Izuku walked with his classmates as they headed down towards Training Ground Beta, dressed in his UA High PE outfit.

Clutching the soft fabric of the red, white and blue jacket, a smile came to his face. It was still crazy to him that he was here, at UA, with All Might as his mentor and One for All in his possession.

It seemed like most of his dreams from when he was a kid had come true, going to UA, meeting All Might, having a Quirk, and he still couldn't believe how unbelievably lucky he was.

The only downside so far was the death glare he was getting from Kachaan, something that he had thought he had gotten used to already, but unnerved him all the same because of its new context.

Kachaan seemed convinced he had cheated his way into UA, and Izuku couldn't understand why Kachaan couldn't just accept that he had earned his place here. The thing that worried him was what Kachaan planned to do about it.

For his entire life, teachers had always believed Kachaan's words over his own, no matter what kind of evidence Izuku brought up to dispute it. What would happen if UA was the same?

What if Kachaan kicked up a stink about Izuku being there, and Mr Aizawa expelled him? No, no, that was crazy. UA was the best hero school in the country, maybe even the world! Surely the teachers couldn't just expel people like that?

"Whoever comes last in this test will be expelled immediately."

Izuku could almost picture his world cracking around him. Oh god. Oh god! UA let their teachers expel students at will! What if Kachaan told them he cheated? He hadn't, but teachers always believe Kachaan!

"Oh, and you think big natural disasters are fair, or power-hungry villains? Or Catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities. No... the world is full of unfairness. It's a hero's job to try to combat that unfairness."

Mr Aizawa's eyes almost glowed as he looked over the class, and Izuku shook, used to teachers only looking at him when he had done something wrong, or someone had said he did.

But Mr Aizawa's gaze drifted over him without incident, as the man glared at each student in turn.

"If you wanna be a pro you're gonna have to push yourself to the brink. For the next three years, U.A. will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So go beyond. Plus Ultra style."

Izuku's fists clenched at Mr Aizawa's words. He deserved to be here. He knew he did. All Might kept saying he did, and All Might was never wrong about anything! Except for that first thing that he asked him, but he had forgiven the man months ago.

As Bakugou was selected to be the example for the ball toss, Izuku mentally hunkered down to stop himself from flinching at the sound of the massive explosion. He was going to do his best during these tests, he had to.

He couldn't rely on One for All yet, because it would ruin his body, so he would just have to push through without it.

Izuku was so damn nervous.

The exercises Mr Aizawa had them doing weren't terribly hard, but most of his classmates were able to excel at something or another, while he had in the middle of the pack for almost every test.

If he wanted to secure his spot at UA, he would probably have to try and figure out a way to use One for All during the final test, the ball toss. But how could he throw the ball with One for All without destroying himself?

"Midoriya, you're up."

Izuku winced but moved over to Mr Aizawa anyway. Something about the way the teacher was watching him made him even more nervous, but if he didn't do well here, he wouldn't be able to stay at his dream school!

His first throw… didn't really happen. Mr Aizawa turned out to be the ever-elusive Underground Pro Hero, Eraserhead, something that Izuku was internally fanboying about, alongside panicking because well, Eraserhead was essentially telling him that he wasn't good enough.

'Maybe he's right. Maybe All Might chose wrong. But I won't give up! I'm so close to my dream, I won't allow myself to stop! If I can put One for All in my finger only! Then I can throw it further without breaking my whole arm!'

He vaguely heard Kachaan say something mean about him, but for once he didn't register it as he grabbed the ball for the second throw that Mr Aizawa had told him to take.

'Ok focus. Your right pointer finger. All of the power you can feel goes there!'

He swung his arm again, and this time, instead of a soft thud against the floor, there was a loud BOOOM as the ball went absolutely flying. Izuku gritted his teeth as he felt a sharp pain in his right pointer finger, as well as the top of his palm.

Opening his eyes, he turned back around to Mr Aizawa to see the man's disappointed glare gone. Izuku clenched his fist and held it up to the man, his pointer finger shattered the skin purple.

"I did it, sir. I'm still standing."

Izuku thought he saw the beginnings of a smile peeking up from behind the man's smirk when an explosion went off to his left, a scream filling the air.

"DEEEEKKKUUUU! What the hell was that you damn nerd?!"

Izuku flinched, throwing his hands over his face to protect himself from the imminent explosion-to-the-chest, Kachaans specialty when he heard something snap into place, the expected explosion never arriving.

"Why the hell is this scarf so damn strong?!"

Izuku peeked out from behind his arms to see Mr Aizawa's scarf wrapped around Kachaan's arms and torso, the man's eyes glowing red as they erased his Quirk. "Because it's a capture weapon, not a scarf. Now, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Kachaan seemed confused about the question, and Izuku definitely was. "What the fuck do you mean?"

Aizawa did something, and Kachaan dropped to the ground, still on his feet but unable to move. "What I mean, Bakugou, is what the hell do you think you're doing, attempting to attack another student like that?"

Izuku's eyes were wide open in shock as he heard the first teacher in all of his life stop Kachaan from doing something. Kachaan on the other hand didn't take it well.

"SO FUCKING WHAT?! THE FUCKER LIED TO ME ABOUT HAVING A QUIRK, HE HAD TO HAVE CHEATED SOMEHOW! LOOKING DOWN ON ME FOR ALL THOSE YEARS... I WAS GOING TO REMIND HIM WHAT HIS PLACE WAS!"

Izuku didn't think he had ever seen a teacher ever look as angry at Kachaan as Mr Aizawa looked right now. "His place? You have no right to decide what his place is. I, on the other hand, do. For all of you."

Izuku winced. Here it was, he fully expected that Mr Aizawa was going to expel him because Kachaan said he cheated, but… his eyes were drawn to a blue screen that appeared in the air above Mr Aizawa.

Reading through the names, he found his own at #14, just below the middle of the pack. Aizawa's glare seemed to harden. "As you can see, he isn't last. His place is here at UA."

Aizawa pulled Bakugou closer until he was a few meters away. "Yours, however, is not. Not anymore. Pack your stuff, you're expelled. Mineta Minoru, you too. Don't think I couldn't see you harassing the girls. You're expelled too."

Izuku froze, his arms falling limp at his sides as his mind processed what Mr Aizawa said. He… he was still a student! And Kachaan… wasn't? Kachaan's yelling faded into the background as Izuku stared at Mr Aizawa, his mind going a million miles a minute.

Teacher. Kachaan. Expelled. Huh?

Izuku barely even registered Aizawa leaving with the two boys in tow, wrapped up in his scarf as both of them wriggled and thrashed, trying to escape. Kachaan was expelled from UA?

That was… good? Bad? There was a part of him that was crying out to say something to Aizawa, to try and fix it and make Kachaan be able to stay. But there was a tiny, selfish part of him that had been growing ever since he started training with All Might that held him back, stopped him from saying anything.

What could he do, anyway? He knew from experience that teachers never listened to him...