Legacy

by whiteleopard1124

While on a trip with his mom and Bakugou's family, Izuku gets separated while on a scavenger hunt. He survived long enough to make his way to a ghost town of a village with scary faces carved into a mountain, houses with tons of weapons and a weird tree with a weird fruit that summoned giant symbols in the air after he ate it. He finally had a Quirk. Kinda. Was chakra a quirk? No?

14. A dislocation was better, right?

I'm not usually this productive, but enjoy!

---

The house for class 1-B was identical to Izuku's which made sense all things considered. The houses were all designed and built at the same time so it wasn't like different architects oversaw the different houses or anything.

Izuku was in a light green tracksuit that was doing a pretty poor job of warding off the cold. There was a spate of cold air in the mornings, but Izuku was mostly used to it. Early morning risings had been a part of his training for a quite while now, after all.

Even so, Izuku still felt like warming himself up a bit more. Izuku made the tiger handseal and closed his eyes. He could feel his chakra halt before it began to twist and coil and burn. It was only a small amount cut off the top—less than what he could regenerate over the course of an hour by a long way.

Finally, his fluctuating chakra settled into a hot and flickering mass. Fire chakra. He dropped the Tiger handseal and despite it needing more focus he was able to continue to produce fire chakra. He then began to move it around his body on the surface of his skin.

The difference was immediate. It now felt as though he were basking in the sun like a lizard as opposed to the chilly cold he had just been experiencing. He continued to percolate the fire chakra around his body as it seeped right down to his very soul.

Could this be a replacement for warm-up exercises and stretches? Cold weather did tend to cause a lot more injuries because the muscles were overworked by losing a lot of heat. It would probably be best if he kept at stretching and warming up for now, though.

Maybe if he studied more on the human body, he could actually pull off a replacement for warming up. It could prevent a lot of injuries if he was always warmed up and never affected by the weather. A hero had to be 100% ready 100% of the time and that was impossible except for maybe All Might.

Izuku wasn't even close to being All Might, but a quick burst of fire chakra to instantly get ready would probably be indispensable. Hell, Bakugou would probably love a way to sweat more. Unless his suit already had that built-in... Cold weather was not an ideal environment for Bakugou's Quirk, after all.

In all honesty, a lot of Quirks were ill-suited to that weather including Kendou's to a certain extent. She couldn't really afford her muscles cramping or spasming mid-battle. Then again, Kendou had enough mettle to just surge past all the pain that would cause.

Plus, cold weather battles were fairly rare. He probably wouldn't ever need to use this other than when he forgot a jersey or something.

She had barely cared about him knocking one of her teeth out, after all. Though, that was probably because her dentist's Quirk could regrow teeth. A unique Quirk on its own, but there were actually quite a few like it in the dentistry field. These "Dental Quirks" weren't normally suited to hero work, but they had their own niche.

Depending on how this spar went, both he and Kendou might need to pop in for a visit. Kendou just had to show up was all.

Izuku had left his phone back in his room after sending Kendou a message about his imminent arrival. He hadn't waited for her response, but he was sure she'd be down soon. Kendou would never flake on an opportunity to fight someone—let alone him.

Izuku was feeling pretty excited about this all things considered. It wasn't just about this fight, but the ones he'd have in the afternoon too. It was one of many steps he had to take to become a Pro and he was buzzing for it.

It had been about two minutes or so since he'd arrived when the door opened. He looked up and sure enough, Kendou was already jogging towards him. She was wearing a tank top and shorts and a wide smile that all but spelt disaster for him.

"Hey! How long have you been here?" Kendou asked as she began to go through her stretches, "Sorry, I took so long. I had to convince one of my classmates that this was just a 1v1 sort of thing. He's pretty into martial arts too. He has a tail."

"A tail?" Izuku leaned forward, "What type? Is it reptilian or—"

"Nope!" Kendou said as she began to stretch her legs, "You want the details then you'll have to beat it out of me."

Kendou paused her stretching before looking up at him, "You're not gonna stretch? Pretty sure I taught you better than that."

Funny enough, Izuku did feel kinda warmed up from the fire chakra coursing through his body. However, he had no way of knowing how long it would last. He began to go through some stretches as well, but he made a mental note to explore his instant warm-up idea more.

Finally, they were done warming up and Kendou led him to the back garden which was remarkably similar to the one for 1-A. There was a good amount of space and the 1-B house loomed over them like some sort of monster.

"We won't be waking anyone up, will we?" Izuku couldn't help but ask and he was shrugged off by Kendou.

"I told everyone we'd be sparring and everyone seemed fine with it," Kendou said as she dropped into her stance, "Quirks or no? I don't want you too beat up for your assessment today."

"Let's use our Quirks," Izuku said as chakra began to stream off of him, "There's no point in holding back. We need to give everything absolutely everything we've got! Fatebreaker, activate!"

It was after the verbal command that the Fatebreaker roared to life. His muscles and bones and skin surged with chakra. The early morning light melded with his chakra to give an ethereal glow. Kendou stared at him for the longest time before a radiant smile broke out on her face.

"Fine by me!" Kendou said dropping into her stance, "Big Fist, activate! Hmmm, not as cool as 'Fatebreaker'...what about something like Fist of the North—"

Kendou's Quirk did not activate and Izuku crouched down even as Kendou continued to ramble and feign ignorance. He knew she was baiting him, but that barely mattered to him. Izuku sprinted forward and lashed out with a spinning kick.

As expected Kendou hand grew before parrying his kick with a liquid counter. Izuku landed a bit heavily and barely had time to look before having to dodge a giant fist with a haphazard flip. Kendou's punch sent tremors through the earth and he couldn't help but let out a short sigh of relief.

That would've sucked.

Izuku rushed Kendou once more not hesitating even as she enlarged her other fist. Izuku didn't divert from his plan until he was just inches away from getting brained from Kendou. He dropped down and slid forward in a type of soccer tackle clearly aiming to ground Kendou.

However, Kendou was wise to it and leapt away shrinking her hands to jump higher and further. He caught a glimpse of her smirking at avoiding his attack and he couldn't help as a smirk of his own grew on his face.

He overloaded the Surface Sticking exercise in his hands and feet and that shot him off the ground towards an airborne Kendou. He soared through the air before smashing Kendou with a right hook across her face. The crack echoed through the morning and sent some birds flying.

Izuku tried to adjust his body to land on her but Kendou activated her Quirk and swatted him away. He ragdolled through the air before landing on top of a garden table. Thankfully, this one was made out of plastic, but even then it still collapsed underneath his momentum.

Izuku rose to his feet ignoring the ache in his back. He looked at Kendou and felt a bit of pride at seeing the growing bruise on the side of her face. A bit of blood was seeping out her lip So what if his whole body felt like one big bruise? Kendou would remember that one for a while.

He knew he'd remember that backhand for at least a few weeks.

"You held back on that one," Kendou said with a slight frown, "I saw your highlights reel. I know you can move faster."

Izuku quirked a brow, "You did too. You could've punched me instead of slapping me away."

"That's different. I was acting on instinct," Kendou insisted, "You flattened a giant robot with one punch. You kicked a ball over a kilometre away! Surely, you can do better."

"You can't handle either of those," Izuku said and instead of getting offended Kendou rolled her eyes.

"It's not like you could touch me with one of those anyways."

What did she say?

"Fine, I hope the robots here don't mind picking up your organs," Izuku said as he boosted the Fatebreaker to the max, "I don't want to cause any trouble with them."

"Pssht," Kendou said as she enlarged her fists, "I'll shove these so far up your butt, you'll be coughing up fingernails for a month!"

Ugh, that's what he got for trying to outdo Kendou in a war of disgusting threats.

Izuku sped towards Kendou faster than before. He was in front of her in an instant and lashed out with a palm strike to her chest. He didn't use Tsunade's strength, though, so instead of turning into a confetti of human viscera, Kendou was sent sailing over the ground.

The palm strike was a loud gunshot that pierced the air. Kendou barely managed to stand up before he was upon her again. He lashed out with punch after punch and to his frustration Kendou just stayed ahead of all his strikes.

He hadn't brought his chakra rods along to fight with Kendou and he was regretting that quite a bit at the moment. Kendou had years of elite training on him and even though he could and did beat her... It sometimes felt like she had hidden reserves of skill that he never quite managed to bring all the way out.

His suspicions were now proven correct as Kendou had him chasing after her shadow. This was her element. Unarmed combat was Kendou at her best. Izuku sought to be a jack of all trades. Chakra afforded him the chance to specialise in practically anything.

And yet much like with Dabi and Eraserhead, Kendou was showing that he may be a jack of all trades, but he was no master.

Nonetheless, Izuku pressed forward with his assault. Kendou was toying with him, clearly. She was allowing herself to be pushed backwards towards a tree, but what he didn't know was why. She was playing defence a lot more than she usually did.

She'd had countless opportunities to parry, block or just outright crush him, but she hadn't taken any of them. To make things worse, Kendou had a smile on her face as if she knew exactly what she was doing.

"Come on—"

Dodge.

"Izuku—"

Dodge.

"I—thought—you—were—gonna—pound—my organs—out!"

Dodge. Dodge. Dodge!. DODGE. DODGE! DODGE! DODGE!

Izuku had backed Kendou into a tree and still, she dodged. He grit his teeth and out of desperation, he lashed out with a wild kick. Kendou caught his kick with a heavy grunt as it smashed into her side. Izuku had for sure felt something snap beneath his foot, but even then Kendou smiled as if nothing had happened.

Izuku tried to wrench his leg free, but Kendou's grip was inescapable. Her other fist grew and a pained but excited smile grew on her face.

"Checkmate!"

He could not take that head-on.

Using chakra to anchor himself, Izuku threw up both his arms and blocked the blow from Kendou. It was his turn to feel something give way in his arms as a heavy punch from Kendou turned his world into pain. His ears rang from the impact and Izuku was damn sure his descendants could feel that one. He had bent down with the punch allowing some of Kendou's blow to flow through his body and into the ground.

It still hurt. A lot.

His arms felt like a horde of elephants had used them as jumping castles, but they were still mostly intact. Izuku looked up from his cross guard to meet Kendou's shellshocked gaze.

"How are you still standing?" Kendou couldn't help, but ask as she looked at his one leg planted on the floor, "That's not—"

Izuku felt her grip on his captured leg loosen just a bit and then he struck. He used chakra to stick his leg to her side before reeling her in. She let out a yelp before he drove his forehead into her face with a loud crunch. She let go of his leg allowing him to cancel the chakra anchor in his foot to grab her face.

Maybe it was the pain he was in or maybe it was the frustration at the clear gulf between them, but as Izuku pulled back for a punch, he loaded his fist with chakra. He compressed it in a flash and he fired it towards Kendou. Even so, a large part of him expected Kendou to dodge it despite her injuries.

As Izuku expected, Kendou did know the fist was coming but apparently she was too tired to dodge and instead braced for impact. A bolt of panic spread through him and it must have shown on his face as Kendou's face seemed to change as she looked at him.

"Move!"

"Angel's Lasso!"

"What the—AH!"

Green, thorny vines wrapped around Kendou and pulled her out of the way. Izuku's momentum still carried his fist forward and he was able to release his built-up chakra safely.

He punched the trunk of the tree allowing the condensed storm in his hand to explode. There was a beat of silence before pandemonium was unleashed. The tree let out a series of cracks before it was wrenched out the ground and sent flying at a roaring speed.

The morning quiet was rent through as the tree ploughed through many of its brethren. A sinking feeling grew in Izuku's stomach as he watched the tree wreck a good portion of the forest behind 1-B's house. It was about fifteen seconds of horror later that the tree finally collapsed.

There was a row of flattened trees stretching from Izuki and carrying on for, give or take, 50 metres. Perhaps the most amazing thing was that technically speaking it barely made a dent in the forest. The forest made up at least 30% of UA excluding training grounds which meant it was very, very big.

But even then, it was clear as all hell that he'd screwed up.

"What on earth happened here?"

The vaguely familiar voice made Izuku turn around and he saw Kendou held in the air by—green vines? Izuku traced the vines and he was truly surprised to see that it was actually the hair of a girl who looked halfway amazed and enraged at him.

"You have damaged school property and endangered the life of my classmate," the girl said as she lowered Kendou to the ground, "You should be ashamed of your reckless behaviour. That sort of behaviour is unbecoming of a hero."

"Don't just blame him, Shiozaki," Kendou said as she turned to the other girl and ignoring the blood dripping out her nose, "I kinda egged him on into doing that."

"No, it is my fault," Izuku said with a frown, "I got really frustrated that I couldn't even get a proper hit in. I just thought the gap between us was smaller than what it is. I'm sorry."

That was the crux of it. Izuku had lost control and Kendou had almost paid the price. There was no way she'd have been able to take that. He hadn't been literal about punching her organs out and hopefully, her taunt hadn't been literal either.

You could never tell with her...

"Apology accepted," Kendou said as if she hadn't been moments away from getting pulverised, "I guess I should apologise. I kinda went too far too. That hammer blow with my fist broke something in your arms too. I never expected you to actually stand up to that. Sorry about that."

Oh, right. His arms were in major pain. Still, though, he had definitely gone way over the line...and why had Kendou been smiling at the end there? Did she really think she could sneak that barb in without him noticing?

"Well actually, it's on me," Izuku said causing Kendou to frown, "I kicked you in your weak and fragile ribs and felt something break with my foot and then I headbutt you so hard you couldn't even dodge a simple punch. So yeah, it's definitely my fault."

Kendou's cheeks puffed out, "No! It's my fault! I kept dodging your slow and weak—"

Kendou looked over Izuku's shoulder at the destruction behind him.

"Super weak punches! Shiozaki didn't need to save me! I could have taken that hit no problem!"

Izuku blinked as he processed Kendou's words.

"No, you couldn't!"

"Deception is unbecoming of a hero student."

"Come on, Shiozaki! Back me up! I'm here with you!"

"She's right. You definitely couldn't take that."

The surprise from Shiozaki backing him up (who he had forgotten was there) was only outweighed by the sudden interjection from a familiar voice. Izuku turned behind him and he frowned as he saw Eraserhead —not Aizawa-sensei — standing behind him.

His bright yellow goggles stood out from his otherwise drab outfit. The battle scarf he normally used was in Eraserhead's hands, but it didn't look 'active' so to speak. Oh, right and virtually the entire UA faculty, including Principal Nezu, was behind him too.

Eraserhead, Midnight, Cementoss, but someone that stood out to Izuku was a man in wizard robes. Was that the Majestic?! Did he teach at UA? No, that couldn't be it. Oh, right! His agency was a stone throw's away and his Quirk probably allowed him to teleport in at a moment's notice.

That was probably how the entire staff had got the drop on them. Majestic would've just teleported them in with his Magic. Izuku hadn't known he could do that at all—let alone bring along a group!

"Midoriya," Eraserhead said as he fixed his gaze on Izuku, "Would you like to try and guess and tell me why me and my colleagues are here?"

Izuku looked behind him at Kendou and Shiozaki. They looked just as surprised and worried as he felt. He met Kendou's gaze—her cheeks a pretty shade of red. She raised her hands in a shrug as she spoke.

"Uh, I think our spar got out of hand?"

"Extremely so," Eraserhead said drily, "The reason we mobilised was because we thought the campus was under attack and instead—"

Eraserhead looked over at the destroyed section of the forest.

"Two of our first-year students had a spar that 'got out of hand,'" he said air quotes too, "I imagine you and Kendou are the ones who—"

"Yes, but it's my fault," Izuku said cutting his sensei off, "I got carried away. I think I'm just a bit too nervous for the assessment today. I don't want to get expelled so I wanted to get some extra practice in. Not—"

Not after it was a miracle he was even in UA's Hero Course in the first place.

"If anyone should be held liable for the damage it should be me, Kendou didn't—"

"No one will be in trouble, " Principal Nezu declared, "You are allowed to spar whenever you wish provided it is not past curfew—with or without your Quirks. Luckily for you, our head of maintenance has a Quirk that allows him to mend and repair trees so all in all nothing wrong has been done!"

What? This was a joke, right?

"I assure you it isn't!" Nezu's cheery voice jolting Izuku, "Now run along to Recovery Girl's office. I'll have Snipe take you! As for the rest of 1-B peeking out their windows, I hope you enjoy your first day of school!"

Izuku hadn't even noticed the 1-B students watching things unfold until Nezu mentioned it. He watched as they scrambled away from their balconies and back into their rooms. Only a few took their time including a shockingly tall boy who was being pulled away by his classmates as he tried to get Izuku's attention.

"Hey, Green! We need to fight—Ow! Honenuki, let me out the floor!"

The other was a boy who was giving Izuku a very Todoroki/Bakugou/Yaoyorozu-like stare. Only a bit more unhinged than all of them except for maybe Bakugou. Was that a blonde thing?

"Let's go kid," Snipe said as he ushered Izuku forward, "You look like you tried to fight Eraser—, uh, Aizawa-sensei blindfolded. You don't look much better, kid. Should we call some robots?"

"No, thank you," he and Kendou said at once in slight embarrassment.

Kendou was pulled along by Snipe and they both tried to ignore the gaze of the other teachers as they continued their silent march. It was only when they were on the main road that Izuku finally spoke.

"I really am sorry about that."

"It's fine," Kendou said a bit breathlessly bumping her shoulder into him which made him wince, "For what it's worth, you are getting better a lot quicker. The mistake you made was getting into a boxing match with me. You're really fast, but you still telegraph your attacks quite a bit. You barely used your legs until the end."

"Ugh, you're right," Izuku would have slapped his head if his arms weren't in some serious pain, "I let you direct the fight instead of trying to switch things up. No wonder I lost. You never lose in boxing."

Plus, she taught him the vast majority of what he knew about fighting.

"I don't know," Kendou said with a slight frown, "That punch of yours was something...and you took my hits way too well. I think I need to get better at taking hits. That giant punch I hit you with usually flattens everyone. Even you."

"Still broke some bones," Izuku reminded her which thankfully did lift her spirits a bit.

Kendou snorted, "True. I still need to get better. Both of us really. Heroes need to fight past the pain and frustration that comes with fighting."

Kendou was already good at handling pain. Maybe a bit too good. She almost seemed to enjoy pain quite a bit.

No, that was crazy. People didn't like being hurt, did they?

They were now in front of UA's main building and Izuku couldn't help, but admire the sight of the building. The sunrise lit up the main building in such a way that it almost looked like a titanic chandelier. Kendou had stopped to admire the sight too and so had Snipe-sensei, thankfully.

The panes reflected sunlight all over and a sunbeam settled on them almost perfectly. It was almost too bizarre to be real and when Izuku finally turned away to face Kendou, she was already facing him.

From this close, normally Izuku's attention would be drawn to the dried blood or bruises on her face, but instead, what he saw was her radiant smile that rivalled the sparkling building in front of them. It made something flutter within him as he somehow managed to return an equally wide smile.

"This is just day one of us being here," Kendou said which seemed to catch Snipe's attention, "By the time we leave, we'll be such badasses. I'll probably be able to take a harder pounding than the one you gave me back at the house."

"Wha—"Snipe choked and coughed on his words as he turned towards them, "What did you guys say you did?"

Izuku frowned, "Are you feeling okay, sensei? We could take you to the infirmary if you're feeling under the weather. She could give you some pills. I'm still surprised you got sick. Aren't all Pros vaccinated against common diseases? It's like they say protection is better than cure."

"That's right," Kendou added, "Protection now saves you from a lifetime of pain later. My dad taught me that."

"No! Just...no!" Snipe said with a much higher voice, "Let's go to Recovery Girl! Maybe she could give you two a talk about restraining yourselves even if you are using protection!"

With that Snipe walked off at a far quicker pace than before. Izuku frowned as he turned towards Kendou.

"You ever get that weird feeling that you're having two different conversations with someone?"

"Yup. All the time," Kendou said sagely as they began to walk forward, "It's better not to bring it up. I don't want to embarrass anyone."

"Ah. Good call."

---

After a few kisses and energy gummies, Izuku and Kendou were both back in tip-top shape. Recovery Girl had not been impressed at having her first patients before school actually started, but she had helped them nonetheless.

Kendou had gone first and so she was the first out the door. She had promised to cook breakfast for a few of her classmates who were not as gifted culinary-wise as she was. Apparently, a pretty brutal spar wasn't enough to make her break her promise.

Izuku felt just as good—if not better than he did before the spar with Kendou. And yet, Recovery Girl hadn't given him the go-ahead to leave. He still had quite some time to go so it was alright, but it was still weird.

Recovery Girl was mostly bustling around her office while humming some song. For the most part, Izuku considered himself patient but even so, this was a little odd. A few minutes later, enough was enough and he was about to ask Recovery Girl a question when the door to the infirmary slid open.

Two blonde men walked in—one in fantastic shape and the other...not so much. The younger of the two was covered in many a bruise and looked like he'd been on the wrong end of a Detroit Smash or seven by All Might. And despite all that, he still stood tall and was practically beaming.

"Hey! Did you injure yourself too?!" the boy asked as he looked at the fading bruises on Izuku's arms, "Wow, those look like they were broken not that long ago and you're not even in a cast! You must have a lot of stamina to heal that much so quickly!"

"I guess so?" Izuku said feeling compelled to answer the way too energetic boy, "Are you a student here?"

"I sure am!" the boy said before thrusting his hand out, "My name is Mirio Togata, but you can call me Mirio! I'm a 3rd year in the Hero Course and I'm guessing you're a first-year?"

Woah, this guy was just months away from becoming a Pro. He was probably really strong. Hmm, his Quirk was probably pretty interesting too.

"Yeah, my name is Izuku Midoriya," Izuku said and for just a moment he glanced past Mirio to look at the man he'd come in with. Oddly, the man was looking at him, but then he looked away just as their eyes met.

Huh.

"Woo! I knew it!" Mirio said regaining Izuku's attention, "So why are you in here alone? Did you go too hard in training?"

"Yeah, and I may have caused some major damage to the forest behind 1-B too..." Izuku felt his cheeks warm up, "I put way too much power in my punch."

"You did all that damage in one punch. The destroyed forest I just got word of. That was your work."

The question(was it a question?) wasn't from Mirio. No, it was from the man that accompanied him. The man looked vaguely familiar, but Izuku dismissed that thought. He'd have definitely remembered those striking features and deep voice. It was those features and an undercurrent of annoyance, if not outright anger, laced his tone that stood out.

The questions had sounded more like statements too. Almost as if he was confirming his suspicions instead of asking for new information.

Perhaps he was being too paranoid, though...all the teachers, at the very least, knew about what he'd done. So, this guy knowing too wasn't a big deal, really.

"Yes," Izuku said a bit shamefaced, "I kinda used a bit more power than I intended to. Are you one of the staff?"

"Me? Uh, no," the man said fumbling for words losing a bit of his aura, "I mean, yes I do work here. I'm one of the maintenance staff. Yes, that's it. You can call me Yagi-san."

"I see. I apologise for causing you so much work," Izuku sighed, "It's just something of a control versus power issue that I'm not too sure how to navigate."

Izuku's high spirits were beginning to fall as he realised how much of a mess he had caused. Tsunade's strength was adjustable, but for Izuku it was either nothing at all or level a section of a forest.

Not ideal when he'd deal with almost exclusively normal humans with much squishier bodies than the zero-pointer.

"Do you know to eat an elephant? " Mirio asked from absolutely nowhere.

"What?"

"Piece by piece! Exactly!"

"...What?"

"Your Quirk allows you to scale up or scale down your strength and amp your body in general, right?"

Izuku nodded, but even then he couldn't help but wonder when and how did Mirio know—

"So, if you're having issues with this Arbour Harmer super move of yours then tackle it piece by piece. Or approach things from a different angle. If a kick or punch is too strong then maybe something like a slap isn't? Look at All Might. He can level buildings and yet he's always in complete control of his strength and adjusts when he needs to."

Mirio actually made sense...once he began to reference All Might, that was. He'd probably never get the opportunity to use Tsunade's strength the way she had. Shinobi fought to kill and heroes fought to suppress. Despite the chakra fruit and all its intricacies, Izuku was going to be a hero, not a shinobi.

"Thank you, Togata‐sempai, it—why are you n-naked?!"

This place was weird.

"Oops! You saw my winky, didn't you? My bad!"

Very weird.

---

Izuku's first day of school had gone...normally really. His class had breakfast that had mysteriously appeared, but the powder and stains on Yaoyorozu's pyjamas' sleeves had pretty much given the whole jig up.

Of course, Izuku had only thought to look at her sleeves because he knew she had bought the pizzas yesterday. No one else, to his knowledge at least, had cottoned onto it. Naturally, he was curious about why she was hiding this, but it wasn't exactly an easy thing to bring up.

Least of all by him.

From there they'd had class and it had been...something. Other than a few pointed glances from teachers and a tree pun from Present Mic that flew over everyone's head, he'd actually had a pretty alright day. Not even Bakugou sitting in front of him had been enough to get him down.

Now, though, it was almost the time he had been waiting for. The dining hall at UA was massive and could seat all students across all courses and years with ease. The food was divine and soon Izuku was able to find a seat in the dining hall.

The first person to join him, though, was—

"Can I sit here?" Utsushimi asked and before he could answer she sat down, "So, tell me what's the plan for today? All-out attack? Defence? Ooh, maybe we should play for time?"

"Hey Utsushimi. I—"

"Call me Camie."

"Right...so anyways I don't think we should overthink this too much," Izuku said as he looked at all their other classmates.

Other than a few exceptions, everyone had kept a good lid on who their teammates were. It just made sense, after all. Some people already had the deck stacked against them when it came to combat and exposing their partners would be even worse.

"We'll just knock them down as they line up," Izuku said before taking a sip of juice. While he was doing so, someone came over to stop by his and Camie's table. Izuku thought it was one of his friends or classmates so he was thrown for a loop when he met the eyes of a blonde boy. A familiar one.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, you can," the boy said calmly before sneering, "You could start by fixing my back garden! How arrogant must you be to ruin my class's garden and then leave without so much as an attempt at repairing the damage you so carelessly caused?"

So, this guy was in 1-B and he didn't like Izuku. It was a fair reaction. From 1-B's point of view, he had beaten up one of their classmates so badly that they needed the nurse and he had also devastated their garden to boot.

Not the best of introductions by any means.

"To make matters worse," the boy continued, "You came second in the Entrance Exam. Are you really living up to the standard expected of you? Your behaviour has shocked and angered many of us in 1-B. And how have you not been punished yet?! Is this really what passes for discipline in the best school in—"

Normally, Izuku was not one to judge someone for rambling. It would be very hypocritical of him to do so...but he wasn't this bad, was he? Izuku had sort of tuned out the rest of what the boy said as he noticed the rest of the dining hall beginning to look over at them.

He needed a miracle.

"Monoma, what are you doing?"

"Kendou! What a lovely coincidence," the now-named Monoma said as he switched gears, "I was just having a chat with this plain fellow over here."

Not quite a miracle, but Izuku would take it.

"Are you hassling Izuku explicitly after I explained the situation to our class and everyone agreed to drop it?" Kendou set her tray down and crossed her arms, "Come to think of it...Didn't you say everything was alright?"

Monoma scoffed, "I merely wanted to gauge the personality of this...garden defiler. I am not impressed. Anyone in 1-B would crush him easily."

Izuku, Utsushimi and Kendou watched as Monoma walked away. Before Kendou could even sit down, Utsushimi let out a long whistle.

"That guy was weird, yeah?" Was what she had to say, "He was, like, totally mad at you, Midoriya. Thanks for telling him off...uh what's your name again?"

"Oh, uh Utsushimi this is Itsuka Kendou and Kendou this is Camie Utsushimi," Izuku said officially introducing the two to each other.

"Nice to meet you, Utsushimi."

"Right back at ya and call me Camie," she said with a wink at Kendou, "So I'm guessing you two know each other? How did you meet?"

"That's something we want to know too!"

The interruption had come from a very excited Uraraka who was accompanied by an embarrassed Iida. Kendou didn't answer Camie's question and instead watched as they both settled down.

"Uraraka, it's rude to barge into conversations you are not a part of!" Iida said once he sat down next to Izuku.

"Where was this attitude when that weirdo was yelling at Midoriya, Iida?" Uraraka said which made Iida choke on his words, "Exactly. Anyways, Kendou...that is your name, right? D'you wanna tell us how you and him met? 'cause it's obvious you guys know each other from before here..."

"We met at my dojo," Kendou said to Uraraka before smiling, "He wasn't always this ripped. He was probably smaller than you. Like he didn't even know how to use most of the machines and he lost a fight to our secretary Mai who's like—OW!"

Izuku was totally unbothered by everyone's confused looks and Kendou's glare. He picked up his juice box and popped the straw in.

"Sorry, I think my foot stepped on yours," Izuku sipped on the juice for a few seconds before continuing, "By accident."

"You definitely weren't anywhere near this snarky too," Kendou groused which almost made him smile, "I'll get you for that. You know that, right?"

It was worth it.

"Anyways, so I basically tutored him and we just sorta hit it off I guess," Kendou finished a bit lamely, "That was a couple of months ago and we've been going steady since."

Uraraka made this weird noise in the back of her throat, "Going steady? As in—"

"Yeah, we're really good friends. Best, actually," Kendou finished with a nod, "So, how has UA been for you guys? How was the entrance exam?"

The conversation really took off from there as they spoke about mostly light topics. Everyone, even Utsushimi, (he'd need a bit of time before calling her Camie) contributed and it was pretty nice. About halfway through, the bell went for seconds and Izuku, feeling really hungry, went to get some.

He was the only one who had gone for a second serving from his table, but the vast majority of other students had gone for more. In a stroke of luck, Izuku had managed to get the last serving of seconds.

He made it back to his table and he was surprised to see that Kendou had disappeared. He was about to ask, but Uraraka seemed to read his mind and told him that Kendou had to go speak to her homeroom teacher (who was reaking Vlad King!) about something.

Her tray had already been cleared out and so the seat next to Izuku became empty. Something that became very relevant just moments later.

"Hey, isn't that posh girl in our class?" Camie said lazily pointing towards Yaoyorozu who had just walked into the dining hall, "Why is she so late?"

As opposed to her usual self, Yaoyorozu was looking very frazzled and on edge. Izuku watched as she walked to Lunch Rush only to see her slump as she was regretfully informed about the food being finished.

"Ah man, she didn't eat?" Uraraka asked with a frown, "I feel bad for her plus we have that exercise next. I wouldn't want to do that on an empty stomach!"

Izuku looked down at his second serving before acting.

"Yaoyorozu!"

His voice cut through the buzz of the dining hall and others including Yaoyorozu turned towards him.

"Food!" He said as he pointed towards his untouched plate of seconds.

Yaoyorozu's face shifted from confusion to understanding and all the way back to confusion before blanking out entirely. The rest of the dining hall had already forgotten them for the most part, but Izuku could swear he felt some people's eyes still on him.

"How noble of you, Midoriya," Iida said as Yaoyorozu approached them, "You're truly an inspiration. Helping out a classmate in need without hesitation!"

"Yeah," Uraraka nodded along, "That's really sweet of you! If it had been me I might not have done the same. The food here is so good..."

"Well, it's no big deal," Izuku said his face burning up, "I'm already pretty full anyway. It's better if—"

"Excuse me."

"Yaoyorozu..." Izuku trailed off as his scariest classmate appeared by his table, "Oh, right! Here you go! I know your Quirk takes quite a toll on your body since it uses your lipids! It would suck if you weren't ready for today's exercise. This meal is perfect for that. Avocados, tofu and salmon are high in healthy fats and..."

Izuku trailed off as he realised he had been rambling. The table had a myriad of reactions to his verbal spillage. Camie and Uraraka both seemed amused while Iida was looking at Izuku as if he were a lecturer imparting wisdom of some sort.

He only knew what that look meant because both Present Mic and Midnight had commented on Iida's piercing stare earlier when they were in class. Iida probably knew more about healthy eating than Izuku did so he really didn't need to pay so much attention.

Yaoyorozu on the other hand was staring at him. Her expression as inscrutable as ever. He half-expected her to just pivot and walk away or sneer at him or something and instead of doing all that she just—

"You are right," Yaoyorozu said before she bowed to him, "Thank you for saving some for me. I may not have been able to perform at my best had it not been for your generosity. "

...What was happening?

Despite her words being genuine, the awkward air could not be denied. Uraraka, Utsushimi and even Iida all seemed to make terrible excuses as they left leaving Yaoyorozu and Izuku alone.

"You should sit down and eat," Izuku said as he prepared to flee, uh, go back to Aizawa-sensei's classroom, "I'll see you—"

Yaoyorozu had sat down, but she had also grabbed onto his wrist preventing him from leaving. It wasn't an especially tight grip, but it was more than enough to make him sit back down.

"Please stay."

Izuku steeled his nerves before obliging her 'request'. He relaxed in his seat which was hard to do considering Yaoyorozu had sat down next to him instead of across from him.

Izuku expected her to speak, but instead, she began to eat his or rather her food rather quickly. She wasn't being messy per se, but it wasn't exactly the best of manners either. She probably ate just like he did, but it just looked messier on someone as dignified as Yaoyorozu. Weirdly, Izuku found it funny that she was only this undignified when it came to eating. It had been a similar situation at breakfast as well. Or maybe she was just really hungry.

She kept eating and eating and it got to the point where Izuku was convinced Yaoyorozu had forgotten he was there. Her sleeves were rolled up just a bit and he frowned as he caught sight of some black smudges on her sleeves.

What were those? They kinda looked like—

"Excuse my lack of manners," Yaoyorozu said as she put her utensils down and her sleeves fell out of sight, "I was feeling rather...peckish."

...Okay, then.

"What are you angling towards?"

Izuku blinked, "N-Nothing! I already ate and you were late. That's it!"

Izuku winced at the volume of his voice.

"This is the second time you've done this," Yaoyorozu said as if he needed any reminding, "Wouldn't you find it odd too?"

"No? M-Maybe? I don't know. Okay, yes," Izuku admitted before sighing, "It's really not a big deal. That was my second serving and as for last night, I noticed you hadn't had any of those pizzas. That one was even worse since you bought them!"

There it was. Classic motormouth.

"How do you know that?" Yaoyorozu's eyes were narrowed, "Did you follow me around? Eavesdrop on another conversation of mine or maybe—"

"I found a receipt from the restaurant outside on the ground," Izuku said cutting her off, "It h-had your name on it."

"...Oh."

"Yeah."

"Look Yaoyorozu," Izuku said and something seemed to make her flinch back, "I know you and I don't really get along or anything, but that's fine. I'm used to that and worse. I don't know why you're like this around me and I don't know if I do want to know. I didn't do myself any favours after r-ruining your bag."

"That is not—"

"I also won't ask why you're doing all these secret charitable acts," Izuku said not allowing her a word in while he still felt brave, "I just helped you because I saw you needed it. That's all."

"Besides, I want you at your best."

Izuku rose out of his seat and this time Yaoyorozu let him. He picked up what was left of his dishes before giving her one last look.

"I don't want any excuses for when you to lose me."

Had he just thrown his words back at her? He had... and judging by her face Yaoyorozu had realised too.

Okay, time to run.

With his piece said, Izuku walked off and cleared his dishes. He was all too aware of Yaoyorozu's eyes on him even as one of his other classmates joined him in cleaning their dishes and placing them in the designated area for dirty dishes.

"What were you speaking to her about?" Mineta said as he nudged Izuku, "She can't take her eyes off of you!"

"Uh, n-nothing really," Izuku said a bit hurriedly, "I think she was just surprised by what I had to say."

"Is that why you called her over?" Mineta smirked, "I guess food won't be the only thing you'll be feeding her."

Before Izuku could respond Mineta giggled before scurrying off. Izuku hadn't even had the time to respond.

What an odd little person.

Izuku shook the thought out of his mind. He had to drop by his class before heading towards one of the battle areas. Aizawa-sensei had given them news that only made Izuku more excited for their upcoming assessment.

Their costumes were finally done.

Izuku smiled as he walked out of the dining hall. He weaved through the crowds of students with barely restrained glee. He had a good feeling about how his outfit would turn out.

---

Later — Battlefield 3B

---

Battlefield 3B was a favourite of Shouta's. It had a customisable field, viewing gallery up above the battlefield and was also close enough to the main building that they didn't need to take a bus there.

All in all, it was perfect.

Shouta, contrary to what people thought, enjoyed being a teacher sometimes. It was arduous and the kids were frustrating and his coworkers were even more frustrating, but sometimes just sometimes it was worth all the other stuff.

This was one of those times.

A weird sense of pride and almost-anticipation filled him as his class stood before him in a line of nineteen. They were all in their hero costumes and most seemed to cycle between excitement and nervousness. The latter emotion worried him just a bit.

This would be some of their first fights, so nerves were understandable. However, nerves would prevent them from getting better. Not all of them were suited for direct combat, but all heroes had to know how to fight regardless so it was a moot point.

He could only hope they would lose that mentality sooner rather than later.

"It's time for your first team assessment at UA," he said as he walked up and down the line, "Combat is an unavoidable aspect of hero work. Even if you're a specialist in scouting or rescue, there were will come a time for combat. I'm sure some of you here feel worried about how things will go this afternoon. Others probably can't wait to get started."

He didn't name them, but it was on their faces and in their body language. Hagakure, Mineta and Aoyama seemed just a touch worried. Uraraka, Ashido and Jirou seemed halfway between excited and nervous. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most excited, at least on the outside, were Bakugou and Kirishima

Iida, Tokoyami and Todoroki were calm—again not very surprising. The only surprise was Yaoyorozu who seemed distracted as she shifted around. It wasn't nervousness. No, she just seemed to be occupied and given the little he knew of her Shouta could forgive that.

"Focus on improving yourself and understand that progress takes time," Shouta said as he stopped pacing up and down the line, "We will have other exercises that will appeal to everyone else. Rescue, scouting and so on. You will specialise once you leave UA and join agencies or start your own. With that said, you will not be lacking in any field as long as you work hard. I can promise you that much."

He kept quiet as he let his words sink in. Thankfully, they had the desired effect as those few who seemed nervous calmed down even if just a little bit. It was then that he decided to explain the rules.

"This assessment will be quite simple," Shouta said as he gestured to a box behind him, "In there are twenty tags attached to a circular disk. There are ten pairs so you and your partner must wear the same set. The disks will affix to any surface on your body so it's up to you where to put it."

Shouta pulled one tag he had taken out earlier, "The tag will hang from the disk and can be pulled off relatively easily."

Shouta showed just that as he placed the hook in his bare skin before removing the tag. He replaced the tag and with a bit of effort peeled the disk off. He then threw the disk to the student nearest to him—Kaminari who fumbled for a bit but ultimately caught it.

"You win by knockout or by removing both your opponents' tags. Once your tag has been removed you are out. It's also possible to draw a match via a time limit."

"Partner up and get your tags situated," Shouta said as he took a device out, "Tell me what your teams are and then we can start when your classmate comes back."

He watched as his class partnered up. There weren't too many surprises and there were two teams that he would call heavy favourites...depending on who Midoriya was with. It was only natural that the stronger students would flock towards each other and that was what had happened.

Another thing that caught his eye were their costumes. He had seen the schematics for a few of them, but that was different compared to seeing them live. Some were expected like Iida's being similar to that of his family's while others were rather out there like Uraraka's and Utsushimi's.

He didn't even want to think about what Hagakure's outfit was supposed to be.

"Alright let's start with the admin. Utsushimi who's your partner?"

"Well, he's not—"

"I'm here!"

The doors to the arena were kicked open as a red blur rushed into the viewing gallery. The blur jumped down from up above before landing in a perfect crouch. Shouta wasn't sure if he should be impressed at how well the landing had safely distributed the force or annoyed at the flashiness of it all.

He settled for a mix of both.

His student —who had excused himself— was wearing what looked like samurai armour, but a fair bit more modern and sleek. The main portion of the armour covered the boy's torso, shoulders and thighs and below it, he wore skintight clothing —the kind most heroes chose to wore.

Was that a headband?

The symbol carved into it caught his immediate attention and for better or worse Shouta could immediately place it. After all, the Konoha ruins and artefacts had been causing a lot of headaches for a lot of people recently.

How had Midoriya come to possess one?

"Midoriya," Shouta said causing the boy to turn towards him. Interestingly, the plate armour made no noise at all. Was it not made of ceramics then? It also looked to be one cohesive piece with the cloth beneath the armour but was probably still removable.

Good choices.

"Yes, sensei."

"Go to your partner. They'll explain the rules to you. We're about to start."

Midoriya nodded and in what was the second biggest twist of this session, he joined up with Utsushimi. It seemed as though most of their classmates were caught off guard by it...except for Kaminari and Mineta who seemed to be whispering about something he'd rather not know about.

"These are the teams," Shouta asked getting twenty nods back, "Alright. I'll key you guys in and we'll get our first two teams. Oh, right. This is a gauntlet match. The earlier you're drawn, chances are the longer you'll fight... Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes!"

"Well, now you know."

It took some effort not to smile as he keyed in all the teams. Once he was done, he looked up at his class and was just a tiny bit pleased when he saw that they had gotten over the last-minute reveal.

"Uh, sensei?"

"Yes, Utsushimi?"

"What happens if your tag gets removed, but your partner still wins?"

"Simple, " Shouta said as he finally let a smile slip through, "They continue in the rest of their matches without you."

Pure and lovely silence was the response to that.

Fantastic.

"Our first two teams are Jirou and Hagakure versus...Bakugou and Kirishima," Shouta said and there was quite the difference in reactions between the two teams, "The rest of us will go up to the top. Understood? Good."

It took some teams and everyone was situated. Jirou and Hagakure seemed nervous, but luckily for them, the current field terrain had quite a few rocks and boulders for them to hide behind. It may just give them the time to strategise.

"The first match, begin!"

---

This was a pretty unfair matchup, Izuku concluded as Aizawa-sensei began the fight. Utsushimi had explained the rules rather quickly to him and this was only ending in one way.

Bakugou was probably going to end this as quickly as possible. Neither Jirou nor Hagakure could do much to stop him, but maybe they had a plan. It wouldn't make sense to write them completely.

"How will this one go?" Sero asked their class, "You guys think Jirou and Hagakure can handle Bakugou and Kirishima?"

"They'd have to attack first," Izuku said as he watched all four (well three really) get ready, "A full-on blitz or Bakugou might just blitz them—"

"The first match, begin!"

"Move it, Hagakure!" Jirou screamed before a strong burst of sonic waves were launched from the speakers on her legs, "How's that for a blitz?!"

Was that aimed at him? It felt like it was. No, it definitely was.

The sound waves tore across the battlefield and washed over both Bakugou and Kirishima. They had started an advance, but Jirou's immediate attack seemed to have stopped them cold.

Their starting positions had been very close to each other which allowed Jirou to get them both at once. Kirishima was covering his ears in pain, but Bakugou seemed to be handling it better as he raised his hands towards Jirou.

"DIE!"

It was both amazing and unsurprising that Bakugou's voice could just be heard over Jirou's sonic attacks.

An explosion was launched from Bakugou's hands and it seemed to do enough to blunt Jirou's attack. Crucially, though, the explosion destroyed a nearby boulder and kicked up a large amount. Quite a few shards from the boulder were sent flying towards Jirou's previous position, but she had already moved away.

"You need better aim than that!" Jirou said ignoring the rain of shards that hammered her previous position, "How'd you get first place with such awful aim?"

Oh, no.

"You'll pay for that one, Ears!" Bakugou roared as he prepared to charge Jirou even as she prepared another attack, "Stupid Hair, let's—watch out!"

The shift in Bakugou confused Izuku until he saw what Bakugou was already reacting to. The earlier explosion had kicked up a fair bit of dust and between that and Jirou's first move, most of them there had forgotten about someone else important: Hagakure.

The dust swirled around Hagakure as her glove flew through the air. A blast from Bakugou smashed into her hand and Bakugou's partner just as Kirishima activated his Quirk. Izuku expected a scream of pain or something, but none was forthcoming.

"He missed," Todoroki said looking at a specific spot.

"Did you get her—Woah!" Kirishima leapt backwards as he felt his tag(attached to his chest) get pulled forward. Lucky for him, Hagakure hadn't managed to snatch it.

"She threw the glove as a distraction!" Kirishima said unfazed from taking an explosion from Bakugou before grinning, "Blow this place to hell! She'll get the drop on me if I stay here! I'll handle Jirou!"

Kirishima then took off running towards Jirou screaming all the while. He crested a boulder before launching himself into the air enabling him to keep moving even as Jirou unleashed another powerful burst of soundwaves.

It didn't seem to achieve much, however, as Kirishima approached Jirou who seemed to be rooted to the spot. He landed on the ground and ran right through the sonic barrage. Jirou amped up the power, but it was too little too late.

"T-that w-won't work!" Kirishima powered through the sonic waves before punching Jirou square in the stomach.

Izuku and a lot of class groaned from the impact as Jirou's jacks were unplugged from her...boot speakers? The battlefield was silent as she collapsed to the floor dazed and out of commission. The punch had been amped by Kirishima's Quirk so it wasn't surprising that it only took one to put her out of commission.

Kirishima grabbed onto Jirou's tag(which was on her shoulder) and held it aloft.

"I've got Jirou's tag! Hurry up and find Hagakure!"

"I know already! Shut up!" Bakugou pointed both his hands at Kirishima and this time didn't hold much back as he fired a large blast, "Come on out, you extra! You better forfeit now! They won't find your body when I kill you! You've got five seconds! Five!"

"He won't actually kill her, will he?" Ashido asked with a shade of fear in her voice.

"Four!"

"Not on purpose," Asui said and it wasn't something Izuku could disagree with, "Bakugou doesn't really seem like the type to hold back."

"Three!"

Bakugou's hands were beginning to glow and crackle as he charged his Quirk up. Izuku searched the field for Hagakure as Bakugou counted down to two and it was only then that he saw a rather large rock be lifted into the air behind Bakugou.

"One—" Bakugou shouted and just as the rock was about to hammer into Bakugou he used an explosion to push him out the way.

He placed both his hands in front of him at the floating rock and his entire class gasped as Bakugou finally unleashed his explosion. An intense burst of light exploded from his palms as Bakugou's scream rent the air.

"Stun Grenade!"

Izuku's vision whited out as a large boom followed the searing light. A few seconds later, Izuku was amongst the first to recover and as expected the battle was over. Bakugou had his knee on Hagakure's...back(or front he honestly could not tell) and was holding her tag in one of his hands.

"Awesome!" Kirishima cheered as their team won, "Where'd you find it? I didn't see it floating around."

"Bakugou sneered, "She hid it in her mouth! Good thing I'm wearing gloves. Cheap tricks like that won't work on me, Mouth Girl!"

"Ew...call me Hagakure! And get off me already! You won!"

Bakugou did eventually get off of Hagakure and she and a groggy Jirou made their way back up to the viewing gallery. They were greeted by some sympathetic/pitying claps and cheers, but Izuku was sure some of them were genuine. They'd done a good bit better than what most, if not everyone, had expected of them.

"Midoriya!" Uraraka hollered at him as the rest of the class spoke to Jirou and Hagakure, "Iida and I are coming over!"

The two of them made quite the sight as a bubbly Uraraka and a stiff Iida negotiated their way over to the crowd. Izuku assumed they were on a team. He had been paying attention to Utsushimi's explanation to really register who was on what team.

"Wow, Bakugou is pretty good!" Uraraka said as she and Iida joined him and Camie, "I can't wait to fight him! And—wait a second... Midoriya? Did you and Iida synchronise your outfits?!"

"Yeah you two are kinda giving me the same vibe, you know?" Utsushimi said rather unhelpfully.

"I can assure you we did not match our outfits," Iida said with an emphatic chop, "My outfit is modelled on someone I admire whereas Midoriya's is...well to be honest I don't really recognise anything on your outfit...except for the symbol on your forehead. Is it not based on the symbol for the site you discovered— uh, I mean I could have sworn I'd seen it before."

Izuku knew he was playing with fire wearing the headband, but he was ready for the questions it would raise. Or rather, he thought he was ready. Apparently, a good chunk of his classmates seemed invested in his hero outfit which was an odd mix of good and bad news.

...and Iida just outright knew he was the Konoha Kid which actually made sense. Of all their classmates, he was the one that seemed the most likely to watch documentaries, after all.

"Iida's right!" Kaminari said as he walked closer to Izuku, "I know I've seen this before, but I can't remember! This is killing me!"

"D-don't short your brain out, you dolt," Jirou said weakly as she cradled her stomach, "...What is that anyways? A sweatband?"

"No, the symbol's clearly a beetle," Sero said before looking Izuku up and down, "And I'm starting to think I went way too cheap on my outfit..."

"It's not a beetle! It's some sort of dessert on a stick," Satou said as he rubbed his chin, "Not sure which though..."

"It looks like a boob."

Thankfully, Mineta was ignored.

"Tell us what it is," Utsushimi said before whispering, "Even sensei seems interested so maybe just say it and get things moving."

Izuku looked up and sure enough, Aizawa-sensei seemed to be content letting this play out. They made eye contact and Izuku looked away immediately. Who knew if those freaky red eyes let his sensei read his mind or force him to tell the truth or something? He couldn't take that chance...

"Well it's not a sweatband, it's more for my hair and the symbol is—"

"Konohagakure."

Oh, no.

"Did you say my name Yaoyorozu?" Hagakure asked from...somewhere, "Besides, I can't have a symbol. Why? Because I'm invis—"

Ashido covered Hagakure's mouth as she looked at the symbol once more, "Hey! Yaomomo is right! I've seen that symbol before! My parents were watching some boring documentary about ancient Quirks or something!"

"Yaomomo?"

"Hey, you're right!" Sero said snapping his fingers as he ignored Yaoyorozu's question, "I saw something about that on my phone once. Apparently, they were a lot of artefacts and this crazy mountain!"

"I heard the ruins are so old all the corpses disintegrated into dust!"

"My family and I watched a few of those documentaries! Apparently, some of them could shoot fire like Endeavor! Why didn't I remember Midoriya was in them? I know he's kinda plain but still..."

So, that made the second person today that called him plain. Well okay, then.

"I read about it in a newspaper I think. Can't remember too clearly, though. It was ages ago."

"Oh, man. I'm surprised it took me this long to remember. My history teacher wouldn't shut up about Konoha! Ever!"

Izuku felt his stomach sink as he realised that more than just a few of his classmates had heard something about Konoha even if they hadn't all heard about him per se. If anything, the only one that seemed as uncomfortable as Izuku felt was Todoroki who didn't even try to hide the confusion from his face.

"I got it!" Kaminari all but shouted, "That's the symbol of Konoha!"

"Yaoyorozu already said that, i-idiot!" Jirou said with a frown that bled into a pained smirk as she held her stomach, "Did you short-circuit your brain already?"

"No!" Kaminari said waving his arms dramatically, "You didn't let me finish! The whole village was apparently a hotbed for Quirks and my mom was super into the documentaries. A few of them had interviews with the kid who found it while on vacation and the kid's name was—"

"Izuku Midoriya," Yaoyorozu said cutting Kaminari off. Her eyes cutting into Izuku's even as the rest of the class swarmed him with questions.

"Most of us know about that already, Kaminari..."

"Hey, Midoriya! Did you really fight off a pack of wolves?"

"Wasn't Hawks the one that rescued you? How is he in real life? He's so dreamy!"

"Yaoyorozu totally stole my thunder. That was supposed to be my reveal! Anyways, Midoriya! We should go cruising for some chicks. I heard fame just makes them drop their—"

"Enough," Aizawa-sensei said just as Izuku began to feel suffocated by it all, "You've had enough fun now back to the exercise. The next team is up. Go on down."

It had taken just about 24 hours for his class to figure out he was behind the largest archaeological discovery in quite some time. Izuku had expected to have more time, but then again he had brought this upon himself with the forehead protector, hadn't he?

"Finally!" Bakugou shouted from down below, "And by the way, Deku isn't cool for finding that stupid ruin! And my outfit is better!"

"...he really doesn't like you, does he?" Camie asked as Ashido and Aoyama made their way down.

Easiest question he'd had to answer all day."

"No, he doesn't."

"Midoriya," Iida said as he rose from his seat and bowed deeply, "I apologise for causing your anonymity to be eradicated. I've known who you were since we moved in, but I assumed you wanted to forget about a traumatic event. It's my fault —"

"It's okay, Iida," Izuku reassured his classmate as he helped Iida out of his almost reverent bow, "It was bound to happen sooner or later. Don't blame yourself for it."

Iida seemed to take his words to heart and nodded at Izuku's words, "I see. However, if it's not too much trouble, could you allow the rest of the class to ask some questions? I must admit that hearing the story first-hand makes for an interesting prospect."

"Uh," Izuku looked up and saw quite a few of his class had overheard Iida's request. They all looked at him with excitement. Damnit, he couldn't say no now, could he?

Izuku sighed, "...Alright. We can talk about it later tonight."

There were cheers as the last match began and as everyone turned their focus to the second round, Izuku looked away. Instead, he looked at Yaoyorozu who was taking in the fight down below. Ashido was zipping around the arena and her acid was strong enough to cause Kirishima some serious issues.

"Hey, Bakugou! Wanna switch?!" Kirishima asked as he dodged a spray of acid, "I'm kinda losing out here!"

"Busy!" Bakugou shouted as he dodged Aoyama's navel laser by a close, close margin, "Shiny's tougher than he looks! Just deal with it!"

Normally, the display of wonderful Quirks would've had Izuku's attention, but instead, he couldn't help but look at Yaoyorozu. She knew all about him and Konoha and her family was in charge of the discovery site to boot! She may be able to help him and Sumire figure out some of the missing pieces of the whole Konoha debacle.

Or so he hoped.

---

"Die!"

Ashido was sent hurtling through the air before rolling on the ground. Smoke wafted off her body and she began to rise to her feet, but she stopped as her tag was ripped off by Kirishima. Ashido had done well, but after Bakugou had managed to finish Aoyama off, the ending was clear.

Ashido was clearly one of the more adept students and to her testament, she had lasted quite a few minutes on her own after getting the better of Kirishima. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to take Kirishima's tag before Bakugou had taken Aoyama's which, as Izuku had said, led to her defeat.

It made for a tense atmosphere as everyone waited for the next team to be drawn. Bakugou and Kirishima were a great team. It was a sort of sword and shield combo if the sword could blow things up. Plus, the gauntlet battle did kinda favour Bakugou. The more he fought, the more he would sweat which made his explosions bigger.

That would only get worse too.

Izuku was drawn out of his thoughts as the next team was revealed.

"Alright!" Uraraka cheered as she and Iida were summoned down to the arena, "I already know how to play this one, Iida!"

Izuku wished them luck as they made their way down. Uraraka and Iida were given a small amount of time for conferring before finally, the battle began and right off the bat, things were... weird.

Uraraka hopped onto Iida's back like he were some sort of horse before pointing at a baffled Bakugou and Kirishima.

"This looks lame, but it will totally work!"

"Right!" Iida roared back somehow matching Uraraka's passion, "Prepare yourselves, villains!"

This looked really familiar...

"You know," Aoyama's voice whispering in his ear almost made Izuku jump out of his seat, "They're only doing that because of your plan at the Entrance Exam. It may look odd but it is très intelligent..."

How did Aoyama manage to get so close to him? Izuku hadn't even noticed Aoyama was there until he had whispered into his ear. Hadn't Bakugou just beaten him?

"Release!" Uraraka said as she slapped sections of Iida's arms and then herself. She then wrapped her arms and legs around Iida who was carrying her not unlike a baby on his back.

"Let's do it!"

Izuku was able to put Aoyama's peculiarities aside as Iida charged Bakugou and Kirishima. Iida crossed the field in a matter of seconds and was almost face to face with Bakugou's hands before he sprinted out the way. Uraraka being on his back had no impact on Iida's speed which was obviously the work of her Zero Gravity Quirk.

Iida was showing the difference between his and Izuku's speed. Izuku had the edge over shorter distances, but he eventually had to rest. Between lactic acid buildup and the toll the Fatebreaker had on him, it wasn't really practical to keep firing all the while.

Iida had no such limit and he only got faster the longer he ran.

Bakugou had been aiming blasts at Iida-Uraraka all the while, but they were missing by an increasingly wider margin. Soon, Bakugou was just firing at a vague pink and grey blur and missing by a long, long way—

"What the fuck is this?!"

—and it was getting on his nerves too.

It was about a minute after the battle had begun that things took a turn. Iida-Uraraka sped towards Bakugou who looked set to fire a Stun Grenade, but just as they were within range. They pivoted and rushed towards Kirishima.

Kirishima had distanced himself to give Bakugou more room to fire away, but in doing so he had cut himself off from his teammate. Iida-Uraraka sped towards him and Kirishima hardened himself in preparation standing his ground.

It was the wrong move.

A noticeably slower Iida-Uraraka ploughed right into him, but instead of hearing the crunch of Iida's metal-reinforced leg kicking Kirishima, there was a distinct slapping noise as they slowed to a stop just behind Kirishima.

Uraraka hopped off of Iida's back and she looked surprisingly fine considering how fast they'd been moving— perhaps she had been training against nausea? In any case, that wasn't important. What was important was Kirishima's body steadily rising until he was at eye-level with the viewing gallery.

"Oh, damn. They got me," Kirishima said as he flailed uselessly in the air, "Oh. Uh, hey guys! This isn't so manly, is it?"

"It's not," Jirou confirmed immediately, "You look like a joke. A giant floating rock pinata."

"Wow, you don't hold back huh?" Kirishima said an embarrassed smile on his face, "You're probably right, though. I'd laugh at me too if I were you...and I guess I did punch you in the stomach. Sorry about that."

"You know... I'm not all that mad about that anymore for some reason," Jirou said with a very pleased smile, "I'm just committing this image to memory."

A loud explosion disrupted the impromptu conversation between Kirishima and Jirou.

"Damnit, Shitty Hair!" Bakugou roared as he defended himself from an onrushing Iida, "You couldn't have dodged?!"

"I'm not fast enough!"

"That's your fault!" was Bakugou's retort.

"He has a point," Asui said drily, "You definitely should have dodged instead of standing your ground. It's why you look like an idiot now."

"I got it, thanks!"

Izuku turned back to the battle with a smile on his face. Iida really had Bakugou on the ropes. Uraraka was further away and she seemed to be keeping an eye on Kirishima and the fight between Iida and Bakugou.

Iida was primarily playing defence allowing Bakugou to get close before rushing off before Bakugou could land an attack. It made Bakugou's anger rise as he kept the chase up. Perhaps, if he hadn't been so blinded by his fury he would've seen that Iida was clearly guiding him along.

Iida hadn't once even tried for an attack of his own simply preferring to goad Bakugou into chasing him around. This had the added benefit of keeping Uraraka safe which became a very important deal once they came to a halt below Kirishima's floating body.

"Stop running away, glasses!"

"Alright, then!" Iida said before he launched a blindingly fast kick at Bakugou. Bakugou tried to block it with one of his grenade gauntlets, but Iida's kick ploughed straight through it— the mufflers on his calf shrieking all the while.

The gauntlet was crushed immediately and a spray of liquid washed over Iida's foot. His kick had been deflected by the now-broken gauntlet and it smashed into Bakugou's face with quite some force sending him to the ground clearly dazed.

"Uraraka!"

"Got it!" Uraraka said before bringing her hands together, "Uhhh, got it! Crimson Comet: Release!"

"Crimson—oh shi~" Kirishima's question turned into a scream as he was sent falling towards a prone Bakugou.

"Fantastic," Izuku couldn't help, but breath out.

"Why?" Camie asked, but there was no time to explain.

Falling as fast as he was, Kirishima had to either drop his Hardening and smash into the ground while not armoured—not ideal. Or he could keep his Hardening up, but then he would damage Bakugou even more at the cost of preserving himself.

Bakugou and Kirishima were caught between a rock and hard place (there was a pun in there somewhere) and yet Bakugou managed to figure out a solution with ease.

"Keep your Quirk up!" Bakugou roared as he aimed one hand at his ruined gauntlet that was near Iida and the other in front of him.

The rest happened so quickly, but Izuku caught every bit of it. Bakugou fired two consecutive blasts. The first was at his ruined gauntlet and Iida barely had time to begin moving before the blast reached the gauntlet. A titanic explosion washed over the part of the field where Iida and Uraraka were located and sent Iida towards the boundary walls.

"We can get Support Items like that?!" Mineta screamed over the rest of the uproar from the others, "Why didn't anyone tell me that?!"

A spark went off on Izuku's mind as he recalled where Bakugou had aimed his blast. Of course, it was genius! That's what the liquid in those gauntlets had been. They were just giant sweat containers that Bakugou could use for a bigger blast! Even if Iida destroyed one, the sweat inside could still be ignited as he and Uraraka had found out.

Bakugou had used the second blast to propel him backwards—and it was no moment too soon as Kirishima smashed into the ground where Bakugou had just been. Bakugou rolled to his feet and pointed his last remaining gauntlet towards Uraraka who had been blown off her feet by the sheer force of Bakugou's gauntlet exploding.

"Give up!" Bakugou grit out and Uraraka frowned before looking at the gauntlet. For a moment, it looked like she'd attack before in one quick motion Uraraka yanked her tag off and threw it to Bakugou.

"Good choice. Shitty Hair, did you get the other tag?!"

"Yeah!" Kirishima looked pretty fine despite the fall he'd taken (save for some burns here and there) and he stood over Iida who had had the majority of his armour covered in scorch marks and burns. Iida's helmet had been blown off and his glasses were shattered, but he was clearly conscious—just not very able to move.

"Bakugou and Kirishima win! The robots will take Iida to the medic centre and I'll switch the terrain now. The three of you down there move onto the stairs for now."

Bakugou whispered something to Uraraka as he pulled her to her feet and whatever it was seemed to both shock and annoy her. As the field began to sink into the ground, Uraraka had made it to the rest of the class.

"That was awesome! Your guy's plan was so close to working!"

"How did it feel to move so fast?!"

"You're not concussed, are you?"

Uraraka was greeted with louder applause than the ones from earlier and it seemed to cause Uraraka to blush. Once all the commotion and ques died down, Izuku was about to press Uraraka about her plan, but a loud buzzing sound cut that off.

"The field change is complete," Aizawa-sensei said before he pointed, "It's a plain rocky field with no boulders or anything like that. You have practically no cover and will be forced into combat right from the get-go. Environmental awareness is key in combat so keep this in mind. Now, the next team to face Bakugou and Kirishima is—"

Izuku blinked.

How could he forget?

"Midoriya and Utsushimi, you're up next."

He was also a part of these exercises.

"Deku's next?" Bakugou asked and it was as if the mild fatigue he was showing had been wiped away, "That's the best thing I've heard all day!"

"Utsushimi," Izuku said as he began to walk down with his partner, "Leave Bakugou to me. I'll give you something that will help you handle Kirishima until you get an opening to use your Quirk on him."

"That would sound like a plan, but you're like totally not carrying anything other than those sticks on your back..."

Utsushimi blinked, "I'm not trained and I doubt those would even hurt him."

Izuku gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I wouldn't worry about that."

---

Izuku took a deep breath as he and Utsushimi stared down Bakugou and Kirishima. Admittedly, the latter was actually easier to handle. It would be hard to damage Kirishima, but he wasn't as...shrewd as Bakugou was.

It was a common misconception that Bakugou was some sort of idiot, but he wasn't. At least in terms of academics, Bakugou was right there with Izuku—if not ahead. Plus, his combat IQ was on another level. Bakugou had a deep understanding of his Quirk and how to use it.

Unfortunately for Bakugou, Izuku also knew just how his Quirk worked and how he'd use it.

Izuku took that time to remove both chakra rods from his back. He liked to think that between the rods and the armour he looked like a neo samurai or something. His hero outfit had been based on the armour he had found. It wasn't exactly the same, but Izuku liked to think that the bearer of the original version wouldn't have minded it all too much.

The short vision he had gotten after opening the scroll had been short, but Izuku would never forget any of the faces on that mountain. So getting a flashback of them all at once was cool. The First Hokage had been smiling more than his successors so maybe he was a nice guy?

He did wonder how the mantle of Hokage was passed on, but considering all of them were present in his vision maybe it was peaceful? In any case, it had been nice to see all of the Hokage lined up like that. They had this regal and magnetism that Izuku only ever saw in top heroes.

He wished he could have heard them speak or what had brought them together, though. The vision had ended quickly after he'd barely gotten a look at them all. It was fleeting, Izuku wasn't even sure whose perspective he had been watching from.

Izuku shook his head—he was getting sidetracked. He was still way too small to wear the actual armour he had found so he had to improvise. Either way, Izuku quite liked the end result of the outfit. Kendou had vetoed any versions of the All Might based outfits he had had and yet had never shown him any of her costume ideas. So, he hadn't shown anyone other than his mother (and Sumire) sketches of this version.

Turnabout was fair play, after all.

"Here," Izuku said as he handed the chakra rod to Utsushimi, "I would try to rush Kirishima and try to soften him up, but knowing Kacchan he wouldn't let that happen. You okay with that?"

This wasn't the best of matchups for them. Bakugou was Bakugou and there was a clear power disparity between Utsushimi and Kirishima. Thankfully, he had two chakra rods or else they'd been in a bit of trouble.

"Got it," Camie said not even looking at him as she twirled the chakra rod like a baton, "Hey, how is this even attached to your back? You don't have a holster or strap or anything."

Chakra was how, but of course, he couldn't say that.

"Uhm, magnets? Yup. Magnets," Izuku lied as he watched Bakugou bark something to Kirishima, " Now, remember use it like a tennis racquet and he's the ball."

"Gotcha."

"Begin!"

Chakra formed around Izuku before he rushed Bakugou. When he was close, Izuku tried to lash out with a kick, but Bakugou had it well-sighted and dodged it with the aid of an explosion. Izuku slid to a stop and kept his eye on Bakugou. The Fatebreaker faded from his body as he adjusted his grip on the chakra rod.

The Fatebreaker would begin to damage his body after about half an hour of usage at 100%. Even keeping it on while he wasn't moving would still cause damage so he had to use something of a stop-start approach with it. Especially since he wanted to run the whole gauntlet.

"You damn liar," Bakugou growled his body shaking as he stared Izuku down, "Where the hell was this before, Deku? Were you just acting?!"

Bakugou rushed Izuku and instead of panicking he kept calm. Izuku knew Bakugou. He'd watched him from afar and up close all his life. He knew Bakugou's favoured tricks and tactics in different fights. Especially when he wanted to win quickly — which was most of the time really...especially when Izuku was involved.

First, a right hook.

"Die!"

Izuku moved out of the way of the blast—the heat searing his side even through his armour.

Then, a blast with his left.

Again, Izuku rolled out of the way moving just before Bakugou had chosen his strike. Bakugou's explosion met empty air once again. A growl of annoyance escaped Bakugou as well as a cheer from their class above.

Izuku tried a leg sweep, but Bakugou leapt over it with ease. That was fine, though. Izuku activated the Fatebreaker at full blast for just one moment just one second as blue energy enveloped him. A single burst of chakra sent him hurtling at an airborne Bakugou. A glowing hand was pointed towards him, but Izuku had already clocked it.

Izuku grabbed onto Bakugou's arm and deflected it away from him. Izuku's chakra rod blurred through the air before smashing into Bakugou's hurried block. Bakugou winced before a blast from his trapped arm went off. They were sent flying through the air as they wrestled for control. Izuku's world spun and for a moment he thought he had a chance to finally attack.

He was wrong.

A series of explosions from Bakugou's other hand launched the two of them higher into the air. At the apex of their ascent, Bakugou switched their grip and he now held onto Izuku's arm. They began to spin as if they some sort of tornado—the rotational speed provided and continually increasing thanks to Bakugou's still ongoing explosions from his other hand.

"You don't know all my tricks, Deku!" Bakugou yelled and Izuku braced himself as he was swung around one last time, "X-Catapult!"

Izuku activated the Fatebreaker as he was sent away from Bakugou. The increased strength allowed him to readjust his body even as it was sent clear across the arena towards his class. Plus, the added reinforcement would hopefully absorb some of the shock. Izuku's feet were like an arrowhead as he cut through the air and sped towards the viewing gallery.

"Move!"

Thankfully, they already had and Izuku's sandals crunched into the wall with a loud crack. He crouched down on the wall trying to diffuse the force, but the pain was still there. The Fatebreaker did act as a shock absorber of sorts too, but probably at the cost of a reduced time limit. Already, Izuku could feel the familiar creaks and groans of his body come to life.

His feet had made divots in the wall, but he used chakra to adhere him to it further on instinct. Bakugou's new move was really good. Most people didn't have the strength he did so they wouldn't be able to manoeuvre himself the way he had to reduce the damage. It was likely that most of his class had just seen a vague red blur and had expected him to be a red smear on the wall.

A quiet gasp caught his attention.

Izuku looked to his left and met surprised black eyes before he turned back to the arena and frowned as he saw Bakugou close in on him. A series of explosions from both hands was propelling Bakugou forward—his scowl/grin clear to see.

"You're dead!"

Izuku jumped off the wall with a chakra-enhanced leap. He zoomed towards Bakugou and by using both his hands behind him to move, Bakugou was wide open— he wasn't taking Izuku seriously, wasn't he? An urge borne from adrenaline and pain and anger made him curl a fist loaded with chakra back.

One Tsunade-punch would be enough to end this.

Izuku thought back to his morning spar with Kendou as he compressed the chakra in his fist. He'd sent a tree through other bigger trees. He could and would end the fight if he used Tsunade's jutsu, but Bakugou wouldn't come out better for it—if he even survived.

Izuku wanted to win, but he didn't want Bakugou to get seriously injured or die.

Izuku dispelled the chakra in his fist as he and Bakugou raced towards each other. Instead, he put both hands onto his chakra rod. He was holding it like a baseball bat (or tennis racquet ironically) before swinging it at Bakugou who had thrown one hand forward having realised the plight he was in.

Bakugui's intent was clear, but Izuku ignored it. as countless spars and losses from Kendou made him notice the glaring weak spot.

"No, you're dead!"

The rod caught Bakugou flush on his front and there was a loud crack before Bakugou was sent flying. He went clear across the arena before smashing into the ground kicking up a large amount of dust. Gravity began to pull Izuku downwards, but he was able to land in a similar way to on the wall just moments ago—his chakra once again acting as a semi-decent shock absorber.

Bakugou was already rising to his feet by the time he landed, but he was cradling his ribs. Izuku kept that in mind as he looked at the tag dangling from Bakugou's chest. His own was in the exact same spot, neither of their attacks managing to dislodge either their tag or that of their opponents.

Izuku pointed at the tag with one hand and with the other pointed his chakra rod at Bakugou once he rose to his feet, "You want my tag, Kacchan? Come take it from me."

---

"H-Hold still, Deku!" Bakugou growled unleashing a massive explosion towards him.

Izuku glowed as he dodged the blast and slammed a powerful kick into Bakugou's side. He was sent flying back before eventually coming to a stop in a crouch. Izuku gave a glance towards Utsushimi and she seemed to be gaining the upper hand against Kirishima— the strength of the chakra rod too much for Kirishima to withstand especially when weakened.

Kirishima's Quirk wasn't unlimited, obviously, and he had taken quite a beating most notably from Uraraka, Jirou and Ashido. That meant he was all softened up for Utsushimi to take advantage which she was currently doing.

"Ugh! Those hits really hurt! Are you a martial artist?"

"Nah, I've just watched some tennis."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Izuku's attention was drawn away from them, though, as Bakugou's gauntlet suddenly glowed a worrying red. This seemed to please Bakugou as he rose to his feet. Bakugou was still raring to go despite the bruises littering his body. Izuku, similarly, had been on the business end of some explosions, but his armour had protected him from some of it.

Something Bakugou did not appreciate.

"Your stupid armour won't protect you from this," Bakugou said as he pointed to his gauntlet, "I knew I needed a bigger blast to get past your armour so I let you beat me up some. Now, you'll lose."

"Hey! That blast is way too strong for him! He can't take that!"

"Raccoon Eyes is right," Bakugou said with a sneer, "This will show you for holding back on me."

Holding back on him?

"You can kick a ball over a kilometre away and yet you've only hit me with stuff around the level of my weaker blasts at best," Bakugou spat as he pulled a mechanism on his gauntlet back, "Even now, you still aren't taking me seriously! I saw you go for a punch in midair. I bet it was the same sort of punches that you use to destroy that robot, wasn't it?!"

Izuku didn't answer, but his face must have given him away.

"That's what I thought," Bakugou said before touching something on his gauntlet, "That's why I had this change installed just for you. All the sweat I've stored is now being pumped to my palm. By the time this thing chimes—"

DING

"You're gonna lose," Bakugou smiled as he unclipped his gauntlet and threw it aside, "So you better come at me with all you've got or you'll lose, Deku!"

The smell of burnt sugar wafted through the air and Izuku frowned. That was a lot of nitroglycerin. If Bakugou hit with that then it would be over that was for certain.

Izuku pumped the Fatebreaker to 100% ignoring the creaks in his body. He still had quite a ways to go before reaching his limit, but using 100% was always uncomfortable. His time limit wasn't really linear to the percentage and he'd probably need help from one of the teachers figuring it out.

He'd only lasted half an hour at 100% before being completely wiped out. Meanwhile going anywhere between 20-40% lasted well over two hours with only a bit of lingering pain and aches afterwards. It was something for later, though.

Right now, he had to be at full speed if he wanted to avoid this explosion though. Based on his explanation, Bakugou seemed to be going for a close-range version. This was despite the fact that gauntlets definitely had a long-range feature built-in.

Not for the first time, Izuku bemoaned his lack of long-range moves. Tsunade punches weren't like All Might's Texas Smashes that warped the air around them. The chakra in the punches needed to be channelled into an object to be truly effective.

"Kacchan, I can't use that punch on you because I'm good at them! You'll explode if I hit you with one now!"

"Like hell, I will," Bakugou said with a frown, "Those robots were designed to fall apart. How else do you think people with normal strength broke them? I'll show everyone here and your annoying loudmouth girlfriend that your punch is just an overhyped joke!"

Annoying loudmouth?

Bakugou rushed him. His gloves beginning to glow—the right glove, in particular, was glowing much more intensely for obvious reasons. Instead of waiting for Bakugou, Izuku charged in at full speed anger propelling to go flat out and damn the consequences.

The gulf in their speed was clear as Izuku crossed the distance between them far quicker. Bakugou wanted a show of bonafide power from Izuku. As if everything Izuku had achieved to get into UA and since moving in had been a fluke.

He'd even go as far as to insult Kendou which made Izuku pissed. Maybe it had been the conversation, he'd had with her or years of baggage coming to the forefront, but suddenly Izuku didn't really mind hitting Bakugou really hard.

Izuku flicked his chakra rod at Bakugou. A gambit to distract Bakugou, but Bakugou deflected it with a blast from his left hand sending it flying up and away. Soon, they were upon each other and Izuku knew he had to give Bakugou what he wanted.

Bakugou's palm shone so brightly it almost blinded Izuku meanwhile Izuku's own hand was wreathed in chakra as he threw a punch forward. At the angles they'd chosen, both of their hits would connect which was almost certainly the worst outcome.

And yet, he soldiered on.

He ignored the screams from his class no matter where they came from and who they were directed at. Time slowed as Izuku and Bakugou were right in each other's guards. Izuku channelled a massive amount of chakra to his front preparing to tank Bakugou's blast. His armour would definitely not be enough.

If it had (kinda) worked once before, after all.

Izuku's met Bakugou's red eyes through the shine and flash of their powers. It was there and then that Izuku had realised a mistake he'd made in his righteous anger. Bakugou's attack needed to be close-range yes, but unlike Izuku's he didn't need to make actual contact.

He'd been goaded into this, hadn't he?

Izuku's hand was inches away from Bakugou when the light from Bakugou's palm flared to life.

"Big Bang—!"

Izuku remembered something from earlier today and did the only thing he could to bridge the gap. He focused on his finger compressing a smaller amount of chakra than had been in his fist. He braced for the fire and fury of Bakugou's explosion, but it never came.

Izuku opened his eyes only to see that Bakugou's palm was no longer aflame. Remembering the conversation with Mirio, Izuku flicked his finger forward and it smashed into Bakugou's chest. He watched as Bakugou's face morphed from a furious glee to confusion.

"Your eyes...why are they—" Bakugou began before his face morphed into a mix of pain and confusion.

Release.

The chakra burst forth from his finger and into Bakugou. Immediately, Bakugou was sent tumbling across the arena with a resounding crack. Bakugou's body turn and spun and banged against the ground over and over. There were more than just a few cracks and snaps as Bakugou showed no signs of slowing down.

It was getting to be gruesome and then suddenly Bakugou slowed down before he came to a stop. Izuku blinked a few times rapidly—his eyes feeling rather odd almost as if they were on fire. The feeling vanished almost immediately and it was only then that Izuku caught sight of what was around Bakugou's leg.

Izuku chanced a look up at the viewing gallery and sure enough, Aizawa-sensei, no, Eraserhead met his gaze as he held onto his scarf in a complicated grip. His eyes were burning red as he looked down at Izuku before they faded to black.

"Bakugou is disqualified due to knockout! A robot will take him to the infirmary."

Knockout? Did Izuku hit him on the head? No, definitely not. Then again, Izuku was pretty sure he'd seen Bakugou's head hit the ground a few times after their clash...

"Bakugou?!" Kirishima began as he blocked another strike from Utsushimi, "What the hell—"

It was at this moment that Izuku knew it was over.

Utsushimi looked a bit tired and had bruises of her own, but finally, she had a bit of breathing room. She took a deep breath in before blowing a massive pink cloud at Kirishima. The boy inhaled quite a lot of it by accident and began to thrash around.

Weirdly, the air seemed to warp as Utsushimi disappeared from sight. Kirishima, on the other hand, had dropped his Hardening as he threw a thumbs up at Izuku?

"Good job on beating Midoriya, Bakugou! Look, I already have Utsushimi's tag!"

Adding to the confusion, Kirishima gestured to his own tag— his eyes were a bright pink that looked eerie and unnatural. Izuku wasn't sure what to make of it until a loud thump echoed through the arena. Kirishima fell to the floor in a heap and again the air shimmered before Utsushimi appeared in a burst of pink sparkles holding Izuku's chakra rod.

The position she was in made it clear she had just absolutely clubbed Kirishima upside the head. Unperturbed, Utsushimi crouched down and ripped the tag off of Kirishima's chest. She twirled it around her finger and shrugged at Eraserhead.

"Game, set and match," Utsushimi said with what was probably far too wide a smile, "We win, right?"

"It is," Aizawa-sensei confirmed with a nod, "You took the tag and Midoriya knocked Bakugou out with his...finger flick. Anyways, next up are Satou and Sero."

Just like that, it was over. Izuku had beaten Bakugou...and yet something about the fight felt off for some reason.

Or maybe he was just reeling from actually beating Bakugou— even if he was handicapped to some degree.

---

As robots carted Kirishima off in the same direction Iida and Bakugou had been taken, Izuku went to speak to Utsushimi. She gave him his chakra rods—the second one she'd picked up after Bakugou had knocked it away.

"Thank you...Did you have to hit Kirishima so hard?" Izuku couldn't help but say.

She blinked.

"Did you have to hit Bakugou so hard?" Utsushimi asked and he had no answer, "Honestly, like, they got what they deserved. Bakugou blew Iida up and Kirishima punched a lot of people with his Hardening Quirk on—especially me. I just wanted to leave my mark."

Izuku couldn't fault her logic. Perhaps she had more right to react the way she had. Izuku had had no plans of using Tsunade-shishou's jutsu until Bakugou had insulted Kendou. It was as if a switch had been flicked and he'd just become awash with anger.

He could only hope it was a one-off.

"You're right I'm making this bigger than it has to be," he conceded before looking at Satou and Sero, "I'll take Satou so that leaves you with Sero. Do you need a stick for this?"

"Nah, it's okay," Utsushimi said as she did a stretch, "I held back on using my Quirk last time, but I'm guessing I'll need it more this time."

"Okay, only if you're sure," Izuku said as he braced himself, "I think you should use your Quirk immediately. I'll handle these two until you get your opportunity."

The match began and immediately Utsushimi used her Quirk to make her disappear. This left Izuku in what was essentially a 2v1 situation. At least until Utsushimi reappeared, that was. Sero seemed wary of the danger and he raised his elbows towards Izuku.

"That won't work on us!" Sero yelled across at him and in slight worry for Utsushimi, Izuku decided to target him first.

He charged Sero as streams of tape were launched at him. Izuku dove and weaved around each strand just managing to evade them. It was a blessing Sero could only shoot two at a time or Izuku would have been in a world of trouble.

He felt like a broken record saying this over and over long-range was Izuku's biggest weakness by a long way.

Izuku once again avoided two streams of tape as he reached his destination. Satou and Sero were quite close to each other and when it was clear that Sero wouldn't be able to catch him, Satou intervened.

A bulked-up version of Satou (which was saying something really) intercepted his charge and blocked Izuku's initial punch with some effort. Izuku strained against Satou whose Quirk was causing quite the problem.

Satou pushed Izuku back and tried to punch him, but thankfully his speed hadn't been boosted so Izuku was able to stay ahead of him. This didn't discourage Satou, though, as he continued to press his advantage.

In a cruel twist of fate, it was very similar to his last spar with Kendou except that this time, he was the one leading Satou around. It was clear that Satou had some sort of training, but he kept making some errors that Kendou had beaten out of him.

Perhaps this was how Kendou had seen their fight? Izuku making mistakes she had long since worked out of her style?

Satou seemed entirely unfussed with defence and would definitely tire himself if kept going and yet he did. It was strange too since Izuku wouldn't have pegged Satou to be like this. It was almost as if a veil—

"Of course," Izuku grit out as he stepped out of the way of another heavy and overextended punch, "Your Quirk is impairing your thoughts which means—"

He could end this in one go if he needed to.

Izuku did not wait for Satou to make another mistake. He dashed to the side dropping out of Satou's field of vision. Satou realised this about a second or two later, but by then it was already too late.

Izuku jumped onto Satou's back and locked his legs around his waist and his arm around Satou's neck in a chokehold. Chakra adhered him to Satou which made his thrashing useless. It should have worked after a few seconds (which he knew thanks to the hands-on demonstration Kendou had given him) but Satou's muscles made that a lot harder.

So then Izuku just powered up and finally locked in a powerful enough hold on Satou. It seemed needlessly cruel, but also as though it was the exact strategy to use. Perhaps some lingering anger from Bakugou's jibe was still getting at him.

He couldn't ponder that for long, though as Satou finally collapsed. His body powered down from the bulked-up form which made it easy to turn Satou over. Izuku found his tag and held it aloft in celebration and he was about to check his partner's progress when two sticky strands wrapped around his arm.

"Gotcha!" Sero smiled and he had a few oblong bruises on his body before jerking back which reeled Izuku towards him, "Sorry Satou, but you made it real hard to get a clear shot!"

Instead of panicking Izuku let himself be dragged towards Sero. He unclipped a chakra rod with his free hand as Sero pulled him in and slammed it into the ground. At the same time, he used chakra to stick to the ground and immediately he stopped cold.

Izuku's arm flared with pain from the sudden stop, but he ignored that as Sero continued to pull him forward which was, unbeknownst to Sero, a fruitless endeavour. Sero grew a vein as he tried to wrench Izuku from the ground.

"How...strong are you?" Sero grit out, "I've pulled way heavier stuff than you! Screw it! I'll just use my left to wrap you—urk!"

Sero was cut off as he suddenly grabbed at his throat. The tapes around Izuku's arms loosened as Sero scratched at his throat before collapsing while still standing in about ten seconds. Sero was thrown to the floor and the air warped before Utsushimi appeared and unlatched Sero's tag.

By the time she held it aloft, Sero was already conscious again.

Izuku blinked. It wasn't apparent at first, but between whacking an unarmoured Kirishima over the head and choking Sero out, Izuku realised something. Utsushimi was actually pretty hardcore.

"Wait Utsushimi got me from behind? Ugh, I totally forgot about her when Midoriya dropped Satou," Sero rasped as he tried to stand up, "D-Damnit. I didn't even feel her boo—"

"Midoriya and Utsushimi win! Asui and Kouda are next! Get on down."

Izuku wasn't sure why Aizawa-sensei had said that in such a rush. Eh, it probably didn't matter. Izuku congratulated Utsushimi and once Asui and Kouda were in front of them he let the Fatebreaker activate. His body began to protest at the surge of energy which spurred him into his next decision.

The match began and Izuku rushed towards Asui and Kouda. Now, in Izuku's defence, he had been aiming for Asui since she was definitely the bigger threat. What he did not expect was for Kouda to inexplicably move between Asui and Izuku's leaping punch headed right for her.

CRACK

"Kouda is eliminated due to knockout!"

...at least his jaw hadn't been broken? A dislocation was better, right?

---

Izuku sighed as he dove out of the way of Asui's tongue for the umpteenth time. She really was a pain.

"Utsushimi, hang back!" Izuku hollered at his partner as he sprinted towards Asui, "I'll get her this time!"

"Yeah, sure, totally," Utsushimi said a bit too flippantly for his liking, "Oh, and call me Camie."

Izuku closed in on Asui and he tried not to let himself get frustrated as she just jumped up to the ceiling in one casual. To add insult to injury, she stuck to the ceiling much like he would if he were crazy enough to use the surface sticking.

It wasn't on purpose, but it still sucked.

Izuku had twice made the mistake of jumping after her and twice had almost gotten wrapped up in her tongue. Asui could probably stay up there for the rest of the time limit which seemed to be her goal. She'd jump down very far from Izuku and then spring away back to her original perch once he got close.

Occasionally, she'd tried to nab one of them with her tongue— usually Izuku, since Utsushimi kept using her Quirk to disappear and reappear intermittently. This meant Izuku and Utsushimi had to be pretty far apart lest Asui capture them both or Izuku accidentally dispels Utsushimi's illusion.

It was a really frustrating fight and it felt like Asui was getting payback for Kouda being flashed knocked out by an immediate blitz from Izuku.

"I'm not that mean, Midoriya," Asui said from the ceiling, "I just know my limits, ribbit."

Fair enough. Wait, he had said that out loud...at this point he might just gag himself.

Once again, Izuku bemoaned his lack of ranged techniques. In UA's insulated environment, it wasn't all bad since this was where he was supposed to improve. As Kage, though, he could end up hurt very quickly. He'd gotten immensely lucky against Dabi.

He had a feeling that Dabi would take him a lot more seriously if they ever fought again.

Right on cue, Izuku dodged Asui's tongue as it shot at him, but as it was in midair it suddenly veered off in a different direction. Izuku was confused until he saw Utsushimi appear from underneath one of her illusions.

"Utsu—Camie watch out!"

"What are you— woah!" Asui had managed to wrap her tongue around Camie and was pulling her in really quickly.

Izuku clenched his fist. Asui had managed to play them.

"Let go of me!" Camie yelled as she tried to stay to the ground but she was lifted off with ease well before Izuku could even make it back.

Izuku expected to see Utsushimi get her tag ripped off and leave him alone with Asui. Instead, something a bit more...gross happened.

"Sorry about this!" Utsushimi yelled before biting down on Asui's tongue.

The noise of pain Asui made sent chills down Izuku's spine, but he put out of his mind as Asui seemed to lose her focus and fell to the ground. However, unlike Sero earlier the pain wasn't enough to make Asui let go of her captor.

This was still a golden opportunity, though. Izuku figured out Asui's trajectory and he sprinted before tackling her in midair. He was able to roll to a stop with him on top of her. Without hesitation, he ripped the tag off of Asui.

"That's it," Izuku breathed out, "It's over. You were a handful, Asui. I'm not sure how else we could've beaten you."

"You did well to win, Izuku," Asui said before blinking, "I couldn't beat you so I just did my best to get a victory of my own, ribbit. Also, you can get off me now."

Asui's voice sounded a bit weird considering her tongue was out of her mouth, but Izuku still got the message loud and clear. He hopped off of Asui very, very quickly and looked away from her. Instead, Izuku looked towards Camie and it was then that he processed all of what Asui had said.

"Camie, check your tag," Izuku said pointing to the spot where she had pinned it.

Asui's tongue unfurled from around Camie and revealed what Izuku had already known to be the truth.

"It's gone," Izuku sighed.

"It is?" Camie reached up to the spot and blinked once she realised it was gone, "I guess it is. When did that happen?"

"After you bit my tongue," Asui said as she rose to her feet, "I've had worse happen to it so getting bit wasn't great, but that wasn't the worst that has happened. I figured out your pattern of appearing and disappearing and you reaching forward to bite me made it a lot easier."

Izuku was impressed by that. Pretty much everyone so far had shown a lot of ingenuity or grit or strength. The battles were brutal and Izuku had expected an intervention from Aizawa-sensei, but there had been none. Then again, Aizawa-sensei had threatened them all with expulsion so he was clearly more of a trial by fire guy.

"The winner of this match is Midoriya who'll be facing the next team alone," Aizawa-sensei said and Izuku frowned as he remembered that piece of information, "And that team will be..."

Izuku calmed himself down even as the class buzzed and chattered with excitement. He still had more than enough left in the tank even though he was probably going to be pretty sore later on today.

Still, though, he was sure he could handle whoever came his way even if he was alone.

The hope and confidence he had in himself took a bit of a nasty blow when he read who was next.

"...Oh, boy," Camie said from further away, "Good luck?"

He'd need a bit more than just good luck.

---

There was not much that could make Shouta confused. He had seen a lot in his day—and that made him sound old, but it was true. He had done a lot of both daytime and nighttime hero work and found he preferred the latter.

He'd seen all sorts of criminals and Quirks and situations. However, in his time at UA, he had never faced quite a conundrum like the one before him. Bakugou and Midoriya knew each other obviously he had read their files and they had both gone to the same school.

The number one and number two entrants had been separated by just one point and they had both destroyed a zero pointer in their exams. Furthermore, their families appeared to be close on some level if the interaction between Midoriya and Bakugou's mother was anything to go by.

And yet, Midoriya and Bakugou got on like a caricature of him and Present Mic —without the mutual respect and friendship that he and Mic had for each other. It was just chaotic and volatile and contradictory to what their relationship should have been like.

Bakugou considered Midoriya to be far, far below him. And yet anyone rational— which Bakugou definitely was about everything except Midoriya —could see that they were a lot closer to being equals. nAd maybe Bakugou was even a little behind depending on the circumstances.

It was why he'd rigged the draws so that those two would definitely face each other. He wanted a peek beneath the hood and their battle had given him a lot of insight. However, things had gone too far and he'd intervened when Bakugou and Midoriya had their showdown.

He had activated his Quirk and had had a chastising speech ready—it was all for nought. Instead of both Quirks being erased—only Bakugou's had been. This left him wide open to Midoriya's counterattack: A finger flick strong enough to send Bakugou tumbling well all over thirty metres away and knock him out.

It would've been more too if he hadn't used his scarf to slow Bakugou down.

Erasure allowed him to cancel out Quirks that needed any sort of activation to work. It would work on say Cementoss or Kirishima, but fail on a mutant type like Asui or Miruko. There were caveats, though.

Simply having a different body wasn't enough to escape his Quirk, though. All Quirks often had either passive or active elements— if not both. Ordinarily, he could do something about the active elements. So, Shouji passively had six arms and was very strong, but he could actively grow as many limbs as he needed.

This didn't explain why his Quirk had failed on Midoriya. His Quirk definitely wasn't always active — the blue aura was a dead giveaway of when it was active. Furthermore, his speed and strength were scalable which again implied his Quirk worked on activation and not passivity.

And Shouta's Quirk was meant to cancel the activation of any sort of Quirk and their sub-powers.

There was still the possibility that he was wrong, though. He wasn't so arrogant as to assume his subjective experience was the objective truth. He needed to find out more and consult people better-versed in Quirk Science and the like.

After all, this was not the first time his Quirk had failed in an unexpected situation...

All Shouta would do, for now, was some initial evidence collecting and probing. He wouldn't sound the alarm, whatever that may look like, until he was dead sure in his findings. Furthermore, he wouldn't let this new development deviate or hurt his other students.

He still felt just a tad guilty about what he was doing. Just a tad.

Midoriya had been a lightning rod for attention from many from Bakugou to Utsushimi who was a bit more adept and cruel than he had expected. In the end, was it wrong that he had rigged the draws once again? None of the staff had really complained about his plan to use Midoriya to spur some of the others on.

He'd clocked onto Izuku's weakness and perhaps some strife would reveal more about the boy to him than Midoriya had displayed. Plus neither of the next team was as hot-headed as Bakugou so things probably wouldn't go as far.

Still, though, he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty at what he'd done to Midoriya. Despite his power, Midoriya was a bit too...cherubic for him to not feel a bit bad about what he had done. It was probably the stuttering and nervousness, he decided.

Then again the situation was funny from a certain perspective, so maybe the stuttering and nervousness made his reactions all the more amusing to Shouta.

"That next team will be..." Shouta pressed a button, but he already knew what the result was going to be. When it finished he turned the display to his entire class before finishing it by showing it to Midoriya.

Seeing Midoriya's face drop and pale definitely tickled a dark and twisted part within him.

"Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, you're up!"

---

Author Notes:

And that's all she wrote!

This chapter was really long, but I wanted to fit in a good number of fights so I hope you guys enjoyed this.

And yes Izuku's first hero costume is a modified version of Hashirama's armour. Not Madara's, I'm afraid. The droopy bit between his legs discounted it from being considered.

A bit of the other characters and Aizawa seems to be onto something.

...There's a lot to unpack in this chapter I've just now realised. Oh well. At least, I didn't leave it on a cliffhanger!

Thanks for all the comments and subs and all that. We've crossed 1000 favourites on FFN! Thanks guys!