I dashed as quickly as I could down the hall. I was late on my first day! If my father had been around I would have gotten an ear full, and I would have for sure been here on time. The tie around my neck was crooked and my jacket was left unbuttoned. My hair was far from brushed and was sure looked like a nest. Class 1-A was just around the corner and a whole new world. It was time for my journey towards becoming a hero to begin. My name is Noriko Akiyama, and today was the first step of many towards becoming one of the top heroes. /span/p
I stumbled into the classroom and knew right away that I had really messed up. Everyone was staring at me, including the teacher. I knew who he was as soon as I saw him. Shota Aizawa, also known as the pro-hero Eraser Head. "Dammit." I whispered under my breath. "Akiyama, we've been waiting for you." He said his arms crossed. "Take your seat." I quickly ran to my seat avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room. This was a terrible way to start my journey, especially due to how I got into UA. "It's a shame you've started here a UA this way, after you were so highly recommended." Mr. Aizawa said looking right at me.
I could hear the whispers as his comment settled in the air. I was one of the 6 students that had got in under recommendation. Usually UA only lets in 4 under recommendation, but two youth had caught the school's attention and they could not ignore their potential. I had been one of these luck two. The other was a boy from America, named Ryu Hanson, he was half-Japanese on his mother's side. I had meant him at a press conference surrounding this controversial decision. You see bringing two extra students through recommendation had meant that two more students would be let in via the practical exam. And the school found it necessary to show off why they had made this grand decision. "No way that's one of the exception students." I heard someone whisper from behind me. I ignored it. So much for making a good impression on my classmates and homeroom teacher, I thought sinking my face into my hands.
"Alright now that you're all here we get today's lesson." Mr. Aizawa said reaching down and shuffling through what appeared to be a sleeping bag. He then pulled out a pair of what looked like gym clothes. "Now put these on and head outside."

"QUIRK ASSESSMENT TEST!" The whole class shouted at this revelation. "But orientation, we're going to miss it." A girl with short brown hair said stepping forward. Mr. Aizawa turning and faced away from the class. "If you really make the big leagues you can't waste time on pointless ceremonies." Mr. Aizawa said, some of my classmates seem shocked. "Here at U.A. we're not tethered to traditions. That means I get to run my class however I see fit. You've been taking standardize tests most of your lives. But you never got to use your quirks in physical exams before. The country is still trying to pretend you're created equal by not letting the ones with the most power excel. It's not rational. One day the ministry of education will learn. Bakugo you manage to get the most points on the entrance exam. What was you farthest distance throw with a soft ball in junior high?" He asked the blonde boy with explosive hair at the front of the group. "67 meters I think." The boy, named Bakugo answered. "Right. Try doing it with you quirk." He said gesturing to the throwing circle a few feet away and passed him a soft ball.
Once Bakugo was standing in the circle Mr. Aizawa continued. "Anything goes just stay in the circle. Go on your wasting our time." "Alright man, but you asked for it." Bakugo said stretching. Mr. Aizawa had said that this boy had gotten the most points on the entrance exam. He had to have a strong quirk? I watched in anticipation as he ready himself to throw. He winded up, then boom! A giant explosion was realized out of his hand sending the ball flying, a trail of fire close behind. "Damn." I whispered under my breath, he is strong. "All of you need to know your maximum capabilities." Then came the small beep. "It's the most rational way to figuring out your potentially." He said lifting up his PDA to reveal Bakugo's distance. Blue numbers on the screen said 705.2 meters. I smirked at the boy, he was good. A great deal of people gasped at his distance. A boy with bright yellow hair with a black streak spoke saying. "Wow, 705 meters are you kidding me." "I can do that." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. No one seemed to pay anything attention to what I said, as they all continue talking and gasping. And many of the students started to declare how the wanted to go next, and how fun it looked.

"So this looks fun huh." Mr. Aizawa said his hair covering his eyes. I didn't like where this was going one bit. "You have three years here to become a hero. You think it's all going to be games and playtime. Idiots. Today you'll compete in 8 physical tests to gage your potential. Whoever comes in last has none, and will be expelled immediately." All of us gasped in horror. I had heard rumors, mostly from my dad that Mr. Aizawa was a hard teacher. But this was not what I was expecting as much as I KNEW I won't be the one on the bottom I knew this was messed up.

The whole class looked up the man in shock. There was no way he was telling the truth! There was no way he could do that! I had worked so hard together I wasn't going to go home now. I was going to go back to that quiet apartment feeling like failure. And I couldn't dare face her if I did fail. I clenched my fist and large smile speared across my face, I was going to shin here and knock all of my classmates out. My new classmates did their best to. The angry blonde kid was amazing, with an awesome explosive power. Another boy with engine legs also stood out. And the girl with the short brown hair throw a ball infinity with her quirk. There also was a boy with wild curly scarlet hair and long black nails that seemed to have a blood manipulation quirk. In fact almost everyone did super well. It made me push myself even harder. There was only one kid I didn't quite understand why he was here. He was short with crazy green hair and freckles.

I watched him, and I knew he wasn't using his quirk. What was he thinking? I looked down at my hands which were surrounded by my light energy, and smirked. My quirk is what had got me here. It had appeared when I was just 3 years old. My dad had been so proud of me, it was close to his own. It was around my 8th birthday that I figured out what my quirk could really do. My quirk allows me to absorb energy, more precisely light energy, of all kinds from the obvious light of the sun to the soft gentle light of a candle. I can then magnify this energy to a maximum of 100% and use it to create force fields, beams, and any shaped energy weapon I wanted. I could feel eyes on me. I guess whoever it was final saw why I had been chosen, and why the school had made an exception for me. I flattened my hands and formed buzzing energy blades around them. "Woah!" Someone said from a distance. I turned to see the green haired boy.

I watched in disbelief as he approached me with a smile. "That's some quirk." He said in awe. "Well, I don't know if you've watching but I can do a lot more than that." I smirked. "Yeah trust me, I've been watching everyone." He said bringing his hand up to rub the back of his neck. The smile on his face had suddenly vanished and face worry took over. "Why don't you just use your quirk? I'm sure if you just used it things would be going a lot better for you." I said looking the boy up and down. "You have a quirk don't you." He looked down at the ground and nodded his head. "I have one, but…" He was still looking at the ground when the guy with engine legs came over. "We have the next test, we're heading back to where we all originally started." I nodded at the boy, who I believe was named Ida. "Let's get moving!" I said but I quickly stopped in my tracks and turned back to the boy when I realized something. "By the way my name is Noriko Akiyama." I extended my hand out to the boy who looked almost alarmed by my sudden gesture. "Oh, my, my name is Izuku Midoriya." The boy replied the smile returning to his face. "Good luck on the rest of your test Midoriya." I smiled back, he was probably going to be the one to go home.

It was time for the long throw and we would get a chance to throw the ball individuality well everyone watched. I took a deep breath and readied myself, I would kill this. "Noriko Akiyama!" Mr. Aizawa called out my name. I quickly rushed over to the throwing circle, ball in hand. I took one deep breath, this would be the one I really let go. I turned to Mr. Aizawa and asked. "You said we could use our powers to their limit right." A smirk spread across his face. "Knock yourself out Akiyama, you don't have to hold back." I tighten my grip around the ball and charged up my hand. I calculated the amount I needed to make this great. About half my energy store would be enough to really show off in this case, and enhancing the power up about 50% higher than its original power would make this nice and flashy. I could hear hushed sounds of amazement as the energy around my hand began to swirl and whip around wildly. I knew my eyes had probably change from their natural brown colour to a golden. And my hair had begun glowing and whipping around wildly like the energy escaping from my palm. "Here goes nothing!" I shouted winding up and then letting that ball fly.

As I threw the ball a beam of energy shot out of my palm sending the ball speeding through the air. I watched in anticipation as it flew further and further away. And then came the crash. A huge shiver ran down my spine, I had broken something. But soon that sound was followed by a little beep. I turned to Mr. Aizawa who was hold up his PDA. In little blue numbers it read 893.02 meters. A huge smile spread across my face. This felt good, no one else had gotten a distance like that. While expect for that zero gravity girl, in my mind her throw didn't count. "Good job Akiyama, you can power down now. You don't want to push yourself." Mr. Aizawa said gesturing towards me. For a second I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but then a strand of my energy filled locks brushed against my cheek. "Oh yeah!" I yip as I powered down. My wild locks returned to the curly platinum blonde mess it usually was.

I quickly made my way back to the group and stood and watched the rest of my classmates. As I watched I began to get excited. Everyone here had such interesting and powerful quirks. They would all allow me to grow as we fought and learned together, well everyone but Midoriya. I didn't understand him at all. He had no quirk, and he seemed shy and soft spoken. How did he even have qualities worthy of being a hero? I was lost in thought when Mr. Aizawa called out his name. My curiosity about this boy forced me pay attention. I politely shuffled my way to front of the group. That was when I overheard three of my classmates talking about Midoriya. The boy with engine legs, Iida and that angry boy, whose name I think was Bakugo. "If Midoriya doesn't shape up soon he'll be the one going home." Iida said his arms crossed. "HUH Of course he is his a quirk-less loser." Bakugo responded. "He has a quirk. Did you not hear about what he did during the entrance exam?" Iida said back, seeming surprised by Bakugo thinking he didn't have one. "I wouldn't say his a loser, but it doesn't look like he has a quirk to me either." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

We watched on as he winded up and then a red energy formed around his arm. He did have a quirk. I watched in anticipation. How was this going to end? And then the glow stopped and the machine called out "46 meters!" "What happened?" I whispered to myself then turned to Mr. Aizawa as he began to approach the wild haired boy. "I erased your quirk. The judges for this exam were not rational enough, someone like you should never allowed to enroll in this school." Mr. Aizawa stated his sliver scarf and hair now standing up around him. "Wait you did what to my… ahh." Midoriya said stepping back. "Those goggles I know you, you can look at someone and cancel out their powers. The Eraser Hero, Eraser Head!" The class now began to whisper among themselves as they all began to figure out who our teacher was. "You're not ready. You don't have control over your powers. Were you planning to break your bones again? Counting on someone else to save your useless body?" Mr. Aizawa continued. "No that's not what I was trying to do." Midoriya snapped back. Mr. Aizawa than set forth his scarf and pulled the wild haired boy in close to him. The other students could hear nothing, but judging by Midoriya's reaction it was nothing good.

It looked harsh. I couldn't help but feel bad for the boy. This pro hero just called him out scowled him in front of everyone, on his first day no less. If I was in his shoes I'd be fighting off tears, and the want to punch Mr. Aizawa in the face. Mr. Aizawa pulled his scarf away and spoke again. "I returned your impractical quirk. Take your final throw. Hurry and get it over with." He said sharply as turned away from the shaken boy. The whole class was watching now as Midoriya returned to the throwing circle. Once again he winded up and then boom.

All the class stood there in shock well all expect Ida and zero gravity girl. It looked like he did have a quirk after all and it was something else. I couldn't believe my eyes, he did have heroic qualities hidden away then. "He threw over 700 meters!" Someone shouted from behind me. "Nice his finally showing his true power!" The zero gravity girl shouted. Beside me Iida had his shielding his eyes from the sun and was almost examining our classmate. "His finger appears to be broken now. Just like the exam." He said bringing his hand to his chin, in a thinking kind of stance. "This quirk is very odd." I agreed, this boy did have some power that could save lives, expect it broke him to use it. It made sense now why he hadn't used it until now. If he had he would have been broken all over, and wouldn't have been able to finish. I looked the average looking boy with freckles over once more and decided that he was my rival. I would beat him. I looked over at Bakugo and the angry boy looked shocked. He had said that Midoriya was a quirk-less loser. Had he known him before coming here? He must have. "Oh no…" I breathed as I noticed the mini explosions that were now coming from the boy's hands. This was about to get very interesting. He then took off full sprite towards our classmate yelling as he went. "DEKU YOU BASTARD TELL HOW YOU DID THAT OR YOUR DEAD!" This wasn't good. Without even realizing I could feel my quirk heating up, energy began to form around my hands. I would protect him if he needed it. And then he was being held back by the gray scarf of our teacher. I powered down, smirked at the whole scene. These people were seriously pushing our teacher's buttons the first day. After Mr. Aizawa scolded Bakugo we went back to the rest of the quirk assessments.

The two last test went by without much excitement. At the end of it all we stood in front of Mr. Aizawa terrified of what he was about to reveal. "Alright time to give you your results I've ranked you all from best to worst. You should probably have an idea of your standing already. I'll just pull up the whole list, it's not worth going over each individual score." I knew I wouldn't be going home today but I still had nervous butterflies in my stomach. He brought out the list and my heart shone, I was third in the class. But then my heart sank, Midoriya was last. I had seen it coming but it wasn't fair. I sure all of us in this class saw something in him. He shouldn't have to go home because this man doesn't think his good enough. I was about to speak up when our teacher beat me to it. "And I was lying no one's going home. That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the tests."

I sighed a sigh of relief loud enough that I'm sure two or three people looked at me wired. "That's it, we're done for the day. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom read it over for before tomorrow morning." Mr. Aizawa stated before walking over to Midoriya. "Midoriya take this and go have the old lady fix you up. It's going to be tougher tomorrow when your actual training beginnings. Make sure you're prepared." I quickly skipped over to Midoriya and tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you don't have to go. I think you have what it takes to be hero." I hummed before skipping away. I laughed softly to myself, he had turned completely red when I had placed my hand on his shoulder.

************************************
My apartment was a lonely place to be. I opened my door and was greeted with nothing but silence. No one was home, no one else was going to be coming home. Here I was, a minor living on my own. Technically I live under the care of the building supervisor, Madame Himari. She was a family friend of my father's, a retired pro-hero who now made a living owning this building. But when my father died I asked to continue living in the apartment we lived in together. She let me do this. She does her best to take care of me. She stops by during the day when I'm at school cleans, and makes me meals. But she rarely comes by when I'm home. She's never really told me why, but I don't mind. It's not like I need a new parent. My dad had been the only one I ever needed.

My father had been the best Dad in the world. He had raised me on his own, my mother had never been in the picture. My dad was the hardest worker, and did everything he could to do well for us. In fact he had given up his dream job when I was born so he could be there for me. When I was really young he had snag me to sleep every night. And never sent me away when I had nightmares and came running into his room. He was my biggest hero, and support. Now as I was living my dream he wasn't here to see it.

I took off my shoes and put my school bag at the door. I was hungry. Before going to the kitchen I pulled myself down the hall to my room. I changed out of my school uniform and into a pair of ugly old sweat pants and a t-shirt. Today had been long day, and one I wouldn't soon forget. UA had been everything I expected and more. I still couldn't believe they had accepted me via recommendation. I had pulled myself into the kitchen now and opened up the fridge. Plate with a clear plastic wrap sat there waiting for me like every day, but today it came with a note. Tapped to the top over the plastic was a little note written on a yellow paper. "I hope you had a great first day. Madame Himari." The note read. I smiled it was nice she remembered and did this for me. But deep down I wished that the name that followed this letter was not Madame Himari's name but DAD. I pulled off the sticky note and put it on the fridge door. I unwrapped my food and heated it up. I quickly downed my food and headed to the roof of the building.

My bare feet made soft slapping noises are I ran up the stone steps. If Madame Himari knew I was barefoot up here she would kill me. The roof was a common area for all the residents of the building, and there had more than one occasion that people had come up there to drink. I had maybe step on one or two piece of glass from bottles. But it never really hurt, and I have never been cut deep, so I keep going barefoot. Once at the top I took out the blanket I leave there rolled up and lay it out. Laid down on it and stared up at the sky. It was too late to get fully recharged from the day of using my quirk, but the last few hours of sunlight would help. I closed my eyes and let the energy soak into my skin and fill up my core. I would have to do this again tomorrow morning before leaving. I could do it on the way to school but it just felt better all laid out on the roof. It was where my dad and I had done it.

I laid there until the sun disappeared from the sky, and only faint starlight energy slowly flowed into my skin. "Maybe I should sleep with my solar lump on." I said to myself as I rolled up my blanket and hid it away in its special spot. As I made my way down the stone steps back to my apartment I thought to myself. Tomorrow was going to be my second day at UA High. I had to continue to impress. I had to be ready for anything. And I definitely couldn't be late again./span/p