Chapter 24: New beginnings

"Man, I'm so pumped! We are going to UA!" Kaminari exclaimed excitedly. Watanabe smiled happily while Izuku nervously fixed his tie. The three friends had just gotten off the train and were walking to UA's gates.

"I wonder who our teacher will be..." Izuku said.

"Hopefully it's Present Mic! He's so cool!" Denki replied.

"I want Principal Nedzu as our teacher," Watanabe commented.

"Of course you do," Denki deadpanned, "Thank God he's the principal so you two won't probably meet," Denki said.

"Ah! You!" The three heard someone shout behind them. They turned to see Uraraka behind them.

"Ah, Uraraka-san," Izuku greeted with a smile.

"Huh, how do you know my name," she asked puzzled.

"Everybody who saw you float Endeavour does," Watanabe deadpanned.

"Greet properly," Denki sighed to his friend.

"Ah, forgot about that," Uraraka nervously said, "You are Kaminari Denki, right?"

"Yeah, nice to meet you Uraraka-san,"

"Call me Ochaco,"

Denki nodded.

"Er, what are your names?"

"Hattori Watanabe, call me Watanabe,"

"I'm Midoriya Izuku,"

Uraraka's eyes widened, "You are related to Inko-san?"

"I'm her son,'

"Oh, nice to meet you. Your mother really helped us out a ton," Uraraka grinned, "Have you known each other for long?"

"Well, Watanabe's my cousin. He introduced me to Denki,"

"Whoa, and all three of you got into UA too, that's amazing!" Uraraka said.

"We're here," Denki announced standing before the Class 1-A door. Nervously, Denki opened it. Almost immediately all the noise came to a hush. Whispering started, "Oy, aren't those two the ones who took down Endeavour!?"

"Yeah!"

"Cool, we get to be in the same class,"

"Are you kidding idiot! They will be so hard to compete with,"

"SHUT UP, YOU DAMN EXTRAS!"

Watanabe twitched while Denki and Izuku paled.

The two locked eyes but didn't speak. A tension grew over the room that seemed to suffocate everyone. Finally, Iida stepped in, "You are classmates! This type of behavior is not proper in an institute such as UA!"

"Hmph," Katsuki grunted and looked away. Watanabe didn't say anything else.

"Perhaps we should see the seating chart," Izuku tried to defuse the situation even though it hurt him as well.

"Hey, no wonder that guy looked familiar. He's the one who got captured by Slime and used to bully the green-haired one. Remember on the leaked court tape?"

"Oh yeah,"

Katsuki twitched. Orca and his therapist had taught him why everything he did was wrong and had made him redeem himself by working in community projects. However, seeing Izuku here triggered his old feelings. How on earth did he get in without a quirk!? He needed answers, no he wanted them! And that annoying cousin of his too... He'd get back at him as well. Then again, Nedzu did say that you didn't need a quirk to apply. On top of that, the damn nerd actually was smart. Did he get in just with his intelligence?

"Ah, there I am," Watanabe pointed himself out on the seating arrangement, happily, causing Uraraka to deadpan, "That was a whole 180 of his attitude,"

"Meh, you'll get used to it," Denki said, "Now where am I?" He said and checked the seating arrangement:

Shoto eyed Kaminari and Uraraka cautiously. Ever since he had seen those two humiliate Endeavour, he had been amazed. On one hand, it made him feel happy to see Endeavour get publicly humiliated, but on the other hand, he needed to defeat both of them to prove that he would be the strongest without his fire. On the other hand, he really didn't want to fight with them. He had asked Natsuo about what he should do ever since he got the student list and saw their names. Natsuo had told him that he had nothing to prove to Endeavour. However, Fuyumi was more helpful and told him to make friends with them. She told him that he would only need to defeat them in training activities and that didn't mean he couldn't be friends with them while in class.

That was good advice, he felt, except for one thing... he didn't know how to make friends. Clutching his notebook, he walked up to both of them, "May I have your autographs?"

"H-huh? My autograph?" Uraraka asked, turning red.

"Yes, yours too please," Todoroki said to Denki.

"Aren't you Endeavour's son?" Denki asked.

"Yes, what of it?"

"N-nothing,"

"Could you sign here too, my brother also wanted an autograph,"

Watanabe and Izuku watched from behind. The class sweatdropped. Watanabe motioned Izuku to follow him a bit further away from everyone. Once they were in a slightly secluded area, Izuku spoke, "I know what you are thinking. It's probably unlikely,"

"And how exactly is that?"

"He might have just burnt himself while using his quirk,"

"You saw how he acted towards us in the court,"

"In fairness, you did rile him up, I doubt he'd treat his own children like that," Izuku pointed out.

Watanabe gave his cousin a deadpan expression, "You have too much faith in people, Izu. Not that it's a bad thing but you have to see the reality too,"

"Even if Endeavour did abuse him, what are you planning to do? Go and ask him straight to his face?"

"It's an option,"

Izuku twitched, "Come on, have a serious conversation for once!"

"Fine. I'll drop it for now. I'm still right though,"

Izuku sighed, "You probably are. People don't go asking for autographs from people who humiliated their father,"

"Yo, guys! Am I the only one who-," Denki started.

"No, you are right. However, Izuku is right, there's no way for us to just ask him," Watanabe scowled slightly, clenching his fists.

"Maybe we tell the teachers?"

"Maybe..." Watanabe said.

"It's 5 minutes till classes start. We should probably get to our seats,"

"You two are lucky, getting seats close to each other," Watanabe said and headed to his seat, "Ah, Hagakure, glad to see you passed too!" he smiled to the invisible girl.

"I have to thank you for that. If you hadn't figured out the test, we wouldn't have passed!" Hagakure said.

Watanabe turned to face Hitoshi who was sitting behind his seat, "Yo, what's your name?"

"Shinso Hitoshi," he replied monotonously.

"I'm Hattori Watanabe! Call me Watanabe though,"

"I don't care,"

"He's a real moody one, huh?" Watanabe said to Hagakure.

Hitoshi scowled, even though they didn't know his quirk, he was already being teased. If they had a quirk like his, even they would be like him.

Watanabe's grin faded slightly. He thought he'd get an angry retort or a slight smile, but instead Hitoshi just sort of accepted it. Watanabe frowned slightly, Hitoshi reminded him of Izuku while he was still at Aldera. Except, Izuku at least tried to cover it up by acting normal, but Hitoshi had just accepted it. Before he could do anything else, Aizawa dropped down from the ceiling, still in his sleeping bag.

Hagakure screamed in surprise, "What are you?"

Aizawa didn't reply and just got out of his sleeping bag, "The bell already rang. Why aren't you in your seats!?" He demanded. Immediately everyone sat down.

"Good, now get up, put on your gym uniforms and meet me outside in the field," Aizawa left.

Everyone sweatdropped, "Why did you even make us sit then?"

Watanabe got up to put on his gym uniform. Hitoshi walked past him, "I'm not here to make friends," he said to him. He said and walked away but Watanabe heard him muttering more and caught the finishing of his sentence, "I don't expect anyone to..."

Watanabe frowned. He walked to Izuku and Kaminari and gave a tiny smile, "Seems like we already have another project,"

Denki twitched slightly while Izuku gave him a questioning look. He turned his gaze towards Hitoshi and smiled sadly.