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Mai stood before UA’s gleaming glass edifice, curly blonde hair ruffled by the February breeze. Around her, other examinees slowly streamed into the building, but she’d stopped at the gate, just to take it all in.
She was there. Finally, she was on the path to becoming a hero, just like her dad.
Dad… she wished he was there with her now. He’d been there for every milestone in her life, every Quirk training session, every sports festival, every cultural festival, every single event she’d ever taken part in. He’d been there every single time.
He couldn’t be there now. He was one of the teachers, after all, and he wasn’t allowed to interact with any examinees before the exam. He’d even left home before any of them had woken up that morning, leading to Mom sulking the whole time, and a general dull mood at the breakfast table. The last time she’d talked to him was the previous evening, when he’d knocked on her bedroom door just before she went to sleep, and quietly wished her luck.
Her heart warmed at the thought. Even so, she wished he’d told her what to expect. There was no information about the practical exam anywhere online, and not knowing gnawed at her. She understood why, of course - she’d signed the NDA herself - but still, not even a hint?
She sighed to herself. He could be such a stick in the mud sometimes. Even so, she patted her cheeks, hyped herself up, then walked towards the school.
Izuku was man enough to admit that he was anything but calm at that moment. His body was on red alert, every single cell running and flailing around in a panic.
“Midoriya.” Aizawa-san grunted from beside him, and pointed to his rapidly bouncing leg.
He smiled sheepishly, and tried to wrangle his nerves under control, “Sorry, it’s just…”
“Mm,” his former teacher and current boss nodded, “I know how you feel.”
“Oh yeah, your son’s taking the exam today too, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. Emi was up all night worrying about it more. I think Yuma is less nervous about it than she is.”
“Ah,” Izuku chuckled, “yeah, I know how that feels. At least Mai’s the only one of my kids who wants to be a hero.” He paused for a second, “Though, then again, I’ll probably worry about all their big exams.”
UA’s principal shook his head, “I don’t know how you manage five, Midoriya. Emi and I can barely handle the one.”
He laughed, “It hasn’t been easy! But,” he shrugged, “we have good kids.”
Aizawa-san sighed, scratching at the old scar beneath his eye, “If you’d have told me 20 years ago that I’d still be at UA, ready to welcome another one of you to this school, I’d have quit on the spot.”
He huffed slightly, amused, but then seriously considered the man, “You think she’ll pass?”
The older man turned his head, regarding him out of his one good eye, “I did say she’s another you, didn’t I? I’d be surprised if she didn’t .”
Izuku’s lips twitched into a small, proud smile, “Thanks.”
After lunch, Mai settled in her seat in the auditorium. Her written exam had gone great - Dad helped her study for that, at least - and she’d been directed this way because she’d chosen to take the physical practical exam, as opposed to the mental practical. She wasn’t entirely sure what those each entailed, but she could certainly guess; most likely, each exam was suited to a certain type of Quirk. Since Energy Vampire was an enhancement-type Quirk, it was an easy choice for her, though part of her did ache just to see what the mental practical was like.
Maybe her dad would be able to tell her after the exam?
Well, she didn’t have much time to think about that, as soon, the lights dimmed, the stage lights switched on, and out strutted none other than Present Mic himself.
Now, Mai wasn’t exactly unused to seeing pro heroes; her dad was in the top 10, after all, and his hero friends regularly visited them, but that didn’t stop the rush of excitement she felt when she saw the Voice hero for the first time. Sure, he had aged out of his prime a while ago, and was rumoured to be retiring from hero work in the next few years, but he still had all the stage presence and aura of a man half his age.
“ GOOD AFTERNOON LISTENERS! ” He shouted, “ CAN EVERYBODY SAY ‘HEY’?! ”
A more conspicuous or self-conscious person might have stayed silent then, but Mai had inherited all of her mom’s audacity and very little of her dad’s awkwardness, so she and she alone shouted back, “HEY!!!”
Present Mic seemed to grin up at her, “Sounds like we got one little listener on the ball today, but don’t worry! Y’all will wake up soon enough, ‘specially with the practical exam comin’ atcha! Speaking of,” he looked at them all, peeking over his sunglasses, “I’m here to explain the sitch to you all! ARE YOU READY?! ”
Again, Mai yelled back, “YEAH!!!”, and this time, a few others joined in with her.
The hero practically beamed, “Great to hear your enthusiasm! So, since ya chose the physical option, you’ll be tossed into a great, big mock battle against robots!” He snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared out of nowhere, displaying four different mechanical silhouettes, “Each robot is worth 1, 2 or 3 points, and you gain points by destroying ‘em! You’ll have 10 minutes to get as many points as you can, so you’d better be quick! But! There’s a fourth type too; it’s worth zero points, so just avoid it, mmkay? Oh, and, of course, you’re all trying to be heroes, so using your Quirk on other examinees is forbidden, y’hear?! Anyways!” He threw his arms wide and grinned, “You all have a slip with your training ground on it, so make your way to the buses ASAP! And remember, PLUS ULTRA!!! ”
The hero left as quickly as he arrived, the lights coming back on in his wake, and Mai wasted no time in shooting out of her seat and hurrying to the bus to Training Ground Beta. She had filled up on blood, practically guzzled down gallon after gallon until she was on the brink of vomiting, and Energy Vampire thrummed under her skin, a refuelled engine just raring to go.
She grinned to herself, fangs bared. UA wouldn’t know what hit it.
Izuku hummed to himself, practically skipping as he walked out of the observation room. God , Mai did amazing . Far better than he did in his entrance exam, certainly, and with a score like that, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she claimed first; he wasn’t privy to the rescue point committee’s decisions, but just from the footage alone he could tell she’d scored a fair few.
The meeting where they decided which student would be placed in which class was coming up soon, but he’d be damned if Mai was in Monoma’s class.
He chuckled and shook his head ruefully. Maybe the other man’s insistence on a rivalry between 1-A and 1-B was getting to him after all.
His footsteps echoed around UA’s empty halls. The examiners would likely be discussing late into the evening, but Izuku wasn’t allowed on the panel this year, so he was given early leave, which was still far later than any examinee would be staying. Honestly, a part of him didn’t even want to come in that day, but he wanted to see Mai’s performance first-hand, and besides, he was 1-A’s homeroom teacher; he needed to get a headstart on seeing the most promising examinees and working out who would fit the best in his class. It’d mean a couple of later nights as he scanned through the 40 new student files, but he’d make it up to Himiko and the kids.
For now, though, he was all ready to get back home. Mai would almost certainly ask him how she’d done, and he’d have to hide just how proud of her he was. Well, at least he’d have the train ride home to school his expression. He just had to drop a few things off in his office…
Hm.
As he approached his office door, he noticed it was slightly ajar. Now, he was far from worried; UA’s security was, frankly, ridiculous, and he had all faith in his Danger Sense to pick up any malicious intent, and in the rest of his Quirks to help him quickly end a fight. No ill-intent seeped out from the office beyond.
And yet, it was strange. He hardly used the office much, preferring to be somewhere more accessible and open to his students, like his classroom, or the teacher’s lounge at a push. Mostly, he used it to store all the usual student paperwork, lesson plans and the like, as well as some case files from his agency when he was in a particularly busy period and needed to use every second he could to work both jobs. He certainly hadn’t been inside recently, and he doubted the cleaning robots would have left a door ajar.
Cautiously, but not fearfully, he pushed open the door.
“ Finally ! Daaaad, what took you so long?!”
Izuku paused in the doorway, momentarily stunned at the sight of Mai sat in his desk chair, spinning herself around. He managed to stammer out, “M-mai? What are you doing here?”
She rolled green, feline eyes, “Waiting for you.”
He blinked, but walked inside, pulling some files from his satchel and placing them into his filing cabinet, “I thought you’d have gone home by now.”
Her spinning paused, and she pouted and looked away, an expression she stole straight from her mother, “I wanted to go home with you.”
A big, goofy grin spread across his face, “Is that so? My big, bad, 15 year old wanted to go home with her dear old dad?”
“Stopppppp!” She groaned, shooting to her feet, red dusting her cheeks, “I just wanted to know how I did!”
“Well,” he chuckled, closing and locking his filing cabinet, “you know I can’t tell you that yet.”
“Come onnnnn , Dad!” She whined, “Not even a little bit?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Not even a tiny bit?”
“Not even a tiny bit!” He laughed, “They’re still tallying up the results, Mai. Even I won’t know for a day or so.”
She perked up slightly, “And you’ll tell me then, right?”
He shot her a look, “You’ll know when everyone else knows. Probably a bit earlier, actually, since we wouldn’t have to send it through the post for you.” She wilted, and he walked over, and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, look at me.” She did so, green reluctantly drifting up to meet green, “It doesn’t matter how the examiners think you did, or how I think or how anyone thinks. It just matters how you think you did. So, tell me, how do you think you did in that exam?”
Her eyes glimmered and gleamed, and she chuckled to herself, “Well, I think I started off really well. I didn’t hesitate like some other people did. And I got a lot of points really early on…”
Mai continued to ramble on like that as they left UA and boarded the train together, and Izuku listened along, smile growing with every sentence. He wasn’t a religious man, but right there and then, he prayed to every god he knew to protect and nurture her, and to always guide her back to him.
“Hell OOOOOOOOOOO LISTENERS!!! ” Yamada-san shouted from beside him, and the crowd roared in response, “Welcome to this year’s UA first year sports festival! I’m your one-of-a-kind host, Present Mic, and I’m joined in the commentary booth today by none other than the Number Three hero, and our very own teacher, DEKU!!! ”
The crowd went nuts , and Izuku chuckled to himself. Even now, a good two decades or so after the end of the war, he was something of a legend to people, and it was only his teaching career that held him back from shooting to Number One. Not that he wanted it, of course; the rankings were only numbers, at the end of the day, and he could do just as much good where he was.
Once the uproar had died down a little, Izuku leaned forwards and spoke into his microphone, “It’s great to be here, Mic! I’m looking forward to a great day!”
“That’s great, Deku! Now, all our students’ll be out in a little bit, but first, we got a few orders of business to attend to, maybe some allegations of corruption to iron out, the usual!”
He raised an eyebrow, playing along, “Corruption?”
“That’s right! And it’s all down to you!” Mic grinned, leaning into the microphone - he really did know how to work a crowd, “After all, 1-A’s your class, right?”
“Right.” Izuku nodded, “But I promise you, I won’t show them any favouritism today. They’re all striving to improve, the same as anyone, and they’d be mad if I went easy on them!”
“ GREAT!!! ” The other man shot him fingerguns, then added, “But does the same go for 1-A’s class president, your very own daughter, Midoriya Mai?”
One particular section of the crowd cheered; he’d managed to get wrangle seats for the rest of his family, including his parents. His friends, too, cheered along, though somewhat more subdued - it wouldn’t do well for scouting heroes to show favouritism so early on.
He chuckled to himself, “Mai’s my daughter, that much is true, but she’s a member of 1-A as much as anyone. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’ll be expecting me to be the harshest on her out of everyone.”
Yamada-san nodded sagely, stroking his small beard, “‘ The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials .’” He quoted in English, “I like it! Well, hope that’s all been sorted out for you naysayers out there, cuz now it’s time to MEET OUR CHALLENGERS!!! ”
The crowd cheered, and Izuku watched intently as, one by one, the classes trooped onto the field.
“From the hero course… CLASSES 1-A AND 1-B!!! ”
And there, right at the front of the 1-A platoon, he could see a little flaxen speck - Mai. He smiled down at her and, somehow, he knew that she smiled right back up at him.
Yamada-san went on to announce the rest of the classes, and soon there were 220 students lined up on the field, each one with their own dreams to strive for.
“Okay!” Hagakure-san, UA’s new Art History teacher and the referee for the event, cheered, “Let’s kick this off with the student pledge, led by the high scorer in the entrance exam, Midoriya Mai!”
Izuku grinned, unable to hide his pride, and Yamada-san chuckled at him. They watched as Mai strode confidently towards the podium, and walked up to the microphone, “Um, I didn’t exactly have a speech planned, so I guess I’ll just wing it.
“Growing up, I had this idol, someone I always wanted to be like, and whose example I always followed. I guess you can probably figure out who that was.” A small wave of laughter rippled through the audience, and already, Izuku could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, “Even now, I haven’t reached that goal. But today is a big step on that path.
She looked over her fellow competitors, “I’m not the only person with a goal like mine. Everyone else here probably has someone similar they want to reach, or surpass. We won’t do it today, but we’ll definitely try! Plus Ultra!”
The students, crowd, and even Yamada-san and Izuku joined in with a mighty roar of, “PLUS ULTRA!”, before applauding as Mai returned to her class. Izuku sniffled to himself, trying to hold in his tears of pride enough to actually be able to commentate the event, and in the moments before the first round started, he sent up a prayer to whoever may be listening, asking them to watch over her, to keep her safe… and, hopefully, to help her win, too.
She came first, in the end.
“Okay, you’ve got your street clothes?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Enough for the whole week?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“You’ve got your money with you?”
“ Yes , Dad.”
“And your phone charger?”
“ Yes, Dad. ”
“And-”
“Dad,” Mai interrupted him with a stern look, “I promise you, I have everything I need. I’m only going away for a week, y’know?”
Izuku laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, “Of course, of course, I just worry.”
She rolled her eyes, but smiled up at him nonetheless. They stood side by side at Musutafu station, waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. It was the beginning of their internship week, and Izuku… may have been just the tiniest bit anxious. After all, Mai had never been away from home for that long before. Plus, remembering how his own first year internship went… it made him shudder.
Honestly, he wished he could have sent her an internship himself. Unfortunately, his work at UA meant that most of it would have been spent as a classroom assistant, as opposed to learning how to be a hero. Besides, she wouldn’t have accepted it even if he did ; he’d spent years teaching her - it was time for her to branch out, spread her wings, and soar. As a teacher, he could understand that - respect it, even - but as a father, a part of him just wanted to hold her tight and never let her go.
Oh god, how bad was he going to be when Keito eventually had to leave the nest?
Pushing aside his fears about the inevitable passage of time, he refocused on the here and now, on Mai. She’d gone with the obvious choice of her offers, Lemillion, the Number One hero. He was a good man, someone she knew but not as well as the former 1-A members - all of whom had sent her an offer as well. Yes, even Kacchan.
It was a sensible choice, and Izuku knew that Toogata-senpai would take care of her and help her to take her hero work to the next level.
He sighed to himself, “Look at you, going out into the world on your own.” He smiled softly, “Guess you don’t need your dad anymore, eh?”
“Don’t say that!”
Her voice was stern, and seemed to surprise both of them equally, but she quickly recovered, softly repeating, “Don’t say that. Never say that.” She marched up to him, and wrapped him in a tight hug, “I’ll always need you, Dad. Always .”
He chuckled, hoarse and wet, “Even when you’re a grown up Pro Hero, with your own agency?”
“Even then.” She nodded, her voice muffled by his hero costume.
“Even when you have a family of your own?”
“ Even then. ”
He reciprocated the hug, kissing her softly on the top of her head and whispering, “Then I’ll always be here for you, Mai. No matter what. I love you.”
“Yeah,” she sniffled, pulling away and dabbing at her eyes, “I love you too.”
Together, they took a deep, stabilising breath, allowing them to gain some semblance of control over their emotions before the rest of the class arrived, and Izuku had to shift gears into teacher mode. He went over the rules of the internships, reminded them all to behave, then sent them off on their merry ways.
Mai spared him a smile and a wave before she departed on her train, and as it pulled away from the station, he found himself once more praying to the heavens to keep her alive, keep her safe, and above all, to guide her back into his arms again.