Chapter Text
“IT’S OVER SHIGARAKI!!” roared out Deku, the crackling lightning around him intensified, the ground cracking under him from the sheer force. He quickly leapt forward taking advantage of his foe's state of weakness laying on the ground. He pulled his leg back. SMASHHHHHH!!!!! Raced through Deku’s mind as his leg swung down. Crushing his foe’s head and chest into nothing but dust.
“Deku…” A voice called out from somewhere, but where? “Deku…” It said again, a little louder. “Deku!!!” It roared out.
Deku shook his head, blinking. Got lost in my thoughts again…
“You're on in 5… 4…” Said a man behind him. Keep it together, Haven’t gotten lost in that thought for years… “1… Go for it.”
“And now for the moment you’ve all waited for, the number one hero, Deku!!!” Roared out a loud and excited voice, from a man with tall spiky hair.
Retired Hero, Present Mic! His quirk, Voice! Hizashi's Quirk allows him to increase the volume of his voice, giving him an ability that is similar to a sonic scream. The sound from Hizashi's Quirk is strong enough to cause people's ears to bleed from far away. The only known weakness of this Quirk is that the loud sounds do not travel well underground, making this Quirk ineffective against anything that is underground or separated from him by layers of earth.
With a rush of wind, a green blur darted on stage. The new figure stood tall and confident, having nothing to fear.
“Welcome back Hero! you’ve been the best and even better than anyone in history for quite some time now, nearly 8 years! How’s it feel? Got anything special to say!?” Boomed an excited Present Mic.
“Well, I’m just glad I can do my part.” Deku smiled wide causing the crowd to roar with excitement. “I’m glad everyone deems me worthy of being the top again. I know together we can make not just Japan but the entire world a safer place.” He looks directly at the camera. “It’s your time to shine!”
Here he comes, the world's greatest hero, Deku! A boy with fluffy brown hair and sunglasses is sitting at his desk, earbuds in. Intently staring at his phone, while eating lunch. The boy started to silently fanboy while watching his phone seeing his favorite hero appear on stage. His leg starts bouncing up and down while he listens to his idol.
“It’s your time to shine!” The boy jumped out of his chair in excitement hearing that. In fact he got so excited his hand was enveloped in a lightning aura and shorted out his phone. “CRAP!!!” The boy yelled out upset. He took off his headphones to the sound of the class laughing.
“Isn’t that like the third time this week you’ve done that Wallace?”
“Maybe you need to wear insulated gloves man!”
“It was an accident!” Wallace pleaded, a little embarrassed.
Wallace Rawlings, his quirk, Malleable Lightning! This quirk allows Wallace to coat himself in lightning, increasing his speed and power. When not using an ultimate move, the power due to his speed is enough to cave in a car roof, at fastest reaching Mach 1 (343 m/s). The malleable part of his quirk allows him to form a bolt in his hand to use as a blade or throwable, it also allows him to shoot off smaller bolts for paralyzing. If used over 15 minutes, his quirk can send him into cardiac arrest and his skin will start to burn.
“Alright, so now that the excitement is over..” Said a man standing at the front of the classroom as Wallace put his phone and earbuds away. “It’s time to hand out the future career forms. Compared to the average class, not many of you want to be heroes, so for once these forms come in handy…” The last bit he said quietly. “Oh Wallace, do you want a form, I’m sure you’ve already sent your application to apply for the U.A. entrance exam.”
“I have already.” Wallace replied.
“I’m sure you’ll do splendidly, you’ve excelled in all of your middle school events.” He said while giving Wallace a pat on his head as he passed by. “Now onto the forms...”
As the bell rang students hopped out of their seats and dashed out. “Wallace, may I have a word with you before you leave.” Asked the teacher as Wallace reached the door to leave the classroom. He turned around and nodded.
“What’s up Mr. Takuya?” He asked curious as to why he was being halted.
“I want to wish you luck. In my few years of teaching I’ve been granted the chance to be around many young people who want to be heroes, but lately fewer and fewer people have wanted to chase that dream. When I see that passion in your eyes, I can’t help but root for you. I’m sure you’ll excel on your own, but I want you to know I’ve got your back.” He gave Wallace a small smile.
“Thank you, it means a lot.” Wallace said sniffling a little but holding back his tears.
“Now you only have a few months to get fully prepared for whatever U.A. has in store, so go make the most of that time.” Mr. Takuya ended, Wallace nodding in response before dashing out the door.
The streets were the same as always when the school year ended, crowded with students all trying to plot out their break before the return. Wallace ran past all the people to the nearest bus stop to his school. He hopped on once the bus arrived and pulled out his phone as he stood.
Once the bus had reached his stop Wallace hopped off, thanking the driver before waiting for the bus to leave. Once the street was clear Wallace stretched, letting out a sigh and starting to run down the road. It was a long run from here to home, and an even longer walk. Once he could spy the familiar fenced in lawn, he hopped over it and ran up to the door, sweating a little. Maybe I should have used my quirk to speed that up a bit. He thought to himself before stepping inside.
“Dad, I’m home!” He yelled happily. A man's voice came from the kitchen.
“No need to yell, I’m right here.” A man wheeled himself out of the doorway to the kitchen, smiling. “You’re getting tall, maybe even taller than me if I was out of this chair.” Mr. Rawlings chimed. Mr. Rawlings was a man who looked to be in his mid 30’s, he had fluffy brown hair like Wallace although his was shorter. He had the same electric blue eyes and dorky smile.
“You really think that pops?” Wallace said, setting his bag down, before leaning down and hugging his father.
“Absolutely. You’re gonna be a giant when you're done growing.” They both chuckled a little. As they separated Mr. Rawlings led Wallace to the kitchen. “So you ready to get training in a few hours? We need you in top physical shape for that exam.”
“Of course I am.” Wallace reached up and snagged a granola bar from the cupboard.
“Good, we have a lot of work to do, since you’ve never had any real competition. We have no idea how good you’d actually be compared to others, so we need you to be better than yourself.”
“Better than myself?” Wallace responded confused with his mouth full.
“If I was able to be your opponent I would, however, we know why that isn't possible. So instead you’ll be your own opponent, at the end of every session we’ll have an obstacle course. We need you to be better than you were yesterday before we head home for the day, understand?” Wallace nodded. “Good, very good. Now go shower, you stink.” He teased and shoved Wallace lightly who chuckled and nodded.
“Wallace, come on, we’ll be late!” Mr. Rawlings yelled up the stairs to his son who was stumbling down.
“Sorry dad but look, Deku’s fighting, it’s live!!” Wallace almost jumped with excitement.
“I thought after that little speech you gave at the ceremony, you said everyone could be a hero. I’m being a hero too ya know! I’m saving myself!” Growled a man as his hand quickly split open, his skin forming panels that slid down his arm, revealing a long thick flamethrower barrel. The face of the man was hidden behind a red and white opera mask. “Stay away!!!” A large burst of flames shot forward towards Deku. With one small finger movement a large gust of wind shot the flames upwards to the sky. There was a small glint before in a shockwave the flamethrower man was subdued by black whips.
“So fast… a-and without even having to punch or kick he subdued the villain… H-he’s so cool!!” Wallace shouted.
“He is.” With all that raw strength, to be able to refine and control it… That must have taken his entire life to master a power like that. “Well if you wanna be like him, we better get to work shall we?” Wallace nodded in response and the two swiftly left.
Once arriving in the countryside, fairly far from town, the two set up shop.
“Alright we have some goals for today and we won't leave until you're done. Understood Wally?” Mr. Rawlings spoke firmly.
“Understood, what’s the plan?” Wallace said, retying his sneakers and doing some stretching.
“Well, for the warm up I need you to go around the perimeter of the field, roughly 20 kilometers, 5 times. Can you handle that?”
“That’s a warm-up?!” Wallace cried out.
“We need you in tip top shape if you wanna have a chance at UA. Unlike other kids, you haven’t had any competition so we have no idea how good you are compared to the rest. All we have is track events, but those don’t allow quirks, so we need to improve your quirk wielding ability. I brought snacks and everything so we have time. Now get ready....” Wallace got down in a running position. “Get set…” Blue electricity started to crackle around his body while condensed electricity orbs formed around his hands and feet, large bolts crackled off of them. “Go!” With that a soft shockwave released, Wallace was off, charging full speed around the field. Within roughly a little more than a minute Wallace stopped by his dad, a small bit of sweat dripping off him.
“You slow down when making turns too much, you wont hit 58 seconds on the dot, however you can certainly hit 60 on the dot…”
“S-so…” Wallace panted. “What did I do it in?”
“68…”
“Th-that’s pretty-” Wallace was swiftly cut off by his father.
“If I could stand and do it myself you would have been smoked by me, I could probably do it in just about 58.7.” Wallace looked a little dumbfounded to his father. “Until you're at 59, we aren’t done with the warm up, and you have to hit 59 consistently.” Wallace felt his jaw drop. “That shouldn’t be too much a challenge for the next number one should it?” Wallace saw his father smirk a bit as he challenged, Wallace smirked back.
“Of course not, I’ll even smash your 58.7!” Wallace said getting ready to go again.
“Go!” Wallace’s Father shouted as Wallace dashed off again.
This painful process started slowly, in fact there were even a few tumbles into the nearby hay bales. As things got darker and darker Wallace had to set up lights and wear a head mounted flashlight. 68, 68, 70, 67, 65, 62, 63, 61, 61, 61, 61.5, 60.2, 59.9, 59.9, 59.2, 59.1, these were Wallace’s attempts over the next half an hour or so, he spread them out with a few few breaks to catch his breath typically every 4 attempts for about 5 minutes.
“Count me down.” Wallace gestured to his father to get ready to start again.
“Alright, 3, 2, 1… go!” With that Wallace was off. Alright at first turn, turn down from max to about 70% . He thought to himself. The lighting crackling around him softened as he turned the first corner then shot back up in intensity as he finished the turn. Second turn I can rock about 75%, third is 70% and the final turn I can just bolt through. With that Wallace did turn two, three and then blazed through turn four and skidded to a stop right in front of his father.
“Whoo, boy that was a good one!” Wallace said, looking at his father as he panted slightly.
“Indeed it was 58.9.” His father replied happily. Wallace let out a loud WHOOOO!!! In response to this. “Now if you can average between this and 59 or lower, I’d say the warm-up is complete. Run the track 4 more times and I think we should be good.” With that 4 more attempts. 59, 58.9, 59, 59.1.
“Alright I’d say we're good for the warm-up. Let’s get to that obstacle course and call it a day shall we?” Mr. Rawlings offered, Wallace nodded. As they walked a little deeper into the field a small hay bale obstacle course was visible. “Hit a hay bale and you gain 15 seconds as well as minus 1 point, you’ll have 5 points, this course should take no longer than 2 minutes and that's being extremely generous.”
“Understood.” Wallace said, activating his quirk.
“Alrighty, begin.” Mr. Rawlings told Wallace who sprung off.
The first part of the course was jumping over increasingly tall and wide Hay stacks. Wallace was able to clear this part with relative ease. Next was a swerving between hay bale sections, Wallace ran in a swerve like pattern to get between hay bales, but near the end his toe lightly tapped a bale.
“Minus one…” Mr. Rawlings mumbled.
What followed was a series of horse jumping bars set in ways that would force Wallace to leap or slide under. Wallace managed to do this perfectly, however at the end was a large hay bale that had appeared out of nowhere, failing to get out of the way it slammed into Wallace.
“Minus 2…” Wallace quickly hopped up, annoyed hearing that the ‘surprise’ counted against him and continued on his way, the rest of the course was similar until it finally looped back in a long straight sprint to Mr. Rawlings, Wallace had hit one more hay bale on his way back.
“Alright so your final score was 2 points remaining and a time off… 1 minute 48 seconds. Not bad for a start, but we can get that way lower… you have how long till the ua entrance exam?”
“10 months…” Wallace let out a small pant.
“Alright, so by the end of 10 months we should be through 3 obstacle courses and I wanna make you use your quirk for practical tests after that. By month 5 we need to be in practical tests. Next month we’ll alternate to mental studies so you pass the written exam. We'll do this until month 10 where we’ll create one large course to put you to the test. Understand?” Wallace nodded in response. “Good good. Well let’s pack up for the night and return tomorrow.” With that they left then returned early the next morning to do the warm up and then run the course over the day. By the end of the first month Wallace had worked his time down to about 50 seconds and 5 points, a perfect score.
Month 2 was a surprisingly pleasant change for Wallace, the studies while dull let his sore body recover.
Month 3 focused on Wallace’s accuracy when shooting a lighting bolt from his quirk, he had managed to be decently accurate and definitely needed work, but it should get him by for the exam.
Month 4 was similar to month 2, but unlike before it was not so pleasant. Wallace could feel his brain smoking from how hard the gears had to turn.
Month 5 worked on Wallace’s ability to navigate tight spaces. Month 5’s challenge worked on a timed course, Wallace’s final time was 1 minute 15 seconds.
Month 6 and 7 were both just harder versions of the study months, while 7 ended in a trial exam.
Month 8 focused on Wallace training his physical body without the use of his quirk.
Month 9 focused on the idea of a strong emergency use of his quirk.
By Month 10 the stage was set for the final course to see just how far Wallace had come.
“You ready Wally?” His father inquired. Wallace nodded, getting into his standard running position, low to the ground. “GO!!!” Wallace was off with a loud shock wave causing his father to flinch, holding his wheels tight so they didn’t move. Wallace darted around a dense forest, over some trees, under some through small gaps between them. After a little over a minute he was through to a less dense section of the forest. This section required him to dash up and go around on the side of trees or the top branches, as a large hole was below him the entire time. With one final leap he lands on the ground in front of the pit, arms back, legs bent down deep before he sprung forward into a dash. After a sharp turn Wallace slowed down a fair amount seeing bottles on tipped over logs or high branches. He immediately shot at the bottles, with about 60% accuracy, before he focused back on running. It was a long clear sprint out of the forest and then down the right edge back to his father.
Wallace skidded to a stop in front of his father. “Well how was that?” Wallace said, trying to catch his breath, dripping in sweat.
“Not bad at all, 3 minutes and 35 seconds in total, the run I made to last about a minute, the longest part for you was the shooting which I figured… I’m not too big a help when it comes to that.” His father smiled happily at Wallace. “I think you’ll certainly do well, my only concern is are you gonna do well enough to get in…”
“I don’t see why not…” Wallace said, grabbing a sip of water from a plastic bottle his father had handed him from a bag in his lap. “I can always run the course to improve or focus on shooting for the last few weeks.” Wallace proposed.
“No no, we need you to rest up and work out lightly till the exam, the written portion is soon anyways, like a week right? So then we should take it easy alright Wally?” Mr. Rawlings inquired, to which Wallace nodded. “Why don't we pack it in and I’ll work on a light workout routine for you.” With that the father and son duo were off home for a rest.
“You’re positive you want to go through with this?” A small mouse man said from behind a desk.
“Of course I am-” The tall blond man started, but was cut off sharply.
“You understand why I invited you here right?” The small mouse man stated firmly
“I do… I appreciate it, I’m grateful for the opportunity…”
“You're still the same as you were 10-13 years ago when you were a student here.. But I do appreciate having you here to teach the hero studies course, never would have predicted you’d end up doing that and being the number 2 at the same time. Quite impressive.” The mouse praised the blond who gave a small chuckle.
“Of course I am, I’ll be here early in a few weeks to watch the exam.”
“Remember to keep a low profile about this, we don’t want chaos like with our last super star teacher…”
“I know, I know…” The blond grumbled before turning and leaving the room.
“Hopefully this will keep things safer around here…” The mouse hopped out of his chair and left the office, shutting off the light. Though he had left the lamp on his desk on, brandished by an open letter. The topic line: Improve UA security staff - Final Warning.