Chapter Text
“On your left, kid!”
Izuku moved instinctively to the right, narrowly missing a pale fist that whistled past his cheek. His assailant let out a loud shriek of pain as his fist smacked against the brick wall behind them instead of against Izuku’s malleable cheek.
“You fucker!” Tsubasa shouted, cradling his fist. Izuku straightened up slightly and took the chance to run away while the group of boys were busy.
“Oi, Deku! Get back here you fucking Null, we’re going to kill you when we catch you!” Bakugou screamed after him but Izuku hardly twitched.
It wasn’t really anything new, Bakugou and his cronies cornering him after school and trying to beat him up. It wasn’t new, and yet it had been years since they’d actually been able to land a hit on him.
Izuku had long ago learned to accept help from his quirk and because of that, he had become adept at sneaking away from most fights- much to his childhood friends’ annoyance.
There was a loud chortle beside him and Izuku looked up, smiling lightly at the ghost hanging in the air beside him.
“That was fun,” the ghost said, lying down on thin air as if he hadn’t a care in the world, bobbing alongside Izuku as he jogged and finally slowed to a walk.
“Fun for you maybe, but it was way too close for comfort for me.” Izuku retorted. “Thanks for warning me, by the way, Kiroku-san.”
Kiroku gave a non-committal hum.
“You would have been fine, Dori. What’s the point of taking all those fighting lessons if you never fight back?” The ghost asked irritably. “Those bunch of bullies would have been screwed if you’d fought back!”
Izuku smiled mildly.
It was an ongoing argument with most ghosts that Izuku was friendly with. From the day he had begun to see dead people, apparitions, spirits of the departed, or whatever you wanted to call them, they had begged and pleaded for him to fight back.
Izuku sighed.
“I’m just glad Shiori-chan wasn’t here otherwise we’d have to deal with a real poltergeist.” Izuku mumbled. Kiroku snorted.
“Shiori is the only one who can convince you to fight back against those idiots only because you don’t want to have to deal with her complaining afterwards.”
Izuku flushed slightly, unwilling to admit that it was true.
Of all the ghosts that hung around Izuku, he’d known Shiori the longest. Shiori was a little girl, around nine or ten years old that had been with Izuku ever since he was seven years old and he’d finally learned what his quirk was.
Shiori had been the one to explain everything he needed to know about ghosts to him and as he lost his human friends one by one- none of them believing that he could actually see ghosts, or thinking he was lying about it and was secretly quirkless- only Shiori had remained by his side.
“Where is she, by the way?” Izuku asked, but it was meaningless, as mere seconds later, Shiori stepped out from a convenience store wall and bounded up to Izuku with a bright beaming smile on her face.
“Izu-nii, they have strawberry milk in there. Isn’t that your favorite?” she chirped and Izuku couldn’t help his small smile.
Despite that Shiori was probably many years older than him, the moment he had surpassed her physical age, he had become Izu-nii and nothing else.
Ghosts, as it would turn out, retained their mental age from the moment they died. Despite existing for many years as a ghost, Shiori was still a child at heart and would never be anything but a child.
Izuku had long ago come to peace with this realization and now he just gently brushed his fingertips against her cheeks, brushing her candy pink hair from her face.
“It is my favorite. Should I go get some for a snack?” he wondered and, since he wasn’t alone anymore, Kiroku rolled his eyes and waved goodbye to Izuku and Shiori before disappearing into some apartment building to haunt.
“What’s wrong with Kiku-san?” Shiori asked, her cool body tucked against Izuku’s side. If he looked off to anyone, walking with his arm bundled against an invisible girl, no one said anything though he did notice a few odd looks.
“Oh nothing,” Izuku said blithely. “Kiroku-san just doesn’t understand living problems very well. He wants me to fight everyone no matter the consequence.”
Shiori nodded sagely.
“But Izu-nii is gonna be a hero, so he can’t fight everyone! Just bad guys!” Shiori said strongly and Izuku laughed. The ball of stress in his gut lessened slightly now that he was away from school and with Shiori again.
“That’s right, Shishi-chan.” he murmured. “That’s right.”
Izuku Midoriya was under no illusions that the path to herodom would be easy for someone like him. The trouble with invisible quirks like his was, as one could imagine, it was hard to prove.
Although he definitely had a quirk and he could, ostensibly, use it, no one had believed him when he’d told them that he could see ghosts and by the time he could prove it to them, his reputation had already been set and to go against that would cause more trouble than it was worth.
If anything, the mild bullying he’d faced just for being the smallest and quietest of the neighborhood kids had turned downright scary as they all grew older.
The worst of them all was Bakugou Katsuki. Izuku shuddered whenever the boy’s name even crossed his mind and it had nothing to do with his perpetually cold skin or the chill of Shiori at his side.
Bakugou had once been his best friend. They’d grown up together and had been friends since they were in diapers. As the years went on they had sworn to one day be heroes together but with the arrival of Bakugou’s explosive quirk- literally, explosive, he could turn his sweat into nitroglycerin explosions- things had changed between them.
Bakugou had grown impatient waiting for Izuku’s quirk to make itself known and it was too late, nearly three year later when Izuku realized that, no, he wasn’t crazy he really could just see ghosts.
Well, needless to say, seven year old Bakugou Katsuki had not been nearly as fascinated by Izuku’s quirk as Izuku had been.
“Are you thinking about Explody again?” Shiori asked and Izuku blinked from his thoughts, snickering at Shiori’s nickname for Bakugou. He stepped into the convenience store and picked out a few snacks, including his favored strawberry milk.
“No,” Izuku lied easily. “Just thinking about the entrance exam tomorrow.”
Shiori wrinkled her nose slightly.
“Is Kiku-san gonna help you?” Shiori asked, floating through the refrigerators and narrowly missing someone’s hand as they reached in to grab a drink.
Izuku waited until she was beside him again before replying under his breath- he’d already learned that holding one sided conversations was a pretty good way to come off as crazy.
“No, I asked Yuki-chan to help tomorrow, just in case.” Izuku said gently and Shiori glared.
“Izu-nii! Even though I’m just a kid, I’ve still been around for way longer than Yuyu-chan! Besides, you said my wings are very helpful!”
Izuku didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was the millionth time he was having this conversation with Shiori.
“You know I love your wings, Shiori-chan, but what if I need something more offensive in the exam? I can’t just fly away! Yuki-chan’s ice can make sharp and powerful spikes that can do some damage, and your gorgeous wings will be able to keep me safe too.” Izuku promised and Shiori grumbled a bit but accepted it.
Shiori’s quirk, when she had lived, was quite exceptional. She had the ability to manifest wings that would appear at her back depending on how much research she’d put into different types of wings. While she lived she’d only ever managed to create monarch butterfly wings as that was her favorite butterfly, but since Izuku had been able to borrow her quirk he’d put a substantial amount of research in to create different wings with her quirk.
When Izuku was eleven years old, he’d finally learned the full parameters of his quirk after sharing his name with Yuki, another ghost he knew. Once Izuku shared his full name with a ghost and that ghost shared their full name with him, then they touched, he could borrow their quirk as long as they were with him. With Shiori it was a bit different, he’d discovered after the experience with Yuki that he’d been bonded to Shiori for years and using her quirk was easier than breathing to him.
From then on he was pretty careful about what name he gave to ghosts and he always gave them the opportunity to not share their name with him. Once he was bonded to a ghost he could summon them to his side when he needed their quirk.
Over the years he had mostly practiced with Shiori, Yuki, and Kiroku, but he was bonded to an American ghost called Samantha as well and her quirk was elasticity, which he had practiced quite a bit with as well. There were a few other ghosts that Izuku knew and had either helped or trained with that had given him a blanket permission to call them if he ever needed to use their quirks, and he appreciated it greatly, trading these favors for many favors of his own.
Izuku arrived home and slipped out of his shoes, relaxing a bit in the privacy of his apartment. There was a soft hum of the television in the background and Izuku was unsurprised to go further inside and find Yuki sitting on the couch watching TV with an entranced expression.
The fourteen year old had died just before her fifteenth birthday and was obsessed with a show that she’d been watching in her home before her apartment building went down in a villain attack.
“Hey Yuki-chan,” Izuku greeted freely, watching Shiori bound inside and cuddle up to her “older sister”. It was a little amusing, to Izuku at least, that Shiori was the oldest of them all and yet she called him older brother and took Yuki, who had only been a ghost for less than six years, older sister.
“Hey Zuku,” Yuki greeted with a grin, ruffling Shiori’s hair. “You wouldn’t believe the fight I saw earlier! It was so cool, Kamui Woods and Mount Lady dealt with it.”
Izuku hummed. He was still a bit on edge because of the whole accidentally getting caught by his high school bullies while on an afternoon walk thing.
He startled slightly as his phone rang and reached over to pick it up before it went on for too long. He noticed the caller ID and barely contained his small sigh. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and accepted the call even as he slumped against the couch.
“Hey mom.”
“Izuku! My baby!” Inko Midoriya cried. “Oh, how are you my sweetheart?”
Izuku swallowed, hating the way his mother had the ability to transform him into a little boy despite his best efforts to grow and be independent.
“I’m doing fine, mom. Just preparing for the exams tomorrow.” He said, knowing full well that he was opening the door for-
Both Shiori and Yuki glared as Inko immediately went on a loud tangent about her “baby” hurting her and making her stress all the time since he was “quirkless” and “weak” and would just end up getting hurt.
“I’m not quirkless, mom, even if no one believes in me, I know the truth and I would like to think you know the truth too, but you refuse to believe in me so all I can do is go to that exam tomorrow and prove it to you.” Izuku said coolly. “I’ll prove it to you and to the world.”
Without waiting to hear more of her simpering, he hung up the call irritably.
“Seriously, it’s been years. She saw my wings and she still doesn’t believe that you have a real quirk?” Shiori said with a deeply unimpressed look on her face and Izuku just shook his head with a small smile.
There wasn’t much to say there. As soon as Izuku was old enough to take care of himself his mother had taken a job considerably far away and had left Izuku to fend for himself, only doing the bare minimum to pay rent for a few months on a shitty apartment and have groceries delivered once a week, if that. In the beginning she called once a week, since he was only twelve, but as the months passed those calls tapered off to once in a blue moon. She would visit once in a while and show up for any school meetings she was needed at, but since he’d started high-school those visits had dwindled until now, it had been years since he’d actually seen her.
Sometimes he indulged her, talking to her and steering clear of all triggering topics for the woman, and other times, like today, he simply got it out of the way to end the conversation faster so that she wouldn't feel the need to call him for another few months, hopefully.
Nothing would get Inko Midoriya to stop talking like Izuku reaffirming his dreams of being a hero could.
Izuku had worked hard to study his quirk but that wasn’t all he did. He didn’t want to rely on ghosts’ quirks in order to be a hero, no, he had to do it on his own merit as well.
Most of his free time was spent training physically as well as earning money online to fund the things he was sure his mother wouldn’t pay for. Such as the gym where he trained with Shiori, Yuki, and Kiroku, as well as the dojo where he had been learning martial arts for a few years now from a mixture of his alive trainer- Ishimoto-sensei- as well as from the long passed away Arashi-sensei, who haunted her dojo to make sure things were being run properly.
Now, ready to complete the Entrance Exams for UA Academy, Izuku had never felt as prepared as he felt now, and yet there was still a flicker of anxiety running through his veins.
Perhaps it was Katsuki Bakugou standing over him, his rough voice and the popping sound of explosions in his ear, his voice demeaning,
“Don’t even think about applying to UA, Null. I’m going to be the only student from this shithole that gets into UA.”
Izuku sighed, flopping onto his couch with Yuki and Shiori. He had prepared a fairly simple dinner, just some miso soup and rice since it was just him eating.
“Just forget about everyone, Zu,” Yuki advised. “You don’t need them. You have us, and we’re way better than everyone else.”
Izuku snorted. That he could fortunately agree with. He’d been truly blessed to meet his friends and he knew that without them he would have been terribly lonely. All of his friends were ghosts, after all.
The next morning Izuku was woken early by Shiori and Yuki in order to have enough time to have a big breakfast and take the train to UA. He made a hearty breakfast since he would have to expend a lot of energy during the exams.
Even though he wanted to, he didn’t dare do any extra studying.
“Just trust yourself, Dori-chan,” Mrs. Kitakani, the ghost that haunted the stairwell, said calmly, puttering around Izuku’s apartment. She’d come to wish him well and do some tidying around the apartment so that he could come back to a clean home. Izuku’s quirk gave strength to ghosts so most ghosts that spent enough time around him were typically stronger and could interact with the living world. Mrs. Kitakani had known Izuku almost as long as Shiori had, though they weren’t nearly as close. Still, she was the closest thing to a mother and caretaker Izuku had when he was a child, even while his own mother was still living there, and more so after she left.
“You know all the content, you’ve studied so diligently and you’re heaps smarter than most kids your age!” She complimented, reaching out and stroking Izuku’s hair gently. Izuku leaned into the touch despite himself.
Izuku smiled dryly, not commenting on his doubt. A few other ghosts poked their heads in to wish him well and he was grateful for the support.
He wore a simple pair of sweatpants and packed an extra pair just in case. He was wearing a shirt that he would be able to remove easily in case he had to use Shiori’s wings, and he’d packed an extra one to wear back home.
He slipped into a jacket and a pair of shoes and packed a few granola bars and a bottle of electrolyte water as well as his phone and house keys and train card.
“Alright!” He announced. “I’m off, wish me luck everyone!”
“Good luck, Dori!” A chorus of ghosts cried and Izuku smiled, leaving his TV on for any of the ghosts who wanted to pass some time watching whatever popped up.
Yuki and Shiori tailed him. Outside, Kiroku appeared and gave him a sporting clap on the back.
“Give me a call if these girlies can’t help you out, Dori,” Kiroku had shared names with him but seemed to like calling him Dori either way. “Who knows, maybe you fight in a desert and you have to manipulate sand.”
When Kiroku died he’d only been able to manipulate and move sand, but with Izuku’s input and training they had graduated to being able to form rocks and even gather small sandstorms and were working on tornadoes now.
“I’ll be sure to, if I need you, Kiroku-san.” Izuku said pleasantly, out loud since he was walking alone.
He made it to the train station and was grateful that Bakugou wasn’t there. His parents were probably taking him to the school so it was doubtful that he’d run into anyone he knew.
There were a few ghosts on the train and when Shiori and Yuki boasted about Izuku’s quirk and where he was going they all wished him well. His cheeks were a bit pink as a few of them even wanted to tag along to watch him in the exam.
“Remember, if you want to be Izu-nii’s friend you can share your name with him and then he can use your quirk to be a hero!” Shiori announced happily. “Izu-nii likes my quirk best though!”
Izuku reddened as the ghosts snickered and snorted.
“Oh yeah, squirt? What’s your quirk then?” an older boy asked with a charming grin. Shiori puffed her chest out.
“I make really pretty wings!” She revealed. “If Izu-nii studies wings really well then he can make bird wings, but all I could make were butterfly wings.”
“That’s a really cool quirk,” the boy said earnestly. “All I can do is make things unlock.”
Izuku thought this was an extremely helpful quirk, personally, but other ghosts didn’t seem to think so. If he were alone he might have mentioned something but alas, he would look like a real psycho if he suddenly started talking to invisible people- he was, of course, talking from experience.
When the train finally came to a stop Izuku stepped off, finding himself inexplicably with an entourage of at least seven or eight ghosts.
Now that he was walking alone he chatted with them and even ended up sharing names with the lock-picking ghost who he learned was called Eiji Hitori.
In front of the UA gates, Izuku paused and stared for a moment. He couldn’t quite believe he was really there and yet he was. He took a deep breath, feeling Shiori and Yuki at his side, and took his first steps towards herodom.
Despite the impressive size of the buildings, the grounds were crawling with people and it was all a little confusing to navigate but fortunately they had a lot of staff helping out and Izuku had to genuinely bite his lip when he was given a schedule and map by a clone of the Pro Hero: Ectoplasm.
The ghosts ended up leaving his side since they were walking into too many people, causing a bunch of people to give him a wide berth as if they thought it was him making them cold. Izuku blushed at that.
Hitori laughed.
“We’ll go watch from the rooftops, Dori-kun,” he said, “give me a holler if you need to unlock something super desperately.”
Izuku wanted to laugh but he held it in as well as he could. The ghosts disappeared, leaving him with just Shiori and Yuki.
He made his way to the large auditorium where the general exams were taking place and he followed the swell of people inside, taking a seat at one of the free spots when he noted that they weren’t being separated into sections at all.
Each table contained a folder and a UA branded pen, nothing more and each section was separated by a cloudy glass to stop people from cheating.
There was a girl next to him that seemed to have gills against her neck and on his other side sat a boy with seaweed for hair. He smelled quite strongly and Izuku’s nose twitched despite himself.
Behind him, Yuki and Shiori were giggling and trying to touch his slimy looking seaweed hair. Izuku sent them a Look and Yuki pouted but obediently stopped and made Shiori stop too.
“Welcome!” Izuku turned to the stage, having to stop himself from grinning as he recognized the Pro Hero: Present Mic standing on the stage. “Alright, we’re getting right into it, yo! You have two hours to complete the packet in front of you and when you’re finished you can bring it on up here and if you are taking the Support Course exams, please go directly through Door 1, if you’re taking the Hero Course Exams, please go through Door 2, and if you’re finished with just the General Studies course, then please make your way to the exit through Door 3!”
“You may all open your files in 3, 2, and … Go!”
Izuku didn’t waste a single second and immediately opened his folder. He didn’t write anything, choosing to speed read through it instead so that he could get an idea of what he would have to go through. He’d already warned Shiori and Yuki not to look at the others’ answers or to try and help him cheat.
Izuku focused on his exam, writing at a steady pace without thinking too much of the time passing. There were multiple pages for the exam and towards the end there were several optional pages depending on what course he was aiming for. Izuku ignored the support course pages and continued onto the Heroics portion.
The questions were simply answered enough, a mixture of multiple choice and then questions that demanded written answers.
The final question on the paper was quite simple and Izuku blinked.
Why do you want to be a hero?
He thought for a moment before swallowing his emotions and placing his pen against the paper.
All my life I have only ever been able to hold the affections of those that have already died. I wish to be a hero that can look among the living and give them hope, to let them see another day with living, breathing chests, and bodies full of blood and life. Eyes that glisten, and a mind that continues to grow. I want to be a hero that gives people a chance to live, even just a single second longer with their loved ones.
It was about as honest as he could possibly be and with that finished, he was done. He looked up, blinking to realize that an hour and fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the exam. No one else seemed to be done and the two beside him seemed to be actively panicking.
He felt a little embarrassed to be finished first but since there was time left he figured it would be good to go and have one of his snacks while he waited for the practical exam.
Izuku stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. A few heads looked up at him as he stood before returning to their pages with even more fervor.
“Izu-nii, you’re finished! You’re so smart!” Shiori cried out across the room and Izuku barely concealed his wince at the loud noise, seeing his little ghost friend hanging around an oblivious Present Mic.
The Pro Hero in question was looking at him as well, looking a little surprised and Izuku colored a bit. He placed his folder down and Present Mic gave him a small smile.
“Finished?” He asked softly. “Which door?”
“Two,” Izuku replied, just as softly. “Can I eat in there?”
Present Mic seemed a bit surprised but nodded eagerly, gathering his folder.
“Sure thing, listener,” he encouraged. “Come on, I’ll get you settled.”
Izuku was going to protest but Present Mic made some sort of signal towards the roof and then a clone of Ectoplasm walked through to take his place at the front table while Present Mic led Izuku through Door two.
“First time in a while a student has finished this early,” Present Mic said, marginally louder now that they were enclosed in a room. The new room looked pretty similar to the last one, but a bit smaller. “Feeling confident?”
“Oh, er, I didn’t even think about anything but finishing.” Izuku admitted embarrassedly. “I knew I’d spiral if I went to look back through it so I just finished it and closed it.”
Present Mic laughed loudly, his voice echoing slightly. Only Izuku could hear Shiori and Yuki laughing with him.
“I’m sure you did fine, anyway, you’re the first one done so you’re in the first section of participants, examinee 1.” Present Mic gave him a little square of fabric to wear over his clothes that had the number ‘1’ printed on it and Izuku pursed his lips.
“Do we have to wear these during the examination?” he asked and Present Mic blinked and nodded.
“Will it interfere with your quirk?” He asked wisely and Izuku nodded slowly.
“I’m wearing a shirt that I can easily remove, but if this covers my back then it will probably get ripped or torn away. Could I wear it over my hips instead?”
Izuku demonstrated and Present Mic laughed and nodded his head acceptingly as he tied the fabric around his waist, displaying the number one over his butt.
“That works for me!” Present Mic said with a grin. “Good luck out there, little listener!”
Izuku smiled, watching the pro hero walk back through the doors, leaving him alone with the ghosts.
“He’s super cool!” Shiori squealed. “Izu-nii, you did so well!”
“We don’t know that yet, maybe I wrote down all the wrong answers and I failed.” He teased and both Yuki and Shiori smacked his shoulders, making him snicker, seemingly to himself.
He pulled out his electrolyte water and a granola bar and managed to calm his nerves a little. Another twenty minutes later and the first students were coming in for the Heroics exam. Izuku slunk a little lower in his seat when he noticed Bakugou on the other side of the room. He tried to stop Shiori and Yuki from bugging him but with so many people in the room he could hardly tell them and instead Bakugou had to sit there, obviously shivering and glaring at everybody distrustfully as the two ghosts took turns walking through him and snickering.
They only stopped once the room was full and Present Mic was once again there and standing on the stage to talk about the exam.
To Izuku’s incredible amusement, the exam was, in fact, robots.
He really should have expected something like this, but he wasn’t unhappy with the exam. As expected, Yuki’s quirk would come seriously in handy and the ghost was already preening while Shiori scowled.
“You’d better use my quirk too, no matter what, Izu-nii!” Shiori demanded. “You can fly away from them and use Yuyu-chan’s ice to shoot big ol’ shards at them!”
It was a pretty sound suggestion, all things considered, and Izuku nodded ever so slightly, showing Shiori that he agreed and his little sister beamed at him.
“Alright! Examinee 1 to examinee 20! Please head out to bus one, they’ll be taking you to your testing site! 21 to 40, bus two, and so on, I’m sure you can count yourselves in groups of twenties from there!” Present Mic said and Izuku grinned as he made his way out with twenty other students.
The bus wasn’t cramped at all and Izuku took a moment to observe the students around him. Other than Shiori and Yuki there weren’t any other ghosts on the bus with them and he was somewhat relieved.
“You there! Examinee 1!” Izuku blinked, realizing a dark blue haired boy was scowling at him. “You should wear your number appropriately! If you’re just here to mess around then you shouldn’t even be here!”
Shiori and Yuki gaped and stood, outraged.
“Er, I have permission to wear it like this.” Izuku said awkwardly, becoming a little alarmed when the boy chopped his arms right in his face.
“What reason could you possibly have for wearing it over your waist? This is disrespec-” he didn’t get a chance to finish before he shuddered with the combined effort of Shiori and Yuki. Before he could talk again, the bus came to a stop and Izuku slipped out as fast as he could, taking in the urban city grounds in front of them and hoping the boy wouldn’t follow him.
Once everyone was off the bus, Present Mic’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Okay, start!”
Izuku didn’t waste a single second before he was sprinting forth. As he ran, he called Yuki and Shiori to him and, though he couldn’t see it himself, he knew that one of his eyes mirrored Shiori’s calm green eyes, while his other held Yuki’s crystal blue. He didn’t think, he just moved.
❋
Shota usually hated this time of year. Entrance exams.
It was all so hasslesome, honestly, but he tried his best to not get too disenchanted with the new batch of students. His last class had truly taken the award for most useless and he’d ended up expelling the lot of them.
He’d only managed to find potential in two or three of them and they’d joined 1B’s class instead while he taught his previous class- which was markedly smaller than a usual classroom- for a second year of homeroom.
But now, here he was again, waiting for the next batch of kids to teach.
“Anyone stand out?” He asked idly. They were all gathered in the control room, eyes glued to the stagnant monitors while they waited for the buses to arrive.
“A few,” Nedzu said thoughtfully. “I’m interested in Examinee 1. He finished his General and Heroics exam in an hour and fourteen minutes.”
Shota hummed, not really thinking all that much since it was possible the kid just wrote whatever- he certainly had seen that before.
“Did he do well?” Nemuri asked curiously, rifling through the stack of folders with a small frown. “Which one is it? Kami, there’s a million of them this year!”
“It’s under "M,” Nedzu said distractedly. “Midoriya Izuku.”
Nemuri rifled a moment longer before reaching the right one and pulling it out. Her eyes flickered over it, speed reading through his General Exam papers before she skipped straight to the back to read the Heroics section.
“Huh.” She said, sounding a bit perplexed. “Well, you don’t see that everyday. What a curious answer.”
“What is it?” Hizashi asked, bouncing on his heels. He was standing at the observation deck but could clearly still hear them. “He was super polite, very cute, asked if he could wear his number around his waist cuz of his quirk, whatever it is.”
“The last question, the one about why they want to be heroes. You know how many we get that just want to be famous, or want to be like All Might?" At their hum she continued, "Well, this one said,” Nemuri paused to get to the right place, “All my life I have only ever been able to hold the affections of those that have already died. I wish to be a hero that can look among the living and give them hope, to let them see another day with living, breathing chests, and bodies full of blood and life.”
Shota blinked, utterly confused. He wasn’t the only one. As Nemuri read, a few of the other teachers looked up and even Hizashi looked over with a confused frown.
“Eyes that glisten, and a mind that continues to grow. I want to be a hero that gives people a chance to live, even just a single second longer with their loved ones.” Nemuri finished, placing the paper down and looking up for their reactions.
There was a moment of stark silence.
“What an interesting student.” Nedzu commented and Shota silently said a prayer for the kid on the off-chance he got into UA.
A chill seemed to go down Shota’s neck and he sighed, rubbing the skin there. He’d always run a bit cold and he’d had cold shivers often over the years so it really wasn’t much of a surprise to him, though it was still annoying.
“What’s his quirk?” Vlad King asked with a grunt. “First bus is here, that should be his one.”
Nemuri stood up, once again rifling through a bunch of papers at the speed of light. It wasn’t her quirk, she was just that used to going through paper files at an alarming rate. She pulled out a sheet and her brow furrowed further.
“Midoriya Izuku, eighteen, his quirk is … Medium?” she turned to face them, holding the sheet of paper. “It just says Medium, and the section where it’s supposed to explain the quirk is blank with a note from the quirk counselor saying that Midoriya could never prove the existence of his quirk but that multiple sources indicate he has a quirk factor.”
Shota rose up from his slouch slightly, holding his hand out for the paper. Sure enough, it was exactly as Nemuri said and he frowned.
“What the hell is his quirk then?” He asked rhetorically. Nedzu pressed a button and one of the cameras panned to training ground 1 where the students were disembarking from the bus. One of them, Midoriya, he noticed by the number 1 on his hip, was the first off the bus and he looked somewhat flustered.
“We’ll find out in due course.” Nedzu said soothingly. “Let the trial … begin!”
And so it began. Shota was quite proud to see that Midoriya ran off the second Hizashi started the exam while others hesitated, forcing him to scold them.
Shota was already scribbling notes as he watched. The first note of Midoriya’s quirk came in the form of a pretty decent bolt of ice that appeared out of nowhere and pierced straight through one of the robots.
“Okay, so he has an ice quirk?” Shota asked confusedly. “How is that not proof of a quirk?”
It was confusing. Midoriya was obviously familiar with his quirk and he used it well, flitting all over the urban setting and even employing some impressive parkour as he took down the robots. Shota tried to pay attention to the other students as well, not just in the first section but in the others as well.
There were a lot of impressive quirks, and yet somehow his eyes kept wandering back to Midoriya.
And not a moment too soon- the Zero-Pointer had just been released- Shota watched as students in all the courses ran for their lives.
All except one.
Shota watched, mildly alarmed, as Midoriya ran towards the hulking robot, pausing in front of it. Nedzu didn’t even need them telling him to adjust the camera, he did it himself and gave them a new angle, showing another student, a girl, trapped beneath a piece of concrete.
“Audio.” Shota demanded. The room was filled with noise, but they could hear the two speaking above it with some careful muffling from Nedzu.
“ -limit and then I throw up! ”
“ Okay, well don’t worry, I’ve got you, okay? ” Midoriya said soothingly. He seemed to concentrate, eyes flickering towards the robot that seemed to be getting even closer to them. Shota noticed the strange color of his eyes, one green and one blue.
A pillar of ice shot up from the ground, jolting the rock off of the girl but their time really was getting thin and Midoriya seemed to notice it as he grabbed the girl’s hand, pulling her into his arms.
“Nedzu-”
But it wasn’t necessary to power down the robot because right there before their eyes, Midoriya ripped off his tank top, momentarily shocking them all at the sheer absurdity- the girl in his arms seemed equally distracted by his muscles- as a pair of dark wings burst from between his shoulder blades.
Midoriya took to the air, wings beating against the wind as he adjusted his grip on the girl and took them to safety.
Shota wasn’t the only one gaping at the screen.
“Where the fuck did THAT come from?!” Nemuri balked. “ Wings ? What about the ice?!”
None of them had an answer for her. It was too perplexing. Never before had they seen such a bemusing quirk. Even Nedzu looked confused and that really was a first.
They watched as Midoriya landed, placing the girl safely on the ground and his cheeks pinkening in embarrassment. His wings seemed to stretch and flutter behind him before pulling closer and disappearing with a small pop.
Nedzu pressed the button to end the exams and they all stared at the screens.
“I call dibs.” Shota said into the silence and immediately voices erupted among them but Shota stayed firm.
There was no way anyone else but him was getting the enigma that was Midoriya Izuku and his strange quirk.
As if agreeing with him, he shivered slightly at the cool breeze over his neck.