Chapter Text
‘I guess absolute power really does corrupt...’ A young ‘boy’ thought as he sat in a garbage-filled alleyway with his face tucked into his knees. He was covered head to toe in such a heavy coating of filth and muck that no one would be able to tell what his hair colour even was. The filth and muck also helped him blend in with everything else in the alley. A sudden burst of wind made something soft and weightless fly into his shoulder, and he hea-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Bolting up in bed Uraraka Izuku gasped and slammed his hand down on his alarm clock, turning it off mid-beep. He looked at the display to check the time and saw that it was 5 a.m. Throwing off his blanket he swung his legs over the edge of his bed and dropped his face into his hands before leaning on his knees with a groan. "Not that crud again... After all this time you’d think my subconscious would come up with something new every once in a while.” Izuku mumbled his complaint a bit grumpily to the too-early morning air. With a sigh, Izuku dragged his hands down his face, before looking down at the small calendar that was next to the clock on his end table. When he saw what the date was, he grinned at the reminder of the plans he had to mess with Ochaco. It was February 26, 22XX, annnd..
OH SHOOT! He had a train to catch in an hour!
As he shoved his “dream” back into its mental box for another day, Izuku hopped out of bed to grab the clothes he set out the night before rushing out of his room. Running down the hall of his apartment Izuku out of pure muscle memory; reached out to grab the doorframe at the end of the hall, barely missing the wall, and swung himself into his bathroom which also stopped him from sliding past the sink. Izuku flipped on the light as he closed the door with his foot, before placing his clothes on the counter. Then just like every morning, Izuku looked at his reflection in the large mirror behind the sink to remind himself of the Now instead of the Then. His reflection showed a lean but muscular 5’9” teenage boy, with freckles on his cheeks. Izuku had long, thick, curly hair that was black at the roots before naturally fading into a dark green. His hair was done up in the braid he always tied his hair in every night before bed, which reached his mid-back. But when it was undone or in a low ponytail it reached his lower back. Determined green eyes the same shade as his hair looked back at him, and unlike the rest of his appearance, gave those brave enough to look for it a hint about his true age in their depths. Izuku squared his shoulders and in a firm voice told himself, "Today is just another day, and I'll make it through just fine because I've got this!”
With his daily pep talk out of the way Izuku got ready for the long day ahead, and as he made himself a quick breakfast, excitement started growing inside of him making him eager for the day to begin. 40 minutes later saw him locking up his cheap 1-bedroom apartment dressed in a dark green hooded coat over a black tracksuit, with a grey duffle bag slung over his right shoulder, and a hidden holster of weapons on his back. Izuku’s hair was now tied back in a low ponytail and tucked into his coat to keep it out of the reach of potential tiny grabby hands. Balancing the 2 smoothies he made the day before in disposable to-go cups with a straw taped to the side in one arm, and eating a small piece of toast with his other, he stepped out onto the sidewalk just as the sun started to peek over the horizon. Setting out with a brisk jog, he started heading in the direction of the train station that was 5 minutes away as he swallowed the last bit of his breakfast. Izuku smiled as he thought of all the subtle ways he could prank Ochaco today on the way to Musutafu. Izuku’s smile turned into a mischievous grin as the first pranking opportunity suddenly appeared in the form of a barely awake Ochaco. She was sleepily walking into the train station ahead of him, and surprisingly, was heading towards the correct platform without walking into anyone or anything.
With his free hand, Izuku flipped his hood up to cover the rest of his hair before blending in with the rest of the thin, early-morning crowd. As he slowly moved closer to his target, Izuku stuck a straw through the lid of one of the smoothies. Then he ghosted past Ochaco just as she let out a deep yawn and finally, with the feather-light touch of the expert pickpocket he was, Izuku tucked the smoothie into the crook of the arm she wasn’t using to cover her mouth. Startled out of her yawn Ochaco nearly dropped the full cup that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stared at it with confusion in her tired eyes. ‘Since when was this here? Did I leave home with it?’ Ochaco thought a bit sluggishly before mentally shrugging because hey a free drink, and stuck the straw in her mouth to take a sip. Tasting her favourite Peaches and Honey smoothie, Ochaco started to wake up enough to remember that no she did not leave home with a smoothie. And while Ochaco had no idea where it suddenly came from the smoothie was her’s now, and she’d better finish it quickly because her train was almost here.
Leaning on a pillar a few feet away with his hood still up, Izuku smirked around the straw of his own smoothie as he watched Ochaco almost chug her favourite drink, and try to figure out where it came from at the same time. ‘Ever since she was very young Ochaco would always try to drink out of the first cup she saw when she was in Zombie Mode right after waking up.’ Izuku thought with a fond smile as he mentally snickered at the memory of how little Ochaco once almost accidentally drank some coffee before it was quickly taken away from her mitten-covered hands. The sound of the PA announcing that his train was now arriving snapped Izuku from his memories just in time to avoid missing the 6 a.m. train to Musutafu. Quickly finishing the last of his smoothie, Izuku dropped the empty cup in the bin next to him before getting on the train. Using some tired businessmen as cover, Izuku sat on a seat in the same train car as Ochaco; who had also finished her smoothie before getting on the train but a few rows behind her. Popping in his earbuds, Izuku started listening to his current favourite playlist as he pulled out a notebook to do a final revision on possible exam questions to pass the time on the long trip to U.A. High School.
******
Around 8:40 a.m., a now wide awake Ochaco walked through U.A.’s Gate after staring at it for a few moments and started heading inside. In front of her was a blonde, spiky-haired boy who was angrily grumbling to himself when he suddenly tripped. Letting out a startled gasp, Ochaco instinctively reached out a hand to use her Quirk to save the falling boy from a very public faceplant.
But she missed by an inch...
The boy fell with a thud to the ground and as Ochaco pulled back her hand with a wince, she hoped that he didn't break his nose on the brick walkway. But she took her concern back right away when the boy immediately leapt to his feet with a string of curses exploding from his mouth that almost turned the air blue. As the blonde boy stormed away while angrily brushing himself off, he unknowingly left both Ochaco and Izuku very impressed with his language, especially since he knew a few curses that not even Izuku knew! Shaking her head Ochaco started walking a bit faster until she passed through the correct set of doors. Inside not far from the doors, there were a series of tables, each with 3 Pro Heroes who were all handling their own line of test takers. Once Ochaco reached the Pro dealing with the line she was in, the Pro gave her an examinee card and then directed her to a classroom where she'd be doing the written portion of the exam. A few lines over at another table Izuku was given the same instructions and the directions to a different classroom, so she still had no idea that her Ojizu was taking the Hero Course exam too.
******
Almost 3 hours later Izuku was sitting in a massive auditorium, reading over a packet of information that was given at the door to everyone who finished the written portion. He was focusing so much on the packet that he failed to notice when the lights went off and Present Mic began to speak, or that he was softly muttering, and it was drifting through the silence. At least he didn't notice until a loud voice broke his concentration, by calling out “Excuse me sir, but I have a question!” and snapping his attention towards a tall, serious boy with dark blue hair wearing glasses. The boy was standing up from his seat 3 rows ahead of Izuku, his arm raised as high as he could reach. “HIT ME!” Present Mic cheerfully replied, dramatically pointing at the boy as a spotlight lit up above him. Izuku hoped the other boy wouldn’t waste any time by giving them all a speech. The blue-haired boy held up a part of the printout and pointed to the section that Present Mic was still in the middle of explaining. “On the printout, you've listed four types of villains, not three. With all due respect, if this is an error on official UA materials, it is shameful.” the boy said before placing the paper back on his desk and clenching a fist to his chest with his other hand as he continued. “We are exemplary students, and we expect the best from Japan’s most notable school. A mistake such as this won’t do. Additionally, you, the girl with the long hair!”
The boy exclaimed as he spun around and pointed directly at Izuku, making him flinch from suddenly being singled out in a room full of hundreds of teenagers. Confused Izuku pointed at himself with a raised eyebrow to see if the other boy was talking to him, and judging by the glare getting sent his way, he was. “You've been muttering this entire time. Stop that. If you can't bother to take this seriously, leave. You’re distracting the rest of us!” Izuku returned his glare before leaning forward over his desk annoyed that his prank was about to be ruined, but this guy really needed to be slapped with some common sense, before replying in a loud but firm voice. “One! To quote a Pre-Quirk Era movie “Learn genders man!” and just because I have long hair, that does not mean I'm a girl. Also, in case you weren’t aware, it's very rude to assume someone’s gender based on their appearance. Two! If you didn't jump to conclusions, you would’ve realized that you’ve interrupted a Professional Hero, one who is a Teacher at this school, and who also was still explaining the information that you're asking about. Also, thanks to your impatience you’ve wasted all of everyone’s time by giving an unnecessary speech! Now sit down and shut up so we can get this over with, because I'm pretty sure we all have plans, that we want to get to after this exam is over.” Izuku told him before leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms, never once breaking eye contact with the other dumbfounded boy as quiet laughs erupted throughout the auditorium.
Nearby a slightly pale Ochaco broke out in a nervous sweat when she heard the voice of her Ojizu ring out to put the boy who interrupted Present Mic in his place. She also couldn't help but let a giggle as she watched the uptight boy do what Ojizu told him to do and sit back down with a dazed look on his face. ‘I guess this explains where that smoothie from earlier came from.. But wait what is Ojizu even doing here?! Is it for a chance to embarrass me in front of so many people?? Or is it for something else??’ Before Ochaco could continue her internal freak out Present Mic’s voice rose above all the laughter and brought everyone back on track. “Alright, alright. Examinee Number 7111, thanks for calling in with your request. The 4th villain type is worth 0 Points.” Present Mic revealed, pointing up at it, as the silhouette of the 0 Pointer joined the other exam robots on the giant screen behind him. “That guy’s just an obstacle we’ll be throwing in your way. There's one in every battle centre, think of it as a hurdle you should try to avoid.” Present Mic warned them a bit seriously. “It's not that it can't be beaten but there's.. kinda no point.” He told them with a shrug. “I recommend my listeners try to ignore it and focus on the ones toppin’ the charts!” Present Mic said with a giant smile on his face as he posed for both the audience and the cameras.
“Oh, I get it so they're kind of like traps you have to get by in games.” A different kid told his classmate. “The whole thing's like a video game huh?” His friend replied just before Present Mic started wrapping things up. “That's all I got for you today. I'll sign off with a little present, a sample of our school motto! As General Napoleon Bonaparte once laid down ‘A true hero is one who overcomes life's misfortunes.’ Mm-hm. Now that’s a tasty soundbite. You ready to go beyond? Let's hear a Plus Ultra!” Present Mic cheered leaning back with his arms wide as a giant “PLUS ULTRA!” exploded onto the screen behind him while once again; no one joined him in getting everyone else hyped up. “Good luck! Hope you practiced hitting more than just books! At each door you'll see one of the many awesome Pro Heroes that work here, holding a sign for each battle centre. They'll lead you to the changing rooms, then to the buses that’ll take you to where you need to go!”
******
Izuku immediately started doing his warm-up stretches as soon as he got off the bus when it arrived at the testing center. After finishing his stretches, he started making his way to the front of the crowd. Ignoring all the gawking over the mega-sized arena that was going on, he passed his fellow examinees. Izuku didn't make it a secret to the few who noticed him that he was scoping out the competition and he noticed some others were stretching too as they all waited for the practical exam to start. A sudden flash of purple in the corner of his eye caught Izuku’s attention, and when he turned to look at it, he saw it was a tall, muscular, and tired-looking boy with shaggy purple, gravity-defying hair. The Purple Boy was standing a few feet away from Izuku, and he had a mix of determination and panic hidden deep in his eyes as he stared at the exam gate with tightly clenched fists. ‘Ah. That guy probably has a non-combative type of Quirk, and since he doesn’t seem to have any obvious Mutations, I’m going to bet on some kind of Mental or Voice Quirk.’ Izuku automatically analyzed, as he watched a faint tremor beginning to ripple across Purple Boy’s shoulders from how tense he was.
Izuku walked over and tried to ignore the slight height difference between him and Purple Boy as he reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you ok?” Izuku asked, before snatching his hand back as Purple Boy jumped away from a slight shock that seemingly passed through them both. Hiding the sinking feeling that was growing in his gut, Izuku held up his hands to show he was harmless to Purple Boy who whipped around to look at him. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” He apologized as Purple Boy took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself down. “It's fine. Now what do you want.” Purple Boy replied in a gruff voice as he narrowed his eyes at Izuku. Putting his hands down he smiled before answering the hint of the question Purple Boy asked him. “I saw how nervous you were and figured it might be because you don't have a combat-based Quirk. So, I came over to see if you wanted to team up since I'm in a similar boat. If you don't want to that's fine too.” Izuku looked Purple Boy in the eyes to show his offer was genuine. Purple Boy’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped in shock. “S-Sure but ho-”
“START!!” Present Mic suddenly shouted from somewhere above making Izuku leap forward, grab one of Purple Boy’s arms and drag him towards the gates. They both heard Present Mic say something to the rest of the dumbfounded examinees that were staring up at him, but they both ignored the Pro Hero as a pair of 3-pointers stepped into their path as soon as they passed through the gates. “CATCH!” Izuku called out, tossing a black baton that extended into a bo staff in midair towards Purple Boy who barely caught it in time to smash it into the head of his 3 Pointer. From the same hidden holster on his back, Izuku pulled out a pair of Tambo just in time to break the head of his own 3 Pointer. “That’s 3 points each,” Izuku stated with a slightly feral grin to Purple Boy as the destroyed 3-pointers started to fall over. “Everyone is about to catch up to us, so if we hit the side streets now, we can avoid the crowd. We might be able to rack up some points before people start stealing robots.” He continued gesturing behind him with his thumb as the two 3-pointers fell to the ground. “Okay." Purple Boy responded a bit dazed, and it looked like he was struggling to process everything, but he didn't hesitate to run after Izuku down the alleyway. “By the way, what's your name?” Izuku asked with his hair drifting behind him as he kept pace with his new partner. “We never got to introduce ourselves earlier and I keep calling you ‘Purple Boy’ in my head.” Purple Boy huffed a laugh. “Well, I guess that makes us even because I've been calling you ‘Green Boy’ this whole time.”
Izuku laughed at the irony of them calling each other similar names, just as a group of 1 and 2 Pointers burst out of an adjoining alley ahead of them. “You can call me Zu since that’ll be less confusing later when we both pass the exam!” Izuku said as he jumped between the walls to draw the robots’ attention to himself, before leaping at a pair of 1 Pointers and taking them down. “I’m Shinso Hitoshi!” His partner grunted out as he knocked the head off of a 2 Pointer with the bo staff, and watched it fly into the face of another 2 Pointer behind it. “Nice to meet you, partner!” Izuku cheerfully replied as he jammed one of his Tambo through the eye of the last 1 Pointer. “Alright, that's six points for me and seven points for you; so, if we keep this up, we'll be passing in no time!” Izuku threw up his arms in victory as Shinso felt his confidence building; and maybe a bit of hope growing; that he could get into the hero course after all. For the first half of the practical, Izuku and Shinso took down any robots they could find in the alleyways before eventually making their way back to the Main Streets. They both ended up losing count of how many points they earned when they had to start pulling other examinees out of danger from either falling rubble, flying shrapnel from the robots and debris from the environment, or out of the way of a different examinee’s attack.
Suddenly, entire buildings were getting destroyed and throwing dust clouds into the air as what felt like a minor earthquake rippled through the ground. Everyone turned in the direction of the disturbance only to freeze in fear at the sight of what could only be the absolutely, massive 0 Pointer towering over the buildings. The 0 Pointer crushed the top of a building before throwing a punch into the road, which sent out a massive shockwave and dust cloud over the examinees, making multiple people scream. People immediately started running away from the 0 Pointer just as Present Mic’s voice called out that there were less than two minutes left in the exam, while Izuku and Shinso immediately started directing examinees to go down the alleyway behind them as another means of escape. “Do you think that's everyone?” Izuku called over the noise to Shinso since the taller boy could see over the crowd a bit better than he could. Shinso opened his mouth to reply when somehow, they both heard someone let out a cry of pain. In unison, they whipped around to look towards the approaching 0 Pointer. They saw a guy with weirdly shaped elbows pinned under a couple of big chunks of rubble right in its path. Immediately, they both realized that the UA staff didn’t know he was in danger, and there was no way the 0 Pointer’s sensors would be able to pick up that someone was there in time to stop.
Izuku and Shinso ran out to rescue the trapped boy without a second thought.