Chapter 8: Disappointment Part 2

S-Effect wanted to scream. In fact, around her personal headspace that was exactly what she was doing, letting loose a slew of curses only those within inches of her ears could possibly hear. Of all the ignorant, insulting, dismissive indignities the general studies course suffered during her tenure All Might may have topped them all. Oh, it wasn't meant to be insulting, she was sure, but his status and stature in Japan made the faint praise damning in comparison to the lofty heights he had placed the hero, support and even business course students on.

General studies were in many ways the true black sheep of UA. Even the business course had heroics in mind, with courses on heroic marketing and licensing, branding and image maintenance, and social media management for heroes among other similar courses. If they hadn't been required to have it by law, UA might not even have a general studies course except as a way to monitor backup prospects in case of injuries or dropouts. Half of her class had failed the entrance exam, the other half a sop to an actual general education curriculum at a prestigious facility. 1-D was no different, leaving only class 1-E genuinely dedicated to general education.

General studies homeroom teachers had, in her opinion, the most challenging job in the entire institution. She and Amazorific had the unenviable task of evaluating ten students who weren't good enough to get into the heroics course and seeing which ones actually had the talent to actually enter the field and then send them to Vlad King or, more likely, Aizawa when he inevitably kicked someone (or, more likely, several someones) out of his class. And on the same note she had to find out who wouldn't be able to hack it and subtly convince them to move on from their lifelong dream without crushing their spirit. And then she would have to deal with the inevitable flood of students whose futures had been taken from them by Aizawa and potentially push them back into his unfeeling presence in the vain hope that they had improved enough that he wouldn't immediately judge them as unworthy again and send them right back a second time or convince them to transfer or, most heartbreaking of all, to also give up on their dreams.

Oh, yes, and there were normal students mixed in who needed encouragement as well.

And All Might's little speech making her class seem like afterthoughts Was. Not. HELPING.

It was only through iron will and her own experiences with disappointment that allowed her to open the door rather than throw it open. "Please take your seats." She said calmly, taking her own ahead of them. Her student's lack of enthusiasm was almost palpable and it took far longer than it should have for them to return to their desks. She wanted a drink, and it was an internal debate of epic proportions whether that drink was tea or the hardest alcohol she could lay hands on.

She breathed a silent sigh, "Now, I already introduced myself to you before the assembly, I believe at this point it would be best if you introduced yourselves to your fellow students." She pointed to a student in the back of the class, "Starting with you."

Shinsou watched a student at nearly the opposite end of the class point at himself and then reluctantly get up when the teacher nodded. Introductions. Right. Maybe he'd be able to skirt on explaining his quirk. "Uh… hello." A boy whose black hair was in an ugly bowl cut stood and gave a hesitant little wave, "My name is Fujiwara Nenosuke, and my quirk is No Doze, I uh… I don't actually sleep. At all." He cleared his throat, glanced around quickly, and then promptly sat down.

Of course he would set the tone by explaining his quirk. Shinsou wondered why he even hoped he wouldn't. The next student rose, an elephant head on his otherwise human body, looked around the class and bowed slightly before speaking, "My name is Kaginten Kiichi, my quirk, Memory, beyond allowing perfect recall, allows me to relive moments in my memory as if I was there. After UA I want to attend college and eventually be elected to the Diet." He stood for a moment longer, watching the teacher before she nodded him back into his seat.

Shinsou groaned internally, watching as the procession continued, now with the added expectation of their future endeavor being included. Just how was he going to introduce himself? Yes, hello, my name is Shinsou Hitoshi, I'm a mind controller and I don't even want to be here? Even if class had started off well that wouldn't be appreciated by most, but after orientation he might as well be trying to spit on his classmates.

The student next to him stood up, almost unnoticed by Shinsou as he continued to fret, "My name is Hatsuharu Ryuoji, my quirk is missile barrage." Shinsou's head snapped around to look at him, eyes widening, "Don't mind me, I'm not gonna be here long. I'm going to get transferred to the hero course." He smirked, and pointed his thumb at himself, "You should get my autograph now though, I'm going to be the number one hero someday."

That quirk.

That voice!

"You!" Shinsou almost jumped out of his seat, pointing at him, "You blew me up!"

The boy started, turned and stared at him, "Huh?"

"The entrance exam. You blew up the three pointer I was standing on. You gave me a concussion!"

The boy's eyes widened, then narrowed as his lip curled into a scowl, "You cost me my chance in the hero course! Why didn't you get out of the way?"

"You gave me two seconds-" Shinsou short circuited at the boy's audacity, "Wait, why am I explaining myself to you?! You blew me up!"

S-Effect clenched the bridge of her nose. Goddamnit Nedzu. There was no way he didn't know what happened when he put these two in class together. This must have been another one of his little tests of character… "Enough!" The word resounded like thunder, ending the growing war of words in an instant. And if it hadn't then negating any sound coming from the boys had. Heavy handed perhaps, but she was in no mood to have a shouting match in her classroom. "Sit down, both of you. We will discuss this after class."

Hatsuhara opened his mouth to protest, failed to produce sound and looked greatly confused by the development. S-Effect narrowed her eye on her recalcitrant student and created a sharp clap next to his ear which finally got him to look at her, stiffen, and sit down. She turned to Shinsou only to find him already back in his seat, resting his forehead in his hand. Good enough. She restrained herself from sighing, at least in a fashion the students could hear, and rolling her eyes, which took significant restraint. "Let's resume, shall we?"

Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. He'd made a complete ass of himself. He hadn't even introduced himself and he was already being held after class. It wasn't like it had even mattered. He hadn't had any chance of passing. And… and maybe he had ruined the guy's chances. No. He couldn't think like that. He hadn't been given any time to react. Right? His mouth began to feel like it was stuffed with cotton. He tried to think back to that moment, but everything around there was blurry. Had he frozen up? Had he ruined the guy's chances?

His self-doubting death spiral was interrupted when the chair of the person in front of him slammed into his desk. "My name is Kirunshun Mio. My quirk is monowire. I can extend a very sharp, compact wire from my fingertips. I am going to be a doctor." She cast a glance at him and then sat down, bumping her chair into his once more.

His turn. Right. He rose and found, yet again, everyone staring at him. Hatsuhara's was more of a glower, but he'd be joined by more in a moment. He cleared his throat, "My name is Shinsou Hitoshi. My quirk is…" He stopped, his stomach turning, seeing the expectation in everyone's eyes. Could he just lie? He floundered, cleared his throat, "Uh… my quirk is…"

"One moment please." S-Effect rose from her chair, "Shinsou, with me." She walked to the door, opened it and stepped out. He stood still for a moment, catching a sea of confused expressions before double timing it out of the room.

"Breathe." It wasn't a request, and he obeyed, the tension in his chest abating. It felt like flushing out bad air, and he took a few gulps as S-Effect looked him over with a critical eye. She glanced away and sighed, "Sorry, I should have realized that you wouldn't want to reveal your quirk." He blinked, unsure what to think of that; he couldn't remember a teacher apologizing to him before. She looked back at him, "So, what do you want to do?"

She wasn't encouraged by his helpless shrug, "I don't know. I… everyone else explained their quirk." He gave a nervous little laugh, "And then I get to tell them I want to be in the hero course."

Naturally. Nedzu had gone over her prospect students and he'd spent more time on Shinsou than any of the others, so she couldn't be surprised. She rolled her eyes and activated her quirk to give a quick verbal warning to the class to cut out the already growing chatter about the student at her side. "Well, I guess you can't help but worry about that as well, but you're not the only person in class trying to get into the hero course."

Shinsou grimaced, "Yeah, but only Hatsuhara said it."

That was true, and it was one of the few points in his favor at the moment. If the others were going to bow down to peer pressure so easily it did not bode well for their ambitions. Just having a good quirk did not a hero make. "You're changing the topic; I brought you out here because you needed to figure out what you were going to say about your quirk."

Shinsou let out a breath, "Can I lie?" He couldn't meet her eye when he said it. It was a stupid idea.

"Your call. But remember, you're setting a precedent for yourself."

There it was again. That glow. It was there on the windup, a dull yellow and crackling red lines traced Deku's arm. He tensed. This was wrong, something was wrong, Deku didn't have a quirk. And just like that it was gone, and the ball left Deku's hand, traveling a measly distance before hitting the ground, bouncing twice and rolling to a stop. The computer cheerfully announced his pathetic score while Deku stood there dumbfounded.

Had his eyes been playing tricks on him? No, no that couldn't be it. The teacher's scarf spread out, floating around him like the orbit of planets around the sun, and he announced that he had erased Deku's quirk. Bakugo felt his teeth grind together at that. Deku didn't have a quirk to erase, that's why he was Deku. The extras around him began murmuring after Deku revealed who their teacher was like the nerd he was, and they were talking right over their teacher's conversation. He wanted to hear, damnit. "Shut up, all of you."

The tall zealot tried to castigate him and his lip curled in distaste, "Shouldn't we be trying to listen to teacher?" That put glasses on the back foot, but when Bakugo looked back Deku was already back on the pitch. "Tch." He'd missed everything.

His hair stood on end as Deku wound up his pitch again, watching carefully for that impossible glow. It wasn't there. It was just Deku, winding up for another pathetic pitch, taking one more step on his path out of UA as a disgrace and failure. And then he spotted it in the last second before the ball flew from Deku's finger. He couldn't help trying to track it, watching it disappear into the sky. That… that wasn't possible. That couldn't happen.

His gaze returned to Deku as he balled his hand into a fist, his index finger a dingy purple. Had he broken it like glasses said? But none of this made any sense. He didn't have a quirk. This was some sort of trick. He'd cheated somehow. "Hey!" He ran at him, explosions rippling around his palms, "Deku you bastard! Tell me how you did that or you're dead!" Deku's eyes widened in shock and he took a step back, but then he braced himself for a fight. The nerve! That nerd had no right to think he deserved a fight!

And then that damn scarf looped around him. He grunted, straining against the fabric but couldn't push past it. He twisted his head following the binding to its source, their teacher, "What? Why the hell is your damn scarf so strong?"

"Because it's a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. Stand down." Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Deku hesitantly lower his guard, "It'd be wise to avoid making me use my quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eye."

"Too bad." The extras announced in unison, just to add to Bakugo's mounting frustration. "That power is amazing."

Finally the scarf… capture weapon, was yanked back off of him. "You're wasting my time now. Whoever's next can step up." And just like that the teacher turned to walk away.

Izuku stood on the pitch, watching Eraserhead walking away before turning to Bakugo. The blonde was practically shivering with rage, glowering at him, eyes filled with hate. But he wasn't making a move. Izuku shoved his hands into his pockets and walked off the pitch. Bakugo's eyes tracked him as he moved, fingers flexing as Deku moved to walk right past him. The damn nerd wasn't even looking at him. He was going out of his way to ignore him. And then he stopped, just as he was about to pass him. Izuku looked at him, his face blank for a few seconds before shaking his head and looking at the ground, "You know Bakugo, if you'd asked me like I was a person, I might actually have told you."

Shinsou took a breath, standing back in front of his desk, "My name is Shinsou Hitoshi…" He stopped, gathered himself and ignored Hatsuhara as he snarked that they all knew that already. "I don't want to talk about my quirk. And I want to get into the hero course."

He sat down and waited for the eruption. It didn't take long and didn't come at all. Hatsuhara began to talk, but none of the words reached his ears, and he doubted if they reached anyone else's either. A few students exchanged glances, and some were looking at him, but Hatsuhara's gesticulations when he realized nobody else could hear him had distracted most of the class. Finally, after another moment, he folded his arms across his chest and stared at the table in frustration.

S-Effect cleared her throat, or at least affected the sound, drawing the class back to attention, "Please finish us off."

Shinsou looked over his shoulder as the plum haired girl who had declared Nedzu cute rose from her seat, rolled her shoulders and put on a winning smile, "My name is Sadaharu Ume. My quirk is halt, I negate the forward momentum of anything that touches my palm or is touched by my palm. And I want to be in the hero course too."

"Thank you." S-Effect smiled at her class, "As you all know, today is an early release. Actual courses will begin tomorrow. Please review your course schedule. You are dismissed." "Except you," she added to Shinsou and Hatsuhara, who remained in their seats as the rest of their classmates filed out. Sadaharu lingered at the door, looking between the two boys and her, but then ducked out.

S-Effect drummed her fingers against her desk, watching them stew. Hatsuhara was quietly steaming, both for being called out for blowing someone up and for being silenced when Shinsou had decided against divulging his quirk. Unfortunately she may have overstepped there, it probably reeked of favoritism especially after pulling Shinsou into the hall for an impromptu pep talk, but she had been in no mood for another student calling a classmate out.

Shinsou was an entirely different story. His head was tipped forward slightly, eyes focused on his desk. He wasn't quite cringing, but he was certainly stressed. She'd have to start with him though, talking with Hatsuhara first would only alienate the boy further. "Shinsou Hitoshi." He tensed, but looked up to meet her gaze, "I don't think I need to tell you that outbursts like that will be unacceptable in the future." Hitoshi's head dipped in a quick nod and her turner her attention to Hatsuhara for an instant, watching him smile in vindication. Her eyes were back on Shinsou as he looked back up at her, "However, I understand that you were likely startled, realizing that the person who injured you during the entrance exam was now sitting next to you. Do not do it again."

Shinsou gave another quick nod, "I won't."

"Good." She turned to look at her other student, his lip curled in distaste, "Hatsuharu Ryuoji, I would like you to try to exercise better judgement. I understand that you felt provoked, but you did injure Shinsou during the entrance exam, and he does have a right to be angry about that."

Hatsuhara looked more and more sour as she spoke, side eyeing his classmate with obvious frustration, but Shinsou caught both of them off guard, "It's… it's okay. I'm not angry." Shinsou let out a shuddering breath and looked at his startled peer, not quite able to look him in the eye, "I… didn't fail because of you. I wasn't going to pass anyway." S-Effect raised an eyebrow at that; the way he said it, it almost came across as an apology. Hatsuhara was certainly taking it as such, a range of emotions flashing over his face, bewilderment followed by relief leading to frustration again.

"You mean I failed because I injured someone who wasn't even in the running?" He threw his hands up, and looked away from Shinsou in disgust, "I can't believe this. This sucks."

Shinsou winced at the words, but S-Effect merely narrowed her eyes, "Even if that were the case, you would be better served by reflecting on the fact you injured someone than that it cost you the exam. But Shinsou was merely one of the applicants you injured. The one who suffered the greatest injury, I should note."

There was a silence, and Shinsou's head turned like a creaking door, all of his earlier contrition evaporating. Hatsuhara chuckled nervously, "Hah… ah… um… I… may… have fired off a few barrages at robots to… stop others from stealing my points?"

"Perhaps you should think about that and reflect on why it prevented you from getting into the hero course." She cut in dryly, and Hatsuhara squirmed. "You are free to leave Hatsuhara-san."

The boy practically fled the room, Shinsou's eyes following him until he left. S-Effect sighed, listening to Hatsuhara run for a few seconds before returning her attention to the sole student still in the room, "Am I going to have to separate you two?" Shinsou was silent for a moment, looking like he bit down on a lemon, but finally shook his head. "Good."

S-Effect tapped a finger on her desk for a moment as she considered her words carefully, finally she sighed, "I hope your strategy of keeping your quirk hidden will work out for you." She couldn't quite hide her frown, "I hope I don't need to say that hiding it today could backfire on you." Shinsou winced, but nodded. "I don't think people are going to hound you about it, but you did leave everyone wondering. Finding out isn't too difficult. If others find out first, you won't be able to control the message."

Shinsou let his head rest in his hands, "You know I just wanted a few days free from it. I don't want everyone going quiet when I walk by. I don't want to be stared at, or talked about. Is that really too much to ask for?"

S-Effect nodded slowly, "Having a few days to let them form an opinion about you before revealing it might work." She stopped, "But I wouldn't advise you keep it hidden for long. People talk; and you aren't the only student from your school to get into UA." Shinsou winced. Perhaps reminding him of that was pressing too hard. "When you think you're ready, let me know. I'll let you announce it." Shinsou gave her a hesitant nod, which was the best she could really ask for, "You're dismissed."

"Alright, time to give you your results." Their teacher could scarcely sound more uninterested if he tried, "I've ranked you all from best to worst, you should probably have a good idea of your standing already. I'll just pull up the whole list; it's not worth going over each individual score."

Izuku tried to ignore the pain emanating from his finger. It was growing increasingly difficult, and had been an infuriating distraction he couldn't afford during the remaining physical tests. He had fought through it, but he still gnawed at his lip. He had only really excelled during the softball throw.

The screen blinked into existence, names appearing next to their placement. He dismissed the top ten slots immediately, eyes drawn to the bottom rank. He drew in a sharp breath and practically sagged. Sixteenth place, not something to be especially proud of, but at least he was safe. Off to his side he heard one of the other students, the short one with the weird balls for hair, stammering out requests for a recount, or another trial, something that he could show off at.

Their teacher ignored him utterly, "And I was lying. Last place won't be going home." For the first time, their teacher looked pleased, "That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the tests." Izuku felt his eyes bulging.

One of the students off to his side, the tallest girl in the class looked calm, almost dismissive, "I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure that out. I'm sorry; I guess I probably should have said something."

More of the students began to comment on the logical ruse, and Izuku sagged again. He really didn't need this. At that moment, knowing he wasn't about to be expelled, all he wanted to do was go to the nurse and get his finger fixed up.

"That's it. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom, read it over before tomorrow morning." Their teacher slouched in place, putting his hands in his pockets as he turned away, "Midoriya, please follow me. The rest of you are dismissed."

Midoriya felt his heart seize in his chest as glances were exchanged around him, "Wh-what?"

That same bored tone returned, "Come with me to my office. We have something important to discuss."

Midoriya's throat went dry, his legs felt like they were made of lead, his body was refusing to move, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a smile spreading over Katsuki's face. "I-I…" This couldn't be happening. He hadn't even come in last place.

Author's Notes: So, this chapter was originally going to finish out the rest of the first day. But I felt that this was a wonderful stopping point.

To answer some questions ahead of time: Midoriya scored higher for three reasons. 1. Working alongside Shinsou he never pushed himself past his limits, and Shinsou actively disrupted efforts that would have pushed him past those limits as well (if you remember, he stole Midoriya's grip strengthener, it was little things like that). He never had a moment where he collapsed from sheer exhaustion like in the anime. Pushing your body too far will keep you from gaining, so he overtaxed himself and wound up slightly weaker. 2. There was clearly no reason why he should have been at the bottom rank. Even in canon, even with him pushing his body too far, the reason he came in last was for drama. It starts him off as an underdog. 3. Drama. Beyond just wanting to change things up (which, hey, I'm finally starting to do! Yay!) I will have to put on my Doylist hat and say that the whiplash of obviously doing well enough to stay in the course and then being dragged away anyway was powerful and tempting. And it will change things for others as well. You'll see some of that next chapter.

Did I really just sit Shinsou down next to another Bakugo? Okay, so this has been intended for a while, but for good and bad Hatsuhara is not Bakugo. That will become glaringly obvious as time goes on. In fact I am attaching his little bio here so keep reading.

Now for a bit of news: I'm working on a second My Hero Academia fanfic. It is called Analytics and it was actually going to be sprinkled into this story. I'll certainly reference it here eventually, but I decided to split it off. This story will go into the quirks of *most* of 1-A, but in detail and analysis of how they work and how they could theoretically be used more efficiently. Also Mei will be a prominent character. She's always fun. Not sure if the next chapter will be finished before I work on another chapter of Analytics or not.

Character Profile:

Name: Ryouji Hatsuharu

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Height: 5'9''

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Blood Type: O

Quirk: Missile Barrage

Description: Ryouji Hatsuharu is the only child of an affluent businessman and his wife. He has bracketed shoulder mounts that load and fire small missiles, but his control of the missiles decreases the more he has fired. Additionally firing off too many missiles hampers his critical thinking. He has full confidence that he will eventually become the number one hero after All Might retires; being in class 1-C is just a temporary setback.