Izuku Midoriya was not the type to indulge in superstitions particularly often.

Fantasy? Certainly - all the time, in fact. It was his favourite means of escaping the dreary misery of reality; it was far easier to just retreat into the safety of his own head than it was to actively listen to Kacchan's endless bullying day after day, after all.
But he liked to believe that he was a person of logic - of reasoning. So he was comfortable walking beneath ladders (so long as he briefly assessed their structural integrity first), he pet the black cat that would occasionally cross the road to sit outside his house and, heck, he'd never so much as blinked at a broken mirror.

But there were, indeed, exceptions sometimes. times like this. Times where he felt so delirious, so unbelieving of his own outlandish circumstances, that he couldn't help but indulge himself with one of these hokey rituals.

Izuku dared to pinch himself, squeezing hard on the flesh of his right wrist as he stared up at the gleaming gold logo of UA High School. His nervous grin only grew as he felt only a sharp pain and did not, in fact, wake up in his miserable bedroom as he'd expected to, alone and Quirkless. The archway leading into the institute of his dreams stood tall - proud, and strong. It was just how he'd always envisioned it. It had a grandiose intensity about it that immediately said, 'only the greatest are permitted here'.

Or...maybe he was just scared out of his goddamn mind.

Yeah. Probably that.

This was All Might's alma-mater, after all! He was following in the footsteps of the greatest hero of all time!
In...more ways than one, actually.
He felt no different than he had that morning, come to think of it. He was convinced it had been around as much time as All Might had said he'd need to digest his hair - but nothing stirred within him. No heroic spirit swelling in his chest, no harsh shadows cloaking his body...hell, his voice hadn't even gotten any deeper.

Midoriya bounced on the balls of his feet, agitated, as his mind began to wander and he couldn't help but begin second-guessing himself. His backpack felt heavier and heavier the more he simply stood there thinking.
Furthermore, he couldn't help but frustratedly note that he had yet to actually walk beneath that dang archway. In fact, he hadn't taken a single step further since stopping to look up at the immense structure.

'Wh-...What if I'm just not cut out for it?' He couldn't help but think, noticing the steadily-accelerating rhythm of his own breathing almost instantly, 'What if I screw it all up? This is the most notoriously unforgiving entrance exam in Japan! I got One for All a couple of HOURS ago; or, at least, I think I did? I don't even feel any different - ugh, my chances of success are nonexistent! What if-'

Was he shaking?

Izuku slowly juddered his head downwards, teeth chattering in his skull, looking down at his own body in the midst of what was rapidly beginning to feel like a panic attack.

Yep.

He was shaking, quaking and everything in-between.

In front of...everybody. So many promising teens - all leering and laughing at him now, he imagined.

God, how pathetic.

'What if All Might was...wrong about me?'

Izuku almost gasped as the single accusatory idea entered his mind, but managed to reel himself in at the last moment. Instead, he ended up sounding like a deflating set of bagpipes as he let out an involuntary quiet, throaty whine, his entire body sagging down with pent-up stress.

A much better alternative, obviously. He definitely didn't look utterly bizarre now.

Where had that stray thought come from, anyway? Sure, Izuku was a loser, but All Might was never wrong! His judgement was absolute - it's why he was the #1 Hero! He'd seen something in him; some sort of stray, mangled shard of potential!

...Right?

Right.

Before he gave himself any more time to second-guess himself into an early grave, Midoriya finally took a deep breath and bottled his doubts, looked up at that gleaming U.A. logo once more and decided to just...move.

And by 'move', he of course meant 'be sent reeling off-balance', stumbling onto the immense campus of the school in a squealing flurry of scrambling motion as he desperately attempted to right himself. He'd been roughly shoulder-checked from behind the instant he'd lifted one of his feet off the ground, a terrifyingly familiar growl filling his ears as a mop of furious blonde spikes appeared in his peripheral vision.

Whilst he was primarily preoccupied with trying not to fall flat on his face in front of what looked to him like at least a hundred other teenagers, Izuku couldn't help but pick up on the furious muttering of Katsuki Bakugou as he stomped past him. His ears had grown attuned to his bombastic childhood...friend…?'s voice over years of desperately trying to hide from him day in and day out in Junior High.

"Fucking idiot tryin' to block my way, just like always. Goddamn Deku shouldn't even be here."

Finally finding his footing and calming himself down, Midoriya was thankful that Kacchan at least seemed to have been set to 'begrudging annoyance' mode rather than his default 'psychopathic murderer' mode today.
Izuku wasn't a fan of the idea of getting the snot beaten out of him with an audience watching, after all.

"H-hi to you too, Kacchan…" He mumbled, just quietly enough to be out of earshot.

He nervously watched Bakugou stomp and sneer his way up to U.A.'s main building as he sighed to himself, thoroughly left in the dust of Musutafu's resident hothead as per usual. Kacchan just made it look so...easy. Just...walking up the brick-laden path that had seemed so unreachable for all of Izuku's life like it meant nothing, hands in his pockets and snarling at anyone who got too close. It was like he'd already crowned himself as top dog - just another school full of weaklings he could crush.

God, how Izuku envied him. How he hated that scalding confidence, because he didn't have it for himself. Because Bakugou, his inspiration and indisputable icon of absolute victory, had beaten the dreams out of him so long ago.
Because he knew those scars would never fully heal, and that that boy had done irreparable damage to him. Izuku could never be so confident simply because he physically couldn't muster the will anymore.

Though he would never truly admit that to himself, of course - because to be so selfish was to be the furthest thing from a hero you could possibly be, which was the absolute last thing he'd ever want. Jealousy was a villain's game - ravenous, and all-consuming.

So he would bottle it up. He'd be the good little Deku, taking his thrashings like the worthless lump he was.

Midoriya huffed, exasperated and deeply embarrassed, as he shook his head and snapped himself back into reality. This was heavy stuff to be thinking about at a time like this, and he couldn't help but notice that he was receiving weird looks from people as they passed him by. He'd probably been mumbling again.
He willed his legs to move once more, finally continuing to timidly meander his way up to the looming school once he felt that Bakugou was far enough ahead to not suddenly whip around and clobber him. He hoped that the simple act of spurring himself to walk would help take his mind off of things.

Briefly checking the time on his phone, he grimaced. He was already tired and felt thoroughly humiliated - and there was still around an hour to go before they even started the exam itself. He reached a hand up, rubbing at his neck. The flesh was warm and flushed with embarrassment beneath his clammy palm, and it made him wince.

As much as he hated the relentless loathing that had laced Kacchan's voice as he passed, he was right. He shouldn't have been here. The green-haired boy really didn't have any right to be walking towards the school he'd dreamt of since childhood - to be looking around, seeing other excited heroes-in-the-making showing off amazing Quirks to one another and walking right alongside him as if he belonged.

He'd gotten here through sheer luck. Divine intervention.

But...still.

Izuku remembered that morning, back on Dagobah Beach not four hours ago. How he'd felt standing atop an orderly pile of sorted trash, staring out at a pristine blanket of glittering sand. At how the sea was no longer murky with foul garbage, at how the rising sun framed his hard work in a glorious orange light - at all that he'd accomplished. What he alone had achieved with his worthless, Quirkless hands. How proud All Might had been, and how far he'd come in the 10 months since they'd shared that life-changing encounter.

That same fire burned within him now. A sweltering, suffocating passion, reminding him that this was what he wanted - what he'd always wanted. It was no One for All - not the roiling, overwhelming wave of almighty resolve he was hoping for - but it'd do. This was the chance he'd fought for all his life, and he knew full well that he had to either take it with both hands right now or lose it forever.

Midoriya had certainly gotten to this point via primarily luck. In that regard, Kacchan was right.

But it was now up to him to show the world that he deserved to stay there. That he, too, could become a hero.

He could not afford to fail.

The boy, again, stopped in his tracks, shut his eyes and took one more deep, calming breath - before continuing on, walking with a driven, sharpened focus etched all over his normally soft and unassuming face. He took his first few steps as a hero.

"I deserve to be here," He mumbled to himself. His heart thumped wildly in his chest. This was where his life truly began.

His pace began to pick up. Trees passed him by, each one moving out of his line of sight just a tiny bit quicker than the last. Imposing stone busts of pro heroes who'd begun their legacies at U.A. seemed to stare at Midoriya from either side of the pathway as he walked by - and he imagined his own sculpture joining them some day.

"I'm worthy," His legs shook for a moment - but still he marched onwards.

By the time he'd passed the ornate fountain that served as the centrepiece of the school's entryway, he was practically power-walking towards the stairs that led up and into the immense building.

"I will be a hero!" More mumbling, now through gritted teeth. No more trembling. Heroes didn't shake in their boots. The vice-like grip he had on the strap of his backpack tightened ever more, his knuckles bone-white.

So tantalisingly close to being able to clamber up that staircase, go through those doors for what would hopefully be the first of many times in his life, and finally achieve his dream. Just a few more agonising steps!

"That's why he chose m-"

Izuku's mumbling was cut off as, caught up in his passion as he was, he'd failed to notice himself tripping over his own feet until he'd committed to taking just one more step.

'Goddammit.'

As that unblemished brick pathing he'd admired so much suddenly seemed to come racing towards his face, the boy couldn't help but hope that the floor would just swallow him whole right then and there. In an instant all his bravado had evaporated, and in its place came an immense feeling of regret for having ever made every decision that had ever led him to this point in his life.

Squeezing his eyes shut and bracing for impact, Midoriya couldn't help but let out a slight inquisitive squeak when the feeling of his nose being squished into his own skull by hard concrete never came. Instead, he felt...warmth? It started in a concentrated contact point on his arm before spreading across the rest of his body rapidly, blanketing him in an odd twinkling weightlessness. It was kinda calming, if he was being honest.

Was this One for All? Had he finally tapped into its power, awakening it as one would a sleeping giant?! He was giddy at the mere thought!

As he inquisitively opened his eyes, however, he quickly realised that there was a slight issue with that idea.

One for All didn't make All Might, uh, float. That he knew of, at least.

"Heh, are you okay?" A chipper voice rang out from beside him - going completely ignored as the boy took a moment to process his situation.

Izuku - upon registering the fact that he was actively hovering just a few inches above the hard ground - squawked in a strange concoction of confusion and terror. His legs began to kick frantically out of reflex, pedalling in the air as his body weightlessly thrashed forwards and backwards from his movements.
"Woah-ho-ho! Don't worry, s'all good!" This time that same sweet, chirpy voice caught his attention - especially when accompanied by the feeling of a gentle hand steadily tugging him upright by his backpack. Someone was...right beside him…? Izuku couldn't help but crane his head in the direction of the voice, distracted from his mad aerial dance.

A sweet smile, rosy cheeks and peaceful eyes, currently closed in a show of good humour. This individual was really close! They seemed nice, too! This could be a chance to get the ball rolling - a fresh start! He could make his first high school friend, right here and right now!

He found it kinda funny; their voice was rather high-pitched, and they had lovely hair. Fragrant perfume filled his nostrils. If he hadn't known any better, Midoriya probably would've thought that he was currently gawking at a g-
His brain finally caught up with him, fully processing the information his eyes were sending it, before promptly shutting down.

'GIRL. GIRL. GIRL. GIRL.' It wailed almost immediately within his skull, his eyes feeling as if they were about to pop from their sockets with how much they were bulging.

At some point during his sludge-brained staring she'd brought him back to solid ground, her delicate fingers steepled as she giggled good-naturedly. It was like the fall had never happened, save for a slight gut-wrenching stumble as he suddenly got reacquainted with the feeling of having weight again.
The mystery girl's smile never faltered, the absolute picture of a sugary overdose. "I stopped you with my Quirk. I'm sorry I didn't ask first - but I figured you wouldn't mind me catching you!"

'She seems really kind.'

A pity that Midoriya was registering absolutely nothing of what she was currently saying, his jaw hanging limply open as she bounced excitedly on her heels. Her mouth was definitely moving - that much he knew - and yet he just continued staring at her like a sweaty, red-faced creep.
He heard her ask him something, judging by her inquisitive tone of voice, yet nothing but pathetic grunts and whines more befitting of a neanderthal than a teenager escaped his dry throat as an answer.

After a few more moments, once it became clear that all Midoriya would do was continue to gawk as his fingers trembled uncontrollably, she hummed happily to herself before whirling around.

"Welp, guess I'll see you inside! Bye!" And with that, she continued on her way with an excited - if jittery - skip in her step and a nervous wave. Seemed like she hadn't even noticed his weirdness. Or, if she did, she was far too kind to have called him out on it.

Either way, the boy was deeply thankful to All Might and whoever else had been watching over him at that moment. He had at least managed to avoid immediately garnering a reputation as a mute tomato-faced freak this time. Already a step up from Junior High! Progress!
Plus, well, he'd technically just talked to a girl! In that she exchanged words with him, at least - maybe there weren't any sent back in return, but she'd squeezed a couple of sentences out of that encounter! That counted as a conversation, right?

Riding the high of that chance meeting, Midoriya's near-plummet into the dirt went entirely forgotten as yet another surge of newfound hope and determination flowed through him.

'Maybe everyone'll be that nice! Well, Kacchan notwithstanding, at least. We're all trying out to be HEROES, after all!'

A therapeutic wave of excitement flowed through him at the idea. Maybe he really could make some friends here! That girl hadn't looked like she'd wanted him to drop dead, at least! That was something!

Laughing perhaps a little too manically, judging by some of the looks he was getting all of a sudden, the boy used his newfound energy to finally bound up the stairs that had been holding him back from achieving his lifelong dream, surging giddily through the open doors of the school's main building amidst a small group of other aspiring students.

His trainers squeaked against the squeaky-clean tile flooring of the entrance lobby, the sound stopping him dead in his tracks as the weight of his circumstances fully sunk in.

He was in the establishment that would soon define his future. Weak, moronic Deku was standing in U.A. High.

His mom's heartbroken tears flashed in his mind's eye. The nonchalant shattering of his dreams from his doctor all those years ago still swirled in the boy's brain like a crushing fog.

"Sorry, kid, it's not gonna happen."

But now, watching as other applicants excitedly followed student volunteers deeper into the immense building...

That cruel fog cleared, ever so slightly.

"Do you think...I can be a hero, too?"

At long last, he had his chance.

Midoriya rubbed away tears of joy; this wasn't the time for that. He still had to actually pass, and he knew it wouldn't be easy.
But, as he began to follow the crowd, fellow teenagers frantically preparing for their upcoming written test all around him, he allowed himself at least one small flicker of pride at how far he'd come.

Small victories.

Lights flickered to life around the darkened auditorium, signalling the beginning of the final Exam Orientation of the day. The room grew silent immediately. Countless aspiring students filled the seemingly-endless rows of seats throughout the immense room, all being in various differing states of exhaustion and disappointment following their written exam - but that didn't matter now.

This upcoming test would be the real kicker.

U.A. was a school that treasured intellect, that much was obvious - but its status as a hero school meant that skill and physical prowess were also immensely valuable in a Hero Course student. There was a reason it had remained the #1 leading hero institute in all of Japan for so long - brains were rarely enough. Any old poindexter could crunch some numbers, but could they handle a villain if they needed to? A healthy mixture of power and judgement were often what took precedent in a top student, and subsequently a top hero.

The physical exam would be what really decided one's success.

The tension in the air was palpable. The wait was torture. Every set of eyes in the room, all locked onto the immense theater screen projecting the U.A. logo for all to see and the large stage that lay beneath it.
Still, though, the stage itself remained pitch-black. At least, until...

"WHAT'S UP, U.A. CANDIDATES?! Thanks for tunin' into me, your school DJ!" Shocked yelps and gasps filled the darkness, a spotlight turning on the instant a screeching voice abruptly blared out a greeting. The examinees watched as none other than (self-proclaimed) radio sensation and professional Voice Hero: Present Mic himself rambunctiously took to the stage, a goofy grin ever-present on his angular face as he fiddled with some dials on his directional speaker system.
The man had, evidently, severely misjudged the energy levels of the room - as proven when he followed his dramatic entrance up with wild gesticulations seemingly intended to hype up his unwitting audience.

"C'MON, LEMME HEAR YA!" He screamed, hand held up to his ear as he waited for the inevitable excited cheering that would follow.

Except it never came. In fact, his immense energy was followed by nothing but suffocating, dead silence as hundreds of different faces blankly stared down at him.
Over the span of several seconds, a room full of fledgling heroes watched Present Mic's soul leave his body as he realised that this whole 'teaching' thing was harder than it looked.

"H-huh...tough crowd!" The DJ's shoulders shook as he attempted to assume a nonchalant shrugging posture, attempting to play off the grievous embarrassment even as his forehead began glistening with sweat beneath the harsh spotlight above.

It didn't work, but he was clearly trying.

Bless his heart.

A foot thumped excitedly in an irregular rhythm, its owner squirming impatiently as her sizable white rabbit ears twitched in delight. Eager crimson eyes drank in every detail of the man lecturing them over and over again, committing them to memory. Much to her embarrassment, she couldn't even control the wild twitching of her nose as her nostrils flared with every bated breath.

"C'mon, just tell me what I gotta do!" Rumi Usagiyama muttered to herself, the edge of her desk creaking as she gripped it with an steadily-increasing amount of force. She'd been waiting for the practical exam all goddamn day! She could barely even focus on anything else! The writing crap was easy, this was the FUN bit!

"Usagi, you're doing it again." The stern voice of one of her classmates from Sundari Junior High whispered from her right, not even having bothered to lean in. Not like Usagiyama cared - she'd heard perfectly anyways, her ears having immediately snapped to face the direction of the noise.
She was real good at listening like that - it's why she kept having to try and tune out the mumbly dude who was sitting a couple of rows away. She was real good at a lot of things, come to think of it, which was why she was so damn excited to get to show that fact off!

"Doin' what?" The bunny girl asked innocently, unable to wipe the ear-to-ear grin off of her face. She glanced for just a second at the scale-coated face of her classmate, Suriza Hebidoku, but ultimately found herself unable to tear her eyes away from Present Mic and the theatre screen above him for too long in case she missed something.

Hebidoku sighed at Rumi's ecstatic glee, but failed to suppress her own smirk. The more talented students of Sundari had been waiting for this opportunity for a while, after all. They finally had the opportunity to prove themselves and get somewhere in their lives.
Keeping her slitted pupils locked firmly on the rabbit girl (seriously, how could she look this pumped while staring at a logo on a screen?), she debated with herself for a minute before letting out a hissing chuckle.

"Nevermind." She answered simply. Telling Usagiyama to stop bouncing off the walls in excitement when it came to hero business was like pulling teeth sometimes - and Hebidoku could tell from her classmate's face alone that this was one of those times. Her passion was…definitely something to behold, that was for sure.

Another attempt to hype up the audience came from Present Mic, and another swing-and-a-miss was all that greeted him in turn as yet more dead silence awaited him. He swiftly moved on.

The screen behind Mic fired up with some exciting graphics, shifting from the U.A. logo to instead depict an assortment of Battle Centers labelled from A to G. Rumi leaned forward in her seat, listening intently. She had to stomp on her own foot to stop it thumping in tandem with her pounding heartbeat.
That mumbling nerd from before had thankfully gotten much quieter at the sight, whispering to some blondie who looked like he was debating whether or not to murder him right then and there. She could focus again! Great!

As the Voice Hero excitedly explained the manner in which examinees would be distributed amongst these various centres, Usagiyama checked her exam ticket for what felt like the millionth time in half an hour. Even in her near-delirious levels of extreme excitement, she took great care to not crinkle the delicate card.

"I'm at, uh...B, what aboutchu, Heebi-jeebies?" The bunny girl asked, roughly elbowing Hebidoku in the arm to get her attention.

As her forked tongue flicked out from between her lips with a hiss in a moment of irritation - both at the nickname and from her now-aching arm having fallen victim to one of Rumi's patented 'gentle nudges' - Suriza ran a hand through her brown hair as she likewise scanned her ticket momentarily.
"G for me. Sorry, Usagi. Looks like I won't be around to keep you in check."

Rumi smirked mischeviously, arching a sharp white eyebrow and moving to reply - before that same bumbling nerd had to once again open his big dumb mouth, excitedly muttering as Present Mic began to move onto explaining the actual exercise.
Her eyelid twitched involuntarily as she, yet again, had to strain to focus specifically on the pro hero's explanation. She took another moment to glance at Hebidoku as she seemed to be listening intently, completely unaware of the bunny girl's plight.

Somehow, the sight only made her more annoyed. Stupid rabbit ears, giving her and only her stupid super-hearing that only seemed to pick up stupid annoying geeks and their damn mumbling motor-mouths. She was at least thankful the exercise seemed simple enough - bust up some robots. Easy.

Midoriya was, of course, blissfully unaware of the inconvenience his endless prattling was causing. He was so taken in by the fact that Present Mic himself was personally filling everybody in on their exam that, really, he wasn't even paying attention to the fact that Bakugou had begrudgingly been forced to sit right beside him for this orientation - something that would've normally filled him with utterly blinding terror!
His fingers twitched antsily, desperate to grip a pencil as his favourite DJ discussed the point system assigned to the robots they'd be fighting for their exam. He really wished he had one of his notebooks on him right about now; he'd have so much to document! He was witnessing a real U.A. Hero Course exam for himself, after all! He'd thought this day would never come!

"Okay, so I feel like an optimal strategy would be to go for the higher-point robots right from the get-go," Midoriya mumbled into his own hand, muffling himself whilst staring intently up at the screen as a cute pixelated Present Mic ran around destroying equally cute pixelated robots. His free hand reflexively went through the motions of frantically jotting down imaginary notes into thin air, his movements only getting faster as his mumbling inevitably accelerated in intensity.

"Since most people will want easy points fast, it'll be a free-for-all for all the 1-Pointers - I should still try and destroy any I come across, though, points are points after all. That being said, I assume that higher-pointers will be more hidden - so I should be looking in secluded places while everyone else is busy."
Izuku's emerald eyes were intense and laser-focused on the screen as his mind ran a mile a minute, not even realising as a couple more heads slowly swivelled to look at him from within his immediate vicinity. Even Hebidoku had actually acknowledged his presence - something that, surprisingly enough, gave Usagiyama some modicum of solace.

Bakugou's growled demands for him to 'shut the fuck up' had already gone entirely ignored several times, the blonde firecracker's face having steadily grown so furiously red that one could easily have assumed it was his natural skin tone. Smoke billowed from his palms as his hands gripped the desk hard enough to make it groan under the pressure.

Still, though, the hapless green-haired boy mumbled on and on. An excess of multisyllabic words spilt from his lips in fractions of a second by now, his freckled cheeks flushed with the thrill of strategizing to himself as he ran over countless strategies and variables in his head.

"It's-kinda-a-gamble-but-I-feel-like-it-could-work,-yeah,-yeah-that-sounds-good!-And-then-maybe-if-time-allows-it-I-could-"

Usagiyama was oddly conflicted. On the one hand, the little wimp was annoying as fuck - he made her ears twitch non-stop, a constant nattering undertone that distracted her from listening to their task properly and being able to fully focus on the fight ahead. She'd been aching for this part of her day, after all.
But that being said, she almost felt bad for the little dweeb. He was clearly crapping bricks and distracting himself with strategy - presumably having realised how out of his league he was by even being there.

But, man, she really wanted him to shut up.

She debated with herself for a minute, staring pointedly down at the back of his dumb green head of messy hair from her seat above like everyone else around him seemed to.

'He just looks so...clobber-able.'

Her ear twitched as he just went on and on and on, nattering to himself about pseudo-strategic nonsense. Another wave of intense annoyance washed over her - and as she looked around at the small radius of other distracted people around him who clearly felt a similar way, the rabbit girl came to her conclusion.

"...Ah, fuck it." Rumi muttered, moving to get out of her seat - before she saw some other dude rise to his feet in the center of the audience before she could, his posture formal and stiff with his hand firmly raised.

"Excuse me, Sir, but I have a question." The boy's tone was polite and confident, if slightly biting.
Rumi groaned quietly as Present Mic whirled back around, giving the bespectacled boy his trademark grin as he pointed to him bombastically.

"Hit me!" He exclaimed with no small amount of enthusiasm.

She begrudgingly sank back down into her chair with a huff as a spotlight shone on glasses-dude and he went on a tirade about...something-or-other, seemingly to do with the printout she hadn't been bothered to read. She at least took comfort in the fact that the mumbling nerd had finally fallen silent, the new guy's overtly commanding presence seeming to naturally draw everyone's attention onto him.

That comfort quickly became delight as she watched him suddenly whip around, still stiff as a board, before robotically pointing directly at the source of all her ire. "Additionally, you with the unkempt hair!" He barked, his gaze stern and reprimanding. The nerd in question looked like a deer in headlights all of a sudden, squeaking pathetically as he sheepishly pointed at himself.
Glasses-dude's sharp eyebrows lowered in exasperated disappointment. "You've been muttering this entire time. Stop that. If you can't bother to take this seriously, leave. You're distracting the rest of us." Short and concise, but a scathing callout all the same. Rumi bit back what would've surely been an immense barking laugh as the green-haired little weirdo turned several shades of red in the span of around a half-second, clamping a hand tightly over his own mouth.

"S-sorry…" Was all that he could muster in response to the boy's admonishment. He flinched as barely-concealed laughter rang out from all around him.

The rest of Orientation proceeded without a hitch, and Usagiyama couldn't have been more pleased. Mic just elaborated on some fourth type of robot - some useless 0-Pointer or something, it didn't give her any points so whatever - and then they were off to get ready for their practical!
She just had to beat up some crummy weakling robots to get into the school that'd make her a hero for the rest of her life, and she got to watch some annoying nobody get dunked on in front of everyone? Man, this really was the best school in Japan! She was even more amped to crush some steel skulls now!

Rumi stretched as she deliberated over her plan of action, standing in front of the currently-closed gate leading into Battle Center B. Her movements were as fluid and easy as taking a breath - years of intensive training had made sure of that.

She would achieve her dream today.

Other applicants were nothing more than noise, and she'd long since tuned them out. Super-hearing or not, when it came to combat, the bunny girl's focus was as unbreakable as her will to succeed.

She ran over her list of options, ignoring the urge to crush the skull of the literal block-head she saw ogling her in her peripheral vision. It was true that her tight black tank top and form-fitting workout leggings weren't exactly as modest as the tracksuits some of her fellow applicants were donning - but function came first, always. Rumi was a mover; she needed to be as aerodynamic as possible. Tracksuits just weren't her style.

Anyways, crushing creepo skulls could come later. Now was thinking time.

She brushed her long, snowy hair out of her eyes, tucking loose strands behind her fuzzy ears as they twitched and flopped in intensive thought. She felt as though she had a pretty clear plan in mind, but it never hurt to triple-check that things were perfect before an encounter as high-stakes as this.

'Step one: Hop around 'til ya find a robot. Step two: Beat its ass. Step three: Repeat 'til time's up.'

Rumi grinned toothily and shut her eyes in delight, sniffing casually as she leaned back and proudly placed her hands on her hips. She couldn't help but bask in the moment for a little, fluffy tail waggling in glee; this was one of her best plans in a while! What could go wrong?

"Ah! No, no, no, of course not!" An awfully familiar and gut-wrenchingly pathetic voice trilled from somewhere nearby, breaking through her perfect silent equilibrium of focus and calm with its obnoxious warble. Her eyes shot open again.

Oh, for God's sake.
Sometimes it really did feel like the universe, in all its infinite splendour, was out to get her.

The bunny girl raised an eyebrow, disbelief etched across her face, as she slowly turned to look at...that goddamn nerd again. AND the dude who'd chewed him out during their Orientation earlier!
The former was dressed in an appropriately stupid-looking baggy green and white tracksuit, presumably as a means of trying to hide his blatant lack of any sort of muscle whatsoever, whereas the latter was far more built and had donned a much sleeker blue and black jumpsuit. It seemed to have been cut off above the knee, revealing a set of formidable-looking exhaust pipes seemingly sprouting from his calves. Rumi was no detective, but she presumed that he, much like her, had an exceedingly movement-reliant Quirk.

Yet, for whatever reason, she kept having her gaze be drawn back onto that stupid unassuming dork. She stared at him for a moment, taking in small details.

His dumbass flailing arms as he talked to glasses-dude, seemingly very insistent that he disagreed with something he'd said based on his constant repetition of the word 'no' between every other breath. How she could hear his drumming, irregular heartbeat above anybody else's, even whilst standing several meters away as she was, cuz he was so damn scared. Even his painfully unremarkable face! If she hadn't recognised his voice, she probably wouldn't have even realised he was right there.

It felt like there was something more to someone so bland and...well, weird. How'd he even wind up here? What led somebody so timid and unassuming to shoot for the moon and try for U.A. of all places?
Her eyebrows were knitted together, her face uncharacteristically devoid of her usual manic smile. Her foot was thumping in annoyance, whacking a dull rhythm out onto the concrete as she thought.

It wasn't long before she realised what she was doing, snapping her head away from him and admonishing herself for being so distracted at a time like this. Stupid guy was still living in her head, even at a key moment like this. She couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

It wasn't the time for her mind to be wandering.

That nerd was, ultimately, unimportant; time would tell whether he belonged there or not. Rumi had to focus on herself first and foremost. She had to pass, or her name wasn't Miruko the Hero.
She steeled her resolve.

"RIGHT, LET'S START!" Present Mic's blaring voice abruptly screeched down at them from high above, yet it still sounded as if he were standing right there in front of them.

Midoriya's eyes widened, him and the rest of his fellow applicants turning to look up at the tall tower Mic's voice was coming from in confusion. Wait, just like that?!

"GET MOVING! There are no countdowns in real battles! RUN, RUN, RUN, LISTENERS! You're WASTING airtime here!"

As Mic flailed excitedly, Midoriya turned his head back towards the gate everyone had been waiting outside only to notice three things that collectively made him want to keel over and die right then and there.

One: The gate had somehow opened near-silently during Present Mic's rather brief interruption.

Two: Almost everybody was already sprinting at blinding speeds into Battle Center B, meaning he was playing catchup right from the get-go. Potentially without a Quirk, considering how painfully inert his allegedly-newly-acquired One for All had been all day.

Three: That really scary-looking rabbit girl had definitely been staring at him just now.

'OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD-' His mind blared, a constant siren repeating in his brain ad-nauseam as he finally willed himself to move. The exam had just started and he was already horrifically far behind his peers. Some hero he was shaping up to be.

As the hapless boy wailed and desperately attempted to catch up to his already long-gone fellow applicants, he came to a jarringly awful realisation.

This was going to be way harder than he'd thought it would be.

Author's Note: This is a completely self-indulgent fic, lmao. I really like this crackship, y'all! Hope you liked how this is shaping up! I'll see you in the next chapter, whenever that may arrive!