The class 1-A door was huge, which I assumed was to accommodate those with larger quirks. Sure enough, the first person I saw inside had wings made of arms. The next student to catch my attention had the head of a bird, complete with a beak and feathers, though the rest of his body was human. These were some monstrous quirks. The big leagues.

Then there was Bakugou, on the far side of the room. The only reaction he gave to me was a cocky, "Che." Then he put his feet on his desk, as if to tell me that things wouldn't change from middle school.

I scowled back.

A tall, square-jawed boy noticed Bakugou's feet right away and marched over. I was close to warning him—an argument with Bakugou was energy wasted. But the blond needed to be chastised, so I found the seating chart on the chalkboard and found my spot. I was seat number 10, which put me in the back and behind a boy who looked like he was made of stone. Great. I wished I could see through solids like my mom.

To my right was an empty seat, and to my left was a kid with red and white hair split perfectly down the middle. There was also a nasty scar on his eye—my right, his left. I tried not to stare, but he caught me looking as I sat down. I turned to the front. Besides Bakugou and Square Face, no one was really socializing, if you could call what they were doing that. I fidgeted under my desk.

Most of the class was shuffling in or was already seated, so I had a chance to look at them all. There were some obvious quirks, like the blond guy with the tail and a walking uniform with no one in it. Then there was a boy with spiky red hair, and other 'normal' looking kids. Heaven knew what all of their quirks were.

Soon Midoriya walked in. Most of the class had made it by now, being uncannily early on the first day (hell, even Bakugou was early), and turned to look at the newcomer. He blushed and waved.

Square Face made a beeline for him—apparently they had met during the entrance exam. I pulled out my cell phone discreetly and checked the time. Where was our sensei? Class was about to start.

I got my answer a few minutes later when a pro-hero popped up from behind the teacher's desk. In a sleeping bag. Heroes weren't anything if they weren't eccentric, but I didn't recognize his scruffy face, and at this point his costume was hidden. We were told to change and meet outside for the day.

The class made a short stop at the locker rooms so we could switch into the blue gym suits. "How All Might," I said, eyeing the white and red lines. Once we were outside in the huge field, our new sensei made an announcement.

"A quirk assessment?" I fidgeted.

"Not quite. It will be like the physical exams you all took in middle school, but you'll be allowed to use your quirks to their full power." Sensei eyed us. "And whoever is last will be immediately expelled."

The class broke into nervous murmuring. UA was notoriously difficult to get into, but this was a little ridiculous. But so was the hero profession.

The panic started to set in—I could only unleash my blasts once before I was spent, so I would have to pick one event to excel at and hope I would be less mediocre than some other poor soul.

Aizawa sensei had Bakugou demonstrate with the ball throw, who didn't hold back. He got over seven hundred meters, which made his old record seem like child's play. I looked at my hands—I couldn't beat that even if I was holding karma past my threshold. Like usual, the class was impressed by Bakugou's quirk. The air buzzed with excitement; we weren't often told to go all out with our powers.

I glanced at Midoriya. If he passed the entrance exam, he would have to have a quirk, right? Despite the new rules that allowed the quirkless, you would still have to beat the robots in the exam.

First was the 50 meter dash, and I was glad to start out at something I was competent at. Square Face was one of the first to go, revealing his quirk of speed. Pretty convenient for the test. That meant he was safe. Being the best at a single event and you couldn't get sent home.

Bakugou literally blasted himself to the endline, beating even the speed quirk, which I guess took some time to break into full speed. I lined up with a pink girl—literally, she had pink skin and hair, with black, buggy eyes.

The shot rang out, and I sprinted, not holding back. Even so, Pinky broke a step ahead of me, and I ended up in the six-second range just behind her.

I jogged to a stop past the line, something my dad taught me to avoid injuries. Bakugou glared at me as I passed. "Can't use your shitty quirk for much."

I caught my breath and ignored him. He wasn't wrong. My quirk wouldn't help me out much in this situation, and I wasn't exactly proving myself innovative with using it as he was.

Grip strength went even worse, because I was below average. That was true also for the standing long jump, the side jump, and the toe touch. Forget worrying about Midoriya. I was gone at this rate.

But I was stocking up some karma, as workouts tended to do for me. Every impact on the ground or strain in my muscles added to my hoard incrementally.

"Alright," I breathed, stepping up to the ball throw. "Just copy Bakugou. Remember his timing."

I cranked my arm, then threw the ball, unleashing the pent up energy in my cells. I wasn't at my full capacity, but it would have to do. The ball disappeared from sight, the only indication that it was flying the gold waves in the air.

"Flashy," the red haired boy grinned at me. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.

"Four-hundred and three meters," Aizawa Sensei said. I grinned, getting some cheers from my classmates even though none of us knew each other.

Then a brown haired girl went after me, and her ball never came down.

"Woah," I breathed.

She blushed. "That's my quirk: Zero Gravity."

I blanched. These were the big leagues. Every power was going to be just as useful as Bakugou's.

Next up at the pitch was Midoriya. I fidgeted.

"Oh, this will be good," Bakugou cackled.

Square Face frowned at him. "If Midoriya doesn't kick it into high-gear, he might be going home."

"Of course he's going home," Bakugou said. "He's a quirkless loser."

I bit my lip, but ultimately couldn't hold back my glare. "Still accusing him of cheating to get in?"

Red eyes shot daggers back at me. "Yeah, Chubby. Clearly you two played the system. How else would you be here? Either way, Deku's worse. He can't even do well in one event without a quirk."

Square Face shot him a look of confusion. "Quirkless? No, Midoriya has a quirk. Haven't you heard what happened in the entrance exam?"

To this, Bakugou and I shared a look of surprise. I turned to Square Face.

"No, what happened?"

The boy shook his head. "He saw through the whole test. Made a fool out of the rest of us, and took down the zero point robot."

That sounded like Midoriya. If he was anything, he was clever. But how had he taken down the zero point? I realized my mouth was open.

Bakugou scoffed. "The zero point robot?" From the dismissive look on his face, I wondered if he didn't realize those were the giant robots. Or maybe he just plain didn't believe Square Face.

As he rolled his eyes, Midoriya threw his first attempt. "46 meters."

I watched Bakugou break into uncontrollable laughter. "Yeah, you definitely have him confused with some other guy." Yeah, what happened? Midoriya should have a quirk by now. Yet he wasn't excelling at any of the challenges.

The Deku I knew had a quirk, as simple as that. So what was I missing?

Midoriya was looking at Aizawa Sensei.

"Something happened," I said, trying to get Bakugou to go quiet so I could hear. Midoriya stepped back up to the circle with a new ball for his final attempt. He seemed to be thinking hard. Then, suddenly, he cranked his arm back and threw.

"Smash!"

Our jaws dropped, and the ball sped off into the distance. I think it even broke the sound barrier.

And standing in the circle was Deku—not just Midoriya. I had never seen them as the same person before. Not really. Logically I knew, but seeing meek little Izuku use his quirk for the first time? I saw the hero that gave his life to save me. Tears welled in my eyes.

"He's so cool," I breathed.

I had killed that. Now I had to protect him.

I saw Bakugou glance at me, his expression souring. I hadn't meant to say it aloud, knowing it would piss him off to not be the one praised. I clapped my hand over my mouth. But he was practically stunned into silence. Like the sight of a Deku with a quirk was a shock to the system.

Eventually, he snapped out of it. "Deku!" Bakugou shot out of the crowd at Midoriya. "You're so dead!"

"Bakugou!" I shouted. "Leave him alone!"

"Is he serious?" Square Face cried.

But Aizawa Sensei caught the blond in his wrappings, erasing the explosions that were about to pop in his hands. Midoriya watched, stunned. The whole class probably had the same expression. Sensei chewed him out in front of us. I'd never seen something like it before. Bakugou, told to knock it off until he was forced to listen. It was almost more amazing than Midoriya's throw.

The green haired boy joined the rest of us, avoiding Bakugou at all costs.

I shoved his arm and whistled. "That's new."

He blushed. "Yeah. I have to be careful with it." He held up his hand.

The gravity girl—Uraraka—dashed over. "Woah, does your finger hurt?"

Sure enough, his whole digit was red and swollen. Probably broke the bone. I frowned.

Wasn't that a little too incapacitating? He couldn't use his quirk without completely wrecking his body, and that didn't sound right. Quirks didn't just hurt their owner like that, late bloomer or not. And if it was as bad as it was now, how could he have improved so quickly to when he became a pro? This would take decades to correct for a normal person.

Yes, he was finally starting to really look like a hero. But he wasn't there yet. This power had consequences. The visage of the hero from my memories faded away once more.

After Bakugou managed to calm down, the class moved onto the rest of the tests. I wasn't the only one who couldn't use my quirk for the distance run, so I ended up fairing pretty well. At least, I didn't think I'd be the one to get expelled.

Sensei pulled up the list; I'd gotten 16th, just above someone named Kyouka Jiro. Then I remembered to check for last place and—

Midoriya in the twentieth spot? No way. He'd gotten such a good score on the ball throw.

Premonition was silent, so I was left confused.

Until Aizawa-sensei let us off the hook and admitted he was lying about the expulsion. I tried not to groan with the others. Was it going to be like this all the time?

Class was dismissed, so we all hurried to change back into our uniforms (ironically, to go home). I shuffled out of the entrance with the other students, glad to have survived the first day at UA. Tomorrow wouldn't be as scary. I'd go home, do some research on Aizawa and late-blooming quirks, and maybe work on Karma with my dad since I already did some running.

"Hey, Chubby."

I stopped and turned. Bakugou stalked over, his hands in his pockets and a deep scowl on his face. I glanced around, but he was definitely talking to me. Weird.

"Did you know?"

I frowned. "Did I know what?"

He scoffed. "Don't play dumb—about Deku."

Taken aback, I blinked. "That he had a quirk?" I shrugged. "Well, since he passed the entrance exam, I figured."

Bakugou's eyes narrowed. "And you didn't question where it came from? You don't find it weird?"

"Not really. There are plenty of cases of adults suddenly getting a quirk."

Instead of screaming at me like I was used to, he fell into a contemplative silence.

"I can't get past the timing."

I hummed. "You mean that it awakened right before the exam? I noticed a change about ten months ago, actually—after the slime villain attack."

At the reminder of his rescue, his face twisted again. "Che." He pulled away.

We were both headed the same way. I ended up walking beside him. I shook my head. "I don't get it, Bakugou. Why does he bother you that much?" It was a genuine question. Midoriya didn't need to do anything to piss him off, yet he took it so personally.

It seemed to irk him more than anything else I'd said, and he didn't respond.

The next day, we started regular curriculum classes. This was the stuff I was good at, skills and lessons I'd already learned and retained from my previous high school experience. I didn't remember any of my old teachers or classmates, but math was math, Japanese was Japanese, and English was English.

Then, to all of our surprise, All Might had us for the Hero course.

The man—the legend—was huge. I think I went up to his waist.

Asui perked up. "Is that his silver-age costume?" Even the frog girl was a fan. I shot a quick look at Midoriya. He seemed excited, but definitely not as over the moon as I had been expecting to see. It was no secret what a mega fanboy he was. I would have expected him to faint, maybe even die. Yet none of that happened. I frowned.

Instead of our blue gym uniforms, it was finally time to get our hero costumes. I was excited to see the sketch I had sent in as real clothes. Dad helped me design it.

Soon I was clad in gold-tinted ski-goggles, a black sporty bra, and black jacket over top, stopping at my midriff. Yellow combat boots—reinforced with iron, as they recommended—and a yellow tool belt for gadgets completed my pop of color, while I had included white fingerless gloves to protect all the way up my arms, and similar white leggings under black shorts. Heat and cold resistant, they were better than anything I could have put together myself.

I actually felt like a hero, and even though it was a little awkward at first to parade around in our own designs, everyone was in their gear.

All Might took us to another arena like the ones they had used during the entrance exam, a modern city setting.

We drew lots for teams—Bakugou and Iida got paired together, which I found funny, considering how yesterday had gone.

I was team B with Todoroki—the guy with the split hair. He didn't say much to me when All Might gave the teams a minute to strategize and assess the partnership. It made me fidget.

"Now we'll draw for the match-ups." All Might drew from two boxes, one to represent the hero team and the second to represent the villain team. Team A vs. team D—I glanced around. That was Bakugou and Iida against…

Uraraka and Midoriya. I winced as we shuffled into the monitoring room. Premonition didn't tell me anything wrong was going to happen, but it usually took a lot of karmic energy in the air before I started to feel it if the event wasn't connected to me.

Still, I had a bad feeling about the match. And I could tell by his squared shoulders that Bakugou meant business. He wouldn't go easy on anyone, especially not Midoriya.

Fidgeting, I approached All Might. He leaned down to listen to my shy voice. "Um, I think you should switch up the teams."

"But why, young lady?"

I tried to stumble through my words, but the man was larger than life. I had to glance away. "Bakugou—he has a grudge against Midoriya. I'm worried he'll take things too far."

He hummed. "I figured as much. Both Midoriya-shounen and Bakugou-shounen are passionate about becoming heroes. But don't worry, I'll be here to stop things if they try to cross any lines."

I couldn't say much to that, so I nodded. The number one hero could stop Bakugou full-stop in an instant. But he also didn't know what Bakugou could be like. This fight was years in the making.

I joined the rest of the class to watch the monitor, biting my lip, as the test started.

I seriously debated having her replace Mineta. However, that left a huge hole where Satou didn't (former seat ten). Please forgive me. Mineta's shit. But he's personality. Satou is in Class-B, having been replaced by Hotaru for seat 10, and some poor extra didn't make the cut. They drew lots so their partner's were randomized.

TBH I didn't feel good about this chapter. It was a lot of important stuff that I didn't think I could leave out, but it's pretty close to Canon originally. I tried to get through it pretty quickly, but it's not my favorite way to write. Of course I want to change the plot, but it's going to be more of a snowball effect. Bear with me.

Now, for a rant-

Listen. I've been through this rodeo a couple of times. I've been on this site since I was definitely too young and now I'm definitely too old, but It's a hobby and I like writing in these universes that I enjoy. I get that my kinda thing isn't everyone's kind of thing, and that's fine. Your kinda thing isn't my kinda thing, probably. So I'm just not gonna read it, because I can choose what I do with my time.

What I'm not going to do, is go to another person's fic and leave this:

"If it has an OC, FUCKING LABEL IT. I hate them so I always filter them out, but idiots like you just can't label shit correctly. It's not fucking hard to label something, just do it." And especially not as a guest because I'm not a coward.

I get that the world sucks right now. We're all angry. My semester in Japan was cancelled ten days before I was supposed to go. Then my friend invited me to Arizona to see a long time friend who's program in South Korea was also cancelled and we were all feeling depressed. However, I can't go to that either because I caught a viral infection and am self-quarantined. It sucks, and I'm disappointed. So I'm really looking forward to seeing people interact with something I've been writing as nothing more than a hobby.

To be clear, I did label this fic. It was just somehow accidentally reset of all character settings, which I didn't notice because I DID label it OC, Bakugou, and Midoriya. Shit happens. If you had just sent a little, "Hey, could you label your characters? Thanks." Great. Sufficient. The rage is proportional to the first world problem that this is. Like, you didn't find it strange at all that it didn't have a single character label? (And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't give you the option to exclude labels, so if other canon labels match what you're looking for then you'd get my fic anyway.)

Cool. Would have done that. Thanks for telling me. But leaving this message is absolutely unacceptable. And I know most of you guys wouldn't even dream of leaving something nasty like that. So thank you to all the favs and follows.

Yes, Mr. Guest, it's easy to label the fic if your internet or computer or whatever doesn't malfunction and not save your changes. But it's even easier to see the strange name that is in the very beginning of the description and the "OC" at the very end (or read the sentence long description), and then to ignore it and scroll on. It's harder than both of those things to click and write a nasty review on a fic you already know you have no intention on reading.

Boom, roasted, thanks for reading.