For their first day at UA, Akiko planned their transit very carefully. They didn't want to be late - and had taken precautions to not sleep in this time - but also didn't want to be too early either. They wanted to begin forming friendships with their classmates at their own pace, which would be much easier if they arrived when everyone was settling in, rather than be among the first there. While Akiko was following directions they had been given to Class 1-A, they saw a familiar fluff of curly green hair. "Hey, Midoriya!"

The freckled boy turned around, startled. "Aren't you… The one from the entrance exam, Fuku… hara?"

Midoriya looked nervous, but Akiko decided it was too hasty to attribute that to any kind of social anxiety. It was a big day after all. Akiko nodded. "Yep, that's me! But please, call me Akiko."

"Call me Izuku, then!" Izuku grinned. "We should probably get going, class is supposed to start soon. I think it's just around the corner!"

Akiko nodded, and they went and found the classroom. The door was huge, most likely designed so bigger people with size-affecting quirks could get in and out easily. Izuku reached out for the door, and then hesitated.

"You okay?" Akiko asked.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about what kind of people will be in our class," Izuku answered. Then, he reached forward and pushed the door open. The duo were immediately greeted with the sight of conflict. A tall boy with short black hair and rigid posture was attempting to reprimand another of their new classmates for having his feet up on the desk. What was more amusing was that the tall boy, immediately after this, attempted to introduce himself.

"I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Ida Tenya."

The other boy took no time in lashing out at that, calling him a 'damn elite' in a derogatory fashion. Akiko didn't want to jump to conclusions about anyone, but they had views on the wealthy classes of society that were not too positive. Still, perhaps they could take it upon themself to make sure Iida is aware of the lives less well off people lead.

The two boys bickered for a moment, and then the one sitting with his feet up noticed Izuku. Something passed over the boy's face, but Akiko couldn't tell what it was. They weren't great with reading expressions. This halted the conversation that had been going on, and everyone turned to face Izuku and Akiko, which decimated what composure Izuku had built up.

"Oh, um…" Izuku stammered. Before he could say anything more, Ida marched up to him.

"Good morning! I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is-"

Before Ida could finish, Izuku cut him off. "I heard! Um, sorry, I mean… I'm Midoriya. Nice to meet you, Ida."

"Midoriya, you realized there was something more to that practical exam, didn't you?" Ida said it a lower tone. "I had no idea… I misjudged you. I hate to admit it, but you're better than me!"

This comment amused Akiko even more - they knew that Ida was referring to what happened with the zero point enemy. And from what they had gauged about Izuku, he hadn't realized anything. He just saw someone in need of saving, and saved them. Which was what heroes were supposed to do. They understood people fleeing because they knew they couldn't help, but admired those who at least tried.

Before Izuku got a chance to respond, and presumably try and deflect or dismiss what Ida had said, the chaos continued. Another member of the class arrived behind Akiko and Izuku, and it turned out to be the girl that Izuku had saved during the exam.

"Oh, that curly hair! You're the plain looking one!" The girl exclaimed, which earned a giggle from Akiko. She'd said it so cheerily, as though it wasn't at all a weird comment to make about someone. "You passed, just like Present Mic said! Of course you did, your punch was incredible!"

Izuku flushed. "Oh, well isn't that only because you went to speak to him after?"

The girl gasped. "How did you know about that?"

While Izuku was trying to explain himself - and not really doing the best job - a deep voice started talking from behind them. It took a few seconds before the others noticed and stopped talking to redirect their attention, but Akiko noticed straight away.

"Class is now starting, which means that catch-up time is over." The voice came from an off-yellow sleeping bag. More precisely, from the adult man inside the sleeping bag. "This is the hero course."

To say that Izuku, Ida and the girl were caught off guard would be an understatement. The man stood up, and unzipped the sleeping bag. He had shoulder length messy black hair, bags under his black eyes and facial hair that looked like it hadn't been tended to in days. He mostly wore black clothes, aside from a light grey cloth that wound around his neck and shoulders more times than Akiko could count.

"Okay, it took eight seconds before you were quiet. You need to be aware of your surroundings to make it as a hero. You kids aren't rational enough. Anyway, I'm your homeroom teacher Aizawa Shota."

Several members of the class gasped in response to this revelation, but Akiko couldn't understand why. It was just a statement of fact, after all.

"I hope you've all brought your gym clothes. You'll need to go change into them now and meet me on the field outside."

In order to change into the gym clothes, Akiko needed to go into a change room. That presented a problem. The only change rooms that Akiko could see were the "boys" and "girls" change rooms. Akiko didn't feel comfortable in either, especially when they didn't know many of their classmates. They turned to Aizawa to call out for him before he walked away towards the field, and noticed something important. Izuku was also standing outside the change rooms, looking stressed .

They called out to Aizawa, making sure that Izuku would hear. "Sensei? Is there an all gender bathroom somewhere? I don't feel comfortable in either of these."

Aizawa scratched his head. "Uh… I don't think so. But there's a staff bathroom on the second floor that nobody uses, so you can go there, and change in the stalls."

Akiko rolled their eyes. At least there was a solution, even if it wasn't really good enough. Izuku was trying to look out of the corner of his eye, but the stress was less apparent.

"You coming?" Akiko asked, and that was all it took for the boy to follow.

When they found the bathroom upstairs, it looked like it hadn't seen any use in ages. Or any cleaning. It wasn't particularly gross, just dusty. Izuku hadn't said anything since they left in search of the bathroom, but Akiko got the sense he had something on the tip of his tongue.

"If you want to share, I'm listening! But you totally don't have to," Akiko spoke gently, trying to make the space more comfortable for Izuku.

Izuku exhaled a deep breath. Instead of saying anything, his took off his

shirt - to reveal a tan coloured binder over his chest. He looked incredibly nervous, as though waiting for Akiko to say it was okay. "I didn't want the other boys to see this."

"Hey, thanks for sharing that with me, Izuku. Do you want me to keep this secret from everyone else?" Akiko offered.

Izuku nodded, and hurried off in the direction of the stalls. "I'm gonna go get changed now! Sorry for just dropping that on you all of a sudden!"

"Hey, it's so fine. Us trans kids gotta stick together, right?" Akiko went to claim their own stall and started changing into their own gym gear.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one here," Izuku whispered softly.

"Me too."

"A QUIRK ASSESSMENT TEST?" Half of the class exclaimed in comical unison.

Akiko couldn't help themself from jumping in to explain, even though they probably should have let the teacher handle it. "They gave us the entrance exam to decide who would get to join, but that's hardly a chance for them to evaulate each of our individual skills. If Aizawa is going to teach us, he needs to know what we're all capable of. Right, sensei?"

Aizawa nodded. But before he could continue, the girl from before, who had introduced herself as Uraraka Ochaco, jumped in with another question. "What about the entrance ceremony? The orientation?"

"The hero course collectively decided we don't need those things." Aizawa turned to face the students. "UA's selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are. Teachers here decided how we run our classes based on what we think is best, not on what society has decided arbitrarily to be important."

The space on the field around them was laid out with markings for all kinds of track and field activities. "You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right? Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your quirks. Fukuhara, you finished at the top of the practical exam, right? In junior high, what was your best result for the softball throw?"

Suddenly everyone turned to look at Akiko. They took in a breath and ignored them all. "41 metres."

"Okay, try doing it with your quirk now," Aizawa instructed. "You can do whatever you want, as long as you stay in the circle.

Akiko stepped forward into the white circle taped onto the ground, grabbing a ball from Aizawa on the way. Seems simple enough , Akiko thought. They held the ball out with their arm bent slightly, fingers wrapped around it loosely, but enough so that it wouldn't fall out of their hand. Then, they activated their quirk, and 'pushed' on the ball, giving it an upward angled direction and as much speed as they could without over-exerting themself. The balled glowed a fuschia colour for just a moment, and then blasted off into the sky.

Eventually, the ball landed way off in the distance, but it was too far for anyone to actually see. Aizawa held up the screen of his device which had been recording the ball somehow, revealing the measurement of 620.4 metres. Apparently some of the others were rather impressed, if the 'woah's were anything to go by.

"We can use our quirks as much as we want? As expected from the hero course!" One boy called out.

"Looks like fun!" Another student added.

Aizawa's entire vibe darkened in response to this. "'It looks fun', huh? You have three years to become a hero. There is time for fun and games, but assessments and hero classes are not that time. You need to take a more serious attitude, or else as a hero you'll slip up and get killed. How about this? Whoever comes in last place out of all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion."

"WHAAAAT?" Came the chorus of shocked replies. Akiko noticed Izuku begin to stress out and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Last place will be expelled? But it's the first day of school! How is that fair?" Uraraka protested.

Aizawa closed his eyes. "Natural disasters, big accidents, and selfish villains. All calamities whose time or place often can't be predicted. Japan is covered with unfairness. Heroes are the ones who confront and reverse such situations. For the next three years, UA will do all it can to push you and give you one hardship after another. We expect you to go beyond, and overcome it with all you've got. If you can't do that, you don't belong here."

Akiko had to resist the urge to challenge whether or not the hero system really dealt with the unfairness of society. Now was not the time for that - they'd only earn social ostracization at this point.

Despite Akiko having started off with a demonstration of the softball throw, that was the last test to be administered for everyone else. And the last person to do it was Izuku. He hadn't come last in all of the other tests, but he hadn't produced any results far above average. Every other person had at least one test they really excelled at because of their quirk, so things weren't looking good for him. Having seen his quirk in action before, Akiko knew it was powerful - which meant something was holding him back from using it. There was one other person who hadn't use their quirk - a boy named Shinso, who Akiko remembered from the entrance exam. He had apparently only accumulated rescue points, having gone around saving people from danger the whole time. Still, Hitoshi had done better than Izuku on most of the tests. While Izuku was working himself up to throwing the ball, Akiko overheard something interesting.

"It doesn't look good for Midoriya if he continues like this," Ida stated.

"Huh?" The boy who apparently knew Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki, responded with a tone of ire. "Of course not! He's a Quirkless small fry, you know."

Akiko turned to face Bakugou and raised an eyebrow, before butting into the conversation. "He's not."

"What do you mean, he's not ?" Bakugou snapped back.

"I don't think someone Quirkless could have defeated the Zero-Point enemy from the entrance exam with a single strike," Akiko answered, and then left Bakugou to his confusion. They had a feeling Izuku would finally show off what he could do in this test anyway.

Finally, Izuku wound back, and threw the ball. And nothing happened. The ball had gone a mere 46 meters. Better than Akiko could do without using their quirk, sure, but not good enough.

"What? I was definitely trying to use it just now…" Izuku muttered.

"I erased your quirk," Aizawa admitted, "so that I could give you a warning. So far, you have the lowest score out of the entire class. If you can't use your quirk without leaving yourself incapacitated, then I will expell you outright - you can't always expect someone to come and save you like what happened in the exam. You have one chance to show me something worthwhile, understood?"

Izuku gulped, and nodded. Then, a look of recognition. "Wait… those goggles, and the ability to erase quirks? Aren't you Eraserhead?"

The class members began discussing that revelation amongst themself. While some had never heard of Eraserhead, others knew of him as an "underground hero", who avoided media attention to just do his own thing. Because Akiko was keeping an eye on Izuku, they saw the expression change on his face. It had turned into resolve, and Izuku was getting ready to throw the ball. Just as he was about to release the ball from his hand, Akiko noticed one of Izuku's fingers faintly glow with red lines. And then the ball was gone , shooting off into the distance. Akiko smiled. Aizawa's scanner finally reported the result, at a whopping 705.3 metres, which was the second best result after Uraraka's 'infinity'.

Most of the class were incredibly impressed. Unfortunately, Bakugou was not most people. Bakugou seemed pissed .

"WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS?" Bakugou yelled as he charged up the explosive power in one of his fists, and began to charge at Izuku. "TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON, DEKU YOU BASTARD!"

As soon as Bakugo's feet left the ground, Akiko was moving to protect their friend. Apparently, though, it wasn't necessary. Bakugou didn't make it far before he was completely restrained by the cloth that had been wrapped around Aizawa's shoulders.

"What the? These cloths are so hard!" Bakugou's voice sounded full of exertion as he struggled against the restraints.

"They're weapons for capture made of carbon fibre woven together with metal threads made of a special alloy. Now cool yourself so I can turn off my quirk, it's giving me dry eye." Aizawa explained as he released Bakugou and returned his cloths to their place on his shoulders.

Izuku took the opportunity to circle around Bakugou and run back over towards the rest of the class, going to stand next to Akiko.

"Hey," Akiko turned to get a closer look at Izuku's hand. "Is your finger alright? It looks really swollen."

"It hurts a bit, but I'm okay!" Izuku insisted, but Akiko was pretty sure he was lying. They wanted to protest, but Aizawa was already calling everyone to gather around for the results of the Quirk Assessment Test. Akiko was left wondering how this was actually an assessment of quirks, since the ways in which everyone could show off what their quirks could do were limited to a small set of athletic tasks.

"Okay, I'll quickly show you the results of the tests. You've been ranked based on your cumulative performance in each test," Aizawa explained, while he pressed a few buttons on his device. The device projected a holographic display in front of everyone, showing the rankings in two columns. Akiko was pleased to see that they had placed third, and even more pleased that they had beaten Bakugou - especially after his aggression towards their new friend. Izuku had placed second last, and Akiko saw his whole posture sag in relief at that. In last place was Shinso Hitoshi, who hadn't gotten a single opportunity to use his quirk in the assessment - Akiko still didn't even know what his quirk even did. Akiko glanced over towards Shinso, and saw the boy stare down at the ground.

"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion. It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your performance," Aizawa revealed, with a wide grin on his face. "You'll all have a lot to learn over the next three years, and I plan to draw the most out of you, and push you above and beyond your limits. The life of a hero isn't fun and games. You'll get injured. You might even lose friends and loved ones. You'll be faced with incredibly difficult decisions. But at the same time, you'll save people. You'll restore lives. You'll bring justice to society. I will prepare you for all these things, the good and the bad. But I can only do that if you give it your all. Understood?"