Disclaimer:(read Prologue)
Chapter 6: First Day; Give It Your Best
"Tell me, Matthew,"the knight said to him as he knocked him off balance with a parry, "do you know the purpose of this spar?" the knight then tapped him on the top of the head with his wood longsword.
"To train me to fight as long as possible?" Matthew guessed, panting heavily as he lifted his wood longsword into a guard and got into a stance.
The young squire has been training with his master, Sir Ethan, ever since they started at noon. The knight gave him only one instruction before they entered the castle's combat arena, 'win as many bouts as he can before the sun sets."
They already had 250 bouts, and Matthew only won 10 of those. Sir Ethan was a true master of the sword.
"Well, that's part of its purpose," Sir Ethan said. He then stepped forward and they engaged in another bout.
A series of strikes, blocks, parrys, and counters were exchanged during the bout; five seconds into the bout, Sir Ethan hit Matthew with a stab after he riposte a downward slash from his squire.
"The main purpose of this exercise is to teach you to conserve your strength," the master explained, his stance lightened but his guard remained up.
"When you enter combat, you must aim to defeat your opponent as swiftly as possible. However, a mistake that many combatants make when applying this philosophy is that they aim to end the fight by using the whole of their strength and being to overwhelm their enemy." Sir Ethan continued.
"That method may work in the short-term, but is detrimental in the long-term. When you fight, you must always keep in mind the possibility of another following soon after. If you give your all in one fight, you will have nothing left to give in the next; and that will lead to your end." he finished.
"So how would one end a fight quickly if they don't use all their strength?" Matthew asked, the lecture provided him a brief break to gather himself.
"They end it with skill, speed, and patience." Sir Ethan answered, "All battles are won with tactics, not strength; because no matter how powerful the enemy is, there is a plan that can be made to defeat him."
"So strength doesn't matter at all?" Matthew asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I never said that,boy," the knight retorted, "I'm saying that there's more to fighting than power. If strength was all that mattered, then I would've had you sent to the forest to cut down trees and drag them back here instead of drilling various forms into your skull."
"Right, understood, Sir." Matthew said.
"Good," Sir Ethan remarked, "now come at me, there's still plenty of daylight left."
The two then engaged in another bout.
"Do you have everything, Izuku?" Inko asked, watching her son fix his tie for the tenth time. Even after reliving the memories of his past family members, he still couldn't fix his tie right.
"Yup, Mom," Izuku replied as he headed out the door, deciding to leave his tie with the bing knot from his last attempt.
"Izuku." She called out before he left.
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Do your very best today," Inko encouraged with a smile, "I know you'll become a great hero."
"Thanks, Mom." he said with a smile.
The train ride to U.A was uneventful. To pass the time, he texted Yui to see if they could meet up at the front of the station, which she agreed to. After the both got their acceptance letters, they both got together at 'Fives' to celebrate. That was the time when both their families got to formally meet each other; they got along well as far he could tell.
After arriving at the station near U.A., Izuku met up with Yui and walked into the campus together. Soon enough, they had to split off to go to their respective classrooms; Izuku was assigned to 1-A while Yui was assigned to 1-B.
"This is it," Izuku said to himself as he stood in front of the door leading into his classroom, "in this room are some of the best hero potentials in my year. I can't wait to work with them for the next four years."
"I just hope I'm not classmates with Kaachan or that loud, blue-haired kid." Izuku said in his head as he opened the door to his classroom.
"PLEASE GET YOU FEET OF THE DESK!" the blue-haired kid yelled at Katsuki, who was being his usual self, "SUCH BEHAVIOR IS ILL-SUITED FOR SOMEONE ATTENDING A PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOL SUCH AS U.A.!"
"Haa?," Katsuki growled out, not moving from his position, "who are you to tell me what to do, you background character?"
"Background character!?" the loud boy was taken aback, "PERHAPS WE GOT OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT; MY NAME IS TENYA IIDA, AND I ATTENDED SOUMEI ACADEMY!" he loudly introduced himself.
"Soumei Academy, huh," Katsuki remarked, "so you're a rich kid; I'll be sure to enjoy knocking your pompous ass into your grave."
"WHAT?!" The boy, now known as Tenya, was taken further aback, " DO YOU TRULY WISH TO BE A HERO WITH THAT BEHAVIOR!?"
"I just had to jinx myself, didn't I ?!" Izuku thought to himself.
He then looked around the rest of the classroom and saw that most of the seats have already been filled. The other students were either distracting themselves or watching the scene between Katsuki and Tenya play out. All of his peers stood out individually, each appearance he saw spoke about their character. There was one common element that was made evident though.
"All the girls here are attractive." Izuku commented in his mind. He wasn't a pervert, but he can't deny that each female peer in the room were all uniquely beautiful, and he never will.
"YOU THERE!" Tenya shouted as he power walked towards Izuku in a robotic manner, which frightened him a little bit, "YOU'RE THE ONE I MET IN THE ENTRANCE EXAM!"
"Yeah?" Izuku responded, unsure of what he was going to say.
"I HAVE MISJUDGED YOU COMPLETELY," Tenya continued, then bowed sharply, "YOU SAW THE HIDDEN PURPOSE OF THE EXERCISE WHEN OTHERS FAILED TO. I APOLOGISE FOR BEING SO HARSH TOWARDS YOU THAT DAY!"
"It's fine, I won't hold it against you, Izuku responded, "just stop shouting; you'll hurt others and yourself doing it."
"Ah, right." Tenya did so and straightened up, "Allow me to introduce myself-"
"That won't be necessary, Iida," Izuku interrupted, "I'm pretty sure the entire classroom and our neighbors know who you are by now." he then stretched out his hand, "I'm Izuku Midoriya, from Alderaan Junior High."
"It is good to formally meet you, Midoriya." Tenya said, shaking the greenhead's hand.
"Ah, Midoriya, you passed the exam!" a familiar voice behind Izuku exclaimed in happiness. He turned around and saw Ochako looking at him with a big smile.
"I have," Izuku replied, giving her his own smile, "looks like there was nothing to worry about."
As the two of them continued to talk with each other, Katsuki stared at the back of Izuku's head with a distasteful look. He then recalled their encounter after they got their exam results.
*(flashback)*
"Words can't express how proud I am that the two of you have been accepted into U.A.," the principal of Alderaan Junior High said to Izuku and Katsuki, who he called to his office, "I can only say that the both of you have bright futures as heroes and wish you luck." He then gives them a smile and a thumbs up.
After classes had ended, Katsuki cornered Izuku in a secluded area in the grounds.
"You pathetic piece of shit, Deku!" Katsuki shouted as he held Izuku against a wall. "I told you to not even bother applying to U.A.; I was supposed to be the only one in this shitty hole to rise up and become the greatest hero in existence, no one else!"
"Who do you think you are, ignoring others' dreams for your own, huh?!" Katsuki tightened his grip.
"Well, I can tell you that I'm not a hypocrite, that's for sure." Izuku stated, he met the blond's gaze unflinching. "I've made up my mind, and it's set on being a great hero. Like I said before; if you have an issue with that, that's your problem. I'm not stopping you from being a hero, so you have no reason to stop me.
*(flashback end)*
"If you won't listen to what I say, then I'll just show you that you don't belong here." Katsuki thought.
"If you're just here to socialize, then leave the classroom." the voice of an older man said from behind Ochacko.
The three teens at the door looked down by the door and saw a man laying there with a puffy, yellow sleeping bag on.
"A caterpillar?" Ochako asked, confused at the sight.
"Who are you?" Izuku asked, getting to the point.
"Sit in your assigned seats and you'll find out." the man said tiredly.
The trio did just that, along with the other students who weren't at their seats. When everyone was seated, the many crawled up to the podium.
"It took you all fifteen seconds to quiet down. That's fifteen seconds of the day to be productive wasted. You all should know to be more sensible." The man said as he got a juice box out of his sleeping bag and started drinking.
"I'm Shouta Aizawa, and I'm this class's homeroom teacher." the man introduced himself. "Now grab a gym uniform, get changed in the locker room, and meet me outside in the west field." he said as he pulled out a bunch of school gym uniforms out of his sleeping bag.
"How did he fit all of that in there?" Izuku asked internally, grabbing a uniform along with the rest of the class.
"A quirk apprehension test!?" The class exclaimed to Shouta. They were all now dressed in their gym uniforms and outside at the west field, which is one of U.A.'s small training grounds.
"What about the opening ceremony?" Ochako asked.
"I rather not waste any more time on unnecessary things." Shouta said as he got a ball out. "Katsuki Bakugo, what's your middle school record on the ball throw?"
"Sixty-three meters." Kasuki answered plainly.
"Impressive," Aizawa said, then tossed the bass to him, "I want you to step inside the circle here and use your quirk to throw the ball as far as you can."
"You want me to use my quirk?" Katsuki asked.
"Yes."
"Alright then, you asked for it." Katsuki said as he got into the circle. He let a feral grin appear in his face. He wound up his arm to throw.
"DIIIEE!" Katsuki roared as he threw the ball, he let out a huge explosion and sent the ball flying through the air.
"DIE?" all the teens asked themselves in their head.
Shouta looked at the handheld tracking device to see how far the ball went. After a few seconds, he showed the class the results.
"705.2 METERS!" The class, except Izuku, shouted in shock.
"Here in U.A., we strive to bring out the best out of our heroes, which is why we encourage using your quirks in training."
"We get to use our quirks!?" Another kid with spiky, yellow hair with a black lightning bolt pattern asked in excitement.
"This is gonna be fun!" a very ping girl with black eyes and a pair of horns exclaimed.
"Fun, you say?" Shouta asked, getting their attention, "If that's how you all feel, then let's make things more interesting. Whoever gets the lowest score on this test is expelled from U.A. entirely."
That got most of the teens to exclaim in disapproval of the rule.
"But that's not fair at all, you can't do that!" Ochako stated, not at all happy with their teacher's new rule.
"Earthquakes, wildfires, accidents; these and many more of these events in life aren't fair, so don't expect things to be different for you." Shouta remarked, " As for my authority as a teacher, U.A. prides itself for giving teachers full freedom in educating the next generation of heroes."
"If you want to be part of that next generation, you better prove your worth to me," Shouta declared with a sarcastic grin, "So give this test your all, plus ultra and all that."
And so the apprehension test began for class 1-A. And the first part of it was a 50 meter dash.
Izuku adjusted the fit of his vambraces and utility belt, making sure they fit snugly on him. Fortunately, Shouta allowed the use of any registered support item that helps improve the control of one's quirk. Izuku and another student by the name of Yuga Aoyoma found their support items waiting for them on a nearby table.
When it came time for Izuku to do the dash, he found himself side-by-side with Katsuki. The blond ignored him completely, choosing to look ahead with a scowl on his face.
"Just my luck that I have to be this close to him right now." Izuku sighed internally. He hopes that some good luck will come his way to balance things out.
The starting pistol fired, and Katsuki instantly set off a large explosion to push him forward. Izuku took more than an instant; he activated his flamethrowers as he sprinted and created a sort of exo-skeleton around his legs. His speed picked up rapidly, coming up right behind Katsuki when they reached the finishing mark of 50 meters.
Katsuki finished in 4.13 seconds while Izuku finished in 4.15 seconds. Both were among the shortest times of the class, but pales in comparison with Tenya's 3.04 seconds.
"That was good," Izuku thought to himself, reflecting on the exo-skeleton he just extinguished, "but it can be better; better research more ways to improve its design."
Katsuki continued to scowl.
The next portion was the grip strength test. Izuku had no issue in creating another fire exo-skeleton around his hands, arms, and upper torso to help get a high score. His score ended up being the second highest with 300kg, the highest belonging to a large, masked multi-armed guy named Mezo Shoji with 540kg.
The standing long-jump was next, and Izuku managed to clear the sand pit with an exo-skeleton around his legs and a small glider. Many other of his classmates cleared the sand pit as well.
The next portion was the ball throwing test, which Katsuki did earlier. So far, no one was able to beat his score except Ochako, who used her quirk, Gravity, to take away the balls weight and got her score to infinity.
"Midoriya," Shouta called out, tossing a ball to him, "your up."
Izuku nodded and took his place inside the circle. He took a deep breath and activated his flamethrowers. He created a large crossbow modified to launch the ball instead of a bolt; he then loaded the ball and aimed the crossbow at a high angle.
"I should be able to pass Katsuki's mark with this." Izuku said internally and pulled the trigger.
Instead of the ball launching far, the crossbow burst apart in flames; the ball only went 5 meters in front of him.
"What!?" Izuku exclaimed. He has full control of his Fire Armory due to his 10-month training, so accidents like this should never occur now. The only way this could happen was with outside interference.
"I erased your quirk." Shouta said , getting his attention. Izuku saw his eyes glowing red and his hair and scarf were now standing on their ends.
"Erased?" Izuku repeated, then recognized who the man was, "You're the underground hero: Eraserhead."
The class then began quietly talking with each other when they heard what he said. Most of them haven't heard of that name before, and Izuku wouldn't blame them. Eraserhead tends to avoid the public media as much as possible and keeps to himself; an average person would be ignorant of his existence, but not for an avid hero nerd like Izuku.
"If you think you can just coast through U.A.'s hero course by doing the bare minimum, then save yourself the trouble and get out of this school." Shouta said to him, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.
"What?" Izuku asked confused, he wasn't being lazy throughout the test all day.
Shouta got right in front of Izuku, giving him an intimidating glare
"I saw what you did with the Insta-death bot in the entrance exam," Shouta said, "you are able to generate that much power with your quirk, you should be having the highest score out of everyone. Yet you choose to minimize yourself to stay with your peers. I told you that life's unfair, so don't coddle them; it's insulting."
The man then handed Izuku another ball. He deactivated his quirk, Erasure, and walked back to his previous position.
"I gave you your quirk back," Shout informed, "do whatever you want to do, then get out. I don't want to waste time on a student with zero potential."
"What do you think he said to Midoriya?" Ochako asked out loud.
"I don't know," The teen with a thunderbolt on his head said, "But whatever it was, it must be surprising." acknowledging the shocked look the green head had on his face.
"It doesn't matter what he said," Katsuki stated without emotion, "in the end, Deku is going to be kicked out of here."
"What, why?" Tenya asked.
"Because U.A. doesn't allow pathetic losers like Deku to become heroes." Katsuki answered with conviction.
" 'Loser'?", the pink girl repeated, her eyes narrowing when she heard that, "From what I've seen so far, he's definitely not a loser."
"And Midoriya is far from pathetic," Tenya defended, "He saw the hidden purpose of the entrance exam and destroyed the Insta-death bot without a struggle."
"Really?" another girl with long, cord-like earlobes asked, shocked.
"It's true," Ochako confirmed, "he did it to save me."
Shouta overheard what was said in the group; he could only mentally shake his head at the growing disappointment he had for the greenhead in question.
"Such a waste of a quirk," Shouta mentally commented, "And he has two as well; if only he had the conviction to be a hero. But I can make a pro hero out of someone with no potential."
"Mister Aizawa," Izuku called from the circle, getting his attention, "Am I right to guess that you know of my other quirk?'
"Yes, I do know," Shouta answered, ignoring another wave of quiet talking from the class, "but that's not going to help you stay in my class."
"Maybe not," Izuku remarked, "But you should know a saying that a respected man once had; 'a master who refuses to take an apprentice with nothing should go back to his own master, because he too is still an apprentice.'."
Izuku emptied the canisters on his vambraces, surrounding himself in a large amount of fire. He then took out all but one canister of fuel from his belt and emptied them into the fire, causing the flames to grow colossally.
Everyone took a few steps back; the heat was so intense, it was as if they were inside an oven at high heat.
Izuku condensed the fire around the ball as much as he could; the leaking flames to the shape of a dragon's head around him. With great force, he pushed his arms forward.
"PSEUDOFLARE!" Izuku roared. The ball shot out of the dragon's mouth with a great beam of fire. The force of the launch shook the ground, and even knocked some students off their feet.
The beam continued to fire for five second before going out; the dragon head faded away as Izuku put his arms down.
"There's a difference between giving it your best and giving a hundred percent, Mister Aizawa." Izuku said, " 'Giving it your best' means applying the best of your abilities to achieve the goal, while 'giving a hundred percent' means to use everything you got to achieve a goal."
Shouta looked down to Izuku's arms and saw that they were entirely red and were beginning to blister.
"Second-degree burns." Shouta thought, eyes widening, "He put so much power in that blast that he damaged himself."
"If I gave this test a hundred percent at the very beginning," Izuku continued, turning to face Shouta, "then I would have nothing left to give for the rest of it, therefore not getting the high marks I know I can get. That's why I chose to do my very best instead, like everyone else is."
Shouta's tracker then beeped, indicating that the ball had landed. He looked at it, then, without saying a word, showed the rest of class 1-A.
"2.5 KILOMETERS!?" the entire class exclaimed.
"WOOHOO!" Ochako cheered, hyped up, "now that is a heroic score."
Katsuki could only grit his teeth, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"So please, Mister Aizawa," Izuku said with a smile as he clenched his blistered fist in front of him, "teach me how to improve my very best, so that I can really go 'Plus Ultra'."
Shouta looked at Izuku for a few seconds before a faint grin made its way to his face.
"Cheeky brat." he said softly.
The remaining portions of the apprehension test were pull-ups, sit-ups, seated toe- touches, push-ups, and distance running.
Fortunately, Izuku packed tubes of burn cream and rolls of bandages in his utility belt just in case a burn incident like his ever occured.
With one canister left, Izuku managed to get average scores by rationing the fuel carefully.
After that, the test was done.
All the students of class 1-A were gathered in front of Shouta and a large electronic scoreboard.
"It'll take too long for me to announce all your scores one by one, so I'll show all your rankings at once." the man stated. He then turned on the scoreboard to show the rankings from the test.
After a quick scan, Izuku saw that he managed to get into the 4th rank; above him was Katsuki in 3rd, a Shoto Todoroki in 2nd, and a Momo Yaoyorozu in 1st.
Curious, he looked to see who was the last ranking. It turns out that it was a kid named Minoru Mineta, and judging by a small, grape-head boy on his knees bawling, that was him.
"By the way," Shouta said with a smile, "that expulsion thing was a logical ruse. I wanted to make sure you all took this test seriously."
"WHAT!?" many of the students shouted in surprise.
"Of course it was a lie," A well-developed girl with a spiky ponytail said as it was the most obvious thing in the world, "no teacher has the sole authority to expel a student. I apologize for not saying anything sooner."
"Don't apologize," Izuku said internally, "I know when someone's lying thanks to my ancestors' memories, and he definitely wasn't. He must've changed his mind about expelling the person in last place."
"Get changed back into your regular uniform and head back to the classroom," Shouta said, "You'll find your student handbooks and orientation packets on your desk. After you retrieve them, your school day is done."
"Midoriya." Shouta singled him out.
"Yes, sensei?" Izuku asked.
"Go to the nurse's office to get those burns properly treated." the teacher ordered, handing him a teacher's note.
He nodded and went on his way.
Izuku found himself walking towards the school's front gate after school. Recovery Girl was able to heal his burns entirely, but now he was really tired as a side effect of her quirk.
"I wonder how Yui's first day went." Izuku thought as he lazily walked, "Hopefully it wasn't as intense as mine."
"MIDORIYA!" the loud voice of Tenya called from behind. Izuku turned to see the boy fast approaching him.
"Midoriya, how are your arms?" he asked, concerned for his well being, "those burns looked quite intense."
"They were." Izuku answered, "Fortunately, Recovery Girl healed them entirely."
"That's good to hear," Tenya said, "I must confess, I do not like the fact that our teacher coerced you to push your quirk to its maximum potential like that; and the audacity to threaten us with expulsion?! I understand that U.A. wants us to do our very best, but there has to be limits to the extent of their methods.
"You're just a really earnest guy, aren't you Tenya." Izuku thought, "I bit stiff and uptight, but well-meaning nonetheless."
"Hey, wait up!" a feminine voice called out. They turned to see Ochako running towards them, beside her was the pink girl with horns and a boy with spiky red hair.
"Are you guys heading to the station?" the brunette asked when she reached them, "Mind if we tag along?"
"Of course, Uraraka," Tenya answered before Izuku could, " 'the more the merrier' as they say."
"Hey, you're Izuku Midoriya, right?" The pink girl asked excitedly getting up close to the boy in question, "I'm Mina Ashido; and I want to say that that fire-beam you did on the test was the greatest thing I have seen in my life!"
"You got that right!" The red-haired boy agreed, " So manly! I'm Eijiro Kirishima, let's be bros."
Izuku could only smile, it's only been one day and he's made four new friends.
"Sure, let's be friends." Izuku agreed, then saw two figures by the front gate, "But first, I need to introduce you to another friend of mine."
"Kodai!" Izuku called out to the girl, getting her attention away from the other girl she was talking to.
"Hey Kodai, how was your day?" Izuku asked as his group approached her.
"Mm." She hummed, giving Izuku a thumbs up. She then looked to the other teens with him.
"These are my classmates, Ochako Uraraka, Tenya Iida, Mina Ashido, and Eijiro Kirishima." he gestured to each of them respectively. " Guys, this is my good friend Yui Kodai."
Yui bowed to them respectfully and gestured to the other girl she was with.
"My name is Reiko Yagani," the girl introduced herself, "I'm kodai's classmate from class 1-B."
"Nice to meet you, Yagani," Izuku greeted.
"Likewise." she said.
The group then walked together to the train station, the sun beginning to set as their first day on U.A ends.