Spacetime Anomaly: MHA Fanfic

Chapter 6.1: Exam Day Starts

Ten months came and went in the blink of an eye and on this very special day, Izuku found himself standing by the gates of the fabled U.A. High. It was rated as the best Hero Academia in all of Japan for dozens of years, with all the top ten ranked pro heroes of the current era and over thirty others being included in the top hundred, honored to be known as alumni of the school. This was naturally Izuku's first pick when choosing a hero academia to jumpstart his career.

As Izuku walked calmly into the high school's campus, he indulged in a carefree smile as dozens of thoughts passed his mind at the speed of light. Simply crossing the infamous U.A. Barrier was cause for him to feel glee as even if he had applied to the same entrance exam in his first life, he hadn't made it this far or gotten to see this sight firsthand. Normally, the school's state-of-the-art technology would ward off all non-students and employees, and this would be the only time of the year where regular civilians of his age, such as himself, earned the right to visit.

Izuku sighed as he collected himself by the entrance to the highschool's main building before his eyes sharpened and he seamlessly stepped to the side, just barely missing a collision with a wrathful Katsuki. By now it wasn't just his eyes that were augmented even without the active use of his Esper powers, all of his senses were kinesthetically keen.

"Che! Pray we don't share the same practical test or I'll crush you myself!" With a click of his tongue and the jerk of his head, he continued on his way not deigning to give Izuku another glance. Subconsciously, however, Katsuki was growing restless over Izuku's overwhelming ability.

Izuku, on the other hand, was similarly dumbstruck. This was the second time he was addressed by the embodiment of rage, pride, and wrath, and it wasn't as "extra" or "Deku?" Was this a sign of the end times? Perhaps not considering he had only been called that second insult once in this lifetime...

Izuku shrugged his worries off as he didn't have the luxuries of time at the moment. The orientation would shortly begin, so he continued on his path and made it to the school's auditorium without another interruption.

There, in the auditorium, a hero by the name of Present Mic gave orientation and explained how the day would proceed for all the hero prospects gathered to try out today. Izuku was exempt from taking the theoretical test — otherwise known as the academic test — as his scholastic achievements spoke for themselves.

With a dual Bachelors' Degrees in Biology and Biochemistry and an Associate's Degree in Chemistry, or even with just his M.D. Izuku could have shown off. But since he was never one to flaunt in front of others, he simply showed his homeschool diploma — the equivalent of a high school diploma — and the staff at U.A. automatically having him full marks for that aspect of the test.

Alas, since everyone taking the entrance exam today would work on the same schedule and the theoretical exam was scheduled to take place first, Izuku had about four hours to kill while waiting. Fortunately, his Esper powers weren't limited to simple space manipulation; Time was part of his Spacetime Manipulation. Since he could speed up the effect of time on his body, he could conversely slow it down as well. Moreover, as his mental capacity still saw no end of development in sight, he naturally couldn't compare to his past self.

Nowadays, his Temporal Self Deceleration could be sustained at twenty times regular speed for over a day; or twenty if took it from an outsider's perspective. These were theoretical numbers as Izuku naturally didn't test this limit; he couldn't afford to waste time like that. But the projections were reasonably accurate when compared to other uses of his mental strength.

Thus, under twenty times normal speed, Izuku sat down for twelve or so minutes and simply watched as the world around him played like a recording on fast forward. Though he had a clock both on the wall across from him and a watch on his wrist it was actually the touch of one of the teachers at the school that had dispelled Izuku's odd state.

As the time had been passing, a white-haired hulking beast of a man who Izuku recognized as Vlad King had passed by Izuku's seated position dozens of times. He had noted the oddity of the boy, somewhat intrigued by how anyone could tolerate sitting unmovingly for so long; without stimulation, and overly appearing dead. Now that all of the examinees had completed their theoretical tests, under the four hours the school had given them to complete their packets upon packets of tests, Vlad King had volunteered to be the one to call for the "special case."

"Hey kid, wake up. The last of those taking the theoretical test have finished and are now walking over to the buses that will take them to their practical exam sites." To Vlad King's surprise, although Izuku looked, for all intents and purposes, dead, the moment he put his hand on the boy's shoulder, his eyes had immediately come back to life as he stared at Vlad King with a gleam of understanding.

"Oh? Thank you for informing me, sir," Izuku politely bowed, before asking, "I'm headed to Site A. Could you point me in the direction of the buses, please?"

Vlad King, a bit interested in the sole person exempt from the theoretical exam, said, "You can follow me, kid." As he began to lead the way, he asked, "So, kid. How're you planning on competing out there? From what I've been told you're registered as Quirkless."

Izuku faintly smiled as his status as a Quirkless was brought up. He patiently explained, "I am indeed Quirkless, but I hold a different kind of power." Almost arrogantly he added, "If all the practical exam boils down is just disabling a couple of robots, then I shouldn't have a problem getting in. Though, I can already see how the test might not be as simple as Mr. Present Mic explained it to be..."

"Oh?" Though there were various points Izuku made, the concept of his power escaped Vlad King as he instead pressed on a different issue. He asked, "What do you mean the test might not be so simple?" As someone who would later act as a judge for the not-so-simple test, he wondered if the boy had already caught on to the more nuanced aspects of the practical test.

"Well," Izuku began, "As a school called the very best at making heroes, I struggle to believe all it would care about was the offensive prowess of its students. That simply wouldn't be fair, especially to those that want to become rescue heroes or practically anyone who doesn't want to specialize in fighting."

"From the way Mr. Present Mic introduced the exercise, practically glossing over it with that Super Mario Bros analogy, at first glance one would think that to be the case. But if you pick apart his words, he didn't say you have to defeat the mock villain robots to earn points. 'Disable them' were his exact words and from what I can gather, that should be a clue to those with Quirks not suited to combat that there should be another way to acquire points."

"Then, there's also the manner in which the test is set up that leaves me suspicious. I mean, if all the school wanted to test was combat prowess and efficiency, it wouldn't make much sense to gather the examinees and have them compete against each other. We only have ten minutes to search for and disable as many mock villains as possible and then there's the wild card in the 0-pointer which Mr. Present Mic almost 'conveniently' forgot to mention. Unless I'm wildly off the mark, I'd say it's safe to assume that this in itself will also be a part of the test. I just can't seem to figure out what it is exactly."

As Izuku finished recounting his deductions, they had already made it outside, by the busses. While the boy was faintly blushing out of embarrassment at talking so much as if he were giving a lecture, Vlad King was struggling to contain his shock. 'This kid,' he shuddered to think, 'Quirkless or not, he has one hell of a sharp mind...'

Vlad King stood watching as Izuku left on the bus, before he made his way back over to the teacher's lounge on the main building. He was suddenly enthused to see what Izuku would do, being Quirkless and all. Perhaps he'd really find a way to pass despite the brutal disadvantage being Quirkless would bring him. Never would Vlad King guess how the day's events would transpire; not in a million years.

…

Now standing by the closed gate that would lead to Mock City A, Izuku closed his eyes as he thought about what strategies to take during the practical exam. Wearing a simple black tracksuit that was accentuated with tinges of green, he stood true to his plain nature as unlike most everyone else who had come prepared with some sort of equipment, he looked completely unprepared. It almost didn't even look like he was here to test into U.A. rather, he looked like he was about to go for a light jog…

Of course, even without any weapons, Izuku could more than rely on his years' worth of Esper and martial arts cultivation. Discounting the obvious methods of instantly annihilating every mock villain that came across his path with Spatial Tears or horrific Gravitational Suppression, Izuku was thinking of how best to use this time to use theoretical strategies he'd been wanting to try, but could never find the chance.