Arc Begin: The U.A. Sports Festival

"You said you wanted to see me, All Might?" Izuku placed his green backpack next to him on the ground, glancing at the man in question. He was still weary from the attack at U.S.J.

"Yes, I did, young Izuku. I wanted to let you know that the time limit I can spend in this form has been reduced..."

"That's horrible!" Izuku said worried, for what would happen the day that Japan's number 1 Hero could no longer save people with a smile.

"That's life. If all of you didn't perform so admirably at U.A., I doubt that I'd have this long in the first place"

"I wish I could have done more…" Izuku murmured. He felt guilty for not being strong enough during that horridus trip to U.S.J..

"There's nothing more you could have done, my boy. I would do it again in a heartbeat if you were in trouble" All Might reassured, trying to get him to calm down, but as he did so Izuku felt worse.

"But I should have been able to do more…"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, you did all you could with the training you've had". The two of them sat in silence for a while. "Anyways…" he awkwardly continued "about the limit, I want you to pretend that it's shorter than it actually is so that way villains aren't aware with their resurgence…"

After the break the 1-A students got for trauma related concerns and to heal their bodies, classes started as though they never ended. Despite the short break they had received, they were noticeably different in classes, flinching when people got too close and staying serious throughout classes, never joking around.

That day, to their surprise, EraserHead was still teaching, though they noticed his occasional winces.

"Mr. Aizawa, shouldn't you be home today?" Had been asked, and though the teacher's answer was polite, it was also curt and to the point.

"No, you need to learn that your job as a hero never ends, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how much you hurt, it never ends."

At this statement, Shirou simply nodded along. His teacher's words matched his own thoughts after all. What is a Hero other than one that helps others…

Following that somewhat morbid statement, EraserHead had told them about the Sports festival, which of course garnered positive reactions.

"Something so normal!"

"Of course, Katsuki will be the student representative for the first years, as the student with the highest total score. You better start planning your speech now…" At those words, the collective of class 1-A blanched. They knew his tendency for profanity well enough by now, and it would doubtless be even worse for them were it to be broadcast on TV.

As they were leaving with the knowledge of the Sports festival, they found it blockaded by other members of the student body. Normally, they would ignore it, but tense as they were, they were unable to ignore it. A figure pushed its way to the front, a blond, fairly nondescript boy.

"All you guys in 1-A think of yourselves as so tough, huh. Praising yourselves for surviving a Villain attack, but needing to be saved" The apparent leader said. "You fools who never consider that those you view beneath you may in fact be superior, you will be crushed in the upcoming Sports festival".

Surprisingly, at this, it was Katsuki who prevented certain members of the class from becoming violent. "Sit down, you idiots!" He shouted. "If you let him get to you then he'll win. As for you, shitty hair, you'll regret threatening me" Pushing the blond-haired boy away, Katsuki said "C'mon, hurry up. You better not embarrass me at the festival".

"I pledge… that I'll be number one!".

As class 1-A watched Katsuki's mockery of a proper speech as the first-years student representative, all they could feel was acute embarrassment.

Shirou meanwhile, thought it was a worthy goal. To become a trusted figure, filling people's hearts with comfort, is there really something wrong with proclaiming such a goal?

A/n:

With this, the sports festival begins, and some things, such as All Might's time limit have already diverged from canon. I wonder how the longer time limit, and the nomu that was glossed over, will be relevant to the fic in the future… xD. As always, the discord code is gbYXQzqsV4