4 Recommendation Exam

A/N: Just a reminder, new chapter here officially means new chapter over on the P atreon now, where my patrons also decide the future direction of this story!

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With a shrug, Nezu pulls out a coin and flips it several times, mentally tabulating the results in his head. After a moment, the Principal goes ahead and write down Mirko as Class 1-A's teacher, Ryukyu as Class 1-B's teacher, and Mt. Lady as the floater, respectively. With that dilemma solved, the nonhuman nods in satisfaction and continues on with his paperwork.

The next year of school was just around the corner after all, and with All Might out of commission and an almost entirely new faculty, Nezu knew he had his work cut out for him. But that was okay. After all, what were U.A.'s words? Plus Ultra. Plus Ultra indeed…

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The day had finally arrived, albeit in a way that Izuku had to admit he hadn't expected. He had thought he was going to be taking the U.A. Entrance Exam alongside all of the other students who had applied. It was what All Might had wanted, after all… but in this case, what All Might wanted didn't seem to really matter anymore. Izuku's former mentor was currently recovering from a bit of a medical emergency. The shock to his system, finding out that Nana was alive all this time and in the clutches of their great enemy, had very nearly been enough to kill the Symbol of Peace.

Luckily, he wasn't dead, or Izuku would have felt at least a little guilty. But it did mean that All Might was no longer really in charge of him… and in fact, things might have gotten a bit more difficult for Izuku, if not for one simple fact. He had Nana batting for him. His order to Nana Shimura to try and get a job at U.A. had led to almost immediate results. She hadn't had the reputation she once had for nothing, it would seem.

Obviously, the fact that she'd passed on her Quirk to her successor many, many years before left her a shadow of her former self in terms of power. She was a shadow of her former self in other ways as well thanks to the things Izuku's father had done to her. But despite all of that, when given a task Nana Shimura couldn't help but excel.

She'd managed to convince Nezu to hire her on to replace All Might as one of the year's Heroics Teachers, and then she'd gone a step further, leveraging her new position and influence to get Izuku into the Recommendation Entrance Exam. Unlike the normal Entrance Exam, the Recommendation Entrance Exam was a test given only to the most exceptional middle school students with outstanding references.

Clearly, if Nana could make this happen, Yagi could have as well. All Might had obviously had his reasons for not supporting Izuku fully in spite of giving him his Quirk. But what those reasons were, Izuku couldn't have said. After all, it wasn't like Yagi was in any state to chat right now. He may or may not ask him later… in the end, did it really matter anyways?

With Nana's backing, Izuku had been a shoo-in for the Recommendation Entrance Exam. So, here he was, along with the rest of the elite students, those with strong Quirks and even stronger personalities. Honestly, he was a little surprised that SHE wasn't there… but that didn't stop Izuku from cataloging everyone he saw anyways.

Or rather, he found himself most drawn to the girls. He was a teenage boy, give him a break. Still, there were at least three young women who Izuku couldn't help but surreptitiously check out as they all waited for the written portion of the exam to get underway.

One was someone he recognized immediately. It was impossible not to know who Shouko Todoroki was, especially for someone obsessed with Quirks like him. It helped that his father had made sure he was always stocked up with the best forms of information when it came to Pro Heroes and their children, his eventual peers.

Shouko Todoroki was the youngest daughter of the current Number Two Pro Hero in all of Japan, Endeavor. Given All Might's rapidly worsening condition, it was likely that Endeavor would soon be Number One. Would that be enough to make the perfectionist of a man happy? Would that be enough to perhaps cause a change of heart within him?

Sadly, Izuku didn't think it would. The man was driven and not in a good way. It was one thing to want the best for yourself but living in All Might's shadow for so long had ruined Endeavor's drive. He'd become convinced that he himself could never be good enough… and to be fair, he was right. Oh sure, Endeavor would soon be Number One, but even if the information was kept from the public somehow, the Pro Hero himself would know he'd only ever taken the spot because All Might had finally slipped and stumbled, not because Endeavor had managed to surpass his longtime rival.

Knowing he would never be good enough to beat All Might in his prime had led Endeavor to some questionable life choices, like an under the table, technically illegal Quirk marriage. Said Quirk marriage had resulted in several children, one of whom was Shouko Todoroki… the only success, if you wanted to be exceptionally callous about things.

The girl, with half her hair white and half her hair red, was quiet and withdrawn as she sat off in a corner, waiting for the exam to begin. Izuku figured she probably wouldn't appreciate his company, but he was half-tempted to approach her anyways. With the number of Quirks, he had at his disposal, he had a good chance of worming his way through any crack in her armor after all… assuming one existed.

But first, he lets his eyes wander. After all, she wasn't the only girl in the room to catch his attention.

Momo Yaoyorozu. The Heiress to a vast fortune built on the back of an incredibly famous hero family who had leveraged their fame into a multi-billion dollar international company, rather than focusing on ranking as Endeavor had. Momo and Shouko were similar in that they'd both grown up in homes with incredibly high expectations, but other than that, their lives couldn't be more different.

After all, Momo was an only child and from what Izuku knew, she'd grown up… sheltered, with very little in the way of friends. Her Quirk was certainly an impressive one. Perhaps not as powerful as the successful combination of Ice and Fire Quirks like Shouko's, but still incredibly versatile. The ability to create any non-living thing from her exposed skin was really quite spectacular.

More so, even, when you found out that she needed to understand the molecular structure of whatever she was making before she made it, forcing her to be very well researched and very well learned indeed to make her Quirk as versatile and powerful as possible.

She was currently being chatted up by another student, who was talking her ear off about this or that while she just plastered an uncomfortable smile on her face and let him speak. Izuku could tell though, it wasn't because she was socially inept that she was letting it happen… it was because she was the kind of girl who liked to make other people happy if she could, even at the expense of her own happiness.

She was almost certainly a natural leader, on top of being the sort of person who could get very dedicated to her goals. It made sense, given what Izuku knew about her past and her likely future. She was going to inherit the family fortune one day after all, and that… that was a LOT of money, from what he understood.

Of course, last but not least, there was Setsuna Tokage. In comparison to powerhouses like Shouko and Momo, Setsuna might not have seemed like much. The girl wasn't from a rich family, nor did she have a parent incredibly high in the Pro hero rankings. Rather, she'd gotten here, to the Recommendation Exam, for one reason and one reason only… she had a strong Quirk and a stronger personality.

Her recommendations all came from her middle school rather than her personal life. With a Quirk like hers, it wasn't all that surprising. But even still, Izuku had to be impressed by the girl behind the Quirk as well. After all, the ability to split oneself into multiple pieces and move at high speeds with them was incredible. To say nothing of it's combat applications, it also allowed her to effectively levitate and fly, which was awesome.

On top of that, she could regenerate, though from his father's reports, this was very taxing on her. But still, she was incredibly powerful, and likely knew it too. Her determination to leverage her Quirk into that of a Pro Hero career is what had led her here, after all, to the Recommendation Entrance Exam.

Before Izuku can consider approaching any of the three girls, there's a sudden noise at the front of the large room and he finds his eyes drawn there along with everyone else's.

"Settle down everyone, settle down. You-! Huh… you were all already being pretty quiet, I suppose. Hehe, my bad!"

Izuku's first thought is that the young woman at the front of the room is pretty cute. His second thought is one tinged with suspicion. Izuku… Izuku is NOT stupid. Why was Amplifier, a Pro Hero, standing in front of them?

"Some of you might not have heard the news, but Present Mic has officially retired from his position as U.A. Faculty. I've been hired on in his place. My name is Amplifier, and if you all make it into U.A. this year, I'll be your English Teacher!"

… This had his father's fingerprints all over it. His dad… he hadn't done something to Present Mic, had he?

"Anyways, on with the show! Everyone please have a seat and get ready for the written exam!"

Right. He couldn't dwell on that right now. He had a test to take and ace. There was no doubt in Izuku's mind that he would do well, but that was still absolutely no excuse for fucking up in any way. And so Izuku sits down while all of the other students who'd gotten in on recommendation take their seats as well. The tests, along with some pencils, are swiftly passed out.

Izuku immediately gets to work… and has no problem at all with the content of the written portion of the exam. He doesn't even have to use any of the numerous Intelligence-Enhancing Quirks he currently has at his disposal. This shit is easy, stuff that he already knew, and as he finishes up the exam, he's feeling pretty good about himself… until he stands up along with half of the other recommended students and is swiftly reminded that he's in a place where exceptional is normal.

Reminding himself that he's got a lot more going for him than just being exceptional, Izuku gets in line with the rest of the students who finished early. There are still plenty more who are continuing to work on the written exam, though those students tend to be the bigger, beefier ones. The jocks of the recommended group, if you will.

Certainly, all three of the girls that Izuku had noticed earlier had definitely already finished, and by the time he gets up to the front desk where Amplifier is sitting with a gobsmacked look on her face, all three of those young ladies have already gone out the door.

"W-Wow. I guess there's a reason you guys are the recommended students. Alright, um… well, there's still another thirty minutes left in the written portion of the exam, and then a thirty minute break between that and the physical exam as well. So, I guess you've got an hour to do what you like with! Rest up if you want, or maybe grab a snack! Either way, just be sure to be on the field in an hour or you might end up getting disqualified, no matter how well you did on the written exam!"

Izuku nods at that as he hands in his test and flashes Amplifier a grin. The young woman is certainly a looker. She was a tall woman, with short honey brown hair and matching brown eyes. Her hero costume, meanwhile, consisted of a pink cropped jacket with puffy sleeves and a tight, form-fitting navy blue cropped top underneath. Completing the somewhat sexy ensemble is the matching pink miniskirt and the dark purple shorts just under it.

With a pink star painted below her left eye, she definitely ticked all of the checkboxes for being a loud and in your face kind of Pro Hero… and Izuku couldn't help but be attracted to her, which was probably the point.

Hm, with an entire hour to kill, he had options in front of him, as Izuku saw it. Striding out of the large room, he uses an investigative Quirk that immediately lets him track exactly where Shouko Todoroki, Momo Yaoyorozu, and Setsuna Tokage all went. It seems they all went off in different directions even, heading off on their own to seek some privacy.

That was perfect, if he wanted to try chatting any of them up. Alternatively… he could wait thirty minutes and try to chat Amplifier up instead. The Pro Hero turned English Teacher might not be too hard to get to know better, but admittedly he would only have half the time with her that he would the others, and it was entirely possible she would be annoyed with him for interrupting her break.

Of course, Izuku had a lot of Quirks to make sure she was LESS annoyed with him, if it ultimately came down to it… but the question was, did he want to risk it? Better still, did he want to risk it with anyone? Hm, he might have gotten into the Recommended Entrance Exam, sure, but he COULD technically still fail here.

He still wanted to approach one of those three girls, or maybe Amplifier, even if there was some risk attached to it. Maybe nothing would happen, maybe it wouldn't amount to anything, but Izuku wanted to make friends. He wanted… he wanted allies going into the coming school year, beyond just the stalwart and loyal follower he had in Nana Shimura.

If he was going to do this, he needed to decide soon, however. Who should he try and talk to? Shouko Todoroki? Momo Yaoyorozu? Setsuna Tokage? Or go for broke and try and chat up Amplifier once the written exam was finished? Or… none of them, and just focus on passing this whole thing with flying colors. He could, after all, always get to know any and all of them later on, once he'd secured his place in UA…

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