The moment the buzzer sounded, Izuku's team took off. If anything, that was the one thing he appreciated the most. The few moments after introductions was enough to formulate the basics of a plan.

Iida would use his speed to search for the Med Bay and move the dummies. Tsuyu would use her tongue and jump power to provide mobility. Uraraka would alleviate the weight of the dummies and help remove rubble. Izuku would use his physical fitness and sparing uses of his quirk to remove dummies. Shinso helped to the best of his ability by locating more dummies while they were busy.

The exam location was set up like a city. The buildings were in various states of destruction. Some were completely rubble, some were on fire, and some were flooded.

The dummies were diverse as well. All displayed some form of injury and a point value, but some of them were painted in the likeness of people. One was a very poor rendition of Present Mic. It took effort not to laugh at it in the middle of the exam.

They all got points for the dummies if they worked as a team.

Midoriya ran off adrenaline for a good portion of rummaging through decimated buildings. He had to pull a couple examines who had gotten stuck out of the rubble.

After a good half hour of moving rubble, running, delegating tasks to his team mates, and occasionally saving another exam taker from debris, the first portion of the exam ended. Izuku was exhausted.

----

They got an hour break to eat lunch and have injuries healed by Recovery Girl. It was while they were sitting at the lunch table with their bentos that they started talking.

"You were so cool out there!" Uraraka said. "How did you know what exactly to do?"

"Umm.." Izuku said sheepishly, "I didn't. I just figured I should do what I have seen pros doing."

"Well it worked! You have this leader thing down."

"I sincerely agree. Midoriya's delegations were done in a precise and appropriate manner!" Iida said, moving his hands like a robot.

"Me too, kero. I saw you saving those other exam takers. That's very brave of you, kero." Asui, who preferred to be called Tsu, pointed out.

"Well, um.." Izuku could feel his ears and face warming and tears welling up.

"Back down a little guys. He might faint and or cry if you continue." Shinso said, holding his hand underneath the table. The two boys found it to be an effective grounding technique between the two of them.

"Thanks," Izuku whispered in the boy's direction.

"Oh! I'm sorry! We didn't mean to overwhelm you!" Uraraka was quick to say.

"No, no! It's alright! They're happy tears!" Izuku reassured her.

----

The next portion of the exam was stealth. Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Shinso were especially helpful in this section.

Tsuyu used her ability to stick to walls and camoflage to crawl across the ceiling and grab a briefcase from behind a bot's back.

Uraraka used her ability to float to sneak past guard bots on the ground.

While Shinso couldn't use his quirks on bots, he could use it to keep other contestants from ruining everyone's operations by rushing in and causing a ruckus.

The bots weren't very observant, but, for some reason, some examines chose to abandon the task at hand in favor of destroying "the enemy."

Izuku didn't understand it.

The hardest thing they had to retrieve was a group of three hostages from the fourth floor of a five story building. The building had two guards on each floor.

They had Uraraka float up to see into each floor. Once they pinpointed where the hostages were, Uraraka floated Tsuyu up to the window where she camouflaged herself and lowered down the hostages with her tongue for Izuku, Iida, and Shinso to catch and move to the designated spot.

They snuck past a few other guards and retrieved a couple smaller objectives until Present Mike called the end of the test.

----
After the second portion of the test finished, the examinees were sent to a waiting room to be checked over by Recovery Girl and wait for the third portion of the test to be set up.

"Are you okay?" Shinso asked his green haired friend.

"Yeah," Izuku said through his rapid heart rate, "I just wish the test wasn't so long."

"Anxiety kicking your ass?" Shinso asked.

Izuku was caught by surprise. "Shinso!"

Shinso only laughed before offering his hand to the other boy.

Tsuyu eyed the two boys and their clasped hands critically before speaking. "How long have you been dating?"

Both boys sputtered, faces red. "It's not like that! We're just friends!" Izuku said in a high pitched voice, his face imitating the bright color of his shoes.

"Hmm. Okay." Tsuyu shrugged. "You guys just seem really close."

"Yeah..." Shinso said, rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed.

They chatted for a while before the third part of the test was announced. This part was a bit different from the rest of the test. The robots they destroy will be directly adding to their score. They are encouraged to work in teams, but they don't have to.

----

The moment Present Mike called time, Izuku and Shinso booked it. They knew that they had a greater disadvantage here, so they were going to take everything they could get.

They both headed into the alleys. They were sure that most examinees would head towards the center.

In the approximate 10 months since discovering his quirk, Shinso had convinced Izuku to at least work with it. Izuku found it easier to view it as a tool that needed refining.

He certainly wasn't at the same level of expertise as his peers, but would have to do. At this point, he was able to make the flame solid with the easiest form he could manage being a spear.

He and Shinso tag teamed making the robots shoot eachother, and the moment one of the lazers started a fire, Izuku would take control of it. They would both pull endangered examinees from falling cement and shrapnel created by the robots.

They were doing good until Izuku felt the ground rumbling. When he looked up, he saw a mammoth of a robot.

"Is that the zero pointer?!" Izuku shouted to Shinso.

"I think so!"

Then both of them heard a cry of pain over the sound of many of the examinees running away. Izuku and Shinso turned to eachother, nodded in understanding, and rushed to help. Upon getting closer to the girl, Izuku realized it was Uraraka as well as noticed how close the zero pointer had gotten.

"I'm gonna spear it!"

"Go ahead!"

Izuku gathered all of the fire under his hold and tried to make the sharpest spear he could. As he threw it, he desperately hoped it would be enough to penetrate the metal. Turning back to the other two, he helped Shinso lift the peice of asphalt pinning the girl down. Just as they got the chunk off of her, there was a large creaking sound. In an act of adenaline, Izuku picked up the girl and Shinso and just started running as fast as he could.

The looming shadow was not getting smaller. Izuku desperately pulled any fire from his surroundings to cover the group in a searing hot forcefield.

The only thing that Izuku thought of before the robot came crashing down on them was, "That's new..."

----

Aizawa was very pleased with this year's entrance exam.  He had this design in the works for years, ever since Nedzu had challenged him to create a more comprehensive exam in his third year. It was only now with the big oaf's ever closer reaching retirement that the commission was allowing the change at all.

He was looking forward to watching, especially to see how Midoriya faired. In the months since they started their investigation, they had uncovered more than they expected. Midoriya's whole middle school was a crime against education. It really was a blessing and a curse for social media to exist.

Every scroll across local anti-Q forums led to at least one photo or video of the boy, and those pieces of evidence were damning. Multiple shots of the boy injured in some corner while others laughed at him, videos of Midoriya walking into class only to find his desk covered in permanent marker, and several clips of students tripping him and ruining his lunch were among the few. The captions of the posts weren't kind either. This sweet, kind boy has been called every name in the book. He would be surprised if there were no lasting emotional scars, no less physical ones.

And Aizawa knew how kind the boy was. On the few occasions that Midoriya had used his contact given on the cat care forms, he was proud of himself for thinking of giving the young cat ESA training, the boy's mother insisted on having him over for dinner.

The times he went there, however, there was always the other kid, Shinso his name was. Both Midoriya and Shinso had compared him to his hero persona on multiple occasions when they thought he wasn't listening. He found it both surprising and amusing how they could be observant enough to know about his persona but not figure out that it was him.

Shinso seemed as disheveled as Izuku was sometimes, though the comparison fell a bit after Midoriya's mom pulled him out of school.

That was surprising to both Aizawa and Nedzu. "Why now?" They had both asked eachother. After some possibly not-legal information aquiration, curtisies of Nedzu, they had found the reason why. Midoriya went into that building expecting bad, and came out rightfully worse. A couple days later, Midoriya's mom had firmly waltzed into the school, demanded her son be pulled out, and came out of the school with her son's education in her hands. A few weeks later, a ton of all might merch ebay listings go up, and a few months later a new cozy corner is slated to open up.

Of course, upon this information, Nedzu decided to make his super secret online course, a course that Aizawa himself painfully endured and hated, that much more accessible to the boy.

As it turns out, not only is Midoriya sweet, kind, helpful, and caring but he is also smart. Ridiculously so, in fact. His impromptu quirk registration only seemed to cement this fact in Nedzu and Aizawa's mind alike.

It wasn't the first time Aizawa had seen trauma induced quirks or awakenings. They were often hard to control, but in Midoriya's case, his intense concentration into something that would otherwise be easy for an elemental controller showed that his difficulty came from too much power and too little time. The hobo teacher had no doubt that believing that you had no power for your entire life would cause issues for someone who would have simply been a late bloomer. That is not to mention all of the therapy that the boy and possibly his friend need.

Not once while in the Midoriya's house did he ever see Shinso use his quirk. He had walked in on Midoriya-san's cooking methods and Izuku doing his daily quirk practice a couple of times, but never Shinso. The kid was clearly uncomfortable talking about it, or to Aizawa in general the first times he came over.

Skimming over the files of Midoriya's team, it was easy to see why. Looking up to watch Midoriya's team silently disengage another team who was going to start a ruckus, he studied the purple haired boy. They might have bonded over somewhat similar situations. It was something to look into.

Both boys worked almost perfectly with their team. They did all that was asked of them and more. What took the cake, however, was the zero pointer. Both boys noticed Uraraka stuck under the rubble, quickly formulated a plan, and executed it as precisely as you can get in this situation. What no one was expecting was the bubble of flames that Midoriya somehow formed over him and his teammates when he noticed the foot coming down on them.

Needless to say, there was no way that those boys weren't getting in.

Another thing to note, now that Midoriya has technically finished middle school early as per his online course, who's to say that the acceptance letter can't also contain contact info and explanation for the case.

___________________________________________

AN: Thanks for reading chapter 22! I am so sorry for lying to y'all I swear. Tbh, a more likely posting scedual will be one or two a month. Most of my time is spent with schoolwork and unpacking at the current moment, so updates are going to be slower from now on.

I am not giving up on this story! If anything I am more determined to see it through!

Hopefully, I will have the next update in one or two days.

Paris wasn't made in a day, baby 🌟

Now for brain dump:

I headcannon that Inko has seriously strong spatial awareness with the objects under her quirks influence, so she cooks with her utensils floating in the air. This includes knives. Izuku is used to it, but neither Shinso or Aizawa were.

Izuku has daily quirk practice that he uses to familiarize himself with his quirk and try to expand his influence on it. It is kind of like meditating for him. He tries to include Shinso in these. They are helping, a little bit.

Shinso and Midoriya are both big and small brained when it comes to recognizing Eraserhead. Can you blame them? There are only so many photos of the man, less that are a visible quality.