I just wanted to inform everyone, since I like responding to comments, I've come up for an approach for those of you who submit them as guests. I'm planning on leaving a response to such reviews on my Profile Page which I will leave up for a while (at least a month, though I haven't decided on an exact amount of time yet). If you would prefer I not do this for you, please let me know when you leave a comment.

Identify the Challenges

The rest of the week kind of just flew by.

That first night, Midoriya and Hitoshi had agreed that the first thing that they needed to do was to identify their obstacles and examine their options for overcoming them. They had actually gotten so caught up in their discussion that the greenette's mother had to come in and tell them it was getting late.

Despite getting home later than he was comfortable with, Hitoshi was almost too happy to care. He had a friend. One who didn't care about the type of quirk he had…no, further than that, actually liked it in a way he couldn't even bring himself to. Someone who believed that it could actually help him in his dreams to become a hero.

And Midoriya wanted to be a hero, too. And in a strange way, their shared doubts in their ability to make it just made Hitoshi feel closer to him.

That and their willingness to help each other through their self-doubts.

Hitoshi had always assumed that he would have to carry one his struggles alone but now that had all changed.

It seemed almost too good to be real.

The next few days both flew by and dragged on. A mix of homework from school and the research toward their goals that it interfered with, interspersed with lunchtime conversations about the basics for Hero Watching. Midoriya was clearly eager to get back to the last as soon as possible.

And although the normal distance Midoriya usually preferred had been quick to return and he was still cautious around the school, he was actually occasionally starting the conversations and was certainly no longer shy about bringing up his interests. It was nice to watch the other boy open up some and actually give real smiles.

Not even the occasional snarky comment or tripping foot could keep their moods down. Which was good, because many of their classmates had become increasingly open about their disdain for Hitoshi and his 'new lackey.'

Of course, the joke was on them. Hitoshi had a feeling that if they had been villains, Izuku would be the one calling the shots. Shy as he was, he was smart enough that if he'd come up with a plan, Hitoshi wouldn't have questioned if it would work for a second. Especially if it involved quirks.

Luckily for them, Midoriya clearly had no intentions of hurting anyone. In fact, Hitoshi had come to suspect he'd openly do the opposite if push came to shove. He had noticed how the other would eye any situation between classmates or kids in other grades where it looked like bullying might go beyond short, ugly comments or more people might openly join in to gang up on the victims.

Whether Midoriya had just started doing this because he was confident in having support or if Hitoshi was just now noticing after his admission of dreaming of being a hero, the behavior seemed obvious now.

Whether Midoriya would actually act on that behavior, Hitoshi didn't know. Luckily, between their habits of navigating 'safely' in areas where they couldn't be bullied as openly and the fact that the school staff was active in punishing troublemakers, be they real or perceived, they didn't come across any incidents big enough to test Midoriya's mettle in such a way.

Funnily enough, Hitoshi noticed that a large portion of the teachers that had watched him with suspicion seemed to soften up upon seeing him with Izuku, as if seeing him constantly accompanying a 'weak' kid made him seem less villainous. Not all of them, but it was an interesting shift to see. And while it might have been unfair to Midoriya that they might think of him like that, it was a nice change for them to not stare down their noses at him as often.

Thankfully, Friday came and went without any incident.

They had agreed to aim to have their respective work done by the weekend, where they would meet up and discuss what they had found.

It was funny how many things Izuku hadn't considered before. But now he couldn't afford to miss anything. He wasn't just struggling for himself but also for Hitoshi, now.

And, although Izuku would never tell his friend, he had already decided that if it were impossible for both of them to make it, he would pour everything into making sure the other boy would be able to become a hero. Izuku had no doubt that Hitoshi would make a far better one than he would. He would be able to save more lives with his quirk than many pro heroes, let alone someone without any quirk at all like himself.

Izuku had a feeling that Shinsou wouldn't like the idea though of Izuku prioritizing him, though.

Of course, that was something to worry about that later, if he even had to. Right now, Shinsou was over again.

He had a friend over again for a second time. And this time, to spend the night!

Izuku sat with Shinsou in his room. He had used his allowance to get a whiteboard and the markers and eraser to go with it. It was currently set on his bed and they were standing at the edge of the bed. Izuku had positioned himself between it and his pillows, so he could have access to the desk at the head of his bed, where the notebook he'd pulled out just a few nights ago now sat, several pages already filled. Shinsou sat across from him, closer to the foot of the bed.

"Alright. So…lets go over what we've got so far." Izuku grabbed the black marker at the bottom of the board and wrote at the top, 'Hero Course', underlining it using the red. "This is our first goal." In the same red marker, he also wrote in the top right corner, 'Prelim. License exam' and made a little half bubble trapping it there. "And we have to remember we'll need to deal with that later if we make it this far." He tapped the red marker back against the hero course, leaving a red dot in the center of the O in hero.

Without spinning the board, Shinsou used the marker to draw a circle around the dot, making the O into a target, his smirk as he did so clearly a silent stand in for laughter.

Izuku smiled at it, too, deciding he'd go so far as to draw it into his notebook when he redrew the board into it later. But for now, he'd just keep going with his thoughts. "The most direct way into the hero course," he drew a straight line from below, "is through the practical exam." Izuku wrote a big PE at the bottom of the line before turning it around for the other boy. "But you said you found a second?"

Shinsou nodded and said, "The UA Tournament, although there's not a lot of people who've made it that way. And they were either from Gen Ed or Support, although only one came from the latter." He wrote UAT above the curved line and GE/SUP in blue at the bottom, circling it.

"Technically, you could count it as two chances." He continued, drawing a second curved line that ran parallel to the first. "First and second year, although the latter was a onetime thing, too. I can't find any names for the people that made it, either. Just statistics."

Izuku had an idea for that, although he'd bring that up when they were talking about plans later, hopefully tomorrow, rather than goals and problems they were currently discussing. "They probably just aren't interested in third year performances… not enough time to train students at that point," Izuku stated, "but it might be good if we are still not in the hero course if we're trying to get into the internship programs, like the one Idaten offers."

If they never get the hero course, Izuku and Shinsou could still try for the internship positions. A few hero agencies were already starting to follow Idaten's lead in taking civilian interns and training them as sidekicks. They were even willing to fund the sidekick's attempts at taking the Licensing Exam in return for promising to work for their agency for a few more years afterward. Although they also had a lot of people who just did the non-combat and non-rescue portions of hero work, as well. Izuku gad the distinct suspicion that if anyone was willing to give Izuku anything, this last one would likely be it. And, while it wasn't exactly what he wanted, it would be better than nothing.

That thought made him pause, up until now, he had been focused on being a hero and nothing but that but now, with Shinsou to think about, he was actually considering other options for himself, just in case. He wondered if there were other things he could look into where he could use his quirk analyses to save people like heroes do. Maybe even work with heroes to help them do better than they would have on their own…

Izuku shoved those thoughts away, as considering anything but heroics for even a moment left his heart heavy and aching as if it had been filled with stones. He wanted to be a hero more than anything.

With that in mind, Izuku looked at the SUP. "I'll be honest, although I'm really interested in support tech and it would be really useful to have skills with it for heroics, I don't think we have either the resources or funds to practice and I don't feel like risking an infection by raiding dumping sites for scrap." And, although not as much as his previous thoughts, the admission still hurt. He had more than a few basic concepts for devices heroes could use among the scribbles and sketches of within his notebooks.

"Yeah, and I don't think I have enough technological knowledge to even indulge in the idea."

So, with a heavy heart, Izuku reached over the 'upside down' board and crossed a red line from the SUP before continuing, "Then there's also the problem you mentioned that UA rarely takes people this way. Otherwise, I would have heard about it, too."

"And I didn't see anything about UA ever choosing two transfers in the same year."

Izuku bit his lip, not wanting to say what that meant out loud; at some point they would probably have to treat each other as rivals. Although not really, though Shinsou would never know that.

Instead, Shinsou said, "That means realistically, one of us has to pass the practical or someone gets left behind."

"There's a first time for everything," Izuku replied habitually.

"Yeah, but you're already pushing that envelope with the goal of becoming a quirkless hero. Let's face it, this isn't some Saturday Morning cartoon. If we go out there from Gen Ed together, one of us will have to outshine everyone else, including the other. If they are choosing between even just the two of us, they'll automatically choose me over you because I have a quirk and you don't."

Rather than respond to that comment, Izuku focused back down on the board, spinning it back to him. Beneath Gen Ed, he drew another curved line, circling to a spot beneath the Practical, from which he also drew a straight line. "Still, none of this matters unless we can overcome another obstacle first."

For a moment, Shinsou stared at the space, blank as the spot, then… "The academic exam."

Izuku nodded, wrote out AE and put a star next to it.

"We need to pass this, no matter what," Izuku stated. "Thousands of kids will be taking it. The Hero, Business and Support sections all have the fall back of a practical of some form. Getting into Gen Ed is all about this score…" he stressed the point by double tapping the circle with the tip of his marker, leaving marks behind where it made contact. Despite all of the flack UA's general education students got, they had to be extremely intelligent in order to even stand a chance of making it into that course. As with everything else, they had to be the best of the best.

Shinsou nodded.

"Still, we both want to put in for the hero course exam set. As we just agreed, at least one of us needs to pass it. It would be nice for both of us to make it, though. Assuming they change that rule and I'll even be allowed." Izuku frowned as he added, "But if it doesn't, none of this'll matter because I won't be allowed into UA at all and there's no other hero school open to me. So, it'll all be you."

Shinsou paled. "That's messed up."

"There's never been a quirkless hero, I know what my chances are."

"It doesn't mean it's right."

"Maybe if I can make it, I can make things that little bit better for others like me." Even simply being the first quirkless person to take the entrance exam could widen that tiny gap for someone else to finally reach the goal. Izuku smiled at the thought, that even failing to make it could still be a step forward for everyone without quirks simply for passing through UA's gates on exam day.

"The bar for success shouldn't be so low."

Izuku frowned and said, "It's not low at all. Look how much work I have to do for a chance that might not even be there." He felt something splatter on his hand and realized he was crying a bit. He took a deep breath and said, "Talking about this isn't doing anything for us. You said that you were able to find out something about the Hero Course Practical Exam."

Shinsou looked like he was biting back something before he finally sighed and said, "It's not exactly good news. I dug up posts from people who failed the UA exam over the past several years and there's one common thread that I could find. Again and again for as far back as I've been able to dig up information on; about ten years, now."

Izuku waited for the bombshell.

"Robots, Izuku. UA is obsessed with them."

Izuku was almost too astonished with the use of his first name to process the rest of that statement. He wasn't surprised in a bad way, but still caught off guard. No one except his mom and once upon a time, Kacchan, ever called him that before now. Still, he liked it, even if he still wasn't sure about trying to call the other boy, 'Hitoshi.' He'd never crossed that line with anyone he'd met like that over the years since starting school, always careful to be polite and not overstep his bounds.

Seeming unaware of Izuku's inner turmoil and maybe even of the name he'd used, Shinsou grabbed a marker and drew what looked like a spiky lizard standing on its hind legs next to the PE.

And thus the moment to bring up the topic passed as Izuku's curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "What's that supposed to be?"

"Mechagodzilla."

"Oh," Izuku replied, only a little lost before nodding in understanding at what the other boy was getting at. Still, he tried to lighten the mood by stating, "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"It's not fair. There's not even an alternate Practical for people who don't have flashy, destructive quirks!"

Izuku bit his lip before finally saying, "If you want to make it as a hero, you really can't keep getting caught up on that."

"On what?" Shinsou asked, still clearly annoyed with the situation.

"Nothing is ever going to be fair for us. We aren't like the people who can just believe that if they try hard enough, they can definitely do whatever they want. You have to know what the situation is and figure out what you can do. Then you need to fight with everything you have because it's the only way that you might have a chance. If you make it far enough, then you might be able to make it better for others in the future. But first, you have to make it that far." Because if either of them were able to reach that point, it would be Shinsou.

Izuku knew that even if he became a hero, he would still be seen as quirkless, first. No matter how hard he tried, he would only make so much of a difference. Many people will act like he was given a hand out because he was 'special.' Not because he toiled his whole life to get it.

Shinsou, however, might be able to do something about the discrimination based on quirk type. Izuku couldn't help but think of heroes like Vlad King and Midnight, who had respectively reduced the stigma against blood or gas based quirks being 'villainous.' They had been the first with those kinds of quirks to make it into heroics and even if a lot of prejudice still remained, they had become much more widely accepted in the social sphere as a result of their respective efforts.

And unlike them, Shinsou would have the distinct advantage of not actually having to be the first pioneer for mental manipulation quirks in the field of active heroics. Although his quirk was more powerful than any such heroes Izuku was aware of who were currently active, people like Ms. Joke had already opened the door, due to having quirks 'mild' or 'harmless' enough to be welcomed without much opposition at all. Their nature as mind controlling or altering quirks often flew under the radar due to the observed effects of said quirks have being amusing, often even entertaining.

"Knowing that doesn't make it any easier." Shinsou replied, interrupting Izuku's train of thought.

"Which is why we have to work so much harder than everyone else." Izuku pulled out his analysis journal and flipped it to the first page and showed the single line he had there. "I write this in every one of my notebooks as a reminder. My first obstacle and the last thing that ever slowed me down."

Shinsou read it aloud. "'All men are not created equal.' Who're you quoting?"

"Four-year-old me."

"Pretty early to have to learn something like that."

Izuku shrugged. "If you say so." To be honest, it wasn't even the most painful lesson he'd learned as all the kids he'd thought were his friends held him down and beat him up with their quirks. He forced the memory down as he studied the board and said, "Of course, in your case, if you fail there's always other schools to try out at."

"What about…oh, the rule loophole is just at UA. Right."

Izuku gave a nod and declared, "For me, it's UA or nothing. Not that I'm really interested in the other schools."

Probably trying to move away from the topic, Shinsou looked down at the board again, studying it for a moment before declaring, "And thus, we have a goal, all of the paths currently available that can lead to it…and a reminder of our next big hurdle afterward, if we make it this far. Although that doesn't happen until at least our second year and we will get two shots a year, for a total of four tries. That is, if we get into the hero course."

"More if we get accepted as interns somewhere," Izuku reminded.

"So," Shinsou stated, seeming to push through his worries to say, "what we need to figure out is the best ways to make each leg of our journey as easy as possible."

Izuku smiled. "So, how do we want to go about the research for coming up with ways to deal with this?"

Shinsou sighed and said, "How about we talk about after dinner? Is there anything else we could do right now?"

"Umm, actually, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Now that I know you want to be a hero and you're going to be watching with me anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to learn how to analyze quirks, too."

The other boy's eyes widened in realization. "Right, that's why you go out hero watching, isn't it?"

"Well, not completely. I really do love watching people use their quirks but, yeah. I was thinking we could do it together since you're going to be watching them with me anyway. It's probably a good skill for you to have for times when you can't rely on your quirk, anyway."

"And you wouldn't find it annoying to stop and teach me how?"

"No, never!" Izuku exclaimed. "I love talking about quirks with other people. Usually, I can only do it on hero or quirk focused forums. I'd love to talk about it with you. Speaking of which, I was also thinking maybe this evening, I could show you a couple of them so that you can see the kind of stuff we talk about and know what to look for."

Alright, so a lot of you who haven't read Shattered Centers might lack context for why this is such a big deal but: I'm actually having multiple day time skips and quick summaries! I'm so happy to be able to do these now. Expect to see lots of them in this story.

Shinsou is the one who knew about the possibility of students being shifted between Gen Ed and the Hero Course for the Tournament. I would like to think that he might have a little more knowledge about the whole process of getting into the hero course than most and knows how to do his research on it.

The interest Izuku expresses in Support is partially due to some minor hints of interest but is more an homage to the fact that Horikoshi's original Manga that BNHA was based off of had the main character who would eventually become Izuku making support items for heroes. A lot of the artwork in the Manga outside of the main story has Izuku fiddling with various inventions. So, I like to headcanon that he has a legitimate interest in it.

General Education Students are competing against a large pool of testers and while many are there for the other programs, I would like to think that even the General Courses are held to a higher standard for the other kids getting into UA (I can't picture people like Kaminari, Mina or Kirishima even making it into UA if it weren't for their amazing quirks to get them through the Practical Exam).

I chose to use the whiteboard so that I could set up for extra interactions that would add a little to their conversation because I was worried it might get boring to just have them talking to each other. With this, I could break things up a little and have a little fun. Hopefully you enjoyed that, too.