Chapter Text
A Lucid Paradise
Izuku walked into the exam hall, clutching his bag as he looked around. He could feel the thrum of power slowly flowing throughout him, gathering at points all across his body. He could feel his blood in his veins, the hair on his skin. He could feel all of it, and that was even without this incessant, thrumming headache he’s had ever since he ate All Might’s hair.
“Dammit…” Izuku muttered, rubbing his head as he sat at his assigned desk, and waited for the written exam. Multiple choice test, why was it always multiple choice? People could coast by guessing instead of actually knowing the answers. Guesswork shouldn’t be a significant factor for getting into the highest standards heroics course in the country.
When the invigilator called the test to begin, Izuku opened the question booklet and began going through the questions, focusing on ensuring he answered as many correct as possible.
“Focus, Izuku…” The greenet muttered to himself as the invigilator called for the halfway time for the written exam.
As he worked through the questions, however, he got this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that some of his answers were wrong. Izuku wasn’t always one to trust a feeling, hell a gut instinct could cause more harm than good sometimes, but something about this felt important.
“Pencils down” The invigilator said, “Head through to the auditorium, your tests will be collected and graded.”
Izuku rose from his seat, and walked with the other examinees through the hallways towards the auditorium. Over a thousand applicants, of whom only 40 would be able to make it to the Hero Course.
“A simple multiple choice exam is hardly evidence for ability to be a hero. Unless… They’ve been testing us since we got here…” Izuku said as he arrived in the auditorium, and walked to one of the seats. When he sat down, he felt something brush against the back of his leg, and when he reached down he saw… a booklet.>/p>
Opening it, Izuku began skimming the contents. Huh… so the practical exam contained both combat points for eliminating villains and rescue points for saving other applicants and simulated civilians in the combat zone. The simulated villains were robots, with them being subdivided by general threat level for the amount of combat points they’d provide.
The one-point robots were slow, easy to find, and lacking in balance. They were the easiest to eliminate, but by far the most numerous. If one’s not careful, they could be outnumbered.
The two-point robots were faster, having multiple arms with a variety of melee weapons. They were more dangerous than the one-point robots, but less numerous.
The three-point robots were the second most dangerous robots in the examination. They were mobile, durable, and heavily armed. They had an array of ranged weapons, albeit retrofitted for nonlethal combat. Launchers with smoke grenades, rotary guns with rubber bullets, as well as launched bolas’ and tasers.
But beyond even the three-point robots was the most dangerous robot. Dubbed the “Super-Villain Class Robot”, or the Zero-Point robot, it was the size of a skyscraper, with a whole arsenal of weapons, armed in such a way where facing it in a head-on fight would be almost impossible. But there was a small note at the bottom of the page. Successfully eliminating a Zero-Point robot guarantees placement in the heroics program. And with there being four combat zones, that means there’s, possibly, four guaranteed applicants.
“-And you!” A voice called out from ahead, and Izuku looked up, seeing a blue-haired boy pointing at him, “Will you cease your incessant mutterings! If you won’t take this seriously, then do not sabotage everyone around you!”
“You’re the only one having a problem with my incessant mutterings.” Izuku retorted, “If anything, you’re disrupting everyone’s ability to learn what threats we’ll be facing.”
Izuku watched the boy lock up, and he rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“Sit down, and shut up.” Izuku said, looking at the blue-haired boy, who just silently sat down.
The briefing for the practical exam came to a close shortly after that, and Izuku sighed as he walked through the halls to the exam site. The students were split into four groups for the four different Training Grounds. Each one was, apparently, a different simulated environment. Izuku was assigned to Site Gamma, a simulation of part of Tokyo.
Izuku picked up… a red bottle? He turned it around in his hand, before finding a small label on the bottom. Property of: Himiko Toga.
“Himiko Toga… Where are you…” Izuku muttered, looking around as he did so.
“You!” The blue-haired boy from the briefing said, “Your shenanigans during the briefing were one thing, but seeking to sabotage others during the practical exam is-” He began.
“I’m busy.” Izuku retorted, turning away from the boy and examining the crowd, walking through them until he saw a straw-haired girl roughly his age, scratching her arms as she muttered under her breath.
“Where is it… Where’s the bottle I need it?” Himiko asked, “This hunger…”
“Himiko Toga?” Izuku asked, “You… You dropped this.” He added, holding the bottle out to her.
“Thankyou!” She shouted, snatching the bottle from his hand and popping open the cap as she began chugging from the bottle, her posture relaxing somewhat. If Izuku were to assume, it was likely a specially formulated anti-anxiety medication.
“No problem. Try not to lose it again.” Izuku said, right as Present Mic opened the doors to the simulated city.
“And that’s go! You don’t get countdowns in real life!” Present Mic announced. The students began pouring out of the waiting hall into the simulated city, with Toga going with the crowd, leaving Izuku behind.
“Okay, focus…” Izuku said, “Probably can’t take the bots head-on.” He added, heading out into the city, only to immediately get ambushed by a quartet of three-point robots.
“How the hell did this happen?!?” Izuku shouted, as he looked around, only to see one of the robots start firing on the others. Izuku ducked down, as a floating gym uniform leapt off of the robot that attacked the others, a bunch of wires spooled on the robot they were just on as it deactivated.
“Whaddaya know? Just pulling wires and pressing buttons does work!” The… girl? Izuku assumed they’re a girl, from the uniform and voice, “Welp, good luck!”
The floating uniform dashed off, and Izuku rubbed his eyes. This is gonna be a long exam.
And indeed. Whenever he was about to eliminate a robot, another examinee would swoop in and steal it, taking the points Izuku was looking for. He was on the main street, when an explosion knocked him into a wall, and his vision went black.
“Get uo.” A voice called out. Echoing, faint, but audible.
“Get. Up.” The voice repeated.
Izuku forced his eyes open, and saw the zero-pointer, and it was advancing towards an examinee pinned under a pile of rubble.
“God dammit!” Izuku shouted, as he clambered to his feet. Pain shot through him. He definitely broke something when he hit the wall, but that could wait.
Think, what did All Might say to use One For All?
Clench your asshole super tight and scream [[smash]] from the bottom of your heart!!!
Yeah, that’s stupid.
But Izuku felt a gentle thrumming throughout his entire body. He focused on it, and veins of crimson began arcing all over his body.
“I gotta get a good enough point up high to send it tumbling. So… Legs!” Izuku called, and the veins moved across his body, focusing on his legs.
And he leapt. A large crater was left in the road below, and several nearby students were sent reeling from the windforce.
“Broken…” Izuku said as he looked down, “Not to worry, I’ve still got my arms!” He added, as he directed all of the energy of One For All into his right arm.
“And now, get away from them, and STAY DOWN!” Izuku shouted, as his punch collided with the Zero Pointer.
There was a moment of pause.
And then it was sent skidding backwards, as internal circuitry within it began to tear through the reinforced metal plating that formed its outer body. The Zero Pointer’s internals were accelerating faster than its hull, and it was tearing itself apart from the inertial differential.
“Shit… Didn’t plan a way down. SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!” Izuku shouted, as he fell towards the ground, three useless limbs flailing in the wind, “Maybe if I angle it just right, I can redirect my downward momentum into horizontal momentum…” He thought aloud.
And then he realised he’d stopped falling.
“W-wha..,” Izuku began, as he felt something wrapped around his waist, with someone floating nearby.
“We gotcha, dude!” A voice called from nearby. Someone with oddly shaped elbows had shot what seemed to be tape out at Izuku, right as someone else, the student from under the rubble it evidently seemed, was floating nearby.
“I turned off your gravity!” The rubble-girl said, “Gotta turn it back on so tapeboy here can swing you safely down.”
The girl pressed her fingertips together, and Izuku began to swing in a downwards pendulum, the arc deposition him safely on the ground right in front of an old woman.
“What do they make you kids do these days…” The old woman said, as she planted a kiss on Izuku’s forehead. Izuku felt nothing for a second, then all the pain of his bones snapping back into place and healing.
“R-recovery Girl?” Izuku asked, “Th-thank you…”
And with that, Izuku promptly passed out.