The Start of the Rest of Our Lives

It wasn't uncommon for ghoul couples to adopt human children. Without the CCG there was less of a risk of their own children turning them in and there were fewer orphaned ghoul children who needed homes. As long as the kids weren't hurt, the One-Eyed King let them adopt whoever they wanted.

Tokoyami Fumikage, born Ueno Fumikage, was given up when his quirk Dark Shadow manifested. His adoptive moms helped him learn to control Dark Shadow when the quirk wanted to rampage. His moms took care of him and loved him and would never, ever abandon him.

His moms were ghouls. So what?

U.A. Exam Pals

Little Green Man: did anyone else get a letter from U.A.?

Astronaut: YES! I'm freaking out. Haven't read it yet

Space Cat: ive been staring at mine for like 10 min

Void: I have also received U.A.'s missive and have yet to read it.

Little Green Man: do you want to open them together?

Space Cat: on three?

Astronaut: On three

Void: On three.

Little Green Man: 1

Little Green Man: 2

Little Green Man: 3

Space Cat: ...was that all might or was i hallucinating?

Little Green Man: ALL MIGHT IS TEACHING AT U.A.!

Astronaut: Never mind that! Did we all get in? I'm in class 1-A

Void: Aye. I have been accepted into class 1-A of the hero course.

Space Cat: hero course class 1-b

Little Green Man: 1-A!

Little Green Man: WE DID IT!

Little Green Man changed the chat name to WE GOT ACCEPTED!

Tokoyami, Midoriya and Uraraka stared at the giant door that led to the classroom for hero course class 1-A.

"That's a big door," Uraraka said.

"It's very inclusive," Midoriya said.

One door over, Shinsou chuckled. "Cowards." He opened the door labelled 1-B and disappeared into the classroom.

The other three looked at each other and then Midoriya pushed the door to their classroom open. Apparently the door's inclusivity extended to being soundproof because they were met with shouting that they definitely should have heard from outside.

"—disrespectful to our teachers and upperclassmen and the workmen who made the desk!" a tall, broad boy with rectangular glasses and navy blue hair was yelling at a boy with spiky blond hair who had his feet on his desk while chopping his arm through the air in a robotic gesture.

The blond scoffed. "What school did you go to, extra?"

"I am a graduate of Soumei Private Academy!" the other boy said. He was still making a chopping motion with his arm.

"So you're a damn elite, huh? No wonder you've got a stick up your ass," the blond said.

The sputtering and scolding that the blue-haired boy did was loud enough that only Tokoyami heard Midoriya sigh. He looked at his friend with one eye and saw him adjusting his posture like he was preparing to fight.

"Hey, Kacchan!" Midoriya said.

The blond boy's head whipped towards them. His red eyes bored into Midoriya's smiling face. "You damn nerd! Why didn't you tell me you're in this class?"

"You never asked," Midoriya chirped.

'Kacchan' bared his teeth. "I'm going to crush you, Deku."

Midoriya's grin widened until it was vaguely threatening. "Not if I crush you first."

The other students in the room looked back and forth between the two boys. In the seat behind 'Kacchan', a student with a speech bubble for a head had a trio of large question marks covering the place where his face would have been.

"Uh, are you guys friends?" a redheaded boy with pointy teeth asked.

Midoriya broke off the staring contest he and 'Kacchan' were having. "Bakugou and I are rivals!"

The classroom broke into discussion.

"Izuku, what did you do in middle school?" Tokoyami asked.

Midoriya smiled at him and began to reply but stopped. He turned around and his eyes widened. Tokoyami followed his gaze.

"Ah," Tokoyami said.

Lying on the floor outside the door was a bright yellow sleeping bag with a very tired person zipped up inside it. Tokoyami stared. That was one of Shinsou's dads.

Slowly, the rest of the class noticed that Aizawa was there and went silent.

"It took eight seconds for you lot to quiet down," Aizawa said. "If you're only here to make friends, leave so we don't waste more time."

No one moved.

Aizawa unzipped his sleeping bag and emerged with a gym uniform that he tossed at Tokoyami. The plastic bag it was sealed in made a crumpling sound as Tokoyami caught it.

"I'm your homeroom teacher," Aizawa said. "Call me Aizawa-sensei. Get changed into your gym uniforms and meet on the P.E. grounds. We've got work to do."

Tokoyami and Midoriya were the first out the door, followed quickly by Uraraka. Behind them, someone asked about orientation. They didn't hover long enough to hear Aizawa's answer.

"Toshi's dad is our teacher," Midoriya said. "Eraserhead is our teacher. He expelled his whole class last year!"

"He what?" Uraraka squeaked.

"We must proceed carefully," Tokoyami said. For more reasons than one.

Tokoyami and Midoriya were also the first to arrive on the field where Aizawa was waiting for them. They'd practically run there from the changing rooms. They'd been there for his rant about the last three students in his class the year before who were never on time for anything. Timing was everything for heroes. Being late could get people killed.

It took another five minutes before everyone in the class was there. Aizawa looked over the assembled students and told them that they'd be doing a fitness test using their quirks.

"It's illogical to test students' fitness when they're not allowed to do their best," Aizawa said. "Until the Department of Education catches up, I've got to find your actual baselines. Bakugou, do you remember what your best distance was for the ball throw in middle school?"

Bakugou lifted his chin. "Sixty-seven meters."

Midoriya coughed. "Sixty-seven point five three meters."

"Sixty-seven point five three meters," Bakugou corrected.

Aizawa handed Bakugou a softball and told him to throw it from the circle painted on the ground using his quirk. Bakugou grinned.

Midoriya covered his ears with his hands as Bakugou used an explosion from his hand to propel the ball far into the distance. Several people gasped.

"Seven hundred and five point two meters," Aizawa said.

"Wow," Uraraka said.

"Impressive," Tokoyami said.

A pink girl with horns clapped her hands. "This'll be fun."

Tokoyami and Midoriya weren't fast enough to get out of the blast zone.

"You think this is fun?" Aizawa asked. His 'you are going to regret leaving your house today' grin crossed his face. "Fine. Whoever is last overall will be judged to have no potential and will be expelled."

There was immediate uproar. Aizawa glared at them and stunned the talkers into silence.

"Yeah, it's not fair. Life isn't fair, heroics definitely isn't fair. We'll start with the fifty meter dash," Aizawa said.

Tokoyami put his all into the six tests Aizawa had them complete and Dark Shadow did their best to help. They'd come too fair to get expelled on the first day. Midoriya on the other hand had to hold back. Tokoyami had seen him run faster, jump further and use more strength than he did during the tests, but to do his best would risk releasing his kagune.

When the tests were over, Hagakure Tooru was at the bottom of the scoreboard right below Jirou Kyouka and Midoriya Izuku. The invisible girl was shaking (at least, her uniform was).

Aizawa looked over the results. "Well, none of you are hopeless. Head back to class and read through the orientation packages I left on your desks."

Every member of class 1-A stared at their teacher.

"I'm...I'm not getting expelled?" Hagakure asked with a hopeful tone to her voice.

"No, you're not. It was a logical ruse meant to encourage you to put your best effort into the tests." Aizawa grinned. "You all passed."

"It was obvious if you thought about it," Yaoyorozu said.

"He expelled his whole class last year!" Ashido said. Her pink skin was flushed, more magenta than rose. "And you weren't in danger. You can't say it was obvious."

Yaoyorozu's name was at the top of the scoreboard.

"You're wasting time," Aizawa said.

Half of the class turned and ran to get back to class before Aizawa could change his mind and expel someone.

Once they reached the changing room, Midoriya let out a sigh of relief. "That went well."

"'Well'?" Kirishima repeated. "Bro, I don't want to see what you think would be bad."

"No one got expelled," Sero pointed out. He pushed the bit of tape that was poking out of his elbow until it disappeared back into the tape dispenser under his skin.

"Yet," Tokoyami said.

Several of the boys paled.

"Let's get back to class," Fukidashi said. The words on his head were such a light grey that they were difficult to read.

"Hey, Fukidashi-kun," Midoriya said as they were walking back to class, "how do you eat with your quirk?"

Tokoyami sighed. He should have known.

"Hey, nerd," Bakugou mimicked. "Don't grill people on their quirks before you've known them a full day, you fucking stalker."

That wasn't the way Tokoyami would have put it, but he didn't disagree. They'd talked about this. No everyone was as excited about quirks as Midoriya.

Midoriya blushed. "Ah, sorry, Fukidashi-kun. I get really excited about new quirks. Everyone in our class is super cool."

Fukidashi accepted his apology and then there wasn't any time to keep talking. They all had about a hundred sheets of paper and the student handbook to read through.

"I thought we were done with paperwork," Kaminari complained. "I'm pretty sure I already signed away my firstborn."

Jirou poked him with the end of one of the AUX cords that were her earlobes. "You would."

Kaminari shrugged. "I didn't want to have kids anyway."

They talked among themselves while they went over the information they would probably have gotten at orientation. Tokoyami and Midoriya had seats next to each other, which was good in that they weren't yelling across the room to each other like Ashido and Hagakure were but bad in that they had to make sure they remembered that there were other people around who could overhear them. Tokoyami had to cut himself off twice before he brought up one of their usual topics of discussion. Someone was going to ask questions if they started talking about the progress in replicating synthetic meat. (The progress was almost none. They didn't have the technology and ghoul science knowledge they'd had pre-quirks so the project was very slow going.)

There was a knock on the door and then Shinsou came into the classroom. "Have you guys been here the whole time?"

"No, your dad made us do athletic tests," Midoriya said.

"Aizawa-sensei is your father?" Todoroki asked.

Tokoyami nearly jumped out of his seat. Todoroki had been so quiet that he'd forgotten the other boy was sitting behind him.

"Yeah," Shinsou said. "Who're you?"

"Todoroki Shouto," Todoroki said.

Shinsou frowned. "Why is your name familiar?

"My father is Endeavor," Todoroki said.

Shinsou's frown turned into a scowl. "Yeah, that'd do it. Izuku, Fumikage, I'll meet you outside." He turned on his heel and left.

Midoriya turned to Todoroki with an apologetic look on his face. "He...We...Endeavor is a sore point but we don't blame you for anything he did."

"I see," Todoroki said.

"You really don't but I should probably make sure Toshi doesn't do something he'll regret," Midoriya said.

That actually meant that he was going to make sure Shinsou didn't out himself accidentally because he was emotional. Endeavor had gotten his birth parents killed.

Two emos and sunshine

Hawks-lite: Hitoshi, are you well?

Eraserkid: been better

Eraserkid: i haven't thought abt my parents in a while

Eraserkid: endeavor can fuck off into the sun

Hawks-lite: Todoroki-kun asked me to convey his apologies.

Eraserkid: the guy doesn't have to apologize for existing

Small Might: we're going to my place for lunch and training. do you want to come, Fumi?

Hawks-lite: I'm afraid I must decline. I have already agreed to have lunch with Uraraka-san, Ashido-san, Krishima-kun and Kaminari-kun.

Eraserkid: look at u socializing

Small Might: no problem, have fun!

"I yield, I yield," Hitoshi said. His voice was muffled by the mat Izuku was pressing his face into. "Let me up, Zuku."

Izuku took his weight off of Hitoshi's back. Hitoshi rolled over and stared up at Izuku's kagune where his ukaku wings extended over his head.

"I thought we were evenly matched," Hitoshi grumbled.

"You get sloppy when you're upset," Izuku said. He flopped down next to Hitoshi and joined him in staring at the ceiling. Soundproof tiles prevented the noise of them throwing each other around the training room from disturbing Inko in her office/workroom.

Hitoshi sighed. "It's true but you shouldn't say it."

Izuku elbowed him. "I should say it so you don't get yourself killed."

"Hazard of the job. We're heroes-in-training now." Heroes-in-training who couldn't use their full strength for fear of being killed or tortured. Heroes-in-training who had their whole species to protect. Heroes-in-training who couldn't survive without the deaths of other people.

"The first ghoul heroes," Izuku said. "One day down, the rest of our lives to go."