Chapter Text
Midoriya knew that taking the UA entrance exam and getting in would definitely be a longshot. So why was he standing right outside UA getting ready to do the entrance exam? Well, he didn’t really know why.
Actually, he did know why. He wanted to prove he could do this. That he, a quirkless 14-year old, could become a hero.
Ever since that day on the rooftop with All Might he became more determined than ever to become a hero.
All Might had told him that a hero must always be willing to risk his life for others. Midoriya was willing to do that no matter the cost. He also wanted to make his dream a reality. Also proving All Might was wrong was also something he was aiming for.
So he had been training for the past 10 months. If he even wanted a chance at getting in he would have to be at the top of his game. He decided that the one of the best ways to do that was to clean up a garbage filled beach that he came across one day on one of his jogs.
He also decided that he should at least know some basics to martial arts. He knew that he probably should have started earlier, but it was better than nothing. The only hard part to that idea was convincing his mother.
When he told her about it she was definitely unsure about it. She insisted that being a hero was too dangerous, especially since he was quirkless. He managed to convince her by saying he just wanted to at least try and it would also be very helpful to know self defense.
So he began his training and he slowly, but surely, became stronger and stronger. By the end of the ten months he had cleared the entire beach of its junk.
Looking around he felt a sense of pride on all that he had accomplished. He was still in the beginning class for martial arts, but he was still learning so much! He just wondered if it would be enough to make it into the hero course…
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Now he was standing there just staring at the big building that he was gonna go in and take one of the most important tests of his life.
He took a deep breath and began to walk on over trying his best to feel confident. That only lasted 5 seconds since he tripped and was faceplanting towards the ground. He closed his eyes and waited for his face to make contact with the floor but it never did.
He opened his eyes and realized he was hovering over the ground.
“I’m sorry for using my quirk on you, but I didn’t think you would have liked to injure yourself before the exams!” said a brown haired girl. She put her fingertips together and Midoriya fell to the ground. Luckily, he had turned so he hadn’t fallen on his face.
“Thank you! I definitely didn’t want to fall before the exam!” he said, giving a small chuckle.
The girl smiled and said, “ No problem! It would be a bad omen if you had fallen, wouldn’t it have?” She then took notice of the time and realized that they were about to be late.
“I better get going. Good luck!” Uraraka then began to run off to UA where the exams were being held. Midoriya then went to find his way to the exam rooms, feeling nervous, but he felt better knowing someone he kinda knew was there. Well not counting Bakugou.
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The written exams were definitely harder than Midoriya had previously thought, but he felt he did pretty well with them. He felt that he might have messed up some things in math, but there was an analysis section so he felt pretty confident about that.
After the written exams all of the examinees were sent to the cafeteria for lunch before the physical exams.
That was something Midoriya was absolutely terrified of. He could see that all of the teens had wonderful quirks that they had probably been training for years. Midoriya had no quirk and really started training only 10 months ago. So, yeah, he was definitely behind everyone else.
He would try though and give it his all! Except he kept on looking at the clock in the cafeteria and everytime the hand moved he could feel his heart beating faster and faster. He could barely eat any of his food without feeling sick.
Finally, Present Mic came into the cafeteria and led them back to the exam room and began to reveal what the physical exam was.
“Ok listeners! Time to listen up! You will all be placed into different groups and sent to fake cities for 10 minutes. The cities are filled with three types of fake villains. Points will be given for defeating the villain based on their difficulty levels. Attacking any students is strictly prohibited. Oh! I almost forgot. Any student who has gotten any item approved by the UA staff can bring it into the city. Now, any questions regarding the exam?”
The pro-hero paused and looked around to see if anyone had raised their hand. Only one person had so Present Mic called on him.
“Yes, you in the back. What is your question, listener?”
The kid stood up and began to ask his question.
“There appears to be 4 villains on this paper. UA is a prestigious school, so I couldn’t imagine there being a mistake. And you there! With the curly green hair!”
Midoriya looked around, trying to see if by chance there was another person with green curly hair. Unfortunately, there was no one and the kid with the glasses was pointing straight at him.
“You have been muttering this whole time and it is very distracting! If this is some joke for you, I must ask that you leave this fine establishment”
Midoriya immediately blushed and covered his face with his hands. He never seemed to realize when he was muttering, but he knew that it could be distracting for others.
“Sorry” he said, trying to go back to being unnoticed.
“Alright! Nice catch there, examinee 7111! I assure you that no mistake was made. The fourth ‘villain’ is 0 points so it is more of an obstacle. It would probably be best to just ignore it if you happen to encounter it.”
The teen with the glasses bowed. “Thank you sir! I apologize for the interruption!” he then sat down and everyone waited for the next instructions.
“Well, if no one has any more questions then I guess it’s time to be brought to your assigned city! Good luck everyone, and remember to go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!”
With that everyone was separated into their groups and a bus brought them to the physical exams.
Midoriya could just feel the tension in the air. Everyone seemed to be really nervous, except for a select few. He was definitely part of the nervous group, but it made him feel better that he wasn’t alone. The kind girl who had stopped him from falling was also there, looking like she was trying to calm down.
He wanted to go over there to talk to her, but he noticed the kid in the glasses that had yelled at him before was glaring at him, so he decided against it.
Just then, Present Mic’s voice began to echo throughout the test site.
“AND BEGIN”
Nobody moved though. Seeing this, Present Mic yelled again.
“WHAT'S WRONG? THE TEST HAS BEGUN! THERE IS NO COUNTDOWN IN A REAL BATTLE! NOW GO!!!”
Everyone quickly began to run into the test sight, leaving Midoriya behind.
He quickly ran into the city, getting over his surprise, and went off to find some of the robots.
Now, Midoriya knew he was at a clear disadvantage here. There were so many ambitious people with amazing quirks to use. Midoriya wasn’t quite as lucky to have that, so he would just have to use something else.
Before the exam, he had looked into past Entrance Exams and saw they had a similar format to the one he was in. He did notice though that there were many complaints on it relying on physical quirks and not so much on mental quirks or certain mutations which were useful for heroics, but not so much robots.
So, they had added other ways to get points. Like rescue points.They also changed it from destroying the robot to just immobilizing them.
Using this knowledge, he formed a plan. He would take the debris from other robots that had been destroyed and would find a way to shove it into the robots “weak” spots.
He would also try to save anyone who he found along the way.
Once he found his target he tried out his plan. He went behind it and looked for something that he could attack and immobilize the robot. Surprisingly, there was an emergency self-destruct button. Puzzled, he clicked the button and ran away from the robot before it could suddenly explode into pieces.
He was surprised that it was that easy. He wondered why none of the examinees had noticed it. He just shrugged it off and went to get more points.
Little did he know that he had gained the attention of one principal, who was now maniacally laughing, and one tired teacher who realized that he had just found his next problem child.
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Midoriya knew that UA was known to have big funds, but he didn’t understand the need to use it all on a giant robot!
The minute he heard screams he knew what had just been released. Everyone ran for their life as the robot destroyed buildings, leaving rubble all on the ground.
Midoriya did not want to get caught in that so he began to run away, until he heard a voice screaming for help.
He turned around and saw the brown haired girl who had helped him earlier with her leg caught underneath a big piece of rubble, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the robot was making its way towards her and if she didn’t move, she would be stepped on.
At that moment he realized that he needed to save her. The thing was he didn’t know how. All he could see around him was chaos. Despite that, his legs began to move and he made his way to her.
“Hey! You can make things float, right?” She nodded and Midoriya began to see a plan forming.
“Okay! Can you possibly make the rubble float? I’ll lift it up and then you can get your leg out.”
She quickly tapped the rubble, and he lifted it. She managed to get out, but Midoriya noticed that she was limping. He also noticed that the robot was quickly approaching, so he knew he needed to think of something quick.
“Can you walk?”
The girl tried to, but almost fell over trying to.
“I’m sorry! I think I sprained it” So she couldn’t walk, which wasn’t a problem, but… it made things difficult.
“Ok! That's fine! Can you use your quirk on yourself, that way I can carry you easier.”
“I-I should be able to, but not for long…”
“Ok, I promise I’ll be quick!” He then picked her up once she had used her quirk, and began to run as fast as he could. The zero-pointer was catching up though and he knew it was a matter of time before it caught up to them.
“You can stop using your quirk now. We need to find another way to escape and I know how”
The girl, looking very pale, responded rather puzzled, “How? That thing can’t possibly be destroyed. Especially with my quirk. I don’t know about you, but I think our best bet is to run”.
“No, we can’t run away. I know that each robot had a certain self-destruct button. If we can find it we will be able to destroy the robot and get out of here. That may mean using your quirk though.”
He then realized that he sounded a bit rude so he quickly added, “I-I mean, only if you are up to it.”
She smiled and quickly replied, “Okay, let's do it!”.
She slapped his arm and he began floating. He tried to kinda swim through the air which helped him travel faster to the robot.
Once he landed on top of the zero-pointer, he tried to find out where the button could be. Almost all of the robots had it on their backs, but he couldn’t see anything on it’s back.
The next reasonable answer would be on its head, since that was probably where its controls were.
He climbed up to the head and saw it! He could feel the smile on his face, but he knew he had to be quick. The girl was still down there and she wasn’t looking too good. Which might be from overusing her quirk.
So he quickly pushed the button and the robot stopped. He could hear her cheering. He had done it! He had stopped this monstrosity!
His victory was cut short when gravity kicked in, bringing the ginormous robot down.
“Plain Boy!” he heard the girl yell out, which, if he wasn’t falling to his death, he would find rather insulting. Did he really look that plain?
He also realized that he was falling, which meant that the brown haired girl had stopped her quirk.
He tried to hold onto the head, but the robot was falling apart. Midoriya went onto one of the bigger pieces of the robot and held on for dear life. He didn’t know how high up he was, but he knew it would hurt when he made it down.
Was he about to die before he could become a hero? Well, actually, he might not be a hero. He had about 12 villain points and he didn’t really know how many rescue points he got. If there were rescue points that is. He wasn’t entirely sure about those, but back to the current problem. Him falling to his death.
He was getting closer to the ground. He was taught how to safely fall, but he wasn’t sure it was that helpful from about 10 stories high.
Just then, as he was having an existential crisis, he saw her on rubble, looking like she was about to throw up, touching the piece of metal he was on.
“Re…lease” He heard her say, and they fell down.
He noticed a pain in his arm, but was quickly distracted once he saw Uraraka puking in the corner. He quickly went over to her to help her out.
“THE TEST HAS NOW FINISHED”
Oh. That was it then. He could feel the tears welling up into his eyes, but he wouldn’t let them fall. He had to just… smile. Like everything was alright.
“Oh dear” he heard someone say. They sounded a lot older than a teen so he assumed it was one of the teachers.
“They should really get rid of that old thing, it does more harm than good”
He looked up and saw Recovery Girl who had some robots with cots. She gave him a sweet smile and assessed the damage.
“Well, you have obviously broken your arm, but other than some minor bruising and possible exhaustion you should be good to go after a quick heal.” She kissed him and he suddenly felt very tired.
“Here dear, eat these, they’ll restore your stamina” She handed him some gummies and then went over to where the girl was. She quickly healed her up, gave her gummies, and went on her way.
So everyone left and made their way back to their home’s. Midoriya took a detour and went over to a bench in a park that was right next to UA.
The waterworks began the moment he sat down. He tried to stop, but he couldn’t. It felt like the day that All Might told him he couldn’t be a hero. Except this time it might just be… true.
So he just sat there, waiting for something. Anything. Just something to give him motivation to not give up.
When that didn’t come he just walked on the path, looking at the scenery, trying to take his mind off of what just happened.
He then saw a kid about his age, sitting on the bench, looking like… like him.
Midoriya would never want anybody to feel the way he did, so he decided to go up to him and try to help.
“Excuse me? A-are you okay? You seem a bit upset?”
The kid with the purple hair just glared up at him, “You don’t want to be talking to me, alright?”
That confused him a bit, so he decided to keep on going.
“Sorry, you just seemed upset and I didn’t know if you just wanted to talk”
“Talk? About what? About how much of a failure I am? About how I have such a villain’s quirk that I can’t even get into stupid UA”
“Well, I don’t think there is such a thing as a villain's quirk. Nothing is villainous unless the person uses it to be a villain. I-I mean, you tried to get into UA, so you must have good intentions, right?”
The boy just stared at him like he said something life changing. The boy then sighed and just stared at the ground.
“I couldn’t even get any points! I didn’t know that there was going to be robots! My quirk doesn’t work with them! I’m not getting in!”
“Yeah, you and me both,” Midoriya murmurs.
“Well, some heroes have made it into the Hero’s Course through the Sports Festival! If you make it into General Studies, Support, or Business you can compete for the top 3 spots or just show potential. That’s what I’m gonna do If I haven’t made it in. So don’t give up alright? I expect to see you at UA!” Midoriya smiled and gave the kid a thumbs up before he walked away.
He then quickly went away and headed for his house. Maybe that talk he gave to that kid… maybe he also meant it for himself.
Nothing can stop him from being a hero. He’ll do whatever it takes