4

"Are you okay?" Uraraka asked Midoriya for the twentieth time, reorienting and releasing him from his weightless state. "It's my quirk. Sorry about using it on you without permission, but I thought that tripping like that before an exam would be bad luck."

"No need to apologize." Midoriya replied, moving through the increasingly familiar conversation on autopilot. He bowed his head. "I appreciate the save."

Just as he had done for the majority of the previous loops, he got Uraraka's name before promptly waving her on ahead of him as a precaution. As refreshing as he found talking with the infectiously cheerful girl to be, Midoriya had to be careful when dealing with the people tied to his loops. On several occasions, he had creeped people out by slipping and mentioning personal details that he shouldn't have had any way of knowing. If there was any chance of Uraraka being in his class in the future, the less loop-acquired knowledge he had, the better. He had no desire to inadvertently come off as a stalker.

Once she had left, Midoriya furrowed his brow in frustrated irritation at his latest failure to control his new power. 'This isn't working. I need to change my approach.'

Through sheer repetition, he was getting a better grip on One for All, but he still felt as if he were missing something fundamental. Lost in thought, Midoriya made his way into the testing center, signed in and headed to his seat, and pulled out his notebook.

'Is it a problem with the image I'm using?' He shook his head. 'No, I'm making progress using the image of a circuit—slow progress—but progress nonetheless.' In his last loop, he'd finally identified the level of power he could handle after extensive trial and error—around 4-5%. 'The image of adding "resistors" to the circuit gives me a decent amount of control, but it's too slow to use in a fight. In a real combat situation, I don't have the time to fight the against the flow of power for each individual attack.'

Midoriya grimaced. In the last loop, he'd finally managed to take down the one pointer without suffering any injury, but when he moved on to get more points, his next encounter pitted him against three of the faux villains at once. He took down the first two easily, but the third one—a three pointer—broke his neck and shattered his skull with a single well-placed blow before he could set up his attack.

Having no desire to be lectured again by the boy with the glasses, Midoriya lightly bit the insides of his cheeks to keep from muttering as he tapped his notebook with his pen. 'The ability to use One for All without conscious thought will come with time and experience, obviously, but there has to be something else…a more efficient way of distributing the power.' He pulled out his phone to look up some information about circuits, hoping to glean some sort of insight. 'This is probably a bit too literal, but I'll try anything at this point. I'm sick of this damn exam.'

His eyes scrolled rapidly over the information displayed on the screen. As he expected, most of it was useless to him—except in the purely academic sense. Just as he was about to give up and close the browser, his eyes stopped on a particular circuit diagram and its explanation. 'When passing through a parallel circuit, current is divided. While the amperage passing through each branch is reduced, the sum of the current travelling through the separate branches is equal to the current outside of the branches.' His eyes widened. 'That's it!'

Midoriya's main issue when it came to using One for All was managing the amount of energy he summoned at any one time. Calling upon the power was easy enough, as was directing it to the limb or limbs of his choice. However, controlling the output was an entirely different story. It was an effort that grew exponentially more difficult the smaller the amount of power he wanted to use. Midoriya compared it to trying to fill a drinking glass with a firehose without spilling anything.

'I've been thinking too small. That's why using individual limbs without hurting myself is so difficult. By trying to send the current where I need it, when I need it, I have to visualize and devote all of my concentration to only drawing out the exact amount of 'current' that I can handle per limb. But if I distribute One for All throughout my entire body at once, holding it at that level, I'll not only greatly reduce the need for pinpoint control, but I also eliminate the need to visualize every individual action!'

His hands trembling with excitement, Midoriya's writing grew shakier and shakier as he scribbled down his thoughts with feverish intensity. If his theory was correct, this next attempt was going to go a lot differently than the previous ones. 'I can do this! All Might, your efforts to prepare me for the exam won't be in vain.'

HEROES NEVER DIE

Inside of the model city, Midoriya patiently stood next to a particular section of wall, ignoring the chaos surrounding him as he lay in wait for the one-pointer that had killed him so many times to emerge. Right on schedule, the robot burst through the barrier, filling the air with a thick cloud of drywall and dust. Within the cloud, the only thing Midoriya could see was the dark silhouette of the machine, cast into sharp relief by the clockwork criminal's single red eye as it gleamed with a menacing crimson light.

"Target Acquired. Prepare for termination, human."

The expression on Midoriya's face was quite a bit different than the determined grin he typically donned in deference to All Might. This smile was vindictive and vicious—predatory, even—as he activated One for All and felt the surging wave of power flow throughout his entire body in one continuous stream.

'One for All: 4% Parallel Flow.' His eyes glowed with eldritch light and green sparks of pure energy erupted randomly from his body as he walked towards the faux villain.

"You know," Midoriya drawled, "I try not to be the kind of guy who holds grudges. They're just a waste of time, especially when the people you're mad at can't remember what they technically never did." He cracked his knuckles. "But in this case, I think I'll make an exception." Not wasting another second, Midoriya darted forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. Caught off guard by his sudden increase in speed, he overshot the faux villain, blazing past in a blur of motion.

'My body is so light!' He marveled as he corrected his trajectory by lowering his center of gravity and digging in his toes. 'This is amazing! I feel like I weigh nothing at all!'

The instant he slid to a stop, Midoriya coiled the muscles in his legs like a spring and rebounded in the opposite direction, using his momentum to his advantage as he smashed his fist into the side of one-pointer's head, tearing through the plastic casing with virtually no resistance. After sparing a brief moment to smirk victoriously at the smoking wreckage of the faux villain, Midoriya inspected his fist for any sign of injury.

'Not even a scratch.' He stared in wonder at the unbroken skin on his knuckles. 'This must be how All Might's invulnerability works.' He shook his head in disbelief. 'It's strange how the same quirk that's broken me so many times is what's protecting me now.' The sounds of robots getting destroyed en masse all around him snapped him out of his contemplative state. 'Something to think about later. For now, let's focus on racking up as many points as I can.' He grinned ferally. 'And working out a little frustration in the process.'

For the next seven minutes, it was a bad time to be one of robotic villains. Wreathed in the viridian aura of One for All, Midoriya went on a gleeful spree of retributive violence against the robotic enemies. He had a smile on his face as he used his bolstered strength and speed to tear through them like wet paper, drawing from the deep well of anger and pain caused by his deaths—directly and indirectly—at the hands of the machines and the cruel nature of his original quirk.

'This is for my broken neck.' He leapt into the air and rebounded off of a wall to build up speed for a flying kick that crushed the metal chassis of a three-pointer and knocked it over. Midoriya finished it off by punching straight through one of the large red eyes, sending sparks shooting out of the derelict machine.

'That's for my collapsed windpipe.' He caught the blow of a one-pointer robot. Shifting his grip for better leverage, he side-kicked it with enough force to send it flying despite his tight grip on the appendage, tearing off its arm in the process.

'Crushed by a water tower!' He spun around like a discus thrower, hurling the flat metal panel at the elongated neck of a nearby two-pointer, severing it cleanly and continuing on in its flight path to smash into another three-pointer behind it.

'My brains bashed in by a brick!' He scrambled onto the back of the stunned three-pointer and thrust his fist through a section of paneling before grabbing and ripping out a handful of electrical components, dropping the machine like a puppet with its strings cut.

'Impaled!' Leaping off of the downed three-pointer, Midoriya's glowing eyes darted about, scanning the chaotic battlefield for his next target. Identified, he sprinted down the street and lashed out at a two-pointer with a low, sweeping kick that disabled one of its legs, toppling it to the ground before he stomped on the downed robot's neck, severing its head.

'Trampled!' He picked up the severed head of the decapitated two-pointer by its flexible neck and spun it in a tight circle, building up speed and centripetal force before smashing it into a one-pointer like a flail, demolishing both his target and his improvised weapon.

'Bled out! Run Over! Poisoned! Asphyxiated! Stabbed! Shot! Drowned! Immolated!'

As he cut through the robots like a human buzz saw, Midoriya's smile gradually transformed into a rictus of fury. Though Midoriya normally kept his emotions tightly in check, his unbridled feelings ran wild, muddying his thoughts and narrowing his perspective as he grew angrier and angrier at the suffering he'd been subjected to over the course of his life, and the unfairness of it all.

'No more! God, fate, destiny…whatever is behind this…I'm not helpless anymore! I'll beat whatever is put in my way! Just…like…THIS!'

With a triumphant roar, Midoriya pierced the chassis of another robot with his fist, but his celebration was cut short by a sudden eruption of pain in the arm he had just buried in the body of the machine. He winced as he pulled the limb out of the faux villain's remains. He could still move the arm somewhat, but he could tell that he had fractured something, one of the more fragile bones, most likely.

"Damn." Midoriya muttered, chastising himself. "I let myself get too worked up. Lost control. Stupid." He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Bit by bit, he felt the tension drain from his frame along with the air in his lungs. "Nothing I can do about it but keep moving forward. No point in beating myself up over it."

He grimaced, 'Though honestly completing the rest of the test with a most likely broken arm isn't going to be easy—if I can even survive, that is.'

"One minute remaining!" Present Mic called out in the distance.

'We're already nine minutes in?' Midoriya thought, surprised at how quickly the time had flown by. In all of his previous attempts, he'd never even managed to pass the five-minute mark, and now it was almost over. "I guess I better get moving, then." He said before whirling around at an approaching sound that was as ominous as it was threatening.

~Rumble rumble rumble~

Midoriya's mouth dropped open as he slowly craned his neck to take in the sight of the towering villain bot approaching them at a slow, but unrelenting pace. 'This must be the fourth villain type—the zero pointer!' It was enormous, standing at least 15 meters tall and weighing hundreds of tons, the monstrous obstacle simply bulldozed its way through the buildings in its path as if they weren't even there.

"…Yeah," Midoriya muttered, "that's a hard pass for me." At this point, he knew a death flag when he saw it—he wanted nothing to do with that thing whatsoever, so he activated One for All and prepared to make his escape with the rest of the panicked, fleeing examinees. He had only taken one step before a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Owww…"

In response to the pained cry, Midoriya's head turned on its own in a mechanical fashion that would have been comical were it not for the sight before him—Uraraka, possibly injured and partially buried beneath one of the many piles of rubble that had been created by the titanic robot's wanton destruction. If she didn't move in the next few seconds, she would be crushed into paste beneath its treads.

With this realization, Midoriya's shock melted away, replaced by grim determination. She wouldn't die. Not while he was there. Not in this, or any other life—not when he possessed the power to stop it. And he did have the power now, he had more power than he could even handle. 'And now is the time to use it.' He had made his decision.

Midoriya released his hold on One for All, letting the boundless well of energy contained within him flow through his body in a surge of power that radiated out from his small frame like heat from a furnace. The small, intermittent green sparks that he'd been giving off had grown into crackling arcs of viridian lightning in a brilliant display that instantly drew the eyes of every examinee as well as the teachers monitoring the exam. Everybody held their breath, unable to look away.

Oblivious to the attention, Midoriya exploded into action, his immense speed causing him to virtually disappear from sight after leaping into the air with so much force that he broke the sound barrier, shattering nearby windows and cratering the pavement beneath his feet.

"Detroit Smash!" With a mighty cry, he clenched his fist and threw a single punch which hit the zero-pointer with unbelievable force, obliterating the machine, and creating gusts of wind so powerful that they blew away its exploded remains.

'She's safe…I did it.' Midoriya thought with a smile, feeling relieved. At least until his nervous system caught up with reality, and kindly informed him that he had fucked up. When the pain hit, it was—in terms of scale—unlike anything he'd experienced. Unlike his previous use of One for All at 100%—where the damage was highly localized—this pain was distributed throughout nearly his entire body.

He wanted to scream, but couldn't, because his ribs were broken and the muscles in his diaphragm were torn. He couldn't even breathe. It was easily the most severe injury he'd ever suffered without immediately dying. Unable to move, breathe, or even think, all Midoriya could do was look on helplessly as he plummeted towards the ground from several stories in the air. He closed his eyes and accepted the inevitable.

'Looks like I'm doing another run through…damn it…I thought I was done this time.'

Amazingly, even through all of the pain, Midoriya felt something small and soft slap his cheek right before the world went black.

HEROES NEVER DIE

For once, the darkness did not recede, and Midoriya felt as if he were floating in some kind of limbo, unable to move, unable to see, unable to think. But he could hear—in fact he could hear voice around him almost constantly—he just couldn't comprehend any of it.

"Never seen such horrible injuries from a simple exam…thinking, giving your power to someone so…"

"…unfortunate, but I have total faith in…successor."

"He still may die…you have to tell…"

"Please…Izuku…please wake up…"

"…had my son…secret from me!"

As the world slowly came back into focus, Midoriya opened his eyes. Not to the apologies of Uraraka as he had expected, but to the sound of several voices arguing—two of them familiar, the other was unknown to him.

'What's going on? I should be back with Uraraka…right?'

After blinking away the blurriness and letting his eyes adjust to the light, he tried to sit up and take stock of the situation, only to let out a low, pitiful groan when his horribly sore muscles protested against the motion. The noise immediately attracted the attention of the bickering adults.

"Izuku/Young Midoriya!"

"M-mom? All Mi—" Midoriya began, but clamped his mouth shut when he saw All Might in his true form, standing next to his mother and an unfamiliar elderly woman in a doctor's coat. "What happened?"

Seeing her son awake, Inko impulsively lunged forward to embrace him, but was stopped by the elderly woman, who blocked her with her wooden walking stick. "I know that you are emotional right now Mrs. Midoriya, but Izuku is sure to be extraordinarily tender. If you hug him it will only aggravate his injuries."

Inko nodded reluctantly, stricken at the thought of hurting Izuku and backed away from the bed with tears brimming in her eyes. "Izuku," she gently asked, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, mom." Midoriya automatically replied, the lie slipping from his mouth as easily as breathing. He typically tried to be honest with his mother, but she tended to worry, and he didn't want to burden her with useless complaints. "I'm just a little sore."

He fumbled for the bed control and sat himself up. "I'd still like to know what's happening. Where am I? How long have I been here? What happened with the test?" He glanced at All Might and gave him a meaningful look. 'What does my mom know about our relationship?'

The elderly woman spoke first. "Izuku, I'm Recovery Girl, the resident Doctor here at UA. You've been in our clinic for the last five days, in a medically induced coma."

Hearing this news, Midoriya snapped his head in the direction of the ancient healer so quickly that he had to fight to keep from wincing. "I've been asleep for five days?" His eyes widened. "Does this mean that I missed my 3rd year final exams?"

"Don't worry about that." Recovery Girl assured him, bemused by his sense of priorities. "We contacted your middle school, you'll be allowed to make them up. There might not be a lot of excuses considered acceptable by the testing authorities, but comas are one of them."

Midoriya let out a sigh of relief. "That's good," he replied, completely straight-faced. "I sure would hate for my GPA to suffer because of something as minor as a little coma…just kidding." He quickly added upon seeing the unamused expressions of the gathered adults.

"This is no laughing matter, Izuku." Recovery Girl scolded him. "The trauma to your body caused by the backlash of One for All was very severe. I was able to fix your most life-threatening injuries, but needed to keep you under as I treated the rest of your injuries—even now, you'll need another week for me to fix the many fractures throughout your body, so make sure to take it easy until then."

"A week?" Midoriya repeated incredulously. "That soon? How?"

Recovery Girl tutted. "My quirk of course. You didn't think Yuuei would allow such a dangerous exam without an ace in the hole, did you? People could easily die without me there to put them back together!"

"You don't say." Midoriya drily replied, overwhelmed by the irony. Realizing something, he startled, "Wait…you just talked about One for—" He quickly shut his mouth and glanced at All Might.

The emaciated hero coughed into his hand. "You can speak freely, young man. Everyone here knows. Recovery Girl was already in the know as to my condition and the nature of my quirk…and your mother…well, it was touch and go as to whether you'd make it or not, and I…ah…I felt that she deserved to know the reason why."

"Oh." Midoriya replied, "I see." He paused, and there was a pregnant silence in the small, but well-equipped clinic. "Besides the part where I nearly died, how did the exam go?"

All Might's grin slipped a bit, and Inko silently wept at Midoriya's nonchalant acceptance of his near-death experience. Midoriya sighed. His mother was aware of the true nature of his original quirk was—and she believed him, even if no one else did—but it was something she didn't want to think about. She didn't want to consider that her son had died before—hundreds of times over, in fact.

"Ahem, yes…" All Might said, "typically, you wouldn't get to learn your results except through the official school correspondence, but since the results have already been mailed out, I don't see why I can't tell you now." All Might's smile was dazzling. "Congratulations my boy, you passed the exam with flying colors!"

"Hm." Midoriya replied. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, somehow expressing his immense relief, exhaustion, and satisfaction in one nearly inaudible breath. "That's good."

"There's more." Mostly used to his protégé's typically understated reactions, All Might continued, "I didn't mention this during our training, but I actually came to this town for a reason. I have accepted a position as a teacher here at Yuuei."

Midoriya's eyes widened at the news. "Seriously?"

"Yes," All Might said, "as you know, my time as a pro is coming to an end, so I originally accepted the position in the hopes of finding a successor within the ranks of the students here—though obviously, my meeting you changed those plans." All Might gently laid a gigantic hand on Midoriya's shoulder. "I can't express how excited I am to continue watching over your growth my boy. You've exceeded all of my expectations—especially in your use of One for All."

"Really?" Midoriya quirked an eyebrow. "Not that I'm unhappy with the praise, but…" he trailed off and glanced meaningfully at the hospital bed he was still lying in.

All Might coughed. "Well, yes, while your move against the zero-point villain was…erm…it has room for improvement, I was actually referring to your performance before that encounter. When I was watching the exam, I almost couldn't believe it when I saw you use One for All with no issues at all!"

Midoriya's mouth twisted into a humorless facsimile of smile. 'No issues at all? Ha, if only he knew.'

"I suppose it went well enough up to that point." Midoriya allowed, "But even before I went all-out on the zero-pointer, my control slipped a bit and I injured my arm." He frowned minutely. "Clearly, I still have a lot of work to do before I can call this quirk my own."

All Might laughed. "A perfectionist, huh? That's a good personality trait to have if you're shooting for the number one spot, but remember to keep things in perspective my boy! You haven't even started school yet! It would be ridiculous to expect you to have One for All mastered so quickly! The fact that you have such a good handle on it after only using it once is incredibly encouraging!"

'Maybe it seems that way on your end, but I won't always be able to rely on a loop to bail me out when I mess up like that.'

"I guess. Do the other members of the staff know about our connection?" Midoriya asked, changing the subject. "I wouldn't want to let anything slip to someone who is unaware."

All Might shook his head. "Besides the people in this room, only the Principal knows about One for All."

Midoriya nodded and closed his eyes once more. 'God I'm so tired…I feel like I could sleep for another week straight.'

Almost as if she could read his mind, Recovery Girl shooed All Might and his mother out of the room. "All right, all right," she said, "out, all of you. Izuku needs his rest. Being in a coma is no substitute for sleep."

Midoriya was sound asleep before he could even hear his mother and All Might's goodbyes.

HEROES NEVER DIE

Bakugo was livid. His face was red and his eyes narrowed into slits as he screamed in Midoriya's face. "What did you do, loser? What shitty trick did you pull to beat me in the exam?"

'This wasn't the way it was supposed to go!' Bakugo internally raged as he roughly shoved Midoriya against the wall he had cornered him against following their graduation ceremony from Aldera Middle School. 'It was going to be the birth of a legend! MY legend! I was supposed to be the only one from this shitty school to go to Yuuei, I was supposed to be number one in the exams, but this quirkless shitstain stole it from me! He ruined everything!'

"Let me go Kacchan." Midoriya said, "That hurts." His voice wasn't angry or threatening, but his tone held no fear. "I'm still under doctor's orders to avoid any physical stress."

"Fuck you!" Bakugo slammed his free hand against the concrete wall, scorching the surface mere centimeters away from Midoriya's head. "If you want me to go away, then fucking talk!"

Midoriya sighed. It had been a long time since he'd had an encounter like this with Bakugo, but he'd known it was inevitable the moment he saw his official scores. He'd racked up a respectable 46 villain points during his rampage—enough to put him in the top five for examinees in that category. Even then, Bakugo's score of 77 villain points had literally blown the rest of the competition out of the water; nobody else even came close. However, Midoriya's stunt with the zero-pointer had won him a whopping 60 Rescue points from the judges, a feat which rocketed him into first place.

"I didn't use a trick." Midoriya calmly explained. Since he had known this conversation would occur sooner or later, he had prepared an explanation for the volatile teen ahead of time. "I used my quirk, just like you."

Bakugo grit his teeth. "You lying little…you don't have a quirk! Don't try to pull this shit with me you retard! Do you think I'm stupid?"

Midoriya rolled his eyes. "Kacchan, I know you aren't stupid. You're arrogant, belligerent, and the biggest asshole I've ever met in my life, but you aren't stupid. That's why you should know better."

"What are you talking about?" Bakugo's grip on Midoriya's collar tightened in response to Midoriya's matter-of-fact insults, but his curiosity outweighed his rage. "What should I know better?"

"Do you remember how you and the neighborhood kids originally taunted me?" Midoriya asked rhetorically. His voice took on a singsong tone. "'Deku, Deku, as good as quirkless; Deku, Deku, he's totally worthless.'" Midoriya paused for a moment. "Eventually you dropped the first part and went with just calling me quirkless because it was easier to say."

Trying to jog his memory, Bakugo furrowed his brow. 'Is that really how it went? I think I remember something about a song…so I might have said that, but it was so long ago, I can't remember…' "What does that stupid song have to do with anything?" He growled.

"Remember all those times I was absent in primary school? All that time I spent with doctors trying to figure out what my quirk was?"

Bakugo scowled. "Vaguely. I had better things to do than worry about your useless ass, now get to the fucking point before I get angry."

'Get angry? Is this what you consider being calm?' Midoriya wondered.

"Well," Midoriya smoothly continued, "shortly after the Sludge villain incident last year, my quirk finally manifested. The doctors I saw think that my quirk didn't manifest when I was younger because my body was too weak to use it without killing me. I had to go through an intense period of physical therapy in order to use it without breaking myself." He grimaced. "Even now, I'll still hurt myself really badly if I lose control. The reason I missed finals was because the backlash of my quirk nearly killed me."

Speechless, Bakugo let Midoriya go. "I…this whole time…you actually weren't…" For a moment, he looked truly lost, before the anger returned. "You just went along with me calling you quirkless! Laughing as you made a fool of me all along, is that it?"

"What? No!" Midoriya shook his head. "Are you even listening to yourself, Kacchan? I told you that I had a quirk until I was blue in the face, but you never listened." He shrugged, "Eventually I just gave up trying to convince you."

Bakugo was silent for nearly a minute. Midoriya could practically see the gears turning in his head. "…Fine." He finally spat; he stared at the ground so hard that it seemed as if he was trying to burn a hole in the pavement with his eyes. "I guess…" Bakugo looked like every fiber of his being was about to puke, "I guess I was…wrong about you."

Midoriya's jaw nearly dropped at the reluctant admission from his former friend. 'Now that's a sentence I never thought I'd hear from him.'

Bakugo raised his head and gazed unblinkingly into Midoriya's eyes. "You might not be the worthless bug I thought you were, but don't think this changes anything, Deku. I lost this time, but it won't happen again. I'm going to win from here on out, you hear me? I'm going to be the best hero that goddamn school has ever seen." Bakugo spun on his heel and turned to walk out of the alleyway. "Fucking count on it."

Unnerved by this series of events, Midoriya simply stood and watched silently as Bakugo angrily stormed away. After a minute of standing in mute shock, he pulled a small bottle of aspirin from his pocket and popped a few of them in his mouth to ease the aching of his bones. He shook his head and began his walk home. 'Yeah, that's just about all the weirdness I can take today. I'm going to bed.'

He would need his rest. School started tomorrow.

Chapter four is down for the count! I kind of struggled on how to end this one, but eventually just said fuck it. As always, let me know what you think with a comment or a review. Plus Ultra everybody!