Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The massive gates of U.A. High loomed before Izumi, an imposing monument of heroics. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a nervous flutter threatening to become a full-blown stampede. This was it. The entrance exam. Her dream, terrifyingly tangible. She felt small, intimidated by the sheer scale of the institution and the determined faces of the hundreds of other applicants surrounding her.

"Hey, you good?" a cheerful, slightly echoing voice broke through her anxious thoughts.

Izumi didn't initially respond, her mind still reeling, assuming the voice was directed at someone else in the bustling crowd.

"Yo, Green Bean, you good!?" the voice persisted, closer this time.

Izumi jumped, her head whirling around. Standing beside her was a girl with vibrant pink skin, short, curly pink hair, and two distinctive yellow horns curving gracefully from her head. Her eyes, a striking yellow with black sclera, sparkled with an almost infectious energy. Izumi blinked. Sure, why not. It wasn't the strangest mutation she'd ever seen, especially after dealing with a slime villain and her own talking nanites. And… she was certainly cute.

'Wait what!?' Izumi mentally shrieked, her cheeks instantly flushing.

"Your heart rate is elevating, Izumi," Omega 'helpfully' informed her, a faint, almost imperceptible undertone of amusement in her internal voice.

"I… Y-yeah, I'm f-fine," Izumi stammered, her voice cracking slightly, trying to pull herself together. "How are you?"

"Nice save," Omega commented, her tone dry and still carrying that hint of amusement.

"There’s no need to be nervous! Just have fun!"

"Y-yeah! Of course!"

The girl smiled wider before skating away, leaving a trail of some kind of viscous fluid substance.

Izumi jolted as she suddenly found a firm hand clamped on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder and was met by the stare of a tall boy with sharp features, dark blue hair, and a pair of glasses.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Are you taking the entrance exam to interfere with everyone else?"

"N-N-No, of course not…" She began, before another, much louder voice cut her off. 

"Okay start!" Everyone looked up to a nearby tower. It was pro hero Present Mic. "What's wrong!? There are no countdowns in real fights! Run, run!" He yelled while spinning his arm in excitement.

"Huh? Huh?" Izumi looked around to find the crowd was gone, already running through the gates. "What!? I…I'm behind already!" She screamed as she took off after everyone else.

As Izumi ran down a street after the crowd, an imposing robot came smashing out of a building. 

"One point!" She realized, remembering how the point system was explained. Each 'villain bot' was worth a certain number of points. This one represented an easy villain, so it would only give her a single point. That said, Izumi found the automaton rather intimidating. 

But as the bot prepared to strike, something happened. Deep within Izumi's cellular structure, her nanites began to emit an electronic whine whose pitch quickly rose higher and higher until…

Right as the robot was about to hit Izumi, thin, silver metallic plating began running down her right arm, quickly surrounding her forearm and hand in a much thicker cylindrical component. From this component, a square chunk of black nanometal sprouted, adorned with a U shaped handlebar. From its underside popped a handle, not unlike a hilt. Finally, with a mighty SHING, a massive green sword blade shot out like a piston! Izumi reflexively gave the sword a light swing, and was shocked when she found her attacker now perfectly cleaved in two. She looked at the big, shiny blade, her starry eyed expression reflected back at her.

"I have a sword!?"

"Absolutely stunning, darling!" She heard a voice call over. It was a blonde boy with an inoffensively smug look on his face. He wore a strange belt, which he used to propel himself away with a laser beam. "Keep it up, queen! You're fabulous!"

Izumi wasn't sure how to respond to that, but she had more pressing matters. Left and right, the other contestants were racking up hero points, she was way behind. Then, without warning, a gigantic robot that was much bigger than all the others erupted from the ground. 

'Isn't it a little too big?' She thought as she retracted her sword. She fell back on her ass, looking up at the monolithic construct.

As the robot lurched forward, the other contestants began to run away. In particular, the blue haired boy from earlier spared a glance at Izumi as he ran past her.

"Izumi! Get up!" Omega shouted, snapping the girl out of it.

"This isn't funny!" She cried. "I have to run away! I'll just grab points as I go…"

"Less than two minutes left!" Came Present Mic's booming voice.

https://youtu.be/QwACoXnNcwg?si=ItjE-e2CxtZNj-J3

"What!? Two minutes!?"

'Everything All-Might did for me.' She thought. 'All that training, it'll be for nothing.'

Izumi could only gape in despair, until she heard a soft voice cry out. Looking back, she saw a brunette with pink cheeks. The girl's leg was pinned under some rubble, and she was directly in the robot's path. Wait! She remembered this girl! Earlier that day, she'd saved her from an embarrassing faceplant.

Without thinking, Izumi ran toward the giant, determined to help the terrified contestant.

'Maybe I can shut it off!' She thought, before her mind was pelted with hundreds, millions, billions of tiny voices, including Omega's, all telling her the same thing.

"JUMP!"

Izumi did just that, and was surprised to find that she'd shot well over 100 feet in the air! Looking down, Izumi could see that her legs were now an enormous pair of green and black boots! As Izumi came up above the robot's head, she switched out the boots for her sword, and dove for it. She slammed her oversized blade down as hard as she could, slashing through the robot's big red eye, the sheer mass and impact of the sword causing a ripple effect that split the entire head right down the middle! 

Feeling the pull of gravity, Izumi switched back to her boots and kicked the now incapacitated robot with all her might, which the boots further amplified with some kind of thrust mechanism in their heels. The attack sent the robot flying a good 50 feet. She landed next to the brunette with a loud BOOM.  

Izumi recovered quickly and frantically looked around. 

"C'mon, there's still time! I still have a chance to get at least one more point!"

"Time's uuuuup!" Mic called out.

Izumi was in tears.