Chapter Text
“Monoma Neito. Thank you for your participation in the entrance examinations; between your written scores and practical results, you made it in with a total of fifty two points! On behalf of the other teachers of UA, I am honored to invite you into the Hero Course! Congratulations, Monoma-san, this is your hero academia!”
The recording shut off, and Izuku’s eyes finally left the script that was being projected on the screen just underneath the main recorder. His face fell, departing from its faked bright and chipper smile as he let out a crestfallen sigh.
Was this what mom felt like, on days when she didn’t want to work but had to anyway?
“Was it good enough this time, sensei?” he grouched, looking at the recording booth.
He had a feeling that the machine was recording just fine, but he simply accepted it as part of his punishment, pushing down the feeling that he was having to re-calibrate the machine at the beginning of each recording session.
Given the smug grin on Power Loader, Vlad King and Present Mic’s faces, it was probably true.
“Well done, kiddo! We could even send that off for realsies… if you were an actual teacher here,” Mic cackled. “Thanks for testing it all out! Now, today we’re going to do recordings for the support course, so Power Loader’s going to be up.”
Izuku swapped positions with Power Loader, and stuck up a hand with four fingers up.
“Okay, I’m set. Are you three ready?” Power Loader asked. Izuku checked that Vlad and Mic were ready, and moved his other hand to hover over the control panel.
“Recording in four! Three!” Izuku fell silent as he used just his fingers to count off the ‘two’, then the ‘one’, and finally he hit the record button.
“Hatsume Mei! You’ve impressed the support course with your submission for the Support Practical, and your written exam scores also put you in the top 6% of applicants...”
Izuku was getting far too familiar with the ‘welcome to UA’ spiel, but since he hadn’t been cleared for anything but light work, he hadn’t been punished by being told to join the salvage teams to dig out the villain bots.
Instead, Izuku had been put on a different kind of punishment detail; helping Mic, Power Loader, and the other teachers do the recordings for the acceptance letters.
With a wry smile, he nodded and played along, figuring that this was the price to pay for ruining such an expensive piece of equipment. That was alright for him.
But did they really have to make him do a whole recording to make sure that the holographic recorder was functioning properly?
And do so for every day they were doing recordings, for another week straight?
He smelled that something was up, because once again his ‘logical ruse’ sense was tingling…
= = = = =
ZeroGravityUravity: So, any luck trying to find Midoriya’s contact details? I got nothing… wish I could have seen him in the infirmary, but apparently his injuries were so bad…
RockyRiot: Yeah, I hope he’s better now. I found nothing either, I even asked a friend of mine to help out and we’ve been looking through a bunch of social media sites and stuff but haven’t found anything. :(
ZeroGravityUravity: Dang, it’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth!
RockyRiot: You know, now that I think about it… what if it’s on purpose? If so, respecting people’s privacy seems to be the right thing to do.
RockyRiot: It would be unmanly to try and dig up his contact info if he’s hidden it.
ZeroGravityUravity: Actually, I never thought about it like that…
ZeroGravityUravity: I guess we’ll just have to hope we both get into UA, and find him there!
RockyRiot: Yeah!
= = = = =
One Week Ago…
Given the monumental mess that he had made, he accepted that he would be getting some kind of punishment and a lecturing. In the latter case, he hadn’t expected the teachers to start taking turns doing so, limited to five minutes each by order of Nezu.
Shimakaze-san had even set up a timer and a buzzer, the proper kind and not just a ‘oh that’s cool’ app that she found on her phone; an actual timer and buzzer, on a pedestal.
I suppose you don’t become the right-hand woman of UA’s principal by doing things by halves…
First, Eraserhead had started proceedings by chewing him out for being so reckless as to try to punch out a 0-pointer. Punching out the 0-pointer, while impressive, was also ignoring all the other ways available to save Uraraka, either to redirect the 0-pointer or to try rescuing Uraraka and getting her out of the way.
Disappointing, really, because it wasn’t exactly showing that Izuku had spent the last ten months training with pro heroes on such subjects as, you know, rescue .
Especially now that he had Stormclad, didn’t Izuku have the raw strength to just go and lift something like the 2-pointer that had ended up pinning her down?
Yes, yes he did.
Yes, yes he was sorry.
The timer buzzed, and the next guest came in. Snipe's lecture was one that repeated many of the same points, except he did it in an American southern states accent. He laid it on thick (the accent, that is) to the point where Izuku was having trouble understanding the man.
Midnight's 'lecture' was less ‘what you did was stupid’ and more her relentlessly hounding him for details about Uraraka and what he thought of her. She grilled him relentlessly, her eyebrows waggling wildly, like they were trying to simulate the last two hundred years of Japanese seismic activity in the five minutes given to her.
Izuku finished that particular encounter mortified beyond belief. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to look Uraraka in the eyes the next time they met.
Power Loader had simply put down a bill for repairs that had to be done because of the 0-pointer being a total constructive loss. Izuku gulped; that was a lot of zeroes, even if he excluded the zeroes used for the 0-pointer.
Eraserhead then returned and spent much of the next five minutes keeping Present Mic from activating his quirk. The voice hero used up his time bemoaning Izuku's betrayal - along with everyone else that has followed Nezu's lead in this deception.
Thirteen had simply sat down and gave Izuku some water, using her five minutes to give him a breather. She then leaned in close while reaching up to the chestplate on her suit, cranked the distortion to her voice to max by switching to [Darth Vader] mode, and very bluntly reminded him that the First Rule of Rescue was to subtract from the casualty count, not add to it.
Izuku was left with the heebie-jeebies after that.
Then Recovery Girl got her own turn, since she had to change his bandages, and spent a good bit longer than five minutes grumbling about the damage he had done to himself. Izuku's protests were intercepted by a gummy bear the size of his fist being stuffed into his mouth.
To make it worse, his phone started blowing up; part of it was from Sir Nighteye’s worrying, mostly it was Usagiyama laughing at him, and on top of those two, Hawks and Yuu were flip-flopping between also laughing at him and being worried about him, seemingly unable to settle between the two courses of action. A half-dozen other heroes Izuku had thought he had befriended had chimed in as well, apparently their ‘contacts at UA’ having shared stories of Izuku’s ‘antics’.
As if the universe decided that Izuku hadn’t quite learned the lesson properly, his mom got involved, and that was worse than all of the others put together.
Midoriya Inko got mad, really mad. Izuku had gotten himself hurt for such preventable reasons that even after she had blown past the twenty minute mark, Shimakaze had apologetically backed away. Any hope of backup in the form of Nezu- and Yagi-sensei had evaporated when they had taken one look inside and had promptly noped out from the legendary lecturing that Izuku was getting.
Izuku got one last visitor after that harrowing experience; the return of Yagi-sensei, who sheepishly slipped in towards the end of the day.
His five minutes contained the worst in terms of lecturing, but Izuku wasn't about to complain; given All Might's broad grin and the proud warmth that he was radiating, he was doing a pleasantly terrible job of lecturing him.
"You might have done it in the stupidest way possible, my boy, but I'm proud of you: You saved a life that day," he confided, and ruffled Izuku's hair before he left.
Izuku felt the Number One Pro Hero All Might grinning as much as he saw it, even though he was in his skeletal form.
"Good job on saving that girl, Young Midoriya."
= = = = =
“Hizashi,” Shota greeted his blond friend as he dropped down onto the edge of the roof to talk to his longtime associate.
“Aheya, Shouta,” Hizashi pouted, “how’s things?”
“For once, I can’t complain,” Eraserhead sighed as he sat down and started to rummage around in his pockets. With the marking for the entrance exams done, it was a matter of processing those results and seeing who would get in - and who would not - and then to divide those students into the various classes.
It was steady, but not intense work, just like the quiet before the storm that was the end-of-year academic exams for UA and the rest of the Japanese school system: “March Madness” was about to truly be upon them.
The two veteran teachers shared the rooftop and the encroaching evening peacefully, soaking in the last rays of the sun as it set, basking in uncharacteristic quiet.
Finally, it was - for once - Shota who broke the enviable silence.
“Oh, wait, yes I can,” Shota drawled, “Midoriya broke his arm punching out one of Maijima’s robots.”
“Yeah, that was a hell of a punch the lil’ green bean was packing,” Mic smiled bitterly, “I thought that kid was supposed to be quirkless.”
“He was. Until about two months ago, give or take a week,” Shota replied. “We wanted someone safe - someone we would have trusted anyway - to teach Midoriya how to keep a secret, and control information flow with.”
“Mmmhm,” the grouchy Voice Hero rumbled. “Bet ya all had fun wondering what kind of face I’d have made when I finally found out.”
“We did get video of him when he first activated Stormclad,” Aizawa dangled the first of several peace offerings to Hizashi, who managed to barely keep his excitement contained as he spotted the phone with footage from Gym Rho.
“Oh yeah? Let me see!”
Shota handed the phone over and Hizashi eagerly tapped play on the video loaded.
“You should have seen the rat’s face when All Might told Midoriya to ‘clench his buttcheeks and yell smash’,” Shota grinned.
“He did not , ” Hizashi giggled, voice scandalized.
“Video proof on timestamp ‘All Meathead’,” he pointed out.
Eagerly, the voice hero thumbed the timestamp… and then started to howl with laughter as he heard the Number One Pro’s advice and saw the immediate fallout, including the cheeky zoom punch Shota had added in, the camera focusing to Principal Nezu’s surprised face as he abruptly ejected what looked like the better part of a pot of tea out his nose.
“I was taking care of the recording of Izuku first activating his quirk when I found it,” Shota explained, a rare, wry grin on his face. “Make sure you don’t leak it, otherwise the rat’ll have our heads.”
A text message came into Shota's phone.
It simply read: [ >:3c ]
The two heroes looked at each other, then back to the text message, then at each other again.
“No leaking it,” Shota repeated to Hizashi.
“No leaking it,” Hizashi eagerly agreed.
“Anyway, now that the cat’s out of the bag-”
Hizashi pointed a finger at Shota. “Ha.”
“Shut up. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, there’s actually a lot more that you need to know about Stormclad. C’mon, let’s find Midoriya; he’ll want to fill you in on everything.”
= = = = =
From : [email protected]
To : [email protected]
Subject Line : UA Entrance Exam and Quirk Analysis Case 73
Dear “Green”,
Lemillion tells me that you did well in the UA entrance exam. I’m pleased to hear it, and your mentors must be excited as well.
One thing I’ve discovered a joy for in the last five years is seeing my students succeed, be they my interns or sidekicks, and no doubt your teachers will feel the same way.
Unfortunately, I do come to you with more work: Please find attached the case file 73, along with what video evidence I’ve put together. I’d like you to review it within the next week or so.
Please contact me if this isn’t possible; I was briefed that you hurt yourself, but this should be within the expected ‘light duties’ you should be assigned to right now.
By the way, have you watched the new All Might commercial? Seriously, 3D printers? Did you have some hand in this?
Would like to hear your thoughts on this also.
Confused Regards,
Sir Nighteye
= = = = =
RatGod : @everyone party at All Might’s on Thursday evening; big reveal of Operation SOCK PUPPET, catering provided.
Kan let out a hum as he finally got around to reading the ping; he had been working a long night, getting all the projectors loaded with their holographic payloads for delivery.
He tapped through the details that the rat had provided afterwards, and then got to work, clicking and dragging the next file to one of the hero hopefuls in his class; Monoma Neito.
Still ten more to go, and it was nearly midnight. Kan sipped at his tea and let out a tired sigh.
= = = = =
Inko waited with bated breath as she listened to her manager and senpai working to set up the last-minute changes to the broadcast schedule.
“Okay, I’ve got you set up for having Thursday off, Floriana. Just take care of your socials and retweet some things from your art tag. Is everything okay on your end?”
“I’m fine, senpai - just going to celebrate my son getting into a hero school,” Inko declared proudly, and preened at the admiring ‘oooohs’ from her various co-workers.
“Daaaamn,” whistled one of her gen-mates, “Flo dropping bombs harder than that last collab!"
“Not gonna ask which one, but congrats on that, Flo!” Ozzie (manager extraordinaire) started, partially to reassure ‘Floriana’ as much as it was to remind the others not to, and Inko giggled.
Quickly, the other talents involved in the company meeting joined in and fired off their own congratulations.
“Y’know, it’s always weird when Flo-mama reminds us she’s an actual mom ,” stage-whispered Corinthia.
Ozzie groaned. “Corinthia-chan, you say this literally every time we have a staff meeting .”
“And you think you pointing that out again has a snowball’s chance in hell of making me stop this time?” she shot back. Nobody could see it, but everyone knew she was sticking her tongue out at Ozzie.
= = = = =
It was a Thursday evening when the old hag knocked on his bedroom door. Katsuki looked up from the book he was reading as she opened the door and stepped in, a broad grin across her cheeks.
“Hey, look who’s got some mail,” she said, tossing him the surprisingly heavy courier pack. Grabbing a pair of scissors from his desk, Katsuki quickly chopped the end off and dumped the contents out onto the table.
The old man joined soon after, gathering around Katsuki; nobody in the room spoke a word, but it was impossible to miss the UA markings on the mail packet, and what it meant for the Bakugo family.
This would be the most important letter in Katsuki’s life.
Inside was a puck-shaped device, which everyone recognised as a holoprojector of some kind. Katsuki set it down on his desk, and thumbed the button emblazoned with the UA logo on it.
The hologram hummed to life, revealing the grinning form of Present Mic.
"Heeey, this is Voice hero Present Mic! Bakugo Katsuki, you scored high on both the written and practical examinations, coming in the fifth percentile on the academic test and scoring second place on the practicals. I'll cut to the chase; you're in, kid! I’ll see you at the beginning of the school year. Welcome to the hero course, Bakugo Katsuki, this is your hero academia!"
Katsuki felt his lips widen in a satisfied grin as his mother slammed into him from the side, hugging and kissing him on the cheek.
“Gah, GET OFF ME, HAG!”
= = = = =
ZeroGravityUravity: I GOT IN!
RockyRiot: I GOT IN TOO!
ZeroGravityUravity: CONGRATULATIONS!
ZeroGravityUravity: FAIR WARNING, I WILL NOW SCREAM!
RockyRiot: OKAY!
ZeroGravityUravity: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RockyRiot: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ZeroGravityUravity: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RockyRiot: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ZeroGravityUravity: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RockyRiot: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
= = = = =
Monoma Neito sat at his desk, not sure what to do except play the recording again.
He should be happy; he was getting into UA!
He felt like he was happy. His heart was beating fast.
So… why was he so confused ?
There was a hologram in front of him; a green-haired boy around his age, standing in a UA tracksuit, saying words that he understood, but couldn’t comprehend why he was saying them.
The recording was playing again. In it, the boy congratulated him for making it into the prestigious hero school. How he was delivering this message ‘on behalf of the other teachers at UA’ .
Was this one of his teachers? Or was this kid just… lost… ?
Neito’s mind struggled to come up with an explanation for what he was seeing.
“What the hell is going on here?”
= = = = =
“... I am sorry,” Nezu concluded, and watched as the emotions warred on the girl’s face.
He watched as Morinome Jihi processed through it. The shock was old, but the pain was that of a freshly re-opened wound. There was a finality to it, like the closing of a door.
Morinome Jihi would not be going to UA.
This was, perhaps, the most difficult part of his job.
It pained him to look at a bright mind, a kind heart, a girl that would blossom into a fine hero one day and yet be forced to tell her ‘ no, you cannot come to my school ’.
Of course, the words he had used were kinder, the blow delivered as gently as it could be - something he was unused to until he had honed the craft with long practice and coaching by his subordinates.
“... I understand, principal Nezu, thank you for considering my appeal,” the girl bowed, voice fragile as spun glass, and then her parents shortly afterwards.
She wore her grief well, as much as one could; that she was denied her dream to come to UA, to come to his classes and be taught by his teachers, she had every reason to be angry.
Honestly? He was grieving that very same thing; if only he had been allowed to expand the number of classes, to hire more teachers; why did the premiere heroics school need a general education or business course?
For a rounded education, the school board had answered.
So much expense, for a mere forty heroes per annum.
What came next was what made the job difficult, unpleasant, but not something unsalvageable .
“Thank you for understanding, Jihi-san, but that’s not everything I wanted to talk to you and your parents about today.” Nezu reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a lifeline for the young prospective hero. “While you may not become a hero through UA… I believe that you still have a wonderful future in that field ahead of you; that’s exactly why I prepared this .”
The recognition that lit up her eyes as she spotted the logo on the front made him smile, internally, as a small twitch to the corners of her mouth showed him part of why she had scored in the top percentile of the applicants on the academics exam; she had deduced what this was in mere moments - or had perhaps anticipated it?
In any case, he knew now that he had made the right choice.
“I thought you might recognise this, and yes; this is an application form and a letter of recommendation to the Tracey School of Rescue Heroics. Specifically, their Japanese campus in Kashikku,” Nezu explained. “Thanks to the close relationship our schools have, I am given the opportunity to recommend two students each year, and I believe that you would make a wonderful fit into their program if you accepted their invitation.”
Jihi nodded slowly as she accepted the two envelopes, handling them delicately like they were ready to burst into flames if she jostled them.
A difficult part of his job, certainly, but worth it.
= = = = =
There was a knock on the door, and mom’s voice sing-songed from the other side.
“Izuku? Can I come in?”
“Sure, mom,” Izuku put down the analysis work he had on his ‘work’ tablet (the secure one that Power Loader had given him when he had started doing work studies) and turned his head towards the door as his mom let herself into his bedroom. “Did you need help with something?”
“Just need you to start getting ready, Izuku; we’re going out for dinner tonight!”
Oh? That had become rare. And on a Thursday night, too; that was usually a work night for her.
Izuku grinned nevertheless, and started to put away his work after he fired off an email to Sir Nighteye.
“Sure, mom, just let me get changed!”
Inko made a show of looking her son up and down before making a face and nodding. “Definitely.”
That got a snort of amusement out of him and she closed the door.
Izuku quickly exchanged his gray ‘t-shirt’ t-shirt for a fresh one; a navy blue number that had ‘hero suit’ written across the front, and over that he threw on a black zip-up hoodie. Stepping into a gray pair of jeans he quickly made his way to the front door of the apartment and stepped into his red shoes, just ahead of his mom - who had dressed a little more nicely than she usually would for a casual night out.
It didn’t take an analyst to realize that Something Was Up.
“Hey mom, where are we going?”
“I wanted to make it a surprise,” Inko smiled.
They made their way down to the train station just as it started getting dark, and boarded the usual local train towards the city center. Once they had arrived, they switched lines, but rather than another local line, Izuku’s mother surprised him again by heading to the shinkansen platforms and boarding a rail service that sent them towards Tokyo.
UA whizzed by in the distance a few minutes into the journey, and twenty minutes later they were hitting the outer edges of Tokyo, passing through the urban sprawl that had spread across the region.
Izuku thought about legacies and their weight as the bullet train slowed to their stop; Shinagawa station, right in the heart of Tokyo. The duo made another switch, dropping down from the surface station to the subway and boarding a train headed for Roppongi, Minato city.
He became keenly aware of what that might have meant, but schooled himself as he caught a smug glance coming his way from his mom.
She knew he knew. That feeling of shenanigans being afoot tingled in him again.
Still, Izuku was an All Might fanboy. He knew what he had to do once he had gotten within Minato city, one of many ‘cities within a city’ that made up Tokyo city proper; he moved to the other side of the train and had his nose pressed to the window as it came into view: Might Tower.
Eighty eight floors, heroes from bottom to top. He resisted the urge to babble facts about the tower, and how it had become a fortress of heroism; not only was the Mighty Agency based here, but so were a dozen other agencies and over two hundred independent heroes in Tokyo - All Might had made the tower as a home base for many smaller heroes. This let many of the heroes - especially the solo acts - access resources that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to, from a semi-private gym facility to a secure support item development studio as well as rumors persisting about an intelligence and investigation center that rivaled the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s…
“ Really? ”
Izuku turned to the source of the voice; beside him and with literal stars dancing in her eyes was a bright eyed girl, probably five or six years old, standing there in an All Might onesie with a hand hooked around one of the many poles and an All Might figure clutched in the other.
She was staring at him, wide eyed.
Ah. Drat. Out loud again.
Izuku turned and glanced around; he spotted the girl’s father soon enough, and tilted his head a little to the side, asking permission. He got a nod in return, and so resumed geeking out as Inko muffled a giggle with her hand.
“Yes, that’s right! It's got a public area in the bottom sixteen floors; the biggest of which is a food court that’s five stories tall! And it has a garden facility in the middle! There’s also a place that lets all kinds of heroes meet each other, and I even heard they have a swimming pool somewhere...”
The girl nodded along, entranced by Izuku’s verbal torrent of information. “Whoa… so cool…”
He recalled as much as he could, talking to her about all the cool heroes and hero agencies that called Might Tower home; the 6-4 agency, who specialized in high-speed urban pursuit, the Factorio; industrial zone rescue heroes, Project Aces; those that used a mix of quirks and support equipment to dominate the sky…
= = = = =
RNK NAME COM HERO TOTAL
1st Midoriya Izuku 88 50 = 138
2nd Katsuki Bakugo 125 0 = 125
3rd Eijiro Kirishima 71 40 = 111
4th Uraraka Ochaco 64 45 = 109
5th Iida Tenya 62 20 = 82
6th Ibara Shiozaki 38 40 = 78
7th Itsuka Kendo 45 30 = 75
8th Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 51 20 = 71
9th Fumikage Tokoyami 48 20 = 68
10th Yosetsu Awase 52 10 = 62
= = = = =
Izuku was getting more and more tense as Inko indicated that they were getting off at the next station; Roppongi Station, less than half a block’s walk from the globe-topped tower, the largest pro hero agency in Japan.
He quickly bid goodbye to his new acquaintance and fellow All Might fan, and turned to follow his mother.
Sure enough, they ended up in front of Might Tower, and in the bustling lobby (even with the evening encroaching) they crossed to the main desk to find themselves standing in front of the receptionist, a man with a shaved head and thin-framed glasses.
“Welcome to Might Tower, how may I be of service?” he greeted them warmly, standing and bowing as they did the same.
“Midoriya Inko and Izuku, we’ve been invited,” Inko pulled out a pair of cards for identification, and Izuku suppressed a giggle as he saw the man’s eyebrows twitch as All Might’s face popped up on his screen (Midnight’s advice to watching a person’s glasses while they were on a screen was paying off).
The man processed things quickly and efficiently, placing their IDs and a pair of lanyards with printed ID cards back. “Here is your ID back, and your access passes; please ensure they’re visible at all times while you’re in Might Tower. Please follow the red line to the elevators.”
“Thank you very much,” Inko smiled and bowed again.
“It is my pleasure,” the receptionist bowed, “please enjoy yo-”
He paused suddenly, flushed and bowed again. “My apologies, I was working at a hotel until last week. Still working out the automatic responses...”
“Oh, don’t worry, my boy’s had problems with muscle memory himself,” Inko whispered conspiratorially.
Izuku groaned.
“Mo~om!”
= = = =
The lift doors opened, and Izuku wasn’t at all surprised to find his mentors waiting for him in the lobby of All Might’s hero agency (which he now knew was level 78!).
“Surpr-”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAY~!”
Present Mic’s obnoxious voice bellowed out over the rest of the others, shortly before he was double dope-slapped by Eraserhead and Midnight. Izuku giggled, given that his birthday was almost four months away.
Izuku chuckled as a few half-hearted attempts to re-start the ‘surprise’ were made, but in the end everyone gave up and dragged the party into the main room.
The space was meant to be a conference room of some kind, he figured. He passed under a variety of projectors and lights, with a panel on the floor - a broad rectangle - giving the impression that it was some kind of conference table that had been recessed into the floor, or put away.
Scattered around the room was an array of couches, beanbags and chairs from the conference table, which the audience settled into with a mischievous energy that set Izuku on edge once again as he was taken to a seat front and center.
The room lights dimmed, and the feeling of something is about to happen resolved as a life-size hologram of him appeared.
The projection of Izuku was unflattering, looking frayed and his arm was still in a brace. The image was jumping around and jittery; Izuku wondered why for only a moment before realizing the reason it was skipping so much was because it was switching between different recordings. He had a small cut on his hand that had taken a week to heal but that plaster was appearing and reappearing as the recording jumped back and forth.
Smiling, the hologram began its spiel.
What followed was an eye-searing, ear-grating hate crime against video editing, but like watching a Hero Fails Compilation, it wasn’t something that Izuku could tear his eyes away from. Before him was the audiovisual equivalent of a threatening note ‘written’ by pasting newspaper and magazine clippings to a piece of paper, and he just… couldn’t look away.
“Mi-DOri-ya I-zuKU. Thank you for PARTICIPATING in the UA entrance exams. Between your written SCORES AND practical results, you made it in! A reco-rd SCORES of one. three. eight. Points! ON behalf of the other TEACHERS AT UA, I am honored to invite you to the HERO COURSE!”
As his holographic self took in a big breath, the other teachers joined in with the recording. Izuku whirled around as the UA staff, and All Might, bellowed out:
“Congratulations, Midoriya Izuku, this is your hero academia!”
Power Loader and Snipe lost it first, both doubled over laughing, leaning on each other for support. Recovery Girl and Thirteen were in a similar state, one or both wheezing in between their laughs.
Nezu had set aside his cup of tea and was shaking as Shimakaze cackled like a witch. Lunch Rush and Cementoss had both hands clapped over their mouths as Vlad belly laughed beside them.
Midnight was in absolute shambles, screaming into a pillow as she kicked her heels against the couch as, beside her, the upper half of Present Mic had turned into a mummy, giggling muffled by Eraserhead’s capture scarf as he let out a sigh and curled his lips into a rare, bare smile.
His mom, bless her, was trying her hardest not to laugh but she had tear tracks running down the sides of her face. Beside her, All Might had all but swallowed down his fist trying not to say anything, but his shoulders were trembling something fierce.
Izuku reached out to grab a drink, and drained it in one go.
“I hate all of you,” he croaked completely insincerely, and broke out in a grin as he basked in the fresh laughter that followed.
