed every other competitor in the space between heartbeats, Momo was off down the track. Obstacles were run with a precision and speed that even All Might would have been hard pressed to better. He was still faster in a straight line, of course, but Momo was firing maneuvering thrusters from her back, elbows, and feet in order to corner in a brutal redirection of motion that not even he could manage without surfaces to bounce off of.
There were obvious rough spots in the rapid movement, at least to the eyes of someone trained by Grand Torino. But it was an incredible performance considering his successor had only had two weeks to practice with it. The remaining two before the recommended exams having been used up revamping and tweaking the design in the first place. And, regardless of the rough spots, it did the job. Momo crossed the finish line before any of her competitors even reached the second obstacle. A stunned Present Mic called out her time…which utterly blew away even that of the previous high scorer, one Yorashi Inasa, who had shown off a powerful wind Quirk. Dean Nedzu sat back with a calculating look in his eyes, barely paying attention to the rest of the competitors.
"Fascinating. Obviously, the appearance of the suit is meant to hide One for All by making the viewer assume it's the source of her speed and power. Yet, it was clearly functional. And I do have to wonder if it impairs the use of her original Quirk?"
All Might quickly shook his head at that.
"It doesn't. Or not much, at least. They'd worked that out years ago, apparently. They developed the original suit out of a material specifically designed to pass the specific energy frequency of Creation through. The suit truly acts like a second skin, from which she can create objects. There's some small loss of efficiency. But One for All boosted that efficiency by something like seven thousand percent anyway. So the loss is pretty irrelevant. Particularly given the advantages."
Nedzu made an approving humming noise of some sort, nodding as he pulled up a recording of her run and watched it in slow motion.
"Still new to using it, obviously. But it shows quite a bit of promise, despite that. The startup period might be an issue in an emergency…"
All Might waggled his hand.
"In theory, possibly. But she's been steadily cutting down on the speed needed to 'summon' it. And she's filed to use it as her Hero Suit anyway, so it's only really relevant if she's caught out in public while not on duty."
Nedzu nodded.
"Still a minor weakness to work on. But an acceptable one. It's a fine solution and a pleasantly unexpected one. I do believe this year should be interesting…"
Shivering at the tone the Dean used for that last word, All Might hoped it wouldn't be too interesting. Even if, somehow, he already knew that hope was doomed to go unfulfilled…
-1 Week Later: General UA Entrance Exam-
Izumi couldn't help the huge grin on her face as she cracked her knuckles and stretched. The written portion of the exam had been hilariously easy…but she was still looking forward to getting a chance to move. Noticing that she was literally the only one that had moved on to the practical exam hall so far, she looked around for something to kill time with. There was over an hour and a half left of the exam time, after all, and she'd go nuts if she didn't do something between now and then. Disappointed that there was literally no one else around, she sighed and was about to pull her phone out of her digital inventory when the doors opened. An energetic looking blonde entered, humming to himself as he shuffled papers…only to look up and blink at her in confusion when some instinct told him he wasn't alone. Izumi tried not to squeal as she realized it was Present Mic. Pulling a specific notebook out of her inventory instead of her phone, she darted up to shove it in his face.
"Oh! Oh! Can I have your autograph please? I totally didn't think I'd have a chance until school started!"
The man had actually taken a half-step back in surprise. Wait…she hadn't forgotten to keep her speed under control, had she? Crap. She might have. She was…sort of excited. This was Present Mic! She listened to his show religiously!
"Woah there, listener! Of course you can have an autograph!" His eyes darted down to her chest…no, down to her visitor's badge. "But, shouldn't you still be in the written exam? The practical won't matter if you don't score highly enough there!"
Izumi shook her head.
"Nope! Already finished! My Quirk gives me perfect recall that I can't actually shut off. So it was…kinda of super easy?"
The blonde hero's eyes sharpened at that, taking a better look at her.
"Oh! You're the one Nedzu mentioned! He did say we'd probably have an early finisher this year, I just didn't expect it to be quite this early. The test only started a half an hour ago!"
Izumi nodded eagerly.
"Yep! I finished it in about twenty minutes. And took ten more to triple check everything! Really, I would have been faster, but I kind of ran out of room on the ethics question at the end and had to stop to get some extra paper out of my inventory! I hope that was okay. Ms. Midnight looked at me a bit oddly for that…"
Annnd…now Present Mic was looking at her oddly too. She wasn't that strange, was she? Sure, she really only had Momo for a reference of 'normal.' Which probably wasn't a great reference, actually. But, she couldn't be that weird, right? Oh godmaybeshewasactuallysuperstrangeandeveryonewasgoingto...
"Woah there! Even I can't talk quite that fast, and I have supppper vocal cords! But if I caught that right, you shouldn't worry! All the best heroes are a little strange, you know! Now, how about I sign that notebook of yours! We've got quite a bit of time to kill before the prac…"
Mic had taken her notebook, only to pause as he realized it was open to a remarkably life-like image of him. The image was obviously a few years old, given that he looked a little younger and there were a few more recent tweaks to his costume that weren't present. But it was really very good, and it served to draw his attention to the analysis that was on the page next to it. And on the next page…and the next…and the three after that. Curious, he stopped flipping through them and looked up at her.
"Say, we really do have some time to kill, do you mind if I look at this? This almost looks like a professional Quirk breakdown…"
Izumi brightened.
"Oh! Of course, you can! And, Miss Nishimura helped me with the format! She's had me help with a few Quirks as a part-timer the last couple of years! She says I'm pretty good at figuring them out."
That name got Mic's attention. Surely she didn't...
"Nishimura? As in Nishimura & Croft? The Quirk specialists?"
"Yep! She helped me with my Quirk when I first got diagnosed! Sentient Quirks are rare enough that we ended up referred to them when we started digging for a better option that our first…um…questionable doctor?"
Right. Right. That was why Nedzu had originally needed to warn them about her. Along with that Tokoyami kid. Two sentient Quirks in a single year! Both of which could actively assist their users, so the observers all needed to know what to look for. That meeting had been a surprise to everyone, that was for sure. And it absolutely made sense for the kid to end up in the hands of a high-level specialist if she had a sentient Quirk. That just made Mic more curious about the notes in his hand, though. If she was good enough that the staff at N & C had her helping as a part timer, it could be interesting enough to kill some time with. Quickly pulling out a pen, he signed under his picture with a flourish, then gestured her to follow him to the table up front. She practically bounced as she did so, almost puppy-like.
"Well, let's see what someone from N & C would say about my Quirk! It's been quite some time since a professional has analyzed it! It's not something pros usually need done, after all. It could be interesting!"
He grinned as she blushed and protested that she 'wasn't really a professional!' He was already starting to like this one…particularly as she hadn't even seemed to notice that he slipped into English with his last response. Given the complete lack of acknowledgement that he'd done so, he guessed she must be completely fluent. Though he supposed perfect recall would help with that.
His amusement lasted through the first page of notes, which didn't have anything new, but slowly shifted to incredulity as he read through the more comprehensive breakdown that followed. As well as…ideas for support gear and super moves?! Some of these looked…huh would that actually? He was quickly lost in thought at some of the ideas there, only snapping out of it when he heard the girl who'd written it shuffling awkwardly. Well…the person who wrote this was right here. No reason not to kill some time asking about a few of the support gear items, right?
"This is amazing! But, this piece of gear on page 3? Could that actually be made? I'm a little lost about what 'Quirk Energy Resonance' would have to do with powering jump boots? The mobility would be super awesome! But what does that have to do with the sound amplification from my Quirk?"
The kid brightened…and immediately launched into a detailed explanation that left Mic with a headache from trying to follow it, right along with a firm determination to take the designs she'd sketched out on the spot to Power Loader to see what he thought. Jump boots would be crazy cool to add to his gear, after all…
... ...
Izumi bounced on her toes as she waited in front of the gate.
"Can you believe it 2B! It's finally time! How well do you think we'll do?"
2B's voice came from the pod hovering over her shoulder.
"I calculate a 96.8% chance of you taking first place, Izumi. No other student matched your QE levels."
Izumi rolled her eyes.
"You know that QE levels aren't everything, 2B."
"Yes. Which is why there is a 3.2% margin for error. It is possible, however unlikely, that someone has either superior training or a more specifically applicable Quirk. Though, of course, if you were willing to use our full abilities, that would not be possible."
Izumi's eyes rolled again and she started to reply, only for a blue-haired fellow with stiff movements to suddenly approach her.
"Miss! Stop trying to distract everyone! And what are you doing with that Drone. You know support gear has to be registered! And I'm quite sure that the UA staff would not allow-"
Annoyed, mostly at 2B being called a mere Drone, Izumi stopped the aggressive teenager with a firm poke to the forehead. Momo had taught her how to deal with this!
"Just because you're insecure and nervous doesn't mean you can be mean to people! 2B is part of my Quirk. Please apologize!"
2B spoke up before the confused…and slightly reeling from the poke…teen could do anything one way or another.
"I do not believe he has time. The gate is about to open."
"What? How do you…2B did you hack Present Mic's timer?"
"Of course."
Izumi groaned…but chose not to fight this particular losing battle again. Instead, she summoned her visor and copy of Virtuous Contract. She had considered, for a moment, using one of the Spears, actually having something of a natural preference for them. The truth was, however, that they were somewhat…overkill…for anything she was likely to fight here. Just like using a full transformation would have been. Particularly with 2B deployed in a Type B Pod for quick line-of-sight kills on pretty much anything.
Her timing was perfect, the gate beginning to swing open just as she reached the front and half bent one knee. An instant later, when the gate was just barely open far enough for her body to pass through…she pushed off at half power, shooting through the gate and up to a roof three buildings into the zone.
"2B! Enemy scan, please!"
The response was immediate enough for Izumi to suspect 2B had already been scanning, a rash of red dots in three intensities appearing all over her HUD. With an excited grin Izumi summoned a trio of knives and launched herself at the densest group, telekinetically flinging the knives into a set of three two-pointers even as 2B picked off a 3-pointer at the edge of the crowd with her laser. Then, Izumi was in amongst them, and the carnage became complete…
Toshinori Yagi ignored most of Dean Nedzu's random exposition as he tracked the various monitors. Long years of combat experience had taught him how to split his attention to multiple places at once, and he noted several students that were already standing out from their peers. A boy with an explosive Quirk and a vicious grin. A foreign student firing scales into a group of bots. A girl with size-expansion of some sort enlarging her hands and slamming two three-pointers together.
Even as he watched the other notables, however, he kept one eye on his second student. The one whose total combat potential even he had never seen. Yes, he'd seen her train a great deal. But young Midoriya had openly admitted that the training facilities didn't have a space tough enough for her to really cut loose in…and his successor had admitted that she hadn't been able to seriously spar with her girlfriend on an equal footing since they were twelve. He'd snuck them into his private gym at Might Tower after the first few tests of One for All had proven…dangerously destructive. But even there, they'd focused heavily on getting young Yaoyorozu's strength modulated and her new suit in working order.
What he was seeing now was eye-opening, to say the least. It had also, he noticed, attracted the attention of his future co-workers. Nearly all of them were glancing repeatedly her way as her numbers rapidly outpaced anyone else's. And the worst part of it was that Yagi knew from the bits of her training he had overseen, that the young woman was holding back, a lot. Despite that, only five minutes in, she'd already broken the record and was still accelerating. If she wasn't clearly targeting groups away from the other examinees, many of them inside buildings which the others hadn't even thought to check, he'd be genuinely worried that no one else in her testing group would actually have a chance of passing!
As it was, by the time the eight-minute mark was reached and the arena trap bot triggered, Midoriya had already hit the triple digits…and that's without calculating rescue points. He'd seen 2B save at least three students with precision laser fire, and Izumi had helped another in passing. All of those would go toward rescue points even if she got no more from the new challenge. Which…didn't appear likely, given that her speed had just doubled as she noticed another examinee in trouble. There was a flash of light on the zoomed in screen as the sword she commonly used vanished…only to be replaced by a spear? Moments later, it was all over, the drone having failed to even follow Izumi's movement.
The Dean was quick to key up a slow-motion shot of the Zero Pointer's head, and they all watched as Izumi seemed to be moving at regular speed while the Zero Pointer was slowed to a crawl by the high-speed camera. A leap had taken Izumi over the top of the trap's head and a half-visible burst of energy redirected her down, the young woman falling spear-first toward the head of the zero pointer. It's steel frame split before that spear like so much paper trying to deflect a charging rhinoceros…and then there was a much larger burst of that half-visible energy inside the zero pointer. Real-time returned to the image as Izumi moved away from the slumping Zero-pointer to help the trapped young woman, who seemed to have freed herself but was limping badly. Power Loader cleared his throat to get their attention.
"Whatever the hell she just did to that zero pointer, it totally wrecked the insides. That thing is pure scrap. I doubt we'll get any reusable components beyond base materials out of it."
Yagi shook his head, leaning back as he ignored both the Dean's cackling and his co-worker's disbelief. Up until this very moment, he'd been half-sure that young Yaoyorozu had been joking about Midoriya being able to go toe-to-toe with him. Suddenly, he wasn't at all sure that had been a joke or overestimation. After all, she still hadn't fully transformed to pull that off. Which meant she was holding back quite a bit. He was, in that moment of realization, extremely grateful for two things. First, that Midoriya was naturally rather gentle and extremely heroic. And second…that she'd turned down One for All in favor of her friend. The combination of her own Quirk and One for All genuinely might have been too much power in one person's hands…
-Exam Results-
Izumi clutched the unopened letter in white-knuckled hands, sitting on her bed, Momo looking fondly exasperated from her computer desk. It was Izumi's room, with hero merchandise on every surface…though it wasn't as cramped as it once would have been. Between the eventual settlement against a certain doctor and a number of extremely successful patents, the Midoriya family was no longer a marginal one. On the downside, it had led to the divorce of her parents when Hisashi's excuses to not come home from his 'overseas job' had run thin enough for Inko to hire a private investigator. An investigator that had turned up five other 'marriages' in three countries. Suffice it to say that her father was no longer in the picture.
On the other hand, the lawsuit over that issue had added to the malpractice settlement from that incompetent Quirk doctor. The improved financial situation of the family hadn't had much impact for a few years…until Izumi starting 'inventing' things with Momo and 2B. The fact that most of those things were hero-adjacent had ultimately required some increased security, leading to the small family of two moving into the Penthouse of a high-security condo not too far from Momo's…zip code. While Inko refused to take much money from the inventions herself, she did at least allow for a small portion to be used for continued upkeep of the condo, which had freed her from any need to work. Though, by some sort of personal magic or sheer stubbornness on Mitsuki Bakugo's part, Izumi's mother had ended up working part time for the Bakugo's fashion company. First as simply an assistant that wouldn't be driven off by her friend's personality. And then, much to Inko's adorable confusion, as a model for some of the fashion line's products.
None of which was particularly relevant at the moment, as Izumi dithered over opening her letter from UA. Sure, she was pretty certain she'd done well. But this was important! Her whole future rode on what was in this letter! What if she'd…actually she couldn't think of anything she could have messed up. Maybe if they were upset enough about the Zero Pointer she'd kinda…turned into a very large paperweight?
Her dithering apparently went on just a bit too long, since Momo finally prodded her.
"Izumi, if you don't open that right now to spare us both, I won't let you touch my boobs for a week."
Izumi's head snapped to Momo in horror…then back down to the letter. With fire in her eyes, she tore the letter open with one smooth motion, ignoring her girlfriend's giggles. There were several sheets of paper in the letter, but there was also a small disk that Izumi deftly caught before it could fall. She blinked as 2B, who had been sitting almost motionless nearby in the child-sized doll form Izumi had eventually all-but-forced on the android as a 'huggable' alternative to the Pods, spoke up for the first time since they'd returned to the room.
"Scans reveal it is some form of holo-device. I suggest laying it flat. I believe it will auto-play after you do so."
Silently, Izumi nodded and tentatively placed it a foot in front of her on the bed, where everyone would be able to see it. The moment she took her hand away, the holo-disk hummed to life and the image of a very familiar face popped up over it…
"I AM HERE…as a projection!"
Two startled exclamations from Momo and Izumi were joined by a put-upon sigh from 2B. After a suitable dramatic pause, the projected image of All Might continued to speak.
"Greetings young Midoriya! And likely young Yaoyorozu as well, I'd assume! While both of you are aware that I've been spending time here in Musutafu…what you didn't know until now is that my reasons were more than just general heroing! I came here to be the newest heroics teacher at UA University!"
Two more exclamations, and an uncharacteristic curse from 2B, were quickly overwritten by more from All Might. After another suitably dramatic pause, of course.
"To the surprise of absolutely no one, you scored a perfect grade on the written exam! Though, to the surprise and terror of everyone here, Dean Nedzu claimed he would have given you extra credit for your additions to the ethics questions, if he were allowed to! He claims he'll speak to you once the year has gotten underway a bit. Please don't take over the world!"
All Might seemed to actually think that was a legitimate concern, from his momentarily serious facial expression. But that moment passed quickly as he moved on.
"As for the practical…you scored 137 Villain Points! Which would have broken all previous records, even if that was the only metric we scored by. But, of course, what would a Hero University be if that was the only metric we score by? In addition to Villain Points, a panel of judges awards Hero Points, for actions that aided or protected your fellow examinees! Behold!"
A short series of video clips replaced All Might's face, showing either Izumi or 2B's pod helping various candidates out of sticky situations. The highlight reel ended in what Izumi had to admit was a pretty epic shot of her takedown of the Zero Pointer on behalf of a student trapped in the rubble. The image froze on a still of picking up said blushing girl to carry her back to the entrance, with All Might's voice returning to speak over it.
"After due consideration from the panel of judges, you were awarded a near-record in Hero Points as well, a total of 84 in fact. Only two others, both with healing Quirks, have ever done better…and neither came close to your 221-point total! A total which very nearly doubled the previous high score of 118 points!"
The image of her giving a helpful lift to the blushing girl vanished, replaced again by All Might's face. His trademark smile was flashing out as he finished up.
"With a score like that, I'm sure I barely need to say this! But, for the official record, you passed! Welcome to your hero academia!"
The holo went silent as All Might was once again replaced, this time by a floating image of a scoreboard. 2B's doll-form had silently moved from her spot on one of the room's extra chairs. Izumi and Momo, both still distracted from the revelations that had hit them one after another, jumped in surprise at her appearance as 2B tapped the holo-device with a finger. The image, which had just started to fade, froze in place. She turned to look at Izumi.
"I assume you probably wanted to see the scoreboard. And the device seems to be set to erase after it finished playing. Likely a security feature to prevent All Might's new status as a teacher from getting out. I've overwritten the erase command in case you want to keep the recording for sentimental reasons."
Grinning hugely, Izumi lunged forward, ignoring 2B's surprised 'oof' as she hugged the half-sized version of her oldest friend.
"Thanks, 2B! You're the best!"
Letting the android's slightly-blushing doll-form go, she turned back to study the floating scores with considerable interest, mentally filing the names on it away. It was only the top ten, but it contained a pair of interesting names despite its limits…aside from her own blazing at the top, of course!
Midoriya Izumi – 137 Villain Points – 84 Hero Points : Total 221
Bakugo Katsuki – 79 Villain Points – 14 Hero Points : Total 93
Kirishima Eijirou – 39 Villain Points – 35 Hero Points : Total 74
Shiozaki Ibara – 36 Villain Points – 32 Hero Points : Total 68
Kendo Itsuka – 25 Villain Points – 40 Hero Points : Total 65
Tetsutetsu Tetsutestsu – 49 Villain Points – 10 Hero Points : Total 59
Tokoyami Fumikage – 47 Villain Points – 10 Hero Points : Total 57
Awase Yosetsu – 50 Villain Points – 6 Hero Points : Total 56
Iida Tenya – 45 Villain Points – 7 Hero Points : Total 52
Kaibara Sen – 47 Villain Points – 4 Hero Points : Total 51
Momo murmured something about Izumi's score being more than double the second place, but Izumi herself had noted two familiar names in the list. Katsuki's, she was unsurprised by. Though she was glad to see he'd actually earned a few Hero Points. They hadn't interacted a great deal since Izumi transferred to another education track, but she knew through their handful of interactions and some small talk from her mother that her one-time friend had been forced into anger management at some point. Apparently, lacking a single target durable enough to ignore most of his…excesses…the school had needed to put their foot down in order to prevent lawsuits. While she doubted he'd ever be the most approachable hero, the Hero Points he'd earned were certainly a hopeful sign that he'd at least make a decent one in general.
That, however, was less interesting than the other name she'd identified on the list. Tokoyami Fumikage. They'd only met twice, and exchanged a few emails, but being the only two individuals their age in all of Japan with sentient Quirks had led to their being introduced to each other. Frankly, Izumi was grateful that she'd ended up with 2B. Dark Shadow was entertaining, but could be quite a bit of a handful, from what their scattered exchanges had revealed over the years. Not that 2B wasn't, at times. But that was in more of a trying-to-teach-her-not-to-hack-government-servers-to-protect-Izumi sort of way.
…
…
…
Actually, considering that she had yet to succeed in teaching 2B not to do things like that, Tokoyami might have gotten the easier Quirk to handle. Even if too much darkness tended to empower Dark Shadow to the point that he took over and went on berserk power trips. Particularity since the last 'berserk power trip' had merely resulted in the local combi being down 47 packages of Oreos, 11 apples, and three gallons of milk. Dark Shadow was more…chaotic…than actually violent.
Momo settling in behind Izumi, pressing her generous assets into her girlfriend's back as she picked up the papers that had come with the holo-disk, finally distracted Izumi from her thoughts. Though that was mostly to focus on the entirely-different distraction that those assets were causing. After all…Momo's threat had implied that she could touch her girlfriends boobs if she stopped delaying, right?