Chapter 4: Day 1

I awoke to a very… awkward situation. Nestling into my chest was Senko, her arms wrapped around me as far as she could manage. That wasn't necessarily the awkward bit, no that was the fact that she was in her human form and totally naked.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I tried to control myself. Otherwise I would definitely be panicking right now. She had been acting strange ever since the test yesterday, more clingy than usual.

I controlled my breathing in the way Harry taught me and lifted her off of me. "Nuu, Izuku?" She spoke, her voice stilted by the last remnants of the night. As she spoke she wiped her eyes just like a fox waking from a nap. Honestly it was adorable.

"Come on, we have to get ready for school." I said as I started preparing. This was it, the first day of my dream! Well, of my dream school anyway.

"Hey boss, you gonna take me in?" I heard Bob ask me from his perch at my bedside table.

"Not today, I want to get a feel for the school before I bring you in." That and go get a replacement phone. Yay for warrantees! "Besides, it's probably just going to be orientation, the classes will start in earnest tomorrow."

"And yet, you're taking your familiar?" Bob asked. I couldn't see it, but I could feel the cocked eyebrow.

"Unlike you," Senko butted in, now fully dressed in her shrine maiden regalia, "I actually serve him directly. You just work for whoever has you."

"Well look who's acting catty." Bob replied to her as the skull pivoted in place to face her. "You should really work on that - it's unattractive."

At that comment I could see Senko's face redden, best to intervene before things got violent. "Come on you two, don't fight."

"But," - I cut Senko's complaint short by quickly rubbing the base of her fox ears. She leaned into my hand and slumped her shoulders.

"No buts, now let's go." As I stepped out of my room, I saw mum already at the table.

"Good morning Izuku, How was your night?" There was something, off, with the way she asked that. Maybe it was the smirk, I couldn't tell. "I hope Senko-chan was comfortable." Ah.

I felt my cheeks burning as I sputtered out a response. She just chuckled as I mumbled and took my seat, Senko taking the one next to me and opposite my mum. We hurried our food and before I knew it, we were out the door.

However, there was one thing that was slightly odd. "Why are you still in your human form?" I asked Senko as we hopped onto the train.

"I don't need to be in fox form any more." She replied as she leaned into me from her seat. "We're in a school where they expect you to use all of your talents, and that includes me". Well that sounded reasonable. Little did I know at the time that there was some kind of 'girls only' power game going on and that Senko was staking her claim.

The train ride was relatively uneventful, though that was to be expected since I hadn't seen Bakugou all the way there. He mentioned wanting to get there early for some reason so I hadn't expected to see him but it was still jarring. We did everything together.

That calm made the time drag but I soon found myself in front of the door of my class. It could be called the 'King of Doors' considering its size; did giant attend this school? Then I remembered what school this was and just opened the door.

I could hear that an altercation was taking place: "Somei huh? So you're some kind of elite? I hope you don't think that'll get you ahead of me."

That would be Bakugou. And he was talking to someone I recognised, the one that called me out back on exam day. "Not at all, I strive to…" he trailed of as he and the rest of the class all noticed Senko and I walking in.

"It's him", "he took out every robot in our exam", "what's with the fox girl?"

And so the muttering continued, I just smiled and walked down to my chair.

"About time you showed up Deku." Bakugou said as he turned in his chair.

"I told you I would be here." I replied as I sat down, "I don't know why you were so worried Kaachan."

His face twisted in a scowl of annoyance, only for it to fade as Senko brushed her tails on his back. "You know what he meant Bakugou-san."

He seemed to deflate at that. Just in time for the guy in the glasses to march up to me. "My name is Tenya Iida. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He held his hand out to me.

I was almost sent reeling by the energy of this guy's introduction. I reached out and shook his hand, "My name is Izuku Midoriya. It's a pleasure to meet you too."

When I finished shaking his hand he turned to Senko, who was now floating next to my desk in a kneeling position. "And who might you be miss?"

Senko smiled and introduced herself. "My name is Senko Fusashita. I am Izuku-sama's familiar." as she spoke, she pivoted her top half forward in a shallow bow. It was annoying that I couldn't stop her from using the honorific, so the cat was out of the bag now.

Iida frowned slightly, "Fami-"

"You are so cute!" came a chattering chorus from the other side of the class. I was about to look over there when another voice cut in. This one was much closer, as in standing next to my desk, opposite Senko herself.

"Izuku-sama huh?" I looked down at the purple... haired? boy. He was short, shorter than me and I was already pretty low down there in the height department. His - hair? was something strange to behold, a bunch of purple balls sprouting from his head. He was looking at Senko through narrowed eyes, and then he turned to me. "So you're that kind of guy huh?"

Wat? What kind of guy? I frowned back at him, trying to make my confusion obvious. "What are you..." and he cut me off.

"Don't play ignorant with me! You have an honest to god fox-girl waifu! And she has 2 tails so she's exotic too." I could only blink at the impotent tirade. "And she calls you master! What's up with that?"

Before the midget could continue, he was interrupted by someone else. "Don't mind Mineta. It's nice to meet you Izuku, and you too Senko." the girl who spoke had also situated herself right next to me, not quite pushing Mineta aside. "My name is Tsuyu Asui, but please call me Tsu."

Senko bowed slightly in reply, "It's nice to meet you Tsu."

Tsu 'ribbeted' in response, exactly like a frog. The conversation was about to continue when the door opened and everyone's attention shifted to the newcomer. It was Ochaco! "Hello Ochaco!" I called over, in some hopeless attempt to shift attention onto her. Of course, it had the opposite effect, she just joined the cluster of people surrounding me.

"You're the plain looking one!It was... Deku yes?"

I kept the smile on my face as Bakugou burst out with laughter. "That's him Pink Cheeks!" he just about managed to get though his choked gasps of laughter. Of course, it's the nickname she remembers.

Ochaco puffed out her cheeks in a pout when Bakugou called her that. "And you're Bakagou right?"

Now it was the class's turn to laugh raucously as she got his name so close to being correct. But not quite. I tried to hid my laughter behind my hand but it must have been obvious with my shuddering shoulders. Even Senko, who was usually excellent at keeping herself straight faced in these situations was smiling.

"It's Bakugou!" he yelled back at her over the noise of the class. It didn't help much but if it made him feel better...

From there the conversation took another turn, it was exciting! I was feeling like a regular social butterfly, and some of these conversations were with girls! Girls other than Senko and Mum I mean. Well, there were those other Kitsunes at the Young Inari shrine, but Senko wouldn't let them say more than a few words to me before dragging me off.

And like those conversations, this one was abruptly halted, though this time not by one of my classmates. "The bell has already rung and you're still not in your seats. That's not good."

At the front of the classroom was a giant caterpillar with a human face. The strange thing about it was that there was a zipper… and now I feel like an idiot.

I wasn't allowed to wallow in my idiocy for long however. "My name is Shota Aizawa, and I'm your homeroom teacher." Then he unzipped his sleeping bag and stepped out of it, taking with him a set of UA themed gym clothes. "Put these on and meet me at the evaluation field."

Luckily for all of us, the one he pulled out of his sleeping bag was just an example, I'm not sure anyone wanted to wear the one he held out. Instead he directed us to the changing rooms.

From here there was another conundrum.

"What should I do Izuku?" Senko asked me. It was a good question, while I was comfortable with her presence, I wasn't sure if my classmates would be fine having her in the changing room.

"Just stay out here while I…" I was cut off by one of the girls poking her head out of the girls changing rooms. She was the tall one with the ponytail, Momo Yaoyarozu.

"Oh, good, you're both still here. Senko there's a 7th set of gym clothes in here for you. It seems Aizawa wants you in uniform as well." Senko looked at the taller girl and then back to me.

"Go on then, I'll see you out at the field." I smiled to her as I pushed open the door of the boy's room.

"So, Izuku-sama, what's up with Senko?" The blond one with the black strike through his hair asked me. "I'm Kaminari by the way. Nice to meetya."

"Indeed, she has much devotion for you, unlike my quirk." This time it was the one with the… bird head? The rest of him was normal, he just has a bird head.

I just rubbed the back of my neck, head tipped to one side as I thought about how to respond. "well, it's exactly as she said, she's my familiar. My quirk is that I'm a wizard, I can do anything a wizard can."

"And that includes having a familiar, Yes I see." Iida said from behind me. "Now it makes sense, and she can transform into a traditional fox as well?"

"Wait, what?" This time it was the guy with wired elbows, still haven't caught his name yet.

"Back at the entrance exam, he had a two tailed fox with him." Iida explained.

"Yep, that was her. She can't communicate easily in her Kitsune form, so she uses her human form to talk." I said pulling my shirt over by head.

"Kitsune form?" The odd looking one asked. Okay that wasn't the most helpful descriptor; the one with the face mask and the octopus-like arms.

Before I could answer, Bakugou did it for me. "She's not just a fox, she's a Kitsune, as in a Yokai."

"No way they're real, you've gotta be pulling my leg!" Kaminari dismissed. "And how do you know about her anyway."

"Believe what you want, it doesn't change the fact that they're real. As to the other thing, I was there when Deku made the familiar contract with her."

There was a short silence, then the bird guy spoke up. "If she's a Kitsune, then we must be careful. One touch of her tail will leave you cursed."

I quickly countered that to prevent any kind of panic. "Well, you're only sort of right. Anyone who grabs the tail of a Kitsune unbidden will suffer a curse. So, if she brushes you, or you accidentally touch her you'll be fine. And she only has two tails, so her curse, while unpleasant, wouldn't do you any permanent harm."

"That's certainly comforting. I look forward to working with you Midoriya. Maybe you can assist me with my own familiar." bird guy said, causing me to doubletake. How did he have a familiar?

"Damn it Tokoyami, I'm your partner not a familiar." came a voice. The voice seemed disembodied, only for bird guy's shirt to open up, revealing an enormous mass of darkness, headed off by a pair of glowing yellow eyes. So that's what he meant. He was one of those people who have a sentient quirk. "The name's Dark Shadow, nice to meetya." the shadow wasn't just speaking to me, but all of us in the changing room.

"Likewise." Iida said, only to point out something that the rest of us had apparently missed. "We should hurry, we can't spend all our time here talking!" Well he wasn't wrong. The rest of us must have been caught up in the conversation so much that we hadn't noticed that we were just standing around.

Good for us that Iida was an over-punctual guy. We hadn't actually been in there for that long, as we managed to arrive at the field first. Aizawa was just standing there, bereft of his sleeping bag, though with bags under his eyes. The man seriously needed some sleep.

"Aizawa-sensei, may I ask a question." I asked as I stepped away from the cluster of my class mates.

He raised a questioning eyebrow at me, and I made sure I wasn't looking into his eyes. I didn't want to risk a Soulgaze, especially not with a teacher at UA. He must be a hero to work here, and so could have seen some very horrific things. I'd rather not receive the second hand burns from that. "Go ahead." he indicated.

"I noticed that you got Senko some gym clothes as well. Is she expected to do… whatever it is we're doing?" Why were we here anyway? What about the standard school stuff?

"She's your… familiar correct?" At my nod he continued. "She's an extension of your quirk, and so will be tested as a part of your quirk. Her independent nature simply means I have more work to do with assessing her." he said that last bit with what seemed like resignation, as though he was destined to lose more sleep over this.

I would have followed up, but I was distracted by the arrival of the girls. Senko in particular was first out and had made a beeline for me, dragging me away from Aizawa and towards Bakugou. She seemed more sombre than usual, a lot more considering she's almost never in that state. "What's wrong?"

She was silent for a moment before turning and looking me dead in the eye. "The girls and I had a conversation about my service to you. They seemed to be under the impression that I was here against my own will."

Okay... why would they think that? Do I come across as that kind of person? "Why did they say that? Who said that?"

"It doesn't matter. We talked it out and they know I'm here because I want to be." Senko replied. But I want to know more, do I really come across as coercive? Or were they just concerned? Was it all of the girls or just one? My questions would have to wait because Aizawa decided that now was a good time to start.

"We will be doing a full quirk assessment test." He said bluntly.

"A QUIRK ASSESSMENT TEST?" came a chorus of people in response. It seemed that most of the class were caught off guard and rightly so. What about the basic admin stuff? Orientation, introductions to the teachers? Clearly that was what everyone else was thinking about, as Ochaco spoke up.

"But orientation, we're gonna miss it."

Aizawa didn't even bother to turn and look at the class with his reply. "If you want to make it as pros you can't waste time with pointless ceremonies." That made a certain amount of sense, I think anyway. So did Bakugou apparently, considering he was nodding along to what Aizawa was saying. "Here at UA we're not tethered by traditions and formalities. That means I get to run this class as I see fit."

Now that was perhaps a little more absurd. I could sense the unease that spread through the class as Aizawa kept talking. "You've been taking standardised tests for most of your lives, but you weren't allowed to use your quirks in physical exams before. The government is still trying to pretend we're all equal rather than let those with the most potential excel. It's illogical, and one day the education board will learn."

His rant seemingly over, it felt as though he turned his attention to me. And it was me as I felt the rest of the class take unconscious steps back as his gaze locked onto me. "Midoriya, you managed to not only get the most points in the entrance exam, you set a new record and caused upheaval for everyone else." he smirked before continuing, "you even managed to destroy everyone's phone and other gadgets without trying."

There were a few cries of "wait! That was HIM?" I wasn't too worried about that; the school is insured for this sort of thing and claims for things like that were expected with things like entrance exams. "309 points, more than doubling the previous record holder." Why is he hyping me up so much? The more he talks the more I could feel the eyes of the class piercing me, like they were sizing me up. "What was your furthest soft-ball throw in junior high school?"

I tried to remember, eventually settling on an estimate "65 meters I think."

He held out a soft ball, "try doing it with your quirk." I stepped forward with Senko following me. "Anything goes so long as you don't leave the circle." I looked down at the circle he indicated. Okay this should be fine.

I thought about what this test actually meant. Use my quirk to get the ball as far away as possible. That didn't actually necessarily mean throwing it. I could use my force spell to propel the ball, but I had a better idea. I handed the ball to Senko. "Senko, I want you to take this ball to Mount Fuji, then head into the Nevernever and await my summons."

She smiled, knowing what I had in mind. "At once." I prompted. After the acknowledgment she started to glow a faint pale colour, then became translucent and vanished, all over the course of a 10 seconds, taking the ball along with her. Mount Fuji was about 200 miles away, on the other side of Tokyo from Musutafu, and so much further than I could possibly launch it.

A ringing noise came from Aizawa's phone and he glanced at it. "How are you going to get her back here?" he asked, allowing his half-lidded stare to settle back on me. "And while you do it, explain."

I nodded and summoned my staff to my hand, the class all gasping as the length of wood materialised in my hand. "All of it or just me summoning her back?" I asked while planting my staff into the white circle.

"Everything." he said dully.

I decided to be efficient, so I set up my summoning circle while I explained. "Senko, is a Kami-Bound Yokai, which grants her certain privileges. One of them is that she can step through any Torii gate at will, so long as they know where it is. There is a Torii gate on Mount Fuji, so I told her to go through that and drop the ball."

Once I finished dragging my staff through the dirt, I lined my left foot up with the edge of the circle and began walking around its circumference. "And now I'm forming a summoning circle. This will let me get her back here without having to go find her." I finished walking the circumference and reached my hand out to the end of my staff. There was a section of it that I've carved for exactly this kind of purpose. I ran my thumb down the sharpened portion and held back the wince at the sting it gave me. I then pressed the bleeding thumb into the circle, and like that, I felt the metaphysical barrier raise.

"Normally, I would never summon from within the circle, but I know Senko won't harm me when I summon her, so I will do it in this case." With that explained, I planted my staff and began my chant. "Senko Fusashita! Your master has need of you! Senko Fusashita! Return to my side! Senko Fusashita! Come home." I let my voice trail off as I finished.

As I chanted, I could feel my power flow into the circle, and with each repetition of Senko's name there was a pulse, like a flare in the Nevernever. The air picked up, flowing around my circle in a light breeze, picking up small clouds of dust and ruffling the others' clothes. There was then a brief pause, as if the world stood still, and in an instant Senko stood in front of me. "Greetings Master!"

"Welcome back Senko." I replied while using my staff to break the circle.

Aizawa looked down to his phone and then showed the class. There was a collective gasp as they saw my score. I only frowned. There was no way that was accurate. "Infinity?"

"Beyond the range of my phone, you'll be logged as 999.99 meters." Aizawa explained before turning to the crowd of excited students. "That may be an extreme example, but my point stands. If we are to get accurate measurements of you then you need to be able to use your quirk in tests like these. It's the most rational way of measuring your potential."

There wasn't even a pause before one of the girls spoke up, "I wanna go! That looks like fun!" As she spoke I took a closer look at her. She looked familiar, like someone I'd seen before, which was telling considering that her skin was pink, and so was her hair. I shook my head and looked away. The last thing I need is to get caught staring at girls, I could almost feel the disapproving look that Senko was doubtless giving me.

"This is what I'm talking about." the guy with the weird elbows added. "Using our quirks as much as we want!" And it wasn't just those two, everyone was excited, I could see it on their faces. That is, except for Aizawa himself.

As soon as that pink girl made the fun comment Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "So it sounds like fun huh?" That caught everyone's attention. "You have 3 years to become a licenced pro. You think it's going to be full of games and playtime?"

There was a dramatic tone shift, one that was so palpable I could feel it right down to a metaphysical level. As though Aizawa's will could press down on us. "Idiots! Today there will be a number of physical tests to gauge your potential. The student who comes in last has none, and will be expelled on the spot."

Even I gasped when he said that. It was a little extreme wasn't it? Expelling someone on the first day? I was confident that I would be fine, considering my performance on the ball throw. But looking at my classmates, while they were all putting on a brave face, they were clearly nervous.

"As I said, I can run this class as I see fit. If that's a problem you can go home now." the way he smirked at us and held his hair up when he spoke made him look more than a little manic.

Unsurprisingly one of the class, Ochaco did speak up, clearly alarmed by the ultimatum of pass or be expelled. "You can't send one of us home. We just got here. Even if it wasn't the first day that isn't fair." she protested.

"Oh? and you think natural disasters are? Or power-hungry villains?" those comments shot clean through her argument. "Or catastrophes that wipe out whole cities? No, the world is itself unfair. It's a hero's job to battle that unfairness. If you want to be pros you will have to push yourself to the breaking point. For the next 3 years, UA will mount one hardship after another in your path. So go beyond, Plus Ultra style."

At the usage of the school's moto, I could feel the atmosphere of the whole class shift. Not just the students, but the energy of the school itself seemed to react to the words. There was a fire in the eyes of everyone, even the short one who mouthed off to me earlier.

Aizawa pulled out a whistle, blowing it, signalling the first test to begin. As it happened, that wasn't the ball throw. It was the 100-meter dash. I was 'racing' against Bakugou, so naturally it became a competition. "Prepare to lose, Kaachan!" Honestly, he was so competitive.

In return, he just raised an eyebrow and smirked. When the testing robot fired the pistol, we both launched ourselves forward; Bakugou using his explosions to propel himself, while I: "Accelerus!" used my propulsion spell. Now I'm not sure if it was clear, so let me explain the premise behind this one. I learned the force spell from Harry, and as useful as it is, I thought that there must be another way to use it. For example, applying the force not to a target, but on myself. Not that it was perfect.

I fell flat on my face as I crossed the finishline. "4.14 seconds!" I heard the robot announce.

"Hah! I win again!" Bakugou gloated down at me while holding his hand out. I took it and he dragged me back up.

"Only by 0.01 seconds. I'm still not all that stable using that spell." The problem was that I hadn't quite worked out where to apply the force to my own body, unbalancing the force and threatening to topple and flip me. Today was another experiment, one that nearly ended in total failure.

"One vertebra down next time?" Bakugou suggested.

"Maybe, I'll think on it and figure out where is best for the next test."

"What are you guys talkin' about?" came a voice from our left. When I saw the speaker, I blinked. It was the pink girl, her black sclera'd eyes and horns almost made me flinch. She looked like an Oni! That's why she seemed familiar. The inverted eyes, the horns (though her horns were curved very differently) and the monotone skin. Even the messy hair, though on her it looked good.

But there's no way she's one of them. The Oni wouldn't show themselves in a place like this. I think.

"Oh, we're just talking about my thrust spell." I answered, rubbing down my face and removing the dirt from my faceplant. "I haven't worked out where's best to push on my body to move me without just spinning around."

"It did seem like you were about to fall over as you were hopping along the track." said the... floating set of gym clothes. "My name is Toru Hagakure, by the way."

"And I'm Mina Ashido!" the pink one spoke up, having realising she hadn't introduced herself to me.

The next test was the grip strength test. Here I didn't do so well, just scoring barely above average. Not like the octopus man with his 540 kg. Or the guy with the big lips, he scored over 900 kg.

Then came the standing long jump. This one turned out much the same as the long jump. Only this time I ended up rolling along the ground just beyond the sand pit. I had to make myself fully airborne for this one and naturally that came with even less control.

I'd say it wasn't fun, except for all the attention I was getting from the girls in the class. They were all concerned that I hadn't hurt myself, making sure that I didn't miss any dirt when I brushed myself down. Honestly, I found it weird, though that probably stems from the fact that I've never had a normal relationship with any girls. Either I didn't exist, or I was the centre of their universe. But it was nice, having a middle ground.

Next came the repeated side steps. I didn't exactly excel at this. I could have thrown myself around using my force spell, but I had quite enough of eating the dirt today. Strangely enough, it was the short guy who did best. He must have some kind of bouncing power because he was almost a blur as he bounced between two purple masses.

After that came the ball throw, I didn't participate in this, as my score stands. What was unexpected was that I wasn't the only one to score an infinite. Ochako used her power to launch the ball into the sky... and just not have it fall back down. It occurred to me in that moment, that I hadn't spent nearly enough time analysing her quirk. Zero Gravity was a pretty scary power.

Honestly, the other tests were more or less what I expected. Push-ups, seated toe-touch, a long-distance run. Then came the moment of truth. We had all pushed ourselves, and while I was confident that I did fine, I certainly felt sorry for whatever poor sap was gonna be-

"Oh, I lied about the expulsion thing." Came Aizawa's voice, nonchalantly cutting through the class's collective nervousness. "It was a logical deception to make you push yourselves."

The shock was palpable, then Momo spoke her mind. "I thought that was obvious, maybe I should have said something?"

"YEAH, YOU SHOULD HAVE!" replied a number of my peers at once.

"The syllabus is on your desks in the classroom." Aizawa explained as he used the projector to show us all our results. "when you change back you may retrieve them and be dismissed. Make sure none of you are late for tomorrow. That's when the training really starts." And like that he walked off.

This year was going to be intense. I was looking forward to it.