Chapter 4:

Izuku found himself, once again, muttering under his breath. But this was not the rapid fire muttering that made people dizzy or earned him a good whack on the shin courtesy of a much dreaded cane. This was a slow deliberate sort of muttering as he navigated through the halls of his new school.

"Class 1-A. Class 1-A."

He repeated it over and over again, as though he might forget, absentmindedly scanning the room numbers for each door he passed through.

Finally, he made it.

Izuku took a deep breath. New school, new people.

If he could find the Sludge villain again, he might just choose him as an alternative right now.

Closing his eyes tight he pressed his hand to the doorknob, ready to slide the door ope-

"GREENIE!"

Izuku's brain barely had the time to register the voice, stuttering in confusion;

'Wait-wha'

Then Ashido was hugging him all pink skin and pink hair clutching him close as her weight nearly toppled him over. "You're in my class too!?"

"A-ashido-san!" He stuttered, blushing scarlet as he felt the very affectionate girl press against him, his heart hammering like a jackhammer under his ribs.

Wait… too?

"Hey dude! Ya made it!"

Kirishima's sharp toothed grin made itself known, and Izuku was gifted with a hefty slap on his back that nearly finished off what little balance he had left with Ashido clinging to him like a limpet.

"Y-your both in class 1-A too?" He stuttered out.

Mina nodded, beaming. "Yup! I was so excited about just passing after twisting my ankle I didn't even check til last night.

"I checked on the way here!" Kirishima said. Izuku wasn't sure if that was boasting or a guilty confession… or somehow both?

"It's great my two buds are in the same class as me!" Mina beamed finally letting go of his arm before her hand darted to the door. "Come on lets see who else is in our class.

Her hand clapped loudly against the door, opening it wide.

There were five people in the room already, a girl with green, vine like hair, another girl with raven black hair tied into a ponytail, a blonde guy with a strip of black in a lightning bolt pattern, a girl who seemed to have some kind of mutation quirk, amphibious if he was any judge. And the very tall tentacle armed guy Izuku had spotted during the test.

For a long interminable moment, Izuku felt himself freeze awkwardness ruling over his senses as he stared at a wholly new group of people. Wondering how he was about to make a total fool of himself again.

Then the moment passed with Mina smiling brightly. "Hi guys. My name's Mina, my red buddy is Kirishima and my green buddy is Modiriya!"

And just like that, the ice broke.

Conversation flowed relatively easily from there, though in truth, Izuku was more than happy to let Mina and Kirishima take the lead, piggybacking off of their much more practiced social skills as they spoke to Ibara, Yayorozu, Mezo, Kaminari and Asui.

Soon, other students trickled in, sometimes one at a time, other times in small clusters of two or three. But slowly as the minutes ticked by the classroom filled.

There were only three left by the time Izuku heard an all too familiar voice behind him with quiet menace.

"Your worthless ass made it here too Deku?"

Izuku felt himself stiffen; Turning with a narrow eyed glare to Bakugou.

It wasn't surprising that Bakugou was accepted. His quirk was strong, suited for combat, and his childhood rival was both smart, skilled and determined as all hell. It was almost inevitable he'd be accepted truthfully.

That didn't mean he hadn't been hoping to maybe be in a different class.

The ash blonde stared him down for a moment before snorting and marching past him without another word, much to Izuku's surprise.

Maybe he didn't want his own first impressions to go down like their previous school's had.

Soon enough two others arrived, a tall guy with glasses, and finally, a brown haired girl with rosy cheeks.

Izuku was just wondering when their professor would get here when the man finally made himself known.

"Settle down, all of you."

When Izuku spotted the guy, he looked bedraggled, almost homeless, red, bloodshot eyes glared at a spot on the wall as he marched into the room.

"Take your seats." the tired adulte groused.

Izuku did so, quietly settling himself to the left of Kirishima and behind Mina.

(X)(X)(X)

A quirk apprehension test.

On his first day.

It seemed a cruel, twisted joke and he was the punchline.

There was a momentary panic within him at the order from his teacher. It nearly overtook him before he forced himself to calm down. Mr. Sorahiko's voice came back to him.

You won't be able to tackle your fights head on. Use your wits.

This was no different. It was just another fight, another test.

He could beat this. He'd come this far.

Then, Aizawa singled him out.

The dark haired teacher stood directly in front of him, bringing Izuku's attention towards the taller man as he looked up from his own internal musings.

Aizawa stared him down.

"You shouldn't be here."

Izuku felt his heart drop like a stone.

Aizawa looked at him with cold, dispassionate eyes. "Robots are not villains. And a test is not reflective of the world we live in. You need a quirk to be a hero."

There was a ripple of murmuring across the group of students and more than once Izuku heard the shocked muttered word "Quirkless?" As the students now stared at him openly.

The green haired boy felt his fists clench.

"If you're gonna stay in my class, you're damn sure gonna prove you're not just taking a seat from someone more deserving because of pity points getting you through the entrance exam."

"He earned the damn points no matter what way you cut it."

If there was one thing Izuku would remember it would be the heart stopping moment he realized the words had come from none other than Bakugou. The Ash blonde staring at their teacher from the corner of his eye where he stood at the far end of the group of students.

Aizawa paid him no heed.

"There are twenty participants." The man continued. "If you reach anything less than sixteenth place in this exam, you're expelled. Today."

Acid burned the back of his throat, his every muscle locking up and Mina's shrill cry of; "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" seemed distant and utterly inconsequential.

"I don't really care." Aizawa said, adjusting his scarf over his mouth. "Also, for any of you thinking of holding back to help his score; anyone who scores less than Midoriya will be expelled immediately as well."

The shock of pure outrage that burned through the class made Izuku's skin crawl, and he stared at Aizawa with something other than fear, something other than shock.

He was angry.

No matter what he did here…

If he passed and pursued his dream… he'd cost everyone else theirs…

But if he didn't…

His fists shook, and he stared at Aizawa with a heat seldom seen on his face. Had he the mind to notice, he would have seen even Bakugou shift in surprise.

When Aizawa looked at him, Izuku saw the man's exposed face twitch, surprise, hesitation, his own anger in response, he couldn't be sure, nor would he have really cared.

The man turned away without another word.

"Fifty meter dash. Line up by student numbers."

As he said that, Izuku felt at least one bit of good news come this day. He was number seventeen on the student board, which gave him time to think. Find a way to do things.

The fifty meter dash was pretty straight forward, there didn't seem to be a way to increase his chances. He'd just have to sprint for all he was worth. He did remember with Sorahiko though, on one of the few occasions he spoke about his quirk that the man regularly practiced breathing exercises. His quirk flowed from his breath. Good breathing was essential.

Same as that of a runner.

In the time it took Izuku to cycle up to the front of the line, he mimicked and practiced what little he remembered as best he could. His morning runs were built for endurance, not sprints and he'd hardly ever needed to 'ready' himself' for his warm up jogs.

But this time he did, quietly clenching and relaxing his leg muscles where he stood to try and increase blood flow, taking deep, slow breaths. He was sure, Shoji, who stood next to him had his eyebrow hiked up to his silver hair, but right now, he didn't care.

Finally, it was his turn.

He and Shoji stepped up to the starting point and Izuku blocked out the internal mutterings of his brain as he analyzed Shoji's sheer height, the quiet doubts that said his longer legs would give him an advantage. Even if it did. It wasn't relevant. He wasn't racing Shoji, he was racing the whole of 1-A.

Run. Run fast. As fast as you can

Nothing else mattered.

"Positions!" Aizawa shouted.

A pause.

"Go!"

Izuku shot forward like a bullet.

Years from now. He would remember it as the sprint of his life.

He rushed forward as fast as he possibly could and he would swear Shoji was right on his side. Only, he wasn't. Halfway through the sprint Izuku had pulled ahead of him, legs pumping hard, the wind rushing past his ears so fast it was the only sound he could hear.

He passed Aizawa and heard the click of the timer only by virtue of seeing the man's thumb press down.

He tried to stop, but his own speed was too much and he only succeeded in skidding nearly falling flat on his ass before he just barely managed to recover his balance and catch himself.

"Five point zero seven seconds." He heard Aizawa mutter.

Izuku felt himself breathing hard. His heart hammering under his ribs, and his knees shaking. He hadn't realized how hard he'd pushed himself and his body was now letting him know in no uncertain terms. Not to do that ever again. His knees felt like there were knives between the joints. His calves were sinewy muscle fibres of fire and his ankles felt shaky as hell.

Another click.

"Six point zero one seconds."

Izuku looked up, finding Shoji staring at him with an eyebrow hiked up to his hair.

(X)(X)(X)

The quirk tests proceeded.

There were few experiences that stood out like the sprint. But in every physical exercise Izuku gave it his very best.

You don't have a quirk. So you're gonna have to work twice as hard for the same result.

Sorahiko had said that. He was right.

He finished each individual exercise feeling like his muscles were ready to give up. But always he kept pushing. Reminding himself that he could collapse later. That he could be tired, later.

He'd come too far to lose everything now because he had something as insignificant as a limit.

Unfortunately, his efforts seemed to light a fire under a lot of the other kids' asses too.

They didn't want to get kicked out either.

In particular, the blonde guy with a tail, the invisible girl, the brown haired girl with rosy cheeks. The girl with the long earlobes, and lastly two guys, one with a black streak in his blonde hair and another guy with tape in his elbows all seemed to realize their scores were sub par next to their fellows and were all trying to push themselves in the subsequent tests as well.

But they didn't have Izuku's drive to win.

Because they'd had quirks. All their lives.

So they hadn't expected to need to work "twice as hard for the same results.

In the end, Izuku had managed to outlast them.

But as they were approaching the last two aspects of this test, Izuku's doubts began to gnaw at him. Aizawa's words ringing in his head.

You don't deserve to be here.

He'd said it with such surety, such confidence, Izuku felt sweat bead at his brow.

What if he was so sure because he'd made sure?

No one could see the score. Not until the end.

Convenient if you wanted to get rid of someone who "didn't deserve to be there."

Even in his own mind he felt it paranoid. Stupid. He knew the math in his head, kept the score and tally in his own mind next to some of the others and he'd always managed to outperform at least four or five others in different tests…

People can lie, numbers don't.

But what if…

He had to make sure. He had to make sure he passed at least one of these next scores with something high enough it wouldn't be contested.

He stared at the grip handle in front of him wondering what the hell he could do.

"Midoriya."

Izuku's eyes snapped up to Aizawa, green eyes meeting dark ones as he found the class staring at him. "It's not gonna squeeze itself. Let's get this over with."

Izuku's lips pursed, eyes trailing down again to the grip.

How to do this…

Like a light bulb going off in his head Izuku found the answer.

He placed the grip test on the floor, and much to everyone's visible and audible surprise, took off his shirt.

"Uhhh. Greenie? You ok there?" Mina called. "It's a grip strength not a cat walk."

Izuku didn't answer her, instead, he proceeded to wrap his shirt around the handle, forming the topmost part into a knot.

And then he twisted it.

And twisted it.

And twisted it.

And twisted it.

With every twist the shirt was pulled tighter and tighter against the grip, and Izuku only faintly paid attention to the cries of surprise from his classmates.

"That's cheating!" Someone called.

"Using tools is as permissible as quirks." Aizawa muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "A villain doesn't care if you knock him out with your quirk or a night stick. Whatever works."

"You didn't say that!"

"And yet, He thought of it. You didn't."

Izuku strained, twisting and twisting and twisting as much as he could. Every twist became impossibly more difficult but he always managed to tighten it just an inch more, a centimeter, a millimeter. Anything.

Finally, with one last twist, he heard the UA gym shirt rip and tear with a loud sound as the whole thing went slack.

Aizawa's monitor beeped. "Two hundred seventy four kilograms."

Izuku panted, his wrists felt like they were made of jelly, and the thin T-shirt he had left was drenched in sweat as he stood up, the ruins of his gym uniform laying in a tattered mess on the floor.

"Clean that up." Aizawa said dispassionately. "Last test. Come on."

(X)(X)(X)

A ball throw.

That was the last test.

Throw it as far as you can.

Bakugou got a score of over seven hundred meters. The rosy cheeked girl, Ochako, got a score of infinity.

Izuku spent the whole time racking his brain for an answer, a way to 'win'.

You can't do this head on… use your wits.

It wasn't until he saw the girl with the Frog quirk, Asui, that his mind sprang up an idea.

His hands reached into his pocket. Pulling out his phone and searching instantly for a video to tell him how to actually make this happen.

He practically fast forwarded through the thing. And was grateful for every massive long throw that took seconds, or even a minute to hit the ground again each single second adding time for him to search.

Finally, it was his turn.

"Midoriya."

He immediately shut off the phone, pocketing it again as he stepped up to Aizawa, who handed him a ball.

Izuku stared at the thing, looked at the starting place.

Then he took off his T-shirt.

"AGAIN!?" Someone cried out behind him, Kaminari if he were to peg the voice.

"You know Greenie, if this test keeps going you might finish it naked." He heard Mina tease behind him.

He could feel the blush trailing up his cheeks but tried to stay focused.

With a quick rip and a tear, Izuku pulled the T-shirt in two.

Then he tied the arm loops together.

"What is that?"

"The hell's he doin now?"

"He's making a sling."

He was. It was Momo who answered, and with a firm tug, the sling was sturdy enough to be used.

He placed the ball in the makeshift cradle of the arm loops, thanking every god in heaven the ball fit and didn't just slip through the thing.

Then, it was time to throw and Izuku did his best to remember every step by step motion he could from his hastily watched video.

He wasn't aiming for accuracy, he was aiming for distance.

Just launch the damn thing high enough to get far. That's all ya gotta do.

He started spinning.

Whirling the ball so fast beside him he could feel the wind it created buffeting his face Izuku launched the ball with a yell.

It flew.

Up high and far, in a damn near perfect arc, Izuku watched it rise before inevitably coming back down somewhere far.

He turned to Aizawa who looked to Izuku before holding up the score.

Two hundred and seventy-seven meters.

(X)(X)(X)

"Way to go dude! That was amazing! I never woulda thought of that!"

Kirishima's over enthusiastic pat on the back nearly knocked Izuku over. The Green haired teen smiling nervously at the hardening quirk user. "I… it was more desperate than anything." He admitted. "I really didn't wanna fail."

"Oh yeah, it was super cruel of Aizawa to do that to everyone, but especially you Greenie." Mina said. "Even if he wasn't gonna fail you, putting you on the spot like that was just mean."

Izuku ducked his head. He didn't disagree. But more than that the doubts and cruel whispers in his mind still circled their oily, shadowy tendrils around his brain. Wondering if Aizawa had every intention of failing him, and he'd only decided not to after Izuku's passing in ninth place would have made it necessary to fail half the class.

He wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt… but his first impression had not really endeared him to the notion of doing such either.

"I wonder what he meant though." Kirishima mused. "You know. At the end of the class when he said we'd be experiencing some experimental curriculum changes?"

"Dunno." Mina shrugged. "Maybe it'll be something fun."

Izuku hoped not.

If something 'Fun' meant more tests where he was graded like today, under the threat of expulsion, he really really hoped not.

"Ahh well. I'm headin' to the East side train." Kirishima said as they reached the station waving at them both

"South side for me!" Mina called. "How bout you green?"

"North, then getting off to catch the westbound." He answered.

"Alright then." Mina nodded smiling before reaching forward to offer them both a quick hug. "See ya tomorrow guys."

Kirishima smiled. "See ya Mina."

"B-bye." Izuku stuttered, fingers clutching at the straps of his backpack.

The girl waved cheerilly as she skipped off, and Kirishima offered him another shoulder slap before heading off.

And just like that his first day at U.A was over.