Chapter Text
Izuku stepped out of the car to the sight that he’d seen so many times before. The U.A. Entrance gleamed in the late morning sunlight, as magnificent as ever.
Hizashi stepped out of the car next to him. “Feeling ready for this, Little Listener?”
Izuku nodded with an excited smile.
“You’ll do great. You’ve already got recommendations from Sho and I, with your smarts and skill there’s no way you’re not getting in.”
They’d gotten there 45 minutes early so Hizashi would be there as everyone arrived so the place was still pretty quiet. Izuku was confident he’d do well. The written part and the interview were a breeze and the obstacle course was something he’d been running for weeks now in preparation with Shouta. His best time was just under 12 minutes. He knew he probably wouldn’t get first, but he also probably wouldn’t get last. The recommendation exam was certainly a lot easier to pass than the general exam. Hizashi had shown him the robots those students would have to face and it made Izuku really glad he knew the people he did.
It’d been over two and a half years since Shouta and Hizashi had taken Izuku in. Two years and three months since the court case against his mom had gone through and they’d officially adopted him. In that time, they’d been homeschooling him so he wouldn’t have to deal with going to another Junior High where he’d not only be the quirkless kid but the new transfer kid as well. Well, by “homeschooling”, it was really more like taking online classes, and every day was Take your Kid to Work Day. Every day, while Shouta and Hizashi were teaching their classes, Izuku was hanging out in the teacher’s lounge, in one of their offices, or sometimes even in Nedzu’s office when the rat felt like having a kid around to talk genius with. Izuku knew all the teachers and had met several pro heroes who didn’t work at U.A. coming to visit for whatever reason.
Then after school was over, Izuku would go to the U.A. training gym and train with Shouta and sometimes Hizashi and some of the other teachers at U.A.. They’d train for hours working on speed, strength, stamina, reflexes, and most importantly the application of analysis.
Izuku would never forget the look on Nedzu’s face when Izuku first showed him his analysis journals. It haunted his dreams.
There would be days when Izuku would look up and realize just how far he’d come from that rooftop. It was unreal. And also completely amazing.
And now here he was about to take the recommendation entrance exam to the school of his dreams. Because he actually had people to recommend him. His dads were pro heroes who worked at U.A. .
In the back of his mind, Izuku worried that one of these days he’d pinch himself and wake up back on the floor of his classroom at Aldera. But that never happened.
As people arrived, Izuku tried looking over them to assess what their quirks might be and how well they might do. He didn’t recognize any of them, not that he was expecting to. Since being taken in by Shouta and Hizashi, he hadn’t actually met or spent time with a lot of people his age. The only people he really knew were either pro heroes or older U.A. students. He wasn’t bothered by that though. In his past, he hadn’t had a whole lot of good experiences with kids his age anyway. He’d just been happy to be around people who actually cared about him and his well being, who were actually nice to him. There was still the occasional comment or dirty glance, especially when people saw his shoes–the trademark bright red of the quirkless–but U.A. had a strict no-discrimination policy that actually worked, so most of that was just from going out in public.
When Shouta and Hizashi had first taken him in, U.A. still had the rule that to be in the hero course, you must have a quirk. He wasn’t there during Shouta’s conversation with Nedzu and the rest of the school board about that but he’d seen Shouta’s nights spent agonizing over the pitch to change that rule for Izuku’s sake.
They’d had celebratory pizza, ice cream, and a movie the day they finally changed it.
That had only been a little over a year ago and now here he was, finally taking advantage of it.
When enough people had arrived, Izuku decided to take his seat. He ended up next to a guy with dual colored hair and heterochromatic eyes. He wore a blank expression and stared ahead of him as the rest of the students were coming in.
“Hi! I’m Midoriya Izuku, what’s your name?” Izuku piped up cheerfully.
The boy gave him a side glance, expression unchanging. “Todoroki Shoto.”
“You feeling nervous?”
“No.”
“You’re confident you’ll do well then? That’s good! Confidence is always good. You must have a pretty strong quirk then.”
“I do.”
“I’m feeling a little nervous. I mean, I’ve been doing extra training so hopefully I’ll do well, but I don’t know what everyone else’s quirks are so I’ve been trying to figure them out as people come in. Looking at you, I’d say you probably have something to do with fire and ice or water. The hair could be misleading, but there’s also the scar on the same side as the red hair which suggests you might have a fire quirk but because you also have a water based quirk, your skin isn’t as resilient to your fire as it might be for someone who’s only a fire user–”
“It’s not from my quirk. You’re right. My quirk is fire and ice but the scar isn’t from my fire.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean–”
“It’s fine. That’s a good idea, scoping out the competition. What’s your quirk, then?”
“Oh, uh… I’m actually quirkless.” Three years ago had someone asked him that question, Izuku would’ve done anything he could to avoid answering. Things were different now though. He’d learned to embrace being quirkless as just part of who he was and if people didn’t like him for it, that was their problem.
Todoroki raised a skeptical brow but didn’t give more than a “hm” before turning back to the front.
Hizashi began explaining the exam. Izuku had heard this speech a hundred times already from Hizashi practicing it at home or from their training sessions, so he knew every word by heart. He knew exactly what to expect and was perfectly fine tuning everything out as he went over his plan again in his mind.
There were ten people in his group. Todoroki was one of them. Looking over the others, Izuku noticed that a couple of them had mutation quirks, one of them didn’t have any lips which made Izuku wonder if that had any correlation with his quirk, and another was twice his size with a buzz cut who looked really overconfident. Izuku supposed he probably had a strong quirk too. All of these guys probably did.
Izuku didn’t let it phase him. If his years training under pro heroes Eraserhead and Present Mic taught him anything it was that being quirkless didn’t have to be a disadvantage.
It could even be an advantage.
“ Start! ” Hizashi bellowed.
Izuku darted forward.
As the race began, Izuku kept himself comfortably in the middle of the pack, focusing on the movements of those around him. It didn’t take him long to gauge the quirks, skills, and tactics of the other students.
The two at the front were Todoroki and the guy with the buzz cut who Izuku quickly realized had a weather manipulation quirk. He used it to propel himself through the course staying head to head with Todoroki who was using his ice in a similar manner.
Just as Shouta had said, it was a much different experience going through the course on your own than it was going through it with other people.
The guy with no lips apparently had some kind of softening quirk that he used on the ground behind him. There were two people between him and Izuku so Izuku had just enough time to break off a slab of Todoroki’s ice that he used as a sort of sled across the now softened ground that was impossible to walk on. He was able to pass the guy with ease so there were only three people in front of him.
As the course continued, the obstacles varied from explosive potholes to rope bridges and with each obstacle came new ways for Izuku to use the other students’ quirks to his advantage.
They never even saw him coming.
The look of surprise on Todoroki’s face when he finished third just behind him was more emotion than he’d seen out of the fire and ice user all day.
Hizashi gave him a proud smile before continuing to call out the times for each person as they crossed the finish line. The guy with the softening quirk was the next to finish and there was a bit of a wait before the others crossed as well.
Izuku’s time was 9:16. That beat his personal best by a lot.
“Hey, Todoroki! That was amazing!” Izuku started but the boy disregarded him and walked away without another word.
“He’s just like his old man,” the guy with the weather quirk said with a stern expression, arms crossed.
“His dad?”
“Endeavor.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Izuku mused, nodding.
“You came in just after us, right?” he asked, his expression softening to something friendlier as his attention switched to Izuku.
“Yeah, you did amazing! Your quirk is so cool!”
“Thanks. I wasn’t really paying attention to anything going on behind me so I didn’t see yours in action, but it must’ve been strong to keep up with us. I’m Yoarashi Inasa.” He put a hand out for Izuku to shake.
Izuku took it with a smile. “Midoriya Izuku. If we both get in, I guess I’ll be seeing you in class!”
“Well…” Yoarashi glanced back over at Todoroki with a frown. “I don’t know about that. I’ve actually been thinking about going to Shiketsu. Less of a commute, you know?”
“Oh.” Less of a commute? U.A. was the best hero school in the country! Izuku didn’t know much about Shiketsu, but surely it wasn’t good enough to be on par with U.A.. Izuku couldn’t understand why someone would want to turn down an acceptance to such a prestigious school. “Well, if you change your mind, it’d be cool seeing you! That’s assuming I get in of course. With such a selective school, you can never be sure.”
“With how well you did, I’m sure you will,” Yoarashi assured, clapping him on the shoulder.
Izuku really did hope he’d change his mind, but even if he didn’t, with a quirk and skill like that, he was sure to become a great hero.
Acceptance letters were sent out a week later. Over the course of that week, both Shouta and Hizashi refrained from saying anything about it. Izuku knew, of course, that they already knew the results and the fact that neither of them acted like there was bad news when the letter came made Izuku pretty hopeful as to what was inside.
Izuku sat between his two dads on the couch, the envelope held tightly in his hands as he stared with wide eyes at the address.
“Open it up, Little Listener,” Hizashi prompted, a gleam in his eye.
Izuku took a breath and tore it open before pulling out the letter. He started reading aloud, “Dear Midoriya Izuku, we are glad to inform you that you have been… accepted into the hero course at U.A. high school!” Izuku jumped up and cried out in excitement. “I got in!”
“I don’t think it was ever much of a question that you would, Zuku,” Shouta said with a soft smile.
“And it says I’m in class 1-A. That’s your class, Shouta!”
Shouta nodded. “But don’t go thinking I’ll go easy on you just because you’re my kid.”
“When have you ever gone easy on me?”
Hizashi barked out a laugh. “Well, you’ll be in my class too. I’ll give you all the special treatment I want.”
Shouta sent him a glare. Hizashi just beamed at him.
Right. Both of Izuku’s dads would be his teachers now. And instead of doing online classes in the teacher’s lounge, he’d be attending classes. The next time he went to U.A., he’d be going there as a student.
Izuku couldn’t wait.