Percy tugged at the tie around his neck for the umpteenth time. He was convinced that, contrary to whatever bullshit Nezu was peddling, this thing was at least a size too small. Or maybe he just tied the tie wrong? Either way, he hated the damn thing, it was tight, uncomfortable, and he felt like an idiot.

With a bereaved sigh, he hauled his backpack higher on his shoulder and just made his way through the freshman building, looking for room 1-A. He stopped short, as he came up on the enormous door with a red, 1-A, painted on the frame. Sending a mental thank you to whomever made the door as big as it was, he was happy he didn't have to duck to enter the classroom.

He had been quick to realize that not many places in his new home had the dimensions of six-foot-five men in their mind when constructing their buildings.

There were already a number of students in the class, several idling around, perched on or around desks and talking with one another. Not bothering with a greeting, Percy just made his way quietly to the back of the room, choosing the seat that sat lonely, in a row by itself, in the back of the room.

The pressure of his tie around his neck, and his shirt around his arms was becoming too annoying to deal with. Deciding he would deal with whatever punishment that would be doled out, he bucked off the sport coat part of the uniform. Draping the jacket over the back of the chair, he set about undoing his tie, before tossing it in a heap, onto his backpack. Unbuttoning the top two rows of buttons of the starched dress shirt, he rolled the sleeves up to just short of his elbows, and breathed a sigh of relief. He could finally breath again.

Looking up, he saw that most of the room was looking in his direction. "Uh, hi?" he greeted awkwardly, as he scanned the room. He recognized a couple of faces, several of whom he had taken the exam with, but that he had forgotten the names of. He was great with faces, but terrible with names.

He was saved from the uncomfortable situation by the spirited redhead that had helped out during the exam, "Hey man, great to see you again," he said smiling brightly and putting an arm behind his head, "I knew we'd end up in the same class! We kicked too much ass for them to separate us."

Percy just laughed, and the tension in the room seemed to dissipate some, as a couple of the others from the entrance exam wandered over to Percy's corner. He recognized the frog-girl, and the masked multi-arm guy, and Percy shot a wave over to the kid with the crow? He thought it might be a crow or an eagle of some kind, for a head. Birdman returned the casual greeting but didn't approach, Percy could respect the decision.

Instead, he turned his attention back to the oncoming students, "Good to see all of you made it," he said with a smile, then frowned, "Sorry, I hate to be that guy but I'm awful with names, can you give me a quick refresher?"

"No worries man!" the redhead said with a smile, "I'm the same way, still couldn't tell you who was in my class in middle school. Name's Kirishima!"

"Shoji," said the mask wearer, one of his arms forming a mouth to speak,

"Kero." croaked the frog-girl, "Call me Tsu."

"Percy," he reintroduced himself, with a smile,

"I wanted to thank you," Shoji said, surprisingly soft-spoken for someone his size, "If not for your direction, I would not have scored nearly as well on the practical examination. As it stood, I was awarded another thirty rescue points because of your direction." He bowed slightly in appreciation,

"Yeah man, same here!" Kirishima added, "I came in third because of the extra points I got in saving those guys from the wreckage."

Percy just chuckled, "You guys don't need to thank me, you would have done fine on your own,"

"No, we wouldn't." Croaked Tsu, her eyes staring unblinkingly at Percy, "I was fully prepared to begin retreating when I saw what you and the girl with the big-hands were going to do. It inspired me to act. So, thank you."

"Yeah man," Kirishima nodded, "What she said. I don't think I would have even thought to help evacuate some of the other examinees if you hadn't started taking charge like you did."

"What are you guys talking about?" Asked a girl in the other corner, and Percy had to do a double take as he looked at her. She had pink skin, pink hair, horns, and bright yellow eyes. She looked like a godsdamn alien.

Kirishima turned and smiled at her, "Oh, were just talking about the exam, my man Percy here," he gestured with his thumb at Percy, "Got a bunch of us together when that zero-pointer started wrecking shop. He got all of us and that guy over there," he pointed at birdman, "And got us organized so we could help some of the students who got trapped when that monster appeared."

"Then he killed it." Tsu said bluntly, still staring unblinkingly at Percy, who was becoming a touch unnerved.

That certainly got the attention of everyone in the room, "Wait that huge, building-sized robot that we were told to run from?" the Xenomorph asked, disbelief and shock on her face,

"Oh yeah," Kirishima boasted on Percy's behalf, and Percy must have lost the memo on when he got his own personal hype man, but he wasn't going to complain, "It was so manly! After he got us all organized, he distracted it, and drew it away. Then he just like, launched in the air and made this big ass drill made of water, and totally wrecked the thing, it was incredible!" He emphasized the story with a loud smack on Percy's back.

"It was most impressive," Chimed in Birman from the front of the room, the room fell contemplatively quiet at the pronouncement, and Percy scanned the room, before catching the eye of a blonde-haired kid seated in the front row, with one leg propped up on the desk. He glared at Percy appraisingly, before he nodded surreptitiously and turned his attention away. Percy was spared from the uncomfortable silence as the door to the classroom opened again, and two more students walked in. The first was a girl, tall, maybe a few inches short of six feet, with spikey black hair tied up into a ponytail. Behind her was a slightly taller, stern looking boy, with dark blue hair, and blue eyes behind square-rimmed glasses. The boy took one look around the room, before he blurred into motion.

"What are you all doing, class starts in ten minutes, why are you all just standing around!" he shouted, running from student to student, chopping the air viciously as though he were trying to hack through a stack of wood planks.

"Oh, holy shit, seriously?" Percy muttered to himself in English. Kirishima heard him, and shot him a slightly confused stare, before he was thrown back as suddenly the blue-haired teen was right in Percy's face. Or at least as much as he could be, considering Percy still towered over him,

"And you!" He said angrily, "What are you doing out uniform? Don't you know it's tremendously disrespectful to everyone who has ever worn the U.A. uniform, as well as a violation of the U.A. code of conduct to not be wearing the entirety of the school's uniform?" He huffed.

Percy blinked, and then tried to defuse the situation. This kid had to have some Athena in his bloodline somewhere down the line, because he was entirely too much like some of Annabeth's siblings not be uncomfortably related somehow. Placing a hand on the teen's shoulder, Percy did what had always worked for him at camp,

"Dude, take a breath." He said, putting on his most disarming smile, "And relax. I mean no disrespect to anyone, or anything. But that," Percy pointed his discarded uniform, "is at least one size too small, I'm pretty sure I could flex out of this shirt if I really wanted to," To emphasize his point, he tightened his triceps briefly, before the sound of ripping fabric tore through the air. Confused, Percy looked down and saw that he had indeed, ripped a seam in his dress shirt,

"Seriously," he muttered in annoyed English, "I was kidding,"

"Hello daddy," somebody muttered off to one side,

"No!" Percy said immediately, turning to the sound of the voice, "None of that!" He was not going to deal with thirsty jailbait.

But his attention was drawn back to the kid in the glasses when he spoke, "Hold on a minute, I recognize you," he said, gripping his chin with his hand in thought, "Where have I seen you before,"

"You're the Homeless Hero," Said the tall ponytail girl, as she perched herself at the desk in front of Percy, eyeing him with a look he recognized as painfully similar to Annabeth when she was analyzing something, "The man from the twenty-first century."

For the umpteenth time, the room fell silent at the pronouncement, Kirishima, having recovered from being blasted out of the way, was the first to speak, "Holy shit dude…seriously?"

Percy just sighed and released his grip on the blue-haired teen, "Guess that cat is already out of the bag," he muttered, "Yeah." he said, raising his arms, "That's me…I guess."

"You look pretty good for an old man," joked the Xenomorph, trying lighten the mood,

Percy just groaned, "Please stop that," he begged,

The blue-haired kid's expression turned hard, "I have to admit, the idea of sharing a classroom with a vigilante makes me question the integrity of an upstanding institution like U.A."

"Dude," called out a purple haired across the room with-were those headphone jacks dangling from her earlobes? "The guy was kidnapped against his will and woke up two-hundred years in the future. Lay off of him," Percy looked at the girl and gave her a small and grateful smile, which she returned with a nod.

"Yeah man," Kirishima said, walking over to Percy's side, "Besides, he was a total hero during the initiation."

"Agreed," Shoji's arm-mouth said, "Whatever circumstances led him to U.A. aside, he was an invaluable asset during our initiation, and I'm happy to see you here." Percy smiled gratefully at the masked teen. While Percy didn't need anybody defending him, it was more than a little touching having so many relative strangers come to his defense so readily. Especially those that hadn't even seen him fight.

"Honestly it's pretty awesome that he the first thing you did after waking up was trying to help people," said the Xenomorph,

"Ok, real quick," Percy said, cutting off any more line of questions, as the blue-haired kid held his chin in thought,

"Can I get your name, because I keep calling you Xenomorph in my head and it's getting annoying," he said to the pink-skinned girl.

The girl stared at him, before squealing in delight and throwing her hands happily into the air, "You're my new favorite person!" she yelled, "The name is Ashido Mina, nice to meet ya new best friend."

Percy just stared at her, and wondered, not for the first time since arriving in this time, why the fates seemed to hate him so much.

"You actually get that reference? Cause like, damn, that movie was old when even I was growing up,"

Mina rolled her eyes, "Duh!" she said, "Look at me!" she gestured exaggeratedly at herself, "You think I haven't seen the greatest alien movie of all time?"

"Independence Day would beg to differ but fair point," the rest of the class was utterly befuddled by the byplay, but Percy paid it no mind, instead turning his attention to the stern kid,

"Look man, yes, I was the vigilante or whatever. But come on, I was desperate, literally homeless, and thinking I was going more than a little insane. When I went under all of this hero stuff," he gestured around the room, "Was literally comic book bullshit. Utter fantasy. When I woke up, and apparently eighty-percent of the population had superpowers, I thought I was out of my gourd. I was desperate, terrified, and alone. I didn't do the things that I did out of some misplaced sense of injustice or whatever, but because it was the only thing keeping me from utterly losing it over the fact that literally every single person I knew and loved is now dead and buried." He punctuated his statement with the kind of flat stare that would have made even Mr. D proud.

To his credit, the bespectacled boy winced, as a deep look of shame and regret came over him. He bowed so deeply, his forehead nearly touched the floor,

"I apologize for my gross overreaction. I have made a misjudgment of your character without even getting the chance to know you. Please forgive my ignorance."

He had no godsdman clue how to respond to that, and suddenly those etiquette and culture lessons could not come soon enough. Not knowing how to proceed, he just awkwardly patted the kid on the back as he looked to Kirishima and Shoji for help. The pair just smirked at him as Tsu ribbitted loudly, almost like she was laughing. It was kind of adorable in a way if he was honest.

"Oh my god, would you d-list extras just shut up already, you're making too much goddamn noise!" Grumbled the blonde kid from the front of the room, and the kid in the glasses jerked upright, and disappeared over to the blonde-kid in a flash of movement, before the pair descended into a heated argument.

"Di Immortales," Percy said, running a hand through his hair, already feeling exhausted, "Gonna be an interesting year huh?"

"Hey man, at least things won't be boring!" Kirishima said with a smile.

Percy laughed, but didn't disagree. He spent the next couple of minutes talking with his new classmates. He discovered that Tsu, apparently, was indeed a frog-girl. Her entire family apparently had a frog-mutation quirk that made them literal human-frog hybrids. Shoji, he discovered, was something of a minimalist, he didn't have many hobbies outside of training, and he was rather quiet and subdued.

Percy was thinking he might be his favorite so far.

Kirishima on the other hand, reminded Percy so much of Leo that he was a little frightened, but also immediately at ease in the kid's presence. He just had a likable and outgoing air about that made it very easy to speak with him. The foursome had been so engrossed in their conversation, that they hadn't even noticed the arrival of the final two students, until a commanding voice that Percy recognized, spoke over the din of the room, and instantly things fell silent.

Shuffling into the room, was the man Percy recognized as Aizawa from his interrogation a few weeks prior. Only it took a second for Percy to realize who it was, because the man was encased in a bright yellow sleeping bag, sipping on a packet of juice.

"My whole life is just going to be, 'this might as well happen today' from now on isn't it?" Percy said quietly to no one in particular, but Shoji's mouth-arm snorted in amusement.

"It took eight seconds before you all shut up." Aizawa said, unzipping his bag and stepping out, "That's not gonna work, time is precious. Rational students would understand that."

"Jesus," Kirishima muttered, just who is this guy?"

"Hello," Aizawa said, and whether he not he heard Kirishima's query or not was impossible to tell, "My name is Shota Aizawa, your teacher. So let's get to it," he rummaged in his sleeping bag for a moment, before retrieving a gaudy blue jumpsuit, "You'll find these in the lockers at the side of the room," Raising his phone in the air, he clicked a button and a series of lockers with their names appeared through a hole in the wall, "there is a locker room, through those doors," he clicked another button on his phone and two doorways appeared, one labelled boys and the other girls, "put them on and meet me at the training fields outside." He then abruptly turned on his heel and left.

For a moment, nobody moved. Then, deciding somebody needed to take the initiative, Percy strode over to his locker, labelled one, and retrieved his jumpsuit before heading into the locker room. The scrapping of chairs and clattering of footsteps behind him, told Percy that the others were quickly following in his footsteps.

BREAK

"Seriously Nezu, what the shit?" Percy grumbled as he yanked in annoyance at the topcoat of the jumpsuit. Like his school uniform, it was uncomfortably tight on him, specifically around the arms and chest. He was the first one out of the locker room, and was striding toward what looked like a standard outdoor high school running track. Aizawa was standing silently in front of what Percy identified as the starting circles for a shot-put toss.

Aizawa, seeing Percy approaching, closed the distance.

"Good to see you're the first out here," he said to Percy, "I wanted to speak with you before we began." Percy just nodded, "We'll be conducting a quirk assessment test, it's meant to see how creatively students can apply their quirks to their training, as well as assess their ability to push themselves beyond their limits. Obviously, you don't have a quirk, which means you'll need to be assessed slightly differently."

Percy grunted in agreement, "Clarify for me briefly, what kind of powers you have again, so I know what to look for when evaluating your performance."

Percy nodded, knowing that all of that information was likely in his file, but went along with the exercise regardless, "Enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Mastery over the control of water, in all of its elemental forms. Meaning I can pull water from the ambient air around us, to construct into weapons or tools as I need them. I can summon winds to either use offensively, or enhance my speed and agility. I can summon literal hurricanes, and cause earthquakes."

Aizawa nodded, "Anything else?"

Percy thought for a moment, "By either submerging in water or drinking it, I can be healed from even the most debilitating of injuries, or bolster my stamina and energy."

"Anything else?" he prompted, and again Percy thought for a second,

"I can talk to fish and horses,"

"Please don't joke," Aizawa deadpanned,

"I'm not," Percy said flatly.

The man sighed, but nodded his head all the same, "Given your experience and age, expect to be graded and treated far more harshly than the others. You've got more experience with using your power in the field than the rest of them combined, keep that in mind going forward." Aizawa lectured, before falling silent as the rest of the students approached.

He had expected as much. It was honestly fair; after all, Aizawa was correct. He had more experience than likely anybody in the entire school. Hell, Percy wouldn't be surprised if he had more experience fighting life-and-death battles than most pro-heroes. As such, he knew his powers inside and out, and had been training them extensively since he was twelve years old. Add in his fully matured and developed body, and he had a leg up on literally every other student in the freshman classes.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the remainder of the students had gathered around Aizawa, and he began his speech.

"Today, we will be doing a quirk assessment test, and before any of you interrupt me, yes, I am aware that we will be missing orientation. Don't worry about it. If you're really serious about making the big leagues, then you can't waste your time on pointless ceremonies. Here at U.A. we teachers aren't burdened with the tether of tradition. I pretty much have free rein to run my classes as I see fit."

There were a couple of muted gasps from the crowd at that, which Aizawa ignored,

"You've been taking standardized tests all your life, but you never got to use your quirks in the physical exams before. The Ministry of Education is still under the misguided idea that we're all created equally, by not allowing those with the most power to excel. It's irrational."

He turned to look at Jackson, 'That was fast,' Percy thought to himself, as he met the man's stare.

"Jackson, you scored the most points on the entrance exam. When you were still in school, did you have the softball distance throw?"

"No?" he said, confused, "That's a thing?"

In answer, the man just tossed Percy a softball, with a digital bar in the center, "Well now we're going to find out how far you can throw, by using your quirk." He pointed to the shot put circle, "Anything goes, so long as you stay in the circle."

Taking the cue, Percy approached the circle. He swung his arms experimentally, to see what his range of movement was, but he got annoyed when his arms caught at the top of his rotation. The damn jumpsuit was too tight on him. "Screw it," he muttered and ripped the jacket off, leaving him in just a tank top.

"Oh my…" someone in the crowd whispered, as he quickly limbered up.

"Go on," Aizawa prompted, "You're wasting time."

Percy nodded and got into a stance to throw, as Aizawa's words from earlier echoed in his head. 'Well, I've never tried to use both wind and water at the same time, outside of summoning a hurricane,' Percy thought to himself, 'If I use the natural water in the air to augment my natural strength, and focus the direction of the winds to carry the ball even further, then this could be….something'

Getting into a pitcher's stance, with the ball tucked behind his back in his right hand, Percy summoned water to encase the entirety of his right arm. There were some muted but excited whispers in the crowd, at the display of his quirk. Then, he pulled on the other aspect of his father's domain, and the wind began to pick up, as a harsh gale took roost. There were a couple of shouts and sequels of surprise at the sudden change.

Leading with his left foot, Percy cocked his arm back, his muscles locking and tightening in exertion as he put every ounce of strength he could into his throw. With a mighty heave, and a grunt of exertion, Percy launched the softball, as hard as he possibly could. There was silence for a moment, after the ball left his fingertips, followed an explosion, as the ball was blasted into low orbit. Percy felt something pop, and jerk of pain in his shoulder, as the joint dislocated from the socket.

He panted slightly, the exertion from using both elements simultaneously, as well using all of strength taking its toll, as he turned to look at Aizawa. The man nodded at him, seemingly pleased that Percy was taking it as seriously as he was. Like he would have done any differently. This was Percy's only chance at having a life, he knew that he had no other options, and no plan b, which meant that he needed to be putting his all into these training exercises if he was going to prove that he belonged.

"Holy shit," he heard Kirishima whisper, seeing the after effects of Percy's throw, even as the wind died down.

"Seem's kind of unfair," someone else chimed in, a tall kid with large pouty lips, "What with the wind picking up right as he threw."

"Part of my quirk," Percy said, as he walked out of the circle, holding his right arm, "I can control the manipulate the wind at my discretion."

That seemed to pacify the kid, even as others looked on, Percy caught sight of one kid, a scrawny, short little sprite of a teen, with broccoli green hair, green eyes, and freckles, looking at Percy as though he were the second coming. Turning his attention away from the slightly awed kid, he looked at Aizawa, brows raised expectantly,

"This is the most rational way of determining your potential as a pro hero," he said, as he raised up his phone to display the result of the throw.

1.776km, was displayed on the phone. Huh, he really was out of shape. He should have been able to toss that sucker a hell of a lot farther. Even still, Percy couldn't help himself as he snorted in amusement,

"Somewhere, a bald eagle just shed a tear," he said with a smirk, as the rest of the class just gaped in astonishment at the throw.

Aizawa just turned an amused glare at him, "Do you think this is a joke, that being a hero is all fun and games?"

Percy raised a brow, "No, but I do know when a little levity can lighten up a gloomy situation."

Aizawa ignored him, and Percy noticed the start of a likely annoying trend. The teacher turned his attention to the class, as Percy strode back to the group, standing next to Shoji and the girl with the ponytail.

"If you think this will be fun and games then you might as well leave right now and save me the trouble. You have three years here to become a hero, and in that time, you will be pushed beyond your limits. Starting today." Again, the majority of the class gasped, "Today, you'll compete in eight physical tests, to gauge your potential. The person who comes in last, has none, and will be expelled immediately." There was a whimper behind him, and Percy looked to see the green-haired kid from before, literally shaking where he stood. Poor kid looked like he was about to faint.

"Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs, if that's a problem you can go home right now."

Percy couldn't help but nod in appreciation. Sure, it was pretty harsh, and some kids would likely have their dreams crushed, but he understood better than anyone how difficult the life of a hero could be. You had to be prepared to leave it all out on the field, every time you stepped into battle or you'd be dead before you knew it.

That, and Percy did love a good competition.

"It's the first day, you can't send one of us home!" cried some girl, with chestnut brown hair and rosy cheeks, "It isn't fair!"

"The real world isn't fair either kiddo." Percy found himself saying before he could stop himself. All eyes turned to him, and Aizawa nodded at him to continue, "Natural disasters, power-hungry monsters, hell bent on destruction or total domination? It doesn't matter, life doesn't play by what's fair and what isn't. Best to start learning that now, before you have to learn that the hard way." he said staring the now shaking girl dead in the eyes, as his fists tightened painfully at his sides.

He didn't know why he was talking, why this was coming out right now, but the words were just spilling out and he had no way to stop them. Part of him was reminded of his days as a counselor back at camp, how he had tried to beat these exact lessons into kids that had been forced into a life they had never asked for. That was one thing, but this? He agreed with Aizawa, these kids were young, naive. Sure, they had potential, and they had the drive to go on and become something great maybe, but they were choosing a hard life, and they needed to understand the potential consequences of the life they were choosing to lead.

"One day everything can be going great, and the next, everything you know and love is ripped from your grasp faster than you can blink." Flashes of images raced through his mind's eye, and he saw his mother, Annabeth, and all the others that had been forcefully taken away from him. The wind picked up again, and there was a loud crack of thunder overhead, as he briefly and unconsciously lost control over his powers.

"Jackson!" barked Aizawa, snapping him out of his trance. Percy blinked, and got a grip on himself, and the wind died down and the skies cleared.

"Sorry, sir. Won't happen again," Percy said, a flush of embarrassment coloring his neck.

Aizawa just stared at him for a moment, before addressing the girl, "Jackson is right, Uraraka. The world is full of unfairness, and it's a hero's job to try and combat that unfairness. If you wanna be a pro, then you have to be willing to push yourself to the brink. Over the next three years, we will throw one hardship after another; your ability to overcome these hardships will determine whether or not you're cut out to be a pro. So, go beyond, Plus-Ultra style, and show me it's no mistake that you're here."

With his piece said, Aizawa turned, and strode off towards the next test, the students following in a dazed trance. The words of both Percy and Aizawa ringing heavily in their minds. Shoji nudged his good shoulder,

"You alright?" he asked, and Percy knew he wasn't referring to his shoulder.

Percy thought for a second on how he wanted to answer that question. Part of him, a big part, wanted to tell the truth. To be honest and say that no, he was pretty fucking far from ok. But he couldn't bring himself to say it. Not yet. So, he just put on a wide smile and nodded,

"Yeah, I'll be good." Shoji just looked at him, clearly not believing him, but willing to let the matter lie,

"Alright man, but if you need to talk," and suddenly his moth-arm turned into an ear, "I'm happy to lend you an ear."

Percy snorted, genuinely amused, "That was corny as hell." he laughed, and patted the big guy on the back, "But thank you Shoji. I appreciate it." The masked teen just hummed in acknowledgement, before turning his attention back toward the front.

"You really should see someone about your shoulder." The ponytail girl said next to him, "It's dislocated, and it looks rather painful."

Percy started, having completely forgot for a moment about his shoulder, he looked down at it, before shrugging. "Completely forgot about that," he muttered in English, not seeing the girl's brows rise as she understood him. Then, before she could say anything, Percy gripped his shoulder joint with his good arm and with a loud, "POP" he shunted the joint back into place.

From behind him, he heard Kirishima cry out, "Fucking hell, he's just too goddamn manly!" but Percy ignored it, opting instead to smile down at the girl, who looked torn between being mildly disgusted, amazed, and blushing.

"Thanks!" Percy said, with a cheerful smile, that did bring a rosy blush to her cheeks, "I'm Percy by the way." He greeted, offering her a hand to shake,

Shaking off the blush, she gripped his larger hand briefly in her own, "Yaoyorozu Momo," she said.

"Nice to meet you Momo." Percy said again with a smile, before pausing at seeing the slightly aghast, and scandalized expression on her face. She stopped in her tracks, her blush having returned, only now it encompassed her entire face,

"That's…just so forward," she stammered out, and Percy just looked at her in utter bewilderment.

"Huh?" he asked, scratching behind his ear in confusion, "Uh what did I do?" he asked, to no one in particular, "Awe crap, is this one of those social etiquette things?"

Someone snorted from behind him, as the girl with the headphone jacks for earlobes came up to him, and gently nudged the girl, "Yes, it is." She laughed, before speaking to the still spluttering girl, "Relax Yaoyorozu, he's American." she said gesturing to Percy, "They call everyone by their first names over there. Don't read into it so much." Turning to the confused American, she clarified the situation, "You really aren't supposed to use someone's first name unless you know them really well, or are…intimate with them."

"Oh…" Percy said, uncomfortably and still kind of confused. He didn't really see what the big deal was, but he reminded himself that different places did things really differently, and he would need to get used to that. He turned his attention to the still slightly mortified Yaoyorozu, and said, "Sorry Yaoyorozu, didn't mean to offend ya or, you know, make you uncomfortable or anything."

The girl finally managed to compose herself, but still couldn't meet his eye. She nodded her acceptance of his apology and quickened her pace to put as much distance between her and Percy as possible.

"if it's not one thing it's another," Percy muttered, making the ear jack girl chuckle,

"Don't worry about it, big guy." She said, matching his pace beside him, and extended a hand to shake, "Jiro Kyoka. Let's keep it as Jiro for now though, eh hotshot?" she smirked cheekily at him.

Percy shot a fake glare at her, but accepted the offered hand all the same, "That's not going away anytime soon, is it?" he asked, and sighed when she shook her head. "Whatever, nice to meet ya Joan," he said cheekily, the joke mostly for himself.

"Joan?" she asked, confused,

"The name Joan Jett mean anything to you?" he asked, and she shook her head that she did not. "Look her up at some point," he said, "I have a feeling you'll like her." He was getting a serious punk-rock vibe from the girl.

They're conversation died out there, as they approached the next trial, which seemed to be a sprint of some kind. Cracking his neck, Percy hyped himself up, it was going to be a long day, and he had no intention of coming in anything but first in this little competition.

BREAK

All things considered; he was pretty pleased with how his day had been going. He hadn't placed first in the fifty-meter dash, but he had ended up with the second-best time. Coming in second only to the stern kid from that morning who apparently had literal car engines in his legs. He had placed first in the grip test, but he had been impressed by what his buddy Shoji had been able to put up. There had been the long jump, and while Percy hadn't been top three, he was happy enough with fifth overall, considering some of these kids' quirks could help them all but fly. Some weird kid with sticky balls for hair took first in the side-to-side step competition, but Percy had content with his second place. Some other kid had the same idea he had, and apparently could use ice, and matched his plan of making it into a glorified slip and slide.

Then there had been the ball test, the one he had been confident he was going to win, until it became clear that the girl with the chestnut brown hair had a quirk that literally allowed her to manipulate gravity. His eye had not stopped twitching since Aizawa revealed the little infinity symbol as a result of her test. The last one to make an attempted throw was the kid with the green hair. At that point, Percy was feeling genuinely bad for the kid, he didn't know if the guy even had a quirk or not, but he had been coming in last or near last in almost every single event since they had gotten started. Aizawa was revealed to be Eraserhead, and apparently, he had the ability to temporarily erase someone's quirk. It had left Percy wondering if that kind of ability would even work on him.

Aizawa then tore into kid, who Percy had learned was called Midoriya. Apparently, the guy had some kind of quirk that literally tore his body apart when he used it. As much as he wanted to pull for the kid, Percy always rooted for the underdog, he found himself partially agreeing with Aizawa's assessment. Someone who could only get one good hit in before being out of the fight, was a liability in a fight. But that was the only thing Percy agreed with his teacher about. Granted, he didn't know much about quirks, but from what he had seen, the vast majority of quirks didn't make someone any stronger than a normal human being. Kyoka for instance. He had watched her assessments too, sure her jacks were probably useful, but they didn't make her any amount physically stronger or faster than anybody else. Or even the girl whose power was only invisibility. Useful, no doubt, but how did you measure someone like that with only a physical aptitude test?

That was when Percy had realized that Aizawa had been lying about the expulsions.

Probably.

It was ludicrous to decree someone was unfit to be a hero by making them take a test that only played to a portion of the students' strengths. Aizawa was likely just trying to put the kids in a mindset that would force them to give the tests their all, if they did, and still showed no promise, then Percy had no doubt that they would indeed be sent home.

But for a kid like Midoriya? If his quirk was strong enough to ruin his body, and if what he had heard Iida, the stern-boy with glasses, say was true, then the kid had knocked out a zero-pointer with one punch. Expelling someone like that would be the height of irrationality. After all, weren't these kids going to school to learn how to use their quirks as effectively as possible?

So, when the kid had managed to blow everyone away with his monster of a throw, coming in third, and managed to minimize the damage to himself, Percy had been impressed.

He was even more impressed when he saw the kid had managed to go through the remainder of the tests with a broken finger.

The rest of the tests went by without any more added drama, minus the palpable tension between Midoriya and the blonde-haired kid with the explosion quirk, Bakugo.

Aizawa rounded them all back up, "All right, it's time to give you your results." he said, "I've ranked you all from best to worst, but you probably have a good idea where you stand as it is." Raising his phone, he clicked something on it, and a hologram projected into the air behind him.

The future could really fucking cool sometimes.

His gaze went directly to the to the top of the list, where his name sat next to a glowing white number one. He allowed himself a small smirk of satisfaction. He hadn't really been in doubt over his placement in the class, he had consistently been in either the top three or top five of every test, and even in his still less than ideal conditioned state, the natural maturity of his body put him a step above the other kids in the class.

He was also sore.

He hadn't had to push himself as hard as he had today in a very long time. He would need to find the local gym, and start establishing something of a workout routine. Between the entrance exam and the aptitude test, it been made annoyingly clear that his natural abilities would only get him so far.

Plus, he was interested to see how far he could go with weights that allowed him to actually utilize his natural super strength, speed, and reflexes.

He heard a whimper next to him, and looked to see Midoriya, clenching his fist, the index finger of his hand still purple, and swollen. With another quick glance at the hologram, he found Midoriya's name at the bottom of the standings. A flash of understanding and sympathy washed over Percy, as he saw the tears prickling in the corner of the kid's eyes. The poor guy had been giving it his all the entire test, and clearly believed he was going to be sent home. A belief that was not shared by Percy.

Reaching out, he placed a calm and reassuring hand on the kid's small shoulder, momentarily surprised by the sturdiness of the muscle there. The kid had clearly worked himself to the bone in order to overcome the detriments of his power. Midoriya turned to look at the owner of the large hand on his shoulder, and Percy gave him a warm smile, and a wink,

"Give it a minute, I think you're going to be in for a surprise," Percy whispered, before taking his hand back and looking back at his teacher. Percy saw a lot of himself in the young teen. Someone with a lot of power, no idea what to do with it, but the drive to overcome all the odds that were being stacked against him.

It was rather inspiring in a way.

"I was lying by the way. No one's going home."

Percy smirked as he saw Midoriya's head snap away from Percy and over to the teacher, disbelief and burning hope burned into his expression.

Aizawa, the smug son of a bitch, grinned at them.

It was unsettling as hell.

"That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all during the tests." There was a fairly well warranted outcry at the declaration.

"I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure that out," Yaoyorozu said, "Guess I should have said something,"

Percy just gave her a disbelieving look. Gods, that was kind of condescending, he thought, And the worst part is, I can't even tell if she means it to be rude, or if she's being genuine.

Judging by some of the looks the other students were shooting in the girl's direction, Percy wasn't the only one to share the sentiment.

"All right, that's it, we're done for the day. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom, and make sure you have it read over before tomorrow morning, Jackson, yours will be on your desk, as you know your curriculum is different than the rest of the classes."

Percy nodded, as the man walked over to them and handed Midoriya a slip of paper to get his finger healed up by Recovery Girl.

As Percy turned to begin making his way back to the school, Shoji and the birdman, who Percy had remembered had introduced himself as Tokoyami, caught up with him to chat amiably about the test, as well as question him about his supposed altered curriculum.

He didn't know who or when it happened, likely the exam, but apparently the pair, along with Kirishima and Tsu had decided for better or worse, that he was their friend. The realization caused his stomach to clench painfully, and his heart to ache. He knew it was absurd, that they would be pissed if they heard him admit it, but it felt like he was replacing the friends that had been taken from him. It felt like he was betraying the friendship and loyalty of those he'd lost.

It was stupid.

He hated it.

But he couldn't stop it all the same.

AN: Alright, it's been building for six chapter's, but things start getting pretty angsty starting next chapter. Sorry if you're not a fan of it, but I feel like Percy's mental and personal issues are important to his overall character arc for the first part of the story. Being a half-god, there isn't much that can stack up against him in terms of raw power and ability. Which means for his character to be interesting, he has to face different challenges. Crippling guilt and despair over losing everyone he's ever known and loved? That'll do it. It's not a long part of the story, but it's important. Anyhoo, thanks for all your support and love, I'd like to see this become the number 1 story in the fandom if I can. Hope you're enjoying the ride, I love you all, and stay safe.

Love,

LilDB