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“Who’s the Little Listener who destroyed the Zero Pointer in Battle Ground B?” Hizashi asked, curiously.
It was a valid question, one that Shouta was wondering himself. His reason for thinking about it was probably a little less generous, though. Who was the reckless idiot who broke most of their limbs using their quirk? Honestly, the display he just saw further proved his point about the Entrance Exam—it was stupid and utterly biased towards flashy, destructive quirks.
Judging by Nezu’s cackling during the whole ordeal, the kid was probably going to get in from the sheer amount of rescue points he gathered. A shame, really.
“That’s Midoriya Izuku,” Nezu supplied, gleefully.
Shouta briefly considered leaving it there. Both of their questions were answered and it wasn’t Shouta’s job to care about a random kid who hasn’t figured out how to not break his bones despite having his quirk for over a decade. But, something about the situation struck him as odd. Nedzu hadn’t even looked the kid up, so why did he know his name off the top of his head?
And why was All Might, of all people, shifting uncomfortably as soon as the kid was mentioned?
Typing the name into the system, he pulled the student’s application up. A picture of a boy with curly green hair and a nervous smile stared at him. Midoriya Izuku. 15. Quirkless. Aldera Middle—
He reread the third line, the line that asked about the applicant’s quirk. It was a standard piece of identification in this day and age, so no one would have looked twice to answer it. And the kid had put Quirkless.
Except he clearly had a quirk, if Shouta wasn’t mistaken. They heard the boom and saw the power behind the punch. Did they just witness a latent quirk manifestation?
“What a hell of a quirk,” Hizashi muttered.
“He doesn’t have one.”
The room went eerily quiet. Shouta realized that he’d spoken out loud when he felt all of his coworkers stare at him. He was still sharing at the tablet in his hands, though.
“His application,” he elaborated, “He applied as Quirkless.”
“You’re joking. Shouta, now is not a good time to decide to have a sense of humor,” Nemuri laughed, nervously.
“First off, I’m fucking hilarious—”
“—Logical ruses don’t count as humor—”
“Second, I’m staring at his application. It says ‘Quirkless’ on the third line. ”
Swiping his finger across the screen, he put the application up on the big screen. There, for everyone to see, was Midoriya’s application. The word Quirkless seemed to be haunting them all.
“Shit.”
Shouta wasn’t sure who said it, but Kami knew all of them were thinking it. Either the kid lied on his application (unlikely), or he had just manifested a quirk (likely).
Shit , indeed.
“Maybe it was a mistake?” All Might offered.
Everyone in the room ignored him (as they should. What an idiot thing to say. One does not ‘accidentally’ put Quirkless on their application. Not when U.A only repealed the rule about Quirkless applicants two years ago ).
“We need to ask him. Is he still here?” Shouta stated.
“Chiyo should be tending to his wounds in the infirmary. I’ll contact her to see—” Nedzu started.
“I can visit,” Hizashi offered.
Shouta looked at him in surprise.
“What? I’m supposed to be down there anyway. Might as well swing by the infirmary and see how the Little Listener is doing.”
For a second, Shouta could have sworn that Nedzu looked panicked before the chimera’s features smoothed over. The rat-bear opened his mouth to speak, but Hizashi was already gone. Shouta had a sudden feeling that he wasn’t going to get much sleep this year.
Hizashi whistled as he made his way to the infirmary. He hoped that the Little Listener was okay. Getting called out in front of everybody before the exam had to be rough, but a sudden quirk manifestation? Breaking most of your limbs? That was a lot to go through, which is why Hizashi volunteered to visit him.
“Uh, excuse me? Present Mic?” A young girl asked.
Ah, it was the girl trapped in the rubble. Interesting.
“I’m afraid that I’m a bit busy, Little Listener.” He was going to leave it there, but then he saw the girl’s crestfallen look. Damn his bleeding heart. “But if you make it quick—”
“There’s this boy,” she blurted out, “Green, bushy hair? Plain-faced? Destroyed the Zero-Pointer? I wanted to thank him…”
What a coincidence.
“I’m actually on my way to visit the Little Listener right now! If Recovery Girl allows it, you could come visit him, yeah?”
The girl brightened instantly. “Please!”
“Rockin’. If you could walk with me, I can bring you right to the infirmary.”
The two of them walked in silence for a bit before the girl spoke again. “Actually, I was wondering if I could give him some of my points.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah! He was totally like fwoosh! and pow! against the zero-pointer and saved me!” The girl’s voice suddenly lowered to whisper. “He was the only one...to come back. And before he passed out, I heard him mumbling about how he hadn’t even earned a point yet. He was a hero when he broke his bones to save my life . If there’s anyone who deserves to get in...it’s him. If I have to give up my points to make it happen, then so be it!”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it. We’re a Hero School. If he’s as heroic as you said, then he shouldn’t have any problems.” Hizashi said, softly.
He definitely made the right choice in checking up on the Little Listener. It was nice to see the next generation of heroes inspiring each other. The rest of the walk was spent in silence, both of them left to their thoughts. Soon enough, they were in front of the infirmary.
“This is our stop, Little Listener! Why don’t you wait outside while I check up on our little green friend, all right? I’ll talk to Recovery Girl about letting you visit, but no promises.”
The brown-haired girl nodded. “Thank you, Present Mic!”
“All in a day’s work.” He smiled and waved at the student before walking into the infirmary.
Hizashi was immediately greeted by the sound of Chiyo yelling. Good , he thought, The Little Listener was probably here then.
“—all the reckless , absolutely unnecessary things I’ve seen in my career—” Chiyo said.
He turned the corner just in time to hear a young male voice pipe in. “—but the Zero Pointer—”
Bad move, Little Listener. Chiyo’s on the warpath.
“—Don’t get me started on that little gimmick . Every year I—oh, Present Mic.” Chiyo’s tirade was broken by her surprise. “What do I owe the pleasure of you visiting my humble little infirmary? You better not be here to bother my patients,” the heroine threatened.
Hizashi gulped and made a mental note not to piss Chiyo off any further. “If it’s okay with you, Recovery Girl, I just want to talk to the Little Listener.”
“Oh my god, it’s Present Mic! But why is he here to talk to me? Wait, that’s arrogant of me to assume that. Why would he want to talk to me of all people? Unless it’s to yell at me about...destroying their Zero Pointer...Oh my god, I’m about to get sued by UA for wrecking their Zero Pointer...” The green-haired child mumbled. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes were fixed on the floor, not even looking at Hizashi while he talked.
Why would UA care about someone destroying the Zero Pointer? While they didn’t exactly expect the students to fight it head-on, there was an allowance in the budget in case it did get wrecked. It seemed like Midoriya was a more anxious-type of Listener.
“—You’re not in trouble, Little Listener. The staff and I just had a few questions about your application, if that’s okay?” He directed the last part more towards Chiyo than the boy in front of him.
“I was able to heal him, which wouldn’t have been an issue if he hadn’t broken his bones in the first place , but from a medical standpoint, he should be clear for a few questions. Don’t keep him too long. The boy needs his rest.” Chiyo handed Midoriya a few gummies before leaving the room.
There were a few beats of silence before Hizashi decided to speak again. “So, how are you feeling, Little Listener?”
Midoriya jumped as if he were startled. He also looked at Hizashi confused, like he’d never been asked that question before. “Uh...I’m good…”
“That Zero-Pointer was really something, huh?” Hizashi was trying to make the student relax with some casual conversation. His words seemed to scare the kid, however. Anxious indeed.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t think I would destroy the Zero-Pointer. I honestly wasn’t expecting that punch to be so strong—”
“—Because you didn’t have a quirk before today, right?”
Midoriya went white and stopped talking with an eep !
“Once again, you are not in trouble, Little Listener,” Hizashi stated softly, “We just noticed that on your application you put ‘Quirkless’, yet we clearly saw you destroy the Zero-Pointer. Did your quirk just come in?”
“...Yes,” Midoriya said slowly, “It did. I understand if UA considers my application invalid—”
“Why would that invalidate your application?”
“Because I have a quirk and put ‘Quirkless’ on the application? Because my new quirk breaks my limbs when I use it? I’m worse than useless right now.”
Hizashi was concerned, to say the least. That was an overly depressive way of viewing things. Shouta would love this kid, now that he thought about it.
“While it is... unfortunate ...that your new quirk causes such destruction to your body, no one is blaming you for that, Little Listener. You just went through a stressful and, quite frankly, traumatic quirk awakening. We just wanted to confirm that you got your quirk today so we can update your application and offer you help with counseling.”
Midoriya looked even more confused than before. “But, I didn’t even earn a single point on the exam...why would you offer to help? It’s my fault I can’t use my quirk correctly.”
“Midoriya—” that got the student’s attention since his head snapped up to stare at Hizashi in surprise “—from what you’ve told me and from what we, the staff, saw during your exam, you just manifested an extremely volatile and powerful enhancer quirk in the middle of our entrance exam. Regardless of your exam performance or admission status to UA, we are obligated to help you find and pay for a counselor.”
Midoriya looked like he was about to interrupt but Hizashi plowed on.
“Besides that, you just got your quirk today . Why would we expect you to be able to use it? Would you expect a four-year-old to have perfect control over their quirk?”
“No,” Midoriya said quietly.
“You aren’t any different in that sense. We would be a pretty poor school if we rejected a student because they have a unique learning situation. This does mean that if you are accepted to UA, you will be required to attend some kind of remedial quirk training or extra counseling sessions in order to stay within the hero course, you dig? The specifics would be sorted out between the school, your counselor, and your parents, okay?”
Midoriya burst into tears. “O-Okay…that makes sense...”
“Do you want a hug?”
“ Yeah .”
This wasn’t the first time someone had cried on his shoulder, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. This meant that he knew exactly what to do in this situation. He rubbed Midoriya’s back and whispered reassurances in the student’s ears. After a while, the tears died down and the green-haired Listener broke away from him.
“I’m sorry—”
“No need to apologize, Little Listener. Do you feel better now?”
Midoriya nodded vigorously.
“Great, so here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to relay this information to the rest of the staff. Then, we’re going to call your parents and talk to them about your quirk. At that point, we will also talk about the role UA is going to take in organizing your quirk counseling. How does that sound?”
“How much will you tell my mom?” Midoriya went back to staring at the floor again, shoulder’s hunched. He was adding that the mental list of Concerning Things about Midoriya .
“The fact that you manifested a quirk during our entrance exam and that it appears to be self-destructive. Is there a problem with telling your mom this information?”
“Nope!” Midoriya said a little too quickly. “No problem at all, haha. I just don’t want her to worry about me, that’s all.”
“Don’t worry about it, Little Listener! We’ll sort it all out. Any other questions?”
“Nope.”
“Great! Now, I gotta check but you might have another visitor soon. Sit tight while your mom gets here, okay?”
Midoriya nodded and shot him a wobbly smile.
“Rockin’!”
With that, he walked out of the room to go find Recovery Girl. He needed to ask her permission first before inviting a random student into the infirmary. Hopefully, that brown-haired girl would be waiting outside—the kid could really use a pick me up after the day he had.
Suddenly, his phone started ringing.
“Yello?”
“Zashi,” his husband’s gruff voice said, “Did you talk to him?”
“Yes, sir! And you’ll never believe it—he has strength like All Might but thinks exactly as you do! I think you’d like him, actually…”