Step 1. Don't fall over.

Step 2. Don't make a fool of yourself.

Step 3. Learn the quirk.

Step 4. Get into UA.

This was the four step plan. There were many substeps and phases to go by but this was the the simple truth of it. Don't fall. Don't make a fool of yourself. Learn the quirk. Get into UA.

Things weren't looking too good for Izuku when he failed step 1.

One step through the gates and he was falling over and, in his awestruck demeanor, couldn't regain the motor skills necessary to stop his fall. Fantastic start.

A hand grabbed the back of his collar and pulled back as Izuku's face was about to hit the floor. This stopped his impending collision with the floor, but his collar tightened around his throat, restricting his breathing.

"Upsy-daisy...!" In one fell tug, Izuku was lifted onto his feet again. The hand left his collar, giving him a moments respite to breath.

He looked up at his "hero", a boy no older than him with spiky white hair and a rigid jawline. He was wearing a school uniform, but unlike Izuku's plain black one, his featured white stitches and a logo from one of the inner city schools. "That was close, don't want any injuries before the exam."

"Y-yes!" Izuku wasn't usually met with such optimism from a peer and didn't entirely know how to act. "Th-th-thank you!"

"Woah, jumpy are we?" The boy took a step back as Izuku began bowing intensely. "Well I guess we all are, just some better at hiding it."

The boy began to walk away and flashed a smile, "Anyway, don't worry about it, good luck for the entry test!"

A slight alteration was made to the entrance exam compared to previous years. This one would have groups of students go in one after the other as opposed to all of them applying at the same time. Each group of students would have their test televised to the others. They wanted to show kids what it would be like as a UA student, watching videos of their peers and using them to help improve themselves. In order to make sure everyone got the same treatment, the first group got to watch a video of the previous years applicants performing the test. Every video cut out before anyone got to see the dummy enemy, but no one was too intrigued by that.

Bakugou was in this first group, and Izuku got to see firsthand what his childhood friend was fully capable of, blowing up every machine that got in his way. The next group featured a blonde who destroyed every robot within a 50 foot radius with lightning towards the end, but he seemed to suffer in his motor functions after that. Another featured the really intimidating boy with glasses he'd met during the briefing, as well as a peculiar boy who could copy quirks. There was another group with a girl with giant hands and a boy with a... navel laser. Izuku watched all of the livestreams, but wasn't actually that prepared. He only had All Mights's vague description to go on, he didn't know how to use One for All. And despite getting a better feel for what the test would involve, he still had no idea what he was going to do to pass.

Izuku was getting prepared with his group. Instead of talking with his fellow participants, he stretched and then began to mumble to himself. He didn't speak about anything to do with All Might, but he was very vocal in his insecurities.

"Uh, hello? You okay man?"

" ...and even if I do somehow figure out how to use, who even says its... Huh?"

"Izuku looked up to see a redhead male, slightly taller than him, looking on with concern. "You've kinda just been hanging alone, mumbling man, nervous?"

"Y-Yes, nervous, haha..." Izuku couldn't let on the full extent of his nerves to this boy, he didn't want to seem fully incompetent.

"Well, it's better to just not think to hard you know? Sure a plans good, but you just gotta get in there and feel it out man."

"Th-that's pretty reckless... AHHnotthatImsayingyou'rerecklessI'mjuystsayingitseemsoddtogointosuchahardexamandnotevenhaveafullplanforit...!"

"Hahahaha, it's okay no offence taken!" The redhead laughed it off.

"Ughh, just when I thought he'd stopped you started the nerd up again."

Both parties stopped and turned to see a young girl with short black hair and... audio jacks hanging from her ears. She looked fed up, and a bit annoyed. "I tried to tune him out the past 5 minutes and you go and start him up again."

"W-wait, how did you hear him from over there?" The redhead was dumbfounded by this girls perception.

"My quirk," she points to the ear jacks, "That's all I'm saying."

"Awwww, that's boring, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours!"

"Yeah, no."

The two engaged in a back and forth about revealing their quirks. Meanwhile, Izuku looked down to his feet in shame. This was after he had been shamed by intimidating glasses man at the briefing. Two people had heard his muttering, one had scolded him, so there goes step 2.

"PARTICIPANTS!"

He didn't have long to consider the rapid deterioration of his plan.

After failing steps 1 and 2, hopes weren't high for step 3 as Izuku was running around the arena looking for robots. He could make a dent in them, but he had no idea how to use his quirk. Therefore, dents weren't getting him anywhere.

He'd seen the redhead at one point, smashing his way through robots and tanking their attacks like a champ. Another person had tape elbows and latched onto the bots before throwing them into walls. Another person had vine hair and was just wrecking everything.

When the one minute buzzer sounded, Izuku had a resounding 0 points. There goes step 3, and step 4.

It was also at this point that the dummy enemy had been released. This is why they hadn't shown it before. The thing was taller than most of the buildings in the training ground.

"RUN!"

Someone yelled the command and everyone just agreed it was a smart move. Everyone began moving away from ground zero and just kept sprinting. Izuku, not one for dying today, followed suit.

This is bad, All Might placed his faith in me, and I don't even have one point to show for it! He made the wrong choice, I was never, meant to be a hero, I could never succeed him, I could never...

In his self deprecation, he failed to notice the cracked slab that he promptly fell over. He was back to step 1, and repeating his failure again.

As he got up, he looked back. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to see, more students running, someone attempting to fight the dummy, maybe even Godzilla. What he hadn't thought to see was the black haired girl from earlier, fallen over at the very back, trying to remove her leg from some fallen debris as the machine approached.

There was a brief moment where Izuku swore he saw sludge and explosions.

Next thing anyone knew, he was running back. He could fail. He could die. But thoughts didn't seem to matter anymore. He had no plan. He had just, felt it out.

In one movement, Izuku crouched down and then leapt hundreds of feet into the air. He cocked his right arm back and remembered the vague description of his power he was given.

"SMASH!"

In one movement, his arm thrust forward and made impact with the robot's head. Despite the significant push back, his arm pushed almost effortlessly into the metal, before the robot fell back, crumbling into pieces as it fell back, crushing buildings and street blocks. But the girl was okay, looking up at him with awe on her face.

Of course he didn't see that, as it only just here dawned on his that his legs and his right arm were broken. As he was falling, he didn't see a way to get out of this.

Turns out I'm dying anyway!

What little air was in his lungs was knocked out when a red blur launched at him as he was nearing the ground, catching him. He wasn't fully conscious, but he was aware that he had been placed on the ground.

Not only was he sure that with broken legs and a broken arm he looked like an idiot, failing step 2 again, he had barely any idea how he managed to pull that off.

Step 3 was a work in progress.

"Just... 1... Point!"

When Izuku went into his room to look at his letter, he was sure that despite the progress on step 3, step 4 was not salvageable.

He then broke down into tears of joy when he found out that he had indeed passed step.

He fell over in his euphoria. His mother hears and rushes in. He looks up and points at his acceptance letter.

Despite repeatedly failing 1 and 2 right now, the fact that he had passed step 4 was all that mattered here.

He would have to thank that girl when he started school.

Izuku was meant to go to class 1B. His teacher would be Vlad King. He had no clue who the rest of his class would be. But regardless of all that, he had to go to the main gym hall for a hero course entry assembly. He would meet the rest of his class, the teachers and the other class before going to the opening class of his year.

He hadn't met anyone else yet. Makes sense, he wasn't late for school, but his train was delayed so he was cutting it close. Everyone else would already be at the assembly.

He stopped at the wooden sliding door that lead to the hall. He couldn't believe it. He was there. At UA, studying to become a hero. It was all a bit much to take in.

He opened the door.

he wasn't expecting people to stop what they were doing to pay attention to him, a few people turned heads and greeted him, but The chatter amongst them all was really loud. There was a clear divide between the classes, A was on the right, B on the left. It seemed a few people were already starting to make rivalries between the classes. The white haired and red headed boys were engaged in a friendly bout of proclaiming their quirks better, the boy with the copy quirk was feeling smug and talking down to the other class. The lightning boy was trying to flirt with every girl, making the situation more awkward. And then...

"...Deku?!"

Everyone stopped as Bakugou let of an explosion of anger at seeing his classmate.

"Ahh! H-h-hi, Kachan..."

"Don't give me that crap, the Hell are you doing here?!"

"Ahhh! Eh, um well..."

"He's on the course, is that not obvious to you?"

The copycat user from class B chuckled to himself he drew the blondes attention away from Izuku. "I'd say given your somewhat villainous reaction he has more right to be here than you!"

"What you saying, copycat!" Bakugou basically growled.

"I believe he's saying to cease this bickering at once!"

The intimidating boy with glasses had appeared, now seemingly on the Izuku's side. "This Deku performed the entry exam and passed yes? Then it is his school given right to be here!"

Both the redhead and the silver head turned to face Bakugou as well now, though they didn't say anything. Their eyes suggested he stop.

The explosion user stopped a moment, glared at Izuku, then turned away. The redhead followed hime, curious about what was going on.

Izuku went over to join his calss on the left, marked by a big blue B banner on the wall.

A few tried to start a conversation, but it became apparent quickly that he waasn't in the mood to be spoken to. A girl with bright orange hair noted this.

The doors opened again, revealing Izuku wasn't the last person to arrive. It turns out, the girl from the entrance exam would follow suit behind him.

"Am I late?"

"Nah," The redhead reappeared, "We have a few minutes."

"Roger." She walked over to the A side of the room. Izuku was slightly relieved, he knew the silver haired boy, but the people he knew most out of them were in class A. Izuku already sucked at making friends.

There was a small bell that went off, and both classes stood at attention as the two teachers took the stage.

And Izuku stood in awe of Eraserhead and Vlad King, and wondered what the first step of his heroes journey would be.