1 Zombie

"This place is smaller than I imagined," muttered Takashi as his eyes scanned the U.A Building. "But, according to everything I've heard, this school is supposed to be the best in the country."

Suddenly, his entire body twitched, and he let out a deep sigh. His quirk was acting up again. Like always.

His quirk was called Zombie and, for all intents and purposes, it gave him immortality. But there was a catch: he needed blood to sustain his sanity. If he didn't consume blood on a regular basis, he would have psychotic episodes and would try to hurt other people. Just looking at people right now was giving him a massive headache, because he had to fight the urge to 'feast', and he could feel his heart beating in an erratic manner.

He walked away from the crowd of people in front of the school to a more secluded spot and took out a pack of blood. With a stale look, he began sipping on it. "I wish I could have some fresh blood… but there's no way I'd be allowed to get my hands on it."

"You could always drink some of mine, Taka!"

Taka, full name, Takashi, let out a quiet sigh and turned around to face his best friend. She was wearing a shit-eating grin, and her eyes contained a mischievous light.

"Thanks for the offer, but I would probably get addicted, Setsuna," said Takashi in a dry tone and stored the rest of his blood pack away for later.

Setsuna was a young girl of average height, with large, upturned dusky green eyes and notably long and pointed teeth. Her hair was a dark moss green, and she had a decently curvy and athletic figure, which betrayed how physically active she was.

She grinned. "What a roundabout way of complimenting me! You really think my blood would be that delicious?"

He gave her a nod. "Quite. I can smell it. I can smell everyone's blood… but you already knew that." It went even beyond that. He could hear blood flowing through people's veins and hear their heartbeats if closed his eyes and focused enough. She clapped him on the back. "I don't think I've asked you before: how does my blood smell to you?"

He gave her a weak smile. "Like vanilla." She raised an amused eyebrow. "Not what I expected, but I'll take it!"

"I got in through recommendation, but you need to take the practical and theoretical exams. You gonna be fine?" asked Setsuna as they entered the U.A building.

Takashi shrugged. "I'll get by. Probably." She gave him a dry look. "Seriously? If you don't get in, I think I might become depressed. You better pass, alright?"

He chuckled. "Relax - I'm pulling your leg. I'm confident that I can pass… but I don't know if I wanna go all out on the practical exam."

Setsuna frowned. "You wanna hold back? Well, that's up to you. But as your friend, I want you to get recognized. And, if you do go all out, all the other students will feel motivated to catch up to you."

Takashi snickered. "I won't hide my abilities forever, but I don't want everyone to hyperfocus on me in the beginning - it would make me anxious."

He refused to show the full extent of his abilities early on… it would be a grand surprise.

"Well, I'll see you later, Tak!" said Setsuna with a wave, and then they went their separate ways.

With a neutral look, Takashi entered the exam hall and found his desk. It was time for the theoretical part of the exam. He wouldn't get a perfect score, but he was fairly confident he would be placed in the top 10, and that wasn't bad. Not bad at all.

Several hours passed by in silence, well, for the most part. One guy had been caught cheating with his quirk, and he had been carried away while screaming and kicking. How shameful. Someone collected all of their sheets, after that, they were allowed to leave.

Takashi took out his phone and texted Setsuna that he was done. Apparently, she was meeting an aunt of hers who worked at U.A, which explained why she was even here in the first place.

"Excuse me, do you have a minute?"

Takashi put away his phone and looked in the direction of the one who had spoken.

Strawberry, he thought to himself as he analyzed the girl. She was pretty. Adorable even. She had a short stature yet a curvaceous figure, and was fair-skinned with a pink perpetual blush on her cheeks. Her eyes were large and round, their irises a warm auburn brown, which made her look gentle and kind.

"Em, is there something on my face?" she asked in an awkward manner while fidgeting with her hair. Takashi shook his head. "No, I tend to forget my surroundings when I meet a new person. It's an aspect of my quirk, you see." Well, he wasn't lying, but he wasn't about to tell her it was also because she was absolutely gorgeous.

Her eyes lit up. "Is that so? Right, eh, I wanted to ask if you know any details about the practical exam? It's only two weeks away, and I haven't been able to gather much information online, and the staff have been very tight lipped about it. It's making me anxious."

Takashi gave her an amused smirk. "And why do you think I might know something?" Her cheeks became a little red, well, redder than they normally were. "You just have this, like, this aura of confidence around you, so I thought you might know a thing or two." She pressed her index fingers together, and he noticed how they had adorable pads that reminded him of dog paws.

"Well, I do know a thing or two. The school will be pitting us against robots. There will be four different kinds: 1-pointers, that gives one point. 2-pointers, that give two points. 3-Pointers, that give three points. And finally, the 0-pointer, which gives zero points. I would advise ignoring the last one, since it's the size of a 30-story building, and you won't be given any points for defeating it."

Comically, she took out a notepad and actually wrote down all the things he said. "How many points do we need to pass the test?" she asked, still scribbling down a bunch of things.

Takashi tilted his head. "Unfortunately, I don't know the minimum points you need, but I can tell you something else. If you save someone, you might also be able to earn a few points… but that's just my gut feeling. This is a school for aspiring heroes, after all."

"...Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the advice… hehe, what's your name?" she asked with an awkward yet adorable giggle.

"Suzuki Takashi," he said with a smile, and she beamed at him. "I'm Uraraka Ochako." They talked for a good while after that, and Takashi even got Ochako to share her phone number, which had gotten the adorable girl to blush up a storm. She had a pretty old phone, but he didn't make a comment about it.

"Well, I'll send you a text later. See you later, Suzuki-san!"

"Yep, see you around, Ochako-chan."

Takashi stood there still for a while, organizing his thoughts, and then he left the U.A building with a certain skip to his steps. Ochako seemed like a fun and sweet girl, and her blood smelled like strawberries, his favorite fruit. He wondered if she would be willing to…

He violently shook his head. It was idiotic to indulge, and if she wasn't okay with it, he might scare her away. It wouldn't be the first time he had been scorned by someone due to the oddities of his quirk, and he didn't want to ruin a potential friendship with a cute girl.

Setsuna had typed she was waiting at the front gate, so walked over there. "You took your sweet time, Tak. Did you get distracted by a cute chick?" asked Setsuna in a teasing manner.

Without batting an eye, Takashi said, "That's actually what happened. A girl named Uraraka-san. She was pretty chill… and cute."

Setsuna's eyes twitched and then she grumbled something under her breath. Takashi just shook his head with a rueful smile and began walking together with his best friend to the train station.

"So, which hero is your aunt?" he asked as they boarded the train and found their respective seats.

She gave him a bewildered look. "Seriously? You don't know?"

"You know I don't know jack about heroes, except for major ones, like Allmight." Yeah, Takashi was kind of an enigma. His dream was to become a hero, but he didn't know anything about the heroes, or the villains.

The greenette snorted. "My aunt is the hero Midnight, the R-Rated hero."

Takashi blinked. "You're kidding, right?" His question was met with a dry look. "Wow, real shit?"

She nodded. "Real shit. She's actually the reason why I wanna be a hero; she inspired me a lot as a kid… wait, how come you know who Midnight is?!" He began whistling and averted his eyes. "Ah… it's because she's an attractive woman, gotcha." Her eyes looked a little dead.

"Anyway, how did the exam go, you just wrote 'I'm done with that shit', but was it really that easy?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it was fairly easy. They threw in some curveballs, but I breezed through most of the questions - I'll probably place in the top 10."

"Alright, Einstein," she said and pulled out a comic. "Here's the manga you lend me… it was a pretty solid read." He took it with a small smile. "Yeah, but the ending was pretty disappointing, wasn't it?"

She sighed. "Yeah, but it also made the most sense, I suppose. If the entire world is against you, it's only natural you would lose in the end… still sucks, though."

"The entire world, huh?" He wondered if the public would accept someone like him? Setsune grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Don't overthink everything, dummy. I'm confident you'll be accepted." Was he really that easy to read? he thought, and then she squeezed him a little harder.

She laughed. "Course you are. We've been friends so long that I can read your every thought." She was really freaking him out now… but he couldn't help smiling. "Don't be so moody and take your manga already."

They soon arrived at their destination and got off the train, still walking side by side.

"Have you been working on your quirk?" asked Takashi to break the silence.

Setsuna let out a hum. "I have… but I haven't been making that much progress. My body parts still can't be separated for very long, and it's been almost impossible to extend the duration. The only thing I've improved upon is my regeneration; it's more potent now, and uses a little less energy. But only a little less. What about you?"

"Eh, same same as always, I suppose. It's not difficult for me to improve my constitution, so I have been making steady progress." His body adapted and became stronger permanently when he had to heal from injuries, so the only way to improve his quirk was through self-harm. Fortunately, he had a high tolerance for pain, because his pain receptors weren't very sensitive.

Even better, if he did intense strength training, he didn't need to rest for several days, only a few hours, and then start training again. Because of this, Takashi was monstrously strong, which you wouldn't be able to tell at a first glance, because his muscles were compressed because of his quirk, giving him a 'ninja build'. So far, there didn't seem to be a cap to how strong he could become, so he was just going to continue min maxing his strength.

"Man, that quirk is really busted… but I wouldn't trade mine for anything," said Setsuna. "You haven't eh, you know, died recently, right?"

Unfortunately, that was the worst aspect of his quirk. He could regenerate from death, but it wasn't as nonchalant as that. Sure, he was numb to pain, for the most part, but getting revived was different - it was a soul agonizing amount of pain.

Takashi gave his friend a comforting smile, which was weird, since it was him that probably needed comforting. "Nah… last time I died was on 'that' day." She gave him a solemn nod. "I haven't had any close encounters with death since then, and I've made an effort to hold back during training, so I should be fine for the foreseeable future."

"You know that's a lie. When you get into U.A, and I know you will, I bet you'll do some reckless things, things that could get you killed again… and again." He pulled her into a side hug to ease her nerves, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

Why was she so worried about him dying? Well, when he died, and he had tried that a few times, he became weird. Faint. Like he wasn't all there in the head. Humans weren't supposed to be able to do what he did, so Takashi just chalked it up to the human psyche being weak.

They stood there for a while, just taking comfort in each other's presence, but then Setsuna said, "I actually have to drop by my dad's workshop. I'll see you later… Okay, Tak?"

She had called it a 'workshop', but it was more of a laboratory. Her father, Nafumi Tokage, was an accomplished biologist who studied quirks and the potential of 'quirk elevation', a branch of quirk science where you focused on the possibility of quirks being able to evolve. It was a pretty niché thing, but he was financed by the government, so the man wasn't hurting for money. The man had even studied Takashi, because his quirk was 'simply spectacular', as the man had put it.

They separated from the hug and Takashi said, "Yeah, I'll see you around, Setsuna." They waved each other goodbye.

"Hmm… mom is probably not home, so I'll just drop by the beach and see if I can't spot that odd kid again." Lately, he had been visiting the beach, because some green-haired boy with freckles had been cleaning it up. His name was Izuku Midoriya.

He had offered to give the Izuku a helping hand, but he had refused and said something along the lines of: this is a training exercise and to prove that I'm worthy of something important. Takashi didn't know what he meant by that, but he could tell the boy was determined, so he had just been observing him from the sidelines.

Another odd thing about Izuku was that he didn't seem to have a quirk. Takashi was able to tell, because the smell of his blood lacked complexity, if that made any sense, and he also hadn't seen the boy use any special power to help with the cleaning, so he was pretty sure of it. Izuku's blood smelled like cinnamon, by the way.

"Yo, still hard at work?" asked Takashi as he saw Izuku dragging along a steel door. Who the fuck just throws out a steel door?

Izuku removed some sweat from his brow and gave him a reserved smile. "I've only been at it for an hour. I had to take a written test today." The innocent-looking boy hadn't explicitly told him anything, but Takashi had been able to deduce he wanted to enroll at U.A. As far as he knew, Izuku wasn't aware of the fact he wanted to apply to U.A as well, which made this hilarious.

A quirkless hero, huh? Could the boy do it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It wasn't Takashi's place to say anything to deter the boy, so he wouldn't. The zombie would simply stay neutral in the matter.

"I think I have to oil your wheels again, R2."

Takashi's eyes landed on the adorable cubed-shaped robot that was having trouble driving around in the sand. Izuku had constructed it, and he did so with the scrab from the beach. Well, if he couldn't make it as a hero, Takashi was sure U.A would love to have him onboard as a support student.

Izuku was using R2 to collect smaller scrap and miscellaneous items, which would be useful for crafting more gadgets, while he himself cleaned up the more useless shit and threw it away.

With an amused smile, Izuku grabbed R2 and put him on the garden table he had looted a while back, and began lubricating the poor robot's wheels.

"I've been meaning to ask… is R2 sentient?" asked Takashi as he leaned over the table to observe the process.

Izuku chuckled. "Nope, he can only follow a few set parameters, which I've programmed into his core. But, for all intents and purposes, his R2's AI is sophisticated enough that I could sell him for a few million yen."

Takashi whistled. "That's amazing, dude. And you made him from all the garbage on the beach?"

Izuku shrugged and put down R2 on the beach, the small robot racing through the sand again. "Well, yeah. For the most part, R2's exterior is composed of Aluminum, which I got from all the soda cans scattered around; I just melted them all down in my workshop at home. As for the internals, I was able to find sufficient circuitry from all the smart fridges and microwaves around the beach, and R2's motor is from an electronic bike." The way Izuku described it made it sound so simple, but perhaps it was only simple, because Izuku was the one doing it.

Takashi raised a curious eyebrow. "You have a forge inside your workshop? So, not only are you an electronic guru, you're also a blacksmith?"

Izuku sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "It's useful, alright? All the stuff I make is completely free, because I just recycle all the stuff I find on the beach and melt it down." Well, that was true, but it was also odd for an 18 year-old-something guy to have a forge in his garage. Well, Takashi imagined Izuku's workshop was inside a garage, but he didn't actually know - he hadn't seen it before.

Takashi liked to think they were friends, but they had only known each other for 2 months, so he had never been over at Izuku's place, and the opposite was also true.

"Well, I just wanted to check up on you. I hope you did well on that test of yours. I'll see ya around!" said Takashi as he gave the young man a handwave, Izuku returning the gesture.

"Well, time to head home," muttered Takashi, and then he began running, making sure to hold back - he didn't want to be arrested for illegal quirk use!