Chapter Text
February, 2247
The larger than life gates and walls loomed over Izuku, the anxious muttering of the fellow test takers getting off the bus behind him like buzzing in his ears as he tried to keep himself calm and focused.
Off to his side, standing nearest to the giant doors with him, Izuku noticed a brown-haired girl stretching, equally nervous.
Izuku wondered if he was even allowed to feel as nervous as he was, after the crazy ten months he’d experienced. Gaining a person who truly believed in him and helped him and kept him safe, discovering and learning magic, standing up to his bully and leaving Junior High, followed by an even more amazing six months where he didn’t have to worry about school, simply spending time with Harry-sensei, tripping around the globe to go explore the remains of the wizarding world or collect potion ingredients from magical plants and animals, having him over for Katsudon and a movie with mom a few days a week.
After all that, was he really going to be underprepared for a high school entrance exam? Based on how the theoretical part of the exams went, no.
If he felt nervous, however, then the kind-looking girl’s body language oozed with unhealthy stress.
Izuku scanned his surroundings, making sure the crowd was still getting out of the bus and the exam wouldn’t start too soon, and moved over.
Just based on the loose threads hanging from the girl’s training jacket, she didn’t have a lot of money to spend. Or this was a jacket she didn’t mind getting ruined. That could be it too.
“Uhm, hey,” he greeted, stepping in a position he figured she could spot from the edge of her vision.
The girl paused her anxious stretching and turned to him.
“You know, when I’m too stressed for something that’s about to happen,” Izuku began. “I like to think of how I’m going to spend my day after this is over instead.” He paused, softly smiling. “I’ll probably get Katsudon after this at the local store to congratulate myself for getting through this, and then go home to watch a movie with my mom.”
The kind-looking girl blinked at him. “I-I’m- I guess I’ll try and see if there’s cheap Mochi downtown, and then probably take the train home,” she said, beginning to fiddle with her fingers, taking care not to use her pinkies for anything, Izuku noted.
“I think I can point you to a good, cheap Mochi place,” He mused, thankful that she didn’t think him a loonie for walking up to her and saying that stuff unprompted.
The girl’s brown eyes lit up. “Really? I didn’t have the time to look anywhere before this. And I don’t want to spend too long wandering.”
“I’ve been there once or twice with my mom and…Sensei. I prefer my favourite food with more meat and eggs though,” Izuku admitted with a wry smile.
The kind girl laughed as she rubbed the chub on her cheek. “Fair enough.” She paused. “My name’s Uraraka Ochako. Thanks for the advice.”
Izuku smiled. “Midoriya Izuku. Glad to help relieve some stress. Do you think they’ll give bonus points for that?”
She laughed again, about to say something-
BZZT
Izuku and Uraraka jolted as the giant doors in front of them opened up, creaking at their massive size.
For a brief moment, he stood stock-still, staring in awe at the construction, and in dread at what awaited on the other side, but then the past ten months kicked in, and he dashed forward.
Behind him, a loud voice called out to everyone, but Izuku was already too focused on the robots coming into view that he didn’t hear what was said.
Realising he could barely see much of the main street in front of him, Izuku switched course to a nearby building.
Carefully, he envisioned a staircase of horizontal slabs of magic between him and the rooftop, and he gathered and condensed magic into his soles, ready to call the slabs of the staircase into being as he moved.
Without so much as a pause, Izuku reached the envisioned area and raised his foot higher than the ground, the magic in his sole contacted the newly formed Protego and he went up one step in the air.
Of course, he didn’t slow down for any of this, continuing on with the next step up. From an outsider’s point of view, Izuku simply ran forwards, before abruptly ascending an invisible staircase without slowing.
At the last step, he willed the slab under him to move upwards, just like how Harry’s self-made Protego Mobilis functioned, and he launched himself up the final bit to the rooftop. It was just a shame that moving for too long or at too fast a speed would cause the concentrated protective magic to lose coherence and begin to fray.
Upon landing back on a solid surface, Izuku turned to look at the street below him, spanning out to the faint boundary wall on the opposite side of the Battle Centre. After half a year of putting his all into his Air Walk technique he was completely confident in never missing a step.
Finally having a good view of the entire street, Izuku couldn’t help but grin in anticipation as he reached out his hands and began to close them into fists, straining under the effort.
In the time it’d taken him to get up here, only the speedsters had run through the opened gates and made any headway. Izuku would have to do this quick if he wanted to cash in on the most available points without endangering others.
Hands shaking from the exertion of clenching, Izuku saw the tell-tale sign of magic gathering into visible, fiery orange orbs around the multitude of bots spread out over the street. With his range, he couldn’t get to them all, but that was probably for the best.
He unclenched his fists, thrusting them forwards, and watched with immense satisfaction as the remotely created Blasting curses, courtesy of his special ability inherited from mom’s quirk, each immediately contacted their robot, and all ten bots exploded at once.
“Fifteen points,” Izuku mumbled as he moved to the other side of the building, noticing several robots creeping through the alleys.
.:“There are those who can assess the situation in- Oho, what’s this?” The clacking of paws on a keyboard halted abruptly, the current scene on the big screen transferring to a smaller screen with the press of a button an instant later, the past few seconds being replayed without prompting:.
He jumped down without hesitation, allowing a momentum slowing spell to cushion his fall, and immediately sprung back into action as he heard the bots lock onto him.
A projectile was shot at him by one of the robots, doubtlessly only as dangerous as a nasty bruise, but after months of going through this routine, Izuku dodged to the side, holding out his hand and grabbing the projectile as it passed with his magic.
In one smooth motion, he twisted on his feet, his swinging arms expertly guiding the projectile into a half-circle turn around him, and he let it shoot right back at the offending robot.
After several months, Izuku’s application of the Summoning, Banishing, and Levitation charms had blended together into something akin to psychokinesis, and he was more than happy to show it off.
.:“Principal Nezu, shouldn’t you be moving on to a different screen as well?”:.
Dashing forward, Izuku saw several more bots coming from side-alleys and crowding the way. Before they could shoot anything else, Izuku shifted to the side and slammed his arm into the wall beside him.
A moment later, several spikes erupted further down the wall, piercing the front of incoming bots and blocking the way. Yes, Izuku was right to argue that the extra motion helped him visualise the transfiguration that occurred afterwards, but secretly, part of it was purely because it looked cool.
Someday he hoped he would be able to create golems from the ground like Harry-sensei, but the man was right to tell him to prioritise making a well-rounded arsenal before delving deeper into one aspect.
With a quick banishment away from the pavement, Izuku launched himself into the air, clearing the mess of spikes, any stress he’d had at the start vanished in a rush of adrenaline and exhilaration.
As he began his descent, he slashed his hand at the three bots still in the alley, the severing charm cutting the robots cleanly into halves.
.:“How interesting. I wonder…”:.
For the next few minutes, this was how Izuku found himself navigating the alleys populating the Battle Centre away from the main street, jumping, impaling and severing bots, redirecting their projectiles back at them, and occasionally vanishing part of a bot that came too close to him.
By the time he exited back onto the main street, the entire space was littered with rubble and robot wreckages, with the occasional still functioning one.
If things continued like that, the last few minutes would have no robots left to hunt. How was UA going to deal with-
And then a nearby city block exploded.
Izuku paled as a behemoth of a figure rose above the high-rise buildings, blocking the sun.
.:“Please, show me what you can do…Midoriya Izuku.”:.
This was- Was this allowed?
The giant robot gripped onto one of the buildings on its way up, crumbling it to rubble.
Sure, run away from the 0-pointer, sounds perfectly reasonable in hindsight!
But what if you couldn’t run away?
Izuku closed his eyes and hoped the spell he’d tried out before would work. Sure, a spell like Homenum Revelio didn’t work on quirked people, and Harry-sensei’s tales of his ward-sight enchantments sounded too specialised, but there was something equally special about them anyway, and without any significant magic nearby to overwhelm him or muddle the view…
To be fair, ‘spells’ didn’t exactly sound right when there were no incantations or wands involved for him, his biggest barrier being his imagination, but when he had existing spells to base his off of, and he could visualise it…
He willed the higher concentrations of magic nearby to light up with an outward pulse of Lumos. The sight of one glowing silhouette right near the 0-pointer both made him ecstatic that his self-made technique worked, but also horrified at what would happen. And that wasn’t even mentioning any silhouettes close enough to get hit by debris.
His decision made in an instant, Izuku dashed forward, the road filled with robots and piles of rubble between him and the trapped person.
Immediately, three 3-pointers fired their projectiles at him.
With no time for detours, Izuku called upon a gale to rush past him, blowing the projectiles back at their shooters and giving him a boost at the same time.
Forgoing any time wastes by using his remote magic, Izuku shot out a fiery orange Blasting curse from his hand, splitting it into three halfway through by splaying his fingers in a harsh jerk, the three bots turning into wreckage as he ran past them.
Dashing past a pile of rubble, Izuku was nearly done in when a 1-pointer burst out of hiding. He ducked just in time to miss a swipe from its armoured arm, and brushed past its wheel with his hand as he moved past, vanishing the tire that kept it mobile and causing it to crash on the spot.
.:“Uh, what’s the principal looking so giddy for?” At the simple observation, the entire room seemed to grow cold:.
As the 0-pointer’s tank-like threads marched every closer, Izuku finally saw the owner of the glowing silhouette come into view.
The nervous girl at the entrance!
He applied a Sonorus to his throat, yelling “There’s someone stuck here! Help!” as he closed the remaining distance, thankfully with no further obstacles.
“U-Uraraka-san, hang on,” he said with a raised voice as he got to observing her situation.
“Midoriya-san!” Uraraka only noticed him now, eyes blurry from panicked tears. “You shouldn’t-”
Izuku ignored it, noticing that the way she was pinned by her leg would be easily removable, and he quickly vanished most of the piece of concrete with a brush of his hand, eliciting a gasp from the girl.
Her leg looked awful though, and it was a shame healing spells wouldn’t work. Thankfully he heard the sound of someone approaching…with engines?
He cautiously created a magic platform on the ground below Uraraka, as cautious as the incoming 0-pointer allowed him to be, and moved her and the platform back.
Turning, he saw a tall, blue-haired teenager who’d spoken up during the briefing approach.
With a sigh of relief, he moved Uraraka with him to the incoming teen. “Please, this is too slow. Can you carry her?” The teen nodded, equally urgently. “Great, please be careful with her leg.”
Another nearby building was crushed behind them, rubble flying all over as Izuku carefully cancelled the platform, letting Uraraka drop on the tall teen’s shoulder.
“W-We gotta leave!” she shouted, staring back at the incoming behemoth in fear.
“Don’t worry, we’ll leave post-haste,” the engined teen turned and sprinted away.
“Yes, you should go,” Izuku agreed.
“H-Hold on, why didn’t you include yourself?!” he heard Uraraka shout incredulously as she was rapidly carried away.
Izuku turned back to face the approaching 0-pointer, taking in the complexity of the thing to function at that size.
.:“Ah, what is that kiddo doing? Wait, is he the one ya’ve been observing, principal?”:.
Now, normally he’d say that emulating Katsuki in most ways was a bad idea. But for this…?
Izuku crouched down in a ready position, a feral grin coming over him as he readied his magic.
Before him, the 0-pointer’s eight, spider-like eyes locked onto him as it bent over.
“Let’s see what you got, big guy.”
Izuku readied a spell he’d seen in the textbooks Harry-sensei had procured from somewhere, and envisioned a magic rope several meters above pulling him up.
From an observer’s perspective, Izuku abruptly shot upwards, launching several stories up, before landing on thin air and dashing forward, continuing his upwards motion.
If this thing was built anything like a person, then its main servers would be up in its head, which was a trivial thing to reach if he watched out for the two hands.
Until several panels opened up on the robot’s main body, rockets shooting out.
.:“Hey, someone’s messing with my protocols on site B’s- Nezu!” A cackle rose up from the barely occupied chair:.
Izuku was only barely able to dodge the first, getting into a roll, something he’d never have been able to do without months of using his Air Walk technique.
At the sight of several more he knew he wouldn’t have the stamina to dodge them all.
Instead, he cast a Softening charm on the leading rocket, and hit it hard with a magic-coated fist, the newly charmed rocket grinding against his magical knuckledusters, losing enough momentum for Izuku to Banish it right back, sending a fiery orange Confringo after it, causing it to blow its payload and catching the remaining incoming rockets in its blast.
.:“These actions are highly irrational for your doing, Rat. What’re you up to?” The cackling only increased at the inquiry:.
Through the accidental smoke screen, the 0-pointer’s arm came creeping in, reaching out for Izuku. He paled momentarily as the fingers were well on their way to closing in on him, but thankfully the behemoth was on the slower side.
With only a moment to think about it, and with his feet beginning to burn from too much magic being concentrated for too long, Izuku jumped off the last platform, using a wind charm behind himself to speed up his forward momentum.
For one second, the metal of the 0-pointer’s closing fingers brushed past him as he rushed through the gap, and if the metal bent out of the way ever so slightly, well, that was just a small amount of accidental magic.
Clearing out on the other side, Izuku landed on the robot’s arm with a roll, the metal under him softened moments earlier, and his dash to the 0-pointer’s head continued.
.:“Wait, that young man looks familiar…”:.
Ahead of him, small turrets popped out of the metal, turning to lock onto him with red guiding lasers.
What was going on?! Defence mechanisms for if someone actually got onto the bot rather than running away?
The next step of his dash turned into a harsh stomp, Izuku’s magic forcing several sections to curl up into protective panels, the sound of bullets- made of rubber, he hoped- getting caught by the metal. Continuing his dash, he Banished them forwards, crashing straight into the turrets and destroying them. Rather flimsy, it seemed.
A sudden incline coming up ahead alerted Izuku to the fact he was about to reach the segmented joint on the 0-pointer’s arm.
The moment he traversed the first connector between segments, he put his all into his foot and Vanished most of the thin metal, jumping onto the next segment just in time for the 0-pointer’s forearm to begin plummeting to the ground, crashing into the buildings below.
Thankfully Izuku had already been rather high up when the hand had reached for him, so the incline of the upper arm wasn’t untraversable.
The sight of the 0-pointer’s other arm slowly making its way over to squish him like a bug only motivated him to speed himself up, relying on good ol’ stamina as he stockpiled more magic within him.
Coming to a halt near the shoulder, Izuku was finally close enough to the head, and with a metallic groan, the plate under him abruptly bent sideways, launching him across the gap between arm and head, the featherweight charm on himself drastically increasing the distance he cleared.
The angle had been off though, and Izuku was projected to hit the robot’s head a little below the top.
Readying himself, Izuku cast a momentum slowing charm and bumped into the head, vanishing small grips into the metal to hold onto.
Dangit. He couldn’t perform what he wanted if he was holding onto the side of the head.
As quickly as his limbs and magic could handle it, Izuku climbed the last metre or two to the top, vanishing handholds into existence as he went, and heaved himself over the ledge.
Dashing over to what looked like the centre, Izuku crouched down, hands pressed against the metal of the gigantic robot, and gathered as much magic as possible.
This idea better work at this large a scale.
.:“To think I would get to see something like this with my own eyes!” the principal cackled excitedly as he threw his paws in the air, eliciting several worried, confused looks from his fellow staff:.
“Excessive…” Izuku’s face scrunched up as he tried to ignore the soul-deep burning of overflowing magic in his hands, warning him of what he was trying to do. “Mana…”
The 0-pointer’s remaining arm, now heading straight for the top of its own head, was only a few metres away when Izuku twisted his hands in a wrenching motion. “Pulse!”
A concentrated shockwave of raw, unpurposed magic exploded through the robot below him, not showing up as anything for a normal person…until several loud sparks erupted from around its head, the robot’s red eyes flickering until the behemoth shuddered to a stop, shutting down with a low buzz as its electrical circuits were disrupted and short circuited.
Only a dull ache remaining in his hands, Izuku unsteadily stood back up, taking in the battle centre spread out in front of him.
.:“Did that kid just…”:.
A low, ominous groaning sound heralded an unexpected consequence of his shutting down the robot.
With one of the 0-pointer’s large arms now mostly overreached, trying to hit its own head when it was forcefully brought to a stop, the entire thing was completely unbalanced, and the slow but steadily increasing tilt forwards forced Izuku into cursing mentally, wincing at the burning feeling all throughout him as he got into a dash, attempting to gather magic through his rather sore channels.
Now, he could probably jump to the side and avoid any potential dangers, not having to somehow clear the giant, open hand of the 0-pointer’s frozen arm that blocked his way forward and then outrun the falling robot. But there could be people in the robot’s shadow…
And it’d be cooler.
Sue him, he was on a bit of an adrenaline high, despite the throbbing in his soul of too much magic stockpiling just moments earlier.
Bracing himself for the upcoming burn, Izuku jumped off the front ledge of the 0-pointer, moving his arm into a ready position as he approached the blockading, robotic hand, a wobbly grin on his face.
A fiery rope sprung into existence from his hand with a crackle, and with a smooth forwards swipe, accompanied by a harsh jerk of his wrist, the magical construct cracked through the air like a whip, the dark metal of one of the 0-pointer’s large fingers groaning as it was smoothly cut off from the rest of the body.
As Izuku’s jump neared its end, he Banished the severed finger with a grunt, getting it moving forwards just fast enough for him to meet it on its forwards trajectory.
Before he or the severed finger could touch the sloped arm rushing by beneath, Izuku transfigured the thick piece of metal into a thinner plate. In the same motion he used his version of Aguamenti to condense the atmospheric water into ice on the arm’s plating, right in time for him and the make-shift sled to touch down and continue its forward momentum in a slide.
.:Excited cackling increased in ferocity as others yelled their own exclamations of surprise, fear, and in one instance an exhausted groan of what the upcoming year would undoubtedly bring:.
The ice slide certainly was pretty wonky, definitely not a smooth ride as the arm tilted towards the ground with the rest of the 0-pointer, but the extra speed he got from using another Ventus as propulsion smoothed that out a bit.
Right ahead, the elbow of the awkwardly positioned robotic arm hit the ground, and Izuku knew sledding wasn’t a viable option for much longer.
With a pained grunt, he slammed his foot down on the sled, and a moment later the plating sliding below him followed his imagination, slanting upwards and turning into a ramp that brought him up in the air, narrowly avoiding the destruction that was the 0-pointer’s arm getting destroyed between the ground and the weight of the still falling chassis attached to it.
In the few seconds of additional airtime, Izuku realised he’d be in danger of shrapnel flying away from the collapsing robot if he didn’t watch out.
Not wanting to risk it, he threw out an area-wide Immobulus, hoping to catch any nearby debris behind him, which also caught his makeshift sled and wrenched it away from him as he continued his airtime. Not that it was of much use any longer.
So, with the ground approaching, and his magical capabilities spent near to his limits, Izuku softened the cement below him, landed with a roll, and with one last heave of rippling magic in his body, a half-dome of cement rose up behind him, a wave of heat passing by him on the shield’s sides made clear how good of an idea that’d been.
The sound of an explosion dissipated, leaving only the sound of metal groaning and rubble shifting behind him as he finally let the tension seep out of him, lying flush on the ground in heavy breathing.
.:“Oh yes. I can’t wait to see what more you can do, Midoriya Izuku.” The furry animal’s muttered words were only heard by a gaunt-looking man sitting next to him, himself too deep in thought to really take notice:.
Izuku didn’t know how, he didn’t even know this was possible, but he was sure he would feel the ache in his magic come tomorrow. Perhaps a downside to having magic be a physical part of him through his casting.
For a few more moments he simply lied on the ground, feeling the cold cement below ground him in more ways than one, the ripples in his magic feeling rather agitated at what it’d been put through, but he slowly heard the murmuring of others cautiously approaching the site.
With a grunt, Izuku got up on his arms and feet, before pulling himself back up on his feet with a wobble. He spotted the other examinees standing at quite a distance, and he slowly made his way to them, step by step.
The sound of his hastily made shield of cement collapsing behind him made him turn.
Behind him, the entire street was absolutely filled with the wreckage of the 0-pointer, bent plating, broken cogs, and haphazardly strewn wires barely recognisable as the behemoth that had terrorised the Battle Centre, the occasional flame dancing over the battle zone.
A disbelieving chuckle escaped him as he took in the sight.
In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t even thought of what he was really doing, not beyond his immediate area, but…
A half-wrecked joint sticking out of the pile sagged and sparked, unleashing a small ball of flames.
He did that!
Oh, it hurt like all bloody heck now and he was going to curse himself out come next morning.
But he did that!
THAT!
If there was one thing the around the world trips and expeditions with Harry-sensei had done to him, it seemed like…
“Woo-hoo!” Izuku cheered as he threw up his arms in excitement, small sparks of excess magic answering to his call. “Yeah!”
It’d turned him into a bit of an adrenaline junky.
The sound of murmuring behind him brought his view away from the wrecked 0-pointer, the previous crowd of examinees having come closer, staring at him or the wreckage behind him in awe, apprehension, or sheer befuddlement.
Near the front of the crowd Izuku could easily spot the tall, blue-haired teen that’d answered his call for help, Uraraka sitting on the ground near him, careful not to put any weight on her injured leg.
Izuku struggled to walk over, some of the other examinees stepping back as he came close.
Just a few steps away and his trembling legs forced him to relax…on his knees on the ground, with a thud.
“Oh dearies, look at all this mess.”
As the sound of an elderly lady ended the murmuring of the crowd, Izuku gave the girl he’d helped out from under the rubble a tired, awkward smile, remembering how she’d worried at his declaration of not running away with them.
He probably wouldn’t have said this next part if he didn’t still have quite a bit of adrenaline running through his veins.
“Uh…do you still want to know about that Mochi place I mentioned earlier?”
“And I don’t know if I passed now! What if they didn’t want anyone to take on the 0-pointer, let alone wreck it? What if I cost them way too much money and now they don’t want me? What if they’ll deduct points from putting myself at risk and destroying a big part of the battle centre? I lost count of the villain points I got too, so I don’t know if I got enough to even pass if they deduct points!”
Izuku worriedly continued to rant about his every worry to Harry-sensei, something that was quite new to him, given that he didn’t think mom would be able to take all that worrying onto herself along with her own.
He quickly lost steam after that last bit though. It wasn’t like he wanted his story to devolve into a worried rant, but it just kinda happened.
Harry-sensei hummed, sitting back on the conjured couch that sat in their warehouse.
After another moment of silence he leaned forward, the ghost of something Izuku didn’t like passing over him. “I just have one question. Did the girl go with you to the Mochi place afterwards?” he asked.
Izuku’s train of thought screeched to a halt, crashing off the rails and down the cliff at how unrelated that question was to the actual story he’d just told. “Huh? U-Uh, yes?”
The ghost of a grin turned into an actual one. “And what happened when you found it?”
After the train had derailed and went FUBAR, Izuku was now operating on a hand-lever railcar. “She- uh, she didn’t want to eat there alone so she asked if I could join her too?”
Harry-sensei’s grin reached his ears as he nodded in…respect? “Bloody smooth, Izuku.”
And then the railcar derailed too.
“W-W-W-What?”
Harry-sensei cackled as he slapped Izuku on the back. “You approach a girl and help her calm down, then a few minutes later you rush in to save her, and then you go and show off and climb and then take down bloody Giganto over here right in front of her and ask her out on a date seconds later.”
Izuku shot up in a panic. “H-H-Hold on! I didn’t even want to- We’re not even friends yet! A-And I would never- Why would I-” Izuku continued to stammer, his head turning red rapidly.
Harry-sensei continued to laugh, wiping a tear from his eye. “Wow, I didn’t even know you could be so smooth that both the recipient and the sender don’t realise it’s happening.”
“W-We just want to be friends! We haven’t even- Look!” Izuku went to open his backpack. “She was just as anxious about the exam as me, and she didn’t know anyone else who took it. So she wants to talk with me while we wait for the results and gave me- gave…me…” Izuku trailed off as he took his phone from his backpack, only now realising what he was saying.
Based on the now shit-eating grin on Harry-sensei’s face, he already knew what Izuku had trailed off from saying as well.
A surprisingly loud, bellowing laughter echoed through the warehouse as Izuku went on to imitate a strawberry, eventually relenting and awkwardly chuckling at da- at Harry-sensei’s infectious joy.
Izuku hadn’t seen it much over the past ten months, so he was more than happy to see it when it happened.
And if his current embarrassment had put his mind off of any worries he might have for the exam results. Well, that was a nice bonus too.