Chapter 3 Deku: The Telekinetic Hero by sremiehzla

What Makes a Hero

Izuku stood outside of Battle Center B, going through the warm-up stretches that he'd learned through his training with All Might.

'This is it,' he thought, standing back up straight after finishing his stretches. 'All Might said that I have what it takes to be a hero– a great hero! Now it's time to prove him right!'

"What's this? It looks as big as a real city!" one applicant said.

"U.A. has multiple of these on campus? Amazing!" another one exclaimed.

'A ten minute mock battle, huh?' Izuku thought, looking around. 'Everybody looks pretty confident.'

Looking around, there were only a few applicants that physically stood out to Izuku. One was a tall guy with 6 webbed arms. Another was a guy wearing a helmet, and there was also a feminine blond guy with a fancy frilly shirt, and metal belt. Then there was someone with red and white hair gelled into a single spike, and... Then he saw Ochako Uraraka in the middle of the crowd, fanning herself with her hand.

'I should probably thank her again for earlier,' Izuku thought as he began walking towards her. 'And also wish her luck.'

Before he even took two steps, a hand grabbed Izuku's shoulder firmly. He slowly turned to look up at the tall boy with short dark hair and glasses, Examinee #7111 if he remembered correctly, who had called him out during the orientation for muttering.

'So he's here, too?' Izuku thought, narrowing his eyes at the boy. 'He's already getting on my nerves.'

Examinee #7111 glanced up towards Uraraka, saying, "That girl appears to be trying to focus." He looked back at Izuku, tilting his head and slightly narrowing his eyes. "What exactly are you here for? Are you here to interfere with those of us who are actually interested in being heroes?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Izuku responded coldly. "I'm here to be a hero too. It didn't occur to you that I might just know her?"

"It did, but the students here are all from different schools. I find it unlikely that you'd know her."

"Well, I–"

"OKAY START!" Present Mic's voice rang out over the group. As everyone looked up at the tower that he was yelling from, he continued, "WHAT'S WRONG? THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN A REAL FIGHT! RUN, RUN!"

'Damn, I can't let this asshole distract me!' Izuku thought, starting to run into the fake city along with the other applicants. 'I have to pass, and not let All Might down!'

Students began splitting off of the main group as they ran, and Izuku followed suit by running alone into an abandoned side street. Suddenly, a large metal robot labelled '2' jumped out in front of him. Expecting it to weigh a lot, Izuku used his telekinesis to launch it into a cement wall that was next to the building it jumped from. To Izuku's surprise, the robot was lighter than he expected, so the extra force he had put in caused the machine to crush against the wall.

'Woah, they must be made of a super light yet durable material! Leave it to U.A.,' he thought before continuing down the street.

Along the road, he encountered two 1-pointers, one more 2-pointer, and a 3-pointer. Once he reached the end of the street, he looked back for a second at the robots that he had smashed against walls and the floor.

'Alright... 9 points!'

He peeled off down another side street, where he was ambushed by a group of five robots; a 3-pointer, a 2-pointer, and three 1-pointers. They all trained their sights on him, but he gripped them all simultaneously with his Quirk and, somersaulting out of the way, he made them all collide with each other.

'17 points!'

Before reaching the end of the street, he encountered another 3-pointer, bringing his total up to 20 villain points.

"SIX AND A HALF MINUTES LEFT!" Present Mic's voice screamed out.

'It's been three and a half minutes?' Izuku thought, starting to run up another street. 'At this rate, I'll get about 50 or so points.. That's probably enough! I need to keep this up!'

Izuku ran through another street. As he went, his motion activated several faux villains. There were two 3-pointers, three 2-pointers, and two 1-pointers, which he all gripped with his power and launched into a wall at the end of the street, skidding to a halt himself.

'That was 14 more points, all in an instant! That's 34 in total! That was just a lucky street though, so I can't let up yet'

Izuku ran down another street, although he only collected 6 points in that one. He did this going down two more streets, amassing 11 points from them, before breaking out onto a main street that was full of applicants and destroyed faux villains. After doing it through those four streets, he felt a sharp pain in his side.

"45! 47! 48!" He heard and saw Examinee #7111 as he leapt from villain to villain, destroying them with great speed and powerful kicks.

He then saw Ochako Uraraka with several robots floating behind her, before she released them to fall to the ground, yelling, "28!"

'48? 28? Am I really doing that well? I already have 51 points!' Izuku clutched at his aching side and started catching his breath. 'Then again, I'm really tired out from over-exerting my Quirk... There were a lot of robots, plus I was running the whole time.'

Suddenly, a massive boom shook the entire city, and a shockwave was sent down the street. Izuku looked at the source, and paled when he saw a massive robot, which was taller than any of the buildings surrounding it. It had a grey '0' plastered on its shoulder.

'The 0-pointer? Isn't that a little bit too big?!'

"TWO MINUTES LEFT!" Present Mic yelled over the exam site.

The entirety of aspiring heroes began running away from the faux villain. Izuku was about to follow them when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the color brown. He looked to see that Ochako Uraraka had her leg pinned beneath some rubble. She was twisting, trying to connect her fingers to the concrete, but the awkward angle with which it fell on her made doing so difficult. The 0-pointer was moving down the street, with her directly in the path of its tread. She wasn't going to escape with enough time to run away. She was going to die.

"OOW!" She screeched, desperately fighting the weight of the rubble.

Izuku's body, despite its tiredness, glowed with a soft green as he pushed himself towards the girl. As soon as he was within fifteen meters, the collapsed piece of the building that had pinned Ochako's leg down flew off of her. Izuku knelt down and picked up the girl, pulling her arm over his shoulder before running away. As he did though, he could feel that his Quirk had lost most of its strength.

"M-Midoriya?" Ochako said softly, before heaving from nausea. "Tha-Thanks..."

"Don't mention it!" Izuku yelled. "Can you run on your own?"

"I-I think I broke my ankle, sorry."

Izuku glanced over his shoulder. 'Shit! I'm not fast enough to outrun that thing while holding her! And my Quirk can't handle any more, let alone using it on myself! If it comes to it, I guess I could use the last of my strength to launch her a safe distance, but then I'd be done. If only I could stop it. Maybe... No, that wouldn't work! I need to use my Quirk to do that! If only I weighed less... Waitaminute!' "Uraraka! Can you still use your Quirk?"

"I-I could probably manage it for a few seconds," she groaned. "But using it on myself right now wouldn't work too well."

"That's fine, that wasn't what I had in mind! Use it on me, right now!"

"Alright..."

Maybe it was a stupid idea. Maybe it would have been smarter for Izuku to run away with Ochako while he was weightless, but that wasn't where his mind was at the moment. Maybe it was stupid, but he realized it after the fact. He was cornered, and his fight-or-flight response had chosen to fight. As soon as Ochako pressed her fingers to Izuku and he could feel gravity leaving him, he used his Quirk to throw her about 15 meters ahead.

'Sorry about that, Uraraka!'

Izuku turned toward the massive faux villain that threatened to crush him momentarily. Without the burden of gravity pulling his body down, despite his weariness, he easily covered himself in a bright green glow. Leading with his right fist, he flew directly up and into the massive 0-pointer. He moved so fast that he generated a shockwave as he leapt up. He entered through the lower torso of the robot, and exited through the back of its head. His body was mostly well-protected by the force of his telekinesis, but the impact broke his fingers, dislocated his wrist, and broke his forearm. The bits of debris from the machine also ended up cutting him all over. He looked back down at the robot he had just ripped through, which was now falling backwards, exploding in multiple places. It hit the ground with a deafening thud, which let off a shockwave that sent Izuku back a little bit. He then realized that he was still weightless, and he used his Quirk to float back down to earth.

"Release!" Ochako gasped once Izuku touched down, touching her fingers together before vomiting a good amount.

"Hey, Uraraka! Are you alright?" Izuku called, making his way over to her as fast as his exhausted body would let him and wincing at the pain in his side.

"I-I'm fine, I jus–" Ochako started talking before resuming her throwing up.

"Hey, hey, take it easy," Izuku sighed as he knelt down next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. Once she seemed done with the vomiting, Izuku asked, "How's your ankle?"

"It hurts... A lot," she sighed, rolling to sit on her butt. "But how did you do that? That was... a-amazing..."

Izuku looked at her as she trailed off, and saw that she was looking–no, staring at him, and blushing. He looked down at his tracksuit, and realized that the upper portion had been mostly torn apart when he went through the massive robot, and his toned body was completely visible.

"Y-You're really fit, huh," she noted before chuckling nervously. "Couldn't tell while you were wearing that tracksuit, aha..."

"W-Well, I guess..." Izuku blushed a bit and looked away. "Well anyway, it's good to k-know what I'm capable of with my Quirk i-if I use it on something that's weightless," he said, sitting next to her and laughing nervously as he went to scratch the back of his neck. "Ouch! I... I think I broke my arm, though."

"Well, of course you did!" Ochako yelled, gently grabbing his arm to look at his hand. "Ya punched through that whole thing! I'm surprised that'cha didn't shatter your whole arm up to your shoulder!"

"That was probably a stupid idea, ehe. I probably should have just escaped with you once you made me weightless. But at least we confirmed that our Quirks work well together, right?"

"Yeah... Oh hey! Maybe we should become a hero duo once we graduate from U.A.! I mean, if we both passed the exam," Ochako laughed uncomfortably.

'She's really cute when she laughs, huh,' Izuku thought, laughing nervously alongside her. 'And her accent is a little cute, too. I wonder where she's from?'

"TIME'S UP! IT'S OVEERRR!" Present Mic yelled over the exam site.

"Ah, man!" Ochako sighed as she stretched her arms above her head. "I got 28 points, I hope it's enough."

"I'm sure you'll pass, so don't worry about it," Izuku said, chuckling. "I just have a feeling."

"How many points did you get, Midoriya? You know, before you saved me. THANKS FOR THAT BY THE WAY!" Ochako quickly jumped up and bowed to Izuku in thanks, but instantly fell back down due to her injury.

"Hey, don't over-exert yourself! Besides, don't mention it. It's repaying you for stopping my fall earlier."

"The two don't even begin to compare," she sighed, rubbing her ankle. "I'll make it up to you one day, I promise. Anyway, how many points do you have?"

"I got uh..." Izuku looked around, and noticed that everyone was looking at him and Ochako. "Why is everyone staring at us?"

"Who wouldn't stare when you just tore through the entire 0-pointer?" Ochako sighed. "Stop dodging the question though. Is it low or something?"

"N-No, I got 51," Izuku said.

"Woah, that's way better than my score!" Ochako exclaimed, smiling at Izuku. "You're definitely getting in."

"You did pretty well too," Izuku said earnestly. "I'm sure you'll get in too."

He looked around and saw, through the crowd, that there was a short old lady walking around handing out candies.

"That mademoiselle is the backbone of U.A.," Izuku could hear the feminine blond boy say. He had a French accent. "She's the school's registered nurse... the Youthful Heroine, Recovery Girl!"

Recovery Girl walked over to Izuku and Ochako after checking up on everyone else.

"Do you two have any injuries?" she asked, glancing at the puddle of vomit for a moment.

"Yeah, she broke her ankle," Izuku said, pointing his thumb at Ochako. "And I broke my arm. And my hand."

"Jeez, you kids are too reckless these days," Recovery girl sighed before quickly planting a kiss on each of their cheeks.

"Eh? Why did–" Ochako cut herself off as the pain in her stomach and ankle disappeared.

"Woah, is this your Quirk?" Izuku asked, squeezing his newly healed hand to test it. "That's amazing!"

"Here, have some haribo candies," Recovery Girl said, holding out her hand to the two teenagers.

She dropped 4 gummy bears into each of their hands, and turned around to walk away.

"I feel all better!" Ochako sighed in relief as she stood up. "But I'm still not sure if I passed. I mean, if you got 51 and I got 28, then there's probably a lot of other people between our scores, right?"

"I don't know about that," Izuku said as he also stood up. "I think you did just fine."

"Eh, I hope so," Ochako sighed. Suddenly, she perked up, "How about you give me your phone number! That way, I can tell you once I get the letter from U.A.!"

"Oh, alright, that's probably a good idea. Let's exchange numbers after we change back into our uniforms."

Ochako quickly glanced back down at Izuku's body once more before looking away. "A-Alright!"

Izuku and Ochako followed the rest of the group back to the locker rooms, engaging in general chatter along the way. Once they changed out of their exercise clothing and into their respective uniforms, they met again in front of the U.A. front gate and exchanged numbers.

"Well, I'll see you later, Midoriya! It was nice to meet ya!" Ochako shook Izuku's hand and smiled.

"Yeah, it was nice to meet you too! I'll text you later, alright Uraraka?" Izuku smiled as he let her hand go.

"Sounds good! See ya!"

Ochako and Izuku walked their separate ways. But, instead of going home, Izuku walked back to U.A. He needed to have a word with Present Mic.

After asking a few people about the whereabouts of the vocal hero, he was eventually able to find him. He quickly walked into the room which overlooked the exam grounds.

"Um.. Excuse me?" Izuku called as he entered the room. "Present Mic?"

"Oh? What can I do for you, little listener?" Present Mic turned to him after setting down a stack of papers.

"Um... Well, there's this girl, Ochako Uraraka. She has short brown hair, rosy cheeks. Umm... Her face is kinda cute and round, you know the one I mean? She wasn't confident that she has enough points to pass, but... In the end, she had to use the last of her Quirk's strength on me, and she was super nice besides that. She even saved me from falling before the exam, so... Could I give her some of my points? At least the few she could've gotten with one more use of her Quirk! I think that she really deserves to be a hero, and I want to help her! At least if she isn't already passing, then I'd like to donate as many points as she needs to pass!"

"AHAHA!" Present Mic's laugh was booming, even without his speaker turned on. "Woah, slow down there, listener! I'm sorry, but I can't transfer points between exam takers. That being said," Present Mic shook his head and put a hand on Izuku's shoulder, "I don't think you should have anything to worry about! I haven't seen the scores yet, but I'll let you know that villain points aren't the only thing being considered here. If she helped you out at the end, when she wasn't confident in her own score, I'm sure that'll be taken into account! Don't tell her that I said that though. In fact, don't tell anyone! I really shouldn't have told you anyway, so keep your mouth shut about it."

"I-I will! Thank you so much, Present Mic!" Izuku exclaimed in appreciation as he bowed.

As Izuku exited the room, Present Mic sighed, "I didn't even do anything, kid."

As soon as Izuku got home, he took a long, hot shower. It helped relax his sore body, and relieved the stress that his mind had been under as well. It felt like he wouldn't be able to use his Quirk for weeks, although that obviously wasn't really the case. After cleaning himself up, he sat down to dinner with his mom and told her all about the entrance exam, including Ochako.

"Oh, well I'm so proud of you!" Inko gushed, holding Izuku's hand across the table. "And that Uraraka girl sounds nice, too!"

"She is," Izuku responded with a smile, before frowning. "I hope she doesn't worry too much about her score, though. I just know that she'll pass."

"Oh, don't worry about that, sweetie. I'm sure everything will work out!" Inko smiled.

"Yeah. Thanks for the food, Mom. It was delicious!" Izuku said as he stood up and brought his dishes to the sink. "I'm going to go for a run first thing tomorrow. Even though All Might isn't training me any more, I need to keep up with my exercise. So, I might be gone when you wake up."

"Oh, that's fine, dear! Just don't overwork yourself, because that can be bad for you!"

"I know Mom, I already learned that lesson while training with All Might. I'm going to my room, so I'll see you later!"

"Okay!" she smiled, brimming with pride for her son.

After cleaning the last of his dishes, Izuku made his way towards his bedroom, where he began sifting through the day's hero news. There hadn't been any debuts that day or too many villain attacks, except for one that caught his eye.

"Another victim of the hero killer, huh?" Izuku muttered to himself. "Let's see... Power Volt this time? That's too bad, I liked him. When will some hero finally stop this guy? I wonder how skilled he must be to be able to take down so many heroes. What are the specifics of his Quirk, too? I've seen a lot of talk online..."

Izuku began rapidly muttering to himself, speculating about the hero killer called 'Stain'. It was a full ten minutes before he realized that he had gotten carried away again. Having gone through the hero news, Izuku decided to do some bicep curls while watching some videos on his computer. Sitting there, his mind drifted, and he came to rest his thoughts on Ochako more than once.

'I wonder if she's doing alright,' he thought, coming to the end of his set of curls. 'Maybe I should text her to see how she's doing... She was pretty worried, after all.'

Izuku pulled out his phone and opened up his contacts, quickly finding the most recently added one.

Midoriya: Hey, Uraraka! This is Midoriya from the entrance exam, I just wanted to see how you are doing after all that.

Midoriya laid back on his bed, and It was only a few moments before the word "read" popped up under his message, and she started typing.

Uraraka: Hi Midoriya! I'm doing well, and I'm feeling a lot better after relaxing a bit. Thanks for being concerned! *Stream of cute emojis* How are you doing? I feel like I should be more concerned about you, since you punched through that huge 0-pointer *More emojis*

Midoriya: I'm doing fine, thanks for asking.

Midoriya: I meant to ask earlier, but you're from out of town, aren't you?

Uraraka: Yeah, I'm from the Mie Prefecture. My parents sent me out here to go to U.A. Are you from near U.A.?

Midoriya: Yeah, I lived here for my whole life. Do you know anyone around here?

Uraraka: No, I only know you. I just came into Shizuoka a few days ago.

Midoriya: Well, I could show you around the town, if you'd like. Besides, we should get to know each other if we're going to go to school together.

Uraraka: IF I go to U.A. *Pouting face emoji* But, I'll take you up on your offer either way! Is tomorrow morning fine?

Midoriya: Sure! I'm free after about 8, since I run in the mornings.

Uraraka: That's a lot of dedication! I don't think I'd have it in me *Plethora of emojis*

Midoriya: Where should we meet?

Uraraka: You could pick me up at 9:30 from my apartment. Is that fine?

Midoriya: Yeah, sounds great! Where is that?

Uraraka: 1 Address Attached

Midoriya: Alright, I'll meet you tomorrow at 9:30

Uraraka: Great! I look forward to seeing you! Goodnight! *If emojis had mass, this would be a ton of them*

Midoriya: Goodnight, Uraraka. See you tomorrow!

Izuku set down his phone and stretched. He was pretty happy with how that conversation went, and he genuinely looked forward to hanging out with Uraraka. He was on good terms with most of his classmates, but most of them avoided him for fear of Katsuki's wrath, which was too often directed at Izuku for their liking. So, it would be nice for him to actually spend time with a friend. Izuku eventually decided that it was time to go to bed, but first he got up and made his way to the living room, where his mother was watching TV.

"I'm gonna go to bed, Mom," he said. "I'm actually going to meet with Uraraka tomorrow—she's the girl from the exam. It turns out she's from out of town, so I'm going to show her around a bit."

"Oh my," Inko said, putting her hand on her cheek. "How gentlemanlike of you, Izuku!"

"Well, I guess. I'm, uh, going to bed now."

"Alright, sleep well dear!" Inko called, winking at him as he walked away.

Izuku had some trouble falling asleep that night. Aside from the excitement of the day, he was also nervous about meeting Ochako the next day. Why would he be, though? He was doing something nice for her, right? Besides, they were friends. New friends, but still friends. Sure she was cute, and super nice, and had an infectious laugh that he probably easily blushed to, but... He shook the thoughts from his head. There was no reason to be nervous. He should be glad to have someone who wanted to hang out with him, not nervous. He didn't hold it against his classmates, because of Katsuki, and he'd be more than happy to be friends with Ochako. Even so, he kept himself up due to the odd nervousness he felt. Not so late that he was dead tired the following day, but late nonetheless.