The sun rose on a brand new day for U.A High School. For each of the students, it felt a little odd to wake up in their brand new rooms rather than the old ones they had been living in. But it was something they would have to get used to. They weren't living at home with their families anymore. They were living at the U.A dorms like every other student now. Heights Alliance.
After eating breakfast, everyone walked over to the campus. Their new home being only a five minute walk from the main building was admittedly rather convenient. They made their way to their classroom and took a seat waiting for their teacher to arrive. Most students were probably relaxing in the dorms since the new semester hadn't started yet. But even though it was still summer break, the hero student first years would be preparing for the upcoming provisional license exam.
Eventually, the door to the classroom opened and Yamagori walked inside. She stood behind her desk and addressed her students.
"I mentioned it briefly yesterday, but for the time being Class 1-C will be working on getting their provisional licenses." Yamagori told them. "A hero license bears with it the great responsibility of human life. As you can imagine, the exam to receive one is very difficult. Even the provisional exam only has a passing rate of about 50% each year."
"Just the provisional license is that hard?" Vivi asked nervously.
"For that reason, you'll all spend today trying to create at least 2 ultimate moves." Yamagori continued. "As the name implies, they're powerful techniques that are unique to you. They should be things that other people will find very hard if not impossible to copy."
The mention of "ultimate moves" got several students excited. Everyone knew of heroes and the special moves they had that were almost a trademark from them. Anyone wanting to be a hero had likely come up with an idea or two in their head by this point in their life.
"An ultimate move is a way to give you an almost certain victory. It doesn't necessarily have to be of the attacking type." Yamagori explained. "For example, take Hiryo's Hydro Angel. The use of flight with a Quirk that normally wouldn't be connected to it is threatening enough to be considered an ultimate move."
Hearing that something he had was good enough to be worthy of the title ultimate move made Dan feel a little proud. All of his work to get control over it had been worth it if that was the case.
"If you don't have an ace up your sleeve like this, your chances of passing the provisional license exam will plummet." Yamagori told them. "So for the next ten days until the start of the new semester, you'll all be working on your ultimate moves as you develop your Quirks. You should also give some thought to how you can improve your costumes to work better with your gradually developing Quirks. I expect all 21 of you to pass this exam, got it?"
Fujino blinked her eyes. "Wait, all twenty-one of us? You mean…"
"You may not technically be a student until the start of the new semester, but you are a member of Class 1-C." Yamagori told her with a smirk. "You're a full-fledged hero-in-training just like everyone else here. It's only natural you'd take the test for this."
"But is this really okay?" Fujino asked.
"For better or worse, you've undergone hellish training for the past few years. As a result, you can keep up physically with just about anyone else in the class, and you've been sitting in on classes for the last month or two. Your only Quirk-related issue was control, but you seem to have managed to get a handle on that." Yamagori said. "In addition, with the provisional license, you'll have with it the trust to act without another's permission during emergencies. Do you understand what this means?"
Fujino got the message her teacher was trying to tell her. Paradise was still likely after her. They hadn't made a move yet since she was under the protection of U.A, but that didn't mean they wouldn't make a move in the near future. Fujino needed to be able to act and defend herself if that happened instead of only being able to run and get help.
"Your training during camp was to power up your Quirks. Now show the results of that training!" Yamagori told her class.
"Yes ma'am!" they all said together.
Shiro cracked his knuckles. "Alright, let's do this! Where are we training? Let's go right now!"
"Yeah… about that…" Yamagori said. "We'll be using Training Gym Gamma in order to train your Quirks. To be more specific though, all three first year hero classes will be using it. Our class isn't scheduled to use it until late this afternoon."
"What?!" Hyde exclaimed. "You can't seriously kill the mood like this after getting us so pumped, teach!"
Yamagori shrugged her shoulders. "Don't blame me. It's out of my hands." she told them. "Instead, use this time to use your heads and try thinking up what you want for your ultimate moves."
"Ugh, this sucks." Hyde groaned.
"In addition, Hatsu, there's a little present for you." Yamagori said.
Fujino looked at her teacher with a confused expression. She noticed several other members of the class showing small smirks. "What's going on?"
"This." Yamagori said with a grin as she pulled up a large briefcase with the number 21 on it. It was identical to the cases that the other students kept their costumes in. The teacher tossed it to Fujino's desk in the back of the room. "Catch."
Fujino caught the case as it flew over to her. She opened it up and widened her eyes. "This is…"
"You were the only one in class without a costume." Alicia said. "So we all got together and decided to fix that."
"We each get a budget to use for fixing and upgrading our costumes each semester." Nene explained. "So we each got permission from the school to pool a little of our budget together from each of us to get you a costume."
"It's nothing overly special. But we thought about what would be best, given your Quirk." Sakura said.
"Everyone helped?" Fujino asked, looking over at both Lilina and Shinobu. Lilina was always talking about money so giving up any amount of it seemed out of character for her. And Shinobu was far from a team player so him helping out a classmate didn't seem like him at all.
Shinobu simply shrugged his shoulders. "It only seemed fair. And it's unlikely I'd blow through the whole budget myself anyway."
"Yeah. And I may love money, but I'm not heartless." Lilina added. "I even provided plans that would save us the most when coming up with the costume."
Fujino didn't know what to say. She wiped the tears starting to form in her eyes. "Everyone… thank you."
"If you want to thank us, be sure to pass the license exam with all of us." Dan grinned. "We wouldn't want our hard work to be for nothing."
"Well then, I think that'll be all. Meet up at Training Gym Gamma by 3 o'clock this afternoon." Yamagori told her class. "Make sure not to slack off with this time. Use it to think about what you want your ultimate move to be. I won't be happy if less people here pass than Class A or B. Go Plus Ultra with this."
"Right!" the class said together.
Hours ticked by as the members of Class C went about their own ways of trying to come up with an idea for ultimate moves. Some simply sat and thought through ideas in their head. Others were trying out basic ideas physically before really putting in the practice later that day for training.
Shinobu however was deep in thought about other matters.
'I can't afford to fall behind.' he thought to himself. 'I need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm the best among the first years. No, the best among all the hero students in U.A. Someone who can reach the top all on his own.'
Shinobu's mind wandered to the past,more specifically his family. His parents had always drilled into him and his siblings that perfection was the only thing that mattered. Anything less was worthless in comparison. And relying on others to do things meant you were far from perfect. Both of Shinobu's older siblings were rising to the top in their respective fields. His sister was studying to become a lawyer and was currently at the top of her class in the university she was attending. His brother had gone to school with a track scholarship and was already doing wonders in the competitive field after graduating. He was already considered a shoo-in for the next Olympics by sports media all over the country.
As for Shinobu, when he decided to become a hero he knew that he would be expected to rise to the top. He would have to become the Number 1 Hero. So he trained. He spent months, even years, training his Quirk to be a step ahead of his peers when he started high school. And after getting in through recommendations, he felt he was well on his way to reaching the top of his year.
But as more time passed, he found that goal harder and harder to reach.
He had started off the top in Class C, both in terms of academic ability and practical skill in hero training. His classmates were beneath him, not even worth his time. And yet despite that, he found the gap between him and his classmates getting smaller and smaller. He hadn't even made it to the final tournament in the Sports Festival, so how was he supposed to call himself the best in his year? He had blamed it on his poor choice in teammates during the cavalry battle, but deep down he knew that wasn't true. He had lost because he wasn't able to keep up with the opposing teams in the end.
And things only got worse as time went on. In the final exam, he had been unable to pass on his own and had to rely on Hyde. And during the villain attack during the training camp, if it hadn't been for Iida he would have been crushed by the villain they fought.
He kept having to rely on others to bail him out. How was he supposed to call himself a perfect hero if that was the case?
Shinobu could see the disappointment in his parents' eyes during the results of the Sports Festival. That disappointment gnawed at him. He told himself he would become even stronger, and make it to the top for sure by the end of the year. But no matter how hard he tried, he still found his classmates keeping pace with him.
'What am I missing? At the very least, I should be top of my year. But even I can't claim that title with confidence right now. Why can't I reach that position?'
The provisional license exam was his next chance. He had to make sure he passed with flying colors. If he didn't, he could only expect further disappointment from his parents. And he refused to let that happen.
'I will win. And I will show beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will be the future Number 1 Hero.'
Time passed and eventually 3 pm rolled around. Class C stood together right outside of Training Gym Gamma, already changed into their costumes.
Fujino had spent the last couple of hours getting comfortable moving around in her costume. It wasn't anything too fancy. Just a red-orange bodysuit with white trim. Covering her head was a black helmet that had a clear yellow visor over her face to protect her eyes and mouth since they were important parts of her Quirk. Her maroon hair came out the back of the helmet, going down her back. According to the instruction manual for her costume, the materials used for it were extremely heat resistant so even if she used her Quirk at close range the effects would be minimal to her.
'I got this far thanks to everyone's help.' Fujino thought to herself. 'Time to close the gap and catch up to all of them, so I can call myself an equal.'
With Yamagori were Cementoss and Ectoplasm. The three teachers addressed the class together. "Alright, like I said you'll be spending the days leading up to the license exam working on your ultimate moves. To help you with that, we have Ectoplasm and Cementoss here."
"I can change the field to fit each person's needs." Cementoss explained, getting a new mountainous area ready now that Class B's training session was finished.
"And I'll be assisting each student with my clones." Ectoplasm explained. "This way, I'll be able to provide advice to each of you simultaneously."
"Class A and B are working hard." Yamagori reminded her students. "So make sure you don't fall behind."
"You know, it's just hitting me. We're going to be up against both Class A and B in this exam." Marcus realized. "For us to pass, some of them may have to fail."
"Not exactly." Yamagori explained. "The license exam is held in three different locations simultaneously, twice a year. To prevent classes from having to face each other, U.A makes sure to register each class at a different location."
"That's a relief." Melody said. "I'd hate to have to deal with people like Bakugo and Todoroki. They'd be tough to beat."
"You won't be facing Class A or B, but you will have an obstacle that's just as tough if not tougher." Yamagori told them. "Keep in mind, you'll be facing students from schools across the country. And most of them are second years or higher, meaning they've trained longer than you and developed their Quirks further. That difference in experience won't be easy to overcome."
The difficulty of the upcoming exam was slowly dawning on Class C. They were the underdogs. The group with the least experience among all the examinees. But they couldn't let that stop them. If they wanted to get their licenses, they needed to overcome that wall and prove that they were ready.
"Alright, no more wasting time. Let's get to work, Class C!" Yamagori said firmly.
With that, the students of Class C scattered around and began their intensive training. Ectoplasm made clones for each of them. Yamagori watched as her students began working harder than ever. She couldn't help but feel a little proud of how far they had each come.
"I see Class C has already started, huh Sienna." All Might said, walking up next to her. It still freaked her out a little how the once muscular Number 1 Hero now looked like a skinny bag of bones all the time.
"What do you want, All Might?" Yamagori asked. "Shouldn't you be focusing on recovering?"
"This is the class for ultimate moves. I wouldn't want to miss this." All Might told her. "I also observed Class A and B already. I'm curious to see how much Class C has improved."
Looking at All Might's back pocket, Yamagori noticed a booklet sticking out. The title read "Even Dummies Can Be Teachers. Easy Education Theory". Yamagori couldn't help but smirk at seeing that. No matter what it was, All Might always gave it his all to help others.
Marcus stood with one of Ectoplasm's clones. He tried to explain what he was after with an ultimate move. "Right now, I can only transform certain parts of my body at a time. I can't do a full wyvern transformation." he explained. "I'd like to be able to transform myself completely, even if only for a short amount of time."
"I see." Ectoplasm said. "In that case, start by concentrating. Work on bringing out each part of your wyvern form, even if it's just one characteristic at a time."
"Understood." Marcus nodded. He stood still and closed his eyes, working to try and bring out his full power.
Elsewhere, Nene was deep in thought. "My Quirk can let me clone myself, but it's not like I can really do anything out of the ordinary with that. Even if I just make a bunch of clones, all it'll really do is just make a mini army of myself. That doesn't sound like much of an ultimate move to me."
"Ah, Young Fukasa! I have some advice." All Might said as he walked over to her. "I just overheard what you were saying. It's true that making a mini army of yourself probably won't be enough. But you shouldn't focus entirely on what your Quirk does. You should think about what you can do because of your Quirk."
"What do you mean?" Nene asked.
"I'm sure you're familiar with combination attacks, moves that involve a full team to execute." All Might explained. "However, with your Quirk, you'll be able to execute those types of moves on your own. And with far better coordination than a team of different people would."
Nene thought about All Might's words. He made a good point. "Thank you sir." she said. "I think I'll give that a try."
"Good. I look forward to seeing what you come up with." All Might told her. Continuing on, All Might looked over and saw Shinobu not too far away. "Ah, Young Reikon! I have some advice for you."
Shinobu turned his head upon hearing All Might's call to him. "Hm?"
All Might walked up to the violet-haired teen. "I've noticed you seem to focus on rather regular blasts with your Quirk. You should try to be more creative and flexible."
"Creative and flexible…" Shinobu muttered, thinking to himself. "I see. I'll try that."
"Good." All Might nodded.
"Actually, All Might, I have a question for you if you can spare a minute." Shinobu said.
"Of course." All Might nodded. "What is it?"
"You were the Number 1 Hero. Nobody came close to you." Shinobu told him. "What was your secret? How did you manage to reach the Number 1 spot all on your own?"
All Might shook his head at Shinobu. "It seems you're misunderstanding something, Young Reikon. I didn't reach the top on my own. I was helped by many people along the way."
"But once you were there, you didn't need help from anyone. You were able to do everything without anyone else's help."
"Far from it. Young Reikon, there are many things I can't do on my own, even back in my prime." All Might told him. "There were many incidents in my life where I was part of a group. It wasn't just because they needed me, and it wasn't just because I needed them. We needed each other to solve those incidents."
"But then… how do I reach a point where I can do it all on my own?" Shinobu asked desperately. He clenched his fists in frustration. "If even you weren't able to do it… then how can I?"
"No one can do everything on their own. People need each other, Young Reikon." All Might said. "No matter how strong someone is, there will be times that they need the help of another. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."
All Might walked away as Shinobu was left to think to himself. 'I won't accept it… Relying on others will only act as a crutch. But if even All Might says that… then…'
Shinobu's thoughts were interrupted as a loud roar was heard in the room. All heads turned to Marcus, who looked differently than before. Rather than just having part of his body turned into a wyvern, nearly his entire body had gone into wyvern-mode. But something was wrong. His body twitched around, and he let out menacing growls. He seemed to be in pain.
"Cersy, calm down." Ectoplasm told him. "Revert back."
"Grrrr… Grrrr… Graaaaaahhhhhh!" Marcus roared. He didn't seem to have any control of himself. His mind had gone berserk. With a swipe of his tail, he knocked the clone of Ectoplasm off balance before sinking his claws into it, destroying the clone.
"Marcus!" Sarah exclaimed. "Marcus, calm down!"
Marcus didn't listen. His eyes fixated on the next closest person he could find, which just so happened to be All Might. Kicking off the ground, Marcus charged at the weak former hero.
"Look out! All Might!" Sakura shouted.
All Might widened his eyes, unable to do anything as Marcus closed in on him. Before the berserk teen could reach him however, his body stiffened and he fell onto the earthy ground. Yamagori soon appeared and pinned her student down while he was paralyzed from her Quirk.
"Calm down, Cersy! Get a hold of yourself!" Yamagori yelled at him.
Marcus didn't seem to hear the female teacher's words. He continued to struggle, despite his body being unable to move. "Grah! Rah!"
Yamagori let out a sigh. "Sorry about this. But you're not giving me much choice." Straightening out her hand, Yamagori delivered a chop to the back of Marcus's neck. Marcus instantly fell silent and passed out.
"Marcus!" Sarah exclaimed as she and several other students rushed over. "Is he alright?"
"He'll be fine. He's just unconscious." Yamagori explained, watching Marcus's body revert back to normal. "He should wake up in an hour or two."
"What was that? He just went crazy." Sakura said, her eyes still afraid.
"I guess the full transformation was too much for his body to control. It must have caused him to go berserk." Yamagori told them. She lifted Marcus up. "I'll bring Cersy over to the entrance to rest. The rest of you, get back to training."
Everyone watched as Yamagori carried Marcus to the entrance. Even though their teacher had told them to go right back to training like normal, it was still tough to get what they had seen out of their mind quickly. Marcus was usually composed and rarely lost his temper. So to see him acting like a raging beast was surprising to say the least.
"You heard Medusa. Let's continue." Ectoplasm told the students.
Knowing there was little they could do, the others returned to their spots and continued working on their ultimate moves while worrying a little about Marcus in the back of their minds.
After four hours of intensive training, Class C took their leave of the training gym. They changed out of their costumes and returned to the dorm for the night. They all ate dinner together and now were each relaxing after a hard day of training.
"How's your special move coming along, Alicia?" Dan asked.
"It's tough, but I'm starting to make some progress." Alicia told him. "What about you? What kind of move are you going for?"
"I'm still thinking about it." Dan said. "Hydro Angel is useful, but I'd still like to have a move to use for attacking. And it would be best if I can use it with just the water in my body since I can't grab much moisture from the air indoors."
"I'm working on a super amazing move." Rekka grinned. "The only problem is the timing's a little hard. But once it's perfected, it'll be really powerful."
"I've got a move in mind, but I'm not sure if my body can keep up for it." Sarah said. "I need to get my senses used to working immediately after I teleport. There's still a lag time of a second or so."
"That reminds me, Sarah. Can you teach me some of the martial arts you learned during your internship." Alicia asked. "The point of my ultimate move is to stun my opponent for a brief moment, but it'd be great if I had a few more techniques to use to clinch a fight during the brief moment they can't do anything."
"Sure. I'd be happy to." Sarah said. Suddenly her eyes caught sight of something out in the courtyard. "Excuse me for a moment." she said as she opened the door and walked outside.
The others gathered at the couches narrowed their eyes. "I wonder what that was about." Dan said.
"Maybe she's just tired from training and needed a bit of fresh air." Jill suggested.
Sarah walked out into the courtyard. Sitting out there and looking up at the sky was Marcus Cersy. She walked up to her friend and looked down at him.
"Marcus, are you doing alright?" Sarah asked.
"Just leave me alone, Sarah." Marcus said in a depressed tone.
Sarah shook her head. "Not happening. You've been acting weird ever since dinner. Now tell me what's going on."
Marcus let out a sigh. "I've been trying for so long to get full transformation down. After the training camp, I'm finally able to do it, and what happens? I lose control and turn into a raging monster."
"Marcus, you can't be so hard on yourself." Sarah told him.
"Why? My dad was able to do it by my age. Ryukyu had no issues doing it." Marcus said. "I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to do a real full transformation."
"I know you can Marcus." Sarah said. "Just give it time."
"Easy for you to say."
Sarah narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've always been great at using your Quirk! You're one of the best students in class!" Marcus yelled at her. "So how can you know what it feels like to fail so miserably at something that seems to come easy to everyone else?! You don't get it at all, so stop acting like you do!"
Marcus's words hit Sarah deep. But she didn't cry from it. Instead, her expression turned to one of anger. "You… you…" Sarah formed a fist and slammed it against Marcus's head. "You complete IDIOT!"
"Ow!" Marcus exclaimed as he held his head in pain. "That hurt!"
"You think it was easy for me to get to where I am?! I had to work my ass off in order to get this good with my Quirk!" Sarah shouted. "And I know full well you work just as hard as I do, so don't you dare say I don't know what it's like!"
Marcus widened his eyes. "Sarah…"
Sarah kneeled down and got to eye-level with her friend. "Marcus, I know you're having trouble with this now. But believe me when I say I know you can do this." she said softly with a smile. "Have some confidence in yourself."
Marcus rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks Sarah. And… I'm sorry for yelling at you."
"It's alright. I'm used to you acting like a dummy." Sarah said with a teasing grin. She took a seat next to Marcus and looked up at the night sky. "The stars look pretty tonight."
"Yeah." Marcus said as he sat next to his childhood friend, and the one person he felt he could confide anything in. Right now, he felt blessed to have her by his side.
A/N: Hey readers. Things are moving towards the exam. Hope you all enjoyed Class 1-C prepping themselves. What will come of their training? You'll just have to wait and see.
