Starting Line

Izuku stared up at the massive building that stood before him, gleaming in the sun. It lay just on the other side of the equally impressive gate that served as the entrance to the Yueii campus, emblazoned with the school's insignia. The school was more impressive than he'd imagined.

He'd known what it looked like of course; he hadn't seen it in person before, but it was the most well-known educational establishment on the planet, there were plenty of pictures on the internet. But none of those pictures could've prepared for seeing it with his own eyes.

Four identical towers, each one fourteen stories tall – though as far as he could tell, each floor was taller than normal – with floor-to-ceiling windows making up its walls. Connecting bridges stretched between them, and one large single-story building sat at their bases, serving as their ground floor.

Combined with the utterly massive tract of land it sat on, completely fenced in and holding training grounds that no one outside of the school knew the specifics of, and the Yueii campus was likely the most extravagant piece of property in Japan.

Izuku moved through the gate, joining the steady stream of other applicants that were all heading towards the main building. He noticed a few curious glances get thrown his way as he moved. He stood out from the crowd around him, and not just because of his tail or wings.

Part of it was that most of the other applicants had come wearing winter versions of their high school uniform, as was required by Yueii, but he obviously didn't have such a uniform. Instead, he'd come wearing one of his nicer dress shirts – opting for a traditional white – with a black vest and tie, and with a slate gray overcoat and matching gloves. It wasn't too far off in appearance from an actual uniform, but it was enough to be noticeable.

His 'human' half was also point of interest, as he stood a foot or more above many of the others near him, just about six and a half feet tall, and because his musculature was noticeable even through the layers he had on. A result of the strength quirk he always kept simmering just beneath his skin.

That height could vary of course, depending on how high he raised himself off the ground, but right around there was what felt the most natural to him. And it wasn't like there weren't any other tall muscular people in the city, or even taking the entrance exam, but that, along with his visible quirks made him a bit more noticeable.

He ignored any attention thrown his way. It would do nothing to affect his goal.

As he drew closer to the building, moving past the fountain that sat right in front of it, he was hit with the realization where exactly he was, where exactly he was standing. He paused, craning his neck to stare up at it.

This was the school that most of the greatest heroes in Japan – and many in other parts of the world – had attended. This was where they learned how to be such great heroes. It sent a tiny thrill racing through his body.

A small smile appeared on his face.

This was it. Everything he'd ever done, every fight and struggle, every book in the library and online assignment, every college degree and every single analysis request he'd completed. Each and every one of his quirks, and every single criminal he had taken down. All of it had culminated in this one moment. Everything had led him to this.

He was here. He was finally taking his first real steps towards his dream. Finally, after years, he would have the chance to prove to himself, to Rei, and to every piece of shit that had ever hurt them, that he would not be stopped. That he would not stay down.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, savoring the moment, before opening them back up a few seconds later, the awe within them replaced with determination.

'Time to get started.' He thought to himself as he moved towards the main doors.

He barely made a few feet before one of the other applicants walking next to him tripped over their own feet, sending them toppling to the ground, almost directly into his path.

Without stopping, his hand darted out, latching onto the bag strapped to their back and stopping their fall. Just as quickly, he pulled them back to their feet, releasing them once he knew they were steady. As he continued past the applicant, he glanced over at them, taking in their appearance in a split second.

It was a girl. She stood nearly a foot shorter than him, had shoulder-length hair floating – seemingly literally – around her head, and had a faint blush on her cheeks, though that very easily could've been a result of the brisk morning air. She had a slightly confused expression on her face as she stood there, probably wondering why she didn't fall.

Skimming past that, Izuku immediately took note of her hands, that were still wrapped around the straps of her bag. On both of them, her forefinger was held away from the straps. He could make out tiny pads on the tips, not dissimilar to a cat's paw pads.

'Emitter-type.' His mind supplied. 'Touch-based, going by the pads on the tips of the fingers, that requires contact by all five fingers. Most likely allows for some form of manipulation over an object or person rather than true emission. Probably uncontrollable if she's holding a finger away.'

His eyes refocused on the doors as he concluded the impromptu analysis.

"Careful." He said as he moved away from where she was standing. "You don't want to fall before things even get started."

"Eh?" She responded. It was a few seconds later that she seemed to process what had happened. He was already working his way up the stairs when he heard her call out from behind him.

"Oh! Thank you!"

He waved a hand over his shoulder in response. A moment later, he pulled the door open, escaping the cold outside and sighing in minor relief as he came into contact with the heated air.

Signing in was a quick process; they had several desks lined up as soon as he entered the building, working their way through the mass of applicants at a steady pace. Not even five minutes after getting through the doors and he was already being directed to the room he'd be in for the written portion of the exams.

He'd be in his own room. Evidently, they had set aside a few rooms for size-altering quirks in order to keep everything else as efficient as possible. Having a few people on their own was much easier than cramming them into rooms with everyone else.

It wasn't long before he reached his destination. A brief pause to confirm the number on the door was all he waited before opening it. There was a single desk sitting in the center, a stack of papers already resting on it, and a teacher's desk against the far wall.

Izuku's attention, however, was immediately drawn to the yellow bundle of cloth lying across said desk, a pale face and a bit of messy black hair poking out of it. Their eyes were closed as if they were sleeping, but he could tell that they were actually awake and watching him. Their attention had focused entirely on him the moment he opened the door.

He almost smirked. He would recognize that exhausted face anywhere.

Closing the door behind him once the rest of his tail had made it inside, Izuku almost spoke up, before a sudden idea made itself known. This time, a small smirk did appear on his face.

"Hello Eraserhead." He greeted, face relaxing back into a neutral expression. "I was told you would be acting as my proctor for the test."

As soon as the name left his mouth, the hero's eyes snapped open. They trained on him with only the barest hint of surprise, before even that was covered up.

"Izuku Etsumi, I assume?" The hero drawled in a tired voice, eyes closing once more.

"That's correct."

The other sighed faintly. "Put any electronics you may have on my desk and then take a seat-" an eye opened halfway, glancing at his tail, before closing again, "-or whatever, at yours."

Izuku complied, placing his phone and a pair of earbuds on the desk, before settling down at his own. He removed his bag to set it underneath.

"I trust you're smart enough to have already familiarized yourself with the test's guidelines, so I don't have to read off the speech to you?"

"Yep." Izuku responded, giving his voice a bored edge to it to match Eraserhead's. "One hundred and fifty questions in three hours. Take my time, be careful, no cheating. Blah blah blah. All that fun stuff. Right?"

The hero managed a soft grunt. Izuku saw his arms moving around inside the bag, before a juice box appeared in front of their face. A moment later, an old-fashioned pocket watch followed, emitting a soft 'click' as he started the time.

"Begin." He announced with a slight grin. Punctuating it with a slurp from the snack at his face.

Izuku's expression morphed to match Eraserhead's as he flipped the stack of papers over and set to work, not oblivious of the eye that immediately cracked open to watch him.

---

Just over thirty minutes later, Izuku had finished the bulk of the questions and was moving on to the final ten. He'd been right when he assumed that Yueii wouldn't pull on anything overly difficult. Not that it was necessarily easy material, – it was at a level that would be expected of a college entrance exam, if maybe a bit higher – he was just very familiar with all of it.

That, and maybe he had also pulled on a speed quirk to pick up the pace. He was already going to finish before everyone else, so why not take it to a ridiculous degree? Plus, it was amusing to see Eraserhead's expression as his hand blurred across the paper.

The test had focused primarily on math and sciences, being the largest subjects to cover, but had also included sections for reading, writing and history. History had been the smallest, to Izuku's slight disappointment, mostly focusing around the history of heroes. To his surprise though, it had also included a section for English comprehension. He hadn't considered that they would do anything with other languages; though he realized that he should have, since English had become something of a universal language for heroes. It would make sense that they teach the language. Any hero, regardless of their country of origin, was expected to know English so that they could always communicate with one another if needed.

Not that it mattered all that much to him. He'd started learning other languages some time ago in order to widen the range of countries he could accept analysis requests from. That section had been just as easy as the others.

Now that he had completed all of the regular questions, he paused for a moment in minor surprise at the sight of the ten remaining ones. They were all essay questions, and were very open-ended. Likely to encourage more thought from applicants since they didn't have definitive correct answers.

It wasn't the fact that they were essay questions that surprised him, though. It was the content of the questions themselves.

[Do you believe that current vigilante and quirk usage laws in Japan are effective enough as they are? Or do you believe that they should be changed? Please elaborate on your answer. If you believe they should be changed, provide examples on how exactly they should be. And if you believe that they shouldn't, provide reasons why.]

Izuku couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face at the sight of the question. This was one of the exact topics he and Nezu had discussed during one of their afternoon chats. Flipping through the rest revealed that all of them were like that. All of them had something to do with a discussion they'd had about the current state of heroics, hero laws, or something similar. He'd had no idea that the principal had done something like this.

Nezu most likely wasn't actually grading these questions. Not with how open-ended they were. If he had to guess, Izuku would say that he was using these as a judge of character. Not necessarily to rule anyone out as potential students, but to get a better idea of the mindset of those that passed.

Smile still present, he sped through the essay questions. If anything, these were easier than the rest of the test because he remembered exactly what he had told Nezu when they'd first had the conversations. He made sure to change things around ever so slightly though, so that they weren't carbon copies of his original thoughts.

Barely ten minutes later – a full forty minutes after the beginning of the three-hour-long test – he rose from his desk and set the packet in front of Eraserhead. The hero pulled the watch back out of the sleeping bag and clicked it, eyeing the time it displayed. If he was surprised by the speed at which Izuku completed it, he didn't show it. He just maneuvered both of his hands fully out of the bag to grab the test.

"Alright. You're free to go. Go occupy yourself in the main entrance until everyone else is finished. You'll get the results when Yueii sends everything else out in a few weeks."

"Okay." He responded, turning towards the door, making sure to grab his phone.

"Goodbye, Eraserhead." He said as he left the room, only to get silence in response. The hero was a man of few words when he was out on patrol, and it seemed like that was no less true in this situation.

Izuku followed the hero's instructions, returning to the main entrance where everyone had signed in. It was empty now that the tests were underway. Even the desks that were set up had been cleared away.

Picking out a corner that happened to have an air vent situated right above it, Izuku settled into it, enjoying the warm air blowing directly on him. As soon as he was comfortable, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Rei.

8:46 [Izuku]-

-'Just finished up with the written part of the exam. It was just as easy as I was expecting.'

8:47 [Rei]-

-'Not surprising. I doubt there's anything they could throw at you that would present a challenge.'

8:47 [Izuku]-

-'Maybe. It remains to be seen what they'll do once the school year starts.'

Normally, she wouldn't be awake at this time of day. But she'd finished up her exams the week before – passing them all with flying colors of course, much to her relief and to his delight – and was on break before the next year began. Though, even if she was still on her school sleep schedule, he was pretty sure she would've tried to be awake for this anyway.

-'Also, you'll never guess who my proctor was.'

8:48 [Rei]-

-'Who?'

8:48 [Izuku]-

-'Eraserhead, of all people.'

8:49 [Rei]-

-'I'll bet that was fun.'

8:49 [Izuku]-

-'Oh it was.'

-'If only you could've seen his face when I greeted him with his hero name. He almost showed emotion for a second.'

-'And then when I was actually taking the test, it almost happened again when he saw how fast I was answering the questions.'

8:50 [Rei]-

-'Nice.'

-'Please tell me you're going to give him shit tonight when you go out.'

8:51 [Izuku]-

-'Maybe not tonight. I feel like he's going to be called on to help sort through the results of the exam. And I don't want to be but so mean to him.'

-'But after the exams have passed, yes. I intend to be as much of a nuisance as physically possible.'

8:51 [Rei]-

-'Good. I can't wait to hear it.'

-'Maybe it's time to implement a camera into your outfit so I can watch as well.'

8:52 [Izuku]-

-'We'll see.'

-'We'd have to put it in the mask. That's the only way to do it without multiple cameras or some new accessory.'

Their conversation quickly devolved into working out the logistics of adding some sort of bodycam to his vigilante outfit. There were obviously benefits to it beyond giving Rei a front row seat to him annoying Eraserhead, so he would look into it. He'd probably take it to some underground business that would be able to make it happen.

Eventually his train of thought and their conversation was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

Looking up from his phone when he heard them enter the room – just on the edge of 'proximity's normal range – he was slightly surprised to see Present Mic staring down at him with a mildly shocked expression. Only slightly surprised though, as this was a school for heroics that happened to be taught almost solely by heroes.

"Hello there, Listener!" The hero greeted rather calmly for his usual persona, likely to avoid disturbing any nearby test-takers. "How come you aren't in your assigned room? Tests are meant to be going on right now."

"I've finished already." He responded simply.

Present Mic faltered. "Wait- What? You finished your test?" He looked down at a watch on his wrist. "It hasn't even been an hour?"

"I did indeed. And my proctor told me to come wait out here for everyone else to finish. You can ask him if you need to confirm. He's the tired one in the sleeping bag."

He saw a smile pull at the corner of the hero's mouth, pushing past the surprise. He knew who Izuku was talking about immediately.

"Alright then. If that's what he told you, then you're good to go. I'll go check in with him."

The hero shot finger guns at Izuku. "I'll see you at the orientation later. Good luck!"

Izuku waved at the man as he turned to walk away in the direction he came from, a smile appearing as he disappeared from view.

He wasn't entirely sure why, but Present Mic's hero persona was among his favorites out of any other. Something about how over the top the man was in his hero work was amusing to him. Maybe it was because it seemed entirely genuine.

Many heroes had facades that they put up when in the public eye to seem more appealing or to reassure people. It wasn't a bad thing in the slightest though, as it had little bearing on how well they performed. But then there were some heroes, like All Might, Present Mic, and a few others, who had such boisterous, positive attitudes that seemed completely genuine, and they were all the better for it.

His smile remained in place as his attention returned to the phone in his hand. He still had about two hours to burn.

---

Shouta was so fucking tired. He didn't have the energy or patience to deal with this.

It hadn't been enough that Etsumi had somehow known his hero name, or that he had burned through a three hour test in less than one, or that the kid's attention had been trained on him in an unnatural way from the moment he walked through the door. No, on top of all that, he just had to answer every single question on the test perfectly.

A hundred and forty questions in just about half an hour and they were all correct, even the English section. And he'd even shown full work for all the math-related ones.

It wasn't exactly unheard of for someone to do extremely well on the written exam. They'd had applicants come through before with intelligence quirks. But none of them had ever blown through it with that kind of speed. And Etsumi didn't even have an intelligence quirk. It was pretty obvious what his was.

And Shouta had been watching him the entire time. He was certain that the kid hadn't cheated.

He let out a groan as he tried to sink further into his sleeping bag. Here he'd thought that he might be able to get some sleep today. That's why he volunteered to watch over one of the single-applicant rooms in the first place; so he wouldn't be sucked into dealing with anything else. Watching over one applicant while they took a test should've allowed him to catch even a little sleep.

But now that he'd graded the test, he needed to take it to Nezu. Most tests were graded after the entire exam had concluded, but he felt like the rodent would want to know about this, and would likely want to go ahead and grade his portion.

The essay questions were all opinion-based, so he couldn't grade on correct answers. But apparently, he judged based on whether applicants could defend their answers and how well thought out they were. Shouta had looked through the questions himself, none of them required any special knowledge to dredge up some form of answer for them. The most difficult one was the first, which talked about vigilante laws, but everyone always has quirk usage laws preached at them from the moment they develop one. So even that one shouldn't be much of a stretch for even the most idiotic applicant.

He let out a sigh, cursing the fact that he had to get up. It was at times like this when he regretted becoming a teacher at Yueii.

Shifting his weight, he rolled off the side of the desk he'd been laying on since he got in that morning. He didn't even bother catching his fall, just letting the padding of the sleeping bag absorb it all.

As he begrudgingly worked his way of the warm depths of the cloth, he heard the door to the room open. He looked up just in time to see Hizashi stroll in, with that ever-present grin on his face.

"Hey Shouta!" The other greeted, quieter than he normally would be on account of the testing going on around them, but still much too loud for his liking. "I just ran into a listener in the main hall that said he already finished? And that you told him to wait out there for everyone else?"

He just huffed in response, rolling his sleeping bag up to carry it with him. "Yes, I told him to wait."

Picking up the test, that served as the most immediate source of his irritation, he moved to the door, ignoring Hizashi's attempt at a high-five as he passed. The other wasn't fazed, and followed after him as he left the room.

"Aren't applicants supposed to wait in their testing rooms until it's all over? Why send him out?"

Shouta was silent for a few moments as they walked, considering the kid in question. "There was something off about him. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it seemed almost familiar for some reason. I didn't want to deal with that for another two hours."

"Wow. Was he that scary?" Hizashi asked. Shouta didn't even have to look over at him to see the shit-eating grin on his face. "The mighty Shouta Aizawa sent a student into the hallway because he was unnerving?"

The grin, and the mocking tone, disappeared a moment later though. "But… I do kind of get what you mean. When I saw him, there was something familiar about him. I could've sworn that I've seen a quirk like that somewhere."

That time, Shouta did turn to look at the other, raising an eyebrow as he did. "It's not his quirk that seemed familiar, it was something else. From the moment he walked into the room, he was watching me in a way that made it seem like he knew everything there was to know about me. That, and everything about him practically screamed utter confidence in himself."

It wasn't exactly unusual for an applicant or student to be confident. Most were in some capacity just on account of making it to the entrance exams to begin with; reassured by either their intelligence or their quirk. But with Etsumi, just about every action and word spoke of the confidence he had in himself. It seemed to ooze from him to the point that it was palpable.

Whether that was actual warranted confidence in his abilities, or arrogance that just came from having a strong quirk or a slightly above average intelligence, remained to be seen. If Etsumi passed the exams, Shouta would make sure he made it into 1-A, so that he could determine which it was, and expel him if need be.

Deep down though, in his gut, part of him almost knew for sure already that it was completely warranted. Maybe it was his instincts as an underground hero, or just his experience as a teacher, but he could tell that Etsumi would be a dangerous opponent for anyone, in any sort of fight.

The two fell into silence as they continued towards their destination. Both drawn into their own thoughts about Izuku Etsumi.

Eventually, Hizashi noticed the stack of papers in Shouta's hand.

"Is that his test?" He asked. "How'd he do?"

Shouta just held it out to him in response. "See for yourself."

Hizashi started flipping through it as they walked, his expression drawing further up in surprise with each question that had been marked correct.

"This is impressive!" He said. "He did this all that quickly?"

"Ah! He even scored perfectly in the English section! Oh I hope he gets in now! It's been so long since I've had someone in my class that already knows the language!"

He passed the test back over to Shouta once he was done, just as they were reaching their destination.

Walking through the door, they entered the observation room for the practical portion of the exam. It was the largest room in the entire building, not counting the cafeteria or the auditorium. Three adjacent rooms, as well at the rooms that sat on the floor above them, had been combined to make up the space. It was full of tiered seats like a miniature auditorium, with computers at each of them, and the entire extra-large wall that would've been taken up by windows was instead covered by a multitude of screens, all of them cycling between footage from all of the test sites. Altogether, the room looked like a control room for a space organization.

There were a few teachers walking around the room, running last-minute checks while the applicants were still taking the written portion. Making their way up to the highest section of seating, they came to Nezu, who was overseeing everything, sipping at a cup of tea.

"Ah! Shouta and Hizashi! What brings you up here?"

He held out the test. "I thought you'd want to see this. He finished in about forty minutes."

He saw a small gleam in the principal's eyes as he said that, the simple statement already catching his attention. Nezu took the test and immediately started scanning through the questions, eyes darting through them faster than either of the heroes in front of him would've been able to manage. He only slowed down when he reached the essay section at the end.

A grin appeared on the principal's face as he finished, one that sent a small shiver down their backs. "This is marvelous. And you said that he completed this early?" He asked rhetorically. The gleam was back, and stronger than before.

A few keystrokes at the computer in front of him, and Nezu pulled up the information they had on Etsumi. "His registration makes no mention of increased intelligence being a part of his quirk. Which means that this is entirely natural."

The rodent was practically vibrating in his chair now. "Oh I can't wait to see how you do in the practical test, Izuku Etsumi. I do so hope I get a chance to meet you."

At the sound of the name, one of the other people in the room perked up. Shouta saw them head towards the group, recognizing the – still slightly shocking – scrawny form of All Might.

"Did you say Etsumi?" He asked once he was close.

"I did indeed." Nezu answered. "Why do you ask?"

"I know him." He explained. "Has something happened?"

"Not at all. We were just discussing how he got a perfect score on the test despite taking less than an hour to do so."

That brought a smile to All Might's – or Toshinori's – face. "Excellent. I knew he would do well."

Shouta's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the older hero. "How do you know him?"

If it was possible, his smile brightened even further. "I met him a little over a year ago. Where I discovered that he was the one that cleaned Dagobah beach. We've been meeting up for lunch every week since then."

Dagobah. The junkyard? Shouta thought he remembered seeing something about that being cleaned up. And All Might made it sound as though Etsumi had done it on his own. That would've been a fairly massive feat, assuming his memory of how bad the beach had gotten could be trusted. He wondered if there was a story behind him deciding to do that.

"Does he know who you are?" Nezu asked.

Toshinori rubbed a hand at the back of his neck. "Ah. Yes. He is aware of who I am. He happened to connect the dots between my two forms, so I explained it to him."

Nezu seemed to tense up for some reason, and Shouta watched as the two proceeded to have some sort of nonverbal conversation in the span of a second. Ending with Toshinori giving a small shake of his head.

The rodent relaxed back into his seat, and looked at the information displayed on his computer. "Interesting. Very interesting."

"Who are you, Izuku Etsumi?"

Shouta just raised an eyebrow, looking between the two of them. What the hell was that about? He shook his head, dispelling the thought. Whatever that was, he didn't have the energy to deal with it. He'd leave it between the rodent and the buffoon.

He moved away from the group, already unrolling his sleeping bag. Maybe now he'd actually be able to get some sleep before the practical portion.

---

The two hours passed quickly, and soon enough Izuku was working his way into Yueii's massive cafeteria for lunch, which was being provided to them. As he picked out a table tucked into a corner – all of them already had food set out for the applicants – he caught sight of Lunch Rush moving about, either checking up on people or setting out more food.

He felt a – probably unnecessary – surge of excitement at the sight. He'd known that the cook hero worked at Yueii, but for some reason it never occurred to him that they would be the one supplying the food today.

'Damn.' He thought to himself. 'If I'd thought about it, I would've brought my Lunch Rush cookbook to get it signed.'

It was a little disappointing that he'd missed the opportunity. He was a fan of the hero, and not just for the cookbook. But he decided that it didn't matter too much. He would just have to get the signature once he came back as a student.

Digging into the prepared meal, he passed the time by watching the people around him. There were a number of interesting quirks mixed into the crowd, a few of them he thought he recognized from requests he'd taken. Scanning through them, flipping between using 'Appraisal' and just simply analyzing, he noticed the girl he'd helped on the way into the building. She was looking at him, and upon realizing that he saw her, she got up and starting walking over to him. He watched as she moved, curious as to why she was approaching him.

By the time she got close to him, she had a smile plastered on her face. She stopped right next to the table.

"Hi! I'm Ochako Uraraka" She greeted enthusiastically, holding out a hand with the pinky deliberately held away.

Izuku took the proffered hand, shaking it. "Izuku Etsumi."

Uraraka's smile seemed to brighten. "Hi Etsumi! I just wanted to say thank you again for helping me this morning. I feel like it would've been bad luck to trip right before the exam."

He put on a polite smile of his own. "Don't worry about it. I just happened to be in a position to help."

"Still though. The exams are already stressful enough without anything else adding onto that. Like that written test we just took. That was pretty hard. I'm glad I studied as much as I did."

Izuku had to resist the urge to cock an eyebrow at her statement, the test wasn't hard at all. He pushed that thought from his mind though, and reminded himself that not everyone had intelligence quirks burning through their head. It was just as impressive for someone else to pass the written test on their own power as it was for him to get a perfect score.

"Well. This is Yueii. I would expect nothing less from them." He replied.

"Oh I know! This place is amazing! I didn't know it was so big! And all of the teachers and faculty are Pro Heroes! I don't think I've ever seen so many in person before."

Uraraka seemed to notice then that the rest of his table was empty, looking at the unoccupied spots.

"How come you're sitting way over here all alone?" She said, returning her gaze to him. "You can come sit over at my table if you want."

"Oh, no thank you." He replied, making sure to keep a friendly tone. "I'm quite comfortable right here."

This unplanned conversation was tiring enough as it was. He had no desire to join a group of unknown people who would no doubt try to drag him into their own conversations.

She just shrugged, unfazed. "Alright then! Suit yourself."

Turning away, she'd started off back in the direction she came from.

"Thanks again! And good luck on the rest of the exam!"

"You too." He called back.

Izuku considered Uraraka and the conversation he'd had with her as he watched her walk away. Did he just make a friend? Is that what just happened?

He didn't really think of himself as a lonely person. He knew that other people would probably think that he is, but he certainly didn't. He had Rei, his meetings with Yagi, his correspondence with Nezu, and whatever there was with Tsukauchi and Eraserhead. That was enough for him.

Maybe it was because he'd been homeless and fighting for his life for most of his childhood, or that he'd relied so much on and been so close to Rei, or just that he hadn't had a normal upbringing in general, but there had never been any real desire or opportunity to make friends. And now that he'd gone so long without any, he didn't really think he needed any.

But then… He could remember just how happy he'd been with Bakugou before his quirk came in. It might be nice to have friends again.

Izuku shook the thought from his head. He certainly wasn't at Yueii to make friends. If he had the time, he might think about it some more, but for now, he knew his goal and that was all that mattered.

---

After lunch, all the applicants had been herded into the auditorium and filed into their seats. He was directed to the very front, right at the end of the row so he wouldn't have to attempt to fit his bulk into a seat. They'd all been given pamphlets detailing the exam they would be faced with, along with a card assigning the exam site they would be in. His had a massive letter 'A' on it, designating site Alpha.

Looking over the pamphlet, he found it amusing how simultaneously helpful and utterly useless it was. It showed the silhouettes of each of the four robots and explained that they had point values assigned to them, but neglected to actually tell what those values were, or that the fourth robot would be unnecessarily enormous. Instead, it just explained the less important details, like how many applicants would be in each site, how they were expected to earn points, and a laundry list of safety warnings.

He suspected that Yueii was purposely withholding information in order to see how well the applicants could do when they didn't know everything.

The lights dimmed suddenly, the background noises and conversations quickly following.

'Then again. Maybe they'll explain it in the orientation.'

Present Mic stepped out onto the stage, the lights focusing on him as he did.

"HELLOO LISTENERS! AND WELCOME TO THE SHOW!" He yelled out in greeting, shocking most of the applicants with his volume and making Izuku's ears throb. "EVERYBODY SAY HEEEY!"

He held a hand to his ear, waiting for a response that apparently wasn't coming.

A thought entered Izuku's mind, bringing a smile to his face. 'Fuck it.'

He cupped his hands in front of his mouth. "HEY!" He shouted back, causing a few people around him to give him odd looks. He didn't pay them any attention; he didn't come here to care about what other people thought about him.

Present Mic shot finger guns in his direction. "THANK YOU, LISTENER!"

The screens behind the hero suddenly lit up, filling with information.

"NOW. I'M GOING TO RUN THROUGH THE DETAILS OF THE PRACTICAL PART OF THIS ENTRANCE EXAM! LET'S GET STARTED!"

From there he did just that, explaining everything they needed to know, including the point values of the robots, throwing out Izuku's theory. He did note though, that they still didn't give any indication to the actual size of the zero-pointer. The thought of everyone scrambling once they realized it brought out a bit of his more chaotic side. It would be so fun to watch them panic.

Soon enough, the explanation was finishing. Present Mic sounded off with a yelled "PLUS ULTRA!" which Izuku reciprocated, earning more odd looks as everyone started to move towards the exit.

They were led out to the busses that would ferry them over. And Izuku was surprised to see that his bus had the last few seats removed just for him, so he could fit without issue.

He would be lying if he said it didn't warm his hearts just a little to see that. Yueii had been extremely accommodating thus far, with the single room, his spot for the orientation, and now this, and he wasn't even a student yet.

The busses started up as soon as everyone was seated. He let his eyes drift shut as the they took off, focusing on the hum of the engine. His thoughts went to the upcoming fight as they rode.

They were going to be fighting robots designed and built by Yueii. Not only did that mean that they could be equipped with any number of weapons or tools to make them more interesting, but they weren't living beings. Which meant that the applicants could go all out and show their capabilities when fighting them.

Which meant that he didn't need to hold back. Not like how he did any time he fought real people.

He pulled on strength quirk as that thought passed through his mind, adding to the one that was already active. All the while, a smile began creeping onto his face.

This was going to be fun.