Izuku stood dejectedly near the front gate of UA waiting for Katsuki so they could head home. He had no doubt that he aced the written portion of the test, but the physical portion was another matter entirely.
Robots.
They had to fight robots. Izuku being unable to bring any gear into the exam was completely defenseless against the mechanical monstrosities. He'd spent the entire time running around in an attempt to gather points by figuring out a way to disable the robots without a quirk.
The only thing of note that really happened during the whole exam was saving a purple haired examinee from being decked by a 2-pointer. Izuku saw him a couple more times during the exam and he seemed to be doing just about as well as Izuku was, so not well at all. Whatever his quirk was it couldn't do anything about the robots and even though Izuku was in the same boat as him he felt bad.
While Izuku was waiting he pulled out his notebook and began to take quick notes about what he remembered about the quirks he'd seen in action. He was part way through his notes about a girl who seemed to be able to negate gravity by touching something when Katsuki came up to him and flicked him in the head. Izuku flinched and looked up at him.
"You were fucking mumbling nerd. People were starting to stare." Katsuki said, crossing his arms.
Izuku flushed as he put his notebook back, embarrassed. "S-sorry Kacchan. Never been a habit I've been able to break."
Katsuki rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Whatever Deku. Let's just get going. I don't wanna miss our train." He said as he started walking towards the station.
Izuku nodded even though Katsuki wouldn't be able to see him. "R-right!" he said catching up.
The train ride home was quiet and tense. Katsuki could tell Izuku wasn't in a good mood but decided to leave it be till they got home. Pretty much as soon as the door was closed and locked Katsuki turned on Izuku.
"Why the fuck do you look like someone just burned an All Might figure in front of your face and laughed about it?" Katsuki demanded, his red eyes locking onto Izuku's green. Izuku turned away and hid his face.
"I-I don't know what you mean Kacchan… I'm fine." He finished lamely, lowering his hands and staring at the floor.
"Bullshit. I've known you your whole life Deku. Do you really think you can fucking lie to my face like this?"
Izuku shrugged. "I guess not." Katsuki waited for him to continue. Izuku tapped his fingers together nervously. Katsuki likely wouldn't take the news well that Izuku had completely failed the practical exam; not even being able to secure a single point. He'd known Katsuki his whole life so he knew how his friend worked better than anyone.
"Well... it's about the exam..." Izuku said, finally working up the courage to speak.
"What about it Deku?" Katsuki prodded.
Izuku sighed and decided that being straight with him would be the best approach. "I know I aced the written portion, but I didn't get a single point on the practical..." He trailed off weakly at the end. Katsuki gave him an assessing look.
"Well then you better fucking give it your all in general studies. Show those dumbasses that you belong in the hero course." Izuku looked at him surprised. "What? Did you think I was gonna be pissed? Well you're not wrong. I am pissed just not at you. I took the same fucking practical you did. I knew what you were up against. Damn test is biased towards those with strong quirks." Katsuki smirked as he looked at Izuku's slack-jawed expression. It took a moment for Izuku to compose himself.
"Thanks Kacchan." he smiled genuinely and mustered some enthusiasm. "I'll do my best!"
"Fucking good. Now let's get some dinner." Katsuki said with a smirk.
The following week held more of the usual for the duo. Studying, running errands, and training during the day and doing patrols at night. If Katsuki had been a bit more aggressive than usual with the villains well it wasn't Izuku's place to say anything. Finally their letters came. Katsuki opened his first while Izuku watched eagerly. As expected he passed both the written and practical with flying colors; even nabbing the top score on the practical. Katsuki had an over confident smirk on his face; though in this case it was justified.
Then came Izuku's turn to open his letter. He took a deep breath before opening it. Just as he expected he aced the written portion but failed the practical. Though he was surprised to find out he didn't have zero points. He had 10 "rescue" points he assumed were from saving the purple haired boy. Thankfully his performance was more than good enough to get into general studies. He vowed to work hard to get transferred into the hero course, so he and Katsuki could continue their paths to becoming heroes together.
The two cut back on their patrol time as the first day of school approached. This didn't go unnoticed by Shouta and he allowed himself a small bit of excitement at the fact that he might be able to figure out who the duo of vigilantes actually were. His fellow teachers at UA noticed the change in mood from him though most didn't want to approach the usually eternally tired man about it. Most people didn't include his self-proclaimed best friend Hizashi aka Present Mic.
"Yoooo Shouta!" Present Mic said as he slung an arm around Shouta's shoulder as both were preparing to leave UA for the day. Shouta just glared at the energetic blond. "Couldn't help but notice you've not been in a perpetual mood of grumpiness lately. What's up with that?" Mic smiled dumbly at him.
Shouta not too gently removed Mics' arm from his shoulder and continued packing up some papers. Mic didn't seem deterred in the slightest and came over to poke Shouta's arm. "C'mon Sho! You gotta tell me. You've actually been in what is considered a good mood for you! I have to know why!"
Shouta sighed heavily and decided two things. One, he wasn't going to survive not telling Hizashi what was going on and two, he would never hear the end of it from him even if did. He settled on telling him a partial truth for now. "If you must know, I recently had a big breakthrough in a case I've been working on for a while." he said stuffing the rest of the papers into his bag.
If it was possible Hizashis' smile widened. "Oooh I see. Is it that vigilante case you've been on for the past couple years? I don't remember you being on any other long-term cases." he gently pushed his friend away and went over to the door. "Goodbye Yamada." he stated simply and walked out the door.
Finally the first day of school arrived. Katsuki was approaching the day with a cool confidence, besides fighting with his tie before he decided to forgo it entirely, while Izuku was the poster child for social anxiety. He too had trouble with his tie but had managed to get it on even if it wasn't on properly. His attempt at taming his wild, fluffy hair was in vain so he settled for at least making it not look like he'd just gotten out of bed. He came into the small kitchen in their shared apartment mumbling something along the lines of what kind of people he would meet and what kind of quirks they might have.
"Oi nerd. Come eat some of this quickly or you're gonna have to starve till lunch." Katsuki said from the table, finishing up his own breakfast. Izuku snapped out of his thoughts "R-right!"
After Izuku quickly ate his breakfast the two ran to the train station, barely making it in time to catch their train. "Tomorrow if you don't get your ass up on time yourself," he jabbed a thumb to his chest, "I'll wake you up myself."
Izuku gulped. "Don't worry Kacchan that won't be necessary!" Katsuki crossed his arms but didn't say anything else. The ride after that passed in a comfortable silence till they reached their stop. Izuku couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face as they approached the building. Even if he wasn't in the hero course being a UA student was still a surreal experience. The two entered the building among the other students rushing to find their classes.
Katsuki gently bumped Izuku's shoulder. "I'll meet up with you at lunch Deku. Try not to get lost before then." With that Katsuki walked off to find Class 1-a. Izuku nodded even though Katsuki had already vanished into the crowd. He began looking for his own classroom, 1-c, when he realised he had no idea where it was.
"Hey." Izuku heard a tired sounding voice call out. He turned around to see the same purple haired boy from the exam. "You're the one who saved me during the practical exam right?" He asked. Izuku nodded dumbly still unsure of what was going on. "I never got the chance to thank you properly for that, so thanks I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You looking for your class? You seem lost."
Izuku nodded more surely this time. "Y-yeah. I'm trying to find 1-c but I think I got lost."he chuckled nervously. "This school is really big so I guess it's not unusual for you to get lost in it if you've never been here before…" he quickly devolved into mumbles as the other boy looked at him confused. After a few moments he cleared his throat to get the green haired boy's attention. Izuku snapped out of his mumbling to look up at the other boy, embarrassed. "Sorry."
The other boy shook his head. "It's fine. I'm in 1-c as well we could help each other find it I guess." he suggested. "Oh! Yeah that'd be great." Izuku smiled.
Thankfully the two of them were able to find their class before they were late. After the two sat down the tired looking boy turned to Izuku. "My name's Shinsou Hitoshi by the way." Izuku then realised they hadn't introduced themselves before.
"Ah right! My name is Midoriya Izuku. It's nice to meet you Shinsou." The two chatted about random topics, mostly hero related courtesy of Izuku, until their teacher arrived.
Meanwhile Katsuki was trying his best to keep the biggest shit-eating grin off his face as none other than Eraserhead himself stood in front of his class. Aizawa pulled a uniform from his sleeping bag. "Go put these on and meet me at the PE field outside." His tired-looking eyes scanned over the class. Katsuki dared to make direct eye contact with him. Their eyes locked for a moment before he dismissed the whole class to get changed.
Katsuki was the first one down to the field as he didn't bother trying to socialize with the extras in his class. Not far behind him was a two-toned haired boy that Katsuki seemed to remember as being one of the two recommendation students in his class. Katsuki felt like he was being watched so he glanced over at the other boy and red met blue and grey eyes.
Katsuki frowned. "What are you looking at half-n-half?" The boy simply turned away and looked forward. Katsuki narrowed his eyes but decided to drop it for now. Deku had bet him he couldn't be "civil" today and he wasn't one to back down from a challenge. Fortunately, or unfortunatly Katsuki wasn't sure yet, the rest of the class arrived not long after. Eraserhead sighed in annoyance, mumbling something about how it took the class to change and it was illogical to waste time like that, before explaining that they would be doing a quirk assessment test; ignoring the protests from various other students.
"Bakugou, you had the top score in the entrance exam. How far could you throw a softball in middle school?" Aizawa asked, turning to look at the boy in question.
Katsuki tilted his head slightly in thought. "67 meters I think."
Aizawa nodded and tossed him a ball which he caught easily. "Now try throwing it with your quirk. You can do whatever you want as long as you don't leave the circle." Katsuki smirked and walked into the circle. It had been a while since he could truly let loose with his quirk. He wasn't able to use his quirk on the villains Izuku and him brought down cause it would be an obvious link back to him.
He wound his arm back and let loose a large explosion to propel the ball forward; yelling "DIE!" as if it would help propel the ball farther. Eraser looked at the device and showed it to the rest of the class. The screen displayed 705.2 meters. The rest of the class got excited. One even said that it looked like fun. That's when Eraser said whatever student came in last would be expelled. Katsuki smirked, perhaps today wouldn't be so bad after all.
Some random extra that Katsuki had literally paid no attention to ended up being the one expelled. A couple members of the class expressed concern that Eraser had actually expelled someone; he simply shrugged and dismissed them for lunch.
Katsuki did his best to avoid the rest of his classmates on his way to lunch, but he wasn't completely successful. On his way to the lunchroom he was approached by a couple of them. "Hey man! Just wanted to say you were really manly today in class. Your control over your quirk is amazing! Name's Kirishima Eijiro by the way." Kirishima gave Katsuki a grin that showed off his sharp teeth.
"Yeah dude. You have some crazy power there. Kinda scary. Oh right, I'm Kaminari Denki." Kaminari said pointing a thumb at himself.
"Do I look like I asked?" Katsuki said only half paying attention as he scanned the lunchroom.
"Kinda rude to not introduce yourself when we both did isn't it man?" Kirishima said his smile faltering slightly. Katsuki spotted a familiar head of green hair in the crowd and sighed.
"Name's Bakugou Katsuki extras." Katsuki said as he walked off to join Izuku at the table he'd sat down at.
As he walked over he noticed the other person at the table that Izuku was talking animatedly to. "Oi Deku, who's this extra?" Katsuki said as he sat down at the table.
"Oh Kacchan! This is Shinsou. We're in the same class." Izuku said looking between Shinsou and Katsuki, smiling tentatively.
The two locked eyes as Izuku continued to glance between them; neither seeming to want to look away first. Shinsou tilted his head slightly. "So you're Midoriya's friend huh? I've known him for less than a day and I've already heard a lot about you."
Katsuki frowned. "That so? And what has the nerd told you about me Eyebags?" If Shinsou was surprised by the nickname he didn't show it.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Shinsou smirked. Katsuki glared at him; small explosions popping off in his palms.
"Uh, guys?" Izuku continued to look nervously back and forth between them; trying to gauge how close they might be to causing a scene. A couple people turned to look at them. Shinsou held Katsuki's gaze.
"Heh." Katsuki leaned back in his chair. "You're ok by me Eyebags. Just don't fucking push your luck, got it? Just cause you befriended Deku doesn't mean I'm your friend. You gotta earn that shit from me."
Shinsou blinked in surprise. Izuku sighed and shook his head. He turned to Shinsou. "He's always like this. You get used to it."
"I see." Shinsou said, returning to his food. At some point after Izuku had finished his food he'd pulled out a small notebook and some sort of mechanical device.
Katsuki glanced over. "You're still trying to get that thing to work Deku? Seems like a fucking lost cause to me at this point."
Shinsou looked up from his food to look at the device curiously. "What is that anyway?"
Izuku sighed. "It's supposed to be able to map out areas using sound waves." He pulled out another device that looked like a cellphone. "It sends out sound waves then sends the data to this device that interprets them and makes a 3-d map of an area; kinda like echo location. Both parts work independently but I can't get them to connect to each other..." Izuku mumbled further about the workings of the device though neither Shinsou or Katsuki could understand what he was saying.
Suddenly the device was taken from Izuku's hands. This managed to snap him out of his thoughts; he looked up to see a girl with pink hair looking over his device with a large smile on her face. "Uh?" Izuku said intelligently.
"Oh this baby is super cute." She ignored Izuku in favor of continuing to scrutinize the device. She pulled out a small screwdriver and gently began adjusting something on the device.
"Uh hey! That's mine. Though you should have known that since it was in my hands when you took it. Yet you took it anyway and uh what are you doing to it?" Izuku asked confused.
"There! This baby should be fully functional now! Go ahead give it a try." She pushed the receiver back into Izuku's hands. Izuku looked back and forth between her excited face and his reclaimed receiver. To his surprise and joy when he activated it he got an accurate map of the lunchroom. Izuku smiled and looked at the pink haired girl. "What did you do? I've been trying to fix it for weeks!"
The girl pointed to her eyes. "Your baby had a loose wire. Wasn't letting it talk to anything. Was easy to see with my quirk." "B-baby?" Izuku blushed.
The girl sat down at the table next to Izuku and stuck out her hand. "Hatsume Mei! Inventor extraordinaire!"
Izuku shook her hand. "Midoriya Izuku." Katsuki had decided that whatever was going on it wasn't worth his time, so he continued eating. Hatsume and Izuku talked more about their various inventions throughout the rest of lunch. Shinsou simply took in the chaotic atmosphere around him silently.
Once lunch was over the group split ways to head back to class. The rest of the day was uneventful and it seemed like it ended in no time. After the last bell rang Izuku packed up his stuff and got ready to meet Katsuki at the front gate so they could catch the train home together. "Oh Shinsou, do you wanna walk together?" Izuku asked as he was about to leave.
Shinsou shrugged. "Sure." The two walked to the front gate and were joined by Hatsume along the way. She gushed about the latest "baby" she was working on and how nicely it had exploded. Neither boy questioned it.
Katsuki looked over the approaching group and sighed, annoyed. He supposed he should get used to this even if he wasn't thrilled about it; though part of him was happy the nerd was making friends not that he would ever admit that though.
"Let's go nerd! I'm not gonna miss the train because you were hanging out with those extras!" Katsuki yelled at him. Izuku waved goodbye to his new friends after exchanging numbers and joined Katsuki where he was waiting impatiently for him.
"Sorry Kacchan." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Didn't realize how long I was taking."
"Tch, whatever Deku it's fine. But it won't be fine if we miss our train. Let's move it nerd!" Katsuki said running off. "Kacchan!" Izuku yelled as he ran to catch up with his friend.