Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia characters and plot events belongs to Horikoshi Kohei.

To Be a Hero

deku, like 'you can do it'!

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"Go away."

"But we're going to the exact same place," Shiro said with her chin in her palm. She had managed to find the staff office after school let out and was sitting across from Aizawa and watching as he filled out something on his desk. "I'll just wait until you're done!"

"Students aren't allowed in here. There's top secret information enclosed within these walls," Aizawa droned as he flipped the sheet over after he finished filling it out. It was just the recorded scores from the fitness tests they did.

"First about the expulsion and now this... I think you're getting worse at lying," she said and blew at a fringe that was blocking her eye. She frowned at the thought, "And, from what I can tell, our class got a pretty scary impression of you because of it."

"Good," he replied. "You're not here to make friends. Being a hero doesn't mean you'll be spoon-fed with praises and glamour all the time. It's dangerous. It's only rational to make sure that you guys know this from the start."

Shiro sighed. That was always a typical response from the Pro Hero regarding everything. Sometimes, she felt that the man was too straightforward and rational about things. He had a way of draining the excitement out of things and replacing it with stress. Well, she was used to it, but she was also too stubborn for her own good.

The chair the girl was sitting at scrapped across the floor as she stood up. Aizawa looked up briefly.

"Where are you going?"

"I've decided I want to make some friends," she said and stuck a tongue out at him before heading out the door. "I can't do that if my classmates see me with you. You'll scare them away!"

Tch... the hero went back to his paperwork. How irrational.

Shiro was running to school the next day because she nearly overslept her alarm. The Pro Hero was long gone when she woke and she realized that she had less than 30 minutes to get to school. I can't believe he just left without me!

It was probably his way of getting back at what she said to him yesterday.

And he says I'm a kid, the girl huffed. When she was close enough to school grounds with enough time to spare, she slowed down and looked around for familiar faces of her classmates. She was actually pretty nervous. Should I increase my probability of making friends...? Just in case?

"Aisaka-chan!"

She jolted as a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Turning around, she was met with the smiling face of Uraraka. Behind her, Midoriya waved timidly as Iida gave her a short nod.

"Good morning, Aisaka-chan!" Uraraka greeted again. Shiro noted that the girl was always super bubbly. "Wanna head to class together with me, Iida-kun, and Deku-kun?"

"'Deku'?" Shiro repeated blankly.

The male in question started to sputter nervously as he tried to explain. "It's a nickname that Kacchan calls me to make fun of me, but Izuku is my real name! Um, b-but Uraraka-san said that it sounds like 'you can do it', so..." He poked his two fingers together bashfully.

"He accepted it way too easily," Iida shook his head.

"...Deku," Shiro, on the other hand, nodded understandingly at the explanation. "I guess it rolls off the tongue well."

"A-Ah! Thanks Aisaka-san!" Midoriya cried.

"Shiro is fine," she requested and the boy nodded furiously with a blush. Iida then commented that class was going to start soon and advised for them to head in. Uraraka pulled on her arm and chattered along the way as they all made it inside the building. Shiro was getting along with the three quite quickly...

It looked like she didn't need to use her Quirk after all.

According to U.A.'s curriculum, hero basic training didn't start until the afternoon. Regular required classes like English and History were taught in the morning by different Pro Heroes, and it was all surprisingly normal.

When lunch time came around, they all went to the main cafeteria, where students from courses other than the hero course also gathered to buy gourmet food made by The Lunch Hero: Lunch Rush himself, all for reasonable prices. Shiro was ever so glad to have made friends with Midoriya and them in the morning, because otherwise she might have to sit alone at an empty lunch table. Though she supposed that everyone in class 1-A were pretty nice... All except Bakugou, of course.

"Shove it, Deku."

They were on their way back to the classroom for their awaited hero training when Midoriya jumped to the side immediately at the barked order and allowed the angry blonde to pass. Shiro had found him to be increasingly unpleasant within the short amount of time that she's gotten to know him, and she couldn't help but scoff at his terrible attitude as he walked ahead of them through the door. The male paused and leaned forward with a glare.

"You wanna say something?"

"Yeah," she bit back with an equally antagonizing glare. Midoriya was in the background and feebly waving at her to stop, but if he wasn't going to stick up for himself, then she will. "Excuse you."

That ticked the hot-head off more and he went to grab her collar with a challenging grin. "Ha? Just who the f—"

"I am..." A pair of strong hands suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pulled them apart, and they found themselves stumbling into the classroom before the man behind it all leaned in with all his hero glory. "...Coming through the door like a normal person!"

Totally not normal... Shiro thought as her heart raced excitedly. But it's the top hero... In the flesh! With the fight avoided and temporarily forgotten, loud murmurs of awe sounded within the classroom immediately at the presence of the Symbol of Peace.

"It's All Might!"

"Wow, he really is a teacher!"

"That's his costume from the Silver Ages, isn't it? It gives me goosebumps!"

Shiro and the rest found their seats as the hero made his way to the front of the class. He grinned at them with his signature smile and fists settling at both sides of his hips. "Young heroes! I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject! I see some students are already getting to it, so this is what we'll do today—" he announced and flashed them a "BATTLE" card with excitement. "Combat training!"

At the mention of combat, Bakugou was possibly raging with anticipation.

"And to go with that are these!" All Might pointed to the wall that was extending out shelves with numbered boxes. "Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started."

Now everyone was shouting with eagerness. They couldn't wait to see and wear their own costume designs!

"After you change, gather in Ground Beta!"

"Yes, sir!"

"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies," All Might was waiting for them as they filed out of the exit one by one. There was clanking of metal and chains; armors shined, and different costumes stood out against each other.

Among the firsts was Bakugou's totally flashy grenade-esque getup, Iida's knight-like armor, Uraraka's astronaut-inspired black and pink suit...

"Be fully aware..."

Shiro adjusted the clear safety glasses before her eyes. Her hair was tied with a white ribbon on the right and a black one on the left. Her over-the-knee boots, the right one also white and the left one black, clicked as the compact weapons attached the side of her utility belt bobbed with each stride. On her body, she wore a pure white sweetheart leotard over a sheer bodysuit. The long sleeves matched the same white and black scheme and was accompanied by red combat gloves.

"From now on..."

All Might was grinning brightly at them as they all stepped out.

"...you are heroes!"

Shiro looked around at her classmates all wearing their costumes proudly and ready for whatever the hero was going to throw at them. But aren't we missing... Before she finished her thought, the sound of pounding feet came from the end of the tunnel and out came Midoriya with his totally...

All Might inspired getup? Does Midoriya admire him this much? she blinked at the obvious resemblance. As much as she looked up to Aizawa, she swore she will never dress like him. The man basically dressed in rags!

"Now, it's time for combat training!"

Iida immediately raised his hand in the same stiff manner he usually possessed, but his armor seemed to enhance the stiffness.

"Sir! This is a battle center from the entrance exam, so will we be conducting urban battles again?"

"Nope, we're going to move ahead two steps! Most of the time, fighting villains takes place outside, but if you look at the total numbers, atrocious villains appear indoors at a higher rate. Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals—in this society filled with heroes, truly intelligent villains hide in the shadows!" All Might explained, "For this class, you'll be split into villains and heroes and fight 2-on-2 battles. The key this time is that there's no robot you can just beat up."

Immediately, there were an onslaught of questions on the logistics and nature of the battle. Can they beat people up like the robots anyway? How do you determine a win? Is this another test for potential and punished with expulsion? Isn't Aoyama's cape crazily dazzling—?

"How are we splitting up since there's 21 of us?" Shiro spoke up at last with a tilt of her head. Although her and Aizawa usually trained together in a similar hero-and-villain set up, she's never teamed up with anyone before so she didn't know how well her performance will go with another person in the mix. She was all too ready to go solo if she had to.

"I-I'll answer all of your questions! But great observation, Young Aiza—Aisaka!" the hero, overwhelmed with the other questions, gave her a thumbs up before going on explaining. He opened a small booklet and started reading from it.

He's reading from a script? she wondered with raised brows.

"The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose of it. The heroes need to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. The villains need to protect the hidden nuclear weapon for the whole time or catch the heroes. Since we have an odd number of students, one of you will become the nuclear weapon for a group of villains. As a living weapon, you have the perk of changing hiding spots, but to make it fair for the hero opponents, you cannot run away or attack them once they spot you," he concluded before pulling out a yellow box. "Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots! Let's get to it!"

The students all stepped forward to grab one. When it was Bakugou's turn, he shoved his hand into the box and snatched up a lot with purpose. He stared at the tennis-sized ball containing the team letter "D" intently before directing his gaze at Shiro. "Don't you dare get on the same team as me, Pigtails. I wanna fight you."

"As if I want to be on your team," she rolled her eyes as her hand reached into the box for a team. In her hand was the letter "I", and so there was a chance that she may go up against the blonde. If that happened, she resolved to give it her all and bring him down a notch. Even if he's stronger than me.

As the rest finished picking lots, Shiro and her classmates all gathered together to see who they were partnered up with by matching their team letters:

Team A: Uraraka and Midoriya

Team B: Shoji and Todoroki

Team C: Mineta and Yaoyorozu

Team D: Bakugou and Iida

Team E: Ashido and Aoyama

Team F: Sato and Koda

Team G: Kaminari and Jiro

Team H: Asui and Tokoyami

Team I: Ojiro, Hagakure, and Aisaka

Team J: Sero and Kirishima

Shiro found that she was in the group of three, so that meant that her group was automatically put in with the villain box while the others were randomly placed. She stood next to Ojiro and who she presumed was Hagakure (she was invisible after all) and gave them an awkward smile since she didn't know them well. "So we're the live nuclear weapon team, huh?" she said before silently berating herself for stating the obvious. However, neither seemed to mind.

Hagakure made a fist pump with her visible gloved hand. "Yeah! We're gonna be some kick-ass villains together!" the girl shouted as Ojiro extended out his hand calmly towards her.

"I look forward to working with you, Aisaka-san."

"Likewise," Shiro responded quickly and took Ojiro's hand. It was rough, but inviting.

"So, the first teams to fight will be..." All Might's voice reached their ears as he reached into the hero and villain boxes before pulling out two teams. "Team A heroes and Team D villains! Everyone else, head toward the monitor room and we'll watch from there."

These two teams... Her ruby eyes lowered on Midoriya's face and his expression spoke a thousand words. Bakugou didn't get his wish to fight her today, but he probably got something even better, much to the curly haired male's hesitance.

As soon as All Might announced for the two teams to start, the Team A heroes successfully infiltrated the building without a hitch and started exploring the many extensive hallways that seemed endless from the monitor screens. But within minutes of infiltration, Bakugou had found the heroes and wasted no time in aiming his first punch.

"A surprise attack from the start?"

Though the monitors had no audio, remembering how strong his explosions could be allowed Shiro to practically feel the rumble of the crumbling wall the blonde hit as Midoriya and Uraraka managed to dodge him.

"Bakugou, that's cheating!" Kirishima slammed his fists together as they watched. "A surprise attack isn't manly at all!"

"It's a strategy, too," All Might said with his signature grin. "They're in the middle of a real battle right now."

Shiro carefully watched as Midoriya managed to block Bakugou's next move before flipping him to the ground. Something had changed in his expression during the five minute prep time, and although she could tell that he was still scared, it seemed that the curly haired male was pretty good at predicting Bakugou's moves and fighting through it.

Another useful strategy is to know your opponents... She nodded to herself, thinking intently. It was going to be hard for her to single out any one team that she may be up against, and even then, it might not be much use because she only knew the practical uses of some of their Quirks. This was a lot harder than going against Aizawa; although the Pro Hero always had tricks up his sleeves, she at least had a general idea of what she would be expecting. Some of her classmates where much of an anomaly still. What to do what to do what to do...

Ojiro must have sensed her inner unrest because he placed a hand on her shoulder briefly, and for some reason, he had a calming effect. "We can think of a strategy together," he said, motioning to the monitor where Bakugou was running wild on his own while disregarding Iida. "Whoever we are up against, the most important thing will be communication."

Shiro blinked in surprise at his words. "R-Right," she nodded in agreement. She had nearly forgotten that she wasn't in this alone. Her task was to think like a villain and work together with her team. Speaking of that...

On one of the screens, Iida, after being left to his own devices by Bakugou, seemed to be moving everything from the area before confronting Uraraka as she showed up minutes later. Maybe it was because he was so bored up there by himself and ended up cleaning the entire place spotless... But then she remembered that Uraraka can change the gravity of anything she touched, so clearing out the room to prevent such a thing happening was actually a very strategic move on Iida's part.

Switching to the screen for the hallways, she watched Midoriya try to avoid his villain opponent as he stayed hot in pursuit. Even though it looked like Bakugou was going about haphazardly, he was still surprisingly fast at finding his target. Is he still able to think clearly with all these angry emotions—?

"Young Bakugou, stop!" All Might's warning caused the whole class to widen their eyes with alarm. The blonde looked to be aiming his right arm right at Midoriya as he started pulling out the pin from his now glowing grenade gauntlet. "Are you trying to kill him?!"

His mind isn't clear at all! Shiro was gripping her fists as her ruby eyes stayed glued to the screen at Bakugou's almost deranged grin. He was saying something back to All Might, but because of the lack of audio, she could only make out parts of his sentence from the movement of his lips.

"If I don't... won't die!"

It was as if a miracle happened and the fiery blast shot past Midoriya and blew a crater-sized hole just inches from his body. From the impact, if anyone had been on the receiving end of it, it really would've killed them on the spot. However, Shiro didn't need her probability Quirk to know that the blow would've landed at a near 100% accuracy if Bakugou was truly aiming for the other male.

"This is supposed to be a class!" Kirishima, along with a few others, staggered as the explosion shook even the monitoring building. "Is that even allowed?!"

Just one floor above the fighting duo, Uraraka used this distraction to float towards the nuclear weapon but Iida caught on quickly and used his engine speed to move the weapon away. Without being able to touch anything, Uraraka's attacks were unproductive. However, she wasn't giving up. Whispering to her earpiece, she and Midoriya seemed to be conjuring up a final plan. This left Bakugou to storm angrily towards the male who was currently ignoring his presence.

Is this really okay? Shiro thought, looking at All Might as he continued to concentrate intently at the screen without saying another word. He's the only one who can hear what the teams are saying, so was there something more to this?

"Sensei, you should stop him!" Kirishima urged. "Bakugou's going crazy! He might kill him!"

The hero was deep in thought, as if mulling over whether the blonde was still sane or not. He then pressed his mic, "Young Bakugou! The next time you use that, I'll stop the fight and your team will lose. To attack on such a large scale inside is inviting the destruction of the stronghold you should be protecting. That is a foolish plan for both heroes and villains and I will deduct points for it!"

At the warning, Bakugou grew more agitated than he already was but he did as told and started to fight it out with his fist. He manuvered his body in a way that even though Midoriya blocked his first attack, his second one hit square on his back. Not only does he have raw strength with his Quirk, he is also very able-minded and fast at changing strategies.

"He doesn't look like the type to think, but he's more subtle than I expected," Todoroki commented at the display, mirroring Shiro's own thoughts as he went on explaining Bakugou's technique at some of their classmates' confusion.

Shiro's attention briefly switched to the half white and half red haired male. She only knew that he was one of the four students who got in U.A. by recommendation and that his Quirk had something to do with ice, but otherwise he was a pretty reserved individual...

"Getting in a clean hit while fighting against inertia requires fine lateral adjustments to the power of the explosions," Momo added as the blonde in the screen shot another blast at the curly haired hero.

"He's too talented... Too talented... Ugh," Kaminari sighed. "Midoriya's pretty amazing too, but in terms of combat power, Bakugou is definitely a ball of natural instincts."

"These aren't the actions of a hero," Tokoyami insisted.

Midoriya's not using his Quirk, Shiro furrowed her brows. It was for good reason though, if what happened yesterday with his swollen finger was any indication. But if he wants to defeat Bakugou or even just restrain him, he needs to...

"He's choosing to run away? That's not something a man should do," the Hardening Quirk user frowned next to her as well. "But I guess he has no choice. Something's weird about his action, though..." Truly, he was running towards the window for some reason as Bakugou neared. Then, the two of them dashed head-on at each other while activating their Quirks at the same time. "Sensei! If they hit each other with that—!"

"Both of you, st—" All Might started to shout, but he suddenly stopped short when Midoriya said something into his earpiece. The hero understood immediately and allowed the scene to unfold before him and the rest of the students.

Shiro could only stare as the curly haired male stood to shock everyone once again. Instead of hitting Bakugou, he swung his fist up and caused the ceiling connected to the floor the nuclear weapon was on to crumble. Uraraka, in turn, used the destruction from below to hit all of the debris at Iida. Even though both of Midoriya's arms were now injured, one from blocking Bakugou's explosion and the other from his own Quirk, he managed to have Uraraka retrieve the bomb.

There was no question that Bakugou was stronger, by far, but that wasn't the goal of this exercise.

He did what he could to complete the mission, despite being up against a stronger opponent, Shiro realized.

"Hero..." All Might sounded breathless as he gripped the mic. "Hero team... Wins!"

Bakugou was still slightly shaking as All Might brought him and the others back to the monitoring room. Midoriya, because of his serious injuries, was knocked out and got sent to the nurse's office to rest and heal. The win for the hero team didn't even seem like a win from the state that it left them; but mentally, it seemed that Bakugou was the most affected.

"Well, even if I say that the hero team won, the MVP for this battle was Young Iida!" the hero announced and grinned at his surprised students. "And why is that? Who can tell me?"

Momo raised her hand, "Yes, All Might-sensei. That is because Iida-san adapted the most to the context of the training. From watching the match..."

While her classmate started to list off all of the faults that each of them showed through the trial battle, Shiro focused her gaze at the other side of All Might, where the defeated blonde was brooding with his head low. This must be his first time losing... It was not her business, but she still hoped that he could resolve his grudge or at least use this as a humbling experience.

After Momo finished, All Might looked at the girl incredulously as if he wasn't expecting her to explain so thoroughly. He was the instructor, not the other way around! "W-Well, Young Iida also has parts of him that could be more relaxed, but that was correct!"

Yaoyorozu Momo, Quirk: Creation.

She's also a recommended student, Shiro remembered. The girl had an intelligence beyond normal human capabilities because her Quirk was to replicate anything she knew down to the molecular scale. No doubt she would also be a tricky opponent to face.

"All right everyone, let's change locations and start the second match. Tackle this training after thinking about what we just talked about," All Might announced as everyone settled down. He reached into the boxes and pulled out two new teams. "Match two: Team B are the heroes..."

Todoroki and Shoji stepped up as their team was called. Together, the duo looked like intimidating opponents.

"...and Team I are the villains!"

Team I... Shiro repeated as Ojiro and Hagakure started to move and her eyes shot up. Wait, that's us!

Okay, things will start picking up now and stop being so boring (if it's been so for you guys). For those of you who are curious, a character sheet with what Shiro's costume looks like is in the making! I wish I knew how to draw digitally though, because it'd be so much prettier haha. I'll probably post the finished drawing in the next update.

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