It was a nice day, all things considered. The sun was shining ever so brightly and the breeze rustled through the tree. Izuku would have loved to just soak it all in if he wasn't currently having a midlife crisis. It was just supposed to be a simple Quirk Apprehension test!

It had started simply enough, with that one boy with that amazing quirk. The way he threw the ball was so, explosive. Literally. He was kind of jealous, a quirk that was so adaptable was bound to be perfect for an aspiring hero. Then after that Mr. Aizawa had announced the rules.

Their teacher, Mr. Aizawa(Aka: Eraserhead, yes he did his research), thought they weren't taking this seriously enough and had just threatened to expel the student who came in last place!

There's no way... Can he even do that?!

Mr. Aizawa started speaking again and Izuku forced himself to pay attention to his tired teacher. "This is 'Plus Ultra' I expect you to overcome these trials and climb to the top."

Around him, he could see how his classmates gathered themselves, determination filling the fear that had moments before, filled their faces. He just continued to shake slightly as multiple images filled his mind. Him getting kicked out, going back to the base and being punished for his failure, him being killed for his incompetency-

Let's just say, he was not in the right mindset for this.

continued, "Now then, that was the demonstration.

Time to step up to the plate."

"3.04 seconds!"

Izuku stared in awe at Iida. Well, at least now he knew what his quirk was. Honestly, he was surprised he didn't figure it out sooner, the exhaust pipes coming out of his calves made it pretty obvious.

More people stepped up to the line and he got caught up in memorizing everything he could about everyone. All of this would need to be recorded later in his journal, no matter if he stayed or not. It was still valuable information.

Soon enough it was his turn and he nervously stepped up to the start line. He still hadn't come up with a plan to utilize his quirk in any way. The best he could come up with was running as fast as he could. There was only so much he could do with his quirk, after all, it was paper. And it wasn't like he had brought much with him. He hadn't been planning on having to use it on the first day.

Getting into a running position, he noticed that the blond-haired boy from earlier was also at the starting line. He gulped, somehow he just knew that Bakugou was going to do something drastic.

"Start!"

Izuku bolted from his place, wanting to get as high of a score as possible. Suddenly, explosions came from behind him and Bakugo rocked passed him, almost knocking him from his feet in the process. After regaining his balance, Izuku managed to cross the finish line with a time of 6.42 seconds. Not too bad, considering the other students who hadn't used their quirks.

He glanced at Bakugou for a moment, the teen standing off to the side and ignoring everyone else. Izuku would definitely be writing about him in his journal. The blond was way too strong for him not to. Not to mention Sensai would want to know more about the student who placed first in the entrance exam.

The next test was a grip strength test. It wasn't his best area of expertise, so he took out a piece of paper and focused. a second later a small gorilla was sitting in his palms, waiting for instructions. Izuku knelt and placed the gorilla on the ground, where it then proceeded to grow into a slightly adolescent sized gorilla. "Take this," he held out the grip thing, "and squeeze it as hard as you can."

The white gorilla looked at the thing before taking it and almost crushing it with his brute strength. Izuku took a moment to marvel at the sight before realizing he should probably tell it to stop before he actually crushed it.

"Okay, you can stop now," he said, nervous energy causing him to tremble slightly.

A dull thunk sounded as the gorilla dropped the grip meter. Izuku reached down to grab it when suddenly a floating pair of gloves snatched it away. His head flew up to see Hagakure, Yaoyorozu, and Uraraka looking at his grip meter in awe.

"Wow! 578 kilos! That's amazing Midoriya-kun!" Uraraka said, jaw hanging open.

"Yeah! I didn't even get close to that!" Hagakure exclaimed, and though he couldn't see her face, he knew that was excited due to her uniform jumping up and down.

Yaoyorozu nodded in agreement, surprise also on her face, "It was very creative of you to use your quirk like that." She held up one of her hands, which had a strange-looking contraption on it, "I created this to enhance my strength."

Izuku nodded before realizing this was his chance to gather information on her quirk. His stomach turned with the thought, but he knew what would happen if he didn't gather enough information.

"S-So, how exactly does your q-quirk work?" He asked, trying to keep the nervousness from his voice.

"Oh!" she said, "My quirk allows me to use the lipids in my body to create any object or objects I desire. But if I create too much I can run out of energy and collapse."

He nodded, mentally filing away the information.

"Alright everyone," Mr. Aizawa's voice silenced the entire room, despite it being no louder than his normal volume. "It's time to move on to the next test. If you haven't already, write down your score and then follow me."

With that, he turned around and moved out the doors of the gymnasium to a track looking area. After writing their score, everyone followed him to where a sandpit sat in the ground.

After Mr. Aizawa explained the rules, everyone got into a single file line. Izuku ended up near the middle while his friends(?) wound up somewhere near the rear. As he got in line, he noticed he was behind the cute guy from earlier. He felt his face heat up slightly just by looking at him, the way his classmate's red and white hair swayed in the wind stirred something in his stomach.

"Hey!"

Izuku nearly had a heart attack at the sudden, loud voice that came from behind him. He started trembling slightly as he glanced behind him.

"You're Izuku Midoriya, right?" The excited voice continued. Behind him was one of his classmates. His red hair contrasted sharply with his gym uniform, spiking up unnaturally. He searched his brain for a name but came up empty. "My name is Eijiro Kirishima! I've been wanting to talk to you since I heard about how many rescue points you got! I don't think anyone has ever gotten as much as you did! Seriously! That's so manly!"

Izuku was taken aback at just how loud and energetic Kirishima was. He had to glance away in order to organize his thoughts. His hair shadowed over his eyes as he stammered out a response. "O-oh, th-thank y-you..."

Kirishima just grinned and pat his shoulder roughly, "No Problem my man! By the way, it's almost your turn."

His eyes widened and he quickly turned around to see his red and white-haired classmate boost himself to the other side of the sandpit using ice. Izuku could only stare in awe at how beautiful his classmate looked with his hair settling back on his face and his tiny ice crystals seemed to make the air around him shimmer. He looked up and met his gaze and Izuku blushed furiously as he stepped up to the edge of the sandpit, head low as he tried to hide his face. Shaking his head to clear his scrambled thoughts, he crouched down low. He was about to launch himself forward when the image of a pair of heteromorphic eyes flashed in the front of his mind. He slipped mid-launch and ended up falling headfirst into the sand. Groaning, he lifted his head and rubbed his forehead to try and chase away the pain. Looking up, he caught sight of everyone watching him. Some of them were laughing, others(his friends) watching with concern. He then saw his duel hair colored classmate(crush) looking away with disinterest. Izuku looked down in shame, how could he ever expect to become a hero-

He cut off that train of thought, eyes wide when he realized his mistake.

Right, He got up and brushed himself off, I'm not here to become a hero.

He walked off the sand and went to wait with the others who had already gone. He didn't notice how the others did, too focused on berating himself for his careless mistake. Thoughts ran circles in his mind. Tou-nii and Sensai standing over him, beating him, torturing him. Another memory pushed itself to the forefront of his mind, this one hurting more than any other. It was of that one classmate of his, the one that he can't stop thinking about, the one where he just looked away.

He tried, he really did, to rid himself of these dark thoughts, but the hard he tried, the more they seemed to hurt him more. Tears started to prick at his eyes(he hadn't cried in years) and he hid his face so that no one could see his red face and eyes as he desperately tried to calm himself. Now wasn't the time or place to start having a breakdown, he still had 5 more tests to do.

Everyone around him didn't seem to notice his small breakdown, too absorbed in talking to each other to notice how Madoriya hadn't looked up or said a word since his turn. No one even saw how he had started shaking, hands clenched tightly at his sides.

He could only hope that he would continue to blend into the background. That was what was good at anyway, right?

"Hey, you! Broccoli head!"

Just his luck.