Chapter 2 – The Starting Line
A young boy, no older than five or six, with an incredible resemblance to his mother, other than the hair hers being made of the same crystal as the young boy's wings while his was the same blue the crystal tended to shine on his mother's head.
"Hey Mom! Todays the day I can go with you to work right?" she just smiled before patting his head
"That's right sweetie! I bet your excited, you finally get to see how your mom heals people! Aannnddd…" She started giving him the mom look, "If your good all day we can start practicing how to heal others with your wings today at the hospital."
The young boys' eyes opened wider than should have been possible in glee. "AWESOME! I can be a awesome doctor just like mom! A DOCTOR HERO!" he cried out jumping and running around while his mother just shook her head amused.
"Just Remember once we get to the hospital, we have to use our indoor voices so we don't disturb anyone resting, okay?"
"YES MAM!" she sighed, facepalming and mentally preparing herself, "Its just one day. Its just one day. Its just one day, you've got this. Alright then let's get going Ren otherwise we'll be late."
"YEAA"
"One VERY Long day indeed. Haaah. Okay! Off we go!"
One very loud car trip later
"Okay kiddo we're here! Do you want to meet some of mommy's work friends?" the young mother asked crouching down to pick up her son.
"WOW, I Didn't Know Mommy Had Friends!" a tick mark appeared on the woman's forehead as she took in a deep breath and muttered "Haah, at least he definitely got something from his father." a memory of a man trying to annoy her played in her head before she cleared her head. "Too bad he's not here to see him now."
A few hours later…
After a long day of reining in her son, Aoi was happy to say he had finally played himself out, aanndd he was finally quiet enough that it was a perfect time for her son to try his first healing class.
While the mother was showing her son how she used her quirk to heal, a villain had entered the hospital and started rampaging around destroying the building and chasing down and killing doctors that get in his way.
"Good Job sweetie! You're starting to get the hang of it! Just make sure not to do it too fast otherwise you'll use to much of your quirk's energy, Okay?" she gleefully told her son. Helping him down from the stool he was on to heal the patients once sprained wrist, an alarm sounded.
OO – OO – OO – OO – OO "PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION THERE IS A VILLAIN ON THE FIRST FLOOR NEAR THE EAST ENTRANCE. PLEASE CALMLY EVACUATE TO THE WEST ENTRANCE WHERE THERE ARE HEROS ON SITE TO TEND TO YOUR INJURIES."
Freezing in place she looks at her son in thought. 'I need to get him out of here but I can't leave the disability ward patients alone!' looking around she spots the first-year resident that came in last week.
"Soma! Get My Son Out of Here! I need to evacuate the everyone in the third wing! Please get him to the heroes!" the poor resident just froze before Aoi gave him Ren's hand and took off up the stairs.
"Shit! Come on kid we gotta get out of here now!" Ren was just frozen on the spot watching his mom disappear around the corner of the steps.
"COME ON KID!" the resident yanked on Ren's hand to get him to move but ren just ripped his hand away and took off after his mom.
"Shit KID-" he paused hearing the sound of destruction getting closer, 'Fuck the kids gonna have to find his own way out, I need to get out!'
"MOM! WHERE ARE YOU!" ren cried out running around the hall looking for his mom turning a corner and freezing, there he was, the villain standing in between Ren and his mother.
"YOURE THE BITCH THAT DIDN'T HEAL MY DAUGHTER! YOURE THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS MESS! IF YOU HAD JUST HEALED HER THEN SHE WOULDN'T HAVE DIED! IM GOING TO KILL YOU BITCH!" the giant rat headed villain snarled out as he started to race towards Aoi, grabbing her and flinging her into the wall. Causing Ren to cry out in fear. "MOM!"
"Oh? What's this? That bitch had her little snot nosed brat here?" he spoke quietly while a malicious smirk slowly covered his face, "Perfect."
The moment the villain finished speaking Ren's entire body got the chills. "Le-Leave m-My MOM ALONE!" the young man screamed out launching his feathers out of his wings at the man, unfortunately for Ren, they didn't even scratch him.
"HA, did you really think you could be some sort of hero little boy? Ha! Pathetic! The spawn of a bitch like that could never be a hero! Did you know little boy, Your Mother here is the cause of all this! If she had just healed my daughter! This never would have needed to happen! This is All! Her! Fault! And as the spawn of that woman, this is your fault too…" the villain finished giving off a deranged look towards Ren before cocking back his sharp clawed fist and charging the young boy.
"No…Mom wouldn't do that! Y-Your Wrong!" he yelled out doing his best to hide his fear.
The claws inches away from his face Ren Shuts his eyes fearing the worst, but… nothing happened. He kept his eye closed hearing a boisterous laugh and a jovial voice from in front of him.
"IT IS FINE NOW. WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!" opening his eyes he is greeted by the sight of All Might punching Rat-Man in the stomach sending him through multiple walls, he just stood there frozen before all might crouched down patting him on the shoulder and asked
"ARE YOU OKAY YOUNG MAN!" he shouted gently. Before ren could answer he saw a flash of light 'Mom…' "ALL MIGHT MY MOM! THE VILLAIN HURT HER SAVE HER PLEASE!"
Not even a moment later All Might flashed over to where Aoi was checking her pulse, 'oh god, shes barely clinging on to life she needs help NOW!'
"COME ALONG YOUNG MAN! WE NEED TO GET YOUR MOTHER A DOCTOR." He spoke grabbing ren and slinging around his shoulder before gently picking up Aoi and carefully running to the medical station on the street below.
"I'm sorry kid but, your mothers in a coma…" the doctor spoke gently, trying not to make the kid more traumatized than he already was. But all it did was make it worse.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN! PLEASE HELP HER! Please… wake up mommy." Ren started bawling on the floor of the hospital.
After an hour of crying Ren got up and climbed onto the bed, tears in his eyes as he wrapped his wings around his mother, exerting all of the energy he had into his wings to heal her… but, alas no matter how much energy he used it wasn't enough, and he passed out shortly due to exhaustion.
"So, what's gonna happen to the kid now?" a young Eraser-head asked the other Pro-heroes on the scene.
"Who knows. Hopefully he's got some family somewhere otherwise he's most likely going to end up in an orphanage somewher-" Endeavor tried to answer but was cut off by a squeak, "I'll take him in if no one else is able." Looking down, there he was, Nezu.
RIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGG-TONK
Slamming his wing down onto his clock Ren grunted, "urgghhh of course it would be that damn dream again, better get up before Nezu pulls some sort of evil scheme again." The young bluenette got ready dressing in his casual clothes, a white-T a pair of faded blue jeans and a dark blue sweater with holed for his wings.
Walking down the stairs into the bright kitchen, where he is greeted by the sight of Nezu twirling a small metal disc on his finger, "Morning Ren. Same dream again?" the mouse bear spoke tilting his head.
"Course you would already know wouldn't you. But yea, man I really need to start checking my room for cameras again. What's for breakfast?"
Nezu just giggled and pointed at the ingredients at the counter. "Of course today would by my day. Fine. What do you want? Wait let me guess, knowing you and your evil smirk: eggs benedict, anndd… French toast?" his smile just turned into a grin. Before taking another sip of his tea, "an-" "and yes, I just put the kettle on for more of your tea." He grinned harder
'at least cooking will get my mind of that damn dream… haaah… wait a damn minute!'
"Is that my exam score you've been playing with for the past few minutes?"
"Ha- took you longer to realize than I assumed it would, but yes we finished calculating everyone's scores already, and here it is." He then flicked the metal disc at Ren's head, but as it was nearing, he directed one of his feathers to catch it and then lay it down on the counter.
'Now let's see how do I turn this o-' before ren could even finish his thought it started flashing the hologram into existence and playing
"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!" causing ren to jump "A-All Might! Hah another damn surprise from that rat." "HELLO THERE YOUNG HOSEKI! YOU MUST BE WONDERING WHY I, ALL-MIGHT WOULD BE RECORDING THIS, AND THAT WOULD BE BECAUSE I AM JOINING THE TEACHING STAFF OF U.A TO TEACH THE NEXT GENERATION!" All Might took a large breath.
AND WITH A SCORE LIKE YOURS, WITH SIXTY-TWO VILLAIN POINTS YOU HAVE REACHED SECOND OVERALL JUST EIGHT POINTS SHY OF FIRST PLACE! BUT THAT'S NOT ALL WE WERE MEASURING! WE WOULDN'T BE A VERY GOOD HEROICS SCHOOL IF WE DIDN'T ALSO GIVE POINTS FOR THOSE BRAVE AND COURAGEOUS INDIVIDUALS WHO TOOK THE TIME OUT OF THEIR OWN EXAMS TO HELP OTHERS STAY SAFE! LOOK AT THIS SHORT VIDEO!" a clip started playing on 'screen' of ren shielding Tsuyu and Jiro.
"FOR YOUR HEROIC ACT OF SAVING OTHERS, YOU'VE BEEN AWARDED EIGHTEEN RESCUE POINTS PUTTING YOU! IN FIRST PLACE OF THE EXAM AT EIGHTY POINTS! WELCOME YOUNG HOSEKI TO YOU'RE HERO ACADEMIA!" the hologram shut off
"HAH! how's them apples Nezu! Told you I'd get first, cough up it up." He smirked
Day before classes start
'Okay I need to make sure to get in the good favor of my classmates! Especially since I'll be stuck with them for three years.' After a bit of plotting he realizes the best way to make friends with people
Food.
More specifically chocolate, and since he'll be meeting everyone in the morning something chocolate that can be eaten at breakfast time, ie chocolate chip muffins.
"Ha the things I do to make friends, eh I would've made these at some point anyway, might as well make a good impression on everyone."
An hour later the muffins were perfect and set on the counter to cool while surrounded by hundreds of mouse traps
"That otta keep the rat out of them, but now I should probably get my bag ready for tomorrow morning.
That night Ren cried himself to sleep, not from sadness but from laughter after walking out for a glass of water and seeing Nezu so coated in traps he was stuck in a ball. Nezu didn't sleep in his bed that night, spending the entire time detangling himself.
"I'm sooooo getting that kid back for this, just you wait R- OW" he was cut-off by his own yelp after he accidentally set off another trap.
First day off U.A
"Hopefully I don't see you later! Bye Nezu!" Ren called out on his way out of the building towards the school, he had seen the evil smile Nezu had on his face letting him know that nothing in the house was safe and therefore ended up to class very early, so he decided to observe the other students as they entered.
After he sat down near the back, as to not obstruct anyone's view of the board with his wings, he takes off his jacket draping it over his chair allowing his wings to stretch out.
Not even two minutes later his first classmate walked in, a tall young man with dark blue hair, entered with a proud look in his eyes which were taking in the room until they settled on Ren widening in surprise, "Oh hello there, I was under the impression I would be the first one here, Nice to meet you, my name is Ida Tenya." Smiling back Ren answered "Nice to meet you Ida, May I call you Ida? I'm Ren Hoseki but you can just call me Ren." He spoke standing up and reaching his hand up to fix his tie.
"HUH, Ren it is rather unbecoming to not be wearing the school uniform on the first day, orientation day no less! Quickly put your coat back on!" Ida's hands started to chop the air rapidly in a rather amusing fashion, but Ren just chuckled.
"Its okay to relax a little Ida, I know you want to make a good impression but I have permission from the principal to wear my uniform like this until they can get an altered one that my wings can fit through, since it was either this or I would've had to wear a casual jacket on top of my uniform." Ren spoke trying to calm down his classmate's arm workout.
Surprisingly Ida just bowed, "I apologize, I did not realize your situation was so dire. You must be an exemplary student to get and ensure permission from the principal himself." 'Yea I'm Never telling anyone how I know Nezu'
While the conversation between the two dwindled more and more classmates had entered and started conversing, glancing around he noticed that the majority of his class had shown up just short one, but the ones that stood out to him so far would be the pink girl, the bird guy, and the guy who sat down right next to him looking like an emotionless robot that had red and white hair, oh and both Jiro and Tsuyu made it into his class as well. 'Speaking of here they come'
"Glad to see you Hoseki, ribbii." "Yea its nice to see a friendly face in here." Both Tsuyu and Jiro spoke as they walked over.
"Nice to see you as well Tsuyu and Jiro! How excited are you guys, OH shoot that's right, just one second you guys." Turning around he digs in his bag grabbing the large Tupperware container filled with muffins out and clears his throat getting everyone's attention.
"Hi nice to meet you all, the names Ren Hoseki, just call me Ren, also I made muffins for everyone so eat up!" he called out cheerfully trying to make a good impression on his class. He set down the muffins on the teacher's desk.
He walked back to his desk as Jiro grabbed one and took a bite, her eyes opening widely shooting towards Ren, "Holy crap dude! These are delicious, you made these?!" Ren just laughed, "yea I wanted to make a good impression with all of you and figured this would be the best way."
'YES, PLAN MAKE FRIENDS WORKED!' 'Dude just because they like the muffins doesn't automatically make them your friends, you know that right?' "SHUT UP NO ONE CARES I MADE FRIENDS!'
Shaking those contradicting thoughts out of his head, and trying to suppress the grin on his face from the complement. As everyone watched jiro devour the muffin in glee they all started trying to grab one at once causing a bit of a jam, but not long after Ren was being showered with compliments on his baking skills.
"Bro, you must be so manly to make muffins that taste this good!"
"Whoa, Hoseki right? Can I get the recipe for this, these things are amazing"
Several more compliments later the final member of his class walked in, a short curly green haired boy.
Seeing as how there were only two muffins left Ren grabbed one and walked over to the greenette
"Hello there, the names Ren Hoseki but just call me Ren, I made muffins for everyone, so here" he handed the muffin over to his new classmate, who was looking relieved, that was the other reason Ren had made the muffins, since its hard to be worried or nervous about stuff when you're stuffing your face with good food.
"N-nice to m-meet you Ho-Ren. My names Izuku M-Midoriya thanks for the muffin." "It was nice to meet you too Midoriya, but I should probably get back to my seat."
Sitting back down he sees the brown-haired girl and Ida walk over towards Midoriya and start talking, and Ida's hands start flying before he, Bowed? Huh, what a weird guy, it doesn't matter especially not now that there's a large yellow caterpillar crawling from the door towards the front desk
"What the heck is that…? Is-is that our teacher" Ren asked no-one but himself trying to figure out just what the thing crawling was.
Turns out he was right it was indeed his teacher as the caterpillar like thing turned around saw the muffin on the desk, and a scarf? Came out and grabbed it? 'This is gonna be a weird couple of years, isn't it?'
The caterpillar was evolving from a Kakuna as what appeared to be the most tired person on the planet walked out from it, and clapped his hands getting everyone's attention.
"I am Shota Aizawa your homeroom teacher, it took you all 11 seconds to pay attention, that's not gonna fly in the heroics department, grab a track uniform and get changed, we're doing a quirk assessment test out on the field. The changerooms are on the hall right near the gym you have fifteen minutes."
Everyone but Ida, the black-haired girl and the raspberry/vanilla boy, just stared wide eyed.
"Did none of you hear me, I'm only going to repeat this once. Grab a uniform and get to the field."
Everyone scurried to grab a uniform taking off down the halls except for Ren who just looked puzzled at the man in front of him, "I see you have a question, be quick about it." "Two actually, one how did you move so fast in that sleeping bag and two, how was the muffin."
"Practice and good. You don't have any coffee, do you?" he asked causing ren to smirk and reach into his bag, "I do actually, here" he spoke while tossing a thermos towards his teacher who caught it and drained it back. "Ah. Finally, for the first time I don't have a problem student." Ren just walked out of the classroom and just gave off a signature Nezu smile.
Elsewhere
"Achoo, Hehehe someone's plotting something aren't they, heheheheheh" the furry little man just cackled causing everyone else in the staff room to panic a little, they aren't afraid of their principal, they swear!
Training field
"Man Aizawa-sensei is a going to be a really strict teacher, isn't he?" a boy with tape dispensers on his arm said, "Oh yea names Hanta Sero by the way."
Ren just nodded, while the guy with six arms answered, "at least we know he's taking his job seriously, that means we should be able to learn how to be proper heroes faster."
As the two conversed Ren noticed the green haired boy sitting by himself, once again looking incredibly nervous, so he walked over having finished changing into his uniform.
Poking him in the side of the head, getting his attention, he asked, "You doing okay kid? Its not like our lives are on the line, its just an assessment just try your hardest and you'll do fine."
"Thanks ren, its j-just my q-quirk came in really l-late, so I don't have m-much control over it, it's a really powerful enhancement type but s-since it came in so late Its b-breaks my arms or legs when I try and use it."
Wincing Ren replies "Yowch that must be hard, but hey, look at it this way, you've already done one of the hardest parts, making it into U.A, with a technically defective quirk, now all you have to do is prove you belong here, prove you have what it takes to be a hero. So are you gonna let a simple assessment let you fail?"
'There that's my good deed for the day, hopefully this encourages the kid a bit, damn sure looks like he could use it'
"Thank you, Ren. I will do it! I will prove I have what it takes to be a hero!" Midoriya shouted out pumping his fist into the air.
"Trust me, I know you can."
Turning around to the exit he sees all of his male classmates' sans two (combustion-boy could care less, and the guy who looks like a printer error was just ignoring them), all looking at him with grins and fire in their eyes,
The one with spiky red hair walks up, "Man that was so manly, you've really got a way with words Ren, I know I'm fired up now! I can't wait to show off what I can do!"
The rest just spoke at the same time, all in agreeance.
Good now that your all here I can explain, the board of education deems it inappropriate for you to practice basic assessments with your quirks which I believe to be an incredible flaw in our systems, as such we will be doing the basic assessments i.e.: endurance running, grip strength, ball toss, sit-ups, side-steps, long jump, and a fifty-meter dash to get a basic outline of your physical ability while you use your quirks. Now Hoseki, you placed first in the exam, what was your record for throwing a ball in middle school?"
"It was sixty-seven meters sensei." Ren answered while agreeing with his teacher, the school assessments were outdated and rather unfair since mutant types were always clear winners in the tests.
"Hmm not bad, now throw this ball however you want using your quirk, just don't go out of the circle here." He tossed the ball to ren who caught it with his feathers.
'Hmmm okay I can't fly up straight up and toss it since there isn't enough room… what about using my quartz manipulation to springboard it as far as it can go? That seems like the best option right now I just have to space out my feathers enough'
A few basic calculations later Ren was ready and getting into position, 'first things first, feathers' launching off a volley of feathers into the ground in a straight line, he threw the ball and activated his first feather pulling the quartz and smacking it into the ball into the next so on and so forth seven times.
"Let's see here, three hundred and twenty-eight meters, not bad for someone with no strength enhancing quirk."
"Omg that looks like so much fun, we get to use our quirks as much as we want!" the pink girl cried out with everyone else getting extremely excited.
"Fun huh? You think this is supposed to be fun? Then how about this, whoever ends up in last place will be expelled from the hero course."
Everyone's heads shot towards their teacher in shock and started crying about unfairness.
"Life isn't fair, get over it. let's start the assessment."
'oh he's so full of horse shit its funny, I remember last year when he tried to expel the whole class on the first day before Nezu forced him to re-enroll them all, he had that shit eating grin on his face hen he got home' he shivered making it look like he was just as worried as those around him
Final assessment
Ren Hoseki
Momo Yaoyorozu
Shoto Todoroki
Katsuki Bakugo
Tenya Ida
Fumikage Tokoyami
Mezo Shoji
Mashirao Ojiro
Eijiro Kirishima
Mina Ashido
Ochaco Uraraka
Koji Koda
Rikido Sato
Tsuyu Asui
Yuga Aoyama
Hanta Sero
Denki Kaminari
Kyoka Jiro
Toru Hagakure
Minoru Mineta
Izuku Midoriya
"The whole expulsion thing was just a lie by the way, it was all a ruse to make you use your full potential in this test. You're done for the day if you want you can tour the grounds since you missed orientation, or you can introduce yourselves just make sure to grab your schedules off my desk before you leave, I'm going to go take a nap."
And just like that their homeroom teacher left before anyone had a chance to react.
"WHAT!"
Oh wait there it is
"Oh. My. God. This is going to be a stressful couple of years with him as our homeroom teacher." The pink coloured girl that Ren now knew as Mina sighed out.
"Do Do Doo. Ren Hoseki to the office please, Ren Hoseki to the office. Do Do Doo" played over the speakers causing everyone to look at Ren in concern before Kirishima asked.
"Yo dude are you in trouble or something?"
Ren just sighed, "No I guarantee its just my guardian wanting to ask some questions." He answered before turning around and flying off to the building.
Kirishima just tilted his head puzzled, "I wonder what he means by guardian, does that mean he was raised by one of the staff members? Cause his parents would've just asked him when he got back from here right?"
Yaoyorozu spoke up, "He might be right. Ren's guardian must be someone on the staff, but I wonder who?"
Mina spoke up, "Lets take bets whoever finds out first wins the pot!"
Ida cut in, "its none of our business to be betting on something like this, clearly if Ren wanted us to know he wouldve told us when Kirishima brought it up, its probably not easy for him to talk about either." Mina gave him a pout, "and why would that be?"
Ida gave her a glum look, "it most likely has to do with the fact the announcement said Guardian and not parent."
Everyone wide eyed at that, "So you think he doesn't have parents? That must be so sad. Now I feel bad for bringing it up." Kirishima spoke softly.
"Oh My GOD, WOULD YOU EXTRAS SHUT UP OVER THERE! WHO CARES JUST BE QUIET ALREADY!" Bakugo shouted before storming off angrily stewing over the fact he was fourth overall in his class strength wise.
Back with ren
"What did you want Nezu?" Ren sighed, 'I can almost guarantee this was Nezu just trying to play some sort of evil joke on me in front of my new friends'
"Nothing much just a few questions for you. First of all how was your first day here?"
Tilting his head in mistrust, "it was pretty good actually, made some friends and I got first in Aizawa-Sensei's assessment, why are you asking?"
"Simple curiosity no other reason, the other question I have for you, I know you've already perfected your English so that class would be a waste for you, and since your quirk allows you to heal others, how would you like to learn how to heal from one of the highest ranked doctors world-wide, Recovery Girl?"
Ren just slumped further down into his chair, "as amazing of an idea that is, you and I both know I haven't been able to access that part of my quirk since the attack. So unfortunately, I'm going to have to decline." Ren got up and turned around almost out of the door before Nezu spoke,
"Its quite alright Ren, I just hope for your sake you start opening up to someone about this. Even if that someone isn't me." With his ten cents in Nezu walked by the frozen Ren who was too deep in his thoughts to notice.