Chapter Text
The smell of burnt toast and pure, unadulterated apathy filled the small apartment kitchen.
Izuku Midoriya stood in front of the bathroom mirror, aggressively trying to tame his hair. It was a genetic disaster zone. Most of it was his mother’s vibrant green, but random, thick tufts of stark white sprouted near the crown and temples, making him look like a botched bleach job. He blinked, his right eye a familiar emerald green, while his left eye gleamed a sharp, piercing crimson.
"If you stare at yourself any longer, your face is going to freeze like that," a raspy voice drawled from the kitchen.
Izuku marched out, dragging his yellow backpack behind him. "I am assessing the structural integrity of my appearance, Tenko. Some of us actually plan on leaving the house today, unlike certain basement-dwelling gremlins who survive entirely on energy drinks and Discord notifications."
Tomura Shigaraki—known to Izuku strictly as Tenko, his painfully unsocial older brother—scoffed. He was slouched over the stove, wearing an oversized black hoodie with the hood pulled up. With his pinky fingers pointed awkwardly in the air to avoid turning the spatula into dust, he flipped a remarkably unburnt egg onto a plate.
"Eat," Tenko muttered, sliding the plate across the counter. "Then get out. Your muttering kept me awake during my raid last night."
"It’s called academic dedication," Izuku said, hopping onto a stool. He picked up a piece of toast, holding it carefully. His own quirk was a pain to manage. While Tenko’s Decay turned everything to ash upon a five-finger touch, Izuku’s quirk, Corrosion, was a slow, acidic cellular degradation. If he wasn't careful, he’d liquefy the structural bonds of whatever he touched, turning solid matter into a corrosive sludge.
Izuku took a bite of the egg. "You know, for a guy who hasn't seen sunlight since the All Might debut era, you’re not a terrible cook. Thanks."
"Whatever. Don't embarrass the family name," Tenko grumbled, scratching at his neck. "What is this exam anyway? Some management course?"
"General studies, probably," Izuku lied smoothly, not missing a beat. He knew exactly what Tenko thought of heroes—his brother went on multi-hour rants about the "flawed societal construct of heroism" every time a hero commercial came on TV. Izuku, being a chaotic and fiercely independent teenager, had simply decided to apply for the UA Hero Course anyway. He just told Tenko he was going for the boring desk-job track to avoid a shouting match. "I'll just be shuffling papers and analyzing data. Safe, boring, and highly paid."
"Good. Heroes are a cancer anyway," Tenko muttered, shuffling back toward his dark room. "Don't talk to strangers. If anyone gives you crap, melt their shoes."
"Already on the agenda. Bye, gremlin!" Izuku called out, slamming the door behind him before Tenko could throw something at his head.
---
The gates of UA High School loomed large, but Izuku wasn't intimidated. He walked with his chin up, hands shoved carelessly into his pockets. When a blonde kid with explosive sparks coming from his palms tried to shove past him in the courtyard, Izuku didn't even flinch. He just side-stepped, letting the kid stumble.
"Watch it, extra!" the blonde snarled.
"Fascinating," Izuku said, his voice dripping with practiced sarcasm. "An aggressive temperament paired with a localized combustion quirk. Truly, a unique specimen. Let me know when you learn how to walk in a straight line without throwing a tantrum."
Before the blonde could explode, Izuku walked away, pulling out a heavily encrypted notebook from his bag. The pages were covered in a complex, alphanumeric shorthand cipher he’d invented at age ten to keep Tenko from reading his thoughts.
When the practical exam finally started, Izuku found himself standing at the gates of Battle Center B. The massive doors groaned open, and before the Present Mic could even finish saying "Start!", Izuku was already moving.
A three-pointer robot rumbled out of an alleyway, its red mechanical eye locking onto him.
‘Target acquired. Kinetic propulsion system via heavy treading. Armor composition looks like a standard titanium-steel alloy,’ Izuku’s mind raced, his jaw moving in a silent, rapid-fire blur of analysis. ‘Structural weak points at the joint articulation and the central axel. Initiating localized chemical degradation.’
Izuku leaped forward, dodging a heavy metal fist. He swiped his bare hand across the robot’s knee joint. The moment his five fingers made contact, a sickening, bubbling hiss echoed out. The metal didn't crumble into dust like Tenko’s targets; instead, the alloy structurally liquefied, turning into a boiling, acidic sludge that ate through the machine's internal wiring.
The three-pointer collapsed into its own melting chassis with a pathetic screech.
"Highly efficient," Izuku muttered, wiping a stray drop of sweat from his forehead, careful not to touch his own skin with all five fingers. "Next."
For the next ten minutes, Izuku was a menace. He didn't just smash robots; he dismantled them with terrifying, calculated precision. If a robot got close to another examinee, Izuku would slide in, melt its treads, and use the falling automaton as a makeshift barricade. He was a whirlwind of green and white hair, flashing a single crimson eye as he systematically dissolved the faux villains.
---
In the darkened observation room, the UA faculty watched the massive monitors in various states of fascination and mild alarm.
"My, my, what a destructive quirk," Midnight murmured, leaning forward. "It looks like a disintegration type, but the residue left behind is completely liquefied and highly acidic. Who is he?"
"Izuku Midoriya," Vlad King read from a tablet. "Applied for the Hero Course. His quirk is registered as Corrosion. It requires five-point contact to initiate a rapid, localized chemical breakdown of both organic and inorganic material."
Eraserhead’s eyes narrowed as he watched Izuku casually melt the arm off a two-pointer and use the acidic stump to blind another robot. "His application of his quirk is entirely different from other examiners. Look at how he moves. He isn't just destroying them blindly. He's striking the exact structural weak points to minimize effort and maximize output."
"A smart brain paired with high-tier lethality," Snipe observed. "He's got a lot of combat points, but his rescue points are ticking up too. Look there—he just melted a falling pillar to prevent it from crushing that girl with the brown hair."
Principal Nedzu, sitting at the center of the console with a cup of tea, let out a sharp, amused cackle. "Oh, it gets much better than just his physical performance. Have any of you looked at his written entrance exam?"
Eraserhead sighed. "Just tell us, Nedzu."
The principal tapped a button, projecting Izuku’s essay responses onto the main screen. The text was sprawling, packed with dense, technical jargon, thermodynamic formulas, and highly advanced tactical theory.
"His essays on hero sociology and quirk mechanics are university-level," Nedzu beamed, his beady eyes glittering with delight. "He analyzed the current economic impact of hero collateral damage and provided a fifteen-page mathematical framework on how to optimize urban rescue routes using fluid dynamics. He didn't just answer the prompts—he insulted the simplistic nature of the questions while providing flawless solutions!"
"A brat with a mouth," Aizawa muttered, though a tiny, almost unnoticeable smirk played on his lips. "Great."
"He refuses to follow standard conventions, adapts his strategy on the fly using variables the other students haven't even noticed, and possesses a delightfully sharp intellect," Nedzu purred. "I do believe Mr. Midoriya will be a very entertaining addition to our curriculum."
---
Outside the UA gates, the afternoon sun was beginning to set. The exam was finally over.
Izuku walked through the stone archway, rolling his shoulders to get the tension out. His clothes were slightly singed, and there was a smear of grease on his cheek, but his posture was as rigid and unbothered as ever. He pulled out his phone and fired off a quick text.
> Izuku: Exam is done. I didn't die.
> Gremlin Brother: useful. buy milk on your way back. the store near the station has the cheap one.
> Izuku: If I get kidnapped because I went to a sketchy alleyway store for discount milk, I'm haunting your gaming setup.
> Gremlin Brother: then i'll use a ouija board to mute you. buy the milk.
Izuku snorted, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He glanced back at the massive UA building one last time, a smug, confident smirk spreading across his face.
They had no idea what was coming for them. And neither did Tenko.