Chapter Text
Izuku sits alone at the back of the bus, his back against the wall and his feet up on the seat beside him. All of the students have their costume cases with them except Izuku, who just has his gym uniform in his drawstring bag alongside his notebooks and the sketchbook the third years gave him. True to his word, the boy won't be wearing a costume.
The bus pulls up to the exam site just before the former villain falls asleep, meaning he gets to drag his groggy ass out of the vehicle and immediately put himself on guard because good God is that a lot of people. Thousands stream through the gates before the class, a rainbow of uniforms, students of every shape and size. Someone nudges Izuku, who jumps and immediately goes on the defensive before realizing it was just Todoroki. "Are you still having trouble with crowds?" the taller asks quietly. Izuku shakes his head, then changes his mind and nods, pulling his sweater closer around his body. Today's is a mint green one that hangs a bit loosely on his lean muscle that Inko had sent with Aizawa when she heard Izuku liked sweaters. He really needs to visit her. "I'm here if you need me." Ever since that movie night, Todoroki's gotten a bit better about how he treats Izuku. He's stepped back across the line from overbearing to supportive and it feels so much less suffocating despite Izuku not knowing it was suffocating until that night.
Just as the greenette contemplates asking Aizawa if he can just wait on the bus and not take the test, some guy comes over to the class and says a few words, slams his head against the pavement, and says a few more. It's like he doesn't even notice his forehead's bleeding. As the guy's getting reprimanded by who Izuku can only assume are the guy's classmates, the former villain pushes to the front of the class, grabs the guy's hand, and pulls on a weak healing quirk. It's only good for superficial cuts and stuff but it's more than adequate here. As soon as the wound is healed, he's back to the back of the class and the other examinee doesn't have a chance to see who did it. It's better that way. He'd hate for anyone to feel indebted toward him for something so minuscule. He’d hate for anyone to feel indebted to him at all. No one deserves that.
"Hey, Eraser!" The cheery voice puts Izuku on-edge. It's so clearly forced and reminds him of… himself. The voice he would use for Hisade, like he was putting on a show and those around him were either actors or audience members. He feels himself get wrenched back to the USJ and immediately gets nauseous. How he wishes he could just block that out and forget the blood on his hands.
He looks over to see a woman with mint green hair and poofy, striped shorts approaching with a wide grin, her sights set on Aizawa. "Ms. Joke," the teacher greets, annoyance laced beneath his words.
The woman doesn't seem to care, though. "How've you been? It's been a while!" She then breaks into a fit of laughter, as if someone told an incredible joke. It just makes Izuku anxious. "Marry me!"
Aizawa reaction is small enough to go unnoticed by most, but not by Izuku. His jaw clenches momentarily and he glances away. His shoulders tense for just a second and he leans back from the woman, as if being that close to her makes him uncomfortable. As if the entire exchange makes him uncomfortable. "No," he replies, voice the same tired tone overlaying annoyance. She laughs again and Aizawa winces again, this time stepping back a bit.
Before the boy can even think about doing anything, his feet are moving, shoving his tiny five foot something body between the two adults. "You're making our teacher uncomfortable," he announces in a small but strong voice. "Please stop." God, what is he doing? Standing up to someone who must be a hero? Stupid boy. I thought I got rid of this type of self-sacrificing idiocy a long, long time ago. Because a day wouldn't be complete without our daily interjection from a dead supervillain.
This, too, comes across as a joke to the woman. She must be a pain to have a serious conversation with. "A new student? I thought you didn't take new students, Eraser! And I didn't see this one in… in the sport…s… festival…" Something in her expression changes and places a ten pound weight in Izuku's gut. She knows who you are and what you did.
Steeling himself, Izuku pushes his shoulders back a little bit more and forces himself to meet the heroine's eye. "Who I am doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're making our teacher uncomfortable. If anyone here should be bothering him, it should be his students. He has more than enough to deal with with us in his charge." His chin drops the tiniest bit and his head tilts just so, his demeanor going from neutral-bordering-on-protective to hostile in an instant. The light menace in his voice completes the persona. "Leave. Aizawa. Alone." Heart racing, the boy melts back into the class and stands by Bakugou, who nudges him lightly with his elbow and gives him a smirk that can only be described as proud-adjacent. “Why did I do that?” he hisses to himself.
“Dunno,” Bakugou replies, “but that was pretty damn entertaining. I didn't know you could do that."
"Neither did I," Izuku realizes with a hint of a smile. Maybe he can do this.
-
He can’t do this. “W-What do you mean I’m not in the same test as them? They’re all together. We’re in the same class. Why am I being separated?” A little ways away, the rest of 1-A files through a doorway, leaving Izuku alone.
The guy behind the counter types something into his computer. “It’s not a different test, it’s not a big deal and it’s not anything you should be worried about.” Too late. Izuku’s worrying. “It seems to be because of your quirk. You’ve been placed in a starting area with other strong and/or volatile quirks since your quirk isn’t registered. It’s still the same test. All that’s changed is the beginning location.” The boy’s mind is a motley of curse words as he heads numbly down the hall the desk person indicated.
This was a mistake. Izuku shouldn’t be here. This is for heroes-in-training. He’s not a hero of any kind. He can’t be a hero. They’re going to find out who-- what he is and they’re going to kick him out of the test or arrest him for existing and Jesus fuck, he just wants to go back to UA. The green-haired teen peeks in the lone door at the end of the hall and, seeing the room is nearly full, opts to stay outside the door. He wedges it open slightly so he can hear the instructions at least.
As someone who sounds incredibly hyper explains the test, Izuku does his best to shove down his panic. It’s been a while since he’s been alone like this. He doesn’t like it.
-
“Eraser.” Shouta doesn’t know what’s worse: the fact that Ms. Joke is approaching his seat or the fact that she doesn’t sound happy for the first time in his memory. “A word?” He doesn’t even get a chance to reply before she sits beside him and launches into a rant. “That boy from earlier. He’s the villain that attacked your class, isn’t he?”
Shouta glances at the drawstring bag next to him. Izuku had asked him to watch it during the test. “He was,” he replies as students file out into the playing field. Maybe she’ll drop it once the exam begins.
Ms. Joke takes his confession and runs with it. “You’d let a villain who murdered one of your students and laughed about it be anywhere near the other nineteen? Why isn’t he in jail? Hell, let him rot in Tartarus!”
The UA teacher glances over to his Ketsubutsu counterpart. “This has to be the worst joke you’ve ever told.” She looks almost offended. Would she still feel the same way if that were her student? Her nephew? “He’s a good kid with a good heart. He was forced into villainy at a young age, but has done his best to help people the entire time. The death of that student occurred because a quirk was used on Midoriya. The testimonies of the other students showed he changed far too quickly for it to have been voluntary and the quirk has been demonstrated for the staff. Ever since he’s come to UA, he’s done nothing but try to help others, even at the expense of his own safety. He may have been a villain, but he isn’t anymore and it was never willing. I suggest you keep all opinions about my students to yourself from here on out.” Here, Shouta stands and moves down the row, further from the heroine. Does she really think he can’t take care of his students properly? He’s not an idiot.
-
Izuku places his targets on his chest and his thighs, each covering a vital spot he’s used to defending: his heart and his femoral arteries. You’ve got this, he thinks as he moves through the field, following a group of three applicants through the city setting. If he can catch them off guard as soon as the test starts, he can be done. He’ll move on.
Poor kids didn’t know what hit them. The buzzer goes off and Izuku springs from the shadows, using Acceleration as he darts between the three, tapping their targets with one of the balls the proctors supplied. Apparently Acceleration is faster than he thought. “One examinee has already passed?” calls a voice over the sound system. “But the test just started!” Whoops. With an apology to the three he got out, the boy hurries toward the waiting area.
Then he looks up to see the hailstorm of target balls raining down from the heavens. His entire mind becomes a flashing neon sign that reads “FUCK” in obnoxiously bright colors that change with every flash. The teen shoves into a building and shuts the door violently behind him, pressing himself into a corner with his knees to his chest as the the balls crash against the building, slam the pavement outside, shatter windows and dent whatever metal they can find. “What the fuck was that?” he breathes as the noises come to a stop.
“Another applicant has moved on… after taking out the rest of the area. One hundred fifteen examinees taken out in one fell swoop.” Holy-- Izuku walks out of his building, seeing a figure on a roof down the street. That has to be them, right? The other examinee leaves the rooftop and Izuku waits in the shadows, if only to catch a glimpse of this person. Whatever quirk they have, it’s powerful. Thank God All for One never found them.
And it’s the guy from earlier. The guy that slammed his head into the pavement for no fucking reason. Izuku’s feet drag him out of the shadows and force him to meet this stranger head-on. “That’s a pretty strong quirk you’ve got there,” his mouth says of its own accord when the guy gets within earshot. What am I doing?! Stop it!
The other examinee, an absolute mountain of a human, beams at him. Oh, wait, this is the same guy from earlier, the one he had to heal. Fuck. “Thanks!” He then notices the fact that none of Izuku’s targets are red. “Did I not get you?”
“No. I hid in a building. And I’d already passed, so I don’t even think it would have counted.” The shorter starts heading toward the waiting area, still yelling at himself for instigating a conversation. He could have gotten through this without talking to anyone if he’d just kept his mouth shut.
His fellow student hurries to catch up to him, though his height makes five of Izuku’s steps equal to three of his. “You were the first one to finish?” Izuku nods. “The exam had just started and it was already announced! How’d you get three people out so fast?”
After a moment of thought, the greenette simply says, “Quickly.” It’s true. He was only able to do that because he moved quickly.
“Y’know, I really wasn’t expecting anyone to make it through from this area,” the guy says, stopping. Izuku stops as well, curiosity over what he’s going to do next stilling his feet. “Thank you for--” The taller teen’s head whips back and the shorter’s eyes widen, knowing exactly what’s about to happen.
As the other examinee swings his head down in another of those ridiculous bows, Izuku catches his head with his hands, strength quirk activating to keep the guy from eating pavement again. “Stop that! I healed your head once from that type of idiocy and I’m not doing it again!” Oh, no.
Their eyes meet, making the UA student want to book it. He feels like how Bastard looks when Izuku catches her trying to play with the toilet paper: he wants to run but running would make him seem guilty. “You did that?” Nervously, the boy nods. Oh, fuck. “That’s so cool! I saw the blood but was so confused because I didn’t see a wound, but that explains it! What’s your quirk? Is it just healing? Where do you go to--Oh, UA. That’s the gym uniform. Don’t you have a hero costume?” The questions come rapid-fire and all Izuku can do is blink a few times. This is too much human interaction. This guy has more energy than most of Bakugou’s friends combined and that’s terrifying. “I’m Yoarashi Inasa, by the way! It was probably rude of me to start interrogating you without even introducing myself!”
Why is he so loud? “Don’t worry about it!” Izuku smiles, realizing just how much his hands hurt from stopping this guy from consuming more than his daily amount of minerals. “I’m Midoriya Izuku, my quirk came in really late, so we don’t know too much about it yet, and I’m kind of new at UA, so there wasn’t enough time to get me a costume.” The lies roll off his tongue with a practiced ease that puts a bitter taste in his mouth. He might be good at it. He might have done it most of his life. That doesn’t mean he likes it at all. Especially lying to innocent people. “What about your quirk?” If Yoarashi’s talking, Izuku isn’t. That’s good enough for him.
Yoarashi carries the conversation well enough that they can get inside the waiting area before Izuku has to speak again. Even then, it’s just a few words. But as they wait for the other ninety eight students moving on, the former villain begins to participate more actively in the conversation, relaxing just enough that he can communicate casually. “I was supposed to go to UA,” the bigger teen admits after a bit.
“Why didn’t you?” asks Izuku, curiosity piqued.
By this point, quite a few other examinees have entered the room, maybe thirty or so. Not one other from UA. At least until… “Him,” Yoarashi says, a negative emotion creeping into his voice for the first time since Izuku met him.
And through the door walks Todoroki. “Do you mean Todoroki?”
“He’s as bad as his father.”
That protective feeling from earlier washes over Izuku once again, making his entire body tense. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says in an even tone, no trace of the awkward or semi-uncomfortable boy that had been taking part in the conversation just a minute ago.
Yoarashi seems to jump at the change of tone, giving him a bewildered look he only sees out of the corner of his eye. Then it skews toward offense. “I have no--?!”
Izuku cuts him off, actually looking at him this time with a piercing glare. “If Todoroki were anything like his father, he would be dead by now. The two are incomparable.” The other student gains a hint of fear in his posture, forcing Izuku to step back and reevaluate his actions. “I’m sorry. That was… rude. I went too far. I shouldn’t have… Todoroki was… He was the first person to treat me well at UA. That doesn't excuse it, but… sorry." He stands, leaving the other student with just one last bit of wisdom. “There’s a reason Endeavor’s hero license might be revoked.”
-
When Todoroki sees Izuku approach, he gives a small smile. “Hey. Glad to see you made it through,” he says when the newer student gets close enough he doesn’t need to yell.
“You, too. I think you might want to talk to the big guy who slammed his head into the pavement earlier, though. He's got some misconceptions and it isn't my place to clear them up. He's nice enough, though." He finishes that off with a slight smile, leading his… God, is this… Is Todoroki a friend? Does Izuku have a friend?
As he leads his… leads Todoroki to Yoarashi, the taller UA student checks in with him. If the amount of people is bothering him or anything. The green-haired boy says no, because it surprisingly isn't bothering him too badly, considering how few of these people he knows. "Were you waiting long?" Todoroki asks after a moment.
Izuku shrugs, hands sliding into the pockets of his sweater. "I mean… a little? I finished first, but Yoarashi was there and didn't set me off nearly as much as I would have expected, so it isn't as if I got very bored. He's like a bigger Kirishima with less 'I'm a manly man' in his every word." And Todoroki laughs, because this apparently counts as a joke. A pretty good one at that.
-
As Izuku asked, Todoroki and Yoarashi talked, the latter explaining his grudge after the former explained his situation. All in all, it was nice. The rest of 1-A also made it through, which was a bonus. Then the second part of the test started and he got separated from literally everyone he knew. "If you pull on that, the rest of the building will collapse on them," he points out, putting a hand on the piece of wall another examinee was going to yank out.
"Shit, thanks," the guy breathes. Izuku thinks he's one of Ms. Joke's students. Shindou or something. "What do you think we should do?"
"Why are you asking him?" a confrontational voice asks as a girl with tan hair and a hat like Yoarashi's steps out of nowhere. "Don't you know what he is?"
Great. His infamy has reached outside the confines of UA. "What I am is a kid trying for my provisional license, the same as any of you," he deadpans, daring her to try again with his eyes.
The girl smiles a smile that makes Izuku's skin crawl. It feels almost familiar for some reason. "He's a villain trying to play hero."
Izuku's teeth grit together. "He's a kid. Trying to fix his mistakes," he forces out, which causes the girl to laugh.
And something in Izuku snaps. Because he knows that smile. And he knows that laugh. And he won't fucking go back. Without a moment's hesitation, he lunges forward, grabbing the girl's face and digging his ungloved fingers into her cheek. Repossession grabs at her quirk like it was made to steal it and, for the first time, Izuku happily lets it. The disguise melts away to reveal blonde hair and blood-thirsty eyes. "Damn, Hisade," Toga croons as he sucks away the rest of her quirk, feeling it jump erratically through his chest cavity like a rabbit on cocaine. She smacks something against his back. "You always were too smart for your own good, huh?"
"She's a villain!" Izuku screeches, pinning her down. "Get the heroes! Someone get a fucking hero!" He looks out to see Bakugou and Kaminari staring from around the corner of a building not too far away. But they're not staring at him. They're staring
above
him. And his entire world goes black.