Mei: Good luck!

Itsuka: Let's do this thing!

Emi: If you see a tall dark and scary looking guy that looks like he hates the idea that fun exists, do me a solid and ask him to marry you. No questions!

Izuku: How'd you get my number?

Emi: How do you think?

XXXX

The written exam was behind him. And for once Izuku felt like all of those study sessions with Itsuka had paid off. But the real hurdle was right before him. No amount of studying could prepare him for fighting giant robots, he needed physical training, gear, and tactics for that. And hopefully the months that he had trained with Emi and Otto would mean something.

Though, the equipment that Mei had made for him would make this actually possible. And it was his job to make sure that everything was working. The hoverboard was operational, he had ridden it to U.A. earlier, and the battery should still be good. His gauntlet was fully charged, and gave a spark when he set it to EMP. The grapple-wire on his wrist, one of Mei's most recent creations, wasn't going to be of much help vs robots, but he could make use of it. Compared to everyone else Izuku felt ridiculously overequiped.

Pretty much everybody was just in tracksuits.

"That's a lot of gear you have there." Izuku had heard of punchable faces, he had seen punchable faces, but this was the first time that he had heard a punchable voice. Izuku looked up and saw that the voice belonged to someone that while they didn't really have a punchable face, had the kind of smirk that just said 'Punch me.' The boy was perhaps a bit taller than Izuku was, with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Do you really need all that for your quirk?"

"Other way around actually," Izuku let his gauntlet spark just a bit before he smiled and offered this fellow examinee a hand. "My quirk allows me to use items I understand. Izuku Midoriya by the way."

"Neito Monoma," Neito took his hand and examined their connection for just a moment. "I must say, your quirk doesn't sound very useful, if you understand an item wouldn't you already be able to use them?"

Izuku let out a laugh, "It sounds lamer than it really is, but I have confidence in it."

He still needed to master the improv portion of his quirk. He was getting there, but progress was slow.

Nieto shifted on his feet, still looking down towards the equipment. "Someone certainly must have for you to have all this, that or you live a privileged life."

"You're right, she does believe in me, but I'd hardly call it privilege, I just have a very good friend that made all this for me." That's right, he wasn't going to pass this exam just for himself, but for Mei as well.

"Still," Nieto looked at his hand for a moment before placing it in his pocket, "It doesn't sound like your quirk would be terribly useful to me. If it came with inherent knowledge then maybe, but those tend to be stockpile type quirks that I can't use either."

"What are you talking about?" Izuku tilted his head at the strange blonde boy. Still he was technically the first non-Itsuka person to talk to him at U.A. "You make it sound like you can use other people's quirk."

The smugness from Nieto's smile was unmatched, even peak levels of Mei smugness couldn't match this, and Mei had the ability to be really really smug when she was in the mood. "Indeed, my quirk allows me to copy the quirks of others for a time."

That sounded useful. Really really useful. But, also complex. "Actually you shouldn't write my quirk off so quickly, I know it doesn't work for living things, but it might work with other quirks you understand well enough."

Nieto paused, a look of surprise crossing his face before his smile grew. "Now that would be something, I do hope you end up passing then Izuku, it'd be interesting to work with you."

"Right-"

"GOOOOOOOOO!"

A voice boomed over the exam area as the gates opened violently.

"What are you waiting for? There's no count down in real life! Go!"

Izuku kicked the hoverboard, up, turning it on with a hum, and took off, leaving Nieto in the dust as he entered the industrial looking cityscape that was laid out before him. Several students had a head start on him, but they lacked speed compared to Mei's hoverboard. Though the feral beast running on four legs and howling like a damn ape was definitely a bit terrifying.

Izuku watched as the first bot appeared - it was a one pointer and far bigger than he thought it would be - only for that beast to crash into it and rip it apart.

That guy was going to be a contender.

Izuku rounded the corner, blasting past the majority of the pack and trying to find his own hunting ground.

A pair of one pointers came zooming out onto the street, one in front, the other chasing after him, the smallest of the robots with a large single wheel and slender arms were designed more for speed than the others, but were also the lightest and easiest to disable. Or so Izuku hoped.

A massive arm came swiping down towards him and Izuku maneuvered to the side, the hoverboard board handling the sharp turns with ease even as he accelerated. With his gauntlet sparking with enough power to shut the robot down, Izuku fired the grappling hook at its face.

The hook shattered the single glass eye and embedded itself deep. That wouldn't be enough to destroy this robot though. With his gauntlet sparking Izuku grabbed onto the cable, sending a direct current into the bot and watched as it began to spasm. Gripping the cord tight, Izuku used his momentum to swing up and around, taking to the air and faced the robot that had tried to sneak up on him.

He retracted the hook, and got down low on his board, angling it so gravity would aid his momentum as he zoomed down towards the other bot. With the hook still retracting he couldn't fire it again for a few seconds, which was far less time than he actually had, he might need to ask Mei how to speed that up.

With his built up momentum Izuku weaved through the robot's sluggish attacks as he felt himself all but exploding with giddiness. He loved Mei's gadgets! "Wooo! I love Meieeeey!-"

He was cut off as he was forced to dodge the heavy three pointer that came bursting out of a building, sending debris everywhere and forcing Izuku to weave hard to the side, his outstretched hand braced against the one pointer, giving him enough time to send a massive shock through its systems.

With a half second of clarity Izuku stared at the Two Pointer and wondered how on earth he was going to beat something like that. Thankfully, he was prepared.

XXXX

"What's that applicant doing?" Higari leaned forward, taking uncharacteristic interest in the hero exams. Normally he'd just complain that the students were too rough on the bots that he'd have to fix. "I don't think he's using his quirk, just some support items."

Sekijiro Kan pulled up his sheet, and thumb through the list. "Ahh, applicant #92, that would be Izuku Midoriya, says here that his quirk allows him to make better use of items if he understands how they work."

"Ahh, that's a tricky quirk to judge then," Higari sat back in his seat, scratching at his chin for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I wonder if I can get him to join the support course if he made tech like that."

Shota kept his eyes on the screen, studying the boy's movements as he appeared to be having fun with the exam and barely taking it seriously, the tech he was using was far above what most examinees could get their hands on, and he was handling it perfectly as well. But a quirk like that wouldn't cut it. If he required advanced items to be effective then he wasn't any better than anyone that trained long enough.

If anything it felt like a quirk that would make someone lazy.

And if they ran out of gear then they'd be effectively worthless.

"Says here, he didn't actually make the tech," Sekijiro, made a few nodes as he watched the other monitors more intently. This was part of their job as teachers at U.A., observe the first years and take note of any promising students. They'd be doing so once they review the tapes as well while they count the rescue points but right now they were looking for those that stood out to them. "Says here that all of his tech comes from a girl named Mei Hatsume."

"Ahh, that would explain it, I interviewed that girl a while ago, she was impressive then, but now that I see what she's capable of I have no doubt that she'll be very important to future heroes." Higari gave a small chuckle as he made a few notes of his own. "And this Izuku is going to benefit greatly from her, more so than he already has."

Shota groaned and shifted in his seat, it wasn't his place to speak up over this. They were allowed their opinions, and he was allowed his. Plain and simple. Besides, arguing would be pointless.

"Shota," Sekijiro growled. Fuck, here we go. "It looks like you have something to say."

Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it. "With a quirk like that, he's effectively quirkless at best or incredibly lazy at worst."

Both of his fellow teachers sat forward and looked at him.

Higari was the first to break the silence, leaning back with a smug smile on his face. "Well, eventually tech may get to the point where quirks don't matter too much. And that day is getting closer and closer."

"How can you say he's lazy?" Sekijiro roared, "Just because his quirk relies on some kind of a tech to work doesn't mean he's weak or lazy, not everyone can be All Might."

This was why he shouldn't have said anything.

"The kid's already on his way to pass if we don't count for rescue points! But even with those he's saved two people, on purpose, and-"

"You know," Higari gave a low growl and pointed towards the big red button, "There's one sure fire way to find out if they're hero material."

Sekijiro slammed that button hard, unleashing the zero pointer robot.

XXXX

Oh shit.

That was the single most important thought in Izuku's mind when he saw the colossal zero pointer just come out of a building like it was rolling out of bed. There was a sense of scale when it came to that enemy, and that sense made him feel oh so very tiny, and that there was nowhere near enough juice for his gauntlet to take on something like that.

Maybe if he had a specialized tool, or like, anything that could cut through steel like it was butter, then, then, he would maybe try something if he absolutely had to. But because he didn't, and taking on something like that was worth a total of zero points, he opted to listen to his more basic urges and run. Because when it came to his fight or flight response, flight had decked fight in the nuts and had taken off running.

Izuku gave a light scream when he first saw the mechanical beasts numerous red eyes lock onto him with some kind of malicious content. He acted on instinct, dodging the first, clumsy but unstoppable blow by hooking onto a nearby building and pulling him up and out of the way while he desperately tried to get his hoverboard back under his feet.

Of all the times to take a break! The building he hooked onto soon collapsed as the beast nudged it oh so gently. It was like a gigantic ornery cat on a table filled with empty glasses just begging to be knocked over.

Before he crash landed, he managed to get the board under his feet, and felt the engine thrum, his body syncing up with the chaotic way it wanted to move. He leaned forward, accelerating down towards the ground doing his best to move away from the robot. Really taking a break on top of a rough, for just a split second, was such a bad idea! Sure, he had disabled a lot of bots, but that was no reason for him to take it easy!

Now he had to escape this thing!

"Holy shit!" He heard someone scream from down below. It was a girl, one with pink skin and pinker hair. She had fallen and was trapped between some rubble and the large giant robot. He watched as she started to climb up the rubble.

Izuku looked at the grapple-wires on his exposed wrist and nodded.

"Hold on!" He called, Mei's hoverboard handled the rough ground as well as it did the waves as he got into position above her. "Raise your hand for me!"

The girl shot up a pink hand and waved it at him. "Hurry!"

He launched the grappling wire and three thick strands were fired out, he moved his arm, controlling their trajectory and managed to wrap around her arm. "Grab it!"

The girl did and he pulled back, using as much strength as he could to hoist her up, while the motors whirled and he even used the hoverboard to assist in the grapple, in a matter of seconds, the girl was on his board.

"This has to be cheating!" The girl complained looking at him, "But thanks! Now go go go! I can't melt through that!"

"Right!" Izuku nodded and leaned forward on the board, "Grab on to me."

"Sure thing, cutie!"

"Please don't flirt with the pilot!"

XXXX

By the time they had got away from the zero pointer, the exam had ended.

"Thanks for the lift," The girl hopped off his hoverboard and wobbled for a bit before standing straight. "That thing is so cool! You should give me a more relaxing ride some other time, I'm Mina Ashido by the way!"

Izuku hopped off and looked at the girl a bit more closely, she really was rather cute with her fluffy pink hair, yellow horns, and boobs. Not that he was looking right at her chest or anything, it was just easy to notice that her tank top looked to be a bit on the melted side.

"Yeah, I'm Izuku Midoriya, and umm, I can give you a ride if we both make it into U.A." He scratched the back of his head and gestured towards her.

Which she thought was a hand-shake.

"Well, I really hope a cutie like you ends up in my class Izuku, I'm sure we're both going to get in though! You were zooming around all over the place like a badass!" Mina cheered for him, nodding her head vigorously. "Oh! Give me your phone! I wanna give you my contact info before I melt through my top."

"Uhh, sure," Izuku gave her his phone and watched as Mina used his phone like a pro. "Is it your quirk that's making those holes?"

"Yeah, I secrete acid, it gets a bit bad when I'm working up a sweat," She laughed awkward and handed him back his phone. "But I shouldn't have to worry about it so much once I get into U.A! Well hopefully. Anyways, see you later cutie!"

Izuku blinked and looked at his phone, then watched as Mina ran off towards the locker rooms. That was the fastest he had ever gotten a girls number, and he had no idea what to do with it.

AN: PINK VS PINK! WHO WILL WIN THE GREEN (looks at pairing tag) oh, right. Don't worry, it won't be similar to how Itsuka went down.