Hello! Sorry for the late update. Independence Day left me a bit delayed, and this chapter was a harder one to write in general. I think I was able to convey everything that I wanted to, though. Hopefully, you all enjoy it! I'll be continuing the lore dive in the next chapter!
Uraraka knew something was wrong. It all started a couple of months ago when she had received her acceptance letter for UA. Shinsou had texted her that he also got into UA, and they were so excited. She asked if he'd told Midoriya, and he just replied that he would later. So, Uraraka thought nothing of it. She had texted Midoriya, and they had scheduled a celebratory lunch together. Since then, she had texted Shinsou on occasion, but every time she brought up Midoriya, he brushed her off or played dumb. Uraraka was getting pretty annoyed. She figured that maybe they were fighting? Or should she say Shinsou was probably fighting with Midoriya? Midoriya refused to answer any of her questions about it. Still, she could see how sad he was every time she brought up their friend. It was especially hard now that she was officially staying with Midoriya.
The bubbly girl had moved into the shop a couple of days before the first day of class. Her parents had helped her move her things in, commenting about the lovely little house she was renting from and smiling sweetly at Midoriya. They never knew that he was why their business was doing so well, and Uraraka knew that they probably would never know. That was fine, though. Uraraka knew, and that was good enough for her. But that brought her back to her current situation. It was the first day of the school year for UA. Midoriya had already been acting oddly because of whatever happened with Shinsou, but not like this. Honestly, he was scaring her a little. "Uhh, Midoriya?" She held her hand out towards him but wasn't sure what she should actually do. Her new roommate stood in the kitchen, listening to static on his radio and pouring tea onto the counter instead of his favorite mug. "I-is everything okay?" Her worry grew when he didn't respond. She gently tapped him on the shoulder, startling him so badly that he spilled tea onto the floor.
"O-oh! G-good morning, Uraraka." Midoriya smiled shakily as he set his teapot down on the counter. "D-do you want any breakfast?" Without acknowledging any of the mess, he walked over to his pantry. He started pulling out boxes of cereal and cookies.
Uraraka held her hands out as she tried to stop him. "Y-yes, I'm fine with cereal. Are you okay?"
He didn't answer her as he started pulling out bags of chips and then turned to the fridge and looked through its contents. "Do you need to make a lunch, or are you buying it from school? I have plenty of snacks! Help yourself! Do you want me to make your lunch?"
Alright. Uraraka knew she needed to snap him out of whatever was on his mind. "Midoriya!" He jumped, and Uraraka winced. She hadn't meant to startle him again, but he was finally looking at her now. Whatever was upsetting him must've been pretty serious for him to be so out of it. "Sorry! It's just-. Is everything okay? You seem like something is bothering you."
Midoriya sighed as he closed the fridge door. He rubbed his eyes, and Uraraka could see how tired he looked. "I'm sorry. I have a client coming today that I've been avoiding." Midoriya leaned against the counter, only to make a face as cold tea seeped into his shirt. He stepped away from the counter and decided to start cleaning.
"Can you not stay inside the store today or pretend you're not home?" If whoever was going to come over made Midoriya this worried, then couldn't he find a way to not grant their wish? Uraraka frowned when Midoriya shook his head.
The shopkeeper brushed his hand through his hair. "I've been avoiding him for years. I always kinda knew I'd meet him eventually. I just wish he had given up on his wish." He didn't elaborate further.
Uraraka watched Midoriya quietly clean up all of the spilled tea. She offered to help, but he silently shook his head and ushered her out of the kitchen with her breakfast. She wished she could do more, but her friend didn't seem like he wanted any help, and if the girl stuck around much longer, she'd be late for her first day. Uraraka frowned but finished her breakfast and headed out. She would help him when she got back. "Bye, Midoriya! Text me if you need me to bring anything home!" The brown-haired girl frowned when Midoriya didn't reply. Something was definitely wrong, and Uraraka wasn't going to rest until she fixed it.
With a heavy sigh, the teen made her way to UA. It didn't take her long to arrive at the school, and she paused outside of her classroom door. 1-A. She had actually made it to UA, and she was in class 1-A! Uraraka opened the door and was surprised to see a taller boy with dark blue hair talking to Shinsou. "-by your heroism. Next time, please give me more of a heads up, though. It was disorienting to be snapped out of your quirk like that." Shinsou looked embarrassed but just nodded along to whatever the guy was saying.
"Shinsou! It's nice to see you're in this class as well!" Both boys turned to look at her as she bounced up to Shinsou.
Her purple-haired friend smiled at her, raising his hand slightly in a lazy wave. "Uraraka. Glad that someone I know is in the class."
As he said that, another girl walked into the class. The girl perked up at Shinsou and rushed over, waving her hand excitedly. "Bracelet Guy! You made it, and you're in my class!" Uraraka grinned as Shinsou sheepishly waved back at the pink-skinned girl. The brown-haired teen was so happy to see Shinsou making friends! He looked a little uncomfortable as the girl, who introduced herself as Mina, started chatting with him. However, Uraraka could see the tension in his shoulders slowly fade the longer Mina talked to him.
"Quiet down." All heads froze and turned to look at the front of the classroom. Some weird yellow worm thing entered the classroom, slithering across the floor, then rolled over to face them. Uraraka reeled back as she realized there was a man's face inside the yellow thing. "If you're just here to make friends, then pack up your stuff and go home." The man fixed them all with a tired glare as the class immediately grew silent. "That took you eight seconds. Rational students would know not to waste any time. Right. Now," He held up the UA gym uniform, which he pulled out of his sleeping bag? Uraraka narrowed her eyes. Now that she was looking at him, the man was tucked inside a bright yellow sleeping bag. "I'm your teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Put these on and meet me outside."
Uraraka blinked in surprise. Outside? Now? She opened her mouth to question him, but their teacher just slunk away through the doors, not even waiting to see if they were following. "Well, I guess we head outside now?" The brown-haired girl grabbed her bag, and the group all walked to the locker rooms together.
They all quickly changed into their gym clothes and met their teacher on the field. "Today, you all will be completing a Quirk Assessment Test."
The whole class stared at him in surprise. Uraraka raised her hand with a worried expression. "But what about the Entrance Ceremony and Orientation?"
She lowered her hand when he looked at her. "You all want to become heroes. Well, heroes-in-training don't have time to waste with pointless ceremonies." He grinned, and Uraraka felt a shiver go down her spine. "Here at UA, teachers have free reign on how they run their class. That means I get to teach as I see fit." Aizawa picked up a baseball, then turned to a kid with spikey yellow hair. "Bakugou Katsuki. You placed first in the entrance exam. What was the furthest distance throw you had in middle school."
The student, Bakugou, fixed their teacher with a questioning look. "67 meters."
"You all have been taking standardized tests for most of your lives. However, you were all prohibited from using your quirks during physical exams. This means you don't know the limitations of your quirk and what can be accomplished with it. It is illogical. Now, try throwing this ball with your quirk." Aizawa held the ball out for Bakugou to take. The student walked forward, grabbed the ball, then stood up to the circle that their teacher pointed to. He flung the ball while activating his quirk, shouting 'die' loudly. Uraraka watched, impressed as the ball soared through the sky. A metal device beside Aizawa beeped and showed a score of 705.2 meters.
"Woah! 705 meters?" A boy with a lightning bolt in his hair exclaimed loudly with a grin.
Mina cheered, raising her hands in the air. "I wanna go! That looks like fun!"
"Fun?" Aizawa grinned widely. Mina put her hands down as she looked at her teacher in surprise. "You have three years to become a hero. You think it's gonna be games and playtime? Well, then." Uraraka felt nervous as his gaze scoured over them all. "Today, you're going to compete in eight different physical tests to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last has none and will be expelled immediately." Everyone immediately froze in shock. Expelled? "Like I said. I decide how this class is run. If you don't like it, you can leave."
"B-but that's not fair!" A short purple-haired boy exclaimed in horror. Uraraka found herself agreeing with him. That wasn't fair at all to expel someone on the first day.
Aizawa creepily grinned again. "Oh, and you think natural disasters are? Or villains? Or catastrophic events that wipe out cities? The world is full of unfairness. If you wanna go pro, then you'll need to push yourself beyond your limits. For the next three years, UA will force you through one hardship after another. So go beyond. Plus Ultra. Show me that it's no mistake that you're here." Uraraka nodded reluctantly in agreement. Her mind flashed to the quiet green-haired boy who had helped her. Then, she snuck a look at Shinsou, who was playing with the friendship bracelet on his wrist. Yeah, she knew that the world was unfair. She had experienced it herself, and so had her friends, but it still sucked that Aizawa-sensei was testing them so harshly on the first day of class.
The tests were challenging. The brown-haired girl felt like she did well enough, but she was exhausted by the time they were through. Uraraka was sure that she had passed, though. Shinsou had done decently as well. He didn't really get the chance to use his quirk, only on the ball throw and the sprinting exercises since those didn't have the whole class participating at the same time. Luckily, Shinsou was pretty fit, and he kept up well through most of the tests. Aizawa showed the last-place student, Mineta Minoru, but then revealed that his threat to expel the last place was a logical ruse. Uraraka wasn't sure she liked that but ignored it in favor of finally getting a chance to talk to Shinsou as the class headed back to the locker rooms. "Hey, Shinsou. I was curious. Did you and Midoriya get in a fight or something?" Uraraka didn't notice the blond in front of her stiffen at the name. Nor did she notice him slow down so he could eavesdrop.
Shinsou tilted his head in confusion. "I'm not sure what you are talking about."
Uraraka pouted, placing her hands on her hips. "He's really upset, you know, and every time I bring him up to you, you act like you didn't spend a few hours visiting him with me after the entrance exam. I was so sure you guys were close." She pointed at the friendship bracelet on Shinsou's wrist. "You told me that he was the one who gave that to you and that it meant a lot to you that he believed you would make it into the hero course. Don't tell me you two aren't friends anymore."
The purple-haired teen blinked slowly. "Uraraka. I'm not being sarcastic. I literally have no idea who you are talking about. I bought the bracelet from a store." The teen looked at the bracelet around his wrist. He'd only had it for a few months, but he guessed it was odd that a simple store bracelet meant so much to him. He looked back up at his friend, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She had never lied to him before. Maybe she was right, and something weird was going on?
Uraraka was frozen in horror. Shinsou was completely serious. He looked at her with genuine confusion, and Uraraka couldn't figure out what was going on. "You mean, you don't remember Midoriya? But he granted your wish! You told me about it after the entrance exam!" Uraraka couldn't believe what was happening. How did Shinsou forget about Midoriya?
Shinsou frowned and shook his head. "Sorry. I really don't know who Midoriya is."
The bubbly teen wanted to scream. Was this why Midoriya was upset? She glared at her phone, suspecting that Midoriya knew Shinsou had forgotten him. Uraraka turned to Shinsou. "Okay. You are coming with me to the shop after school. I have a feeling that Midoriya knows why this is happening. We are changing out of our gym clothes, then heading straight over. Okay?"
Shinsou nodded. He didn't know why Uraraka was so upset about him not knowing who Midoriya was, but now he wanted to find out. The name set off a feeling of warmth in his chest. And if Uraraka was right, that Midoriya was his first friend and someone he was close to... Then didn't he kinda owe it to Midoriya to try to remember him?
They reached the locker rooms, and Uraraka quickly changed into her uniform, then waited outside for Shinsou. Something was absolutely wrong. And she was going to fix it.
Bakugou Katsuki had a best friend. It was a long time ago, back when he was just a kid. The two had grown up together, and they did everything together. They were like brothers. Everything changed, though, when his friend got his quirk. It was a great quirk for a hero, and Bakugou proudly exclaimed to their parents that he and his friend would be pro heroes together. They'd run an agency together and fight bad guys! But that was a long time ago. Shortly after his friend got his quirk, he and his mom disappeared. Bakugou still remembered him, though. Even when his parents forgot, and their classmates forgot. Bakugou had gathered every photo of him and his friend and kept them safe in his room. He couldn't remember his name, but one of the photos had the name "Midoriya Izuku" written on the back. He also found a small notebook filled with crayon doodles of himself and Izuku as the pro-heroes Izu and Kacchan. That notebook and the photos were the only reason that he remembered Izuku at all. So, Bakugou carried the journal everywhere with him.
After his friend disappeared, Bakugou stopped enjoying fairytales. Wishes didn't come true, and that was fine. Bakugou didn't believe in wishes. What was the point in begging someone else to do something for you? He was the best, and everything he did was of his own merit. However, even with his disbelief in wishes, he did have one wish. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't find Izuku. That was his one wish, though he'd never admit it to anyone. That's why, when he was heading back to the lockers with the rest of his class, he instantly reacted when he heard someone say the name Midoriya. Bakugou had stiffened in shock. He wasn't expecting to hear that name at all during class. He listened in as Round Face questioned Shinsou about forgetting ever meeting Midoriya. Everything Round Face was talking about lined up with his notes, and Bakugou memorized all the new info. Izuku apparently had a shop, which Round Face and Eyebags had visited. They were heading to the shop right after school. Bakugou hurriedly walked into the locker room and changed. The spiky-haired teen waited outside of the room and discreetly started following them when they both left. There was no way he would ever miss this opportunity. Bakugou was going to find Izuku if it was the last thing he did.