Every once in a while I feel like giving a different idea a try. Sometimes I need to try new things, and sometimes I need to get ideas out of my head.
If I don't, I can't write the other things I do.
So enough about that: here's a little something I've been thinking of recently that may or may not get more. Let's see how this reception goes.
Name credit to Spacebattle user Jconggnisa. Thanks.
Now for the first chapter of Izu-Ju, and may it have more to come.
….
It was honestly overwhelming being here, though if he had to be honest with himself Izuku Midoriya had been feeling that way ever since he had taken his first steps into the U.A campus for his entrance exam.
It was a dream he had never thought he could ever have. Something tangible he could see himself take with both hands and make his own.
10 months ago, it would have been as real as the dreams he had of his mom running off with all of their apartment's copper piping.
Fate was strange sometimes, and the answer to your wishes came in the forms you would never have expected.
Meeting All Might in person, being saved by him, and being told that he could be a hero by his idol was the part of the last 10 months he could actually believe, as strange as that sounded.
The Symbol of Peace being the mundane part was something he still found incredulous when he thought back on it.
The oddness that had started this all aside, he stared at the gate where everyone in his section had gathered around, tense and ready to prove themselves and enter the school of their dreams.
He chewed on his lips nervously as he saw them all: pretty much every guy here was taller and bigger than he was, as were several of the girls. They looked fit and strong, like Kaachan.
He knew what he looked like: a nerd. A scrawny nerd and that wasn't something that had changed in 10 months.
Regardless of how much he trained and studied for this, everyone here had their powers for years. To catch up to them, to Kaachan, he'd need to be Plus Ultra.
More than anyone else here, he needed to be Plus Ultra.
He was shaking, one of his hands reflexively grabbing at his opposite wrist, like a coiled spring.
He had to avoid going off too early though. Present Mic had said 10 minutes, and that was his limit. He had timed it out.
10 minutes, no more, no less.
Kaachan wasn't this nervous, he knew that. Just as much as he knew that his old friend was going to be waiting for him.
'It doesn't matter what shitty tricks you got Deku, there is no way you are going to beat me! You can have all of the crappy powers you want, but I'm the star! You can pass or fail, I don't care, but I am still better than you! I am always going to be better, you fucking nerd!'
He could hear similar words under the breath of some of the other applicants here when they looked at him, and he doubted they had nearly as much faith that he'd pass.
"What are you cats waiting for! There are no countdowns in real battles! Go Go Go!"
The loud shouts of Present Mic broke him out of his thoughts, and as the mob of applicant surged in front of him he pursued.
They were getting further and further away from him even as he ran after them into the city field, but he wasn't concerned about that.
He hadn't even started yet, and so he let his grasping hand do what it had been itching to do for minutes now.
It pressed down on the bottom green button on the watch that started it all, and raised the center green dial up with a charming chime. A four armed figure was present on the dial, and he slammed down on it with gusto.
A green flash of light rang out from him, and he felt the momentary surge of everything run through him.
Strength, fire, energy, alertness, shock.
The momentary feeling of everything passed, and everything about him was different.
He was taller, stronger, more muscular than any of his fellow applicants here. His steps covered entire strides, and his leap into the air landed on top of a nearby building.
His four arms tensed in readiness to punch, and when his four eyes caught sight of a movement of a two-pointer robot in an alley, he leapt down from above with all of his force.
He crushed the two-pointer effortlessly, saving the bacon of one of his fellow applicants in the process.
The bald and scared applicant, who had been distracted by a one-pointer he had been fighting, could only stare at him.
"Thanks, whoever you are. I didn't see you at the entrance man, but thanks."
He nodded in acknowledgement, before leaping away.
It was true. No one had seen this form today. No applicant knew that the scrawny, twitching, nervous nerd was the same person as his current form.
To them, he was an entirely different applicant: a twelve foot tall, red skinned, four armed being with four eyes with amazing strength.
He might have been wearing a similar track suit to the nerd, but the only applicant here who knew that they were the same was Katsuki Bakugo and at least some of the staff here.
They knew that Izuku Midoriya and this form he called Four Arms were one and the same!
And Four Arms was just the sixth of the 10 forms he had to go Plus Ultra!
…
All Might was sure that if young Midoriya had seen the three ones that had come up at his rescue of the student, he would freak out and think he did something wrong.
Young Midoriya was a bit of a nervous wreck like that.
It was in truth just the standard reward for a standard heroic intervention. A more dramatic one would earn a lot more points, but such things were not really needed a minute into the exam.
IZUKU MIDORIYA: 2 Villain Points, 3 Rescue Points.
IBARA SHIOZAKI: 1 Villain Point, 5 Rescue Points.
KINKO KOMORI: 3 Villain Points, 0 Rescue Points.
KYOKA JIRO: 1 Villain Point, 2 Rescue Points.
The number went up as Izuku smashed into several one pointers, one for each arm. The scores updated accordingly, names flashing on screen with every acquired point.
He smiled at everything he was seeing.
Not just at young Midoriya, who was making excellent progress. The nervous boy he had encountered 10 months ago terrified at the watch that had stuck itself to his person with mysterious and unknown powers had become…well still a nervous boy, but one who really showed the inner strength within himself.
But at all of the young people who were showing what they were made of out there.
He saw outstanding feast of power, like the explosion quirk user from Midoriya's middle school who was tearing through the robots like they weren't the result of hard work from the engineering department and were just bought from a cheap retailer.
Or the girl with the enlarged hands who had just caught a piece of collapsed building for three downed applicants, falling to her knees as she gave them time to get back up before she tossed the roof part away.
ITSUKA KENDO: 7 Villain Points, 30 Rescue Points
MASAHIRO OJIRO: 10 Villain Points, 3 Rescue Points
YOSETUO AWASE: 14 Villain Points, 6 Rescue Points
IZUKU MIDORIYA: 13 Villain Points, 8 Rescue Points
She'd be rather happy to know that saving those applicants had passed her.
Thirty was the general threshold, Cementoss had commented to him earlier. That was generally the amount of points you needed to get into U.A with the entrance exams.
There was some leeway: a student who did excellently on the written exam and got twenty-five points could easily get into U.A, and those who did badly on the written exam needed more points to get admitted.
That was a point that many students were cut off, so said Present Mic.
Such facts aside, she was the second student who crossed the threshold after young Bakugo, who had torn his way there with sheer explosive force.
Young Midoriya had mentioned to him that he had discovered his watch's power a few months ago, and had been driven with a drive to keep up a sense of superiority to the young quirkless classmate of his.
He'd probably be happy to know such things were accomplished, though he would never tell him.
For all young Midoriya needed to learn that people were not going to try to murder him at any given moment, young Bakugo needed to learn the meaning of the word humble.
They were students of course. Just as he was sure that young Midoriya would pass, he was certain that both would learn to overcome their weaknesses.
IZUKU MIDORIYA: 17 Villain Points, 12 Rescue Points
OCHACO URARAKA: 20 Villain Points, 0 Rescue Points
JUROTA SHISIHDA: 18 Villain Points, 5 Rescue Points
TETSUTETSU TETSUTETSU: 14 Villain Points, 9 Rescue Points
Young Midoriya had just blown a three pointer off a pointy-pompadour student with a massive clap of his hands, a move straight out of his own playbook. The sight of which made his nonexistent stomach knot itself.
Young Midoriya had it in him to be an excellent successor to him as the holder of One for All. He saw a spark of it when they had first met, in how the boy had sought to handle the forest fire he had accidentally started with his own familiarity with heroes and his desire to fix his mistake.
What he had seen as he trained himself and elsewhere had that spark grow in intensity until this very exam, where the fire of his potential was burning brightly.
Yet he hesitated to do so. None of them understood the watch that had given young Midoriya such power, least of all its wielder.
Even with the 10 notebooks on each form he had taken, young Midoriya was only a bit less clueless than himself or any of the other staff who had seen it before today.
Adding One for All to that burden would be irresponsible of him, at least at the present time.
….
It was twenty-five points.
No, make it twenty-six: he had just throw a one pointer into a water tower.
Was it enough?
No, that wasn't the question he should be asking.
Could he get more?
That was the question he needed to be asking…
"Ahhh!"
His mind quickly blanked of thought and focused on the sound of screaming, which led him to leap away and towards a collapsing building.
There was a girl pinned under it: the cute nice girl who had caught his fall.
He bounded over to the girl, moving faster than he could ever have dreamed of moving before 10 months ago, and scooped her up with his two lower arms.
He got through before the building collapsed down on them, shielding her from the debris. She blinked in shock at being saved, and she stared at him in surprise, before recognition shone in her eyes.
"You're the scrawny kid who I stopped from tripping."
"Yep. Look a bit different don't I?"
She was surprised at his different voice, a gravely and growly one that he could never recreate on his own.
It was the voice of a hero. It was Four Arms voice.
"That's a pretty cool quirk, being able to transform like that."
It wasn't a quirk, but it was cool. Right after he was done screaming in terror at being on fire of course, and done crying after he realized he could breathe fire.
The girl winced in pain, and he grimaced as he noticed that something was off with her legs.
"That building…twenty-eight points."
A voice in his head whispered about twenty-six, but he ignored it.
What mattered was getting her to safety, and just as he was looking around for a place to put her when the sound of distant cursing caught his attention, along with a metallic gleam a building over from the collapsing tower.
One that was well in place to cause the collapse the girl had experience.
He tensed, ready to try and jump a few stepping blocks to check that out, when he felt his clothes lighten. He felt padded fingers, and he looked down at the nice girl.
"That should let you jump higher."
At her reassurance he did, and in fact he jumped higher than he had ever with Four Arms. At one point he even felt like he was floating a bit, the peak of the jump extended by another touch from the girl.
"Release."
He was then able to land on the building he spotted, and there was indeed someone there.
A European with dark hair in a red military uniform, whose skin looked somewhat metallic. He looked at the girl in his arms in disdain.
"So, that is why the robots didn't explode when I dropped the building. That girl got in the way of raising my point total to forty, how vexing."
His words were just as disdainfull as they were clearly said in a second language, and the exchange student got six pairs of eyes glaring at him that matched that with anger.
"You got 'that girl' hurt!"
He rolled his eyes his way.
"So what? She is but a peasant; those clothings she is wearing are hardly the mark of status. People above such creatures always drop stones on them. That is the way it has always been, be it in Zarkovia or Japan."
"Who says peasant anymore?"
At the girl's question he held up a metallic hand, which sparked with electricity.
"Those who know to avoid the actions of those stronger than them, lest they discover the difference in power between their betters and themselves."
"You'd think a better knows where the rules are. You heard them just like I did, no fighting each other."
The foreign student curled his lips in an amused smirk.
"This isn't fighting, this is a warning. Between that and diplomatic immunity, I see no contradiction."
PRINCE GYULA XARION!
QUIRK: FRANKENBORG
I'D COMMENT ON HIS QUIRK, BUT HE JUST GOT AUTO-FAILED FOR THREATNING TWO OTHER APPLICANTS AND HURTING ONE OF THEM WITHOUT REMORSE UPON DISCOVERY! SO WHO REALLY CARES!?
He felt the girl tense, before she tapped him again.
"Jump back!"
Part of him wanted to ignore it, a screaming voice inside him that was using a lot more swear words than he usually did demanding he be let at the arrogant jerk in front of him.
However he obliged and jumped backwards from the top of the tower, just in time to avoid the massive metal arm that crashed down on the building and sent the arrogant foreigner flying.
Meanwhile the girl had released them again, letting both of them land on another rooftop as the giant robot, the zero pointer, crashed through the place like a great behemoth.
The girl begged to be put down, looking sick. He gently did so, and looked back to the zero pointer.
It wasn't worth any points, but did he want to risk the thing putting anyone at risk from falling buildings like the girl had been?
"…If you want to go, go. I'll….I'll be fine."
He felt uneasy about following her request, she was injured after all. But the burning desire to keep anyone else from getting hurt burned in his veins.
The desire for battle burned in his veins.
The desire to shout the iconic word out as he punched an enemy, which he ended up doing as he leapt from the top of the building, all four fists aimed right at the robot.
"SMASH!"
…
"The girl got points for that, right?"
A head of luscious dark hair turned his way, an incredulous look in her eyes.
"We aren't jerks in that way All Might. My sadism doesn't extend that far."
He nodded at the R-rated Hero's comment, assured at the girl's future as he watched the quirkless boy tear apart the Zero Pointer.
Young Midoriya, you are so perfect for his legacy it hurts.
….That sounded like something he should never say aloud.
How he unintentionally sounded aside, minutes after the zero pointers were sent out, and a few were destroyed by ambitious or battle hungry students Present Mic shouted to stop, and the scores were finalized.
For a few students the academic scores would determine their fates aside, it was all she wrote. The top numbers he was seeing at the moment, however, certainly didn't have to worry about grades dooming them.
1: KATSUKI BAKUGO: 87 Villain Points: 0 Rescue Points: 87 points total
2: EIJIRO KIRASHIMA: 39 Villain Points, 35 Rescue Points: 74 points total.
3-tied: IZUKU MIDORIYA: 26 Villain Points, 42 Rescue Points: 68 points total.
3-tied: IBARA SHIOZAKI: 36 Villain Points, 32 Rescue Points: 68 points total.
5: ITSUKA KENDO: 25 Villain Points, 40 Rescue Points: 65 points total.
6: TENYA IIDA: 52 Villain Points, 9 Rescue Points: 61 points total.
7: TETSUTETSU TETSUTETSU: 49 Villain Points, 10 Rescue Points: 59 points total.
8: FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMI: 47 Villain Points, 10 Rescue Points: 57 points total.
9: YOSETSU AWASE: 50 Villain Points, 6 Rescue Points: 56 points total.
10: JUROTA SHISHIDA: 48 Villain Points, 5 Rescue Points: 53 points total.
11: MINA ASHIDO: 33 Villain Points, 17 Rescue Point: 50 points total.
12: HANTA SERO: 40 Villain Points, 8 Rescue Points: 48 points total.
13: HIRYU RIN: 41 Villain Points, 3 Rescue Points: 44 points total.
14: OCHACO URARAKA: 28 Villain Points, 15 Rescue Points: 43 points total.
He smiled at the names he was seeing, and not just the young boy he had helped take an odd twist of faith and turn it into the vehicle for his dreams and the girl whose actions he had worried might go unrewarded by sheer specifics of wording.
Welcome, all those he could see or couldn't see on screen. Your hard work with your quirks, or indeed for one your mysterious watch, had paid off.
Welcome to the Hero Academia. He would be honored to be your teacher.
He'd be even more honored if any of you, not just young Midoriya, showed themselves to be the person he was looking for.
…
And with that, Chapter 1 is done.
Yeah, I could have started with Izuku getting the Omnitrix, but honestly we all see the scenes of Izuku going 'I can't be a hero I have no quirk/I'm an alien/I scare people/etc etc', and figure that skipping over that wouldn't hurt.
I like to think I gave the details of what happened offscreen sufficiently, but I can expand on them as needed. Hopefully I will not need to.
Now for a few clarifications for any future chapters to get out of the way now.
1: Izuku does not have the exact lineup Ben started with. He shares a lot of the earlier ones, but it is not a one for one replication. The only ones so far that he definitely has are Heatblast and Four Arms.
2: MHA's Earth is MHA's Earth. It doesn't have familiarity with aliens, and the aliens in question haven't been watching Earth that closely. They'd find it rather surprising when they bother to look at it again.
3: There are more earth Ben 10 characters on the world, even if it is a MHA character holding the Omnitrix.
4: Hisashi is not the equiv of Max.
5: In case anyone was curious, this version of the Omnitrix is currently in the design of the original series, though it has a roster size more equiv to what was revealed in later series and does have Andromeda Aliens.