A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back to another chapter of Deku and Kacchan! Huge thanks to everyone who favorited or followed. According to FFN, over 81% of the people that visit this fic don't follow it, so if you end up liking this fanfic, consider F&Fing, it's free, and you can always change your mind. Enjoy!

Now, some people might think Bakugo was hot-headed or that he let his emotions cloud his thoughts, but he was no idiot. And he could tell it if his best friend wasn't okay. Ever since Deku had a run-in with a villain, he'd grown a lot quieter and more reserved, and would flinch at the mention of All Might or anything about heroes altogether. Bakugo didn't like seeing his friend like that. He'd grown up with the green-haired boy, and he knew far more than anyone else how unconfident Deku used to be before he, hands-girl and tail-guy got him out of his shell. Seeing Deku back to being all diffident just made him feel uncomfortable. So he decided to confront him about it.

Izuku was walking down the road, sipping a bit of tea when Katsu, who was next to him, asked a question out of nowhere.

"What's been going on with you lately?"

His tone wasn't harsh and gruff, like the usual demeanor he put on, but instead genuinely worried and concerned.

"W-what do you mean?"

Bakugo gave an annoyed sigh, and said, "All of... this shit you're doing. You're quieter, you stutter whenever you talk, you act like back when we were kids and you were a spineless wimp."

Izuku cringed at Katsu's harsh, but true words. "I guess I really am useless. Even Katsu said so."

Bakugo raised an eyebrow at Deku's words. "Who said you were useless, you idiot? You're not! You're fucking smart, you're good at crap like quirk analysis, you trained harder than anyone else and you've become strong enough to beat our entire class with one hand tied behind your back!"

Tears flowed down Izuku's cheeks and he hugged Katsu. He still believes in me. He believes in me, even if All Might doesn't.

And that's all that matters.

Bakugo's lips twitched upwards slightly as he watched the greenette in his embrace let his tears flow freely, slowly stroking his back and murmuring "It's okay" to him. Eventually, his tears subsided and he let go of Bakugo.

"So, do you wanna talk about it?"

Izuku took in a deep breath. He didn't want to have to go through all those emotions again, but he knew it was better to just face it than run away.

"W-well, you remember how I ran into a villain and a hero saved me?"

"Yeah, something happened then?"

"The hero who saved me was a high-ranked hero."

To say that is a huge understatement, really.

"I-I asked him if I could be a hero without a quirk, and-"

"He said no?"

Bakugo clenched his fist in anger when Deku wordlessly nodded. "Who the fuck said that to you?"

"I'm not gonna tell you."

"Why not?" Bakugo's voice was filled with disbelief. All Deku had to do was tell him who the bastard was, and the blond would tear that piece of shit to shreds, high ranking be damned.

"Because if I tell you, you're gonna go ahead and pick a fight with that hero, and get in a lot of trouble! You'd get a permanent record and be banned from every single hero school!"

"So what?" Bakugo yelled.

"W-what do you mean, so what? You've always wanted to become a hero? I don't want to jeopardize your entire career over something as stupid as this! Plus, that hero was just trying to keep me safe! He didn't know how strong I was! He assumed I was a regular scrawny kid without a quirk! You can't blame him for that!"

"Fine! I'll drop it, okay? Sorry for being concerned about you!" Bakugo grumbled, seriously ticked off. He was just trying to help!

"I-I'm sorry I lost my temper just now! I was just worried you might actually get in trouble!" Izuku apologized over and over again after he realized he'd just yelled at Katsu on the spur of the moment.

"It's fine. More like I was glad to see you have a little spirit again," Bakugo said, ruffling the hair of the blushing broccoli boy.

"Should we go for a little bit of training?"

"Sure."

After a short walk, they reached the Takoba Municipal Beach Park. The beach used to be beautiful, with pristine landscape that sparkled in the sunlight. But over the years, the sea would carry various trash and debris to the sandy shore and people started to use it as a place to illegally dump their trash, rather than disposing of it properly. As the piles of junk grew, less and less people came to the beach, allowing the place to fall into further disrepair. Izuku hated how the once-beautiful place was reduced to an unofficial dump. Two months ago, he'd thought of something.

If no one else is cleaning the beach, maybe I could. It would be good training to lift larger and heavier things and it would be beneficial for the community.

And thus, Izuku started cleaning the beach up. In only two months, he'd rid half of the beach of its garbage, letting the sand underneath see the sunlight after many years. As he cleaned up the beach, people started taking notice of his actions, and day by day, more and more people would join in and clean up the beach along with Izuku. Heck, there was even a news article about how "A heroic boy's solo efforts" had inspired other people to "change community for the better"!

Izuku immediately started warming up before cleaning up. He didn't want to place unnecessary strain on his muscles. His warm-up wasn't much- just a short five-mile run and a hundred sit-ups, bench squats and push-ups each. After working up a slight sweat with his warm-up, he immediately started cleaning up the beach. He started heading towards one of the areas with larger chunks of trash. On the way, he returned the greetings of people he'd got to known by cleaning up this place together on the way. With almost no effort at all, he heaved a large couch onto his left shoulder and put a fridge on his right, carrying them towards the truck whose driver was nice enough to lend to them for the beach cleaning. They'd put all the trash into the back of the truck and the driver would drive it towards the dump, where all the garbage would be disposed of.

Most people would've assumed Izuku had a strength quirk, given the fact that he could quite literally carry both a couch and a fridge with ease. But he'd purely gotten the strength some might call inhuman by hard work and training, as unbelievable as it might sound. Bakugo watched as he lifted an entire car, distinct pride in his gaze.

I wonder if that "hero" would've turned him down if they saw him right now.

Tearing his gaze away from Izuku, Bakugo used his quirk to blast a large piece of concrete apart and picked up some of the resulting smaller lumps. He went over to the truck and returned Deku's bright smile with a grin of his own when they passed by each other.

After a while, both of them stopped and met up at the entrance of the park. Izuku contentedly sighed. "I think that's enough for today." Bakugo nodded. "We've made enough progress for today."

"So, whaddya wanna do now? It's still-" Bakugo quickly checked his watch "-four o'clock."

Izuku shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe come over to my house? We should invite Kendo and Ojiro-kun as well!"

"Okay." Bakugo liked hanging at Deku's house. Auntie Inko was always nice, and her cooking was great, which meant a good bit of afternoon tea was always guaranteed whenever he went there.

"Great!" Izuku chirped. "Now all I need to do is text Kendo and Ojiro-kun."

Izuku turned on his phone and quickly typed out a message.

Izuku: Hey guys! Wanna come over to my house?

Kendo: Sure. Will be there in 15 minutes!

Ojiro: Me too.

Izuku: Great! See you!

Izuku turned his phone off and beamed happily. "Katsu, they said yes! We can all hang out at my house!" Bakugo smiled. "Good to hear."

Fifteen minutes later, the four of them were at the Midoriyas' apartment, sitting around the table and munching on chocolate chip cookies Inko had baked for them while chatting.

"So... we all wanna go to U.A., right?" Ojiro asked.

"I mean, yeah," Kendo replied him through a mouthful of cookies. "Who wouldn't want to?"

"I'm just saying... it's pretty hard to believe that the entrance exam is only ten months away. I feel like I've waited for that moment my entire childhood, but now that I'm so close, I don't really know if I'm good enough to pass, you know?"

They sat in silence as they thought over it for a while. Then Kendo spoke up. "I kinda get what you mean. It is scary, knowing that there won't be a second chance to get in if you fail. But if you don't believe in yourself, if you don't at least take a step forward and try, then you'll probably regret it afterwards. You miss all of the shots that you don't take. So... I think that even if you're not sure that you can do it, you should try. If you don't succeed, you can always learn from those mistakes, maybe apply for another hero school. But chickening out at the last moment because you weren't confident enough will get you nowhere. Plus, I think you're more than good enough, Ojiro. You've worked hard to get to where you are today. Don't let being nervous take that away from you." She softly smiled at Ojiro, whose eyes glistened with tears that threatened to spill out.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry, Ojiro-kun. You're great at using your quirk, and you know martial arts. There's no way U.A. isn't letting in someone as great as you."

"What Deku said."

Ojiro gave a watery smile. "Thanks, guys. This means a lot to me."

"So, anyway, continuing on the topic of U.A., whaddya reckon the exam's gonna be like?" Ojiro tried to steer the subject away.

"Everyone knows that there's a written exam and a practical one, obviously, seeing as it was literally in the U.A. website." Kendo, who was now sipping a glass of milk, replied.

"Yeah, duh, but what exactly do they consist of?"

Izuku was the one to answer. "Well, obviously, the written portion is gonna consist of the regular general education stuff, like mathematics or English. But seeing as it is an exam for the hero course, there will also probably be stuff about heroes, maybe things that ask you about the priority of fighting villains and saving people, stuff to see if you have the right mindset. As for the practical bit, it'll be combat-orientated to see how well we can use our quirks to handle villains, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was another part to let us demonstrate our rescue skills. It's highly unlikely that the exam will contain fighting machines, since this is a major flaw that doesn't allow people with high-potential mental quirks to show their talents, and surely a prestigious school like U.A. wouldn't make such a huge and careless mistake."

(Oh, if only he knew.)

Izuku continued on his ramblings, barely pausing to catch his breath. "There could be the chance of U.A. pitting us against each other and doing a 1v1 elimination fight, but that would also be flawed because of many potential unfair match-ups, like maybe someone with an impressive quirk that couldn't show the judges their talents because of their opponent having a quirk that perfectly countered theirs. So, I'm not really sure what the practical portion will consist of, and we should probably just get prepared for any situation possible."

Bakugo, Kendo and Ojiro all nodded, impressed by Izuku's quick but detailed analysis of the exam.

"Well, no matter what the exam's gonna be, we're gonna get in together and become the best heroes ever!" Kendo said brightly.

"Yeah!" the other three-Bakugo being the loudest-cheered.

A/N: Welp, that's all for this chapter. Please note that while Izuku is stronger than the average 15-year-old, he is nowhere near the levels of Saitama. He's currently at about the level of Full Cowling 3%, and will grow stronger as time passes, but he's definitely not way too OP. As for the random scene where Ojiro is unconfident, I don't really think I did the character justice, but since this is pre-canon him, let's just assume he was like this for my sake. I have no idea why I wrote that scene, I was just kinda out of ideas on what to put there as was like, fuck it I'm just gonna put in this for no reason at all. Also, yes, I did complain about the absolute stupidity of the entrance exam, but don't you think its system is stupid? Like, people with quirks like Shinso's could be great heroes, but because quirks like brainwashing don't work on robots, they end up in Gen Ed, which is just unfair. Thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you in the next one.

P.S. This actually makes me wonder, how did Hagakure and Koda pass the exam? Because there's no way there were animals in the fake city, unless Nezu was stupid enough to accumulate for quirks as specific as animal control but not mental quirks, which has a range as wide as telepathy, brainwashing, mind altering (I don't know if there's a fancy word for this but it's basically changing someone's mind to make them think things that aren't there/aren't happening are, e.g., illusions, changing someone's memory), etc. And you can't tell me that Hagakure passed by marching up to the principal's office and said, "You can't prove I wasn't the ones destroying those robots" and passed. Either that, or the robots had off switches and Hagakure could climb up the robots and press the switches.