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Chapter 11: Emerald Success
🕑 Added 2024-01-16 15:08:00 +0000 UTCHello again, we are back with the second chapter of the year and I had a real blast with the last one as I wrote Izuku just having a ball setting stuff on fire is both relaxing and fun as he’s like the meme of having a fire demon child. Anyway, with the exam over, it’s time for him to see his results and celebrate with his friends. Also, one thing I do want to say that came up during writing but wasn’t in the OG draft was the faces I want him to make, along the way he telegraphs his mood. That got a change done. But not much else.
Chapter 11: Emerald Success
“Did you guys see that? It was such a beautiful flame, the color, the intensity, the heat-even the shape of the snake, I styled it off a friend and I think it came out great, right!” Midoriya danced for joy while the rest of the examinees looked on with some combination of surprise, awe and fear, seeing someone that they knew in their hearts would be a top pro one day. They looked over the excited flame spirit to the destruction he had brought, and wondered just what the hell was his deal.
Both the girl he saved and the guy he handed off to had similar thoughts as the tall boy wondered if what he just saw was real, as he saw the size of that 0-pointer, they all hard but now, he wouldn’t even call it scrape as they implied one could salvage most of it. With the girl, she recalled seeing him earlier, as he seemed to dance around as he destroyed robots with flames or his strikes, a serene yet animated smile on his face as he eyes glowed like a bright campfire or an emerald firework that never lost its luster.
“I….I think you did great, but don’t you think that was a bit much?” She managed to speak up, with the stone-faced boy turned to him, even without any facial expressions or visible eyes, she could still pick up how happy and eager he was.
“Maybe, but who knows when I’ll have a chance like this again, plus they told us to go Plus Ultra, so I did!” Coming down from his high, Midoriya reigned in his dancing as he thought about her statement. Looking back at the robot, he could imagine that the clean-up wouldn’t be easy but this was U.A. if they had an entire city built to model just for exams, then they had the means to clean it up. If not, then he’ll happily stay and help!
But that came later, right now he had other concerns, namely his score as he thought about how many villain points he must have had, if he wasn’t wrong, he had raked in around 32 before the 0-pointer appeared. He didn’t know if that was a lot, as while he heard what others called out when they scored points, he wasn’t paying much attention.
“Time’s up!” With Present Mic’s declaration, followed a loud alarm throughout the many exam zones as students stopped either fighting against smaller robots or fleeing from the 0-Pointers which fell silent once the exam ended, their task complete.
With Midoriya’s group, they looked around, having forgotten about the exam after witnessing the power of his flames. “Oh…I wanted to play some more, oh well.” He shrugged his shoulders as he transformed back to his human form, his clothing having remained on his body, their flame-resistant qualities keeping them from burning off as he turned to walk back to the two from before.
Stepping up then, he seemed concerned as his gaze went to her leg, the one that had been pinned earlier. “Is your leg okay?”
The yet to be named girl blinked as she reached for it, wincing when she felt the pain. “I think it’s sprained.”
Hearing that it was something relatively minor, Midoriya got an idea in his head. “Have no fear, I can heal it!” He pointed to himself as the two looked at him funny, wondering how he could do that.
“You can?” He seemed quite proud of himself, having spent months up in the mountains perfecting this among other skills.
“Hmm! My flames can have healing properties when I want them to, and I’ve been training really hard.” He replied as the girl looked at him in wonder, first the speed, then the power and now healing? He was the whole package for hero work.
“That’s amazing!” She whispered, but still came out loud as Midoriya felt his cheeks blushing a bit from the praise, but he was just happy that someone else could appreciate the flames.
“I know, fire is pretty great,” He would have just started, but recalled what his therapist had told him about boundaries and different viewpoints, so he had to first explain it even if he didn’t see much point in doing it. “But I should tell you it’ll hurt, since you know, fire burns and stuff.” He burned himself all the time, but he never saw an issue with it. Still, heroes needed to be accommodating and understanding of others, which meant doing stuff like this.
Hearing that part seemed to damper some of her earlier enthusiasm, but at the same time she didn’t want to come off as rude. “It won’t be too bad, right?” Midoriya blinked, as that…wasn’t a question he was equipped to answer. He could tell when it was warm or not, but his sense of heat was screwed up from what the doctors said. He could put his hand in a hot water or a raging fire and not register much of a difference in terms of pain.
“I don’t think so.” He tried to be as honest as he could be, and immediately spat out a stream of fire onto her leg, with the girl being unprepared for it, she let out a loud scream of pain as the flames ate at her flesh for what felt like an eternity but was no more than a few seconds before Midoriya sucked the flames back into his mouth-no point wasting them, right?
Despite the shocked, disguised or terrified audience, Midoriya puffed out his chest and gestured to her healed leg. “There, good as new.”
The tall boy didn’t seem to agree with him. “It doesn’t look that way!” He looked close to kicking him, which he didn’t quite understand. He had explained what would happen, and that happened-what was the issue?
“It never does, but the burn will fade in a couple hours.” Koharu had had a similar experience when he healed her entire body, the only difference between then and now was both his control had increased, and that he didn’t need to make it up to her with prime fish meat.
Before the guy could respond, they heard a third person approaching, the soft tapping of a cane accompanying every second step. “Child, did you really need to do that?” They turned to see the veteran hero and U.A. school nurse, Recovery Girl, approached them, though Midoriya felt that her hero name should be changed as the old lady approached them as old enough to be his grandmother, so calling her ‘girl’ felt disrespectful.
Reaching them, she inspected the burn on the girl’s leg, and turned to him without any of the anger that the taller, spectacled boy seemed to have. “I’m on standby for such things.” She finished, having been made aware of his quirk when he made his application as the principal thought something like this could crop up, but she had believed it would have been later in the year should he have made the cut.
Laughing a little to hide his embarrassment, Midoriya didn’t fight it as he admitted. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. She needed help and I could help, so I did.”
Recovery Girl could only shake her head in bemusement, as it had been years since she heard a first year say something so simple, yet so impactful as helping someone for no other reason than they could. “You’ve helped plenty, don’t worry about the others, you just get yourselves changed and head on home.”
“Okay, bye Recovery Girl.” With that, the boy left, trotting off like he hadn’t just unleashed hellfire onto the arena. But one thing was certain among the rest of the examinees:
He was to be avoided at all costs.
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All that brought him to where he was now, in his apartment with his mom as they waited for the results. He sat on the couch, not really watching the news as it took its place as background noise. Koharu rested on his lap, the boy gently stroking her head down her body as he thought about the exam, not so much the process as what he did as while he could admit he still has much to catch up on academically, the physical portion had taken up most of his thoughts for the last week or so while waited for the results.
Closing his eyes, a smile came to his face as he recalled the sheer joy of being able to just do what he pleased, of expressing himself in ways that for so long, he had been told to repress. Letting loose so much heat and flames, watching as those he used it on fell to his flames, the smell, the warmth, the sight of his emerald fires danced for only a few minutes before they went out, their targets reduced to scrap. He couldn’t describe it.
He let out a pleasurable breath as he recalled the highlight of the day, of seeing that 0-pointer, of watching as flames, his flames reduced what was meant to be an unstoppable obstacle to its knees. He wished he could tell Hado and Ryukyu about it, but as the pro had informed him, they had been radio silent for a while now. His mom and Koharu seemed to enjoy the story and how animated he was for retelling it, even the part where he helped another student after the exam. They had been happy that he had done that and they spoke well into the night.
But that, as fun as it was, was a week ago and in that time, he had returned to his normal schedule of rising early, handling the chores around the house much like he would have done at the temple, before training till mid-day, then showering, making lunch then studying before making dinner for them. Today was the exception as they had been informed that the letters would be coming and his mom wanted to make them a special celebratory feast, one with plenty of meat for Koharu which got the serpent to threaten him if he tried to stop it.
Hearing a knock on the door, he wasn’t the only one that froze for a moment as they knew it could only be one thing. Bolting to his feet, he rushed towards it, opening the door to see the mailman, with a white letter with a distinctive red stamp sealing it in hand. Thanking the man, he closed the door and went back to his seat, where Koharu hissed at him as she got back onto his lap, having been thrown off earlier as his mother took the food off the fire and took the seat next to him, both looking at the letter with hesitance.
This was it, his way to his dream, or another shut door. He hadn’t been able to apply to others, having aimed just for U.A. before he left, and since his return, he wasn’t able to get one in with the others in time. Even if Shiketsu or Ketsubutsu hadn’t rejected his application due to how late it was, he didn’t want to go there anyway. Not just because U.A. was All Might’s alma mater, but because they didn’t have Hado, or Haya, or Amajiki, or Togata.
Feeling a bite on his thigh, he yelped as he looked towards Koharu, who told him to get on with it so they could eat, but underneath that seemingly simply desire, he could see she was just as reluctant to do this as he was, but had decided that it was better to take the plunge now.
“She’s right, you know. Might as well do it. We need to see how you got in so we can celebrate.” His mother couldn’t understand Koharu like he could, but she must have gotten the vibe she was putting out well enough to get the jist of it.
“Y-yeah…” He took a deep breath before he ripped the letter open. “Let’s do this.” Inside was an actual letter and some other forms, but what drew their attention was the silverish disk that fell into the table, before he activated on its own, displaying a projection of…Izuku wasn’t sure that it was a human, even though it was dressed in a suit and tie.
With a look that even a teddy bear would be jealous of, the being on the projection raised their hand. “Hello there! What am I? Am a dog? Am I a bear? Am I a mouse? I’ll tell you what I am. I am principle Nezu of U.A. High!” The principal announced himself, as peepy as a kid’s cartoon character.
“I heard rumors but I didn’t think that the principal was actually a quirked animal…” Inko muttered, finding it strange that they would have an animal running the top hero school. Meanwhile, Koharu was less focused on that and more on what the giant rat must take like as she had never seen one so big!
“No, Koharu! He’s not food!” Midoriya heard her making plans to try and give him the slip during class to hunt the principal down and he wouldn’t allow that! She can hunt all the other rats, but not this one, he wasn’t even sure if Nezu was a rat!
“As you might have guessed, I’m recording this to inform you of your results from both the written and practical entrance exams, Mr. Midoriya. We’ll start with the easy one, the written portion. Now, we understand that you missed the final months of your schooling due to issues out of your control, but that didn’t mean that the paper you wrote was any easier than everyone else and I’m happy to say that you passed with 62%, quite the achievement for someone that missed 8 months of schooling, wouldn’t you say?” The audience took a breath of relief.
“Oh, thank goodness, I was so worried!” Inko loved her son, and knew that she had failed him for years but she could acknowledge that she worried that all that missed school would come to bite him, even with all the work he put in to catch up.
“Me too!” Izuku was in that boat, but at least he can smile knowing that all the time he spent with Hado and the rest helping him to study wasn’t for nothing.
“However,” That single word strangled any joy they felt. It carried no malice but they both knew that what he said next would make or break things for them. “While that alone would net you an offer for a place in our general studies course, you applied for the hero track which comes with the additional physical portion where you and everyone else had to score villain points. And might I say that you performed remarkably here as well, even better than your written score would imply as you managed to net 36 villain points, which sadly wouldn’t have been enough to secure a place in the hero course.” The principal looked sad for them in the image, but Izuku didn’t care enough to look up as his gaze fell to his lap, where he bunched his pants in his fists.
“Oh, Izuku.” His mother was quirk to give him a hug, feeling his grief over this apparent failure as what did he do now? But the worst part was that so many people helped him just to get him the chance, using their limited free time on him, making sure he was up to par with the books and with his quirk. But despite all that, he still managed to fail them.
“Hado and the rest put in so much work…and this is what I managed. It’s so darn frustrating.” He felt like crying, knowing that he would need to call and tell Hado and the rest that he couldn’t do it, that he wouldn’t be able to call himself their junior, to enjoy U.A with them as by the time he could retake the entrance, they’ll be gone.
Seemingly sensing their sorrow and vexation, the recording picked up again, sounding like a Chesire cat that knew a pleasant surprise they didn’t. “But there is a twist you see, Mr. Midoriya. The exam was more than just who could destroy the most robots, but there is a secret point system and before I reveal it, why don’t we watch some of your best moments-shall we?”
To their shock, they didn’t show him just fighting but almost exclusively focused on the times when he helped something, even if it was minor as moving a robot for them, pointing out where they could more, clearing the way of destroyed bots so that others could get through and gain points. even when he carried people away from the thick of it when they seemed overwhelmed
Through it all, Izuku could say he barely remembered most of it, he hadn’t been thinking, he had just been doing as he pleased, listening to his cheer filled heart as he went from foe to foe, leaving destruction and smoke in his wake. When he recalls the few moments when he helped someone like he was seeing, the only thing he could say was that he was just himself what Ryukyu would have done, and each time he knew the answer and used that as his guiding principle through the test.
Evidently, it seemed like the principal liked what he saw as his smile turned a little kinder, looking close to an experienced teacher seeing a student managing something even without their help through their own efforts. “Do you know what we saw? We saw a student using his time and skills to help others, to protect without so much as a thought. That, my future student, is what being a hero means: To protect and serve others.”
With the flare of a presenter and a teacher wrapped into one, Nezu continued. “And that is why we at U.A. have a secret point system known fittingly as ‘Rescue Points’ awarded by a panel of judges proportional for every heroic deed that a student could perform during the physical portion of the exam.”
“And by the judgment of that panel, Mr. Midoriya you managed to earn 73 rescue points, which gives you a grand total score of 109 points! That is a remarkable achievement, Mr. Midoriya, you're only the 10th person ever in the U.A. long history to break the triple digits on their entrance score, among the likes of pros like All Might, Edgeshot and Endeavour!” They felt their eyes nearly fall out of their heads as their jaws dropped at that reveal. Over a 100?! That was insane!
Nezu’s demeanor shifted once more, to that of a proud teacher. “And with that said, allow me to officially welcome you, Mr. Midoriya to your hero academia.” He held out his hand as if to shake his through the recording, a twinkle to his beady eyes. “I look forward to seeing you soon.” With that, the recording ended, leaving the trio in silence as they tried to process what they had just heard.
“I got in…” Izuku thought aloud, before it finally registered as he jumped to his feet, his joy so high that he started to breathe fire in the house. “I GOT IN!!” His mother didn’t care for it, even as the fire alarm went off, it only added to the festive mood they found themselves in as she pulled him into a hug, the two jumping for joy as tears of relief poured from their eyes in the classic Midoriya fashion.
“YOU GOT IN!!” Inko repeated, her pride for her son’s achievement overshadowing over concerns about damaging the floor via the built in-fire suppression system or their salty tears raining on everything as Koharu hissed and hid under the couch.
“I can’t believe it, I got it!” Izuku lifted his mother in his arms, swinging her as his body became akin to an electric heater that had been left on high for hours, but Inko didn’t care about it as she returned the hug with all her force and love.
“I’m so proud of you, I just knew you would do it, and you showed them didn’t you?” She gushed out, grabbing onto his face so that he looked into her eyes and saw a water smile. “You heard him, the 10th person to score that high! Oh, my son is such a wonderful person!” She started peppering his face with kisses of joy as he laughed it away, any embarrassment lost in the moment.
“Mom!”
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“And with that said, allow me to officially welcome you, Mr. Bakugo, to your hero academia.” Bakugo barely heard that part, his mind still stuck on something said earlier in the recording. He had fully expected that he got it, not only had he breezed through the written portion but he had dominated the practical portion, destroying more bots than anyone else and making damn sure he left his mark.
As he expected, when the rat principle had stated his results, he had of course scored 92% on the written portion. But it was the second part where he was fucking robbed. He didn’t care about the rescue points, seeing it as just a way for extras that couldn’t fight to save their lives to get a foot in the door. But hearing that he didn’t score first place in the practical had shot that dead in its crib, and to make it worst, it was the person who scored higher than him, the one peddle he was sure would remain in his past till he found him again and made sure he got what he deserved for being a good for nothing villain.
‘That’s…not possible…’ His mind raced as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing, as the projection didn’t cut out after Nezu spoke but instead showed the results for the two exams, namely those in the top ten of both as while he was at the top of the written portion, he was second to the practical. ‘That nerd fucking dropped out.’ This shouldn’t be possible, that villain never returned to class, he couldn’t have finished middle school, so he shouldn’t have been able to even take the exam!
“So how the fucking hell did he manage to beat my score?!” He yelled out, his fury boiling over as he couldn’t not see it, couldn’t just ignore it-not when that pyromaniac had bested him after everything he did!
1st Place: Izuku Midoriya 36 Villain Points, 73 Rescue Points – Total score 109
2nd Place: Katsuki Bakugo 89 Villain Points, 0 Rescue Points – Total score 89
3rd Place: Ejiro Kirishima 39 Villain Points, 35 Rescue Points – Total score 74
4th Place: Ibara Shiozaki 36 Villain Points, 32 Rescue Points – Total score 68
5th Place: Itsuka Kendo 25 Villain Points, 40 Rescue Points - Total score 65
6th Place: Tenya Iida 52 Villain Points, 9 Rescue Points – Total score 61
7th Place: Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 49 Villian Points, 10 Rescue Points – Total Score 59
8th Place: Fumikage Tokoyami 47 Villain Points,10 Rescue Points – Total Score 57
9th Place: Yosetsu Awase 50 Villian Points, 6 Rescue Points – Total Score 56
10th Place: Ochaco Uraraka 28 Villain Points, 27 Rescue Points – Total Score 55
He badly wanted to blow something up, but he was in his room, so everything was his and he wasn’t keen on replacing any of it, not for Pyro. Getting a grip on his fury, he picked up his acceptance letter and skimmed it, till he saw what he wanted, which was what class he would be in.
Class 1-A.; Room number B-1.
If he wasn’t wrong, that class A was for the top of the top, so as much as it made him want to gag, that villainous Pyro would be in it. That was good, it meant that he couldn’t run from him like he did before. On the first day of school he would make sure he got the full story of how that bastard conned and lied his back into his life to ruin it. ‘I get my answers soon, even if I have to beat them out of that fucking pyromaniac.’
“Katsuki, what was the result?!” His mother yelled from downstairs, his door doing little to lessen how loud she was as he turned to it and yelled back.
“I got it, you old hag! What, did you think I wouldn’t?!”
“Don’t yell at you, you brat! And I had to be sure! Now get down here, it’s time for dinner or I swear, I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to the fucking table!”
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“Hado-sempai!” Sometime after his mother and him calmed down and ate their dinner, he rushed into his room and called the first name that appeared on his contacts, said person answered after the third ring.
“You called me it, does that mean you got it?!” Hearing him use that term, she knew he had managed but wanted to hear him say it.
If Midoriya noticed, he was still too happy to care as he said it. “I got in!” To which Hado squealed in excitement over the line, with him imagining her rolling on her bed, or maybe floating all over her room in joy.
“I knew you would! We need to meet right now as we can talk face to face, bring the acceptance letter, I want to hold it!” She didn’t ask, but demanded and he was more then happy to oblige.
“I’ll be right there!” He ended the call and grabbed something to wear, not needing something as silly as a coat, he instead reached for one of the new kimono sets he had picked up and bolted out the door with nothing more than a goodbye and see you later to his mother. Finding a train that late wasn’t hard, before long he had reached the place where Hado had texted him. They met in a park not too far from Ryukyu agency. Upon his arrival, with Koharu secured around his neck, he found that Hado and Haya were already present, strange but he merely chalked it up to the two having been together then he called.
“Midoriya!” Hado floated over faster than one would assume she could move with her quirk and gobbled him up in a hug, with the boy turning into a sack of warm pudding in her arms. “How’s my new underclassmen feeling today?” He vibrated at that question, as it meant so much to be able to call his senior.
“I feel…I don’t know, but it feels good and bad at the same time…” He didn’t have a way to really describe it, but it was a nice feeling for the most part.
“That happens,” Haya walked up to them, reaching for his letter and skimming it, her eyes lighting up when she saw the results at the bottom. “Congrats by the way. Never met someone that scored that high on the practical.”
Letting him go, Hado gave him a head pat which had him melt into her grasps as she giggled at it. “But I guess we gotta come clean about something, we didn’t cut contact because we were busy but because Ryukyu thought it would be bad form to be seen together. You wouldn’t want people to think I helped you cheat, right?” He blinked, first at the reason and then at the absurdity of it.
“O-of course not, but you would never cheat!” Hado was one of the most honest people he had met, both in her curious nature and her drive to improve. She wouldn’t spend a single yen of someone else's money without first asking, so helping someone-even him to cheat his way into the U.A. wasn’t just crazy, it went against her very nature.
Poking his cheek, she continued. “I’m the most honest girl you’ll ever meet, but not everyone would know that.” She explained as it was explained to her by Ryukyu. “First rule of being present for the media, always assume that they’ll write mean stuff about you so don’t give them anything mean to write about!”
“Got it.” He made sure to memorize that advice when he goes pro, but then he had another question which left him a little nervous. “So…since I got it…does that mean we can hang out on campus?”
Hado’s response was to grab him into another hug, the girl somehow warmer than he was as she giggled. “Of course, we will, I’m telling you, on the first day of school, we’re going to show you around the place. U.A is super huge and there is a lot to see, including all the special spots I found over the years.” He liked that, just picturing it left him with a dumb looking smile and baby snake eyes which Haya just found adorable.
“Don’t show him where Amajiki likes to hide to relax.” Still, she had to act like the breaks for Hado before she gave up their introverted friends' most treasured hiding spots.
“But they could share them, and then they’ll be a matching pair of lions with hearts of kittens.” Hado replied, wondering if the two would develop their own introverted means to talk without words, would they be like some species of monkey that relied more on facial expressions? Oh, that would be fun to watch as they have entire debates without uttering a word, maybe while sharing a plate of Teriyaki duck, but wouldn’t Tamaki only eat that if he thought he’ll be swimming later?
While Hado lost herself in her mind, Midoriya pouted from her grasp at Haya. “My heart isn’t like a kitten’s...right?”
The now purple haired girl only laughed as she approached and ruffled his hair before handing Koharu a dried meat snack. “The fact that it was a question and not a statement speaks volumes, but don’t worry about it. Stick with us and we’ll make sure your heart’s akin to a shibes by year’s end.”
“That’s not much better.”
“Trust me, it is.” Her bland delivery didn’t make him feel better but Hado chose that moment to re-enter the conversation.
“Back to the celebration, tomorrow, we’ll go out for the biggest feast money can buy!”
“Nejire, we don’t have Ryukyu’s credit card this time around.” Haya reminded her before she corrected herself.
“The biggest feast we can afford!”
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And we’re at the end of another chapter. Hope you like it and if you did, please leave a comment.
