The Deku of Tomorrow

[Namikaze1997]

All men were not born equal; that was a truth Izuku Midoriya knew all too well.

It all started when Izuku was young. He was sitting in his room, geeking out about heroes as usual, when suddenly he could hear seemingly everything that happened in the entire city.

He screamed in shock, curled up into a ball and clenched his hands over his ears. It was all too much, it overloaded his senses. By then, his mother had entered his room and was asking him what was wrong. He said, "The noise is too much, I can't stand it!"

Biting her lip and kneeling next to him, his mother said, "Just focus on me honey. Think of me as an island, away from the sea of noise."

Izuku tried doing what his mother said and was finally able to get some respite from the deluge of noise. After getting over his shock, Izuku was ecstatic; he finally had his Quirk! It wasn't the strongest Quirk in the world, but it was his Quirk nonetheless, and he was already theorising how it could be used for hero work.

His mother, however, did not share his relish; she actually looked fairly worried. Izuku asked her "What's wrong Mum? You look worried."

His mother only replied, "It's nothing, honey. Congratulations on getting your Quirk."

If that were it, everything would have been fine. But things didn't end there. A few days later, he started being able to see through walls, and before long he discovered even more amazing powers.

All told, he had at least eight different abilities: super hearing, x-ray vision, heat vision, super strength, super speed, near invulnerability, flight, and super breath.

That was when his mother finally told him the truth: he was an alien, a being from another planet. She had found him as a baby when his pod had crashed next to the road she was driving on. She couldn't stand the thought of him being taken and experimented on by the government, so she had taken him in and raised him as her own.

This revelation only served to bring Izuku and his mother closer to each other, but there was one thing that was contentious between the two. Despite, or maybe because of, his alien origins, Izuku still wanted to be a hero. Inko, however, thought being a hero would be much too dangerous.

On another note, Izuku and his best friend Katsuki Bakugo had a huge falling out. It had started when Bakugo first got his Quirk; he had started to get more and more arrogant and aggressive, which Izuku didn't like.

It finally came to a head when Izuku saw Bakugo and his cronies bullying another kid. Seeing this, Izuku couldn't help stepping between Bakugo and his intended victim. "Stop it Kacchan, can't you see he's crying? I won't let you keep hurting him, even if I have to stop you myself!" Izuku exclaimed, standing resolutely in front of the crying boy.

Bakugou replied condescendingly, "So... you, Deku, the Quirkless, noodle-limbed, weakling.., are going to try and stop me? I'd like to see you try," finishing his statement off with a flat voice.

Izuku said, "Actually, I just got my Quirk. That doesn't matter though; even if I still didn't have a Quirk, I'd still stand up for this kid because that's what a hero would do! Plus, if hurting innocent people is what you're going to do with your Quirks, you don't deserve them!"

After Izuku said that, the rage on the three bullies' faces doubled and Bakugo screamed, "That's it, get ready to explode until you die!" As he finished speaking, all three lunged towards Izuku.

Bakugo, as always, started with a big right hook, believing that beating Izuku would be incredibly easy. This time was different though; Izuku wasn't powerless anymore.

To Izuku, Bakugo's punch looked like it was occurring in slow motion. Izuku decided that he would try his best to only block and dodge without hitting back since he still couldn't control his strength as well as he would have liked. As much as he loathed what Bakugo was doing, he still didn't want to seriously injure him.

With that thought in mind, Izuku quickly evaded Bakugo's punch. Bakugo looked extremely shocked that Izuku had dodged his hit and, while swinging his next punch he said, "How the hell are you dodging, you damn Deku!"

Izuku dodged the attack and replied "I've noticed you always start out fights with a big right hook. You also tend to telegraph your attacks." As he finished speaking, he heard the guy with long fingers coming up next to him and trying to entangle him with his tendril-like fingers.

Izuku was able to dodge, but he had no time to relax as the final boy dived down from the sky and tried to punch him. Seeing that he couldn't dodge this attack, Izuku caught the boy's fist. This, however, gave Bakugo the chance to hit Izuku with an explosion.

The explosion burned his clothes but did nary a thing to his skin. After hitting Izuku, both Bakugo and the boy with wings were shaking their hands. The boy with wings asked, "What the hell are you made of? Is that your Quirk?"

Izuku replied, "Uh, as far as I know, I'm made of meat and bones just like everyone else. It's a part of my Quirk, but not the main part."

Bakugo said, "Who cares what he's made of or what his shitty Quirk is, he will never beat me," immediately continuing his relentless assault on Izuku with a jab to his stomach, which Izuku promptly dodged.

This continued for a minute, Izuku dodging, blocking, and sometimes taking blows that actually didn't hurt him at all before Bakugo yelled, "Deku, you coward! Stop dodging and fight me like a man!"

Izuku insisted, "I don't want to hurt you, Kacchan. I haven't gotten a proper handle on my Quirk yet, and unlike you, I don't like hurting people."

Bakugo seemed to be even more enraged by this statement and increased the ferocity of his attacks while yelling, "Damn Deku, don't you dare look down on me! I can take whatever the hell you dish out!"

Izuku, having had enough of Bakugo's attitude, decided to give him what he wanted; he gave Bakugo a light punch right to the chest. Bakugo, having not expected Izuku to actually fight back, flew back a metre or two before falling to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.

Izuku briefly scanned Bakugo with his x-ray vision to check that he was all right. Luckily, Izuku had caused minimal damage, only causing some bruising and not breaking any bones or causing any internal bleeding.

After a few seconds of shock, Bakugo got up, looking more livid than ever. Izuku, noticing that Bakugo's cronies had stopped encircling him, decided it was time to get out of there. The boy he was protecting had already left while Izuku was dealing with Bakugo, and he didn't want to be embroiled in a fight all day. He turned around and ran far enough away that Bakugo couldn't chase him.

When Bakugo saw that Izuku was leaving, he yelled, "Get back here, you coward," but Izuku was long gone by that point. Bakugo scowled and swore that this wasn't the end. He would prove that stupid Deku was nothing but a pebble on his path to greatness.

Izuku walked into his house after the scuffle with Bakugo. "I'm home," he announced.

Inko said, "Welcome home, honey," before coming through the door from the living room and seeing the state of his clothes. She then wailed "My baby, what happened to you?"

While checking his mom checked him for injuries, Izuku replied, "Don't worry Mum, I'm not hurt. Kacchan and I just had a bit of a... disagreement. I'm not actually hurt. My clothes are ruined though."

Inko narrowed her eyes and asked, "What do you mean, a disagreement? This looks like a lot more than a disagreement!"

Izuku replied, "I saw Kacchan and his friends bullying another boy. I couldn't just stand back and do nothing, so I stepped in and tried to stop them. We ended up in a fight. I mainly tried to block and dodge, but they got a few hits in, which is why my clothes are like this. Don't worry none of the hits actually hurt me."

"And you didn't actually hit any of them?" Inko questioned.

"I hit Kacchan once," Izuku said, "right at the end. But I made sure to check if he was all right before I left. He only had some bruising, I swear."

Inko asked Izuku, "Why did you do that? You know you could have seriously hurt him if you weren't careful."

Izuku responded, "I know, it's just what he was doing is just so against everything I believe in, I just couldn't take it. I'm sorry."

Inko said, "It's okay. I'm proud that you at least did it for the right reasons. Just promise me that you won't let this power of yours corrupt you. Keep being my baby boy who wants to help everyone."

Izuku replied, "I promise!"

After that event, Izuku and Bakugo's friendship was officially over. Izuku ceased calling Bakugo the childhood nickname of Kacchan and no longer thought of him as a friend. He reasoned that real friends would never try to seriously hurt each other and he honestly didn't want to be friends with him, given what Bakugo was becoming.

---

It had been years since that day, he was now eighteen years old and in his final year of highschool. He had grown a lot; he was now the tallest person in his class, and despite never working out, he was extremely built, now having a six-pack and very well defined muscles, also his face was beginning to grow more angular, his jaw and cheekbone were getting more pronounced, but there were still some traces of baby fat left to obscure the edges a bit.

He was on his way to school one day when he came upon a villain fight. He walked through the crowd before emerging in the front of the crowd and asking "Who's fighting," before answering his own question with a smile on his face. "Oh, it's Kamui Woods! The new up-and-comer!"

The man next to him said, "A running commentary, eh, kid? Are you a fanboy?"

Izuku blushed and said, "I guess."

Kamui woods had now swung to the top of the train station, Izuku heard him saying to the villain, "Illegal use of abilities during rush hour, as well as robbery and assault? You're pure evil." Izuku thought that was a bit of an exaggeration, but he guessed Kamui was just playing up his role.

As Izuku watched, Kamui launched himself backward and threw his hand out. Izuku recognized the pose; the hero was about to unleash his super move. The man next to him continued to shout encouragement to the "tree man," and Izuku couldn't help getting excited. 'Here it comes; it's his—'

"Pre-emptive Binding: Lacquered Chain Prison!" the hero shouted. Tree branches grew from his arm and shot toward the villain, ready to ensnare him.
"Canyon Cannon!"

Before the branches could reach their target, a giant woman smashed into the villain, sending him crashing to the street below, where he reverted back to his normal size.

When the woman landed, having defeated the villain, she said, "Pleased to meet you all! You can call me Mt. Lady! Today's my debut!" The reporters on the scene seemed enamoured with the new hero's assets, and of course, she got all the credit for defeating the villain, even though Kamui Woods did most of the fighting. Izuku could see Kamui still on top of the train station looking very dejected.

Izuku pulled out his notebook, titled "Heroic Analysis for the Future: Volume 13" and began brainstorming Mt. Lady's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the limitations of her Quirk.

The man next to Izuku saw that he was taking notes on the new hero and said to Izuku "Taking notes? I guess you want to be a hero yourself. Good luck!"

Izuku responded, "Thank you, I'll do my best!"

When Izuku left the scene of the fight, he noticed that he was late for school. He debated with himself for a good second before he started running there using just a tiny bit of his super speed, just enough to make him as fast as an Olympic athlete. Thankfully, he managed to make it there on time and without being reprimanded.

Later on in the day, the teacher said, "You guys are all third years now. It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures! I would hand out these future career forms but, I assume you all want to be heroes." He punctuated his sentence by throwing the forms in the air.

The students, with the exception of Bakugo and Izuku, all got excited and started using their Quirks. "Yes, you all have wonderful Quirks. But you know it's against the rules to use them in school," the teacher chastised.

Any further chastisement was cut off as Bakugo declared "Teacher don't lump me in with these losers! As if I had anything like their crappy Quirks."

The other students got incredibly offended by what Bakugo had said. One of the students said, "Get over yourself, Katsuki!"

Bakugo retorted "Shut up! Extras should act like extras!"

The teacher then said, "Ah, Bakugo, you, of course, must be aiming for UA University"

One of the other students questioned "That national school? The cutoff this year is seventy-nine, right?"
Another student said, "I hear they barely accept anyone!"

Bakugo jumped up on his desk and said, "Ah, the stupid chattering of extras! I aced the mock exams! I'm the only one here with the stuff for UA! I'll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there! Not to mention I'll be one of the richest people in the world!"

The teacher then asked, "Oh. You're also going for UA, aren't you, Midoriya?"

When the teacher said that, Bakugo's expression froze as all of his classmates turned towards Izuku. One of the other students said, "That makes sense. Midoriya's Quirk is even more stupidly powerful than Katsuki's."

Another student replied, "Yeah, and he's probably the smartest person in the entire school."

After hearing the students praising Izuku, Bakugo's face went from frozen to livid in less than a second. "Deku!" he growled before trying to blow up Izuku's desk. Izuku, however, was able to see Bakugo coming and caught his wrist before it could get below the level of everyone's heads.

"Didn't you hear Mr. Smith telling us not to use our Quirks in class, Bakugo? Or do you think the rules don't apply to you?" Izuku admonished.

Bakugo tried freeing his hand to no avail before declaring, "Who cares about the stupid rules? You won't even fully utilise your Quirk, yet you think you can rub shoulders with me?!"

Izuku replied, "I don't fully utilise my Quirk because I know what kind of damage I could do if I don't hold back, plus I'm not trying to compete with you. I don't even know why I put UA down; I know I could never go there. It's just, I've always wanted to be a hero"

Izuku was telling the truth when he said that. He knew he could never go to UA. He had somehow managed to pass off his super strength, super speed, and near invulnerability as a Quirk all these years. But that was only because he used them very rarely and never used any of his other powers in front of other people. If he got into the hero course at UA, he'd not only be encouraged to use his powers, but it would be a necessity, which was a disaster waiting to happen.

It would just take one slip-up for him to accidentally use one of his other powers in the heat of the moment, and then people would start asking questions, questions he couldn't afford to answer.

Plus, would it really be right being a hero while not showing most of his powers? What if, one day, he had to choose between saving someone's life and keeping his secret? He knew that he'd choose the innocent life any day of the week, but the split-second delay such a decision would cost could have massive consequences.

The final reason he couldn't go to UA was that he was pretty sure his mum would never allow him to enroll in a hero school, even though he was nigh on invulnerable.

So no, he could never go to UA. But he just couldn't help thinking that this power was given to him for a reason, and that he should be using it to help people, which is why he had subconsciously written down UA as his school of choice.

---

Meanwhile

A villain had just stolen a woman's purse. "Catch me if you can!" he taunted as he got away. After the villain had left, the people on the scene started a conversation.

One person said, "Someone's bound to show up."

Another person replied, "This guy must've been inspired by the chaos this morning. Lots of people out there who just can't control their Quirks, I guess."

A final person said, "There's no end to them."

None of the people noticed a tall lanky blond man in the background suddenly buff up considerably. The man put a big smile on his face and said to the people, "Yes there is. Why, you ask? Because I am here!"

---

At the end of the day, Izuku was grabbing his notebook so that he could leave before someone attempted to wrench it out of his grasp, that person being, of course, Bakugo. Izuku was able to avoid Bakugo's outstretched hand and safely put his notebook in his bag before Bakugo declared "We ain't done here, Deku."

Izuku questioned, "What do you want, Bakugo?"

Bakugo said, "You see, the best heroes out there, well, they showed signs of greatness even as students. I'll be the first and only hero from this crappy public middle school, the first to win the honor of becoming a student at UA university! Guess I'm just a perfectionist."

Izuku took time to think of how conceited Bakugo was before Bakugo continued, "In other words… Don't you dare get into UA, nerd!" while reaching out to try and burn Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku however, once again caught Bakugo's wrist, an ominous red glow in his eyes as he said, "It's none of your business whether or not I get into UA. You are not the centre of the universe and you can't control my life!"

Bakugo shivered before blustering, "You'd never be able to pass the exam anyway!" And walking away

Izuku walked home from school while thinking. He knew he shouldn't have blown up at Bakugo like that; it's just there was something about him that really pushed Izuku's buttons.

Izuku was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly didn't hear someone emerging from a sewer drain and trying to attack him as he went through an underpass. Luckily, he was able to react in time to dodge out of the way of his assailant.

He looked up and saw that the person who attacked him was seemingly entirely made of slime. "A medium-sized body for me to hide in, and he has a good Quirk too," Izuku heard the slime say to itself.

Izuku said to the man, "Stay back! I don't want to have to hurt you!"

The villain responded, "You can't hurt me anyway, I'm made of liquid. Don't worry though, I just want to hijack your body. It will only hurt for forty-five seconds, then it will be all over." He lunged at Izuku as he finished speaking and tried to ensnare him with his slimy body.

Izuku was having none of that, however. He took a deep breath and started blowing fast winds towards the villain. The villain couldn't make any headway against Izuku's breath, but he was very persistent. He believed if he could last until Izuku ran out of breath then he would have free reign to take over Izuku's body.

That was not to be, however, as after a few seconds of this stalemate the sewer grate that the villain had come out of was punched out from below and through it came a buff blond man with two long protrusions of hair on top of his head. This was All Might: the Number One Hero and Symbol of Peace.

All Might briefly took in the scene before saying, "Fear not, kid, I am here!" He threw a massive punch while yelling "Texas Smash!" The air pressure of the punch scattering the villain all over the place, somehow not killing him. Izuku himself was fine thanks to his near invulnerability

Instead of looking relieved, as most people would upon seeing All Might, Izuku seemed worried about the man. That was because before All Might appeared, he had scanned underground with his x-ray vision to see who had punched the sewer grate and had seen something unnerving.

All Might saw how uneasy Izuku was and said, "You can relax now, young man; thanks to your help, I have now captured the villain." He held up two drink bottles that he had somehow contained the villain in before continuing. "Sorry I involved you in my villain hunt; mistakes like that aren't my style, but I'm a bit unfamiliar with the area. Plus, today's actually my day off."

"Thank you for saving me, but are you all right?" Izuku asked.

All Might responded, "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

Izuku stated, "It's just I can see through most physical obstacles and I noticed you have a pretty bad wound on the left side of your chest. I thought for a second you might be an imposter, since I've never heard of All Might having a wound that bad, but I decided to give you a chance to explain, since you did save me."

All Might looked shocked before he spat out some blood and some sort of smoke or steam covered him. When the steam cleared, instead of All Might standing in that spot, there was a lanky blond man with sharp, angular features and long limbs. His neck was long and his eyebrows absent. Also, his distinctive tufts of hair were no longer standing upright; instead, they trailed downwards over his face.

Izuku asked, "So, you are a fake?"

All Might said, "I assure you, I am All Might. You know how people try to puff up their chests to impress people at the pool? It's kinda like that." That explanation gave Izuku an interesting mental image, to say the least.

All Might continued, "You've seen the real me, kid, but don't write about that wound you saw on the internet, okay? Five years ago, an enemy did that to me. My respiratory system was nearly destroyed, and my stomach was removed. I've wasted away because of the after effects of those surgeries. I can only do my hero work for about three hours a day now."

Izuku asked, "Five years ago… Was that when you fought Toxic Chainsaw?"

All Might replied, "You've done your research, kid, but no, that punk couldn't do this to me. This was never made public. That is, I asked that it not be made public. A Symbol of Peace that saves people with a smile must never be daunted by evil."

Izuku took that in for a few seconds before gaining a determined glint to his eyes. He said, "Wow, just wow, that's a lot to take in. I originally wanted to ask you a question, but the answer to that question is irrelevant now."

Yes, that was right, the answer to the question was irrelevant. Could he be a hero? Should he be a hero? It didn't matter. If there was someone out there who could do that to All Might, of all people, then the world needed someone as strong as Izuku around to combat that threat.

Izuku declared, "I've decided!"

All Might inquired, "What have you decided young man?"

Izuku responded, "I'm going to be a hero, one even greater than you!"

All Might had to admit to himself that he liked the determination in this kid's eyes. 'Maybe he's the one' he thought before correcting himself. 'No, I don't know that yet, but he's definitely one to watch.' He then said to Izuku, "I look forward to that day, young man. Right now, however, I should probably be getting this ne'er-do-well to the authorities. I'll see you on the flip side, young man!" He turned around, bulked back up and jumped away.

As All Might was jumping away, he realised two things: the first was that he never got the boy's name, and the second was much more important. 'Wait, he said he could see through solid objects, but wasn't he using his breath to blow back the villain?' His face turned grim before he thought, 'I hope I'm wrong about how he got his powers, because if I'm not—' At that thought, All Might's fists clenched

Izuku, unaware of All Might's parting thoughts and with his determination reignited, was walking home, ready for perhaps the greatest challenge on his path to heroism: convincing his mother to let him go to a hero school.

 

[Namikaze1997]

"No," Inko resolutely stated when she heard Izuku's request to go to a hero school.

"But mum, I really think that this is what I want to do," Izuku whined.

Inko firmly declared, "No means no, young man," before asking, "I thought we agreed years ago that it would be too dangerous? What changed?"

"We didn't agree to anything; you just decided that on your own. Plus something happened today that made me realise the world needs me to be a hero," Izuku stated.

"Izuku, you need to remember that you don't owe this world anything. It's not your responsibility to hold everything on your shoulders" reminded Inko.

"I disagree. While I know I shouldn't shoulder everything alone, I also know I owe this world everything. This is my home and I want to protect it. When you took me in, even though you didn't have to, you became my saviour. I want to be someone else's saviour just like you were mine," declared Izuku.

Inko was floored by that declaration. She silently pondered for a tense few minutes before saying, "All right, you can go; just promise me you'll be careful and that you'll make sure to come home safe."

"Of course I'll be careful. No one wants a hero who can't even protect himself, after all," Izuku reassured. "There is one other thing, though," he stated.

"What is it now?" Inko asked in exasperation.

"If I'm going to go to UA, I'm going to have to use all of my abilities; I just wouldn't feel right if I was giving it any less than my best," affirmed Izuku.

"But Izuku, if you use all of your abilities, then people could find out the truth," Inko warned.

"I actually think it would be best to tell someone about my origins, someone who's trustworthy that can help me keep my secret," Izuku suggested.

"But who can we trust?" Inko queried.

"I've done some research and I think I have an idea," said Izuku mysteriously.

---

UA Principle's office

The gaunt form of All Might knocked at the door of Principal Nezu's office. After hearing a quick "come in" from the dog-mouse-bear looking animal, All Might let himself in.

"Ah, Toshinori, it's nice to see you, although I don't think we were scheduled to see each other for another week. What brings you here?" Nezu asked.

All Might, or Toshinori, as Nezu called him, said, "I came across something… unsettling, and I was hoping you could help me get to the bottom of it."

"Oh, pray tell?" Nezu inquired.

"I saved a kid from a villain the other day, but the kid ended up finding out about my time limit; He said he could see through most obstacles. That's not the thing that worries me, though; I was jumping away when I realised two things: The first was that I never got this young man's name, the second was that the boy said that his power was seeing through obstacles, but I was certain that I saw the boy blowing away the villain with his breath," Toshinori explained.

"So you suspect that this boy has multiple quirks?" Nezu extrapolated.

"Indeed, and if he does, then he may be connected to All for One," Toshinori confirmed.

"What I don't understand, however, is why you came to me instead of going to Tsukauchi and the police," stated Nezu.

"As I said, I didn't get the kid's name, and they couldn't do much with just a description. But then I realised something; the kid said to me that he wanted to be a hero and he looks like he's in his last year of high school, so it's possible he could be an applicant for the hero course. I was hoping that you could look through the applicants and see if you could find someone matching his description," Toshinori explained

"Hmm. Now normally, I would never disclose information about any prospective student, but seeing as the situation is urgent and you are going to be a staff member, I will make this one exception," Nezu declared, before asking Toshinori, "What's this boy's description?"

"He was around 5'9" and was fairly well built. He had an angular face with some residual baby fat framed by a short mess of fluffy dark-green hair which stuck up at odd angles around his head, casting noticeably dark shadows onto itself. His eyes were fairly angular, their irises the same green colour as his hair. He had a set of four symmetrical freckles in diamond formations, one on each cheek. He was wearing a plain black uniform with yellow buttons, accompanied by white sneakers," Toshinori explained.

Nezu quickly went through the registry of applicants to the hero course before turning the monitor of his computer towards Toshinori and saying, "There is one applicant that matches that description: one Izuku Midoriya, age eighteen and currently attending Aldera High School. His quirk is registered as Super Power; it gives him massively enhanced speed, strength, and durability."

Toshinori carefully looked at the picture on the monitor and said to Nezu, "That is indeed the kid I saved. Now that we've found his identity, what do you think we should do next?"

"I think for now we should wait. I would like to be able to observe mister Midoriya myself in the entrance exams. Plus, this way we may be able to gain insight into what quirk or quirks he has," Nezu advised, before adding. "In the meantime, do you mind filling detective Tsukauchi in about what we've found so far and ask him to do a discreet investigation of his own?"

"Of course, I was planning on getting Tsukauchi involved anyway," Toshinori stated.

"Very well then, I will see you at our next meeting" stated Nezu while ushering All Might out of his office.

---

Dagobah Municipal Beach Park

After finishing his talk with his mother, Izuku realised something: he would need much more practice with his powers if he wanted to stand any chance of excelling at UA. That meant he needed to find a location where he could test out his powers without hurting anyone and without people noticing.

He had done some research and found the location he was currently occupying: Dagobah Municipal Beach Park.

It used to be a beautiful beach that was used by many people, but because trash that had been dumped in the ocean kept on washing up on the beach, it was pretty much deserted, which was perfect for Izuku's purposes.
He also figured that while he was training, he could do some community service and clean up the beach.

The first thing Izuku did was clear out a fairly large area of the beach for him to practice in. After that, he got to work.

Over the next ten months, he learned a lot about his powers as well as cleaned up the beach. One of the things he learned was that his vision was enhanced in other ways than just x-ray vision. He could see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, see at the atomic level, and see extremely far distances.

He also learnt a few things about his heat vision. He found that he could actually control how hot it was, as well as how much area it covered. He also found that the farther away something was, the harder it was to hit, even with his telescopic vision.

The final thing he learnt, however, was the most important. Just remembering how he had found out about this amazing new ability sent a pleasant tingling down his spine.

---

Izuku was excited. He was about to try something he had wanted to try for a very long time. You see, he had noticed that he needed a long-range attack that was less deadly than his heat vision, and being the giant All Might fanatic he was, Izuku decided that he would see if he could replicate the air pressure attacks All Might could call upon with his punches.

He realised, however, that the air pressure from a full-on punch would be too destructive for the limited space of the beach, so he decided he would just try it with a finger flick.

He set up some trash targets and stood about six metres away before lining up his index finger with the target and flicking. What resulted was a rush of air that just missed the target he was aiming at. Although he hadn't hit his intended target, he was ecstatic that he had managed to actually get that to work. He spent the majority of the rest of his time on the beach refining his control over these air blasts, as well as cleaning the last of the trash from the beach.

---

UA University

Izuku was finally here; he was standing in front of UA University, ready to take the entrance exam and, with it, the next step on his path to being a hero. He was brought out of that happy moment by Bakugo storming up behind him and exclaiming, "Out of the way stupid, Deku!" before bumping his shoulder as he stormed passed.

"Yeah, good luck to you too," Izuku muttered to himself snarkily before deciding to make his own way into the school.

However, as soon as he took his first step, he somehow managed to trip. He was just about to right himself with his flight when suddenly he felt a sense of weightlessness wholly unrelated to his ability to fly.

"Are you all right?" he heard a feminine voice ask before a girl appeared in his line of sight. She was quite cute, in his opinion, fairly short with a slender yet feminine build. She had a round face and seemed to have a permanent blush. Her eyes were large and round with brown irises, her hair, the same colour as her eyes, was done in a bob cut with two bangs hanging down just past her face.

Izuku was knocked out of his observation of this girl by her moving him to an upright position, releasing her quirk, and saying to him, "Sorry for using my quirk on you; I just thought it would be pretty bad luck if you tripped right before the exam, you know."

"It's ok. I'm glad you did; it was very kind of you," Izuku stated.

The girl, who he still didn't have a name for, said, "I'm so nervous, bet you are too!"

"Yeah, it's pretty nerve-wracking. I wish you the best of luck for the exams; let's both do our best!" Izuku exclaimed before walking away.

---

They had just completed the theoretical portion of the exam and were now in an auditorium getting an explanation on the practical portion of the exam. Unfortunately, Izuku had the displeasure of sitting next to Bakugo. Fortunately, the one delivering the explanation was the voice hero: Present Mic, who Izuku was a big fan of.

"Welcome, one and all, to my live show! Everybody say hey!" said Present Mic, trying to hype everybody up, but all he got in response was dead silence. Izuku actually had to physically stop himself from responding to the greeting or muttering to himself about how cool Present Mic was.

Unperturbed by the cold reception, Present Mic continued on. "I've got shivers down my spine too, listeners! All right, examinees, I'm going to give you the low-down on how this'll go down! Are you ready? Yeah!" Again, the response to his enthusiasm was dead silence.

Nevertheless, he continued to the meat of the information. "Now pay attention, listeners! We'll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice run at our replica city district! You can take whatever you like! Everybody gather at the designated meeting area after the presentation, ya dig?" For a third time, the only answer was silence.

Izuku looked at Bakugo's sheet and then at his own and noticed that they were assigned to different testing areas. He surmised that it was set up that way so that people from the same school couldn't help each other during the test.

Izuku was broken out of his thoughts by Present Mic continuing his explanation. "We'll be sprinkling a large number of 'villains' over the battlefield, and they'll appear in three different varieties, with point values scaled according to difficulty! Using each of your individual quirks, dispatch as many 'villains' as you can. Your goal, listeners, is to rack up a high score!! And don't think about directly attacking any other competitors or any of that nasty anti-hero stuff, because that's against the rules, capisce?" At this information, Bakugo gave a tch, and instead of everyone staying silent this time, someone actually said something.

"Excuse me, may I ask a question?" said a rather tall boy with blue hair and square eyes and glasses before continuing, "On the handout, there are clearly four types of villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for a top-tier national academy of UA's calibre! The reason we are seated here today is that we seek guidance on the path to becoming model heroes!"

Present Mic seemed unfazed by being interrupted, saying, "Okay, okay, thanks for the segue, much-appreciated examinee 7111! The fourth type of villain you'll encounter is a bit different; you see, it's something of an 'arena trap.' Have any of you ever played Super Mario Brothers before? Do you remember those things that'd go thwomp on you? There's a thing like that in each arena. Its gimmick is that if you fight it, the points that you worked hard to rack up will be reduced to zero!" At that announcement, there was a buzz of nervous chattering in the audience.

Also, the boy who had interrupted earlier stood up and spoke. "I see, I apologise for being rude!" he exclaimed while bowing to Present Mic.

Present Mic didn't comment on that, instead saying, "Well, that's enough from me! I'll leave you all with a presentation on the 'school precepts' of this academy of mine! As a certain 'hero' by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'a true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes of life.' Now let's move to the main event! PLUS ULTRA! And may you all suffer gladly the trials to come!"

---

Izuku was now standing outside of his testing area, said area being a massive fake city. He looked around at the other competitors and noticed that a lot of the examinees had specialised equipment suited for their quirks. Izuku wasn't worried about that, however; he didn't really need specialised equipment for his powers.

He then noticed that the girl that he had met earlier was assigned to the same testing area as him. He was just walking towards her to wish her luck when suddenly someone gripped his shoulder

"I see what you're up to. You're planning to measure that girl's power of concentration," said the boy who had interrupted Present Mic earlier while still holding onto Izuku's shoulder.

Before Izuku could form a response, the boy continued "Who exactly are you, my friend? You didn't come to obstruct your fellow test-takers, did you?"

Izuku replied, "That wasn't my intention at all. I was merely going to wish that girl luck. You see, we met just before the test and she helped me out a bit, so I thought I should wish her luck."

The other boy, realising his mistake, bowed and said, "I see. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding!"

Izuku replied, "It's all right; just try not to make too many assumptions in the future."

Before either of them could say anything else Present Mic loudly proclaimed, "And start!!"

As soon as Present Mic said that, Izuku was off. He noted absentmindedly that Present Mic was telling the other examinees that there was no count down in battle and that Izuku had the right idea.

Before Present Mic finished what he was saying, Izuku had already encountered his first group of robots. He tore through them like a hot knife through butter before moving on to find and destroy even more robots. He became a one-man robot destroying machine.

When the other examinees came across Izuku's trail of devastation they were both shocked and nervous. Shocked because they couldn't believe someone was destroying robots this fast and nervous because if he was clearing out the robots this fast, what chance was there for them to get any points?

They needn't have worried, however, because once Izuku had around fifty points, he decided to slow down with his culling of the robots. He didn't completely stop destroying them; he just switched to attacking robots that were isolated from the main battlefield. He also decided he would help and protect the other examinees, so whenever he heard or saw an examinee in danger, he jumped in and saved them.

This continued for a few minutes before the ground rumbled and a massive silhouette appeared within some dust. Izuku surmised that this was the arena trap that Present Mic had spoken about.

The other examinees were quickly rushing to get away from it. He turned around to do the same when he heard someone say "ow" from the direction the robot was coming from; it was the girl who had stopped him from falling earlier. He saw that her leg was trapped beneath some rubble and she was right in the path of the robot.

Before Izuku knew it, he was already flying towards the robot. In the back of his head he knew if he fought this robot he would definitely fail the exam, but that didn't matter when compared to the girl's life, so he flew towards it, pulled back his fist, gathered his strength and threw a punch right to the thing's big robotic face. His fist made a massive crater in the robot's head and caused the robot to start falling backwards. The air pressure from his punch also blew out any of the windows that were still intact after the giant robot's entrance.

At this point, Present Mic announced the end of the exam by yelling, "It's all over!"

Izuku suppressed his sadness from almost certainly failing the exam in favour of checking on the girl. He flew down to her and pulled the rubble off of her and asked her "Are you all right?" before lifting her up in a princess carry while trying to keep his expression calm.

His effort must have been for naught because the girl looked worried; nonetheless, she replied, "It's my ankle; I think it's sprained. What about you though; you lost all your points saving me! Is that really all right?"

Izuku quickly scanned her with his x-ray vision and confirmed that she was right, she only had a sprain and no other substantial injuries, which was relieving. After he had confirmed her injuries, Izuku said, "You're right; you have a sprained ankle and thankfully no other substantial injuries," before giving her a beaming smile and saying, "As for losing all my points while saving you, it was worth it as long as you're okay."

The girl looked away and blushed while briefly thinking, 'His smile is so pure.'

Then Izuku saw an elderly woman walking towards them. He recognised the woman as The Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl. When she got to them, she asked, "Now sonny, do you mind putting the little missy down so I can treat her?"

Izuku replied, "Yes ma'am," before carefully putting the girl down.

Recovery Girl then proceeded to kiss the girl on the cheek. Izuku watched in awe as the girl's wounds healed before his eyes. Recovery Girl said, "There you go, deary, all better. Make sure to get plenty of rest when you get home; my healing can really take it out of you," and left the scene.

Izuku said to the girl, "It looks like you're all better now. By the way, I forgot to introduce myself; my name is Izuku Midoriya, It's nice to meet you"

The girl responded, "Oh, right, my name is Ochako Uraraka. Thank you for saving me earlier."

Izuku, seemingly emboldened by Uraraka's response, inquired with a gigantic blush, "I know this is super forward and I would never do this normally, but do you mind if I get your contact details? It's just, I'd like to be friends with you even though I can't go to UA with you. Though, of course, if you're uncomfortable with that you don't have to."

Uraraka said, "I would like that, just don't give up hope, you still could make it into UA."

Izuku noncommittally said, "I guess that's true," while exchanging numbers with her. He then said, "I should probably go now. I'll see you later, Uraraka. I hope you get into UA." With that said, Izuku turned around and walked away.

As Uraraka watched Izuku's departing back, she had a million thoughts go through her head, the foremost of which was that it wasn't fair. Izuku had acted more heroically than anyone else and he was being punished for it. How could UA call itself a school of heroics if they wouldn't take someone like Izuku who had so much potential to do good?

It was at this point that Uraraka decided that she had to do something. She would talk to a teacher and make sure that Izuku got in. With determination burning in her eyes, Uraraka set off to do just that.

---

The Midoriya household

As soon as Izuku entered the house, Inko knew something was wrong. Izuku just looked so defeated. "What's wrong, honey?" she asked worriedly

Izuku, finally feeling the day's events get to him, fell into his mother's arms crying. "Mum, I failed," he told her as he bawled into her chest.