The rest of the week was uneventful for Midoriya. Once he was let out of the hospital, everyone stayed away from him, whispering away. Midoriya literally tried to hide behind Yamada the entire time, until the Voice Hero got sick of all the rumours and whispering floating around and practically yelled at everyone (while in civilian clothing) to leave Midoriya alone.

Since then, he just opted to stay in the hotel room the entire day, not daring to even exit. Yamada had to buy take outs for him. Midoriya didn't even dare to open the door.

He didn't blame the boy.

Being called useless and worthless was bad enough.

But to be feared by everyone, like he was some sort of rabid dog kept on a leash, and the leash might snap at any second, was worse.

It did make him feel better when Tensei came over to visit the boy, bringing an assortment of candy for him as a gift. Midoriya's mood had shot up instantly, and he had spent the rest of the day interrogating Tensei about his quirk and possible ways to apply his techniques to Iida. He seemed to be really curious about why grape and orange juice, and was wondering if the grape and orange flavoured Fanta drinks would ended up making their engines splutter or power them.

Yamada (finally being the voice of reason for once) refused to by grape soda.

Tensei left, taking a selfie with the smaller boy, just to tease Iida that he was the first to get a nice picture with the boy. And also to reassure him that both of them were fine.

And thanked Midoriya about a hundred times for unintentionally saving his life.

Midoriya was glad when the week for internships was over. He couldn't wait to get back to UA.

He just hoped his friends still cared about him….

"You were awesome Izuku! You really kicked their butts!" Sato grinned.

"You were so manly! I saw the fight with Tetsu at our internship!" Kirishima cheered.

Midoriya could give a small grin in return as he sighed in relief.

His friends still cared about him.

"Oi, Izu, if you actually think we were gonna leave you because you beat a villain, you're very much mistaken," Shinsou smirked, resting his hands on the shorter boy's head, before placing his head on his hands, so Shinsou was practically leaning over him patronisingly like some sort of older sibling.

Midoriya was pretty sure he was close to bursting out into tears from relief.

"DEKU! I KNOW THAT EXPRESSION! IF YOU START CRYING I'LL BLAST YOU!" Bakugou roared. His hair was no long spikes, and was somehow miraculously tamed as it sat on his head. Sero was still laughing at him, and in a fit of rage Bakugou's hair exploded right back into place.

"I'm so glad you guys made it out safely! I was worried!" Yaoyorozu sighed.

"You were so cool though, Izuku! I was so scared when I saw you fighting Stain live!" Hagakure gushed, "I didn't know who would win!"

"Did you see the video?!" Kaminari pipped up, "Stain's pretty cool too! He has a one track mind and he's tenacious!"

"Denki-kun!" Midoriya hissed, and Kaminari gulped when he realised that Iida was there too.

"He was tenacious. And honestly, seeing him up close, declaring his ideals to everyone… It's a pity he chose purging as a result of those beliefs."

Yagi had called them to Ground Gamma to see how much they improved during their internships. Midoriya had to go against Ashido, Sero, Ojiro, and Iida, and it was no surprise who won. His stamina was off the charts, and he knew exactly how to move in order to get his body to move exactly how he wanted.

"Damn, Izuku, you have to teach me how you do that." Ashido panted. She had sped up during the trial when she realised Midoriya was way ahead, and had ended up tiring herself out more than usual. Apparently, Sero and Ojiro had also tried to speed up, and ended up exhausting themselves.

"Young Izuku came in first, but you guys have all improved in using your quirks! Keep going like this and prepare for your final exam!" Yagi praised.

The lesson ended after the remaining three teams completed the course. Bakugou had won the second one, Todoroki won the third round and Asui had won the last round.

"Man, that was some hard training." Kirishima sighed, "I need to work on my mobility!"

"You can compensate for it with information gathering." Tokoyami pointed out.

Meanwhile, Midoriya was deep in thought. Everyone else was doing well, all except Yaoyorozu.

Her confidence had been shaken. Her loss by Tokoyami in the Sports Festival. She had been beaten so easily by a powerhouse, and she had come in through recommendations. That probably meant that she probably didn't have to fight those stupid giant robots, and he was fairly sure she was questioning whether she would be able to enter UA if not for her parents connections.

He frowned. He would need to talk to her about it. Especially with the exams coming soon.

"Hey… Yaoyorozu-san? Do you have a minute?" MIdoriya asked, calling out the Yaoyorozu as she was about to leave.

"I… yeah. Do you need something, Izuku?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Are you okay?" Midoriya asked, "I don't mean physically. You've been…. dazed lately."

"I'm fine… really…. I shouldn't even be worried about it - "

"It's normal to be unsure of yourself after the Sports Festival, you know." Midoriya replied, "But you can't let this affect you in lessons. Instead, use it as motivation and drive to get stronger."

Yaoyorozu just stared at the boy in front of her. How he had guessed her thoughts perfectly, she didn't know. She knew all that… but it seemed like -

"You're family's status doesn't mean anything here. You're still human. Emotions are normal. If you need a break, to think things through, go ahead. Everyone needs them."

Yet I can't help be affected by everything the stupid press says. I'm a hypocrite.

Yaoyorozu gulped, and clenched her firsts. That was one of the problems of being born in a rich family of heroes. She always did have standards, to go beyond them at all costs, to not let her emotions get in the way of things. That was what was expected from her.

All the pressure in her body felt like it was released at once. The comforting words by the vigilante reminded her that, yes, she made mistakes, and now she had to fix them.

She hesitantly reached out to ruffle Midoriya's hair, and he just stood there and let her hand run through his green locks. Yaoyorozu was screeching internally. He was like a little kitten, jittery but also curious as to what she would do. She gave him a smile, "Alright. Thank you, Izuku."

"You're welcome. But why do people like to touch my hair? Toshi likes to ruffle it, Uraraka-san as well, and Eijiro-kun and Denki-kun had mentioned that my hair was better then Ojiro-kun's fluffy tail or something?"

Yaoyorozu gave a sharp bark of laughter. Midoriya was just too adorable at times. She couldn't understand how the media could make him out to be a scary, vicious beast when he was here wondering why people liked his hair so much. He was just like a little scared kitten that was forced into the world far too soon, and was moulded into a tiger just so he could stand a chance against everyone else.

But he was still a kitten.

"Well… I personally think we'll be fighting the teachers." Midoriya said, "Villains aren't going to be mindless robots. They'll be able to think, make strategies, and make split second decisions. Robots won't be able to do that. And they'll most likely make us fight in pairs, probably based on our personalities and quirks, thought honestly I'm not very sure since we have twenty one students."

He grabbed a notebook out of his pocket and started scribbling.

"Assuming we have ten teachers…. All Might-sensei, Eraser Head-sensei, Present Mic-sensei, Midnight-sensei, Ectoplasm-sensei, Snipe-sensei, Thirteen-sensei, Cementoss-sensei, Powerloader-sensei and most probably Nezu-sensei. I don't think Vlad King-sensei will be part of our exam because he's your teacher."

"That is… surprisingly specific."

"If you think that's specific, then think again." Shinsou groaned, leaning back on his chair. "Get ready for more rambling."

"I think Tsu-chan will be paired with Tokoyami-kun against Ectoplasm-sensei. Tsu-chan has no clear weakness, but Tokoyami-kun's fighting style is to let Dark Shadow fight from a distance. Having Ectoplasm-sensei, a close combat fighter who can clone himself, would be more than enough to counter that, and Tsu-chan would have to find a way to assist him."

Asui hummed. That made sense.

"I think Shoji-kun and Hagakure-chan will be paired against Snipe-sensei. He's a long ranged fighter, and both Shoji-kun and Hagakure-chan are short ranged fighters. Shoji-kun has an advantage of information gathering, while Hagakure-chan has stealth."

Hagakure was waving her arms about in excitement.

"Iida and Ojiro will probably be up against Power Loader-sensei, who can create tunnels. Both Iida and Ojiro require land to use their quirks, and if the ground keeps caving in I think they'll have problems."

Iida frowned, furrowing his brow. If he had nowhere to run…. he couldn't run.

"Eijiro-kun and Sato-kun would probably be against Cementoss-sensei. He can control the cement, and Eijiro-kun and Sato-kun usually fight head on."

Kirishima thought about it. When he had fought against Tetsutetsu, they had just bashed each other silly. He would probably have to do something other than bashing through head on and hope he does it right.

"Mineta-kun and Sero-kun probably would go again Midnight-sensei. Mineta-kun… I don't have to say it. And Sero-kun's quirk is really similar to Midnight-sensei's, since they both aren't directly offensive but can be really effective in the right situations! Ashido-san and Kaminari-kun… maybe Nezu! Cause he fights smart and no offence you two… but you fight more with your guts than your brains, not literally of course."

Kaminari laughed at the joke, and Ashido grinned. "Gotcha Izuku! Also, call me Mina! I like it better!"

Midoriya nodded.

"Jiro-san and Koda-kun against Mic-sensei cause they all have sound based quirks! Sho-kun and Yaoyorozu-san will probably be paired together against…. hmm…. Aizawl-sensei! Cause Sho-kun's quirk is really powerful and Yaoyorozu-san's can be equally dangerous! Ne, Yaoyorozu-san, can you make a nuclear bomb?"

"I… what? As long as there's no carbon I can make it…. Izuku no!"

"I was just asking!"

"That's dangerous Izuku!"

"Fine! No bombs!" Midoriya groaned, before his eyes glinted, "OH! Can you make water? Cause its just hydrogen and oxygen! Can you like… put out fires!?" Midoriya kept rambling on and on about having an unlimited supply of water, before Shinsou lightly smacked his shoulder and he went back on topic.

"Aoyoma-kun and Uraraka-san will probably be against Thirteen-sensei, since light can be sucked in by a black hole and Uraraka-san and Thirteen-sensei both have gravity based quirks. That leaves Toshi and Kacchan with All Might-sensei! You two never got along well."

Shinsou huffed. Not his fault. He really didn't like how much Bakugou swore. Bakugou also hated how much Midoriya liked to stick to Shinsou, though he couldn't really blame him.

"Ha! I bet a thousand yen that he's wrong!" Some one yelled. Some of the students from all over the school decided to bet on this!?

Kirishima just stood up in his seat, (much to Iida's chagrin), and yelled, "Don't underestimate him! I bet you he's a hundred percent right!"

"Oh I'll take that bet! If he get's them all right, we'll all fork over the amount that we all be!"

"What about you?" Kendo asked.

Midoriya hummed, before he frowned, quietly muttering, "I don't really know. Maybe Nezu-sensei or Aizawa-sensei? Or Vlad King-sensei. Or maybe one of the upperclassmen?"

Nevertheless to say, 1-A became richer after their practical.

Everyone passed the written test, Ashido and Kaminari just barely passing with Yaoyorozu, Midoriya and Bakugou practically drilling every single equation and formula into their heads.

The practicals went smoother than expected as well. Everyone just trusted Midoriya's instincts (even Kendo, Tetsutetsu and Monoma had been slightly doubting of Midoriya's prediction), and prepared and discussed strategy with Midoriya to counter their specific teachers that Midoriya had assigned.

He had been completely correct.

Yamada had kept yelling and made Jiro's ears bleed. That had given Koda enough courage to overcome his fear of bugs to ask them to terrorise Yamada (though honestly unless you were Bakugou and would swear the bugs down and explode them, or was Todoroki or flaming trash heap number two and could just burn or freeze them, anyone would be screeching at the sheer number of centipedes, worms and other bugs crawling up their legs.)

Uraraka had used Thirteen's Black Hole against them after Aoyoma brought up the question of their fighting skills since Thirteen was a rescue hero, making Midoriya realise that Thirteen's first instinct was to save and not harm.

Asui had swallowed the cuffs, and after Ectoplasm had trapped them in his super large Ectoplasm clone, she had coughed it out and allowed Dark Shadow to cuff the teacher.

Mineta's and Sero's were hilarious. Kayama had trapped Sero with her quirk (In reality Sero was just pretending to sleep. He could hold his breath for a really long time, and apparently it increased the pressure that he shot his tape out), and Mineta had lured Kayama away from the exit, letting Sero pass through the gate easily.

Iida and Ojiro had done really well. Iida had carried Ojiro across the arena, before Maijima emerged from the ground right beneath them. Iida had practically used his Recipro Burst as a booster, and flung Ojiro right past the gates.

Shoji had distracted Snipe while he was trying to shoot them, while Hagakure snuck around and cuffed Snipe. Apparently, he had a lot of trouble tracking something he couldn't see.

Yaoyorozu and Todoroki's practical... it was a bit bumpy. Todoroki had gotten caught by Aizawa, and Yaoyorozu just hosed down the Erasure hero with water when he turned to face her, making his ridiculously long hair cover his eyes and forcing him to be unable to use his quirk until he removed his goggles. The hero had to fight blind for a while, and Yaoyorozu had just created sand all over the place and made Todoroki burn them, turning the ground to glass and practically sticking Aizawa to the ground. Yaoyorozu had released Todoroki, before attempting to cuff the hero, but Aizawa threw caltrops at them and if it weren't for Todoroki's ice, Yaoyorozu was sure she'd have a few more scratches before they were able to cuff Aizawa.

(Yaoyorozu wanted flashbangs but Midoriya had immediately said no. He didn't want to permanently damage his teacher's eyes. Water was a lot more effective. And it was funny to see Aizawa dripping wet after the entire ordeal.)

Sato and Kirishima had started off by bashing blindly through Ishiyama's cement, before Sato continued the onslaught and Kirishima took a detour to the top of the buildings, before smashing into Ishiyama and catching him by surprise.

Ashido and Kaminari had done surprisingly well against Nezu. It was really... funny to see all the buildings crashing around them and them running away, but Ashido and Kaminari just took the chance when the chaos had died down slightly to follow the path of destruction, practically running on the rubble and broken debris until they found the crane which was the bane of their trial. Kaminari had short circuited the entire thing, and Ashido had taken the chance to scale the crane and cuff Nezu. Or more like Nezu was just grinning creepily and let her cuff him.

Bakugou and Shinsou's trial was... annoying. Both of them had started the trial silently, not even speaking to each other as they tried to find the exit. Yagi had appeared, and had avoided saying a single word as he assaulted the two boys. He ended up smashing Bakugou right into Shinsou, and after that the duo ended up arguing with each other and fighting. Midoriya, and the rest of class 1-A, had gotten worried that they would fail since they were fighting each other instead of Yagi. Yagi finally tried to intervene and convince them to stop fighting, and Shinsou and Bakuguo both just grinned as the purple haired teen's brainwashing fell into place, brainwashing Yagi as he ordered him to cuff himself.

Midoriya had practically threw himself on them and ranted at how worried he was when he saw them fighting.

Then it was time for Midoriya's trial.

Or what they thought was to be Midoriya's trial.

Midoriya was locked inside a room. A puzzle room to be exact.

Designed by Nezu.

And literally had all of the teacher's input on the traps.

And gave the trigger happy students control over about half the traps.

Yeah. That was fun.

Midoriya groaned. He liked puzzles, but he liked doing them for fun. Not as an exam.

There was a piece of paper next to him, and the only thing written on it was "ceiling."

Midoriya looked upwards, and there was a door. On the ceiling. There were very... sparely placed railings on the walls. Midoriya took a running leap, grabbing a railing, before he leapt to the wall on the other side of the room, grabbing that railing. It took him some time before he finally leapt off the final railing, grasping the door handle and yanking the door open, before hauling himself up to the next room.

He popped his head into the next room, and immediately ducked as spears flew over his head.

Jesus, was this some kind of trap!?

He finally managed to get into the room proper, and made his way towards where the spears came from. He grabbed a spear when another bunch came flying at him, and kept it to deflect anything else (Like darts and arrows. Dammit Nezu. Why all the sharp stuff?!) that was being shot at him from literally all directions.

He opened the door and made his way into the next room, where there was a computer with a note placed over it. There was a number pad on the table, and there was also a door on the far side of the room. There was no handle or anything. Damn.

"You like riddles, don't ya? Here's a simple one. What am I? A mouse, bear, or dog?"

Midoriya rolled his eyes. He had heard this so many times it was ridiculous. He typed in the word "Principal", and clicked enter.

The entire room turned dark, before there was a loud cackling over the loudspeakers that he was pretty sure belonged to Nezu, "Think you're trying to be smart, eh? I gave you three choices!"

"Pretty sure they're all wrong?" Midoriya grumbled.

"I heard that!"

"Tch." Midoriya relented and typed in all three words, only to be met with the wrong password noise beeping ridiculously loudly for his opinion.

"Oh dear, little listener. Looks like you got the password wrong! Ya have to wait thirty minutes you know!" That was Yamada's voice for sure.

Midoriya groaned, before he pried to computer's back panel apart and tried to fiddle with wires as he typed on the computer, trying to hack it.

He was halfway through when Kayama's voice was blasted out, "Sneaky sneaky! Hacking is bad you know!"

"Shut up!" Midoriya screeched, continuing to hack the computer. He finally got tired of it, and opened all the drawers in the room, finding a thumb drive. Dammit. That meant he had to hack the laptop. But the thumb drive was lighter that he expected...

Midoriya cracked the thumb drive open, finding a small note in it.

"this is what You get for sticking Thumb drives With me all the time. how's this For a key in a thumb drive?"

That messy handwriting was definitely Aizawa's. Midoriya groaned. But he found the riddle weird. Why the heck was Aizawa capitalising random letters? A thought flashed through Midoriya's mind, and he grabbed the computer keyboard and yanked off the Y, T, W and F keys.

Four numbers. 4, 6, 1, 8.

He based the numbers into the number pad, and the door sprung open. Midoriya quickly exited the room, and looked around. His footsteps were unusually loud, and the room was very bright. There wasn't anything in sight. He turned around to exit the room, and to his alarm, the door closed behind him.

"Oops. Looks like my finger slipped. Sorry." Ishiyama. Really? How could a finger just happen to slip and just happen to land on whatever button or trigger closed the door?

Midoriya tapped his foot, trying to thick, and got completely annoying when he heard the tap tap tap sound just resonate in the room. He blinked. Why was it so loud?! He hesitantly stomped on the ground, before realising that it was thin. The floor was really, really thin.

He flipped into a hand stand, before he slammed his weight onto the ground through his foot, breaking the floor. He rolled as he fell onto the floor below, brushing the scraps of the broken floor off himself.

"Tch." He grumbled, as a large metal sphere almost crushed him had he not dove into a corner.

"Sorry Izuku! I though that was the hint button!" Kaminari's voice blasted out.

Great. His classmates were trying to help. Nezu clearly didn't label the buttons properly, if at all.

Midoriya had gotten past another twenty rooms before the announcement came on that his ten minutes were up.

He was really dejected.

He didn't even get out.

How could he afford to be a hero when he couldn't even get out of a puzzle room!?

Aizawa was sent to escort the boy out of his trial, and even he couldn't stop himself from feeling really, really bad for the boy who looked so sad.

"I'm sorry. I failed."

"Don't worry about it, problem child." Aizawa sighed, rubbing the boy's back comfortingly. He had dried his hair and changed out of his wet clothes, and Kayama had decided to braid it. He didn't stop her. He was too tired to care. All he wanted to do was keep an eye on the problem child's trial.

When they finally got to the watching room, where everyone was watching Midoriya's trial, heck even Nezu looked bad when he saw the complete, utter, destroyed look on the boy's face.

"Izuku..." The principal said, before Midoriya bowed.

"I'm sorry! I failed! I didn't live up to your expectations! I will push myself even harder!"

"Actually... Izuku, you passed."

"I will take any criticism you have and ... wait what?" Midoriya looked up to face Nezu.

"You passed."

"I WHAT!?" He spluttered, "I didn't even get out!"

"Dude, you got through like... twenty five rooms!" Kaminari cheered. "I'm sure I would have gotten stuck in the third room!"

"You couldn't even get past the first room." Jiro rolled her eyes.

The class had dissolved into playful banter when Aizawa addressed Midoriya, "There were fifty rooms. We weren't expecting you to get out anytime soon. Nezu had declared that you would pass once you got past the fifteenth room, but those trouble makers broke the microphone and we just decided to wait until time was up. Unlike the others, you have had plenty of battle experience, so we decided to give you a trial that would test your instincts and your brain instead of fighting since most of the villains you take out are ... no offence... they don't think, so you never really encountered those scheming ones."

"I... passed!? I didn't... fail!? I'm not useless!?" Midoriya yelped, looking at Aizawa with shining eyes.

"Of course not. See! Even you exceeded Nezu's expectations!" Kayama cheered.

"In a battle of brains... I certainly wouldn't want to go against you." Yagi said.

He had said that to be encouraging, but instead Midoriya's expression just fell.

"So... I'm a monster...? .. A freak?..."

He started trembling, and Aizawa just scowled at Yagi before he grabbed the poor traumatised child by the shoulders, forcing him to face him.

"Izuku. I don't know what those people keep saying about you. You're not a monster, or a freak. You're just really smart, you were forced into a world where you had to fight to survive too early, and you shaped yourself in order to survive. Those people are just blind, and they just judge you for your genes instead of who you are. You're a perfectly normal hero in training, and nothing will ever change that."

Midoriya just looked like wanted to cry, but no tears came out, instead, he just pulled Aizawa into a hug, burying his face into Aizawa's shirt. Aizawa tensed up, before he returned the hug, sighing, before glaring at Yagi.

Yagi, for all of his muscle mass and strength, was trying to hide behind Yamada, Maijima and Thirteen from Aizawa's glare.

It took some time for Midoriya to let go of Aizawa. He grinned up cheekily, "Thanks, Shou-chan!"

Aizawa clicked his tongue at the endearing nickname, and chased him off to join his friends, yelling, "Don't call me that, problem child."

"You like it! Admit it!"

"No I don't!"

Midoriya just laughed, before he latched himself onto Shinsou again, using his slightly higher than normal vantage point to laugh alongside his classmates.

Aizawa just sighed again, and walked to the corner where Todoroki had left his capture weapon after drying it, and growled at Yaji as he passed him, "We need to talk."